diff --git "a/articles/2023-2.json" "b/articles/2023-2.json"
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+{"title": ["Councils get more money to help struggling households - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Biden to frame conflict as battle for democracy - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Deadly new tremor traps people under rubble - BBC News", "Scottish budget: Extra £100m for councils as tax-raising plans approved - BBC News", "Joyce Cox 1939 murder: Cousin breaks 84-year silence - BBC News", "Met officers admit sharing offensive messages about Harvey Price - BBC News", "Cornelius Price: Irish crime boss dies in Welsh hospital - BBC News", "Wrexham: £5m plan for Welsh national football museum - BBC News", "Twitter to charge users for text-message authentication - BBC News", "Justin Welby rejected as leader by conservative Anglicans over same-sex blessings - BBC News", "UK in surprise boost after record tax payments in January - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Families say warning signs were ignored - BBC News", "South Korea court recognises same-sex couple rights for first time - BBC News", "Dan Walker: TV presenter injured in bicycle crash - BBC News", "Constance Marten: Couple putting baby at risk, says midwife - BBC News", "Bafta Awards face backlash over all-white winners - BBC News", "Alec Baldwin firearm enhancement in manslaughter charge downgraded - BBC News", "Government recommends 3.5% pay rise for nurses and other workers - BBC News", "Royal Mail resumes overseas mail at post offices after cyber-attack - BBC News", "Spain officials quit over trains that were too wide for tunnels - BBC News", "No 10 defends handling of Northern Ireland Protocol talks - BBC News", "Nurses set for 'intensive' talks with government after strike paused - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Liz Truss joins Johnson in calling for transfer of fighter jets - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley family statement in full - BBC News", "Japan aims to raise age of consent from 13 to 16 in sex crime overhaul - BBC News", "Firms stick to four-day week after trial ends - BBC News", "Energy firms told to pay out over forced meter fittings - BBC News", "Gwynedd council buys Welsh Riviera homes to tackle homelessness - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Gun laws could be reformed - BBC News", "Maggie Rogers notices more fans having panic attacks at her gigs - BBC News", "George Santos tells Piers Morgan: I've been a terrible liar - BBC News", "SNP leadership: Will faith turn the tide for Scottish independence? - BBC News", "What is going on with getting a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland? - BBC News", "Rescuers bunny-hop up hill on ski tow to reach injured walker - BBC News", "Dan Walker bike accident: Helmet saved my life, says TV star - BBC News", "Pret A Manger to scrap smoothies, frappes and milkshakes - BBC News", "Biden in Ukraine: How the president's surprise visit was kept a secret - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley’s body recovered from River Wyre - police - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Family will 'never understand final moments' - BBC News", "SNP leadership: Kate Forbes would not have backed gender bill - BBC News", "Biden visits Zelensky in Kyiv and says Putin 'dead wrong' on Ukraine war - BBC News", "Junior doctors vote for strikes in England over NHS pay - BBC News", "Asda and Morrisons limit sales of some fruit and vegetables - BBC News", "Liverpool 2-5 Real Madrid: Hosts thrashed by holders in Champions League last 16 - BBC Sport", "Video shows new Turkey earthquake from dashcam - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquake: Baby pulled from the rubble reunited with aunt and uncle - BBC News", "UK supermarkets face tomato shortages - BBC News", "Mexico's ex-security minister Genaro García Luna convicted of drug trafficking - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, Biden tells crowds - BBC News", "Six Nations 2023: Warren Gatland confident Wales-England will go ahead despite delaying team announcement - BBC Sport", "Kettering Hospital ward accused of traumatising children may close - BBC News", "Kenya to investigate 'sex for work' exposed in BBC tea documentary - BBC News", "Reece Parkinson to leave BBC Radio 1Xtra and Lady Leshurr replaced - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Ofcom 'extremely concerned' by family media complaints - BBC News", "Pilot thought co-pilot who died in cockpit was joking - report - BBC News", "Neo-Nazi threats probed by anti-terrorism police - BBC News", "Omagh bombing: Inquiry stirs memories of day lives changed forever - BBC News", "Sailors treated over contaminated water on HMS Portland warship - BBC News", "Ukraine war: US to provide long-range missiles in latest aid package - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Missing mother fell in river, police believe - BBC News", "Man admits treason charge over Queen crossbow threat - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Missing mother's partner says she's vanished into thin air - BBC News", "Alyson Nelson: Ex-partner William Finlay to stand trial for murder - BBC News", "Omagh bombing: Timeline of families' search for justice - BBC News", "ULEZ expansion: London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Martin Lewis clash - BBC News", "Eurovision: Liverpool stage inspired by a wide hug, BBC says - BBC News", "Top US diplomat says China balloon over US is 'unacceptable' - BBC News", "Sex drive boosted by hormone kisspeptin in trials - BBC News", "Energy bills: Magistrate quits over force-fitting meter warrants - BBC News", "Elon Musk found not guilty of fraud over Tesla tweet - BBC News", "Treason Act charge after Windsor Castle crossbow incident - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 27 January to 3 February - BBC News", "Every effort made to save stabbed baby, Belfast court told - BBC News", "Omagh bomb inquiry 'a significant decision', says NI secretary - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak says he'll release tax return soon in Piers Morgan interview - BBC News", "Chinese spy balloon: US tracks suspected surveillance device - BBC News", "Samsung boss didn't give daughter a smartphone until she was 11 - BBC News", "Apple sales in biggest fall since 2019 - BBC News", "PM Rishi Sunak on rapist case: Biological sex 'really matters' - BBC News", "Ukraine war: 80 years on, we are facing German tanks again - Putin - BBC News", "Eyewitness films suspected Chinese surveillance balloon - BBC News", "Bobi breaks Guinness World Record for oldest dog ever - BBC News", "Andrew Tate: Influencer threatened workers with violence, victim claims - BBC News", "Chinese spy balloon over US is weather device says Beijing - BBC News", "Paris Olympics 2024: Up to 40 countries could boycott Games, says Poland sports minister - BBC Sport", "Natalie McNally: Stephen McCullagh charged with murder of pregnant woman - BBC News", "Windsor Castle: Queen 'assassination' bid video probed - BBC News", "Mason Greenwood attempted rape charges dropped - BBC News", "The US wants to play in China's backyard - BBC News", "Autism: Employers ignorant about disability - autistic man - BBC News", "Ukraine war latest: Kyiv's future is in the EU, say visiting Brussels officials - BBC News", "Omagh bombing: Government expected to confirm decision on public inquiry - BBC News", "Man not guilty of murdering banker outside The Ivy - BBC News", "Welsh NHS strikes: Most health unions suspend industrial action - BBC News", "Energy firms told to stop force-fitting prepayment meters - BBC News", "Man found with crossbow at Windsor Castle sectioned - BBC News", "Why would China use a spy balloon when it has satellites? - BBC News", "Accused was not impaired at time of double killing, says psychiatrist - BBC News", "FTSE 100 closes at record high - BBC News", "Chinese fighter jet flies 20 feet from US military plane - BBC News", "Coldest wind chill ever recorded in continental US, say forecasters - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Missing mum's family 'stuck in a nightmare' - BBC News", "Paco Rabanne: Celebrated designer dies aged 88 - BBC News", "Sam Smith 'truly overwhelmed' by number one album Gloria - BBC News", "Sled dogs race in snowy three-day Beargrease marathon - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon: Rapist Isla Bryson 'almost certainly' faking trans status - BBC News", "Stormont marks one year of political stalemate - BBC News", "Paedophile pop star Gary Glitter freed from prison - BBC News", "Argentina unveils new 2,000-peso banknote as inflation bites - BBC News", "UK Athletics wants open category for male and transgender athletes - BBC Sport", "Bogus travel agent Lyne Barlow jailed for £2.6m holidays scam - BBC News", "Ukraine war: On the front line with engineers working to fix stricken power grid - BBC News", "Nick Kyrgios: Tennis star admits assaulting ex-girlfriend but avoids conviction - BBC News", "Pontins asylum accommodation plans scrapped - BBC News", "Bill Gates would rather pay for vaccines than travel to Mars - BBC News", "Strikes Update: How Friday 3 February’s strike will affect you - BBC News", "Yorkshire racism hearings: Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan and John Blain pull out of ECB process - BBC Sport", "Pembrokeshire: Top councillor accused of possible data breach - BBC News", "Baxter Scotland shirt pulled from auction after authenticity doubts - BBC News", "Italian fugitive Edgardo Greco tracked down as pizza maker after 16 years - BBC News", "Howells: Cardiff department store is set to close - BBC News", "This six-year-old ran up a $1,000 takeaway bill - BBC News", "Cost of living: Car insurance pushed up by paint and energy prices - BBC News", "Twitter: Number of staff suing goes up daily - lawyer - BBC News", "Selena Gomez praised for speaking on lupus and body-shaming - BBC News", "Asylum plan for another Pontins site scrapped - BBC News", "Nurses to stage 48-hour strike as dispute escalates - BBC News", "Police to face questions over Nicola Bulley disclosures - BBC News", "Fighter jets for Ukraine: The challenges of giving warplanes to Kyiv - BBC News", "Joe Biden says he makes no apologies for downing China balloon - BBC News", "Syrians in Turkey cross border after earthquake - BBC News", "John Swinney rules himself out of SNP leadership race - BBC News", "Brexit: Northern Ireland Protocol deal could be sealed next week - BBC News", "NHS battles sewage leaks as repair backlog grows - BBC News", "Bankrupt Alex Jones spends nearly $100,000 a month - BBC News", "Northern Ireland Protocol is lawful, Supreme Court rules - BBC News", "The King co-writes children's climate change book - BBC News", "Met Police: Katie Price releases letter about online abuse of Harvey - BBC News", "Russia spy sentencing live: British embassy guard David Smith sentenced to 13 years - BBC News", "Amazon calls staff back to office three days a week - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: The warnings at the luxury apartments that turned to dust - BBC News", "Rachael Moore death: PC under criminal investigation, IOPC says - BBC News", "Labour pledge to make fly-tippers in England and Wales clean up mess - BBC News", "Germany: Flights cancelled as strikes wipe out air travel - BBC News", "Newport: Heating and hot water restored to homes in Duffryn - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley family wants end to public speculation - BBC News", "Power cuts and schools closed as Storm Otto hits - BBC News", "Bruce Willis has dementia, his family announces - BBC News", "How MI5 caught UK embassy spy selling secrets to Russia - BBC News", "Tyre Nichols: Ex-officers plead not guilty over his death - BBC News", "Ohio town reflects on chemical train derailment aftermath - BBC News", "PM says he is concerned about Nicola Bulley disclosures - BBC News", "Bulgarian police find 18 people dead in abandoned truck - BBC News", "BBC India: Tax officials accuse organisation of irregularities - BBC News", "Widow wins right to share of husband's £1m-plus estate - BBC News", "Drake and 21 Savage settle Vogue cover lawsuit - BBC News", "EDF's UK profits soar after electricity price hikes - BBC News", "Manchester United: Qatar's Sheikh Jassim and Ineos make bids for Premier League club - BBC Sport", "Elon Musk: Tesla denies firing workers over union campaign - BBC News", "Judge praises Birmingham oil protesters' 'admirable aims' - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky rules out territory deal with Putin in BBC interview - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquakes: Yemeni mother gives birth after being pulled from rubble - BBC News", "Purplebricks: Struggling online estate agent puts itself up for sale - BBC News", "Vivienne Westwood: Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham attend memorial service - BBC News", "Bus £2 fare cap extended for three months - BBC News", "Cyclone Gabrielle: Thousands yet to be contacted after New Zealand storm - BBC News", "Hugh Jackman: Inevitable that Australia will become a republic - BBC News", "January discounts unexpectedly boost shop sales - BBC News", "Barcelona 2-2 Manchester United: Marcus Rashford and Raphinha on target in play-off thriller - BBC Sport", "Spy at UK's Berlin embassy jailed for selling secrets to Russia - BBC News", "YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki steps down after nine years - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Home secretary asks police to explain health disclosures - BBC News", "Aaron Ramsdale: Fan sentenced for pitch assault on Arsenal goalkeeper - BBC News", "University strikes: UCU action paused over seven days - BBC News", "US cancer patient developed 'uncontrollable' Irish accent - BBC News", "Disability: Doctor felt shunned by hospitals in Wales - BBC News", "Barry Martin: Firefighters form guard of honour for fallen colleague - BBC News", "Otter kills young beavers released at Loch Lomond - BBC News", "Strikes Update: How Friday 17 February’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Clare Drakeford: Funeral held for wife of Wales' FM - BBC News", "Lucy Letby: Murder-accused nurse breaks down at trial - BBC News", "Transpennine: True extent of cancellations revealed - BBC News", "Rail workers to stage more strikes in pay dispute - BBC News", "Senedd candidates must live in Wales under plans - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Young girl rescued after 178 hours under rubble - BBC News", "BBC: What's been 'occurring' in Wales for 100 years - BBC News", "David Jolicoeur: Rapper and founding member of De La Soul dies - BBC News", "The China-US mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds - BBC News", "Douglas Alexander to stand as Labour candidate for East Lothian - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Little boy rescued after 105 hours in quake rubble - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russia's Wagner casts doubt on brutal death of 'traitor' - BBC News", "New pay offer for teachers in Scotland within days, says minister - BBC News", "Brianna Ghey's death has left massive hole, says family - BBC News", "Stormont crisis: Dáithí's Law family disappointed by DUP recall move - BBC News", "Cervical cancer: Northern Ireland urged to adopt HPV testing - BBC News", "Cyclone Gabrielle: Three dead after New Zealand declares state of emergency - BBC News", "Covid forces Camilla, Queen Consort, to cancel visits - BBC News", "Rihanna reveals she's pregnant at Super Bowl half-time show - BBC News", "White House defends decision to shoot down flying objects - BBC News", "Meteoroid lights up sky above English Channel - BBC News", "Why would China use a spy balloon when it has satellites? - BBC News", "Cyclone Gabrielle: Thousands left without power in New Zealand - BBC News", "Jakub Jankto: Czech Republic international midfielder comes out as gay - BBC Sport", "Kettering supermarket worker's song hits 10m views on TikTok - BBC News", "Wayne Couzens admits indecent exposure offences - BBC News", "Richard Sharp: PM declines to say if he backs under-fire BBC chairman - BBC News", "Police crack case of 200,000 stolen Creme Eggs in Telford - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russians slowly take ground around Bakhmut - BBC News", "England 31-14 Italy: Pragmatic hosts claim first win under Steve Borthwick - BBC Sport", "Super Bowl 57: Kansas City Chiefs fight back to beat Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 in thriller - BBC Sport", "Neath: Daniel Pickering jailed for life after nightclub murder - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Nurses rush to protect baby incubators as quake strikes - BBC News", "Chinese balloon: What investigators might learn from the debris - BBC News", "Champions League final: Uefa 'responsible' for chaos before Liverpool v Real Madrid in Paris - BBC Sport", "London bus strikes: Abellio drivers accept pay rise - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Being buried alive with my newborn son - BBC News", "Syria: Rescuers search for earthquake survivors in Harem - BBC News", "Inside Syria: BBC sees children dig through rubble - BBC News", "Labour accuse Tories of spending sprees on hotels, dining and gifts - BBC News", "Ashley Dale: Two more men charged over woman shot dead in garden - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquake latest: UN says rescue phase is 'coming to a close' - BBC News", "Call the Midwife renewed for two more series, BBC confirms - BBC News", "WhatsOnStage Awards: Jodie Comer and Lucie Jones among winners - BBC News", "Darvel 1-5 Falkirk: Bairns end Darvel Scottish Cup dream to set up Ayr United quarter-final date - BBC Sport", "Ballet director smeared faeces on critic's face after bad review - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Yellow ribbons left near where mother last seen - BBC News", "US warns that dual citizens face Russian conscription - BBC News", "US flying objects: White House defends decision to shoot down flying objects - BBC News", "Mystery surrounds objects shot down by US military - BBC News", "Police apologise to Caroline Flack's family over record of CPS decision - BBC News", "Ex-BBC Afghan journalists may be evacuated to UK after legal challenge - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Being buried alive with my newborn son - BBC News", "Richard Sharp: Pressure grows on BBC chairman after critical report - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake rescue continues almost 150 hours on: 'You are a miracle' - BBC News", "No tents, no aid, nothing: Why Syrians feel forgotten - BBC News", "Brianna Ghey: Boy and girl arrested over Warrington park killing - BBC News", "Amazon: Unionised Coventry workers announce strike escalation - BBC News", "China says US balloons breached airspace at least 10 times - BBC News", "Eoin Morgan: Ex-England captain retires from cricket aged 36 - BBC Sport", "Shell reports highest profits in 115 years - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Mexico sends its famed search and rescue dogs - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Three Britons missing, says Foreign Office - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Before and after pictures show extent of destruction - BBC News", "Archie Battersbee: Mum tells inquest his death was an accident - BBC News", "Syria-Turkey earthquake:Toddler rescued from collapsed building - BBC News", "Trial of scrapping train return tickets extended - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: TV crew flee live broadcast as second quake hits - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: What are UK charities doing to help? - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: The eyewitnesses who captured the quake on social media - BBC News", "Cost of living: Big banks' bosses defend savings rates and branch closures - BBC News", "Richard Sharp: BBC chairman denies arranging loan for Boris Johnson - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: The world rallies in the face of disaster - BBC News", "David Bowie's handwritten Jean Genie lyrics sold for £57,000 - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Anguished wait for Turkish and Syrian communities - BBC News", "Sunak reshuffle: Shapps named energy secretary in department shake-up - BBC News", "Sunak reshuffle: PM to reshape government departments - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Police focus on river path in search for missing mum - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquake: Newborn baby pulled from collapsed building - BBC News", "David Carrick: Serial rapist PC humiliated victims, court hears - BBC News", "Sheffield United 3-1 Wrexham: Blades to face Spurs after ending Dragons' FA Cup run - BBC Sport", "Turkey earthquake: The survivors' choice - danger inside or freezing outside - BBC News", "Sunak reshuffle: Cabinet meets after PM sets out stall with mini-reshuffle - BBC News", "BP scales back climate targets as profits hit record - BBC News", "Kaylea Titford: Parents killed girl by letting her become obese - BBC News", "Christian Atsu: Footballer 'removed from wreckage with injuries' after earthquake - BBC Sport", "Mental health: Ruby, 12, talks about dad's sudden death - BBC News", "Coronation official playlist picks golden oldies - BBC News", "Dramatic rescue saves Thai baby who fell down well - BBC News", "Fake Covid kits: Preacher handed suspended one-year jail term - BBC News", "Epsom College: Investigations continue after family found dead - BBC News", "Drone footage shows earthquake aftermath in Turkey - BBC News", "LGBTQ: Aim to make it easier to change gender in Wales - BBC News", "Epsom College head called relative before she was shot by husband - BBC News", "Man charged after young girl's disappearance in the Borders - BBC News", "Cost-of-living: Welsh ministers' help not enough, report says - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Yeni Malatyaspor goalkeeper Ahmet Eyup Turkaslan dies - BBC Sport", "Trump-era Chinese spy balloons went undetected - BBC News", "Humza Yousaf's family drops discrimination case against nursery - BBC News", "Met Police officer David Carrick admits to being serial rapist - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak's 'maths until 18' plan questioned by experts - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russians seen reinforcing east ahead of offensive - BBC News", "UK property register: What three luxury homes reveal about who owns UK real estate - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Erdogan announces three-month state of emergency in quake area - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Nothing making sense in missing mum case, friend says - BBC News", "Former aide accuses Republican George Santos of sexual misconduct - BBC News", "Millions of pounds worth of energy vouchers not cashed - BBC News", "Digital pound likely this decade, Treasury says - BBC News", "China spy balloon: US Navy releases photos of debris - BBC News", "Margaret Thatcher portrait saved from tip breaks sale expectations - BBC News", "Manchester City charged with breaking financial rules by Premier League - BBC Sport", "Queen Elizabeth Prize: Solar team wins prestigious engineering award - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Bodies in street after quake as anger grows over aid - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Police still believe missing mum fell into river - BBC News", "Turkey and Syria earthquake: 'The hospital was collapsing with my son inside' - BBC News", "Royal Mail February strike off after legal challenge - BBC News", "Harry Styles dancers reveal Grammys routine went in one direction - the wrong one - BBC News", "Facebook's parent firm Meta can be sued by ex-moderator, judge rules - BBC News", "Chris Mason: Sunak's backseat-driving former prime ministers - BBC News", "Epsom College head Emma Pattison found dead with husband and daughter - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Aleppo among worst-hit areas in Syria - BBC News", "How the nurses' strike on Tuesday 7 February will affect you - BBC News", "David Carrick: Rapist former Met Police officer jailed for minimum of 30 years - BBC News", "Dominic Raab accused of bullying behaviour by ex-colleague - BBC News", "Microsoft unveils new Bing with ChatGPT powers - BBC News", "Brit Awards: All Saints' Shaznay Lewis questions all-male best artist category - BBC News", "Suspected Chinese spy balloon was 200ft tall - US defence official - BBC News", "Civil servants set to strike on Budget day - BBC News", "Bard: Google launches ChatGPT rival - BBC News", "Mark Cavendish robbery: Two men jailed for raid at cyclist's home - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Children rescued from rubble in Syria - BBC News", "David Carrick: Serial rapist Met Police officer in prison at least 30 years - BBC News", "Oscars: Danielle Deadwyler claims Hollywood is 'deeply impacted by racism' - BBC News", "Watch: News conference held after officer shooting - BBC News", "Omagh police shooting: Fifth arrest after John Caldwell attack - BBC News", "Boy, 13, charged with attempted murder after 14-year-old stabbed - BBC News", "Sunak deal with EU is all about leadership now - Kuenssberg - BBC News", "Two bodies found in search for missing tug crew off Greenock - BBC News", "Omagh police shooting: Sixth man, aged 71, arrested - BBC News", "Search for two crew members after tug capsizes off Greenock - BBC News", "The woman whose stolen images were used to scam men out of thousands - BBC News", "How a 'priceless' Pet Shop Boys letter ended up in an Altrincham record shop - BBC News", "Vernon Kay 'over the moon' to replace Ken Bruce on Radio 2 - BBC News", "Wales 10-20 England: England win scrappy Six Nations match to heap misery on hosts - BBC Sport", "Timeline of dissident republican activity - BBC News", "NI Protocol: Will Rishi Sunak's deal pass DUP checkpoint? - BBC News", "The Gloucester: New underwater footage shows royal wreck warship - BBC News", "Succession: Show's creator announces show will end after fourth season - BBC News", "Turkish journalists detained over earthquake reports - BBC News", "William and Kate support opposite sides at Six Nations - BBC News", "A million households can apply for £400 energy rebate - BBC News", "Bird flu: UK health officials make contingency plans - BBC News", "Nigeria election 2023: Early results arriving - BBC News", "Kent apple farmers forced to dig up orchards over financial losses - BBC News", "How Putin's fate is tied to Russia's war in Ukraine - BBC News", "Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust prosecuted after three patients died - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky wants Xi Jinping meeting following China's peace plan - BBC News", "The woman whose stolen images were used to scam men out of thousands - BBC News", "Northern Ireland Protocol deal: Moment of truth approaching for DUP - BBC News", "Rabbani brothers leave Guantanamo Bay without charge after almost 20 years - BBC News", "Damages for Warwick student denied extension due to cancer - BBC News", "Nigeria election 2023: Delays in tightest-ever poll - BBC News", "Can mind-controlled VR games help stroke patients? - BBC News", "Northern Ireland: What’s behind Sunak’s Brexit 'gamble' as deal nears - BBC News", "Search resumes for two crew members after tug capsizes off Greenock - BBC News", "Omagh police shooting: Disturbing echoes of past in John Caldwell attack - BBC News", "Wales v England: Cardiff business and fans relieved game is on - BBC News", "Thor the walrus spotted in Iceland after leaving UK - BBC News", "China refuses to condemn Russia's Ukraine invasion during G20 deadlock - BBC News", "Ajax armoured vehicle project back on track, says defence secretary - BBC News", "Protocol: Hopes raised for Brexit deal on Northern Ireland - BBC News", "Thousands of tattooed inmates pictured in El Salvador mega-prison - BBC News", "Nigeria election 2023: Voting day as it happened - BBC News", "Stafford MP deselected one week after maternity leave return - BBC News", "China and the Ukraine war: The real reason for Beijing's charm offensive - BBC News", "Bernard Ingham: Margaret Thatcher's press chief dies aged 90 - BBC News", "Earthquake: Brynmawr, Cardiff and valleys feel tremors - BBC News", "Mardi Gras: Australia's PM Anthony Albanese first to join march - BBC News", "Eurovision 2023: Government pledges £10m towards Liverpool song contest - BBC News", "Omagh police shooting: John Caldwell attack causes shockwaves in PSNI - BBC News", "Laurel Aldridge: Body found in search for actor's sister-in-law - BBC News", "Australia has taken out 'hive' of spies, security chief says - BBC News", "Shamima Begum bid to regain UK citizenship rejected - BBC News", "Sunak clashes with Starmer over NI Brexit deal progress - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Gun laws could be reformed - BBC News", "Rescuers bunny-hop up hill on ski tow to reach injured walker - BBC News", "Junior doctors vote for strikes in England over NHS pay - BBC News", "Cardiff Met student Alfie Woollett died trying to get in club - BBC News", "Scores missing after large mine collapse in China - BBC News", "Tube strike: London Underground drivers to walk out on Budget Day - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Family's housing fears as hotel stay ends - BBC News", "BBC India: MPs call Delhi and Mumbai searches 'intimidation' - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Ofcom 'extremely concerned' by family media complaints - BBC News", "Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dismiss South Park lawsuit rumour - BBC News", "Teacher strikes will go ahead if no pay progress - BBC News", "Wales v England: Fears of rugby fans and businesses if game off - BBC News", "Six Nations 2023: Deadline day arrives for Wales v England match in Cardiff - BBC Sport", "Liverpool 2-5 Real Madrid: Hosts thrashed by holders in Champions League last 16 - BBC Sport", "Nicola Bulley: Police watchdog to probe police visit - BBC News", "Sports bodies issue 'urgent plea' for help from UK prime minister amid energy crisis - BBC Sport", "MP Simon Clarke's nurses-using-food banks remarks criticised by RCN - BBC News", "Ethnic minority Covid death gap closes – ONS - BBC News", "Mystery sphere found on beach perplexes Japan - BBC News", "Teacher strikes: Union rejects revised Wales pay offer - BBC News", "Warning over future of British Steel as it cuts jobs - BBC News", "Serial killer fan Shaye Groves jailed for murdering boyfriend - BBC News", "North Korea food crisis looms behind displays of military prowess - BBC News", "Scottish budget: Extra £100m for councils as tax-raising plans approved - BBC News", "'I can't bear his blood in me' - sex abuser's daughter - BBC News", "Train firms sorry after information systems outage - BBC News", "Rapper Nipsey Hussle's killer Eric R Holder Jr gets 60 years in prison - BBC News", "Selfie image shows US pilot flying over Chinese 'spy balloon' - BBC News", "Constance Marten: Couple putting baby at risk, says midwife - BBC News", "Asylum claims for 12,000 to be considered without face-to-face interview - BBC News", "Tesco and Aldi limit sales of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers - BBC News", "Suella Braverman plays down resignation talk over Brexit - BBC News", "SNP leadership: Will faith turn the tide for Scottish independence? - BBC News", "Teachers' union defends three days of targeted strikes - BBC News", "Eleven Palestinians killed during Israeli raid in Nablus - BBC News", "Number of people never married rises, census shows - BBC News", "Brazil landslides: Dozens missing, feared buried in the mud - BBC News", "Eurovision 2023: Hosts include Graham Norton and Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddingham - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Police handling of case to be reviewed - BBC News", "Omagh: Off-duty police officer shot at sports centre - BBC News", "Shamima Begum knew about IS when she joined, UK lawyer says - BBC News", "Six Nations 2023: Wales to play match against England as strike action averted - BBC Sport", "Ukraine war: US will defend every inch of Nato territory, says Biden - BBC News", "Shamima Begum accepts she joined a terror group - BBC News", "Child abuse material found on VR headsets, police data shows - BBC News", "Social care costs see thousands chased for debt - BBC News", "Government's mood on public sector pay has shifted - BBC News", "Teacher stabbed to death by pupil in France - BBC News", "Football regulator: UK government confirms new independent body - BBC Sport", "Government recommends 3.5% pay rise for nurses and other workers - BBC News", "Heat pumps: Lords slam 'failing' green heating scheme - BBC News", "Nurses set for 'intensive' talks with government after strike paused - BBC News", "JK Rowling dismisses backlash over trans comments: 'I don't care about my legacy' - BBC News", "PMQs: Rishi Sunak sidesteps questions on NI protocol deal - BBC News", "Royal Navy F-35 pilot tells of ejecting seconds before crash - BBC News", "Malcolm X's family plan to sue FBI, CIA, NYPD for his death - BBC News", "Dan Walker bike accident: Helmet saved my life, says TV star - BBC News", "Pret A Manger to scrap smoothies, frappes and milkshakes - BBC News", "Asda and Morrisons limit sales of some fruit and vegetables - BBC News", "Mexico's ex-security minister Genaro García Luna convicted of drug trafficking - BBC News", "Kenya to investigate 'sex for work' exposed in BBC tea documentary - BBC News", "Ford to cut one in five jobs in the UK - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Young girl rescued after 178 hours under rubble - BBC News", "US flying objects: Your questions answered as mystery continues - BBC News", "The China-US mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds - BBC News", "Cervical cancer: Northern Ireland urged to adopt HPV testing - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Little boy rescued after 105 hours in quake rubble - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Ben Wallace says 97% of Russian army is in Ukraine - BBC News", "Welsh rugby: Nigel Owens 'confident' WRU will be a better place - BBC News", "Emily Lewis: Speedboat skipper cleared of teenager's manslaughter - BBC News", "Batgirl: Scrapped movie was hit by Glasgow rain - BBC News", "Controversial diamond won't be used in coronation - BBC News", "Col Paris Davis: Black Vietnam veteran to finally receive Medal of Honor - BBC News", "Man convicted of murdering wife in hammer attack - 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BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Hope as foreign help arrives in quake-ravaged Antakya - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Erdogan 'responsible for this' opposition leader says - BBC News", "Epsom College head called relative before she was shot by husband - BBC News", "Notorious Russian nationalist Igor Mangushev shot dead in Ukraine - BBC News", "Man charged after young girl's disappearance in the Borders - BBC News", "Public Order Bill: Peers defeat plans to curb protest disruption - BBC News", "Bus driver charged with murder after ramming Quebec nursery - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: BBC reporter stops as rescuers listen for trapped people - BBC News", "Sunak says nothing off table as Zelensky asks for jets - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Yeni Malatyaspor goalkeeper Ahmet Eyup Turkaslan dies - BBC Sport", "Northern Ireland Protocol is lawful, Supreme Court rules - BBC News", "Quantum breakthrough could revolutionise computing - BBC News", "Most probation services are over capacity, leaked data reveals - BBC News", "New Zealand drug bust: Batman-labelled cocaine haul seized at sea - BBC News", "HS2 Ltd miscalculating impact on nature - Wildlife Trusts - BBC News", "Zelensky UK visit: Nothing off the table, says Sunak, as Zelensky asks for fighter jets - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak's 'maths until 18' plan questioned by experts - BBC News", "State of the Union 2023: Biden urges Congress to 'finish job' of rebuilding economy - BBC News", "Medals for MPs among ideas to attract fresh talent to Parliament - BBC News", "Manchester United 2-2 Leeds United: Jadon Sancho goal earns home side point in thriller - BBC Sport", "SNP MP Stewart McDonald's emails hacked by Russian group - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquake: Survivor in rubble sparks hope for more 'miracles' - BBC News", "Lloyd's of London boss warns UK's financial reputation is dented - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan could be questioned in Samantha Markle defamation case - BBC News", "Archie Battersbee died in prank gone wrong - coroner - BBC News", "Ukraine war: President Volodymyr Zelensky visits the UK - BBC News", "China spy balloon: US Navy releases photos of debris - BBC News", "Ex-McDonald's boss to repay $105m over staff relationships - BBC News", "Queen Elizabeth Prize: Solar team wins prestigious engineering award - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Bodies in street after quake as anger grows over aid - BBC News", "Police visited home of Epsom College head over 2016 domestic row - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Police still believe missing mum fell into river - BBC News", "Jared O'Mara: Former MP found guilty of fraudulent expenses claims - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Impossible to prepare for disasters this big, President Erdogan says - BBC News", "Ukraine braced for renewed Russian offensive later in February - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Borrowed time for Bakhmut as Russians close in - BBC News", "Commonwealth bull gets New Street station home - BBC News", "UK to send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, Rishi Sunak confirms - BBC News", "Boris Johnson nears £5m in earnings since leaving office - 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BBC News", "Wales' ambulance strike pay talks continue - Unite leader - BBC News", "Teachers should halt strikes to keep schools open, says minister - BBC News", "Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's ex-president, dies aged 79 - BBC News", "Truss's approach 'clearly' not right, says Shapps - BBC News", "Balloon saga deflates efforts to mend US-China relations - BBC News", "No new offer in Scottish teachers' pay dispute, education secretary says - BBC News", "Courts waved through warrants to forcefit prepayment meters - BBC News", "Weekend avalanches kill 10 in Austria and Switzerland - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Missing mother fell in river, police believe - BBC News", "Constance Marten: Missing couple and baby thought to be camping in Sussex - BBC News", "'I escaped abusive jungle cult - then rescued my son' - BBC News", "How NHS strikes on Monday 6 February will affect you - BBC News", "Grant Shapps: Liz Truss's tax cuts were clearly the wrong approach - BBC News", "Nurses offer to call off strikes in England if Sunak makes fresh pay offer - 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BBC News", "Six Nations 2023: England 23-29 Scotland - Superb Scots retain Calcutta Cup at Twickenham - BBC Sport", "Dad completes charity run along entire length of M1 - BBC News", "Vile speculation hurtful to Nicola Bulley's family, friend says - BBC News", "Hundreds join gender recognition reform rallies in Glasgow - BBC News", "Wealthy UK family to apologise in Grenada over slave-owning past - BBC News", "Israel protests: Tens of thousands in anti-government rally - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Friend shares images of missing mum on day she vanished - BBC News", "Bradford: Plans for 'Brit School North' proposed - BBC News", "Harry Kane: Tottenham striker overtakes Jimmy Greaves as Spurs' all-time top scorer - BBC Sport", "Liz Truss: I was never given realistic chance to enact tax cuts - BBC News", "Lord of the Rings tells Brighton bin firm to change name - BBC News", "Princess of Wales shares baby picture of herself - BBC News", "Grammys 2023: Viola Davis becomes an EGOT - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak missing from NHS strike talks, says union boss - 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BBC Sport", "Hillsborough disaster: Families profoundly failed, say police - BBC News", "A father 'gone too soon': Tyre Nichols funeral held in Memphis - BBC News", "Non-fatal strangulation: 'I could feel a crushing around my neck' - BBC News", "Andrew Tate: Influencer's appeal against detention rejected by Romanian judges - BBC News", "HSBC staff get a uniform of jumpsuits and jeans - BBC News", "Coldest wind chill ever recorded in continental US, say forecasters - BBC News", "House prices fall for fifth month in a row - BBC News", "Oscars 2023: Actress Andrea Riseborough keeps nomination despite 'concerns' - BBC News", "Petr Pavel: Ukraine deserves to join Nato, says new Czech leader - BBC News", "Horses and dogs sailed with Vikings to Britain, say scientists - BBC News", "British Steel considering 800 job cuts in Lincolnshire - BBC News", "Natalie McNally murder: Man, 32, re-arrested over Lurgan killing - BBC News", "Tudor pendant linked to Henry VIII among new finds - BBC News", "Dominic Raab: Union leader calls for suspension over bullying claims - BBC News", "Beyoncé announces Renaissance world tour, as fans brace for ticket rush - BBC News", "Missing radioactive capsule found in Australia - BBC News", "Kaylea Titford: Dad to blame for girl's death, court told - BBC News", "Fed announces smaller rate rise as inflation cools - BBC News", "Raye: 'My drug use got pretty deep and really dangerous' - BBC News", "Most schools in England affected by strikes - BBC News", "Teacher strikes: 'Deciding to close our school has been horrible' - BBC News", "Tom Jones: Delilah banned for choirs at Principality Stadium - BBC News", "Strikes: Schools, colleges and trains in Wales hit - BBC News", "Arnold Clark customer data 'stolen in cyber attack' - BBC News", "Enzo Fernandez transfer news: Chelsea complete British record £107m fee for Benfica midfielder - BBC Sport", "Government promises robust crypto regulation - BBC News", "North East ambulance staff lacked critical medicines, CQC finds - BBC News", "ChatGPT firm trials $20 monthly subscription fee - BBC News", "Neath Port Talbot: Boy, 12, left traumatised after park attack - BBC News", "Log burner rule change in England could land users with £300 fines - BBC News", "Tyre Nichols family demands policing reform bill at funeral - BBC News", "Strikes on Wednesday 1 February will disrupt daily life - No 10 - BBC News", "Tate Modern: Flat owners win viewing platform privacy case - BBC News", "Manchester United 2-0 Nottingham Forest (5-0 on agg): United to play Newcastle in Carabao Cup final - BBC Sport", "Costa cappuccino has five times more caffeine than Starbucks' - BBC News", "Three hundred jobs to go at publisher DC Thomson - BBC News", "Neath: Family took £300k from friends in property scam - BBC News", "Seven Russians sanctioned over ransomware cyber-crime - BBC News", "Bus driver charged with murder after ramming Quebec nursery - BBC News", "Chris Mason: The profound questions Zelensky’s European tour poses - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: BBC reporter stops as rescuers listen for trapped people - BBC News", "Sunak says nothing off table as Zelensky asks for jets - BBC News", "Orca mothers make 'lifelong sacrifice' for sons - BBC News", "Archie Battersbee died in prank gone wrong - coroner - BBC News", "Ukraine war: President Volodymyr Zelensky visits the UK - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Dive team pull out as search extended - BBC News", "Jared O'Mara: Former MP jailed over £52,000 fraud to pay drug debt - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquake: Freezing weather adds to despair as quake toll passes 22,000 - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquake: First aid convoy reaches opposition-held Idlib - BBC News", "Turkey quake: President Erdogan accepts some problems with response - BBC News", "Man in court charged with abducting young girl - BBC News", "Burt Bacharach, one of pop's greatest songwriters, dies aged 94 - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: One ruined neighbourhood at the centre of the devastation - BBC News", "MH17: Putin probably supplied missile that downed plane - investigators - 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BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Search for missing mum moves towards sea - BBC News", "Chinese balloon capable of gathering intelligence - US official - BBC News", "Church of England backs plans to bless gay couples - BBC News", "NHS to use test that prevents babies going deaf - BBC News", "Jared O'Mara: Former MP found guilty of fraudulent expenses claims - BBC News", "MPs' pay will increase by 2.9% in April - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky takes fighter jet bid to EU leaders - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Borrowed time for Bakhmut as Russians close in - BBC News", "Ukraine war: We fight to defend Europe's way of life - Zelensky - BBC News", "Netflix extends crackdown on password sharing to more countries - BBC News", "Half-term border queues warning due to strikes - BBC News", "Ambulance waits down by nearly an hour in a month - BBC News", "MPs want inquiry into Ashford school after attack on black schoolgirl - BBC News", "King Charles's coronation concert offers 10,000 free tickets in ballot - BBC News", "Strikes Update: How Friday 10 February’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Turkey and Syria earthquake: Bodies found in search for volleyball team - BBC News", "Boris Johnson nears £5m in earnings since leaving office - BBC News", "Manchester United 2-2 Leeds United: Jadon Sancho goal earns home side point in thriller - BBC Sport", "Tricky decisions as Scotland's councils face budget shortfalls - BBC News", "Teachers' strikes: Wales action postponed after pay offer - BBC News", "UK Firefighters' strike postponed as union votes over new pay offer - BBC News", "MP Lee Anderson: New deputy Tory chairman clashes with radio presenter - BBC News", "Trans prisoners in Scotland to be placed according to birth sex - BBC News", "Kate hugs former teacher during Cornwall museum visit - BBC News", "Twitter outage sees users told they are over daily tweet limit - BBC News", "Lee Anderson: New Tory deputy chairman would support return of death penalty - BBC News", "Chinese balloon part of worldwide fleet, US officials say - BBC News", "Nadine Dorries to stand down as MP at next election - BBC News", "Mum traumatised by Nottingham maternity failings gives birth to girl - BBC News", "Alex Morgan: USA forward calls potential Saudi sponsorship deal for 2023 Women's World Cup 'bizarre' - BBC Sport", "Turkey-Syria earthquake: Watching the search for family on Zoom - BBC News", "Hillview: Hospital exposed over mental health care for women - BBC News", "Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquake: Survivor in rubble sparks hope for more 'miracles' - BBC News", "Coach passengers returning to UK face waits of more than six hours - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russia must be defeated but not crushed, Macron says - BBC News", "New Zealand v England: Tourists win first Test by 267 runs - BBC Sport", "Andrew Tate threatens legal action against accuser - BBC News", "Boris Johnson NI intervention not entirely unhelpful, says Mordaunt - BBC News", "Banksy Margate Valentine's Day artwork to move to Dreamland - BBC News", "Dickie Davies, host of ITV's World of Sport for nearly two decades, dies - BBC News", "Nottingham Forest 1-1 Manchester City: Chris Wood equaliser denies City top spot - BBC Sport", "British Medical Association calls government reckless over pay talks - BBC News", "BFM journalist Rachid M'Barki suspended in scandal linked to disinformation firm - BBC News", "Leigh Wood v Mauricio Lara: Briton loses world title with stoppage defeat in thrilling fight - BBC Sport", "Tense US-China meeting deepens balloon row - BBC News", "Aberhosan: Farmer dies and son seriously injured in accident - BBC News", "Instagram and Facebook to get paid-for verification - BBC News", "UK defence spending is top priority, says Mordaunt - BBC News", "Environment: Are mushroom boards the future of surfing? - BBC News", "Iran International: Channel leaves UK after regime threats - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Rescue effort ends in all but two areas - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Roads closed in search for missing mother - BBC News", "Jeff Koons: Visitor breaks iconic Balloon Dog sculpture in Miami - BBC News", "No money for major road projects in Wales, minister says - BBC News", "Mariupol theatre demolished 'to hide Russian crimes', aide says - BBC News", "Hugh Jackman wants to score winner versus Wrexham - BBC News", "Former US President Jimmy Carter to receive hospice care - BBC News", "Johnson NI intervention not entirely unhelpful - Mordaunt - BBC News", "Baftas 2023: The red carpet in pictures - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Lancashire Police find body in River Wyre - BBC News", "Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan launch bids to become SNP leader - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley search: Former police boss says criticism is unfair - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley search: Mordaunt says health revelations sexist and shocking - BBC News", "Tinder Swindler: Why I stood by my abusive ex - BBC News", "Comedian Rhod Gilbert shares cancer recovery goal - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Antakya now unrecognisable to tour guide - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon, Jeremy Corbyn, NI Protocol: A week that changed UK politics? - BBC News", "Injured hiker survives Storm Otto in Skye mountains - BBC News", "Exeter: Man held over murder of woman in Ludwell Valley Park - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russia has committed crimes against humanity, US says - BBC News", "Andrew Lloyd Webber piece among new coronation music - BBC News", "Ukraine anger as Macron says 'Don't humiliate Russia' - BBC News", "Asylum hotel disorder: Demonstrations held in Liverpool - BBC News", "New images of Mackenzie Crook's missing sister-in-law Laurel Aldridge - BBC News", "NI Protocol: DUP leader facing his own 'big moment' - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak: Ukraine's long-term security must be ensured now - BBC News", "Five killed in Israeli strike on Damascus, Syria says - BBC News", "Strikes update: How Monday 20 February’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Blinken says China might give weapons to Russia - BBC News", "Caerau botched insulation homes still awaiting repairs - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake demolishes buildings in Malatya - video - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Death toll could increase eight-fold, WHO says - BBC News", "David Carrick: Serial rapist PC humiliated victims, court hears - BBC News", "Digital pound likely this decade, Treasury says - BBC News", "Andrew Innes jailed for murdering Bennylyn and Jellica Burke - BBC News", "Pope and Protestant leaders denounce anti-gay laws - BBC News", "Andrew Tate was violent and coercive, says ex-girlfriend - BBC News", "Prepayment meters: Magistrates told to stop allowing forced installations - BBC News", "Turkey and Syria earthquake: Aerial footage shows Syria aftermath - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Before and after pictures show extent of destruction - BBC News", "Sir Salman Rushdie speaks for the first time about 'colossal attack' - BBC News", "Weekend avalanches kill 10 in Austria and Switzerland - BBC News", "Manchester City charged with breaking financial rules by Premier League - BBC Sport", "NHS Strikes: Unite ambulance staff on the picket line - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Roman-era castle destroyed by quake - BBC News", "Syria-Turkey earthquake:Toddler rescued from collapsed building - BBC News", "Britishvolt: UK battery start-up set to be bought by Australian firm - BBC News", "'Google killer' ChatGPT sparks AI chatbot race - BBC News", "Cost of living: Call for better pension saving deal for under-22s and low-paid - BBC News", "How NHS strikes on Monday 6 February will affect you - BBC News", "Digital cameras back in fashion after online revival - BBC News", "Grant Shapps: Liz Truss's tax cuts were clearly the wrong approach - BBC News", "Coronation official playlist picks golden oldies - BBC News", "Bakhmut, Kyiv, and other key Ukrainian cities ahead of Russia spring offensive - BBC News", "M&Co: Renfrewshire clothing chain to close all 170 stores - BBC News", "Snowdonia: Climber dies after falling from mountain - BBC News", "Chinese balloon: What investigators might learn from the debris - BBC News", "St Andrews Old Course bridge paving dug up after backlash - BBC News", "Royal Mail February strike off after legal challenge - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Partner 'distraught' as divers join search - BBC News", "Climate change: Uni degree will train future disruptors - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Impossible to prepare for disasters this big, President Erdogan says - BBC News", "Ukraine braced for renewed Russian offensive later in February - BBC News", "US searches for wreckage of suspected Chinese spy balloon - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: The eyewitnesses who captured the quake on social media - BBC News", "Fake Covid kits: Preacher handed suspended one-year jail term - BBC News", "Chris Mason: Sunak's backseat-driving former prime ministers - BBC News", "Epsom College head Emma Pattison found dead with husband and daughter - BBC News", "Happy Valley: TV critics and viewers praise 'sensational' finale - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Aleppo among worst-hit areas in Syria - BBC News", "Huddersfield: Woman arrested after three children stabbed - BBC News", "IBSF World Championships 2023: Great Britain win joint silver in four-man bobsleigh - BBC Sport", "David Carrick: Rapist former Met Police officer jailed for minimum of 30 years - BBC News", "Grammys 2023: Red carpet fashion in pictures - BBC News", "Mountains of rubble after quake strikes Turkey - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Friend shares images of missing mum on day she vanished - BBC News", "Harry Kane: Tottenham striker overtakes Jimmy Greaves as Spurs' all-time top scorer - BBC Sport", "Suspected Chinese spy balloon was 200ft tall - US defence official - BBC News", "Second balloon over Latin America is ours - China - BBC News", "Leeds United: Jesse Marsch sacked after less than a year in charge - BBC Sport", "The Antarctic and Arctic sounds rarely heard before - BBC News", "Bard: Google launches ChatGPT rival - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Anguished wait for Turkish and Syrian communities - BBC News", "Grammys 2023: Viola Davis becomes an EGOT - BBC News", "HIV testing: Free DIY home kit offered in England - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak missing from NHS strike talks, says union boss - BBC News", "Former aide accuses Republican George Santos of sexual misconduct - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Screaming, shaking... how it felt when the quake hit - BBC News", "Adoption: Son finally meets birth mum after 58 years - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Police focus on river path in search for missing mum - BBC News", "Grammys 2023: Beyoncé makes history and Harry Styles wins album of the year - BBC News", "Family launches legal action over mother's death in Tenerife crash - BBC News", "Tebbutt murder-kidnap: Kenyan freed from prison after long campaign - BBC News", "Search for two crew members after tug capsizes off Greenock - BBC News", "Vernon Kay 'over the moon' to replace Ken Bruce on Radio 2 - BBC News", "NI Protocol: Will Rishi Sunak's deal pass DUP checkpoint? - BBC News", "Wrexham owners set to play in $1m US tournament - BBC Sport", "Bird flu: UK health officials make contingency plans - BBC News", "Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust prosecuted after three patients died - BBC News", "Ukraine war: UN condemns Russian invasion ahead of anniversary - BBC News", "England's archaeological history gathers dust as museums fill up - BBC News", "Poet Laureate marks 100 years of the Flying Scotsman - BBC News", "Signal would 'walk' from UK if Online Safety Bill undermined encryption - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Vuhledar, the mining town Russia wants to take - BBC News", "John Motson: Legendary commentator was a 'remarkable' character, says ex-England captain Gary Lineker - BBC Sport", "War in Ukraine one year on: Ricky Boleto's diary for Newsround - BBC Newsround", "Manchester United 2-1 Barcelona (4-3 on agg): Fred and Antony send Man Utd into Europa League last 16 - BBC Sport", "Pupil absences remain above pre-Covid levels - BBC News", "TikTok under investigation by Canadian privacy authorities - BBC News", "Watch: News conference held after officer shooting - BBC News", "Omagh police shooting: Fifth arrest after John Caldwell attack - BBC News", "US ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh admits lying but denies killing family - BBC News", "Ukraine war latest news: Victory is inevitable if allies keep promises, Zelensky says, on invasion anniversary - BBC News", "How Russia's 35-mile armoured convoy ended in failure - BBC News", "Succession: Show's creator announces show will end after fourth season - BBC News", "Ceremonies mark the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine - BBC News", "Kent apple farmers forced to dig up orchards over financial losses - BBC News", "Ukraine war: King says Ukraine has 'suffered unimaginably' - BBC News", "New Zealand vs England: Harry Brook hits sublime 184 to put tourists in control - BBC Sport", "Damages for Warwick student denied extension due to cancer - BBC News", "Fruit and vegetable shortage could last until May, say growers - BBC News", "Councils pay offer: Workers on lowest salaries offered 9% rise - BBC News", "Police Scotland chief constable to retire in summer - BBC News", "Weinstein begs for mercy as he is sentenced for another rape - BBC News", "Ukraine vigil: Helen Mirren tears up reciting poem in London - BBC News", "Zara Aleena murder: Raab seeks to force convicts to appear at sentencing - BBC News", "Armed forces children: Missing mum and dad - BBC News", "How the Ukraine war is creating family rifts in Russia - BBC News", "TSSA rail union accepts pay offer from train companies - BBC News", "Ash Regan, Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf will fight SNP leadership contest - BBC News", "Caerphilly cheese production returns to home town - BBC News", "Eat turnips during vegetable shortage, suggests Therese Coffey - BBC News", "Rod Stewart pays for scans at NHS hospital to cut waiting lists - BBC News", "Rabbani brothers leave Guantanamo Bay without charge after almost 20 years - BBC News", "Ukraine weapons: What tanks and other equipment are countries giving? - BBC News", "Omagh police shooting: Disturbing echoes of past in John Caldwell attack - BBC News", "Los Angeles sees first blizzard warning since 1989 - BBC News", "Omagh police attack: John Caldwell 'has suffered life-changing injuries' - BBC News", "Merseyside schoolgirls 'humiliated' by staff skirt inspections - BBC News", "Pasta price doubles to 95p as cost of basics rises - BBC News", "War in Ukraine | Latest News & Updates | BBC News", "China and the Ukraine war: The real reason for Beijing's charm offensive - BBC News", "Bernard Ingham: Margaret Thatcher's press chief dies aged 90 - BBC News", "Eurovision 2023: Government pledges £10m towards Liverpool song contest - BBC News", "Rihanna to perform Lift Me Up at the Oscars - BBC News", "Junior doctors to strike in England on 13 to 15 March - BBC News", "Dark skies: Venus, Jupiter and the Moon pictured across Wales - BBC News", "The secret cinema hidden in an Edinburgh basement flat - BBC News", "Timeline of dissident republican activity - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Young refugees reflect on their lives in London - BBC News", "Ukraine war: UN chief condemns invasion ahead of anniversary - BBC News", "Keir Starmer unveils Labour's five missions for the country - BBC News", "How Putin's fate is tied to Russia's war in Ukraine - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky wants Xi Jinping meeting following China's peace plan - BBC News", "UK phone repair apprenticeship needed, says firm - BBC News", "Reading rugby player wins compensation over revenge tackle - BBC News", "Ukraine war: The friends who fought Russia's invasion - BBC News", "Omagh police shooting: Updates and reaction as it happened - BBC News", "Protocol: Hopes raised for Brexit deal on Northern Ireland - BBC News", "Roald Dahl: Original books to be kept in print following criticism - BBC News", "Omagh police shooting: Town shocked by attack on John Caldwell - BBC News", "Watch: Zelensky on Ukraine's 'year of invincibility' - BBC News", "Culcheth murder inquiry started after girl stabbed in park - BBC News", "No tents, no aid, nothing: Why Syrians feel forgotten - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake failures leave Erdogan looking vulnerable - BBC News", "Brit Awards 2023: Harry Styles steals the show with four wins - BBC News", "Asylum protests: Teen charged over Knowsley disorder - BBC News", "Kettering supermarket worker's song hits 10m views on TikTok - BBC News", "Cyclone Gabrielle: Thousands left without power in New Zealand - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquake death toll passes 28,000 as rescue hopes dwindle - BBC News", "Raheem Bailey: Mum criticises police for dropping bullying investigation - BBC News", "New Zealand braces for severe storm Gabrielle after record floods - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russians slowly take ground around Bakhmut - BBC News", "Disabled woman made 1,000 calls for Ed Sheeran tickets - BBC News", "England 31-14 Italy: Pragmatic hosts claim first win under Steve Borthwick - BBC Sport", "Wrexham: Will Ferrell spotted having pre-match pint in pub - BBC News", "Knowsley: Fifteen arrests over clash outside asylum seeker hotel - BBC News", "Richard Sharp: BBC chairman made errors on Johnson loan, MPs say - BBC News", "Brit Awards 2023: The eclectic outfits turning heads on the red carpet - BBC News", "Laura Kuenssberg: Jets to Ukraine decision 'not easy' says Poland - BBC News", "Pregnant Russian women flying to Argentina for citizenship, officials say - BBC News", "Inside Syria: BBC sees children dig through rubble - BBC News", "Syria: Rescuers search for earthquake survivors in Harem - BBC News", "Skateboarding World Championships: Britain's Sky Brown wins park gold - BBC Sport", "Convicted Essex drug gang boss arrested in Thailand - BBC News", "Nathan Jones: Southampton sack manager after just three months in charge - BBC Sport", "Bournemouth 1-1 Newcastle United: Visitors match club record unbeaten run in the league - BBC Sport", "Man City 3-1 Aston Villa: Three first-half goals give defending champions one-sided win - BBC Sport", "Russian soldier death rate highest since first week of war - Ukraine - BBC News", "Tiny creature unlocks life before the ice age - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Yellow ribbons left near where mother last seen - BBC News", "AKA shot dead: Top South African rapper killed with friend - BBC News", "BBC chairman's position 'increasingly untenable' - Nandy - BBC News", "Police seek Stoke-on-Trent murder suspect after house fire - BBC News", "Richard Sharp: Pressure grows on BBC chairman after critical report - BBC News", "Mystery surrounds objects shot down by US military - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake rescue continues almost 150 hours on: 'You are a miracle' - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquake: UK aid is reaching Syria, minister says - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake rescue: How two sisters were saved from the rubble - BBC News", "Six Nations 2023: Scotland 35-7 Wales - Townsend's men earn bonus point - BBC Sport", "Brianna Ghey: Boy and girl arrested over Warrington park killing - BBC News", "Chuck Schumer: Two more flying objects shot down were likely balloons - BBC News", "Nurses strike: A&E and cancer staff could join further walkouts - BBC News", "WhatsOnStage Awards: Jodie Comer and Lucie Jones among winners - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: 113 arrest warrants connected to building construction - BBC News", "Renee MacRae: Killer dies months after conviction for 1976 murders - BBC News", "NHS Wales: Patient in hospital for weeks due to social care backlog - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley family wants end to public speculation - BBC News", "Stormont energy efficiency schemes for homes and businesses delayed - BBC News", "Who will replace Nicola Sturgeon as next SNP leader? - BBC News", "Hostile-state threat probes grown fourfold - police - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon resigns: SNP to announce new leader on 27 March as Swinney rules himself out - BBC News", "German ballet director who smeared critic with faeces sacked - BBC News", "Good Friday Agreement: How Blair and Ahern brought new focus - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Mother a high-risk missing person, police say - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky rules out territory deal with Putin in BBC interview - BBC News", "Turkey-Syria earthquakes: Yemeni mother gives birth after being pulled from rubble - BBC News", "What is Nicola Sturgeon's report card? - BBC News", "Vivienne Westwood: Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham attend memorial service - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon: Winner who fell short of ultimate prize - BBC News", "Six times Nicola Sturgeon spoke her mind - BBC News", "Otter kills young beavers released at Loch Lomond - BBC News", "Syria earthquake: Aleppo hospitals overwhelmed by victims - BBC News", "Keir Starmer meets Ukraine's President Zelensky in Kyiv - BBC News", "Ohio train derailment: Rail firm pulls out of meeting with residents - BBC News", "Banksy Margate Valentine's Day artwork piece removed again - BBC News", "Newport: Heating and hot water restored to homes in Duffryn - BBC News", "Brianna Ghey family overwhelmed by support, police say - BBC News", "Ambulance waits putting disabled children's lives at risk, doctors warn - BBC News", "Thai cave rescue: Duangpetch Promthep's death shatters happiest of endings - BBC News", "Oscars 2023: Andrea Riseborough 'deeply impacted' by nomination row - BBC News", "Barcelona 2-2 Manchester United: Marcus Rashford and Raphinha on target in play-off thriller - BBC Sport", "Nicola Sturgeon resignation: Where does it leave the future of the UK? - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Home secretary asks police to explain health disclosures - BBC News", "Biden says three objects likely not Chinese spy balloons - BBC News", "Lucy Letby: Murder-accused nurse breaks down at trial - BBC News", "Clare Drakeford: Funeral held for wife of Wales' FM - BBC News", "Strikes Update: How Friday 17 February’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Too early to discuss bonus, says British Gas boss - BBC News", "Epsom College deaths: Family tribute to head teacher and daughter - BBC News", "Two pedestrians and motorcyclist die on NI roads - BBC News", "CCTV: Welsh police and government turn off Chinese Hikvision cameras - BBC News", "John Swinney rules himself out of SNP leadership race - BBC News", "Energy firms told to stop force-fitting prepayment meters - BBC News", "Jeremy Corbyn: Starmer move flagrant attack on democracy - BBC News", "KitKat maker Nestle to raise prices again - BBC News", "Princess Diana's letters sell for £145,550 at Cornwall auction - BBC News", "Harry Potter coin collection: Dumbledore 50p first to feature King's portrait - BBC News", "Will falling gas prices mean lower bills? - BBC News", "Bruce Willis has dementia, his family announces - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Inside a prisoner of war camp for Russians - BBC News", "Aldi to recruit 6,000 new staff across the UK - BBC News", "Home Office accepts court defeat on EU citizens scheme - BBC News", "Raquel Welch: US actress and model dies at 82 - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Missing mother had alcohol issues, police say - BBC News", "Brianna Ghey: Vigils held in UK and Ireland for schoolgirl - BBC News", "Brothers wore old men masks in armed Epping jewellery shop raid - BBC News", "What is Nicola Sturgeon's political legacy? - BBC News", "McDonald's puts up prices on five menu items - BBC News", "Nurses to stage 48-hour strike as dispute escalates - BBC News", "Antarctica's Thwaites glacier at mercy of sea warmth increase - BBC News", "Joe Biden says he makes no apologies for downing China balloon - BBC News", "Watch: Anger erupts at Ohio train crash town meeting - BBC News", "Arsenal 1-3 Manchester City: Pep Guardiola's side go top with victory at Emirates - BBC Sport", "Burnley fake psychiatrist committed wicked deception, judge says - BBC News", "Some ambulance callers to be told go elsewhere - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon: Search begins to find successor - BBC News", "BBC India: Search of offices in New Delhi and Mumbai ends after three days - BBC News", "Buffalo shooting: Relative lunges at gunman before sentencing - BBC News", "Thai cave rescue: Duangphet Phromthep, Wild Boars captain, dies in UK - BBC News", "Little evidence to support health claims made on formula milk - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon says time is right to resign as Scotland's first minister - BBC News", "NI strikes: Unite ambulance walkout to coincide with teacher action - BBC News", "Crystal Palace letter arrives more than 100 years late - BBC News", "Olaplex products cause hair loss, lawsuit claims - BBC News", "Calls for SNP to delay independence summit after Sturgeon resignation - BBC News", "SNP to announce new leader within six weeks - BBC News", "Fighter jets for Ukraine: The challenges of giving warplanes to Kyiv - BBC News", "Rail workers to stage more strikes in pay dispute - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Deadly new tremor traps people under rubble - BBC News", "Boris Johnson NI intervention not entirely unhelpful, says Mordaunt - BBC News", "Dickie Davies, host of ITV's World of Sport for nearly two decades, dies - BBC News", "Emma Bridgewater coronation ware sees history continue - BBC News", "Twitter to charge users for text-message authentication - BBC News", "Nigerian street trader gives evidence at organ donation plot trial - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Missing woman's partner says family in 'agony' after body found - BBC News", "Justin Welby rejected as leader by conservative Anglicans over same-sex blessings - BBC News", "Footballer Christian Atsu's body returned to Ghana - BBC News", "British Medical Association calls government reckless over pay talks - BBC News", "Plymouth shooting: Families say warning signs were ignored - BBC News", "Dan Walker: TV presenter injured in bicycle crash - BBC News", "Bafta Awards face backlash over all-white winners - BBC News", "Alec Baldwin firearm enhancement in manslaughter charge downgraded - BBC News", "Aberhosan: Farmer dies and son seriously injured in accident - BBC News", "Spain to extradite British suspect to US over Twitter hack - BBC News", "Instagram and Facebook to get paid-for verification - BBC News", "Ukraine war latest: Zelensky hails 'historic' day as Biden makes surprise visit to Kyiv - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Police confirm body found in river is missing dog walker - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley family wants end to public speculation - BBC News", "Turkey earthquake: Rescue effort ends in all but two areas - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley family statement in full - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Liz Truss joins Johnson in calling for transfer of fighter jets - BBC News", "Japan aims to raise age of consent from 13 to 16 in sex crime overhaul - 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BBC News", "Biden visits Zelensky in Kyiv and says Putin 'dead wrong' on Ukraine war - BBC News", "Racism in police killings not being properly examined - report - BBC News", "Junior doctors vote for strikes in England over NHS pay - BBC News", "Overcrowded specialist schools: ‘We’re teaching in cupboards’ - BBC News", "Cost of living: Falling energy bills may prompt more customer deals - BBC News", "Exeter: Man held over murder of woman in Ludwell Valley Park - BBC News", "True cost of our tea: Sexual abuse on Kenyan tea farms revealed - BBC News", "Cambodia: Stolen Angkorian crown jewellery resurfaces in London - BBC News", "UK supermarkets face tomato shortages - BBC News", "Implant gives hand control nine years after stroke - BBC News", "Domestic abuse: Most dangerous offenders to go on sex offenders' register - BBC News", "Bus cuts: How a city's bus service was quietly cut in half - BBC News", "São Paulo: Dozens killed as deadly storms hit Brazilian coast - BBC News", "Free school meals: London's mayor launches £130m scheme for primary pupils - BBC News", "Strikes update: How Monday 20 February’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Blinken says China might give weapons to Russia - BBC News", "Home asking prices see smallest February rise in 22 years - BBC News", "SNP leadership: Kate Forbes would not have backed gender bill - BBC News", "Omagh bombing: Inquiry stirs memories of day lives changed forever - BBC News", "Shell reports highest profits in 115 years - BBC News", "Milton Keynes: Candlelit vigil held for girl killed in dog attack - BBC News", "Biden FBI search: No classified documents found at president's beach house, lawyer says - BBC News", "Formal bid made for Flow Country Unesco status - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak under pressure over what he knew about claims against Dominic Raab - BBC News", "Omagh bombing: Timeline of families' search for justice - BBC News", "ULEZ expansion: London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Martin Lewis clash - BBC News", "Eurovision: Liverpool stage inspired by a wide hug, BBC says - BBC News", "Bring back duty-free perk to boost London - mayor - BBC News", "George Pell: Mourners and protesters clash at cardinal's Sydney funeral - BBC News", "Five Canadian Mounties charged over indigenous man's death - BBC News", "Will the wave of strikes ever end? - BBC News", "Nikki Haley poised to enter 2024 presidential race - BBC News", "Row erupts over Jim Baxter's '67 Wembley Scotland shirt - BBC News", "Omagh bomb inquiry 'a significant decision', says NI secretary - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak says he'll release tax return soon in Piers Morgan interview - BBC News", "Chinese spy balloon: US tracks suspected surveillance device - BBC News", "Welsh rugby: Politicians knew about WRU sexism claims - MP - BBC News", "Man jailed for ramming car into Met Police motorcyclist - BBC News", "Kim Johnson: Labour MP apologises for calling Israeli government 'fascist' - BBC News", "Apple sales in biggest fall since 2019 - BBC News", "Green comet captured from back garden - BBC News", "Strikes Update: How Wednesday 1 February’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Road workers knock down Josiah Wedgwood sculpture by mistake - BBC News", "Water bills to increase by most in almost 20 years from April - BBC News", "Children's care system plan focuses on early support - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russia planning 24 February offensive, Ukrainian defence minister says - BBC News", "Ukraine war: 80 years on, we are facing German tanks again - Putin - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Missing dog walker's parents speak of their dread - BBC News", "Bird flu 'spills over' to otters and foxes in UK - BBC News", "Killer Andrew Innes tells of rage during Dundee hammer attack - BBC News", "Brecon Beacons: Holiday couple drowned at waterfall - inquest - BBC News", "Natalie McNally: Stephen McCullagh charged with murder of pregnant woman - BBC News", "Mason Greenwood attempted rape charges dropped - BBC News", "What are interest rates? A quick guide - BBC News", "Royal Mail workers to strike again on 16 February - BBC News", "Man not guilty of murdering banker outside The Ivy - BBC News", "Omagh bombing: Government expected to confirm decision on public inquiry - BBC News", "Energy firms told to stop force-fitting prepayment meters - BBC News", "Pakistan mosque blast: Bomber used police uniform as disguise, official says - BBC News", "A father 'gone too soon': Tyre Nichols funeral held in Memphis - BBC News", "Folic acid in flour to prevent birth defects is too low, scientists say - BBC News", "Nicola Bulley: Missing mum's family 'stuck in a nightmare' - BBC News", "Horses and dogs sailed with Vikings to Britain, say scientists - BBC News", "Awaab Ishak: Thousands of homes found with damp and mould - BBC News", "Lucy Letby: Nurse sent card to grieving parents, jury told - BBC News", "Ashley Dale: Two men in court over fatal back garden shooting - BBC News", "Nicola Sturgeon: Rapist Isla Bryson 'almost certainly' faking trans status - BBC News", "Most schools in England affected by strikes - BBC News", "Argentina unveils new 2,000-peso banknote as inflation bites - BBC News", "Russian army officer admits: 'Our troops tortured Ukrainians' - BBC News", "Arnold Clark customer data 'stolen in cyber attack' - BBC News", "Merthyr Tydfil explosion: Two teens hurt, three in hospital - BBC News", "Scotland's ancient Caledonian pinewoods could vanish - study - BBC News", "Log burner rule change in England could land users with £300 fines - BBC News", "Strikes Update: How Friday 3 February’s strike will affect you - BBC News", "Why ballroom dancing thrives in Asian communities - BBC News", "Brexit: EU funding loss risks Welsh university jobs - BBC News", "Eddie Butler: Hundreds gather to pay tribute at memorial - BBC News", "Bank of England raises interest rates to 4% - BBC News", "Omagh: NI secretary needs more time over inquiry call - BBC News", "Italian fugitive Edgardo Greco tracked down as pizza maker after 16 years - BBC News", "Manchester United 2-0 Nottingham Forest (5-0 on agg): United to play Newcastle in Carabao Cup final - BBC Sport"], "published_date": ["2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-21", "2023-02-03", "2023-02-03", "2023-02-03", 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"description": ["The Household Support Fund goes to local authorities in England to help those struggling the most.", "The US president is expected to try and shore up support for Kyiv during his speech in Poland later.", "At least six people die in new tremors, weeks after massive quakes devastated the same region.", "Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the proposals would help people affected by the cost of living crisis.", "Joyce Cox was abducted on her way home in 1939 but her killer has never been caught.", "Current and former Met Police officers admit sharing offensive content in a WhatsApp group.", "Cornelius Price, 41, died while facing charges over a kidnap and blackmail plot.", "First came Hollywood, now Wrexham will host the home of the national football museum of Wales.", "Elon Musk said Twitter was being \"scammed\" by phone companies over fake authentication-text costs", "10 Archbishops criticise Justin Welby over the Church of England backing blessings for same-sex couples.", "The figures come ahead of next month's Budget where the government will detail its tax and spending plans.", "Families of four of the victims say \"warning signs were ignored and a licence to kill was granted\".", "A court rules in favour of a couple who were denied health insurance, saying that was discrimination.", "The former BBC Breakfast host says he is \"glad to be alive\" after being in a collision with a car.", "Constance Marten, her partner and their baby could be \"absolutely anywhere in the UK\", police say.", "The prestigious film ceremony had a diverse set of nominees, but that did not translate into wins.", "New Mexico prosecutors drop firearm enhancement charges, lowering a potential prison sentence.", "Nurses, teachers and police officers would get below inflation rises, under government proposals.", "Royal Mail says it is now processing \"close to normal daily volumes\" of international mail.", "The botched order was for commuter trains due to operate in two mountainous northern regions.", "Ex-minister Jacob Rees-Mogg accuses Rishi Sunak of failing to get support from DUP and Tory MPs.", "Health Secretary Steve Barclay will meet Royal College of Nursing bosses for talks over pay.", "The ex-PM puts pressure on Rishi Sunak as she urges the UK to \"do all we can\" to support Ukraine.", "In a statement, the family of Nicola Bulley say she is \"no longer a missing person\".", "The current age of consent is the third lowest worldwide and has remained unchanged since 1907.", "A trial involving nearly 3,000 workers has found working shorter hours makes staff happier and healthier.", "The regulator says people should be compensated now if homes were wrongfully fitted with a prepayment meter.", "Properties have been snapped up in a village which is also home to Wales' most expensive street.", "Home Office minister Chris Philp commits to making \"any further changes needed\" to licensing.", "Maggie Rogers thinks it's down to people being away from crowds for so long because of Covid.", "George Santos tells Piers Morgan his embellishments were not about \"tricking the people\".", "Scotland Editor James Cook sits down with SNP leadership frontrunners, Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes.", "There had been talk an announcement could come on Tuesday, say Chris Mason and Jessica Parker.", "The mountain rescue team said the operation, using a dry ski slope outside Edinburgh, was \"unique\".", "The TV presenter says cyclists should wear a helmet after he was hit by a car in Sheffield.", "It means customers paying £25 a month for a subscription will have fewer drinks to choose from.", "Our North America editor on how Joe Biden's audacious trip to Kyiv was kept a secret.", "Lancashire Police's Peter Lawson confirms a body found in the River Wyre is Nicola Bulley.", "The mother-of-two's body was discovered about a mile away from where she was last seen.", "The SNP leadership candidate says she has \"significant concerns\" about the issue of self-identification.", "The US president meets Ukraine's leader during the surprise trip and reaffirms his support.", "British Medical Association planning 72-hour walkout as early as mid-March in fight for more pay.", "Supermarkets face shortages of some fresh produce, but Tesco and others are not limiting sales.", "Real Madrid come from 2-0 down to thrash Liverpool 5-2 in Champions League last-16 first leg", "The 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey at 20:04 local time on Monday.", "The newborn girl is adopted by her aunt and uncle who name her after her late mother, Afraa.", "Harvests in Europe and Africa have been disrupted by bad weather, a retail body says.", "Genaro García Luna, a key drugs war figure, is found guilty of taking bribes from a drug cartel.", "Speaking in Poland, Biden says \"Kyiv is standing strong\" nearly a year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.", "Wales head coach Warren Gatland is confident the under-threat Six Nations match against England on Saturday in Cardiff will go ahead.", "The BBC speaks to about a dozen parents with concerns after children died or became seriously ill.", "Parliament orders an inquiry after dozens of women speak of abuse on British-operated tea farms.", "Lady Leshurr, who's waiting to go on trial accused of attacking her ex, is also being replaced.", "The broadcasting regulator writes to ITV and Sky News \"to ask them to explain their actions\".", "The pilot managed to safely land after his colleague suffered a cardiac arrest, investigators said.", "India Willoughby and Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu received letters claiming to be from National Action.", "As inquiry into the Omagh bombing is announced, people recall a day that cannot be forgotten.", "It is believed the incident was caused by the wrong chemical being added to drinking water.", "The fresh aid worth $2.2bn (£1.83bn) includes rockets capable of striking parts of occupied Crimea.", "Detectives say they are not treating the disappearance of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley as suspicious.", "Jaswant Singh Chail was caught with a loaded crossbow at Windsor Castle on Christmas Day 2021.", "Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley disappeared a week ago while on a riverside walk with her dog.", "William Finlay, 67, will go on trial for the murder of Alyson Nelson at her home in Whitehead.", "BBC News NI looks at the legal twists the victims' families have faced over the Real IRA bombing.", "London's mayor challenged the consumer finance expert at a cost-of-living debate - as tempers rose.", "The stage in Liverpool is intended to give the impression of the contest \"opening its arms to Ukraine\".", "The US secretary of state abruptly cancels a trip to Beijing over the \"violation of our sovereignty\".", "Brain scans show it can improve sexual desire, but larger studies are needed to confirm the findings.", "Robin Cantrill-Fenwick says courts are \"rubber stamping\" warrants that allow energy firms into homes.", "The Tesla boss is cleared of fraud charges over a tweet about taking the carmaker back into private ownership.", "Jaswant Singh Chail, from Southampton, was found in the castle grounds on Christmas Day, police say.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 27 January and 3 February.", "The jury in the trial of a mother accused of murdering her baby is shown video of rescue attempts.", ".", "The PM says he'll be \"transparent\" in a wide-ranging interview to mark his 100th day in office.", "Officials decided against shooting it down due to the danger of falling debris from the \"sizeable\" device.", "The firm's UK mobile head says the decision is down to parental choice and safe internet browsing is paramount.", "The decline came as people cut back in the face of higher living costs, said Apple's boss.", "The PM was asked about the case of double rapist Isla Bryson during an interview with Piers Morgan.", "He likens Russia's invasion of Ukraine to the fight against Nazi Germany, 80 years after Stalingrad.", "Chase Doak filmed the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon from his driveway in Billings, Montana", "The almost 31-year-old Portuguese pooch narrowly escaped death as a puppy.", "The alleged victim claims Andrew Tate forced workers to raise €10,000 a month on social media platforms.", "China says a suspected spy balloon is actually a wayward \"civilian airship\" used for weather monitoring.", "Poland sports minister Kamil Bortniczuk says up to 40 countries could boycott the 2024 Olympics in Paris, making the Games \"pointless\".", "A livestream of Stephen McCullagh playing games at the time of death was pre-recorded, a court hears.", "The footage appears to show a person holding a crossbow saying they wanted to assassinate the Queen.", "The Manchester United footballer says he is \"relieved\" after charges were discontinued by prosecutors.", "President Joe Biden is trying to woo South East Asia away from its formidable neighbour.", "Autistic people are statistically less likely to be employed, compared to other disabled people.", "During a visit, EU chiefs praise Kyiv for its reforms and pledge to continue supporting the country.", "Families of those killed in the worst atrocity of the Troubles await NI secretary's inquiry decision.", "Paul Mason was punched to the ground by a man who claimed the bank executive had stolen a phone.", "Nurses, ambulance staff, midwives and physios are weighing up an extra 3% pay offer by ministers.", "British Gas has been heavily criticised for practices around installing prepayment meters.", "A crossbow was found on the man after he was stopped on Christmas Day, police say.", "Experts say the use of the inflatable could be intended to send a message to Washington.", "A forensic psychiatrist says he does not believe a mental illness drove Andrew Innes to kill Bennylyn and Jellica Burke.", "The stock index closes at a high as global inflation and interest rate fears ease.", "The US said its pilot had to evade the jet to avoid colliding in international airspace over the South China Sea.", "The cold on Mount Washington in New Hampshire on Friday was producing a wind chill of -108F (-77C).", "Nicola Bulley's sister says \"people don't just vanish into thin air\" as efforts to find her continue.", "Paco Rabanne, best known for his perfumes and fashion designs, dies at his home in France.", "The 30-year-old singer scores their third number one album, thanking fans for supporting them.", "Dog sled teams have competed in the annual marathon race over 300 miles in northern Minnesota.", "Nicola Sturgeon was responding to a claim by a victim of Isla Bryson that she was not \"truly transgender\".", "Twelve months after the DUP withdrew from power-sharing, has its anti-protocol plan worked?", "The singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was jailed in 2015 for sexually abusing three schoolgirls.", "The new 2,000-peso note comes after the country's annual inflation rate soared to 95% last year.", "UK Athletics wants a change in legislation to ensure the women's category is lawfully reserved for competitors who are recorded female at birth.", "Lyne Barlow left more than 1,400 people out of pocket or stranded abroad by incomplete bookings.", "The BBC watches engineers and technicians as they race to repair damage across the country.", "The Australian tennis star avoids a criminal conviction over the incident in Canberra in 2021.", "Sefton Council and a local MP opposed converting the resort into asylum accommodation.", "The Microsoft co-founder also believes artificial intelligence will \"dramatically\" transform humanity.", "With train drivers in England on strike and teachers walking out in Scotland, what do you need to know?", "Three more ex-Yorkshire players withdraw from the ECB disciplinary process into historical racism allegations at the club made by Azeem Rafiq.", "A senior councillor is accused of setting up a potentially trackable online voting system.", "The shirt said to be Jim Baxter's from the legendary 1967 Scotland victory now has \"question marks\".", "Edgardo Greco was wanted for the grisly murder of two brothers in Italy in 1991.", "It opened as Howells in 1867, and the Grade II-listed building will now be redeveloped.", "Multiple orders of chili fries, shrimp and pizza later, Mason's dad notices the delivery cars pulling up.", "There was an 8% rise in the cost of cover in the last three months of 2022, figures show.", "One former senior manager tells the BBC the treatment of workers by Elon Musk was \"unjustifiable\".", "Two young people with lupus say why Selena speaking about the condition is so important to them.", "The Home Office is searching for alternatives to housing asylum seekers in hotels, to cut costs.", "Royal College of Nursing to take action from 1 to 3 March in England in biggest walkout of dispute.", "The information commissioner will ask the Lancashire force why it disclosed personal information.", "Ukraine wants Western jets to help fight Russia, but using them effectively could be difficult.", "The president says he will speak with China's Xi Jinping soon \"to get to the bottom of this\".", "Many are making the trip to border crossings to reunite with their families in Syria.", "The deputy first minister says he has to do what is right for his family, the party and the country.", "Multiple sources are reporting a \"flurry of activity\" around the talks between the UK and the EU.", "Hospitals in England report patients slipping on sewage, staff becoming ill and leaks on wards.", "The Infowars host has nearly $10m in assets, and his outgoings include childcare, alimony and home upkeep.", "The protocol has been challenged by unionists, who say it breaches the Acts of Union and NI Act.", "King Charles also met with global leaders on Friday at Buckingham Palace to discuss biodiversity.", "The letter says officers are accused of sharing \"derogatory images\" of the celebrity's disabled son.", "David Smith, 58, was caught in a sting operation by fake Russian agents after collecting secret information.", "The firm joins a slew of other companies that are tightening remote work rules.", "Concerns were raised at the flats in Gaziantep, where 136 people died last week - the BBC has found.", "Rachael Moore, 22, died when she was hit by a Merseyside Police car while walking home in Liverpool.", "The party is setting out plans to tackle anti-social behaviour if it wins the next general election.", "More than 2,300 flights, affecting 300,000 passengers, have been cancelled across Germany.", "Newport City Homes says customers will get a £20 payment for each day they were without services.", "Police faced a backlash for revealing personal details of missing Nicola Bulley's struggles.", "The first named storm of the year leaves thousands of homes without power and dozens of schools closed.", "He was diagnosed with aphasia in spring last year, but the condition has progressed.", "The BBC's Tom Symonds explains what David Smith did, and how he was stopped.", "A judge confirms the five defendants are pleading not guilty to charges including murder and assault.", "Residents of this close-knit community fear the railroad disaster has changed their lives forever.", "Rishi Sunak told broadcasters he was \"pleased the police are looking at how that happened\".", "Four people have been arrested in what is believed to be the deadliest incident involving migrants in Bulgaria.", "The allegations come after searches at BBC offices and amid a row over a film critical of India's PM.", "The High Court heard Karnail Singh left nothing to Harbans Kaur, his wife of 66 years.", "A Vogue internal memo reveals the pair have settled over a fake magazine cover promoting Her Loss.", "But the French energy firm made huge losses as a whole due to problems with its nuclear reactors.", "Qatar's Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos make bids to buy Manchester United.", "Elon Musk's electric car maker said it had laid off 27 staff in New York state for \"poor performance\".", "The comments were made as seven Just Stop Oil members were sentenced for targeting a fuel terminal.", "Ukraine's leader speaks to John Simpson before the anniversary of Russia's invasion on 24 February.", "Faten Al Yousifi, 39 weeks pregnant, had a birth bag ready to go when the earthquake struck.", "The online estate agent launches a strategic review as it expects to lose up to £20m this year.", "Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham were among those paying tribute to the late fashion designer.", "The government support comes after warnings hundreds of services could be cut if funding ended.", "New Zealand's PM says Cyclone Gabrielle was biggest disaster this century as death toll likely to rise.", "The X-Men star said the move would be \"natural\", but he still had respect for the UK's Royal Family.", "Post-Christmas price cuts gave a boost to retailers last month, despite the cost-of-living crisis.", "Erik ten Hag praises Manchester United's \"character\" after a thrilling first-leg draw at Barcelona leaves their Europa League play-off tie finely poised.", "Security guard David Smith pleaded guilty to passing on details of the embassy and its staff for cash.", "The long-serving Google employee is one of the highest-profile females in Silicon Valley.", "A source says the home secretary wants to know why police released Nicola Bulley's health details.", "Joseph Watts kicked Aaron Ramsdale in the back following the north London derby in January.", "The union said it had made \"significant progress\" across multiple issues during talks with employers.", "Despite never having been to Ireland, the North Carolina man spoke with a \"brogue\" until his death, say researchers.", "Hospitals in Wales \"didn't want to know\" about the needs of disabled staff, says Dr Georgie Budd.", "Thousands of people lined the streets of Edinburgh ahead of Barry Martin's funeral at St Giles’ Cathedral.", "The two kits were part of a family of beavers moved from an area of Tayside.", "What you need to know about Border Force and ambulance workers' strikes.", "Senior politicians gathered in Cardiff for the funeral of Clare Drakeford on Thursday.", "The murder-accused nurse abruptly leaves her seat as a doctor begins to give evidence.", "The rail franchise pulled far more trains than any other operator, figures released by the regulator show.", "The RMT union announces a series of new strikes in March and April.", "You will have to live in Wales to stand in Welsh Parliament elections, under government plans.", "Video shows Miray being rescued from under an apartment building a week after a huge earthquake.", "It's not just Doctor Who and Gavin and Stacey, BBC has been at Wales' major moments since 1923.", "David Jolicoeur went by the name Trugoy the Dove and was notably absent from last week's Grammy's.", "The BBC's security correspondent explains why the US is downing multiple unidentified flying objects.", "The former international development secretary lost his seat to the SNP's Mhairi Black in 2015.", "Aras, aged five, lost his two siblings and his father when the quake hit Turkey's city of Kahramanmaras.", "A video seemingly showed a sledgehammer being used to kill an alleged Russian defector - but it may be fake.", "Unions have said a new deal needs to be \"significantly\" improved to avoid further strike action", "Brianna Ghey, 16, who was stabbed to death in a park is described as \"fearless and one of a kind\".", "The DUP says it will again block the election of a Speaker when assembly members meet on Tuesday.", "Dr Gabriel Scally says there is no excuse for Northern Ireland to \"lag behind\" in the use of HPV tests.", "The powerful storm for days pummelled the country's North Island, leaving at least three people dead.", "Camilla is said to have cold symptoms but is described as keeping in \"good spirits\".", "The singer surprised fans as she delivered a hit-heavy performance at the half-time show.", "Questions remain over what the three objects shot down over North America this weekend were.", "People spotted the 1m space rock streaking across the sky in the early hours of Monday morning.", "Experts say the use of the inflatable could be intended to send a message to Washington.", "Authorities issue warnings of heavy rain and winds, as hundreds of flights are cancelled.", "Czech Republic international midfielder Jakub Jankto says he \"no longer wants to hide\" as he publicly comes out as gay.", "Mae Stephens wrote her kiss-off to an ex while working shifts in a supermarket.", "Wayne Couzens exposed himself shortly before he abducted, raped and killed Sarah Everard in 2021.", "Rishi Sunak said he would not \"pre-judge\" an investigation into Richard Sharp's ties with Boris Johnson.", "Officers say they helped \"save Easter\" by tracking down the chocolate valued at about £40,000.", "In Bakhmut, Orla Guerin speaks to Ukrainian defenders doggedly holding off fierce Russian attacks.", "England claim a first win of Steve Borthwick's tenure with a pragmatic bonus-point win over Italy in the Six Nations at Twickenham.", "The Kansas City Chiefs become NFL champions for the second time in four years after fighting back to claim a thrilling 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.", "Matthew Thomas was described by his family as \"happy\" and \"kind\".", "CCTV from inside a hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey shows the neonatal unit in the minutes after the deadly earthquake.", "Experts believe contents from the wreckage are the key to uncovering its purpose and capabilities.", "A review finds Europe's football body bore \"primary responsibility\" for last year's chaotic scenes.", "Abellio London workers have been holding a series of strikes over recent months.", "Necla Camuz was trapped under rubble with her newborn son for almost four days - and then she heard dogs barking in the distance.", "Footage shows collapsed buildings and makeshift camps in the rebel-held town of Harem in Idlib.", "Quentin Sommerville is in the town of Harem in Idlib, where around 700 houses were destroyed.", "But Conservatives say Labour's analysis of spending by government departments is a \"political stunt\".", "Ashley Dale, 28, was found with a gunshot wound in a back garden in Liverpool on 21 August.", "UN aid chief Martin Griffiths says the emphasis is now switching from rescue efforts to caring for survivors.", "The period drama has been been a firm favourite for BBC viewers since it first aired in 2012.", "Killing Eve star Jodie Comer was named best performer for her role in sexual assault drama Prima Facie.", "Darvel could not repeat their Scottish Cup heroics as Falkirk defeated their sixth-tier hosts to book a place in the quarter-finals against Ayr.", "The award-winning director was apparently furious about a recent review that panned his show.", "\"We need you home\" reads one message left on a bridge, as search for missing mother continues.", "A new travel warning urges US citizens to leave the country immediately or face conscription.", "It is still not clear what three objects downed over the weekend were, but officials say they threatened commercial flights.", "A spate of high-altitude objects have been shot down in North American airspace in recent days.", "Television presenter Caroline Flack took her own life at the age of 40 in February 2020.", "Eight journalists could be evacuated to the UK after ministers were ordered to reconsider their case.", "Necla Camuz was trapped under rubble with her newborn son for almost four days - and then she heard dogs barking in the distance.", "Richard Sharp's position is \"extremely difficult\" following MPs' report, says SNP's John Nicolson.", "A seven-month-old baby and 12-year-old girl are among those pulled from the rubble.", "\"We've received nothing but God's mercy,\" one earthquake survivor tells Quentin Sommerville.", "The two 15-year-olds are being held on suspicion of murdering the 16-year-old girl in Warrington.", "Workers at a Coventry distribution centre in January became the first UK Amazon employees to strike.", "\"It's not uncommon for the US to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,\" says a spokesman.", "Eoin Morgan, who captained England to World Cup glory in 2019, announces his retirement from all forms of cricket.", "Critics call for higher taxes on energy firms as Shell reports a record $39.9bn of profit.", "Quake-prone Mexico has expert teams of humans and canines specialised in searching through rubble.", "More than 11,200 people have died in the earthquake which struck near Gaziantep, Turkey on Monday.", "Photos from Turkey and Syria show collapsed buildings and devastation across the region.", "The 12-year-old died four months after he was found unconscious at the family home in Southend.", "A child is pulled from the rubble after a deadly earthquake shakes Syria and Turkey.", "The transport secretary set out how tickets can be simpler for passengers in a speech on Tuesday.", "A building collapses causing a reporter and his team to run in panic in Malatya, Turkey.", "A range of charities are trying to help with things such as medical aid, shelter and food.", "The sheer scale of devastation can be seen in social media posts - verified by the BBC.", "The bosses of Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC and Barclays said deals had improved as savers shopped around.", "Richard Sharp is grilled by MPs about his involvement in discussions about a loan for Boris Johnson.", "See in pictures how the world is rallying around Turkey and Syria following a devastating earthquake.", "The handwritten sheet was given to the founder of the inaugural David Bowie fan club by the star.", "Members of the Turkish community are awaiting news about family as the earthquake death toll rises.", "Lucy Frazer leads a streamlined department of culture, media, and sport as the PM changes his team.", "The Business department will be reorganised in order to create a new department focused on energy security.", "Nicola Bulley's partner says their two girls \"miss their mummy desperately\" and \"need her back\".", "Dramatic video showed a rescuer carrying the girl, whose mother, father and four siblings were killed.", "Former Met Police officer David Carrick is being sentenced for dozens of rape and sexual offences.", "Billy Sharp and Sander Berge score injury-time goals as Sheffield United finally end non-league Wrexham's FA Cup adventure in a pulsating fourth-round replay.", "The sense of loss is spreading quickly in Turkey, the BBC's Tom Bateman reports from Adana.", "Sunak ally Grant Shapps has been named as energy secretary as part of a Whitehall shake-up to reshape government.", "It is the latest energy giant to report record annual profits after oil and gas prices soared last year.", "Kaylea Titford, 16, was confined to her bed in the months before her death in \"degrading\" conditions.", "Footballer Christian Atsu is pulled from the rubble of a building \"with injuries\" after devastating earthquakes in Turkey.", "Ruby was told to \"be brave for mam\" and experienced anxiety as she felt unable to talk to people.", "The government puts out its Coronation song choices, but takes down a Dizzee Rascal track.", "The 19-month-old child slipped between a 30cm (12in) wide gap and fell to the bottom of the well.", "Climate Wiseman told his congregation they would \"drop dead\" if they did not buy his kits.", "Emma Pattison was found dead with her husband George and their seven-year-old daughter Lettie.", "Drone footage showed massive destruction in Turkey's border province of Hatay on Monday.", "The Welsh government's proposals are criticised by women's rights groups and the Welsh Conservatives.", "Police recover a firearm owned by George Pattison who officers believe killed his wife and daughter.", "The child went missing from the Borders on Sunday, but was found on Monday night.", "The Welsh government is accused of not offering enough help to people facing hardship in report.", "Turkish second division club Yeni Malatyaspor confirm goalkeeper Ahmet Eyup Turkaslan has died following Monday's earthquake in his home country.", "They may have been classified as UFOs, or unidentified anomalous phenomenon, at the time, reports say.", "The health secretary and his wife, councillor Nadia El-Nakla, have halted a £30,000 discrimination case.", "David Carrick admits 49 offences against 12 women, including multiple rapes, over two decades.", "The PM's idea won't work without big changes to the education system, experts say.", "Tens of thousands of Russians are being sent to eastern Ukraine, the Luhansk governor says.", "Despite new transparency laws, the owners of 50,000 British premises remain hidden from public view.", "More than 5,000 people are confirmed dead in the quake that struck northern Syria and Turkey.", "No-one will know what happened to Nicola Bulley \"until we have some evidence\", her friend says.", "The prospective staffer has asked the House ethics panel to look into a sexual misconduct claim.", "Figures show that 19% of households did not redeem their vouchers in October and in November.", "The Treasury and Bank of England will formally start a consultation for the digital currency, on Tuesday.", "The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down over the Atlantic on Saturday.", "Gifts to the ex-prime minister saved from destruction by a waste worker sell for a total of £15,000.", "The Premier League charges Manchester City with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules following a four-year investigation.", "Four pioneers behind silicon solar cells win this year's Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.", "The death toll in Turkey continues to rise as survivors struggle to find shelter and support.", "Officers say they are \"fully open\" to new information and are following about 500 lines of inquiry.", "Ismael had just left his six-year-old son for treatment when the massive earthquake struck.", "Union bosses say they have called off the strike later this month due to a legal challenge.", "Harry Styles and his dancers discover on live TV that the stage didn't just go in one direction.", "A Kenyan court has said that Facebook's parent company can be sued by a former content moderator.", "Rishi Sunak has a minibus full of predecessors who could end up as backseat drivers - with Liz Truss the latest to lurch towards the wheel.", "Epsom College head Emma Pattison is described as a \"warm, energetic, compassionate leader\".", "More than 1,600 people are killed in Syria after a huge earthquake strikes neighbouring Turkey.", "What you need to know about strikes by nurses by the BBC's Zoe Conway.", "The former officer receives 36 life sentences after pleading guilty to 85 offences, including multiple rapes.", "An ex-senior civil servant talks anonymously to BBC Newsnight about the deputy prime minister's conduct.", "Bing will now have \"answer\" and \"chat\" options in search using the latest in artificial intelligence.", "All Saints singer Shaznay Lewis says \"female artists have suffered\" as a result of recent changes.", "An official says the size of the object informed the decision not to shoot it down before Saturday.", "The PCS union plans a second walkout as the row with the government over pay escalates.", "The tech giant says its new Artificial Intelligence-powered chatbot will roll out in the coming weeks.", "Two men broke into the Olympian's home when he was in the property with his wife and children.", "Teams pull two children to safety from the rubble in separate rescues in Aleppo and Idlib.", "Met Police officer David Carrick took \"monstrous advantage of women\" in crimes spanning two decades.", "Danielle Deadwyler and Viola Davis were tipped to be nominated for best actress, but missed out.", "Chief Constable Simon Byrne spoke alongside Stormont's five main parties after Wednesday's attack.", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell is critically ill after being attacked in front of his son at a sports club.", "The boy is accused of attempted murder after a teenager was attacked in Bournemouth.", "A deal on NI post-Brexit rules is close - but can Rishi Sunak push it through?", "A major operation was launched after the vessel sank in East India Harbour, Greenock on Friday.", "A 71-year-old man is the latest person to be detained in connection with the attack.", "Emergency services were called to the coast of Greenock after it overturned on Friday afternoon.", "Stolen images of an adult entertainment star are being used to con victims out of thousands of dollars.", "A letter from Neil Tennant to Radio 1 DJ Janice Long is found inside a vintage copy of West End Girls.", "The Scottish presenter will host his final show next week, after 31 years in the role.", "England heap more misery on troubled Wales with a scrappy Six Nations victory in Cardiff.", "Details of significant events involving dissident republican activity in Northern Ireland since March 2009.", "After briefing heavily that a deal was to be published this week, the PM is now stuck in a red lane.", "It offers a glimpse of a ship that sank with a future king on board, killing hundreds of people.", "The Emmy-winning show's creator Jesse Armstrong says it feels like the right time for it to end.", "Press freedom groups criticise a new \"disinformation law\" used to target reporting on the disaster.", "The Prince of Wales joked about a \"tense drive home\" before the match between England and Wales.", "Almost a million households can now apply for winter energy payments, but it could still take weeks.", "There is no evidence bird flu will start spreading between people but experts are preparing for any scenario.", "The first of Nigeria's 36 states announces results, with more expected on Monday morning.", "Kent apple growers say rising costs mean they can no longer afford to continue growing the fruit.", "Steve Rosenberg looks at why Vladimir Putin set sail in a storm of his own making a year ago.", "Christie Harnett, Emily Moore and a third person died while under the care of a mental health trust.", "Beijing's call for a Ukraine war ceasefire shows China is involved in the search for peace, Ukraine's leader says.", "Stolen images of an adult entertainment star are being used to con victims out of thousands of dollars.", "The final pieces of a Brexit deal between the UK and EU on the NI Protocol are falling in to place.", "Abdul and Mohammed Ahmed Rabbani were arrested in Pakistan in 2002. They were never charged by the US.", "The University of Warwick says it has reversed its decision and offered its \"sincere apologies\".", "Security incidents and logistical problems hold up the country's crucial presidential election.", "The neurotech firm Cogitat is among those building a system which translates brain activity into actions.", "Even the most cautious officials are whispering that this time an agreement could be in sight.", "Two people are believed to have been on board the vessel, which sank off Greenock on Friday.", "BBC News Ireland correspondent Chris Page says emerging details paint a horrifying picture", "One of the biggest games of the year will be played after a stormy build-up that rocked the sport.", "The mammal previously drew crowds off the coasts of Hampshire, North Yorkshire and Northumberland.", "Beijing and Moscow both declined to accept phrasing that deplored Russia's invasion of Ukraine.", "The Ajax programme has \"turned a corner\" after a \"troubled\" start, says the defence secretary.", "A deal could be announced in the coming days after more than a year of talks, sources tell the BBC.", "Suspected gang members are pictured in a huge new jail, part of El Salvador's \"war on crime\".", "How voting unfolded in the race to decide who leads Africa's most populous nation.", "Conservative Theo Clarke says she received abuse after announcing her plans to take time off.", "Western leaders may be unimpressed - but convincing them was never likely the main goal for Beijing.", "The former journalist served as press secretary throughout Baroness Thatcher's 11 years as prime minister.", "The 3.7 magnitude quake - south Wales' largest in five years - is felt by people in Birmingham.", "Anthony Albanese's presence at Mardi Gras has been welcomed by many but he has also faced criticism.", "About 3,000 tickets to the song contest will also be made available for Ukrainians living in the UK.", "BBC News NI home affairs correspondent Julian O'Neill assesses the impact of the shooting.", "Laurel Aldridge, who is related to Mackenzie Crook, vanished from her home 11 days ago.", "Mike Burgess says Australia is being targeted by foreign intelligence like never before.", "The 23-year-old loses her appeal on national security grounds, which means she cannot return to the UK.", "At PMQs, the prime minister says he'll keep fighting until he gets a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol.", "Home Office minister Chris Philp commits to making \"any further changes needed\" to licensing.", "The mountain rescue team said the operation, using a dry ski slope outside Edinburgh, was \"unique\".", "British Medical Association planning 72-hour walkout as early as mid-March in fight for more pay.", "Alfie Woollett lost his footing and fell from a fire escape while trying to get into a party.", "Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called on authorities to make \"every possible effort\" to find survivors.", "Tube drivers will walk out on 15 March in a dispute over pensions and working arrangements, Aslef says.", "Lawyer who fled Kyiv with daughter and mother have until mid-March to find their own accommodation.", "BBC premises in Delhi and Mumbai were searched by tax authorities last week.", "The broadcasting regulator writes to ITV and Sky News \"to ask them to explain their actions\".", "A spokesperson for the royal couple reportedly said claims of a lawsuit are \"totally baseless\" and \"boring\".", "The union says it would only pause next week's strikes if the government offers a \"serious proposal\".", "One business leader says cancellation would be a catastrophe, and fans worry for the sport's future.", "The decision on whether Wales' Six Nations match against England goes ahead reaches the Wednesday deadline set by Welsh players.", "Real Madrid come from 2-0 down to thrash Liverpool 5-2 in Champions League last-16 first leg", "The 45-year-old's body was found in a Lancashire river on Sunday after a search of over three weeks.", "A coalition of almost 200 sports governing bodies, health organisations and top athletes writes to UK prime minister Rishi Sunak asking for help.", "The Royal College of Nursing said Simon Clarke's comments were \"disgusting\" and \"heartless\".", "Data shows ethnic minorities are no longer more likely to die from the virus than white people .", "Authorities say the object is not a threat, but it remains the subject of much speculation.", "The NASUWT union said it is committed to strike action unless an improved offer is made.", "The Chinese-owned company is proposing cuts at its Scunthorpe site amid economic challenges.", "Shaye Groves is told she will serve a minimum of 23 years for the murder last year.", "The country's top officials will meet at the end of February to discuss \"pressing\" farming issues.", "Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the proposals would help people affected by the cost of living crisis.", "Jenny Pearson did not know the extent of her father's abuse until broadcaster Nicky Campbell spoke out.", "National Rail says some systems, including journey planners, have been fixed after an earlier fault.", "Eric R. Holder, Jr. receives 60 years to life for the murder of the Grammy-nominated rapper in LA.", "The image, shot from the plane cockpit, reportedly has \"legendary status\" within the Pentagon.", "Constance Marten, her partner and their baby could be \"absolutely anywhere in the UK\", police say.", "The Home Office is to scrap face-to-face interviews for asylum seekers from five countries.", "The grocers join Asda and Morrisons in limiting sales due to shortages of certain produce.", "But the home secretary says she won't support any protocol deal that \"sells out\" Northern Ireland.", "Scotland Editor James Cook sits down with SNP leadership frontrunners, Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes.", "EIS members are walking out in the constituencies of senior politicians in the ongoing row over pay.", "More than 80 people also suffer bullet wounds after troops surround a house with militants inside.", "Official figures reveal nearly four in 10 adults in England and Wales have never been married.", "More than 40 people have been killed in landslides which hit coastal towns in Brazil's São Paulo state.", "The Emmy-award winner will be joined in Liverpool by Graham Norton, Julia Sanina and Alesha Dixon.", "Lancashire Police received a backlash for revealing personal details about the missing mother.", "The officer was shot at a sports centre - reportedly multiple times - in Omagh, County Tyrone.", "Lawyers defending stripping Shamima Begum's citizenship say her age at the time does not matter.", "Wales' Six Nations match against England will go ahead on Saturday after the Welsh players decide against strike action.", "The US president met other leaders in the alliance, who called for enhanced security in Eastern Europe.", "In extensive BBC interviews, Shamima Begum also reveals the detailed planning before she joined IS at 15.", "Virtual reality technology is exposing children to new risks online, the NSPCC warns.", "More than 60,000 people in England faced debt collection over home care last year, BBC research finds.", "New below-inflation pay rises are being recommended for nurses, teachers and police officers.", "Local media say the student entered the classroom during a lesson and attacked the teacher.", "Blocking clubs from joining a breakaway European Super League will be among the powers held by English football's new independent regulator.", "Nurses, teachers and police officers would get below inflation rises, under government proposals.", "Government unlikely to meet its green heating targets as take-up of the grant scheme is so low.", "Health Secretary Steve Barclay will meet Royal College of Nursing bosses for talks over pay.", "The author says she isn't worried about how the backlash over her views will affect her legacy.", "Asked if MPs will get a vote on any deal, the PM says Parliament will be able to \"express its view\".", "The Royal Navy officer says the £100m jet was going to roll off HMS Queen Elizabeth after it lost power.", "The civil rights leader's daughter says US authorities \"executed their plan to assassinate\" her father.", "The TV presenter says cyclists should wear a helmet after he was hit by a car in Sheffield.", "It means customers paying £25 a month for a subscription will have fewer drinks to choose from.", "Supermarkets face shortages of some fresh produce, but Tesco and others are not limiting sales.", "Genaro García Luna, a key drugs war figure, is found guilty of taking bribes from a drug cartel.", "Parliament orders an inquiry after dozens of women speak of abuse on British-operated tea farms.", "The carmaker will cut 1,300 jobs, mainly at its research and development site in Essex.", "Video shows Miray being rescued from under an apartment building a week after a huge earthquake.", "Three objects were shot down over the weekend, prompting fevered speculation and a host of questions.", "The BBC's security correspondent explains why the US is downing multiple unidentified flying objects.", "Dr Gabriel Scally says there is no excuse for Northern Ireland to \"lag behind\" in the use of HPV tests.", "Aras, aged five, lost his two siblings and his father when the quake hit Turkey's city of Kahramanmaras.", "The UK Defence Secretary says Putin's forces are suffering \"First World War levels of attrition\" on the battlefield.", "It comes after an ex-colleague claimed the use of homophobic slurs went unchallenged in the office.", "Emily Lewis, 15, suffered \"unsurvivable\" injuries when the speedboat crashed into a buoy.", "US actress Leslie Grace says the rain in Scotland was one of the \"obstacles\" the film encountered.", "Camilla's coronation crown will not feature the disputed Koh-i-Noor diamond, says Buckingham Palace.", "US President Joe Biden personally calls retired Col Paris Davis after a wait of almost sixty years.", "Peter Maher delivered at least 11 blows to his wife of 30 years in their home in Glasgow.", "Rishi Sunak promises to do \"whatever it takes\" to keep the UK safe amid concern over spy balloons.", "The powerful storm for days pummelled the country's North Island, leaving at least three people dead.", "Brianna Ghey, 16, who was stabbed to death in a park is described as \"fearless and one of a kind\".", "The DUP says it will again block the election of a Speaker when assembly members meet on Tuesday.", "Camilla is said to have cold symptoms but is described as keeping in \"good spirits\".", "Two police officers are injured after their car is forced into a barrier during the pursuit.", "Crews found \"significant debris\" from the suspected spy craft off the South Carolina coast, say the US military.", "Questions remain over what the three objects shot down over North America this weekend were.", "Three-quarters of English councils with social care duties are planning the hike.", "Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson says the outcome of an independent report into last season's Champions League final in Paris must be a \"turning point\" for how fans are treated.", "Czech Republic international midfielder Jakub Jankto says he \"no longer wants to hide\" as he publicly comes out as gay.", "BBC News investigates the tactics used by scammers to make money when natural disasters strike.", "Hundreds of grassroots referees tell the BBC they fear for their safety when refereeing and are dissatisfied with the current measures to tackle abuse.", "Wayne Couzens exposed himself shortly before he abducted, raped and killed Sarah Everard in 2021.", "A record number of people move out of being economically inactive, driven by younger and older workers.", "A part of the artwork, a fridge freezer, will return \"once it has been made safe\", a council says.", "Veteran BBC broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby says Richard Sharp should \"fall on his sword\".", "A group of MPs urged the government to block the Xinjiang governor's visit.", "The police said a caller's tip led them to the gunman, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.", "He becomes the eighth British man known to have died in Ukraine since the Russian invasion last year.", "The White House says the aircraft may have been \"tied to commercial or research entities\".", "A review finds Europe's football body bore \"primary responsibility\" for last year's chaotic scenes.", "Sara Khadem, now living in Spain, supports protesters back home but faces arrest if she returns to Iran.", "A man and a woman are arrested after councillors receive abusive messages over the missing mother.", "A murder investigation is continuing after Brianna Ghey, 16, was stabbed to death in a Cheshire park.", "Ashley Dale, 28, was found with a gunshot wound in a back garden in Liverpool on 21 August.", "Police previously said there was no evidence to suggest the girl's stabbing was \"hate related\".", "The King's Singers group says the concert in Florida was cancelled with just two hours' notice.", "Scottish government ministers say they have found £156m to fund a two-year deal amid strikes over pay.", "The vigils, organised by the transgender community, are held in memory of the stabbed 16-year-old.", "If a Police Scotland officer resigns or retires, misconduct proceedings against them are scrapped.", "Darvel could not repeat their Scottish Cup heroics as Falkirk defeated their sixth-tier hosts to book a place in the quarter-finals against Ayr.", "The King is told about the earthquake \"catastrophe\" in Turkey and Syria by those who have lost family.", "Wayne Couzens is jailed for life for his premeditated attack on a victim he chose at random.", "Brahim Diaz scores the only goal to give AC Milan a 1-0 win in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Tottenham.", "A new travel warning urges US citizens to leave the country immediately or face conscription.", "Ibrahim Urs lost his sister, her husband and his two nephews in the Turkey-Syria earthquake.", "The UN has been allowed to use just one crossing for aid since last week's deadly quake in Turkey.", "The searches come weeks after a documentary in the UK looked at PM Modi's role in 2002 riots.", "One of his offences was committed four days before the then-Met PC abducted Sarah Everard.", "Western nations are \"under full press of Chinese espionage\", Sir Alex Younger tells the BBC.", "The ex-UN ambassador is the first Republican to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency.", "The 32-year-old surrenders to police with his hands up, a court hears.", "Wyre Council removes contact details for councillors following the abusive emails and calls.", "Fake Russian spies helped expose David Ballantyne Smith for sharing data with Russia, a court hears.", "There have been calls for a boycott, but the big-budget game is expected to be a big seller.", "Hugh Hudson's family said he died at Charing Cross Hospital in London after a short illness.", "The union calls the deals from both Network Rail and the train operating companies \"dreadful\".", "Russian participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics \"cannot be covered up with pretend neutrality or a white flag\", says Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.", "Merseyside Police say missiles were thrown towards officers after an \"initially peaceful protest\".", "Items belonging to Star Wars actor Peter Mayhew will be returned to his wife after a public appeal.", "A 10.5% swing from the Tories sees the the party's candidate Ashley Dalton hold West Lancashire seat.", "Tens of thousands of people have spent a freezing-cold fourth night in makeshift shelters.", "Footage taken by passengers on the Edinburgh-New York flight shows flames around the aircraft's wing.", "Ian Lavery says he \"does not owe a single penny\" in tax and has never paid a penalty to HMRC.", "Ten-day-old Yagiz was retrieved from ruins in southern Turkey after almost 100 hours trapped.", "A sidewinder missile fired by an F-22 warplane blew up the object of unknown origin, the US says.", "A fortnight since she went missing, Nicola Bulley's friends and family say they will not give up hope.", "The arrival of a Coquerel's sifaka brings the number in European zoos to seven, experts say.", "Belgorod residents fully back Putin's war, despite the fear and fury of life on the front line.", "Sir Jony Ive has designed an emblem of \"optimism\" to be used for the coronation of King Charles.", "Lucy Letby made three attempts to kill a baby before succeeding on the fourth attempt, it is alleged.", "Experts say the use of the inflatable could be intended to send a message to Washington.", "Thousands are sheltering in makeshift camps like the one set up in heart of this neighbourhood reduced to rubble by Monday's earthquakes.", "Gwent Police is taking no further action into claims an 11-year-old lost a finger fleeing bullies.", "Minnesota's Angie Craig defends herself after an assault, that does not appear politically motivated.", "The musician wrote enduring classics like Walk On By and I Say A Little Prayer.", "Paul Ansell says he does not believe Nicola Bulley fell in the river, as police say they are open-minded.", "Press regulator Ipso received more than 25,000 complaints about the piece published in the Sun.", "Police are assessing Craig Murray's blog claims over SNP MP Stewart McDonald's missing emails.", "The BBC is one of the first international outlets to report from the historic Syrian city.", "Remarkable tales of survival are still emerging five days after the earthquake struck Turkey and Syria.", "The baby girl was rescued from a collapsed building in Syria, but her mother died after the birth.", "Tweaks to hip and knee surgeries could allow more patients to be sent home on the same day.", "The Russian-born New Yorker planned to murder her victim and steal her identity, jury finds.", "Friends Tatiana Brandão and Raquel Moreira died while on holiday together in the US.", "The Elon Musk company ignites 31 engines at the base of its huge new rocket system, Starship.", "Police search teams move \"further downstream\" and then out towards the sea at Morecambe Bay.", "One Turkish hospital is now a hub for unidentified children whose parents are dead or untraceable.", "The British government is urged by MPs to hold an \"honest\" inquiry into its role in Afghanistan.", "A judge has ruled that an effective ban on lap dancing clubs in the city would be unlawful.", "The aid package is intended to prevent people from dying of cold exposure, starvation and illness.", "The independent body which sets the figure says it is in line with public sector pay rises last year.", "Scotland's first minister is grappling with a challenging debate over the identity of a convicted rapist.", "A protest was held after the suspected racially aggravated assault on the girl in Surrey.", "The city council introduces the new laws in a bid to reduce disruption by tourists in the area.", "The show will see \"musical icons and contemporary stars\" perform at Windsor Castle, in May.", "The EU's Sentinel satellite system traces how the ground ruptured during Monday's big tremors.", "What you need to know about the ambulance workers' strike and other industrial action, by the BBC's Zoe Conway.", "The airline's extra services come after rival Wizz Air pulled out of the airport last month.", "Last year used car sales fell 9%, as drivers hung onto their vehicles for longer.", "Transgender prisoners will initially be sent to jails according to their sex at birth.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 3 and 10 February.", "Nine cars were targeted in the Digbeth area of Birmingham in January alone.", "The nation neighbouring Ukraine is battling inflation, an energy crisis and Russian aggression.", "China's birth rate is at a record low, with officials identifying the cost of childcare as a major issue.", "The justice secretary and deputy prime minister defends his conduct amid allegations of bullying.", "The Duchess of Cornwall is reunited with Jim Embury during a visit to Cornwall.", "President Zelensky says the rockets also passed over Nato member Romania - but Romania denies it.", "The ex-culture secretary and Mid Bedfordshire MP blames her party's decision to oust Boris Johnson.", "As rescuers look for earthquake survivors in Turkey, loved ones in the UK watch the search remotely.", "Surrey Police had contacted George Pattison over a firearms licence, days before he killed his wife.", "The economy saw zero growth in the final three months of 2022 but strike action took a toll in December.", "St Mary's Primary School in Fivemiletown is earmarked for closure due to low pupil numbers.", "Relations between the superpowers are in limbo as America's top diplomat postpones his trip to Beijing.", "Jake Berry argues MPs and ministers should be treated like \"anyone else\".", "A man is arrested on suspicion of explosive offences after \"suspicious items\" were found, police say.", "The 30-year-old singer scores their third number one album, thanking fans for supporting them.", "Police believe Nicola Bulley fell into the river but her sister says there is \"no evidence\" of that.", "Sensible Juliette Lamour, 18, immediately turned to a financial planner, or Dad, as she calls him.", "It is believed the incident was caused by the wrong chemical being added to drinking water.", "The fresh aid worth $2.2bn (£1.83bn) includes rockets capable of striking parts of occupied Crimea.", "Magistrates told it is \"irrational\" not to grant applications by energy firms, leaked document shows.", "Detectives say they are not treating the disappearance of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley as suspicious.", "When Yisrael Amir fled the isolated sect, he brought with him tales of control, abuse and rape.", "Dog sled teams have competed in the annual marathon race over 300 miles in northern Minnesota.", "Public Image Ltd, which John Lydon formed after the Sex Pistols split, had hoped to go to the song contest.", "Locals in Santiago collect beer from the road after the vehicle carrying it was involved in an accident.", "Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley disappeared a week ago while on a riverside walk with her dog.", "The head of the UK's biggest nursing union tells the PM \"meaningful offers\" could avert strike action.", "One suspect in the murder of six family members is taken into custody after a shootout with police.", "William Finlay, 67, will go on trial for the murder of Alyson Nelson at her home in Whitehead.", "Truss returns to the political fray via a newspaper comment piece - and the PM can't afford to ignore her.", "Common complaints include incorrect billing, poor customer service and problems switching suppliers.", "The stock index closes at a high as global inflation and interest rate fears ease.", "With NHS England about to enter its biggest round of strikes, leaders say clearing backlogs will be difficult.", "UK Athletics wants a change in legislation to ensure the women's category is lawfully reserved for competitors who are recorded female at birth.", "The US is trying recover debris from the suspected spy balloon that fell in shallow waters off South Carolina.", "The US secretary of state abruptly cancels a trip to Beijing over the \"violation of our sovereignty\".", "Video shows the vessel capsizing in rough Pacific seas as the man on board is rescued.", "The US condemns China's intrusion as the Pentagon reports a second Chinese balloon over Latin America.", "All you need to know as one of the most competitive Six Nations tournaments in recent years begins with a blockbuster day of action on Saturday.", "Kyiv says Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw's remains were handed over as part of a prisoner swap.", "The world's longest skating rink has been opening later and later as winter temperature creep up.", "Brain scans show it can improve sexual desire, but larger studies are needed to confirm the findings.", "Preston Hemphill violated multiple rules, including stun gun deployment regulations, police say.", "The cold on Mount Washington in New Hampshire on Friday was producing a wind chill of -108F (-77C).", "The 16-year-old girl was thought to have been swimming in the Swan River, Western Australia Police say.", "Duhan van der Merwe's late try gives Scotland back-to-back wins at Twickenham for the first time, turning Calcutta Cup history on its head with a stunning Six Nations victory against a spirited England.", "Nicola Bulley's sister says \"people don't just vanish into thin air\" as efforts to find her continue.", "The Tesla boss is cleared of fraud charges over a tweet about taking the carmaker back into private ownership.", "The alleged victim claims Andrew Tate forced workers to raise €10,000 a month on social media platforms.", "Robin Cantrill-Fenwick says courts are \"rubber stamping\" warrants that allow energy firms into homes.", "Brighton waste company Lord of the Bins say they face the prospect of spending thousands to rebrand.", "Catherine urges others to share photos of early memories to encourage talk about vital childhood years.", "Police have traced a woman in a yellow coat who was walking on Garstang Road on 27 January.", "Masayoshi Arai was dismissed after reportedly saying he would not want to live next to same-sex couples.", "The jury in the trial of a mother accused of murdering her baby is shown video of rescue attempts.", "The BBC's Allan Little considers whether the forward march of an independent Scotland has been turned back.", "Recharge Industries is buying Britishvolt, the start-up that collapsed in January.", "The boy is due in court on Monday charged with several driving offences, police say.", "A senior lawyer is investigating eight complaints of bullying against the deputy prime minister.", "The boy is accused of attempted murder after a teenager was attacked in Bournemouth.", "Mass power outages, flooding and the closures of motorways and beaches are reported in California.", "The comic strip's creator Scott Adams said white people should \"get the hell away\" from black people.", "Linda Williams says she hates funerals and wanted to dance the night away with her friends instead.", "They reproduce a mural by the UK graffiti artist on a Ukrainian house devastated by Russian shelling.", "A deal on NI post-Brexit rules is close - but can Rishi Sunak push it through?", "A major operation was launched after the vessel sank in East India Harbour, Greenock on Friday.", "A 71-year-old man is the latest person to be detained in connection with the attack.", "An Australian start-up has tabled an 11th-hour rescue bid for Britishvolt, which folded last week.", "Sophie Buchaillard lives in hope that she will one day find out what happened to her friend.", "Twelve children, including a baby, were among those who died after their boat broke apart in stormy seas.", "The family of Robert Brown's wife Joanna appeal to the government ahead of his possible release.", "Tanni Grey-Thompson says \"accessibility is being ignored\" at electric vehicle charging points.", "England heap more misery on troubled Wales with a scrappy Six Nations victory in Cardiff.", "Recharge Industries is named preferred bidder for collapsed battery firm Britishvolt.", "The Italian PM called the French government \"aggressive\" after it criticised Rome's refusal to help.", "The EU and UK agree new rules for goods moving between Britain and Northern Ireland follows months of talks.", "The Prince of Wales joked about a \"tense drive home\" before the match between England and Wales.", "The first of Nigeria's 36 states announces results, with more expected on Monday morning.", "The Labour leader's comments come as his party warns Poland's economy is on course to overtake the UK.", "The proposals are in response to the Grenfell Tower fire and the death of a toddler in a mouldy flat.", "Steve Rosenberg looks at why Vladimir Putin set sail in a storm of his own making a year ago.", "There's a lot at stake but a lot to gain from solving the Brexit issues in Northern Ireland.", "Police said the disturbance took place about six hours before Rangers and Celtic were due to kick-off.", "Stolen images of an adult entertainment star are being used to con victims out of thousands of dollars.", "The final pieces of a Brexit deal between the UK and EU on the NI Protocol are falling in to place.", "Casemiro's header and Sven Botman's own goal help Manchester United claim their first trophy since 2017 as they beat Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final.", "Bryce Barker and his colleagues are freed after being held hostage for a week.", "The TV presenter says he hopes to return to work as soon as the swelling and bruising goes down.", "The justice secretary declines to say when an announcement will be made, nor that MPs definitely will vote on it.", "Police investigating attempted murder of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell given extension to question man, 43.", "Beijing and Moscow both declined to accept phrasing that deplored Russia's invasion of Ukraine.", "The boat was carrying more than 100 people from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to local news.", "She has accepted an apology from Sir Keir Starmer over the party's handling of antisemitism claims.", "Tommy Fury beats Jake Paul by split decision in arguably the most anticipated eight-round contest between two novices in boxing history.", "England have work to do in order to win the second Test after New Zealand's defiance following-on in Wellington.", "Suspected gang members are pictured in a huge new jail, part of El Salvador's \"war on crime\".", "The former environment secretary said supermarkets have to \"work to get it right\" on supplies.", "Conservative Theo Clarke says she received abuse after announcing her plans to take time off.", "Giorgia Meloni uses her speech to MPs to return to a familiar theme in Italian politics.", "The 3.7 magnitude quake - south Wales' largest in five years - is felt by people in Birmingham.", "Laurel Aldridge, who is related to Mackenzie Crook, vanished from her home 11 days ago.", "The Albanian man paid people smugglers around £3,500 for the trip, and was deported soon after arrival.", "A study shows about 80% of smokers have their first cigarette before they turn 18.", "Kyle Sambrook, from West Yorkshire, had travelled to the Highlands to walk and wild camp with his dog.", "BBC News NI home affairs correspondent Julian O'Neill assesses the impact of the shooting.", "More than 600 people are being investigated over whether failings in construction made the disaster worse.", "Car production in the UK continued to fall last year, lagging further behind the US and EU.", "Sir Elton John is among the celebrities who paid tribute to the late actress at a special event.", "France puncture Scotland's rising belief and restore their own Six Nations title hopes with a hard-fought win in an astonishing game in Paris.", "Ferry operator P&O is advising passengers to use the toilet before arriving at the port of Calais.", "Two young people with lupus say why Selena speaking about the condition is so important to them.", "The president says he will speak with China's Xi Jinping soon \"to get to the bottom of this\".", "The BBC has seen a redacted letter sent on behalf of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan.", "Dreamland says it \"jumped at the chance\" when it was asked to be the new home to the piece.", "Manchester City miss the opportunity to return to the top of the Premier League as Chris Wood's late goal earns Nottingham Forest a point.", "One of the \"great treasures of Wales\" must be safeguarded, Plaid Cymru leader tells public meeting.", "Seyma Yapar managed to fly out and surprise her parents whose home collapsed in the disaster.", "The letter says officers are accused of sharing \"derogatory images\" of the celebrity's disabled son.", "The victims were killed at a convenience store and two homes in the Mississippi community.", "A workingmen's club at \"the heart of a community\" faces closure due to the cost of living crisis.", "The firm joins a slew of other companies that are tightening remote work rules.", "Concerns were raised at the flats in Gaziantep, where 136 people died last week - the BBC has found.", "Students from nearby schools were in the crowd and some wore T-shirts with the slogan Rest In Power.", "Iran International says it's leaving the UK because of threats against its London-based journalists.", "Footballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under a collapsed building almost two weeks after the Turkey earthquake, his agent confirms.", "A surge in detectorists unearthing historical artefacts could prompt changes to the legal definition.", "The BBC's Tom Symonds explains what David Smith did, and how he was stopped.", "A judge confirms the five defendants are pleading not guilty to charges including murder and assault.", "An aide to the Ukrainian city's exiled mayor says Russia is trying to cover up its crimes.", "The former president will spend his remaining time at home with his family, the Carter Center said.", "About 1,300 properties were still without supplies on Saturday afternoon following Friday's storm.", "A former police boss defends Lancashire Police's investigation into her disappearance.", "Pyongyang fires a missile into the sea a day after warning the US and Seoul against military drills.", "Rishi Sunak told broadcasters he was \"pleased the police are looking at how that happened\".", "Christo Grozev helped to expose an alleged poisoning plot against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.", "A 20-year tour guide takes the BBC into the Turkish city, where his usual reference points are in ruins.", "In three crucial ways, the landscape shifted - and the result could shape the next general election.", "The Welshman says he is \"coming back\" to his former self after treatment for head and neck cancer.", "At least 53 people have been killed by the jihadists in the province of Homs, state media says.", "Qatar's Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos make bids to buy Manchester United.", "The wearing of bodycams by referees will be trialled in four adult grassroots football leagues in England, the Football Association announces.", "The comments were made as seven Just Stop Oil members were sentenced for targeting a fuel terminal.", "The coronation service for King Charles will feature 12 newly-commissioned pieces of music.", "Marianna Spring goes to visits St Michael's on Wyre to try to understand the scale of the social media frenzy.", "Kamala Harris was speaking at a security conference, where leaders called for long-term support of Ukraine.", "His sister-in-law, who is undergoing chemotherapy, was last seen in West Sussex on Tuesday.", "Liverpool's pursuit of a top-four Premier League finish gathers further momentum at the expense of Newcastle United's similar ambitions with a crucial win at St James' Park.", "Hundreds attend a rally in support of refugees after violence outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.", "The government support comes after warnings hundreds of services could be cut if funding ended.", "The rail franchise pulled far more trains than any other operator, figures released by the regulator show.", "The X-Men star said the move would be \"natural\", but he still had respect for the UK's Royal Family.", "Chris Hinds, a Denver city official, says he endured a \"public humiliation\" as a crowd watched.", "Death threats were made against President Vucic who denounced the protesters as \"anti-Serbian\".", "The US vice-president says Putin is \"badly mistaken\" if he thinks he can \"wait us out\" on Ukraine.", "Allies must give advanced Nato-standard equipment and long-term security assurances, Sunak says.", "The union said it had made \"significant progress\" across multiple issues during talks with employers.", "The president's State of the Union speech called for unity, but he was heckled by some Republicans.", "Bono, Paul Pelosi and the family of Tyre Nichols were among the notable guests at this year's address.", "The UK's scheme to stop terrorism has \"apparently failed\" repeatedly to identify attackers, says report.", "Photos from Turkey and Syria show collapsed buildings and devastation across the region.", "The aircraft was hit by a Russian-made missile in eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people.", "The Ukrainian president's speech to Westminster Hall makes a deep impression on MPs.", "When Joe Biden gives his State of the Union address, one person will be notably absent.", "Royal Mail reveals the minimalist image that will appear on stamps from 4 April.", "A range of charities are trying to help with things such as medical aid, shelter and food.", "Katie Waissel says she had a \"horrifying\" experience during and after being on The X Factor in 2010.", "US intelligence sources tell media the balloon was spying on US and allied defence capabilities.", "John Cleese will write and star in the revival alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese.", "The handwritten sheet was given to the founder of the inaugural David Bowie fan club by the star.", "A friend of missing Nicola Bulley says people have been turning up to \"do social media things\".", "Steve Easterbrook was fired in 2019 after the firm found he had had a consensual relationship with an employee.", "Lucy Frazer leads a streamlined department of culture, media, and sport as the PM changes his team.", "The brainchild of Tony Iommi and Carlos Acosta, the production will feature eight of the band's tracks.", "Dramatic video showed a rescuer carrying the girl, whose mother, father and four siblings were killed.", "The US president championed the recovery of the economy since the coronavirus pandemic in his speech.", "Divers say Nicola Bulley is \"categorically not\" in the section of river where police think she fell.", "The sense of loss is spreading quickly in Turkey, the BBC's Tom Bateman reports from Adana.", "Billy Sharp and Sander Berge score injury-time goals as Sheffield United finally end non-league Wrexham's FA Cup adventure in a pulsating fourth-round replay.", "Recep Tayyip Erdogan defends the government's response as Syria struggles to get much needed aid.", "Helen Hewlett is convicted of soliciting the murder of a man she met at the Linda McCartney factory.", "Church of England synod will vote on plans to allow blessings, but not marriage, for gay couples.", "After a slow initial response, roads into the city are now gridlocked with aid vehicles arriving.", "Many are accusing the Turkish government of being underprepared ahead of Monday's huge quakes.", "Police recover a firearm owned by George Pattison who officers believe killed his wife and daughter.", "Igor Mangushev was shot in the head and his killing sparks speculation about who was to blame.", "The child went missing from the Borders on Sunday, but was found on Monday night.", "The government suffered a series of heavy defeats to its Public Order Bill in the House of Lords.", "Two children were killed and six others were injured in the incident near Montreal on Wednesday.", "Tom Bateman was reporting from Adana, Turkey, when asked to be be quiet.", "President Zelensky steps up calls for the West to supply fighter jets to Ukraine, on a surprise visit to the UK.", "Turkish second division club Yeni Malatyaspor confirm goalkeeper Ahmet Eyup Turkaslan has died following Monday's earthquake in his home country.", "The protocol has been challenged by unionists, who say it breaches the Acts of Union and NI Act.", "Researchers have transferred 'quantum' information between computer chips at record speeds and accuracy.", "Sharing internal data with the BBC, a whistleblower warns risks to the public could be missed.", "A naval vessel intercepted a massive 3.2 tonnes haul found drifting in the Pacific Ocean.", "HS2 Ltd's assessment of its impact on biodiversity is \"riddled with inaccuracies\" - say wildlife charities", "Ukraine's president earlier urged the UK to give his country \"wings\" and No 10 has said this is being looked at as a \"long-term\" option.", "The PM's idea won't work without big changes to the education system, experts say.", "The president's State of the Union address is being viewed as a blueprint for a potential re-election bid in 2024.", "A committee of MPs says there should be more support for politicians to find work after Parliament.", "Jadon Sancho scores on his Premier League return as Manchester United recover from two goals down to draw with Leeds.", "Stewart McDonald tells the BBC his emails have been stolen by a group linked to Russian intelligence.", "Days after Turkey's devastating earthquake, there are still some moments of joy, but they are fewer.", "The UK must prove its stability after a year of political and market turbulence, says the Lloyd's of London boss.", "The duchess's half-sister says Meghan \"falsely and maliciously\" said she was \"an only child\".", "The 12-year-old was found unconscious at his home and died after a legal battle over life support.", "Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke in Westminster Hall and met King Charles at Buckingham Palace.", "The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down over the Atlantic on Saturday.", "The fast food chain claimed that Steve Easterbrook had lied about three sexual relationships with employees.", "Four pioneers behind silicon solar cells win this year's Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.", "The death toll in Turkey continues to rise as survivors struggle to find shelter and support.", "Emma Pattison and her young daughter were shot by George Pattison before he killed himself.", "Officers say they are \"fully open\" to new information and are following about 500 lines of inquiry.", "Jared O'Mara is convicted of trying to claim almost £24,000 to fund a cocaine habit.", "Families in some badly-hit areas complain say they've had no help, as the death toll passes 12,000.", "A large Russian attack is likely to come from the east and south, Kyiv says.", "This small Ukrainian city has been at the centre of an epic six-month battle on the front line.", "The 33ft (10m) sculpture gets a permanent home after thousands signed a petition to stop it being dismantled.", "Rishi Sunak confirms the tanks will be provided during a call with President Zelensky.", "It comes after the former PM's latest declaration of a £2.5m advance payment for speaking events.", "An ex-senior civil servant talks anonymously to BBC Newsnight about the deputy prime minister's conduct.", "Bing will now have \"answer\" and \"chat\" options in search using the latest in artificial intelligence.", "LeBron James becomes the NBA's all-time leading scorer, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 39-year-old record.", "It's often the US president's most important address of the year - but for speechwriters it's the assignment from hell.", "US officials say the object is part of a wider fleet of balloons that has spanned five continents.", "A new report details the brutality the 29-year-old suffered at the hands of five Memphis officers.", "Teams pull two children to safety from the rubble in separate rescues in Aleppo and Idlib.", "Met Police officer David Carrick took \"monstrous advantage of women\" in crimes spanning two decades.", "Danielle Deadwyler and Viola Davis were tipped to be nominated for best actress, but missed out.", "Relations between the superpowers are in limbo as America's top diplomat postpones his trip to Beijing.", "Pope Francis said laws which criminalise homosexuality were a sin and \"an injustice\".", "A man is arrested on suspicion of explosive offences after \"suspicious items\" were found, police say.", "Police believe Nicola Bulley fell into the river but her sister says there is \"no evidence\" of that.", "Sir Ed Davey says a higher minimum wage for the sector would help prevent an \"exodus\" to better paid jobs.", "Leader of the Unite union meets the Welsh health minister on the eve of ambulance service walkout.", "The education secretary calls for more compromise in the pay dispute as pupils move closer to exam season.", "The former president, who seized power in a coup in 1999, survived numerous assassination attempts.", "Stepping in as home secretary was \"a moment of national duty\", the minister says.", "Concerns about the balloon have derailed a vital visit to China this week by the US's top diplomat.", "After further talks the education secretary has reiterated that no more money is on the table.", "Magistrates told it is \"irrational\" not to grant applications by energy firms, leaked document shows.", "Officials in western Austria warned winter sports enthusiasts of dangerous conditions in the area.", "Detectives say they are not treating the disappearance of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley as suspicious.", "Police say their concern over the whereabouts of the couple and their newborn 'continues to grow'.", "When Yisrael Amir fled the isolated sect, he brought with him tales of control, abuse and rape.", "What you need to know about strikes by nurses and ambulance workers by the BBC's Zoe Conway.", "Grant Shapps, who briefly served in Liz Truss's cabinet, said inflation must fall before taxes are cut.", "The head of the UK's biggest nursing union tells the PM \"meaningful offers\" could avert strike action.", "Over-50s are being encouraged back into work to help boost the economy in the cost of living crisis.", "Jasvir Singh is a prominent Sikh voice in the UK. He is also gay, and sees no conflict between his sexuality and religion.", "Truss returns to the political fray via a newspaper comment piece - and the PM can't afford to ignore her.", "The US is trying recover debris from the suspected spy balloon that fell in shallow waters off South Carolina.", "A large Russian attack is likely to come from the east and south, Kyiv says.", "The US is trying to recover debris from the suspected spy balloon off South Carolina.", "Video shows the vessel capsizing in rough Pacific seas as the man on board is rescued.", "Kyiv says Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw's remains were handed over as part of a prisoner swap.", "The My Beautiful Launderette author said losing the use of his limbs had been \"illuminating as well as terrible\".", "Epsom College head Emma Pattison is described as a \"warm, energetic, compassionate leader\".", "Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Greg Cackett and Arran Gulliver finish joint second to claim Britain's first four-man medal at the World Championships since 1939.", "The business secretary says Ofgem took the word of energy firms and \" had the wool pulled over their eyes\".", "The 16-year-old girl was thought to have been swimming in the Swan River, Western Australia Police say.", "Duhan van der Merwe's late try gives Scotland back-to-back wins at Twickenham for the first time, turning Calcutta Cup history on its head with a stunning Six Nations victory against a spirited England.", "Jamie Austin finishes the last leg of his challenge after setting off from Leeds 10 days ago.", "Nicola Bulley’s friend says speculation online is hurtful as police condemn social media abuse.", "Groups for and against the Scottish government's reforms gathered in Glasgow's George Square.", "The Trevelyan family, who owned more than 1,000 African slaves in the 19th Century, will also pay reparations.", "It's the fifth week of mass protests across Israel over government plans to curb the judiciary's powers.", "Doorbell footage of Nicola Bulley outside her home on the day she disappeared is shared with the BBC.", "The Brit School in Croydon has nurtured a host of international music stars, including Adele.", "Harry Kane moves ahead of Jimmy Greaves to become Tottenham's all-time top goalscorer with his 267th goal for the club.", "The ex-PM's comments are the first detailed remarks she has made since she was forced out of No 10.", "Brighton waste company Lord of the Bins say they face the prospect of spending thousands to rebrand.", "Catherine urges others to share photos of early memories to encourage talk about vital childhood years.", "The star is only the 18th person to win each of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award.", "Unite's leader says the PM should intervene, ahead of the biggest week of walkouts in NHS history.", "Police have traced a woman in a yellow coat who was walking on Garstang Road on 27 January.", "Timothy Welch was adopted when he was six weeks old and found his birth mother 58 years later.", "The action will affect two councils a day until 6 February, starting with Glasgow and East Lothian.", "Iranians involved in anti-government demos are among those set to be released.", "Zendaya is among the stars posing for photographers at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles.", "The BBC's Allan Little considers whether the forward march of an independent Scotland has been turned back.", "Recharge Industries is buying Britishvolt, the start-up that collapsed in January.", "The boy is due in court on Monday charged with several driving offences, police say.", "A senior lawyer is investigating eight complaints of bullying against the deputy prime minister.", "The suspension, from 14 March, comes after a Russian missile crossed Moldovan skies.", "A 71-year-old man is the latest person to be detained in connection with the attack.", "From Monday, trans women who have committed violent or sexual offences will be held in male prisons.", "The controversial influencer and his brother Tristan will remain in custody until 29 March.", "Twelve children, including a baby, were among those who died after their boat broke apart in stormy seas.", "People are being urged to be careful as services like gritting and oil spill clearance will be affected.", "Protesters gathered near the presidential palace in Mexico City, and organisers claim 500,000 took part.", "Details of significant events involving dissident republican activity in Northern Ireland since March 2009.", "The government's pilot scheme aims to get more Universal Credit claimants into employment.", "Sir Elton John is among the celebrities who paid tribute to the late actress at a special event.", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell is one of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's best-known detectives.", "Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni urges EU institutions to take action to stop migrant boat crossings.", "Israeli settlers burn Palestinian homes and cars in several villages after two settlers are shot dead.", "Negotiations between the UK and EU have resembled diplomatic Jenga, says the BBC's Chris Mason.", "Investigation finds more than a third of services are giving misleading information or unethical advice.", "The government says the changes will help protect vulnerable children from being forced into marriage.", "The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch says rising work pressure is a risk for staff and patients.", "The federal government says the video app is an \"unacceptable\" risk to privacy and security.", "The first of Nigeria's 36 states announces results, with more expected on Monday morning.", "The Labour leader's comments come as his party warns Poland's economy is on course to overtake the UK.", "Steve Rosenberg looks at why Vladimir Putin set sail in a storm of his own making a year ago.", "There's a lot at stake but a lot to gain from solving the Brexit issues in Northern Ireland.", "Police said the disturbance took place about six hours before Rangers and Celtic were due to kick-off.", "Argentina and Paris St-Germain forward Lionel Messi is named the 2022 men's player of the year at the Best Fifa Awards.", "The cuts account for about 10% of Twitter's remaining 2,000 workers, down from 7,500 in 2022.", "The northern lights were so vibrant on Sunday night they were spotted in Kent and Cornwall.", "Buckingham Palace said the King's meeting with Ursula von der Leyen at Windsor was on government advice.", "The Windsor Framework goes further than many had expected, says one trade body.", "Everything Everywhere All At Once cements its status as a frontrunner following several major wins.", "The final pieces of a Brexit deal between the UK and EU on the NI Protocol are falling in to place.", "Choi's ex-husband and former in-laws have been charged in connection with her murder.", "Rishi Sunak hails the \"breakthrough\" agreement in a joint speech with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.", "Sir Lindsay Hoyle describes her as an \"inspirational woman\" who was known for her \"no-nonsense style\".", "The Thai drug dealer underwent extensive plastic surgery to throw off investigators, police say.", "The PM presents the new EU-UK agreement on post-Brexit trading arrangements to MPs.", "The shooting happened after Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages on Sunday night.", "Orla Guerin reports from Vuhledar, an eastern Ukrainian town Russia is desperate to capture.", "Get all the latest news, live updates and content about the War in Ukraine from across the BBC.", "Police investigating attempted murder of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell given extension to question man, 43.", "The late Sir Terry Pratchett wrote for a regional newspaper under a pseudonym in the 1970s and 80s.", "People raced to the best vantage points to see the skies above Scotland lit up in green, pink and yellow.", "Tommy Fury beats Jake Paul by split decision in arguably the most anticipated eight-round contest between two novices in boxing history.", "What does the new Windsor Framework agreement between the UK and the EU include?", "The former environment secretary said supermarkets have to \"work to get it right\" on supplies.", "The PM says the agreement for Northern Ireland is a breakthrough, as many Tory MPs express support.", "The SNP leadership hopeful raises concerns about her government's recycling initiative.", "The Turkish leader told survivors in one area that tremors and bad weather were to blame.", "Keighley Road in Bradford remains closed following a crash involving two police cars.", "Car production in the UK continued to fall last year, lagging further behind the US and EU.", "Dissident republican group the New IRA has admitted it shot Det Ch Insp John Caldwell in Omagh.", "Twitter's CEO accused US media of racism after multiple newspapers dropped the popular cartoon.", "While clouds may limit seeing the aurora for some, others were treated to a second night of the phenomenon.", "Hugh Hudson's family said he died at Charing Cross Hospital in London after a short illness.", "The union calls the deals from both Network Rail and the train operating companies \"dreadful\".", "Russian participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics \"cannot be covered up with pretend neutrality or a white flag\", says Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.", "The biggest earthquake since 1939 raises questions over whether such a tragedy could have been avoided.", "Merseyside Police say missiles were thrown towards officers after an \"initially peaceful protest\".", "\"I'm aware of my privilege tonight,\" Styles said, naming women who missed out on artist of the year.", "Items belonging to Star Wars actor Peter Mayhew will be returned to his wife after a public appeal.", "Christina Dembinska's art brings people together and prompts thoughts about the buildings' history.", "Ian Lavery says he \"does not owe a single penny\" in tax and has never paid a penalty to HMRC.", "Ten-day-old Yagiz was retrieved from ruins in southern Turkey after almost 100 hours trapped.", "A sidewinder missile fired by an F-22 warplane blew up the object of unknown origin, the US says.", "Sir Jony Ive has designed an emblem of \"optimism\" to be used for the coronation of King Charles.", "Unrest in southern Turkey disrupted rescue efforts in some areas on Saturday, three aid groups say.", "Experts say the use of the inflatable could be intended to send a message to Washington.", "Gwent Police is taking no further action into claims an 11-year-old lost a finger fleeing bullies.", "Mick Lynch says the union will keep talking to rail firms, after it rejected an offer on pay on Friday.", "Paul Ansell says he does not believe Nicola Bulley fell in the river, as police say they are open-minded.", "Raheem Bailey's mum says police took other people's versions of events at \"face value\".", "Thousands of people are already without power as ex-cyclone Gabrielle barrels towards land.", "Styles wins the coveted Album and Artist of the Year prizes.", "Chris Heaton-Harris is forced to leave Derry City's stadium after a security alert near the ground.", "John Tory said the relationship was \"a serious error in judgement\" after it was revealed by a newspaper.", "Vapes should only be used by smokers who want to give up tobacco, health officials continue to warn.", "A police officer and two members of the public suffered minor injuries during the disorder.", "Remarkable tales of survival are still emerging five days after the earthquake struck Turkey and Syria.", "From Harry Styles's giant corsage to Lizzo's gold ruffles - there were plenty of head-turning outfits.", "Friends Tatiana Brandão and Raquel Moreira died while on holiday together in the US.", "Poland's president tells Laura Kuenssberg sending F-16 aircraft would be a \"very serious decision\".", "The women are trying to ensure their children obtain Argentine citizenship, officials say.", "One Turkish hospital is now a hub for unidentified children whose parents are dead or untraceable.", "Newcastle extend their unbeaten run to a club record-equalling 17 league games but have to settle for a point on Eddie Howe's return to Bournemouth.", "One source suggests a legal text is now being looked at where the final details are nailed down.", "The NEU notifies education bodies that its members will join the half-day walkout on 21 February.", "About 70 food parcels were claimed within half an hour of the foodbank opening before Christmas.", "Police say Kiernan Forbes and Tebello Motsoane were killed at close range in the city of Durban.", "The airline's extra services come after rival Wizz Air pulled out of the airport last month.", "Maria Ovsyannikova, who protested live on air last year, is now in France but still fears for her life.", "They travelled to Turkey before the disaster, and some family members are still missing.", "The BBC witnesses the hours-long rescue of Merve and Irem from a collapsed apartment block.", "Finn Russell-inspired Scotland sweep aside Wales 35-7 to win back-to-back games at the start of a Six Nations for the first time.", "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed China was using a \"crew of balloons\" around the world.", "St Mary's Primary School in Fivemiletown is earmarked for closure due to low pupil numbers.", "A survey finds police forces using kit from companies despite alleged \"security and ethical\" fears.", "A rights group criticises the UK after people were evicted from the British territory in the 1960s.", "The Met Police said the inquiry into Ricky Reel's death would \"explore every possible avenue\".", "Multiple sources are reporting a \"flurry of activity\" around the talks between the UK and the EU.", "Poppy Read-Pitt, 20, who believes her drink was spiked in 2020, says little has changed since then.", "Virgin Orbit says a dislodged filter caused a rocket engine to overheat, leading to a malfunction.", "Maria Ponomarenko faces six years for detailing Russia's deadly attack on a theatre in Ukraine.", "A group of MPs urged the government to block the Xinjiang governor's visit.", "He becomes the eighth British man known to have died in Ukraine since the Russian invasion last year.", "UK inflation, a measure of the cost of living, fell to 10.1% in the year to January.", "Ms Sturgeon refused to back anyone as a successor, insisting there was a wealth of talent within the SNP.", "Candidates have until 24 February to put themselves forward, before party members have the opportunity to choose their new leader.", "Only seven people are known to have survived after a boat sank on its way to Europe.", "Detectives say the mother's disappearance was graded as high risk due to \"specific vulnerabilities\".", "The vigils, organised by the transgender community, are held in memory of the stabbed 16-year-old.", "Producers also confirmed a documentary about late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was in the works.", "The surprise departure of the most experienced political leader in the UK throws up many questions.", "The women survived trapped beneath the rubble in Turkey despite freezing conditions.", "The Valentine's Day mural in Margate shows a 1950s housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth.", "Scotland's first minister shared her view on the Tories, Jeremy Clarkson and controversial haircuts.", "A cross-party group tell the first minister of \"extensive concerns\" if the scheme starts in August.", "Sir Keir Starmer says the party has changed permanently under his leadership and \"we are not going back\".", "Two 15-year-olds are charged with the murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey who was stabbed in Warrington.", "A man and a woman are arrested after councillors receive abusive messages over the missing mother.", "The mother-of-two has been missing since 27 January but police say they have no evidence of criminal or third-party involvement.", "The leader of Scotland's biggest teachers' union, the EIS, says officials will discuss the latest proposals.", "The airline's systems are back up after a major IT failure disrupted thousands of passenger's journeys.", "The family of Jonathan Shenkin say he \"died a hero in an act of bravery as a paramedic\".", "Linda Davis, 71, died after being hit by the teenager, who was riding a privately-owned scooter.", "The King is told about the earthquake \"catastrophe\" in Turkey and Syria by those who have lost family.", "With no new pay offer in England, further teacher strikes are set to go ahead this month and next.", "Emma Pattison and Lettie are believed to have been shot by George Pattison before he killed himself.", "Michaela Curran was among the victims who died in separate incidents on Tuesday.", "A toddler becomes the first to be treated by the NHS with a new gene therapy costing £2.875m.", "The former Labour leader attacks a decision to bar him from representing Labour at the next election.", "Administrators confirm that rescue talks have ended without a deal for the troubled airline.", "The inquiry into claims made by Nus Ghani was launched a year ago, but has yet to be completed.", "A part of the artwork, a fridge freezer, will return \"once it has been made safe\", a council says.", "The King's Singers group says the concert in Florida was cancelled with just two hours' notice.", "Golden Globe winner Welch has been credited with paving the way for action heroines in Hollywood.", "Scottish government ministers say they have found £156m to fund a two-year deal amid strikes over pay.", "The mother's problems with drinking were brought on by her struggles with the menopause, police say.", "Wayne Couzens is jailed for life for his premeditated attack on a victim he chose at random.", "The BBC's Scotland editor James Cook considers how history will judge her years in office.", "The role was previously held by high-profile designer Virgil Abloh, who died in 2021.", "Scotland's first minister has been an SNP stalwart since she was a teenager.", "The fast food chain says rising food and energy costs mean its prices are going up.", "The UN says 11 lorries have driven through a reopened border crossing into rebel-held north-west Syria.", "New research suggests that even low amounts of melting can potentially push a glacier towards disappearance.", "The UK Defence Secretary says Putin's forces are suffering \"First World War levels of attrition\" on the battlefield.", "US President Joe Biden personally calls retired Col Paris Davis after a wait of almost sixty years.", "The defence secretary says the Ukraine war has exposed \"vulnerabilities\" as he seeks more money.", "Manchester City return to the top of the Premier League for the first time since November as they leapfrog leaders Arsenal with victory at Emirates Stadium.", "Zholia Alemi worked as a psychiatrist for 22 years after she forged a medical degree, a court hears.", "After eight years as first minister, Ms Sturgeon says her head and her heart say it is the right time to go.", "The White House says the aircraft may have been \"tied to commercial or research entities\".", "Nicola Sturgeon says the party will gather to set out a \"clear pathway\" on the constitution.", "They have rejected a pay offer and are set to take action following a meeting between union officials.", "The gene therapy Libmeldy treats babies and children with a very rare genetic condition.", "Family members affected by the shooting in Buffalo, NY, speak before a life sentence is handed down.", "The 17-year-old had been in a football academy in Leicestershire since late last year.", "The Scottish National Party leader is standing down as first minister after more than eight years.", "Adverts implied that Huel meal replacement shakes saved people money, watchdog says.", "The billionaire is acquitted of bribing witnesses to lie about his notorious \"bunga-bunga\" parties.", "The energy watchdog has told suppliers to halt forced installations until the end of March 2023.", "The Attorney General's Office has had multiple complaints David Carrick's sentence is too lenient.", "Health officials reportedly take precautions to protect Aya from kidnapping and adoption fraud.", "One of his offences was committed four days before the then-Met PC abducted Sarah Everard.", "The 32-year-old surrenders to police with his hands up, a court hears.", "Fake Russian spies helped expose David Ballantyne Smith for sharing data with Russia, a court hears.", "The environment secretary says shortages of some fruit and vegetables could go on for up to four weeks.", "The 23-year-old loses her appeal on national security grounds, which means she cannot return to the UK.", "The resolution is approved by 141 countries, with just seven - including Russia - opposing it.", "Tim Davie says nothing is more important than reporting impartially, after officials search BBC offices.", "Police and environmental regulators are investigating the fuel spill in Carmarthenshire.", "The deputy FM had questioned whether her gay marriage stance made her an appropriate candidate.", "Kyle Sambrook, from West Yorkshire, was believed to have planned to climb mountain Buachaille Etive Mòr.", "The project receives funding to pilot a newly-developed app to combat demand for abuse images.", "Audit Scotland urged ministers to be transparent about how long it will take to reduce hospital backlogs.", "Legendary commentator John Motson was \"the voice of football\" who \"always got the mood and the occasion right\", says former England striker Gary Lineker.", "Manchester United come from a goal down to reach the Europa League last 16 and knock out Barcelona in the process.", "A quarter of children in England were persistently absent last term, up from 13.1% in autumn 2019.", "Ynys Enlli, also known as Bardsey Island, officially has one of the best night skies in the world.", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell is one of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's best-known detectives.", "The military has said it is \"fully aware\" of efforts by China to conduct surveillance in the north.", "The defence secretary criticises \"junior minister\" Johnny Mercer in spat over armed forces spending.", "Charles praises the \"remarkable courage\" of Ukrainians on the anniversary of the Russian invasion.", "The ball, dubbed \"Godzilla egg\", has perplexed locals and set off widespread speculation.", "George Gardiner lives alone in the precarious property in Luccombe on the Isle of Wight.", "Sir Iain Livingstone has been the country's top police officer since taking over the role in 2018.", "The former film magnate receives an additional 16 years in prison following his Los Angeles trial.", "Authorities say the object is not a threat, but it remains the subject of much speculation.", "It comes after Zara Aleena's family tell of the pain caused by her murderer not being in court.", "Legendary football commentator John Motson, who had an illustrious 50-year career with the BBC, dies aged 77.", "Almost 110,000 people have been waiting for a decision for six months or more, according to new data.", "Jenny Pearson did not know the extent of her father's abuse until broadcaster Nicky Campbell spoke out.", "Eric R. Holder, Jr. receives 60 years to life for the murder of the Grammy-nominated rapper in LA.", "The image, shot from the plane cockpit, reportedly has \"legendary status\" within the Pentagon.", "The Home Office is to scrap face-to-face interviews for asylum seekers from five countries.", "The grocers join Asda and Morrisons in limiting sales due to shortages of certain produce.", "Cabinet minister says consumers should \"cherish\" home-grown produce as shops limit sales of some items.", "The number of medical staff working at the O2 Academy Brixton did not match industry recommendations.", "The plans form part of a consultation on how to tackle sexual harassment in English universities.", "Rachael Humphreys says she has \"just been left\" to deal with a \"debilitating\" rare disease.", "The General Assembly votes 141-7 for a draft resolution demanding an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces.", "EIS members are walking out in the constituencies of senior politicians in the ongoing row over pay.", "More than 80 people also suffer bullet wounds after troops surround a house with militants inside.", "Official figures reveal nearly four in 10 adults in England and Wales have never been married.", "BBC News Ireland correspondent Chris Page says emerging details paint a horrifying picture", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell is critically ill after being shot multiple times in Omagh.", "More than 40 people have been killed in landslides which hit coastal towns in Brazil's São Paulo state.", "The Oscar-nominated actor reveals he confronted a fan who \"put her hand on my ass\".", "Lancashire Police received a backlash for revealing personal details about the missing mother.", "The officer was shot at a sports centre - reportedly multiple times - in Omagh, County Tyrone.", "The performance comes on the heels of her solo Super Bowl halftime show earlier this month.", "Researchers quizzed 65 AI experts on which tasks robots are likely to do in the near future.", "Five famous lines from iconic BBC football commentator John Motson, who has died aged 77.", "The V&A museum has acquired more than 80,000 letters, photographs and costumes from the rock icon.", "Blocking clubs from joining a breakaway European Super League will be among the powers held by English football's new independent regulator.", "Details of significant events involving dissident republican activity in Northern Ireland since March 2009.", "The SNP leadership hopeful says she is \"heartsore\" after criticism over her comments on gay marriage.", "António Guterres calls Russia's invasion an \"affront\" to the world's collective conscience.", "The Labour leader vows to give Britain its future back if he wins power, in major policy speech.", "Industry group UK Steel welcomes plans for help, but says there could be more cuts before support begins.", "Dani Czernuszka suffered a permanent spinal injury when her opponent executed a \"red mist\" tackle.", "The prominent lawyer from South Carolina was grilled over the killings of his wife and son.", "Samba school Imperatriz Leopoldinense wins the title of this year's carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro.", "Dylan Lyons is named as the journalist killed while reporting the fatal shooting of a woman in Orlando.", "Police say John Caldwell is in a critical condition after the \"brazen\" attack in County Tyrone.", "The protest in west London comes ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.", "The organisation, which has around 32,000 employees, says the measure is to increase cybersecurity.", "The disgraced singer is sentenced to 20 years, but 19 will be served alongside an existing term.", "People in Omagh express shock and disgust at the shooting of senior police officer John Caldwell.", "The unit has \"run many scenarios\" in the wake of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at last year's show.", "The pair, both in their early 20s, were reportedly convicted for promoting corruption and propaganda.", "A schoolgirl tells a murder trial that two-year-old Jellica Burke was killed in a house in Dundee.", "Small businesses tell the BBC they are facing delays and losing money as overseas post is stopped.", "Police investigate claims that firefighters took photos of women who had died in car accidents.", "A four-year-old girl, named locally as Alice Stones, was killed by a family pet, police say.", "The man, aged about 70, was seen in the River Wyre area around the time Nicola Bulley disappeared.", "The FBI removed \"materials and handwritten notes\" reportedly from Mr Biden's time as vice president.", "Both the UK and EU have told the BBC challenges remain on reaching an overall agreement.", "The former president, accused of inflating property values, refused to answer questions at his deposition.", "Louise Kam, 71, disappeared in July 2021 and was later found dumped in a rubbish bin.", "Rishi Sunak's aides refuse to say whether he was informally warned about bullying claims against his deputy.", "Shane Whitla, 39, died after he sustained gunshot wounds in Lurgan on 12 January.", "More than half of state-funded schools in England were closed or partially closed, according to government figures.", "Protesters urge the public to stay at home as the military is hit by new Western sanctions.", "London Fire Brigade apologises after it is revealed a male firefighter used the selfie on Tinder.", "Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab is under investigation after being accused of bullying.", "The accident happened near Baker Street in London on Tuesday evening.", "It's not surprising that 2023 has been met with more industrial action, but how can both sides end it?", "The former UN ambassador will reportedly announce a presidential run at an event on 15 February.", "James Gunn made the comments while announcing the franchise's new raft of superhero titles.", "Civil servants, higher education staff and some rail workers join teachers in a co-ordinated day of action.", "Kim Johnson was ordered by Labour Party bosses to retract her description of Israel's government.", "Jermaine Jackson's son Jaafar, 26, will play the lead role in the film, simply titled Michael.", "The regime increasingly uses air strikes to crush resistance that emerged after the coup two years ago.", "Josh Maunder, who was 15 when his virus crashed websites globally, gets a suspended sentence.", "With school teachers, train drivers and civil servants all striking, what do you need to know?", "The price energy suppliers pay for electricity is linked to the price of gas-fired generation.", "Amelie Cummins' parents took a case after a school said she had to start 15 minutes later than others.", "The star cancels all his upcoming shows, as he struggles to recover from an accident four years ago.", "One officer was stabbed in the neck and the other suffered cuts to his face on Wednesday morning.", "The Labour leader accuses the PM of being too weak to sack the deputy PM over bullying allegations, but Mr Sunak says he is following the correct procedures.", "The 30-year-old loses custody of his daughter after leaving her home alone to go drinking.", "Kyiv says Russia has amassed 500,000 men for an attack in the coming weeks.", "Teachers are striking in two local authorities per day from 16 January until 6 February.", "Thousands of workers in Scotland have joined the UK's biggest day of industrial action in a decade.", "Former Sheffield MP Jared O'Mara is alleged to have submitted fake invoices worth nearly £30,000.", "As teachers prepare to strike, parents and businesses grapple with the uncertainty it's causing.", "Prosecutors accuse the actor of many \"extremely reckless acts\" as he is charged with an on-set death.", "The child was attacked in the back garden of a house in Milton Keynes, police say.", "Spire is contacting patients seen by jailed surgeon Ian Paterson between 1993 and the early 2000s.", "The regime increasingly uses air strikes to crush resistance that emerged after the coup two years ago.", "Dáithí's Law would introduce a transplant opt-out system but has been held up at Stormont.", "Gareth Thomas's former partner says the settlement has brought closure following his HIV diagnosis.", "A bus was burnt and police attacked in April 2021 in the worst rioting Northern Ireland had seen in years.", "The cosmic ball of ice and dust is about to make its closest approach to our planet.", "The British transfer record was shattered on deadline day as Premier League clubs smashed previous spending records in the January transfer window.", "Families of those killed in the worst atrocity of the Troubles await NI secretary's inquiry decision.", "Legendary quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady says he is retiring after 23 seasons in the NFL.", "Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Southampton, Newcastle - what does Phil McNulty make of Premier League clubs' transfer window deals?", "Police forces promise \"cultural change\" as they respond to a critical report into the 1989 disaster.", "Thousands are in Memphis to mourn the 29-year-old father who was fatally beaten by police.", "BBC News NI speaks to victims of non-fatal strangulation, an offence not fully legislated for in NI.", "The controversial influencer has been held by authorities alongside his brother since December.", "The shift to casual wear for the bank's UK branch staff comes after BA unveiled jumpsuits for cabin crew.", "The cold on Mount Washington in New Hampshire on Friday was producing a wind chill of -108F (-77C).", "The price of the average property in January was £258,297, a decline of 0.6% on December.", "The campaign for the British actress sparked a Hollywood debate after her surprise nomination.", "Petr Pavel tells the BBC Ukraine is morally and practically ready to join Nato after the war is over.", "A Viking leader probably chose his favourite animals to board a longboat to England, scientists say.", "The plans, which have not been formally submitted, come as the firm struggles with high energy prices.", "The 32-year-old is taken into custody on suspicion of the murder of Natalie McNally last December.", "The British Museum has announced thousands of treasure discoveries by metal detectorists.", "Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has denied allegations that he bullied civil servants.", "Demand for tickets is expected to be high to see the star take her Renaissance album on the road.", "Emergency services \"literally found the needle in the haystack\", authorities have said.", "Kaylea, 16, was found dead at home, weighing almost 23 stone and on soiled sheets, a court hears.", "The US central bank announces its smallest rate rise in nearly a year.", "The star, whose debut album was held in limbo for years, explains how she escaped her darkest days.", "More than half of schools restricted access or closed in England, government estimates suggest.", "Wales High School in Rotherham will be closing to most pupils when teachers strike over pay on Wednesday.", "Choirs are banned from singing the \"problematic\" classic, which has long been popular with fans.", "A guide to where industrial action is happening and what it could mean for you.", "The car retailer said data that may have been stolen included bank details and ID documents.", "Chelsea sign Benfica's Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez for a British record 121m euro (£107m) fee.", "Proposals are being set out as scandals and tumbling values raise questions about the industry's future.", "A damning report on North East Ambulance Service highlights concerns over management of medicines.", "The chatbot has been used millions of times since its public launch last year.", "Alfie is now \"living in fear and scared to go outside\", claims his mother Sue.", "The tightening of regulations may lead to criminal records for those flouting them, a new policy says.", "The mother of the man who died after a beating by police officers gives a tearful address at his funeral in Memphis.", "Teachers, university workers, civil servants, train and bus drivers are all striking on 1 February.", "Residents took legal action saying visitors were looking into their homes from the viewing platform.", "Manchester United ease past Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup semi-final to book a 1999 Wembley rematch with Newcastle.", "Which? measured the caffeine in drinks at five big coffee chains and found \"huge differences\".", "The firm behind The Press and Journal, The Courier and Beano is shedding 19% of its workforce,", "A mother and her three sons are sentenced to terms in prison, ranging up to three years in length.", "UK and US announce rare joint action against the men, including freezing their assets.", "Two children were killed and six others were injured in the incident near Montreal on Wednesday.", "The Ukrainian leader visited the UK on Wednesday and made a plea for fighter jets.", "Tom Bateman was reporting from Adana, Turkey, when asked to be be quiet.", "President Zelensky steps up calls for the West to supply fighter jets to Ukraine, on a surprise visit to the UK.", "Rearing a son is a lifelong cost for a killer whale mother, a decades-long study reveals.", "The 12-year-old was found unconscious at his home and died after a legal battle over life support.", "Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke in Westminster Hall and met King Charles at Buckingham Palace.", "Divers say Nicola Bulley is \"categorically not\" in the section of river where police think she fell.", "Jared O'Mara is jailed for four years after fraudulently trying to claim about £52,000 in taxpayer money.", "Tens of thousands of people have spent a freezing-cold fourth night in makeshift shelters.", "Vital UN deliveries to the opposition-held region were halted for four days due to road damage.", "Recep Tayyip Erdogan defends the government's response as Syria struggles to get much needed aid.", "Andrew Miller, 53, appeared in private at Selkirk Sheriff Court over the girl's disappearance.", "The musician wrote enduring classics like Walk On By and I Say A Little Prayer.", "Thousands are sheltering in makeshift camps like the one set up in heart of this neighbourhood reduced to rubble by Monday's earthquakes.", "The aircraft was hit by a Russian-made missile in eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people.", "The mouse, weighing about the same as three pennies, is named after Star Trek's Sir Patrick Stewart.", "Press regulator Ipso received more than 25,000 complaints about the piece published in the Sun.", "Emma Pattison and her young daughter were shot by George Pattison before he killed himself.", "Joann Randles wins best press portrait prize after taking up the profession during the pandemic.", "Helen Hewlett is convicted of soliciting the murder of a man she met at the Linda McCartney factory.", "There are fears the £30 weekly allowance is not enough amid the cost of living crisis.", "There are signs Russia is preparing a new offensive - James Waterhouse in Kyiv looks at the targets.", "The Ukrainian president's speech to Westminster Hall makes a deep impression on MPs.", "Remarkable tales of survival are still emerging five days after the earthquake struck Turkey and Syria.", "The baby girl was rescued from a collapsed building in Syria, but her mother died after the birth.", "A lawyer-led inquiry accuses the union's leadership of a \"wilful blindness\" to bad behaviour.", "After a slow initial response, roads into the city are now gridlocked with aid vehicles arriving.", "The Elon Musk company ignites 31 engines at the base of its huge new rocket system, Starship.", "Police search teams move \"further downstream\" and then out towards the sea at Morecambe Bay.", "US lawmakers have also passed a non-binding resolution condemning China use of the balloon.", "The move does not change the Church's teaching that marriage is only between a man and a woman.", "Commonly used antibiotics can seriously damage the hearing of some babies.", "Jared O'Mara is convicted of trying to claim almost £24,000 to fund a cocaine habit.", "The independent body which sets the figure says it is in line with public sector pay rises last year.", "After convincing the West to supply tanks, Ukraine's president is now on a mission to get aircraft.", "This small Ukrainian city has been at the centre of an epic six-month battle on the front line.", "Ukraine's president tells EU leaders in Brussels that his country's fight is not just to defend Ukraine, but Europe's way of life.", "Customers in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain need to pay an extra fee to share their subscription.", "UK Border Force staff based at Calais, Dunkirk and Dover will walk out next Friday, which could cause delays.", "NHS performance figures in England show pressure eased in January - but concerns remain.", "A protest was held after the suspected racially aggravated assault on the girl in Surrey.", "The show will see \"musical icons and contemporary stars\" perform at Windsor Castle, in May.", "What you need to know about the ambulance workers' strike and other industrial action, by the BBC's Zoe Conway.", "A school group of 39 people were in a hotel in southern Turkey when the building collapsed.", "It comes after the former PM's latest declaration of a £2.5m advance payment for speaking events.", "Jadon Sancho scores on his Premier League return as Manchester United recover from two goals down to draw with Leeds.", "Scotland's councils consider cutting jobs and services, and council tax rises in a bid to balance books.", "Members of the National Education Union in Wales will be consulted on the new pay offer.", "Strike dates have been put on hold while union members are balloted over an improved pay offer.", "The MP repeatedly asks the presenter if she has ever lied after being challenged about dishonesty.", "Transgender prisoners will initially be sent to jails according to their sex at birth.", "The Duchess of Cornwall is reunited with Jim Embury during a visit to Cornwall.", "Some users reported being notified they were over the tweet-per-day limit, even if they had not posted.", "Lee Anderson expressed the view in an interview a few days before he was appointed to the role.", "US officials say the object is part of a wider fleet of balloons that has spanned five continents.", "The ex-culture secretary and Mid Bedfordshire MP blames her party's decision to oust Boris Johnson.", "Kim Errington gave birth to her daughter Elfi almost two years after she lost her son Teddy.", "United States forward Alex Morgan says a potential Visit Saudi sponsorship deal for the 2023 Women's World Cup is \"bizarre\".", "As rescuers look for earthquake survivors in Turkey, loved ones in the UK watch the search remotely.", "Excessive use of restraint and poor practice is exposed at a mental health hospital.", "The former US president's feeds, which have tens of millions of followers, have been restored.", "Days after Turkey's devastating earthquake, there are still some moments of joy, but they are fewer.", "Ferry operator P&O is advising passengers to use the toilet before arriving at the port of Calais.", "The French president reaffirms support for Kyiv but hints that talks with Russia are a final goal.", "England swiftly wrap up a superb 267-run victory over New Zealand on the fourth day of the first Test in Mount Maunganui.", "The BBC has seen a redacted letter sent on behalf of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan.", "The former PM has urged Rishi Sunak not to drop the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which he introduced.", "Dreamland says it \"jumped at the chance\" when it was asked to be the new home to the piece.", "The presenter anchored the five-hour live TV marathon every Saturday between 1968 and 1985.", "Manchester City miss the opportunity to return to the top of the Premier League as Chris Wood's late goal earns Nottingham Forest a point.", "BMA members have been balloted over a junior doctors strike, with the result expected on Monday,", "Veteran presenter Rachid M'Barki accused of running stories planted by an Israel-based organisation.", "Leigh Wood's reign as WBA featherweight champion is over after the Briton loses to hard-hitting Mauricio Lara in Nottingham.", "The row has increased the two countries' distrust and threatens to polarise the global community.", "Residents are described as being in shock, with a concert cancelled as a mark of respect.", "The move comes after Twitter introduced a subscription-based verification service last year.", "Penny Mordaunt says the government has committed to increasing its defence spending to support Ukraine.", "Steve Davies hopes to address the surfing industry's environmental impact - with mushrooms.", "Iran International says it's leaving the UK because of threats against its London-based journalists.", "Searches will only continue in Kahramanmaras and Hatay, the country's disaster agency said.", "Police divers and a helicopter are seen near to where the mother-of-two disappeared three weeks ago.", "The iconic Balloon Dog was knocked to the ground by an art collector in Miami.", "A third Menai crossing to Anglesey is \"not happening any time soon\", says Lee Waters.", "An aide to the Ukrainian city's exiled mayor says Russia is trying to cover up its crimes.", "The Hollywood actor says he wants to \"stick it\" to Ryan Reynolds by scoring the winning goal.", "The former president will spend his remaining time at home with his family, the Carter Center said.", "The NI Protocol bill reminds the EU of the \"bar\" it must meet in Brexit talks with the UK, the Commons leader says.", "Viola Davis, Michelle Yeoh and Eddie Redmayne are among the stars gathering in London for the ceremony.", "Officers searching for the missing mother-of two say they have found a body in the River Wyre.", "The health secretary and former minister are the first candidates to declare they will run.", "A former police boss defends Lancashire Police's investigation into her disappearance.", "Commons leader says disclosure of Nicola Bulley's health \"really does grate with a lot of women\".", "The ex-girlfriend of Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev says he emotionally abused her in their 18-month relationship.", "The Welshman says he is \"coming back\" to his former self after treatment for head and neck cancer.", "A 20-year tour guide takes the BBC into the Turkish city, where his usual reference points are in ruins.", "In three crucial ways, the landscape shifted - and the result could shape the next general election.", "The 61-year-old hillwalker was found \"cold but alert\" after two nights missing on the Isle of Skye.", "Police launch a murder investigation after a woman dies in a suspected knife attack.", "Kamala Harris was speaking at a security conference, where leaders called for long-term support of Ukraine.", "The coronation service for King Charles will feature 12 newly-commissioned pieces of music.", "The French leader wants to give Vladimir Putin an \"exit ramp\", but Ukraine rejects that stance.", "Hundreds attend a rally in support of refugees after violence outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.", "Laurel Aldridge, described as \"very vulnerable\", has gone missing from Arundel in West Sussex.", "The inside story of how Rishi Sunak tried to sell his deal to the party and what could happen next.", "Allies must give advanced Nato-standard equipment and long-term security assurances, Sunak says.", "Syria's army says a soldier is among the dead, after rockets hit a high-security area of the capital.", "What you need to know about ambulance and Border Force workers' strikes, by the BBC's Zoe Conway.", "The US said China was considering \"lethal support\" for Russia in Ukraine - a claim denied by Beijing.", "Up to 104 homes were damaged by insulation installed as part of an energy efficiency scheme.", "A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey, demolishing buildings in Malatya and trapping people.", "Many more victims are likely to be discovered in Turkey and Syria, the World Health Organisation says.", "Former Met Police officer David Carrick is being sentenced for dozens of rape and sexual offences.", "The Treasury and Bank of England will formally start a consultation for the digital currency, on Tuesday.", "Andrew Innes will spend at least 36 years in prison for killing Bennylyn and Jellica Burke after luring them to Dundee.", "Pope Francis said laws which criminalise homosexuality were a sin and \"an injustice\".", "A British woman tells the BBC how the influencer persuaded her to work for his webcam business.", "Magistrates have been told to stop authorising warrants for energy firms to forcibly install prepayment meters.", "Drone footage shows the earthquake aftermath and the search and rescue operation in Idlib, Syria.", "Photos from Turkey and Syria show collapsed buildings and devastation across the region.", "The novelist was stabbed at a talk in the US last year and says he's found it hard to write since.", "Officials in western Austria warned winter sports enthusiasts of dangerous conditions in the area.", "The Premier League charges Manchester City with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules following a four-year investigation.", "Unite union ambulance staff begin two-day action as the GMB calls off walkout to consider pay offer.", "Footage showed widespread devastation at the 2,000-year-old Gaziantep Castle.", "A child is pulled from the rubble after a deadly earthquake shakes Syria and Turkey.", "Recharge Industries is named preferred bidder for collapsed battery firm Britishvolt.", "The future of internet search could be transformed by this new tech, writes BBC tech editor Zoe Kleinman.", "Current rules disproportionately affect young and ethnic minority workers, a think tank says.", "What you need to know about strikes by nurses and ambulance workers by the BBC's Zoe Conway.", "Analysts say the huge interest on eBay, Etsy and TikTok is driven by young people wanting old technology.", "Grant Shapps, who briefly served in Liz Truss's cabinet, said inflation must fall before taxes are cut.", "The government puts out its Coronation song choices, but takes down a Dizzee Rascal track.", "There are signs Russia is preparing a new offensive - James Waterhouse in Kyiv looks at the targets.", "The Scottish company, which used to be known as Mackays, employs almost 2,000 people across the UK.", "The man fell from Gribin Ridge in Eryri, also known as Snowdonia after a handhold broke away.", "Experts believe contents from the wreckage are the key to uncovering its purpose and capabilities.", "Stonework around the Swilcan Bridge at St Andrews - which was compared to a \"DIY patio\" - has been removed.", "Union bosses say they have called off the strike later this month due to a legal challenge.", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen since walking next to a river in Lancashire 10 days ago.", "A new course will teach student high-demand sustainability skills through non-traditional teaching.", "Families in some badly-hit areas complain say they've had no help, as the death toll passes 12,000.", "A large Russian attack is likely to come from the east and south, Kyiv says.", "The US is trying to recover debris from the suspected spy balloon off South Carolina.", "The sheer scale of devastation can be seen in social media posts - verified by the BBC.", "Climate Wiseman told his congregation they would \"drop dead\" if they did not buy his kits.", "Rishi Sunak has a minibus full of predecessors who could end up as backseat drivers - with Liz Truss the latest to lurch towards the wheel.", "Epsom College head Emma Pattison is described as a \"warm, energetic, compassionate leader\".", "Critics and fans praise the show's \"sensational\" ending, calling it a \"heart-stopping triumph\".", "More than 1,600 people are killed in Syria after a huge earthquake strikes neighbouring Turkey.", "A three-month-old baby is among the young victims of the stabbings at a house in Huddersfield.", "Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Greg Cackett and Arran Gulliver finish joint second to claim Britain's first four-man medal at the World Championships since 1939.", "The former officer receives 36 life sentences after pleading guilty to 85 offences, including multiple rapes.", "All the looks from music's biggest stars at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.", "A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck south-east Turkey, demolishing buildings and killing scores of people.", "Doorbell footage of Nicola Bulley outside her home on the day she disappeared is shared with the BBC.", "Harry Kane moves ahead of Jimmy Greaves to become Tottenham's all-time top goalscorer with his 267th goal for the club.", "An official says the size of the object informed the decision not to shoot it down before Saturday.", "A Chinese spokeswoman says the aircraft is for civilian use, but \"deviated\" from its intended route.", "Leeds United sack manager Jesse Marsch after less than a year in charge.", "The poles are not known for being noisy but a project reveals their weird and wonderful sounds.", "The tech giant says its new Artificial Intelligence-powered chatbot will roll out in the coming weeks.", "Members of the Turkish community are awaiting news about family as the earthquake death toll rises.", "The star is only the 18th person to win each of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award.", "The kit is small enough to fit through a letterbox and arrives in plain packaging through the post.", "Unite's leader says the PM should intervene, ahead of the biggest week of walkouts in NHS history.", "The prospective staffer has asked the House ethics panel to look into a sexual misconduct claim.", "\"There is an earthquake,\" one man said to his family. \"At least let's die together in the same place.\"", "Timothy Welch was adopted when he was six weeks old and found his birth mother 58 years later.", "Nicola Bulley's partner says their two girls \"miss their mummy desperately\" and \"need her back\".", "Pop star Harry Styles wins album of the year, while Beyoncé receives a record-breaking 32nd trophy.", "Michelle Exton's daughter says the family wants to get her mother the justice she deserves.", "The BBC revealed last year that a senior Met officer who assisted the Kenyan investigation \"omitted evidence\".", "Emergency services were called to the coast of Greenock after it overturned on Friday afternoon.", "The Scottish presenter will host his final show next week, after 31 years in the role.", "After briefing heavily that a deal was to be published this week, the PM is now stuck in a red lane.", "Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are named in the squad for the club's US debut this summer.", "There is no evidence bird flu will start spreading between people but experts are preparing for any scenario.", "Christie Harnett, Emily Moore and a third person died while under the care of a mental health trust.", "The resolution is approved by 141 countries, with just seven - including Russia - opposing it.", "Experts say time is running out to solve the storage crisis that has long plagued archaeology.", "Simon Armitage has written a poem about one of the country's most romantic trains.", "Bosses of the messaging app fear the Online Safety Bill could force it to weaken its users' security.", "Orla Guerin reports from Vuhledar, an eastern Ukrainian town Russia is desperate to capture.", "Legendary commentator John Motson was \"the voice of football\" who \"always got the mood and the occasion right\", says former England striker Gary Lineker.", "As the first anniversary of Russia's invasion nears, Newsround reporter Ricky Boleto spent a week in Ukraine to talk to children about the impact the conflict is having on them.", "Manchester United come from a goal down to reach the Europa League last 16 and knock out Barcelona in the process.", "A quarter of children in England were persistently absent last term, up from 13.1% in autumn 2019.", "The investigation into the video-sharing platform will have a particular focus on younger users.", "Chief Constable Simon Byrne spoke alongside Stormont's five main parties after Wednesday's attack.", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell is critically ill after being attacked in front of his son at a sports club.", "The South Carolina legal heir weeps as he recalls finding his wife and son dead, but denies murder.", "As the first German-made tanks arrive in Ukraine, President Zelensky urges allies to stick to their promises and deadlines.", "How Russia's plan to overthrow Ukraine's government ended in embarrassing failure.", "The Emmy-winning show's creator Jesse Armstrong says it feels like the right time for it to end.", "Ceremonies are taking place across the world to mark the anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion.", "Kent apple growers say rising costs mean they can no longer afford to continue growing the fruit.", "Charles praises the \"remarkable courage\" of Ukrainians on the anniversary of the Russian invasion.", "A magnificent 184 not out from Harry Brook puts England in the ascendancy on day one of the second Test against New Zealand.", "The University of Warwick says it has reversed its decision and offered its \"sincere apologies\".", "UK growers delay planting crops due to high energy prices, producers say.", "Unions representing workers like bin collectors and social workers will now consider the offer.", "Sir Iain Livingstone has been the country's top police officer since taking over the role in 2018.", "The former film magnate receives an additional 16 years in prison following his Los Angeles trial.", "The actress was among the speakers at a vigil held at Trafalgar Square to mark one year since the war began.", "It comes after Zara Aleena's family tell of the pain caused by her murderer not being in court.", "For children whose parents are in the armed forces, saying goodbye becomes part of life.", "The father and daughter in disagreement over the war that killed a beloved brother and son.", "The TSSA union says its 3,000 members have accepted an offer including a two-year 9% pay deal.", "Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf are competing to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and first minister.", "Huw Rowlands and Deian Thomas have set up a company to reignite the local cheese-making tradition", "Cabinet minister says consumers should \"cherish\" home-grown produce as shops limit sales of some items.", "The singer pays for a day's worth of scans and pledges to do more.", "Abdul and Mohammed Ahmed Rabbani were arrested in Pakistan in 2002. They were never charged by the US.", "The US will soon send the first of its Abrams tanks to Ukraine, but Poland has stopped sending weapons.", "BBC News Ireland correspondent Chris Page says emerging details paint a horrifying picture", "The major throughway, Interstate 5, is now closed in California due to intensifying weather.", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell is critically ill after being shot multiple times in Omagh.", "Pupils at a Merseyside school claim they have had their skirt length inspected by male teachers.", "While overall price rises in the UK slow, food inflation may not have peaked yet, research suggests.", "Get all the latest news, live updates and content about the War in Ukraine from across the BBC.", "Western leaders may be unimpressed - but convincing them was never likely the main goal for Beijing.", "The former journalist served as press secretary throughout Baroness Thatcher's 11 years as prime minister.", "About 3,000 tickets to the song contest will also be made available for Ukrainians living in the UK.", "The performance comes on the heels of her solo Super Bowl halftime show earlier this month.", "They are walking out over pay and want an increase to make up for 15 years of inflation.", "Venus, Jupiter and the Moon were aligned and could be seen with the naked eye on Wednesday night", "For decades people have been walking past a hidden gem at number 23 Fettes Row in Edinburgh.", "Details of significant events involving dissident republican activity in Northern Ireland since March 2009.", "Five refugees who left Ukraine and moved to London reflect on how their lives have changed.", "António Guterres calls Russia's invasion an \"affront\" to the world's collective conscience.", "The Labour leader vows to give Britain its future back if he wins power, in major policy speech.", "Steve Rosenberg looks at why Vladimir Putin set sail in a storm of his own making a year ago.", "Beijing's call for a Ukraine war ceasefire shows China is involved in the search for peace, Ukraine's leader says.", "Repair firm says there is no industry standard training for fixing smartphones and other devices.", "Dani Czernuszka suffered a permanent spinal injury when her opponent executed a \"red mist\" tackle.", "Jeremy Bowen catches up with two Ukrainian students who chose to fight when Russia's invasion began.", "Police say John Caldwell is in a critical condition after the \"brazen\" attack in County Tyrone.", "A deal could be announced in the coming days after more than a year of talks, sources tell the BBC.", "His original books will now be printed unaltered, after the decision to update them was criticised.", "People in Omagh express shock and disgust at the shooting of senior police officer John Caldwell.", "The Ukrainian president addresses his people one year on from the start of the Russian invasion.", "Brianna Ghey, 16, was found with multiple stab wounds in a park in Warrington on Saturday.", "\"We've received nothing but God's mercy,\" one earthquake survivor tells Quentin Sommerville.", "The biggest earthquake since 1939 raises questions over whether such a tragedy could have been avoided.", "\"I'm aware of my privilege tonight,\" Styles said, naming women who missed out on artist of the year.", "He is accused of assaulting an emergency worker after disorder outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.", "Mae Stephens wrote her kiss-off to an ex while working shifts in a supermarket.", "Authorities issue warnings of heavy rain and winds, as hundreds of flights are cancelled.", "Unrest in southern Turkey disrupted rescue efforts in some areas on Saturday, three aid groups say.", "Raheem Bailey's mum says police took other people's versions of events at \"face value\".", "Thousands of people are already without power as ex-cyclone Gabrielle barrels towards land.", "In Bakhmut, Orla Guerin speaks to Ukrainian defenders doggedly holding off fierce Russian attacks.", "Why is it still so hard for disabled people to have easy online access to event tickets in 2023?", "England claim a first win of Steve Borthwick's tenure with a pragmatic bonus-point win over Italy in the Six Nations at Twickenham.", "The comic celebrity chatted with fans before watching Wrexham AFC's win on Saturday afternoon.", "A police officer and two members of the public suffered minor injuries during the disorder.", "A committee says Richard Sharp should \"consider the impact his omissions will have\" on trust in the BBC.", "From Harry Styles's giant corsage to Lizzo's gold ruffles - there were plenty of head-turning outfits.", "Poland's president tells Laura Kuenssberg sending F-16 aircraft would be a \"very serious decision\".", "The women are trying to ensure their children obtain Argentine citizenship, officials say.", "Quentin Sommerville is in the town of Harem in Idlib, where around 700 houses were destroyed.", "Footage shows collapsed buildings and makeshift camps in the rebel-held town of Harem in Idlib.", "Sky Brown has become Great Britain's first skateboarding world champion at the age of 14.", "Richard Wakeling, one of the UK's most wanted criminals, is arrested after fleeing in 2018.", "Southampton sack manager Nathan Jones after just three months in charge with the club bottom of the Premier League.", "Newcastle extend their unbeaten run to a club record-equalling 17 league games but have to settle for a point on Eddie Howe's return to Bournemouth.", "Manchester City beat Aston Villa in their first game since being accused of more than 100 rule breaches by the Premier League.", "Unverified Ukrainian data shows 824 dying per day - the UK says the trends are \"likely accurate\".", "A cave in Canada has been declared a globally significant location to preserve this rare amphipod.", "\"We need you home\" reads one message left on a bridge, as search for missing mother continues.", "Police say Kiernan Forbes and Tebello Motsoane were killed at close range in the city of Durban.", "Shadow levelling-up secretary Lisa Nandy says the integrity of the BBC is far more important than the position of one individual.", "Staffordshire Police says Georgian Constantin, from Stoke-on-Trent, might have travelled to London.", "Richard Sharp's position is \"extremely difficult\" following MPs' report, says SNP's John Nicolson.", "A spate of high-altitude objects have been shot down in North American airspace in recent days.", "A seven-month-old baby and 12-year-old girl are among those pulled from the rubble.", "But Andrew Mitchell admits helping the nation is \"difficult\", amid criticism of the global response.", "The BBC witnesses the hours-long rescue of Merve and Irem from a collapsed apartment block.", "Finn Russell-inspired Scotland sweep aside Wales 35-7 to win back-to-back games at the start of a Six Nations for the first time.", "The two 15-year-olds are being held on suspicion of murdering the 16-year-old girl in Warrington.", "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed China was using a \"crew of balloons\" around the world.", "The Royal College of Nursing is considering a 48-hour strike in England as a row over pay intensifies.", "Killing Eve star Jodie Comer was named best performer for her role in sexual assault drama Prima Facie.", "Before the earthquake, there were amnesties for contractors who swerved regulations.", "William MacDowell was convicted of the murders of Renee MacRae and her toddler son Andrew last year.", "Roger, 69, is well enough to go home from hospital - but like many others, he cannot be discharged.", "Police faced a backlash for revealing personal details of missing Nicola Bulley's struggles.", "The schemes for homes and businesses are part of plans to help cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.", "Ms Sturgeon refused to back anyone as a successor, insisting there was a wealth of talent within the SNP.", "Police are investigating unprecedented numbers of plots from hostile states, led by Russia, China and Iran.", "Candidates have until 24 February to put themselves forward, before party members have the opportunity to choose their new leader.", "Hanover State Opera has fired Marco Goecke, saying his actions unsettled the audience and public.", "Ahead of the deal's 25th anniversary, we look back on the twists and turns of the year leading up to it.", "Detectives say the mother's disappearance was graded as high risk due to \"specific vulnerabilities\".", "Ukraine's leader speaks to John Simpson before the anniversary of Russia's invasion on 24 February.", "Faten Al Yousifi, 39 weeks pregnant, had a birth bag ready to go when the earthquake struck.", "As her time in Scottish politics comes to an end, BBC Scotland correspondents look at her record.", "Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham were among those paying tribute to the late fashion designer.", "The surprise departure of the most experienced political leader in the UK throws up many questions.", "Scotland's first minister shared her view on the Tories, Jeremy Clarkson and controversial haircuts.", "The two kits were part of a family of beavers moved from an area of Tayside.", "Wards cannot take new casualties, nor can homeless patients be discharged, the BBC finds.", "The Labour leader promises his party's \"unwavering support\" for Ukraine in its war with Russia.", "East Palestine residents are left without answers after train company cites security concerns.", "A broken freezer is removed by a gallery to \"ensure the integrity\" of the artwork in Margate.", "Newport City Homes says customers will get a £20 payment for each day they were without services.", "The 16-year-old's family has been inundated with \"messages of positivity and compassion\".", "Severely disabled children, who rely on emergency care, are being put at risk, doctors warn.", "The astonishing story of 13 boys trapped in a cave had an almost flawlessly joyful ending - until now.", "Andrea Riseborough says she is \"coming to terms\" with her nomination, which has caused controversy.", "Erik ten Hag praises Manchester United's \"character\" after a thrilling first-leg draw at Barcelona leaves their Europa League play-off tie finely poised.", "The SNP's opponents believe Nicola Sturgeon's departure will hamper the push for Scottish independence.", "A source says the home secretary wants to know why police released Nicola Bulley's health details.", "The US president says that if any aerial object threatens America, \"I will take it down\".", "The murder-accused nurse abruptly leaves her seat as a doctor begins to give evidence.", "Senior politicians gathered in Cardiff for the funeral of Clare Drakeford on Thursday.", "What you need to know about Border Force and ambulance workers' strikes.", "Chris O'Shea's comments come after the energy company's owner Centrica saw its profits triple.", "Emma Pattison and Lettie are believed to have been shot by George Pattison before he killed himself.", "Michaela Curran was among the victims who died in separate incidents on Tuesday.", "Two of four police forces and the Welsh government stop using the cameras amid security concerns.", "The deputy first minister says he has to do what is right for his family, the party and the country.", "British Gas has been heavily criticised for practices around installing prepayment meters.", "The former Labour leader attacks a decision to bar him from representing Labour at the next election.", "It comes after the world's biggest food company increased its prices by 8% last year.", "Princess Diana wrote in one of the letters about her fears that her phone was being bugged.", "The coin is the third in the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 25th anniversary collection series.", "Higher demand in winter could push up the wholesale gas price before households feel much benefit.", "He was diagnosed with aphasia in spring last year, but the condition has progressed.", "The BBC is given rare access to a prisoner of war facility housing hundreds in western Ukraine.", "The discount retailer is continuing its expansion plans after a strong Christmas sales period.", "Many EU citizens could have lost their right to live in the UK under post-Brexit settlement rules.", "Golden Globe winner Welch has been credited with paving the way for action heroines in Hollywood.", "The mother's problems with drinking were brought on by her struggles with the menopause, police say.", "Vigils for the transgender schoolgirl stabbed to death on Saturday are held from London to Dublin.", "Two brothers are jailed after the \"extremely life-like\" latex disguises were found in their car.", "The BBC's Scotland editor James Cook considers how history will judge her years in office.", "The fast food chain says rising food and energy costs mean its prices are going up.", "Royal College of Nursing to take action from 1 to 3 March in England in biggest walkout of dispute.", "New research suggests that even low amounts of melting can potentially push a glacier towards disappearance.", "The president says he will speak with China's Xi Jinping soon \"to get to the bottom of this\".", "Residents are demanding answers 12 days after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the small town.", "Manchester City return to the top of the Premier League for the first time since November as they leapfrog leaders Arsenal with victory at Emirates Stadium.", "Zholia Alemi worked as a psychiatrist for 22 years after she forged a medical degree, a court hears.", "NHS England says the new approach to lower-priority emergency calls will speed up response times.", "After eight years as first minister, Ms Sturgeon says her head and her heart say it is the right time to go.", "Some staff faced lengthy questioning from tax officials, or were required to stay overnight.", "Family members affected by the shooting in Buffalo, NY, speak before a life sentence is handed down.", "The 17-year-old had been in a football academy in Leicestershire since late last year.", "Researchers say claims the milk helps support brain and nervous system development are unfounded.", "The Scottish National Party leader is standing down as first minister after more than eight years.", "The Unite union says healthcare staff will strike on Tuesday and again on 16 March.", "A letter sent from Bath in February 1916 arrives in south London more than a century late.", "Twenty-eight women are suing the haircare company, saying its products ruined their hair.", "Senior party figures say a special conference may have to be delayed while a new leader is elected.", "Nominations for the post opened after Nicola Sturgeon said she was to step down as first minister.", "Ukraine wants Western jets to help fight Russia, but using them effectively could be difficult.", "The RMT union announces a series of new strikes in March and April.", "At least six people die in new tremors, weeks after massive quakes devastated the same region.", "The former PM has urged Rishi Sunak not to drop the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which he introduced.", "The presenter anchored the five-hour live TV marathon every Saturday between 1968 and 1985.", "Work is under way at the Emma Bridgewater factory to create commemorative plates, mugs and teapots.", "Elon Musk said Twitter was being \"scammed\" by phone companies over fake authentication-text costs", "A Nigerian senator, his wife, their daughter and an associate are on trial charged with exploiting the 21-year-old.", "The missing mother-of-two's partner says he has \"no words right now\" as identification process takes place.", "10 Archbishops criticise Justin Welby over the Church of England backing blessings for same-sex couples.", "The 31-year-old was found dead under the rubble of his home in Turkey two weeks after the earthquake.", "BMA members have been balloted over a junior doctors strike, with the result expected on Monday,", "Families of four of the victims say \"warning signs were ignored and a licence to kill was granted\".", "The former BBC Breakfast host says he is \"glad to be alive\" after being in a collision with a car.", "The prestigious film ceremony had a diverse set of nominees, but that did not translate into wins.", "New Mexico prosecutors drop firearm enhancement charges, lowering a potential prison sentence.", "Residents are described as being in shock, with a concert cancelled as a mark of respect.", "Joseph O'Connor faces several charges in connection with the hack of more than 130 Twitter accounts.", "The move comes after Twitter introduced a subscription-based verification service last year.", "US President Joe Biden travelled to Kyiv today for his first visit to Ukraine since Russia invaded almost a year ago.", "Her family say their worst fears have been confirmed, and criticise the behaviour of some sections of the media.", "Police faced a backlash for revealing personal details of missing Nicola Bulley's struggles.", "Searches will only continue in Kahramanmaras and Hatay, the country's disaster agency said.", "In a statement, the family of Nicola Bulley say she is \"no longer a missing person\".", "The ex-PM puts pressure on Rishi Sunak as she urges the UK to \"do all we can\" to support Ukraine.", "The current age of consent is the third lowest worldwide and has remained unchanged since 1907.", "Biden's visit to Kyiv is a striking show of US support for Ukraine. But what does it say about Europe?", "The iconic Balloon Dog was knocked to the ground by an art collector in Miami.", "A debate rages over changes to references to characters' appearance and weight in the author's works.", "Three people are bidding to become the new leader of the SNP and first minister of Scotland - Kate Forbes, Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan.", "Viola Davis, Michelle Yeoh and Eddie Redmayne are among the stars gathering in London for the ceremony.", "Officers searching for the missing mother-of two say they have found a body in the River Wyre.", "A former police boss defends Lancashire Police's investigation into her disappearance.", "The inquest into the Plymouth shootings heard about the lives of the five people who died.", "The attack, which took place before horrified onlookers, is the third in Nouméa in as many weeks.", "The firm says its Punk IPA and other beers will be brewed in the country by the end of next month.", "Lancashire Police's Peter Lawson confirms a body found in the River Wyre is Nicola Bulley.", "Commons leader says disclosure of Nicola Bulley's health \"really does grate with a lot of women\".", "The ex-girlfriend of Tinder Swindler Simon Leviev says he emotionally abused her in their 18-month relationship.", "The mother-of-two's body was discovered about a mile away from where she was last seen.", "The US president meets Ukraine's leader during the surprise trip and reaffirms his support.", "The role of racism is not properly examined after black people are killed by police, a charity says.", "British Medical Association planning 72-hour walkout as early as mid-March in fight for more pay.", "Half of England's special educational needs schools are over-subscribed, BBC research finds.", "A typical domestic energy bill will rise in April but there are fresh forecasts of subsequent falls.", "Police launch a murder investigation after a woman dies in a suspected knife attack.", "Secret filming finds sexual exploitation at Kenyan farms supplying some of the UK's biggest brands.", "Secret collection of 77 items from the Angkorian royalty period has been returned to Phnom Penh.", "Harvests in Europe and Africa have been disrupted by bad weather, a retail body says.", "Heather Rendulic was able to use her left arm and hand for the first time in nine years.", "Police will be required to treat violence against women and girls as a \"national threat\". ministers say.", "Britain's bus network has shrunk by 14%, but some places have been harder hit, BBC analysis finds.", "Torrential rains plunge entire neighbourhoods under water and trigger landslides in São Paulo state.", "The one-off funding is set to help more than 270,000 children in the capital between 2023 and 2024.", "What you need to know about ambulance and Border Force workers' strikes, by the BBC's Zoe Conway.", "The US said China was considering \"lethal support\" for Russia in Ukraine - a claim denied by Beijing.", "Property website Rightmove says the £14 increase in average prices is lowest ever seen for the month.", "The SNP leadership candidate says she has \"significant concerns\" about the issue of self-identification.", "As inquiry into the Omagh bombing is announced, people recall a day that cannot be forgotten.", "Critics call for higher taxes on energy firms as Shell reports a record $39.9bn of profit.", "A four-year-old girl, named locally as Alice Stones, was killed by a family pet, police say.", "The FBI removed \"materials and handwritten notes\" reportedly from Mr Biden's time as vice president.", "World Heritage Site status has been sought for almost half a million acres of blanket bog.", "Rishi Sunak's aides refuse to say whether he was informally warned about bullying claims against his deputy.", "BBC News NI looks at the legal twists the victims' families have faced over the Real IRA bombing.", "London's mayor challenged the consumer finance expert at a cost-of-living debate - as tempers rose.", "The stage in Liverpool is intended to give the impression of the contest \"opening its arms to Ukraine\".", "Bosses of Heathrow, Selfridges and Harrods are calling on the government to reinstate duty-free shopping. ", "Australia's highest-ranking Catholic was accused of failing to tackle child sex abuse in the Church.", "Father-of-three Dale Culver, 35, died following a struggle with police in British Columbia.", "It's not surprising that 2023 has been met with more industrial action, but how can both sides end it?", "The former UN ambassador will reportedly announce a presidential run at an event on 15 February.", "A dispute breaks out over a football jersey claimed to have been worn by Jim Baxter in Scotland's 1967 victory over England.", ".", "The PM says he'll be \"transparent\" in a wide-ranging interview to mark his 100th day in office.", "Officials decided against shooting it down due to the danger of falling debris from the \"sizeable\" device.", "Tonia Antoniazzi says she raised concerns about culture in the Welsh Rugby Union last March.", "Joseph Ward seriously injured the inspector by reversing into him and driving off to avoid arrest.", "Kim Johnson was ordered by Labour Party bosses to retract her description of Israel's government.", "The decline came as people cut back in the face of higher living costs, said Apple's boss.", "Stargazer George Chan photographed comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) from his home in Bramcote, Nottinghamshire.", "With school teachers, train drivers and civil servants all striking, what do you need to know?", "The \"significant operational error\" was made during a road widening project in Stoke-on-Trent.", "The annual bill for the average household in England and Wales will go up by £31, Water UK says.", "The government's plan needs to go further and faster, the author of a major review into the system says.", "Kyiv says Russia has amassed 500,000 men for an attack in the coming weeks.", "He likens Russia's invasion of Ukraine to the fight against Nazi Germany, 80 years after Stalingrad.", "Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley has been missing since taking her dog for a riverside walk on Friday.", "Scientists will monitor the virus, but UK health chiefs say the risk to the public is very low.", "Andrew Innes tells a court he was \"apocalyptically angry\" when he killed Bennylyn Burke.", "The two women - described as \"devoted, selfless and loving\" - were visiting a popular tourist spot.", "A livestream of Stephen McCullagh playing games at the time of death was pre-recorded, a court hears.", "The Manchester United footballer says he is \"relieved\" after charges were discontinued by prosecutors.", "Why interest rates are so important - especially when they change.", "Around 115,000 postal workers will walk out for 24 hours in a row over pay and conditions, says the CWU.", "Paul Mason was punched to the ground by a man who claimed the bank executive had stolen a phone.", "Families of those killed in the worst atrocity of the Troubles await NI secretary's inquiry decision.", "British Gas has been heavily criticised for practices around installing prepayment meters.", "CCTV footage reveals the movements of the man who blew up a mosque on Monday.", "Thousands are in Memphis to mourn the 29-year-old father who was fatally beaten by police.", "Current government proposals do not go far enough to help pregnant women, leading experts claim.", "Nicola Bulley's sister says \"people don't just vanish into thin air\" as efforts to find her continue.", "A Viking leader probably chose his favourite animals to board a longboat to England, scientists say.", "Social landlords are urged to \"act now\" after an audit of homes following toddler Awaab Ishak's death.", "Lucy Letby wrote a sympathy card to the parents of a baby she allegedly killed, her trial hears.", "The suspects are charged with the murder of Ashley Dale, who was shot in her back garden in Liverpool.", "Nicola Sturgeon was responding to a claim by a victim of Isla Bryson that she was not \"truly transgender\".", "More than half of schools restricted access or closed in England, government estimates suggest.", "The new 2,000-peso note comes after the country's annual inflation rate soared to 95% last year.", "The former senior lieutenant tells the BBC he witnessed the mistreatment of prisoners.", "The car retailer said data that may have been stolen included bank details and ID documents.", "The 18-year-old woman and 19-year-old man are seriously injured and homes have been evacuated.", "A conservation charity has warned surviving areas of Caledonian pinewoods are under threat.", "The tightening of regulations may lead to criminal records for those flouting them, a new policy says.", "With train drivers in England on strike and teachers walking out in Scotland, what do you need to know?", "After a shooting at a dance studio in California, we visit a ballroom to meet the people still dancing.", "Universities Wales calls for UK government action as 1,000 redundancies loom in the research sector.", "Stars of the rugby world gather to pay tribute to the ex-Wales rugby captain and broadcaster.", "The latest hike is the tenth in a row - and an attempt to control soaring living-cost pressures.", "Last year, a court ruled it was plausible there was a real prospect the bombing could have been stopped.", "Edgardo Greco was wanted for the grisly murder of two brothers in Italy in 1991.", "Manchester United ease past Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup semi-final to book a 1999 Wembley rematch with Newcastle."], "section": ["Business", "Europe", "Europe", "Scotland politics", "Wales", "London", "Wales", "Wales", "Technology", "World", "Business", "Devon", "Asia", "Sheffield & South Yorkshire", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "US & Canada", "UK Politics", "Business", "Europe", "UK Politics", "Health", "UK Politics", "Lancashire", "Asia", "Business", "Business", "Wales", "Devon", "Newsbeat", "US & Canada", "Scotland politics", "UK Politics", 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"Europe", "UK", "Health", "Family & Education", "Business", "Devon", "UK", "Asia", "Business", "Health", "UK", "UK", "Latin America & Caribbean", "London", "Business", "US & Canada", "Business", "Scotland politics", "Northern Ireland", "Business", "Beds, Herts & Bucks", "US & Canada", "Highlands & Islands", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "London", "Liverpool", "London", "Australia", "US & Canada", "Business", "US & Canada", "Glasgow & West Scotland", null, "UK Politics", "US & Canada", "Wales", null, "UK Politics", "Business", null, "Business", "Stoke & Staffordshire", "Business", "UK", "Europe", "Europe", "Lancashire", "Science & Environment", "Tayside and Central Scotland", "Wales", "Northern Ireland", "Manchester", "UK", "Business", "England", "Northern Ireland", "Business", "Asia", "US & Canada", "Health", "Lancashire", "Science & Environment", "Manchester", "Liverpool", "Liverpool", "Scotland politics", "Family & Education", "Latin America & Caribbean", "Europe", "Scotland business", "Wales", "Highlands & Islands", "UK", "Business", null, "Wales", "Wales", "Business", "Northern Ireland", "Europe", null], "content": ["Councils in England are being given further funds to help vulnerable households from the start of April.\n\nThe Household Support Fund will give each local authority in England a share of £842m, to try to help those struggling the most with rising prices.\n\nInformation on getting hold of the new funding should be updated on each council website over the coming weeks.\n\nIt is up to each council to decide how they spend the money, with very different approaches being taken.\n\nOne has chosen in the past to order affordable food boxes, while another has delivered energy saving packs including air fryers and slow cookers.\n\nA sum of money has been given to councils every six months since October 2021, and is supposed to help plug the gaps in support for struggling households.\n\nThis latest government funding is supposed to last for a year, but in some areas, demand has been so high that the money in previous rounds has run out within a matter of weeks.\n\nThe surge in prices over the past year has squeezed the finances of many households. Inflation - the rate at which prices rise - still remains near a 40-year high.\n\nCouncils have chosen lots of different methods to give out the money.\n\nBlackpool Council set up a market voucher scheme where households with children and pensioners could receive vouchers for fresh food from the local markets.\n\nBlackburn Council have bulk-ordered food via a distributor for affordable food boxes, while Derbyshire Council has sent out vouchers to be cashed after applications are made by schools and health professionals for households most in need.\n\nMany councils have decided to focus the support, and those with large families, single-parent households, older people on a low income or those with a disability have been beneficiaries in some areas.\n\nAuthorities in the poorest areas receive proportionately more, and devolved nations will be given equivalent funding.\n\nBirmingham gets the most and is due to receive more than £25m in April, while £22m will go to Kent, Lancashire will get £19m and Essex will receive £18m.\n\nAlthough April's funding is twice as much as the amount given over the past six months, it is supposed to last for a year and there is likely to be higher demand as the rising food and energy prices through the winter mean more people are now considered vulnerable.", "Joe Biden is facing opposition at home about the scale of America's involvement in the Ukraine war\n\nUS President Joe Biden is expected to lay out his view of the war in Ukraine as a battle for democracy during a speech later on Tuesday.\n\nHe will make his address in the Polish capital, Warsaw - a day after his surprise visit to Ukraine.\n\nHis speech comes hours after Russia's Vladimir Putin announced Moscow was suspending participation in a key arms control treaty with the US.\n\nHe made the announcement in his state of the nation address.\n\nThe leaders' competing speeches come days before the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\n\nIn Warsaw, the US president is expected to stress the vital role the United States has played in galvanising Western backing for Ukraine against Russian aggression.\n\nBut he will also be looking to shore up support for his policy at home, where some politicians are expressing doubts about the scale of US involvement.\n\nIn his speech a stone's throw from the Kremlin, President Putin again blamed the West for Russia's invasion, complaining of Western hypocrisy and of withdrawing from \"fundamental agreements\".\n\n\"I want to repeat: it is they who are culpable for the war, and we are using force to stop it,\" he said to great applause.\n\nMr Putin also reiterated his unfounded claim that Moscow had been facing a neo-Nazi threat from Ukraine, which he used as justification to launch his \"special military operation\".\n\nHe said Russia would suspend its participation in the New Start treaty - the last remaining nuclear arms deal between Russia and the US - adding: \"No-one should be under the illusion that global strategic parity can be violated.\"\n\nAhead of his address, US President Joe Biden will meet Poland's leader, Andrzej Duda, and other central European allies to discuss bilateral cooperation and to strengthen Nato against aggression.\n\nThat's after the president met his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Kyiv on Monday - telling a press conference that the US will back Ukraine for \"as long as it takes\".\n\n\"We have every confidence you're going to continue to prevail,\" he said.\n\nThe pair also visited a memorial to soldiers who have died in the nine years since Russia annexed Crimea and its proxy forces captured parts of the eastern Donbas region.\n\nAfter the visit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new package of security assistance for Ukraine valued at $450m (£373m), as well as an extra $10m in emergency assistance to maintain Ukraine's energy infrastructure.\n\nA new wave of sanctions against individuals and companies \"that are trying to evade or backfill Russia's war machine\" will also be announced later this week.\n\nThe US is one of Ukraine's biggest allies and has already given billions of dollars in military assistance.\n\nMr Biden recently announced that the US would send 31 battle tanks and longer-range missiles but has stopped short so far of sending F-16 fighter jets, despite repeated calls for them from Ukraine.\n\nHowever, Mr Zelensky on Monday said that he had discussed with Joe Biden the possibility of the US sending other weapons.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRescuers are once again searching for people trapped under rubble in Turkey after another earthquake hit the country, killing at least six people.\n\nA 6.4 magnitude tremor struck near the city of Antakya near the border with Syria, where massive quakes devastated both countries on 6 February.\n\nThe earlier quakes killed 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria with tens of thousands more left homeless.\n\nBuildings weakened by those tremors collapsed in both countries on Monday.\n\nTurkey's disaster and emergency agency says the 6.4 earthquake occurred at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).\n\nThis was followed by a 5.8 aftershock three minutes later and dozens of subsequent aftershocks that were not as severe.\n\nThe health minister, Dr Fahrettin Koca, said 294 people have been injured - 18 of them seriously.\n\nIt's thought the death toll has been relatively low this time because the earthquake struck in an area that was largely empty after it was badly hit by the 6 February quake.\n\nReports from the city of Antakya spoke of fear and panic in the streets as ambulances and rescue crews tried to reach the worst affected areas where the walls of badly damaged buildings had collapsed.\n\n\"I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet,\" local resident Muna al-Omar told Reuters news agency, crying as she held her seven-year-old son. She had been in a tent in a park in the city centre when the new earthquakes hit.\n\nAli Mazlum, 18, told AFP news agency he had been looking for the bodies of family members from the previous earthquakes when the latest tremors hit.\n\n\"You don't know what to do... we grabbed each other and right in front of us, the walls started to fall,\" he said.\n\nIn a visit to the southern province of Osmaniye, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan promised to hold to account anyone responsible for shoddy construction that led to deaths in the initial earthquake a fortnight ago.\n\n\"It is our duty to hold the wrongdoers accountable before the law,\" he said.\n\nShortly after the earthquake, officials issued more than 100 arrest warrants in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed in the quake, a move that some saw as an attempt to divert overall blame for the disaster.\n\nAs recovery efforts continued on Tuesday from the latest earthquake, Orhan Tatar, director of Turkey's disaster and emergency agency, warned those in affected areas to be careful of falling debris.\n\nDestroyed buildings in Hatay, southern Turkey, after a new earthquake hit the region on Monday\n\nAntakya, the capital of Turkey's Hatay Province, was one of the places hit most severely by the 6 February earthquake\n\nIn the city of Adana, the latest earthquake drove people to a volleyball centre that had been converted into a rescue centre following the first earthquake.\n\nThe authorities have told the BBC they believe as many as 600 people may have arrived overnight - seeking a sturdy, ground-level building in which to take shelter.\n\nWhen the quake struck, people were reported to have run out into the streets rather than staying put, reflecting the fact that there is still significant fear two weeks after the initial disaster.\n\nIn Syria, some 470 injured people are said to have visited hospitals after Monday's quakes, which were also reportedly felt in Egypt and Lebanon.\n\nIn a visit to Turkey on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $100m (£83m) in humanitarian aid, saying that America would help with earthquake recovery \"for as long as it takes\".\n\nIt is one of several countries to have offered their help in the wake of the first earthquake.\n\nRescue operations have recently been wound down in all but two areas, with hopes of finding people alive fading fast.\n\nAre you in the area? If it is safe to do so email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "John Swinney said his budget provided relief for those in most need\n\nMSPs have voted to approve the Scottish government's budget for the coming financial year.\n\nThe plans include an income tax rise for everyone in Scotland earning more than £43,662.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said his 2023/24 proposals would help people who had been worst affected by the cost of living crisis.\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives said the SNP was widening the tax differentials with the rest of the UK.\n\nMSPs voted by 68 to 57 to pass the budget bill.\n\nDuring a debate in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Swinney - who is standing in for Finance Secretary Kate Forbes - also announced an extra £100m in funding for Scottish councils.\n\nThis came after extra funding was received from the UK government.\n\nMr Swinney said there would be a 3% real-terms increase in council funding.\n\nThe extra £100m for local authorities is in addition to last week's announcement of £123m to support a new pay offer for teachers, which has been rejected by the EIS union.\n\nMr Swinney said the new cash was to fund pay rises for non-teaching staff, and he hoped a \"swift agreement\" could be reached in those pay negotiations.\n\nHe also said there would be an extra £6.6m for Creative Scotland, which had faced using its reserves to maintain the current funding agreements for the arts in the coming year.\n\nCreative Scotland said it welcomed the decision to reverse the proposed reduction in its funding.\n\nUnder the budget, Scotland's income tax changes will see both the higher and top rates increased by 1p, rising to 42p and 47p in the pound respectively.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nWhile the threshold for the 42p tax rate will be frozen, the Scottish government is proposing those earning £125,140 a year or more will pay the very top rate of income tax.\n\nThe lowering of the top rate tax threshold from £150,000 has already been announced for other parts of the UK by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.\n\nIncome tax rates in Scotland, as well as several other taxes, are set by the Scottish government rather than at Westminster.\n\nThe increases are a significant departure from the SNP's manifesto aim not to alter income tax rates for the duration of this parliament.\n\nMr Swinney previously said that the changes will raise a total of £553m next year when taken alongside changes to other taxes including Land and Buildings Transaction Tax - the Scottish equivalent of stamp duty.\n\nAhead of the vote Mr Swinney highlighted an increase in the Scottish Child Payment and a £5.2bn investment in Social Security, with benefits due to rise by 10.1% from April.\n\nThe chancellor had already confirmed that benefits and pensions paid by the UK government would also rise by that figure.\n\nThe deputy first minister also said his income tax proposals would result in record funding of more than £19bn for health and social care.\n\nMr Swinney added: \"The budget rejects austerity and provides relief for those in most need.\n\n\"It invests in transforming the economy and creating sustainable, high quality jobs which pay a fair wage, while confirming our commitment to future generations by continuing the drive towards net zero.\"\n\nHealth and social care is one of the biggest challenges facing the Scottish government\n\nThe Scottish Greens, who are in government with the SNP at Holyrood, said the budget \"puts tackling child poverty and helping the most vulnerable at its heart\".\n\nThe party's finance spokesman Ross Greer added that it was \"the greenest budget in the history of the Scottish parliament\".\n\nBut the Scottish Conservatives said the SNP was taxing middle and higher earners much more.\n\nThe party's finance spokeswoman Liz Smith said: \"Scots are cumulatively paying more than £1bn extra a year in tax, yet because of slower growth this is raising just £325m extra for public services.\n\n\"John Swinney is in danger of creating substantial disincentives to living and working in Scotland.\n\n\"Instead of seeing any benefits for stumping up more cash to the taxman, all Scots see is public service cuts - in health, in education, in transport, housing, the creative arts and, of course, in local government.\"\n\nLabour's Daniel Johnson said the SNP's new leader would inevitably make changes to the budget.\n\n\"This is not a budget that will last. I don't see any of the leadership candidates, once elected, leaving the budget well alone,\" he said.\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the budget was \"just not good enough\".\n\nCreative Scotland said it welcomed the decision to reverse plans to cut its budget.\n\nThe Holyrood budget set out in draft on December 15 was a cold blast of bleak midwinter. At the same time, we were told that the economy was heading into an unusually long downturn.\n\nThe final stage of the legislative process in February comes with some hopes that the economic downturn will not be as harsh as previously forecast. And if you think next year's budget looks very difficult, they look a lot worse for the years that follow.\n\nHealth and social care get a lot more, rising to £19bn, though whether the proposed National Care Service will get all that it has been allocated may be down to the next first minister. The legislation for that is bringing political problems, to say the least.\n\nTo accommodate a sizeable boost to those priorities as well as a rise in spending on welfare benefits - notably taking the Scottish Child Payment to £25 per week - means a squeeze on other spending.\n\nLocal authorities tend to complain most loudly, and with quite good reason. They have started setting council tax, at 5% more from April, while making deep cuts to services and grants to local organisations.\n\nAmong the unknowns, though, is how much will have to be found in next year's budget to settle pay claims by public sector workers. As things stand, there is no pay policy.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Joyce Cox's body was discovered the day after she was abducted in 1939\n\nThe last person to see a four-year-old girl before she was murdered has spoken publicly about it for the first time in 84 years.\n\nJoyce Cox was abducted on her way home from her aunt's house in Cardiff on 28 September 1939.\n\nHer body was found the next day by a railway line, having also been sexually assaulted, but her killer has never been caught.\n\nHer cousin Alan Phillips saw her in an alley less than 50 yards from her home.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Wales' true crime series, Darkland: Hunting the Killers, he recalled playing in the garden with Joyce and her older brother Dennis before leaving through the back gate and walking home.\n\n\"She came up the lane at the back of our house and I walked to the end of the lane until I could see her as far as she could go, and then we both waved at each other and that was it,\" Alan said.\n\nThe lane where Joyce Cox was last seen alive\n\n\"I didn't realise she was missing until later.\"\n\nAt 03:00 GMT the next morning he was woken by his mother and taken by an officer to a police station to be questioned.\n\n\"I was in the police station for about three hours on my own and they were bullies,\" he added. \"One was shaking me, which wasn't very nice.\"\n\nAlan recalled a \"nasty neighbour who would hit you\", who the family suspected at the time of carrying out the murder.\n\nAlan's sister also reveals the male neighbour touched her inappropriately when she would visit the house to be measured for clothes by his wife.\n\nShe said he would touch her shoulders, arms and legs, and would say: \"Don't say anything to the wife\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAlan said the police had warned the family not to get involved with the man.\n\nAnother cousin, Terry Phillips, was not born at the time but said his mother - Joyce's aunt - was concerned about the same neighbour pushing a wheelbarrow with a sack over it three hours after Joyce's disappearance.\n\n\"My mother was always convinced it was linked,\" he said.\n\n\"Although the complaint was made as far as I can understand nothing was done.\n\n\"I would like to see that man properly investigated.\"\n\nDet Ch Supt Jason Davies, head of specialist crime at South Wales Police, said the original investigation was carried out by Glamorganshire Constabulary and records show detectives interviewed 1,700 people and took more 850 statements over three years.\n\n\"South Wales Police has carried out three reviews of this case since 2004, with the 2017 review concluding that there were no further lines of inquiry and an absence of any forensic evidence from a crime committed more than 80 years ago,\" he said.\n\n\"There were reasonable grounds to suspect that a man identified during the original murder investigation was responsible for the death, but due to the absence of direct evidence, he was never charged with the offence and died in the 1950s.\"\n\nDarkland: Hunting the Killers, BBC One Wales, Tuesday at 22:40 GMT.", "The group is accused of sharing \"inappropriate and discriminatory\" images of Harvey Price, who has disabilities\n\nFour former Met Police officers have admitted gross misconduct after being part of a WhatsApp group which shared sexist, racist and homophobic messages.\n\nThey are among a group of eight former and serving Met officers facing disciplinary proceedings over content shared in the group.\n\nOffensive remarks were also posted in chats about people with disabilities, including Katie Price's son Harvey.\n\nSix officers in the group, who were all based in Bexley, have now left the Met.\n\nA misconduct hearing held in Fulham, west London, was told between 2016 and 2018, the group shared messages, memes and videos in what was described as a \"toxic, abhorrent culture\".\n\nIn some of the messages, sexual violence against women was applauded. In one conversation, an officer referred to a male police officer who \"once got away with rape\", as \"a legend in my eyes\", the panel heard.\n\nIn other messages, a sergeant, Luke Thomas, had made offensive comments about a junior female colleague, calling her \"ugly\" and referred to her as \"it\".\n\nThe hearing was also told he had suggested naming his dog either \"Auschwitz\", \"Adolf\" or \"Fred\" or \"Ian\" after \"my two favourite child sex killers\".\n\nMr Thomas, the most senior officer in the group, also made several posts about Ms Price's son Harvey, which included mocking his weight, the hearing heard.\n\nKatie Price said she received a letter from the Met informing her of the misconduct proceedings\n\nMr Price has Prader-Willi syndrome and autism and is unable to control his weight.\n\nThe former sergeant, who left the force last week, and former officers Luke Allen and Lee South, admit gross misconduct for all allegations.\n\nFormer officer Carlo Francisco admits gross misconduct for the first allegation which relates to comments and posts made by officers in the WhatsApp group, and admits misconduct for the other two charges; one of which concerns the comments made about a female colleague and the third relates to failing to report the content.\n\nServing officer Glynn Rees and former officer Kelsey Buchan admit misconduct for all allegations.\n\nOfficer B denies the first allegation and admits misconduct for the second and third allegations.\n\nAnother former officer, Darren Jenner, has not engaged with the misconduct proceedings and the force has taken that to mean he did not admit either misconduct or gross misconduct.\n\nLast week, Ms Price published a letter from the Met on her Instagram account, informing her a group of officers would face gross misconduct proceedings.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Irish police believe Cornelius Price, 41, was behind at least four murders including of a couple and their unborn child\n\nDetectives hope the death of an Irish gangster in a Welsh hospital may lead to people coming forward with information about him.\n\nCornelius Price, 41, who was awaiting trial for kidnap and blackmail, was being treated for brain disease limbic encephalitis in south Wales.\n\nIrish police believe he was behind at least four murders, including of a couple and their unborn child.\n\nPrice never stood trial in the UK as he fell ill.\n\nHe had operated from Gormanstown in County Meath, which is where Willie Maughan, 34, and Ana Varslavane, 21, were last seen before they went missing on 14 April 2015.\n\nTheir remains have never been found.\n\nIrish police think Price ordered their murders because he feared Mr Maughan may have known something about the murder of Benny Whitehouse in 2014.\n\nAccording to Irish broadcaster RTE, Price led one of two feuding gangs in Drogheda, in County Louth, and had links to a number of organised crime groups.\n\nPrice and Benny Whitehouse were said to have been involved in a violent feud over drugs, with Price's gang then becoming involved in another feud with a gang led by Robbie Lawlor.\n\nThe conflict resulted in assaults, kidnappings, petrol bombings, arson and four murders including that of 17-year-old Keane Mulready-Woods in 2020.\n\nRobbie Lawlor was shot dead in 2020 and Price was filmed celebrating his death, which circulated on social media.\n\nPrice led one of two feuding gangs in Drogheda, in County Louth, and had links to a number of organised crime groups\n\nAs the Drogheda feud became increasingly violent Price moved to the UK.\n\nHe was alleged to have taken part in a blackmail plot where two brothers were kidnapped and told they would be shot in the head if a £300,000 ransom was not paid.\n\nIrishman Darren McClean, 37, was convicted last month and is awaiting sentence.\n\nPrice was charged in connection with the kidnapping, but never stood trial because of the brain disease that put him in hospital.\n\nHis condition deteriorated over two years until he died on Sunday.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ryan Reynolds said Wrexham was home to a \"beautiful story\"\n\nMoves to celebrate Wales' love of the beautiful game are a step closer after plans for a national football museum in Wrexham received a £5.4m boost.\n\nWrexham's football heritage has seen a boost in publicity since Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club in February 2021.\n\nIt is hoped the museum, celebrating the highs and lows of Welsh football, will boost tourism.\n\nThe Welsh government said the venue would \"celebrate the sport's heritage\".\n\nThe cash, provided by the Welsh government, is set to see the creation of the so-called Museum of Two Halves in Wales' newest city, where the Football Association of Wales (FAW) was formed in 1876.\n\nThe Racecourse Ground, Wrexham's home, has hosted more Wales matches than any other ground and is one of the world's oldest international football stadiums.\n\nDeputy Minister for Arts and Sport Dawn Bowden said she hoped the museum would become a \"key attraction\" for the area, which would capitalise on growing interest in the men's and women's national sides and Wrexham FC.\n\nSet to open by 2026, the football museum will display items including the largest collection of Welsh football memorabilia held in public ownership in Wales, which is already held in the city museum's archives.\n\nThere are more than 2,000 items in the collection, including Wales shirts from international games, and medals and trophies relating to all levels of the game in Wales.\n\nThe Wales football team in Cardiff in 1921 before their match with England, which ended goalless\n\nInitial designs for the new museum - Y Cwrt Mawr - the entrance to the new museum of two halves\n\nMs Bowden said: \"Wrexham is the birthplace of Welsh football so it's the ideal location to celebrate the sport's heritage.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Yma o Hyd is Wales' official song for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar\n\nPlaid Cymru's Siân Gwenllian said: \"Yma o Hyd fever spread across Wales and across the world last year with our national team reaching the World Cup. It showed the pride and joy football has brought us in recent years and how important it is to Wales.\n\n\"This redeveloped museum will celebrate our nation's contribution to the game and the heritage and legacy it provides for us all. Wrexham, a city steeped in football history, is a fitting home for this exciting project and I am delighted we are working together to make it happen.\"\n\nWhile the exhibitions will be in Wrexham - created through a major expansion of the city's existing museum - Ms Bowden said the football museum would reflect the whole of Wales by engaging communities across the country with satellite events.\n\nInitial designs for the new museum - Heartbreak and Glory exhibition\n\nProject manager of the Museum of Two Halves, Jonathan Gammond, said: \"It's about any football played in Wales or any football played by Welsh people outside Wales.\n\n\"All aspects of the game will be covered: amateurs, professionals, men and women, different nationalities and minorities - everyone who loves the game.\n\n\"And exploring the story, not just on the pitch but off the pitch as well\".\n\nAn exhibition of shirts from pivotal moments in Welsh football history is already running at Wrexham museum.\n\nTom and Elsbeth Nicholls, who were visiting the Shirt Stories exhibition, said they could not wait to see the National Football Museum up and running.\n\nMs Nicholls said: \"We've got a son, grandson, granddaughters and son-in-law who're all big Wrexham supporters and all mad keen for the museum to be here\", while Mr Nicholls said: \"The location is important because not a lot goes to Wrexham - a city as it is now\".\n\nThe Welsh government, which is providing £5.4m as part of an agreement with Plaid Cymru, said the museum should be completed by the end of the current Senedd term in 2026.", "By double-checking the identity of the person logging in, 2FA lets users to add an extra layer of security to their online accounts, beyond passwords.\n\nCommon methods include texting users a code or using an authenticator app.\n\nBut on Saturday, the Twitter Support account tweeted only Twitter Blue subscribers would be able to use text-message authentication from 20 March.\n\nSome text-message 2FA users also received an in-app alert telling them to remove the method before the deadline to avoid losing access to their account.\n\nTwitter owner and chief executive Elon Musk tweeted its authenticator app, which would remain free, was more secure.\n\nTwitter had been \"scammed\" by phone companies and was paying more than $60m (£49m) a year for \"fake 2FA SMS messages\", he told a critic of the move.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elon Musk This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"We encourage non-Twitter Blue subscribers to consider using an authentication app or security-key method instead,\" it said.\n\n\"These methods require you to have physical possession of the authentication method and are a great way to ensure your account is secure.\"\n\nBut security expert Rachel Tobac tweeted the move was \"nerve-wracking\", citing a Twitter report published in July 2022 showing only 2.6% of active Twitter accounts had 2FA turned on between July 2021 to December 2021 but of those:\n\n\"All of us in security want folks to use a great form of [multi-factor authentication] to protect their account,\" Ms Tobac tweeted, \"but auto-unenrolling users who already signed up for SMS 2FA, because they didn't pay, just opens them up to risk.\"\n\nExperts have warned SMS 2FA can be less secure than authenticator apps.\n\nBut it remained popular because it was easy to use, Prof Alan Woodward, of the University of Surrey, said.\n\n\"I'd rather people used something rather than nothing, which might well be what the less tech savvy are tempted to do,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"I sympathise that Elon Musk is trying to drive cost out of the business but choosing to effectively discourage 2FA for many users seems a dreadfully short-sighted false economy.\"", "A group of Anglican leaders from around the world have rejected the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as their leader after the Church of England backed prayers of blessing for same-sex couples.\n\nArchbishops representing 10 of the 42 provinces in the Anglican Communion have signed a statement saying they no longer consider Mr Welby \"leader of the global communion\".\n\nThey added the Church of England was \"disqualified\" as their historic \"Mother Church\".\n\nIt is the first time that the Archbishop of Canterbury's leadership has been rejected by such a large group of churches.\n\nSince its formation in 1867, the incumbent Archbishop of Canterbury has taken the role of spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which is a global fellowship of 42 Anglican churches.\n\nHe has no formal power - instead, he has moral authority and is seen as the \"first among equals\".\n\nLambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, said no formal change to the Anglican Communion's structure could be made without approval from its four governing \"instruments\".\n\nThe 10 archbishops, plus two from breakaway conservative provinces in the US and Brazil, are opposed to the blessing or marrying of gay couples.\n\nThey make up part of the membership of a group called the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), which claims to represent 75% of Anglicans around world, particularly across Asia and Africa.\n\nThe signatories include the GSFA's chair, Archbishop Justin Badi of South Sudan, along with the archbishops of Chile, the Indian Ocean, Congo, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Uganda, Sudan, Alexandria and Melanesia.\n\nIn a statement on Monday they said they are \"no longer able to recognise the present Archbishop of Canterbury as the first among equals leader of the global communion\".\n\n\"The Church of England has chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic biblical faith,\" the statement said.\n\nEarlier this month the Church of England, which is led by Mr Welby, approved prayers of blessing for gay couples for the first time. However, its position on gay marriage has not changed and same-sex couples will still be unable to marry in church.\n\nThe plans, set out by bishops last month, have been criticised by those who think they go too far - and those who think they don't go far enough.\n\nA spokesperson for Lambeth Palace said it \"fully appreciates\" the GSFA's stance but added the \"deep disagreements\" among Anglicans over sexuality and marriage are long-standing, and that reforms in one province do not affect rules in the others.\n\n\"In a world of conflict, suffering and uncertainty, we must remember that more unites us than divides us.\n\n\"Despite our differences, we must find ways to continue walking and working together as followers of Jesus Christ to serve those in need,\" they said.", "The UK government saw a surprise surplus in its finances in January despite \"substantial spending\" to help with energy bills and EU payments.\n\nThe highest self-assessed income tax receipts since records began in 1999 boosted the UK's coffers.\n\nIt meant it spent less than it received in tax, leaving a £5.4bn surplus.\n\nEconomists said the figures showed a \"mixed picture\" with public finances still weaker than this time last year ahead of next month's Budget.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt will set out his plans for tax and spending on 15 March.\n\nMartin Beck, chief economic advisor to the EY ITEM Club which is a UK economic forecasting group, said the figures gave Mr Hunt \"some positives to work on\" in his Budget.\n\nMr Beck said the fall in cost of wholesale energy meant the government's spending on support for bills \"will be a fraction\" of what was officially forecast last year.\n\nHowever, because the government's self-imposed fiscal rules around debt relate to five years in the future, he said short-term movements in UK's finances \"don't have much bearing\" on policies.\n\nPublic borrowing in the financial year to date is £30.6bn less than predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the government's official forecaster.\n\nMichal Stelmach, senior economist at KPMG UK, said this could \"tempt the chancellor to offer a pay increase to public sector workers as part of his Budget next month\" in a bid to prevent further strikes.\n\nBut Mr Hunt said debt was still at the highest level since the 1960s.\n\n\"It is vital we stick to our plan to reduce debt over the medium term,\" he added.\n\n\"Getting debt down will require some tough choices, but it is crucial to reduce the amount spent on debt interest so we can protect our public services.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak's spokesman later indicated the surplus did not mean it would announce tax cuts at the Budget.\n\n\"We shouldn't place too much emphasis on a single month's data. Borrowing remains at record highs and there is significant uncertainty and volatility, both clear risks to the fiscal position,\" the spokesman said.\n\nEvery January, the government tends to take more in tax than it spends in other months due to the amount it receives in self-assessed taxes, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nBut most economists had expected borrowing to rise this time, in part due to the large amount the government is spending on supporting households with their energy bills.\n\nIt is limiting the average household energy bill to £2,500 - although it says this will increase to £3,000 from April due to the high cost of the support.\n\nIn addition, the ONS said the government had faced \"large one-off payments\" in January relating to historic customs duties owed to the EU.\n\nIn the end, though, these costs were largely offset by record self-assessed income tax payments of £21.9bn in January, which left the government with a surplus.\n\nIt's not just an unexpected surge in tax receipts from the self-employed that caught most economists on the hop this morning, resulting in a surplus instead of the anticipated deficit.\n\nSeparate figures published this morning by HMRC show the amount received in tax and national insurance in the financial year to date was £368.5bn - a huge increase of £44.9bn compared to the same period a year earlier.\n\nThe government points out that debt (ie all the accumulated borrowing over the years) is at its highest since the 1960s and says it will require \"tough choices\".\n\nBut there's no doubt that the public finances are under much less pressure - £31bn less - than the OBR anticipated in November.\n\nAmid calls, for example, to spend £2.6bn preventing a further rise in energy bills, or more money to alleviate the recruitment crisis in the NHS, an argument that any of those measures is \"unaffordable\" in any objective economic sense isn't given any obvious support in the data.\n\nBut despite the surprise figures, January's overall surplus was still £7.1bn smaller compared to the same month in 2022. Interest repayments on government debt also hit their highest level for January since records on that data began in 1997.\n\nThe ONS said the rise in debt repayments, which totalled £6.7bn in January, was \"largely\" because of inflation.\n\nThis is because many UK government bonds, or \"gilts\", which the government sells to international investors to raise the money it needs, are \"index linked\", meaning the government's repayments rise in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation, which is currently at double-digit levels.\n\nOf the interest payable in January 2023, some £3.3bn reflected the impact of inflation, the ONS said.", "Maxine Davison, Sophie and Lee Martyn, Kate Shepherd and Stephen Washington were killed in August 2021\n\nBreathtaking incompetence and failings by police allowed a gunman to kill five people during a mass shooting in Plymouth, victims' families have said.\n\nJake Davison killed his mother and four other people, including a girl aged three, with a shotgun in August 2021.\n\nFamilies of four of the victims said: \"Warning signs were ignored and a licence to kill was granted.\"\n\nThe inquest jury said there had been a \"catastrophic failure\" at Devon and Cornwall Police.\n\nAt the conclusion of a five-week inquest at Exeter Racecourse jurors said the deaths of the victims were \"caused by the fact the perpetrator had a legally-held shotgun\".\n\nAll five of the victims were unlawfully killed, the jury found.\n\nDavison killed his mother Maxine, 51, Sophie Martyn, three, her father Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, in the Keyham area of Plymouth before turning the gun on himself.\n\nAfter the conclusion, Patrick Maguire, the solicitor acting for the victims' families, read a statement on their behalf\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said a criminal investigation into possible health and safety breaches by Devon and Cornwall Police was ongoing.\n\nWill Kerr, who took over as Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police in December 2022, said: \"Steps should have been taken to safeguard our communities and for that failure I am truly sorry.\"\n\nMr Kerr called for changes in national firearms licensing policy.\n\nHe said: \"I accept Devon and Cornwall Police has failed our communities in regard to Jake Davison, but had there been clearer national guidance, direction and specific legislation concerning firearms licensing - decision-making locally may well have been very different.\"\n\nMr Kerr said the force had invested £4m into the Firearms and Explosives Licensing Unit since the shootings \"to ensure more consistent and robust application of current law and guidance\".\n\nThe inquest heard the number of staff in the department had increased from 45 in 2021 to 99 currently.\n\nLuke Pollard, Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said gun licensing systems were \"not fit for purpose\".\n\n\"The inquest has found the failings are systemic and so deep rooted, the confidence that the public should have in the police to keep us safe - to licence firearms correctly - is absent.\n\n\"The inquest might have concluded, but the pain people still feel is very real.\"\n\nMr Pollard said: \"I do not have confidence in Devon and Cornwall Police to issue firearms licences, and every gun certificate they have issued must be reviewed in light of the failings laid bare by the inquest.\n\n\"I am angry. Our community is angry. We want to see comprehensive change to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again.\"\n\nIan Arrow, senior coroner for Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon, said he would be preparing a preventing future deaths report to address \"the likelihood of shotgun licences being inappropriately granted\".\n\nJake Davison killed five people before taking his own life in the Keyham area of Plymouth\n\nIn a joint statement, the Martyn, Washington and Shepherd families said the shooting \"was an act of pure evil\".\n\nThey added: \"However, we now know that this evil act was facilitated and enabled by a series of failings and incompetence from the people and organisations that are supposed to keep us safe.\"\n\nThe families said they had been \"hopelessly failed by the system\" and in particular by Devon and Cornwall Police.\n\nThey said the evidence heard at the inquest told \"a consistent story of individual failures, breathtaking incompetence and systemic failings within every level of the firearms licensing unit of the Devon and Cornwall Police force\".\n\nThey said: \"It is beyond us how Davison, a man with a known history of violence, mental health issues, and with no real need to own a firearm, was granted a licence to possess a gun in the first place.\"\n\nDelivering a narrative conclusion on behalf of the jury, the coroner said: \"There was a serious failure by Devon and Cornwall Police's firearms and explosive licensing unit in granting and later failing to revoke the perpetrator's shotgun licence.\"\n\nFloral tributes were laid following the shooting in Plymouth in August 2021\n\nAfter hearing evidence from more than 50 witnesses the jury concluded there was \"a lack of scrutiny and professional curiosity at all levels\" and a \"seriously unsafe culture of defaulting to granting licences and returning licences after review\".\n\nIt said there was a \"catastrophic failure in the management of the firearms licensing department at Devon and Cornwall Police\".\n\n\"This was compounded by a lack of senior management and executive leadership who failed to notice or address the issues.\"\n\nThe jury also concluded there had been \"a serious failure at a national level by the government, Home Office and National College of Policing\" to implement previous recommendations to improve firearms safety.\n\nIn the wake of the Dunblane shootings in 1996, Lord Cullen recommended nationally accredited training for firearms enquiry officers and that recommendation was echoed in 2015 in Her Majesty's Inspectorate of the Constabulary's Targeting the Risk Report.\n\nDavison had applied to Devon and Cornwall Police for a shotgun certificate in July 2017 aged 18, saying he wanted to go clay pigeon shooting with his uncle.\n\nAs part of the application process Davison had declared he was autistic and had Asperger's, but when police sought relevant information from his GP, the doctor declined to provide any as it was not mandatory.\n\nThe jury was shown a picture of the Weatherby pump-action shotgun (top) used by Jake Davison next to a standard sporting style twin-barrel shotgun (below)\n\nDavison had a history of violence at the special school he attended and in September 2020 he repeatedly punched a 15-year-old boy in the face and slapped a 16-year-old girl in a skate park in Plymouth, the inquest heard.\n\nPolice decided on a deferred charge of battery - which could be dealt with by restorative justice - rather than the more serious charge of actual bodily harm.\n\nUnder the restorative justice scheme, called Pathfinder, Davison had to complete an online \"thinking skills\" course and was given a 40-page anger management booklet.\n\nFollowing completion of the scheme Davison was given his shotgun and certificate back in July 2021 - a month before the tragedy.\n\nThe IOPC watchdog found two employees of Devon and Cornwall Police had a case to answer for misconduct over the way they dealt with Davison's gun licence.\n\nDavid Ford, IOPC regional director, said: \"The potential corporate failing of Devon and Cornwall Police as an organisation is subject to our separate criminal inquiry into possible health and safety breaches.\"\n\nMr Ford added the IOPC was liaising with the Home Office regarding \"recommendations at a national level to help inform improved firearms licensing arrangements and guidance for the police service as a whole\".\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said it would \"reflect\" on the report and any recommendations from the coroner and \"respond in due course\".\n\nAlison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, said the evidence heard at the inquest \"provided a clear and independent understanding of missed opportunities\".\n\nMs Hernandez said: \"I am working with the Home Office and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) so that we learn nationally from this tragedy to ensure that nothing like it happens again.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "The Seoul couple have won their case against a government health insurer\n\nA South Korean court has for the first time recognised the rights of a same-sex couple in the country.\n\nIn a landmark ruling, the Seoul High Court found a government health insurer did owe coverage to the spouse of a customer after the firm withdrew it when it found out the pair were gay.\n\nThe men had held a wedding ceremony in 2019, but same-sex marriage is not recognised in South Korea.\n\nActivists say the ruling is a leap forward for LGBT rights in the country.\n\nHowever, the case will be challenged in the Supreme Court.\n\nThe plaintiff, So Seong-wook said he welcomed the ruling and \"recognition of a very obvious right that has not been given\".\n\nIn 2021, he sued the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) after being denied coverage on his partner Kim Yongmin's plan.\n\nThe couple had been granted coverage at first, but this was then revoked as the NHIS said they had made a mistake in granting it to the same-sex couple.\n\nCelebrating the ruling, Mr So praised the court for seeing \"the principle of equality as an important issue\".\n\n\"I think it has a great meaning for LGBTQ people who have been in a discriminatory situation, those who support them and all those who are discriminated against,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe Seoul High Court overturned a lower court's verdict. It found spousal coverage under the NHIS extended to not just families as defined by law.\n\nIt also found that denying same-sex couples such benefits amounted to discrimination.\n\n\"Everyone can be a minority in some way. To be in the minority is to be different from the majority and cannot be wrong itself,\" the court judgement read.\n\n\"In a society dominated by the principle of majority rule, awareness of the rights of minorities and efforts to protect them are necessary.\"\n\nA Human Rights Watch report last year found that discrimination against LGBT people in South Korean society remained \"pervasive\".\n\nSame-sex couples - without the legal status of marriage - are often excluded from government benefits for newlyweds.\n\nAfter Tuesday's court ruling, Amnesty International released a statement saying: \"There is still a long way to go to end discrimination against the LGBTI community, but this ruling offers hope that prejudice can be overcome.\"", "Dan Walker said his face was \"a mess\" after the collision\n\nTV presenter Dan Walker has said he is \"glad to be alive\" after he was in a collision with a car while cycling.\n\nThe former BBC Breakfast host, who now works for Channel 5, shared photographs of his bloodied face on social media, taken from inside an ambulance.\n\nMr Walker, 45, who lives in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said: \"Bit of an accident this morning. Glad to be alive after getting hit by a car on my bike.\n\n\"Face is a mess but I don't think anything is broken.\"\n\nThe photos were taken in a Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) vehicle alongside two members of staff, after the incident on Moore Street in Sheffield city centre on Monday morning.\n\nMr Walker praised the emergency services, saying: \"Thanks to Shaun and Jamie for sorting me out and the lovely copper at the scene. This is my [sic] smiling. Thankful for our NHS\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Dan Walker This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Walker also previously presented the BBC's Saturday morning sports show, Football Focus, and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, finishing fifth with partner Nadiya Bychkova.\n\nHe announced he was leaving the BBC for Channel 5 in April last year.\n\nAmong the well-wishers on Twitter were Football Focus reporter Mark Clemmit, who said: \"Mate…..Much love from us.\"\n\nFormer professional boxer Tony Bellew added: \"Get well soon Dan,\" and Strictly judge Motsi Mabuse wrote: \"Oh wow!!! Get well soon.\"\n\nMr Walker said he was home with no broken bones\n\nMr Walker later tweeted an update, saying he was home with no broken bones.\n\n\"Blown away by all the lovely messages. Thank you,\" he said.\n\n\"Just got home from hospital. Battered and bruised but - amazingly - nothing broken.\n\n\"Very thankful to still be here. I have no memory of anything and just remember coming round on the tarmac with paramedics & police around me.\"\n\nThe incident came as Yorkshire Ambulance services were disrupted by strike action.\n\nNearly 1,400 YAS workers who are members of the GMB union walked out at 18:00 GMT on Sunday, with the service saying it would have fewer ambulances available to respond to patients.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were last seen in East Sussex on 8 January\n\nA missing couple are putting their \"baby at risk by not accessing medical care\", a senior midwife has said.\n\nConstance Marten, her partner Mark Gordon - a convicted sex offender - and their baby have been missing for more than six weeks.\n\nTheir car was found on fire near Bolton on 5 January, and it is believed Ms Marten gave birth either in or near the car a day or two earlier.\n\nDetectives have said the family could be \"absolutely anywhere in the UK\".\n\nThey were last seen on 8 January walking along Cantercrow Hill, in Newhaven - but police say they could have moved some considerable distance since then.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has made a renewed appeal to find the family.\n\nMs Marten, 35, and her baby are not thought to have received medical attention.\n\nAddressing Ms Marten, director of midwifery for Barts Health NHS Trust, Shereen Nimmo, said \"it's not too late\" to get help and \"to make sure your baby is healthy\".\n\n\"Constance, my name is Shereen and I'm here to speak to you as a midwife and a mother. I am not here to judge you but here to help you and your baby.\"\n\nShe urged Ms Marten \"to do the right thing\", adding: \"All we want to do is help you.\"\n\n\"You're putting your baby at risk by not accessing medical care, so it's really important that you come and see a midwife, doctor or another healthcare professional as soon as possible\", said Ms Nimmo.\n\n\"Sleeping with your baby in an unsafe environment puts them at risk,\" she added.\n\nShe said that without midwifery and medical help, \"your baby might not be getting the best start in life that we know you want for them\".\n\nThe family were picked up by CCTV on Whitechapel Road in London on 7 January\n\nPolice say they are continuing to offer a reward of up to £10,000 for any information that leads to the family being found.\n\nIt is unknown whether the baby was full-term or has any health issues, which is why officers remain committed to finding them, the force said.\n\nDet Supt Lewis Basford said the force had been \"working around the clock behind the scenes\" and had viewed more than 630 hours of CCTV.\n\n\"I would like to stress that we are not doing this and putting so many resources and efforts into finding the family just to be awkward or to interfere.\n\n\"We have a genuine concern for the health and wellbeing of the baby, and Constance and Mark, and it is our duty to ensure that they are okay.\"\n\nReferencing a large amount of cash the couple was known to have, Det Supt Basford said: \"We know that cash will be coming to an end... that really influences the appeal today\".\n\nHe urged the public to be mindful that Ms Marten and Mr Gordon might not always be out together and one could be gathering supplies while the other stays with the baby.\n\n\"They could be absolutely anywhere in the UK, so we need everyone to remain vigilant\", added Det Supt Basford.\n\nDet Supt Basford continued, saying \"we know the couple do move very quickly\" based on their movements in the first few days of the investigation.\n\nAnd he said this missing persons case was unique due to concerns for the baby's welfare and because Ms Marten had not sought any medical attention.\n\nPolice previously said the couple and their baby were thought to be camping in the East Sussex countryside.\n\nThe baby was less than a week old when the family arrived at the East Sussex port by taxi, just before 05:00 GMT on 8 January.\n\nThe couple left their home in Eltham, south-east London, in September 2022 when Ms Marten began showing signs of pregnancy, police said, and have since led a nomadic lifestyle.\n\nMs Marten has been estranged from her wealthy family for several years. She grew up in a stately home in Dorset which was used as a set for the 1996 film of Jane Austen's Emma.\n\nMs Marten is said to have lived an isolated life with her boyfriend since they met in 2016.", "Co-presenter Alison Hammond was the only black person in the winners' group photo\n\nThe Bafta Awards have come under fire, after all the winners at its film ceremony on Sunday were white.\n\nThe prestigious British event had a diverse set of nominees, with people belonging to ethnic minorities taking almost 40% of acting shortlist slots.\n\nBut that did not translate into wins, with the 49 victors across all categories being white.\n\nIt comes three years after an outcry and subsequent reforms when all 20 acting nominees were white.\n\nCate Blanchett and Austin Butler won best lead actress and actor at the Baftas\n\nMarcus Ryder, director of consultancy at the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, said Sunday's results were \"quite depressing\", and showed there had been \"no substantial change\" over the past decade.\n\n\"Ten years ago, in 2013, Lenny Henry made headlines at the TV Baftas when he labelled it as 'All white on the night',\" he said.\n\n\"And depressingly, despite a massive overhaul, on which I and many other industry people were consulted and which resulted in 120 changes to the Bafta award processes, 1,000 new members from under-represented groups etc, the end result is there is no substantial change.\"\n\nThe focus should not be on ceremonies like the Baftas, he said, which are \"just the tip of the iceberg\" of a wider film industry that \"suffers from systemic racism\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nadine White. This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFilm and TV critic and Bafta short film jury member Ashanti Omkar said she felt \"quite devastated\" after watching the ceremony and seeing the group photo of winners.\n\n\"Alison Hammond was the only person of the global majority in it, and she was not a winner but working at the event like many others who added colour to the red carpet, performed music and presented awards,\" she said. \"That felt regressive and like these were cosmetic steps forward as opposed to real systemic change.\"\n\nOmkar said the winners all deserved awards, but that she worried about whether people were going \"back to old voting practices\" after progress in recent years.\n\n\"This is what I was feeling, and I honestly I was heartbroken,\" she told BBC News. \"I felt quite devastated.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by A$hanti OMkar ௐ London, She | Her, Film, TV Critic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by A$hanti OMkar ௐ London, She | Her, Film, TV Critic\n\nWriter and critic Leila Latif wrote in The Guardian that, on the night, there was a \"creeping discomfort that the awards were benefiting from the work and presence of many people of colour without ever handing them a statuette\".\n\n\"By the end of the night, when it slowly sank in that every single winner was white, you could practically feel the Bafta team's heads sink into their hands as they braced for yet another social media storm,\" she said.\n\nComedian London Hughes wrote on Twitter: \"Any British person who is not white, and has dreams of having a successful career in the arts and entertainment, please, I'm begging you, get your visa and leave the U.K…\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Saima Mohsin This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Terri White This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBafta declined to comment on the lack of diversity among its winners, but noted the reforms introduced in 2020. They included adding more voters with a focus on under-represented groups, and making voters see all longlisted films in the categories for which they vote.\n\nThe organisation's chairman Krishnendu Majumdar told the New York Times before the ceremony that he wants to \"to level the playing field\", but that recognition \"has to be on merit\".\n\nBafta chief executive Jane Millichip told the paper the process of reviewing the set-up would be ongoing and constant, and that the 2020 reforms were \"not a perfect full stop\".\n\nIn 2021 and 2022, half of the acting winners were not white.\n\nDr Clive Nwonka, who led a study into racial inequality in the UK film industry in 2021, said it would take five or six years to get a full sense of the impact of Bafta's changes.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 5 by Clive Nwonka This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis year, German-language World War One epic All Quiet On The Western Front was the big winner with seven awards, while Cate Blanchett and Austin Butler took the lead acting prizes.", "Alec Baldwin and the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, still face involuntary manslaughter charges\n\nProsecutors in New Mexico have dropped firearm enhancement charges against Alec Baldwin following the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust.\n\nThe move reduces possible prison time for the actor as the charges carry a mandatory five-year prison sentence.\n\nMr Baldwin, who faces two involuntary manslaughter charges, still faces up to 18 months in prison.\n\nRust's director Joel Souza was also shot and wounded.\n\nHeather Brewer, Santa Fe county district attorney spokesperson, said the prosecution dropped the firearm enhancement charge to \"avoid further litigious distractions by Mr Baldwin and his attorneys\".\n\n\"The prosecution's priority is securing justice, not securing billable hours for big-city attorneys,\" Ms Brewer said.\n\nAccording to CBS News, the BBC's US partner, prosecutors also dropped the firearm enhancement charge for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film's armorer, who is responsible for weapons on set.\n\nLawyers for Mr Baldwin, 64, and Ms Gutierrez-Reed had been arguing against the firearm enhancement charge, saying prosecutors were applying a version of the law passed after the October 2021 shooting accident.\n\nMs Hutchins, 42, died in hospital after she was shot in the chest by a prop gun fired by Mr Baldwin.\n\nPreviously Mr Baldwin's lawyer, Luke Nikas, said his client \"had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun - or anywhere on the movie set\".\n\n\"He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds.\"\n\nIf convicted, along with a prison sentence, Mr Baldwin and Ms Gutierrez-Reed could face a fine of $5,000 (£4,040).\n\nEarlier this month, the parents and sister of Ms Hutchins sued Mr Baldwin and the production company over Ms Hutchins' death.\n\nHer husband agreed to settle his wrongful death lawsuit - which alleged violations of industry standards - with Mr Baldwin last year.\n\nFilming for the Western film will resume in the spring with Mr Baldwin as the lead actor.", "Doctors and nurses would receive a 3.5% pay increase under government recommendations\n\nThe government has recommended offering millions of public sector workers below inflation pay increases.\n\nJudges, police officers, teachers, nurses doctors and dentists in England will be offered a 3.5% pay increase under proposals.\n\nThe recommendations will now be considered by independent pay review bodies.\n\nPublic sector workers are holding strike action after rejecting last year's pay deal.\n\nVarious government departments published their evidence to pay review bodies for the 2023-24 financial year, starting in April.\n\nThe Treasury says anything above 5% would risk fuelling inflation. But it says 3.5% is affordable.\n\nThe independent pay review bodies are likely to recommend more and the government has repeatedly put great store on accepting their recommendations, says BBC Political Editor Chris Mason.\n\nInflation is also expected to fall.\n\nThe GMB union called the pay offer a \"disgrace\" which will not prevent ongoing ambulance strikes.\n\nThe proposal \"shows this government's true colours\", Rachel Harrison, GMB's national secretary, said.\n\n\"Ambulance workers - and others across the NHS including cleaners, porters and care workers- who are the backbone of the health service deserve better.\n\n\"Ministers have no intentions of recognising the true value of the entire workforce.\"\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing has called off next week's 48-hour strike in England to re-start talks with the government following the new pay recommendations.\n\nEducation Secretary Gillian Keegan has written to the National Education Union urging it to call off teachers strikes next week across the North of England if it wants to negotiate pay.\n\nNEU joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said there was \"nothing substantial\" in the education secretary's letter and the strikes would go ahead.\n\nBut he added: \"Our national executive meets on Saturday, they could change that decision.\n\n\"There is time for the [Department for Education] to make clear that they will talk about pay rises for this school year and would fund those potential pay rises.\n\n\"There is time for them to tell us they are willing to move beyond a 3% pay rise for next September and to fund such pay rises\".\n\nLatest figures show for inflation was 10.1% in January, down from 10.5% in December 2022.\n\nSara Gorton, head of health at the union Unison, said: \"If the government was actively trying to worsen the crisis in the NHS, it couldn't have done better than this.\n\n\"Vacancies are at an all-time high and this pitiful pay suggestion does nothing to solve the growing staffing emergency.\"", "International mail services have finally been reinstated at UK post offices, more than a month after Royal Mail was hit by a cyber attack.\n\nThe breach on 10 January caused a backlog that led to long delays for consumers and businesses.\n\nMost services had been restored online but remained unavailable at 11,500 Post Office branches.\n\nRoyal Mail said it was now processing \"close to normal daily volumes\" of international mail with \"some delays\".\n\n\"International export services have now been reinstated to all destinations for purchase online and through our shipping solutions,\" it added.\n\nAfter the ransomware attack last month, Royal Mail customers were told to stop sending parcels and mail overseas altogether.\n\nCustomers - many of them small businesses - complained of long delays that made sending goods abroad impossible.\n\nA ransomware group named Lockbit linked to Russia claimed responsibility for the cyber attack.\n\nRoyal Mail gradually reinstated services online, with the option of dropping items off at a Post Office branch or having them collected at home.\n\nBut Neill O'Sullivan, managing director of parcels and mail at the Post Office, said postmasters had been left unable \"support businesses and consumers\" wanting to send parcels and mail abroad.\n\n\"For many small businesses, Post Offices are an integral part of their business set-up and this has been a challenging time for them,\" he said.\n\n\"These past weeks have [also] been difficult for postmasters who through no fault of their own have missed out on remuneration for providing international mail services,\" he added.\n\nThe Post Office said it was paying postmasters extra for handling international mail to remedy the situation.\n\nThe problems have coincided with ongoing strikes by Royal Mail postal workers which have hit domestic deliveries.\n\nOn strike days, the postal firm has been unable to deliver first and second-class letters. However, it has said it will deliver as many parcels and Special Delivery letters as possible.", "Spain's Secretary of State for Transport Isabel Pardo de Vera is among the top bosses to quit\n\nTwo top Spanish transport officials have resigned over a botched order for new commuter trains that cost nearly €260m ($275m; £230m).\n\nThe trains could not fit into non-standard tunnels in the northern regions of Asturias and Cantabria.\n\nThe head of Spain's rail operator Renfe, Isaías Táboas, and the Secretary of State for Transport, Isabel Pardo de Vera, have now left their roles.\n\nThe design fault was made public earlier this month.\n\nThe Spanish government says the mistake was spotted early enough to avoid financial loss. However the region of Cantabria has demanded compensation.\n\nRenfe ordered the trains in 2020 but the following year manufacturer CAF realised that the dimensions it had been given for the trains were inaccurate and stopped construction.\n\nThe rail network in northern Spain was built in the 19th Century and has tunnels under the mountainous landscape that do not match standard modern tunnel dimensions.\n\nThe mistake means the trains will be delivered in 2026, two years late.\n\nRenfe and infrastructure operator Adif have launched a joint investigation to find out how the error could have happened. Earlier this month, Spain's transport ministry fired a Renfe manager and Adif's head of track technology over the blunder.", "No 10 has insisted it is engaging with DUP and Conservative MPs as the prime minister seeks agreement with the EU on post-Brexit rules in Northern Ireland.\n\nRishi Sunak is trying to resolve issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol, introduced after the UK left the EU.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said further EU concessions were needed before a new deal could be agreed.\n\nEx-minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said agreement was doomed without approval from unionist parties and Brexit MPs.\n\nSir Jeffrey said a new deal \"is possible\" within the \"next few days\".\n\nBut the EU would need to accept that goods traded within Northern Ireland were subject to UK laws and standards for the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) to agree, he added.\n\nHopes that changes can be made this week have faded somewhat, although Downing Street suggest a deal could still happen soon.\n\nEarlier, the prime minister told his cabinet ministers that attempts to reach a deal were focused on safeguarding Northern Ireland's place in the UK, protecting the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement and ensuring the free flow of trade in the UK internal market.\n\nThe current rules, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, were negotiated by Boris Johnson and came into force in 2021.\n\nThey introduced checks on goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, to get round the need for checks at the UK's border with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe rules have proved highly unpopular among unionists in Northern Ireland, and soured relations between the UK and EU.\n\nIn protest at the rules, the DUP boycotted power-sharing in Northern Ireland, meaning it has been without a functioning devolved government since February of last year.\n\nA majority of members of the Stormont assembly are in favour of the protocol in some form remaining in place.\n\nSinn Féin, the Alliance Party and the SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party) have said improvements to the protocol are needed to ease its implementation.\n\nBritish and European negotiators have been locked in talks for over a year to secure changes that will satisfy business groups and politicians.\n\nOn his Conservative Home podcast, Mr Rees-Mogg argued there was \"no point\" agreeing a deal which does not have the support of the DUP.\n\n\"I don't know why so much political capital has been spent on something without getting the DUP and the ERG (European Research Group of Conservative MPs) onside first,\" he said.\n\nHe likened Mr Sunak's approach to that of former-Prime Minister Theresa May who, he said, had presented a policy in the hope that people would \"conveniently fall in behind\" it, he said.\n\n\"Life doesn't work like that. It's important to get support for it first before you finalise the details and that doesn't seem to have been done here.\"\n\nBoth the DUP and some Conservative MPs think Mr Sunak made a mistake to travel to Belfast at the end of last week, unannounced, to try, as some saw it, to \"bounce\" the Democratic Unionists into agreement, the BBC's Chris Mason and Jess Parker report.\n\n\"He jumped the gun,\" said one Tory MP, privately.\n\n\"There isn't a deal to be done. It is back to the drawing board,\" said another Conservative backbencher.\n\nIn his podcast, Mr Rees-Mogg urged Mr Sunak to pass the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which would give the UK government the power to rip up parts of the current arrangement with the EU.\n\nHis comments echo those of former-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who over the weekend urged his successor not to ditch the proposed law.\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman also appeared to indicate her support, describing the legislation as one of the \"biggest tools\" to solving issues over trade in the Irish Sea.\n\nBut former Justice Secretary Sir Robert Buckland has argued that the since the bill was introduced in 2022, the situation had changed.\n\nWriting in the House magazine, he said: \"The [bill] has outlived its political usefulness and no longer has any legal justification. It is the proverbial dead letter.\"\n\nA deal which the prime minister said was within touching distance could yet slip through his fingers.\n\nRishi Sunak has been feeling the heat on two front - the DUP and his own backbench Tory MPs.\n\nIt is a formidable force for a prime minister desperate to avoid confrontation within a deeply divided Tory party.\n\nBut he doesn't need DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to say yes to a deal - he just needs him not to say no.\n\nThat would allow the UK and EU to publish their protocol deal and begin the job of selling it beyond the DUP to businesses in Northern Ireland.\n\nBut as every day passes without a deal being struck Rishi Sunak will start feeling the heat from Brussels.\n\nOn Tuesday, the prime minister's spokesman told reporters \"intensive negotiations continue\" between the UK and EU but added that unresolved issues and \"long-lasting challenges\" needed to be addressed.\n\nHe rejected suggestions the DUP and Conservative Brexiter MPs had not been sufficiently involved.\n\n\"We have been speaking to relative parties at the appropriate times throughout this process,\" he said adding that \"engagement will continue as we continue to negotiate\".\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris held fresh talks with European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic on Tuesday afternoon.\n\nSpeaking ahead of that meeting, Mr Sefcovic told reporters that the \"finishing line\" on the talks could \"clearly\" be seen but added \"being close doesn't mean being done\".\n\nLast week, Mr Sunak went to Belfast to meet politicians in Northern Ireland and then Germany, where he met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, raising speculation that an agreement was imminent.", "Intensive talks are due to start later between ministers and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) after the union halted next week's 48-hour strike in England.\n\nHealth Secretary Stephen Barclay will sit down with RCN leader Pat Cullen to discuss a compromise deal to end the stand-off over pay.\n\nThe talks are likely to focus on next year's pay rise, which is due in April.\n\nOne option is to backdate it by several months, effectively giving nurses an extra pay boost for part of this year.\n\nNurses - and other NHS staff except doctors - were given an average of 4.75% this year.\n\nThat award had prompted a wave of strikes by unions representing nurses, ambulance staff and physios, who wanted an above-inflation increase.\n\nThe Treasury has refused to sanction any revisiting of that award, fearing it would fuel inflation.\n\nBut the resumption of talks came after the government set out its plan for next year's pay award.\n\nIt has suggested an increase of 3.5% for all NHS staff in its submission to the independent NHS Pay Review Body.\n\nThe final offer though could be higher - in previous years the pay review body has recommended more than the government initially offered, to which the government has subsequently agreed.\n\nIf next year's pay award is backdated to before April, it would effectively mean a double boost in pay for those months.\n\nSpeaking ahead of the talks, Ms Cullen said: \"We will put our plans on the table, they can put their plans on the table - but I'm confident that we will come out with a fair pay settlement for our nursing staff.\"\n\nShe added they would make sure no stone was left unturned and a fair pay deal was reached as quickly as possible so they could end the strikes.\n\nGovernment sources said they were delighted to be back talking again and were determined to reach a \"fair and reasonable settlement\".\n\nOther health unions said they were disappointed not to have been invited to the discussions.\n\nA spokesman for one, Unison, said the government's decision to meet just the RCN alone - and not them as well - would do \"nothing to solve the NHS pay dispute\".\n\nAs the talks were taking place, the union announced a walkout across nine of England's 10 ambulance services on 8 March. A smaller number of other services, including hospitals and NHS Blood and Transplant, will also be involved.\n\nNext week's walkout by RCN members in England, from 1 to 3 March, was set to be the biggest strike of this winter's pay dispute, with half of frontline services affected.\n\nThe action would have included nursing staff from intensive care units, cancer care and other services that were previously exempted.\n\nSir Julian Hartley, chief executive at NHS Providers which represents health managers, said the NHS would be \"breathing a sign of relief\".\n\n\"The past weeks have seen a worrying escalation of industrial action, which has hit patients hard. This is the glimmer of hope we all needed,\" he added.\n\nThe NHS, however, faces further industrial action from unions representing ambulance drivers and junior doctors, and more strike dates could yet be announced.\n\nThe Scottish government has offered NHS staff - including nurses - a new pay offer for the coming year which includes a one-off payment and an average salary rise of 6.5% from April.\n\nIn Wales, nurses are currently being balloted over a new pay deal from the Welsh government, and the RCN has put some planned walkouts for February on hold.", "Liz Truss told MPs \"we need to do all we can to make sure Ukraine wins this war as soon as possible\"\n\nLiz Truss has joined growing calls for fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine, in her first speech in Parliament since resigning as prime minister.\n\nMs Truss said the UK needed to \"do all we can, as fast as we can\" to help Ukraine win the war against Russia.\n\nThe call was echoed by former PM Boris Johnson during a debate on Ukraine, putting pressure on PM Rishi Sunak.\n\nMr Sunak's government has agreed to train Ukrainian pilots but says supplying jets is a long-term option.\n\nEarlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to European leaders to supply his country with modern fighter jets during visits to the UK, France and Belgium.\n\nThe UK is to start training Ukrainian forces to fly Nato-standard jets and Mr Sunak has said \"nothing is off the table\".\n\nAt the Munich Security Conference last week, the prime minister urged world leaders to give Ukraine the most advanced weapons to defend itself in the long term.\n\nBut Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said there will be no immediate transfer of UK fighter jets to Ukraine.\n\nHe told the BBC it could take months to train pilots and the UK was instead focused on using alternative provision of air cover to the country.\n\nSome Nato member countries are also worried that giving jets to Ukraine would be viewed as escalating the war, risking direct confrontation between the Western military alliance and Russia.\n\nIn her speech to MPs in the House of Commons, Ms Truss said \"we need to do all we can to make sure Ukraine wins this war as soon as possible\".\n\nShe urged the UK government to work with allies to provide Ukraine with an option to use fighter jets \"otherwise they will not be able to prevail\".\n\nNow a backbench Conservative MP, Ms Truss was foreign secretary when President Vladimir Putin's forces invaded Ukraine almost a year ago.\n\nMs Truss recalled what it was like being in government before and after the invasion was launched.\n\nShe described news of the invasion, delivered to her by a private secretary at 03:30 in the morning, as \"devastating\" but \"not unexpected\" given Western intelligence about Russia's plans.\n\nIt was Ms Truss's first contribution in the Commons as a backbench MP since 2012, when she became a minister.\n\nSat by her side during a general debate on Ukraine was Simon Clarke, one of the cabinet ministers in her short-lived government.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UK PM Rishi Sunak: \"Now is the moment to double down on our military support (for Ukraine)\"\n\nMs Truss's speech followed that of Mr Johnson, who repeated his call for fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine.\n\nMr Johnson said that in the past 12 months since the war began, Western countries had eventually supplied the Ukrainians with the weapons they had requested.\n\n\"Let's cut to the chase and give them the planes too,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\nUnderlining the urgency of supplying aircraft to Ukraine, Mr Johnson said \"it is becoming ever clearer that China is preparing to arm the Russians\".\n\n\"We should give them what they need, not next month, not next year, but now,\" he added.\n\nThe British ambassador to Ukraine Dame Melinda Simmons told BBC Ukrainecast the West had to \"hold our nerve\" in supporting Ukraine, adding \"it isn't a short war\".\n\nShe also said any future peace deal would need a security guarantee for Ukraine to deter any further invasion.\n\nThe two Conservative prime ministers spoke in Parliament on the same day US President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.\n\nMr Biden said the US would back Ukraine for \"as long as it takes\", as the prospect of a Russian spring offensive looms.", "Nicola Bulley was last seen alive during a riverside walk more than three weeks ago\n\nNicola Bulley's family paid tribute to \"the one who made our lives so special\" after it was confirmed a body found in the river on Sunday was her.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire more than three weeks ago, sparking a major search.\n\nHer body was discovered about one mile (1.6km) away from where she was last seen.\n\nThe family said Ms Bulley was \"the centre of our world\".\n\nDet Ch Supt Pauline Stables read the following statement outside Lancashire Police's headquarters:\n\n\"Our family liaison officers have had to confirm our worst fears today.\n\n\"We will never be able to comprehend what Nikki had gone through in her last moments and that will never leave us.\n\n\"We will never forget Nikki, how could we, she was the centre of our world, she was the one who made our lives so special and nothing will cast a shadow over that.\n\n\"Our girls will get the support they need from the people who love them the most.\n\nDet Ch Supt Pauline Stables read a statement on behalf of the family\n\n\"And it saddens us to think that one day we will have to explain to them that the press and members of the public accused their dad of wrongdoing, misquoted and vilified friends and family.\n\n\"This is absolutely appalling - they have to be held accountable. This cannot happen to another family.\n\n\"We tried last night to take in what we had been told in the day, only to have Sky News and ITV making contact with us directly when we expressly asked for privacy.\n\n\"They again, have taken it upon themselves to run stories about us to sell papers and increase their own profiles.\n\n\"It is shameful they have acted in this way. Leave us alone now.\n\n\"Do the press and other media channels and so called professionals not know when to stop? These are our lives and our children's lives.\n\n\"To those who genuinely helped and supported us, privately, we thank you. The community support in St Michael's, friends, neighbours and strangers has been nothing short of comforting and heart-warming.\n\n\"Friends you know who you are. Thank you.\n\n\"Our hearts truly break for others who have missing loved ones. Keep that hope alive.\n\n\"Finally, Nikki, you are no longer a missing person, you have been found, we can let you rest now.\n\n\"We love you, always have and always will, we'll take it from here xx\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Japan saw protests in 2019 after a series of rape and sexual abuse acquittals\n\nA panel of the Japanese Justice Ministry has proposed raising the age of consent from 13 to 16.\n\nIt forms part of a wider overhaul of Japan's laws on sex crimes, after multiple rape acquittals in 2019 caused outcry.\n\nThe proposal also aims to criminalise the grooming of minors and expand the definition of rape.\n\nThe statute of limitations for reporting rape will also be increased to 15 from 10 years.\n\nCurrently, Japan has the lowest age of consent in developed countries, and the lowest in the G7 group.\n\nIn Germany and Italy the age is 14, in Greece and France it is 15 and in the UK and many US states it is 16.\n\nThe current law in Japan means victims of rape need to prove that there was \"violence and intimidation\" used during the rape and that it was \"impossible to resist\" to secure a conviction.\n\nThe panel has not changed this wording but instead added other factors including intoxication, drugging, being caught off guard and psychological control into the definition.\n\nJustice Ministry official Yusuke Asanuma said that this \"isn't meant to make it easier or harder\" for victims to win a rape case but that it should make verdicts \"more consistent\".\n\nThe re-examination of the sex crime laws comes after widespread demonstrations in 2019 following a number of acquittals. One case saw a man go free after being accused of having sex with his teenaged daughter, even though the court agreed that it was against her will. He was later sent to prison after prosecutors appealed.\n\nAnother saw a man found not guilty of raping a woman who had passed out from drinking because he \"misunderstood\" that she consented to having sex.\n\nThe government could pass the law as early as summer. Despite the potential change to the age of consent, an exception will still exist for intercourse between people who are at least 13 and who have an age gap of less than five years.", "On her day off Faye bakes to relax\n\nFaye Johnson-Smith thought it was too good to be true when her boss said she could have every Wednesday off without a cut in salary.\n\nHer firm was taking part in a six-month trial, testing the costs and benefits of a four-day week on full pay.\n\nLike most of the workers involved, Faye was much happier working shorter hours.\n\nBut at the end of the trial almost all the 61 employers, which included a brewery and a fish and chip shop, were also keen to keep the new work pattern.\n\nThe scheme, organised by 4 Day Week Global, took place between June and December 2022, and involved organisations across the UK, including some non-profit organisations, as well as private firms in recruitment, software, and manufacturing.\n\nA report assessing its impact has found it had \"extensive benefits\" particularly for employees' well-being.\n\nIts authors argue it could herald a shift in attitudes, so that before long we could all see a mid-week break or a three-day weekend as normal.\n\nFaye works as a supervisor for Citizens Advice in Gateshead where around 200 staff took part in the scheme.\n\nShe says having the day off gives her time to \"recover and recuperate\".\n\nAs a result, she arrives back at work \"ready to hit the ground running\" and, she reckons, achieves as much, if not more, in her four days than she used to in five.\n\nHer colleague, Bethany Lawson, says she finds her team easier to manage now most of them are on a four-day week, leaving her more time to get on, and she also finds she can push herself a little bit further after a day to \"reset\".\n\nBeing told she could work a four-day week felt like winning the lottery, says Bethany\n\nBut for a four-day week on full pay to work across the economy, employers will need to see productivity gains.\n\nWorkers will need to create the services and products in four days that they were creating in five to make enough money to pay a full week's wages.\n\nThat kind of productivity growth has proved an intractable challenge for the UK economy. It has fallen behind many other rich nations in the amount of value created per worker in recent years, with competing explanations as to why and how that might be fixed.\n\nThe report's authors argue that although the trial was amongst organisations that volunteered to join, and were therefore more likely to make it work, the results make a strong case for a shorter working week.\n\n\"We don't have a firm handle on exactly what happened to productivity,\" says Juliet Schor from Boston College, which, alongside the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, was one of the academic institutions behind the trial. \"But we do know that on a variety of other metrics, whether we're talking about revenue, [workforce] attrition, self-reports of productivity, employee well-being and costs, we had really good results.\"\n\nWhile most of the companies taking part said they were happy with productivity and performance outcomes, only 23 provided financial data covering revenues, and that showed revenue had broadly stayed the same over the six months of the trial.\n\nBut of the 61 companies that took part, 56 said they would continue with the four-day week, at least for now, of whom 18 said the policy was a permanent change.\n\nTyler Grange, an environmental consultancy that has six offices across England, is one of those fully embracing the new pattern.\n\nSimon Ursell, its managing director, admits the first month of the trial was \"a bit white knuckle\".\n\nHe didn't want to simply compress into four days the work that was being done in five because that would put staff under too much pressure, he says.\n\nStaff at Tyler Grange are now on a permanent four-day week work pattern\n\nInstead the plan was to remove unnecessary meetings, travel and admin. But in the end it was the staff themselves who found the efficiencies required.\n\n\"Fundamentally, if you give people this incredible incentive of a whole day of their time a week, they are going to work really hard to make it work,\" he says.\n\nNow, he says, his staff are doing 2% more in four days than they used to do in five. The team is happier. Absenteeism has shrunk by two-thirds and applications to work at Tyler Grange are flooding in.\n\nThose results reflect the overall findings of the report: that staff were much less inclined to call in sick, and more inclined to stay with their employer, reducing recruitment costs and making it more worthwhile training staff.\n\nThe results are not as clear cut for every organisation, however.\n\nCitizens Advice in Gateshead, where Faye works, is not yet ready to commit to a permanent four-day week.\n\nChief executive Alison Dunn says the charity found many benefits to the shorter working week, including less burnout amongst its staff, who are under a lot of pressure in the current cost-of-living crisis.\n\n\"It has absolutely worked in the majority of the business,\" she says.\n\n\"But there are some areas of the business where the jury is still out as to how effective it will be.\"\n\nIt has proved harder to make efficiencies at the contact centre, which was already heavily monitored with tough targets to meet. There, Citizens Advice has had to shoulder the cost of hiring extra staff to allow for the four-day week pattern.\n\nMs Dunn hopes the extra investment will eventually be offset by a reduction in costs around recruitment, retention and sickness but it's still \"a work in progress\", she says, with a review due in April.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The BBC's Emma Simpson looks at the history of the working week and how it might change\n\nWhat would you do with a three-day weekend? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Energy firms should start compensating customers whose homes were wrongfully fitted with a prepayment meter, without waiting for the results of a major review, the regulator has said.\n\nOfgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley said companies must review their own meter installations immediately.\n\nA six-week pause in forced prepayment fittings lasts until the end of March.\n\nIt came after debt agents for British Gas broke into vulnerable people's homes to force-fit meters.\n\nOfgem is now outlining the terms of its review into the rules, regulations and guidance surrounding prepayment meters.\n\nThe investigation - which will be complete by the end of March - will include submissions from the public. Information about how customers can offer details of their experiences will be announced soon.\n\nMr Brearley said any systematic problems would lead to fines for suppliers but he said the regulator had been clear to companies about the rules - and rejected the accusation that Ofgem had been too slow on the issue.\n\n\"If companies know they inappropriately installed a prepayment meter, then they should fix it now,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe said this meant switching the meter back to a regular one, if that was what the customer wanted, and giving compensation.\n\nOfgem cannot order companies to do so until its review is complete, but Mr Brearley said companies would know quickly when there were clear issues to settle.\n\nThe regulator will also conduct a targeted investigation into the actions of British Gas, specifically about whether it followed the rules under its licence to support customers in debt before force-fitting prepayment meters.\n\nMr Brearley said that \"clearly something has gone wrong\" at British Gas and that the investigation would be independent and wide-ranging.\n\nAn investigation by The Times newspaper found debt agents working for British Gas expressed excitement at putting prepayment meters into the homes of vulnerable people behind on bills.\n\nPrepayment meter customers top-up their meter with credit, which then runs down as they use energy at home.\n\nCharities and campaigners say many have been left unable to afford to put money into their meters owing to soaring energy prices and other cost-of-living pressures.\n\nHowever, the trade association for suppliers - Energy UK - has regularly highlighted that suppliers can be left with unpaid debts from customers who do not pay their regular bills.\n\nWithout the option of moving people onto prepayment meters, these mounting debts would have to be recovered from everyone else's bills.\n\n\"Suppliers have already paused prepayment installations by warrant in order to carry out reviews of their own practices and they will look to put things right if they find cases where prepayment meters have been installed inappropriately,\" the trade body said in response to Ofgem's announcement.\n\n\"The industry has already been talking to Ofgem and the government about how best we can support the most vulnerable customers going forward, including the role a social tariff could potentially play, which needs to be part of the discussion around the use of prepayment meters.\"\n\nThere are more than four million UK households on prepayment meters, and campaigners have called for tighter rules.\n\nSimon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: \"The full market compliance review will take time to report back and the ban on forced switching to prepayment must remain in place until this happens. In reality, we still need a total ban as forced switching has been revealed to be a barbaric process.\"\n\nCaroline's house was broken into and her locks were changed in order for the prepayment meters to be fitted\n\nIn March last year, 29-year-old Caroline Pugh bought a house in Seaton Carew near Hartlepool.\n\nDuring its renovation in August, while Caroline was living elsewhere, her property was broken into and her locks were changed.\n\nThe first she knew about it was when her parents spotted yellow and black tape stuck to her front door.\n\n\"They went in to fit two meters without me knowing. I had to go around and actually sit in my car outside the house and wait for the locksmiths to come and give me my new keys,\" she said.\n\n\"It was horrific, I don't get how people can do something like that. I was shocked.\"\n\nAccording to Ms Pugh, her provider - Scottish Power - said the meters had been fitted because the previous owner was in debt.\n\n\"There were loads of letters addressed to him. But it's against the law to open other people's letters so I returned to the sender and that's it. I didn't know anything about the debt,\" she said.\n\n\"There's one [meter] under the stairs, it takes up quite a lot of space, and another above the door as you walk in.\n\n\"I asked them to change the meters back but they said they wouldn't. To get it done I'd be charged hundreds of pounds. I'm a single mother doing up a house, I don't have the money for that,\" she said.\n\nA Scottish Power spokesperson said: \"We're sorry for the issues experienced by Ms Pugh. We were only informed in August 2022 - after the prepayment meters had been installed - that she had purchased the property in March, so all bills issued to that point had been sent to the previous owner.\n\n\"As she has smart meters, there's no need to change her meters in order to change her payment method. We will contact her directly to discuss this and apologise that she wasn't advised of this at the time.\"\n\nDomestic energy bills are set to rise in April, although the government is under pressure to extend support for households.\n\nAnalysts at consultancy firm Cornwall Insight said predictions of falling prices later in the year could lead to \"the return of competitive tariffs\", and with it the chance for consumers to \"take back some control over their energy bills\".\n\nBut Mr Brearley urged people to take care when deciding whether to sign up to new fixed deals in the summer.\n\nHe said customers should \"do your homework\" over how prices might change in the future before making a decision.", "Gwynedd council has bought eight homes in a bid to tackle homelessness\n\nPrivate homes are being snapped up by a council in the so-called \"Welsh Riviera\" to tackle homelessness.\n\nThe authority in Gwynedd has bought eight houses across the county in places like the seaside resort of Abersoch.\n\nThe village's Benar Headland was last year named Wales' most expensive street, with an average price of £1.7m.\n\nThe council plans on taking ownership of 100 homes to rent them out to locals.\n\nThis is part of a plan to create affordable housing in the county which, a meeting heard, has 669 homeless people.\n\nAccording to the Local Democracy Reporting Service the council's member for housing, Craig ab Iago, told a meeting last Tuesday there were a further 211 in temporary housing.\n\nIn the past year there have been signs some second homes owners are selling up amid council tax premium hikes.\n\nThe council has bought, or is buying, homes in Abersoch, Nefyn, Pwllheli, Llanbedr, Llanberis, Tywyn, Ffestiniog and Barmouth.\n\nMr ab Iago claimed more property was coming on to the market.\n\n\"Seventy per cent of landlords now say they want to sell their houses,\" he said.\n\n\"It shows what sort of situation we are dealing with now.\"\n\nThis includes in the seaside resort of Abersoch\n\nHe said it followed the changing of section 21 rules which allowed landlords to evict tenants quickly and without reason.\n\nHe said: \"I am very pleased to report that eight houses have now been purchased, with another five either close to completion or subject to contract and in solicitors' hands.\n\n\"Our intention is to let the houses on intermediate rent to a person with local connections and in need of such a house.\"\n\nThe council has also worked on a leasing scheme offering a support package for landlords.\n\n\"Some landlords have inherited houses and want to help local people, they don't want to sell, as they don't know who is going to get them,\" Mr ab Iago said.\n\n\"The government has given us a target of four houses for this but we are in a process of getting 19.\"\n\nThe scheme wants to encourage landlords to lease property to the council for between five and 20 years.\n\nHe said: \"We are asking them to work with us to house local people. We take the stress out of the process, there's guaranteed income there.\"\n\nThe council also wants to buy land to develop its own housing.", "Floral tributes were laid following the shootings in Plymouth in August 2021\n\nFirearms laws could be reformed in the wake of shootings in Plymouth and the Isle of Skye, the government has said.\n\nHome Office minister Chris Philp committed to make \"any further changes needed to protect the public\".\n\nMr Philp made a statement to the House of Commons following the conclusion of the inquest into the victims of the Plymouth shootings.\n\nThe inquest jury found \"a serious failure at a national level\" to implement previous recommended reforms.\n\nJake Davison killed his mother Maxine, 51, Sophie Martyn, three, her father Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, in the Keyham area of Plymouth in August 2021, before he turned the gun on himself.\n\nA series of shootings took place in Skye in August 2022 in which one man died.\n\nPolice were called to a series of incidents around Skye in August\n\nThe families of Keyham gunman Davison's victims have demanded an overhaul of the 50-year-old Firearms Act after accusing police of granting him \"a licence to kill\".\n\nMr Philp told MPs: \"We must ensure our controls on firearms are as robust as possible and learn the lessons of the tragic deaths in Keyham, and also in Scotland, and we therefore await the coroner's anticipated report into the prevention of future deaths with keen interest.\"\n\nLabour's Luke Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, who has been campaigning for firearms reform, asked Mr Philp to meet with the families of the victims.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Luke Pollard MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Philp agreed and said he wanted to \"listen to their concerns directly and make sure their voice is heard in government\".\n\nMr Pollard also called for \"comprehensive changes to our gun laws to make sure that no other community anywhere in the country will have to go through what we have in Plymouth\".\n\nJake Davison killed five people before taking his own life in the Keyham area of Plymouth\n\nJurors at the Keyham inquest were critical of the failings within the Devon and Cornwall Police firearms licensing unit, which handed the apprentice crane operator back his shotgun five weeks before the killings.\n\nMr Philp said Devon and Cornwall Police could face a further review of its firearms licensing arrangements.\n\nHe said the force had assured the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) that changes had been made following the watchdog's recent recommendations.\n\nMr Philp added: \"Depending on what the coroner might recommend shortly, I am currently minded to ask the inspectorate to go and look specifically at the arrangements that Devon and Cornwall have in place for firearms licensing to confirm their suitability.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, at the conclusion of a separate inquest into Davison's death, the barrister representing Davison's remaining family, Nick Stanage, called on the coroner to \"do all you can as soon as you can to make recommendations for actions, not words, that might begin at long last to protect the public from future atrocities\".\n\nThe coroner for Plymouth, Ian Arrow, told the jury he would be writing a prevention of future deaths report on a number of issues revealed during the inquests including training for firearms licencing staff, the differences on licencing shotguns and firearms, fees for licencing and mandatory markers on health records.\n\nHe said: \"It's imperative that we do not lose the momentum of what this series of inquests have revealed.\n\n\"There have been lessons learned in previous years but they did not seem to have been properly addressed.\"\n\nJohnny Mercer, Conservative MP for Plymouth Moor View, said on Twitter the police were \"not supported by strong enough legislation\".\n\nHe said he would \"be writing to the home secretary calling for an overhaul of the 1968 Firearms Act to change the onus on proving need for weapons like this, from permissive law to the gun-owner demonstrating why they need it\".\n\nThe British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), the UK's largest shooting organisation, has opposed calls for changes to firearms licensing.\n\nChristopher Graffius, BASC's executive director of communications and public affairs, said, in the Keyham case, the fault lay \"not with the existing laws but with their inconsistent application by Devon and Cornwall Police\".\n\nThe BASC said it had written to the coroner regarding what it thought could help prevent future shootings and said it would discuss these recommendations with the government.\n\nMr Graffius said it had previously asked for a national firearms licensing regulator to improve standards in training.\n\nHowever, the BASC opposed the recommendation made by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to remove any distinction between what is required for firearms and shotgun certificates.\n\nMr Graffius said removing the distinction would \"impose an unnecessary burden that would do nothing to improve public safety\".\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Singer Maggie Rogers says she's seeing more people passing out and having panic attacks at her gigs.\n\nThe American artist thinks it's down to people being away from crowds and concerts for so long because of the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIn an Instagram post, she asked her fans to stay hydrated and look after others around them.\n\nAnxiety therapist Angela McMillan isn't surprised people might be struggling as they get used to going out again.\n\nShe says it's something she is seeing more and more in her counselling work.\n\n\"I think the lockdowns created a situation where people were at home, they weren't around lots of people,\" she tells Newsbeat.\n\n\"There was a lot of fear and anxiety around being in contact with other human beings when accessing things like loud noises or music.\"\n\nIn her Instagram post, singer-songwriter Maggie says gigs \"may not be the most natural space after the couple years we've spent in the pandemic\".\n\nCovid might feel like a long time ago for some, but Angela says we've only just started to make sense of what happened.\n\n\"We weren't able to sing along to our favourite music, we weren't able to dance around other people,\" she says.\n\n\"And I think it still can feel like a bit of a shock and a surprise for some people.\"\n\nSam Parsons is 21 and last went to a gig five years ago\n\nSomeone who knows what it's like to have to think about going back to a gig for the first time in ages is Sam Parsons.\n\nThe 21-year-old posted on TikTok about getting ready to go to her first concert since she was 16.\n\n\"The main difference between now and when I was 16 is that I now know I'm autistic and that brings a whole load of sensory issues,\" she says.\n\n\"I am small so when I go to a concert and it's an all-standing area I can't see over people's shoulders and it really feels like I'm boxed in.\n\n\"And when I am already anxious about being in a crowd of people, feeling boxed in and not being able to see anything but people around you, it's really scary.\"\n\nSam also says she has to think about the fact that she's extra sensitive to noise.\n\n\"Whereas the music itself will calm me down, they are big industrial speakers with frequencies that I can hear but neurotypical people might not be able to hear,\" she says.\n\nShe says she will be taking her sensory overload earplugs which minimise the higher pitched sounds.\n\nIn her Insta post, Maggie offers advice to her fans about keeping safe at her gigs - including staying hydrated and taking breaks from standing.\n\nAngela also has advice for people who are still getting used to going out regularly.\n\n\"I think one of the first things I say to people is just do things at your own pace,\" she says.\n\n\"Just because your friends are going out every day or doing loads of stuff, it doesn't mean you have to do it at the same pace as them.\"\n\nShe has also has some top tips for people who might be struggling with anxiety at gigs:\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Congressman George Santos has admitted to having been \"a terrible liar\" when confronted with his embellished resume in a new TV interview.\n\nThe embattled Republican told TalkTV's Piers Morgan he had made mistakes under pressure but his lies were not about \"tricking the people\".\n\nInstead, he said, it was about \"getting accepted by the party here locally\".\n\nMr Santos has faced fierce controversy since his election in November.\n\nHe was initially lauded as the first openly gay Republican to win a seat in the House of Representatives as a non-incumbent when he won in New York's third district.\n\nBut within weeks, the New York Times published a story that called into question large portions of his CV, including his education and work experience, triggering a wave of further reporting.\n\nHe is alleged to have faced fraud charges in Brazil, presided over prolific campaign spending, lied about working for Goldman Sachs and about owning property - and even claimed to have produced the ill-fated Spider-Man musical on Broadway.\n\nSpeaking to Piers Morgan on Monday, Mr Santos said one of his \"biggest regrets in life\" was lying about obtaining a college education.\n\nAsked why he had chosen to do so, Mr Santos said: \"Expectation on society, the pressure, couldn't afford it.\n\n\"Decided I wanted to run for office, although I had built a very credible business career, but I just didn't have that part of my biography.\"\n\n\"I just went with it, if you are going to make up a lie, are you thinking at all?\" he added.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Piers Morgan Uncensored This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Santos pointed out that he had run for the same Congressional seat in 2020 \"and I got away with it then\".\n\nHe reiterated his claim that he had never said he was Jewish, and repeated what he described as a \"party-favourite joke\" by describing himself as \"Jew-ish\".\n\nChallenged over a claim that his mother was in the South Tower of the World Trade Centre in New York City on 9/11, Mr Santos said: \"That's true.\"\n\n\"I won't debate my mother's life as she's passed in [2016] and it's quite insensitive to try to rehash my mother's legacy,\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"She wasn't one to mislead me... I stay convinced that's the truth.\"\n\nThe 34-year-old, who has faced calls from within his party to resign, was asked about the experience of the scrutiny he has come under.\n\n\"It's uncomfortable,\" he said. \"I can't stand it and a lot of people think I love it, I just can't stand it... you need to learn how to deal with it and that's what I'm doing.\"\n\nAsked about an apology, Mr Santos said: \"I have looked inside a camera and said sorry... If you can ask for forgiveness, I think that is the first step.\"\n\nOn whether he would have wanted to run for office knowing the pressure that would follow, Mr Santos said simply: \"Absolutely not.\"\n\nMr Santos, who is the subject of multiple Congressional investigations, is also facing an allegation of sexual misconduct from a former aide.", "Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes are leading candidates to be the next first minister\n\nNothing lasts forever. That is true in politics as it is in life.\n\nAs they wash ashore, some political tides reshape the landscape before, eventually, they recede again.\n\nAre we at such a moment? Is this the turning of the tide for the Scottish National Party and its campaign to end the 316-year old union between Scotland and England?\n\nThe answer to that question may lie with one of three people: Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes or Ash Regan, all of whom are vying to take over from Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and Scotland's First Minister.\n\nMs Regan has not yet been available for interviews but on Monday I sat down with two frontrunners, Ms Forbes and Mr Yousaf.\n\nWhat did we learn? Actually a surprising amount.\n\nKate Forbes told me that she would not have backed the Scottish government's controversial bill designed to make it easier to legally change gender.\n\nWe had guessed that this was probably her view but this was the first on-the-record confirmation.\n\n\"I would not have been able to vote for the principle of self-ID,\" the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, who is taking a break from her maternity leave to launch the campaign, told me.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Forbes says she was \"extraordinarily torn\" about whether to stand as first minister\n\nHer fellow contender, Ash Regan resigned as community safety minister to oppose the bill and, had the vote not fallen during Ms Forbes' leave, the finance secretary would surely have had to do the same.\n\n\"That would have been a decision that I'd have had to take in discussion with colleagues,\" she said.\n\nAt the heart of Ms Forbes' identity is her membership of the socially conservative Free Church of Scotland, whose evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland in 1843.\n\nShe told me that a \"significant glare of scrutiny\" on her in this regard was fair enough but, she added, \"I think we get into very dangerous territory when we say that certain public offices are barred to certain minority groups.\"\n\n\"I'm talking to you as somebody who has a Christian faith. I've never kept that a secret,\" she went on.\n\n\"But I would like to ask in the last six years, when have I ever imposed that on other people?\"\n\nThere has indeed been a lot of discussion about Ms Forbes' faith but rather less about Mr Yousaf's.\n\nHe describes himself as a proud Muslim who will be fasting during Ramadan, which falls in the final week of the short leadership campaign.\n\nI asked him why he thought there had been more focus on Christianity than Islam, thus far.\n\n\"I don't legislate on the basis of my faith,\" he replied, adding that he had a track record of supporting gender reform, gay marriage and buffer zones around abortion clinics.\n\nMs Forbes insisted that she did not legislate on the basis of her faith either, favouring votes of conscience on some social issues, where an individual can put aside party allegiance to cast a ballot on the basis of their morals, without political repercussions.\n\nShe too gave the example of gay marriage. As a Christian, she explained, she believed marriage to be between a man and a women but she insisted she would defend the law as \"a servant of democracy.\"\n\nHer position was no different, she insisted, to that of the former German chancellor Angela Merkel, who voted against same-sex marriage in her homeland, or many other Christian, Muslim or Jewish worshippers.\n\n\"As a servant of democracy in a country where this is law, I would defend to the hilt your right, and anybody else's right, to live and to love without harassment or fear,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Humza Yousaf says his experience in government is a key asset in his bid to become first minister.\n\nSo both leading candidates are people of faith but both insist they are democrats too.\n\nOn how to handle the issue of gender though there is a sharp difference between the pair.\n\nThe Gender Recognition Reform Bill passed by Holyrood just before Christmas is in limbo, blocked by the UK government from receiving royal assent under Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 which established the framework of devolution, on the basis that it interferes with equalities law which applies throughout Great Britain.\n\nMr Yousaf said that, like Ms Sturgeon, he favoured challenging that decision by seeking a judicial review of it at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.\n\nMs Forbes, on the other hand, dismissed such an approach.\n\n\"My polling as it were is based on conversations with normal, ordinary people over the last seven months and to a person they say 'focus on the NHS, focus on the cost of living crisis, and focus on making the case for independence.' That I think is more of a priority than legal cases so I would be loath to challenge it,\" she explained.\n\nOpponents of the principle of gender self-identification, which lies at the heart of the bill, say they have been vindicated by the case of Isla Bryson, the double rapist who opted to change gender from male to female after being charged.\n\nThat's a thorny issue for Mr Yousaf who, perhaps inadvertently, highlighted a problem with existing gender law, which he supports.\n\n\"Isla Bryson, by law, has the right to self-identify, that's the law even before the gender recognition reform even was discussed in parliament,\" he said.\n\nHowever, he added: \"I don't think they're a genuine trans person at all. I think they're doing it for their own selfish, dishonest, despicable reasons.\"\n\nPushed, he said he was happy to refer to Bryson as \"he\" not \"they\".\n\nAsh Regan has also thrown her hat into the ring in the leadership race\n\nThe SNP has been in power at Holyrood for 16 years. All governments tire and this one is no exception. There is no shortage of problems for an incoming leader to tackle.\n\nExcess deaths remain stubbornly high even as memories of the pandemic recede. Waiting times and staff shortages are causing misery in the NHS. Drugs deaths have been at or near record levels in recent years. Ms Sturgeon failed in her own \"defining mission\" to close the attainment gap between the richest and the poorest school pupils.\n\nBoth leading candidates insist they would bring fresh energy to tackling these deep, difficult problems.\n\n\"We need to focus on our priorities and we need to focus on delivery,\" said Ms Forbes.\n\n\"I've got the experience,\" said Mr Yousaf, who held the transport and justice briefs before becoming health secretary.\n\nThe new leader must also wrestle with restlessness in their party — and in the wider independence movement — about independence.\n\nThe current first minister had struggled to map a path to that destination, having been thwarted by Westminster's refusal to approve a second referendum and by the UK Supreme Court's ruling that Holyrood could not hold one itself.\n\nMs Sturgeon's final, failed throw of the dice was to try to reframe the next general election as a referendum in all but name.\n\nInternal opposition to that plan appears to have been a significant factor in her resignation, and both Ms Forbes and Mr Yousaf are now backing away from it.\n\n\"I have to say I'm not wedded to that view,\" says the MSP for Glasgow Pollok, diplomatically, pointing out \"disadvantages\" with the strategy such as the fact that, unlike in the 2014 referendum, the franchise would not include 16 and 17 year olds or European citizens.\n\nMr Yousaf called for further party discussion on tactics, adding: \"We have to be honest about it because if anybody is cooking up a plan that isn't going to work, isn't based in reality, then I think we've got to just give that short shrift. \"\n\nEither Kate Forbes or Humza Yousaf would be the youngest leader in the devolution era\n\nFocus on building the case for independence until it was clearly the \"settled will of the Scottish people\" and the mechanism by which it would be achieved would become clear, he argued.\n\nMs Forbes appeared to agree but she also stressed that independence could only be won through providing economic growth, rooted in thriving industries and a fair deal for workers.\n\n\"Competent government\" and \"competent leadership\" were, she said, key to achieving these aims.\n\n\"Ultimately, the only way that we are going to secure independence is when the people of Scotland, by a significant percentage, want independence,\" added Ms Forbes.\n\nBoth candidates are youthful — Mr Yousaf is 37 and Ms Forbes is 32 but the government which they serve is old, in democratic terms at least.\n\nEither one would be the youngest leader in the devolution era, which began when the Scottish Parliament opened in Edinburgh in 1999.\n\nThe previous record-holder, Labour's Jack McConnell, was 41 when he took office in 2001.\n\nLord McConnell's party is watching this contest closely, sensing an opportunity to recover some ground lost in the aftermath of the 2014 referendum when Labour won the day on the constitution only to watch hordes of its voters then defect to Ms Sturgeon's SNP.\n\nStill, Labour's dominance in Scottish politics lasted for half a century. The SNP is 16 years into its hegemony.\n\nThat's a long time in politics but not long enough to tell, yet, if the tide has indeed turned.", "But there is no deal announcement coming, at least not yet.\n\nDon't expect a deal to be announced on Tuesday.\n\nAnd Wednesday is looking unlikely as well.\n\nThere had been talk that an announcement could come on Tuesday.\n\nThe basis of a deal, it's understood, had been on the prime minister's desk for over a week.\n\nHere's a sense of what we had gleaned is in it.\n\nPreparations were being put together, including the arguments the government would make to its backbenchers and to businesses.\n\nIt is expected the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, may come to London for the big moment.\n\nSorting out this appendix to the Brexit deal, which has proved rather painful for many, isn't there yet.\n\nSome officials on both sides of the Channel tell us there is a particular focus now on how EU law is applied to Northern Ireland.\n\nWhat checks and balances might there be here?\n\nBecause, remember, this isn't just about a new arrangement between the government and the EU.\n\nThere is another crucial question.\n\nWhat does the Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party make of it?\n\nNorthern Ireland's DUP, who have long campaigned against the Protocol, pulled out of power-sharing government at Stormont over it just over a year ago.\n\nAnd they are giving every indication that they are sceptical about what Westminster and Brussels might be working up.\n\nA big part of that is that they haven't yet seen the detail.\n\nAnd they know their leverage comes from taking their time.\n\nBoth the DUP and some Conservative MPs think Rishi Sunak made a mistake to hurtle over to Belfast at the end of last week, unannounced, to try, as some saw it, to \"bounce\" the Democratic Unionists into agreement.\n\n\"He jumped the gun,\" said one Tory MP, privately.\n\n\"There isn't a deal to be done. It is back to the drawing board,\" said another Conservative backbencher, who doesn't like the sound of what they are hearing.\n\nAnd this matters because the real prize here, eventually, is to tempt the DUP to return to power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.\n\nFew expect that to happen any time soon, even if they were to cautiously welcome, or at least not flatly reject, any new deal done between the UK and the EU.\n\n\"They're not going to say 'job's a good'un' and dash back in, we know that,\" acknowledged one senior government figure.\n\nBut, if it happened in time, after details had been absorbed and laws changed, it would be a significant political achievement for the prime minister.\n\nA majority of members of the Stormont assembly are in favour of the protocol in some form remaining in place. Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party and the SDLP have said improvements to the protocol are needed to ease its implementation.\n\nBut how damaging would failure be for Mr Sunak?\n\nEven if his deal didn't satisfy the DUP, Mr Sunak could at least say he held out for a more robust arrangement, has improved things for people in Northern Ireland and re-set the relationship between the UK and EU.\n\nThis latter point, in itself, could prove useful ahead of a summit in Paris next month with French President Emmanuel Macron, where the topic of small boat crossings is likely to feature prominently and where the UK could do with a better relationship with France.\n\nBut equally - as Paul Goodman writes here on ConservativeHome - prompting a row with the DUP, and a sizeable chunk of his own party, is a big risk to take, when the possible prize might amount to a failure to achieve the main objective - restoring devolution to Northern Ireland.\n\nSo what is the EU saying?\n\nDiplomats in Brussels say they aren't panicking yet about whether the delay is a sign that Mr Sunak has a sudden case of the jitters.\n\nThere is sympathy that the PM has some tough politics to overcome.\n\nThere are also suspicions in Brussels that the last-minute haggling may be for show given the deal is, according to numerous sources, all but done.\n\n\"There has to be the perception that the UK's doing something to assuage the DUP's doubts,\" said one EU diplomat.\n\nSome still hope it can be sorted this week.\n\nWith Tuesday and Wednesday looking unlikely and Friday being the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, that leaves Thursday.\n\nThat also happens to be a day when the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has a big speech which may make that day tempting for ministers.\n\nBut others repeat they think this week is far too soon.\n\nThere is a reason Rishi Sunak is the fourth prime minister to wrestle with Brexit, Northern Ireland and the border.\n\nNo-one ever said sorting this out would be easy.", "The team of rescuers used a button tow to bunny-hop up the 478m (1568ft) hill\n\nA mountain rescue team used a ski tow to bunny-hop up a hill to carry out the \"unique\" rescue of an injured woman.\n\nThe hillwalker broke her ankle after slipping on Caerketton Hill in the Pentland Hills, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, at about 17:45 on Sunday.\n\nThe incident took place above the Midlothian Snowsports Centre, so Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team used one of the ski tows to get up the hill.\n\nThen they made a sledge to get the woman back down the dry ski slope.\n\nDave Wright, the rescue team's incident manager, told BBC Scotland they had improvised when they discovered the hillwalker was lying directly above the ski centre.\n\nIn an effort to get to the woman more quickly in the dark, wet and windy conditions, they used a button tow to get up the hill.\n\nBut this presented a challenge because the team of 15 rescuers were not wearing skis.\n\nThe team said the rescue was made harder by low cloud and poor weather conditions\n\n\"The ski centre said it was quite difficult to master the bunny-hop if you have never done it before,\" he said.\n\n\"The tow pulls you up in jerking motions and without skis you are pulled into the air.\"\n\nTo do it successfully, they had to bounce from one leg and land on the other, before pushing off again.\n\nWhen they reached the injured woman, the team made a sledge using a stretcher with skids on the bottom.\n\nThey then used a long rope to slide this down the dry ski slope to a waiting ambulance at the bottom of the hill.\n\nThe woman was put on a makeshift sledge before gliding down the dry ski slope\n\nMr Wright said the stretcher and the walker would have weighed more than 100kgs (16 stones) in total.\n\n\"It's heavy, so by sledging her down it saved us a lot of time,\" he said.\n\n\"The conditions out there were terrible, there was very low cloud and by improvising in this way we saved at least two hours from the rescue.\n\n\"This was a very unique rescue and one we are very proud of.\"\n\nHe added that the woman, who was in her 50s, had been kitted out in the correct winter walking gear when she fell.\n\nThe injured woman was taken to safety down the dry ski slope\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Dan Walker said he could have died if he had not been wearing a helmet\n\nTV presenter Dan Walker has said wearing a helmet saved his life in a bicycle crash in Sheffield.\n\nMr Walker, 45, said he was hit by a car while cycling on Monday, leaving him \"battered and bruised\".\n\nThe Channel 5 presenter, who used to work on BBC Breakfast, was taken to hospital and was \"amazed\" to have not broken any bones.\n\n\"The helmet I was wearing saved my life today so - if you're on a bike - get one on your head,\" he tweeted.\n\nMr Walker posted photos from inside a Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) vehicle alongside two members of staff, after the incident on Moore Street in Sheffield city centre on Monday morning.\n\nHe said he had been \"blown away by all the lovely messages\" he had received.\n\nMr Walker said his face was \"a mess\" after the collision\n\n\"Very thankful to still be here. I have no memory of anything and just remember coming round on the tarmac with paramedics & police around me,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"Smashed my watch & phone, ruined my trousers, my bike is a mess but I'm still here,\" he added.\n\nHe said he would be drinking food through a straw following the crash, and thanked the NHS staff for their help during his ordeal.\n\nHowever, he said since posting about the crash he had been lectured by people telling him \"bike helmets aren't important\".\n\n\"The emergency services at the scene yesterday told me I probably wouldn't be here if I wasn't wearing one,\" he added.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Pret-a-Manger has said it will stop making smoothies, frappes and milkshakes in another blow to its UK customers and drinks subscribers.\n\nThe chain had previously received thousands of complaints that not all drinks included in its £25-a-month subscription service were available.\n\nNow the blended drinks, which can be more expensive and take longer to make, will be phased out altogether.\n\nPret said they would be replaced by iced drinks by the summer.\n\nBlenders were being removed to make way for new ice machines, in what Pret called \"the biggest drinks innovation in more than five years\".\n\nSmoothies and frappes will still be available in select shops until 29 May, it said.\n\nThe chain's subscription service launched in the summer of 2020 promising five drinks a day - with 30 minutes between each order.\n\nThe drinks available included all coffees, teas, hot chocolate, fruit smoothies, milkshakes and frappes including all extras such as syrups, cream and extra shots of caffeine.\n\nBut as reported by the BBC last year, the Advertising Standards Authority received thousands of complaints about the lack of cold, blended drinks.\n\nWe spoke to staff who admitted turning off machines because of the sheer pressure to serve huge queues of subscribers. The staff said they told customers the machines were \"broken\" or \"we've run out\" or \"there haven't been any deliveries\".\n\nStaff have long complained that smoothies take far too long to make and many stores have slowly removed the blended cold drinks from the menus.\n\nOne staff member told the BBC: \"For the company it's much more expensive to provide smoothies - fruit juice, fruit - and it takes time to make them. There's far too much demand from subscribers. The company will replace them with iced drinks - not blended - which take much less time to make and are cheaper.\"\n\nCustomers have flooded social media with gripes about availability of the cold drink element of the subscription. Charlotte from Brighton said that she had noticed many local stores had told her \"the cold drinks will return in the summer\" and Thomas from London said he \"wouldn't actually mind paying a smoothie supplement on my subscription if availability was better guaranteed\".\n\nHe said: \"When I complained in the Great Peter Street branch, they muttered some nonsense about there 'not being the demand for them' despite admitting they served 600 a day. I wish they'd be more transparent rather than spouting all these tall stories\".\n\nFiona from Reading tweeted Pret about the lack of blended drinks and got the reply: \"We do switch up our menu every so often, and in order to free up space for new things we sometimes have to bid farewell to others. There's always a chance we might bring these back (especially if people ask), so we'll be sure to put in a good word with our team.\"\n\nPret had suggested frappes and smoothies would be removed from the subscription in 2021 but it told the BBC: \"There was a public outcry so Pret listened and kept them as part of the subscription.\"\n\nBut it seems that despite the demand, Pret has decided at last to drop all smoothies, frappes and milkshakes from their subscription model.\n\nThe company told the BBC: \"To get shops ready for the new range, Pret is beginning to install new ice machines in its UK shops, removing blenders to make way for them. Smoothies and frappes will still be available in select shops until 29 May.\"\n\nDo you have a drinks subscription with Pret? How will this affect you? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "It was an audacious trip almost unheard of for a US president.\n\nAppearing in a war zone under regular attack, White House officials describe Joe Biden's unexpected visit to Ukraine's capital Kyiv as \"unprecedented in modern times\".\n\nThey say previous presidential trips to wartime Iraq and Afghanistan had the back up of a heavy US military presence.\n\nAnd despite widespread speculation among the press corps that Mr Biden might be planning a trip to Ukraine while he was in Poland, the visit still took everyone completely by surprise.\n\nThe sight of him appearing beside President Volodymyr Zelensky in the heart of Kyiv and under the sound of air raid sirens, makes a louder statement than anything he can say in a speech in Poland.\n\n\"It was risky and should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that Joe Biden is a leader who takes commitment seriously,\" said White House communications director Kate Bedingfield.\n\nMr Biden had been scheduled to fly out from the US to Warsaw on Monday evening, for a two-day trip.\n\nThe advance schedule had two suspiciously lengthy gaps in his itinerary, and many wondered if that might be when he would slip into Ukraine.\n\nReporters at the daily White House press briefings have been repeatedly asking about a visit. We were told that there was no meeting scheduled with Mr Zelensky and no stops planned outside Warsaw \"right now\".\n\nThe final decision to make the trip to Kyiv was only taken on Friday, even though it had been planned for months with a handful of the presidents' top aides.\n\nOn Sunday, the official White House schedule still showed the president taking off for Warsaw at 19:00 EST (00:00 GMT) on Monday evening. In fact, Air Force One took off at 04:15 EST on Sunday morning.\n\nOn board was a deliberately small team of his closest aides, a medical team and security officers.\n\nOnly two journalists were allowed to travel with the president. They were sworn to secrecy and had their mobile phones taken away from them. They were not allowed to report the visit until after Mr Biden had arrived in Kyiv.\n\nRussia was notified of the trip a few hours before Mr Biden's departure, according to the US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.\n\nHe said the US \"did so for deconfliction purposes… I won't get into how they responded or what the precise nature of our message was, but I can confirm we provided that notice\".\n\nPresident Biden then spent 10 hours on a train to get to Kyiv. He could have visited other locations inside Ukraine that would have been easier to get to, but he wanted to make the symbolic trip to Kyiv itself.\n\nWhile the president's trip is a signal to Moscow of the Biden administration's commitment to helping Ukraine, it is also a demonstration to US voters back home.\n\nHis press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked last week about polls that show American support Ukraine softening.\n\nShe answered that whenever the president speaks, he is talking to the American people as well as people around the world. Monday's message is designed to vividly counter the minority of Republican voices who question for how long the US can continue supporting Ukraine.\n\nMeanwhile, the surprise visit has left reporters like me, who thought they were travelling with Mr Biden later on Monday, making the trip to Poland on an aircraft that will not be called Air Force One.\n\nThe world-famous call sign is only used when the president is on board.\n• None Putin dead wrong on Ukraine, says Biden in Kyiv", "Lancashire Police's Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson has confirmed that Nicola Bulley's body has been found in the River Wyre.\n\nSpeaking during a news conference, Mr Lawson also said her family have been informed, and they are devastated.", "Nicola Bulley was last seen during a riverside walk on 27 January\n\nThe family of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley have said they will never be able to understand what she went through in her final moments.\n\nMs Bulley was formally identified after her body was found in the River Wyre in Lancashire on Sunday - one mile from when she was last seen on 27 January.\n\nIn a statement, her family said she was the \"centre of their world\".\n\nThey also criticised some sections of the media over their coverage of her disappearance.\n\n\"We will never be able to comprehend what Nikki had gone through in her last moments and that will never leave us,\" the family said in a statement.\n\nThe 45-year-old disappeared while walking her dog by the river after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.\n\nHer dog was found shortly after, along with her phone - still connected to a work conference call - on a bench by a steep riverbank.\n\nA major search operation got under way but it was 23 days before her body was found in the river.\n\n\"We will never forget Nikki - how could we? She was the centre of our world, she was the one who made our lives so special and nothing will cast a shadow over that,\" the family said.\n\nIn the statement, her family also questioned the role of some sections of the media during the investigation and accused journalists of \"misquoting and vilifying\" Ms Bulley's partner Paul Ansell, relatives and friends.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"Our girls will get the support they need from the people who love them the most,\" the family said.\n\n\"And it saddens us to think that one day we will have to explain to them that the press and members of the public accused their dad of wrongdoing [and] misquoted and vilified friends and family.\n\n\"This is absolutely appalling - they have to be held accountable. This cannot happen to another family.\"\n\nA major search operation was mounted after Nicola Bulley went missing\n\nThe family also took aim at Sky News and ITV, which they said had contacted them despite their appeal for privacy on Sunday.\n\n\"It is shameful they have acted in this way. Leave us alone now,\" the family said.\n\nThe BBC understands that Sky News has had an open dialogue with Ms Bulley's family and the police since she was reported missing. ITV has been approached for comment.\n\nThe family ended the statement with a message to their loved one.\n\n\"Finally, Nikki, you are no longer a missing person, you have been found, we can let you rest now,\" they said.\n\n\"We love you, always have and always will, we'll take it from here xx.\"\n\nThe disappearance of Ms Bulley, who worked as a mortgage adviser, sparked a major search operation by Lancashire Police but also prompted dozens of amateur social media sleuths to travel to the village to look into the case themselves.\n\nDal Babu, a former Ch Supt at the Metropolitan Police, said he had never seen such levels of public interest in a missing person's case.\n\n\"I've never known a case where individuals have thought it appropriate to turn up and live stream themselves at the scene of a person going missing,\" he told the BBC.\n\nOn Sunday, officers were called to reports of a body in the River Wyre close to Rawcliffe Road at about 11:35 GMT which a search team recovered.\n\nThe force has consistently said they believed Ms Bulley had gone into the river and that her disappearance was not suspicious.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Nick Garnett visits the key locations in the Nicola Bulley case\n\nBriefing the media at police headquarters, Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson said Ms Bulley's family were \"of course devastated\".\n\n\"We recognise the huge impact that Nicola's disappearance has had on her family and friends, but also on the people of St Michael's,\" he added.\n\n\"We would like to thank all of those who have helped during what has been a hugely complex and highly emotional investigation.\n\n\"Today's development is not the outcome any of us would have wanted, but we hope that it can at least start to provide some answers for Nicola's loved ones, who remain foremost in our thoughts.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson: \"Nicola's family have been informed and are, of course, devastated\"\n\nHer death will now be investigated by HM Coroner, the force has confirmed.\n\nThe investigation into Ms Bulley's disappearance has attracted widespread speculation as well as criticism of the police response.\n\nLancashire Police came under fire after revealing Ms Bulley's struggles with alcohol and perimenopause three weeks after she vanished.\n\nRibbons were tied to the riverside bench near where Ms Bulley disappeared\n\nThe details were made public by the force after revealing that the mother-of-two was classed as a \"high-risk\" missing person immediately after Mr Ansell had reported her disappearance \"based on a number of specific vulnerabilities\".\n\nA public backlash and interventions from the government and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper followed, with Lancashire Constabulary confirming a date had been set for an internal review of its investigation.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Finance Secretary Kate Forbes says she has the vision, experience and competence to inspire voters\n\nSNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes has said she would not have voted for the Scottish government's gender reform bill in its current form.\n\nThe finance secretary told BBC Scotland she had \"significant concerns\" about self-identification.\n\nShe earlier confirmed her bid to take over from Nicola Sturgeon, who last week announced her resignation as party leader and first minister.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf and ex-minister Ash Regan are also standing.\n\nIn her BBC interview Ms Forbes also vowed to defend the right to same sex marriage even though it clashed with her personal views as a member of the Free Church of Scotland.\n\nRecent months have seen controversy over the Gender Recognition Bill, which aims to make it easier for people in Scotland to change their legally recognised gender.\n\nThe legislation was approved by the Scottish Parliament in December.\n\nBut the UK government said it would block the legislation, arguing that it would conflict with equality protections applying across Great Britain.\n\nMs Sturgeon described this as a \"full-frontal attack\" on the Scottish Parliament and said ministers would defend the bill.\n\nHowever, Ms Forbes told the BBC she would be \"loath to challenge\" the UK government's decision.\n\n\"I understand the principle here, which is that the UK government should not overturn Scottish legislation.\n\n\"That is an important principle which I hold to.\n\n\"But I think on this... seek legal advice and recognise it is not a priority right now for the people of Scotland, who are focused on other things.\"\n\nMs Forbes said she had \"significant concerns\" about self-identification, and would not have been able to vote for the bill in its current form.\n\nShe said there should now be an \"adult conversation\" with the UK government about how the bill could be amended.\n\nAsked in her BBC interview if someone should simply be able to declare they are a woman if they were born a biological male, she replied: \"I don't think self-identification is sufficient.\"\n\nMs Forbes, who was on maternity leave when the gender reform vote took place in parliament, said people she has spoken to wanted to focus on the NHS, the cost of living crisis and making the case for independence.\n\nThe SNP is about to see a generational shift. There had been attempts to persuade veteran nationalists like John Swinney and Angus Robertson to stand.\n\nBoth have ruled themselves out. The three candidates who are running are from a different era - when the SNP were in power at Holyrood and independence was a central debate in Scottish life.\n\nThat doesn't mean there isn't experience among them. Humza Yousaf has been a minister for years, Kate Forbes holds one of the key jobs in the Scottish cabinet.\n\nBut as one senior SNP figure put it to me: \"It's a shift in the SNP. It moves on to a new cast list\"\n\nDuring her BBC interview Ms Forbes was asked whether a man should be able to marry another man.\n\nShe said: \"Equal marriage is a legal right and therefore I would defend that legal commitment.\n\n\"Incidentally though I would hope that others can defend the rights of other minorities, including religious minorities that might take a different view.\"\n\nThe Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP said there was a distinction to be made between personal morality and practice - and a person's political responsibilities as a lawmaker.\n\nMs Forbes added: \"In terms of the morality of the issue I am a practising Christian and I practice the teachings of most mainstream religions - whether that is Islam, Judaism or Christianity - that marriage is between a man and a woman. But that's what I practice.\n\n\"As a servant of democracy in a country where there is law I would defend to the hilt your right and anybody else's right to live and to love without harassment or fear.\"\n\nMs Forbes said the SNP needed \"a reset\" over its strategy for independence, which she said has been \"largely determined by a few people\".\n\nShe also said she has the \"vision, the experience and the competence\" to inspire voters within the party and across the country.\n\nMs Forbes previously said that Scotland and the Yes movement were at \"a major crossroads\".\n\n\"I cannot sit back and watch our nation thwarted on the road to self-determination. Our small, independent neighbours enjoy wealthier, fairer, and greener societies - and so can we,\" she said.\n\nAsh Regan has confirmed her intention to stand in the contest\n\nLeadership candidate Ash Regan has been an outspoken critic of the gender reform legislation, quitting her role as community safety minister in protest before it was approved by Holyrood.\n\nHowever, Humza Yousaf promised to stand by the legislation and challenge the UK government's order blocking the bill.\n\nHe said: \"There's the principle of the Section 35 order, which I think we have to defend the Scottish Parliament against.\n\n\"But on the issue more broadly, I'd be keen to work with those who have got real concerns.\n\n\"Let's engage with them. Let's try to bring them around the table. Let's not let this issue define us as a movement.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf has launched his leadership campaign\n\nSpeaking at the launch of his leadership campaign in Clydebank on Monday, Mr Yousaf said he would focus on the policies of independence, not the process.\n\nHe added that he was \"not wedded\" to the idea of a de facto referendum.\n\nEarlier, Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson ruled himself out of the leadership race.\n\nHe said: \"As the father of two very young children the time is not right for me and my family to take on such a huge commitment.\"\n\nCandidates have until Friday to secure 100 nominations from at least 20 local branches to secure their place on the ballot. The winner is due to be announced on 27 March.\n• None SNP to announce new leader within six weeks", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe US will back Ukraine in its fight against Russia for \"as long as it takes\", US President Joe Biden has said on an unannounced visit to Kyiv.\n\n\"We have every confidence you're going to continue to prevail,\" he said.\n\nMr Biden's first trip to Ukraine as president came days before the first anniversary of Russia's invasion.\n\nHe said that Russia's President Vladimir Putin had been \"dead wrong\" to think Russia could outlast Ukraine and its Western allies.\n\nHe met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the pair visited a memorial to soldiers who have died in the nine years since Russia annexed Crimea and its proxy forces captured parts of the eastern Donbas region.\n\nMr Biden's presence was intended to reaffirm America's \"unwavering commitment to Ukraine's democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity\", according to a White House statement.\n\nHe had taken a 10-hour train journey from Poland to reach Kyiv in secret, later returning to Poland. Russia was informed about the trip a few hours before President Biden's departure for \"deconfliction purposes\", a US official said.\n\nAfter the visit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new package of security assistance for Ukraine valued at $450m (£373m), including ammunition for howitzers and the Himars rocket system, Javelin missiles and air surveillance radars.\n\nThe US will also provide Kyiv with an extra $10m in emergency assistance to maintain Ukraine's energy infrastructure, Mr Blinken said.\n\nA new wave of sanctions against individuals and companies \"that are trying to evade or backfill Russia's war machine\" will also be announced later this week.\n\nMr Zelensky said Ukraine's victory over Russia depended on resolve and that he saw such determination in Mr Biden.\n\n\"It is now and in Ukraine that the fate of the world order, which is based on rules, on humanity... is being decided,\" he said.\n\nHe also said that the two leaders had discussed the possibility of sending other weapons. Mr Zelensky has repeatedly called for F-16 fighter jets, something the US and other allies have so far stopped short of approving.\n\nCommenting on the trip, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said failure would befall those who, as she put it, \"sold their souls to the Americans\".\n\nIn a scene that added drama to the most high-profile visit to Ukraine since the war began, air raid sirens wailed while President Biden and Mr Zelensky were in St Michael's Cathedral in central Kyiv. The sirens sound regularly in the city.\n\nMr Biden laid a wreath to commemorate those killed during nine years of conflict\n\nWhile other world leaders have visited Ukraine over the past year, the US president's appearance in Kyiv during a war in which American soldiers are not fighting is a show of unity at a time when Russia says Western support for Ukraine is waning.\n\nThe visit was welcomed by Ukrainians in Kyiv.\n\n\"I'm so grateful for his support - it means so much to us,\" Roksoliana Gera told the BBC. \"I appreciate his courage, that he took on this challenge and came to show the support of the American nation.\"\n\nOleksandra Soloviova said the visit showed Russia that \"the US supports us and will continue supporting us, with sanctions and military equipment\".\n\nThe Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the visit had been strategic as well as historic. \"Many issues are being solved and those that have stalled will be accelerated,\" he said.\n\nThe US is one of Ukraine's biggest allies and the state department has so far announced $24.9bn in military assistance.\n\nIn January, Mr Biden announced that the US would send 31 battle tanks and longer-range missiles are also on their way.\n\nHowever, there is a growing political divide in the US over the amount of aid Kyiv should receive in future.\n\nPresident Biden's visit to Kyiv came ahead of a three-day visit to Poland where he will meet the country's President, Andrzej Duda, and east European members of the Nato military alliance.\n\nIn another development, China's foreign minister has said Beijing is deeply worried by the escalation of the war in Ukraine and the danger it could spiral out of control.\n\n\"We will continue to urge peace and promote talks and provide Chinese wisdom for a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine,\" Qin Gang told a forum in Beijing.\n\n\"Together with the international community, we will jointly promote dialogue, negotiate and address the concerns of all parties and seek common security. In the meantime, we urge certain countries to immediately stop fuelling the fire, stop shifting the blame to China and stop hyping up Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.\"\n\nEarlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested China was considering supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia for the war - a claim strongly denied by the Chinese.\n\nThis week, the BBC will be marking the anniversary of the war in Ukraine. What are your questions about the human impact of conflict? Email them to: YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk\n\nYou can also send your questions in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Junior doctors in England have voted in favour of taking strike action in their fight to get more pay.\n\nMembers of the British Medical Association (BMA) are now expected to take part in a 72-hour walkout, possibly as early as mid-March.\n\nThe union said junior doctor roles had seen pay cut by 26% since 2008 once inflation was taken into account.\n\nBut experts said if a different measure of inflation is used, the fall in pay was lower.\n\nThe ballot by the BMA involved nearly 48,000 members working across hospitals and the community - more than two-thirds of the junior doctor workforce.\n\nMore than three-quarters of those balloted took part, with 98% voting in favour of action.\n\nBMA junior doctors committee co-chairman Dr Robert Laurenson said the vote showed the strength of feeling about the issue.\n\n\"We are frustrated, in despair and angry and we have voted in our thousands to say, 'in the name of our profession, our patients, and our NHS, doctors won't take it any more'.\n\n\"The government has only itself to blame, standing by in silent indifference as our members are forced to take this difficult decision.\"\n\nThe results come as nurses and ambulance staff are warning they will escalate their industrial action in their dispute over pay.\n\nMembers of the Royal College of Nursing will walk out across half of frontline services in England next week for 48 hours.\n\nMeanwhile, Unison, the biggest union in the ambulance service, is expected to announce more strike dates now that its mandate has increased from five of England's 10 ambulance services to nine.\n\nThe term \"junior doctors\" covers everyone who has just graduated from medical school through to those with many years' experience on the front line. The last time they went on strike was in 2016 over a new contract that had been introduced.\n\nThis year, junior doctors' pay increased by 2% as part of a four-year agreement that featured an overall rise of 8.2% between 2019-20 and 2022-23.\n\nCurrently, the basic starting salary for a junior doctor is £29,000, but average earnings are higher once extra payments for things like unsociable hours are taken into account.\n\nBy the end of their training, which can last 15 years for some, basic pay is more than £53,000.\n\nThese are doctors with huge responsibility, leading teams, carrying out surgery and making life-and-death decisions.\n\nOverall they account for more than 40% of the medical workforce.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How strike rules could be about to change\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said that, alongside an 8.2% pay rise over four years, the current deal also introduced higher bands of pay for the most experienced staff, and increased rates for night shifts.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said he had met with the BMA to discuss pay and conditions. The pay award for the 2023-24 financial year is expected to be announced in the coming months.\n\n\"We hugely value the work of junior doctors and it is deeply disappointing some union members have voted for strike action,\" Mr Barclay added.\n\nSources at the BMA have said the pay demand does not necessarily need to be paid in one go, but until the government agreed to restoring pay, action would continue.\n\nThe BMA has yet to decide whether to strike elsewhere in the UK as it awaits more information from ministers about their pay plans in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nSaffron Cordery, of NHS Providers, which represents health managers, said the prospect of a 72-hour strike was \"extremely worrying\".\n\n\"An urgent resolution is needed if we are to prevent harm to patients.\"\n\nJunior doctors will walk out of both routine and emergency care - although by law they they can only withdraw from life-and-limb emergency care if the NHS has found other staff to cover for them.\n\nDuring the 2016 walkout consultants stepped in, but this meant a huge amount of pre-planned treatments such as knee and hip replacements had to be cancelled.\n\nCorrection: We amended this piece on the day of publication to reflect the fact the BMA is asking for a pay rise to reverse the cut of 26% since 2008 once inflation is taken into account. We had initially reported it as a demand for a 26% pay rise. The BMA is actually after an increase of 35% to make up for the 26% cut.", "Asda and Morrisons are putting limits on purchases of some fruit and vegetables as supermarkets face shortages of fresh produce.\n\nAsda said it was capping sales of items such as tomatoes, peppers and lettuce at three each per customer.\n\nMorrisons said limits of two on products like cucumbers would be introduced at stores from Tuesday.\n\nHowever, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Lidl, Aldi, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer currently do not have limits in place.\n\nPictures of empty supermarket shelves have been circulating on social media, after shoppers found it hard to get some items in recent days.\n\nThe shortages - which are affecting Ireland too - are largely the result of extreme weather in Spain and north Africa, where floods, snow and hail have affected harvests.\n\nDuring this time of year, a significant proportion of what the UK consumes usually comes from those regions.\n\nThe shortages are expected to last \"a few weeks\" until the UK growing season begins and retailers find alternative sources of supply, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.\n\nAndrew Opie, director of Food and Sustainability at the trade group, added that supermarkets are \"adept at managing supply chain issues\" and were working with farmers to ensure the continued supply of fresh produce.\n\nAs well as tomatoes, peppers and lettuce, Asda said it was also limiting sales of salad bags, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflowers and raspberry punnets.\n\n\"Like other supermarkets, we are experiencing sourcing challenges on some products that are grown in southern Spain and north Africa,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nMorrisons said as well that cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers were affected at its shops.\n\nIn the winter months the UK imports around 95% of its tomatoes and 90% of its lettuces, most of it from Spain and north Africa, according to the BRC.\n\nSouthern Spain has been suffering unusually cold weather and in Morocco crop yields have been affected by floods, while storms have led to ferries being delayed or cancelled.\n\nMeanwhile in the UK and Netherlands, farmers have cut back on their use of greenhouses to grow winter crops due to higher electricity prices.\n\nPaul Smith, from wholesaler Oliver Kay, said with lower levels of planting this year, there was less surplus available to offset reduced yields elsewhere.\n\n\"Growers across the UK and Europe have been battling with severe weather conditions for a number of months now,\" he said.\n\nA spell of heatwaves in June 2022 led to the fourth warmest UK summer on record and temperatures broke the 40C mark for the first time. That was followed by sharp, prolonged freezes in December.\n\nTim O'Malley, managing director of Nationwide Produce, one of the UK's largest fresh produce firms, has warned his customers that could mean \"major shortages\" in domestically grown crops too.\n\nUK crops of carrots, parsnips, cabbage and cauliflower had been affected by the poor weather, Mr O'Malley said.\n\n\"We are about to see serious shortages and price hikes on these lines in the coming weeks and months,\" he said.\n\n\"The biggest issue we now have as an industry is not inflation, it's mother nature,\" he added.\n\nMinette Batters, president of the National Farmers' Union, called for more support for growers, describing it as \"ridiculous\" that the horticulture sector was not included in the government's support scheme for energy intensive industries.\n\nHowever, farming minister, Mark Spencer, said the shortages were the result of \"weather events in other parts of the world\" rather than the challenges facing UK producers.\n\nAnecdotal evidence suggests the UK has been bearing the brunt of the shortages, but problems have also been reported in Ireland.\n\nTesco Ireland said its stock levels were temporarily affected, while the locally-owned chain SuperValu has also reported problems.\n\nIndustry sources suggested the UK may be suffering because of lower domestic production and more complex supply chains, as well as a price-sensitive market. But they said Brexit was unlikely to be a factor.\n\nThe main impact of new border procedures for fruit and vegetable imports will not be felt until January 2024 - while imports from Morocco, which is outside the EU, are already subject to border checks.\n\nIndustry sources, include wholesaler Ken Mortimer, whose firm Heritage Fine Food Company supplies restaurants and schools in the south west of England, said they did not believe Brexit was at the root of current shortages.\n\nHave you been affected by issues raised here? Are there shortages of salad and vegetables where you are? You can get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nLiverpool have been left with a mountainous task to keep their Champions League ambitions alive after they were torn apart by ruthless Real Madrid at Anfield.\n\nHolders Real - who beat Liverpool in last season's final in Paris - became the first side to score five at Anfield in Europe despite going two goals down early on as Liverpool made a dream start to this last-16 tie.\n\nDarwin Nunez's brilliant flick put Liverpool ahead after only four minutes before Mohamed Salah cashed in on Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois' poor clearance to double their advantage 10 minutes later.\n\nLiverpool's supporters, who had vented their fury at being wrongly blamed for the chaos at last season's final by holding up a flag emblazoned with \"Uefa Liars\" and loudly jeering the Champions League anthem, were soon to have their thunderous celebrations silenced in emphatic fashion.\n\nVinicius Junior's brilliant 21st-minute strike pulled a goal back before Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson followed Courtois' lead by hacking a clearance straight at the Brazilian, holding his head in anguish as the ball looped behind him into the net in front of a disbelieving Kop.\n\nIt changed the whole emphasis of the contest, Real going ahead two minutes after the break when Eder Militao headed in Luka Modric's free-kick.\n\nReal then rammed home their superiority as Karim Benzema's shot deflected in off Joe Gomez, the French striker then coolly adding a fifth after more brilliant work by the ageless Modric.\n\nLiverpool have pulled off spectacular comebacks before, but it would be truly extraordinary if they turned this one around at the Bernabeu.\n• None 'We want this trophy' - Real 'favourites' for glory\n• None Is there any hope for second leg? Send us your views on Liverpool's display\n• None How the game at Anfield unfolded\n\nLiverpool made the start of their dreams as they rattled Real with their high-tempo play, getting the two goals they thought would provide the platform for a night of glory.\n\nInstead, Anfield was reduced to near silence by the end as Jurgen Klopp's side were reduced to chasing shadows in the face of Real's imperious style and lethal threat in front of goal.\n\nLiverpool did not help their cause with mistakes and dreadful defending, offering up invitations to a side of vast experience and world-class quality that is dangerous enough without being delivered gifts.\n\nAlisson was guilty of an uncharacteristic error that saw Real draw level and you could visibly see the belief draining out of the side that has struck fear into opponents so many times at Anfield.\n\nMilitao's routine header from a free-kick was also helped by poor marking while the unhappy Gomez was unfortunate to deflect in Benzema's first.\n\nThe danger then was that Liverpool would concede even more as they barely raised a threat after the break.\n\nKlopp will no doubt invoke the spirit of Barcelona in the 2019 Champions League semi-final - when Liverpool overcame a 3-0 first-leg deficit to advance with a stunning 4-0 win at Anfield - but this is not the same Liverpool, Real are not as flimsy as the Catalans and this time the second leg is in Spain.\n\nIf Liverpool somehow pull this one off, it would be one of the most spectacular feats in their history.\n\nReal's run to winning the Champions League last season was full of moments when they looked to be in genuine strife, first against Chelsea then especially against Manchester City in the semi-final.\n\nAnd yet, under the calm guidance and wisdom the great coach Carlo Ancelotti, Real held their nerve on those occasions to win, eventually lifting the trophy against the opponents they blew away at Anfield on Tuesday.\n\nVinicius was the catalyst in Paris and turned the game here, firing a shot cross past Alisson before closing down the keeper for Real's second.\n\nAfter that, Real were truly outstanding as they controlled possession, kept Liverpool at arm's length with ease and put away those three second-half goals that put them in complete command of this tie.\n\nInspired by the two great veterans Modric and Benzema, Real have an iron belief that they will prevail and so it proved again.\n\nMany sides would have subsided after going two goals down so soon but Real simply kept playing, confident their chances would come, and they did.\n\nAncelotti is too experienced to allow any complacency but he will know this is a truly outstanding result for any side to achieve at Anfield, even the Champions League holders.\n• None James Milner (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of Liverpool is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Liverpool - go straight to all the best content", "A dashcam captured the moment a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey on Monday - weeks after a deadly quake devastated the region.\n\nRead more: Three dead after 6.4 magnitude quake hits Turkey", "\"She is one of my children now,\" Afraa's uncle Khalil Al-Sawadi said\n\nA baby born under the rubble of a collapsed building in Syria, and the only member of her immediate family to survive a massive earthquake, has been adopted by her aunt and uncle.\n\nThousands of people had offered to adopt the newborn, who was still connected to her mother by her umbilical cord when she was rescued.\n\nShe was discharged from hospital after a DNA test confirmed her aunt was a blood relative.\n\nDoctors said she was in good health.\n\n\"She is one of my children now,\" her uncle by marriage Khalil al-Sawadi told the Associated Press news agency.\" I will not differentiate between her and my children.\"\n\nThe baby has now been named after her late mother Afraa. Shortly after she was rescued, officials had named her Aya, which means miracle in Arabic.\n\nA video of her rescue shortly after the tremor went viral on social media.\n\nDramatic footage showed a man sprinting away from the debris as he carried her covered in dust in his arms. She had reportedly been under the collapsed building for more than 10 hours and doctors said she had arrived to hospital in a bad condition, with bruises and cuts all over her body.\n\nAfraa's (right) aunt and uncle also welcomed a baby girl (left) of their own three days after the quake.\n\nThe building in which her family lived was one of about 50 reportedly destroyed by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Jindayris, an opposition-held town in Idlib province that is close to the Turkish border.\n\nHer mother went into labour soon after the disaster and gave birth before she died, a relative said. Her father, four siblings and an aunt were also killed.\n\n\"This girl means so much to us because there's no-one left of her family besides this baby,\" Mr Sawadi told Reuters news agency. \"She'll be a memory for me, for her aunt and for all of our relatives in the village of her mother and father.\"\n\nMr Sawadi, who was present when she was rescued, told the Associated Press he had been worried someone might kidnap Afraa during her two weeks in hospital as offers to adopt her flooded in.\n\nHer family who took her in said that the best place for Afraa was with family, however difficult their situation. Mr Sawadi and his wife Hala's home was also destroyed in the earthquake and they are staying with cousins.\n\nThey both welcomed a baby girl born to Hala three days after the earthquake.\n\nBaby Afraa had been saved by rescuers earlier in February from beneath the rubble of a building in north-west Syria", "Supplies of some fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes, to UK supermarkets have been disrupted by poor weather in Europe and Africa.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that harvests had been hit by \"difficult weather conditions\".\n\nNumerous pictures of empty shelves in supermarkets have been circulating on social media in recent days.\n\nSources within the industry have acknowledged that there have been temporary supply challenges.\n\nAmong the images shared on social media, the shortage of tomatoes appears to be particularly significant.\n\nA significant proportion of the tomatoes we consume over the winter months are grown in Morocco and Southern Spain. Both regions have recently been affected first by warm weather - which affected crop yields - then by a cold snap which has meant longer growth times.\n\nCancelled ferries from Morocco due to bad weather have also affected supplies.\n\nAndrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, said supermarkets were \"adept at managing supply chain issues and are working with farmers to ensure that customers are able to access a wide range of fresh produce\".\n\nHowever, other businesses have also been affected.\n\nThe Heritage Fine Food Company in Wiltshire, a wholesaler which supplies restaurants, cafes and schools in the south west of England, warned on its website that sourcing tomatoes was \"incredibly challenging\".\n\nCucumbers, it said, were \"incredibly limited in supply\", while peppers were failing to ripen.\n\nA portion of the fruit and vegetables the UK imports during the winter comes from the Netherlands, where they are grown in large greenhouses.\n\nWhile it is clear that the businesses producing them have been badly affected by high energy prices, it is not clear whether that has had an impact on supplies in the UK.\n\nHave you been affected by issues raised here? Are there shortages of salad and vegetables where you are? You can get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The former face of Mexico's war on drugs has been convicted by a US jury of drug trafficking.\n\nGenaro García Luna, once Mexico's security minister, was found guilty of taking millions of dollars from Mexico's biggest crime group, the Sinaloa drug cartel.\n\nGarcía Luna - who was arrested in the state of Texas in 2019 - had pleaded not guilty.\n\nThe 54-year-old could face life in prison.\n\nAt a minimum, García Luna will serve the mandatory minimum of 20 years, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.\n\nThe verdict came after a four-week trial and three days of jury deliberation in the US District Court in Brooklyn, New York.\n\nProsecutors said the former head of the Mexican equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation accepted millions of dollars stuffed in briefcases and delivered by members of Joaquín \"El Chapo\" Guzmán's Sinaloa drug cartel.\n\nGarcía Luna, who moved to the US after leaving office, is the highest-ranking Mexican official ever to be tried in the US.\n\nOn Twitter, a spokesperson for current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, praised the decision and took aim at former Mexican President Felipe Calderón.\n\nGarcía Luna served under Mr Calderón, who oversaw a crackdown on drug cartels beginning in 2006.\n\n\"Justice has arrived for the former squire of Felipe Calderón,\" Mr Ramirez Cuevas wrote. \"The crimes against our people will never be forgotten.\"\n\nIn a statement to BBC News, Mr Calderón defended his administration's handling of the fight against organised crime and said that the verdict against García Luna was \"already being used to politically attack me.\"\n\n\"I have been the president who has acted the most against organised crime,\" he said. \"I fought to build an authentic rule of law, without which there is no freedom, justice or development.\"\n\nMr Calderón added that \"with the information available at the time, I took due diligence measures in the creation and operation of the government team\".\n\nIoan Grillo, a Mexico-based British author and expert on Mexico's criminal underworld, told BBC News the conviction has \"big implications\" for both the US and Mexico governments' fight against corruption and organised crime.\n\n\"This could encourage prosecutors to go after other cases,\" he said. \"They took a certain risk by not having physical evidence and convicting him on testimony from drug traffickers.\"\n\nHe added García Luna's conviction could also help dissuade Mexican officials from being \"openly corrupt\".\n\n\"If you're a Mexican agent, you'll be thinking about how much you expose yourself to the Americans,\" he said.\n\nThe ex-minister - widely considered the architect of Mexico's war on drugs - was said to have shared information with the Sinaloa drug cartel about its rivals and warned the group about law enforcement operations.\n\nThe claims against García Luna's involvement with the Sinaloa cartel first came to light during a trial against Guzmán, who was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in 2019.\n\nA former cartel member named Jesus \"Rey\" Zambada testified during Guzmán's trial that he had delivered millions of dollars in payments to García Luna.\n\nThe case against the former minister was built on the testimony of nine cooperating witnesses, mostly convicted cartel members, including Zambada.\n\nGarcía Luna declined to testify at the trial, but his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, took the stand and attempted to downplay their finances and lifestyle.\n\nIn her closing argument, US prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy said the Sinaloa cartel could not have built a \"global cocaine empire\" without García Luna's aid.\n\n\"They paid the defendant bribes for protection,\" she said. \"And they got what they paid for.\"\n\nGarcía Luna's lawyers argued the witnesses were testifying against him to \"save themselves\" after committing \"horrific crimes\".\n\nAlejandro Hope, a former Mexican intelligence official, said the conviction would come as no surprise to those closely following the trial in Mexico.\n\n\"It was certainly enough to convince the jury, although many others will be unconvinced,\" he told BBC News.\n\nThe conviction could \"complicate some parts\" of US-Mexico cooperation, he said.\n\n\"There won't be any sort of rupture or open dispute,\" he added. \"But ... it will be known that the US has its eyes on Mexican officials. For some, that will make things difficult.\"", "Our live coverage is being paused here. We've witnessed a day of competing narratives and bombastic rhetoric from Moscow.\n\nWe saw the presidents of Russia and the United States give totally different accounts of who started the war in Ukraine - and which way the conflict will go.\n\nAnd we heard references to the Cold War, with the news that the Russian leader was suspending his country's participation in a nuclear arms treaty agreed with its old rival.\n\nAll this just days before Ukraine marks the anniversary of the Russian invasion. Read more of what Putin said here (and some fact-checking by the BBC's Reality Check team here), and more of Biden's words here.\n\nToday's page was brought to you by Laura Gozzi, Thomas Mackintosh, Antoinette Radford, Rachel Russell, Jamie Whitehead, James FitzGerald, Aoife Walsh and Marianna Brady. It was edited by Andrew Humphrey, Marita Moloney and me.", "Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby\n\nCoverage: Live on BBC One, S4C, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and Radio 5 Sports Extra, the BBC Sport website & app; live text commentary on BBC Sport website & app. Highlights and analysis, Scrum V Six Nations, BBC Two Wales, Sunday, 26 February and\n\nWales head coach Warren Gatland says he is confident the under-threat Six Nations game against England will go ahead despite delaying naming his team on Tuesday.\n\nThe game remains in doubt with players threatening to strike in a dispute with Welsh rugby bosses over contracts.\n\nGatland was hopeful the matter would be resolved on Tuesday but nothing official is expected to be announced.\n\nThis would take matters into the final deadline day the Wales players have set of Wednesday, 22 February for the issues to be resolved.\n\nGatland admitted a training session on Tuesday afternoon had been cancelled so players could continue negotiations.\n\nThe Wales coach said last week he was confident the game would go ahead and on Tuesday reiterated that he is hopeful the dispute between players and Welsh rugby chiefs would be resolved.\n\n\"I'm hearing positive things from both sides,\" said Gatland.\n\n\"Hopefully the discussions will be acceptable to both sides in terms of getting some compromise and we can get on with the game.\n\n\"There are no assurances at the moment, but I'm confident that with the discussions taking place hopefully something will get resolved today [Tuesday, 21 February].\n\n\"There have probably been half a dozen meetings over the last few days. It's like everything, you have to find some middle ground.\n\n\"Hopefully, in the discussions today there will be some, where the players are happy and the Professional Rugby Board (PRB) are also happy with some of the decisions they make as well.\n\n\"The thing is, when you are in discussions, it's not always about win-win for one side. You have to find some compromise. Hopefully, that will be the case today.\"\n\nHowever, Gatland accepted the threat to strike is real, saying: \"I think it is a genuine threat, there is no doubt about that.\n\n\"Having spoken to a few people today, I am confident that we will get some resolution.\"\n• None The Wales team you picked to face England\n\nExplaining the decision to postpone training on Tuesday, Gatland added: \"Today was supposed to be a double session, but we have kept it to just this morning so we are not training this afternoon.\n\n\"I made the decision... there has been a lot of things that have been going on outside of rugby, and that has been a part of the focus.\n\n\"Rather than train this afternoon, we did a longer session this morning, and gave players an opportunity to go and rest, and hopefully that resolution takes place.\n\n\"There has been no discussion from the players about not taking part in training. Hopefully those things get resolved and the boys turn up on Thursday raring to go for Saturday.\"\n\nIf no resolution is met on Tuesday, there is set to be a meeting on Wednesday between the players and the Professional Rugby Board (PRB), which runs the professional game in Wales and is made up of representatives from the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and four regions - Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets.\n\nThe players want three issues resolved before they agree to take the field at Principality Stadium for a match worth close to £10m for Welsh rugby.\n• None The removal of the contentious 60-cap selection rule in Wales whereby a player plying his trade outside the country cannot be picked unless he has made at least that number of Test appearances.\n• None The removal of Welsh rugby bosses' demands that players accept 80% in set wages, with 20% available in bonuses.\n\nPRB chair Malcolm Wall has said the 60-cap rule is under review and it is believed they are considering bringing down the amount to between 25 and 40 caps.\n\nWall stated his organisation was intent on pressing ahead with the fixed/variable contracts which mean players are only guaranteed 80% of salaries.\n\nHe also said the PRB will invite the WRPA to be represented at meetings.\n\nGatland insists if the matter is resolved the players will be in the right frame of mind despite all the chaos.\n\n\"I don't think there is going to be any lack of motivation for a player playing against England,\" he added.\n\n\"The boys have got a day off tomorrow and I'm sure if things are resolved they will come back and they will be completely focused on the game.\"\n\nGatland admitted he was unaware of the severity of the issue when he decided to return to Wales after predecessor Wayne Pivac's departure in December 2022.\n\n\"I wasn't aware of any of the issues that were taking place at all,\" he said.\n\n\"It was probably last week when I think it just came to a head.\n\n\"Everyone needs to take some responsibility and I think people are well aware these negotiations and discussions have been going on for too long.\n\n\"I think the players were given assurances on a number of occasions it would be sorted out, and the unfortunate situation [is] that they haven't been able to come to an agreement in terms of the PRB, union and regions, and it finally came to a head.\n\n\"We have all been asking for things to get sorted.\"", "Archie became extremely ill on Skylark ward at Kettering General Hospital in November\n\nChildren's services could be forced to close at a hospital that is accused of leaving young patients traumatised and sick through poor care.\n\nThe care regulator said it had taken action to \"ensure people are safe\" on Skylark ward at Kettering General Hospital (KGH) in Northamptonshire.\n\nThirteen parents with serious concerns after their children died or became seriously ill have spoken to the BBC.\n\nThe hospital said it was \"very sorry\" to families who felt let down.\n\nA BBC Look East investigation has heard allegations spanning more than 20 years about the treatment of patients on Skylark ward, a 26-bed children's unit.\n\nThe claims include repeated failures to diagnose life-threatening illnesses and the regular discharge of patients who require urgent care.\n\nSkylark came under scrutiny in 2019 after an inquest found five major errors led to the death of baby Jorgie Stanton-Watts.\n\nThe hospital's trust said it implemented a series of changes as a result, including \"significant extra training\".\n\nHowever, the BBC has since discovered:\n\nMichaela Stevens says she felt disempowered as a parent\n\nMichaela Stevens has complained about the treatment of her son Archie, who has suffered with croup - a common infection that affects children's airways from birth.\n\nIn November, when 17 months old, he was admitted to Skylark after a spell in the emergency department in respiratory distress, said 33-year-old Ms Stevens.\n\nShe said Archie took a bad turn and was struggling to breathe, but she was told to \"calm down\" when she raised the alarm.\n\n\"They refused to check him... they kept saying, 'it's viral, he'll be fine by tomorrow'. I don't think anyone had the experience to know what to do.\n\n\"I asked six people to check for sepsis and still nothing was done.\"\n\nEventually Archie was started on a sepsis pathway and the following day he was diagnosed with invasive group A Strep, a severe infection.\n\nBut Michaela said doctors struggled to keep him cannulated - when a tube is inserted into a vein for fluids or drugs - and after four days on intravenous antibiotics, Archie was discharged.\n\nMs Stevens said the next day she took her son to the GP, who called Skylark because he felt hot, but they were not concerned about him.\n\nSo she decided to drive him to Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, where staff \"immediately started intravenous fluids and antibiotics\".\n\nAn X-ray at Addenbrooke's showed part of Archie's lung had collapsed due to infection\n\nArchie was admitted on to a ward that night and remained in hospital for two weeks, having lost 500g (1.1lbs) on Skylark.\n\n\"Archie hadn't eaten for a week and they hadn't put a drip into that boy. I had him christened because I was worried he was going to die,\" said Ms Stevens.\n\n\"I think Archie's quite lucky to be alive. At Skylark ward we were let down at every opportunity and felt completely disempowered as parents.\"\n\nShe raised her concerns with the CQC in late November.\n\nSkylark ward is pictured on the second floor at Kettering General\n\nThe next month, following \"concerns about the safety and quality of care provided\", the CQC carried out a focused inspection of KGH's children's services and the paediatric emergency department.\n\n\"Inspectors took enforcement action to ensure people were safe and to give the trust the opportunity to make the necessary improvements,\" a spokeswoman added.\n\nThe KGH February board meeting papers stated there was a \"significant risk that the trust has the potential to lose its paediatric services, if it fails to make the improvements required and give the assurances needed to keep children safe\".\n\nClare Lester has become her son's carer after he suffered signs of brain damage\n\nLater this year, the hospital is expected to pay out a multimillion-pound financial settlement to Clare Lester's son Luke, after his treatment in 2015.\n\nMrs Lester took her then three-year-old to KGH suspecting a serious chest infection.\n\nBut for 24 hours, staff neglected to test his blood or urine when he was in fact in need of urgent treatment for sepsis, she said.\n\nBy the time he was seen by a consultant he was in septic shock, and Mrs Lester said she later learned staff \"didn't have the things they needed to sedate and ventilate\" her son.\n\nHe was transferred to Leicester Royal Infirmary but suffered a cardiac arrest en route and was clinically dead for 18 minutes.\n\nLuke went into septic shock while being treated at Skylark ward\n\nMrs Lester was given a few seconds to see him in the intensive care unit.\n\n\"I just whispered in his ear, 'You know you do as mummy tells you, well you need to fight.' And he did.\"\n\nLuke survived, but has lasting signs of minor brain damage and he lost his right leg through the knee and his left foot.\n\nAn internal review found failures and KGH said lessons would be learned, but Mrs Lester said: \"Even now I'm still angry. I don't think I ever won't be.\n\n\"I've had counselling. But I keep going back to 'this should never have happened'.\"\n\nIn response to the BBC investigation, KGH's director of nursing, Jayne Skippen, said: \"To any families who feel we did not deliver the best care we could have done, I'm very sorry.\n\n\"We know there are some areas we need to improve on and we are working really hard to improve those areas.\n\nShe said KGH had made changes, including introducing a larger paediatric emergency department, adding: \"We are really committed to making this a better pathway for all of our children.\"Ms Skippen added the hospital had responded to the CQC's enforcement notices \"comprehensively\" and she was confident the children's services would not be closed.\n\nDo you have more information about this story?\n\nYou can reach Jon directly and securely through encrypted messaging app Signal on: +44 07890 348918 or by email at jon.ironmonger@bbc.co.uk\n• None 'Why wasn’t our child good enough?'\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC goes undercover on Kenya’s tea plantations\n\nKenya's parliament has ordered an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse on tea plantations revealed in a BBC report.\n\nLawmaker Beatrice Kemei said she watched the report with \"utter shock\".\n\nThe BBC found more than 70 women had been abused by their managers at plantations operated, for years, by two British companies, Unilever and James Finlay.\n\nThe companies say they are shocked by the allegations. Four managers have been suspended.\n\nThe Fairtrade Foundation described the allegations as \"appalling\", and said the investigation - by BBC Africa Eye and BBC Panaroma - were \"nothing less than a #MeToo moment for tea\".\n\nMs Kemei, who serves as woman representative for a tea-growing area in Kericho county, said the report highlighted the \"entrenched\" sexual harassment at \"tea multinationals operating in our country\".\n\nMP Beatrice Elachi said it was unfortunate that such incidents were still taking place.\n\n\"Today is a very difficult day for me as a woman, leader and citizen of Kenya. Today I've been reminded that slavery still exists in this nation; I cannot explain how a man has violated women in tea plantations for 30 years and nothing has been done,\" she was quoted by local media as saying.\n\nDeputy Speaker Gladys Shollei ordered a committee of MPs to complete an investigation into the allegations within two weeks.\n\nIn the BBC investigation, one woman said she had been infected with HIV by her supervisor, after being pressured into having sex with him.\n\nAnother woman said a divisional manager stopped her job until she agreed to have sex with him.\n\n\"It is just torture; he wants to sleep with you, then you get a job,\" she said.\n\nA BBC undercover reporter, who posed as a jobseeker, was invited to a job interview by a recruiter for James Finlay & Co.\n\nIt turned out to be in a hotel room, where she was pinned against a window and asked to undress by the recruiter, who has worked on Finlay's plantations for more than 30 years, and had already been flagged as a \"predator\" by a number of women who spoke to the BBC.\n\n\"I'll give you some money, then I'll give you a job. I have helped you, help me,\" he said.\n\n\"We'll lie down, finish and go. Then you come and work.\"\n\nUnilever faced similar allegations more than 10 years ago and launched a \"zero tolerance\" approach to sexual harassment as well as a reporting system and other measures, but the BBC found evidence that allegations of sexual harassment were not being acted on.\n\nThe BBC's Tom Odula spoke to women who worked on tea farms run by both companies. A number told him that because work is so scarce, they are left with no choice but to give in to the sexual demands of their bosses or face having no income.\n\nBritish supermarket chain Tesco said it takes the allegations \"extremely seriously\" and is in \"constant dialogue\" with Finlay's to ensure \"robust measures\" are taken.\n\nIn response to the BBC investigation, Sainsbury's, another supermarket chain, said: \"These horrific allegations have no place in our supply chain.\"\n\nOn Monday, it issued a revised, updated statement saying it will \"take robust action to safeguard workers\" in its \"tea supply chain.\"\n\nStarbucks also issued a statement on Monday, saying it was \"deeply concerned\" and has taken \"immediate action\" to suspend purchasing from James Finlay & Co in Kenya.\n\nJames Finlay & Co said it had suspended the manager, and had reported him to the police. It was investigating whether its Kenyan operation has \"an endemic issue with sexual violence\", the company added.\n\nUnilever said it was \"deeply shocked and saddened\" by the allegations. The company sold its operation in Kenya while the BBC was secretly filming.\n\nThe new owner, Lipton Teas and Infusions, said it had suspended two managers, and had ordered a \"full and independent investigation\".\n\nHave you been affected by the issues in our investigation into sex for work? Do you have any information or stories to share? If you would like to share your experience with BBC Africa Eye or BBC Panorama, please submit your message below. There is an option to remain anonymous, if you'd prefer to.\n\nDue to the volume of messages we receive, we cannot respond to everyone but we do appreciate every response:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "At least Reece Parkinson got chance to show off his beast mode before leaving\n\nDrive-time presenter Reece Parkinson is leaving BBC Radio 1Xtra - seven years after he joined as an intern.\n\nThe DJ rose through the ranks and hosted a weekend show before taking over from MistaJam in 2020.\n\nHe said working at the station had been a \"life-changing experience\".\n\nLady Leshurr - who's waiting to go on trial accused of attacking her ex-girlfriend - is also being replaced, as the station announces a major schedule shake-up.\n\nThe 35-year-old from Birmingham has been off air from her Saturday afternoon slot since she was charged in October.\n\nShe's set to face a trial later this year charged with two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. She denies the charges.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Reece Parkinson was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes while training for an ultra-marathon\n\nReece joined 1Xtra in 2016 and presented the Weekend Breakfast Show and 1Xtra Talks - the station's flagship news and current affairs programme.\n\nHe got the drive-time gig the same year he started training for an ultra-marathon for a Newsbeat documentary.\n\nThe DJ got a shock diagnosis of type 1 diabetes just days before he was due to run, forcing him to pull out. But six months later, he got back into training and managed to complete a brutal 50-mile race.\n\nReece said his time at 1Xtra had been spent \"fulfilling my intention of bringing positivity and light to the audience\".\n\n\"Now I'm so excited to go and create more life-changing experiences at scale in my next project,\" he said.\n\nRemi Burgz, who joined 1Xtra in 2021, will step into the coveted 16:00-19:00 slot.\n\nShe said: \"I am so grateful for this opportunity, I can't believe I've been trusted to continue this amazing slot.\n\n\"Reece Parkinson has left big shoes to fill but I'm ready for the ride.\"\n\nLady Leshurr has been off air since she was charged with assault\n\nLady Leshurr is being replaced by Joelah Noble, who will present the Saturday 13:00-16:00 show.\n\nJoelah was the official host of a behind-the-scenes YouTube show following the Lionesses Euro 2022 victory last summer, said the new show was a \"dream\".\n\n\"Radio is one of my favourite things ever so to have my own slot is a dream,\" she said.\n\nThe station is also going to be hosting its first weekday show to come from outside London when Kaylee Golding takes over Remi's 13:00-16:00 slot.\n\nKaylee said she was \"super excited\" to be broadcasting from her home city of Birmingham.\n\nThe new 1Xtra line-up will be in place on 3 April\n\nFaron McKenzie, 1Xtra's head of station, said the schedule changes would come into effect from 3 April.\n\n\"As a Birmingham native myself, I'm so proud to be delivering on that promise and bringing 1Xtra to such an amazing and diverse city,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm excited to see Kaylee represent, connect with new audiences, and inject her fun, Brummie energy into 1Xtra afternoons.\n\nHe said Reece would be \"missed by all at the network and we wish him the best of luck in his exciting new projects\".\n\n\"Remi has also forged an incredible relationship with our listeners in such a short space of time - proving her status as a broadcasting superstar.\n\n\"Topping it off, Joelah is ready to hit the ground running on her new show and her positive, warm and friendly vibes make her perfect for Saturday afternoons.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while out walking her dog on 27 January\n\nBroadcasting regulator Ofcom has said it was \"extremely concerned\" to hear complaints made about ITV and Sky News by the family of Nicola Bulley.\n\nOfcom said it had written to both \"to ask them to explain their actions\".\n\nThe family said the broadcasters contacted them despite their appeal for privacy on Sunday when a body - later confirmed to be that of the 45-year-old mother-of-two - was found in a river.\n\nITV said it will cooperate fully with Ofcom. Sky News has yet to comment.\n\nMs Bulley's family criticised parts of the media and some members of the public for their \"absolutely appalling\" conduct since she disappeared while walking her dog along the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on 27 January.\n\nIt is understood Sky News has received Ofcom's letter and will work closely with the watchdog to answer its questions.\n\nITV said: \"As a responsible broadcaster, we will cooperate fully and respond in detail to Ofcom's request for information.\n\n\"We express sincere condolences to the family at this difficult time and we will not be commenting further.\"\n\nITV News had believed Ms Bulley's family were willing to engage with the media, it is understood, but withdrew when a family member declined to speak to them and have not made contact since.\n\nFormer Sunday Telegraph editor Baroness Wheatcroft also responded to Ms Bulley's family condemnation of some media organisations, including for allegedly not respecting their privacy.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe crossbench peer said there was \"every reason for people to be deeply upset\".\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Baroness Wheatcroft said the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) must \"demonstrate it really has teeth\" and examine how Ms Bulley's disappearance was reported.\n\n\"I absolutely agree that the editors in this case do not seem to have behaved as they should and I think it's the opportunity for IPSO to demonstrate that it means business,\" she said.\n\n\"As a former newspaper editor I'd always hope that my reporters respected the people they're dealing with and in any situation like the Nicola Bulley case if the family said 'lay off' they would have absolutely run a mile.\"\n\nPeople had been behaving \"very badly, not least members of the public and social media\", she added.\n\n\"It's become the most extraordinary feeding frenzy.\"\n\nEvan Harris, former director of campaign group Hacked Off, said: \"There's one big difference between the people on social media, who I condemn, and newspapers.\n\n\"That's the editor. These purport to be an edited, curated product, therefore they can be regulated and they should be regulated. It's hard to regulate a bloke in his basement.\"\n\nNicola Bulley's family said broadcasters contacted them despite their appeal for privacy\n\nAt a meeting of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, SNP MP John Nicholson referred to a news report which he said told of people \"literally hunting for clues as tourists in the village\", and included references to people taking selfies on the bench near to where Ms Bulley disappeared.\n\nMr Nicholson suggested such people were \"enjoying the attention and feeling that they're at the centre of a drama\" which was \"deeply distressing for the family\".\n\nAreeq Chowdhury, head of policy, data and digital technologies at the Royal Society - a fellowship of some of the world's most eminent scientists - told the committee the media frenzy in Ms Bulley's case was \"disgusting\".\n\nHe said people taking selfies at the site where she went missing could have been seeking a sense of \"personal validation\" or hoping to make money from online clicks.\n\nIn a statement issued after police confirmed Ms Bulley's death on Monday, her family said her partner Paul Ansell had been falsely accused of wrongdoing and her friends and family \"misquoted and vilified\".\n\nThey said: \"We tried [on Sunday] to take in what we had been told in the day, only to have Sky News and ITV making contact with us directly when we expressly asked for privacy.\n\n\"They again have taken it upon themselves to run stories about us to sell papers and increase their own profiles.\n\n\"It is shameful they have acted in this way. Leave us alone now.\n\n\"Do the press and other media channels and so-called professionals not know when to stop? These are our lives and our children's lives.\"\n\nThe family said it was \"absolutely appalling and can't happen to another family\".\n\nFormer ITN editor-in-chief Stewart Purvis, who has also worked as a senior Ofcom executive, said: \"I think the whole issue of how you approach the families of those who have suffered, who are suffering from the disappearance and possibly the death of a loved one, is a continuing issue in the media.\"\n\nHe said the lack of a public response from ITV or Sky News suggested they were \"uncomfortable with the position they are in\".\n\n\"I'm sure they don't want to get into a public row with the family, but if they had a proper defence of this situation, I think we would have heard it from them by now, and I'm sure they're clustered in a group at the moment trying to work out what to say,\" he added.\n\nDominic Ponsford, editor-in-chief of media trade website Press Gazette, told BBC Radio 5 Live there had been research into media approaches to families following the death of a loved one.\n\n\"Families have said it's much worse if a terrible case like this ignored by the media,\" he said.\n\n\"Sometimes unexplained or abrupt deaths are ignored by the media for whatever reason and that can be very hard for a family.\n\n\"And also what can be very hard is when journalists don't approach them and try and get information from social media and get things wrong, which can be very, very hard as well on families.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Downing Street said it expected Lancashire Police to be \"transparent\" about its internal investigation into how it handled the case.\n\nThe force was criticised for revealing some aspects of her private life during the investigation.\n\nZoe Billingham, formerly Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, said people may be \"more fearful of stepping forward to report loved ones missing\" after the \"gross invasion of privacy\" suffered by Ms Bulley and her family.\n\nMs Billingham, who independently assessed police forces in her former role, said: \"It's definitely not my job to judge Lancashire Police, but what I would say is what we've seen over the last few days is a gross invasion of privacy.\n\n\"And my message to women out there would be that if your loved one, if your mum or your sister went missing, what we've seen over the last few days is not OK; it's not what we would ordinarily see in a missing persons investigation.\"\n\nAsked whether Rishi Sunak believed an independent, external review would be necessary, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: \"Our position is to allow the existing process to report back.\n\n\"We would expect them to detail their findings and then obviously we will consider the next steps as appropriate.\"\n\nThe investigation into Ms Bulley's disappearance has attracted widespread speculation, with internet conspiracy theories rife.\n\nMembers of the public even visited St Michael's on Wyre to conduct their own searches, some of which were posted on social media sites including TikTok.\n\nMr Ansell became the focus for criticism, with some falsely accusing him of involvement in her disappearance.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The pair were flying a light aircraft over Blackpool when the incident happened\n\nA pilot continued to fly after his co-pilot suffered a cardiac arrest and died - believing he was playing a joke.\n\nThe pilot believed his colleague was pretending to be asleep and only realised what had happened after landing, a safety report revealed.\n\nThe Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigated the incident, in Blackpool, so lessons could be learned.\n\nIt concluded current medical assessments were acceptable but risks \"can never be reduced to zero\".\n\nThe report found the pilot who died was flying with a qualified pilot who was able to land the aircraft safely but said \"the outcome could have been different\" on a different flight.\n\nThe 57-year-old, who had passed a medical four months earlier, had agreed to join the the short journey aboard a Piper PA-28-161 light aircraft around Blackpool Airport in June.\n\nA second pilot had been requested for safety reasons due to the windy weather conditions.\n\nBlackpool Airport is a base for private flights and the North West Air Ambulance Service\n\nThe surviving pilot recalled how during the taxi the pair were talking normally and his colleague, who was also a flight instructor, had remarked \"looks good, there is nothing behind you\".\n\nHis head then rolled back and the pilot, who knew the instructor well, thought he was pretending to take a nap, the report said.\n\nAs the plane turned the instructor slumped over with his head resting on the pilot's shoulder.\n\nThe report said: \"The pilot still thought the instructor was just joking with him and continued to fly the approach.\"\n\nHe later \"landed normally\" before he \"realised something was wrong\" and made a call for help.\n\nA review by the Civil Aviation Authority's medical department concluded the instructor had died from acute cardiac arrest.\n\nThe authority said it continually reviewed health guidance and the \"rarity\" of accidents caused by cardiac events in flight \"suggests the balance is currently about right\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Threats sent to an activist and a TV presenter are being investigated by anti-terrorism detectives.\n\nThe letters claimed to come from the \"London cell\" of National Action, a neo-Nazi group banned by the home secretary in 2016.\n\nIndia Willoughby, who is transgender, and British-Nigerian activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu were both targeted.\n\nThe latter said a death threat was posted through her front door on Monday, which intended to \"silence me\".\n\nDr Mos-Shogbamimu, who regularly appears on TV to discuss discrimination, said the authors claimed to have guns and knives and to be watching her house.\n\nThe letter, which she posted in full on social media, said she had been put on a \"kill list\" and would be subjected to an \"execution\".\n\nIt continued: \"We are notifying you of our intention to kill you and your family.\"\n\nDr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu said the authors claimed to have guns and knives and to be watching her house\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Dr Mos-Shogbamimu said: \"The letter was sent to me to intimidate and silence me.\n\n\"This is not the first time I have received racial abuse or threats, I get inundated with rape threats and racial abuse on social media.\"\n\nShe added: \"I am being targeted because I am a black anti-racist activist. I am outspoken and I do not shy away from having those challenging conversations that shape our society today.\n\n\"My case is not an isolated one, in fact we find many black voices in politics and activism that are constantly being targeted.\"\n\nTV presenter Ms Willoughby said she was targeted by the same group via her accountant, who received the letter by hand delivery.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command said the messages contained \"vile racist and transphobic language, and threats\".\n\nAn investigation is being led by anti-terrorism specialists because of \"the potential involvement of a proscribed group\".\n\nPolice said no arrests have been made at this stage.\n\nIndia Willoughby said her accountant received the letter by hand delivery\n\nNational Action was formed in 2013 and became the first far-right organisation to be outlawed under the Terrorism Act three years later.\n\nIt was found to have \"promoted and encouraged acts of terrorism\" following the murder of Jo Cox, the Home Office said at the time.\n\nThe jury in a June 2022 court case was told the group had not fully disbanded and had instead splintered into regional factions.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Twenty-nine people - including a woman pregnant with twins - died in the 1998 attack in the County Tyrone town.\n\nThe weather in Omagh reflects the mood: dreary and dark.\n\nMany of the bereaved families have been campaigning for an inquiry into the Omagh bombing for more than a decade.\n\nOthers fear it will open old wounds.\n\nThe bombing was the biggest single atrocity in the Troubles - 29 people lost their lives, including a woman who was pregnant with twins.\n\nLots of people's lives changed forever that day in County Tyrone almost 25 years ago.\n\nOmagh was bombed by the Real IRA in 1998\n\nIt doesn't take you long to walk around the town and find people who still carry that trauma every day.\n\n\"It's a day I'll never forget,\" one woman told me.\n\n\"I just remember the noise and then the silence, then the chaos and devastation that ensued after. It'll stay with me forever.\"\n\nJill and Lilian work in a shop not far from where the bomb exploded\n\nJill and Lillian work in a shop on Market Street, not far from where the bomb exploded - they described the scene as \"absolute mayhem\".\n\nThree women who worked in the shop were killed. Jill's mother was stuck in a shop when the bomb went off.\n\nLillian said the impact of that day in 1998 is \"hard to get your head around\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The 29 victims of the Omagh bombing\n\nOther people on Market Street were happy to stop and chat, but many wanted to reserve judgment on the inquiry.\n\nThey don't feel it's their place to comment.\n\n\"I think as a town we want to know the truth but at the same time, it's in the past. It's in a box, that day,\" said one shopper, who was in the Dunnes Stores car park when the bomb went off.\n\n\"I don't know if it'll help those families - I hope it does - but I suppose that's for the families to find out.\"\n\nA shopworker said \"you relive it every day driving up and down this town\".\n\nOne man remarked that it was \"about time\" while another, when asked if he welcomed the news, said \"very much so\".", "HMS Portland is pictured (foreground) tracking a Russian warship and tanker last month through the North Sea\n\nA \"small number\" of navy personnel were taken to hospital after problems with water supplies on board their warship.\n\nSubmarine hunter HMS Portland returned to Portsmouth on Friday following a \"contaminated water\" incident.\n\nA Royal Navy spokesperson said it was a \"precautionary measure\" after an issue with the ship's fresh water systems.\n\nThey said measures were being taken to \"safeguard the ship's company\" during investigations, with HMS Richmond on standby to provide any necessary cover.\n\nIt is thought that one of the crew members put the wrong chemical into the frigate's water system - designed to convert sea water into drinking water. The sailor, on realising the error, subsequently raised the alarm.\n\nAll those taken to hospital \"are expected to make a full recovery\", with the majority of those involved already discharged, a statement from the Royal Navy said.\n\n\"The recent issue with contaminated water in HMS Portland will be investigated thoroughly.\"\n\n\"We take the health and welfare of our people very seriously and will review processes to ensure this does not happen again,\" the statement added.\n\nAn investigation is now under way.\n\nHMS Portland spent much of last year patrolling UK waters and, last July, co-operated with Nato allies on a submarine-hunting exercise in the North Atlantic.\n\nIt helped track two Russian submarines as they sailed into the North Sea along the Norwegian coast.\n\nLast month it tracked a Russian warship as it sailed in international waters close to the UK.\n\nThe Type 23 frigate was commissioned in 2001 and over the years has been used in anti-drug missions in the Caribbean (2007) and deployed against pirates off the Horn of Africa (2009).\n\nThe ship also helped with disaster relief in Belize following Hurricane Dean in 2007.\n\nIt underwent a lengthy refit in 2021 which included an overhaul of machinery, computers and IT systems.", "The US says additional military aid to Ukraine worth $2.2bn (£1.83bn) will include long-range missiles capable of doubling its attack range.\n\nIt brings the total amount of military aid given to Ukraine to more than $29.3bn (£24.31bn) since February 2022.\n\nThe package includes ground-launched small-diameter bombs (GLSDB) which can hit targets 150km (93 miles) away.\n\nBut officials refused to be drawn on speculation that the munitions could be used to attack parts of annexed Crimea.\n\n\"When it comes to Ukrainian plans on operations, clearly that is their decision,\" Pentagon spokesperson Brig Gen Pat Ryder told reporters.\n\n\"This gives them a longer-range capability, long-range fires capability, that will enable them, again, to conduct operations in defence of their country and take back their sovereign territory, Russian-occupied areas.\"\n\nRussia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and considers it part of its territory. But it has come under sporadic fire from Ukrainian forces in recent months.\n\nWestern nations have repeatedly ruled out providing Ukraine with offensive weapons - such as fighter jets - which it could use to strike against Russia itself.\n\nIn a tweet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the US and President Joe Biden for the additional aid.\n\n\"The more long-range our weapons are and the more mobile our troops are, the sooner Russia's brutal aggression will end,\" Mr Zelensky wrote. \"Together with [the US] we stand against terror.\"\n\nPresident Zelensky has long urged the West to provide his forces with artillery capable of firing over greater distances.\n\nPreviously, Ukraine's longest range weapon was the Himars rocket system, which can hit targets at a range of up to 80km (50 miles). Kyiv used the system to devastating effect during its counter-offensive in the south and east last year.\n\nThe GLSDB also gives Ukraine forces an ability to strike anywhere in the Russian-occupied Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. It also allows Ukraine to threaten Russian supply lines in the east.\n\nManufactured by Boeing and Saab, GLSDB is a gliding rocket with a small bomb attached, capable of striking a target within one metre of its position.\n\nAnd it can be fired from a variety of weapons systems, including the Himars and M270 MLRS systems already in use in Ukraine. However, both the Pentagon and Boeing refused to comment on delivery dates for the system, with some reports suggesting that it could take up to nine months before it reaches Ukraine.\n\nThe new package - which will also include additional Himars missiles and 250 Javelin anti-armour systems - comes amid mounting concerns that Western nations have been too slow to provide fresh military aid to Ukraine.\n\n\"GLSDB should have been approved last fall, US House of Representatives Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers said in a tweet. \"Every day it's not approved is a day it's delayed getting it into the hands of a Ukrainian ready to kill a Russian.\"\n\nIn recent days, reports have emerged that a Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region has been gaining momentum, with pro-Kremlin bloggers suggesting that the town of Bakhmut, long a focal point of Russian attacks, has been surrounded from three-sides.\n\nBut President Zelensky said his forces were entrenched around the town and would not surrender it to Russian assaults.\n\n\"We consider Backhmut to be our fortress,\" the Ukrainian leader said. \"If weapon [deliveries] are accelerated - namely long-range weapons - we will not only not withdraw from Bakhmut, we will begin to de-occupy Donbas, which has been occupied since 2014.\"\n\nMr Zelensky said earlier that a long-rumoured Russian spring offensive in the region had already begun and his Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said earlier this week that Moscow had mobilised some 500,000 troops for the renewed assault.\n\nMeanwhile, the Ukrainian leader has been holding new EU accession talks with the bloc's leaders, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel, in Kyiv.\n\nSpeaking after the summit, Mr Zelensky said the leaders had reached an \"understanding that it is possible to start negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the European Union this year\".\n\nBut Ms von der Leyen said there were \"no rigid timelines\" in place and emphasised that Ukraine had political goals it must meet before joining the block.\n\nThe EU has repeatedly underlined the need for Ukraine to step up its fight against endemic corruption, reform its judiciary by weeding out political interference and strengthen its economy.\n\nElsewhere, Germany has announced plans to send Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine. The earlier model of the Leopard 2s - which Berlin has already promised to provide - can be delivered to Kyiv sooner than the advanced model.", "Nicola Bulley vanished while walking her dog in the village of St Michael's on Wyre\n\nPolice investigating the disappearance of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley believe she fell into a river.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on a dog walk a week ago.\n\nA major search for Ms Bulley continues, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nLancashire Police said its \"main working hypothesis\" was that she fell into the River Wyre and this was \"not suspicious but a tragic case of a missing person\".\n\nMs Bulley, a mortgage adviser from Inskip, Lancashire, vanished while walking her dog after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school on 27 January.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said the last confirmed sighting of Ms Bulley was at 09:10 GMT when she was seen on the upper field.\n\nOfficers were alerted to her disappearance when her spaniel, Willow, was found running loose off Garstang Road about 25 minutes after she was last seen by another dog walker.\n\nAt 09:20 police believe her phone was on a bench while connected to a work Teams meeting, which ended 10 minutes later.\n\nDetectives believe Ms Bulley vanished in that 10-minute window.\n\nSupt Riley said police had looked through dashcam, CCTV and doorbell footage which allowed detectives to \"eliminate any trace so far of Nicola having left the riverside\".\n\nShe said this was \"really important\" for the investigation.\n\n\"We believe that Nicola was in the riverside area and remained at the riverside area,\" Supt Riley said.\n\n\"We remain open to any inquiries that might lead us to question that, but at this time we understand that she was by the river.\"\n\nLouise Cunningham, Ms Bulley's sister, has encouraged members of the public to still keep an eye out for her sibling as the police were working on \"a theory\".\n\nIn a post on Facebook, she urged people to \"keep an open mind\", adding: \"the police confirmed the case is far from over\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Sally Riley says police are not treating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley as suspicious.\n\nThe coastguard, mountain rescue and fire crews have joined police in ongoing searches of the river and nearby footpaths.\n\n\"Our main working hypothesis therefore is that Nicola has sadly fallen into the river, that there is no third party or criminal involvement and that this is not suspicious, but a tragic case of a missing person,\" Supt Riley said.\n\n\"This is particularly important because speculation otherwise can be really distressing for the family and for Nicola's children.\"\n\nSupt Riley said Ms Bulley's disappearance had \"understandably caused a huge amount of concern and upset in the local community, as well as being an absolutely awful time for her family\".\n\nHer partner Paul Ansell, 44, said earlier that the family had been living in \"perpetual hell\".\n\nHe said: \"We're never going to lose the hope.\n\n\"But, right now, it is as though she has vanished into thin air. It's just insane.\"\n\nMs Bulley's friend Emma White described her as \"the most beautiful person\" and \"the kindest soul - she's thoughtful, she's caring\".\n\n\"And then you add her and Paul together, add a little bit of magic, and they've created these two beautiful humans who just want to know where their mummy is,\" she said.\n\n\"They are the most close-knit family. Those poor girls asking questions, 'where's mummy, how is mummy?'\"\n\nPaul Ansell said he was trying to stay strong for his daughters\n\nSupt Riley said an \"issue\" with Ms Bulley's dog may have led her to the water's edge.\n\n\"She puts her phone down to go and deal with the dog momentarily, and Nicola may have fallen in,\" she said.\n\n\"We assume the dog didn't get into the river, but we don't know why Nicola may have if she did.\"\n\nMs Riley said the dog was dry and that Ms Bulley could swim.\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on the bench (top left) where police continue to search\n\nMs Bulley has lived in Lancashire for 25 years but is originally from near Chelmsford, Essex, and has a southern accent.\n\nShe was last seen wearing an ankle-length black quilted gilet jacket, a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat which was worn underneath the gilet and tight-fitting black jeans.\n\nShe was also wearing long green walking socks tucked into her jeans, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace and a pale blue Fitbit.\n\nSupt Riley urged people to \"pay heed to those very specific clothing descriptions\" and advised the public to \"keep themselves safe\" in the search for Ms Bulley.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "A man who arrived at Windsor Castle armed with a crossbow and told a protection officer \"I am here to kill the Queen\" has pleaded guilty to a charge under the Treason Act.\n\nJaswant Singh Chail, from Hampshire, was arrested on Christmas Day 2021, when the late monarch was living at Windsor due to the Covid pandemic.\n\nAt the Old Bailey earlier, Chail, 21, pleaded guilty to three charges.\n\nHe is the first person in the UK to be convicted of treason since 1981.\n\nChail, from North Baddesley, near Southampton, also admitted making threats to kill and possessing the loaded weapon in the castle. He is due to be sentenced at the same court on 31 March.\n\nChail's crossbow was found to be comparable to a powerful air rifle with the potential to cause fatal injury\n\nHe was spotted by a royal protection officer in a private section of the castle grounds just after 08:10 GMT on 25 December 2021.\n\nThe officer was at a gate, leading to the monarch's private apartments.\n\nChail, who was unemployed at the time but had worked for the Co-op supermarket, had climbed into the grounds using a nylon rope ladder, and had already been there for about two hours.\n\nHe was wearing a hood and a mask, and was described as \"like something out of a vigilante movie\".\n\nThe officer took out his Taser, and asked him: \"Morning, can I help, mate?\" Chail replied: \"I am here to kill the Queen.\"\n\nThe protection officer immediately told Chail to drop the crossbow, get on his knees, and put his hands on his head. Chail complied and then said again: \"I am here to kill the Queen.\"\n\nChail was found by police wearing a hood and a mask\n\nThe crossbow was found to be loaded with a bolt and the safety catch was off.\n\nChail was also carrying a handwritten note, which read: \"Please don't remove my clothes, shoes and gloves, masks etc, don't want post-mortem, don't want embalming, thank you and I'm sorry.\"\n\nIn a video posted on Snapchat minutes before he entered the castle, Chail said: \"I'm sorry, I'm sorry for what I've done and what I will do. I will attempt to assassinate Elizabeth, Queen of the Royal Family.\n\n\"This is revenge for those who have died in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It is also revenge for those who have been killed, humiliated and discriminated on because of their race.\"\n\nThe Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place when British troops opened fire on thousands of people who had gathered in the city of Amritsar in India.\n\nThe Queen had been staying at Windsor, rather than spending Christmas as usual on her Sandringham estate\n\nThe death toll is disputed - but hundreds of people were killed and Indian sources put it nearer to 1,000.\n\nAlso in the video and apparently referencing the Star Wars films, Chail said: \"I'm an Indian Sikh, a Sith. My name was Jaswant Singh Chail, my name is Darth Jones.\"\n\nProsecutors said the footage was recorded four days earlier and sent to about 20 people on his contact list 10 minutes before his arrest.\n\nChail's crossbow was found to be comparable to a powerful air rifle with the potential to cause serious or fatal injury.\n\nProsecutors said crossbow bolts, a metal file and other items were later found in a hotel room where he had stayed the previous night.\n\nIt was also alleged Chail had previously tried to get close to the royals by applying to join the Ministry of Defence Police and the Grenadier Guards.\n\nKing Charles had been due to join his mother for Christmas lunch later that day\n\nCommander Richard Smith, who leads the Met Police's counter terrorism unit, said: \"This was an extremely serious incident, but one which the patrolling officers who apprehended Chail managed with great composure and professionalism.\n\n\"They showed tremendous bravery to confront a masked man who was armed with a loaded crossbow, and then detain him without anyone coming to harm.\"\n\nPolice said Chail's actions were not treated as terrorism offences but the counter terrorism division was deemed the appropriate team to lead the investigation.\n\nChail is currently in Broadmoor Hospital where he appeared in court via a remote video link.\n\nIt was heard his mental health had improved with treatment and he would have been fit to stand trial.\n\nJaswant Singh Chail climbed into the grounds using a nylon rope ladder\n\nThe Queen had been staying at Windsor Castle for Christmas, rather than spending it as usual on her Sandringham estate in Norfolk.\n\nHer Majesty was due to be joined for lunch by the then Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, as well as the Earl and Countess of Wessex.\n\nUnder the 1842 Treason Act, it is an offence to assault the Queen, or have a firearm or offensive weapon in her presence with intent to injure or alarm her or to cause a breach of peace.\n\nIn 1981, Marcus Sarjeant was jailed for five years under the section of the Treason Act after he fired blank shots at the Queen while she was riding down The Mall in London during the Trooping the Colour parade.\n\nThe last person to be convicted under the separate and more serious 1351 Treason Act was William Joyce, also known as Lord Haw-Haw, who collaborated with Germany during the Second World War.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen for a week\n\nNicola Bulley's partner has said he is focusing on \"staying as strong as I can\" for their two daughters, a week after her disappearance.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on 27 January.\n\nA major search for Ms Bulley continues, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nPaul Ansell said: \"We're never going to lose the hope. But, right now, it is as though she has vanished into thin air. It's just insane.\"\n\nHe said he \"cannot get his head around\" his partner's disappearance, adding: \"Every single scenario comes to a brick wall. Every single one of them.\n\n\"All we are doing is sitting there going round and round and round, going through every scenario.\"\n\nMr Ansell, 44, said he was focusing on looking after their daughters - aged six and nine - and said \"I don't even want to actually think\" about how he was coping.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"It just seems absolutely impossible', says Nicola's partner, Paul\n\nThanking friends and the wider community, Mr Ansell added: \"The only thing we can take [from the situation] is, you know, that level of support. It's out of this world.\n\n\"It gives us a great amount of comfort, knowing that's going on. We don't have anything else.\n\n\"We're never going to lose the hope. But, right now, it is as though she has vanished into thin air. It's just insane.\"\n\nMs Bulley's friend Emma White described her as \"the most beautiful person\" and \"the kindest soul - she's thoughtful, she's caring.\n\n\"And then you add her and Paul together, add a little bit of magic, and they've created these two beautiful humans who just want to know where their mummy is.\n\n\"They are the most close-knit family. Those poor girls asking questions, 'where's mummy, how is mummy?'\"\n\nNeighbours and friends are desperate to help\n\nMs White also told BBC Breakfast: \"Seven days on, such a tough milestone today for all the family and friends.\n\n\"We're out in force today. We've had banners made, placards with her face, so the idea is that seven days on there might be someone that's passing today that passed last Friday, that might be able to shed that glimmer of hope we need.\n\n\"Anybody with any information to help these guys - we just need something. It's not making sense, we've got no information.\"\n\nLuke Sumner said: \"We're going to do absolutely everything possible to find some information as to where Nicola has gone.\n\n\"The community spirit has been absolutely phenomenal.\"\n\nNicola Bulley's phone was found on a riverside bench, still connected to a work call\n\nMs Bulley, a mortgage adviser, has lived in Lancashire for 25 years but is originally from near Chelmsford, Essex, and has a southern accent.\n\nPolice were alerted to her disappearance when her spaniel, Willow, was found running loose off Garstang Road about 25 minutes after she was last seen by another dog walker.\n\nHer phone was later found on a riverside bench, still connected to a work call.\n\nA harness and lead for her springer spaniel, Willow, was also discovered on the bench.\n\nPolice said officers were keeping an \"open mind\" about what had happened, but did not believe Ms Bulley had been attacked.\n\nNicola Bulley was walking her dog Willow when she disappeared\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Alyson Nelson was killed in Whitehead in April 2022\n\nA man is to stand trial in autumn this year for the murder of his former partner in her home in County Antrim.\n\nWilliam Finlay, 67, is accused of killing Alyson Nelson in Whitehead in April last year.\n\nThe 64-year-old former nurse died from a stab wound.\n\nOn Friday Mr Finlay, from Old Forde Gardens in Whitehead, gave a plea of \"not guilty\" when he appeared at Belfast Crown Court by videolink with Maghaberry Prison.\n\nHe is charged with murdering Ms Nelson, with the offence \"aggravated by reason of involving domestic abuse.\"\n\nThe judge then addressed the defence barrister, saying: \"I have seen the defence statements and there's no dispute on behalf of Mr Finlay that he killed Ms Nelson.\n\n\"The issue that he wishes to explore is a psychiatric one - is that right?\"\n\nThe defence barrister confirmed that and said expert reports were being sought to determine Mr Finlay's state of mind \"at the time of the commission of the offence\".\n\nThe barrister also said Mr Finlay sustained a head injury \"years ago\" but the medical reports relating to that \"are out of the jurisdiction\" and are being obtained by defence lawyers.\n\nThe judge set the date for trial as 11 September this year and said he would review the case on 26 May.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC News NI looks at the events of 15 August 1998, the day of the Omagh bombing\n\nThe Omagh bomb exploded on 15 August 1998, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.\n\nNo-one has ever been convicted of the atrocity.\n\nBBC News looks back at the many legal twists and turns in the families' two-decades campaign for justice.\n\nThe bomb detonated in a car parked in the middle of the main street in the town\n\nA large car bomb explodes on a Saturday afternoon in the centre of Omagh, County Tyrone. The town's main street is crowded with shoppers and more than 200 people are injured. Twenty-nine of the victims, including a woman pregnant with twins, will die as a result of their injuries. In terms of the final death toll, it is the worst single atrocity after almost 30 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.\n\nA recently-formed dissident republican group, calling itself the Real IRA, claims responsibility for the bomb. In a statement, the paramilitary group says its targets were \"commercial\" and offers an apology to the \"civilian\" victims.\n\nThe judgement and leadership of the head of the police in Northern Ireland during the Omagh bomb investigation is described as \"seriously flawed\". The comments come in a damning report by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan. Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan says the report does not represent a \"fair, thorough or rigorous investigation\". He says both he and the force are considering legal action to quash the report.\n\nSir Ronnie Flanagan was the head of the police at the time of the bombing in 1998\n\nA dissident republican is found guilty of plotting to cause the Omagh bombing Colm Murphy, then 49, is the only person charged in connection with the bombing. Murphy, a builder and publican originally from south Armagh, had denied one charge of conspiring to cause an explosion but three judges at a non-jury court in Dublin deliver a guilty verdict.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland rejects a number of key allegations made in the ombudsman's report. Sir Ronnie Flanagan accepts that some mistakes were made but insists that nothing could have been done to prevent the bombing.\n\nThe alleged founder and leader of the Real IRA, Michael McKevitt, is found guilty of directing terrorism and membership of an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland. The businessman, from Blackrock in County Louth, is not charged over the bomb but is the first person to be prosecuted for directing terrorism. The Irish government introduced the new offence in response to the Omagh attack.\n\nColm Murphy's conviction is ruled unsafe due to alleged irregularities surrounding evidence given by detectives at his trial. He faces a re-trial.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Who were the victims of the Omagh bombing?\n\nCounty Armagh man Sean Hoey is formally charged in court with the murders of 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing. The electrician, from Molly Road in Jonesborough, is the first person to face a murder charge in relation to the attack.\n\nSean Hoey is found not guilty of 58 charges, including the murders of 29 people in the Omagh bombing. Clearing Mr Hoey, the judge criticises police witnesses for \"deliberate and calculated deception\" during the 10-month trial.\n\nSir Ronnie Flanagan, the head of the police at the time of the Omagh attack, apologises to the families of the victims of the bomb. He says he is \"desperately sorry\" people have not yet been brought to justice.\n\nThe victims' families begin a landmark civil case, suing five men they allege were involved. The case breaks new legal ground, and is believed to be the first time anywhere in the world that alleged members of a terrorist organisation have been sued.\n\nThe judge in the civil trial rules that Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were all liable for the Omagh bomb. He orders them to pay a total of £1.6m in damages to 12 relatives who took the case. A fifth man, Seamus McKenna, is cleared of liability.\n\nColm Murphy, the only man jailed in connection with the bombing, is cleared following a retrial. The judge says interview evidence from members of An Garda Síochána (Irish police force) is inadmissible.\n\nIn 2009, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were found responsible for the bombing in a landmark civil trial\n\nMichael McKevitt and Liam Campbell lose their appeal against the civil trial verdict. Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly both win their appeals but will face a civil retrial.\n\nSeamus Daly and Colm Murphy are both found liable for the Omagh bombing after a civil retrial.\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers says she has decided not to hold a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the Omagh bombing, adding that she does not believe there are sufficient grounds to justify a further inquiry beyond those that have already taken place.\n\nSeamus McKenna, who was acquitted in the civil action taken by relatives of the bomb victims, dies age 58. His death is a result of injuries he sustained in a fall while repairing a roof at a school in Dundalk, County Louth. A major security operation is put in place for his funeral four days later.\n\nPolice in Northern Ireland charge Seamus Daly with the murders of 29 people in the Omagh bomb attack. They also charge him with an attempted bomb attack in Lisburn, County Antrim, that took place in 1998.\n\nSeamus Daly was released from Maghaberry Prison in County Antrim\n\nThe prosecution case against Seamus Daly collapses. The Public Prosecution Service decides there is no reasonable prospect of conviction after a key witness contradicted his own previous testimony. Mr Daly, who has always denied any involvement in the bombing, is released from prison.\n\nA bid by two men to overturn a landmark civil ruling that found them liable for the Omagh bombing is rejected by the European Court of Human Rights. Liam Campbell and Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt took their case to Europe, arguing that the civil trial in Belfast High Court had been unfair.\n\nBelfast's High Court allows some evidence connected to the 1998 Omagh bombing to be heard in secret. The government had applied for a \"closed material procedure\" (CMP) for a judge to examine whether public disclosure of information would be damaging to national security. After viewing a sample of sensitive documents, the judge ruled that a CMP would be allowed.\n\nIt emerges that relatives of the Omagh bomb victims are to sue Northern Ireland's police chief for failings they believe allowed the killers escape justice. A writ is issued against the chief constable, focusing on what happened after the car bomb and why no-one has been convicted of murder.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Ireland correspondent Chris Page reports from a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing\n\nEvents including a cross-community memorial ceremony are held to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bomb. As well as prayers, speeches and music, a minute's silence is held in remembrance of those who died. A bell is rung 32 times in memory of the victims, with the extra single peal for all who have lost their lives in atrocities around the world.\n\nA Fermanagh and Omagh District Council committee passes a motion opposing the extradition of Liam Campbell to Lithuania over allegations he was part of an operation to buy guns and bombs for the Real IRA. Put forward by an independent councillor, the motion is supported by Sinn Féin and the SDLP. Shortly afterwards SDLP leader Colum Eastwood says it is wrong and his party subsequently withdraws its backing.\n\nMichael McKevitt dies, having been diagnosed with cancer. The 71-year-old had been released from prison in 2016 after his conviction in 2003 for directing terrorism.\n\nNorthern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster says the relatives of those murdered in the bombing deserve an apology over the length of time a court is taking to rule on a call for a public inquiry. The lord chief justice's office blames the situation on the assessment of \"sensitive\" documents.\n\nBelfast High Court rules it was plausible that the bomb could have been prevented by security services and Mr Justice Mark Horner calls for new investigations in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Michael Gallagher, who brought the legal action, calls again for a full public inquiry.\n\nExplaining its reasons for urging new investigations, the High Court in Belfast says it had heard that in the six months before August 1998 there had been 24 dissident attacks - many of the suspects would later be involved in the Omagh bomb. Mr Justice Horner said: \"There is no doubt the authorities could have made life very uncomfortable for those dissident republicans. It is arguable that such a proactive policy would have had the real prospect of preventing the Omagh bomb.\" The Northern Ireland Office says it will \"carefully consider\" calls for a fresh investigation.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris meets some of the families of those killed and asks for more time to consider if there should be an investigation or public inquiry.\n\nA decision on whether to order a new investigation or public inquiry into the Omagh bombing is expected to be made in January, the High Court in Belfast hears.\n\nThe UK government announces there will be an independent statutory inquiry into the Omagh bombing. It will have the full powers of the Inquiries Act 2005, the act under which public inquiries are normally held. It was described by Michael Gallagher as an \"important step forward\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"It's going to be a difficult process\"\n\nLord Turnbull, a senior judge in Scotland, is appointed as the chairman of the inquiry.\n\nThe Irish government said it would consider its next steps when it has more clarity on the UK's inquiry. Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin said his government needed to see the terms of reference. \"As we approach the 25th anniversary of the attack, we will not be found wanting,\" he added.", "Sadiq Khan invited Martin Lewis to join him at the event\n\nConsumer finance expert Martin Lewis has told an event in London the planned timing of a clear-air zone expansion in the capital \"is pretty tough\".\n\nHe was asked to join London Mayor Sadiq Khan at the event, aimed at addressing financial pressures faced by Londoners.\n\nMr Lewis pointed out poorer drivers would be hit more by the widening of the Ultra Low Emission Zone.\n\nMr Khan responded to Mr Lewis, saying: \"What is the right number of people to die a year to make it acceptable?\"\n\nOne angry attendee walked out of the event at City Hall as the controversial issue was discussed.\n\nThe mayor's flagship clean-air policy has been met with opposition from a number of London councils.\n\nResponding to a question on the timing of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion - due to come into place in August - Mr Lewis said: \"If I may be honest, the reasons behind that are good, but the timing is pretty tough to do it this year amongst a cost-of-living crisis.\n\n\"For the 6% who have cars pre-2005 petrol or pre-2015 diesel, they will tend to be not the wealthiest because they haven't upgraded their car in that time.\"\n\nMr Khan responded: \"When is the right time? I was told in 2017 that it wasn't the right time because of concerns around Brexit.\"\n\nFollowing this remark, an audience member began shouting at Mr Khan over his plans before walking out and calling him \"a con man\".\n\nThe mayor has previously described the decision to widen the zone to cover all of London as \"not easy but necessary to reduce the capital's toxic air pollution\". A spokesperson for him said last month: \"About 4,000 Londoners die prematurely each year due to the toxic air in our city and the mayor makes no apology for making the tough decision to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone.\"\n\nMartin Lewis is known as a money-saving guru\n\nAfter the event, Angie Donnelley, 58, from Dagenham, told the BBC she had also been planning to heckle the mayor as \"so many people can't afford the new vehicles - they can't afford to even live or dress themselves\".\n\nShe added: \"There are people who want to go and visit their loved ones' graves, and they have to pay £12.50. It's disgusting.\n\n\"How can one man dictate to Essex what to do when we aren't even in London?\" (Dagenham has been a part of Greater London since 1965, but some people still regard it as being in Essex.)\n\nThe Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is set to cover outer London from 29 August\n\nAlthough most London boroughs have signed an agreement with Transport for London (TfL) allowing it to install the ULEZ cameras, many still have reservations.\n\nEleven outer London councils have expressed concerns over the expansion, with many asking the mayor to delay or improve the scrappage scheme to support people during the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nSome councils bordering London also have objections, with Surrey County Council saying it will not allow TfL warning signs.\n\nThe mayor had given four London Conservative councils until Thursday to sign a legal agreement allowing work to get under way to expand the zone.\n\nThe councils said they would not sign the agreement and have instead launched the first step of legal action.\n\nIn their pre-action protocol letter to the mayor and TfL, they cited four grounds for deeming the scheme \"unlawful\", including the lack of consultation with people living outside of London.\n\nPoor public transport links in the outer London boroughs have been cited as a cause for concern by some councils\n\nIn its response to the boroughs' legal letter, TfL rejected all of the claims, insisting the decision to go ahead was \"properly reasoned and rational, and the consultation was fair, with all responses conscientiously considered\".\n\nNew City Hall polling from YouGov revealed that 17% of Londoners were financially struggling to make ends meet and going without essentials or relying on debt.\n\nHalf of Londoners had bought cheaper products to stretch their funds, and 45% said they used less water, fuel or energy to try to keep bills down, according to the poll.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "The stage design is intended to give the impression of the contest \"opening its arms to Ukraine\"\n\nEurovision's stage will use a design that demonstrates \"how music can transcend borders and bring people together\", the BBC has said.\n\nThe song contest will take place at Liverpool Arena in May, with the city hosting the event on behalf of Ukraine.\n\nThe BBC said the stage was inspired by \"a wide hug\" to give the impression of \"opening its arms to Ukraine\".\n\nIt will be created by design firm Yellow Studio, which previously worked on the 2022 Grammy Awards ceremony.\n\nThe stage, which will cover 2,300 sq ft (220 sq m) of the 11,000-capacity venue, will host the contest's semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the grand final on 13 May.\n\nThe BBC, which is host broadcaster for the event, said the design of it was intended to demonstrate \"how music can transcend borders and bring people together as one unit\".\n\nIt said the stage took inspiration from \"a wide hug that enfolds the Liverpool Arena\" and was intended to give the impression of \"opening its arms to Ukraine, the show's performers and guests from across the world\".\n\nThe mayor of Turin officially handed the contest to Liverpool mayor Joanne Anderson at a ceremony on Tuesday\n\nFirst-look images of the design show the stage extending out into the audience standing area, which will be sited in front of a section of booth-like seating where the acts from participating countries will stay while they are not performing.\n\nYellow Studio director Julio Himede said it was \"a wonderful honour to be collaborating with the BBC and the production team to design this year's Eurovision Song Contest set\".\n\n\"This year's contest unites Ukraine and the UK to celebrate the unique cultures of both,\" he added.\n\nThe typeface used in the branding is called Penny Lane, in a nod to both the city's musical heritage and its street signs\n\nThe branding and the United By Music slogan for this year's contest were revealed in January, with artwork showing hearts beating together in the colours of the Ukrainian and UK flags.\n\nLiverpool won a bidding process to be chosen as the host city after it was decided Ukraine, the winners of the 2022 contest, could not take up hosting duties due to the ongoing war in the country.\n\nThe BBC also confirmed the typeface used in the branding was called Penny Lane after The Beatles' 1967 song, in a nod to both the city's rich musical heritage and its iron street signs.\n\nAll the build-up, insights and analysis will be explored each week on a new BBC podcast called Eurovisioncast.\n\nEurovisioncast is available on BBC Sounds, or search wherever you get your podcasts from.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken has said China's decision to fly an apparent spy balloon over the US is \"unacceptable and irresponsible\".\n\nThe top American diplomat has abruptly cancelled a trip to Beijing, which would have been the first high level US-China meeting there in years.\n\nChina earlier expressed regret, saying it was a weather airship that had been blown astray into American airspace.\n\nThe incident comes amid fraying tensions between the US and China.\n\nLater on Friday the Pentagon said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted - this time over Latin America.\n\n\"We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,\" said Pentagon press secretary Brig Gen Patrick Ryder. He provided no further details about the balloon's location.\n\nMr Blinken described the Chinese balloon over the US as \"a violation of our sovereignty\".\n\n\"This is an unacceptable as well as an irresponsible action,\" he said. \"It's even more irresponsible coming on the eve of a long-planned visit.\"\n\nAmerica's top diplomat was set to visit Beijing from 5 to 6 February to hold talks on a wide range of issues, including security, Taiwan and Covid-19.\n\nBut on Thursday US defence officials announced they were tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon over the United States.\n\nWhile the balloon was, the Pentagon said, \"travelling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic\" and did \"not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground\", its presence sparked outrage.\n\nOn Friday, China finally acknowledged the balloon was its property, saying that it was a civilian airship used for meteorological research, which deviated from its route because of bad weather.\n\nA statement from China's Foreign Ministry said that it regretted the incident and would work with the US to resolve the issue.\n\nHowever, the state department official said that while the US acknowledged China's claim about the balloon's purpose, it stood by the assessment that it was being used for surveillance.\n\nAnother trip by Mr Blinken to China would be planned \"at the earliest opportunity\", another senior state department official said, adding that Washington planned to maintain \"open lines of communication\" about the incident.\n\nAnthony Blinken was expected in China on 5 and 6 February\n\nThe official added that the state department had informed close US allies about the violation of US airspace.\n\nIn a statement, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada - the country's foreign ministry - said that it had summoned China's ambassador over the incident and would \"vigorously express\" its position to Chinese officials.\n\nA White House spokesperson said that US President Joe Biden agreed with Mr Blinken that it was \"not appropriate\" to go to China at this time.\n\nMr Biden did not take questions about the balloon following remarks about the US economy on Friday morning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'At first I thought it was a star'\n\nAccording to US officials, the aircraft flew over Alaska and Canada before appearing in the US state of Montana, which is home to a number of sensitive nuclear missile sites.\n\nBy Friday morning, the balloon was moving east \"over the centre of the continental US\" at an altitude of about 60,000ft (18,200m) according to Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder.\n\nKansas Senator Roger Marshall said on Twitter that the balloon was over the north-eastern part of his state early on Friday afternoon.\n\nGen Ryder added that US officials are monitoring the object and reviewing \"options\". He said the balloon - which he described as \"manoeuvrable\" - posed no military or physical threat to people on the ground.\n\nAlthough fighter planes were alerted, the US decided not to shoot the object down due to the dangers of falling debris, officials said.\n\nSeveral Republican lawmakers - as well as former President Donald Trump - have urged the US to down the alleged spy craft.\n\n\"Shoot down the balloon,\" Mr Trump said in a short message on his Truth Social social media platform.\n\nOn Twitter, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that the balloon incident was \"a destabilizing action that must be addressed\".\n\nThe Biden administration must now contend with China \"hawks\" on both sides of the political spectrum.\n\nMontana Democratic Senator Jon Tester said in a statement that he was \"still waiting on real answers\".\n\nSpeaking to CBS, a US official described the payload of the balloon - the attached part from which the alleged surveillance is carried out - as being as large as two or three school buses. The balloon itself is significantly larger.\n\nChinese officials have previously publicly expressed interest in the potential military and intelligence-gathering potential of balloons.\n\n\"Technological advances have opened a new door for the use of balloons,\" an article in the military-run Liberation Army Daily said last year.\n\nIn 2022, Taiwan's defence ministry said it had detected Chinese balloons over its territory.", "Giving the hormone kisspeptin to men and women with low sex drive could help boost their sexual brain activity, two small trials suggest.\n\nScans of participants' brains while they watched erotic videos showed the hormone was able to stimulate key areas linked to sexual desire.\n\nThe UK researchers say kisspeptin has potential to treat a condition that affects up to 10% of people.\n\nBut much larger studies are needed first to confirm their findings.\n\nYounger people are more likely to say low sexual desire is a problem than older people, the Imperial College London researchers say.\n\nNot everyone is bothered by it, but when it becomes distressing, it can have devastating psychological and social impacts.\n\nPeter, not his real name, 43, had suffered with low sexual appetite all his life when he volunteered for the trial.\n\n\"I always had excuses - too tired or too stressed - for not having sex,\" he says.\n\n\"But I couldn't tell partners because I didn't want them to confuse it with a lack of attraction.\"\n\nKisspeptin is a naturally-occurring hormone that stimulates the release of other reproductive hormones inside the body. It plays a crucial role during puberty.\n\nPrevious research found it can stimulate women's ovaries to produce eggs, while it has also been shown to improve mood in healthy men.\n\nThis is the first time it has been tested on people with loss of libido which affects their life.\n\n\"Women and men with low sexual desire find there is too much thinking about performance - they are introspective and that suppresses primal urges so they are not aroused,\" explains co-study author Dr Alexander Comninos, from Imperial College.\n\n\"Kisspeptin restores normal balance so there is less self-monitoring,\" he says.\n\nThe hormone works differently to the drug Viagra, which treats erectile dysfunction by improving blood supply to the penis.\n\nThe studies - of 32 heterosexual men (aged 21-52) and 32 heterosexual women (aged 19-48) - are the first to trial kisspeptin in people with hypoactive sexual desire disorder.\n\nThose taking part were hooked up to a kisspeptin drip and then, on another occasion, to a dummy drip.\n\nTheir mood, behaviour and brain activity were analysed while watching erotic videos in an MRI scanner.\n\nMen also had their penis measured for rigidity at the same time.\n\nPeter says the experience of lying in a scanner while his erection was measured for the trial was \"surreal\".\n\nHe is glad he took part though. \"I'm a dad now. The week I had the dose I conceived my son,\" he says.\n\nNo-one can prove whether that was linked to the hormone or not, but Peter says he feels he \"has more of an interest in initiating sex now\".\n\nKisspeptin was found to improve activity in key brain regions linked to sexual desire in both men and women.\n\nThose who were most distressed by their low sex drive showed the greatest improvements.\n\nAnd penile rigidity increased by up to 56% when men were given kisspeptin compared to placebo, the study reports.\n\n\"Most saw a positive effect in the MRI scanner - which is not a very sexy environment - so maybe at home in the bedroom the effect may be more pronounced,\" Dr Comninos said.\n\nOverall, women said they felt \"more sexy\" during kisspeptin while men reported improved \"happiness about sex\".\n\nThe study in women and the study in men are both published in JAMA Network Open.\n\nThe NHS website says low sex drive is quite common and can be caused by a variety of factors, including relationship problems, stress, erectile dysfunction or vaginal dryness, lower hormone levels during the menopause and tiredness after having a baby.\n\nTaking certain medicines, for example antidepressants, or using certain contraceptives can also have an effect on libido, as can drinking too much alcohol.\n\nSome long-term conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, an underactive thyroid or cancer. can also affect sex drive.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Former Justice of the Peace Robin Cantrill-Fenwick quit after six years\n\nA magistrate has said he quit after being left unable to check vulnerable people were being protected when energy firms sought warrants to force-fit prepayment meters.\n\nRobin Cantrill-Fenwick said changes to the court system meant magistrates \"were doing nothing more than rubber stamping\" warrants.\n\nHe said the lack of scrutiny is putting vulnerable households at risk.\n\nThe energy regulator made the announcement after The Times exposed how debt agents for British Gas had broken into vulnerable people's homes to fit meters. Ofgem has also opened an investigation into British Gas.\n\nEnergy suppliers can apply to a court for a warrant to force-fit a prepayment meter for customers in arrears.\n\nHowever, they are required to have exhausted all other options first and should not do so for vulnerable customers such as the elderly and those with young children.\n\nMr Cantrill-Fenwick, a former Justice of the Peace, told BBC Newsnight: \"When I started, the energy companies would come to court and we would be able to question the applicant.\n\n\"We could establish whether there might be young children in the premises or people who were clinically vulnerable. We could, and would sometimes, decline a warrant.\"\n\nBut in 2019, a new online and telephone application system for magistrates came into force. And while the number of warrant applications jumped the number of refusals plunged.\n\nIn 2019, warrant applications reached 278,966 and 1,824 refusals were granted, according to the Ministry of Justice. In 2022, applications for warrants hit 367,140 and there were just 56 refusals.\n\n\"Over time the process changed. Rather than looking at individual applications, we would just get a list of addresses,\" said Mr Cantrill-Fenwick.\n\n\"The person applying on behalf of the energy company would read out a template statement saying 'we've done our job' and there was nothing we could do.\"\n\nHousehold energy bills have soared in recent months, firstly as economies reopened following Covid shutdowns and then as Russia's war in Ukraine caused disruption to global supplies.\n\nHigher energy prices have pushed up inflation which in the UK stood at 10.5% in December, close to a 40-year high.\n\nMr Cantrill-Fenwick said: \"Energy companies are making far too many warrant applications when they should only be used very exceptionally.\"\n\nCaroline Flint, former shadow energy secretary who now chairs the Committee on Fuel Poverty, said that while she would welcome a change in the law allowing forced installations: \"I think the courts need to look to themselves on this as well.\"\n\nShe said: \"From the reports that I've read, it does suggest that the information that is being given by the energy [firms] to the courts - which is to assure them that they have gone through the processes of trying to work with these families and showing due diligence - that due diligence hasn't been followed.\n\n\"I think there is a question about just how these warrants seem to be being waved through.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Judicial Office said: \"Magistrates deal with cases based on the evidence and the relevant legislation. The only applications that are dealt with in bulk are ones that are uncontested.\n\n\"Individuals who wish to contest or challenge an application still have the opportunity to have their case considered by magistrates.\n\n\"If an application is contested, the warrant will not be granted by the magistrate and the magistrate will list the case for a contested hearing to determine whether or not it should be granted.\"\n\nMr Cantrill-Fenwick, who is a member of the Liberal Democrats, had been a magistrate for six years before stepping down in August.\n\n\"If you are a person who is in acute financial distress and a court is going to consider granting power to enter your home, you want to know that the court has given it serious consideration, and none of that is true anymore,\" he said.\n\n\"I simply got to a point, I just couldn't imagine going into a court and putting my signature to one of those warrants. We were doing nothing more than rubber stamping.\"\n\nA few months ago, Sarah (not her real name), who has long-term health problems and mobility issues, woke up in bed to the sound of men's voices.\n\n\"It was just terrible, I was so scared,\" she told Newsnight. \"I thought someone had broken in to take something. I went downstairs and there were two men in my living room and more outside.\"\n\nThe men were installing a prepayment meter on behalf of her energy company after she had fallen behind on her bills.\n\n\"Now even when the doors are locked, I don't feel like I'm safe,\" she said. \"I just think someone else is going to come into my house. It feels like it was invaded.\"\n\nSarah wanted to be anonymous because she doesn't want her energy company to know who she is so Newsnight has not been able to put her claims to them. She is also ashamed about how much she is struggling financially.\n\n\"I can't work because of my health problems and it's getting harder and harder to pay bills,\" she said.\n\n\"A lot of people may be in a good position income wise, but life doesn't always come that way for some. We don't deserve to have strangers come into our homes.\"", "Tesla's Elon Musk has been cleared of wrongdoing for a tweet in which he said he had \"funding secured\" to take the electric carmaker back into private ownership.\n\nShareholders argued he misled them with his posts in August 2018, and they had lost billions of dollars because of them.\n\nIf found liable, Musk could have been ordered to pay out billions in damages.\n\nIt took the nine jurors less than two hours to reach their verdict on the class-action lawsuit on Friday afternoon.\n\nMr Musk - who had wanted the trial moved to Texas, where Tesla is based, arguing he could not get a fair trial in San Francisco - welcomed the outcome.\n\nTaking to Twitter, the social media platform he bought for $44bn last October, he posted: \"Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed!\n\n\"I am deeply appreciative of the jury's unanimous finding of innocence in the Tesla 420 take-private case.\"\n\nCentral to the lawsuit was Mr Musk's tweet on 7 August 2018: \"Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.\"\n\nThe plaintiffs also argued Mr Musk had lied when he tweeted later in the day that \"investor support is confirmed\".\n\nThe stock price surged after the tweets, but fell back again within days as it became clear the deal would not go through.\n\nAccording to an economist hired by the shareholders, investor losses were calculated as high as $12bn, after many made decisions about buying and selling their shares based on the tweet.\n\nThe US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Mr Musk over his tweets, accusing him of lying to investors. Mr Musk agreed to step aside as Tesla board chairman and settled for $20m.\n\nDuring the three-week trial, Mr Musk - who also leads SpaceX and Twitter - had argued he thought he had a verbal commitment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund for the deal.\n\nDuring his nearly nine hours on the witness stand, the world's second-richest man said: \"Just because I tweet something does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly.\"\n\nShareholders had argued that \"funding secured\" suggested more than a verbal agreement.\n\nAlthough Tesla's share price shot up after the tweet was posted, Mr Musk also questioned whether his tweets had any effect on Tesla's share price.\n\n\"At one point I tweeted that I thought that, in my opinion, the stock price was too high... and it went higher, which is counterintuitive,\" he said - arguing the effect his tweets have on the stock price can be unpredictable.\n\nMr Musk said he eventually scrapped the plan to take Tesla private after his discussions with smaller investors led him to believe they would prefer that the firm remain publicly traded.\n\nHe was not in court when the verdict was read, but he was present during closing arguments earlier on Friday as duelling portraits were drawn of him by the rival legal teams.\n\nNicholas Porritt, a lawyer for the Tesla shareholders, said: \"Our society is based on rules. We need rules to save us from anarchy. Rules should apply to Elon Musk like everyone else.\"\n\nMr Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, said: \"Just because it's a bad tweet doesn't make it a fraud.\"\n\nAfter the verdict, Mr Porritt said: \"We are disappointed with the verdict and are considering next steps.\"\n\nMr Musk was generally calm during his testimony - though at times he appeared annoyed at the line of questioning.\n\nThere were also times of levity. After a lawyer representing shareholders accidentally called Elon Musk \"Mr Tweet\", Elon Musk promptly changed his name on Twitter to the same moniker.\n\nSeveral Tesla directors also testified, including James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch. They testified that Mr Musk did not need the Tesla board to review buyout tweets.\n\nSecurities fraud lawyer Reed Kathrein called the tweet about taking Tesla private \"as concrete a statement of taking a company private as there can be\", and said the not guilty verdict was \"a travesty to investors and the securities laws\".", "A weapon was found on the man during a search, police said\n\nA man allegedly found with a crossbow in the grounds of Windsor Castle on Christmas Day has been charged under the Treason Act.\n\nJaswant Singh Chail, 20, has also been charged with threats to kill and possession of an offensive weapon.\n\nMr Chail, from Southampton, is in custody and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 17 August.\n\nThe charges were brought after an investigation by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command.\n\nMr Chail was arrested at about 08:30 GMT on Christmas Day. The Met said he was stopped \"within moments\" of entering the grounds and he did not enter any buildings.\n\nHe has been charged with an offence under section 2 of the 1842 Treason Act, namely \"discharging or aiming firearms, or throwing or using any offensive matter or weapon, with intent to injure or alarm her Majesty\", said Scotland Yard.\n\nThe Queen had been staying at Windsor Castle for Christmas, rather than spending it as usual on her Sandringham estate in Norfolk.\n\nHer Majesty was due to be joined for lunch by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, as well as the Earl and Countess of Wessex.\n\nUnder the 1842 Treason Act, it is an offence to assault the Queen, or have a firearm or offensive weapon in her presence with intent to injure or alarm her or to cause a breach of peace.\n\nIn 1981, Marcus Sarjeant was jailed for five years under the section of the Treason Act after he fired blank shots at the Queen while she was riding down The Mall in London during the Trooping the Colour parade.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 27 January and 3 February.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nLeanne Cassells of Irvine sent in this picture of a swan family she has been photographing for two years.\n\nA view under the Erskine Bridge in the Salting nature reserve in Old Kilpatrick from Mark Mackenzie.\n\nThis shot from Skerray Bay near Bettyhill was taken by Nina Ward.\n\n\"Clyde Tidal Weir seen from Albert Bridge, Glasgow\" says Ruth McKenna. \"Steam from Strathclyde Grain Distillery in the Gorbals sets the scene.\"\n\nThe ruined cotton mill in Spinningdale, from Glenys Munro.\n\nIan Crammen took this view on the A939 Old Military Road heading north from the Gairnshiel Bridge.\n\n\"Managed to capture this mountain hare running, love how it's in mid-stride with the back legs in line with its head,\" says Paul McKay.\n\n\"While clearing out my log store in the garden these two beautiful butterflies appeared,\" says Ross Anderson.\n\nJill Sked spotted \"beautiful snowdrops on the riverbank in Livingston that survived the recent floodwater\".\n\nThe Three Brethern Cairns in Selkirkshire, from Derek Brown.\n\n\"One of our neighbours climbing to the third floor to let us know the squirrel feeder needs topping up,\" says Alan Sanders from Glasgow's West End.\n\nThe crew of the Snolda ferry braving the weather to head to Papa Stour, sent in by Sorley Johnston\n\n\"The otters decided they needed a rest on land after an hour or so playing and catching some lunch,\" says Marcus Tyler of this image captured near Perth.\n\n\"Melrose Abbey looking resplendent under a dark and moody sky,\" says Mhairi Ramsay.\n\nNeil Conway caught young Charlie \"on a very windy beach\" at St Andrews.\n\n\"Dumfries and Galloway is a very special place often overlooked by visitors, but a real hidden jewel,\" says Sue Hall.\n\nThe weathered jetty at Aberlour, Fife, was snapped by Gordon Coley.\n\nRalphe Tonge took this photo of the \"amazing seas\" at Vatisker, Isle of Lewis.\n\nA gargoyle on the Leng Memorial Chapel at Drumoig, near Leuchars in Fife, from Ian Marshall.\n\n\"This long exposure of buses in Edinburgh pulling in opposite the Balmoral Hotel reminded us of the Knight Bus in the Harry Potter movies,\" says Dave Stewart.\n\nMartin Lambie was treated to this impressive view as he was walking up Ben A'an.\n\n\"You can always count on Duthie Park's Winter Gardens to put an unseasonable spring in your step,\" says Steven Neish.\n\nBryan Wark went for a hike in the hills above Largs to capture this view.\n\nNeil Elrick took this photo while walking along Aberdeen beach.\n\nA view of the Scott monument, from Tanveer Khan.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "A jury has been shown harrowing footage of emergency service attempts to save two children who had been stabbed.\n\nThe children's mother is charged with murdering her eight-week-old son and attempting to murder his two-year-old sister in July 2021.\n\nThe woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, accepts she stabbed the children but denies the charges.\n\nOn Friday Belfast Crown Court was shown bodycam footage from police officers who attended the scene.\n\nIn the footage, a police officer is seen performing CPR on the baby on the floor beside the woman.\n\nShe is heard saying: \"Come on little (child's name). I'm so sorry.\"\n\nShe also said \"it's his fault\" several times.\n\nThe woman was seen being arrested for murder and attempted murder.\n\nIn the footage she is seen covered in blood with what police described as \"superficial\" wounds to her neck and hand.\n\nShe is filmed telling officers she used a knife to stab her children and that the knife is on top of a bed.\n\nThe woman also asks them to locate a black book in the kitchen where she said she \"wrote everything down\".\n\nPolice officers then take her to the Mater Hospital in Belfast for treatment.\n\nFootage was also shown of desperate attempts by police officers to get the toddler to hospital for treatment.\n\nOfficers are seen carrying her out of her home, wrapped in a blood-stained blanket.\n\nThe child is heard screaming while an officer repeatedly tells her \"you're OK sweetheart, you're OK\", as they drive at speed to get medical assistance.\n\nBoth children were taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where the baby was later pronounced dead.\n\nThe court also heard from paramedics who attended the scene.\n\nSpeaking to the court about the toddler, one paramedic said: \"Everything that could be done was done.\"\n\nAnother paramedic who treated the baby said: \"Every effort was made to preserve the baby's life.\"\n\nThe defendant cried in the dock throughout today's evidence.", "The choice to establish a independent statutory inquiry into the Omagh bombing is a \"significant decision\", the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said.\n\nHe made the statement in the House of Commons on Thursday afternoon.\n\nTwenty-nine people died in the biggest single atrocity in the Northern Ireland Troubles on 15 August 1998.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris said the inquiry will examine four issues identified by a 2021 High Court ruling, including plausible arguments that the bombing could have been prevented.", "Rishi Sunak was interviewed by Piers Morgan in 10 Downing Street to mark 100 days in office\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has repeated his pledge to publish his tax returns, telling presenter Piers Morgan in a TV interview he will do so \"shortly\".\n\nMr Sunak said he was willing to be \"transparent\" and publish the documents, which were \"being prepared\".\n\nThe PM's financial affairs came under scrutiny last year when it emerged his wife, Akshata Murty, had non-dom status.\n\nOpposition parties have since called on Mr Sunak to be open about his finances.\n\nLast April, Ms Murty's spokeswoman said she \"has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income\".\n\nMr Sunak first made the promise to publish his tax returns during his unsuccessful campaign to be leader of the Conservative Party last summer.\n\nSince becoming prime minister, he said in December at the G20 summit that he would stand by the pledge, telling reporters he would seek advice and \"figure out the right way that happens\".\n\nMr Sunak is thought to be one of the richest MPs in Parliament, something Labour has used as an attack line during Prime Minister's Questions.\n\nWhile there is not a long tradition of prime ministers publishing their tax returns, some of Mr Sunak's predecessors have chosen to do so in recent years.\n\nIn his interview with Morgan in 10 Downing Street, Mr Sunak said: \"They will be published shortly. As you know the tax filing deadline was just a few days ago. So that's why.\n\n\"So we do the tax-filing deadlines just passed, so they're just being prepared and they will be released shortly.\"\n\nIn another question about his financial affairs, Morgan asked Mr Sunak whether he was benefitting from a financial arrangement known as a blind trust.\n\nPoliticians with share portfolios and investments routinely set up blind trusts when they get government jobs. This allows them to continue earning income from their investments without knowing where the money is invested to avoid any conflicts of interest.\n\nOn the question of whether it was right for prime ministers to have blind trusts, Mr Sunak said: \"I think that's better than them having control over them.\"\n\nRishi Sunak said he proposed to his wife Akshata Murthy on bended knee on a cliff walk in California\n\nThe interview covered a wide range of topics, from serious ones about government policy, to light-hearted ones about his love life.\n\nHe was asked by Morgan to describe his \"doctrine\" and assess his first 100 days in office as prime minister.\n\nMr Sunak said he inherited \"a challenging situation\" but insisted he was \"proud of what we've achieved\" so far.\n\nOne of the most prominent issues of his time in office up to now has been the wave of public sector strikes over pay.\n\nMr Sunak said nurses should be treated as an \"exception\" and he would \"love to give the nurses a massive pay rise\" but insisted he could not, as doing so would stoke the rising cost of living.\n\nLater in the interview, Morgan asked Mr Sunak for his definition of a woman. Mr Sunak replied \"adult human female\", but suggested the TV presenter was actually asking about society's handling of people questioning their gender identity.\n\nMorgan brought up the case of Isla Bryson, a transgender woman convicted of raping two women while known as a man called Adam Graham. She was initially remanded in a women's prison, but has since been moved to a men's jail.\n\nMorgan said it showed the problem of \"limitless gender self-identity\". Mr Sunak said it demonstrated \"some of the challenges\", but added \"we must and should have enormous compassion and tolerance and understanding for those who are questioning their gender and identity\".\n\n\"But we have to recognise the challenges that that poses, particularly for women's safety,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\n\"For me… whether it's sex, whether it's women's spaces, whether it's prisons, biological sex really matters.\"\n\nAsked about transgender women athletes competing in women's sport, he said: \"I think that doesn't strike most people as being fair. That's why when it comes to these questions, biological sex matters.\"\n\nAn earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Akshata Murty had not paid UK tax.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"At first I thought it was a star\"\n\nThe US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted flying over sensitive sites in recent days.\n\nDefence officials said they were confident the \"high-altitude surveillance balloon\" belonged to China. It was most recently seen above the western state of Montana.\n\nThe military decided against shooting it down in case debris falls.\n\nChina warned against speculation and \"hype\" until the facts are verified.\n\nThe object flew over Alaska's Aleutian Islands and through Canada before appearing over the city of Billings in Montana on Wednesday, US officials said.\n\nA senior defence official said the government prepared fighter jets, including F-22s, in case the White House ordered the object to be shot down.\n\nCanada said on Friday that it was monitoring \"a potential second incident\" involving a surveillance balloon, but did not say which country could be behind it. It said in the statement that it is working closely with the US to \"safeguard Canada's sensitive information from foreign intelligence threats\".\n\nTop military leaders, including Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met on Wednesday to assess the threat. Mr Austin was travelling in the Philippines at the time.\n\nMontana, a sparsely populated state, is home to one of only three nuclear missile silo fields in the country, at Malmstrom Air Force Base, and the official said the apparent spy craft was flying over sensitive sites to collect information.\n\nBut the military leaders advised against taking \"kinetic action\" against the balloon because of the danger that falling debris might pose to people on the ground.\n\nOfficials refrained from giving information about the exact size of the balloon, but described it as \"sizeable\", with reports of pilots being able to see it, even from a distance. US media have reported another US official comparing it to the size of three buses.\n\nThe defence department, however, said there was no \"significantly enhanced threat\" of US intelligence being compromised, because American officials \"know exactly where this balloon is and exactly where it's passing over\".\n\nAnd there was also no threat to civilian aviation as the balloon was \"significantly\" above the altitude used by commercial airlines.\n\nThe statement added that the balloon is unlikely to give much more information than China can already collect using satellites.\n\nThe US had raised the matter with Chinese officials in their embassy in Washington DC and in Beijing, officials added.\n\nChina's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing is currently attempting to verify the reports of the surveillance balloon, adding that \"until the facts are clear, making conjectures and hyping up the issue will not help to properly resolve it\".\n\n\"China is a responsible country and always abides strictly by international law. We have no intention of violating the territory or airspace of any sovereign country,\" she said.\n\nDuring Thursday's briefing at the Pentagon, officials declined to disclose the aircraft's current location and did not give information on where it was launched from.\n\nThey added that such surveillance balloons had been tracked in the past several years, but this one was \"appearing to hang out for a longer period of time this time around\".\n\nIt confused social media users in Montana, with some posting images of a pale round object high in the sky. Others reported seeing US military planes in the area, apparently monitoring the object.\n\nBillings office worker Chase Doak told the Associated Press news agency that he noticed the \"big white circle in the sky\" and went home to get a better camera.\n\n\"I thought maybe it was a legitimate UFO,\" he said. \"So I wanted to make sure I documented it and took as many photos as I could.\"\n\nChinese state media site the Global Times accused the US of aggravating tensions between China and the US by frequently creating a Cold War atmosphere.\n\nIt is also being widely discussed on Chinese social media, with many amused at the reported use of balloons for surveillance.\n\n\"We have so many satellites, why would we need to use a balloon,\" wrote one user on Weibo.\n\nSenator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed China's alleged balloon.\n\n\"The level of espionage aimed at our country by Beijing has grown dramatically more intense & brazen over the last 5 years,\" he tweeted.\n\nMontana Governor Greg Gianforte, a Republican, said in a statement that he had been briefed on the \"deeply troubling\" situation.\n\nSpeaking at an unrelated event in Washington DC on Thursday, CIA Director William Burns made no mention of the balloon, but called China the \"biggest geopolitical challenge\" currently facing the US.\n\nThe alleged spy craft is likely to increase tensions ahead of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China next week. It will be the first visit to the country by a Biden administration cabinet secretary.\n\nThe top US diplomat will be in Beijing to hold talks on a wide range of issues, including security, Taiwan and Covid-19.\n\nHe will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, the the Financial Times reported on Thursday.\n\nBalloons are one of oldest forms of surveillance technology. Compared to other air surveillance devices, they can be operated cheaply without personnel, while remaining airborne for long periods of time.", "The UK boss of Samsung Mobile has said he did not give his daughter a smartphone until she was 11.\n\n\"I personally wouldn't have given her one early, but it is a parental decision as to when you should get your child a phone,\" said James Kitto.\n\nHe said whatever age people get phones, it was important to make sure they were safe online.\n\nIt comes after Ofsted's chief inspector said she was \"surprised\" when primary school children have smartphones.\n\nChildren as young as nine have been exposed to online pornography, a study found this week.\n\nMr Kitto, who took the role at Samsung in December last year, told the BBC's Today programme: \"What is important here is that, whoever is using a smartphone, of whatever age, is safe when they are surfing and browsing the internet.\"\n\n\"From my personal perspective, my daughter got a smartphone when she was 11.\"\n\n\"Whatever choice you make, and whatever age you make that choice for your child, it is important to ensure that, if they are accessing the internet, they are accessing it in a safe way,\" he said.\n\nAll mobile phone providers give free parental control services to limit what children can see on the internet, according to the telecoms regulator, Ofcom, which also says children should be careful when sharing pictures and social networking.\n\nA study by research firm Childwise suggests that three-quarters of nine and 10-year-olds have access to a mobile phone.\n\nThat breaks down as 60% owning a mobile phone, and 14% using a family member's or friend's.\n\nMore than two-thirds of those children go online.\n\nThe same report - Childwise Monitor 2023 - found that 8% of five and six-year-olds own their own phone, and 8% have access to a family member's or friend's, while for seven and eight-year olds, those figures are 43% and 23% respectively.\n\nLast month, Ofsted's chief inspector Amanda Spielman said she was \"not comfortable\" with younger children having unlimited internet access, and said there was a \"great deal\" that can be done to limit children's access to porn and adult content.\n\nEarlier this week, a survey by the Children's Commissioner for England was published that asked 16 to 21-year-olds when they first saw pornography.\n\nThe findings suggested that by age nine, 10% of children had seen porn, and 27% had seen it by age 11.\n\nBy the age of 13, half of them had been exposed to it.\n\nSince those young people were at school, more now have access to phones.\n\nThe findings have been linked to low self-esteem among young people and harmful views of sex and relationships.\n\nCommissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said it was \"deeply concerning\".", "Apple warned of delayed shipments of its new iPhone 14 as Covid restrictions hit its manufacturer\n\nApple sales dropped at the end of 2022 as shoppers squeezed by the rising cost of living cut back their purchases.\n\nSales at the iPhone giant fell 5% in the three months to December compared with the same period in 2021.\n\nIt was the biggest decline since 2019 and worse than expected.\n\nThe update came as many firms warn about a sharp economic slowdown, especially in the tech sector which boomed during the pandemic.\n\nApple boss Tim Cook said the firm was navigating a \"challenging environment\".\n\nHe blamed the sales decline on supply shortages due to Covid-19 disruption in China - where its phones are manufactured - and a strong dollar, as well as wider economic weakness stemming from rising prices, the war in Ukraine and lingering effects from the pandemic.\n\n\"As the world continues to face unprecedented circumstances ... we know Apple is not immune to it,\" he said on a conference call with investors.\n\nApple said the decline in sales occurred throughout the world and hit most of its products.\n\nSales of its popular iPhones were down more than 8%, and sales of Mac computers dropped 29%.\n\nThe declines hit the firm's profits, which fell 13% to $30bn (£24bn).\n\nRoger McNamee, founding partner of Elevation Partners, told the BBC's Today programme that the biggest issue facing Apple was its supply chain in China.\n\n\"China has taken a more combative approach with Western economies over the past year and a half, partly due to their zero tolerance on Covid but I think there are other geopolitical issues factoring in as well and Apple, which has historically done the vast majority of its manufacturing in China, has had supply chain issues,\" he said.\n\n\"It is unclear to what degree Apple may have demand problems. It is super-clear they can't get all the supply that they want to get.\"\n\nPaolo Pescatore, analyst at PP Foresight, said Apple, like many electronics makers, was also struggling to make the case that users should upgrade given \"what is perceived to be incremental improvements on previous models\".\n\n\"More so when everyone is tightening their belts,\" he added.\n\nGlobally the number of smartphones shipped sank 12% last year, according to market analysis firm Canalys.\n\nApple executives said they expected their services business, which includes Apple Pay and Apple News, to continue to drive growth, noting that there are now more than 2 billion active Apple devices around the world.\n\n\"When we look at the behaviour of our installed base, we think it's very promising,\" said chief financial officer Luca Maestri, while warning investors that the firm was expecting sales to continue to decline in the months ahead.\n\nOther big tech companies also said they were feeling pressure in updates to investors.\n\nAmazon, which has been struggling to reignite its e-commerce business, said sales at its online stores dropped 2% in the final three months of 2022, compared with a year earlier.\n\nOverall, Amazon's sales in the three-month period rose 9% to $149.2bn, lifted by stronger growth in its cloud computing business.\n\nBut its profits dropped sharply, falling to near zero from $14.3bn a year ago, a change that chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky warned investors was likely to continue in the coming months.\n\nAt Alphabet, parent company of Google and YouTube, sales were up just 1% in the three months to December, compared with 2021, as firms cut back on advertising - the company's main source of revenue - in the face of economic uncertainty.\n\n\"The issues for Google and Amazon are remarkably similar,\" said Mr McNamee.\n\n\"Both companies prospered during the pandemic as people stayed home both for work and for entertainment, and that was just incredibly good for both those companies, as well as other web companies like Meta. But now we are going back to work things have settled down.\"", "Rishi Sunak was interviewed by Piers Morgan in 10 Downing Street to mark 100 days in office\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said biological sex \"really matters\" after he was asked about the case of a rapist who was sent to a women's prison.\n\nIsla Bryson was convicted of attacking two women while known as a man called Adam Graham.\n\nOne of the victims later said she was sure Bryson was pretending to be trans to \"make life easier\".\n\nAnd First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was sure Bryson was \"almost certainly\" faking being trans.\n\nBryson was moved from Cornton Vale to the male prison estate after a public outcry.\n\nThe case was put to the prime minister in an interview with Piers Morgan for Talk TV to mark Mr Sunak's first 100 days in office.\n\nMorgan said the case showed the problem of \"limitless gender self-identity\".\n\nMr Sunak said it demonstrated \"some of the challenges\", but added \"we must and should have enormous compassion and tolerance and understanding for those who are questioning their gender and identity\".\n\n\"But we have to recognise the challenges that that poses, particularly for women's safety,\" the prime minister said.\n\n\"For me, whether it's sex, whether it's women's spaces, whether it's prisons, biological sex really matters.\"\n\nBryson will be sentenced later this month after being convicted of raping two women\n\nDuring the interview, Morgan asked Mr Sunak for his definition of a woman.\n\nThe prime minister replied \"adult human female\", but suggested the TV presenter was actually asking about society's handling of people questioning their gender identity.\n\nScottish government legislation aimed at allowing people to self-identify their legal sex has been blocked by the UK government over its potential impact on equalities laws, including on female-only spaces.\n\nThe move was described as a \"full-frontal assault\" on the Scottish Parliament by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nThe first minister has also accused some opponents of the gender reforms of being transphobic and \"deeply misogynist, often homophobic, possibly some of them racist as well\".\n\nOn Thursday, Ms Sturgeon refused to say whether she regarded Bryson as being female after being asked by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: SNP minister questioned on whether Isla Bryson is \"a man or woman\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said she did not have enough information to say whether Bryson's claim to be a woman was valid or not.\n\nShe added: \"What is relevant is that the individual is a rapist. That is how the individual should be described\".\n\nHowever, the first minister later agreed that Bryson was \"almost certainly\" faking being trans.\n\nJustice Secretary Keith Brown told BBC Scotland earlier this week that \"if somebody presents as a trans person then we accept that on face value.\"\n\nBryson was found guilty last month of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 while known as a man called Adam Graham.\n\nShe announced after being charged with the two rapes that she now identified as female, with the court hearing that she had started the process of gender re-assignment.\n\nBryson was initially taken to a unit at Cornton Vale in Stirling after being found guilty, before being moved to a male wing at HMP Edinburgh a few days later following a public outcry.\n\nShe had been able to enrol on a beauty course at Ayrshire College, where she was known as Annie, while awaiting trial and remained there for three months before being asked to leave.\n\nTV presenter India Willoughby has claimed that the current debate around trans issues was being driven by transphobia\n\nHer classmates were almost exclusively female and much younger than Bryson, and were not aware of the rape allegations.\n\nOne former classmate said she felt \"violated\" after learning of the crimes Bryson had committed.\n\nScottish government officials have been working colleges and universities with the aim of producing guidance to address concerns about alleged sex offenders enrolling on courses while awaiting trial.\n\nOn Sunday a \"pause\" was placed on the transfer to women's jails of trans inmates with convictions for violence.\n\nIt followed reports that another transgender woman, Tiffany Scott - who was convicted of stalking a 13-year-old girl before her transition and has a history of violence - was due to be moved to a female prison.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The first minister is challenged to say whether she believes a double rapist is a woman\n\nLoose Women host India Willoughby - who was Britain's first transgender national television newsreader - told the BBC's Question Time that the \"toxic\" debate around transgender issues was being driven by \"a lot of misinformation by a media that is completely transphobic\".\n\nShe claimed that stories of transgender prisoners being placed in spaces with other women were \"not true\", adding: \"There is categorically no way somebody who has committed rape would be moved into the women's estate.\"\n\nShe said: \"There are bad apples in all walks of life. There are bad Protestants, there are bad Catholics, bad lesbians, or bad gays, and yes, there are bad trans people.\n\n\"And all of those people, if they do something criminal and are found guilty, they deserve to go to jail and to be punished in a jail that is suitable for them and where everybody else is safe.\"", "President Putin laid a wreath at the Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex in Volgograd\n\nVladimir Putin has compared Russia's invasion of Ukraine to the fight against Nazi Germany, in a speech to mark the 80th anniversary of the conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad.\n\nCiting Germany's decision to send tanks to Ukraine, the Russian president said history was repeating itself.\n\n\"It's unbelievable but true,\" he said. \"We are again being threatened by German Leopard tanks.\"\n\nGermany is one of many countries helping Ukraine defend its territory.\n\nRussia launched its bloody, full-scale invasion almost one year ago, prompting Western countries to send weapons and aid to the government in Kyiv.\n\nSpeaking in Volgograd - the modern name for Stalingrad - Mr Putin hinted that he could seek to move beyond conventional weapons.\n\n\"Those who hope to defeat Russia on the battlefield do not understand, it seems, that a modern war with Russia will be very different for them,\" the 70-year-old leader said. \"We are not sending our tanks to their borders, but we have the means to respond. It won't be limited to the use of armoured hardware. Everyone must understand this.\"\n\nKremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to elaborate on Mr Putin's comments but did tell reporters that \"as new weapons are delivered by the collective West, Russia will make greater use of its potential to respond\".\n\nMr Putin was in Volgograd to mark the anniversary of the end of World War Two's Battle of Stalingrad, which saw the Soviet army capture nearly 91,000 German troops in a major turning point of the war.\n\nOver a million people perished in the battle - the bloodiest of the conflict.\n\nVolgograd was temporarily renamed Stalingrad for the day to mark the anniversary, and earlier this week a new bust of the former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was unveiled.\n\nStalin - who led the Soviet Union between 1924 and his death in 1953 - was accused of orchestrating a famine in Ukraine between 1932-33.\n\nThe event - called the Holodomor by Ukrainians - killed an estimated five million people and was recognised as a genocide earlier this week in Bulgaria.\n\nThroughout the war in Ukraine, Mr Putin has falsely sought to present Russia's invasion as a battle against nationalists and Nazis - who he says are leading the Kyiv government.\n\nAnd he returned to the theme throughout his speech.\n\n\"Now, unfortunately, we see that the ideology of Nazism, already in its modern guise, in its modern manifestation, again creates direct threats to the security of our country,\" he said.\n\n\"Again and again we have to repel the aggression of the collective West.\"\n\nBut he vowed that while it was \"unbelievable but true\" that Russia was again being threatened by German tanks, Moscow had an answer for any country that threatened it.\n\nBerlin has agreed to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, prompting the Russian company Fores - a Urals-based energy industry firm - to offer five million roubles (£58,250) to the first Russian soldier to destroy or capture one.\n\nMr Putin also laid flowers at the grave of the Soviet marshal who oversaw the defence of the city, and visited the main memorial complex where he led a moment of silence for those that died in the battle.\n\nMeanwhile, thousands of Volgograd residents lined the city's streets to watch a military parade.\n\nAs planes roared overhead, modern and World War Two-era tanks rolled along the centre of the city. Some of the modern vehicles were marked with the letter Z, which has become the symbol of Russia's invasion.\n\nLocal media reported that regional Governor Andrey Bocharov - who accompanied Mr Putin to the memorial complex - was not at the parade. He had not been seen since 24 January, leading to speculation that he was isolating before meeting the president.\n\nElsewhere, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was preparing to take \"revenge\" against the West for aiding Ukraine.\n\n\"Now Russia is concentrating its forces. We all know that. It is preparing to try to take revenge, not only against Ukraine, but against a free Europe and the free world,\" Mr Zelensky said in Kyiv.\n\nSpeaking alongside EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Mr Zelensky said Russia was \"increasing the pace of adaptation to sanctions\" and urged the EU leader to impose additional restrictions on the Russian economy.\n\nLater, addressing the National Prayer Breakfast in the US via videolink, Mr Zelensky thanked US President Joe Biden for his support and set Ukrainian forces a goal of defeating the Russian invasion in the next year.\n\n\"We must do everything we can together so that next year - on the first Thursday of February - we will be able to pray simply with thanks for the obtained salvation from evil,\" Mr Zelensky said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From 2022: Ros Atkins on... Putin’s false Nazi claims about Ukraine", "The US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted flying over sensitive sites in recent days.\n\nChase Doak filmed the balloon from his driveway in Billings, Montana.", "Bobi has beaten the Guinness World Record for oldest dog that has stood for decades\n\nA 30-year-old Portuguese dog has been named as the world's oldest ever by Guinness World Records - beating a record that stood for a century.\n\nBobi is a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo - a breed that has an average life expectancy of 12 to 14 years.\n\nThe previous oldest dog ever was Australia's Bluey, who died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.\n\nAs of 1 February, Bobi was 30 years and 226 days old, and is said to be doing well for his age.\n\nHis grand old age has been validated by the Portuguese government's pet database, which is managed by the National Union of Veterinarians, according to Guinness World Records.\n\nHe has lived his whole life with the Costa family in the village of Conqueiros, near Portugal's west coast, after being born with three siblings in an outbuilding.\n\nLeonel Costa, who was eight years old at the time, said his parents had too many animals and had to put the puppies down, but Bobi escaped.\n\nPart of the secret to Bobi's longevity is said to lie in the peaceful environment he lives in\n\nLeonel and his brothers kept the dog's existence a secret from their parents until he was eventually discovered and became part of the family, who feed him the same food they eat.\n\n\"Between a can of animal food or a piece of meat, Bobi doesn't hesitate and chooses our food,\" said Mr Costa, who always soaks the food in water to remove most of the seasoning.\n\nApart from a scare in 2018 when he was hospitalised after suddenly collapsing due to breathing difficulty, Mr Costa says Bobi has enjoyed a relatively trouble-free life and believes the secret to his longevity is the \"calm, peaceful environment\" he lives in.\n\nIt may also be in the blood - Bobi's mother living to the age of 18.\n\nHowever, time has taken its toll on Bobi, who now has trouble walking and worsening eyesight.\n\nMr Costa says Bobi is the \"last of a long generation of animals\" in the Costa family and describes him as \"one of a kind.\"\n\nBobi's crowning as the oldest dog ever comes just two weeks after Guinness World Records named another dog, Spike the Chihuahua, as the oldest living dog - at 23 years old.\n\nGuinness have since updated its records, and announced Bobi as both the oldest dog living, and the oldest dog ever.", "Andrew Tate speaks to reporters as he leaves Romania's anti-organized crime and terrorism directorate.\n\nAn alleged victim in the case against online influencer Andrew Tate appears to have told prosecutors that she was forced to earn a minimum of €10,000 (£9,000) a month on social media platforms, under the threat of physical violence.\n\nThe testimony, which appears in a leaked court document seen by the BBC, says \"the alleged victim continued working to a strict schedule… staying live on TikTok for 12 hours with only a five-minute break\", with the defendants \"forcing her to earn a minimum of €10,000 a month and threatening to beat her if she didn't perform her job\".\n\nThe document also outlines the witness's fear that the group would publish intimate videos and photos of her if she tried to quit, as she says they did in the case of another woman.\n\nAndrew Tate and his brother Tristan are being held in preventive custody in Romania while police investigate allegations of human trafficking and rape, which both men deny.\n\nTwo Romanian women and close associates of theirs, Georgiana Naghel and Luana Radu, are also being held alongside them.\n\nThe leaked document from the Romanian court, which contains more detailed allegations than publicly available court statements, also describes debts being used as \"a form of psychological coercion\" by the group.\n\n\"So-called 'fines' were imposed by the defendants if the girls did not post on OnlyFans,\" the document claims, with one witness owing \"at that time, the sum of €4,000.\"\n\nIn a separate piece of testimony, another witness describes working on the TikTok and OnlyFans platforms for several months in 2021 without a contract, on a schedule set by one of the defendants, saying that she was allowed to keep 50% of her earnings, with the remaining 50% divided between the Tate brothers and their alleged manager.\n\nShe also alleges she was not allowed to leave the location unless accompanied.\n\nSome of the alleged victims \"den[y] any form of exploitation by the four defendants\", the court says, but \"these statements do not reflect reality, as... the victims of human trafficking do not always recognise the fact that they have been enslaved and exploited\".\n\n30 December 2022 - Court rules Tate brothers will stay in detention for 30 days\n\n1 February 2023 - Appeal against extension is rejected by judges\n\nProsecutors believe that Andrew Tate used \"the lover-boy method\" of recruiting women, appearing to offer them the chance of a serious and committed relationship, before coercing them to produce pornographic material for online sites.\n\nThe defendants are due to remain in custody until 27 February. No charges have yet been brought against them.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"You know I'm innocent\" - Andrew Tate yells to reporters", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"At first I thought it was a star\"\n\nAn alleged spy balloon spotted over the US is a Chinese \"civilian airship\" which had deviated from its planned route, China says.\n\nUS defence officials said they believed the balloon, seen above sensitive areas in recent days, was in fact a \"high-altitude surveillance\" device.\n\nBut in a statement, China's foreign ministry said it was used for \"mainly meteorological\" purposes.\n\nChina \"regrets the unintended entry\" of the balloon into US airspace, it added.\n\nThe object flew over Alaska's Aleutian Islands and through Canada before appearing over the city of Billings in Montana on Wednesday, according to officials.\n\nMontana is home to some of the US's nuclear missile silos.\n\nThe US decided not to shoot down the balloon because of the danger posed by falling debris, and the limited use of any intelligence the device could gather, a US defence official said.\n\nHowever, the government prepared fighter jets in case the object had to be shot down.\n\nThe Chinese statement said the balloon had been blown off-course by unexpected winds.\n\n\"Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course.\n\n\"The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure.\"\n\nThe statement referred to the incident as an \"unexpected situation\" and said Beijing would continue to communicate with the US side.\n\nOn Friday, Canada said it had summoned China's ambassador over the incident and will continue to \"vigorously express\" its position to Chinese officials.\n\nThe balloon has been reported in US media as being about the size of three buses.\n\nDuring Thursday's briefing at the Pentagon, US defence officials declined to disclose the aircraft's current location and did not give information on where it was launched from.\n\nThey added that the balloon was \"appearing to hang out for a longer period of time\" than others tracked by the US over the past several years.\n\nThe unfamiliar sight caused confusion as the balloon hovered above Montana, with some people posting images of the pale round object high above the Earth's surface.\n\nBillings office worker Chase Doak told the Associated Press news agency that he noticed the \"big white circle in the sky\" and went home to get a better camera.\n\n\"I thought maybe it was a legitimate UFO,\" he said. \"So I wanted to make sure I documented it and took as many photos as I could.\"\n\nChina initially warned against \"conjectures and hyping up the issue\" while it worked to \"verify\" the reports of the balloon, with state media outlet the Global Times accusing the US of aggravating tensions between the two countries.\n\nDespite China's explanation, the incident is likely to increase tensions ahead of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China next week. It will be the first visit to the country by a Biden administration cabinet secretary.\n\nThe top US diplomat will be in Beijing to hold talks on a wide range of issues, including security, Taiwan and Covid-19.\n• None Why use a spy balloon instead of satellites?", "The IOC is working on plans to allow Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete at the 2024 Games under a neutral flag\n\nUp to 40 countries could boycott the next Olympic Games, making the whole event pointless, said Poland's sport and tourism minister Kamil Bortniczuk. His comments came after Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia jointly rejected an International Olympic Committee (IOC) plan to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete in 2024. Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris Olympics if that occurs. But the IOC said on Thursday that any boycott would only \"punish athletes\". Bortniczuk said he believed it would be possible to build a coalition of 40 countries, including Great Britain, the United States and Canada, to support a block on the IOC's plans before a meeting on 10 February. He added: \"Considering this I don't think we will face tough decisions before the Olympics and, if we were to boycott the Games, the coalition we will be a part of will be broad enough to make holding the Games pointless.\"\n\nThe IOC announced last week that it would \"explore a pathway\" to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in Paris under a neutral flag, adding that \"no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport\". The move prompted condemnation, with the UK Government saying the plan was a \"world away from the reality of war\". Ukraine sports minister Vadym Guttsait said the country's sporting bodies needed to \"strengthen communication\" with international federations to keep a ban in place on Russian and Belarusian athletes, which was imposed by the IOC's executive committee immediately after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, IOC president Thomas Bach has since said that was only intended as a \"protective\" measure towards those athletes, and now insists they should not be discriminated against. On Thursday, sports ministers from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland said \"any effort by the International Olympic Committee to bring back Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete, even under a neutral flag, should be rejected\". They added: \"Efforts to return Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sports competitions under the veil of neutrality legitimize political decisions and widespread propaganda of these countries.\" And they called on \"all international sports organisations and federations\" to remove Russian and Belarusians athletes from international competitions until the war ends. The United States government said it supports suspending Russian and Belarusian sport governing bodies from international sports organisations and is also encouraging organisations to stop broadcasting events into both countries. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added that, if athletes are permitted to participate in events such as the Olympics, it should be as neutral athletes and \"it should be absolutely clear that they are not representing the Russian or Belarusian states\". The IOC reiterated that no discussions on the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to competition had yet taken place and warned Ukraine and other nations about the implications of threatening a boycott. \"Threatening a boycott of the Olympic Games, which the NOC of Ukraine is currently considering, goes against the fundamentals of the Olympic movement and the principles it stands for,\" the IOC wrote in a question-and-answer document published on Thursday. \"A boycott is a violation of the Olympic charter, which obliges all NOCs to 'participate in the Games of the Olympiad by sending athletes'. As history has shown, previous boycotts did not achieve their political ends and served only to punish the athletes of the boycotting NOCs.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Natalie McNally was expecting a baby boy when she was killed in December\n\nA 32-year-old man charged with murdering a pregnant woman in Lurgan staged an online gaming stream the night she was killed, a court has heard.\n\nNatalie McNally, also 32, was 15 weeks pregnant when she was stabbed on 18 December at her Silverwood Green home.\n\nStephen McCullagh, of Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, was charged on Thursday.\n\nHe did not speak during his appearance via videolink at Lisburn Magistrates' Court.\n\nThe court heard that Mr McCullagh, who has a YouTube channel, staged a live broadcast on the night of the murder, with footage appearing to show him playing the video game Grand Theft Auto for six hours.\n\nIt was told the defendant was initially arrested in the wake of the murder but then ruled out as a suspect on the basis of the alleged livestream alibi.\n\nA senior detective told the court that extensive examination of Mr McCullagh's devices by cyber experts indicated the footage was pre-recorded and played out as if it was live.\n\nThe court heard Stephen McCullagh went on to interact with the McNally family after Natalie's death\n\nPSNI Det Ch Insp Neil McGuinness noted that, in the footage, the defendant tells viewers he is unable to interact with them live due to technical issues.\n\nHe told the judge that while Mr McCullagh denies involvement in Ms McNally's murder, he conceded in police interview that the purported livestream was pre-recorded by him days earlier.\n\nThe detective said Mr McCullagh, who works in the local media industry, then went on to interact with the McNally family in the weeks that followed.\n\nHe said the accused left his phone in the home of Ms McNally's parents and recorded 40 minutes of audio.\n\nDet Ch Insp McGuinness said he believed this was Mr McCullagh attempting to determine if the family suspected him of involvement in the murder.\n\nThe court also heard that police believe they can trace the defendant from the murder scene back to his home in Lisburn.\n\nThis is through a combination of CCTV evidence, including on board a bus to Lurgan, and from the account of a taxi driver, who police believe drove him on the final part of his journey home after the murder.\n\nThe court also heard that the man police believe is Mr McCullagh is shown wearing a yellow glove underneath a black glove while giving change to the bus driver.\n\nDet Ch Insp McGuinness said the yellow glove would be consistent with a trace of marigold cleaning glove on a stain of Ms McNally's blood at the crime scene.\n\nHe added that Mr McCullagh acknowledged he was not livestreaming on the night of the murder, but said he was drinking on his own in his house and fell asleep.\n\nWhen making a bail application, a defence lawyer challenged the basis on which the police had connected the defendant to the charge.\n\n\"Essentially, what the evidence seems to all hang on is that the man did not livestream when he said he livestreamed,\" he said.\n\nThe judge said it was one of the most complex cases she had come across.\n\nMr McCullagh was remanded in custody and is due to appear in court again on 24 February.", "Scotland Yard says it is investigating the contents of a video, following the arrest of a man at Windsor Castle\n\nPolice are investigating a video linked to a man who was found with a crossbow at Windsor Castle on Christmas Day.\n\nThe footage, obtained by The Sun newspaper, appears to show a masked person in a hoodie holding a crossbow.\n\nThey are shown addressing the camera saying they wanted to \"assassinate the Queen\" in a \"revenge\" mission.\n\nScotland Yard confirmed detectives were \"assessing the contents of a video\" following the arrest of a 19-year-old man from Southampton.\n\nThe police spokesman declined to comment on the identity of the person in the video.\n\nBuckingham Palace has also declined to comment.\n\nA 19-year-old suspect was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after being found in the castle grounds.\n\nHe was arrested at about 08:30 GMT on Christmas Day and was initially held on suspicion of breach or trespass of a protected site, and possession of an offensive weapon.\n\nThe Queen was in residence at Windsor Castle for Christmas and was due to be joined for lunch by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, as well as the Earl and Countess of Wessex.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mason Greenwood was arrested in January 2022 after the allegations emerged\n\nCharges of attempted rape and assault have been dropped against Manchester United footballer Mason Greenwood.\n\nThe 21-year-old was arrested in January 2022 amid allegations surrounding images and videos.\n\nHe was later charged with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.\n\nIn a statement, Greenwood said he was \"relieved\" and thanked his family and friends for supporting him.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service said the charges were discontinued after key witnesses withdrew their involvement and \"new material came to light\".\n\nA spokesman said: \"We have a duty to keep cases under continuous review.\n\n\"In this case a combination of the withdrawal of key witnesses and new material that came to light meant there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction. In these circumstances, we are under a duty to stop the case.\n\n\"We have explained our decision to all parties.\n\n\"We would always encourage any potential victims to come forward and report to police and we will prosecute wherever our legal test is met.\"\n\nThe footballer has not played for United since the allegations emerged\n\nIn a statement released on Greenwood's behalf, the 21-year-old said: \"I am relieved that this matter is now over and I would like to thank my family, loved ones and friends for their support.\n\n\"There will be no further comment at this time.\"\n\nWithin hours of the allegations surfacing at the beginning of 2022, the forward, who has made one appearance for England, was suspended from playing or training with the Old Trafford club.\n\nA Manchester United representative said the club had noted \"the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service that all charges against Mason Greenwood have been dropped\".\n\n\"The club will now conduct its own process before determining next steps,\" they said.\n\n\"We will not make any further comment until that process is complete.\"\n\nThe BBC understands that Greenwood will not return to training or play until this process is complete.\n\nGreater Manchester Police said it was \"only fair\" to announce Greenwood would no longer face criminal proceedings.\n\nCh Supt Michaela Kerr said the decision had \"not been taken lightly\".\n\nShe added: \"I would, however, like to use this opportunity to reiterate the force's commitment to investigating allegations of violence against women and girls and supporting those affected, regardless of their circumstances, throughout what can be a hard and upsetting time for them.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Biden hosted a historic meeting with Asean leaders at the White House in May 2022\n\nNowhere has Xi Jinping's assertive foreign policy had a greater impact than in South East Asia, China's strategic backyard.\n\nBut as Beijing's power has grown, so has Washington's unease - and now after years of see-sawing, the US is trying engage with the region again.\n\nWhen he attends the annual summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations or Asean this week in Cambodia, President Joe Biden becomes the first US leader to make that trip since 2017. He was there virtually last year too. And then he goes to Indonesia, another important player in the region, where he is scheduled to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping before they both attend the G20 meeting.\n\nBut the US is now operating in a more treacherous diplomatic environment than in the past.\n\nAsean, once considered essential for diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific, has struggled to remain effective in an increasingly polarised world. It has fashioned itself as a zone of peace and neutrality, where its 10 member states seek consensus, avoid criticising each other and feel free to engage different powers. Its small and weak secretariat, and lack of any process for enforcing decisions on members, reflects this mindset.\n\nThis worked well while there was a broad, US-led global consensus that championed trade and growth. But China's arrival on the global market and growing influence from the early 2000s coincided with diminishing US interest, as it focussed on the Middle East.\n\nChina embarked on a charm offensive in the region, following former leader Deng Xiaoping's mantra \"hide your strength, bide your time\". But under Mr Xi, now in power for 10 years, China's strength was no longer hidden.\n\nIn the last decade, China's occupation and military development of reef islands in the South China Sea has brought it into direct conflict with other claimants, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines. Attempts by Asean to get China to agree to a \"code of conduct\" in the disputed areas have gone nowhere. Beijing has simply stalled negotiations for 20 years. It has also dismissed an international court ruling in 2016 that its claims are invalid.\n\nIt has been just as evasive on problems caused by its large-scale damming of the Mekong River.\n\nMr Xi with Mr Biden in 2012, when the latter was the US vice-president\n\nBut the countries that make up Asean are in a sticky position. First, China is so important economically, and so powerful militarily, that few dare confront it openly.\n\nEven in Vietnam, which went to war with China only 43 years ago and where anti-China sentiment runs high, the ruling communist party is cautious when dealing with its giant neighbour. They share a long border, China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, and a vital link in the supply chain that fuels its world-beating exports.\n\nSecond, China has effectively destroyed Asean unity by picking off smaller states, such as Laos and Cambodia, which are now so dependent on Beijing's largesse they are more or less client states. This was clear even in 2012, when Cambodia last took the rotating Asean chair, and blocked a final statement critical of Beijing's position in the South China Sea.\n\nWhile wariness of China might sound like good news for the US, the truth is South East Asian countries have also become disenchanted with Washington.\n\nThey see it as an unreliable partner, too preoccupied with human rights and democracy. The US forced the region to accept hugely unpopular and tough economic measures after the 1997 Asian financial crash, disengaged almost completely during President George Bush's war on terror, and has since flipped from President Obama's much-hyped \"pivot\" to Asia, to President Trump's narrow approach to what he called unfair Asian trading practices.\n\nThe US focus today on the Quad alliance with Japan, India and Australia has also weakened Asean, leaving it feeling stuck between two powerful sides. And Washington's willingness to challenge China in Asia frightens them because they have a great deal to lose from a superpower confrontation.\n\nFor all its overtures, no US administration has been willing to pursue free trade agreements - and that has certainly soured the deal for what is perhaps the most trade-dependent region in the world.\n\nA relationship with China, on the other hand, has already led to the world's largest trading bloc linking Asean, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.\n\nEven Indonesia, the largest Asean state and with the region's most China-sceptic foreign policy, has under President Joko Widodo eagerly sought Chinese investment, loans and technology.\n\nThe US can draw comfort from the knowledge that Asean will still engage other powers as much as possible - as a counterweight to China. And China is unlikely ever to have close military allies here, in the way the US does in Japan and Australia.\n\nBut all Asean countries - to varying degrees - now accept that China will be the dominant power in this region and one that is unwilling to make concessions where its own interests are at stake.\n\nThe question for Mr Biden: is it too late for the US to reshape alliances in China's backyard?", "Nath Trevett, a translator, says many employers do not know anything about autism and it creates barriers for autistic people\n\n\"A lot of employers are really ignorant.\"\n\nAutistic man Nath Trevett, from Rhondda Cynon Taf, said employers often misinterpreted autism traits and need training to support people at work.\n\nWhile 53.6% of all disabled people are in work, that figure is only 21.7% for autistic people, according to the Office for National Statistics.\n\nThe National Autistic Society called it a \"waste of talent\" while the Welsh government vowed to improve job access.\n\nAutism means people may act differently to the way the others do\n\nThe Equality Act 2010 made it harder for employers to unfairly screen out disabled people and ensured there was a duty to make reasonable adjustments for people at a substantial disadvantage because of their disability.\n\nBut Nath, a part-time Welsh translator, said there were still barriers and did not realise until he was made redundant how difficult it was for people like him to find work.\n\nHe said: \"I really find it stressful actually making applications and looking for work. A lot of employers are really ignorant and that has an effect.\n\n\"They don't know anything about autism and so they won't appreciate that people on the spectrum think and talk in a different way and I just think that's ignorant and discriminating.\"\n\nNath worries a lack of education will mean that autistic people will \"go on suffering\"\n\nNath said he was \"fortunate\" to be employed by an understanding organisation but thinks others are not as lucky.\n\n\"One symptom is that people with autism have a tendency to go into detail and I just hate it when an employer jumps to the conclusion that is a bit too much and think that they're in inappropriate for the role when they're actually trying to do is win their trust,\" he said.\n\n\"There needs to be a lot more education and training and understanding and acceptance otherwise people on the spectrum will only go on suffering and feel discriminated and be rejected and it's just not good for anyone's mental health.\"\n\nHe said employers needed to realise that \"not all autistic people suffer in the same way as each other\" so they can adapt accordingly.\n\nIt took Andrew Edwards seven years to find a job to suit him\n\nAndrew Edwards struggled for seven years to get a job before eventually getting employed at Your Space Marches, an autism charity based in Wrexham.\n\nHe worked at a football broadcasting channel in the early 2000s and said, at that time, few people had experience with autistic people.\n\n\"People with autism need step by step guidance that is clear. They can bring a lot of skills to the job in that they will be very dedicated and enthusiastic but it is more keeping the job is the issue\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How an autism diagnosis changed my life.\n\nHe said he would struggle to work a traditional 40-hour week and some autistic people may struggle to work but employers should be encouraged to be flexible.\n\n\"It would drain me too much emotionally and physically and my mental health would suffer to work full time,\" he said.\n\nBecause of this, Andrew is also on benefits to help subsidise his income and said being able to work flexibly gave him and his family \"freedom\" and \"a sense of purpose\" after his mother died.\n\nKaren Davies works on a initiative to get disabled people into work\n\nKaren Davies works with an employability service at Pembrokeshire council as part of initiative to help get more autistic people in work.\n\nThe workshop in Haverfordwest is preparing its trainees for manufacturing jobs and has received a grant from the Department for Work and Pensions.\n\nIn 2018, they employed 15 disabled people which has now risen to 70 and includes a number of autistic people.\n\nMs Davies said: \"We have three cafes, a shop, a sawmill, and admin and social media, all of which support people with a wide range of disabilities within the workplace.\"\n\nShe said the group wanted to showcase the skills of people with disabilities and encourage workplaces to make changes.\n\n\"Our focus will be educating employers in the processes we have developed in-house so that other employers can take people with autism and support them in their workplace.\"\n\nChris Haines from the National Autistic Society says autistic people have so much to offer\n\nThe National Autistic Society said it was very concerned about the employment gap.\n\nExternal affairs manager Chris Haines said autistic people \"deserve the same opportunity as everybody else to succeed in work and reach their potential\".\n\n\"The employment gap remains far too wide and we're really concerned that autistic people have some of the lowest rates of employment of any group. We think is a huge waste of talent.\"\n\nWhile it is not possible for every autistic person to be in work, he said small changes employers could make, such as quiet spaces, using clear and precise language and staff training, could make a \"big difference\".\n\nHe wants the Welsh government's young person's guarantee of training and work to be accessible to autistic people, coupled with a national campaign \"to improve understanding\" of autism among employers.\n\nA Welsh government spokeswoman said: \"Our network of disabled people's employment champions are playing a vital role in helping to create a culture shift in attitudes to help autistic people in the workplace.\"\n\nShe added that there were a number of pilot schemes in place to improve the experience of autistic people.", "Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union have been the big topic of the day - and, according to Europe's Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, they're \"advancing quite well\".\n\nA reminder that Ukraine gained EU candidacy status at record speed last June - but the process to become a fully-fledged member typically takes many years.\n\nSpeaking to BBC World earlier today, Dombrovskis said: \"When Ukraine was given candidate country status, there were also certain policy conditions which Ukraine had to meet.\n\n\"And following [the] fulfilment of those commitments, one can indeed move to the next step which should be [the] opening of accession negotiations.\n\n“We are already working on other aspects. For example, Ukraine's integration into the EU single market. And the action plan for that is being endorsed today in the EU-Ukraine summit.”\n\nAn update on Ukraine's progress towards membership is expected in the next few months with a more formal assessment to follow later in the year.", "Omagh was bombed by the Real IRA in 1998\n\nA decision on whether to order a public inquiry into the Omagh bombing is expected to be made on Thursday.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is due to to make a statement in the House of Commons.\n\nIt follows long-running legal action brought by a relative of one of the 29 people who died after the bomb exploded in the County Tyrone town on 15 August 1998.\n\nThe bombing was the biggest single atrocity in the Troubles.\n\nBereaved families have been campaigning for an inquiry for more than a decade.\n\nIn July 2021, the High Court found there should be an investigation on both sides of the border into whether intelligence information could have prevented the Real IRA attack.\n\nPolice and forensic officers sift through the debris of the Omagh explosion\n\nThe judge, Mr Justice Horner, said on the basis of evidence he heard it is plausible the bombing could have been stopped.\n\nHe said any investigation should look specifically at whether a more pro-active campaign of disruption had the prospect of thwarting the attack.\n\nHe did not state the investigation needed to be in the form of a public inquiry.\n\nThe bombing was carried out by the Real IRA just months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed\n\nMr Heaton-Harris had pledged to announce the government's response to the judgment early this year.\n\nThe secretary of state travelled to Omagh in December to meet some of the bereaved families and visit the site of the bombing and a nearby memorial garden.\n\nIn recent weeks the Northern Ireland Office has insisted it has been continuing to work on \"next steps\" following Mr Justice Horner's judgement.\n\nIt is understood bereaved relatives have been advised that Mr Heaton-Harris is set make his announcement in the House of Commons.\n\nMichael Gallagher, who lost his son Aiden in the bombing and who brought the legal action, said following the 2021 ruling: \"The only mechanism that can bring about truth and justice is a full public inquiry.\"\n\nWhile having no jurisdiction to order the Irish government to act on the matter, Mr Justice Horner urged authorities there to establish their own probe in light of his findings.\n\nSpeaking to Irish national broadcaster RTÉ on Thursday morning, Irish Justice Minister Simon Harris said the Irish government in Dublin would wait to see the detail of the secretary of state's announcement before considering what action was required.\n\nHe said Mr Heaton-Harris and Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin had spoken by phone on Wednesday night but that he was not personally aware of what the secretary of state was going to say in the Commons.\n\nPressed on the Belfast High Court recommendation that investigations should be carried out by both governments, not just the British government, the minister said: \"The crucial test from my perspective as minister for justice will be what additional support or additionality can we add to that inquiry.\"", "The banker was attacked shortly after leaving The Ivy Club in London's West End\n\nA man has been found not guilty of murdering a bank executive who was punched to the ground shortly after leaving The Ivy Club in London.\n\nPaul Mason, 52, of Qatar National Bank, suffered serious head injuries and died six months later in June 2021.\n\nSteven Allan, 34, from Hook, Hampshire, mistakenly believed Mr Mason had stolen a mobile phone, the Old Bailey heard.\n\nHe will be sentenced on 23 March after previously pleading guilty to manslaughter.\n\nMr Mason was punched three times in front of onlookers in Cambridge Circus on the evening of 15 December 2020, the retrial jury heard.\n\nJane Bickerstaff KC, prosecuting, said the banker's head hit the pavement following the third blow.\n\nHe died on 4 June 2021 as a direct result of his injuries, she told the court.\n\nBefore fleeing the scene, Allan took Mr Mason's phone and told onlookers: \"That's my friend's phone. He stole my friend's phone,\" the jury was told.\n\nMs Bickerstaff said: \"The defendant had been drinking and his case is that he was acting under the mistaken belief that the victim had stolen his friend's mobile telephone.\n\n\"The Crown says there was no realistic basis for this belief, and if it really was his belief then it was a mistake of fact undoubtedly brought about by his level of self-induced intoxication.\"\n\nHowever he warned the defendant: \"Make no mistake, a substantial term of imprisonment will be the end result in this case.\"\n\nAddressing Mr Mason's tearful widow in court, the judge said: \"You have throughout conducted yourself in a way your husband would be proud of, I am sure.\n\n\"The court expresses its sincere condolences to his family and friends, to you madam, and your family and friends.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Health Minister Eluned Morgan has offered eight health unions an extra 3% on top of the £1,400 already promised\n\nWelsh NHS staff have suspended strike action following an improved offer from ministers.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan has offered eight health unions an extra 3% on top of the £1,400 already promised.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and GMB union ambulance staff have put walkouts next week on hold.\n\nHowever strikes by other union members, including Unite, are still going ahead.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service has said 20 military personnel will be drafted in to help drive ambulances during the upcoming Unite strike on 6 and 7 February.\n\nChief executive of the ambulance service, Jason Killens, said: \"We understand the reasons for strike action and thank the Welsh government for their commitment to finding a resolution which has got us this far.\n\n\"That said, with two days of action still planned by Unite, we would ask the public to think very carefully before calling 999 next week.\"\n\nThe Welsh government has tabled a new deal of an extra 3% - backdated to April 2022, of which 1.5% is consolidated.\n\nThis means they will receive 3% this year and 1.5% extra pay the year after.\n\n\"Included in this revised package are a number of non-pay commitments to enhance staff wellbeing, on which negotiations will continue next week,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"Whilst there is currently no improved pay offer on the table for NHS staff in England, it was also agreed that any resulting Barnett consequential following any improved offer to staff in England would result in a further pay offer to staff in Wales.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said it was awaiting formal responses from each union - who will put the offer to members - and said it hoped strike action planned for next week would be called off.\n\nThe enhanced package has been welcomed by the Welsh NHS Confederation.\n\nWelsh Conservatives said the new deal proved the Labour government \"had the money all along\" to give NHS workers better pay.\n\nNurses held their first round of strikes in December\n\nWales' biggest health union welcomed the improved pay offer for all NHS Wales staff.\n\nIt said members would vote on the deal early next week but talks with the Welsh government would continue over working conditions.\n\n\"We are absolutely determined to get the best possible deal for our nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants, paramedics, cleaners, porters, catering staff, admin staff and many more,\" said Hugh McDyer, of Unison Cymru Wales.\n\n\"After the way they worked throughout the pandemic and how they respond magnificently in a daily challenging situation, it is the least they deserve.\"\n\nThe RCN has called off strikes planned for Monday and Tuesday and said it will put the new deal to a vote of members in Wales in the coming days.\n\nRCN Wales director Helen Whyley said: \"Our strike action in December has clearly been effective as the Welsh government has listened to the issues facing nursing in Wales and put forward an increased offer.\n\n\"Industrial action continues to be a last resort for nurses, and I have heard their stories of the personal sacrifice they make every day fighting for safe care for their patients that pushed them to vote for strike action.\"\n\nNurses in England are still due to walk out on 6 and 7 February.\n\nThe Royal College of Midwives has suspended action in Wales on Tuesday but director Julia Richards warned: \"Make no mistake, we still have a very strong mandate for industrial action and will not hesitate to take it if our members reject the offer, or if planned talks do not move forward as promised.\"\n\nAmbulances have faced long waits to bring patients into hospitals\n\nAmbulance staff who were members of the GMB had planned to take industrial action on four dates in February and March, starting Monday.\n\nThe GMB represents about a quarter of the ambulance service in Wales, including paramedics, call room staff and ambulance technicians.\n\nBut about 1,500 union members planning to strike on Monday will now be paused.\n\nGMB and Welsh NHS lead Nathan Holman said: \"We appreciate the frank and open dialogue over the last few months.\n\n\"This has only been made possible because the Welsh government has been prepared to talk about pay - a lesson for those in charge on the other side of the Severn Bridge.\"\n\nUnite represents about 25% of all ambulance staff in Wales and said members would still strike on Monday, unless a better deal is agreed over the weekend.\n\n\"It would be wholly premature for Unite to talk about any deals being done in relation to the Welsh ambulance dispute,\" said general secretary Sharon Graham.\n\n\"Negotiations are continuing. Unite will be available all weekend in the hope that a satisfactory offer can be put together to avert strikes next week.\"\n\nThousands of ambulance workers have been holding walkouts since December, with GMB members only responding to life-threatening calls.\n\nStaff staged two strikes in January as part of their calls for better pay, above inflation.\n\nIt put increasing pressure on the Welsh government as strikes left the service \"seriously disrupted\".\n\nA decent pay offer is \"vital\" to retain current physio staff, a professional body says\n\nThe Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) has also paused its plans for a strike on Tuesday after what it described as a \"breakthrough\" in talks.\n\n\"The Welsh government did what we asked them to and came to the table for meaningful talks,\" said the senior negotiating officer for Wales, Adam Morgan.\n\n\"We feel it is important to return the good faith shown by the government and allow time for negotiations to continue.\"", "Energy companies have been asked by the industry regulator Ofgem to suspend the forced installation of prepayment meters.\n\nIt comes after The Times found debt agents for British Gas had broken into vulnerable people's homes to fit meters.\n\nOfgem has asked all suppliers to review the use of court warrants to enter the homes of customers in arrears.\n\nIt said firms must get their \"house in order\".\n\nJonathan Brearley, the regulator's boss, said he had ordered the review into pre-payment meters to \"uncover poor practice\" and that he would not hesitate to take the \"strongest action in our powers\" where needed.The regulator does not have the power to enforce a total ban.\n\nThere are more than four million UK households on prepayment meters. Rules state:\n\nThe undercover investigation by the Times revealed how agents working for Arvato Financial Solutions on behalf of British Gas had forced their way into the home of a single father-of-three to install a prepayment meter.\n\nOn Thursday, Chris O'Shea, the boss of Centrica which owns British Gas, told the BBC: \"There is nothing that I can say that can express the horror I had when I heard this, when I read this. It is completely unacceptable.\n\n\"The contractor that we've employed, Arvato, has let us down but I am accountable for this.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Centrica boss Chris O'Shea: \"Every one of our customers deserves to be treated with respect\"\n\nMr Brearley said: \"It is astonishing for any supplier not to know about their own contractors' behaviour, especially where they are interacting with the most vulnerable in our society.\"\n\nBut earlier this week, the Ofgem boss said he was in favour of forcing some customers onto prepayment meters.\n\nHe told MPs on Tuesday: \"There is something I will say that may not be popular here but there are a group of customers who can afford to pay their bills, who choose not to.\n\n\"And so everyone is agreed in those circumstances the mandatory switch to a prepayment meter is a reasonable response to families who can afford to pay.\"\n\nBritish Gas has said it will suspend forcefully installing prepayment meters until at least after the winter. Arvato Financial Solutions has not commented.\n\nA spokesman for British Gas said it had about 1.5 million customers on prepayment meters and last year had executed around 20,000 prepayment installs with a warrant. It is the country's largest supplier with 7.26 million customers.\n\nEDF, Britain's second largest supplier, has also confirmed it is suspending the forced installation of prepayment meters and reviewing its practices.\n\nOvo Energy said it suspended its warrant activities in November, and Octopus Energy said it was \"not installing any at the moment\" and rarely had done.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The whole system of prepayment meters needs review\n\nJane, who did not want us to use her surname, came home to her recently-bought house in Poole, Dorset, in 2014 to find that someone had been in her home, installed a prepayment meter and left a letter in the kitchen.\n\nJane said the \"horrid\" experience had happened just after she had lost her unborn child at 17 weeks. She said she was mentally \"broken\".\n\nThe now 46-year-old said she had been sent letters addressed to a previous occupant and had posted them marked 'return to sender'. Jane added she was signed up to a direct debit plan with her energy provider, and had not missed a payment.\n\nShe called the firm and said it transpired that it had been the previous tenant who had been in arrears. She said a neighbour with a spare key was persuaded to let the installers in.\n\nJane said her energy provider had apologised on the phone for the mistake, removed the prepayment meter and credited her account with £45.\n\n\"It feels violating to have someone come into your house like that. It was so scary,\" she said. \"You could sense someone had been in. The house was freezing cold.\"\n\nOfgem said energy suppliers had been asked to examine their relationships with third-party contractors and to look at \"incentives that could give rise to poor and unacceptable behaviours\".\n\nIn the case of British Gas, Mr Brearley said: \"We are opening a comprehensive investigation into British Gas on this issue and we will not hesitate to take the strongest action needed.\"\n\nGraham Stuart, the minister for energy and climate, said British Gas should \"hold their heads in shame\".\n\nHe told the BBC he had met all energy suppliers last week to talk about how to improve looking after vulnerable people \"because there are clear rules and they have obviously not been followed\".\n\nBut Caroline Flint, former shadow energy secretary who now chairs the Committee on Fuel Poverty, said the issue of forced installation of prepayment meters had been raised with the government last year following a surge at the end of summer.\n\n\"It is quite clear that the rules around seeking warrants for these forced installations make it very clear that they shouldn't be done where there are vulnerable people living in households, and they just haven't been followed,\" she told the BBC.\n\nWhile Ms Flint welcomed the suspension, she said it was \"right to consider whether or not forced installation of meters should happen at all\".\n\nHave you had your home broken into so a prepayment meter can be fitted? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A crossbow was found on the man during a search, police said\n\nA man has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act after being found in the grounds of Windsor Castle with a crossbow, police have said.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said a 19-year-old man from Southampton was arrested at about 08:30 GMT on Christmas Day.\n\nIt said the man was stopped \"within moments\" of entering the grounds and he did not enter any buildings.\n\nHe was searched and a crossbow was found, police said. The man is now \"in the care of medical professionals\".\n\nHe had initially been arrested on suspicion of breach or trespass of a protected site, and possession of an offensive weapon.\n\nThe Queen has been staying at Windsor Castle, rather than spending Christmas as usual on her Sandringham estate in Norfolk.\n\nPolice had previously said the Royal Family had been informed of the incident.\n\nInquiries into the \"full circumstances\" of what happened would be continued by the Metropolitan Police Specialist Operations, they said.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The suspected Chinese spy balloon spotted over the city of Billings in the state of Montana\n\nNews of an alleged Chinese spy balloon floating over the US has left many wondering why Beijing would want to use a relatively unsophisticated tool for its surveillance of the US mainland.\n\nChina has said the balloon, spotted over the state of Montana, is merely a \"civilian airship\" which deviated from its planned route, but the US suspects it is a \"high-altitude surveillance\" device.\n\nWhatever the capabilities of this particular balloon, the US has taken the threat seriously enough to postpone Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China, which was due to take place on 5 and 6 February.\n\nBalloons are one of the oldest forms of surveillance technology. The Japanese military used them to launch incendiary bombs in the US during World War Two. They were also widely used by the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.\n\nMore recently, the US has reportedly been considering adding high-altitude inflatables into the Pentagon's surveillance network. Modern balloons typically hover between 24km-37km above the earth's surface (80,000ft-120,000ft).\n\n\"Beijing is probably trying to signal to Washington: 'While we want to improve ties, we are also ever ready for sustained competition, using any means necessary,' without severely inflaming tensions,\" independent air-power analyst He Yuan Ming told the BBC.\n\n\"And what better tool for this than a seemingly innocuous balloon?\"\n\nThe balloon's anticipated flight path near certain missile bases suggests it is unlikely it has drifted off course, He Yuan Ming said.\n\nThe US Department of Defence on Thursday said the balloon is \"significantly above where civilian air traffic is active\".\n\nBut China expert Benjamin Ho said Beijing had more sophisticated surveillance technology at its disposal.\n\n\"They have other means to spy out American infrastructure, or whatever information they wanted to obtain. The balloon was to send a signal to the Americans, and also to see how the Americans would react,\" explained Dr Ho - coordinator of the China programme at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.\n\nIt may even be the case that China wanted the US to detect the balloon.\n\n\"It's possible that being spotted was the whole point. China might be using the balloon to demonstrate that it has a sophisticated technological capability to penetrate US airspace without risking a serious escalation. In this regard, a balloon is a pretty ideal choice,\" said Arthur Holland Michel from the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.\n\nNevertheless, the experts point out that balloons can be fitted with modern technology like spy cameras and radar sensors, and there are some advantages to using balloons for surveillance - chief of which is that it is less expensive and easier to deploy than drones or satellites.\n\nThe balloon's slower speed also allows it to loiter over and monitor the target area for longer periods. A satellite's movement, on the other hand, is restricted to its orbital pass.", "A forensic psychiatrist has told a court he does not believe a mental illness drove a man to kill a mother and her two-year-old daughter.\n\nAndrew Innes, 52, denies murdering Bennylyn and Jellica Burke, saying he was suffering from a steroid-induced psychosis.\n\nInnes, from Dundee, admits killing Ms Burke and Jellica and burying their bodies under his kitchen floor.\n\nHe has lodged a special defence of diminished responsibility.\n\nDr Gordon Cowan told the High Court in Edinburgh he did not believe Innes was impaired at the time of the killings.\n\nHe said he had met Innes several times and prepared a report for the Crown about his condition.\n\nHis report stated: \"There is no evidence to support a finding of diminished responsibility if he was to be found to have committed the offences.\"\n\nSpeaking about Innes' mental state, Dr Cowan said: \"In my opinion, on balance, I don't think there was evidence he was impaired.\"\n\nHe said he had come to the view that there were \"no reasonable grounds for believing\" that Innes had a mental disorder which would require hospital treatment.\n\nThe trial has heard that in the days before the killings, Innes had repeatedly taken higher than recommended doses of his steroid medication.\n\nDr Cowan said there had been logic in the accused's thought process, and said: \"I don't necessarily think it's indicative of somebody who is psychotic.\"\n\nMr McConnachie asked Dr Cowan if someone who was psychotic could stick to their normal routines in a way that no-one would notice they were unwell.\n\nHe replied: \"If someone is so floridly psychotic that they were exhibiting hallucinations and delusions and that they were acting so erratically and disordered that they were killing people, then no - they would not be going around doing their day-to-day business without anybody noticing.\n\n\"It does not fit in with the account of florid psychosis. It does not fit in with the crime.\"\n\nDr Cowan said Innes had initially told him that he acted in self-defence, then spoke of an \"internal monologue\" which advised him to hurt Bennylyn.\n\n\"It's really difficult to know for sure the symptoms, if any, Mr Innes has at this time,\" he said.\n\n\"It's clear that he held resentment towards his ex-partners and the lady in front of him reminded of these ladies, and he became uncontrollably angry at her.\"\n\nThe court has previously heard that 25-year-old Bennylyn had met Innes online on a dating site.\n\nHe took Bennylyn and Jellica to his home in Dundee in February 2021 after driving to meet them in Bristol, where they lived.\n\nHe denies murdering Bennylyn and Jellica, sexually assaulting Jellica and raping another child in February or March 2021.\n\nInnes also denies attempting to defeat the ends of justice.\n\nThe trial, before Lord Beckett at the High Court in Edinburgh, continues.", "The FTSE 100 stock index has closed at a record high, lifted by investors betting that a weak pound will help UK firms abroad and that the worst of the cost of living crisis has passed.\n\nThe index of the UK's biggest publicly listed companies gained more than 1%, to end the day at 7,901.8 points.\n\nThat was the highest level in almost five years, passing the previous closing record set in May 2018.\n\nThe milestone follows years of the UK lagging other big financial markets.\n\nBut the shares have benefited from a weaker pound.\n\nThat is because the index on the London Stock Exchange has many firms with big footprints overseas. A weak pound makes goods they export cheaper for foreign buyers and helps inflate the value of business done elsewhere.\n\nThe FTSE 250, which includes more domestically focused firms, has yet to return to its 2021 highs.\n\nSuch an emphatic bounceback in the value of our leading shares may seem surprising in the midst of an economic downturn.\n\nBut it is what these companies do - and where they make their money - that counts.\n\nThe FTSE 100 is dominated by banking and energy companies, which have performed relatively well, the latter sharply boosted by higher oil and gas prices.\n\nAnd overall, the bulk of the money earned by companies on the index comes from overseas: earnings which rise in value when the pound falls against the dollar.\n\nIn fact, look at the value of the companies on the index in dollars, and it looks a relative bargain to some investors compared with many other stock markets.\n\nAdding to the optimism too are signs that price rises around the globe have peaked, so could be slowing soon - and so interest rates may soon do so as well, making borrowing cheaper and helping money flow more freely through the economy.\n\nThe renewed momentum in markets may be welcomed by investors - including holders of pension funds. But we're only five weeks into what could be another eventful year.\n\nA pound is worth about $1.21, 11% lower than a year ago, despite recent weakening in the dollar. Sterling is also down 6% against the Euro compared with a year ago.\n\nAnalysts said shares were also buoyed by signs that the economic picture is brightening as inflation - the rate at which prices rise - shows signs of slowing across key global economies.\n\nAJ Bell markets analyst Russ Mould said: \"A lot of the [economic] news seems bad, but markets are saying that was priced in during 2022's heavy mid-year falls, and the bad news is known.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the Bank of England's Andrew Bailey said the recession in the UK was likely to be shorter and less severe than previously thought.\n\nHe also hinted that UK interest rates could be nearing a peak.\n\nThe Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said it would only raise rates further if it sees evidence of more persistent pressure on the economy from rising prices.\n\nMichael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said that after years of underperformance, the FTSE closing high was a significant moment for UK investors.\n\nHe added that the market could reach new peaks in the coming weeks.\n\n\"Putting the current economic concerns aside, there's every reason to suppose if interest rates remain at current levels, that the FTSE 100 can push on further,\" he said.", "US officials say this Chinese jet got so close to an American military plane that the US pilot had to perform evasive manoeuvers while flying in international airspace over the South China Sea in order to avoid a collision.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nForecasters say the coldest wind chill ever has been recorded in the continental US as an Arctic cold snap freezes a swathe of North America.\n\nThe National Weather Service (NWS) said the icy gusts on Mount Washington in New Hampshire on Friday produced a wind chill of -108F (-78C).\n\nNearly 100 million people across the north-eastern US and Canada are shivering in the frigid blast.\n\nAuthorities warned frostbite could strike in less than 10 minutes.\n\nResidents from Manitoba to Maine are being urged to limit their time outdoors until Saturday in the \"once-in-a-generation\" cold snap.\n\nThe NWS said the actual temperature on the summit of Mount Washington dropped to a low of -47F as of Saturday morning- the coldest ever recorded there by the Mount Washington Observatory.\n\nThe combined effect of wind and cold is also expected to bring some of the lowest wind chill temperatures since the 1980s in the New England state of Maine, as well as in Quebec and parts of eastern Canada.\n\nPower companies were expecting historic levels of energy consumption into Saturday morning during the coldest period.\n\nBoston is under a cold emergency. Public schools have been closed in the city, as well as in nearby Worcester and in Buffalo, New York.\n\nNew York City - which could see wind chills as low as -10F (-23C) - has enacted an emergency designation that allows the homeless to go to any shelter to seek warmth.\n\nNor were the Midwestern states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio spared by the freezing temperatures.\n\nParts of Canada were expecting temperatures as low as -58F. An extreme cold advisory issued by Environment Canada on Friday morning blanketed the Maritimes, most of Quebec and all of Ontario, spilling into Manitoba.\n\nIn Toronto, the wind chill plunged the temperature to -29C (-20F) on Friday.\n\nForecasters predict temperatures will rebound by the end of the weekend.\n\nThe drop in temperatures is attributed to a powerful Arctic front that stretches from the Canadian maritime provinces to the core of the US.\n\nThe brutal winter weather follows this week's deadly ice storm in parts of Texas, where temperatures have begun to climb above freezing, and ice was expected to melt on Friday.\n\nAt least 11 people have died in the bad weather in the US south since Monday. There were eight fatalities in Texas, two in Oklahoma and one in Arkansas.\n\nMore than 250,000 people were still without power as of Friday night in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and New York, according to poweroutage.us.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen for almost a week\n\nThe family of missing Nicola Bulley have made an emotional appeal for her safe return, with her sister insisting \"people don't just vanish into thin air\".\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, last Friday morning.\n\nSpeaking to Sky News, Ms Bulley's sister Louise Cunningham said it felt like they were \"stuck in a nightmare\".\n\nDetectives earlier said they had found a potential witness.\n\n\"We're going round and round in circles trying to piece together what could have possibly happened,\" Ms Cunningham said.\n\nLancashire Police earlier released a CCTV image of a woman who was walking a small white dog in the area.\n\nShe had since been identified, the force said.\n\nOfficers previously said the woman, who was captured on CCTV at about 08:50 GMT on Allotment Lane, close to where Ms Bulley was last seen, might have information to help the investigation.\n\nA major search involving police divers, drones, a helicopter and sniffer dogs has been continuing, but no trace of Ms Bulley has been found.\n\nHer sister added: \"We just want her home, we need her home, her children need her home. It's absolutely heartbreaking.\"\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, 44, said the family was living in \"perpetual hell\" with two girls \"desperate to have their mummy back\".\n\nPolice were alerted after Ms Bulley's dog was found running loose off Garstang Road about 25 minutes after she was last spotted by a witness.\n\nHer phone was later found on a bench, still connected to a work call.\n\nA harness and lead for her springer spaniel, Willow, was also discovered on the bench.\n\nPolice said officers were keeping an \"open mind\" about what happened, but did not believe Ms Bulley had been attacked.\n\nThere is nothing to suggest any third party involvement in Ms Bulley's disappearance, the force added.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said: \"We know that Nicola going missing has caused a great deal of concern for the wider local community, as well as obviously being an awful time for her family.\n\n\"I appreciate that there are unanswered questions about what has happened to Nicola, but I would urge people not to speculate or spread false rumours.\"\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on the bench (top left) where police continue to search\n\nMs Bulley's parents earlier told the Mirror that her two daughters, aged six and nine, who she had just dropped off at school, were \"sobbing their hearts out\" because \"mummy is lost\".\n\nA key witness, who was walking a white fluffy dog in the area, was located and spoken to on Tuesday.\n\nSpecialist search teams from Lancashire Fire and Rescue and police scour the River Wyre\n\nA woman called Amanda said she and her husband saw Ms Bulley and her dog shortly before she disappeared.\n\n\"It is a lady that comes on [the walk] every day. The dog you see every day. I believe there has been a telephone left,\" she said.\n\n\"Just an absolute mystery. Can't explain it.\"\n\nNicola Bulley has been missing since she took her dog for a walk on Friday morning\n\nAnother woman in the area told the BBC she had seen the dog moments after it was found.\n\nShe recognised the spaniel and knew who it belonged to, adding that it was \"bone dry\" and showed no signs of having been in the river that morning.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Celebrated perfume and fashion designer Paco Rabanne has died aged 88 at his home in France.\n\nHis death was confirmed by Puig, the parent company of his brands, which said he had \"marked generations with his radical vision of fashion and his legacy will live on\".\n\nPuig's fashion president, José Manuel Albesa, hailed Rabanne's work, which he said \"made transgression magnetic\".\n\n\"Who else could induce fashionable Parisian women to clamour for dresses made of plastic and metal,\" Mr Albesa said. \"That radical, rebellious spirit set him apart: There is only one Rabanne.\"\n\nMarc Puig, chairman and chief executive officer of Puig, called Rabanne a \"major personality in fashion\" and paid tribute to his \"daring, revolutionary and provocative vision, conveyed through a unique aesthetic\".\n\nRabanne was born into a military family in Spain's Basque region, near the city of San Sebastian. His father was a colonel in the Republican military, who was executed by Gen Francisco Franco's nationalist forces in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.\n\nHis mother - who had worked as a seamstress for the designer Cristobal Balenciaga - moved the family to Paris in 1939 after the Nationalist forces seized Madrid and won the war.\n\nAfter growing up in the French capital, Rabanne became an architecture student at l'École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, where he earned money drawing fashion sketches.\n\nAfter a short period working in the construction industry with a concrete manufacturer, he launched his fashion career designing jewellery for Givenchy, Dior and Balenciaga.\n\nThen in 1966, he launched his own eponymous fashion house - Paco Rabanne - which saw him attain international acclaim.\n\nHis designs attracted both praise and controversy, and his debut collection, entitled 12 Unwearable Dresses in Contemporary Materials, enraged the French fashion press after models were decked out in sharp metals and other unlikely materials.\n\n\"I have always had the impression of being a time accelerator,\" he said of his designs in 2016. \"Of going as far as is reasonable for one's time and not indulge in the morbid pleasure of the known things, which I view as decay.\"\n\nIn 1968, he signed a deal with the Catalonia-based Puig family, who were heavyweights in the fashion and fragrance industry. The deal marked his entrance into the perfume industry, which would eventually become synonymous with his name.\n\nHis debut fragrance, Calandre, is still available today, while Lady Million - known for its colourful gold bottles - maintains its grip over the market.\n\nHis innovations extended to every aspect of his business. He was one of the first fragrance designers to launch one of his products online in the mid-1990s.\n\nBut he was also known for his provocative outbursts. At various stages he claimed to have had multiple lives, to have been some 78,000 years old, to have seen God and been visited by aliens.\n\nAnd in 1999, he courted controversy after predicting in his book - Fire From Heaven - that Paris would be destroyed later that year when the Russian space station Mir crashed down to Earth. He said that he had foreseen the disaster from his reading of the 16th-Century French astrologer Nostradamus.\n\nIn 1999, after decades as one of the industry's foremost innovators, Rabanne retired from fashion. Over the next 24 years, he was rarely seen in the public eye.\n\nIn a statement on Paco Rabanne's official Instagram, the brand hailed him as a \"visionary\" and said he was \"among the most seminal fashion figures of the 20th Century\".\n\n\"His legacy will remain a constant source of inspiration,\" it added.", "Sam Smith has achieved their third number one album\n\nSam Smith says they are \"truly overwhelmed\" after their album Gloria went straight to number one.\n\nIt is the 30-year-old singer's third album to reach the top of the charts after their 2014 debut The Lonely Hour and 2017's The Thrill Of It All.\n\nThe album features collaborations with Koffee, Jessie Reyez and Ed Sheeran.\n\nIt comes as the pop artist's music video for song I'm Not Here to Make Friends was criticised online this week for being over-sexualised.\n\nThey are seen dancing in a corset and nipple tassels, surrounded by scantily-clad dancers.\n\nFans have been defending Smith, saying they are being targeted for being queer and plus size.\n\nSmith, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, said: \"Thank you to all my amazing sailors who have made Gloria this week's number one album.\n\n\"I'm truly overwhelmed and could not have done this without you. I love you all, this is for us.\"\n\nSmith is set to perform at this weekend's Grammy Awards and could collaborate with German trans singer Kim Petras on the album's lead single Unholy.\n\nGloria has been described by Smith in the past as feeling \"like a coming of age\" and that it helped them \"through some dark times\".\n\nElsewhere on the singles chart, Miley Cyrus held on to number one for a third consecutive week with Flowers, which this week was streamed more than 12 million times.", "The annual Beargrease Dog Sled Marathon took place this week in the cold and snow of northern Minnesota. After months of training, dogs ran the 300-mile (480km) course.", "Isla Bryson start identifying as a woman after being accused of two rapes\n\nA double rapist who was sent to a women's prison last week is \"almost certainly\" faking being trans, Nicola Sturgeon has suggested.\n\nIsla Bryson was convicted of attacking two women while known as a man called Adam Graham.\n\nOne of the victims later said she was sure Bryson was pretending to be trans to \"make life easier\".\n\nBryson was moved from Cornton Vale to the male prison estate after a public outcry.\n\nA \"pause\" was subsequently placed on the transfer to women's jails of trans inmates with convictions for violence after it was reported that another transgender woman, Tiffany Scott - who was convicted of stalking a 13-year-old girl before her transition and has a history of violence - was due to be moved to a female prison.\n\nThe Bryson case was raised at First Minister's Questions by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross on Thursday.\n\nMr Ross said: \"I believe a double rapist, anyone who rapes a woman, is a man. They cannot be considered anything else.\n\n\"When a man rapes two women, we don't think that he should be considered a woman just because he says so. We should call out criminals like this who are abusing the system.\n\n\"Adam Graham, who wants to be know as Isla Bryson, raped two women. He is an abusive man seeking to exploit loopholes in the government's current policy.\"\n\nMr Ross asked the first minister: \"Is this double rapist a woman?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The first minister is challenged to say whether she believes a double rapist is a woman\n\nMs Sturgeon initially said she did not have enough information to say whether Bryson's claim to be a woman was valid or not.\n\nShe added: \"I don't think Douglas Ross and I are disagreeing here, because what I think is relevant in this case is not whether the individual is a man or claims to be a woman or is trans.\n\n\"What is relevant is that the individual is a rapist. That is how the individual should be described, and it is that that should be the main consideration in deciding how the individual is dealt with.\n\n\"That is why, of course, the individual is in a male prison, not in the female prison, these are the issues that matter.\"\n\nMr Ross went on to read a quote from one of Bryson's victims, who said: \"I don't believe he is truly transgender. I feel as if he has made a mockery out of them using it. As far as I'm concerned, that was to make things easier for himself. I'm sure he is faking it.\"\n\nBryson was convicted of rapes while known as Adam Graham\n\nThe first minister responded: \"My feeling is that is almost certainly the case, which is why the key factor in this case is not the individual's claim to be a woman.\n\n\"The key and in fact only important factor in this is that the individual is convicted of rape - the individual is a rapist - and that is the factor that should be the deciding one in decisions about how that prisoner is now treated.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon went on to say it was \"really important\" to \"look seriously\" at the issues thrown up by the Bryson case, adding: \"But that in doing so, we bear in mind two things.\n\n\"Firstly, as I've said, that we do not further stigmatise trans people generally - I think that is important - but secondly that we don't cause undue concern amongst the public.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon added that there were exemptions under the current UK equality law that \"even if it wanted to this parliament couldn't change\" that enabled trans women to be excluded from some single sex spaces.\n\nThe Scottish Prison Service has operated a form of gender self-identification since 2014.\n\nAs Justice Secretary Keith Brown put it on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday: \"If somebody presents as a trans person then we accept that on face value.\"\n\nIt is that \"face value\" approach that appears to have caused such difficulty in the cases of Tiffany Scott and especially Isla Bryson, the double rapist who was initially remanded at Cornton Vale women's prison.\n\nWhile identifying as trans does not give any prisoner the right to decide where they are jailed, the system does take their acquired gender into account.\n\nCritics say that's open to abuse by predatory men but ministers say robust risk assessment should prevent that and may ultimately have excluded Bryson and Scott from the female prison estate.\n\nWhen asked about the Bryson case on Monday, Justice Secretary Keith Brown told BBC Scotland's The Nine: \"We have to accept people identify - in this case - as women. I think that is commonly accepted and that's the starting approach we take.\"\n\nBut Mr Brown stressed that this did not mean they would automatically have the right to go to a female prison, with a \"rigorous\" risk assessment being carried out first.\n\nHowever, when asked earlier in the week why the gender claims of prisoners were accepted at face value, Ms Sturgeon said: \"That is the case for trans people but if you take the two cases that have been in the media, for my point of view it's not so important what gender they are, it's the crimes that they have committed.\"\n\nBryson was found guilty last month of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 before she changed gender after being arrested.\n\nWhile awaiting trail, she enrolled on a beauty course Ayrshire College, where she was known as Annie, and remained there for three months before being asked to leave.\n\nHer classmates were almost exclusively female and much younger than Bryson, and were not aware of the rape allegations.\n\nOne former classmate told BBC Scotland last week that she felt \"violated\" after learning of the crimes Bryson had committed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Justice Secretary Keith Brown told The Nine it had been accepted that trans prisoners Isla Bryson and Tiffany Scott were women\n\nScottish government legislation aimed at allowing people to self-identify their legal sex has been blocked by the UK government over its potential impact on equalities laws.\n\nThe UK government said during a Westminster debate on Thursday that it was up to the Scottish government to bring forward a new Gender Recognition Reform bill that addresses the legal issues which caused the bill to be blocked.\n\nCabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said the decision to block the legislation using what is known as a Section 35 order was used very carefully and reluctantly in order to preserve the balance of powers between Scotland and England.\n\nSNP MP Patrick Grady said the UK government should publish its own amendments to the Bill to make it acceptable and claimed the Conservatives were undermining the Scottish Parliament.\n\nAnd backbench Conservative MP said he believed the legal arguments used by the government for halting the legislation were \"shaky\".", "Cast an eye towards Stormont and nothing looks out of place - the gates are open and the lights are on.\n\nBut inside there has been a political power outage that has now hit the one-year mark.\n\nIt has been 365 days since the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) formally exited the executive over its opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nWhen Paul Givan announced his resignation as first minister he said he hoped that a resolution allowing his party to re-enter government would be found soon.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Paul Givan says being first minister has been the \"privilege of my life\" during his resignation speech\n\nBut, depending on your definition of soon, it could be argued that a 12-month political stalemate was not what he or his party had in mind when they began their walkout.\n\nDespite speculation just days ago about a new deal on the protocol being close, London and Brussels have yet to announce a breakthrough.\n\nMr Givan, who spent eight months as first minister, insists the DUP did the right thing.\n\n\"Had we not taken action we were continuing to drift and people weren't taking the concerns of unionists seriously,\" he said.\n\n\"I didn't want that to be the case but people didn't listen.\n\n\"Now they are listening, now they are engaging and now they need to produce a result we can buy into and unionism can support.\"\n\nSir Jeffrey Donaldson's DUP has maintained its protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol\n\nPower in Number 10, though, has switched hands several times since the executive collapsed last February.\n\nBoris Johnson was ditched by the Conservatives in favour of former Foreign Secretary Liz Truss who led the protocol bill to Parliament - legislation that would have allowed UK ministers to scrap large parts of the arrangements if negotiations with the EU fell apart.\n\nAfter her short-lived stint as prime minister, Rishi Sunak entered the frame and, instead of pursuing the contentious protocol bill, set about trying to change the mood with EU officials.\n\nThis week there have been rumours and reports that, if necessary, the new prime minister is prepared to do a deal with Brussels that the DUP may not support.\n\nThe official line from Number 10 is it wants a deal that will ultimately help restore power-sharing at Stormont.\n\nBut behind the scenes the thinking could be quite different, according to Ailbhe Rea from Politico's Westminster Insider podcast.\n\n\"It's not just the people around Rishi Sunak but a wider feeling among different bits of the Conservative Party that when they're being honest, it would be difficult to get a deal the DUP would be happy with,\" she said.\n\n\"Even people from the Liz Truss era would know that is a difficult sell.\n\n\"Brexit and the protocol are not what Rishi Sunak wants to be focused on, it's like a barnacle on the bottom of a boat the government just wants to get rid of.\"\n\nOther factors will also affect any decision DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson takes about whether to go back into government - not least an upcoming council election in May, according to the Belfast Telegraph's political editor Suzanne Breen.\n\n\"He is a devolutionist,\" she said.\n\n\"He is actually, despite what his critics say, a political moderate, but he doesn't want to do so at the expense of his party losing votes and plummeting in the polls.\n\n\"He knows that Jim Allister and the TUV [Traditional Unionist Voice] are not a spent force and are still very much breathing down his neck.\"\n\nWhile the DUP has said it feels no pressure to end its protest over the protocol, at the same time protesters across the public sector have been putting pressure on Stormont for extra financial support.\n\nSinn Féin, now the largest party in the assembly after last year's election, has said it is being blocked from providing that help.\n\nSinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill (centre) was entitled to become first minister after last year's assembly election\n\n\"People rightfully want their elected politicians to go in and do the job that they should be doing,\" the party's Belfast North MP John Finucane explained.\n\n\"One year on the DUP should be reflecting on what they've actually achieved with their walkout because all they have achieved is punishing workers, families and those impacted by the health service more than anybody else.\"\n\nAs one of the newly elected assembly members last May, Kate Nicholl from the Alliance Party has yet to spend a day doing her full job.\n\nShe said she's still hopeful that the institutions will return but, like many others, cannot hazard a guess as to when that might be.\n\n\"Devolution matters and ministers with local budgets delivering for local people matters,\" said Ms Nicholl.\n\n\"I believe we will get it up and running but I am very concerned about the long-term damage the absence of an assembly has had, not just in terms of being able to legislate and strategise, but the impact it has on public confidence in us.\"\n\nOf course, it took three years to sort out the previous stalemate that ended in January 2020.\n\nWe are still some way off equalling that recent record, but few would bet on a resolution coming much quicker this time.", "Gary Glitter returned to the UK in 2008, after being jailed for abusing two young girls in Vietnam\n\nDisgraced former pop star Gary Glitter has been freed from prison after serving half his 16-year jail term.\n\nGlitter, 78, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was sentenced in 2015 for attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one of having sex with a girl under 13.\n\nHe was one of the biggest music stars of the 1970s.\n\nA justice ministry spokesperson told the BBC Gadd will be closely monitored by probation officers.\n\nThe BBC understands he will be fitted with a GPS tag.\n\nGadd had been at the height of his fame when he attacked two girls aged 12 and 13 after inviting them backstage to his dressing room.\n\nHis youngest victim had been less than 10 years old when he crept into her bed and tried to rape her in 1975.\n\nGadd had been held at HMP The Verne - a low security category C jail in Portland, Dorset. Having received a fixed-term sentence, he was automatically freed halfway through his term.\n\nA Ministry of Justice spokesperson told the BBC that \"sex offenders like Paul Gadd are closely monitored\" by the police and probation officers, and \"face some of the strictest licence conditions\".\n\n\"If the offender breaches these conditions at any point, they can go back behind bars,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nGadd will not be added to the sex offenders' register for these crimes, because they were committed before the registry was introduced. However, he was already ordered to sign the register for life when he returned to the UK after he was found guilty of sexually abusing two young girls in Vietnam in 2006.\n\nAt the time of sentencing in 2015, Judge Alistair McCreath said he could find \"no real evidence that\" Gadd had atoned for his crimes.\n\nHe described Gadd's abuse of a girl under 10 as \"appalling\" and said: \"It is difficult to overstate the depravity of this dreadful behaviour.\"\n\n\"You did all of them real and lasting damage and you did so for no other reason than to obtain sexual gratification for yourself of a wholly improper kind,\" Judge McCreath said.\n\nGadd had denied allegations against him but was found guilty after a trial lasting three weeks.\n\nThe allegations that led to Gadd's imprisonment came to light when he became the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree - the investigation launched by the Met in 2012 in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.\n\nDet Ch Insp Michael Orchard, from Operation Yewtree, said Gadd was a \"habitual sexual predator who took advantage of the star status afforded to him\".\n\nGadd, performing as Gary Glitter, was one of the UK's biggest glam rock stars of the 1970s, with three UK number ones, including I'm the Leader of the Gang (I am!).\n\nHis fall from grace occurred decades later, after he admitted possessing thousands of images that showed child sex abuse and was jailed for four months in 1999.\n\nAfter being freed he went abroad, and in 2002 was expelled from Cambodia amid reports of sex crime allegations. In March 2006 he was convicted of sexually abusing two young girls in neighbouring Vietnam and spent two-and-a-half years in jail.\n\nGadd, who stood accused of kissing, fondling and engaging in other sexual acts with the girls, evaded more serious charges of child rape, which carried a maximum penalty of death by firing squad.\n\nOn his return to the UK in 2008, the former pop star was ordered to sign the sex offenders register.\n\nIn 2012, he was arrested at his London home following an investigation by detectives from Operation Yewtree, before the case that led to his latest conviction came to trial in January 2015.", "A new 2,000-peso banknote will be issued in Argentina in response to soaring inflation, the country's central bank (BCRA) has confirmed.\n\nThe new note - which will be worth $11 (£9) officially - comes after consumer prices jumped by nearly 95% in the 12 months to the end of December.\n\nIt marks Argentina's fastest pace of inflation since 1991.\n\nThe largest current bill, the 1,000-peso note, is worth just $2.70 on the alternative markets.\n\nWriting on Twitter, the BCRA said the new note would \"commemorate the development of science and medicine in Argentina\".\n\nIt will feature pioneering doctors Cecilia Grierson and Ramón Carrillo, it added - although it is not clear when the note will enter circulation.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BCRA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhen Argentina's current currency was introduced in 1992, its value was pegged at one US dollar.\n\nBut that fixed exchange rate system was abandoned after the financial crisis that engulfed the country in 2001 and 2002.\n\nSince then, the peso has lost so much of its value that one local artist uses banknotes for painting on, because they are cheaper than a canvas.\n\nSergio Diaz, of Salta, recently painted a picture depicting Steven Spielberg's movie Jaws as a parody of Argentina's ever-increasing inflation.\n\nArgentina has seen prices rise sharply as the cost of commodities, including energy, has gone up.\n\nArtist Sergio Diaz says it is cheaper to paint on pesos rather than a canvas\n\nSoaring prices have largely been attributed to a bout of central bank money-printing, as well as the war in Ukraine.\n\nIn December, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved another $6bn (£4.9bn) of bailout money for South America's second largest economy.\n\nIt was the latest payout for Argentina in a 30-month programme that is expected to reach a total of $44bn.\n\nLast summer, the troubled country had three economy ministers in the space of just four weeks.\n\nIn September, the central bank also raised its main rate of interest to 75% as it tried to rein in the soaring cost of living.\n\nEarlier this week, Brazil and Argentina announced plans to create a common currency that would be used to boost trade between the two countries.\n\nThe country's leaders said they needed to find ways to finance commerce without relying on US dollars - although discussions are at an early stage.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Athletics\n\nUK Athletics wants a change in legislation to ensure the women's category is lawfully reserved for competitors who are recorded female at birth.\n\nThe governing body says all transgender athletes should be allowed to compete with men in an open category.\n\nChair Ian Beattie said the governing body wanted athletics to be a \"welcoming environment for all\", but added it had a responsibility to \"ensure fairness\" in women's competition.\n\nHowever, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it was \"disappointed\" UKA chose to publicise \"inaccurate advice\" and questioned its interpretation of the Equality Act 2010.\n\nUKA disagrees with the use of testosterone suppression for transgender women, saying there is \"currently no scientifically robust, independent research showing that all male performance advantage is eliminated\".\n\nUKA added it has seen \"no evidence that it is safe for transgender women to reduce their hormonal levels by testosterone suppression\", and that there is \"insufficient research to understand the effects on transgender women if such testosterone suppression is carried out suddenly\".\n\nTherefore it would instead like to reserve the female category for those who were recorded female at birth and have not undergone transition.\n\nUKA does not believe the 'sporting exemption' introduced in the Equality Act 2010 allows them to lawfully exclude transgender women in possession of a Gender Recognition Certificate from competing.\n\nHowever, the UK government disagrees with UK Athletics' stance that the law does not allow it to ban transgender women from female events on fairness grounds.\n\nIt believes the 2010 Equality Act does allow sports to protect the female category by putting restrictions on the participation of transgender athletes.\n\nThe EHRC agreed, citing section 195 of the act, which relates to sport.\n\nIt states that sporting organisations have an exemption to discriminate on grounds of sex in a \"gender-affected activity\" and discriminate on grounds of gender reassignment where necessary to secure \"fair competition\" or \"the safety of competitors\".\n\nResponding to the UKA statement on Friday, the EHRC said it is \"therefore likely to be lawful for a sporting body or organisation to adopt a trans exclusive policy in relation to gender-based sporting competition where they can evidence that it is necessary to do so in order to secure fair competition or the safety of competitors\".\n\n\"We reached out to UK Athletics and offered to discuss the legal advice underpinning their statement,\" it added.\n\n\"We are disappointed that they have chosen to publicise their inaccurate advice and we would urge all organisations to consult our website which explains equality law and how it relates to these issues.\"\n\nIt is the latest development in a series of sports debating, reviewing and adjusting their transgender inclusion policies.\n\nLast year, British Triathlon became the first British sporting body to establish a new 'open' category in which transgender athletes can compete.\n• None What do the scientists say?\n\nUKA's stance contrasts with that of World Athletics, which has proposed continuing to allow transgender women to compete in female international track and field events.\n\nThe world governing body has said its \"preferred option\" was to tighten the sport's eligibility rules, but still use testosterone limits as the basis for inclusion.\n\nA policy document suggesting the amendments to its transgender inclusion policy has been sent to World Athletics' member federations as part of a consultation process before a vote next month.\n\nWhat has been the reaction?\n\nLGBTQ+ charity Stonewall said it was \"vital\" that sports use \"robust evidence from the actual practice and experience of their sports, when seeking to update inclusion and participation policies\".\n\nStonewall director of communications Robbie de Santos added: \"The scientific evidence base on trans people in sport is developing but is far from conclusive.\"\n\nAccording to 2021 census data, 0.1% of the population of England and Wales identified as transgender men, with the same number identifying as transgender women.\n\nDe Santos said that although the transgender population \"may be small\" they have \"every right\" to participate in and enjoy the benefits of sport.\n\nA Fair Play for Women spokesperson said they were \"pleased\" by UK Athletics' call for a change in legislation.\n\n\"Categories are how we make sport inclusive,\" they said.\n\n\"Categories in sport work by keeping people out, not by letting people choose what category they want to be in.\n\n\"Open and female options means there is a place for everyone,\" they added, citing a 2021 report from the Sports Councils Equality Group (SCEG) that suggested adding 'open' and 'universal' categories to improve transgender inclusion in sport.\n\nUKA chair Beattie said: \"We would appeal to all those engaged in this discussion online to share their thoughts in a way that is respectful of the differing opinions and sensitive nature of the debate.\"\n\nLast week, British shot putter Amelia Strickler claimed World Athletic's revised rules \"would leave women at a serious disadvantage\", while long-distance runner Eilish McColgan said \"a lot more work needs to be done\" around the possible advantages of transgender women competing in elite female athletics.\n\nOther sports have banned transgender women from participating in elite female competition if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty amid concerns they have an unfair advantage.\n\nIn June 2022, World Athletics president Lord Coe welcomed the move by Fina - swimming's world governing body - to stop transgender athletes from competing in women's elite races if they had gone through any part of the process of male puberty, insisting \"fairness is non-negotiable\".\n\nFina's decision followed a report by a taskforce of leading figures from the world of medicine, law and sport which said that going through male puberty meant transgender women retained a \"relative performance advantage over biological females\", even after medication to reduce testosterone.\n\nFina also aimed to establish an 'open' category at competitions for swimmers whose gender identity is different than their sex recorded at birth.\n\nWhile such moves have been praised for protecting female sport, some critics have said these rules are discriminatory.\n\nOlympic diving champion Tom Daley was \"furious\" at Fina's approach, saying: \"Anyone that's told that they can't compete or can't do something they love just because of who they are, it's not on.\"\n\nUS winger and two-time World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe also criticised the exclusion of transgender women in some sports.\n\nThe Rugby Football League and Rugby Football Union also banned transgender women from competing in female-only forms of their games.\n\nIt followed World Rugby becoming the first international sports federation to say transgender women cannot compete at the elite and international level of the women's game in 2020.\n• None Do more expensive AA batteries last longer? Sliced Bread is charged up to find out\n• None Jack Whitehall tells all about the cult sitcom", "Lyne Barlow used money from existing bookings to offset discounts for new customers\n\nA bogus travel agent who conned hundreds of holidaymakers in a £2.6m scam has been jailed for nine years.\n\nLyne Barlow, 39, formerly of Stanley, County Durham, left more than 1,400 customers out of pocket when she failed to book trips between 2019 and 2020.\n\nShe admitted stealing £500,000 from her mother, 10 counts of fraud and a money laundering charge involving £1.6m.\n\nDurham Crown Court heard she also lied to clients about having terminal cancer while carrying out the scam.\n\nUnscrupulous Barlow initially preyed on her family and friends, plundering their savings to set up an independent travel agency in which she lured victims with the promise of cut-price deals.\n\nJailing her, Judge Jo Kidd said Barlow had \"an extraordinary talent for dishonesty\" after hearing that she had stolen from her own mother following the death of her father in 2015.\n\nShe also said she had \"mercilessly abused the trust\" of her family and friends.\n\nBarlow told people she had cancer \"in her bones\"\n\nThe judge added: \"I take the view that you are a thoroughly callous individual.\n\n\"As your house of cards began to collapse your lies became more extravagant.\"\n\nShe said Barlow's behaviour was \"callous\" as she funded her \"relatively lavish lifestyle\" and \"gallivanted\" while her mother struggled to pay bills due to the money being stolen.\n\nBarlow told friends, family and angry customers she was terminally ill with cancer in order to \"emotionally blackmail\" those she owed money to.\n\nThe court heard the married mother of two further deceived customers by telling them their bookings were protected by the Atol insurance scheme and she was a member of the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta).\n\nBarlow offered people cut-price holidays to places such as Dubai\n\nNews of her bargain holidays quickly spread on social media, seemingly endorsed by glowing reviews.\n\nHowever, many of those who took the bait were to find their holidays had either not been paid for at all or only part of their booking had been made.\n\nSome were confronted about the shortfalls while abroad and had to pay extra for their hotels and flights home.\n\nOthers turned up at airports to discover they did not have seats on their flights or their bookings had been cancelled because of non-payment.\n\nBarlow would offer \"too-good-to-be-true\" deals such as a five-star, all-inclusive week in Dubai for £500, one local travel industry source said.\n\nThey told the Press Association: \"She did much untold damage to local travel agents who simply could not compete at the unrealistic prices.\n\n\"We tried to tell numerous people it wasn't right but as some people were travelling and getting the holidays at these prices - she was clearly funding the shortfall with other people's money - they wouldn't believe it.\n\n\"We even contacted her ourselves and tried to call her out but she wasn't fazed in the least and actually tried to recruit us to work for her.\"\n\nBarlow pretended she was having chemotherapy and losing her hair to \"emotionally blackmail\" customers, family and friends\n\nAs Barlow's Ponzi-style scheme began to unravel she told some customers she was behind on bookings because she was having treatment for stage four cancer.\n\nIt is believed she cut off her hair to make it look like she was undergoing chemotherapy.\n\nThe judge added: \"You have obviously presented yourself to those who knew you as a charming and engaging woman.\n\n\"You are clearly a woman of significant intellectual abilities but you have an extraordinary talent for dishonesty.\"\n\nBarlow also \"mercilessly\" abused people's trust, the judge said, going on \"exotic holidays\", enjoying having a Range Rover and designer goods.\n\n\"The extent of the betrayal of your mother is truly breathtaking,\" the judge said.\n\n\"As you gallivanted, your mother's utility bills went unpaid and county court judgments rained down on her and that led to bailiffs visiting her home.\n\n\"I take the view you are a thoroughly callous individual.\"\n\nLyne Barlow (left) used money from existing bookings to offset discounts for new customers\n\nThe judge said Barlow convinced her mother her cancer had returned, having previously been nursed through it before.\n\nShe then urged her mother to look after her husband Paul and their children if she died.\n\nWhen victims began reporting the rip-off in September 2020, the stories began circulating on social media.\n\nSoon Durham Police's control room was overwhelmed by a torrent of calls from irate victims.\n\nPolice took the unusual step of directing complainants to an email address to prevent 999 calls being delayed.\n\nAn investigation started, which became one of the biggest fraud cases in the force's history.\n\nDet Sgt Alan Meehan, from Durham Police's economic fraud unit, described Barlow's actions as \"appalling\".\n\nHe said she presented herself as being frail, used a crutch and wore a headscarf when she was arrested in September 2020.\n\nInvestigators made checks on her health to ascertain if she was well enough to be questioned and her medical records revealed she had never had cancer treatment.\n\nMr Meehan said: \"She was using the cancer to delay answering questions.\n\n\"It's our understanding that the family believed she had cancer and it was only as a result of her being arrested that we informed her family and they became aware.\"\n\nThe detective said Barlow's husband was \"very surprised and shocked\" to discover the truth, as relatives had been taking her to hospital appointments.\n\nBarlow's barrister, Tony Davis, said she was now a \"broken, beaten and penniless woman\".\n\n\"She apologises to each and every victim and of course there are many,\" he said.\n\nHe said 80 hours of counselling had not revealed a motive, but her business was doomed to fail and stemmed from her desire to be liked.\n\nMr Davis added: \"Once she got into debt, riding that monster, it was inevitable it would come crashing down.\"\n\nBarlow sobbed as she was led from the dock.\n\nAn Abta spokesperson said cases such as Barlow's were \"extremely rare\" but urged people to check travel agents' membership on the organisation's website.\n\n\"Holidays can be a target for fraudsters which is why we encourage people to be vigilant,\" they added.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "With a dusting of fresh winter snow settling around us and the crackle of electricity loud in the wires over our heads, Michael runs his gloved fingers over golf ball-sized holes in the crippled hulk of a huge transformer.\n\n\"Here, and here, and here,\" he says, as he shows where shrapnel from a Russian missile punctured the transformer's thick sides.\n\nSharp metal fragments of the missile lie on the ground nearby.\n\nAlong the way, other transformers as big as bungalows are disappearing behind protective cocoons of concrete and sandbags.\n\nAbove us loom the high, forbidding, Soviet-era walls of the power plant's vast turbine hall. Panes of glass for half a mile shattered by explosions from the 12 missiles that have landed here since mid-October.\n\nFor all the well-publicised damage, the authorities don't want us to reveal too much.\n\nSince October, when temperatures began to plummet, Russia has been using strikes on Ukraine's power grid to force the civilian population into submission. For two weeks, the BBC watched engineers and technicians who run the network racing to repair the damage and keep electricity flowing across the country.\n\nWe have been asked not to reveal the precise location of some of the facilities we visit. We've also altered the names of some of the officials we meet.\n\n\"Every time the equipment is damaged, it gets us all right here in our soul,\" Michael says, tapping his chest.\n\nSome of these huge rust-stained machines are older than the men who run them. But for Michael, the plant's manager, they're his babies.\n\n\"It's our life. Our second family.\"\n\nMichael sent his first family - his wife and teenage son - to Europe early in the war. Their dog, a playful golden retriever, now accompanies him to work every day.\n\nThe transformer - 130 tonnes of twisted metal, dangling wires and scorch marks where cooling oil leaked and caught fire - is not easy to replace.\n\n\"I know how much effort it takes to build this, to install and launch it,\" says Michael, a veteran of 30 years in this industry. \"It's not something you can buy in a store.\"\n\nThe same goes for the turbines inside - monstrous, deafening mechanical dinosaurs, churning and hissing away at the heart of the plant. They're hugely impressive machines, but there's little time to admire them, as the air raid siren sounds for the third time this morning.\n\nIn a well-practised drill, most of the plant's staff head for the bunkers. The atmosphere is relaxed - such interruptions are commonplace - until word starts to spread of a fresh wave of Russian attacks on the power grid. A sister plant in the west has been hit. A picture circulates of fire raging in a turbine hall much like the one we were in just now.\n\nThen, even through the thick concrete walls of our underground retreat, we hear a distant explosion. There's tension in the room as the men and women check their phones. A crowded apartment block, not far away, has been hit.\n\nThe scene, when we arrive soon after dark, is chaotic and desperate. A missile has torn a gaping hole in the middle of the nine-storey building. Thick smoke, pierced by flashlights, rises from a pile of rubble. Dozens of rescue workers and volunteers are working frantically to find survivors.\n\nThe death toll, which mounts inexorably over the coming days, is one of the highest of the war so far. Mothers, fathers, children. Whole families.\n\nAt the power station, the following morning, the mood is bleak. Everyone believes the missile was aimed at them.\n\n\"We need to stop the attacks,\" Michael says. \"We need to close the sky over Ukraine.\"\n\nUntil that happens, Ukraine's entire grid will be in jeopardy. Especially substations, which have borne the brunt of Moscow's wrath. These vital hubs, where transformers turn high voltage electricity from power plants into lower mains voltage that businesses and homes can use, have been targeted over and over again.\n\nEach hit deprives hundreds of thousands of households of electricity, forcing the state energy company, Ukrenergo, to find ways of diverting power along alternative routes. The firm agrees to give us rare access to a substation, on condition that we do not reveal its location.\n\nOn the day we visit, a frigid wind whistles across hundreds of miles of open farmland and a watery winter sun pokes through the clouds. The sprawling facility, with its maze of pylons, cables and imposing machinery, feels remote and impersonal, but around 15 million Ukrainians depend on it for power.\n\nIt's been hit six times with missiles and drones.\n\nThe manager, Serhiy, who's worked here for decades, surveys his shattered empire. Two of the devastated transformers are among the largest in the world, weighing more than 300 tonnes. The specialised steel innards of one of them have been torn out and lie folded on the ground, like the leaves of a clumsily discarded book.\n\nData collected by Kyiv's Energy Industry Research Centre (EIRC) suggests that about100 substation transformers, of various sizes, have been hit since October. Due to their cost and the many months it takes to manufacture them, not a single one has yet been replaced\n\nSerhiy points out the gaping hole in the administration building, where a bookcase and dangling light bulb are pretty much all that's left of his office. He watched the destruction from 500m away, as a \"kamikaze\" drone tore into the building, wrecking the control room and taking the substation offline.\n\n\"We knew it would happen sooner or later,\" he says.\n\nRepairing the damage will take years.\n\n\"They know perfectly well why this facility is important for Ukraine. That's why they decided to destroy it.\"\n\nYou must feel angry all the time, I suggest. Serhiy is a man of few words.\n\n\"Hate,\" he replies simply. \"Hate towards those who came to kill my people.\"\n\nWith Western help and several months of experience, Ukraine is getting much better at defending itself. Most of the drones fired by Russia are now shot down before reaching their targets, and most of the missiles too. Data from EIRC shows fewer than 10% of the 1,400 missiles and drones fired at Ukraine's civilian infrastructure since early October have actually destroyed key components of the grid.\n\nBut it's still a scramble for the country's engineers to keep up.\n\nFollowing reports of overnight shelling near the southern city of Nikopol, we join a repair team from DTEK, the country's largest private energy company, in the middle of a field, overlooking the Dnipro River. The sound of artillery booms across the wide, silver expanse of water. The battle lines aren't far from here.\n\nThe damage looks slight. A couple of shallow craters in the field and a few low voltage lines draped across Ukraine's famously dark soil.\n\nBut the nearby village of Vyschetarasivka is without power, yet again. The men, some wearing flak jackets, get to work, scaling the poles and twisting wires together. After the colossal scale of the power plant and substation, today's work feels almost delicate.\n\n\"This is pure terror,\" says chief engineer Volodymyr. \"Just terrorising the population, causing maximum damage to the energy infrastructure.\"\n\nVolodymyr would much prefer to keep busy modernising and improving Ukraine's electricity network. But he'll keep the repairs going just as long as the Russians keep firing.\n\n\"We feel a bit hopeless, not being able to influence the situation,\" he says. \"But if necessary, we'll come back and repair the lines every day. The people need light.\"\n\nIn the village, half emptied by almost a year of war, the power cuts have become more frequent and less predictable.\n\n\"Electricity affects pumps and boilers,\" says Bohdan, as he arrives with empty bottles to collect water. \"If there's no power, people freeze. And we have to buy water from the store. If you have a generator and petrol, you can survive. Otherwise, I don't know how older people do it.\"\n\nThe mayor, Oleksandr Sivak, wrapped up against the biting east wind, says those who can't stand it have already left.\n\n\"As long as we're alive and have even a bit of electricity and water, we'll keep on living,\" he says.\n\nThe sound of artillery is getting closer, forcing Oleksandr to drop to his knees. It's a sensible precaution, the result of long months of constant danger.\n\nDownriver, beyond Nikopol, a town shelled day and night from Russian positions to the south, we meet another team repairing power lines, reconnecting communities under Russian occupation until the autumn. Here, amid the debris of recent conflict - a rocket lodged in the pavement, shattered headstones in a cemetery and a score of recently dug graves - the DTEK team must proceed with caution.\n\nThe use of anti-personnel mines along former front lines adds another element of hazard. Up ahead, State Emergency Service personnel are walking slowly along a line of pylons, inspecting the undulating ground for discarded ordnance.\n\n\"We feel like semi-soldiers,\" says team leader Fyodor, another grizzled veteran of the industry, as he pauses for a cigarette.\n\nAbove him, colleagues in a cherry picker are hard at work, hauling a new high voltage line up to a pylon.\n\n\"Sometimes we go on trips to restore power in an area. Then they shell us and we have to go back. It's a race.\"\n\nFor all the hardship we observe during two weeks on the road in Ukraine, it's a race the engineers seem to be winning. People grumble, for sure, when the lights go out, their apartments grow cold and the water stops flowing. Hospitals have reported higher numbers of road traffic accidents as motorists move around darkened city roads.\n\nBut away from the front lines, people have adjusted to the lack of electricity much as they have to the air raid sirens and occasional explosions: with pragmatism and ingenuity.\n\nOn city streets, in the middle of a blackout, portable generators churn away on pavements and down alleyways. In Kyiv, for all the midwinter gloom, shops are open, restaurants full. Walk into any motorway service station and the same scene greets you every time: brightly lit, well-stocked shelves, muzak playing and the hand-driers in immaculate toilets blasting out hot air.\n\nYou could be forgiven for thinking you were anywhere else in Europe. And that's the way those in charge of Ukraine's energy grid would like it.\n\n\"It was our aim for many years, to integrate into the European grid,\" says Oleksandr Kharchenko, EIRC's director. \"And now it's happened.\"\n\nRussia's energy war, just like its military campaign, is having the exact opposite of its desired effect. Far from separating Ukraine from Europe, it's binding it ever closer, in a process that mirrors the country's gradual integration into the Western military alliance, Nato.\n\nUkraine officially declared its desire to join the European grid in 2017. It's typically a lengthy process - it took Turkey 11 years - but when Vladimir Putin decided to invade last year, the process accelerated dramatically. In February last year Ukraine disconnected itself from the Russian grid for the first time, to test the country's ability to manage in \"isolated mode\" during the winter months, when demand for electricity peaks.\n\nThe disconnect, the first of two, was due to take place on the 18th and last just three days. The Russians requested a delay. It eventually happened at 01:00 on 24 February.\n\n\"We disconnected four hours before the invasion started, from this very building,\" Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, CEO of Ukrenergo, told me at his Kyiv headquarters.\n\n\"When the invasion started, it became obvious we would not reconnect.\"\n\nWas the invasion timed to coincide with Ukraine's moment of maximum isolation?\n\n\"I absolutely believe the war started on the 24th just because of this,\" Kharchenko says.\n\nInfrastructure was targeted in the early days, but not enough to plunge the country into chaos.\n\n\"They thought we would have a national blackout,\" Kharchenko says. \"That this would cause panic, no connection, no government, no-one knows where the president is, how to connect with your siblings, your parents.\"\n\nAmid mounting speculation about Moscow's intentions in the weeks before 24 February, the company had quietly moved the grid's main control room to an undisclosed location further west. A second experimental disconnect was scheduled for June, when demand is typically low. If everything went according to plan, Ukraine would finally join the European grid in October 2023.\n\nBut with industry shutting down and millions of Ukrainians fleeing the country, electricity consumption plummeted by 40% within three days of the invasion. Ukrenergo asked its European partners if it could bring forward the second test.\n\n\"They looked at us like we were crazy,\" Kharchenko, who advises Ukrenergo, recalls.\n\nBut by 16 March, it was all done. With Russian troops still menacing the capital, Ukraine connected to the European grid, a year-and-a-half ahead of schedule. For a few months, Ukraine was even able to export its excess electricity.\n\nThat all stopped in October. Since then, the country has had to make do with half the electricity it had before 24 February.\n\n\"I think the reason is the same why they cannot win on the battlefield,\" Kudrytskyi says. \"Because we were prepared and we were resolved to win this particular battle.\"\n\nUkraine has fought many battles over the past year.\n\nIn a sprawling, hilltop cemetery on the edge of the eastern city of Dnipro, hundreds of blue and yellow Ukrainian flags flap noisily in the stiff breeze. Rows of freshly dug graves await the latest casualties from the front, 100 miles to the east. Each cross, unmarked grave and rippling flag drives home the desperate cost of this war.\n\nBut overhead, rising against a fiery sunset, pylons march away across the landscape.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAustralian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has admitted assaulting an ex-girlfriend but avoided a criminal conviction.\n\nThe 27-year-old's guilty plea in a Canberra court came after his lawyers failed to have the charge dismissed on mental health grounds.\n\nMr Kyrgios pushed Chiara Passari onto the pavement during a row in Canberra in 2021, the court heard.\n\nThe magistrate called the incident \"a single act of stupidity or frustration\" when sparing him a criminal record.\n\nMr Kyrgios released a statement after the ruling saying he was grateful to the court for dismissing the charges without conviction.\n\n\"I was not in good place when this happened and I reacted to a difficult situation in a way I deeply regret,\" he said.\n\n\"I know it wasn't OK and I'm sincerely sorry for the hurt I caused.\"\n\nAgreed facts tendered to the court say Mr Kyrgios pushed Ms Passari after she stopped his car from driving away while they were arguing on 10 January 2021.\n\nMs Passari reported the incident to police the next month but did not make a formal complaint. The couple reconciled and resumed a relationship, but after they broke up, Ms Passari made a formal complaint in December 2021.\n\nMr Kyrgios' lawyer argued his client had been trying to de-escalate the fight by calling an Uber, and had repeatedly tried to \"lawfully\" move Ms Passari away from the car.\n\n\"It is in that context and the frustration that resulted, that my client reacted and the offence occurred,\" Michael Kukulies-Smith said.\n\nThe court heard Mr Kyrgios had sworn at Ms Passari and told her to go away. He then put his hands on her hips and moved her an arms length from the door, but Ms Passari stepped back.\n\nThe tennis star then said: \"I'm serious. I'm going to…\" before pushing Ms Passari in the shoulder, causing her to fall.\n\nMs Passari felt some pain and later noticed grazing on her knee, the court heard.\n\nThe court heard Mr Kyrgios apologised the next day - an act that showed he accepted responsibility for his actions, his lawyer said.\n\nMr Kukulies-Smith also told the court on Friday there was: \"a relationship between the mental health and the offending - even though he no longer suffers it to the same extent today.\"\n\nMr Kyrgios' psychologist Sam Borenstein told the court the tennis player's mental illness was \"recurrent\" and he had suffered from thoughts of self harm - but his condition had been improving.\n\nWhen sentencing Mr Kygrios, Magistrate Beth Campbell said he had been \"a young man trying to extricate himself from a heighted emotional situation\".\n\n\"You acted in the heat of the moment,\" she said.\n\n\"I am dealing with you in the same way I would deal with any young man in this court. You are a young man who happens to hit a tennis ball particularly well.\"\n\nShe told Mr Kyrgios that references from family showed he had a lot of \"love and support\" around him.\n\nThe tennis player arrived at court on Friday on crutches following recent knee surgery. An injury forced him to withdraw from the Australian Open last month.", "Sefton Council and a local MP had opposed converting the resort into asylum accommodation\n\nThe government has abandoned plans to house asylum seekers in a Pontins Holiday Park on Merseyside, the local authority has said.\n\nSefton Council and Southport MP Damien Moore had opposed converting the resort in Ainsdale into asylum accommodation.\n\nMinisters are searching for large sites to replace the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers waiting for their claims to be assessed.\n\nThe Home Office said it would not comment on any individual site.\n\nSefton Council was approached by Home Office officials late last year about the Pontins Park, which is currently still operating as a holiday resort.\n\nThe authority is understood to have raised a number of objections, including the logistics of accessing the site and the impact on the local tourism industry.\n\n\"We have now been informed that the Home Office no longer wish to pursue plans to house Asylum Seekers at the Pontins site in Ainsdale. We are awaiting written confirmation of this decision,\" a council spokesperson said.\n\nPrivately, Home Office officials acknowledge they will face local obstacles to opening any new large-scale asylum accommodation.\n\nBut the BBC understands that discussions are now focusing on fewer than 20 potential sites considered viable.\n\nThe Conservative MP for Southport, Damien Moore, described the Pontins proposal as \"completely inappropriate\".\n\nHe said an influx of vulnerable families would have added further pressure on local children's services - which have been rated \"inadequate\" by the regulator, Ofsted.\n\nMr Moore also criticised the government for failing to communicate with him properly over a key issue affecting his constituency.\n\n\"MPs should be updated by Home Office officials on how discussions are going,\" Mr Moore said.\n\nThe government says it wants to end the reliance on hotels to house asylum seekers who are awaiting decisions on their claims, which the Home Office says is costing £6.8m a day.\n\nImmigration Minister Robert Jenrick is trying to find larger alternative sites which he says will be cheaper - including former student halls of residence, holiday parks and surplus military sites.\n\nBut none has yet been given the go-ahead.\n\nA plan to turn a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire into an asylum centre was scrapped last summer in the face of local opposition.\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said: \"The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels due to the unacceptable rise in small boat arrivals and our commitment to accommodate those from Afghanistan.\n\n\"We therefore continue to look at all available options to source appropriate and cost-effective temporary accommodation.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Bill Gates verdict on Elon Musk and spending money on Mars exploration\n\nBillionaire Bill Gates has said he would rather pay for vaccines than travelling to Mars, which he does not think is a good use of money.\n\n\"It's actually quite expensive to go to Mars. You can buy measles vaccines and save lives for $1,000 (£814) per life saved,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"And so [that] just kind of grounds you, as in - don't go to Mars.\"\n\nFellow entrepreneur Elon Musk has said he wants to colonise Mars, while Jeff Bezos has also joined the \"space race\".\n\nSpaceX, the rocket company co-founded by Mr Musk in 2002, has made it an ultimate goal to send crewed flights to Mars and eventually colonise the Red Planet.\n\nMr Bezos, the founder of Amazon, heads the aerospace company Blue Origin and made a short journey to space in 2021, while British tycoon Sir Richard Branson has also reached the edge of space on his Virgin Galactic rocket plane.\n\nMr Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, also believes artificial intelligence will \"pretty dramatically\" transform humanity.\n\nHe said: \"It will help us look into medical and scientific questions. It's not just robots, it's helping to read and write as well.\n\n\"In fact, there's been more progress there than on the robotic side. Both of them will give us much higher productivity.\"\n\nMr Gates also spoke of his surprise at becoming the face of conspiracy theories during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"I did not expect that,\" he said, referring to suggestions he profited from the virus, or started it himself.\n\n\"During the pandemic, there were tens of millions of messages that I intentionally caused it, or I'm tracking people. It's true I'm involved with vaccines, but I'm involved with vaccines to save lives.\n\n\"These messages sort of inverted that. I guess people are looking for the 'boogeyman' behind the curtain, the over-simplistic explanation. Malevolence is a lot easier to understand than biology.\"\n\nMr Gates also spoke about how he, like many other philanthropists, met sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.\n\n\"I'm certainly more careful now than back when I did that. I'll do a little more due diligence. I may make a mistake again. I'm out in the world and I'm not trying to be a recluse.\"\n\nMr Gates, who has spent much of his life as the richest person in the world, has given tens of billions of pounds to philanthropic causes, often targeted at global health, especially children.\n\nHe now divides his time between climate change, and eradicating malnutrition and diseases such as polio and malaria.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Bill Gates on being frugal - \"I don't have a gigantic closet\"\n\nOn the question of whether he is frugal in his personal life, Mr Gates said: \"I don't have a gigantic closet. I don't wear jewellery. When I'm unwrapping a present, I don't take the wrapping and fold it up and use it again. My grandmother never threw a paper bag in her life or any string on a package. So by her standards, I'm crazy.\"\n\nMr Gates divorced his wife, Melinda, in May 2021. When asked if he would like to find love again, he said: \"Sure, I'm not a robot.\"\n\nAmol Rajan Interviews: Bill Gates is on BBC Two 19.30 GMT on Friday, and on demand on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds afterwards.", "Railway stations will be deserted once again on Friday as train drivers in England stage their second walkout this week.\n\nIf their strike on Wednesday is anything to go by, then you can expect only a third of services to operate. On many lines, no trains will run at all.\n\nAs strike days go, it's relatively quiet as there are no other UK walk outs - the bus drivers strike affects parts of London only and the teachers strike is in two areas in Scotland.\n\nOh and there really is some good news: there are no strikes this weekend.\n\nBut the calm won't last long.\n\nOn Monday, the NHS is facing one of the biggest ever strikes in its history involving nurses and paramedics.\n\nSo how will strikes on Friday affect you?\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n��� Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nA number of rail firms have advised passengers not to use them to travel on Friday 3 February because no services will be running.\n\nIf you're taking the train on Friday, Network Rail says there will be significantly reduced services and advises people to \"plan ahead and check your first and last train times\".\n\nTrain drivers in the Aslef union, and some drivers who are RMT members, are taking strike action over job security, pay, and conditions, affecting services across England and into Scotland and Wales.\n\nThere will be no services at all on: Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; CrossCountry; East Midlands Railway; Gatwick Express; Great Northern; Heathrow Express; London Northwestern Railway; Northern; Southeastern; Southern; Thameslink, South Western Railway Island Line services; TransPennine Express; West Midlands Railway.\n\nGreater Anglia (including Stansted Express) and Great Western Railway are advising passengers not to use them, and LNER will run a reduced service.\n\nSouth Western says it intends to run a service on Friday, but warned there may be significant disruption on some routes due to difficulty getting drivers and trains to where they need to be.\n\nPassengers affected by the strikes can apply for refunds and may be eligible for Delay Repay payment.\n\nTeachers in South Lanarkshire and Western Isles are on strike on Friday, with members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) taking action in an ongoing dispute over pay.\n\nThis is the third week of rolling strikes, with every local authority affected over the period.\n\nThe EIS recently announced a further 22 days of extra strikes between 13 March and 21 April.\n\nSouth Lanarkshire Council said parents should \"consider making alternative arrangements for this day if your children are affected\".\n\nBus routes in south and west London will be affected by action taken by about 1,900 Abellio bus drivers.\n\nThe strikes on 3 February are part of a dispute over pay, the Unite union said.\n\nSome local bus services to Heathrow will be disrupted.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None Strike dates: Who is striking and what pay do they want?", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nMatthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan and John Blain have withdrawn from the disciplinary process relating to allegations of historical racism at Yorkshire.\n\nThe three were among seven individuals, along with Yorkshire, charged by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) over allegations made by Azeem Rafiq.\n\nThey join former Yorkshire captain and head coach Andrew Gale in withdrawing.\n\nBBC Sport understands that Hoggard, Bresnan and Blain do not believe they will get a fair hearing.\n\nThe ECB's Cricket Disciplinary Commission (CDC) will hear the charges in March.\n\nThe hearings are due to take place in public, a first for the CDC, following a request from Rafiq. The proceedings were delayed until this year after \"a number of the respondents\" appealed against the decision to hold them in public, but those appeals were all dismissed.\n\nGale opted out of the process in June and following the withdrawal of Hoggard, Bresnan and Blain only Yorkshire, former England captain Michael Vaughan, ex-England batter Gary Ballance and Richard Pyrah remain cooperative with the process.\n\nSwing bowler Hoggard, 46, played 67 Tests for England and was part of the team that won the Ashes in 2005.\n\nAll-rounder Bresnan, 37, twice won the Ashes and lifted the 2010 T20 World Cup with England.\n\nPace bowler Blain, 44, won 39 caps for Scotland and played county cricket for Yorkshire and Northants before becoming Yorkshire's second team coach.\n• None Azeem Rafiq: What England's cricket racism scandal is all about\n• None Azeem Rafiq: What we learned from DCMS hearing into racism at Yorkshire\n\nFormer Yorkshire spinner Rafiq first made claims of historical racism at Headingley in an interview with the Cricket Badger podcast in August 2020.\n\nThe county commissioned law firm Squire Patton Boggs to investigate and, more than a year after Rafiq's initial allegations, a summarised version of a report was published in September 2021. Seven of Rafiq's 43 claims were upheld and Yorkshire apologised for \"racial harassment and bullying\".\n\nHowever, the panel's report was not published and no player, employee or executive faced disciplinary action as a result of its findings. The outcome sparked widespread criticism and in November 2021, Yorkshire was temporarily stripped of the right to host international matches at Headingley by the ECB.\n\nFormer chairman Roger Hutton and chief executive Mark Arthur resigned in November 2021, the same month in which Rafiq appeared in front of a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee to give evidence which included branding English cricket \"institutionally racist\".\n\nIn December 2021, Hutton's replacement as Yorkshire chairman, Lord Kamlesh Patel, sacked 16 members of the club's coaching and backroom staff, including head coach Gale and bowling coach Pyrah. Both would eventually agree compensation over a claim for unfair dismissal.\n\nPatel's reforms at Yorkshire saw the club reinstated as international venue in time for summer 2022.\n\nShortly before Headingley hosted England's Test against New Zealand in June 2022, the ECB announced it had charged the county and seven individuals.\n\nGale, who denies the allegations made by Rafiq, withdrew from the disciplinary process two weeks later, calling it \"tainted\".\n\nIn August 2022, Ballance, who has admitted to using racist language towards Rafiq, issued an apology, which Rafiq accepted. Ballance has since been released from his Yorkshire contract and returned to play for his native Zimbabwe.\n\nRafiq and Gale were reprimanded by the ECB in October 2022 for historical social media posts of a racist nature. Both admitted to making the posts, which were not related and for which Rafiq apologised.\n\nIn November 2022, the CDC took the unprecedented step of opting to hold its hearing in public and scheduled it to take place at the end of that month.\n\nAn appeal against that decision from the respondents delayed the hearing and was ultimately struck down.\n\nNow, a month before the proceedings are due to begin, Hoggard, Bresnan and Blain have withdrawn.\n\nWhat were the claims against those charged by ECB?\n\nIn his witness statement, Rafiq accused former England bowler Hoggard of using racist slurs against him and other Asian players \"on a daily basis\".\n\nHe said that after disclosing his experiences in the media, Hoggard called him to apologise and he thanked his former team-mate for his apology.\n\nHoggard, who took 248 wickets in 67 Tests for England, played for Yorkshire between 1996 and 2009, before joining Leicestershire until his retirement in 2013.\n\nRafiq accuses Bresnan of \"frequently\" making racist comments towards him during their time together at Headingley and said Bresnan's behaviour led him to have \"suicidal thoughts\".\n\nBresnan, who played 23 Tests and 85 one-day internationals for England, apologised to Rafiq for the bullying claims but denied allegations of racism.\n\nBresnan left Yorkshire for Warwickshire in June 2020 and his new club said he would face no disciplinary action but would take cultural awareness training. He subsequently retired from cricket in January 2022.\n\nIn December 2021, Gale and former bowling coach Pyrah were among 16 members of staff to leave Yorkshire in a widespread overhaul of its senior leadership under the new regime.\n\nGale and Pyrah won a claim for unfair dismissal against Yorkshire in June last year. The county said the sackings were \"necessary and justified\" and Patel has maintained it was \"absolutely the right thing to do\".\n\nFormer batter Gale, who spent his entire career at Yorkshire, was suspended as part of an investigation into a tweet he sent in 2010, before he was sacked.\n\nHe and Rafiq were among five current and former players reprimanded by the ECB or historical social media posts of a racist nature in October. Rafiq had previously apologised for a Facebook exchange from 2011 containing anti-Semitic messages.\n\nIn his testimony to a DCMS select committee, Rafiq said the atmosphere at Yorkshire became \"toxic\" after Gale retired from playing to replace Jason Gillespie as head coach and Ballance took over as captain in 2016.\n\nBallance previously admitted using racist language about Rafiq's Pakistani heritage towards him. Rafiq said he accepted an apology in person from Ballance in August and called for his former team-mate to be \"allowed to get on with his life\".\n\nYorkshire have since released Ballance from his contract at his request and he has started representing his country of birth Zimbabwe, making his debut for them against Ireland in January.\n\nRafiq alleges that in 2011 then Yorkshire second team coach Blain \"humiliated\" him by shouting at him and telling an umpire \"get him off the ground now\" when Rafiq attended a training session. Yorkshire had suspended Rafiq for a month over a tweet he had sent but he said his ban did not prohibit him from attending training or watching matches at the ground.\n\nFormer fast bowler Blain, who was capped 118 times by his country, has been \"temporarily suspended\" from Cricket Scotland's Hall of Fame.\n\nRafiq alleges Vaughan said \"too many of you lot, we need to do something about it\" to him and three other Asian players in 2009 while they were all at Yorkshire.\n\nEngland bowler Adil Rashid and former Pakistan bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan have corroborated the allegation, which Vaughan \"completely and categorically denies\".\n\nThe fourth player in the group, bowler Ajmal Shahzad, has said he has no recollection of the event .\n\nVaughan was not involved in the BBC's coverage of the Ashes in Australia over the following winter, but returned to commentary in March 2022.\n\nHe stepped back from his work at the BBC in June last year after he was charged by the ECB and two groups of BBC staff raised concerns about his continued involvement in the broadcaster's cricket coverage.\n\nVaughan captained England in 51 Tests between 2003 and 2008. He played his entire domestic career at Yorkshire - between 1993 and 2009 - before becoming a summariser on BBC Test Match Special.", "Opposition councillors have raised concerns about the security of an external website\n\nA senior councillor has been accused of creating an online voting system that could have potentially allowed members' votes on budget cuts to be tracked.\n\nOpposition members in Pembrokeshire council raised concerns about an external site containing sensitive information, the link for which was distributed by councillor Alec Cormack.\n\nSome councillors questioned whether it could be used to track confidential responses.\n\nPembrokeshire Council has said its investigation found that no confidential or personal information had been disclosed.\n\nOpposition councillors have told BBC Wales that the authority's statement does not allay their concerns that their activity could potentially have been tracked on the website.\n\nThe council needs to save £28m during 2023-24, and councillors will soon be expected to vote on budget proposals.\n\nThe BBC has learned that councillors received an email containing an individual link from Mr Cormack, who is the council's cabinet member for finance, prior to a budget seminar on Friday 27 January.\n\nThe private individual links connect to an external website, pembs.net, which includes information about potential budget savings for the forthcoming budget, and another page for councillors to vote on various options.\n\nIt is not clear why the website was set up externally rather than on the council's own server.\n\nThe email to councillors was sent from Mr Cormack's council email address, but links to an external website which is hosted on a server that includes a number of websites, including one for his own IT business and Pembrokeshire Liberal Democrats.\n\nMr Cormack, a Liberal Democrat, is described on his corporate website as a \"proven IT leader\" with 20 years' experience in corporate IT.\n\nIt is understood concerns about the security of the website were raised during the budget seminar, which was held at County Hall, Haverfordwest.\n\nAfter the row, councillors refused to vote on possible budget options using the website.\n\nOne of those who was unhappy was councillor Jacob Williams.\n\nWhen approached by the BBC, Mr Williams said that because Mr Cormack was the administrator of the site, he was theoretically \"able to record each and every member's interactions and save that data to use for his own purposes\", which would amount to a \"gross breach of trust\".\n\nAnother opposition councillor, who did not want to be named, told the BBC the website in question could have breached data protection laws, as he claims the website had no obvious privacy or cookie policy.\n\nCookies can technically be used to track a user's browsing activity.\n\nAlec Cormack declined to comment when asked about the concerns, and referred all enquiries to Pembrokeshire council.\n\nThe external website has now been taken down.", "Jim Baxter at Wembley after the historic 3-2 win against England in 1967\n\nA Scotland football shirt said to have been worn by Jim Baxter has been pulled from auction after doubts emerged over its authenticity.\n\nThe jersey was being sold as the one Baxter wore in Scotland's 3-2 victory over England at Wembley in 1967.\n\nAuctioneers McTear's maintained the shirt's \"cast iron\" provenance after another shirt came forward with the same claim.\n\nBut the shirt was withdrawn from auction on Friday.\n\nThe No6 shirt was due to be the opening lot in the Heritage: Important Sporting Medals and Shirts auction. It was expected to fetch about £60,000.\n\nMcTear's sporting specialist James Bruce said: \"Following recent reservations over the authenticity of the Jim Baxter 1967 Scotland jersey we have taken the decision to remove the lot from today's auction.\n\n\"Although we remain convinced of the shirt's provenance, we would never put an item to auction with questions unanswered.\"\n\nThe Baxter No6 strip was expected to fetch about £60,000\n\nThe auctioneer said they would conduct additional research before taking a decision on any future sale.\n\nMr Bruce said: \"The provenance of the shirt traces back to the player, who exchanged his jersey with (England player) Alan Ball at the end of the match. The shirt then came to the father of the vendor through (England player) Alan Hudson, with Ball being present.\n\n\"Hudson has been contacted to confirm this chain and the key fact that Baxter didn't leave Wembley in 1967 with the shirt.\"\n\nHe added: \"Jim Baxter was renowned for gifting Scotland jerseys to friends, acquaintances and functions, and that appears to be the case for the jersey bought at the benefit dinner by the other parties.\n\n\"Crucially, additional research has shown that the label on the shirt from the 1991 charity auction does not appear to match those worn in the 1967 game as it dates the shirt to pre World Cup 1966.\n\n\"In 1967, the Scotland shirts featured the 'worn by the 1966 World Cup winners' Umbro label. This label appears on the jersey consigned to McTear's.\"\n\nAndrew Dickson, left, and David Wishart with the jersey their fathers bought\n\nAndrew Dickson and David Wishart with Jim Baxter and the shirt\n\nTwo friends from Falkirk had questioned the shirt's authenticity, arguing they had the actual shirt Jim Baxter wore that day.\n\nFalkirk businessmen Andrew Dickson and David Wishart said their fathers bought it at an auction in Glasgow in 1991. Baxter, who died in 2001, attended the auction where former Rangers owner David Murray even bid on the jersey.\n\nThey have pictures of them posing with the framed jersey as boys with Baxter himself and say he kept in touch with their fathers over the years. Jim Baxter would come to events and pose with the shirt.\n\nThey are convinced the jersey is authentic and had urged the auctioneer to halt the sale.\n\nThe pair said there were visual clues that proved the provenance of their shirt including cuff length and the label.\n\nThey said \"We are delighted that McTear's have taken the information that we provided them seriously.\n\n\"We believe that their 'cast iron' provenance was highly dubious from the outset.\n\n\"The work we have done to verify the true jersey has further proved that our jersey is 'The One' as we have always believed\".\n\nDavid and Andrew said the cuffs on their jersey match those in photographs of the match\n\nRetired joiner Terry Fox told BBC Scotland he created the case for the shirt before it was sold at auction in 1991.\n\nMr Fox, who attended the auction, said he got in touch with the Mr Dickson and Mr Wishart after seeing a story on the BBC Scotland website.\n\n\"I knew it was the original shirt,\" the former joiner said. \"The casement I made up and I recognised it right away.\"\n\nHe said the managing director of the double-glazing firm he was working for handed him the jersey in a plastic supermarket bag.\n\n\"I was told that's the jersey, be very careful with it - it's Jim Baxter's from '67,\" Mr Fox said.\n\nTerry Fox said he built the display case for one of the jerseys\n\nTerry Fox went along to the 1991 auction and came back with the programme after creating the case for the shirt\n\nFootball pundit Chick Young, who ran the 1991 auction, said: \"It's the right decision for the jersey to be removed from sale.\n\n\"I stand by what Jim told me that the jersey we auctioned in Glasgow in 1991 is the one he wore at Wembley in 1967.\n\n\"David Murray called me to say he remembered the night well and how he bid £17,000 unsuccessfully at the dinner.\"\n\nOn Thursday, a third shirt emerged with the claim it is the now infamous Jim Baxter shirt from the Wembley win.\n\nKenny McIntosh - singer with Scotland fan band The Tartan Specials - told BBC Scotland that he has the original Baxter '67 Auld Enemy shirt.\n\nThe band had clubbed together to buy it for £1,600 at a charity lunch in 2015.\n\n\"I thought we had got a bargain for such an iconic item,\" he said.\n\n\"It was sold as the real deal and came from the original owner who was close friends with Jim Baxter. I am convinced it is the real deal.\"\n\nKenny McIntosh claims his jersey is the real thing\n\nMr McIntosh has photos of Baxter with the jersey and its previous owner.\n\nBaxter was a leading player in the match on 15 April 1967.\n\nIt is considered one of Scotland's most celebrated games after they beat the England team that had become world champions the year before.\n\nBaxter cemented legendary status for Scotland after his keepie-uppie antics in front of the crowd at Wembley.", "Edgardo Greco was wanted for murdering two brothers and attempting to murder another man in 1991\n\nA convicted Italian mafia killer on the run since 2006 has been caught in France, having hidden in plain sight as a pizza chef for at least three years.\n\nEdgardo Greco's capture in Saint-Étienne is the second high-profile mafia arrest by Italian authorities in a matter of weeks.\n\nMatteo Messina Denaro had been on the run for 30 years, when he was detained on a visit to a clinic in Sicily.\n\nBoth men were wanted for carrying out grisly murders in the 1990s.\n\nWhile Messina Denaro was the \"boss of bosses\" for Sicily's notorious Cosa Nostra, Greco was part of the 'Ndrangheta organised crime mob who originate from the Calabria region in Italy's deep south.\n\nThe 'Ndrangheta are now the most powerful mafia in Italy and their tentacles stretch across Europe and South America.\n\nGreco, 63, was wanted for the murder of two brothers during a \"mafia war\" between two gangs in the early 1990s.\n\nStefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo were beaten to death at a fishmonger's in the city of Cosenza in January 1991. Their bodies were never found and are believed to have been dissolved in acid.\n\nGreco was part of a rival gang and he was also accused of the attempted murder of another man later that year in the same city.\n\nWhen a trial judge issued an arrest warrant for him in 2006, Greco went on the run.\n\nEight years later, he settled in the French city of Saint-Étienne, south-west of Lyon, eventually taking up the job of pizzaiolo in an Italian restaurant.\n\nGreco took on a new identity, calling himself Paolo Dimitrio. By now he had been given a life sentence back in Italy and was the subject of a European arrest warrant.\n\nBut in July 2021 he was sufficiently confident of his new alias that he appeared in a local newspaper feature, boasting of his restaurant's \"regional and home-made recipes\" such as ravioli, risotto and tagliatelle.\n\nGreco, using the name of a criminal from Puglia in the south-east of Italy, now had a grey beard and glasses. The feature called him an Italian by birth but at heart a local to Saint-Étienne.\n\nHe was, however, still being pursued by Italy's foremost anti-mafia prosecutor, Nicola Gratteri, who has spent decades tackling the rise of the 'Ndrangheta.\n\nIn a statement, Italy's Carabinieri military police said that since 2019, investigators had traced Greco's support network, which ultimately led them across the Alps to Saint-Étienne.\n\nInterpol said its anti-'Ndrangheta operation also became involved, with French authorities carrying out surveillance of Greco's location. Italian police then confirmed his identity and moved in to arrest him.\n\nItalian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi praised the police for bringing to justice one of Italy's worst criminals, while the head of the Calabria region, Roberto Occhiuto, said the arrest underlined Italy's commitment to the fight against all forms of organised crime.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shoppers are dismayed as it is announced that House of Fraser, formerly Howells, will close in March\n\nA landmark Cardiff city centre department store is set to close its doors after more than 150 years.\n\nHouse of Fraser, which opened on St Mary Street as Howells in 1867, will shut in March, according to signs outside the building.\n\nIt had originally been set to close in 2018, when House of Fraser first announced plans to leave Wales.\n\nThackeray Group has acquired the Grade II-listed building and is set to spend £100m redeveloping it.\n\nThe real estate firm, which has previously repurposed heritage sites, said it hopes to turn the building into a mixed use venue.\n\nThe plans include the creation of a rooftop terrace, which the company said would \"which will suit a variety of different uses from F&B, office, retail or community use\".\n\nThere are plans to turn the rooftop into a terrace\n\nBut the loss of an icon on the Cardiff high street was emotional for some shoppers.\n\n\"I'm gutted,\" said Ronnie Margerison, 48, from Newport, who was a womenswear manager for House of Fraser 20 years ago.\n\n\"It was really great,\" she said. \"It was like a lovely family.\n\nA former manager at the House of Fraser said she was \"gutted\" about its closure\n\n\"Back then people wouldn't go online, they'd order things and come in to collect them,\" she added.\n\nShe called the closure \"really sad\".\n\nThe impressions show the section of the building not currently being used by House of Fraser\n\n\"I was just talking to one of the girls in one of the concessions there that I know and she was saying she only found out yesterday,\" Ms Margerison said. \"She doesn't have another job to go to.\n\n\"She's got two little ones. It's a real shame, I think it's going to affect a lot of people.\"\n\nMaureen Thomas said: \"It's a shock to see it's closing down but we have been expecting it because it's been going down... all the stock and stuff like that.\"\n\nFriends (left to right) Caroline Banks, Maureen Thomas and Sue Morgan from Cardiff have enjoyed shopping trips to House of Fraser over the years\n\nSue Morgan added: \"The lights have been dimmed there and the stock is not as good. There's not much atmosphere there anymore.\"", "Mason Stonehouse, from Michigan, took his dad's phone one night and decided it was time for a snack. A lot of snacks.\n\nMultiple orders later and the Stonehouse household was inundated with jumbo shrimp, pizza, sandwiches and much, much more.\n\nMason's dad was not so happy when he found out his son ran up a nearly $1,000 (£817) bill. The main takeaway: think twice about letting your child play with your phone.", "Rising paint prices and higher energy costs were among the reasons for a leap in the cost of motor insurance late last year, a trade body has said.\n\nThe average price paid for cover rose by 8% in the final three months of the year, compared with the previous quarter, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said.\n\nThe typical premium of £470 was up 7% on the last three months of 2021.\n\nRepair and courtesy car costs were factors in the increase, the ABI said.\n\nThe rise in the cost of paint and the jump in energy prices were among the factors that made vehicle repairs cost more, the trade body said.\n\nJonathan Fong, senior policy adviser of general insurance at the ABI, said: \"Every motorist wants the best insurance deal, especially when coping with cost-of-living pressures, and insurers continue to do all they can to keep motor insurance as competitively priced as possible.\n\n\"Yet, like many other sectors, insurers continue to face higher costs, such as more expensive raw materials, which are becoming increasingly challenging to absorb.\n\n\"Anyone concerned about being able to continue paying their motor insurance premium should speak to their insurer about any alternative payment options that may be available.\"\n\nThe price paid for renewing an existing motor insurance policy was typically £428, the ABI said, whereas the average price paid for a new deal was a record high of £531.\n\nRules introduced by the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, in January are designed to ensure people who are loyal to the same insurer are not penalised for doing so.\n\nThe rules state that the price paid by renewing customers for motor and home insurance is no greater than the price charged to an equivalent new customer for the equivalent policy bought through the same distribution channel, such as via an insurer, broker or price comparison website.", "The number of sacked Twitter staff launching legal action against the company \"goes up daily\", according to a lawyer representing some of them.\n\nLisa Bloom has told the BBC she has already taken on the cases of about 100 former employees but the number is rising.\n\nOne of her clients, Amir Shevat, told the BBC that Twitter boss Elon Musk had \"failed\" in his leadership of the firm.\n\nTwitter did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.\n\nIn an interview with BBC World Service programme Tech Tent, Mr Shevat recalled the turbulent time at Twitter after Mr Musk went through with his $44bn (£39.3bn) takeover in November.\n\nMr Shevat was the head of product for the Twitter developer platform, in charge of about 150 staff.\n\nHe said almost his entire team was laid off over the course of a night.\n\n\"We got an email saying there was some sort of restructuring and then what happened is, I was communicating with my team, and one after the other they were telling me that their computer got 'bricked',\" he said.\n\n\"Bricked is the process of turning a computer into something that looks more like a brick - so you can't log in, you can't do anything with that computer.\"\n\nHe added: \"It was a very, very hard experience which left a lot of the engineers, who cared deeply about the company, very discouraged.\"\n\nAround half of Twitter's 8,000-strong workforce were sacked when Mr Musk took over.\n\nAt the time Mr Musk warned the company was losing money at an alarming rate and was in \"the fast lane to bankruptcy\", although he has since said it is now moving in a \"good direction\" following the cuts.\n\nAmir Shevat was among thousands sacked by Twitter\n\nMr Shevat joined Twitter in 2021 when his start-up called Reshuffle was acquired by the social media network.\n\nHe is now entering into an arbitration process with his former employer, represented by lawyer Ms Bloom.\n\nShe told the BBC she was representing about 100 laid-off Twitter staff in the US, but \"the number goes up daily\".\n\nMs Bloom added there were a variety of claims including alleged breaches of contract and discrimination.\n\nAs the takeover went through in November, Mr Shevat logged on to an \"all hands\" meeting Mr Musk held, which he described as an \"awkward\" experience.\n\n\"We were trying to get him to tell us what he wants with the company and what's the direction. And his answers were not 100% on point but also not very inspiring,\" he said.\n\n\"For example, when we asked him: 'what is the future of Twitter?' He answered that he thinks that we will help him reach Mars. I don't know how to connect building a social application into reaching Mars.\"\n\nTwitter is just one of a host of big tech companies which has pushed through mass layoffs in recent months, with the likes of Amazon, Meta and Microsoft also carrying out cuts.\n\nMr Shevat said he was not \"objecting to the downsizing\", but rather the way in which it was done at Twitter.\n\n\"The way to do it is in a legal way, empathetic way and a highly communicative way. And in all of these Elon, in his leadership, failed,\" he said.\n\nMr Shevat told the BBC that workers were initially promised four months' pay as severance by Twitter, but were offered only one month in the end - with \"zero justification\" for the reduction in package.\n\nHe described the treatment of staff by Mr Musk as \"unjustifiable\" and added he was \"worried\" about the future of Twitter.\n\n\"We wanted to make people's lives more pleasant and more productive. And all of that went to garbage when Elon bought the company,\" he said.", "Selena Gomez has been praised for explaining how her body changes when she takes medication to treat lupus.\n\nThe singer, 30, has previously been open about her diagnosis with the condition - but she's recently been subject to nasty comments about her appearance.\n\nOn a TikTok live, Selena told fans that when she's taking medication she \"holds a lot of water weight\".\n\n\"I would much rather be healthy and take care of myself,\" she said.\n\n\"My medications are important, and I believe that they're what helps me.\"\n\nLupus is an incurable autoimmune disease where the body's immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal tissue.\n\nSymptoms can be managed using medication. In 2017, Selena revealed she had a kidney transplant linked to her lupus.\n\nKate Appleby and Chris Clarke, both 30, have lupus - and they've told BBC Newsbeat what it means to them to have Selena talk so openly about her experience.\n\n\"Having someone like Selena stand up and shout above the rooftops has full support from myself, and probably the whole lupus community,\" Chris says.\n\nKate, 30, says she can relate to how Selena has been body-shamed\n\nKate, who has nearly 40,000 followers on Instagram and says she's also been a victim of body-shaming, says Selena's bravery is \"incredible\".\n\n\"I go from being very skinny to being a bit curvier.\n\n\"You know, you go from being visibly more ill to your illness being much more hidden,\" she says.\n\n\"And because I have a sort of public profile people then very quickly judge and I've had a lot of criticism from people commenting on not only how my appearance changes, but also how I manage my illness.\"\n\nChris says he hadn't heard of lupus before he was diagnosed\n\nMore women than men have lupus, according to the NHS.\n\nChris also says his medication changes his appetite.\n\n\"I do have a bit of a beer belly, but that's not by drinking beer. I've been on one of the medications, which is a steroid,\" he says.\n\n\"Everyone thinks 'steroids, great - you build up muscle'. But it's not that steroid.\n\n\"It makes you hungry, you want to eat more and trying to control the appetite is a lot harder.\"\n\nAccording to the NHS, lupus is a complex and poorly understood condition that affects many different parts of the body.\n\nIts symptoms range from mild to life-threatening.\n\nThere are some types that just affect skin, but the term is usually used to describe a more severe form of the condition - lupus erythematosus (SLE).\n\nThat affects many parts of the body, including the skin, joints and internal organs.\n\nLots of people can have the condition for a long time without knowing before they get a sudden flare-up.\n\nThe symptoms include extreme tiredness, rashes (especially on the face, wrists and hands) and joint pain and swelling.\n\nEven mild cases can be distressing and have a big impact on quality of life.\n\nBut the symptoms can be similar to more common conditions so it's often hard to diagnose.\n\nChris says Selena raising awareness means a lot, as he hadn't even heard of the condition when he was first diagnosed.\n\n\"What Selena is doing ultimately save lives,\" Kate adds.\n\n\"Going back to mental health issues when I got diagnosed, if there had been someone like Selena at that point, being very vocal and talking about it, would have personally made all the difference for me.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "The Home Office has backed away from using the Pontins site in East Sussex\n\nThe government has backed away from plans to use another Pontins holiday park to house asylum seekers.\n\nLocal authorities in East Sussex said the Home Office was not taking forward the idea of converting the resort in Camber Sands into asylum accommodation.\n\nEarlier this month, Sefton Council said ministers were no longer pursuing a similar proposal for a Pontins site in Ainsdale, Merseyside.\n\nThe Home Office said it would not comment on any individual site.\n\nMinisters are searching for large sites instead of costly hotels to house asylum seekers waiting for their claims to be assessed.\n\nRother District Council - which owns the freehold for the site - and East Sussex County Council were approached by the Home Office in December about Pontins Camber Sands.\n\nThe authorities raised a number of concerns, including the remote location of the park and pressure on local services.\n\nThe councils said they had received a letter from the Home Office on Friday confirming the government was not proceeding with the plan.\n\nDoug Oliver, leader of Rother District Council, said he welcomed the \"sensible\" decision.\n\n\"Camber is not a large community… this would not have been the right arrangement either for migrants or for residents,\" he added.\n\nImmigration Minister Robert Jenrick has been trying to find larger sites to house asylum seekers, with the bill for hotels costing £6.8m a day.\n\nHe has singled out holiday parks, former student halls of residence and surplus military sites as possible alternatives - but none has yet been given the go-ahead.\n\nA plan to turn a former RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire into an asylum centre was scrapped last summer in the face of local opposition.\n\nHome Office officials have privately acknowledged they will face local obstacles to opening any new large-scale asylum accommodation, but insist they are confident suitable sites will be opened soon.\n\nA government spokesperson said it was looking to \"all available options to source appropriate and cost-effective temporary accommodation\".", "The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced its biggest walkout of the pay dispute in England.\n\nIts members at half of hospitals, mental health and community services will take part in the 48-hour strike from 1 to 3 March.\n\nThe union will also ask members working in key areas such as critical care and chemotherapy to take part in strike action for the first time.\n\nMinisters accused the union of putting patients at risk.\n\n\"We are working closely with NHS England on contingency plans, but this action will inevitably cause further disruption,\" added Health Secretary Steve Barclay.\n\nDuring the previous six walkouts, the RCN exempted core services from strike action - dialysis, neonatal care, intensive care, paediatric, A&E and chemotherapy.\n\nAny service wanting RCN members to provide life-and-limb cover - as they are required to do under trade unions laws - will also have to negotiate with union leaders rather than local agreements being put in place with local reps.\n\nThe RCN feels this has led to too many local exemptions, particularly in areas like adult A&E.\n\nInstead, services will be asked to use nurses who are not members of the RCN, or other health professionals, to cover services during the strike.\n\nOnly once those avenues have been exhausted will the RCN agree to provide cover.\n\nThe walkout is also the first time the RCN has announced a continuous 48-hour strike.\n\nThere have been stoppages over two consecutive days, but they have only lasted for 12 hours each.\n\nMore than 100 services will be involved in this strike, covering all the sites where the RCN has a mandate.\n\nDuring the strike ballot, individual votes were held at each trust.\n\nIn about half of trusts, the votes did not reach the required threshold for action to take place.\n\nRCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: \"It is with a heavy heart that I have today asked even more nursing staff to join this dispute.\"\n\nThe RCN has asked for a pay rise of 5% above inflation, but the government has awarded staff below the grade of doctors 4.75% on average.\n\nHowever, the union has suspended strikes in Scotland and Wales after fresh offers were made, even though they were well below what they are demanding.\n\nStrike action is not taking place in Northern Ireland, where staff have been given a 4.75% rise, because there is no government in place there at the moment.\n\nMatthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health managers, said: \"The stakes have just got higher and NHS leaders are becoming increasingly concerned about the escalating waves of industrial action.\n\n\"They are desperate for a resolution.\"\n\nSeparately, UK rail workers are set to walk out in a fresh series of strikes in March and April in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised here? If you plan to strike or are a patient whose treatment may be affected you can get in touch by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Nicola Bulley vanished on a riverside dog walk in Lancashire on 27 January\n\nPolice will be asked about Nicola Bulley health disclosures to ensure they were necessary, the information commissioner says.\n\nJohn Edwards said personal details should not be \"disclosed inappropriately\".\n\nThe 45-year-old disappeared three weeks ago during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nLancashire Police was criticised for making her struggles with alcohol and the menopause public.\n\nThe force said it would conduct an internal review into their investigation, which would be conducted by Head of Crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nMr Edwards said data protection laws existed \"to ensure personal information is used properly and fairly\".\n\n\"Police can disclose information to protect the public and investigate crime, but they would need to be able to demonstrate such disclosure was necessary,\" he said.\n\nNicola Bulley's parents have left yellow ribbons on the bridge over the River Wyre\n\n\"We recognise that at this stage of an intensive, live investigation, the force must focus all their energies on the inquiry.\n\n\"But given the high profile nature of this case, we will be asking Lancashire Police to set out how they reached the decision to disclose this information in due course.\"\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4 World at One he would not comment specifically on Lancashire Police, but to release personal information about a person's health there \"would need to be a really clear and demonstrable need and a clear link between that disclosure and a legitimate police objective\".\n\nThe home secretary has also raised concerns with police after they revealed personal information about the missing mother-of-two.\n\nA source close to Suella Braverman said she had \"asked for an explanation\".\n\nA Home Office spokesman said: \"The home secretary and policing minister are receiving regular updates from Lancashire Police on its handling of this case, including why personal information about Nicola was briefed out at this stage of the investigation.\"\n\nNicola Bulley disappeared while out walking her dog\n\nIn an interview with Sky News, Ms Bulley's father said that \"every day is a struggle\" as the family waits for news.\n\nErnie Bulley said: \"[We're] no further on from three weeks ago. [We] just need a breakthrough to give us some hope.\"\n\nIn a statement released on Wednesday, Lancashire Police said Ms Bulley had suffered with \"some significant issues with alcohol\" and \"ongoing struggles with the menopause\".\n\nThis prompted a backlash from campaigners, MPs and legal experts, with some accusing the police of breaching her privacy.\n\nMs Bulley's family later released a statement via the police, in which they elaborated on her health, saying she had suffered significant side effects due to the perimenopause, including \"brain fog\" and \"restless sleep\".\n\nThey also asked for speculation surrounding her private life to end and urged the public to focus on finding their \"wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother\".\n\nDame Vera Baird, the former victims' commissioner for England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4's Today Lancashire Police had been subject to \"heavy, and in my view, totally justified criticism\".\n\n\"If it was relevant, it needed to be in a public domain at the start, and it wasn't,\" she said.\n\nWyre Council leader Michael Vincent said the case was \"clearly unprecedented\" and it was \"right there is an inquiry into the way the police have handled this, but from my understanding, their handling of the actual investigation has been very good\".\n\nLancashire Police said it had referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over contact it had with Ms Bulley before she vanished.\n\nIt said it had been called to a report of \"concern for welfare\" on 10 January when officers and health professionals visited her home. No arrests were made.\n\nThe force said the referral only related to the force's interaction with the family on that date and not the wider missing person investigation.\n\nThe IOPC said it was assessing the available information to determine whether an investigation was required.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters at school.\n\nHer phone was found still connected to a work conference call.\n\nPolice and specialist teams have since mounted a huge search, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "President Zelensky has asked for more jets, like these F-16s, to help push back Russia's invasion\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky spent much of the past week touring European capitals, appealing to leaders to send his country fighter jets.\n\nAt the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine was believed to have around 120 combat capable aircraft - mainly consisting of ageing Soviet-era MiG-29s and Su-27s.\n\nBut officials say they need up to 200 jets to match Moscow's air-power - which is thought to be five or six times greater than Kyiv's.\n\nMr Zelensky is primarily seeking US-made F-16s. First built in the 1970s, the jet can travel at twice the speed of sound and can engage targets in the air or on the ground.\n\nWhile now eclipsed by the more modern F-35, it remains widely in use. Experts say modern fighters like the F-16 would help Ukraine strike behind Russian lines.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has ruled out supplying the jets for now. But countries like Poland and the Netherlands have signalled an openness to supplying Ukraine from their own fleet.\n\nHowever, Mr Zelensky's request poses a host of practical challenges, that could make an early delivery of such aircraft unlikely. Here's four of them:\n\nUkraine is said to have identified 50 pilots who could begin training on Western jets immediately, but preparing them to fly the warplanes takes time and takes them away from the current fighting.\n\nThe British government has agreed to start training Ukrainian pilots on Nato-standard aircraft, but warns that supplying the jets would only ever be a long-term option.\n\nTraining pilots could take months or even years, given how complex the fighter jets are. But British officials have said they could speed up the training process for some of Ukraine's more seasoned pilots, who have years of experience flying Soviet-era planes.\n\nA fighter jet comes with an entire eco-system to support it. To function in a warzone, it needs complex and specialised engineering - it isn't \"a simple case of towing an aircraft to the border,\" in the words of the UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.\n\nFormer Nato official Dr Jamie Shea told the BBC that fourth-generation fighter jets - like the ones requested by Ukraine - require extensive maintenance after almost every flight.\n\n\"When I was at Nato and visited an airbase, planes would come back in and the engineers would have to strip out whole systems and put them back in. It's almost like every time you drive your car you have to put a whole carburettor in,\" Dr Shea said. \"So they've got a very high maintenance requirement.\"\n\nGerman MP Tobias Bacherle is also concerned that handing over the jets would be a long-term commitment, explaining that the issue is \"not only about delivering\".\n\n\"It's an ongoing engagement, this would be very different to delivering tanks, or delivering anti-aircraft missiles or other heavy weaponry as we've done before\", he told the BBC.\n\nAny jets handed over by Nato countries become Ukrainian property so that no Nato personnel are involved directly in the war. But that means Ukrainians must also be trained in maintaining the planes, adding more time to the process.\n\nThere's been speculation that countries like the UK and France could hand over older generations of warplanes to Ukraine, which has ignited some debate over the types of jet that should be provided.\n\nThe logistics of different countries sending a variety of old models would be \"forbidding\", the Economist's defence editor Shashank Joshi told the BBC.\n\nAnd not all of the newer models suit Ukraine's war needs. Recent generations of the UK's Typhoon jet aren't \"optimised for flying at low altitudes, which is what Ukraine has been forced to do because of the Russian air defence threat,\" Mr Joshi said.\n\nJustin Bronk from the Rusi think tank said giving Typhoons to Ukraine would be a \"very expensive symbolic gesture\". He observed that most of Ukraine's airbases were dispersed and hidden at the beginning of the war to avoid being targeted by Russian missiles.\n\nThe move resulted in Ukraine's air force operating from \"relatively austere dispersed airbases\" and \"short-field\" runways with rough surfaces.\n\nUK MP Bob Seely, who served in the UK armed forces, said that Typhoon jets would struggle to operate under such conditions.\n\n\"You have to have a plane which is versatile and flexible and can be used when your enemy is bombing your runways and your hangers,\" Mr Seely told the BBC. \"It's got to be a practical offering, my worry is [the Typhoon] is not practical.\"\n\nUkraine would need a jet with greater versatility and landing flexibility, like the Swedish-made Gripen jet, he added.\n\n\"A Gripen is a reasonably simple plane and very cheap by modern standards, it's good value, it's versatile...it's a useable plane and is useable by the Ukrainians in a relatively short time frame,\" Mr Seely said.\n\n\"It is designed for short take off and to cope with a short rough runway, it comes with kit in a box, almost like an Ikea plane.\"\n\nSweden has so far ruled out supplying Gripen jets to Ukraine.\n\nSome Nato member countries are worried that handing jets to Ukraine would be viewed as escalating the war, risking a direct confrontation with Russia.\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron said that if France did sent warplanes, he would not want any to be used to \"touch Russian soil\".\n\nThe Kremlin has already made repeated accusations that Nato is an aggressor by proxy, warning on Thursday that the line between direct and indirect Western involvement in the conflict was disappearing.\n\nDr Shea says a \"Rubicon has been crossed\" in terms of the more general delivery of weapons to Ukraine in the last few weeks.\n\nCountries \"serious about Ukraine winning\" need to weigh up the need to provide air cover to the tanks they have supplied to Ukraine, with the risk of escalating the war.\n\n\"It doesn't make sense to give Ukraine four members of a five member basketball team and then deny that critical fifth member that makes all the difference,\" he told the BBC.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A quick history of aerial espionage. From birds to balloons, and everything in between.\n\nPresident Joe Biden has said he makes no apologies for shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the coast of the US.\n\nHe said the balloon was used for surveillance, but three other objects shot down over North America were unlikely to be foreign spy craft.\n\nThe US would now improve its detection of similar aerial objects, he said.\n\nMr Biden also said he would speak with China's President Xi Jinping soon about this month's incident.\n\n\"I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this, but I make no apologies for taking down that balloon,\" Mr Biden said at the White House on Thursday.\n\nChina has denied the balloon was used for surveillance, instead saying it blew off course while collecting weather data.\n\nBut Mr Biden reiterated the view of US officials that the balloon, which traversed the country at an altitude of about 40,000ft (12,000m) before being blown out of the sky by a US fighter jet over the Atlantic, was in fact used for spying.\n\nHe said the US was continuing to speak with China on the issue. \"We are not looking for a new cold war,\" Mr Biden said.\n\nJoe Biden has been under increasing pressure to talk directly to the public about the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon, as well as the three unidentified objects American fighter jets have scrambled to destroy over the past week.\n\nOn Thursday afternoon he did that - but his brief appearance will do very little to silence critics or those asking for more information and explanations.\n\nHe shed no light on the nature of those objects and provided no further information about the first Chinese balloon. He didn't discuss when the Chinese balloon was first detected, its intended purpose or recent reports that it had been directed toward the US island of Guam but then changed course. Nor did he say why, after a flurry of incidents last week, no new objects have been targeted.\n\nAs an explanatory endeavour, it was weak sauce. And as a public-relations effort, it will probably come up short.\n\nIt may calm the waters for now, but the next time a balloon floats across the American sky, or fighters scramble and missiles fly, the questions will return with renewed urgency.\n\nSpeaking about three other objects subsequently shot down over Alaska, north-west Canada and Lake Huron on the US-Canada border, Mr Biden said the intelligence community believed they were \"most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions\".\n\nThe president said enhanced radar introduced in response to the Chinese balloon might explain the discovery of the three objects.\n\n\"That's why I've directed my team to come back to me with sharper rules for how we will deal with these unidentified objects moving forward, distinguishing between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nMr Biden's comments came after the White House felt the need to dispel suggestions the three objects were of extra-terrestrial origin.\n\nOfficials said the slow-moving unidentified objects did not pose \"any direct threat to people on the ground\" and were destroyed \"to protect our security, our interests and flight safety\".\n\nThe Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which was co-ordinating searches for the objects in Canada, said on Thursday it would suspend the search of Lake Huron, in part due to the low probability of recovery.\n\nOn whether he would take similar action again, Mr Biden said: \"Make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people I will take it down.\"\n\nHe declined to say when he planned to speak with China's President Xi as he was asked during an interview with NBC News.\n\n\"I think the last thing that Xi wants is to fundamentally rip the relationship with the United States and with me,\" Biden told the broadcaster.\n\nChina has repeated its explanation for the balloon shot down on 4 February, with a spokesman telling reporters the US should try to avoid \"misunderstandings and misjudgements\".\n\nAmid the heightened tensions over US skies, military officials said on Thursday that American warplanes had intercepted Russian jets flying near Alaska for a second time this week.\n\nThe North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), which is jointly run by the US and Canada, said in a statement that it was a \"routine\" contact with the Russians.", "Syrian people at the Cilvegozu border crossing on Thursday\n\nHundreds of Syrians living in Turkey have returned to the war-torn country after last week's devastating earthquake.\n\nThe Turkish government has allowed Syrians with ID cards from the quake-hit Turkish provinces to leave for up to six months.\n\nThe rule change has led to hundreds queuing for hours at border crossings.\n\nAlmost four million Syrians have settled in Turkey since civil war broke out in their home country 12 years ago.\n\nSome survivors of last week's earthquake are making the trip to the crossings in an attempt to reunite with family members back in Syria, some of whom they have not seen for years.\n\nAmong them is Reem, who with her nine-month old baby wrapped in a blanket, said she was travelling back to Syria after her home in Turkey was destroyed.\n\nShe told the BBC she believed hostility towards Syrians in Turkey had grown since the earthquake.\n\n\"We tried to find another place to stay but they [the Turkish] kept chasing us away asking us to return to Syria,\" she said.\n\n\"We tried staying at mosques but they kicked us out. They also didn't give us any tents. Should I stay in the street with my children? Where should we go?\"\n\nMany of those queueing have travelled with their families and large amounts of luggage, waiting for security personnel to allow them forward for processing.\n\nAbbas Albakour told the AFP news agency he was returning home to Syria after his home in Kharamanmaras, near the earthquake's epicentre, had been destroyed.\n\n\"In Syria, there have been problems for 12 years, but right now the biggest catastrophe is in Turkey,\" he said at the Cilvegozu border crossing.\n\nAbout 1,500 Syrians living in Turkey are thought to have died in the earthquake. Around 3.5 million Syrians in Turkey are registered as refugees, according to the United Nations (UN).\n\nMeanwhile, rescue efforts are continuing in Turkey. On Friday, two more people were pulled alive from the rubble in the city of Antakya some 11 days on from the earthquake.\n\nOne of the survivors, Mustafa Acvi, 34, was found alive after being trapped for 261 hours. While being carried on a stretcher, he was put on a video call with his parents who showed him his new-born baby, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu.\n\nNurse Deborah Swan, who was part of the UK's search and rescue response in the Hatay province, told the BBC she treated a man who had been trapped under a collapsed building for three days when a large aftershock occurred.\n\n\"It's quite disconcerting being in an unstable, collapsed structure particularly when there's a large aftershock,\" she told Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"We have to leave the building immediately [when an aftershock occurs] but as soon as we realise the building is okay, we go straight back in.\"\n\nThe rescued man stands a \"very good chance of surviving\", Ms Swan said.\n\nBut such rescues are becoming increasingly rare. The death toll in Turkey now stands at more than 38,000, making it the deadliest in the country's history.\n\nIn Syria, more than 5,800 people have died - the majority in the north-west, an area held by rebel insurgents who are at war with the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The conflict has complicated aid efforts in the country.\n\nThe UN announced on Friday that more than 140 lorries carrying aid have crossed into north-western Syria from Turkey since the earthquake.\n\nBefore the earthquake struck, almost all humanitarian aid was delivered through just one crossing - Bab al-Hawa.\n\nBut earlier this week, Syria agreed to allow the UN to open two further border crossings to help bring in more aid for the earthquake and conflict-hit area.\n\n\"We expect to have trucks crossing every single day,\" UN spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.", "John Swinney has been Nicola Sturgeon's deputy for eight years\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney has ruled himself out of the race to be the next leader of the SNP.\n\nMr Swinney said he had to do what was \"right for my family, the Scottish National Party and our country\".\n\nIt comes after the SNP's national executive said the new leader will be confirmed on Monday 27 March.\n\nNicola Sturgeon announced on Wednesday that she was resigning after eight years as SNP leader and first minister.\n\nMr Swinney, who has been a member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, served as leader of the party between 2000 and 2004.\n\nNo one has formally entered the contest yet and but Mr Swinney told BBC Scotland he may endorse a candidate.\n\nThe deputy first minister had been tipped for a return to the top job and admitted he had \"thought carefully about whether I should stand\".\n\nBut in a post on Twitter he said he had instead decided to \"create the space for a fresh perspective to emerge\".\n\n\"For the best part of the last 40 years, I have had the privilege of being at the very heart of formulating the strategy of the SNP,\" Mr Swinney said.\n\n\"From a very poor starting point in the 1980s, I am proud to have played my part in building the SNP into a successful party of government in Scotland with an impressive electoral record.\n\n\"The refusal however of the UK government to respect the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland to have a referendum on independence, requires the SNP to consider carefully, and in my view with a fresh perspective, how to pursue our aims.\n\n\"To create the space for that fresh perspective to emerge, I have decided not to be a candidate for leadership in the SNP. At this critical moment, I believe there must be an open debate within the SNP about our direction.\"\n\nHe added: \"I encourage those who stand for election to bring forward perspectives that anchor the SNP in the mainstream of Scottish politics, which is an absolutely critical requirement for the future success of our cause.\"\n\nJohn Swinney, pictured with SNP colleagues in 1999, says he has spent almost 40 years \"at the heart of the SNP\"\n\nMr Swinney told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland he was not going to express a preference for Ms Sturgeon's successor.\n\nBut he added: \"I may say something more about it in due course but, at this stage, I will keep my counsel until I hear who is in the running.\"\n\nAsked if he wanted to stay on as deputy first minister, Mr Swinney said that would be a matter for the new first minster.\n\nHe also told the programme independence was a means of addressing the issues that matter to people in Scotland and highlighted the example of a company in his constituency who he said was struggling to recruit staff due to Brexit.\n\nThe deputy first minister also said he had \"no regrets\" over the gender recognition legislation but added he would rather there were no issues that divided the party.\n\nAsked about a tweet by former minister Ash Regan which called for the party to removes the ruling which bars MPs also standing in Holyrood elections, Mr Swinney said any party member was free to stand if they could secure enough support.\n\nHe also highlighted the case of Neil Gray who gave up his seat at Westminster to become an MSP.\n\nNominations for the post of SNP leader have already opened and will close at noon on Friday 24 February.\n\nThe party's national executive said the new leader would be selected on a one-member-one-vote basis.\n\nTwo other high-profile SNP figures previously tipped to replace Ms Sturgeon have also ruled themselves out.\n\nThe party's leader at Westminster, Stephen Flynn, said the top job should go to an MSP.\n\nAnd confirming she would not stand, fellow MP Joanna Cherry said the SNP \"needs a leadership election that is about policies and not personalities\".\n\nNicola Sturgeon plans to remain in office until her successor is elected.\n\nShe made her resignation announcement at a hastily convened news conference at her official Edinburgh residence, Bute House, on Wednesday but insisted it was a decision she had been weighing up for some time.\n\n\"In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it's right for me, for my party and my country,\" she said.\n\nJohn Swinney is a vastly experienced figure in the Scottish government and hugely popular within the SNP.\n\nIf he had run, he would have been difficult for other candidates to beat and only the boldest would have stood against him.\n\nHis decision not to go for the top job opens up the potential for a wider contest.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf is reported to be preparing to declare and Finance Secretary Kate Forbes is understood to be considering standing.\n\nSome have started to doubt that Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson will go for it but neither he nor Justice Secretary Keith Brown have ruled themselves out.\n\nMr Brown is also deputy leader of the SNP, so his decision-making could potentially create a contest for that job too.\n\nFormer minister Ash Regan - who quit government over the gender recognition reform bill - is said to be \"strongly considering\" putting her name forward.\n\nMinister for Europe and International Development Neil Gray is another possible.\n\nWhile MPs are also able to stand, it seems unlikely any will because you have to be an MSP to take over as first minister.", "A deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol could be sealed early next week, after more than a year of negotiations.\n\nMultiple sources report a \"flurry of activity\" around the talks between the UK and the European Union.\n\nThe post-Brexit trading arrangement has been a source of tension since it came into force at the start of 2021.\n\nIt aims to ensure free movement of trade across the Irish land border by conducting checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain instead.\n\nHowever, unionist parties oppose the protocol and argue that placing an effective border across the Irish Sea undermines Northern Ireland's place within the UK.\n\nThe largest of these, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is preventing a government from being formed in Northern Ireland in protest over the protocol.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to meet EU leaders this weekend at the Munich Security Conference, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is also due to attend.\n\nIt is thought the pair could discuss the negotiations on the sidelines, before the EU and the UK unveil an agreement.\n\nThat could come in the early part of next week, possibly Tuesday.\n\nNegotiating teams have also been in touch with Northern Ireland business groups in recent days.\n\nNo 10 continues to insist that a deal has not been done.\n\nSpeculation has been building for weeks that a compromise between the EU and UK was close.\n\nThere are claims, dismissed by Downing Street, that an outline agreement has been on Mr Sunak's desk for some time.\n\nNegotiators are said to have settled on a \"red and green lane\" system, whereby goods from Great Britain destined to remain in Northern Ireland undergo fewer checks.\n\nA key question for the DUP and Northern Ireland businesses will be to what extent checks and paperwork are eliminated.\n\nThe DUP has set out seven tests for the protocol, which it says must be met for it to end its boycott of devolved government in Northern Ireland.\n\nNorthern Ireland business groups say there must be a \"lasting, inclusive settlement\" that removes unnecessary red tape and has better mechanisms for managing divergence between EU and UK rules.\n\nEU sources insist they have stuck to one of their \"red lines\" - that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will continue to have oversight of single market issues.\n\nThe UK has previously floated the idea of an \"arms length\" arrangement for the ECJ and there will likely be efforts to downplay the court's future role.\n\nThis could prove a major sticking point for some Conservative MPs who say \"full sovereignty\" cannot be restored if any part of the UK is still subject to EU law.\n\n\"I sense that the PM isn't really sure that what he has is good enough,\" said one senior Conservative Brexit supporter.\n\n\"But he now seems locked into this talks process from a position of weakness.\"\n\nThe EU has welcomed Mr Sunak's approach with officials saying the mood markedly improved after he took office - but there is scepticism about whether an agreement will finally be reached.\n\n\"It's not the first time we're in spitting distance of a deal,\" said one EU diplomat. \"Let's hope Sunak can finally shake off the minority within his party that keeps the country hostage over Brexit.\"\n\nTalks to try and resolve issues with the treaty have now spanned three prime ministers and have been happening, on and off, since the autumn of 2021.\n\nLondon had sought a fundamental rewrite of the treaty while Brussels insisted flexibilities could be found within the existing text.\n\nDiscussions repeatedly stalled and the government launched legislation last year which would allow ministers to unilaterally scrap parts of the protocol.\n\nIn response the European Commission triggered legal action but those proceedings - as well as the UK legislation - have since been put on ice.\n\nBoth would likely be dropped if they can get an agreement over the line.", "Sewage leaks are causing hospitals a host of problems as the backlog in repairs and maintenance grows.\n\nHospitals in England reported patients slipping on sewage, staff becoming ill, and leaks in A&E departments, cancer wards and maternity units.\n\nIt comes after the repairs backlog grew by 11% in the past year to a total of £10.2bn.\n\nThe reports have been released after a Freedom of Information request by the Liberal Democrats.\n\nA total of 55 hospital trusts provided information - nearly half the total in England.\n\nMore than half had experienced problems with sewage leaks over the past year.\n\nFor some, they were isolated incidents, while others reported more than 100 leaks.\n\nLeeds Teaching Hospitals documented 105 incidents, including one in the respiratory day unit, and excrement coming through floor tiles, as well as overflowing toilets.\n\nThe trust blamed ageing buildings as well as people flushing the wrong things down toilets.\n\nThe Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow listed 40 leaks. In one instance a patient slipped because of a leak and, in another, staff were left struggling to work and feeling nauseous because of the smell of raw sewage. Both the resus area and A&E also reported leaks.\n\nMichael Meredith, director of estates at the hospital's trust, said the leaks were happening on a \"regular basis\" at the site, blaming the ageing buildings.\n\n\"They are managed quickly and efficiently, but they are unpleasant especially where they occur in areas accessed by patients, our people or the public.\"\n\nHe said the trust were waiting for the go-ahead for a new hospital to be built to replace the current one.\n\nRory Deighton, of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said there were many buildings across the NHS that were \"in desperate need of repair as these shocking findings demonstrate\".\n\n\"No-one working in the NHS wants this for their patients or staff,\" he added.\n\nHe said the issue had been worsening for the past 12 years as spending on buildings has been squeezed.\n\nThe £10.2bn backlog is what needs to be spent to bring NHS buildings up to a good enough standard.\n\nLib Dems leader Ed Davey said the situation was \"unacceptable\".\n\n\"Our hospitals are crumbling through a lack of investment. It's a national scandal,\" he added.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said it was increasing the amount of money spent on building and was in the process of developing a network of new hospitals.\n\n\"We are investing record sums to upgrade and modernise NHS buildings so staff have the facilities needed to provide world-class care,\" a spokesman added.", "Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has filed for bankruptcy but has nearly $10m (£8.3m) in assets and spends almost $100,000 (£83,000) a month, according to court filings.\n\nHe owes almost $1.5bn in court-awarded damages to relatives of victims in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.\n\nDetails of his finances were laid bare this week in documents filed with a Texas bankruptcy court.\n\nIn previous court filings, he declared assets in a range between $1m and $10m.\n\nThe Infowars founder declared bankruptcy last year, and the latest documents include voluminous detail about his possessions, debts, outgoings and legal issues.\n\nMr Jones, who repeatedly made various false claims about the Sandy Hook murders, owns three properties in Austin, Texas, along with a $1.5m plot of land, three vehicles, two boats, two guns and a cat.\n\nHe's the sole owner of eight different companies, including Infowars parent Free Speech Systems, which has paid him an annual salary of more than $600,000 for the last two years.\n\nIn December, Mr Jones asked a court to allow him to take a bigger salary - $1.3m - from the company, which has also filed for bankruptcy.\n\nThe court filings show that Mr Jones also paid a total of $1.3m to settle debts with his wife and parents. He gave one charitable contribution of $2,000 to an Austin church.\n\nOne portion of the document notes that Mr Jones is \"holding firearms for certain January 6th participants\", a reference to the riot at the US Capitol two years ago.\n\nNo further detail is given about the unnamed participants, or how many guns he is keeping for them.\n\nThe filing also listed his monthly outgoings, which total more than $96,000, and alternatively list his occupation as \"Media Personality\" and \"Dietary Supplement Sales\". Infowars operates an online shop that sells supplements and other products.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sandy Hook dad: Trolls said I killed and dismembered my son\n\nThe 49-year-old father-of-four's biggest outgoings include more than $40,000 a month in taxes, $14,000 on childcare and education, $10,000 on alimony and child support, and more than $7,000 on home upkeep and repairs.\n\nThe Sandy Hook families won a $965m judgement against Mr Jones in October last year, but legal experts say it will be difficult for the plaintiffs to collect the full amount because of the bankruptcy filings.\n\nAt a court hearing on Tuesday, lawyers for Mr Jones said he would refrain from putting out further episodes of a new podcast, in response to concerns by the Sandy Hook victims that he will leave Infowars and Free Speech Systems and use the bankruptcy cases to avoid paying settlements.\n\nThe Sandy Hook case is not his only legal trouble. The documents also list 18 cases that Mr Jones and Infowars faced in the year before his bankruptcy filing.\n\nNext month a judge will decide whether one of those cases, a defamation suit filed by the parents of a Sandy Hook victim, six-year-old Noah Pozner, can proceed.\n\nNoah's father, Leonard Pozner, became a leading voice pushing back against the conspiracy theories online. He was subjected to abuse and death threats and had to move home several times.\n\nLawyers for Mr Jones argue that another defamation trial - after similar cases in Texas and Connecticut last year - would hurt his income and thus his ability to pay judgements to other plaintiffs.\n\nThe BBC contacted Infowars and Mr Jones's lawyer for comment.", "All unionist parties in Northern Ireland oppose the protocol and the DUP is refusing to re-enter power sharing until it is replaced\n\nThe Northern Ireland Protocol is lawful, the UK Supreme Court has ruled.\n\nPart of the Brexit deal, the protocol creates a trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.\n\nIt has been challenged by unionist politicians who say it breaches the Acts of Union and the Northern Ireland Act.\n\nThe court unanimously rejected their appeal on all grounds. It had previously been rejected by the High Court and Court of Appeal.\n\nThe protocol was agreed by the UK and EU in 2019 to ensure free movement of trade across the Irish land border after Brexit.\n\nHowever, it means there are new checks and controls on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.\n\nThe unionist case had three aspects:\n\nThe court agreed that the protocol does conflict with the Acts of Union.\n\nHowever, it added that it was Parliament's will that any part of the Acts of Union which conflict with the protocol are suspended.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says the UK government must ensure Northern Ireland's position in the UK is maintained\n\nThe judges said: \"Parliament, by enacting the 2018 Act and the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020, authorised the making of the protocol.\n\n\"The clear intention of Parliament in enacting these Acts was to permit the Crown to make the protocol.\"\n\nOn the second ground the court said the relevant part of the Northern Ireland Act only concerns a referendum about whether Northern Ireland remains part of the UK or joins a united Ireland.\n\nOn the third ground the court found that Parliament had empowered the secretary of state to lawfully make changes to voting rules.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (left), Baroness Kate Hoey (second right), and former first minister Dame Arlene Foster (right) outside the UK Supreme Court in London\n\nResponding to the ruling, a government spokesperson said: \"We welcome that the Supreme Court has reaffirmed the sovereignty of Parliament in approving and legislating for the agreement negotiated in 2019.\n\n\"However, this does not change our determination to address the real problems the protocol is causing in Northern Ireland. Intensive talks with the EU continue to that end, looking across the full range of issues we have raised.\"\n\nA UK government source told the BBC there was \"lots still to work through\" on protocol talks.\n\nThey were speaking before a meeting between Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and the EU's Maros Sefcovic, which took place on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nThe pair held talks in Brussels, as Mr Heaton-Harris also attended a separate event tied to the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nAfter the meeting, he said he and Mr Sefcovic \"agreed solutions to the protocol must work for benefit of all communities and businesses in Northern Ireland\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chris Heaton-Harris MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMinisters overseeing the negotiations are said to be focused on making sure solutions reflect the \"realities\" on the ground.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) withdrew from the power sharing executive in Northern Ireland in February 2022 in protest at the protocol.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the legal challenge \"had highlighted why unionists are opposed to the trading arrangements\".\n\n\"A solution to the protocol was never going to be found in the courts, but the cases have served to highlight some of the reasons why unionists have uniformly rejected the protocol,\" he added.\n\n\"The government must consider this judgment, their own arguments to the court and take the steps necessary to replace the protocol with arrangements that unionists can support.\"\n\nJim Allister of TUV said the court's ruling greatly strengthens his party's stance and it \"must embolden the political campaign against the protocol\".\n\n\"The fact the Supreme Court is satisfied it was lawfully made does not in the least affect its political unacceptability, nor its dire constitutional consequences,\" he added.\n\nThe protocol introduced checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain\n\nSinn Féin Brexit spokesperson Declan Kearney welcomed the judgement, adding the protocol was \"imperfect\" but \"clearly necessary\".\n\n\"Now that legal clarity has been confirmed, it is time to move forward politically and ensure that a deal between the British Government and EU to deliver pragmatic and durable solutions is secured without delay that makes the protocol work better for everyone.\"\n\nThe Social Democratic and Labour Party said the ruling provided \"important clarity\" on the legality of the protocol.\n\n\"Following this judgment, it is now critical that the EU and UK negotiating teams reach a comprehensive resolution that protects our unique access to the Single Market for goods while addressing the concerns around protocol implementation that have given rise to sincere objections related to trade barriers and identity issues in the unionist community,\" assembly member Matthew O'Toole said.\n\nAlliance deputy leader Stephen Farry said political parties in Northern Ireland needed to \"focus on pragmatic solutions going forward\" after the Supreme Court's ruling, which he added \"was not surprising in the slightest\".\n\n\"Northern Ireland was always going to require some special arrangements in the context of a hard Brexit. This protocol or something similar is therefore the inevitable outcome of choices made, and the consequent need to address this region's particular circumstances and to protect the Good Friday Agreement.\"\n\nThe Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases.\n\nIt hears cases considered to be of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population.\n\nA five-judge panel, including Lord Reed, the president of the court, heard the case over two days in November.", "The book is written by King Charles, Tony Juniper (right) and climate scientist Emily Shuckburgh\n\nKing Charles has co-written a children's book about the environmental threats the planet is facing.\n\n'Climate Change' - a Ladybird Book, will be published next month.\n\nOn Friday the King hosted global leaders at Buckingham Palace to support action on restoring the natural world.\n\nSpeaking at the reception, the book's co-author Chair of Natural England Tony Juniper said the King wanted to empower young people.\n\n\"I think he's been struck by the level of energy and passion shown by young people on these subjects, and was keen to put something into their hands which was about those basic facts and figures, basic ideas, but also with his personal message in there,\" Mr Juniper said.\n\nIn 2017 the King and Mr Juniper wrote a book for adults about climate change. The new publication aims to make the topic accessible for 7-11 year-olds and is \"trying to bring the facts to the fingertips of the people who've got most to gain by finding solutions in time,\" Mr Juniper explained.\n\nLeaders from government, business, charities and indigenous communities went to the palace reception to support stronger action on protecting biodiversity.\n\nIt followed promises made by nations at the UN summit COP15 in December to prevent what is called the \"sixth mass extinction event\". Biodiversity - the variety of living things - is declining faster than at any time in human history.\n\nOrangutans are one of the endangered species whose habitat is degraded by humans\n\nAt COP15 leaders agreed to stop the extinction of species and raise £167 billion ($200 billion) a year to protect nature.\n\nIn the historic deal known as the Global Biodiversity Framework, almost 200 countries pledged to protect 30% of the planet by 2030 to allow nature to flourish.\n\nThe King's reception followed a major government meeting aimed at kick-starting private fundraising to deliver on promises made at the UN's COP15 summit in December.\n\nEnvironment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said the meeting was aimed at mobilising private finance to meet goals set at COP15.\n\n\"Instead of constantly playing catch-up and repairing the damage that's subsequently happened, which can cost even more money, let's get solutions now,\" Ms Coffey told BBC News.\n\nIn recognition of their role as protectors of the natural world, indigenous leaders from the Amazon also met King Charles at Buckingham Palace. One placed a necklace of seeds around the King's neck.\n\n\"We want the King to be an intermediary for our people with the other countries,\" said Amazon leader Domingo Peas.\n\nBiodiversity is in crisis across the globe - half of coral reefs have disappeared and scientists say 75% of the Earth's surface is degraded. Between 2001 and 2021 the world lost 437 million hectares of tree cover.\n\nHuman activity plays a big role on this. In 2019, a United Nations report said that harvesting, logging, hunting and fishing are causing overexploitation, of animals, plants and other organisms.\n\nThe UK is one of most nature-depleted nations in the world, according to experts.\n\nNo river in England can be given a clean bill of health from chemicals, sewage and other pollutants released into waterways.\n\nGovernment efforts to improve England's environment have also been called inadequate by the independent Office for Environmental Protection (OEP).\n\nIn January the government released a plan to protect rare wildlife and clean up land and water over the next five years.\n\nKing Charles has spent much of his life campaigning to protect the environment. In November he hosted a reception to discuss tackling climate change ahead of the UN COP27 summit in Egypt.", "Twenty-year-old Harvey has Prader-Willi syndrome, which can cause learning difficulties\n\nKatie Price has published a letter from the Met Police telling her officers are facing misconduct proceedings over alleged involvement in a WhatsApp group that targeted her disabled son Harvey.\n\nThe TV star and model called the alleged behaviour \"disgusting\".\n\nThe letter, posted on her Instagram account, says the officers are accused of sharing \"inappropriate and derogatory images\" of her son.\n\nThe Met Police said it was \"unable to discuss the allegations\".\n\nThe revelation of the letter by Price comes 18 months after she called for eight officers under investigation for allegedly sharing inappropriate material about Harvey on WhatsApp to be \"named and shamed\". She added: \"I don't like the police being horrible to Harvey.\"\n\nIn the letter she shared on Instagram earlier on Friday, an investigator from the Met's professional standards department informs her that \"a number of Metropolitan Police officers are alleged to have breached the standards of professional behaviour in regards to discreditable conduct\".\n\nThe letter adds that this related to \"being part of a WhatsApp group chat that has posted inappropriate and derogatory images of your son, Harvey Price\".\n\nKatie Price said the officers facing allegations of misconduct needed to be \"named, shamed and exposed\"\n\nThe letter also states that the accused officers will be subject to a gross misconduct hearing in west London next week.\n\nPrice posted a comment on Instagram, alongside an image of the letter, which read: \"It's disgusting that police officers from here have felt the need to laugh and use disgusting content on Harvey by creating a WhatsApp group.\n\n\"I would attend this court day but I'm away. They need to be named, shamed and exposed.\"\n\nThe Met declined to comment on the matter, but confirmed a hearing was due to commence on 21 February and is expected to last four days.\n\nA notice on the Met's website lists eight people who are facing misconduct allegations relating to their membership of a WhatsApp group between 2016 and 2018.\n\nThe notice adds that the alleged conduct, \"if proven, amounts to gross misconduct and is so serious as to justify dismissal\".\n\nHarvey, born in 2002, was diagnosed with septo-optic dysplasia, a rare genetic disorder affecting his eyesight, as well as autism and Prader-Willi syndrome, which can cause learning difficulties and behavioural problems.\n\nPrice has previously spoken out about social media abuse Harvey has received.\n\nHarvey was also targeted by comedian Frankie Boyle, whose routine on his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights was found by Ofcom in 2011 to appear to \"target and mock the mental and physical disabilities\" of Price's son, then aged eight.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Here's a reminder of the judge's comments to David Smith as he sentenced him to 13 years and two months in prison for spying for Russia.\n\n\"Your motive in assisting [the Russians] was to damage British interests,\" Mr Justice Wall told Smith.\n\nThe Old Bailey heard that the 58-year-old Scot was paid by Russia for his \"treachery\" in betraying his country by selling secrets to Russia while working as a security guard in the British embassy in Berlin.\n\nSmith, whose subterfuge was uncovered during a sting operation in 2021, pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Official Secrets Act. His claims that he was not paid nor intended to cause harm to the UK were dismissed by the judge.\n\n\"You were fully aware that...were these documents to get into the wrong hands, they might harm British interests or pose a threat to those working at the British embassy,\" the judge said.\n\nHe told Smith that during his \"subversive activities,\" dating back to 2018, he had copied a \"significant amount of material\" for the Russians.\n\n\"Your mitigation lies solely in your previous good character,\" he told Smith, saying \"tangible and ascertainable harms\" were caused by his activities.\n\nThe judge concluded it was not up to him to decide where Smith serves his sentence, which could be in the UK or Germany.", "Amazon will require all office staff to work in-person at least three days a week, ending a policy that left remote work decisions up to team directors.\n\nBoss Andy Jassy informed staff of the change on Friday, saying it would take effect on 1 May.\n\nThe company is joining others such as Disney and Starbucks that have tightened remote work rules this year.\n\nMr Jassy said the change would help strengthen communication, career development and corporate culture.\n\n\"Collaborating and inventing is easier and more effective when we're in person,\" he wrote in a memo shared by the firm.\n\nRemote work shot up during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. It remains far more prevalent than it was before the pandemic, but surveys suggest the practice is slowly being reversed.\n\nThe share of days worked from home fell to 27% in January, from nearly 35% a year earlier, according to a monthly online survey of working arrangements and attitudes that Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom and others have been conducting since May 2020.\n\nDisney's policy, announced in January, requires staff to report to the office at least four days a week as of March.\n\nStarbucks mandates at least three days of in-person work, while gaming firm Activision Blizzard announced plans for a similar policy this week.\n\nHigh profile business leaders such as Elon Musk - who ended remote work completely at Tesla and Twitter - have long made their dislike of the practice known.\n\nBut many staff have resisted the changes, and in some cases, employers have backtracked.\n\nNew York City Mayor Eric Adams recently said that the city would consider relaxing its in-office requirements as it struggles to fill vacancies.\n\nMr Jassy said that executives had had time to observe the pros and cons of different ways of working.\n\n\"I know that for some employees, adjusting again to a new way of working will take some time,\" he wrote. \"But I'm very optimistic about the positive impact this will have in how we serve and invent on behalf of customers, as well as on the growth and success of our employees.\"\n• None 'I quit my job rather than go back to the office'", "The remains of the Ayşe Mehmet Polat apartments in Gaziantep\n\nWith only a bonfire for light and warmth on a bitter winter's night, an extended family sits at the roadside waiting for a miracle.\n\nThey've been here for nine days and nights but their loved ones have not been found.\n\nThis personal grief is being played out in the rubble of one of the most desirable streets money can buy here.\n\n\"This is one of the most luxurious residential areas in Gaziantep,\" says musician Yunus Emre, whose cousin and his family of four are missing. \"The wealthiest live here. Those flats are sold for millions.\"\n\nBut the price of the property in this city meant nothing when the earthquake struck.\n\n\"I'm just angry. I want to bring someone to justice but I don't know who,\" says the 28-year-old. For him, so many parties are culpable in what is not just a national tragedy but, with the collapse of so many buildings, a national scandal.\n\n\"It starts with the contractor,\" he explains.\n\n\"He uses low-quality building material. Next comes the certifying authority. They have the blood of people who died here on their hands.\n\n\"It's not right to scapegoat the contractor. The ones who approved this building are responsible together with the government and the state. They shouldn't have signed off on this building project at all.\"\n\nThe Ayşe Mehmet Polat apartment complex is 24 years old. Four of its six blocks collapsed while other buildings around it stood tall. Safety concerns had been raised by residents long before last week's deadly tremors.\n\nWe came to this site because we had heard that a man said to be the building's contractor had been arrested. He will later tell us through his lawyer he was doing nothing wrong and should bear no responsibility.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nWe spend three days looking at what happened here on 6 February.\n\nAs we return to the complex the next morning, emergency services reveal to us a shocking figure - 136 people are known to have died here as they slept.\n\nAt a petrol station next door, we ask if they have any CCTV footage of when the earthquakes struck. We are given videos from four separate cameras which show the horror unfolding. First, the violent shaking of the lights, then seconds later, people running for their lives before, finally, a thick cloud of smoke and dust enveloping everything in its path.\n\nThe neighbouring apartment buildings collapsed in a matter of seconds.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: CCTV from a petrol station next to the apartment complex shows when one of the earthquakes struck\n\nAs we leave the petrol station, we are drawn to the pile of personal possessions on the edge of the forecourt. It is a deeply upsetting museum of lives suddenly extinguished - homework, dolls, cooking pans and family photos. Scouring the heap, and sobbing inconsolably, is 65-year-old Emel Filik.\n\n\"Everything is gone,\" she tells us.\n\nShe explains that her cousin had been sleeping in one of the four destroyed blocks, and no-one had taken responsibility for keeping the building safe.\n\n\"Once you start to live in your flat, nothing happens. No inspection. Earthquake insurance and property insurance don't work either. The municipality doesn't make checks. No such thing as monitoring.\"\n\nEmel Filik tells us apartment residents were worried about safety before the earthquakes\n\nThere had been concerns about these apartments, she says, adding that the head of the residents' association - a woman known as Selma - had even asked neighbours to come to a meeting to listen to her fears.\n\n\"Six months ago, Selma told us about the problems of the building. She said 'Dear residents, our buildings might collapse at the slightest of earthquakes. Let's strengthen the pillars. If you're short on money, the municipality could help us for a cheaper solution.' She held several meetings. But nothing happened.\"\n\nWe find a phone number for Selma and she confirms she held meetings to express her fears.\n\nBut should residents really have to pay to be safe in their own homes? This was a question of structural integrity, not repainting walls.\n\nThe head of the organisation representing architects in Turkey, Eyüp Muhçu, tells us the ultimate responsibility for making sure buildings are safe rests with the Turkish government.\n\n\"The priority of the central government was not to make the cities safe, but to implement some projects that were solely planned for maximising profits. For this reason, 65% of the current building stock in Turkey is risky. And no measures have been implemented regarding these risky structures.\"\n\nWith two residents having told us there had been potential problems within the blocks - we start trying to find out if those responsible for the building knew about it and whether they did anything.\n\nWhen we had first arrived at the block the previous night, a boy had come up to us briefly to say his dad had pulled seven people from the rubble with his bare hands. It sounded a remarkable story, given the scale of the destruction we could see, but we didn't discount it.\n\nAnd sure enough, when we hear others talking about the bravery of a man called Bahattin Aşan we decide to track him down.\n\n\"I saw the building twirling and crashing down. I came here running, it was dark, raining, there was snow and I was the first responder,\" he tells us.\n\nBahattin Aşan says he pulled seven people from the rubble\n\nBahattin Aşan used to work as a security guard at the housing complex.\n\nHe shows us a harrowing video he took in the smoking ruins, in which he's calling out to those trapped. Some people reply.\n\n\"I rescued seven people by myself. It was like the apocalypse. Even now as I'm telling you this, I'm still shaking,\" he says.\n\nBut what about these supposed concerns over the buildings' safety, I ask? Did he see this?\n\n\"In the car park, I witnessed the defects with my own eyes. When I touched the concrete columns it would crumble to dust in my hands, as though it wasn't concrete at all. Iron was rusting in the columns, the rainfall was damaging and corroded the iron.\"\n\nWhen I ask Bahattin Aşan if he ever reported this, he insists it was obvious to the management as well as the residents.\n\n\"I used to tell a friend that if they were to give me a flat here I wouldn't take it. I said it was because I didn't think the columns were solid and in an earthquake the building would collapse.\"\n\nBut the man accused of being the contractor, Mehmet Akay, says the building complied with regulation at the time it was built. He claims that sewage and water works were added to the property after construction - and that this, or other work, may have damaged the supporting columns.\n\nHow many other security guards and caretakers across Turkey had voiced similar concerns in a country precariously positioned at the crossroads of shifting tectonic plates?\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe immediate picture that is emerging in this Gaziantep neighbourhood is not of a cover-up or conspiracy - but either indifference or inaction.\n\nEveryone knew there was a problem, but nobody did anything.\n\nFor opposition MP Garo Paylan, from the HDP party, who we meet as he visits this site, it is indicative of criminal negligence on an industrial scale in Turkish construction and oversight.\n\n\"This is a crime. This is a sin.\"\n\nMr Paylan accuses the government of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of failing to ensure the safety of new buildings as well as failing to strengthen older ones.\n\n\"The scientists were shouting about it, this disaster is coming, but the government did almost nothing. We warned the cities, we warned them to prepare the rescue teams, but they did nothing and we live this catastrophe. They say this is destiny. No, it is not. In civilised countries these kinds of disasters happen but fewer people die. But here we have tens of thousands of people under the rubble.\"\n\nMehmet Akay, the man whom authorities say was the building contractor for the Ayşe Mehmet Polat complex, was arrested on Saturday 11 February - five days after the earthquakes. He was stopped at Istanbul Airport as he tried to leave the country.\n\nState prosecutors say he was the building contractor, but responding to questions put to him through his lawyer, Mr Akay claims he was the construction co-ordinator, but not the contractor. He also rejects accusations that cheap building materials were used.\n\nMehmet Akay (l) was detained by police in Istanbul\n\nIn Gaziantep, we ask the local authority, Şehitkamil Municipality, for a response. Spokesman Ahmet Aydın Sert says no complaints were received about the complex buildings, and therefore no inspections were made. \"We went through the records and found no irregularities.\"\n\nPresident Erdogan has conceded that the emergency response to the disaster was slow in places, but has urged his people not to listen to those whom he accuses of politicising a tragedy.\n\nHis government denies negligence and claims that more than 98% of buildings that collapsed were older - like the Ayşe Mehmet Polat complex - and built before the ruling party took office.\n\nThere are plenty who would say every country has a moral - if not legal - duty to protect its citizens, no matter the age of their property.\n\nAnd when Turks go to the polls in the summer they will decide for themselves who can best ensure their families are safe in their own homes.", "Ms Moore's family described her as a \"cherished daughter\" and a \"caring friend to many\"\n\nA police officer is under criminal investigation after a woman was knocked down and killed by a police car.\n\nRachael Moore, 22, died when she was hit by a Merseyside Police vehicle in Kensington, Liverpool on Christmas Eve.\n\nThe officer is being probed for the potential offence of causing death by dangerous driving, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said.\n\nMerseyside Police said it would be inappropriate to comment due to the ongoing investigation.\n\nMs Moore was killed in the crash on Sheil Road at about 20:00 GMT which involved a singled-crewed police car, which had been responding to an unrelated emergency call, the IOPC said.\n\nThe police officer, who has not been named, has also been advised they would be investigated for potential gross misconduct in relation to the manner of their driving.\n\nHowever, the watchdog added that this does not necessarily mean disciplinary proceedings or criminal charges will follow.\n\nCatherine Bates, IOPC regional director, said Ms Moore \"lost her life in the most tragic circumstances just a day before Christmas\".\n\n\"Our investigation will look at the circumstances of the collision, including the actions and decision-making of the police driver and whether they were in line with policy and procedure,\" she said.\n\n\"A decision over any potential disciplinary proceedings, referral to the Crown Prosecution Service, or learning arising from this incident will be made by us on conclusion of the investigation.\"\n\nMs Moore's inquest opening heard she was a carer who had been walking home from work when the crash happened.\n\nThe court heard the driver tried to save Ms Moore's life using CPR before paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Steve Reed: \"If you make the mess, you'll clear up the mess\"\n\nFly-tippers in England and Wales could be forced to remove litter as part of \"clean-up squads\", under Labour plans.\n\nCouncils would be able to make offenders remove graffiti or rubbish they had dumped through Fixed Penalty Cleaning Notices, Labour's shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said.\n\nMr Reed said \"fresh thinking\" was needed to tackle anti-social behaviour.\n\nBBC research found councils had dealt with 1.1 million fly-tipping incidents last year.\n\nIn an interview with BBC Radio 4's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast, Mr Reed said: \"If you make the mess, you'll clear up the mess and it actually has a very beneficial effect on the entire community.\"\n\nFly-tipping currently carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail and an unlimited fine.\n\nVehicles used by fly-tippers can be seized by the police or local government and forfeited and crushed.\n\nAs part of new measures aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour, Labour would also expand the use of mandatory parenting classes for the parents of young offenders.\n\n\"You've very often got parents whose kids are committing multiple offences, but the parents are not taking their parental responsibility seriously,\" Mr Reed said.\n\n\"They do not want their kids criminalised and ending up in prison, but they need a bit more help.\"\n\nLabour would extend the use of Parenting Orders, where courts can require parents to go on a training course, under the proposals.\n\nClean Up Squads will require offenders to clear up litter, graffiti and vandalism, Labour said\n\nThe party is proposing community and victim payback boards which it says will ensure punishments suit the needs of the local area.\n\nIn a speech on Friday, Mr Reed announced a Labour government would also develop \"the world's first trauma-informed criminal justice system\".\n\nScientific studies on trauma would be used across the courts, the prison and probation systems, and elsewhere. to address some of the root causes of crime.\n\nIt comes after Labour's shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced on Thursday her party would recruit 13,000 more neighbourhood police, with a named officer for every community.\n\nMs Cooper redeployed Tony Blair's famous promise that Labour would be \"tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime\".\n\nShe said \"it was right then, it is right now, it is what we did then, it is what we will do again\".\n\nHome Office minister Robert Jenrick said Labour's plans for policing were not credible, and pointed to its voting record on the Police, Courts and Sentences Bill and the Nationality and Borders Act, saying the party was \"soft on crime\".", "Seven major German airports have been brought to a standstill after hundreds of ground crew walked out on strike in a row over pay.\n\nAircraft are grounded at Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Bremen, Hamburg, Hanover and Dortmund.\n\nMore than 2,300 flights have been cancelled affecting 300,000 passengers, with air travel effectively wiped-out.\n\nMembers of the Ver.di union and Civil Service Association are demanding a 10.5% pay increase for workers.\n\nAt Leipzig Airport, a handful of international flights got away this morning but domestic flights were cancelled.\n\nAt Frankfurt Airport, a couple of passengers wheeled suitcases through what is usually the bustling departures terminal. It was, one local TV reporter noted, almost as empty as it had been during the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe action coincided with the start of the high-profile gathering of world leaders and defence experts at the Munich Security Conference.\n\nThe arrival of prominent guests was not expected to be affected but other delegates were advised to travel by train.\n\nAirports handling emergency aid for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria have said that those cargo flights would continue as scheduled.\n\nBut the strike - which comes two days after Frankfurt Airport cancelled 200 flights when building work knocked out Lufthansa's online check-in and boarding systems - has prompted a furious response from some German business leaders.\n\nRepresentatives of small and medium business associations condemned the action as unacceptable and accused the unions of taking the whole country hostage for their own interests.\n\nAnd air passengers in Germany are becoming accustomed - even resigned - to this kind of disruption.\n\nLast summer, staff shortages led to chaotic scenes at airports as flights were delayed and cancelled and travellers queued for hours at check in and security.\n\nA representative for Ver.di said that, unless pay and working conditions improved, those issues would continue and guarantee another turbulent summer at the country's airports.\n\nLufthansa has already announced it will have to reduce its summer programme as a result of staff shortages.\n\nGermany's unions are well organised and it's rare to see picket lines because most employees participate in strikes. But workers are expected to hold demonstrations at various airports throughout the day.\n\nTheir demands have thus far been rejected by employers who are yet to submit their own offer with talks expected to continue next week. And the leader of Ver.di, Frank Werneke, struck a threatening tone earlier.\n\n\"The next strikes will have a different dimension,\" he said. \"Unless the employers table a good offer next week, this will be just a taste of what's to come.\"", "Repair work to pipe leaks in the Duffryn area of Newport began on Tuesday\n\nAbout 900 homes in Newport have had heating and hot water restored following pipe leaks.\n\nThe heating and hot water supply was shut off in the city's Duffryn estate on Tuesday for repair works.\n\nThe repairs were expected to last three days but Newport City Homes said on Thursday that services had been restored after repairs were made.\n\nThe provider added that all customers would be reimbursed \"reasonable expenses\".\n\nA spokesperson for Newport City Homes said: \"We know there's more to be done to improve the resilience of the network, and we will continue to work on this. For now, we're monitoring the system carefully.\"\n\nThey added that all customers would be given a £20 payment for each day they were left without heating and hot water, regardless of whether or not they received a temporary heater from them.", "The family of missing Nicola Bulley have said \"appalling\" speculation surrounding her private life \"needs to stop\".\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nLancashire Police has faced a backlash for revealing she had ongoing struggles with alcohol and the menopause.\n\nThe force said it has referred itself to the police watchdog over contact it had with her before she vanished.\n\nOn Thursday her family said she would not have wanted the information released, but police had kept them informed.\n\nIn a new statement, they said: \"As a family, we were aware beforehand that Lancashire Police, last night, released a statement with some personal details about our Nikki.\n\n\"Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her.\n\n\"This is appalling and needs to stop.\n\n\"The police know the truth about Nikki and now the public need to focus on finding her.\"\n\nLancashire Police referred itself on Thursday to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding an incident before Ms Bulley's disappearance when officers attended her home.\n\nThe force said it was called to a \"concern for welfare report\" and health professionals also attended on 10 January. It said no arrests were made.\n\nA force spokesman said the referral \"relates solely to our interaction with the family on that date and does not relate to the wider missing from home investigation\".\n\nAn IOPC spokesman said: \"This afternoon we received a referral from Lancashire Constabulary regarding contact the force had with Nicola Bulley on 10 January, prior to her disappearance.\"\n\nHe said the watchdog was assessing the available information to determine whether an investigation was required.\n\nNicola Bulley's parents have left yellow ribbons on the bridge over the River Wyre\n\nLancashire Police had described Ms Bulley as vulnerable and said she was classed as a \"high-risk\" missing person immediately after her partner Paul Ansell reported her disappearance.\n\nThe force initially declined to elaborate but later disclosed further details, a move which it was criticised for.\n\nZoë Billingham, the chairwoman of an NHS mental health trust and formerly Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, told BBC Radio 4 the comments \"stopped me in my tracks\".\n\n\"Why on earth was this information even vaguely relevant to an investigation that's 20 days on?\" she said.\n\n\"If there are issues relating to Nicola that needed to be put in the public domain, why wasn't this done earlier?\n\n\"And why was such personal information, such potentially sensitive information, disclosed?\"\n\nShe said there was a need to consider \"what message this sends to women\".\n\n\"What confidence will women have about reporting their mum or sister to police as missing if there is this fear that very deeply personal information is going to be put into the public domain for no apparent reason?\" she said.\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on a bench close to the River Wyre\n\nMs Bulley's family said she had suffered \"significant\" side effects due to the perimenopause, including \"brain fog\" and \"restless sleep\".\n\nThey said she was taking hormone replacement therapy but it had given her \"intense headaches\" which caused her to stop the treatment \"thinking that may have helped her, but only ended up causing this crisis\".\n\n\"The public focus has to be on finding her and not making up wild theories about her personal life,\" they said.\n\n\"Nikki is such a wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother and is missed dearly.\"\n\nAppealing directly to Ms Bulley, they added: \"Nikki, we hope you are reading this and know that we love you so much and your girls want a cuddle.\n\nThe search along the riverbank has entered its third week and has now moved as far as the coast\n\nMs Bulley's parents, Ernest and Dot Bulley, left a yellow ribbon tied to a bridge over the River Wyre near where their daughter went missing, with the message: \"We pray every day for you.\"\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters at school.\n\nHer phone was found still connected to a work conference call.\n\nNicola Bulley disappeared while taking her dog Willow out for a walk\n\nPolice and specialist teams have since mounted a huge search, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nBut he added: \"We're not privy to the police's conversations with Nicola Bulley's family and I don't think it would be right for us to speculate on why they've chosen to make those comments.\n\n\"This is a live investigation, we have to let the police get on with it and not add to the already considerable level of speculation surrounding the case.\"\n\nA Home Office spokesperson added: \"The Home Secretary and Policing Minister are receiving regular updates from Lancashire Police on its handling of this case, including why personal details about Nicola was briefed out at this stage of the investigation.\"\n\nShadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC: \"I think there are concerns because the information they set out was very unusual, and I would want to know more from Lancashire Police about the reasons for doing this.\"\n\nLancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden said the investigation was under the direction and control of Chief Constable Chris Rowley.\n\nHe said: \"Lancashire Police are being as transparent as they can be on what is an incredibly sensitive and complex case.\n\n\"The unprecedented media and public interest in this case, whilst welcomed for appeals for information, is challenging for the family and friends of Nicola and the officers and police staff dealing with unsubstantiated rumours and speculation on a daily basis.\"\n\nLancashire Police is yet to respond to the criticism it has faced.\n\nMeanwhile, it confirmed social media influencer Dan Duffy had been fined after joining the search for the missing mother.\n\nThe 36-year-old posted a video of himself being arrested by police on his YouTube channel.\n\nPolice said he was handed a fixed penalty notice under section 4 of the Public Order Act - fear or provocation of violence.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this piece, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A bus came off the road south of Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire\n\nAround 30,000 homes were left without power and dozens of schools closed as Storm Otto caused disruption across Scotland and northern England.\n\nThe first named storm of the year brought widespread winds of more than 60mph, with Cairngorm mountain recording speeds of 120mph.\n\nHigh winds and fallen trees have caused damage to vehicles and buildings.\n\nTrains, buses and ferry services have been delayed or cancelled, with trees blocking many routes in Aberdeenshire.\n\nA Met Office yellow warning for high winds across most of Scotland was in place from 03:00 until midday. A warning for the Borders and north east England remained until 14:00.\n\nA trampoline caught by the winds in Haddington, East Lothian\n\nIn Sheffield a man in his 50s was taken to hospital in a serious condition after a tree fell on Endcliffe Vale Road at about 08:50.\n\nMeanwhile, Police Scotland said a man was injured at Mintlaw Filling Station in Aberdeenshire after the garage roof was damaged. He was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for treatment.\n\nMore than 100 schools in Aberdeenshire were closed, with almost 50 in Highland and a handful in Moray affected. Buckie High School in Moray was damaged by the high winds.\n\nNorth East Scotland College in Aberdeen also closed following damage to the roof of its city campus.\n\nScottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said 30,000 homes were left without power in Aberdeenshire, Moray and Inverness-shire.\n\nBut by 15:45 on Friday that number had been reduced to 18,000.\n\nMark Rough, operations director at SSEN Distribution, said: \"Due to the extent of damage, some customers are likely to remain off supply for over 48 hours.\n\n\"We're doing everything we can to restore power as quickly as possible.\"\n\nAround 1,300 homes in Ripon and 1,330 homes near Chester-le-Street, County Durham, were also without power.\n\nNorthern Powergrid reported outages in Northumberland, Darlington and Leeds, with power for most not expected to be restored until 19:00.\n\nThe roof of Burnside Primary in Angus was damaged\n\nNorth Yorkshire Police said they received \"numerous calls\" involving high-sided vehicles being blown over on the A1(M) and other routes, and urged motorists to \"slow down\".\n\nIn Scotland, height restrictions were put in place on the Forth Road, Tay, Erskine and Dornoch bridges.\n\nScotRail warned passengers of disruption and placed speed restrictions on trains across the network.\n\nThe train operator said on Twitter: \"We have had to implement an emergency timetable for many areas across the country. Services are likely to be delayed and may have to be cancelled.\"\n\nLondon North Eastern Railway (LNER) also said a number of services had been cancelled\n\nCairngorm Mountain snows sports centre, near Aviemore, was closed and Inverness Airport warned passengers the weather would cause delays to some flights.\n\nLeeds Bradford Airport remained open but a spokesperson said the weather had caused disruption to flight schedules.\n\nBBC Scotland Weather said gusts of 83mph had been recorded in Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire, and 80mph in Lossiemouth, Moray, and at Tain in the Highlands.\n\nThe storm was named Otto by the Danish Met Office. The UK Met Office has adopted the same name.\n\nIt is the first named storm to hit the UK since Franklin last February.\n\nThe Met Office's season for named storms runs from September to September, and the names are given to raise awareness of severe weather.\n\nAn overnight yellow warning for snow and ice for most of the Scotland has also been issued. It will be in place from 23:00 until 09:00 on Saturday.\n\nHave you been affected by Storm Otto? Please email us: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Bruce Willis pictured at a film premiere in London in 2019\n\nActor Bruce Willis has frontotemporal dementia, his family has announced.\n\nIn a statement on social media, they said it was a \"relief to finally have a clear diagnosis\".\n\nThe 67-year-old was diagnosed with aphasia - which causes difficulties with speech - in spring last year, but this has progressed and he has been given a more specific diagnosis, the family said.\n\nThey expressed their \"deepest gratitude for the incredible outpouring of love\".\n\nThe family went on to say frontotemporal dementia is the most common form of dementia in people under 60.\n\n\"Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead,\" the statement said.\n\nWillis became a household name in the 1980s and 90s after starring in blockbuster films such as Die Hard, The Sixth Sense, Armageddon and Pulp Fiction.\n\nHe has also been nominated for five Golden Globes - winning one for Moonlighting - and also three Emmys, where he won two.\n\nBruce Willis in London at the 2013 premiere of A Good Day to Die Hard - the fifth film of the Die Hard franchise\n\nBut his family said last year that Willis would give up acting, as his aphasia was affecting his cognitive abilities.\n\nThe new statement on Thursday said they hoped media attention would raise awareness of the actor's condition.\n\nIt said: \"Bruce always believed in using his voice in the world to help others, and to raise awareness about important issues both publicly and privately.\n\n\"We know in our hearts that - if he could today - he would want to respond by bringing global attention and a connectedness with those who are also dealing with this debilitating disease and how it impacts so many individuals and their families.\"\n\nThe statement was signed by members of Willis's family including his wife Emma Heming - with whom he has two daughters - and his former wife Demi Moore and their three daughters.\n\nDementia comes in many forms with different causes.\n\nThe word dementia describes the impact of a diseased brain on our memory, language and thinking skill.\n\nCommon causes include Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies.\n\nBruce Willis' diagnosis of fronto-temporal dementia is relatively rare.\n\nIt is also unusual as it largely affects people in midlife, whereas most other forms are found in old age.\n\nFronto-temporal dementia is caused by a build-up of toxic proteins in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain (those behind the forehead and ears) which are thought to kill brain cells.\n\nDamage to these regions affects language (such as Willis' aphasia) as well as behaviour and the ability to plan.\n\nThere is still no cure or even a way of slowing the disease down so symptoms continue to get worse.\n\nOn average people live 8-10 years after diagnosis of fronto-temporal dementia, but some people live much longer.\n\nActor Brian Cox, who starred in the film Red with Willis, said the news was \"very sad\" and that the actor was \"witty and a great performer\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Newscast programme, Cox said: \"He was lovely. And he is lovely. He's still there. He's a lovely man.\"\n\nUS journalist Maria Shriver, a prominent campaigner for brain disorder patient care and research, tweeted: \"My heart goes out to Bruce Willis and his family, & also my gratitude for shining a much needed light on this disease.\n\n\"When people step forward it helps all of us. When people get a diagnosis it's extremely difficult, but also for most a relief to get a diagnosis.\"\n\nThe actor's family said they hoped media attention would raise awareness of his condition (Willis pictured at a baseball game in 2019)\n\nAaron Paul, who starred in America's Breaking Bad TV crime drama, said Willis was \"such a damn legend\", adding: \"Love you so much my friend!\"\n\nUS singer and actress Queen Latifah wrote in a post on Instagram: \"God bless you my brother we love you!!! all the best. Thank you and your family for all the entertainment!!!\"\n\nAccording to the UK NHS website, frontotemporal dementia is an \"uncommon\" form of the disease that causes the sufferer problems with behaviour and language.\n\nSymptoms also include slow or stiff movements, loss of bladder or bowel control - although this tends to be later on - and muscle weakness.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of these issues you can visit the BBC's Action Line.\n• None Bruce Willis gives up acting due to brain disorder", "A spy at Berlin's British embassy, who sold secrets to Russia and was caught in an undercover MI5 sting, has been jailed for 13 years and two months.\n\nDavid Smith, 58, tried to damage Britain's interests by passing on details of the embassy and its staff for cash payments, a judge found after the spy pleaded guilty.\n\nThe BBC's Home Affairs correspondent Tom Symonds explains what Mr Smith did, and how he was stopped.", "The former officers, wearing face masks, alongside their lawyers\n\nFive former Memphis police officers charged with murder over the death of Tyre Nichols have pleaded not guilty in their first court appearance.\n\nTadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith were involved in the arrest of Mr Nichols on 7 January.\n\nThey were fired after an internal investigation by the Memphis Police Department.\n\nMr Nichols' death sparked protests against police brutality in the US.\n\nThe judge confirmed the five defendants had pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.\n\nJudge James Jones asked for patience as lawyers build their cases.\n\n\"This case may take some time,\" he said to the defendants standing before him alongside their lawyers at the Shelby County Criminal Court.\n\n\"We do ask for your continued patience and your continued civility in this case,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nichols' mother: Officers could not look me in the face\n\nMembers of Mr Nichols' family were in court with their lawyer, Ben Crump.\n\nMr Nichols' mother RowVaughn Wells spoke to reporters outside court and reflected on seeing the ex-officers in person.\n\n\"They didn't even have the courage to look at me in my face,\" she said.\n\nShe promised to attend every court date until \"we get justice for my son\".\n\n\"Memphis and the whole world needs to see that what's right is done in this case, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later,\" lead prosecutor Paul Hagerman told reporters.\n\nThe ex-officers, dressed in suits and wearing black face masks, stood silently beside their attorneys during the brief hearing.\n\nNone of the defendants spoke. Their lawyers confirmed the not-guilty pleas when asked by the judge.\n\nThe officers were arrested and taken into custody on 26 January after the Memphis police reviewed bodycam footage of the violent arrest.\n\nIn the footage, 29-year-old Mr Nichols can be heard calling for his mother as he is beaten by police after being pulled over for alleged reckless driving.\n\nHe was pepper-sprayed, kicked and punched by the officers and died in hospital three days later.\n\nMemphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said the incident was \"not just a professional failing\", but \"a failing of basic humanity toward another individual\".\n\nRowVaughn Wells previously told BBC News it was the race of the victim - in this case her son - and not the race of the perpetrators that mattered.\n\n\"It's not about the colour of the police officer. We don't care if it's black, white, pink, purple. What they did was wrong,\" she said.\n\nThe fallout from the violent arrest has had ripple effects throughout the city.\n\nIn addition to the arrest of the five officers directly involved, several other staff members were fired and are being investigated.\n\nA special unit that was designed to fight crime in Memphis has been disbanded.\n\nThe former officers are currently out on bail, with the next hearing scheduled on 1 May.\n\nThey face up to 60 years in prison if convicted of murder.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Washing fruit with bottled water: How one family is dealing with the aftermath\n\nFor East Palestine residents John and Lisa Hamner, life as they knew it came to a screeching, flaming halt at 8:55 pm on 3 February.\n\nIt was that day that a toxin-laden train derailed just metres from their successful garbage truck business, which they had grown from five customers to more than 7,000 over an 18-year period in and around this close-knit Ohio town.\n\n\"It's totally wrecked our life,\" he told the BBC, choking back tears in the parking lot of his business, where the stench of chemicals and sulphur from the derailment remains powerful.\n\n\"I'm at the point now where I want out of here,\" he added. \"We're going to relocate. We can't do it no more.\"\n\nAfter the derailment, emergency crews performed a controlled release of vinyl chloride from five railcars that were at risk of exploding.\n\nMr Hamner's eyes are red and swollen, which he credits to the lingering physical impact of the chemicals spilled in East Palestine.\n\nBut he and his wife tell the BBC that their main wounds are unseen and psychological.\n\n\"I'm losing so much sleep. I've already been to the doctor twice, and I'm taking anxiety pills,\" he said.\n\n\"This is 10 times worse than just losing my livelihood. We built this business.\"\n\nThe Hamners have lost business at their trucking company due to the crash\n\nLike her husband, Mrs Hamner said she's spent sleepless nights worrying about their business, their 10 employees and the town where she's spent 20 years of her life.\n\nAlready, several dozen of their long-standing customers have cancelled their collection services and said they plan to leave East Palestine.\n\n\"I'm afraid for the people that live here,\" she says. \"I don't know anybody who can sleep, because it's on so many fronts. It's your business, it's your health, and it's the health of your friends.\"\n\nStanding on a mound of dirt within sight of the charred remains of several railway cars from the derailment, Mr Hamner likened the incident to Chernobyl, an April 1986 nuclear accident in then-Soviet Ukraine.\n\nHe's not alone. Over the course of two days in East Palestine, several residents told the BBC that they consider the derailment a seminal moment in the town's history. At least for the foreseeable future, their lives will be measured by what happened before the 3 February disaster and what took place after.\n\nFederal and local officials have advised residents to drink bottled water. The authorities said it was safe for people to return to the town a couple days after the derailment, though environmental experts have voiced scepticism.\n\nSufficient exposure to the chemicals released in the crash - which include vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate - can result in symptoms from nausea to cancer.\n\n\"For this town, this is a Pearl Harbor, or a 9/11. One of those things that people always talk about,\" said coffee shop owner Ben Ratner.\n\nIn Mr Ratner's case, he said the stress and trauma has manifested itself in an \"interesting mix\" of emotions and sensations.\n\nHe now visibly bristles at the once-routine sound of trains passing by, adding that they seem louder and more abrasive than they had in the past.\n\nHe described friends in East Palestine as easily panicked now and constantly on alert, feelings that he compared to post-traumatic stress.\n\n\"We need to start looking at the emotional and psychological long-term impact,\" he said.\n\n\"People are concerned when they hear trains, or when they think of their kids going outside, or letting their dog outside and having it accidentally drink contaminated water… it's serious.\"\n\nMr Ratner added that local children - after years of Covid-19 disruptions - now have to contend with another traumatic event upending their lives.\n\n\"This thing could go on for generations,\" he said. \"It's a lot more than gasses and the big cloud and plume of chemicals.\"\n\nThe chemicals released in the crash and the fire can have serious impacts on health, a professor of environmental health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Keeve Nachman, told the BBC.\n\n\"What's really missing is information about how people come into contact with these chemicals in the air, drinking water or through soil.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Michael Regan, visited East Palestine to oversee recovery efforts, meet local officials and reassure residents that the government stands behind them.\n\n\"We see you, we hear you, and we understand why there is anxiety,\" he said.\n\nThe agency says it has not detected harmful levels of contaminants in the air and has been testing air quality inside hundreds of homes.\n\nAdditionally, both of Ohio's Senators - JD Vance and Sherrod Brown - offered messages of support for the community, while Ohio Governor Mike DeWine requested assistance from federal authorities.\n\nWater officials have acknowledged the waterways of the Ohio River are contaminated but they say drinking water supplies are not affected.\n\nIn a letter, Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern - the company that operated the derailed train - acknowledged that residents are tired, worried and left with \"questions without answers\".\n\nBut the train company's decision not to attend a question-and-answer session with residents on Wednesday, saying it was concerned about safety, has increased local anger at its response.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSome residents believe there is little that can be said to overcome the mistrust and anger that still hovers over the town.\n\nSeveral reported that they had yet to hear from inspectors or officials nearly a fortnight after the derailment.\n\n\"Nobody has been down to ask us anything. Nobody has checked anything. Nothing,\" said Kim Hancock, who lives just over one mile (1.6 km) from the derailment site.\n\n\"How can they tell me that all is safe? There's no way,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm not dumb. I watched the smoke cloud come over my house.\"\n\nWhat questions do you have about the derailment and spill?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Nicola Bulley vanished on a riverside dog walk in Lancashire on 27 January\n\nThe prime minister has said he was \"concerned that private information was put into the public domain\" by police investigating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley.\n\nRishi Sunak told broadcasters that he was \"pleased the police are looking at how that happened\".\n\n\"The focus must be on trying to find her,\" he added.\n\nLancashire Police was criticised for making her struggles with alcohol and the menopause public.\n\nSpeaking to Times Radio, Sir Keir Starmer - the leader of the Labour Party and former director of public prosecutions - said he was \"very surprised to see what the police had put out there\".\n\n\"I was not sure why that degree of personal information was necessary,\" he added.\n\nThe home secretary has also raised concerns with police after they revealed personal information about the missing mother of two.\n\nRishi Sunak said his thoughts were with Ms Bulley's friends and family\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Sunak said: \"Well, I agree with the Home Secretary and like her I was concerned that that private information was put into the public domain and I believe that the police are looking at how that happened in the investigation.\n\n\"Obviously my thoughts are with Nicola's friends and family.\"\n\nMs Bulley, 45, disappeared three weeks ago during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, in Lancashire, after dropping off her two daughters at school.\n\nHer phone was found still connected to a work conference call.\n\nLancashire Police said it would conduct an internal review into their investigation, which would be led by its head of crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nEarlier the information commissioner John Edwards said personal details should not be \"disclosed inappropriately\".\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman spoke on Friday to the Chief Constable of Lancashire Police, Chris Rowley, and his senior team, BBC News has been told.\n\nShe \"outlined her concerns over the disclosure of Ms Bulley's personal information and listened to the force's explanation\", a source close to her said.\n\nShe also asked to be kept updated on the investigation, the source added.\n\nPolice officers were pictured on Friday on the Shard Bridge on the River Wyre\n\nIn a statement released on Wednesday, Lancashire Police said Ms Bulley had suffered with \"some significant issues with alcohol\" and \"ongoing struggles with the menopause\".\n\nThis prompted a backlash from campaigners, MPs and legal experts, with some accusing the police of breaching her privacy.\n\nMs Bulley's family later released a statement via the police, in which they elaborated on her health, saying she had suffered significant side effects due to the perimenopause, including \"brain fog\" and \"restless sleep\".\n\nThey also asked for speculation surrounding her private life to end and urged the public to focus on finding their \"wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother\".\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had received a referral from the force regarding the contact officers had with Ms Bulley on 10 January, 17 days before she went missing.\n\nHealth professionals also attended her address, the force said, adding no arrests were made but it was being investigated.\n\nDame Vera Baird, the former victims' commissioner for England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4's Today police had been subject to \"heavy, and in my view, totally justified, criticism\".\n\n\"If it was relevant, it needed to be in a public domain at the start, and it wasn't,\" she said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The truck was located near Bulgaria's capital, Sofia\n\nBulgarian police have made four arrests after 18 people, including a child, were found dead in an abandoned truck in Bulgaria, its government says.\n\nThe truck appeared to have been illegally transporting a group of migrants.\n\nThirty-four people, including five children, were rushed to hospitals and some were in a critical condition, the health minister said.\n\nThe people in the truck were cold, wet and had not eaten in days, he said.\n\nIt is believed to be the deadliest incident involving migrants in Bulgaria.\n\nBulgaria has long struggled to deal with large numbers of people trying to enter the European Union from Turkey.\n\nThe truck - found near the village of Lokorsko, 12 miles (20km) north-east of Bulgaria's capital, Sofia - was illegally transporting the migrants in hidden compartments in which they had suffocated, police said.\n\nHealth Minister Asen Medzhidiev described the conditions inside the truck: \"There has been a lack of oxygen to those who were locked in this truck. They were freezing, wet, they have not eaten for several days.\"\n\nPolice believe those discovered were from Afghanistan and were being illegally smuggled to Serbia.\n\nOne of the four people arrested had already been sentenced for human trafficking, Atanas Ilkov, a senior police official, told Reuters.\n\nBulgaria has faced accusations it is abusing people attempting to enter from Turkey, with asylum seekers saying they have been blocked, arrested, stripped and beaten.", "Hindu activists demonstrated against the BBC in Delhi as tax officials searched the organisation's offices\n\nIndian tax authorities say they have uncovered irregularities in the BBC's accounting books after searches at the broadcaster's offices in the country.\n\nThe statement, which does not directly name the BBC, comes after officials carried out a three-day operation at premises in Delhi and Mumbai this week.\n\nThe BBC says it will continue to co-operate. It will respond to any direct communication from tax officials.\n\nThe allegations come amid a row in India over a BBC documentary.\n\nOn Friday India's Income Tax Department said it had carried out a \"survey\" at the Delhi and Mumbai offices of a \"prominent international Media Company\" involved in \"content in Hindi, English and various other Indian languages\".\n\nIt said income and profits disclosed by the organisation's units were \"not commensurate with the scale of operations in India\".\n\nThe findings \"indicate that tax has not been paid on certain remittances which have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group\", the statement added.\n\nOn Thursday, following a three-day search of its offices in India, the BBC said: \"We will continue to co-operate with the authorities and hope matters are resolved as soon as possible.\"\n\nThe statement continued: \"We are supporting staff - some of whom have faced lengthy questioning or been required to stay overnight - and their welfare is our priority.\n\n\"Our output is back to normal and we remain committed to serving our audiences in India and beyond.\n\n\"The BBC is a trusted, independent media organisation and we stand by our colleagues and journalists who will continue to report without fear or favour.\"\n\nThe BBC's documentary, India: The Modi Question, was broadcast on television only in the UK, but the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has attempted to block people sharing it, describing it as \"hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage\" with a \"colonial mindset\".", "The High Court heard that Mr Singh \"wished to leave his estate solely down the male line\"\n\nAn 83-year-old widow who was left out of her late husband's will has won the right to get a share of his estate, which is worth more than £1m.\n\nThe High Court heard Karnail Singh left everything to his two sons and nothing to widow Harbans Kaur, his wife of 66 years, or his four daughters.\n\nThe court ruled she should get 50% of the net value of Mr Singh's estate.\n\nThe West Midlands woman's lawyer, Jessika Bhatti, said it could open the door for others in a similar position.\n\nHigh Court judge Mr Justice Peel was told Mr Singh, who died in 2021, \"wished to leave his estate solely down the male line\".\n\nBut Ms Bhatti argued it was clear \"reasonable provision\" had not been made for Mrs Kaur, whose income consisted of state benefits of about £12,000.\n\nShe said there was \"no conceivable argument\" that financial provision should not have been made for her client.\n\nShe told the PA News agency: \"I feel privileged to be a part of an injustice made right.\n\n\"My client's age, ill health and acute financial needs were the driving force behind this case, and it is with great honour that our legal system was able to overturn an injustice.\"\n\nMs Bhatti said she believed the case would set a precedent that would allow the \"most vulnerable individuals\" to seek justice without having to endure \"the unpleasantries of a trial\".\n\nThe court heard that Mrs Kaur estimated the estate, built on her late husband's clothing business, to be worth £1.9m gross, but that one of her sons put the value at £1.2m.\n\nMr Justice Peel outlined detail of his decision in a written ruling and said it was clear that \"reasonable provision\" had not been made for Mrs Kaur.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Drake and 21 Savage released Her Loss to mixed reviews\n\nDrake and 21 Savage have settled a lawsuit after using a fake Vogue cover to promote their 2022 album, Her Loss.\n\nReuters news agency said it had seen a memo sent to employees telling them the rappers had agreed to pay the magazine.\n\nThe amount hasn't been revealed but Condé Nast, Vogue's parent company, asked for $4m (£3.3m) in its 7 November lawsuit.\n\nA lawyer for Drake had no immediate comment, while a lawyer for 21 Savage declined to comment.\n\nThe internal memo said \"It was clear to us that Drake and 21 Savage leveraged Vogue's reputation for their own commercial purposes.\n\n\"In the process, [they] confused audiences who trust Vogue as the authoritative voice on fashion and culture.\"\n\nHer Loss debuted at number one in the UK.\n\nSince its release, the project has had mixed reviews and caused a stir when one track, Circo Loco, appeared to suggest singer Megan Thee Stallion had lied about being shot.\n\nMusic publication NME gave the album three stars, saying it was an \"exciting prospect marred by lazy song-writing\" and packed with \"cheap misogyny\".\n\nRolling Stone went a step further, branding the album \"a misfire\".\n\nThomas Walters thinks the stunt will have been a calculated risk by Drake and 21 Savage\n\nAt the time of the original lawsuit, Thomas Walters, who founded advertising agency Billion Dollar Boy, said the publisher wanted to defend itself because the Vogue brand is \"everything\" to the outlet.\n\n\"In an era where journalism is consistently being used for free, people aren't buying magazines any more, that is their value,\" says Mr Walters.\n\n\"From their perspective, 21 Savage and Drake have used that brand without compensating for that investment.\"\n\nBut he also said: \"When you're a star of the calibre of Drake, you know that you're willing to take the risk.\n\n\"They obviously would have seen a bigger upside here than downside.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "French energy giant EDF's UK arm returned to profit in 2022, boosted by it being able to sell the electricity it generated for a higher price.\n\nUnderlying profit was £1.12bn, compared with a loss of £21m in 2021 mainly down to improved performance from its nuclear electricity generators.\n\nBut its UK consumer energy supplier lost more than £200m in the year.\n\nEDF blamed the cost of buying energy for customers which was higher than the prices set under the energy price cap.\n\nThe Energy Price Guarantee caps the average household cost of electricity and gas at £2,500 annually.\n\nEDF, which supplies gas and electricity to about five million UK households, is 84%-owned by the French state, but will soon be fully nationalised.\n\nIt operates five nuclear power stations in the UK as well as having a large number of wind farms.\n\nUnlike generators who rely on gas to produce power, it benefited from higher electricity prices on wholesale markets in 2022 which brought it a big increase in revenues without an equivalent rise in costs.\n\nDue to competition rules, companies cannot sell their own energy at a discount to their own customers.\n\nThe company said it invested more than £2.6bn in 2022 in its UK nuclear, renewables and customer businesses.\n\nIt said it planned to invest a further £13bn in the UK in the next three years, largely at Hinkley Point C, the new nuclear power station being built in Somerset that is due to open in 2027.\n\nSome £2bn will be invested in its existing UK nuclear fleet and renewables projects.\n\nThe EDF Group posted an underlying loss for 2022 of €4.99bn (£4.44bn) blaming \"the decline in nuclear output\" and \"the impact of the exceptional regulatory measures to limit price increases for consumers in 2022\".\n\nThe latter refers to a cap on consumer prices imposed by the French government meaning EDF ended up selling the electricity at a lower price than it paid for it.\n\nThat cost the group €8.2bn in the year, it said, which effectively wiped out the €8.7bn it made from \"market price rises passed on to customers\".\n\nThe record loss of almost €5bn comes as the company gets close to becoming fully owned by the French government, with the takeover expected to be completed in May.\n\nThe figure prompted the firm's chairman and chief executive Luc Rémont, appointed in November, to focus on future prospects rather than past problems.\n\n\"Our priority right now is improving EDF's financial position, and I am confident that the benefits of the actions taken will begin to show in 2023,\" he said.\n\nAnother day, another billion-pound set of energy company profits. However, it is also another day where the full story is more complex than the headline might suggest.\n\nGlobally, EDF actually lost money last year. It had to deal with big problems with its French nuclear fleet. Here in the UK, the retail business supplying five million households also reported a loss.\n\nHowever, the electricity-generating part of the company had a great year. It benefited from the high wholesale energy price at the same time as not having the costs associated with gas.\n\nThe company says this is a story of investment. It's ploughing billions into UK nuclear power. It will also be subject to a new tax on electricity generators introduced last month.\n\nWhichever way you slice and dice the numbers, some campaigners say these profits - coming at the same time as people are struggling to pay their household bills - show the system is broken and that the government response is too little, too late.\n\nEnergy firms have seen soaring profits since oil and gas prices jumped following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nOn Thursday, British Gas owner Centrica posted a record profits haul of £3.3bn for 2022, although only £72m came from the part of its business that supplies energy to UK homes.\n\nHigh energy prices have sparked calls for firms to pay more tax as many households are being hit by high gas and electricity bills.\n\nEnergy Security Secretary Grant Shapps said energy companies need \"to do more\", and that their \"extraordinary profits\" were a sharp contrast to the high bills consumers were facing.\n\nEnergy bills are due to rise again in April, when the Energy Price Guarantee will be hiked from £2,500 a year for the typical household to £3,000.\n\nEnergy firms are also under scrutiny after it was revealed earlier this month that debt agents for British Gas had broken into vulnerable people's homes to force-fit prepayment meters. It has resulted in many more similar incidents being brought to light.\n\nIn response Ofgem, the energy watchdog, has asked all suppliers to suspend forced prepayment meter installations until the end of March.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nSheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, the chairman of one of Qatar's biggest banks, has confirmed his foundation will bid to buy Manchester United.\n\nBBC Sport understands that Ineos, owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, also officially made a bid before Friday's 22:00 GMT 'soft deadline' for proposals.\n\nBillionaire Ratcliffe had already stated his interest in buying United.\n\nThe Glazer family, who bought United in 2005, are considering selling as they \"explore strategic alternatives\".\n\nSheikh Jassim's Qatari consortium said: \"The bid plans to return the club to its former glories.\n\n\"The bid will be completely debt free via Sheikh Jassim's Nine Two Foundation, which will look to invest in the football teams, the training centre, the stadium and wider infrastructure, the fan experience and the communities the club supports.\n\n\"The vision of the bid is for Manchester United to be renowned for footballing excellence, and regarded as the greatest football club in the world.\"\n• None Manchester United potential takeover - all you need to know\n• None Listen to the latest The Devils' Advocate podcast\n\nIneos has yet to release a statement, but it is understood the proposal will emphasise that Manchester-born Ratcliffe would be \"a British custodian for the club\" and would aim to \"put the Manchester back into Manchester United\".\n\nThe Ineos group, owned by 70-year-old British billionaire Ratcliffe, has a history of investment in sport and owns French Ligue 1 club Nice and Swiss club Lausanne.\n\nIts sporting portfolio also includes high-profile sailing team Ineos Britannia - led by Sir Ben Ainslie - which is aiming to win the 2024 America's Cup for Great Britain.\n\nIneos also has a five-year partnership with Formula 1 team Mercedes and took over the British-based Team Sky in cycling in 2019.\n\nDescribed as a life-long Manchester United fan, Sheikh Jassim is chairman of Qatari bank QIB and the son of a former prime minister of Qatar.\n\nHis consortium did not provide any details on the amount they proposed to purchase the club for.\n\nThere are also expected to be at least two offers for United from the United States, while there have been suggestions of interest from Saudi Arabia.\n\nThat means there could be up to five parties trying to negotiate a full sale, with others looking to make a smaller investment in return for a partial stake in the 20-time English league champions.\n\nParis St-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi is set to be a key figure in any Qatari ownership bid, even if he could have no direct involvement in the club.\n\nQatar Sports Investment (QSI), headed by Al-Khelaifi, had been looking at the potential for taking a smaller stake in a Premier League club.\n\nHowever, because of Uefa rules that prevent prevent multi-club ownership, any Qatari bid to buy United in its entirety would have to come through private individuals or a different organisation.\n\nThe prospect of Qatari investment in a Premier League club - and two major European teams being owned by the Gulf country - has raised concerns among human rights and LGBTQ+ groups.\n\nDiscussion around dual ownership of football clubs and a potential conflict of interest between a potential Qatari purchase of Manchester United and their current ownership of PSG is being met quizzically in the Gulf state.\n\nThey estimate half of the clubs in the Premier League are involved in dual ownership of one type or another.\n\nManchester City's presence in the City Football Group is one example. West Ham part-owner Daniel Kretinsky is also president of Sparta Prague who, like the Hammers, were in the Europa League last season.\n\nThey also note Ratcliffe's intention to buy United and there is no sign of him relinquishing control at French club Nice, who are four points off a European qualification slot.\n\nIn addition, RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg have already been cleared by Uefa to enter the same European competitions.\n\nGiven PSG chairman Nasser al-Khelaifi is also chairman of the European Clubs' Association, which has been working increasingly closely with Uefa, it is fair to assume any potential problem areas have been ironed out.\n\nNevertheless, sources are insistent this bid is totally separate from the ownership of PSG. It is also being stressed the bid is indicative. The data made available in United's 'data room' has been disappointing, according to sources.\n\nNow the full detail around the financial state of the Old Trafford club has to be made available.\n\nIt is being regarded as the start of the process rather than the end but, with plans also in place to invest in the wider Trafford area, Sheikh Jassim is serious in his desire to take the club out of the Glazer family's control for the first time since 2005.\n\nHe is a United fan, who has been to games. He had the opportunity to get involved in the bidding for Chelsea - which sold for £4.25bn last year - but didn't. He views this as an opportunity he couldn't resist.\n\nHuman rights group Fair Square wrote to Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin on Thursday, copying in Premier League chief Richard Masters, \"to highlight several issues of serious concern\" after reports that \"entities linked to the Qatari government are proposing a bid that would enable them to take a controlling stake in Manchester United\".\n\nThe letter continues: \"In line with Uefa's rules aimed at protecting the integrity of its competitions, we would urge Uefa to outline a clear public position prohibiting any takeover of this nature.\n\n\"No consortium of Qatari investors capable of such an acquisition would be able to convincingly demonstrate their independence from the Qatari state.\"\n\nManchester United LGBTQ+ fan group Rainbow Devils said on Friday: \"Rainbow Devils believe any bidder which seeks to buy Manchester United must commit to making football a sport for everyone, including LGBTQ+ supporters, players and staff.\n\n\"We therefore have deep concern over some of the bids that are being made. We are watching the current process closely with this in mind.\"\n\nA precedent for the Premier League would be the Saudi Arabian-backed £305m takeover of Newcastle United in 2021, which was only completed once the league received \"legally binding assurances\" that the Saudi state would not control the club.\n\nUefa has declined to comment but recently expressed concern about the potential \"material threat\" of multi-club ownership to the integrity of club competitions.\n\nHowever, in 2017 Uefa did allow RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig to play in the Champions League, despite both clubs being closely associated with drinks giant Red Bull.\n\nHow much would United cost?\n\nLast year Chelsea were sold for £4.25bn to a consortium led by American investor Todd Boehly and football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes United would be worth in the region of £5bn.\n\n\"We have seen United's share price more than double over the course of the last few months since the Glazers made the announcement,\" Maguire told BBC News.\n\n\"Presently the shares are valued at about £3.8bn, you add on the debts and we're probably coming to four-and-a-half. You need to persuade people to sell, so I think the asking price if you ask the Glazers it will be seven or eight billion. But I think the offers are more likely to be in the region of five or just over five.\n\n\"Manchester United claim to have 1.1bn fans around the world and yet if you work out their revenues it comes to 500 million, so they are affectively getting 50p per fan per year.\n\n\"You have only got to double that, if you can make it £1 per fan per year, all of a sudden Man Utd become a billion pound a year business, so long as you keep control of costs.\n\n\"By costs we really mean player wages, then United go from a business that is broadly breaking even into one which is making spectacular profits and large returns for investors.\"\n\nWhat happens now?\n\nNeither the the US-based Raine Group, which has been put in charge of finding new owners or investors, nor Manchester United are likely to make a formal statement once the deadline is passed.\n\nIt will be for the Glazer family to decide whether to proceed with a full sale. Co-chairmen Joel and Avi Glazer have always been viewed as the members of the family most interested in retaining some interest.\n\nThe initial aim had been to conclude a deal by the end of March, but confidence has been strong from the outset that it would certainly be done by the end of the season.\n\nNo United official has spoken about the process publicly but precedence dictates chief executive Richard Arnold will take questions from investors when the club announces its second quarter results at some point next month.\n• None Our coverage of Manchester United is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything United - go straight to all the best content", "Elon Musk's electric car maker Tesla has denied firing employees in response to a group of workers trying to form a union in New York state.\n\nThe company said it had laid off 27 staff for \"poor performance\" and that they \"were identified... well before the union campaign was announced\".\n\nOrganisers in the city of Buffalo alleged staff were sacked a day after the union went public with its plans.\n\nThey accused Tesla of firing more than 30 people to try to quash the campaign.\n\nTesla said in a blog post that the decision to lay off the workers, who were part of a 675-strong Autopilot labelling team, had been made on 3 February.\n\nThe firm said it only learned in hindsight that one of the 27 impacted employees \"officially identified as part of the union campaign\".\n\n\"The employees let go as part of this process received prior feedback on their poor performance from their managers over the course of the review period. Despite feedback, they did not demonstrate sufficient improvement,\" it added.\n\nMr Musk has been outspoken about his opposition to unions in the past.\n\n\"I strongly feel this is in retaliation to the committee announcement and it's shameful,\" said Arian Berek, a fired member of the union's organising committee.\n\nIn the complaint filed with government labour officials, the union cited 18 people it said the company had fired \"in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity\".\n\nOrganisers said, based on a company chat, they believed more people had been fired and expected to add names to the complaint. They said they were still confirming how many of those fired had been directly involved in the campaign or had just indicated their support.\n\nThe Buffalo facility employs about 2,000 people, according to organisers from Tesla Workers United, which is backed by the same union that launched organising efforts at Starbucks.\n\nThe group is now seeking support from Tesla workers in Buffalo to hold a vote about joining a union. It sent a letter to the company on Tuesday outlining its plans and asking leaders to agree to ground rules for a \"fair\" election.\n\nA day later, campaigners said, Tesla fired more than 30 workers and sent an email informing staff of a policy that bars recording of workplace conversations without the consent of all parties.\n\nOrganisers said the rule violated their rights under federal and state laws.\n\nThe National Labor Relations Board has previously found that Tesla violated labour rules during an organising effort at its car manufacturing plant in California.\n\n\"We're angry. This won't slow us down. This won't stop us. They want us to be scared, but I think they just started a stampede,\" said Sara Costantino, current Tesla employee and organising committee member.", "Activists staged said they went to to the Tyburn site at about 04:00 BST\n\nA judge sentencing seven Just Stop Oil protesters has praised their \"admirable aims\" after they disrupted operations at an Esso fuel terminal in Birmingham.\n\nThe site in Tyburn was one of several targeted around the UK last April.\n\nThe protesters were told by District Judge Graham Wilkinson at Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court he was moved by their \"deeply emotive\" explanations.\n\nBut he said: \"If good people with the right motivation do the wrong thing it can never make that wrong thing right.\"\n\nThe defendants were found guilty on Thursday of trespassing at the Esso site in Wood Lane on 3 April. They refused to leave while other group members sat in front of security barriers intending to obstruct or disrupt activity.\n\nThey were each given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay varying costs to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).\n\nNo evidence was offered by the CPS against two women and their charges were dropped.\n\nSentencing them, Mr Wilkinson said it was \"abundantly clear\" they were good people and it had been \"a pleasure throughout\" to deal with them.\n\nA specialist police team removed protesters from Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion from the roof of a tanker\n\n\"Your aims are to slow or even stop the advance of global warming and therefore to preserve the planet not just for generations to come but for existing generations,\" he said.\n\n\"No-one can therefore criticise your motivations and indeed each of you has spoken individually about your own personal experiences, motivations and actions.\n\n\"Many of your explanations for your actions were deeply emotive and I am sure all listening were moved by them, I know I was.\"\n\nHe noted \"substantial mitigation\" in relation to their actions, but added that the wrong thing cannot be made right, even if done by good people with the right motivation.\n\nThe protest lasted several hours at the Birmingham depot\n\nTheir protest was part of a joint effort by Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion which saw 10 \"critical\" sites being blocked including in London, Southampton, Essex, Warwickshire and Staffordshire.\n\nDozens were arrested and the disruption led to four depots temporarily stopping operations.\n\nThe group said its supporters were demanding the government halt licences and consents for any new fossil fuel projects in the UK.\n\nSince Just Stop Oil started its campaign in February last year, it said more than 2,000 people had been arrested.\n\nAfter Thursday's hearing the group said it was continuing with its cause, adding: \"We are going to stop new fossil fuel projects whether those in power agree or not.\"\n\nThe Judicial Office said Just Stop Oil had issued a misleading account of what the judge had said and shared the full wording of his sentencing remarks with the BBC.\n\nThe comments of District Judge Graham Wilkinson in full:\n\n\"As a judge my overriding duty is always to uphold the law without fear or favour.\n\n\"This is not a court of morals, it is a court of law, if I allow my own moral compass or political beliefs to influence my decisions and ignore the law where it is convenient to me to do so then the court becomes one where the rule of law no longer applies.\n\n\"If judges across the criminal justice system did the same then there would be no consistency and no respect for the law, decisions based on the personal beliefs of members of the judiciary cannot be consistent with the rule of law and the ideal that each law will apply to all equally.\n\n\"Trust in the rule of law is an essential ingredient of society and it will erode swiftly if judges make politically or morally-motivated decisions that do not accord with established legal principles. Indeed I would become the self-appointed sheriff if I acted in such a way.\n\n\"It is abundantly clear that you are all good people, intelligent and articulate and you have been a pleasure throughout to deal with.\n\n\"It is unarguable that manmade global warming is real and that we are facing a climate crisis. That is accepted and recognised by the scientific community and most governments (including our own).\n\n\"Your aims are to slow or even stop the advance of global warming and therefore to preserve the planet not just for generations to come but for existing generations.\n\n\"No-one can therefore criticise your motivations and indeed each of you has spoken individually about your own personal experiences, motivations and actions. Many of your explanations for your actions were deeply emotive and I am sure all listening were moved by them, I know I was.\n\n\"In simple terms you are good people with admirable aims. However, if good people with the right motivation do the wrong thing it can never make that wrong thing right, it can only ever act as substantial mitigation.\"\n\nThe defendants who were all convicted of trespass and given a 12-month conditional discharge:\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zelensky says peace deal would 'leave Ukraine weaker as a state'\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out giving up any of his country's territory in a potential peace deal with Russia.\n\nIn a BBC interview to mark a year since Russia's full-scale invasion, he warned conceding land would mean Russia could \"keep coming back\", while Western weapons would bring peace closer.\n\nMr Zelensky also said a predicted spring offensive had already begun.\n\n\"Russian attacks are already happening from several directions,\" he said.\n\nHe does, however, believe Ukraine's forces can keep resisting Russia's advance until they are able to launch a counter-offensive - although he repeated his calls for more military aid from the West.\n\n\"Of course, modern weapons speed up peace. Weapons are the only language Russia understands,\" Mr Zelensky told the BBC.\n\nHe met UK and EU leaders last week in a bid to bolster international support and to ask for modern arms to defend his country. When Ukraine's president asked for modern fighter jets, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said \"nothing is off the table\".\n\nBut Kyiv has become increasingly frustrated with the speed with which Western weapons have arrived. Deliveries of battle tanks - promised last month by a swathe of Western countries, including Germany, the US and the UK - are still thought to be weeks away from arriving on the battlefield.\n\nPresident Zelensky also addressed a threat by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko to wage war alongside Russian troops from his territory if a single Ukrainian soldier crossed the border.\n\n\"I hope [Belarus] won't join [the war],\" he said. \"If it does, we will fight and we will survive.\" Allowing Russia to use Belarus as a staging post for an attack again would be a \"huge mistake\", he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRussian forces launched part of their full-scale invasion from Belarus 12 months ago. They drove south towards Ukraine's capital Kyiv but were fought back and made to retreat within weeks, after suffering heavy casualties.\n\nWhen asked if he was surprised by Russia's tactics in the war, Mr Zelensky described them as \"valueless\".\n\n\"The way they destroyed everything. If their soldiers received [and carried out] those orders, that means they share those same values.\"\n\nUkrainian data released this week suggested Russian troops in Ukraine were dying in greater numbers this month than at any time since the first week of their invasion. The figures cannot be verified, but the UK's Ministry of Defence said the trends were \"likely accurate\".\n\n\"Today, our survival is our unity,\" said Mr Zelensky on how he thought the war will end. \"I believe Ukraine is fighting for its survival.\" His country was moving towards Europe economically, as well as through its values, he said.\n\n\"We chose this path. We want security guarantees. Any territorial compromises would make us weaker as a state.\"\n\n\"It's not about compromise itself,\" he said. \"Why would we be afraid of that? We have millions of compromises in life every day.\n\n\"The question is with whom? With Putin? No. Because there's no trust. Dialogue with him? No. Because there's no trust.\"", "Faten Al Yousifi gave birth to her baby girl 10 hours after she was pulled out from the rubble\n\nA Yemeni mother who fled the war in her home country has given birth to a baby girl ten hours after being rescued from her earthquake-hit home in Turkey.\n\nFaten Al Yousifi, who was 39 weeks pregnant, had decorated her baby's nursery and had a birth bag ready to go when the quake struck her flat in Malatya, just after 4am last Monday.\n\nAfter ten hours of crouching - dazed, dehydrated, and fearing for the safety of her unborn child - she was pulled from the rubble by a family friend, Hisham, and rescue workers.\n\n\"I did not believe I was still alive,\" Faten told the BBC via WhatsApp on Thursday.\n\nShe was rushed to the hospital where the doctors carried out a Caesarean section to deliver her baby girl Loujain, meaning \"silver\" in Arabic.\n\nHisham returned to rescue Faten's husband, and was shocked to see a nearby building had collapsed on top of their flats.\n\nFaten's husband, 29-year-old Burhan Al Alimi, had died. His body was recovered three days later. He was in his final year of chemical engineering studies at Inonu University in Malatya.\n\nLike any new mother, Faten is sleep deprived and trying to adjust to her newborn's feeding and sleep routines.\n\n\"The beginning was very difficult, especially with the circumstances,\" she said.\n\nStill, she is grateful. \"I thank everyone who helped me and stood with me,\" she said. \"I had a family when mine wasn't there.\"\n\n\"We imagined a beautiful life for our daughter,\" she added. \"But God's will is above everything, everywhere. No one knows where the end will be.\"\n\nSince Loujain's arrival, there has been an outpouring of love and support from fellow earthquake survivors in both Yemeni and Turkish communities.\n\nFaten has moved in with a friend in Kocaeli, closer to Istanbul. And Yemen's ambassador to Turkey, Muhammad Tariq, has visited the baby.\n\nFaten and her husband moved to Turkey after the Iranian-backed Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014.\n\nSince the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen began in March 2015, the Yemeni community in Turkey has increased to more than 20,000.\n\nYet even before the war, Yemenis were emigrating to Turkey for studies and work following the Arab Spring-inspired protests in 2011.\n\nMuhammad Amer, president of the Yemeni Students Union in Turkey, said there were now more than 8,000 Yemeni students in the country.\n\nSo far, he said eight Yemenis had been confirmed dead across Gaziantep, Hatay, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Malatya and Iskenderun.\n\nYemeni doctor Mohammed Al-Ara'awi, who arrived Turkey before the war, said he lost his wife, 16-year-old son and young daughter.\n\nWhen the quake hit, he was in Adana city, but his family were in Hatay. After desperately trying to reach neighbours, he travelled to Hatay and was devastated to learn about his family trapped under the rubble.\n\n\"Waiting on the rubble was like the Yemeni war that people lived through,\" he said from Istanbul.\n\nIdris Aqlan, a 25-year-old student at Gaziantep University, was visiting Istanbul when the earthquake hit. He told the BBC that two Turkish friends died.\n\n\"I lived through many difficult situations in Yemen because of the war, but this one was much more difficult,\" he said.\n\nThe sudden nature of the earthquake did not give people time to prepare, he explained. In war, he said, at least there is time to hide in cellars, in the desert, or in the mountains.\n\nAdditional reporting by Fuad Rajeh and Nabila Saeed in Turkey", "Online estate agent Purplebricks is up for sale after revealing it expects to lose between £15-£20m this year.\n\nIt said the potential of the group may be better realised under an \"alternative ownership structure\".\n\nAfter being founded in 2012 the firm had dazzling early success but has seen its share price fall 98% from its heights.\n\nThe company said it believed that Purplebricks' business and brand has significant value.\n\nIt had previously indicated that losses this year would be up to £10m, but will now in fact be bigger, because a strategy to focus on the most profitable regions of the country proved more expensive than expected.\n\nIt cut revenue expectations for the year by £7.5m, to £60-£65m.\n\nIt said it is not in talks with any potential buyer \"and is not in receipt of any approach with regard to a possible offer\".\n\nIt has appointed Zeus Capital to assist with a strategic review and said the outcome \"may or may not result in a sale of the company\".\n\nPurplebricks was founded by brothers Michael and Kenny Bruce, who grew up on a council estate in Larne, County Antrim.\n\nThe idea was to create a lower-cost, more flexible estate agent by charging a flat rate to market a property.\n\nThe company grew quickly and saw early success after listing on secondary market AIM in 2014.\n\nIts share price climbed to 514.5p in August 2017 but soon fell, following a BBC Watchdog investigation into allegations that it had made misleading claims to customers.\n\nOn the back of its UK success it had expanded rapidly overseas, opening in Australia in 2016, and in the US and Canada in 2017, but saw losses accelerate as it did so.\n\nIt pulled out of Australia and the US after a few years and Michael Bruce left the company in 2019.\n\nLast year one of its top 10 shareholders, Lecram Holdings, called for the removal of chairman Paul Pindar.\n\nWhile that was rejected by shareholders, almost a third did vote in favour of his removal, forcing Purplebricks to acknowledge \"the level of feeling among investors\".\n\nIn 2022 the company replaced its finance chief after just nine months in the role.", "Model Kate Moss was among those paying tribute to Dame Vivienne Westwood at Southwark Cathedral\n\nVictoria Beckham and Kate Moss were among the famous faces attending a memorial service for Dame Vivienne Westwood on Thursday in London.\n\nThe legendary fashion designer and environmental activist died in December aged 81.\n\nBritish Vogue editor Edward Enninful, rapper Stormzy and actress Helena Bonham Carter were also at the service.\n\nMany dressed in black, but others opted for more colourful outfits in Dame Vivienne's memory.\n\nHere are a selection of photos from Thursday's service at Southwark Cathedral.\n\nActress Helena Bonham Carter (left) and fashion designer and Spice Girl Victoria Beckham (right)\n\nKate Moss (right) with her daughter Lila Grace Moss Hack\n\nActress Vanessa Redgrave (right) with daughter and fellow actress Joely Richardson\n\nGame of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie with fashion designer Giles Deacon, her partner", "The £2 cap on bus fares in England has been extended for three months following warnings that hundreds of services could be cut if it ended.\n\nThe cap applies to more than 130 bus operators outside London.\n\nIt had been due to expire on 31 March, but has been extended until the end of June.\n\nBus operators have been struggling to maintain service levels in the face of rising costs and passenger numbers not recovering to pre-pandemic levels.\n\nThe cap was introduced partly as a cost of living measure but is also meant to encourage people back on to buses.\n\n\"Getting more people onto reliable and affordable buses will strengthen communities and help grow the economy,\" said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.\n\nUp to 15% of services could have been scrapped without further funding, the Confederation of Passenger Transport, which represents bus and coach firms, said earlier this month.\n\nDuring the pandemic the government provided £2bn to support bus firms, who provide the most popular form of public transport in England.\n\nIt said the extension for bus fares would be backed by up to £75m in funding.\n\nThe cities of Manchester, Liverpool and West Yorkshire - all of which have Labour mayors - have already introduced £2 caps as part of longer-term schemes.\n\nThe government said a further £80m would be made available to support critical bus services in England as part of a wider package.\n\n\"We're providing £155m to help passengers save money on fares, get more people on the bus and protect vital bus routes - helping with the cost of living and enabling people to get where they need to in an affordable and convenient way,\" said Transport Secretary Mark Harper.\n\nThe Campaign for Better Transport welcomed the announcement, saying the government should market the scheme so as to attract new people on to buses.\n\n\"However, another extension only gets us so far. We are urging government to implement long-term funding reform to avoid more uncertainty and give everyone access to affordable and reliable bus services,\" said Paul Tuohy from the campaign.\n\nEmily Turner, who went viral on social media after travelling from London to Edinburgh using £2 bus tickets, said the extension would help a lot of people.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Emily Turner This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I don't think this is a fix for many transport problems in this country, but it's definitely a start,\" Emily told the BBC.\n\nThe transport watchdog Transport Focus said the funding would help many people who are struggling with rising living costs.\n\nInflation - the rate at which prices rise - is currently near a 40-year high, but has eased in recent months.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics said the £2 fare cap was a contributing factor in inflation slowing down in January.", "Damage from Cyclone Gabrielle can be seen in Hawke's Bay, one of the hardest hit areas\n\nNew Zealand's prime minister says he expects there to be more deaths from a violent storm which killed eight people and cut off hundreds of communities.\n\nMore than 4,500 people have yet to be contacted after Cyclone Gabrielle hit on Monday, causing significant flooding and landslides across the North Island.\n\nMany cities and towns are also without power or clean drinking water.\n\nA national state of emergency has been declared, only the third in New Zealand's history.\n\n\"This is undoubtedly the biggest natural disaster that we've seen probably this century,\" Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said.\n\nThe storm damaged hundreds of mobile phone masts, and Mr Hipkins said many of the thousands of uncontactable people are likely to be found alive and well. But he warned that people need to \"brace themselves\" for more fatalities.\n\nSome 10,000 people are also estimated to be displaced.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Cyclone Gabrielle: Trapped workers use fridge and mattress to navigate floods\n\nOne of the confirmed deaths was a two-year-old girl, whose family watched her being swept away in flood waters.\n\nElla Louise Collins, her husband and their two children were trapped in their one-storey home in Hawke's Bay, one of the hardest hit areas.\n\n\"The water was about 10cm (4in) from the ceiling in our house and rose extremely quickly and violently,\" she wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, quoted by the AFP news agency.\n\nThey tried to reach a neighbour's roof for safety, but were stopped by what Ms Collins called \"a sudden torrent of water which almost drowned us all\".\n\nThe water swept away her daughter Ivy, who drowned.\n\nIn other heart-breaking stories, rugby league star Issac Luke lost his father George, who was killed by a landslide on the North Island earlier this week.\n\nOne woman, Rachel Greene, paid a moving tribute to her mother Marie, whose body was found in the roof cavity of her cottage by her landlord's son after the cyclone.\n\nIt took Rachel four days to find out what had happened, after multiple phone calls to Marie went to voicemail.\n\n\"I want everyone to know what an amazing person she was and how loved she was,\" Rachel told New Zealand news outlet Stuff.co.nz.\n\nCyclone Gabrielle is estimated to have affected at least a third of the New Zealand's population of five million.\n\nThe storm's damage has been most extensive in coastal communities on the far north and east coast of the North Island - with areas like Hawke's Bay, Coromandel and Northland among the worst hit.\n\nThe situation in Hawke's Bay, a popular tourist destination with some remote towns, has been of particular concern to authorities.\n\nOn Friday, some 62,000 homes nationwide were still without power.\n\nNew Zealand announced a national state of emergency on Tuesday, which allows it to streamline its response to the disaster.\n\nThe country has only previously declared a national state of emergency on two occasions - during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.\n\nNew Zealand's climate minister has attributed the scale of the disaster to climate change.\n\nCyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand's North Island just two weeks after record downpours and flooding in the same region. Four people died in those floods.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"It's a natural part of the evolution of a country\", says Hugh Jackman\n\nAustralian actor Hugh Jackman says he thinks it is inevitable that Australia will become a republic in the future.\n\nSpeaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Jackman said a break with the UK's Royal Family would be \"a natural part of evolution\".\n\nBut the X Men star added that he held \"no ill will\" towards King Charles and wished the family \"all the best\".\n\nOn the show, he also discussed therapy, his relationship with his children, and his 6,000-calorie-a-day diet.\n\nThe Australian actor's parents are both from the UK and he recalls celebrating royal occasions as a child.\n\n\"My father made us stop doing whatever we could in 1981 to watch the wedding of Lady Di and Prince Charles,\" he told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.\n\n\"We had Champagne... there was no bunting at our house but if my dad could have found it there would have been.\"\n\nDespite believing that Australia would become a republic, the 54-year-old said he appreciated and admired the work of the Royal Family.\n\n\"I've met the Queen on several occasions, the Queen Mother and Prince Charles... and I see and feel a real genuine desire to be of service to the public,\" he said.\n\nHugh Jackman (left) was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in in The Son\n\nIn Jackman's latest film, The Son, he plays a lawyer with a teenage son from a previous marriage who's suffering from depression.\n\nThe movie explores absentee parenting and the effects of divorce on children, as well as adolescent mental illness.\n\n\"This was a part I knew how to play,\" said Jackman, who received a Golden Globe nomination for his role.\n\n\"I understood that battle of someone who's probably doing too many things at once but feeling that they've got everything under control and they can handle everything,\" he added.\n\n\"It's a little similar to me.\"\n\nJackman opened up about his experience of having therapy, saying it had \"radically\" changed how he sees himself.\n\nHe said he was driven by a \"perfectionist\" streak which made him \"able to do things\" but he recognised how it had also been \"limiting\".\n\n\"I've realised also through this movie that being vulnerable is actually fine. It's something that everyone relates to. And even my children, I'm more vulnerable with them,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hugh Jackman: I want to score against Wrexham\n\nHe also said he believed it was time a superhero movie won an Oscar, and he believed the genre was overlooked for nominations in the same way as comedy films.\n\nHe also addressed his upcoming role in superhero movie Deadpool 3 alongside Ryan Reynolds.\n\nAhead of filming, he said he was eating 6,000 calories a day and training every day of the week.\n\n\"It's harder when you're 54, let me just say that,\" he joked.", "UK shop sales volumes unexpectedly rose in January, despite higher living costs putting pressure on households, official figures show.\n\nSales rose by 0.5% in January, as shoppers sought to take advantage of post-Christmas discounts, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.\n\nIt comes after a fall in sales in December.\n\nBut one retail analyst warned it could be \"a last hurrah\" for consumers, as the cost of living remains high.\n\nLisa Hooker from PwC said that it was \"hard to see\" how the retail sector could keep up the strong momentum after the seasonal discounts end.\n\nShe added that things could get tougher for consumers, as inflation bites and incomes struggle to keep up.\n\nPrices have been rising sharply since last year, mainly due to soaring energy costs, which has put pressure on millions of households.\n\nWhile the rate of inflation is starting to ease, at 10.1% it remains close to a 40-year high.\n\nOnline shops were boosted by January sales promotions, the ONS said.\n\nBut food store sales fell, as shoppers bought less due to the rising cost of living and high food prices.\n\nCompared with January last year, overall sales volumes dropped by 5.1%.\n\nAnd taken as a whole, retail sales volumes are still lower than pre-pandemic levels.\n\nThe ONS also said December's fall in retail sales was steeper than previously estimated, as consumers cut spending.\n\n\"After December's steep fall, retail sales picked up slightly in January, although the general trend remains one of decline,\" said Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS.\n\nFuel sales rose, as prices continued to fall at the pumps, while discounting helped boost sales for online retailers as well as jewellers, cosmetics stores and carpet and furnishing shops, Mr Morgan said.\n\n\"However, after four months of consecutive growth, clothing store sales fell back sharply,\" he added.\n\n\"Food store sales dipped again with consumers reporting they were selecting lower-priced goods as the increased cost of living and higher food prices continue to bite.\"\n\nRetail analysts said January's figures showed people had been keen to make the most of sales following the festive period.\n\n\"When your money isn't stretching as far as it did, it makes sense to wait for the sales you know are coming,\" said Danni Hewson from AJ Bell.\n\n\"Many families decided to cut back on their Christmas gift giving and there will also be plenty of people who chose to give cash with the expectation that their children or other family members could treat themselves to the things they really wanted at a price that looked much nicer.\"\n\nHowever, Ms Hewson warned that retailers will view the figures with \"mixed emotions\", as despite the rise in sales, selling items at a discount does little to bolster margins.\n\nLisa Hooker from PwC added that the outlook for the sector was tough.\n\n\"For retailers, surviving the next six months will be critical to their success in the year ahead.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nErik ten Hag said Manchester United \"have a lot of character and determination\" after his side contested a thrilling first-leg draw at Barcelona to leave their Europa League play-off tie finely poised.\n\nHaving previously met in two Champions League finals - both of which Barca won - the sides are trying to reach those heady heights again.\n\nThis encounter at the Nou Camp in Europe's secondary competition was another step on that road back to the top.\n\nXavi's men grabbed the opener when Marcos Alonso headed in at the back post from Raphinha's corner, but United responded immediately through the in-form Marcus Rashford as he slipped in a finish at the near post.\n\nThey showed their resilience to turn the game around as Rashford's cross was then turned into his own net by Barcelona defender Jules Kounde.\n\nBut United were unable to hold on as ex-Leeds winger Raphinha's cross from wide on the right sailed all the way into the net.\n\nBarca, though, almost snatched a late victory when Casemiro's attempted clearance struck his own post, but little separated the sides heading into next Thursday's second leg.\n\nUnited manager Ten Hag told BT Sport: \"I think it was a great game. Two attacking teams, I think it was a Champions League game, even more than that, so I really enjoyed the game. In the end (it finished) 2-2, and we have to finish it in Old Trafford.\n\n\"Of course I will credit Rashford definitely because he is in great form, but the whole team did well. I think it was a really good team performance.\n\n\"We have a lot of character and determination in this team. The belief we had to score the first goal and the meaning of the first goal is so important and that's what we didn't do.\"\n• None Follow reaction to Barcelona v Manchester United and Thursday's other Europa League games\n\nAll to play for in pivotal week\n\nThe two fallen giants of European football are rebuilding their reputations this season.\n\nThey meet at this juncture after Barca went out of the Champions League group stage for the second consecutive season, while United's second-placed finish in their Europa League group provided this extra play-off to navigate.\n\nRed Devils boss Ten Hag said both sides \"belong in the Champions League\" - which will be the key priority come the end of the campaign - but progression from this knockout tie will see them reach the last 16 of the Europa League.\n\nIt was a stunning spectacle which ebbed and flowed, but the 90 minutes provided no indication as to which side will go through, setting up a fascinating return leg.\n\nUnited suffered a 3-0 defeat on their last visit to Barcelona under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2019, but the measure of their recent revival showed as they went toe-to-toe this time and almost came away with a famous victory.\n\nAn early spell of pressure saw Robert Lewandowski's powerful drive pushed out by David de Gea and Alonso curled a free-kick over.\n\nBut United grew into the game and their first clear-cut opportunity fell to Wout Weghorst as the Dutchman latched onto Bruno Fernandes' through-ball but his low shot was kept out by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.\n\nIt was the sort of chance visiting teams dream of getting at the Nou Camp and the German goalkeeper then made a superb, full-stretch save to stop Rashford's curling effort.\n\nThe La Liga leaders went ahead on 50 minutes when Alonso headed in, but United levelled just two minutes later when Rashford smashed in his 22nd goal of a superb campaign, matching his best scoring tally for the club.\n\nThe England forward also played a major part in the 59th-minute second goal, skipping past his marker and delivering a dangerous cross that France defender Kounde bundled into his own net.\n\nRaphinha's fortunate strike, which seemed more of a cross intended for Lewandowski, made it honours even again 14 minutes from time.\n\nUnited felt they should have had a penalty when 2-1 ahead. Rashford was brought down when driving towards goal, but the referee waved play on, much to the anger of boss Ten Hag who was booked for his protestations.\n\n\"I also think the refereeing had a big influence in this game,\" said the Dutchman. \"I think it's a clear foul on Rashy.\n\n\"You can discuss if it's in or outside the box, but then it's a red card because he was one-on-one with the goalkeeper.\n\n\"It's a big influence, not only on this game but in this round, and referees can't make such mistakes.\"\n\nSubstitute Ansu Fati was also denied by De Gea as Barcelona - who will be without midfielder Gavi through suspension for the return - came closest to a late winner.\n\nUnited face a pivotal week in their quest for success this season, hosting Barcelona on Thursday before playing Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final the following Sunday as they aim to win their first trophy since the Europa League in 2017.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ansu Fati (Barcelona) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Gavi.\n• None Attempt saved. Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Casemiro.\n• None Attempt saved. Ferran Torres (Barcelona) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Ansu Fati with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Ansu Fati (Barcelona) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Robert Lewandowski.\n• None Attempt blocked. Andreas Christensen (Barcelona) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Ferran Torres with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Ansu Fati (Barcelona) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Ronald Araújo.\n• None Attempt saved. Raphinha (Barcelona) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA spy at Berlin's British embassy, who sold secrets to Russia and was caught in an undercover MI5 sting, has been jailed for 13 years and two months.\n\nDavid Smith, 58, tried to damage Britain's interests by passing on details of the embassy and its staff for cash payments, a judge found after the spy pleaded guilty.\n\nSentencing him, Mr Justice Wall said Smith had \"put people at maximum risk\".\n\nUK police have described Smith's actions as \"reckless and dangerous\".\n\nThey have revealed how the spy was caught in a \"remarkable\" investigation involving two fake Russian agents working for the British security services.\n\nSmith, formerly with the RAF, had been employed as a security guard at the embassy in Berlin for four years when, in 2020, he wrote to a Russian general passing on the names, addresses and phone numbers of colleagues, along with documents and information about security passes.\n\nHe had been collecting classified documents since 2018, motivated by his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and hatred of the UK, the judge found.\n\nThe letter ended up in the hands of the Metropolitan Police and MI5, triggering a major investigation which also involved German law enforcement.\n\nIn August 2021, to gather additional evidence, Smith was told a man with the Russian name Dmitry was to visit the embassy, and he was asked to arrange for him to pass through security.\n\n\"Oh it's one of those,\" Smith reportedly responded. He seemed to believe Dmitry was a Russian \"walk-in\", intent on passing secrets to Britain.\n\nIn his sentencing remarks, the judge said Smith had done as much as he could to \"ensure that Dmitry's identity could be revealed\".\n\nHad Dmitry's story been genuine \"it is impossible to know what would have been the consequences to him\", the judge said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mr Justice Wall delivers David Smith's sentence at the Old Bailey\n\nDuring the visit, Smith was told to copy apparently secret documents Dmitry had brought with him. These had been marked with a pink highlighter to identify them.\n\nDmitry also asked Smith to throw away some packaging from a mobile phone Sim card he had been given.\n\nIt was all a ruse. Dimitry was an MI5-trained \"role player\" and \"Smith fell for it\", Cdr Richard Smith of the Metropolitan Police told the BBC.\n\nThe documents with the pink markings, which were not remotely secret, were later found at Smith's home, along with the Sim card packaging.\n\nInvestigators had also placed a covert camera in the room where Smith worked, monitoring CCTV images.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThis captured him looking through video of Dmitry's visit, and taking pictures of the fake visitor.\n\nHe could be heard muttering to himself that if Dmitry worked at the Russian embassy, staff there would know who he was.\n\n\"It's probably nothing but at least I've done it,\" he was recorded as saying.\n\nNext, MI5 arranged for \"Irina\", another Russian speaker, to approach Smith at a tram stop posing as an officer of the GRU, Russian military intelligence.\n\nHer story, also false, was that she had been sent from Moscow to ask him for help because someone was passing information to the British.\n\nAgain, Smith fell for it, arranging a meeting with Irina the following day.\n\nAfter his arrest, his flat in Potsdam was searched, and among the items found was a piece of paper with the email address of the Russian embassy.\n\nVideo was seized of Smith walking around the British embassy, meticulously filming offices, safes, the insides of drawers and a whiteboard recording details of staff deployments.\n\nA letter to a Russian colonel offering to send a \"book from the defence section\" classified as \"official-sensitive\" was found on a storage device.\n\nPolice also found images of a letter from two secretaries of state to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nCdr Smith said: \"The activities he was conducting and the information he was seeking to gain did raise a significant risk to UK interests and individuals.\"\n\nA consular official said that as a result of Smith's actions, a security review had to be carried out for every member of embassy staff costing the taxpayer £825,000.\n\nSmith admitted eight charges under the Official Secrets Act and was sentenced after a hearing to determine why he did it.\n\nThe spy was a keen military historian, whose Ukrainian wife had left Germany for her home country, because she did not like living there. Smith appeared to share this view, colleagues at the embassy told police. He had also told fake Russian intelligence officer Irina that Germany was dominated by Nazis.\n\nIn his evidence, Smith said he became depressed and was drinking heavily after his wife returned to Ukraine.\n\nHe was also angry at his employer, complaining he had to go to work every day during the pandemic when \"everyone was sitting at home with full pay\".\n\nHe admitted being interested in conspiracy theories, including those of David Icke and Alex Jones's Infowars, but denied being pro-Russian or having far right sympathies.\n\nHowever, the prosecution highlighted his collection of Russian military memorabilia, as well as his past support for Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.\n\nInside his work locker was a cartoon of Mr Putin with his hands around the neck of former German chancellor Angela Merkel in Nazi uniform.\n\nCdr Smith said the spy was \"motivated by anti-UK, pro-Russian views, he understood that the info he was collecting was damaging to British interests, and yet he shared it with the Russians anyway\".\n\nAn MI5 officer gave evidence that Smith's spying coincided with the build-up of Russian forces before the war in Ukraine and the concerns about the treatment of the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.\n\nThe resulting risks could not \"be sensibly described as theoretical\", the MI5 staffer told the court, using the code name 2093.\n\nSmith was arrested with 800 euros (£713) in cash, and police analysed his bank accounts which showed he was not withdrawing his salary, suggesting had another source of income. The amount of money he was paid may never be known.\n\nSenior police officers would not say how much information Russia could have received from the spy.", "YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down after nine years in the role.\n\nIn a blog post, she said she had \"decided to start a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects I'm passionate about.\"\n\nYouTube's chief product officer, Neal Mohan, will take over as head of the Google-owned video platform.\n\n\"The time is right for me, and I feel able to do this because we have an incredible leadership team in place at YouTube,\" Ms Wojcicki said.\n\nMs Wojcicki added she would continue to work at YouTube in the \"short term\" to \"support Neal and help with the transition.\"\n\nIn her blog, she praised Mr Mohan's work launching YouTube TV, as well as leading YouTube Music, Premium, and Shorts.\n\nAt the invitation of Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google's parent firm, Alphabet, Ms Wojcicki confirmed she would to \"take on an advisory role across Google and Alphabet.\"\n\n\"This will allow me to call on my different experiences over the years to offer counsel and guidance across Google and the portfolio of Alphabet companies,\" she said.\n\nMs Wojcicki became involved with Google when the founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, set up shop in the garage of her home in Silicon Valley in 1998, becoming the company's first marketing manager a year later.\n\nA Google employee for nearly 25 years, she was among the first 20 employees at the tech giant - listed at number 16.\n\nDuring Ms Wojcicki's tenure at YouTube, she has faced public criticism over the platform's handling of content moderation, the spread of misinformation, and ongoing concerns over child privacy.\n\nFact-checking organisations around the world say that YouTube is not doing enough to prevent the proliferation of misinformation on the platform.\n\nWhen she joined the online video platform in 2014, it had just hit the milestone of one billion users. It currently hosts 2.5 billion users worldwide - with many YouTube creators, also known as YouTubers, carving profitable careers out of their individual channels.\n\nJimmy Donaldson, better known as Mr Beast, was YouTube's highest-earning content creator last year.\n\nThe young American made £45m ($54m) in gross revenue in 2022, more than any YouTube creator in the history of the platform - according to recent estimates by Forbes magazine.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by YouTube Creators This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs Wojcicki is the latest in a series of high-profile tech executives to leave long-standing roles.\n\nHer departure follows Jeff Bezos, who resigned as CEO of Amazon in 2021, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg stepping down in 2022 and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who left the company last year as part of a shake-up instigated by new boss Elon Musk.", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while out walking her dog\n\nThe home secretary has raised concerns with police after they revealed personal information about missing mother Nicola Bulley.\n\nThe 45-year-old disappeared on 27 January during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nLancashire Police, who have been searching for her for three weeks, were criticised for making her struggles with alcohol and the menopause public.\n\nA source close to Suella Braverman said she had \"asked for an explanation\".\n\nThey said the home secretary had received a response on Thursday evening but was not wholly satisfied with the force's justification for releasing the personal details.\n\nHowever, an aide stressed the decision was a matter for Lancashire Police.\n\nDame Vera Baird, the former victims' commissioner for England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4's Today that the force had been subject to \"heavy, and in my view, totally justified criticism\".\n\n\"If it was relevant, it needed to be in a public domain at the start, and it wasn't,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm afraid this is the biggest error that I have seen for quite a long time.\n\n\"It's going to undermine trust in the police yet further.\"\n\nShe said she did not believe similar comments would have been shared if Ms Bulley had been a man.\n\n\"Would we have had police officers saying... he's been unfortunately tied down with alcohol because he's been suffering from erectile dysfunction for the last few weeks? I think not.\n\n\"No, it is a dreadful error to put this in the public domain for absolutely nothing and I'm afraid I think it's as sexist as it comes.\"\n\nThe Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told LBC's Nick Ferrari it would be a \"rare thing\" for his force to comment about the vulnerabilities of a woman in a high-profile missing person case, but declined to say if he would have told the public of Ms Bulley's struggles because he did not have \"all the facts to hand\".\n\n\"We need to release the information that helps find somebody and Lancashire have made that call and time will tell whether they have got it right or wrong,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the Met would be ready to help the investigation into Ms Bulley's disappearance, if asked.\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman wants an explanation for police disclosures about Nicola Bulley\n\nIn a statement released on Wednesday, Lancashire Police said Ms Bulley had suffered with \"some significant issues with alcohol\" and \"ongoing struggles with the menopause\".\n\nThis prompted a backlash from campaigners, MPs and legal experts, with some accusing the police of breaching her privacy.\n\nMs Bulley's family later released a statement released via the police, in which they elaborated on her health, saying she had suffered significant side effects due to the perimenopause, including \"brain fog\" and \"restless sleep\".\n\nThey also asked for speculation surrounding her private life to end and urged the public to focus on finding their \"wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother\".\n\nAddressing Ms Bulley directly, they added: \"Nikki, we hope you are reading this and know that we love you so much and your girls want a cuddle. We all need you home.\n\n\"Don't be scared, we all love you so very much.\"\n\nWyre Council leader Michael Vincent said the case was \"clearly unprecedented\" and it was \"right there is an inquiry into the way the police have handled this, but from my understanding, their handling of the actual investigation has been very good\".\n\n\"They've been in regular contact with the family who are the people who actually need the information,\" he added.\n\nLancashire Police said it had referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over contact it had had with Ms Bulley before she vanished.\n\nIt said it had been called to a report of \"concern for welfare\" on 10 January when officers and health professionals visited her home. No arrests were made.\n\nThe force said the referral only related to the force's interaction with the family on that date and not the wider missing person investigation.\n\nThe IOPC said it was assessing the available information to determine whether an investigation was required.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters at school.\n\nHer phone was found still connected to a work conference call.\n\nPolice and specialist teams have since mounted a huge search, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nLancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner, Andrew Snowden, said the investigation was under the direction and control of Chief Constable Chris Rowley and the force was being as transparent as it could be on such an \"incredibly sensitive and complex case\".\n\n\"The unprecedented media and public interest in this case, whilst welcomed for appeals for information, is challenging for the family and friends of Nicola and the officers and police staff dealing with unsubstantiated rumours and speculation on a daily basis,\" he said.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this piece, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale was led away from the area after the attack\n\nA man has been banned from football matches for four years after he attacked Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale at the north London derby.\n\nRamsdale, 24, was kicked in the back after the Gunners beat Spurs 2-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in January.\n\nJoseph Watts, 35, from Dalston, east London, appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court where he pleaded guilty to assault by beating.\n\nHe was also given a community order and told to pay Ramsdale £100 compensation.\n\nRamsdale had been instrumental in securing Arsenal's 2-0 win between the two close rivals on 15 January.\n\nThe court heard he had been celebrating the victory and collecting his belongings from behind the goal when he was attacked.\n\nWatts arrived at Uxbridge Magistrates Court with his face and head covered\n\nTottenham supporter Watts ran down the stairs from where he was sitting, climbed over a barrier and on to an advertising banner, before kicking Ramsdale and running back into the stands.\n\nHe also admitted throwing four coins on to the pitch during the match.\n\nIn a victim statement read to the court, Ramsdale said he had to see a masseuse because his back felt \"heavy\", but there were no marks to his skin.\n\n\"I've never had someone enter the pitch and kick me, I don't think it's acceptable that I should be assaulted at work,\" he said.\n\nThe England international added he had become more wary about similar incidents happening in the future.\n\nWatts admitted he was drunk at the time having had six pints, while the court heard he was considered to be of good character.\n\nThe probation service told the court he \"had acted on impulse and got carried away with the passion of the day\".\n\nIn addition to the assault charge, Watts pleaded guilty to throwing a missile on to a football playing area and going on to an area adjacent to a playing area.\n\nSentencing him, Deputy District Judge A King, said that while the attack was \"relatively short-lived... when individuals lose self-control it can have a ripple effect, in this case there could have been a significant risk of serious public order\".\n\nAs part of his 12-month community order, Watts must undertake 100 hours of unpaid work and is barred from watching a football match in person for four years.\n\nHe is also banned from being in the vicinity of football matches where Tottenham Hotspur play, including Wembley Stadium, for four hours before and after games, and has to surrender his passport during international tournaments and if required by police.\n\nShortly after the attack, Tottenham said the fan would face \"an immediate ban\".\n\nThe Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) and the Football Association (FA) also condemned what happened.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Seven days of strikes by tens of thousands of university staff have been paused.\n\nThe planned action during February and early March will no longer go ahead, said the University and College Union (UCU).\n\nThe union said it had made \"significant progress\" across multiple issues during talks with employers.\n\nPausing walkouts over the next fortnight will enable a \"period of calm\", Jo Grady of the UCU said.\n\nThe action had been due to take place on 21, 22, 23, 27 and 28 February and 1 and 2 March.\n\nPlanned strikes after these dates, for 16, 17, 20, 21 and 22 March, will still go ahead.\n\nThe dispute is over pay and conditions, while some members are also striking over pensions.\n\nDr Grady, UCU general secretary, said: \"To allow our ongoing negotiations to continue in a constructive environment, we have agreed to pause action across our pay and working conditions and USS pensions disputes for the next two weeks and create a period of calm.\"\n\nThe dispute over pensions began more than a decade ago, but was reignited by the revaluation of the pension scheme used by academic staff - the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).\n\nThe UCU says the valuation - an assessment of how much money a scheme has - was \"flawed\" because it took place at the start of the pandemic, \"when global markets were crashing\", and recorded a deficit of £14.1bn.\n\nChanges were introduced which meant pension contributions increased and future benefits were reduced.\n\nAccording to the UCU, the average member \"will lose 35% from their guaranteed future retirement income\".\n\nIt says the scheme was more recently found to have a surplus of £1.8bn and is demanding that employers restore staff pension benefits.\n\nIn a joint statement on Friday, UCU and Universities UK said another valuation for 2023 is \"likely to reveal a high probability of being able to improve benefits and reduce contributions\".\n\nUCU paused its strike action on the same day.\n\nUniversity staff on strike had been facing 18 days without pay this month and next - until this latest announcement.\n\nSome UCU members said on social media that they would struggle to afford it, but many of those believed the strike action could lead to long-term financial gain.\n\nUCU has a hardship fund for its members on strike.\n\nStudents had also been facing 18 days without classes, often after already facing disruption to their learning because of Covid.\n\nWhen university staff walked out in November over the same dispute, one student told the BBC she felt she was \"not getting what [she] paid for\".\n\nThe National Union of Students (NUS) has previously said it was supporting the strikes because \"staff working conditions are students' learning conditions\".", "Stock image of a man being examined by a doctor\n\nA US man developed an \"uncontrollable Irish accent\" after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, despite having never visited Ireland, researchers say.\n\nThe North Carolina man, who was in his 50s, was presumably afflicted with foreign accent syndrome (FAS), the British Medical Journal reports.\n\nThe rare syndrome gave the man, who had no immediate family from Ireland, a \"brogue\" that remained until his death.\n\nSeveral similar cases have been recorded globally in recent years.\n\nThe case was jointly studied and reported by Duke University in North Carolina and the Carolina Urologic Research Center in South Carolina.\n\n\"To our knowledge, this is the first case of FAS described in a patient with prostate cancer and the third described in a patient with malignancy,\" said the report's authors.\n\nMuch of the man's identifying characteristics, including his name and nationality, were not included in the report.\n\nIt says he lived in England in his 20s and had friends and distant family members from Ireland. But they add he had never previously spoken with the foreign accent.\n\n\"His accent was uncontrollable, present in all settings and gradually became persistent,\" the researchers say in their report, adding that it first began 20 months into his treatment.\n\nEven as his condition worsened, the accent remained until his death months later.\n\n\"He had no neurological examination abnormalities, psychiatric history or MRI of the brain abnormalities at symptom onset,\" the report said.\n\n\"Despite chemotherapy, his neuroendocrine prostate cancer progressed resulting in multifocal brain metastases and a likely paraneoplastic ascending paralysis leading to his death.\"\n\nThe researchers suspect the voice change was caused by a condition called paraneoplastic neurological disorder (PND).\n\nPND happens when cancer patients' immune systems attack parts of their brain, as well as muscles, nerves and spinal cord.\n\nOther people who have suffered FAS have described to the BBC the unsettling feeling of hearing a \"stranger in the house\" whenever they speak.\n\nIn 2006, UK woman Linda Walker suffered a stroke and discovered that her Geordie accent had been replaced by a Jamaican-sounding voice.\n\nOne of the first reported cases was in 1941 when a young Norwegian woman developed a German accent after being hit by bomb shrapnel during a Second World War air raid.\n\nShe was shunned by locals who thought she was a Nazi spy.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Sophie Scott: \"Foreign accent is normally associated with quite small amounts of brain damage.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Georgina Budd, who qualified as an A&E medic became a GP instead due to hospitals being inaccessible.\n\nHospitals in Wales \"didn't want to know\" about the additional needs of disabled staff, according to a doctor who was looking for work after being paralysed in a car crash.\n\n\"They wanted someone that could easily and quickly fill the post without them having to do anything,\" said Georgina Budd, who qualified as an A&E medic.\n\nShe ended up becoming a GP at a surgery that could accommodate her needs.\n\nHealth boards said they were committed to creating inclusive environments.\n\n\"There shouldn't be a limit because of my disability,\" said Dr Budd, known as Georgie, who spent three years as a clinical fellow in the A&E department at Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthenshire as part of her medical training.\n\n\"I've been in situations where I've had to deal with a medical emergency and I'm no less effective for being in the wheelchair.\"\n\nBut when the time came to find a full-time job, she said she faced barriers.\n\n\"I've had colleagues say: 'You're going to need to think about your career and how you tailor it to your disability',\" said Georgie.\n\n\"I shouldn't have to. I should be able to work in the specialty that I want to.\"\n\nGeorgie says hospital where she applied for jobs left her feeling like they did not want to make adaptions for her disability\n\nGeorgie said for one job application, a hospital asked her to do an unpaid \"trial shift\".\n\n\"It was all dressed up in language of 'so we can see how we can help you',\" she said.\n\n\"What really came across was 'so we can see how many adjustments you would need so we can see if it's financially viable for us to change things around for you'.\"\n\nShe added: \"You would think that hospitals are set up for disabled people because they are a big part of our service, but they're not\".\n\nGeorgie says working as a GP has given her more flexibility to do research, medical politics and disability advocacy\n\nMost hospital cupboards are out of a reach for a wheelchair user, she explained, and some buildings were still inaccessible.\n\n\"Life has been built around able-bodied people. It is not built for me and it's not built for the rest of the disabled community,\" she said.\n\n\"It does take me a longer time to get ready and out of the house in the mornings,\" she said.\n\n\"Without getting up at a ridiculous hour, I might not be able to be on shift at 8am like some doctors.\n\n\"That was a problem at first because ward rounds happen in the morning.\n\n\"We are looking for reasonable adjustments, but it's very difficult to get those changes made and to get people thinking differently about disability and about a disabled doctor.\"\n\nGeorgie says doing assisted stands at weekly physiotherapy sessions helps to keep her paralysed legs healthy\n\nOriginally from Downton in Wiltshire, Georgie started at Cardiff Medical School in 2009.\n\nOn her way to a shift at Glangwili Hospital in 2017, she lost control after a tyre on her car punctured. To avoid oncoming traffic, she swerved into a pole at 50mph (80km/h).\n\nAt the age of 30 she was paralysed from the waist down and she thought her career was over.\n\nGeorgie was 30 years old when a car crash left her paralysed\n\nBut she fought to complete her doctor training.\n\n\"It is not the end of the world. It's hard and there are challenges, but I kept telling myself 'my life isn't over',\" she said.\n\nShe recalled her first time seeing a patient as a doctor in wheelchair: \"She looked at me and... was like, 'oh, hello, love. Are you one of the patients?'\n\nGeorgie on a trip to Paris the year before her accident in 2017\n\nGeorgie completed her doctor training at Glangwili Hospital in August and was offered a job.\n\nBut after failing to find an emergency care role at other hospitals she changed her specialty and is now a general practice trainee.\n\nWorking as a GP at Tŷ Calon Lân surgery in Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf, means more sociable hours and more flexibility.\n\nHer typical day starts with a carer coming to her home in Merthyr Tydfil at around 8am.\n\n\"I could probably just about do it myself... but I was slipping because I was so exhausted,\" she said.\n\n\"Having [a carer] in just sort of makes the morning run smoother, allowing me to conserve my energy and put it into things that I really want to do.\"\n\nGeorgie has a carer come into her home to make her mornings \"run smoother\"\n\nShe is co-chairwoman for junior doctors at the British Medical Association in Wales, and is currently doing research with Swansea University on the mental health needs of medical students.\n\n\"GP gives me the opportunity to be more active in medical politics and in research and still see my patients and have a good impact on them,\" she said.\n\nShe said it also gives her time to advocate for disabled people, including as chairwoman trustee at Adapt Gateway, a mentoring and support charity for people with disabilities.\n\n\"In an ideal world any child that wanted to grow up to be a doctor and had a disability wouldn't feel that's off limits to them,\" she said.\n\nGeorgie wants people to see the contribution disabled people can make\n\nThat would require a \"perspective change in society\" she said.\n\n\"It's understanding that disability isn't inability,\" she said. \"Being in a wheelchair doesn't limit my ability as a doctor.\"\n\nShe said she wants to see full accessibility as the standard in all health buildings so no-one feels left out.\n\n\"I want more disabled kids to know that this kind of opportunity is open to them,\" she said.\n\n\"That it doesn't matter if their legs don't work. I know a consultant who's got one arm... he still takes blood and is an effective doctor and why shouldn't he be?\"\n\nPeople were shocked to see Georgie driving again after the accident\n\n\"A lot of what a doctor does is up here,\" she added, touching her temple.\n\n\"I've put chest drains in, I've sutured people... all kinds of crazy stuff.\n\n\"I adapt it for me but I can still do it. It's just doing it a different way.\"\n\nGeorgie spent months in hospital recovering from her accident, an experience she said gives her more empathy for her patients.\n\n\"I think that knowledge is something that can really help the medical community,\" she said.\n\n\"Having more doctors that have gone through poor health experiences, chronic illness, disability is important to widening doctors' understanding of what their patients are going through.\"\n\nGeorgie says she was \"always a girly girl\", stressing how a disability does not change who the person is\n\nShe said more understanding of disability was needed in society more generally, recalling upsetting comments she overheard after her friends had to carry her into a non-accessible café.\n\n\"We were sat there and this young woman said really loudly: 'Why would she even come here, it's clearly not disabled accessible. Does she not realise that she's just a nuisance'.\"\n\nComments like that could be \"hard\", Georgie admitted, but said they made her more determined to \"normalise\" disability.\n\n\"I can spend the next 60 years miserable because I can't stand up, or I can do something about this,\" she said.\n\nSeveral health boards in Wales said they follow an all-Wales recruitment process designed to ensure \"fair and equal opportunities for all\" and that disabled candidates who meet the minimum standard were guaranteed an interview.\n\n\"Only when shortlisting is complete will a candidate's self-declaration [of a disability] be visible, alerting the appointing manager that reasonable adjustments may be required,\" said Lisa Gostling, from Hywel Dda health board.\n\nAneurin Bevan health board said it offered disabled staff access to work assessments, aiming to \"create an inclusive environment for our staff and patients\".\n\nPowys health board said \"tailored adjustments will be made, where possible, to roles and/or workplaces through discussion between the manager and the employee\".\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr heath board said it \"welcomes applications from individuals with disabilities and value all staff\".\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg health board said it had launched a new initiative allowing \"disabled staff to record and share details of any reasonable adjustments they need at work.\n\n\"We have also developed guidance for managers so that they can better understand how to support disabled colleagues.\"\n\nSwansea Bay health board said it \"actively welcomes applications from people with disabilities\", all disabled applicants who meet essential criteria will be invited to interviews, and current staff \"with specific requirements can discuss them with their manager so that reasonable and practical measures can be taken\".\n\nCardiff and Vale University health board said its \"recruitment processes offer a fair and open approach to all applicants\".\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said it expected \"all NHS organisations to comply with the Equality Act 2010, and to follow best practice regarding the recruitment and retention of staff\".", "Firefighters have formed a guard of honour along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in tribute to their colleague Barry Martin, who died while tackling a blaze at the former Jenners department store.\n\nMembers of the public and firefighters stood in silence near St Giles' Cathedral as the coffin arrived on a fire engine.\n\nRead more: Crowds line street for funeral of Jenners firefighter", "Five kits were released at a Loch Lomond nature reserve in January\n\nAn otter is suspected to have killed two beaver kits released at Loch Lomond last month.\n\nThe kits, along with their parents and three siblings, were relocated from Tayside to a nature reserve as part of efforts to boost biodiversity.\n\nThe dead beavers and an otter were spotted on remote camera footage last week.\n\nConservationists said a post-mortem examination had confirmed an otter had preyed on one of the kits.\n\nRSPB Scotland, which is involved in the beaver project, suspects the second kit had suffered the same fate. Its body remains missing.\n\nIn a blog post about the deaths, the charity said young beavers were vulnerable to falling prey to otters, foxes, pine martens, birds of prey and large pike.\n\nIt added: \"Studies also show that kit mortality can be quite high especially in their first year.\n\n\"None of this makes it any easier and we're very sad to have lost these kits despite it being a natural process.\n\n\"Thankfully, the rest of the family seem to be doing well.\"\n\nThe kits along with two adults had been moved from Tayside\n\nLoch Lomond is only the third location in Scotland where beavers have been moved to since a reintroduction trial at Knapdale, in Argyll, began in 2009.\n\nBeavers, which were once native to Scotland before becoming extinct in the 16th Century, are a protected species. The animals found today have either been released under licence, or let go into the countryside illegally.\n\nIn 2021 the Scottish government announced its support for moving beavers from where they were considered a pest to more suitable habitats.\n\nThe pair of adult beavers and their five young offspring were moved to Loch Lomond from an area in Tayside where beaver activity was deemed a problem.\n\nFollowing a series of health tests and checks, they were released at a national nature reserve jointly managed by RSPB Scotland, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority and NatureScot.\n\nAt the time of the release, RSPB Scotland director Anne McCall said: \"We are delighted to have been able to offer a home to this family of beavers, speeding up their return to Loch Lomond.\n\n\"The national nature reserve, with its mix of open water, fen and wet woodland, is a perfect place for them.\n\n\"As nature's engineers, they manage and create habitat in ways we could never hope to replicate.\"", "Border Force staff are beginning a four-day series of strikes on Friday during half term for many UK schools.\n\nUK staff working at the Port of Dover but also Calais, Port of Dunkirk and Coquelles Channel Tunnel Terminal are taking industrial action.\n\nPeople arriving in the UK on Friday should prepare for border disruption, according to the Home Office.\n\nIn addition, ambulance workers are striking in the West Midlands and Northern Ireland on Friday.\n\nThe action is being organised by the Unite union, which says that essential emergency cover will be in place.\n\nIt comes as The Royal College of Nursing announces a walkout over the pay dispute in England for 48 hours from 1 to 3 March and UK rail workers announce a fresh series of strikes in March and April.\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nThe PCS union expects 1,000 of its members at the ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Dover, and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel Terminal, to walk out between Friday 17 February and Monday 20 February.\n\nMilitary personnel and civil servants have been trained to step in and carry out border checks, although military personnel will not be going to France.\n\nNevertheless, the government said people should prepare their families for longer waiting times at border control.\n\nPeople should use eGates where possible, and check with operators before travelling, it said.\n\nHundreds of members of the Unite trade union are striking on Friday in Northern Ireland and the West Midlands. People are still advised to call 999 in an emergency.\n\nAmbulances will still be sent to the most life-threatening calls - known as Category 1, which includes cardiac arrests.\n\nPatients that need lifesaving treatment, such as kidney or cancer care, will also be transported.\n\nLess urgent calls - known as Category 2, which includes some strokes and major burns - might have to wait longer than usual for an ambulance.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Mark Drakeford arrived with family for the private ceremony on Thursday morning\n\nSenior politicians have gathered in Cardiff for the funeral of Clare Drakeford.\n\nThe wife of the first minister died suddenly at the age of 71 last month.\n\nMark Drakeford arrived with family for the ceremony at Thornhill Crematorium on Thursday morning.\n\nPresiding officer Elin Jones, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price and the Welsh Conservatives' Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies were among those paying their respects.\n\nFormer First Minister Carwyn Jones also attended, alongside a number of Labour frontbenchers and the Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds.\n\nFollowing the funeral Mr Drakeford tweeted: \"The past weeks have been incredibly difficult for our family, but I'm grateful for the many kind words of support we have received.\n\n\"Diolch o galon i chi gyd [Many thanks to you all].\"\n\nCondolences were paid across the political spectrum when Mrs Drakeford's death was announced last month.\n\nThe Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said he knew \"how committed Mark and Clare were to each other\".\n\nUK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mark Drakeford and his family were \"all in our thoughts and prayers\".\n\nCarwyn Jones was among those who paid their respects at the funeral\n\nCondolences were paid across the political spectrum when Clare Drakeford died suddenly last month", "Lucy Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and trying to kill 10 others in 2015 and 2016\n\nNurse Lucy Letby broke down in tears as a doctor began giving evidence at her murder trial.\n\nThe 33-year-old denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at Countess of Chester Hospital.\n\nShe abruptly left her seat in the dock at Manchester Crown Court as the medic, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, confirmed his name.\n\nThe court was hearing evidence about a twin baby boy, Child L, whom Ms Letby is alleged to have attempted to kill.\n\nShe was visibly upset as she walked towards the exit door before she had a brief, hushed conversation with a female dock officer.\n\nStill appearing unsettled, she spoke with her solicitor through a glass panel before her barrister, Ben Myers KC, indicated to trial judge Mr Justice Goss that proceedings could continue.\n\nThe doctor - a registrar at the hospital in 2016 - gave his evidence screened from the public gallery and the defendant.\n\nThe registrar at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2016 gave his evidence screened from the public gallery\n\nMs Letby, originally from Hereford, wiped away tears with a tissue and took a few sips of water as she listened.\n\nThe doctor told the court about his care of Child L, who was born prematurely and whom the prosecution say the defendant attempted to murder by poisoning him with insulin.\n\nHe treated Child L in the early hours of 10 April 2015 - the day after Ms Letby is said to have attacked the baby.\n\nThe baby's blood sugar levels were decreasing during the night shift and were \"lower than what I would have wanted\", he said.\n\nAsked by prosecutor Philip Astbury why it had been necessary to stop the levels falling, the doctor said: \"Because low blood glucose levels in a baby can cause seizures.\n\n\"It's damaging to a baby. If it falls to a much lower level, then it can cause liver damage and brain injury.\"\n\nChild L went on to make a full recovery, the court has heard, and was discharged the following month.\n\nThe infant's twin brother, Child M, was released at the same time after he too recovered from a collapse on 9 April - said to have been caused by the defendant injecting air into his bloodstream or obstructing his airway.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The true extent of cancellations made by the Transpennine Express rail franchise has been revealed in figures published by the rail regulator.\n\nIn a four-week period the company cancelled 1,048 trains before 22:30 GMT on the day before they were due to run, and part of the route on a further 312.\n\nBecause the announcements were not made on the day, these cancellations were not included in official statistics.\n\nTranspennine has said such decisions were \"not taken lightly\".\n\nUsually these pre-planned cancellations - also called P-coding advance cancellations - are used when an emergency timetable is needed in response to poor weather or damage to rail infrastructure.\n\nHowever, in each case the Transpennine trains, which operate across the North of England and into Scotland, were cancelled due to a shortage of available train crew.\n\nThe number of cancellations it made in this way far outstripped any other rail operator in the four weeks to 4 February. For example, government-owned Northern recorded 182 full cancellations, Transport for Wales 30 and LNER 17 - all attributed to staff shortages.\n\nReleasing the figures the Office of Road and Rail (ORR) regulator said Transpennine's cancellations score for that period jumps from an official 8.9% to 23.7% when P-coding was taken into account.\n\nTranspennine has previously said it only resorted to pre-planned cancellations \"when resources are not available to cover advertised services in order to maximise advance notice of service changes for customers\".\n\nIt blamed the \"combined impact of prolonged higher-than-usual sickness levels, the significant driver training programme to facilitate the delivery of the Transpennine route upgrade and an aligned lack of a driver overtime agreement\"\n\n\"[This has] led to the need to remove services from the timetable on a day-by-day basis through pre-planned cancellations.\"\n\nHowever, the practice has come under fire from the ORR which published these figures for the first time on Friday.\n\nIn January the regulator said cancellations were at \"record levels\" and its investigation had \"confirmed a further gap between cancellations statistics and the passenger experience\".\n\nIt said this was \"driven by an increased number of unrecorded 'pre-cancellations'\".\n\n\"For a passenger this could mean that a train they expected to catch when they went to bed can disappear from the timetable by the time they leave for the station unaware that the train has been cancelled.\"\n\nLabour and some Conservative MPs have called for Transpennine's contract, which expires on 28 May, to be withdrawn.\n\nLast month Labour's shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said the service had \"never been worse\".\n\nAnthony Smith, chief executive of the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said passengers were left \"confused and frustrated\" when a train they expected to catch was cancelled the day before they were due to travel, and may well be surprised to find that this doesn't count as a cancellation.\n\n\"Things like this leave a sour taste in the mouth - and damage trust in the railway. The scale of this so-called 'P-coding' on some operators in recent months has highlighted the problem. We are pleased to be contributing the passenger voice in industry discussions about how to address the regulator's concerns.\"", "UK rail workers are set to walk out in a fresh series of strikes in March and April in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.\n\nMembers of the RMT union from 14 train operators will strike on 16, 18 and 30 March, and 1 April, the start of Easter school holidays for many.\n\nMembers at Network Rail, responsible for tracks and bridges, will strike on 16 March and then ban overtime.\n\nRail bosses said the strikes are \"unjustified\".\n\n\"This latest round of strikes is totally unjustified and will be an inconvenience to our customers, and cost our people more money at a time they can least afford it,\" said a spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train companies.\n\nThe RDG added that the union had initially agreed that the industry needed \"modernisation\" to fund any pay rises, but had now \"reneged on that position\" and did not want reforms.\n\nThe RMT, which represents 40,000 workers, said there would be \"sustained and targeted\" industrial action over the next few months.\n\n\"Rail employers are not being given a fresh mandate by the government to offer our members a new deal on pay, conditions and job security,\" RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said.\n\nNetwork Rail's chief negotiator Tim Shoveller said that the union's leadership had shown its \"true colours by choosing politics over people\".\n\n\"Thousands of employees are telling us they want the improved offer that we have tabled, an offer worth at least 9% over two years - rising to over 14% for the lowest paid, provides job security with no compulsory redundancies and 75% discounted rail travel,\" he added.\n\n\"But instead of offering members a democratic vote with a referendum, the RMT leadership is hiding behind a sham 'consultation,'\" Mr Shoveller said.\n\nLast week, the RMT rejected the rail industry's latest offers, which Network Rail and train companies had called their \"best and final\" offer - but which RMT boss Mick Lynch branded \"dreadful\".\n\nThe RMT has said it wants an unconditional pay offer, but rail industry representatives have said any pay offer would have to come with changes to working conditions in order to fund any rises in pay.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper said: \"Just days after denying its members a say on their own future, the RMT leadership is now trying to make them lose multiple days' wages through yet more strikes.\"\n\nThe country's railways were \"not currently financially sustainable\" and these offers \"would have given workers what they want and, crucially, the passengers what they need\", he added. \"Passengers want this dispute to end.\"\n\nRail workers represented by Aslef and the RMT have been on strike on various dates throughout the winter.\n\nSeparately, the Royal College of Nursing announced its biggest walkout of the pay dispute in England. Its members at half of hospitals, mental health and community services will take part in the 48-hour strike from 1 to 3 March.\n\nAnd Border Force workers will begin a strike on Friday as part of their dispute over pay, jobs, pensions and conditions in the civil service.\n\nMembers of the Public and Commercial Services union in Dover and French ports including Calais will walk out on Friday and over the weekend. The union claims inexperienced staff were being brought in to cover for striking Border Force workers.\n\nHundreds of thousands of workers in other sectors across the UK - including teachers, civil servants and barristers - have been on strike. Most of those taking part want more pay to keep up with rising prices.", "There are also plans for gender quotas to increase female representation in the Senedd\n\nAll candidates for future Senedd elections will have to live in Wales, under Welsh government plans.\n\nMinisters also intend to stop Senedd members (MSs) from leaving a political party in Cardiff Bay to join another.\n\nThe proposed changes are part of a Senedd reform package, which will see the number of MSs rise from 60 to 96.\n\nThe Welsh government will give an update by Easter, but Tories said it should focus on \"fixing our Welsh NHS, our education system and our economy\".\n\nPlaid Cymru, which is working with the government on Senedd reform as part of its co-operation agreement, said the changes \"will be a significant milestone in Wales's constitutional journey\".\n\nAn extra 36 politicians would be sent to Cardiff Bay under the changes\n\nPlans to change the Senedd would see 96 MSs split across 16 constituencies, with each electing six.\n\nGender quotas are also being proposed to ensure better female representation, although there is some uncertainty around the Senedd's legal powers to introduce the change.\n\nThe aim is to introduce the changes in time for next Senedd election in 2026.\n\nWelsh ministers and Plaid Cymru are working on the fine detail before publishing a proposed Senedd reform law by autumn 2023.\n\nBBC Wales has been told further changes agreed include:\n\nIn 2009, Mohammad Asghar became the first politician in Cardiff Bay to cross the floor when he moved from Plaid Cymru to the Conservatives.\n\nSix of the seven politicians elected to represent UKIP in the 2016 Senedd election left to join other parties.\n\nThe proposed Welsh residency rule would prevent the situation in the last Senedd where UKIP leader Neil Hamilton represented Mid and West Wales but lived in Wiltshire.\n\nNeil Hamilton could claim hotel expenses in Cardiff but not for the costs of running a house in the city\n\nIn a meeting of Welsh Labour's ruling body before Christmas, there was said to be \"general support\" among party representatives.\n\nBut Labour's Welsh Executive Committee is said to have queried whether the Welsh residency rule change \"might put off talented potential candidates living elsewhere in the UK who would be reluctant to risk moving to Wales if they could not be sure of being elected\".\n\nFirst Minister Mark Drakeford is said to have \"acknowledged that this point had been considered but it had not been seen as a sufficient concern to justify abandoning the proposal\".\n\nA Welsh government spokeswoman said: \"We continue to work to progress the recommendations made by the special purpose committee on Senedd reform, and will provide a further update by Easter.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru said creating a \"stronger, more effective, and more representative democracy to better serve the people of Wales is at the heart\" of its Senedd deal with the Welsh Labour government.\n\nA Plaid spokeswoman added: \"Almost 25 years since the Senedd was established, the proposed legislation will be a significant milestone in Wales' constitutional journey.\n\n\"The leader of Plaid Cymru [Adam Price] is working closely with the first minister on the development of the legislation, and we look forward to seeing the legislation introduced to the Senedd in due course.\"\n\nConservative Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies said ministers should be \"focused on fixing our Welsh NHS, our education system and our economy\".\n\n\"Labour has no electoral mandate for their proposals and are happy for MPs to cross the floor to another party when it suits them,\" he said.\n\n\"It is up to the electorate to determine how they are represented,\" Mr Davies added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Survivors rescued after seven days under rubble\n\nA young girl has been saved from the rubble of a block of flats in southern Turkey, more than a week after the devastating earthquake struck.\n\nMiray had been trapped in the ruins for 178 hours - seven-and-a-half days.\n\nVideo showed workers cheering and shouting \"God is great\" as she was lifted out of the darkness.\n\nSeveral others were saved on Monday, including a 13-year-old boy trapped for 182 hours. But rescues are becoming rarer as the death toll passes 35,000.\n\nThis is partly due to limits on how long the human body can survive without water.\n\nOther factors include how much space the trapped person has to breathe and how bad their injuries are, an emergency medicine specialist told the BBC.\n\nProf Tony Redmond also said the cold temperatures in Turkey and Syria were a double-edged sword.\n\nIf you are very cold, your blood vessels shrink and you can last a little longer from your injuries, he explained. But getting too cold is harmful in itself.\n\nThe death toll in Turkey and neighbouring Syria is expected to rise dramatically, with the United Nations' humanitarian chief warning it could double.\n\nMiray - the young girl rescued on Monday in the city of Adiyaman - was attached to a stretcher and carried away by rescue workers. Local media reported teams on the ground were hoping to find her older sister.\n\nIn hard-hit Hatay province, 13-year-old Kaan was rescued after being trapped for 182 hours - as well as a woman called Naide Umay, found alive after 175 hours.\n\nIn the city of Kahramanmaras, rescue workers had made contact with a grandmother, mother and baby - all stuck, but alive - and were working to reach them.\n\nThousands of teams across the region - including coal miners and experts using thermal cameras and sniffer dogs - have been scouring the remains of collapsed buildings to find remaining survivors.\n\nBut hopes of finding people alive are dwindling and there is a sense that the rescue mission will soon end.\n\nThe focus is shifting to recovery, with officials looking at shelter, food and healthcare.\n\nQuestions are also being raised about whether the natural disaster's impact was made worse by human failings.\n\nPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but during one visit to a disaster zone last week, he appeared to blame fate.\n\nOfficials say they have issued 113 arrest warrants in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed, with 12 people taken into custody, including contractors.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From Rob Brydon to Tiger Bay, the BBC in Wales since 1923 in 100 seconds\n\nIt started with a sing-song as it so often does in Wales and part of its legacy is the phrase 'what's occurring?' and the world's most famous doctor.\n\nBut the BBC in Wales hasn't just given us shows like Gavin and Stacey and Doctor Who, it's covered the most important events in the country's history.\n\nAs Monday marks the 100th anniversary of the BBC's first broadcast in Wales, I've looked in the archives to find its most significant moments since 1923.\n\nWhen baritone Mostyn Thomas sang traditional Welsh language folk song Dafydd y Garreg Wen on the evening of the BBC's first broadcast from Wales on 13 February, 1923, it signalled the start of celebrating Welsh culture on the airwaves.\n\nBack then, Cardiff's 5WA was the only BBC radio station in Wales and it was where The Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales was first broadcast on the BBC on 3 August, 1924.\n\nThe Radio Times in August 1924 reported that the Prince of Wales attended the 1924 National Eisteddfod of Wales in Pontypool\n\nNow the National Eisteddfod is the BBC's third biggest outside broadcast behind Wimbledon and Glastonbury with coverage in both Welsh and English languages.\n\nThe damming of the River Tryweryn and flooding the Snowdonia village of Capel Celyn to create a reservoir to provide an English city with water is among the most controversial moments in modern Wales.\n\nThe reservoir for the then Liverpool Corporation was agreed in a bill passed by parliament - although not a single Welsh MP voted in favour. The city of Liverpool has since apologised for the \"hurt\" and \"insensitivity\" caused.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Capel Celyn was flooded in 1965 to create Tryweryn reservoir, to supply water for the people of Liverpool\n\nThe creation of Llyn Celyn is widely seen as a catalyst for a growing devolution movement. The dam was bombed during its construction in February 1963.\n\nThe year after it opened, the man that spearheaded the campaign to stop Tryweryn became Plaid Cymru's first MP.\n\nOnce upon a time, a trip from south Wales to London - or even Bristol - would take motorists all day. But with the cutting of a ribbon by The Queen in 1966, that journey time was slashed as the first Severn Bridge opened south Wales up like never before.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Severn Bridge was also part of Wales' first stretch of motorway, making south Wales a better connected region for day-trippers, businesses and commuters alike.\n\nIt was one of the darkest days in Wales' history when, after weeks of torrential rain, 144 people - 116 of them children - died after a coal tip slid down onto Aberfan in the south Wales valleys.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook video by BBC Wales News This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nPupils had arrived for their final day before the October half-term just a few minutes before coal tip number seven engulfed Pantglas Junior School, as well as houses in that part of the village.\n\nHe was just 20 years of age when the young Prince Charles was formally invested as the Prince of Wales at a lavish event at Caernarfon Castle.\n\nThe six-hour broadcast was watched by a TV audience of 500 million people around the world.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Prince of Wales title and investiture polarised opinion in Wales. The event was conducted against a backdrop of protests - and even bombings.\n\nFew things are more synonymous with Wales than rugby, and while there are many great Welsh rugby wins over the years, the greatest moment has to be THAT try from Gareth Edwards.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Gareth Edwards score THAT Barbarians try told by the wonderful BBC commentator Cliff Morgan\n\nEdwards was playing in Cardiff but for the Barbarians, not Wales, against the mighty All Blacks in January 50 years ago when.... well, click the video above and watch for yourselves.\n\nThe industrial action started in March 1984 as miners from Wales joined those from across the UK in picketing pits in an attempt to stop the National Coal Board and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Tory government shutting mines that were becoming less profitable.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC looks back on documenting the miners' strikes of 1984-1985.\n\nThe mines were the income of hundreds of Welsh families and the strike lasted a year, but ultimately saw the decline of the industry.\n\nPontypandy's most famous resident actually heard his fire bell chime on Welsh language TV first as Sam Tan. But a few weeks later, Sam became the hero next door on the BBC too - and soon became a worldwide hit.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFireman Sam - the cartoon of choice to a certain heir to the throne, Prince George - is Wales' biggest children's TV export, broadcast in 155 countries across the world in 36 languages.\n\nThe numbers were staggering when a 147,000 tonne tanker spewed 72,000 tonnes of oil over 120 miles (193km) of coastline when it ran aground on rocks in west Wales.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Sea Empress disaster in 1996 was Britain's third largest oil spillage at the time\n\nThe Sea Empress was on its way to an oil refinery near Pembroke when disaster struck - and spilled crude oil onto the UK's only coastal national park.\n\n\"Good morning, and it is a very good morning in Wales\" is what the then Welsh secretary Ron Davies said when Wales voted to have its own government, in what was described as \"one of the most important days in the history of our country\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Queen opens the newly-created Welsh Assembly in Cardiff in 1999\n\nAlun Michael led the first minority Labour administration when the assembly met for the first time in Cardiff Bay in 1999, weeks before The Queen and Prince of Wales officially opened the new administration.\n\nPlaying English football's showpiece occasion outside of England for the first time while Wembley Stadium was rebuilt initially caused controversy.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Liverpool's Michael Owen scored two late goals to beat Arsenal and win first FA Cup final in Cardiff in 2001\n\nBut fans soon grew to love FA Cup finals being played in Cardiff as the Welsh capital was beamed across the globe.\n\nDoctor Who was a science fiction cult TV classic back in the day, but it exploded into a global phenomenon when it got a reboot by BBC Wales and renowned Welsh screenwriter Russell T Davies in 2005.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Doctor Who This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by Doctor Who\n\nIt became the centrepiece of BBC One's Saturday schedule and attracts a global audience of 100 million people across 65 countries.\n\nIt's the hit BBC sitcom that has proved to be one of the UK's biggest and best of the 21st Century - and it is filmed around the seaside town of Barry.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by BBC This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nGavin and Stacey is the comedy that coined a host of catchphrases like Nessa's \"tidy\" and \"Oh, what's occurring?\" - and its comeback Christmas special in 2019 was watched by more than a quarter of the UK's population.", "David Jolicoeur performed with De La Soul at Glastonbury in 2014\n\nDavid Jolicoeur, a founding member of the pioneering hip hop trio De La Soul, has died aged 54, US media have reported.\n\nNo cause of death has been given for the rapper, who went by the stage name Trugoy the Dove.\n\nThe American musician had previously spoken publicly about his congestive heart failure in recent years.\n\nThe group changed the face of hip-hop in the late 80s and early 90s, and was honoured at last week's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles during a tribute to the genre.\n\nWriting on Twitter, B Real - a rapper with the hip-hop group Cypress Hill - described Jolicoeur as a \"legend of hip hop music and culture\".\n\n\"His music will allow him to live in our hearts and minds,\" he wrote. \"But not only was he a great musician but he was a great human being. He meant a lot to us.\"\n\nLast month, the group's classic albums were made available for streaming online.\n\nComplex licensing issues around De La Soul's use of hundreds of samples had held back the move until now.\n\nDe La Soul's first six records will be released on digital streaming services for the first time on 3 March.\n\n3 Feet High and Rising, which was their debut album in 1989, reached number one on Billboard's top R&B/hip-hop album chart and often appears on lists of the greatest albums of all time. It included hits The Magic Number and Me, Myself and I.", "US officials are facing mounting pressure to explain why multiple unidentified flying objects flying over North America are being shot down.\n\nThe BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera explains what the latest is in this saga.", "Mr Alexander lost his seat to the e SNP's Mhairi Black, who was then a 20-year-old student, in 2015\n\nA former minister in Tony Blair's government is seeking to make a comeback at Westminster almost a decade after losing his seat.\n\nDouglas Alexander was in both Mr Blair's cabinet and that of his successor Gordon Brown.\n\nBut in 2015 he lost his Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat to the SNP's Mhairi Black.\n\nMr Alexander will stand as Labour's candidate for East Lothian in the next general election.\n\nThe seat is currently held by former Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, who left the SNP to join Alex Salmond's Alba Party.\n\nThe East Lothian constituency will be one of Scottish Labour's top targets when the next Westminster election is fought.\n\nAnnouncing his selection on Twitter, Mr Alexander wrote: \"He's running! Humbled and grateful to be overwhelmingly selected today by local party members as Scottish Labour's candidate for East Lothian.\n\n\"Change is coming to our country and I'm determined to play my part by winning East Lothian back for Scottish Labour.\"\n\nHis candidacy comes more than 25 years after he was first elected to the House of Commons, winning the then-safe Labour seat of Paisley South in a by-election in November 1997.\n\nAfter his role in helping co-ordinate Labour's successful election campaign in 2001 he was made a junior minister in Mr Blair's government, serving in various roles before being made both transport secretary and Scottish secretary in 2006.\n\nWhen Mr Brown became prime minister in 2007, he appointed Mr Alexander as his international development secretary.\n\nBut at the 2015 general election the former shadow foreign secretary, who had a 16,000-vote majority, was defeated by Ms Black.\n\nThe then 20-year-old, who was a student at the University of Glasgow, became the youngest MP elected since 1667.\n\nIn recent years, Mr Alexander has worked as an advisor to U2 front man Bono, who has campaigned on issues including global poverty and the Aids crisis in Africa.\n\nLast May he accompanied the singer and his bandmate The Edge on a visit to war-torn Ukraine.\n\nMr Alexander is also currently a visiting professor at New York University and King's College London.", "Aras has \"a strong personality\", his grandfather Mehmet says\n\nDwarfed by his adult hospital bed, five-year-old Aras is resting on his back playing with a model car.\n\nHe is one of Turkey's miracles.\n\nRescue teams freed him from the rubble of his home in the now devastated city of Kahramanmaras, 105 hours after the earthquake.\n\nWhen he was brought into the intensive care unit, hypothermia had set in and his body temperature had dropped to 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit).\n\nAras may have survived, but his seven-year-old sister Hiranur did not. Neither did his nine-year-old brother Alp. Nor his father.\n\nJust one of so many families irrevocably broken by this disaster.\n\nSitting at Aras's bedside and gently ruffling his grandson's dark hair Is Mehmet.\n\n\"He's an honest boy. He has a strong personality. He's sincere. He's not a spoilt boy.\"\n\nAlthough now 72, Mehmet tells us he will for the rest of his days look after Aras as if he were his own son.\n\n\"The rescuers did so well to save him,\" he says, \"and by God's grace, they gave him back to us alive.\"\n\nAras winces a little as the doctor changes the bandage on his swollen left foot. He's making a good recovery.\n\nAras's mum also survived - but he hasn't seen her since their world imploded. She is being treated at another hospital in the city but is expected to recover.\n\nDr Mehmet Cihan, a paediatrician, travelled from Istanbul as quickly as he could to help his colleagues in Kahramanmaras\n\nIt was in an intensive care unit set up by Israeli doctors where Aras's own life was saved.\n\nDr Daniel King said that they managed to save 17 patients with severe injuries who had been under the rubble for as much as six days. Most were hypothermic and suffering from kidney failure because of the low temperatures and lack of water.\n\nBut as we walked through the ward on Monday, it was not just a child with a remarkable story but also a 65-year-old man.\n\nSamir from Syria was plucked from the rubble after enduring six freezing nights.\n\nDoctors then saved him, but both his legs had to be amputated.\n\nFor the medics at the heart of this disaster it's been an exhausting and traumatic week.\n\nPaediatrician Dr Mehmet Cihan travelled from Istanbul as quickly as he could to help colleagues in this broken city.\n\n\"It's very bad. Too many children have lost their parents. I don't know. It's very hard for me... too hard for me.\"\n\nDr Bryony Pointon says Turkish and international doctors and nurses are quite overwhelmed\n\nThe international medical effort reaches far beyond Kahramanmaras.\n\nIn the town of Turkoglu, green British tents pitched by NHS doctors stand alongside Turkish tents with red tarpaulin.\n\nUK doctors are setting up a field hospital in the grounds of the town's hospital which was damaged in the quake.\n\nThe need for emergency care in the hours after the earthquake may have passed - but 80,000 people living here are lacking many medical services.\n\nDr Bryony Pointon is a GP from Chichester, who has come to Turkey as part of UK-Med - a front-line medical aid charity funded by the British government.\n\n\"We are working with the Turkish doctors and nurses that are here - setting up their own tents and seeing patients but they are quite overwhelmed,\" she explains.\n\n\"After all the trauma you have the people who have their usual chronic illnesses - they are still unwell, they don't have the facilities to cope. So, we will see those patients, as many as we can.\"\n\nDoctors and nurses from around the world are now in Turkey to help with the physical injuries.\n\nBut the mental trauma is also profound - both the personal and the national.\n\nAdditional reporting by by Naomi Scherbel-Ball and Dogu Eroglu", "Yakushchenko was first shown in Ukrainian captivity before his apparent death at the hands of Wagner\n\nRussia's Wagner mercenary group has cast doubt on a video appearing to show the brutal killing of a Wagner soldier for defecting to the Ukrainians.\n\nIn a new video clip, released by Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, the soldier says, \"I was forgiven.\"\n\nAnd in a post on his Telegram channel, Mr Prigozhin calls the soldier, Dmitry Yakushchenko, \"a fine fellow\".\n\nWagner may have faked the earlier video. It appeared to show Yakushchenko being hit fatally with a sledgehammer.\n\nMr Prigozhin joked about that video in reply to an inquiry from Russian news outlet Ostorozhno Media about Yakushchenko's true fate.\n\n\"Ksenia, don't treat everything so gloomily. The kids are having fun,\" the Wagner chief wrote enigmatically.\n\nHe said the case was not a one-off drama, but more like the hit Soviet-era TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring, a thriller set in World War Two. \"You know, good always triumphs over evil,\" he added.\n\nYakushchenko's current circumstances are unclear - and there is no confirmation that he is still alive, despite Mr Prigozhin's message on Telegram. Yakushchenko may have returned to Wagner via a prisoner exchange, but that has not been confirmed.\n\nIn the first video on Monday, released on the Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone, he admitted having fled to the Ukrainian side, before being kidnapped and ending up as a prisoner of Wagner.\n\nThe apparent sledgehammer \"execution\", filmed in a cellar, was presented as the \"trial of a traitor\".\n\nIt was similar to a brutal killing shown in a Wagner video three months ago, again involving a soldier accused of defecting to the Ukrainians.\n\nWagner calls itself a \"private military company\" (PMC) and has thousands of troops involved in heavy fighting in Ukraine.\n\nIt began operations in 2014 in Crimea and has since operated elsewhere in Ukraine, in Syria and across Africa. It has been accused of brutality and war crimes.\n\nIn the second video on Monday, Yakushchenko said: \"In Wagner PMC, everyone has the right to correct their mistakes.\n\n\"When I was captured, I said all sorts of garbage and I'm still ashamed, but it was the only way to survive. Upon return from captivity, I brought lots of valuable information that saved the lives of many guys, so I was forgiven, for which I am very grateful.\"\n\nNeither video indicated where or when the filming took place, nor was that clear from the accompanying text posts.\n\nWarning: you may find the description below upsetting\n\nGrey Zone named the alleged \"traitor\" as Crimea-born Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44, who defected to Ukraine four days after becoming a Wagner fighter.\n\nThe first part of the video showed him in Ukrainian captivity - the BBC has established that the clip came from Ukrainian channel Espreso.TV.\n\nIn it, Yakushchenko suggested that Crimea might return to Ukraine's control in a couple of years.\n\nAccording to the text, he had been jailed earlier for murder, but had seized the chance to fight for Wagner in order to leave jail. Wagner is known to have recruited men from Russian prisons.\n\nThe video then cuts to a shot of Yakushchenko sitting in a cellar with his head taped to construction debris set against a stone wall.\n\nAnother man is standing behind him holding a sledgehammer. A caption calls the scene \"trial for treachery\".\n\nAt the point where the first hammer blow is struck, the video goes blurred and Yakushchenko falls backwards. Further blows are struck, then a caption reads \"the court session is adjourned\".\n\nWagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin rose to prominence as head of a catering business\n\nThe Grey Zone post makes a sarcastic comment about Yakushchenko's apparent death, referring back to Wagner's November \"execution\" of Yevgeny Nuzhin, who was also a former prison inmate.\n\n\"Like his colleague Yevgeny Nuzhin earlier, he caught the same disease that makes you lose consciousness in Ukrainian cities, earlier in Kyiv, now in Dnipro, and then wake up in a basement at your last court session,\" the post said.\n\nThe shadowy mercenary group has adopted a more public profile since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine a year ago - even opening a big headquarters in St Petersburg.\n\nYevgeny Prigozhin, for years a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has been nicknamed \"Putin's chef\" for providing catering services for the Russian elite and armed forces.\n\nBut he has given Wagner credit for the offensive on Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, downplaying the Russian army's role, and suggesting that his forces are more competent fighters.", "Teachers are next due to strike on 28 February and 1 March\n\nA new pay offer will be put to teachers within days, the Scottish government has confirmed.\n\nUnions had said any new deal would need to be \"significantly\" improved to avoid further strike action.\n\nTeachers have asked for a 10% rise, but the previous deal was worth between 5% and 6.85% for most staff.\n\nEducation Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has told BBC Scotland a fifth offer would now be put on the table.\n\nA series of teachers' strikes have been held across Scotland since November, with more planned for later this month.\n\nIf additional Scottish government funds are made available, a meeting of local authority body Cosla will be held on Tuesday afternoon to agree a new offer before it is presented to unions.\n\nMs Somerville said: \"The Scottish government has been working very closely with Cosla and we hope that an improved offer will be made imminently.\n\n\"We would hope to have something that Cosla would be able to announce to teaching unions within the next day or so.\"\n\nThe education secretary said she hoped the new offer would be enough to suspend planned strike action.\n\nShe also described the new proposal as both \"affordable\" and \"exceptionally fair\".\n\nThe dispute centres on the pay rise which teachers were due to receive in April last year.\n\nThe most recent offer was made before the first strike by the EIS union in November.\n\nNearly all pupils in Scotland have lost three or four days' worth of education since then.\n\nThe next strike action is due to be held on 28 February and 1 March.\n\nThe EIS is also planning targeted strikes at schools in a number of areas - including the Glasgow constituency of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nEarlier, councillor Stephen McCabe, leader of Inverclyde Council, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland he was \"on standby\" to attend a meeting of the country's 32 local authority leaders on Tuesday to approve a revised pay offer.\n\nHe added: \"What that offer will look like I don't know as I am not privy to the discussions which are taking place in government.\n\n\"I would hope that we could find a way to last least suspend the strikes, maybe pending further discussions around a two-year deal, but at this point in time I really don't know what the government is going to come up with.\"\n\nMs Somerville has previously said the government was committed to resolving the dispute as soon as possible.\n\nShe said the government was \"progressing work for an improved offer to be put to teaching unions.\"\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives said it was \"astonishing\" that it had taken the education secretary three months to come up with a new offer.\n\nThe party's education spokesperson Stephen Kerr said: \"Shirley-Anne Somerville has been asleep at the wheel throughout this entire pay dispute with teachers.\n\n\"The onus is on her to finally show the leadership required and ensure that this future disruptive action that is planned can be called off.\n\n\"So far the education secretary has been found wanting and her failures have flown in the face of the SNP insisting that education is their number one priority.\"", "Two teenagers have been arrested over Brianna Ghey's death\n\nA 16-year-old girl who was stabbed to death in a park was \"strong, fearless and one of a kind\", her family said.\n\nBrianna Ghey was found wounded and lying on a path in Linear Park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nHer relatives paid tribute to the \"much loved daughter, granddaughter, and baby sister\", and said her death had left a \"massive hole\" .\n\nBrianna was a transgender girl but detectives said there was no evidence to suggest it was a hate crime.\n\nA boy and girl, both 15, have been arrested on suspicion of her murder.\n\nThey are from the local area and remain in custody, Cheshire Police said.\n\nBrianna's family, who are from the nearby town of Birchwood, said she was \"beautiful, witty and hilarious\".\n\nThey continued: \"She was a larger than life character who would leave a lasting impression on all who met her.\n\n\"The loss of her young life has left a massive hole in our family, and we know that the teachers and her friends who were involved in her life will feel the same.\n\nPolice said there would be increased patrols in the area\n\nThey also thanked people for their support, adding: \"The continuation of respect for [our] privacy is greatly appreciated.\"\n\nDet Ch Supt Mike Evans said various lines of inquiry were under way and officers were trying to establish the \"exact circumstances\".\n\n\"At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that the circumstances surrounding Brianna's death are hate related,\" he said.\n\nEmma Mills, the head teacher of Brianna's school Birchwood Community High, said: \"We are shocked and truly devastated.\n\n\"This is understandably a very difficult and distressing time for many and we will do our utmost to support our pupils and wider school community.\"\n\nFriends of Brianna have left flowers and other tributes at the entrance of the park where the teenager died.\n\nA young girl arrived with her father dressed in her school uniform and broke down in tears as she left her own tribute.\n\nTwo other 16-year-olds said they spoke to Brianna in the days before her death and were shocked by what has happened.\n\nThere is still a lot of police activity here with several vans and police cars in the surrounding streets.\n\nTributes have also been paid to Brianna on social media and in particular Tik Tok, where she had a huge following. One message described her as a \"sweet angel\" and a \"beautiful girl\".\n\nIn a tweet, LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall said: \"Our thoughts are with Brianna Ghey, a young trans woman, and her loved ones. We urge anyone who may have information which will help the police with their enquiries to come forward.\"\n\nAlso on Twitter, Labour MP Jess Phillips said Brianna's death was \"utterly tragic\" and sent her parents \"love\" on their \"unimaginable loss\".\n\nDonations on a GoFundMe crowdfunding page set up for Brianna's family, which said the schoolgirl was \"looking forward to taking her exams this year\", have passed £25,000.\n\nPolice earlier said a post-mortem examination was planned and officers were still searching for the weapon used. They are also trying to establish a motive for the attack.\n\nExtra patrols have been sent to the area, which is a well-known dog-walking spot.\n\nWitnesses and anybody with CCTV or dashcam footage have been urged to contact Cheshire Police.\n\nBrianna was found by members of the public lying injured on a path\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Dáithí Mac Gabhann's family want the law changed to help transplant patients\n\nThe father of a boy who needs a heart transplant has expressed disappointment in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) after it said it would block an assembly Speaker election on Tuesday.\n\nAssembly members had planned to meet to pass a new law on organ donation.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson wrote to party members at the weekend to confirm his party's move.\n\nDáithí's Mac Gabhann's father Máirtín said an \"opportunity\" will be missed due to the DUP's action.\n\nThe Northern Ireland secretary said that amending legislation in Westminster is unlikely because of the narrow scope of the bill.\n\nChris Heaton-Harris again urged the parties to reform the Northern Ireland Assembly because \"people in Northern Ireland expect and deserve the devolved institutions to be functioning fully\".\n\nAssembly members had been urged to take their seats on Tuesday to elect a Speaker and implement a new \"opt-out\" organ donation law inspired by Dáithí.\n\nHowever, the DUP is continuing its year-long boycott of power-sharing at Stormont in protest of the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nThe DUP has said the legislation can be dealt with at Westminster, but Mr Mac Gabhann said time is not on his family's side.\n\n\"It's going to have to be Westminster, but again that's another few weeks of uncertainties and it's weeks that we don't have really,\" he told BBC News NI's Talkback programme.\n\nAs the political deadlock continues, Mr Mac Gabhann said that speaking to political parties, \"I keep hearing the word possibility, could, would - you know - I need more than that, I need guarantees at this stage\".\n\nIn his letter on Saturday, first reported by the PA news agency, Sir Jeffrey accused others of using the law to \"blackmail\" his party to return to power-sharing.\n\nSir Jeffrey Donaldson wrote to DUP members over the weekend to make his party's position clear\n\n\"We will not be nominating a Speaker on Tuesday,\" Sir Jeffrey wrote. \"Westminster is sovereign and can resolve the issue quickly.\"\n\nThe DUP leader also criticised Sinn Féin for what he called the party's \"false outrage\" over the issue.\n\n\"Given Sinn Féin's politicking on the matter, let's see if they take their seats in Westminster to help pass this law in the House of Commons. We won't hold our breath.\"\n\nA Sinn Féin motion to recall the assembly received support from the Alliance Party and People Before Profit.\n\nIf a Speaker is not elected, the organ donation legislation will not be passed on Tuesday.\n\nPat Sheehan said there was uncertainty about whether Westminster could pass the law\n\nIn response to DUP's decision not to nominate a Speaker, Sinn Féin's Pat Sheehan said: \"That's disappointing… the most disappointment I think will be felt by the families who are dependent on these regulations being passed\".\n\nSpeaking to Good Morning Ulster, he said if the assembly cannot put forward legislation, \"there is some uncertainty about the procedure in Westminster\".\n\n\"First of all, Jeffrey [Donaldson] can't even bring forward an amendment until next week and there's no certainty around whether the Speaker [at Westminster] will accept an amendment,\" he said.\n\nSocial Democratic and Labour Party assembly member Colin McGrath said the legislation would help people that are on the organ donation list in Northern Ireland, adding that if no Speaker is nominated, \"there's a chance that some of them won't make it\".\n\nAlliance Party MLA Paula Bradshaw said the DUP \"needs to stop playing games with people's lives\", while Mike Nesbitt, of the Ulster Unionist Party, told The Nolan Show that Tuesday's assembly session could descend into \"mudslinging\".\n\nTraditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister also told the programme the passing of the law should be up to Westminster.\n\nDáithí MacGabhann on the steps of Stormont after the bill passed last year\n\nThe DUP has repeatedly blocked the election of a new Stormont Speaker as part of its protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol - a set of post-Brexit trade rules which introduced new checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe assembly cannot carry out its business or pass any new laws without a Speaker in post.\n\nThe Organ and Consent Bill - also known as Dáithí's Law - would mean that all adults in Northern Ireland would be considered as a potential organ donor after their death, unless they specifically stated otherwise.\n\nNorthern Ireland is the only part of the UK where an \"opt-out\" organ donation system is not in place.\n\nDáithí's Law was introduced in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2021 and passed its final stage in the assembly in February 2022.\n\nHowever, additional legislation is needed to specify which organs and tissues are covered under the opt-out system and for that assembly members would have to take their seats.\n\nLast week, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said a proposal to take the legislation through Westminster instead of Stormont would take too long to complete and he urged assembly members to resolve the issue themselves.", "The HPV screening test is used in the rest of the UK and has also been adopted in the Republic of Ireland\n\nThe lead investigator in the Republic of Ireland's cervical check screening controversy has said it is awful that Northern Ireland has not adopted HPV (human papillomavirus) testing.\n\nHPV is the cause of most cervical cancers.\n\nThe HPV screening test is used in the rest of the UK and has been adopted in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nDr Gabriel Scally said there could be \"no excuse\" in Northern Ireland for \"lagging behind\".\n\nIn England, Scotland, and Wales, HPV testing has already replaced cell (cytological) tests, but Northern Ireland has yet to make the switch.\n\nWhile Stormont's Department of Health has committed to moving to this testing method, without an executive and guaranteed funding there is a question over what happens next.\n\nBefore the HPV test was available, labs could only look for suspicious cells in smear samples that suggested cancer may already be present, or soon could be.\n\nA HPV infection comes before the development of abnormal cells.\n\n\"England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland all use a new test, a much more accurate test, a test that actually detects the presence of the virus,\" Dr Scally told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster.\n\nProf Gabriel Scally said there was no excuse for Northern Ireland lagging behind\n\n\"If a woman doesn't have the virus, it is very unlikely that she will have a cervical cancer potential problem,\" he continued.\n\n\"All of those screening services in other parts of Britain and Ireland have moved to a system where the first thing that is done on the sample that is taken from the woman is it is tested for the virus.\n\n\"Unfortunately, screening is never 100 per cent accurate, there are some missed cases, but the HPV test, the primary screening test, reduces that really dramatically by about 50-60 per cent and that's really important at reducing the overall level of cervical cancer amongst women.\n\n\"At the moment, the testing system in Northern Ireland still relies almost 100 per cent on people looking down a microscope and you are making very difficult judgements in a very short period of time and the test is much better.\n\n\"It is absolutely awful that the test hasn't been rolled out in Northern Ireland and there can be no excuse for lagging behind, because it means that there will be more missed abnormalities and that creates the potential for cancer developing.\"\n\nDr Scally said that Northern Ireland should be moving to eradicate cervical cancer.\n\n\"The HPV testing and HPV vaccination for all young people and getting that level of vaccination up as high as possible, those are the two routes to eradicating cervical cancer and that's what the Republic of Ireland has set as their goal.\n\n\"They are working very hard to do it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What happens during a smear test?\n\nLast week, BBC News NI reported that a woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer had learned that she had three previous abnormal smear tests that were missed.\n\nSusan, not her real name, had to undergo a radical hysterectomy when a test in 2019 revealed cancerous cells.\n\nThe 45-year-old said she was devastated at the diagnosis and shocked and upset that previous tests had been misread.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Southern and Western health trusts, which were involved in Susan's care, have apologised.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMeanwhile, a former Stormont minister has warned that lives are being put \"at risk\" because of how long it is taking for women to receive their smear test results.\n\nClaire Sugden said one of her constituents was recently told she would have to wait a minimum of five months.\n\nAccording to health trust targets, patients should be given smear test results with one month in 80% of cases.\n\nMs Sugden described recent stories about missed cervical cancer diagnoses as a \"travesty\".\n\n\"The reality is, however, that an arguably broader danger to women's health is the extremely long times that women are having to wait to receive their results,\" she added.\n\nAfter hearing Susan's story, BBC News NI found that the Southern Health Trust (SHT) is beginning a review or risk assessment, which will be carried out by the Royal College of Pathology.\n\nThe review is expected to take 10 weeks to complete and could affect hundreds of women.\n\nIt will attempt to establish if there was a greater chance of missing abnormalities in screening samples in the trust between 2019 and 2021.\n\nThe SHT has confirmed that \"work involving a number of screening staff will be examined as part of the risk assessment\".\n\nIt aims to prevent cervical cancer - by identifying and treating abnormalities that could develop into cancer if left untreated.\n\nBut screening cannot identify every single case of cancer or pre-cancer - it is not a diagnostic test for cancer.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, screening is offered to women between the ages of 25 and 64.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, you can contact the BBC Action Line for support.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Aerial footage reveals the extent of flooding in Hawke's Bay in New Zealand's east\n\nNew Zealand's prime minister says Cyclone Gabrielle, which for days battered the North Island, is a weather event not seen \"in a generation\".\n\nChris Hipkins' government earlier declared a state of emergency - only the third in New Zealand's history.\n\nAt least three people have died. About a third of the country's population of five million live in affected areas.\n\nOn Wednesday, the cyclone weakened and moved away from the North Island. But many people remain displaced.\n\nSome were forced to swim from their homes to safety after rivers burst their banks. Others have been rescued from rooftops.\n\nAbout a quarter of a million people are without power. Falling trees have smashed houses, and landslides have carried others away and blocked roads.\n\nThe storm's damage has been most extensive in coastal communities on the far north and east coast of the North Island - with areas like Hawke's Bay, Coromandel and Northland among the worst hit.\n\nCommunications to one town in the region have been completely cut after a river burst its banks.\n\nCivil defence authorities in the region said they couldn't cope with the scale of the damage. Australia and the UK have pledged to help.\n\nOn Wednesday, two deaths were confirmed in the Hawke's Bay area.\n\nThe authorities also said they found the body of a missing firefighter who had been caught in a landslide in Muriwai, west of Auckland. A second firefighter involved was critically injured, rescue agencies said.\n\nMarcelle Smith, whose family lives in a cliff-front property in Parua Bay on the east coast of the North Island, told the BBC she had fled inland with her two young children on Monday night.\n\nHer husband remained behind to set up protections for their home. Some embankments set up had already been washed away and they were still battling wild weather on Tuesday.\n\n\"We are trying to do everything we can to protect what we have put our lives into. It's man versus nature at this point,\" she told the BBC.\n\nLocal media reported that some residents in Hawke's Bay had to swim through bedroom windows to escape as waters flooded their homes. People have been warned they could be without power for weeks.\n\nAerial pictures of flooded regions showed people stranded on rooftops waiting for rescue.\n\nThe vast scale of the damage includes uprooted trees, bent street lights and poles, and row after row of flooded homes.\n\nNew Zealand's Defence Force released dramatic pictures of officials rescuing a stranded sailor, whose yacht was swept out to sea when its anchor cable snapped amid strong winds.\n\nNavy officials rescued a stranded sailor whose boat was swept into sea\n\n\"The severity and the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation,\" Mr Hipkins said on Tuesday.\n\n\"We are still building a picture of the effects of the cyclone as it continues to unfold. But what we do know is the impact is significant and it is widespread.\"\n\nHe has pledged NZ$11.5m (£6m; US$7.3m) in aid to support those affected by the disaster.\n\nDeclaring the national state of emergency on Tuesday morning, the Minister for Emergency Management, Kieran McAnulty, described the storm as \"unprecedented\".\n\nThe emergency order enables the government to streamline its response to the disaster. It has been applied to the Northland, Auckland, Tairawhiti, Tararua, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Hawke's Bay regions.\n\nNew Zealand has only previously declared a national state of emergency on two occasions - during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.\n\nThe government has attributed the scale of the disaster to climate change.\n\n\"The severity of it, of course, [is] made worse by the fact that our global temperatures have already increased by 1.1 degrees,\" said climate change minister James Shaw.\n\n\"We need to stop making excuses for inaction. We cannot put our heads in the sand when the beach is flooding. We must act now.\"\n\nCyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand just two weeks after unprecedented downpours and flooding in the same region, which killed four people.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Huge waves and heavy rain as Cyclone Gabrielle lashes New Zealand", "Camilla, the Queen Consort, has tested positive for Covid, Buckingham Palace has announced.\n\nShe is said to be suffering cold symptoms and has cancelled her public engagements for the week.\n\nThe Queen Consort, aged 75, had already pulled out of a planned visit to the West Midlands on Tuesday.\n\nShe has previously had Covid and is understood to be fully vaccinated and is said to be in \"good spirits\" and resting.\n\nBuckingham Palace had initially said the Queen Consort was cancelling a trip because of a \"seasonal illness\", but she has subsequently tested positive for Covid.\n\nCamilla had previously tested positive almost exactly a year ago, with her husband, then Prince Charles, also catching Covid in the same outbreak in February 2022.\n\nBut royal sources say that this week there are no changes planned for King Charles' engagements.\n\nThe couple have urged people to get the Covid vaccine and have both had their booster jabs.\n\nAbout one million people in the UK had coronavirus in the week to 31 January, according to estimates from ONS's most recent infection survey - which is about one in 65 people.\n\nIn England, latest data shows about 96% of people in Camilla's 75-79-year-old age group are vaccinated, with 78.7% having their most recent vaccination three to six months ago.", "Rihanna revealed she is expecting her second child, nine months after welcoming a son with partner A$AP Rocky\n\nRihanna delivered an electrifying and hit-heavy half-time show at Sunday's Super Bowl, but social media went into meltdown when the singer revealed an unexpected special guest.\n\nIn an interview last week, the Bajan singer was asked if there would be any surprises during her performance at Arizona's State Farm Stadium.\n\n\"I'm thinking about bringing someone,\" she replied. \"I'm not sure, we'll see.\"\n\nNaturally, fans assumed she was talking about one of the many artists she's collaborated with during her illustrious career. A guest spot from Jay-Z, Drake or Eminem seemed both likely and in keeping with the half-time show tradition of surprise duets.\n\nBut Rihanna wasn't referring to any of them. Although nobody twigged at the time, she was in fact hinting that she was pregnant with her second child.\n\nThe singer may have failed to debut any new music during her performance at Sunday's Super Bowl, but the baby bump she debuted instead almost broke the internet.\n\nRihanna appeared on a floating platform above a swarm of energetic dancers, all dressed in white\n\nRihanna's representatives confirmed she was pregnant shortly after her performance\n\nWearing an all-red custom jumpsuit by Loewe, Rihanna appeared on one of several floating platforms which soared high above the crowd, as a swarm of energetic dancers, all dressed in white, gathered below.\n\nThe audience went wild as the singer launched straight into Better Have My Money - a somewhat ironic choice of opener considering she is not being paid for her Super Bowl performance.\n\nAs the 34-year-old dazzled the crowd from on high, her dancers performed beneath her at breakneck speed, in a display of razor-sharp choreography which they would maintain throughout the whole performance.\n\nThe singer rattled through several recognisable hits, front-loading her set with some of her most danceable and up-tempo numbers including Only Girl (In The World) and the excellent Where Have You Been.\n\nIt was a half-time show not short on spectacle, even once she had been lowered to the ground. Fireworks were let off above the stadium as she launched into the euphoric We Found Love.\n\nWhile rumours that the star might take the opportunity to perform new music failed to materialise, the decision to rely on her extensive back catalogue, one of the strongest in pop, was a sensible one.\n\nThe singer packed a huge number of hits into a tight 14-minute set, only performing the first verse or chorus of certain songs. But monster hits such as Rude Boy were balanced with the somewhat harder-edged and lesser-known Pour It Up.\n\nSomewhat disappointingly, the set list took advantage of some of her best-known collaborations - without any of her collaborators actually joining her on stage.\n\nAs she performed Run This Town, All of the Lights and Wild Thoughts, there were no appearances from Jay-Z, Ye (formerly Kanye West) or DJ Khaled, who normally feature on those tracks.\n\nBut their absence didn't matter. By this point, everyone's attention was firmly on an entirely different, and very visible, special guest.\n\nThe Super Bowl marked Rihanna's first televised live performance since the 2018 Grammys\n\n3. Only Girl (In The World)\n\nConfusion initially permeated social media as fans rushed to share their theories about Rihanna's apparent baby bump. Many pointed out the singer is known for her body positivity and could well have just been showing off her curvier figure following her previous pregnancy.\n\nAlthough the star's bump was on display throughout, Rihanna did not draw attention to it quite as explicitly as Beyoncé did at the MTV VMAs in 2011, where she memorably dropped her microphone, unbuttoned her jacket and rubbed her belly.\n\nBut as Rihanna's set progressed on Sunday, viewers became increasingly confident she was pregnant again, nine months after she and her partner A$AP Rocky welcomed their son.\n\nWithin an hour of Rihanna's performance drawing to a close, as her fans debated exactly which trimester she might be in, her representatives officially confirmed the singer's good news.\n\nWhile some fans admitted to a tinge of disappointment that this will likely mean yet another delay to Rihanna's much-anticipated ninth studio album, the reaction on social media was overwhelmingly joyful.\n\nRihanna chose not to perform her most recent song, Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever\n\nElsewhere, there were no costume changes during Rihanna's set - quite understandably - and her band looked positively tiny compared with the number of dancers.\n\nUnlike last year's half-time show, which saw Eminem take the knee on stage, Rihanna's set was distinctly light on political statements - something which may surprise those who remember why she previously turned down the Super Bowl.\n\nThe singer confirmed to Vogue in 2019 she had declined the invitation in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who controversially knelt during the national anthem in protest against racism and police brutality. \"I just couldn't be a sellout. I couldn't be an enabler,\" she said at the time.\n\nFour years later, \"taking the knee\" is much more commonplace, particularly in light of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, and Rihanna's headlining of the Super Bowl is perhaps a sign of her approval of the NFL's progress in recent years.\n\nFans broadly agreed her performance was worth the wait, featuring a set list which she had joked earlier in the week had been through 39 drafts before it was finalised.\n\nRihanna even found time to subtly plug her cosmetics brand, by fixing her make-up mid-performance - something which quickly became another of the night's viral moments.\n\nMeanwhile, the annual jokes about the culture clash between pop music fans and sports fans were in full swing on social media, with Rihanna even embracing them herself.\n\nAhead of the show, her clothing label manufactured T-shirts with the slogan: \"Rihanna concert interrupted by a football game. Weird but whatever.\" Model Cara Delevingne was among the attendees sporting one on Sunday.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by caradelevingne This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRihanna's fans are the first to admit she doesn't necessarily have the best voice in music. It's more distinctive than it is powerful, the kind of voice you would recognise instantly as hers on the radio, even if it was an unfamiliar song.\n\nAhead of her Super Bowl debut, Stereogum's Tom Breihan noted: \"Rihanna never needed to over-sing anything; she always sounded too cool to emote.\"\n\nBut what has set Rihanna apart from some of her peers is the sheer number of hits she has to her name. In the late noughties and early 2010s, she churned out chart-toppers faster than the industry's top songwriters could compose them.\n\nShe released seven albums in as many years, scoring a new worldwide hit every few weeks. As a result, perhaps one inevitable disappointment with her Super Bowl set was the number of songs she simply couldn't squeeze in.\n\nSome of her earlier smashes, such as Pon de Replay and SOS, would have gone down a treat, as would the pounding Don't Stop The Music and the catchy What's My Name (although we did get a tiny snippet of the latter right at the beginning, before she appeared on stage).\n\nRihanna hinted she was pregnant during an interview last week\n\nOther fan favourites, such as the rather graphic S&M, were probably wise to avoid, given the Super Bowl's history with pop stars offending family audiences during the half-time show.\n\nHowever, the song wasn't missing entirely - its vocal hook was layered on top of We Found Love, while a few seconds of another risqué but popular track, Birthday Cake, were teased just before Pour It Up.\n\nAnd surely everybody can be grateful that her set wasn't dragged down by her most recent release - Lift Me Up, from the soundtrack to Marvel's Wakanda Forever. A perfectly nice song which deserves its Oscar nomination, but one which would not have worked at the Super Bowl.\n\nInstead, Rihanna deployed some of her biggest hits as she hurtled towards the end of her set, climaxing with her ode to British weather, Umbrella, and the rousing, anthemic Diamonds.\n\nIt may not have grabbed the headlines for the reasons fans were expecting, but Rihanna delivered a half-time show they will never forget.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. No indication of aliens... I loved ET but I'll leave it there - WH spokeswoman\n\nThe White House has said its decision to shoot down three objects flying over North American airspace this weekend was \"out of an abundance of caution\".\n\nThe objects posed a threat to commercial flights and were downed in the \"best interests\" of the American people, spokesman John Kirby said.\n\nThe US is scrutinising its airspace more closely since the recent incursion of a suspected spy balloon from China.\n\nBeijing has alleged that Washington is flying its own balloons over China.\n\nChina's foreign ministry said on Monday that the US had flown balloons into its airspace more than 10 times in the past year.\n\n\"It's not uncommon as well for the US to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,\" spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.\n\nSpeaking from the White House, Mr Kirby denied the allegation: \"We are not flying surveillance balloons over China. I'm not aware of any other craft we're flying into Chinese airspace.\"\n\nOn 4 February, a high-altitude balloon was downed off the coast of South Carolina after moving for days over the continental US.\n\nUS officials said it had originated in China and was used to monitor sensitive military sites, but China denied the object was used for spying and said it was a weather monitoring device that had blown astray.\n\nSince that first incident, American fighter jets have shot down three more high-altitude objects in as many days - over Alaska, Canada's Yukon territory, and Michigan - and the administration has been under pressure to identify the objects.\n\nA Pentagon spokesman on Sunday appeared to suggest the US had not ruled out that the objects were of an extraterrestrial nature, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denied this at Monday's press briefing.\n\n\"There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,\" she said. \"I wanted to be sure the American people knew that and it is important for us to say that from here.\"\n\nMr Kirby, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, joined Ms Jean-Pierre at the briefing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nThere were differences between the alleged Chinese spy balloon and the three objects downed over the weekend, he said. The latter did not pose \"any direct threat to people on the ground\", but were taken down \"to protect our security, our interests and flight safety\".\n\nEfforts are currently under way to collect debris from where the objects fell, but Mr Kirby noted the objects in Alaska and Canada were in remote terrain and would be difficult to find in winter weather conditions, while the object in Michigan, he said, lay in the deep waters of Lake Huron.\n\nOfficials have not yet been able to \"definitively assess\" these objects, but have not ruled out the possibility they were conducting surveillance, he said.\n\nHe accused Beijing of operating a \"balloon programme for intelligence collection\" that has ties to the Chinese military and was not detected during the Trump administration.\n\n\"We detected it. We tracked it, and we have been carefully studying it to learn as much as we can,\" he said.\n\nCanada's federal police force said on Monday that the search area in the Yukon Territory was about 3,000 sq km (1,1600 sq miles) and that experts were analysing wind models from Sunday to try to narrow the search field.\n\nRoyal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Sean McGillis said the search in the Yukon was \"treacherous\" as the debris was probably located in \"rugged mountain terrain with a very high level of snowpack\".\n\nMr McGillis added that there was a possibility the fragments from the Yukon and Lake Huron incidents might never be recovered because of their remote locations.\n\nCanadian Armed Forces Major-General Paul Prévost concurred that the three most recent objects to be shot down differed from the first balloon.\n\nHe said all three appeared to be \"lighter than air\" machines, and described the Lake Huron object as \"a suspected balloon\".\n\nThe military chief added that any members of the public who discover debris should contact the police directly.\n\nThe row over high-altitude aircrafts led America's top diplomat to cancel a visit to Beijing that was initially planned for last week.\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken is now considering meeting China's senior-most diplomat, Wang Yi, later this week at a security conference in Munich, Germany, sources familiar with the negotiations told US media on Monday.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA small meteoroid has entered the Earth's atmosphere and was seen lighting up the sky above the English Channel, creating a stunning shooting star effect.\n\nThe 1m (3ft) meteoroid was seen shortly before 03:00 GMT on Monday morning.\n\nSocial media users, some based in the south of England, shared footage of the rock which has been dubbed Sar2667.\n\nIt is just the seventh time an asteroid impact has been predicted in advance.\n\nThe European Space Agency tweeted that it was \"a sign of the rapid advancements in global asteroid detection capabilities!\"\n\nA person who says they witnessed the event wrote on Twitter that the asteroid \"lit up the sky with a pink flash which was spectacular.\"\n\nAnother said: \"I just stood at my window and turned on my phone. I wasn't expecting much but it really was amazing.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by David L. This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe agency earlier said the object was expected to \"safely strike\" the earth's atmosphere near to the French city of Rouen.\n\nThe International Meteor Organization, a Belgium-based non-profit organisation, said the object would have entered about 4km (2.5 miles) from the French coast, and would create a \"fireball\" effect.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Gijs de Reijke This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAsteroids are small rocky objects that orbit the sun, often described as minor planets.\n\nA meteor is what happens when a small piece of an asteroid or comet, called a meteoroid, burns up upon entering Earth's atmosphere.\n\nAuthorities are aware of more than 1.1 million asteroids, although the true number is believed to be much higher.\n\nAround 30,600 travel in an orbit that brings them near Earth's own, according to the European Space Agency.\n\nThe last asteroid predicted to enter the Earth's atmosphere in advance was seen in the sky above Ontario, Canada in November last year.\n\nIn January, an asteroid the size of a minibus had been on a direct collision course with earth.\n\nIn reality, the rock would likely have disintegrated high in the atmosphere before impact.\n\nAsteroid detection experts are most concerned about \"goldilocks asteroids\", much larger space rocks that could do serious damage to earth if they impact.\n\nIn October, the American space agency NASA announced its experiment to deflect the path of an asteroid had been successful.", "The suspected Chinese spy balloon spotted over the city of Billings in the state of Montana\n\nNews of an alleged Chinese spy balloon floating over the US has left many wondering why Beijing would want to use a relatively unsophisticated tool for its surveillance of the US mainland.\n\nChina has said the balloon, spotted over the state of Montana, is merely a \"civilian airship\" which deviated from its planned route, but the US suspects it is a \"high-altitude surveillance\" device.\n\nWhatever the capabilities of this particular balloon, the US has taken the threat seriously enough to postpone Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China, which was due to take place on 5 and 6 February.\n\nBalloons are one of the oldest forms of surveillance technology. The Japanese military used them to launch incendiary bombs in the US during World War Two. They were also widely used by the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.\n\nMore recently, the US has reportedly been considering adding high-altitude inflatables into the Pentagon's surveillance network. Modern balloons typically hover between 24km-37km above the earth's surface (80,000ft-120,000ft).\n\n\"Beijing is probably trying to signal to Washington: 'While we want to improve ties, we are also ever ready for sustained competition, using any means necessary,' without severely inflaming tensions,\" independent air-power analyst He Yuan Ming told the BBC.\n\n\"And what better tool for this than a seemingly innocuous balloon?\"\n\nThe balloon's anticipated flight path near certain missile bases suggests it is unlikely it has drifted off course, He Yuan Ming said.\n\nThe US Department of Defence on Thursday said the balloon is \"significantly above where civilian air traffic is active\".\n\nBut China expert Benjamin Ho said Beijing had more sophisticated surveillance technology at its disposal.\n\n\"They have other means to spy out American infrastructure, or whatever information they wanted to obtain. The balloon was to send a signal to the Americans, and also to see how the Americans would react,\" explained Dr Ho - coordinator of the China programme at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.\n\nIt may even be the case that China wanted the US to detect the balloon.\n\n\"It's possible that being spotted was the whole point. China might be using the balloon to demonstrate that it has a sophisticated technological capability to penetrate US airspace without risking a serious escalation. In this regard, a balloon is a pretty ideal choice,\" said Arthur Holland Michel from the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.\n\nNevertheless, the experts point out that balloons can be fitted with modern technology like spy cameras and radar sensors, and there are some advantages to using balloons for surveillance - chief of which is that it is less expensive and easier to deploy than drones or satellites.\n\nThe balloon's slower speed also allows it to loiter over and monitor the target area for longer periods. A satellite's movement, on the other hand, is restricted to its orbital pass.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Huge waves and heavy rain as Cyclone Gabrielle lashes New Zealand\n\nResidents across the north of New Zealand are bracing for a rough night as Cyclone Gabrielle lashes the country with torrential rains and winds.\n\nAt least 46,000 homes have lost power in the storm, while hundreds of flights have been cancelled.\n\nA state of emergency has been declared in nine regions - affecting nearly a third of the 5.1 million population.\n\nThe storm was expected to peak on Monday night with the deluge to continue until Tuesday.\n\nIn New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, authorities earlier evacuated people from 50 homes around a 30m-high tower that was in danger of collapse, local media reported.\n\nDozens of evacuation centres have also been set up in the city.\n\nEmergency services have also reported people trapped by the rising waters - including a family stranded on a flooded highway. Authorities say they've received more than 100 calls for help since Sunday.\n\nCyclone Gabrielle is hitting New Zealand's north just weeks after Auckland and surrounding areas endured record rainfall and flooding which killed four people.\n\nNew Zealand's Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was among those stranded in the northern city on Monday after flights to the capital Wellington, and elsewhere, were cancelled.\n\n\"Extreme weather event has come on the back of extreme weather event,\" he said. \"Things are likely to get worse before they get better.\"\n\nEmergency management minister Kieran McAnulty said the government was considering declaring a national state of emergency for only the third time in the country's history.\n\nOnce an emergency is declared, local authorities have greater power to respond to dangerous situations including restricting travel and providing aid.\n\nNew Zealand's meteorological agency, Metservice, said Whangarei, a city north of Auckland, had received 100.5mm of rain in the past 12 hours.\n\nMr McAnulty had warned Monday would be a \"critical day\" due to the \"highly dangerous\" combination of high winds and heavy rain.\n\nWinds of up to 140km/h (87mph) battered the Northland region, while the Auckland Harbour Bridge had to be closed as it was rocked by gusts of 110km/h.\n\nFor homes left without power, the minister warned it could also take days to restore the power grid as the bad weather made it \"unsafe\" to work on the network.\n\nA man stacks up sandbags to protect a warehouse before the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle in Auckland, New Zealand\n\nWeather officials had earlier downgraded Gabrielle's intensity, but the Metservice in its latest update on Monday said it would still bring \"significant heavy rain and potentially damaging winds\".\n\nAlthough the cyclone has yet to make landfall, it has already toppled trees, damaged roads and downed power lines.\n\nMany schools and local government facilities across Auckland and the North Island have closed and people are being asked not to travel before Tuesday.\n\nMeanwhile some 10,000 international Air New Zealand customers were disrupted by the cancellation of 509 flights.\n\nNormal services are expected to resume Tuesday, with the national carrier adding 11 extra domestic flights to its schedule to help with recovery efforts.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. More flooding rains for New Zealand's North Island", "Jakub Jankto: Czech Republic international midfielder comes out as gay Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nJakub Jankto has made 10 league appearances for Sparta Prague since joining on loan from Getafe in August Czech Republic's Jakub Jankto \"no longer wants to hide\" as he becomes the first current international in men's football to publicly come out as gay. The Sparta Prague midfielder, 27, on loan from Spanish side Getafe, made the announcement on Twitter on Monday. Jankto made his senior debut for the Czech Republic in 2017 and has scored four goals in 45 appearances. \"Like everybody else, I have my strengths, I have my weaknesses, I have a family, I have my friends,\" he said. \"I have a job that I have been doing as best as I can for years with seriousness, with professionalism and passion.\" He added: \"Like everybody else, I also want to live my life in freedom without fears, without prejudice, without violence but with love. \"I am homosexual and I no longer want to hide myself.\" Last year, Blackpool's Jake Daniels became the first professional player in the UK men's game for more than 30 years to come out while still playing. Prior to Daniels, Justin Fashanu was the last active men's professional footballer in the UK to come out during his playing career, featuring for clubs in England and Scotland after announcing in October 1990 that he was gay. Before Jankto publicly came out, Adelaide United player Josh Cavallo was the only current openly gay top-flight male professional footballer in the world, having come out in October 2021. In a statement, Sparta Prague said Jankto had openly discussed his sexual orientation with the club's management, coach and team-mates \"some time ago\". \"Everything else concerns his personal life,\" the club added. \"No further comment. No further questions. You have our support. Live your life, Jakub.\" Former Aston Villa and Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, 40, who came out in January 2014, a few months after retiring because of injury problems, tweeted: \"What a player! What a personality! Well done Jakub for speaking up and leading the way for others.\" Since joining on loan in August, Jankto has made 10 league appearances for Sparta Prague, scoring once and providing one assist. He spent the majority of his club career in Italy with Udinese, Ascoli and Sampdoria, before signing for Spanish side Getafe in 2021.\n• None Why did Michaella McCollum try to smuggle £1.5m of cocaine?\n• None Who will be left deserted in Dubai?:", "Mae Stephens is hoping for stardom after a song and video of hers reached 10 million views on TikTok\n\nA singer who worked in a supermarket is set for stardom after gaining more than 10 million views on TikTok.\n\nMae Stephens from Kettering, a regular on BBC Music Introducing in Northamptonshire in recent years, has just signed to EMI records.\n\nHer song, If We Ever Broke Up, was released on Friday after a snippet of it posted on New Year's Day went viral on the social media platform.\n\nThe song tells her ex-boyfriend's father how his son treated her.\n\n\"I've read a lot of comments from people saying that this song helped them through their break-up because it gave them that boss energy.\"\n\nShe said it was \"really surreal to have people sing lyrics to the song I have written\".\n\nThe singer-songwriter, who also works shifts in a local supermarket, has been writing since the age of 12.\n\nMae Stephens wrote her song about a break-up when she was 16\n\nShe said she used music to help her through the hardships of teenage life, and composed her songs on her grandmother's old piano.\n\n\"I used to be quite angry as a kid and I had a lot of pent-up tension, especially coming home from school,\" she said.\n\nShe was bullied at school for being the \"loud, quirky kid\", she added.\n\nWhen her classmates found the YouTube channel to which she uploaded her original songs and covers, every video she shared would prompt more hate and spitefulness to be sent her way.\n\nPushing through the negativity with the help of her music and her brother, she was \"determined to push forward and prove a lot of people wrong\".\n\n\"A lot of kids are probably going through stuff that's a lot worse than what I went through and it's not highlighted as much as it should be,\" she said.\n\n\"To watch kids go through that and not have someone to look up to is something I really hope I can help with.\n\n\"I want to be the champion of the underdogs - Mae's misfits.\"\n\nMae Stephens appeared on BBC Music Introducing in Northamptonshire on Saturday 11 February.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Wayne Couzens, who will never be freed from prison, is due to be sentenced on 6 March for the indecent exposure offences\n\nFormer Met Police officer Wayne Couzens has admitted three counts of indecent exposure, one of which he committed four days before killing Sarah Everard.\n\nThe pleas relate to three incidents in Kent - two offences at a fast-food restaurant in February 2021, and another at woodland in Deal in 2020.\n\nThree remaining counts will not be pursued by the prosecution and will be left on file, the Old Bailey heard.\n\nThe 50-year-old entered the pleas by video-link from Frankland Prison.\n\nCouzens, who had a long grey beard and wore a grey tracksuit, is serving a whole-life sentence at the Durham prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Ms Everard in March 2021.\n\nOn both 14 and 27 February 2021, Couzens exposed his genitals to staff at the drive-in fast food restaurant. He is said to have looked straight at the workers while sitting in his car as he paid for his food.\n\nMrs Justice May told the Old Bailey: \"The female staff were shaken, upset and angry.\"\n\nStaff took a registration number after the second incident and identified the car from CCTV as a black Seat. It was registered to Couzens, who had in any case used a credit card in his name to pay.\n\nThis happened four days before the then-serving officer with the Met Police used his position to trick Ms Everard into his car.\n\nThe significance of Wayne Couzens' guilty pleas should not be underestimated: we now know he was a serial sex offender before he murdered Sarah Everard.\n\nBut more importantly his number-plate was given to Met Police officers after he exposed himself in February 2021.\n\nIt's fair to say if the police had carried out the correct checks they would have realised he was a police officer, but he was free, just days later, to murder Sarah Everard using his status as a policeman.\n\nMany women have said the police don't take indecent exposure seriously enough despite the fact it's known often to lead to more serious offences.\n\nIt's fair to say this was a missed opportunity to stop Wayne Couzens.\n\nDet Ch Insp Katherine Goodwin, who led the team which originally investigated the murder of Sarah Everard, said Couzens had \"tried to frighten and demean\" his victims, \"but they have only shown strength and dignity in reporting him and supporting this investigation\".\n\n\"I would like to thank them for their patience, co-operation and help throughout the case,\" she added.\n\nDeputy Assistant Commissioner for professionalism in the Met, Bas Javid, said: \"We know the public will, understandably, be sickened at yet more grotesque crimes by Couzens.\n\n\"The process of flushing out the corrupt and the criminal from the Met will be slow and painful, but is necessary and we will continue to do so.\"\n\nLast year, Couzens failed in an attempt to have his whole-life term reduced, when the Lord Chief Justice ruled the crimes against Ms Everard were so exceptional the tariff should stand.\n\nCouzens is due to be sentenced for the indecent exposure offences on 6 March.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Richard Sharp says he is \"confident\" appointment was on merit\n\nRishi Sunak has declined to say whether he has confidence in the BBC chairman, saying he cannot speculate while an inquiry is held into his appointment.\n\nRichard Sharp is under scrutiny after it emerged he had acted as a go-between for a loan guarantee for then-prime minister Boris Johnson.\n\nAn MPs' committee has said Mr Sharp made \"significant errors of judgement\" in doing this while applying for the BBC job.\n\nHe insists he got the job on merit.\n\nQuestioned on Monday, Mr Sunak said he would not \"pre-judge\" the outcome of an investigation by the government's appointments watchdog.\n\nAsked whether Mr Sharp had undermined the impartiality of the BBC, Mr Sunak said the controversy over his appointment related \"to a process that happened before I was prime minister\".\n\nMr Sunak said he couldn't \"speculate\" or \"prejudge the outcome\" of an inquiry by the independent office for public appointments, which he said would determine whether \"rules and procedures were adhered to\".\n\nLater, asked directly if Mr Sunak had confidence in Mr Sharp, the prime minister's official spokesperson said: \"Yes, we are confident the process was followed.\n\n\"This was a two-stage process, including assessment by an advisory assessment panel, constituted according to the public appointments code.\n\n\"But there is a review into this process and we will look at that carefully.\"\n\nThe spokesperson twice repeated No 10 was \"confident\" in the process but refused to expand further, citing the ongoing investigation.\n\nAt the fourth time of questioning, when asked \"does Richard Sharp retain the Prime Minister's support?\", the spokesperson replied: \"Yes, again I don't have much more beyond what I have already said.\"\n\nVeteran BBC broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby told BBC Newsnight that Mr Sharp should stand down.\n\n\"What [Mr Sharp] should do honourably is fall on his sword,\" he said.\n\nHe warned the credibility of the corporation in the public's view was at stake, adding \"the BBC needs this like it needs a hole in the head\".\n\nConservative peer Baroness Wheatcroft said it was \"impossible\" not to agree with Mr Dimbleby.\n\n\"Even if Mr Sharp behaved absolutely correctly, it doesn't look right, it doesn't smell right and it doesn't feel right,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"It may be the sort of thing that happens all the time in the circles that Mr Sharp moves in, and it may be that £800,000 is just chicken feed as far as he is concerned,\" she added.\n\n\"He did a favour for a prime minister who was in need at a time when the prime minister was being asked to do Mr Sharp a massive favour and grant him one of the plum jobs in British broadcasting.\"\n\nPressure is growing on the BBC chairman after a critical report by MPs found he showed \"significant errors of judgement\" in acting as a go-between for Sam Blyth, a Canadian millionaire and distant cousin of Mr Johnson.\n\nMr Blyth had said he was willing to act as guarantor on a loan reportedly worth up to £800,000 for the then-PM after reading media reports he was in financial difficulty.\n\nMr Sharp, who was working as a Treasury adviser at the time, approached Simon Case, the country's most senior civil servant, to arrange a meeting between the pair.\n\nAt the time he had already applied for the BBC job and was advised to have no further involvement in the talks.\n\nThe Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee published a critical report on Sunday, concluding he should not have become involved in the facilitation of a loan while applying for the BBC job.\n\nIt found that Mr Sharp should have disclosed his knowledge of the talks when asked to provide a written account of his potential conflicts of interest during his application.\n\nThe report's authors urged him to \"consider the impact his omissions will have on trust in him, the BBC and the public appointments process\".\n\nMr Sharp insists his involvement in the matter ended with that single meeting, despite admitting he met socially with Mr Johnson and Mr Blyth at Chequers months later.\n\nLast week he told MPs he \"didn't arrange the loan\" but did not refute acting as a \"sort of introduction agency\". He also described himself as a \"go-between\" for Mr Blyth and the Cabinet Office.\n\nHe admitted the affair had embarrassed the BBC but insisted he had \"acted in good faith to ensure that the rules were followed\".\n\n\"As a go-between I was not between Mr Blyth and Mr Johnson, but I was actually seeking to ensure that due process was followed by ensuring that Mr Blyth had contact with the Cabinet Office before he would do anything to help his cousin,\" he added.\n\nThe chairman is in charge of upholding and protecting the BBC's independence and ensuring the BBC fulfils its mission to inform, educate and entertain, among other things.\n\nUnder the terms of the BBC Charter, the government must hold a \"fair and open competition\" to find a suitable candidate.\n\nOnce ministers have chosen a preferred candidate from the applicants, the prospective chairman has to submit themselves for questioning by a parliamentary select committee.\n\nThe culture secretary can formally dismiss them from the post following consultation with the rest of the BBC's governing board if they decide they are \"unable, unfit or unwilling\" to perform their duty.\n\nBBC News understands an unscheduled meeting of the BBC Board was due to take place on Monday.\n\nBBC News has contacted the other board members for comment.", "The theft of 200,000 Cadbury's Creme Eggs from an industrial estate nearly threw Easter into doubt, according to police.\n\nThe West Mercia force said it had been hunting individuals \"presumably purporting to be the Easter bunny\".\n\nThe spring-time, choc treats vanished - along with their gooey fondant centres - from a unit in Telford on Saturday.\n\nBut the eggs were found when police stopped a vehicle on the M42 motorway, the force said.\n\nIt added officers had \"saved Easter for Creme Egg fans\" in the recovery of confectionery valued at about £40,000.\n\nPolice said other chocolate varieties were taken from the site in Stafford Park but the force appeared to flake on those details.\n\nA 32-year-old man of no fixed abode has been charged with criminal damage and two counts of theft.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "\"Stay close to the wall. Move fast. Single file. Just a few at a time.\"\n\nThe staccato instructions come from the Ukrainian army escort taking us to a military position in battle-scarred Bakhmut, a city once famed for its sparkling wines.\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the eastern city \"our fortress\". Russian forces have spent the past six months trying to capture Bakhmut. Now they have intensified their onslaught - Ukraine believes - to tear it down ahead of the anniversary of the invasion.\n\nWe follow orders, darting down an icy rubble-strewn street, with a clear blue sky overhead - ideal for Russian drones.\n\nJust after we cross the road, two Russian shells come slamming down behind us on the other side. We turn around to see black smoke rising and keep on running.\n\nWas the shelling random or aimed at us? We can't be sure, but everything that moves in Bakhmut is a target - soldier or civilian.\n\nFor hours there is no let-up in the shelling, incoming and outgoing. A Russian fighter jet roars overhead. The nearest Russian troops are just two kilometres away.\n\nThere is street fighting in some areas, but Ukrainian forces still hold the city - despite sub-zero temperatures and dwindling ammunition.\n\n\"We have some shortages of ammunition of all kinds, especially artillery rounds,\" says Capt Mykhailo from the 93rd Mechanised Brigade, whose call sign is 'Polyglot'. \"We also need encrypted communication devices from our Western allies, and some armoured personnel carriers to move troops around. But we still manage. One of the main lessons of this war is how to fight with limited resources.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Capt Mykhailo says Ukrainian forces have to work with limited resources\n\nWe get an insight into the ammunition problems as Ukrainian troops target a Russian position with 60mm mortars. The first mortar round flies from the tube with a loud bang. The second round doesn't eject.\n\nThere's a hiss of smoke and a shout of \"misfire\" sending the mortar unit scrambling for cover. Troops tell us the ammunition is old stock, sent from abroad.\n\nThe battle for Bakhmut is a war within a war. Some of the fiercest fighting of the invasion has happened here. And now the Kremlin's forces are gaining ground, metre by metre, body by body. Wave after wave of mercenaries from the notorious Wagner group have been sent into battle here. There are reports of fields of Russian corpses.\n\nMoscow now has effective control of both main roads into the city, leaving just one back route left - a slender supply line.\n\n\"They have been trying to take the city since July,\" says Iryna, press officer of the 93rd Brigade. \"Little by little they are winning now. They have more resources, so if they play the long game they will win. I can't say how long it will take.\n\n\"Maybe they will run out of resources. I really hope so.\"\n\nWe move from carefully concealed firing positions to bunkers humming with generators and warmed by stoves. But troops take care to conceal any smoke which could give away their location - part of the housekeeping of war. Among those we meet there is calm determination to fight on.\n\n\"They are trying to encircle us so that we leave the city, but it's not working,\" says Ihor, a camouflage-clad commander, with a battle-hardened edge. \"The city is under control. Transport moves, despite constant artillery strikes. Of course, we have losses from our side, but we are holding on. We only have one option - to keep going to victory.\"\n\nWe only have one option - to keep going to victory\n\nThere is another option - to withdraw from Bakhmut before it's too late. But among the defenders on the ground there seems little appetite for that. \"If we have such an order from our HQ, OK, order is order,\" says Captain Myhailo. \"But what sense to hold all these months if you need to retreat from this city? No, we don't want to do this.\"\n\nHe recalls those who have given their lives for Bakhmut - \"a lot of good brave men who just love this country.\"\n\nAnd if the defenders of Bakhmut were to withdraw, it would pave the way for Russia to push towards bigger cities in eastern Ukraine like Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.\n\nMoscow has stepped up its attacks in other front-line areas in the Donbas region in the east, and in the south. Ukrainian officials say a new Russian offensive is already under way.\n\nThe Kremlin is on a clock, as it counts down to the anniversary on 24 February. \"They are mad about dates and so-called 'victory days',\" says Capt Mykhailo.\n\nBut the battle of attrition for Bakhmut could wear out the Russians, according to Viktor, a tall, lean Ukrainian commander who has captured Russian magazines on a shelf in his bunker.\n\n\"They don't defend now,\" he says, \"they just attack. They continue taking some metres, but we are trying to make sure they take as little of our land as possible. We are holding the enemy here and wearing them out.\"\n\nThere is still some life in Bakhmut if you know where to find it.\n\nA blast of heat and light hits you when you walk through the door of the \"invincibility hub\", past boxes of donated food supplies. It's a boxing club turned life-support system where local people can recharge their phones and themselves, with hot food and companionship.\n\nThere are still civilians living among the rubble of Bakhmut\n\nIt was crowded when we visited, with elderly women clustered around a stove, and two young boys sitting in the boxing ring, glued to a TV screen, and playing war games.\n\nAround 5,000 civilians remain in Bakhmut without running water or power - many are elderly and poor. \"Some are pro-Moscow. They are waiting for the Russians,\" a Ukrainian colleague mutters darkly.\n\nAll here are fighting their own battles says Tetiana, a 23-year-old psychologist who is at the hub watching over her young brother and sister. She's still in Bakhmut because her 86-year-old grandmother can't move and relies on her.\n\n\"Most people deal with it by praying to God,\" she says. \"Faith helps. Some forget that they are people. Some show aggression. They start behaving worse than animals.\"\n\nBack outside the battle for this broken city rages on, with a drum beat of shelling as we leave.\n\nAlmost one year on since the start of the conflict, what questions do you have about the war in Ukraine?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "England earned a first win of Steve Borthwick's tenure with a pragmatic bonus-point win over Italy in the Six Nations at Twickenham.\n\nJack Willis marked his return to the side with an opening try before Ollie Chessum powered over for the second.\n\nJamie George added a third from close range but Italy hit back after the break through Marco Riccioni.\n\nA penalty try sealed the bonus and Henry Arundell scored a fifth, while Alessandro Fusco claimed a consolation.\n\nVictory for the hosts - their 30th win in 30 meetings with Italy - lifts them to third in the table, above defending champions France on points difference, while Italy drop down to fifth.\n\nBorthwick's men travel to Cardiff to face Wales in their next game on 25 February, after next weekend's break, as the Azzurri host world number one side Ireland earlier on the same day.\n• None Rugby Union Daily podcast: The weekend review with Barclay and Jiffy\n\nUnderwhelming England get the job done\n\nAfter a narrow opening round defeat by Scotland, the task for England was simple: beat perennial Six Nations underperformers Italy and build momentum at the beginning of the Borthwick era.\n\nThe overriding objective may have been achieved, but for 70 minutes this was far from a vintage England performance.\n\nCaptain Owen Farrell, moved from inside centre to fly-half, looked for territory but kicked possession away when the hosts had front-foot ball, and Henry Slade had a quiet game on his return to outside centre, but Ollie Lawrence carried and tackled hard in a new-look midfield.\n\nWillis was a notable performer, tirelessly hunting anything in a royal blue shirt before being rewarded for his defensive endeavour with the opening try.\n\nThe Toulouse back row was the beneficiary as England ran a line-out move off the training paddock and mauled their way over the line.\n\nEllis Genge showed deft hands to hand the second to Chessum after inviting contact close to the line and popping off the ball to his former Leicester Tigers team-mate to finish.\n\nThe line-out ladder has become synonymous with former lock Borthwick and his warm-up contribution with his pack, and the hard work seems to be paying off as George threw in the ball before joining the back of the maul and finishing off the third.\n\nA penalty try followed after the interval as Italy were penalised for their ill-discipline at the breakdown but one of the loudest cheers came when the exciting Arundell was introduced from the bench as Twickenham yearned for more free-flowing rugby.\n\nThe wing had few touches but he was on hand to capitalise as fellow replacement Alex Mitchell spotted a gap in the tiring Azzurri defence late and fed him to dart through and produce an acrobatic finish in the corner.\n\nItaly were so close to a huge upset against last year's Grand Slam winners France in their opening game but they ultimately failed to see it through.\n\nFacing England at Twickenham has previously been an altogether different tasks. The Azzurri had not beaten England in any of 29 attempts before Sunday but they played with a fluidity that their hosts lacked.\n\nThey had more possession (52%) and made 286 more metres than England as they looked to keep the ball alive.\n\nThe visitors did not trouble the scorers in the first 40 minutes, but Riccioni marked his first international start since November 2021 with a powerful surge as many of the spectators inside Twickenham were still to return to their seats at the start of the second half.\n\nAnge Capuozzo was a constant threat as he glided across the turf and spun his way out of trouble several times. A second try came through Fusco, who rode the tackle and dived over at full stretch to give the travelling fans a glimmer of hope.\n\nItaly's ill-discipline cost them as they conceded two first-half tries while Lorenzo Cannone was in the sin bin, but their attacking intent has to be commended as this young side - with an average age of 26 - continue to employ a fast-paced game.\n\nWhat they said\n\nFormer England scrum-half Danny Care on BBC Radio 5 Live: \"I think Steve Borthwick and the coaches will be happy. England went back to basics, they kicked well and attacked well, and were clinical when they got chances.\n\n\"One thing for certain is England are about to play better teams than today. Going to Wales, Wales have not played well at all this tournament and they will pitch up against England.\n\n\"But away to Ireland and home to France, that is where we will have an indication how good this England team is.\n\n\"Fair play to Italy they stuck on in there. I think they will beat someone in this tournament if everything comes together.\"", "Last updated on .From the section American Football\n\nThe Kansas City Chiefs became NFL champions for the second time in four years after fighting back to claim a thrilling 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.\n\nSeen as slight underdogs for Super Bowl 57, the Chiefs trailed for much of the game in Phoenix and were 27-21 down heading into the final quarter.\n\nBut despite limping after aggravating an ankle injury, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and veteran coach Andy Reid orchestrated a route back in front of 67,827 fans in the State Farm Stadium.\n\nMahomes, who was named the season's Most Valuable Player for a second time last week, made touchdown passes to Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore to put Kansas City in front for the first time.\n\nThe Eagles levelled after a record-breaking third rushing touchdown by Jalen Hurts, followed by a two-point conversion by the third-year quarterback.\n\nBut a heroic 26-yard run by Mahomes made the ground for Harrison Butker to kick a game-winning field goal from 27 yards with eight seconds remaining.\n\nMahomes' performance saw the 27-year-old become the first player since 1999 to win the season MVP, the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl MVP in the same season.\n\nHe has led the Chiefs to at least the AFC Championship game in all five seasons as a starter and many argued that, for the Reid-Mahomes era to be considered a dynasty, they had to win another Super Bowl.\n\n\"I am not going to say a dynasty yet, we are not done,\" said Mahomes.\n\n\"I told you nothing was going to keep me off the field. I want to thank my team-mates - we challenged each other and it took everybody.\"\n\nOn Reid, who coached Philly for 14 years before taking over at Kansas City in 2013, Mahomes added: \"He's one of the greatest coaches of all time. I think everybody knew that, but these last two Super Bowls kind of cemented that.\n\n\"To have someone that is such a great person who gets the best out of the players, you wanted to win those Super Bowls for him. It's great that we did that.\"\n\nReid, 64, said of Mahomes: \"He wants to be the greatest player ever and that's the way he goes about his business. And he does it humbly, there's no bragging.\n\n\"The great quarterbacks make everybody around him better, including the head coach. So he's done a heck of a job.\"\n\nIt was both a historic and rare Super Bowl as the NFL's showcase event came to Arizona's state capital for a fourth time.\n\nIt was the first Super Bowl to feature two black quarterbacks and the first to feature brothers on opposing teams, namely Travis Kelce and his older brother Jason, the Eagles centre.\n\nAnd it was rare because it featured the season's best two teams and the best two players - Mahomes and Hurts, who traded blows in an epic.\n\nIt was the first time that the top seed in each Conference has reached the Super Bowl since 2018 - when the Eagles beat the New England Patriots 41-33 for their only previous Super Bowl win.\n\nThis is the highest-scoring Super Bowl since then but probably edged it for drama, with each team showing why they were so dominant during the regular season, both finishing with a 14-3 record.\n\nNow Super Bowl 57 will be remembered for being much more than the 'Kelce Bowl', it is the game where the Chiefs delivered on their promise.\n\n\"It solidifies your greatness,\" said Travis Kelce. \"You didn't get lucky once, it wasn't beginners' luck\n\n\"You can call it a dynasty - you can call it whatever you want. All I know is we're coming back next year and our heart and mindset is on trying to get another.\n\n\"We were uncharacteristic in the beginning [of the game] but everyone had that look in their eye that they would leave it all out there on the field and that is what we did.\"\n\nIt promised to be a shootout from the first quarter, as neither defence managed to stop their opposition doing the same as they have been doing all season.\n\nHurts already had the single-season record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback and three more on Sunday extended it to 18.\n\nThe first capped the game's opening drive, and the Chiefs replied with Mahomes finding Travis Kelce in the corner for the tight end's career-best 16th touchdown of the season.\n\nHowever, there were ominous signs for Kansas City in the second quarter, despite cancelling out Hurts' 45-yard touchdown pass to AJ Brown as Nick Bolton returned a Hurts fumble for a defensive touchdown.\n\nThe Eagles starved the Chiefs of possession, Mahomes began limping heavily, Hurts punched in his second touchdown and Jake Elliott kicked a field goal to make it 24-14 at half-time.\n\nThe extended break for Rihanna's half-time show gave Kansas City more time to treat Mahomes' ankle and regroup, and whatever was said did the trick as they came out and put together a 10-play drive capped by a Isiah Pacheco score.\n\nThey thought they had snatched the lead moments later with another defensive touchdown by Bolton, only for the play to be reversed, and another Eagles field goal made it 27-21.\n\nBut two touchdowns in quick succession, both from well-designed passing plays from the Reid playbook that flummoxed the Philly defence, swung the game in Kansas City's favour.\n\nHurts kept the Eagles in it but Mahomes' scramble up the middle allowed the Chiefs to manage the clock before making the decisive score with just seconds left.\n• None This is the first Super Bowl in which both teams scored at least 35 points\n• None Hurts became the first quarterback to rush for three touchdowns in a Super Bowl\n• None Hurts also set a Super Bowl record for rushing yards by a QB - 70\n• None Facing the team with the second most sacks in a single season in NFL history, the Chiefs' offensive line didn't allow Mahomes to be sacked once\n• None Mahomes became the 13th quarterback to win multiple Super Bowls\n• None Mahomes is the first player from the top four professional sports in the US to win multiple MVPs and multiple championship MVPs within 2000 days of his debut (1869)\n• None Reid became the 15th coach to win multiple Super Bowls\n• None Reid is the first head coach/manager in the top four professional sports in the US to win multiple championships after winning none over his first 20 seasons\n• None Get American Football alerts in the BBC Sport app", "Daniel Pickering was jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years\n\nA man has been jailed for life after murdering a man outside a nightclub in an act of \"mindless violence\".\n\nMatthew Thomas, 47, was found outside The Arch Bar in Neath on 15 July, 2022 and died the following day.\n\nDaniel Pickering, 34, punched Mr Thomas twice in the face, knocking him unconscious, before continuing the attack.\n\nHe was found guilty of murder by a jury at Swansea Crown Court in December.\n\nThe trial heard an \"aggressive\" Pickering had started an argument with Mr Thomas inside The Arch before being thrown out.\n\nPickering, who had consumed alcohol and cocaine, then waited outside for Mr Thomas before launching the attack.\n\nMatthew Thomas died after being punched repeatedly by Daniel Pickering\n\nIn a statement issued after sentencing on Monday, Mr Thomas' family described him as a \"happy, positive, kind person\".\n\n\"He was only 47, a father, son, brother and friend to so many\", they added.\n\n\"We are all struggling to come to terms with the way he died and make sense of how it could be that a man he didn't know made the decision that night to take from him his life and his future, and by doing so has left such devastation and trauma behind.\"\n\nMr Thomas' family said that they were \"distressed to know that whilst Matthew lay on the floor dying,\" Daniel Pickering continued to \"punch and stamp on his head.\"\n\n\"We are hopeful that following today we will be able to move forward and start grieving and remembering Matthew\", they continued.\n\nMr Thomas was described as a \"happy go lucky\" character, in a victim statement read out by Matthew's sister, Kath Thomas.\n\n\"He was a character, always happy and joking. Matthew loved life and would talk to anyone. There wasn't a bad bone in his body. He was harmless,\" she said.\n\n\"Tragically he met a stranger that night, a stranger who was angry.\"\n\nDescribing life since the attack, Ms Thomas said the incident had left the family with a \"permanent feeling of loss and despair\".\n\n\"The panic, fear and disbelief from that moment is always with us.\n\n\"We live with heightened anxiety, we over-worry for each other, we're worried that this horror can happen again.\"\n\nShe added: \"It's the first thing we think about in the morning, and the last thing on our minds at night.\"\n\nSentencing Pickering to life in prison with a minimum term of 18 years, Judge Geraint Walters described the attack as a \"senseless episode of gratuitous and mindless violence\".\n\nHe told Pickering his actions showed his life was \"largely without direction\".\n\n\"The attack was wholly unprovoked and involved gratuitous violence directed at a man who never used any violence and offered no resistance,\" he said.\n\n\"At that time you did intend to kill Mr Thomas.\"\n\nThe fatal attack happened near The Arch nightclub in July last year\n\nSenior investigating officer DCI Mark Lewis said the unprovoked attack on Mr Thomas was an example of how \"the over consumption of alcohol and Class A drugs stimulates aggressive behaviour\".\n\nDCI Lewis urged people to consider their actions on a night out, adding that murders of this nature \"are preventable if people take the time to reflect on their own behaviour\".\n\n\"Our thoughts today remain with Matthew's family and friends and I sincerely hope today's sentence bring them some closure,\" he said.", "CCTV shows nurses at the neonatal unit of a hospital in southern Turkey running to protect babies in their incubators in the moments the earthquake struck.\n\nThe hospital in the Gaziantep region was near the epicentre of Monday's earthquake which killed at least 35,000 people.", "Investigators will be seeking clues on why a balloon of Chinese origin flew over US airspace last week when they recover the wreckage of the aircraft.\n\nThe balloon, which the Pentagon claims was spying on sensitive military sites, was shot down over US territorial waters on Saturday.\n\nDebris has been spread over a wide area off the South Carolina coast.\n\nChina insists it was a weather ship blown astray and has expressed \"strong dissatisfaction\" over its downing.\n\nUS Navy and Coast Guard ships and divers are working to recover as much debris from the balloon as possible, including whatever equipment was onboard.\n\nOn Monday, defence officials said debris had been found in an area that measures roughly 1,500m (4,920 ft) by 1,500m, although material is spread over a much larger area. Efforts to recover the balloon's equipment have been complicated by sea conditions and the possibility that the debris may include dangerous materials such as explosives or battery components.\n\nSo what do investigators hope to learn once the balloon's debris is recovered?\n\n\"We don't know exactly all the benefits that will derive. But we have learned technical things about this balloon and its surveillance capabilities,\" a top defence official told reporters on Saturday. \"And I suspect if we are successful in recovering aspects of the debris, we will learn even more.\"\n\nExperts who spoke to the BBC said the balloon's contents are key to uncovering its purpose and capabilities.\n\nIain Boyd, a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, said neither Beijing's nor Washington's official explanations quite make sense yet.\n\n\"There's doubt on both sides and that's partly what's so interesting about all of this,\" he said. \"I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle of all of this.\"\n\nMr Boyd said that, if rescue teams recover enough of the instrumentation, they will likely be able to know how much information it contained, what kind of information was being processed and if any processed data had been or was being sent back to China.\n\nSeeing the balloon up close - and finding out whether it had such features as propellers or communications equipment - will also help determine if it was being controlled remotely, he said.\n\nEven if the software is damaged or has been somehow wiped, Mr Boyd argued investigators will be able to evaluate things like the resolution and quality of surveillance images it may have taken.\n\n\"It would be very surprising if there's any technology on that platform that the US does not already have some equivalent form of, but it does give the potential to give the intelligence services here an understanding of the technological maturity that the Chinese have for these kinds of applications,\" he said.\n\nThe US will aim to find any sensors they can in the balloon wreckage to use that to uncover the purpose of the aircraft, said Gregory Falco, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University's Department of Civil and Systems Engineering.\n\nBut that won't be easy to do, he told the BBC, as the sensors - which detect different types of wavelengths - are typically small and may have been damaged after the US military shot the spy balloon. He said it's unclear from video footage of the incident how bad the damage is to the aircraft.\n\nChina, like the US, is a \"pretty smart adversary\", and also probably planned for the aircraft to self destruct or scramble data as a part of the spy espionage mission, Dr Falco said.\n\n\"Shooting this thing down was just a show of national pride more so than anything, because I'm not sure what we're gonna grab out of this,\" he said.\n\nBut information from the downed balloon could help US officials \"understand their adversary a little bit better\", he said.\n\nThe US could uncover how data captured by the aircraft was sent back to China, Dr Falco said. The country may have used a \"hybrid satellite network\", which use high-altitude platforms to relay data to the nearest orbital-friendly satellite. Once the satellite is in safe territory, it links to a ground station, or an antenna that functions as a control system, Dr Falco said.\n\nChina has \"a huge swathe of ground stations that are outside of China\", Dr Falco said. As long as the balloon was able to connect to a satellite, which would then link to a ground station, China would be \"all set with their data\" and could wipe the balloon, he said.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nUefa bears \"primary responsibility\" for the chaotic scenes that \"almost led to disaster\" before last year's Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, says an independent report.\n\nFans were penned in and teargassed outside Paris's Stade de France as kick-off was delayed by 36 minutes.\n\n\"It is remarkable no one lost their life,\" said the report, which Uefa commissioned after the 28 May final.\n\nUefa and French authorities initially blamed ticketless fans for the events.\n\nThe report says there is \"no evidence\" to support the \"reprehensible\" claims.\n\n\"The panel has concluded that Uefa, as event owner, bears primary responsibility for failures which almost led to disaster,\" said the report.\n\n\"All the stakeholders interviewed by the panel have agreed that this situation was a near-miss: a term used when an event almost turns into a mass fatality catastrophe.\"\n• None What happened at the Champions League final?\n\nWhile it said there was \"contributory fault\" from other bodies - particularly French police and the French Football Federation - the findings said European governing body Uefa was \"at the wheel\".\n\n\"Uefa should have retained a monitoring and oversight role [of security], to ensure it all worked. It self-evidently did not,\" the report added.\n\nWhat else did the report find?\n\nUefa commissioned the independent report three days after the match - the showpiece of European club football which Liverpool went on to lose 1-0 - took place in the French capital.\n\nThe European governing body said a \"comprehensive review\" would examine a number of factors that include the decision-making, responsibility and behaviour of all parties involved in the final.\n\nThe investigation found eight key factors that \"almost led to disaster\" because of Uefa's failure, which included:\n• None a disproportionately large number of Liverpool supporters being directed to the Stade de France Saint-Denis train station\n• None poor route planning between the train station and the stadium\n• None inadequate ticketing systems and entry mechanisms at the additional security perimeters\n• None large groups of locals gaining entry to the stadium and a failure to police them\n• None police using tear gas and pepper spray in the concourses\n\nIt also said the collective action of Liverpool supporters was \"probably instrumental\" in preventing \"more serious injuries and deaths\" outside the stadium.\n\nThe investigation was chaired by Dr Tiago Brandao Rodrigues, a Portuguese politician, with the panel also including experts and consultants from legal, policing and event-management fields, along with representatives from football fan groups.\n\n\"The enthusiasm around the game rapidly turned into a real 'near miss' which was harmful to a significant number of fans from both clubs,\" said Dr Rodrigues.\n\n\"This should never have happened at such an important sporting event, and it is unacceptable that it took place at the heart of the European continent.\"\n\nThe report made 21 recommendations in an attempt to ensure \"everything possible is done\" to prevent any similar incident happening again at a major sporting event.\n\nIt also warned French authorities this should be a \"wake-up call\" before it hosts the 2023 Rugby World Cup and 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.\n• None Panorama - The Champions League Final - What went wrong?\n\nFor many Liverpool fans, the incident and subsequent attempted attribution of blame on supporters has evoked painful memories of the Hillsborough disaster.\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool supporters died as a result of the April 1989 disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium, where fans were crushed because of overcrowding in the Leppings Lane End at an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.\n\nAfter years of smear campaigns, a new inquest concluded in 2016 the behaviour of Liverpool supporters played no part in the deaths and those who died were unlawfully killed.\n\nThe accusations made by Uefa and French authorities about alleged ticketless Liverpool fans in Paris were criticised by the Rodrigues-led report.\n\n\"The parallels between Hillsborough 1989 and Paris 2022 are palpable,\" it added.\n\n\"The similarities include the fact both events were preventable and both were caused by the failures of those responsible for public safety.\n\nFollowing the publication of the review into the Paris scenes, Uefa apologised \"most sincerely\" for the events which unfolded.\n\nUefa said it would also announce a \"special refund scheme\" for affected fans.\n\n\"In particular, I would like to apologise to the supporters of Liverpool,\" Uefa general secretary Theodore Theodoridis said.\n\n\"For the experiences many of them had when attending the game and for the messages released prior to and during the game, which had the effect of unjustly blaming them for the situation leading to the delayed kick-off.\"\n\nWhat have Liverpool and fans said?\n\nUefa initially aimed to publish the findings of the investigation by November last year.\n\nThe report was released on Monday, about an hour before Liverpool's home game against Merseyside rivals Everton.\n\nSteve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, says the findings \"vindicated\" the Liverpool fans who had said Uefa and the French authorities were responsible for the events.\n\n\"Fans who travelled to Paris expecting the night of their lives were put in harm's way by the very people who are meant to protect them,\" Rotheram, who was at the match, said.\n\n\"The organisation before, during and after the game - and the heavy-handed treatment of fans - was predicated on flawed intelligence and the inaccurate preconceptions and prejudices of the authorities.\"\n\nThe findings were thought to be set for publication on Tuesday, but details of the investigation's conclusions were reported by a number of media organisations earlier on Monday.\n\nLiverpool said they had not received a copy of the report before seeing the stories in the media.\n\n\"It's hugely disappointing that a report of such significance, such importance to football supporters' lives and future safety, should be leaked and published in this way,\" said the club.\n\nLiverpool supporters' group Spirit of Shankly was also unhappy the report had been leaked before being seen by the club and their supporters.\n\n\"It's disappointing and insensitive to release a report of this magnitude without first releasing to supporters who were there,\" a spokesman told the BBC.\n\nWhat happened outside the Stade de France?\n\nUefa initially blamed the \"late arrival\" of fans for the problems, which delayed kick-off by more than half an hour.\n\nMany Liverpool fans said they had been at the stadium hours before kick-off - scheduled for 21:00 local time - but were stopped from getting into the ground.\n\nThe gates opened at 18:00 local time and fans had been told to arrive early to ease congestion.\n\nLiverpool supporters arriving shortly after that time said already-large crowds were not moving through a ticket checkpoint and led to fans being crammed in underpasses outside the stadium.\n\nFive minutes before kick-off, at 20:55, Uefa announced that the start of the match was delayed \"for security reasons\" until 21:15.\n\nEyewitnesses said the French police began to use pepper spray, causing the crowd to stampede backwards and leaving some of them vomiting as others rushed for water from neighbouring bars to ease the pain.\n\nAt 21:14 Uefa announced a further delay to kick-off. Eventually, the match began at 21:36.\n\nFrance's interior and sports ministers acknowledged difficulties in managing crowds at the final but initially pointed blame at Liverpool fans and local youths trying to force their way into the stadium.\n\nFrench sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said Liverpool had let their supporters \"out in the wild\", prompting Liverpool chairman Tom Werner to demand an apology for her comments.\n\nShortly after the final, a spokesperson for France's independent police commissioner's union (SICP), Mathieu Valet, told the BBC's Newshour that \"supporters without tickets or with fake tickets were not the main problem\".\n\nHe said it was down to \"three or four hundred French and undocumented delinquents\" who had gained access to the stadium's concourse.\n\n\"It's clear that we needed more police - we didn't have enough on the ground,\" he said.", "Members of Unite employed by Abellio have staged a series of strikes in recent months\n\nA long-running dispute involving more than 1,800 bus drivers in London has come to an end after workers accepted a \"richly deserved\" pay offer.\n\nMembers of Unite employed by Abellio have staged a series of walkouts in recent months, disrupting journeys in south and west London.\n\nUnite said an offer had been accepted that would see drivers with over two years' service being paid £18 an hour.\n\nAbellio London said it was \"delighted\" the offer had been accepted.\n\nThe pay rise equates to an increase of 18% on the basic rate, while the agreement also includes all rates being raised, including overtime and rest-day working.\n\n\"Workers have stood firm and with the support of their union, Unite, they have secured a richly deserved pay increase,\" she added.\n\nA spokesperson for Abellio London said the \"substantial pay rise\" equated to an increase of about £100 a week and made the firm \"one of the highest-paying operators in London\".\n\n\"It was disappointing that strikes unnecessarily continued into February despite this fantastic offer being made at the beginning of the year,\" they added.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "It has been a week since a deadly earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, killing thousands. But amid the despair, there have been stories of \"miracles\". This is one of them.\n\nWhen Necla Camuz gave birth to her second son on 27 January, she named him Yagiz, meaning \"brave one\".\n\nJust 10 days later, at 04:17 local time, Necla was awake feeding her son at their home in southern Turkey's Hatay province. Moments later, they were buried under mounds of rubble.\n\nNecla and her family lived on the second floor of a modern five-storey building in the town of Samandag. It was a \"nice building\", she says, and she had felt safe there.\n\nShe did not know that morning that the area would be torn apart by the earthquake, with buildings damaged and destroyed at every turn.\n\n\"When the earthquake started, I wanted to go to my husband who was in the other room, and he wanted to do the same thing,\" she says.\n\n\"But as he tried to come to me with our other son, the wardrobe fell onto them and it was impossible for them to move.\n\n\"As the earthquake got bigger, the wall fell, the room was shaking, and the building was changing position. When it stopped, I didn't realise that I had fallen one floor down. I shouted their names but there was no answer.\"\n\nThe 33-year-old found herself lying down with her baby on her chest, still held in her arms. A fallen wardrobe next to her saved their lives by preventing a large slab of concrete from crushing them.\n\nThe pair would remain in this position for almost four days.\n\nLying in her pyjamas beneath the rubble, Necla could see nothing but \"pitch black\". She had to rely on her other senses to work out what was going on.\n\nTo her relief, she could tell immediately that Yagiz was still breathing.\n\nBecause of the dust, she struggled at first to breathe, but said it soon settled. She was warm in the rubble.\n\nShe felt as though there were children's toys beneath her but could not manoeuvre herself to check, or to make herself more comfortable.\n\nOther than the wardrobe, the soft skin of her newborn son, and the clothes they wore, she could feel nothing but concrete and debris.\n\nIn the distance, she could hear voices. She tried to shout for help and bang on the wardrobe.\n\n\"Is there anyone there? Can anyone hear me?\" she called.\n\nWhen that didn't work, she picked up the small bits of rubble that had fallen next to her. She banged them against the wardrobe, hoping it would be louder. She was scared to hit the surface above her in case it collapsed.\n\nNecla realised there was a possibility nobody would come.\n\n\"I was terrified,\" she says.\n\nIn the darkness beneath the rubble, Necla lost all sense of time.\n\nThis wasn't what life was supposed to be like.\n\n\"You plan lots of things when you have a new baby, and then… all of a sudden you're under rubble,\" she says.\n\nStill, she knew she had to look after Yagiz, and was able to breastfeed him in the confined space.\n\nThere was no source of water or food that she could access for herself. In desperation, she tried unsuccessfully to drink her own breast milk.\n\nNecla could feel the rumble of drills overhead and hear footsteps and voices, but the muffled sounds felt far away.\n\nShe decided to save her energy and remain quiet unless the noises from outside came closer.\n\nThe rubble under which Necla was buried\n\nShe thought constantly of her family - the baby on her chest, and the husband and son lost somewhere in the debris.\n\nShe also worried about how other loved ones had fared in the earthquake.\n\nNecla did not think she would make it out of the rubble, but Yagiz's presence gave her a reason to remain hopeful.\n\nHe slept much of the time, and when he woke crying, she would silently feed him until he settled down.\n\nAfter more than 90 hours underground, Necla heard the sound of dogs barking. She wondered if she was dreaming.\n\nThe barks were followed by the sound of voices.\n\n\"Are you OK? Knock once for yes,\" one called into the rubble. \"What apartment do you live in?\"\n\nRescuers carefully dug into the ground to locate her, as she held Yagiz.\n\nThe darkness was broken by a torch light shining into her eyes.\n\nWhen the rescue team from the Istanbul Municipality Fire Department asked how old Yagiz was, Necla couldn't be sure. She only knew that he was 10 days old when the earthquake struck.\n\nBaby Yagiz made headlines after he and Necla were saved\n\nAfter handing Yagiz to the rescuers, Necla was then carried away on a stretcher in front of what seemed to be a large crowd. She couldn't recognise any faces.\n\nAs she was moved to an ambulance, she sought confirmation that her other son had also been saved.\n\nWhen she got to hospital, Necla was greeted by family members who told her that her husband of six years, Irfan, and her three-year-old son, Yigit Kerim, had been rescued from the rubble.\n\nBut they had been transferred hours away to a hospital in Adana province, having sustained serious injuries to their legs and feet.\n\nNecla was eventually reuinted with her husband Irfan and three-year-old son Yigit Kerim\n\nRemarkably, Necla and Yagiz had suffered no serious physical injuries. They were kept in hospital for 24 hours for observation before being discharged.\n\nNecla had no home to return to, but a family member brought her back to a makeshift blue tent crafted from wood and tarpaulin. There are 13 of them there in total - all have lost their homes.\n\nIn the tent, the family support each other, making pots of coffee over a small stove, playing chess and sharing stories.\n\nNecla is \"trying\" to come to terms with what happened to her. She says she owes Yagiz for saving her life.\n\n\"I think if my baby hadn't been strong enough to handle this, I wouldn't have been either,\" she explains.\n\nHer only dream for her son is that he never experiences anything like this again.\n\n\"I'm very happy he's a newborn baby and won't remember anything,\" she says.\n\nAs a call comes in Necla grins. From a hospital bed Irfan and Yigit Kerim smile and wave.\n\n\"Hi warrior, how are you my son?\" Irfan asks his baby through the screen.", "Makeshift camps have popped up in the wreckage of collapsed buildings in the rebel-held town of Harem in Idlib, as rescuers continue to search for survivors.\n\nAid supplies have struggled to reach Syria after Monday's earthquake, which has killed more than 25,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria.", "BBC correspondent Quentin Sommerville is in the rebel-held town of Harem in Idlib, Syria, where relief supplies are struggling to get through.\n\nMore than 24,000 people are now known to have died after Monday's earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria.", "Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of allowing a culture of \"lavish spending\" in government\n\nLabour has accused the Conservative government of overseeing \"lavish spending\" on hotels, hospitality and other costs using taxpayer-funded debit cards.\n\nThe bills have been highlighted in a Labour study of spending on government debit cards in 2021.\n\nExamples of bills include £3,393 on 13 fine art photographs, and £23,457 on alcohol for UK embassies abroad.\n\nA Conservative Party spokesperson said Labour spent almost £1bn on the cards - known as government procurement cards (GPCs) - in 2009, when the party was last in government.\n\nThis spending was across the whole of the public sector, while Labour's analysis focused on 14 government departments, so the figures are not directly comparable.\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak \"has failed to rein in the culture of lavish spending across Whitehall on his watch\".\n\nIn a 24-page document, titled the GPC Files, Labour included examples of government spending, including:\n\nMs Rayner said her party's analysis showed \"a scandalous catalogue of waste, with taxpayers' money frittered away across every part of government\".\n\nA Labour government would \"get tough on waste, with an Office of Value for Money upholding transparency and high standards for all public spending, including on government procurement cards\", she added.\n\nMs Rayner, who has claimed more than £2,000 worth of Apple products on expenses, defended herself against accusations of hypocrisy.\n\nSpeaking on Times Radio Ms Rayner said her spending was not \"the same as millions of pounds that is being used on these credit cards in an inappropriate way\".\n\n\"I'm actually using the equipment right now as I'm speaking to you on the iPad.\"\n\nThe Conservatives cut the number of cards in use and introduced a requirement for spending to be publicly declared, a government spokesman said.\n\nThe Cabinet Office said the cards can save time and money when used for one-off purchases and are considered to be an efficient way of paying for goods and services.\n\nTransport minister Richard Holden said Labour had \"wasted\" civil servants time and \"half-a-million pounds\" uncovering the information was already publicly available.\n\n\"All of this data is publicly available online, it has been since 2012 - something which didn't happen under the last Labour government,\" he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.\n\n\"We publish it on a monthly basis.\"\n\nThe cards were introduced by the government of former Labour prime minister Tony Blair in 1997 as a more convenient way to make low-value purchases.\n\nThey were made available to all public sector organisations, including central government departments, local authorities and the NHS.\n\nThe use of the cards has come under increased public and political scrutiny following a major scandal over expenses claims made by MPs in 2009.\n\nIn a report on GPCs in 2012, the National Audit Office said \"there has been a lack of central oversight and control of the card, which has increased risks to value for money\".\n\nIn its study of the cards, Labour analysed spending data for every major government department in 2021, apart from the Ministry of Defence.\n\nThe party obtained some of the data in statements written by ministers in response to parliamentary questions asked by Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general.\n\nThe 14 government departments - including the Treasury and Home Office - spent about £145.5m using GPCs in 2021, compared to £84.9m spent by the equivalent departments in 2010-11, according to Labour's analysis.\n\nHowever, the analysis does not take into account inflation.\n\nLabour have published a full analysis of the government's use of GPCs.", "Ashley Dale's death was one of three gun killings within a week in Liverpool last year\n\nTwo more men have been charged with the murder of a woman who was shot dead in her back garden, police have said.\n\nAshley Dale, 28, was found with a gunshot wound in Old Swan, Liverpool, just before 01:00 BST on 21 August last year.\n\nThe Knowsley Council worker died in hospital from her injuries.\n\nNiall Barry, 26, of Moscow Drive, Tuebrook, and Sean Zeisz, 27, of Longreach Road, Huyton, are due before magistrates in Liverpool on Tuesday.\n\nJames Witham, 40, of Ashbury Road, Huyton, and Joseph Peers, 28, of Woodlands Road, Roby, have also been charged with murder and possession of a firearm with intent.\n\nThey previously appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on 2 February.\n\nA 25-year-old man, of no fixed address, who has been charged with assisting an offender, is due to appear at the same court on 1 March.\n\nMerseyside Police previously said Ms Dale, an environmental health officer, was not believed to have been the intended target of the shooting.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Why are some parts of Syria so hard to reach?\n\nDuring the last 12 years of war, Syria's territory has become fragmented, and many parts have long been hard to reach by international aid organisations. In the first few days after the quake, some supplies reached the government-controlled areas of Syria, primarily from friendly countries like Russia, Iran and the UAE. But the north-western rebel-controlled areas of Syria remain virtually cut off. This is because international humanitarian aid to these parts can only arrive through a single crossing from Turkey or through the government-controlled areas of Syria. The latter is not currently an option, as western countries that have all but severed ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are reluctant to send aid through the Syrian government. And although this week, the US announced an emergency relief package of $85m (£70m) to both Turkey and Syria, the Syrian government is still resisting pressure to open the rebel-controlled areas to international teams. As for the Turkey border crossing, it was closed for 72 hours after the earthquake. Even now it has reopened, the flow of aid is very limited - the roads leading to it have been severely damaged and, in any case, many airports in southern Turkey remain shut, making it difficult to deliver large supplies. It’s worth remembering that this section of Syria has already been devastated by years of war, which has seen Syrian government and allied Russian bombardment target infrastructure including hospitals. This is what experts are referring to when they say that the quake has caused “a crisis on top of multiple crises”.", "Period drama Call the Midwife has been renewed for two more series, the BBC has confirmed.\n\nThe announcement of series 14 and 15 means the show will run until 2026.\n\nCall the Midwife began in 2012 and follows a group of East London midwives as they deal with issues such as racism, domestic abuse and mental health problems in the 1950s and 1960s.\n\nCreator Heidi Thomas said she was \"overjoyed\" at the renewal which will see the drama move into the 1970s.\n\nShe added the new series will explore the lives of the midwives and nuns in their personal and professional lives at the convent they work at - Nonnatus House.\n\nThomas said: \"We are a family behind the scenes, on the screen, and in front of the telly, and I'm thrilled that we're all heading into the 1970s together.\"\n\nSeries 13 was previously confirmed by the BBC and filming will start in the spring.\n\nMeanwhile, the 12th season of the BBC One show returned on 1 January this year following the 2022 Christmas special that attracted 4.5 million viewers, on average, in overnight ratings.\n\nIt was the fourth most-watched festive programme on Christmas Day after the King's Speech, Strictly Come Dancing's Christmas Special and Michael McIntyre's Christmas Wheel.\n\nSeries 14 and 15 will include eight 60-minute episodes each, along with Christmas specials as well.\n\nOver the years, the show has featured a variety of stars including Miranda Hart, Helen George and Jenny Agutter.\n\nWhen the show first started, it was loosely based on the best-selling memoirs of former nurse and midwife Jennifer Worth.\n\nShe died in 2011 - the year before the first series was broadcast.\n\nDame Pippa Harris, executive producer, said the longevity of the show is a \"tremendous achievement and it's a testament to the passion and dedication of our cast and crew, of whom I'm very proud\".\n\nThe final episode of the current series airs on Sunday 26 February at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.", "Prima Facie marked Jodie Comer's first ever leading role in the West End\n\nJodie Comer was among the winners at the first gender-neutral WhatsOnStage Awards, which saw all four of the major acting prizes go to women.\n\nThe Killing Eve star was named best performer in a play at Sunday's ceremony after starring in sexual assault drama Prima Facie last year.\n\nOther winners included the stars of To Kill A Mockingbird and Legally Blonde.\n\nThere was only one male winner for acting - in a newly created additional category for best professional debut.\n\nThe WhatsOnStage Awards, where the winners are voted by the public, have run annually since 2008, but this is the first year where the leading and supporting categories were named \"best performer\" instead of best actor or actress.\n\nMore awards ceremonies have been going gender neutral in recent years to allow non-binary performers to compete. But at other ceremonies, this has often resulted in an imbalance in favour of men.\n\nThe Brit Awards attracted criticism this year after their decision to merge best male and best female into one best artist category resulted in an all-male shortlist, which Harry Styles ultimately won.\n\nGwyneth Keyworth was named best supporting performer in a play for her role of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird\n\nThe first gender-neutral WhatsOnStage Awards saw men nominated in all of the major acting categories, but the four main prizes went to women.\n\nThey were Comer for Prima Facie, To Kill a Mockingbird's Gwyneth Keyworth, and Legally Blonde stars Courtney Bowman and Lauren Drew.\n\nThe decision to merge the gendered categories meant the number of acting prizes was almost halved, although the ceremony maintained separate awards for plays and musicals.\n\nHowever, the awards body also introduced an additional acting prize this year for newcomers. The inaugural best professional debut trophy was won by 19-year-old Joe Locke, who appeared in The Trials at the Donmar Warehouse.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. There were five wins for a stage adaptation of Japanese animation classic My Neighbour Totoro\n\nComer was praised for her portrayal in the one-woman show Prima Facie of a lawyer who struggles to reconcile her job of defending men accused of rape after she is sexually assaulted herself.\n\nOther big winners at Sunday's awards included My Neighbour Totoro, a stage adaptation of the Japanese animation classic, which won five of the nine awards it was nominated for.\n\nLegally Blonde, an adaptation of the Reese Witherspoon film about a fashion-loving lawyer, also won big, scooping two of the acting prizes.\n\nBonnie & Clyde the Musical and Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! won best new musical and best musical revival respectively, while Prima Facie and Cock were named best new play and best play revival.\n\nLucie Jones won best takeover performance for the role of Elphaba in Wicked\n\nComer was named best performer in a play for her performance in Prima Facie\n\nA West End transfer of To Kill A Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of the classic Harper Lee novel, won an acting prize for Keyworth, who plays Scout Finch - the young girl whose perspective the story is told from.\n\nFormer X Factor contestant Lucie Jones, who currently stars in the long-running Wicked, won best takeover performance - an award given to an actor who has inherited a major role from a previous actor.\n\nThe WhatsOnStage Awards have been held annually for 15 years, although during a Covid lockdown in 2021 the ceremony was held virtually, and while theatres were closed it instead honoured members of the public who had supported theatre during the pandemic.\n\nLegally Blonde's Courtney Bowman was named best performer in a musical\n\nBest supporting performer in a play - Gwyneth Keyworth, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gielgud Theatre\n\nBest new musical - Bonnie & Clyde the Musical, Arts Theatre\n\nBest off-West End Production - But I'm A Cheerleader: The Musical, The Turbine Theatre\n\nBest musical direction/supervision - Bruce O'Neil and Matt Smith, My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre\n\nBest set design - Tom Pye and Basil Twist, My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre", "Last updated on .From the section Scottish Cup\n\nDarvel could not repeat their Scottish Cup heroics as Falkirk defeated their sixth-tier hosts to book a place in the quarter-finals against Ayr.\n\nTwo goals in two first-half minutes from Gary Oliver and Callumn Morrison put the League 1 club in a commanding position before a PJ Morrison own goal gave Aberdeen's conquerors hope.\n\nBut the floodgates opened after Chris McGowan's red card with Liam Henderson, Aidan Nesbitt and Craig McGuffie scoring late on to put an end to Darvel's fairy tale.\n\nThe visitors' reward is a home tie against Championship side Ayr, with the victor heading to Hampden Park for the semis.\n\nScrambling one off the line early on, Darvel, who beat Aberdeen in the previous round in what is now looked upon as the tournament's biggest ever shock, could only hold out for 22 minutes. Nesbitt won the ball near the halfway line and drove forward, putting Oliver through with a defence-splitting pass, and the striker finished calmly.\n\nFifteen seconds after the restart, Falkirk had their second. Henderson assisted this time, curling a through ball that Callumn Morrison hit first time between the keeper's legs.\n\nDarvel did their utmost to find a way back into the match, with McGowan forcing PJ Morrison into two good saves. However, the goalie was caught out by a McShane cross at his front post, which he turned into his own net.\n\nThere would be no happy ending for the sixth-tier side. McGowan was then sent off for a second yellow card and John McGlynn's side took full advantage.\n\nFirstly, Henderson looped a perfect header into the top corner before Nesbitt's brilliant curled finish gave Falkirk a two-goal cushion, and McGuffie made it 5-1 when he capitalised on a Chris Truesdale mistake.\n\nWhat they said\n\nDarvel boss Mick Kennedy: \"I'm slightly deflated. I'm disappointed with the two goals we lose first-half. The reality is you can't go down to 10 men against that standard of team.\n\n\"I'm immensely proud of everything the players have achieved to date. It's been a remarkable journey and I'm grateful for that.\"\n\nFalkirk manager John McGlynn: \"Credit to our players to respond and get that third goal. I thought our players rose to the challenge. It was as a big challenge coming here today, congrats to Mick and his team. They've been different class and were good tonight again.\n\n\"The big dangle of the carrot was the finance. All football clubs are struggling and Falkirk are no different. This will be a big help.\"\n• None Attempt missed. Matthew Wright (Falkirk) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left.\n• None Goal! Darvel 1, Falkirk 5. Craig McGuffie (Falkirk) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt missed. Rumarn Burrell (Falkirk) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right.\n• None Goal! Darvel 1, Falkirk 4. Aidan Nesbitt (Falkirk) right footed shot from the left side of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Liam Henderson.\n• None Goal! Darvel 1, Falkirk 3. Liam Henderson (Falkirk) header from the centre of the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Callumn Morrison.\n• None Second yellow card to Chris McGowan (Darvel) for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "An award-winning German ballet director has been suspended after smearing dog faeces on a critic's face.\n\nMarco Goecke was apparently furious about a review of one of his shows by journalist Wiebke Hüster.\n\nHe allegedly confronted Ms Hüster during the half-time break of another show and smeared a paper bag filled with dog excrement on her face.\n\nMs Hüster's employer, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), said police were investigating.\n\nThe initial review of Mr Goecke's show, In The Dutch Mountains, was described by Ms Hüster as like being \"alternately driven mad and killed by boredom\".\n\nMs Hüster told the BBC she was in \"shock\" after what she described as a \"brutal\" attack.\n\n\"When I realised what happened, I screamed, I panicked... I can assure you that it was not an impulsive act - he had planned this. I consider it an act against the freedom of [the] press,\" she said.\n\nMr Goecke said he believed the damning review had cost the Hanover Opera House subscriptions and threatened to ban her from the opera house during the confrontation.\n\nHanover State Opera said Mr Goecke had been suspended with immediate effect, as his \"impulsive reaction\" went against its rules of conduct.\n\nThey said Mr Goecke \"extremely unsettled the audience, the employees of the house and the general public and thus massively damaged the State Ballet\".\n\nThe statement also said that Ms Hüster's \"personal integrity was blatantly violated\".\n\nThe FAZ paper, for which Ms Hüster worked, described the incident as \"an attempt to intimidate our free, critical view of the art\".\n\nMr Goecke has been the director at the Hanover Theatre since 2019 and won the 2022 German Dance prize.", "The search for Nicola Bulley continues after she was last seen on a dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre\n\nYellow ribbons with messages of hope have been tied to a bridge near to where Nicola Bulley was last seen.\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January after a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nA footbridge over the River Wyre has been adorned with messages from friends and family including \"We need you home Nicola\" - and a large poster with her photograph was tied to the railings.\n\nPolice are continuing to search the water, heading towards Morecambe Bay.\n\nNicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nLancashire Police is continuing to work on one hypothesis that Ms Bulley could have fallen into the river during her walk after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school that morning.\n\nThe search has been aided by specialists and divers from HM Coastguard, mountain rescue and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, with sniffer dogs, drones and police helicopters.\n\nHowever Ms Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has said he is \"100% convinced\" she did not fall into the water.\n\nHe said he wanted to keep \"all options open\" about her disappearance but his \"gut instinct\" told him she was not in the river.\n\nPolice said they were keeping an open mind as the search for the mortgage adviser from Inskip entered its 17th day.\n\nYellow ribbons have been tied to a footbridge near where Ms Bulley was last seen\n\nThe Lancashire force earlier ruled out third-party involvement but on Friday said it continued to \"look at all the potential scenarios to eliminate them\".\n\nOther messages tied at the spot near where she was last seen say Ms Bulley is loved and that people are \"praying for your safe return\".\n\nNo trace has yet been found of Ms Bulley.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nOn Friday, officers announced they were extending their search downstream towards the sea at Morecambe Bay.\n\nThe search will involve combing inlets and marshland at the Wyre Estuary\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The US embassy in Moscow has warned that it has limited ability to help its citizens in Russia\n\nThe US has warned its citizens to leave Russia immediately or risk wrongful detention or conscription to fight in Ukraine.\n\nIn a new travel warning, the State Department said Russia may refuse to acknowledge US-Russian dual citizenship.\n\nThe warning added that US citizens had already \"been interrogated without cause and threatened\".\n\nIt is unclear how many US citizens are travelling or living in Russia and a State Department spokesperson told the BBC that it does not track the travel of US citizens abroad.\n\nFollowing the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, several thousand Americans reportedly fled the country.\n\nIn its newly updated travel warning, the State Department said those still in Russia face the potential for \"harassment and singling out\".\n\nDual citizens also face the prospect of being conscripted as part of a wider Russia military mobilisation to support operations in Ukraine, it said.\n\n\"Russia may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals' US citizenship, deny their access to US consular assistance, subject them to mobilisation, prevent their departure from Russia, and/or conscript them,\" the warning reads.\n\nA number of US citizens - including former and current government personnel and private business people - have already been taken into custody, interrogated and harassed, according to the State Department.\n\n\"Russian security services may fail to notify the US Embassy of the detention of a US citizen and unreasonably delay US consular assistance,\" the warning reads. \"Russian security services are increasing the arbitrary enforcement of local laws to target foreign and international organisations they consider 'undesirable'.\"\n\nIn a statement quoted by Russian news agency TASS, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the US had issued similar warnings \"many times\".\n\n\"This is not the first time we have heard this,\" he said.\n\nThe last US warning for its citizens to leave came in September, when Russian authorities announced a partial mobilisation of military reservists.\n\nMr Peskov also said that any dual US-Russian citizens \"are primarily Russian citizens, regardless of what citizenship they have\".\n\nBesides Russia, the State Department has \"do not travel\" advisories for 18 other countries including Afghanistan, Syria, Haiti, North Korea, Somalia, Ukraine and Yemen.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "As John Kirby outlined during his White House briefing, part of the reason we know so little about the UFOs shot down in recent days, as well as the initial alleged Chinese spy balloon from earlier this month, is the isolated places and harsh conditions in which they were shot to earth by US fighter jets.\n\nThe first balloon was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina, much of it then sunk to a depth of around 47ft (14m) under the waves.\n\nWork to recover what's left of it is ongoing and lots of evidence has already reportedly been gathered for analysis. But rough sea conditions and the depth of the remains have delayed the process.\n\nThe second object was shot down inside the Arctic Circle in Alaska on Friday, where the harsh winter conditions and sea ice in the far north have been hampering the recovery efforts since.\n\nMeanwhile, the third and fourth UFOs haven't been found yet.\n\nThe former was shot down in the far-northern province of Yukon in Canada, where investigators are currently searching for its remains about 100 miles (160 km) from the border with Alaska.\n\nMeanwhile, the latest UFO was taken out over the Lake Huron in Michigan - one of the enormous Great Lakes - yesterday and is also yet to be located.\n\nThe isolated nature of the places these UFOs were shot makes sense, given authorities are generally reluctant to take out aerial objects over populated areas due to the possible risks of harm to people or buildings from falling debris.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nThe US military is unsure what three flying objects it shot out of the skies over North America were - and how they were able to stay aloft.\n\nPresident Joe Biden ordered another object - the fourth in total this month - to be downed on Sunday.\n\nAs it was travelling at 20,000ft (6,100m), it could have interfered with commercial air traffic, the US said.\n\nA military commander said it could be a \"gaseous type of balloon\" or \"some type of a propulsion system\".\n\nHe added he could not rule out that the objects were extra-terrestrials.\n\nThe latest object - shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan near the Canadian border - has been described by defence officials as an unmanned \"octagonal structure\" with strings attached to it.\n\nIt was downed by a missile fired from an F-16 fighter jet at 14:42 local time (19:42 GMT).\n\nThe incident raises further questions about the spate of high-altitude objects that have been shot down over North America this month.\n\nUS Northern Command Commander General Glen VanHerck said that there was no indication of any threat.\n\n\"I'm not going to categorise them as balloons. We're calling them objects for a reason,\" he said.\n\n\"What we are seeing is very, very small objects that produce a very, very low radar cross-section,\" he added.\n\nSpeculation as to what the objects may be has intensified in recent days.\n\n\"I will let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,\" Gen VanHerck said when asked if it was possible the objects are aliens or extra-terrestrials.\n\n\"I haven't ruled out anything at this point.\"\n\nA suspected Chinese spy balloon was downed off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February after hovering for days over the US. Officials said it originated in China and had been used to monitor sensitive sites.\n\nChina denied the object was used for spying and said it was a weather monitoring device that had blown astray. The incident - and the angry exchanges in its aftermath - ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing.\n\nBut on Sunday, a defence official said the US had communicated with Beijing about the first object, after receiving no response for several days. It was not immediately clear what was discussed.\n\nSince that first incident, American fighter jets have shot down three further high-altitude objects in as many days.\n\nPresident Biden ordered an object to be shot down over northern Alaska on Friday, and on Saturday a similar object was shot down over the Yukon in north-western Canada.\n\nBoth the US and Canada are still working to recover the remnants, but the search in Alaska has been hampered by Arctic conditions.\n\n\"These objects did not closely resemble, and were much smaller than, the [4 February] balloon and we will not definitively characterise them until we can recover the debris,\" a White House National Security spokesperson said.\n\nChina's foreign ministry said on Monday the US has flown balloons into its airspace more than 10 times in the past year.\n\n\"It's not uncommon as well for the US to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,\" said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a press briefing.\n\nDetection of the most recent objects could be a result of widening the search from radars and sensors.\n\n\"We have been more closely scrutinising our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar,\" said Melissa Dalton, an assistant secretary of defence, said.\n\nAn official told the Washington Post it was like a car buyer unticking boxes on a website to broaden the parameters of what can be searched.\n\nBut he said it was unclear whether this was producing more hits - or if the new incursions are part of a more deliberate action.\n\n4 February: US military shoots down suspected surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina. It had drifted for days over the US, and officials said it came from China and had been monitoring sensitive sites\n\n10 February: US downs another object off northern Alaska which officials said lacked any system of propulsion or control\n\n11 February: An American fighter jet shoots down a \"high-altitude airborne object\" over Canada's Yukon territory, about 100 miles (160 km) from the US border. It was described as cylindrical and smaller than the first balloon\n\n12 February: US jets shoot down a fourth high-altitude object near Lake Huron \"out of an abundance of caution\"\n\nOne senior official told ABC News that the three most recent objects to be shot down were likely weather devices and not surveillance balloons.\n\nBut this was seemingly contradicted by the top Democrat in Congress, who earlier told the broadcaster that intelligence officials believed the objects were in fact surveillance balloons.\n\n\"They believe they were [balloons], yes,\" Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, adding that they were \"much smaller\" than the first one shot down off the South Carolina coast.\n\nDemocratic Senator Jon Tester, who represents Montana, told the BBC's US partner CBS: \"What's gone on the last two weeks or so... has been nothing short of craziness.\"\n\nRepublicans have repeatedly criticised the Biden administration for its handling of the first suspected spy balloon, saying it should have been shot down far sooner.\n\nOther countries are watching the response in the US closely, in case an object is discovered in their airspace.\n\nIn the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his government would do \"whatever it takes\" to keep the country safe.\n\n\"We have something called the quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important,\" he added.", "Caroline Flack's family have been given an apology by the Metropolitan Police for not keeping a record about why it charged her with assault.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) carried out a review after complaints from the late television presenter's mother.\n\nThe review \"did not identify any misconduct\" in the Met's decision.\n\nMs Flack took her own life in February 2020 while facing prosecution over allegedly assaulting her boyfriend.\n\nThe 40-year-old was known for her presenting roles on Love Island, the Xtra Factor and winning Strictly Come Dancing in 2014.\n\nShe was due to appear in court over the alleged assault of her then-boyfriend Lewis Burton in the weeks before her death in 2020.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had recommended she receive only a caution.\n\nHowever, London's Met Police appealed against the CPS decision which resulted in her facing a charge of assault by beating.\n\nAn inquest later gave a conclusion of suicide after hearing how Ms Flack's mental health had deteriorated following her arrest.\n\nHer mother Christine Flack complained about the decision to charge her, claiming her daughter had been treated differently because of her fame but a senior police officer told the inquest there was no bias involved.\n\nA Met Police spokesperson told BBC News in a statement on Sunday: \"The review did not identify any misconduct but concluded that an officer should receive reflective practice. This was about the requirement to review all case material and record a balanced rationale, demonstrating objective decision making by exploring aggravating and mitigating factors, when appealing a CPS decision.\n\n\"The IOPC also asked the Met to apologise to Ms Flack's family about there not being a record of the rationale to appeal the CPS decision.\n\n\"We have done so and acknowledged the impact that this has had on them.\n\n\"We wait to hear whether the IOPC will make any recommendations for organisational learning.\n\n\"Our thoughts and sympathies remain with Ms Flack's family for their loss.\"\n\nFollowing the apology from the Met Police, Ms Flack's mother told the Eastern Daily Press: \"They have apologised for how they handled my complaint - but what they really should be apologising for is the way Carrie was treated.\"\n\nThe Eastern Daily Press also reported the Met's Chief Superintendent Andy Carter had told her that several measures that have been brought in to improve how officers go about appealing CPS decisions.", "Evacuation: 21,000 have been taken out of Afghanistan since August 2021\n\nEight Afghan journalists who worked for the BBC could be evacuated to the UK after a judge ordered ministers to reconsider their plight.\n\nThe group has spent more than a year in hiding in Afghanistan after they were left behind during the August 2021 British withdrawal.\n\nMinisters had rejected their cases, a year after receiving the applications.\n\nOne of the group said on Monday that the Taliban believed he was a spy and had already tried to shoot him.\n\nAll eight of the journalists had worked for many years for the BBC in Afghanistan. Some of them had also worked more directly with the British government on projects including democracy and media training. But as the Taliban increasingly took over, they and their families became the target of threats.\n\nThe High Court in London was told that one of the journalists had a bomb placed under their car, another was shot at in public - leading to the severe injury of a family member - and two others had been interrogated and tortured in relation to their work for the BBC.\n\nSince August 2021, the British government has evacuated 21,000 Afghans and their families, a group that includes local people who were working for British media agencies.\n\nBut when those lists were drawn up, the BBC did not include any of the eight.\n\nDuring the mass evacuation, there were chaotic scenes outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul\n\nErin Alock, the group's lawyer, said their pleas for help went unanswered for a year.\n\n\"When the British evacuated from Kabul, they were not put forward for evacuation by the BBC, because they weren't employed at that time,\" she said.\n\n\"They were left behind. But the work that they were doing did go to British objectives in Afghanistan, those objectives weren't just military objectives. They were things like promoting democracy.\"\n\nWhen their applications were eventually considered, ministers refused to resettle any of them because officials concluded their work wasn't directly connected to UK operations.\n\nOn Monday, a judge said those rejections had not taken into account how the Taliban perceived the BBC and anyone associated to it.\n\nHad government case workers recognised this risk, said Mr Justice Lane, there was \"more than fanciful prospect\" that the eight would have been allowed to come to the UK.\n\nOne of the group, who was shot at in the street by a Taliban gunman, thanked the judge on Monday for intervening. The BBC is not reporting specific threats he has experienced because of the risk of identifying him.\n\n\"We have regularly changed our house - my children have been to different schools,\" he said.\n\n\"Day by day, journalists and human rights activists are being followed by the Taliban authorities. They see the BBC as the enemy, some kind of spy agency.\n\n\"The Taliban authorities have been very severe with national journalists who, like me, have worked with international media.\n\n\"Any of us who have worked with the British or American media are under a serious threat.\n\n\"I just want to thank the judge for reversing this decision.\"\n\nMinisters now have 21 days reconsider each case - a move that the group hopes will lead to their evacuation.\n\nA spokesman for the government said it would consider the judgment - but has given no immediate commitment to evacuate the group. Officials said there may still be 300 people plus family members in Afghanistan who need bringing to the UK.", "It has been a week since a deadly earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, killing thousands. But amid the despair, there have been stories of \"miracles\". This is one of them.\n\nWhen Necla Camuz gave birth to her second son on 27 January, she named him Yagiz, meaning \"brave one\".\n\nJust 10 days later, at 04:17 local time, Necla was awake feeding her son at their home in southern Turkey's Hatay province. Moments later, they were buried under mounds of rubble.\n\nNecla and her family lived on the second floor of a modern five-storey building in the town of Samandag. It was a \"nice building\", she says, and she had felt safe there.\n\nShe did not know that morning that the area would be torn apart by the earthquake, with buildings damaged and destroyed at every turn.\n\n\"When the earthquake started, I wanted to go to my husband who was in the other room, and he wanted to do the same thing,\" she says.\n\n\"But as he tried to come to me with our other son, the wardrobe fell onto them and it was impossible for them to move.\n\n\"As the earthquake got bigger, the wall fell, the room was shaking, and the building was changing position. When it stopped, I didn't realise that I had fallen one floor down. I shouted their names but there was no answer.\"\n\nThe 33-year-old found herself lying down with her baby on her chest, still held in her arms. A fallen wardrobe next to her saved their lives by preventing a large slab of concrete from crushing them.\n\nThe pair would remain in this position for almost four days.\n\nLying in her pyjamas beneath the rubble, Necla could see nothing but \"pitch black\". She had to rely on her other senses to work out what was going on.\n\nTo her relief, she could tell immediately that Yagiz was still breathing.\n\nBecause of the dust, she struggled at first to breathe, but said it soon settled. She was warm in the rubble.\n\nShe felt as though there were children's toys beneath her but could not manoeuvre herself to check, or to make herself more comfortable.\n\nOther than the wardrobe, the soft skin of her newborn son, and the clothes they wore, she could feel nothing but concrete and debris.\n\nIn the distance, she could hear voices. She tried to shout for help and bang on the wardrobe.\n\n\"Is there anyone there? Can anyone hear me?\" she called.\n\nWhen that didn't work, she picked up the small bits of rubble that had fallen next to her. She banged them against the wardrobe, hoping it would be louder. She was scared to hit the surface above her in case it collapsed.\n\nNecla realised there was a possibility nobody would come.\n\n\"I was terrified,\" she says.\n\nIn the darkness beneath the rubble, Necla lost all sense of time.\n\nThis wasn't what life was supposed to be like.\n\n\"You plan lots of things when you have a new baby, and then… all of a sudden you're under rubble,\" she says.\n\nStill, she knew she had to look after Yagiz, and was able to breastfeed him in the confined space.\n\nThere was no source of water or food that she could access for herself. In desperation, she tried unsuccessfully to drink her own breast milk.\n\nNecla could feel the rumble of drills overhead and hear footsteps and voices, but the muffled sounds felt far away.\n\nShe decided to save her energy and remain quiet unless the noises from outside came closer.\n\nThe rubble under which Necla was buried\n\nShe thought constantly of her family - the baby on her chest, and the husband and son lost somewhere in the debris.\n\nShe also worried about how other loved ones had fared in the earthquake.\n\nNecla did not think she would make it out of the rubble, but Yagiz's presence gave her a reason to remain hopeful.\n\nHe slept much of the time, and when he woke crying, she would silently feed him until he settled down.\n\nAfter more than 90 hours underground, Necla heard the sound of dogs barking. She wondered if she was dreaming.\n\nThe barks were followed by the sound of voices.\n\n\"Are you OK? Knock once for yes,\" one called into the rubble. \"What apartment do you live in?\"\n\nRescuers carefully dug into the ground to locate her, as she held Yagiz.\n\nThe darkness was broken by a torch light shining into her eyes.\n\nWhen the rescue team from the Istanbul Municipality Fire Department asked how old Yagiz was, Necla couldn't be sure. She only knew that he was 10 days old when the earthquake struck.\n\nBaby Yagiz made headlines after he and Necla were saved\n\nAfter handing Yagiz to the rescuers, Necla was then carried away on a stretcher in front of what seemed to be a large crowd. She couldn't recognise any faces.\n\nAs she was moved to an ambulance, she sought confirmation that her other son had also been saved.\n\nWhen she got to hospital, Necla was greeted by family members who told her that her husband of six years, Irfan, and her three-year-old son, Yigit Kerim, had been rescued from the rubble.\n\nBut they had been transferred hours away to a hospital in Adana province, having sustained serious injuries to their legs and feet.\n\nNecla was eventually reuinted with her husband Irfan and three-year-old son Yigit Kerim\n\nRemarkably, Necla and Yagiz had suffered no serious physical injuries. They were kept in hospital for 24 hours for observation before being discharged.\n\nNecla had no home to return to, but a family member brought her back to a makeshift blue tent crafted from wood and tarpaulin. There are 13 of them there in total - all have lost their homes.\n\nIn the tent, the family support each other, making pots of coffee over a small stove, playing chess and sharing stories.\n\nNecla is \"trying\" to come to terms with what happened to her. She says she owes Yagiz for saving her life.\n\n\"I think if my baby hadn't been strong enough to handle this, I wouldn't have been either,\" she explains.\n\nHer only dream for her son is that he never experiences anything like this again.\n\n\"I'm very happy he's a newborn baby and won't remember anything,\" she says.\n\nAs a call comes in Necla grins. From a hospital bed Irfan and Yigit Kerim smile and wave.\n\n\"Hi warrior, how are you my son?\" Irfan asks his baby through the screen.", "BBC chairman Richard Sharp appeared before a committee of MPs on Tuesday\n\nPressure is growing on BBC chairman Richard Sharp after a critical report from MPs into his appointment.\n\nHe made \"significant errors of judgement\" acting as a go-between on a loan for Boris Johnson, while applying for the post, the committee said.\n\nThe SNP's John Nicolson, a committee member, told the BBC Mr Sharp's position was \"extremely difficult\".\n\nMr Sharp said he did not help arrange a guarantee on the loan or give Mr Johnson financial advice.\n\nWhen asked on Monday about Mr Sharp's position, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he would not \"speculate or pre-judge the outcome\" of an ongoing investigation by the independent office of public appointments.\n\n\"This relates to a process that happened before I was prime minister, obviously,\" the PM said on Monday.\n\n\"It is an independent process that is going to look at it and make sure that everything was followed correctly and all the rules and procedures were adhered to and obviously we will wait for that report.\"\n\nBBC News understands the BBC board is meeting on Monday. One source has told BBC News that there were no scheduled meetings planned this month.\n\nBBC News has contacted the other board members for comment.\n\nMr Sharp's involvement in the then-prime minister Mr Johnson obtaining an £800,000 loan guarantee has come under scrutiny since the Sunday Times first reported the claims last month.\n\nBusinessman Sam Blyth, a distant cousin of Mr Johnson and Mr Sharp's friend, had reportedly raised the idea of acting as a loan guarantor for Mr Johnson in 2020.\n\nMr Sharp was named as the government's preferred candidate for the BBC chairmanship in January 2021 and at the time the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee backed his appointment.\n\nThe government's choice is ultimately decided by the prime minister, on the advice of the culture secretary, who is in turn advised by a panel.\n\nThe chairman is in charge of upholding and protecting the BBC's independence and ensuring the BBC fulfils its mission to inform, educate and entertain, among other things.\n\nThis week Mr Sharp was recalled to appear before the committee and its report was published on Sunday.\n\nSpeaking to MPs he said he had introduced his friend Mr Blyth to the Cabinet Office.\n\nIn its report, the cross-party committee criticised Mr Sharp's failure to mention any involvement he had in events surrounding the loan when they were considering his suitability for the job two years ago.\n\nThe report said his decisions to \"become involved in the facilitation of a loan to the then-prime minister while at the same time applying for a job that was in that same person's gift\" and failure to disclose this to the committee undermined confidence in the public appointments process.\n\nThe MPs concluded: \"Mr Sharp should consider the impact his omissions will have on trust in him, the BBC and the public appointments process.\"\n\nThe report, carefully worded, does not say in black and white that he should quit. But it says he should \"consider the impact\" of what has happened, which is a diplomatic way of raising that point.\n\nOn Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, the SNP's Mr Nicolson went further than the report had, saying Mr Sharp's position was \"extremely difficult\" after he \"broke the rules\".\n\nHe said: \"He has lost the trust of the BBC staff, that's very clear.\n\n\"When you sign up for that job application you are asked if there's anything about your relationships with anybody that could cause embarrassment.\n\n\"This has clearly caused embarrassment.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Nicolson said Mr Sharp had not told MPs at the time of his appointment that he had facilitated an £800,000 loan for Mr Johnson \"who then gave him the job\".\n\n\"It's all a bit banana republic,\" he added.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme on Monday, deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said Mr Sharp had \"clearly brought the BBC into disrepute\" and had \"serious questions\" to answer.\n\n\"He has to look at that and think is that appropriate for him to stay on,\" she said.\n\n\"I do think it is questionable about his position because he has thrown doubt on the impartiality and the independence.\"\n\nCabinet minister Andrew Mitchell told the same programme it was up to the BBC to decide what to do over Mr Sharp's future. He also said it was important to wait for a review into his hiring by the watchdog that oversees public appointments.\n\nBut he was challenged on this during the programme as according to the BBC charter the chairman can only be removed from post by the government, not the BBC.\n\nThis week Mr Sharp told the committee he had met Cabinet Secretary Simon Case in December 2020 to get permission to pass on businessman Mr Blyth's details to him.\n\nHowever, at the same meeting he had told Mr Case that he had applied for the BBC job, and therefore agreed he would have \"no further participation\" in order to avoid any conflict of interest or perception of conflict given his application to the BBC.\n\nIn its report, the DCMS Committee said Mr Sharp had recognised the need to be \"open and transparent\" by bringing it to the attention of the cabinet secretary, but \"failed to apply the same standards of openness and candour in his decision not to divulge this information during the interview process or to this committee during the pre-appointment hearing [for the BBC job]\".\n\n\"Mr Sharp's failure to disclose his actions to the panel and the committee, although he believed this to be completely proper, constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals applying for such public appointments,\" the report added.\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Sharp said he did not facilitate an introduction between Mr Johnson and Mr Blyth and he was not involved in the arrangement of a loan between them.\n\n\"Mr Sharp appreciates that there was information that the committee felt that it should have been made aware of in his pre-appointment hearing. He regrets this and apologises.\n\n\"It was in seeking at the time to ensure that the rules were followed, and in the belief that this had been achieved, that Mr Sharp acted in good faith in the way he did.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added: \"Mr Sharp believed he had dealt with the issue by proactively briefing the cabinet secretary that he was applying for the role of BBC chair, and therefore beyond connecting Mr Blyth with Mr Case, he recused himself from the matter.\"\n\nThe DCMS Committee report was also critical of ministers who had defended the decision to endorse Mr Sharp in 2021 after the row over the loan broke, despite the fact they had not been told about the situation.\n\n\"The fact that ministers have cited this committee's original report on Mr Sharp's appointment as a defence of the process was followed, when we were not in full possession of all the facts that we should have had before us in order to come to our judgement, is highly unsatisfactory,\" the report said.\n\nAccording to the Sunday Times, a leaked memo from Mr Case allegedly warned Mr Johnson to \"no longer\" ask for financial advice from Mr Sharp.\n\nBut the MPs in this new report said there was an \"unresolved issue\" as to why the cabinet secretary had believed Mr Sharp had been giving financial advice to Mr Johnson and called on the Cabinet Office to \"clear up the confusion relating to the advice given to the prime minister immediately\", given that Mr Sharp had said this was not the case.\n\nA Cabinet Office spokesperson said: \"We do not comment on leaks.\"\n\nThe Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments is still looking into the appointment process of Richard Sharp.\n\nThe BBC is also conducting its own internal review over any potential conflicts of interest Mr Sharp may have in his role as BBC chairman.\n\nIt is not known when ether of these reviews will be concluded.", "Rescuers carry 12-year-old Cudie from the rubble of a collapsed building, in Hatay, southern Turkey, 147 hours after the quake\n\nRescuers have pulled a seven-month-old baby from the rubble of a building in Hatay, southern Turkey, 139 hours after Monday's deadly earthquake.\n\nElsewhere in Hatay, a 12-year-old girl, Cudie, was saved after being trapped for 147 hours.\n\nState media also reported a 13-year-old saved in Gaziantep on Sunday, with rescuers saying: \"You are a miracle.\"\n\nThe number of people confirmed to have died in Turkey and Syria has risen to more than 33,000.\n\nSyria has not reported an updated death toll since Friday, so the true number is likely higher.\n\nHopes are dwindling of finding many more survivors, and on the ground there is a sense that the rescue mission will soon end.\n\nThe Syrian Civil Defence Force, or White Helmets, which operates in in rebel-held areas of the country, has told the BBC that the group's search efforts are winding down.\n\nBut tens of thousands of rescuers continued their search overnight across affected areas in Turkey and Syria.\n\nThe seven-month-old baby, Hamza, was saved on Saturday, and footage from local authorities showed rescuers cheering and hugging one another.\n\nSeparate video from the Turkish health ministry showed a small girl in a neck brace looking around as she was carried on a stretcher in the same province later on Sunday morning.\n\nAnd footage showed a father and daughter being pulled from a building in Hatay. \"He wants two cups of good tea,\" one of the rescuers said.\n\nBut as the rescue operations wind down, the focus turns to recovery - and of reckoning with the situation.\n\nThousands of buildings collapsed during the earthquake, raising questions about whether the natural disaster's impact was made worse by human failings.\n\nTurkey's President Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but, during one visit to a disaster zone earlier in the week, appeared to blame fate.\n\n\"Such things have always happened,\" he said. \"It's part of destiny's plan.\"\n\nOfficials say they have issued 113 arrest warrants in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed, with 12 people taken into custody, including contractors.\n\nRescuers in Syria have criticised the international response to the disaster, with the UN's relief chief Martin Griffiths saying the world has \"failed the people in north-west Syria\".\n\n\"They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived,\" he said.\n\nIsmail al Abdullah, of the White Helmets, told the BBC's Quentin Sommerville that the international community has \"blood on its hands\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Turkey quake rescue effort saves mans life after five days under rubble", "Abu Ala' has buried his teenage daughter and son\n\nThe tents are so close to the border wall between Syria and Turkey, they are almost touching it.\n\nThose living here on the Syrian side may have been displaced by the country's more than decade-old civil war. But they could also be survivors of the earthquake. Catastrophes overlap in Syria.\n\nThe earthquake, untroubled by international borders, has brought havoc to both countries. But the international relief effort has been thwarted by checkpoints. In southern Turkey, thousands of rescue workers with heavy lifting gear, paramedics and sniffer dogs have jammed the streets, and are still working to find survivors. In this part of opposition-held north-west Syria, none of this is going on.\n\nI had just crossed the border from four days in the city of Antakya, Turkey, where the aid response is a cacophony - ambulance sirens blare all night long, dozens of earth movers roar and rip apart concrete 24 hours a day. Among the olive groves in the village of Bsania, in Syria's Idlib province, there's mostly silence.\n\nThe homes in this border area were newly built. Now more than 100 have gone, turned to aggregate and a ghostly white dust which gusts across the farmland. As I climb over the chalky remains of the village, I spot a gap in the ruin. Inside, a pink-tiled bathroom sits perfectly preserved.\n\nThe earthquake swallowed Abu Ala's home, and claimed the lives of two of his children.\n\nThe town of Bsania was a small but thriving community\n\n\"The bedroom is there, that's my house,\" he says, pointing to pile of rubble. \"My wife, daughter and I were sleeping here - Wala', the 15-year-old girl, was at the edge of the room towards the balcony. A bulldozer was able to find her, [so] I took her and buried her.\"\n\nIn the dark, he and his wife clung to olive trees as aftershocks rocked the hillside.\n\nThe Syrian Civil Defence Force - also known as the White Helmets - which operates in opposition-held areas, did what they could with pickaxes and crowbars. The rescuers, who receive funding from the British government, lack modern rescue equipment.\n\nAbu Ala' breaks down when he describes the search for his missing 13-year-old son, Ala'. \"We kept digging until evening the next day. May God give strength to those men. They went through hell to dig my boy up.\"\n\nHe buried the boy next to his sister.\n\nBsania wasn't much, but it was home. Rows of modern apartment buildings, with balconies facing out across the Syrian countryside into Turkey. Abu Ala' describes it as a thriving community. \"We had nice neighbours, nice people. [They] are dead now.\"\n\nA deeply religious man, he is now bereft. \"What am I going to do?\" he asks. \"There are no tents, no aid, nothing. We've received nothing but God's mercy until now. And I'm here left to roam the streets.\"\n\nAs we leave, he asks me if I have a tent. But we have nothing to give him.\n\nI meet up with the White Helmets, expecting to find them looking for survivors. But it is too late. Ismail al Abdullah, is weary from effort, and what he describes as the world's disregard for the Syrian people. He says the international community has blood on its hands.\n\n\"We stopped looking for survivors after more than 120 hours passed,\" he says. \"We tried our best to save our people, but we couldn't. No-one listened to us.\n\n\"From the first hour we called for urgent action, for urgent help. No-one responded. They were just saying, 'We are with you', nothing else. We said, we need equipment. No-one responded.\"\n\nIn the town of Harem, children have been removing rubble\n\nApart from a few Spanish doctors, no international aid teams have reached this part of Syria. It is an enclave of resistance from Bashar al-Assad's rule. Under Turkish protection, it is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group that was once affiliated to al-Qaeda. The group has cut those links, but almost all governments have no relations with them. For our entire time in Syria, armed men, who didn't want to be filmed, accompanied us and stood at a distance.\n\nMore than a decade into Syria's stalled civil war, the 1.7m people who live in this area continue to oppose President Assad's rule. They live in makeshift camps and newly built shelters. Most have been displaced more than once, so life here was already very hard before the earthquake.\n\nThe international help that reaches this part of Syria is tiny. Many of the earthquake victims were taken to the Bab al-Hawa hospital, which is supported by the Syrian American Medical Society. They treated 350 patients in the immediate aftermath, general surgeon Dr Farouk al Omar tells me, all with only one ultrasound.\n\nWhen I ask him about international aid, he shakes his head, and laughs. \"We cannot talk more about this topic. We spoke about that a lot. And nothing happened. Even in a normal situation, we don't have enough medical staff. And just imagine what it's like in this catastrophe after earthquake,\" he says.\n\nAt the end of the corridor, a tiny baby lies in an incubator. Mohammad Ghayyath Rajab's skull is bruised and bandaged, and his small chest rises and falls thanks to a respirator. Doctors can't be sure, but they think he's around three months old. Both of his parents were killed in the earthquake, and a neighbour found him crying alone in the dark in the rubble of his home.\n\nThe Syrian people have been forsaken many times, and tell me they have grown used to being disregarded. But still there is anger that more help is not forthcoming.\n\nIn the town of Harem, Fadel Ghadab lost his aunt and cousin.\n\n\"How is it possible that the UN has sent a mere 14 trucks worth of aid?\" he asks. \"We've received nothing here. People are in the streets.\"\n\nMore aid has made it into Syria, but not much and it is too little, too late.\n\nIn the absence of international rescue teams in Harem, children remove rubble. A man and two boys use a car-jack to prize apart the collapsed remains of a building, carefully salvaging animal feed onto a blanket. Life isn't cheaper in Syria, but it is more precarious.\n\nThe day is ending and I have to leave. I cross the border back into Turkey and soon get stuck in a traffic jam or ambulances, construction equipment - the gridlock of a national and international aid response.\n\nMy phone pings with a message from a Turkish rescuer telling me his team found a woman alive after 132 hours buried under her home. Behind me in Syria, as darkness falls, there is only silence.", "Brianna Ghey was found injured in Linear Park in Culcheth and died at the scene\n\nA boy and girl, both aged 15, have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a 16-year-old girl who was stabbed to death in a village park.\n\nBrianna Ghey was found by members of the public at Linear Park in Culcheth, Warrington, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nEmergency services were called just after 15:00 GMT after she was found lying on a path with stab wounds.\n\nBrianna was a transgender girl but detectives said there was no evidence to suggest her murder was a hate crime.\n\nTributes have been paid to Brianna, with one person describing her on social media as a \"sweet angel\" and a \"beautiful girl\".\n\nPolice said the arrested teenagers are from the local area and being held in custody.\n\nDet Ch Supt Mike Evans said a number of inquiries were under way and police were trying to establish the \"exact circumstances\".\n\n\"At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that the circumstances surrounding Brianna's death are hate related,\" he said.\n\n\"Patrols have been stepped up in the local area and officers will remain in the Culcheth area to provide reassurance and address any concerns that residents may have.\"\n\nBrianna was found by members of the public lying injured on a path\n\nPolice earlier said a post-mortem examination was taking place to establish the cause of death and that officers were supporting Brianna's family, who are from the nearby town of Birchwood.\n\nHead teacher at Birchwood Community High School, Emma Mills, where Brianna was a pupil, said: \"We are shocked and truly devastated to hear of the death of Brianna.\n\n\"This is understandably a very difficult and distressing time for many and we will do our utmost to support our pupils and wider school community.\"\n\nPolice say there will be increased patrols in the area\n\nLabour MP Jess Phillips tweeted that Brianna's death was \"utterly tragic\" and sent her parents \"love\" on their \"unimaginable loss\".\n\nOfficers were continuing to trace the weapon and establish a motive for the attack, police said.\n\nAdditional officers are patrolling the area, which is a well-known dog walking spot.\n\nAnyone with information or CCTV and dashcam footage related to the incident is asked to contact police.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "In January, Amazon workers in Coventry became the first in the UK to go on strike\n\nUnionised workers at an Amazon distribution centre have announced more strikes in a row over pay.\n\nAbout 350 staff at the Coventry warehouse became the first in the UK to take industrial action against the online retail giant last month.\n\nThe GMB union is calling for a pay rise from £10.50 to £15 an hour, although the union is not recognised by Amazon.\n\nAmazon previously said it offered competitive pay which had risen by 29% since 2018 as well as other benefits.\n\nBecause the tech giant does not recognise the union, it does not enter pay negotiations with its representatives.\n\nGMB announced further strike dates to the employer at 13:00 GMT. The industrial action is due to take place on 28 February, 2 March and for one week between 13 and 17 March.\n\nThe union branded Amazon's 5% pay rise offer, worth about 50p an hour, \"derisory\" and workers also spoke to the BBC about \"severe\" conditions including constant monitoring and having toilet breaks timed.\n\nAmazon said its \"performance management tool\" was paused when employees were not logged in at their station.\n\nHundreds of workers in Coventry walked out in January in a row over pay\n\nAbout 1,500 people are employed at the Coventry site, where Amazon stock is scanned and sent out to fulfilment centres to then be shipped to consumers.\n\nWhen employees based there walked out on 25 January, they became the first Amazon workers to strike in the UK.\n\nThe GMB union is also holding discussions about whether to ballot about 200 of its members working at Amazon's centre in Tilbury, Essex, for strike action.\n\nAmazon's global sales and profits soared as Covid restrictions forced people to shop online. Between 2019 and 2020, profits nearly doubled to $21.3bn (£17.2bn) and rose again the following year to $33.3bn.\n\nHowever, on 5 January it announced plans to cut more than 18,000 jobs worldwide to save costs.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nChina's foreign ministry says the US has flown balloons into its airspace more than 10 times in the past year.\n\nIt comes after the US on 4 February shot down a suspected spy balloon over its airspace - which China said was one of its weather balloons gone astray.\n\nRelations between the two countries have since deteriorated. In recent days, the US has also shot down a number of other unidentified objects.\n\nQuestioned on Monday, Beijing said the US had made many airspace breaches.\n\n\"It's not uncommon as well for the US to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,\" said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a regular press briefing.\n\n\"Since last year alone, US balloons have illegally flown above China more than 10 times without any approval from Chinese authorities.\"\n\n\"The first thing the US side should do is start with a clean slate, undergo some self-reflection, instead of smearing and accusing China,\" he added.\n\nHe said Beijing had responded to the incursions in a \"responsible and professional\" manner.\n\n\"If you want to know more about US high-altitude balloons illegally entering China's airspace, I suggest you refer to the US side,\" he said.\n\nChinese state-affiliated media reported over the weekend that an unidentified flying object had been spotted off the country's east coast, with the military preparing to shoot it down.\n\nThe White House denied Beijing's accusation that it sent balloons over China to conduct surveillance, with National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson calling the claims \"false\" on Twitter.\n\nThe first balloon incident led US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a planned trip to Beijing. The top diplomat called China's alleged high-altitude spying \"unacceptable and irresponsible\".\n\nOn Sunday, the US ordered an unmanned \"octagonal structure\" to be downed in Michigan near the Canadian border - the fourth object to be taken out in eight days.\n\nFighter pilots also shot down smaller unidentified objects over Alaska on 10 February and northern Canada on 11 February.\n\nMr Wang said he had \"no understanding of [these other objects]\".\n\n\"But what we want to tell everyone here is that the US' frequent firing of advanced missiles used to strike down unidentified flying objects is an overreaction of excessive force,\" he said.\n\nA US military commander, General Glen VanHerck, said that there was no indication of any threat from the latest object.\n\nHe said it could be a \"gaseous type of balloon\" or \"some type of a propulsion system\" - adding he could not rule out that the objects were extra-terrestrials.\n\nUK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government would do \"whatever it takes\" to keep the country safe from the threat of spy balloons.\n\n\"We have something called the quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nFormer England captain Eoin Morgan has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.\n\nThe 36-year-old, who was born in Dublin, stepped down from the international game in June.\n\nUnder Morgan's guidance, England won the World Cup in 2019 and reached the top of the one-day and Twenty20 rankings.\n\nMorgan said on Monday that he was retiring from the sport \"after much deliberation\".\n\n\"I believe that now is the right time to step away from the game that has given me so much over the years,\" he added.\n\n\"From moving to England in 2005 to join Middlesex, right up to the very end, playing for Paarl Royals in SA20, I have cherished every moment.\n\n\"Thanks to cricket, I have been able to travel the world and meet incredible people, many of whom I have developed lifelong friendships with. Playing for franchise teams across the globe has given me so many memories that I will hold on to forever.\"\n\nMorgan, who made 275 appearances for Middlesex across all formats, scoring 8,913 runs, also captained London Spirit in The Hundred as well as Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.\n\nAfter starting his international career with Ireland in 2006, he switched allegiance in 2009 in order to play Test cricket.\n\nWhile he played 16 Tests, Morgan's strength was in the white-ball game. He was part of England's 2010 T20 World Cup win before taking charge of that side in 2012 and the one-day team two years later, succeeding Sir Alastair Cook.\n\nHis first tournament as ODI captain, the 2015 World Cup, was disappointing, with England failing to make it to the knock-out stages, but proved the catalyst for a revival which culminated in the super-over success against New Zealand at Lord's four years later.\n\nMorgan captained England in a record 126 ODIs and 72 T20s and remains their leading run-scorer in one-day cricket with 6,957, while he is second in the T20 standings behind current captain Jos Buttler.\n\nHe paid tribute to family and friends for their \"unconditional\" support over his career and says he will now focus on his broadcasting career at international and franchise tournaments.\n• None Why did Michaella McCollum try to smuggle £1.5m of cocaine?\n• None Who will be left deserted in Dubai?:", "Oil and gas giant Shell has reported record annual profits after energy prices surged last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nProfits hit $39.9bn (£32.2bn) in 2022, double the previous year's total and the highest in its 115-year history.\n\nEnergy firms have seen record earnings since oil and gas prices jumped following the invasion of Ukraine.\n\nIt has heaped pressure on firms to pay more tax as households struggle with rising bills.\n\nOpposition parties said Shell's profits were \"outrageous\" and the government was letting energy firms \"off the hook\". They also called for the planned increase in the energy price cap due in April to be scrapped.\n\nEnergy prices had begun to climb after the end of Covid lockdowns but rose sharply in March last year after the events in Ukraine led to worries over supplies.\n\nThe price of Brent crude oil reached nearly $128 a barrel following the invasion, but has since fallen back to about $83. Gas prices also spiked but have come down from their highs.\n\nIt has led to bumper profits for energy companies, but also fuelled a rise in energy bills for households and businesses.\n\nLast year, the UK government introduced a windfall tax - called the Energy Profits Levy - on the \"extraordinary\" earnings of firms to help fund its scheme to lower gas and electricity bills.\n\nDespite the move, Shell had said it did not expect to pay any UK tax this year as it is allowed to offset decommissioning costs and investments in UK projects against any UK profits.\n\nHowever, on Thursday it said was due to pay $134m in UK windfall tax for 2022, and expected to pay more than $500m in 2023.\n\nThis may look small compared to its profits but Shell only derives around 5% of its revenue from the UK - the rest is made and taxed in other jurisdictions.\n\nHowever, critics point out that Shell is a UK-headquartered company and has been paying more to its shareholders than it spends on renewable investments.\n\nThe announcement has increased pressure on Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt to raise more money from oil and gas profits.\n\nA Downing Street official said they \"absolutely\" understand anger at the \"extraordinary\" profits but indicated there are no plans to increase the windfall tax.\n\nThe prime minister's spokesman said questions about potential changes were \"for the chancellor\" when pressed by reporters.\n\nThe government \"is ready to take action\" if falling wholesale energy costs aren't reflected in lower prices at the petrol pump, the official added without detailing specific measures.\n\nThe government is currently limiting gas and electricity bills so a household using a typical amount of energy will pay £2,500 a year.\n\nHowever, that is still more than twice what it was before Russia's invasion, and the threshold is due to rise to £3,000 in April.\n\nThe government's windfall tax only applies to profits made from extracting UK oil and gas. The rate was originally set at 25%, but has now been increased to 35%.\n\nOil and gas firms also pay 30% corporation tax on their profits as well as a supplementary 10% rate. Along with the new windfall tax, that takes their total tax rate to 75%.\n\nHowever, companies are able to reduce the amount of tax they pay by factoring in losses or spending on things like decommissioning North Sea oil platforms. It has meant that in recent years, energy giants such as BP and Shell have paid little or no tax in the UK.\n\nThe annual profit figure far surpassed Shell's previous record set in 2008. The company also said it had paid out $6.3bn to its shareholders in the final three months of 2022, and that it planned another $4bn share buyback.\n\nShell chief executive Wael Sawan said that these are \"incredibly difficult times - we are seeing inflation rampant around the world\" but that Shell was playing its part by investing in renewable technologies.\n\nIts chief financial officer Sinead Gorman added that Shell had paid $13bn in taxes globally in 2022. It had also accounted for 11% of liquified natural gas shipments into the EU, easing pressure on supplies caused by sanctions on Russia.\n\nLabour's shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband said: \"As the British people face an energy price hike of 40% in April, the government is letting the fossil fuel companies making bumper profits off the hook with their refusal to implement a proper windfall tax.\n\n\"Labour would stop the energy price cap going up in April, because it is only right that the companies making unexpected windfall profits from the proceeds of war pay their fair share.\"\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: \"No company should be making these kind of outrageous profits out of Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine.\n\n\"They must tax the oil and gas companies properly and at the very least ensure that energy bills don't rise yet again in April.\"\n\nTUC general secretary Paul Nowak called for ministers to impose a larger windfall tax, adding: \"The time for excuses is over.\"\n\nHe continued: \"Instead of holding down the pay of paramedics, teachers, firefighters and millions of other hard-pressed public servants, ministers should be making big oil and gas pay their fair share.\"", "At least 16 dogs have been deployed from Mexico to Turkey\n\nMexico is sending some of its famous search and rescue dogs to Turkey to help look for people buried under rubble following Monday's earthquake.\n\nA plane with 16 dogs on board took off from Mexico City earlier on Tuesday.\n\nMexico, which is prone to earthquakes, has highly specialised civilian and military teams which are often deployed to help when disasters strike.\n\nThe dogs won the hearts of Mexicans during the country's 2017 quake, when they saved several lives.\n\nA yellow Labrador Retriever named Frida gained international fame when she was seen searching for survivors in Mexico City wearing protective goggles and boots.\n\nFrida became Mexico's most famous rescue dog after rescuing 12 people and locating 40 bodies\n\nThe navy credited Frida with saving 12 lives and locating 40 bodies in operations across Mexico, Haiti, Guatemala and Ecuador.\n\nWhile Frida died of old age last year, at least one of her canine colleagues from the 2017 Mexico quake will form part of a Mexican Navy team travelling to Turkey.\n\nEcko, a Belgian Malinois, was seen at the airport in Mexico City with his navy handler.\n\nEcko is one of those deployed to Turkey\n\nBut the deployment is not just a military one. The civilian search and rescue group Los Topos de Tlatelolco (The Moles of Tlatelolco) is also on its way.\n\nThe group of highly experienced volunteers had messaged Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard offering their help.\n\nWithin hours, Mr Ebrard responded that transport had been arranged for them with the help of the Turkish embassy in Mexico City.\n\nThe foreign minister also posted a video of a member of the Red Cross with his four-legged companion on board the plane.\n\nIn the recording, Ángel Daniel Hernández says he has been training his German Shepherd Rex since he adopted him five years ago.\n\nThe dogs waited on the tarmac to board the Mexican Air Force plane\n\nMexico is not the only country sending dogs to help with the rescue efforts in Turkey and Syria.\n\nCroatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Libya, Poland, Switzerland, the UK and the United States are all also deploying canines with their handlers.\n\nThe animals are often used in areas where the use of heavy machinery could cause the rubble to collapse further, putting the lives of survivors at risk.\n\nThe dogs are trained to sniff out humans and alert their handlers by barking and scratching the ground where the smell is strongest.\n\nMexican officials say their mission is \"to save lives\" and while the dogs can detect the smell of bodies as well as that of those who are buried under the rubble alive, the hope is that their quick deployment will result in rescues rather than recoveries.", "Three British nationals are missing following the earthquake in Turkey in which more than 11,200 people have died, the foreign secretary has said.\n\nIn a statement to the Commons, James Cleverly said the Foreign Office was supporting some 35 British nationals directly affected by the incident.\n\nA UK search and rescue team has been deployed to Turkey to help in the race to find survivors.\n\nKing Charles has sent his \"special prayers\" to those affected.\n\nThe monarch said in a statement: \"Our thoughts and special prayers are with everyone who has been affected by this appalling natural disaster, whether through injury or the destruction of their property, and also with the emergency services and those assisting in the rescue efforts.\"\n\nThe huge 7.8 magnitude quake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria in the early hours of Monday, when most people were asleep in their homes.\n\nEmergency workers are now desperately trying to save people trapped beneath rubble after thousands of buildings collapsed. The death toll across both Turkey and Syria is now more than 11,200 and continues to rise.\n\nOutlining the UK's response, the foreign secretary confirmed three UK citizens were missing, and 35 others were being supported, adding\"the likelihood of large-scale British casualties remains low\".\n\nHe said more than 6,000 buildings had collapsed during, or in the wake of, the earthquake, and electricity and gas infrastructure had been severely damaged.\n\n\"The Turkish government has declared a state of emergency and they are requesting international assistance on a scale that matches the enormity of the situation that they are facing,\" Mr Cleverly said.\n\nHe later said the government would also increase funding to the White Helmets civil defence organisation in Syria, \"to support their emergency response operations\" - although he did not say how much money would be provided.\n\nThe civil war has complicated the situation on the ground in Syria and the UK has little direct access to the north west where territorial control is largely divided between government, opposition groups and militias.\n\nThe White Helmets organisation was set up in 2014 during the war and is made up of volunteers that have helped with civilian evacuations and search and rescue operations after bombings.\n\nMr Cleverly told MPs the UK would provide help within Syria through charities including the International Medical Corps, Save the Children and UN agencies.\n\nOn Tuesday evening, a plane carrying 77 UK search and rescue specialists, four search dogs and equipment including seismic listening devices, concrete-cutting and breaking equipment, and propping tools, landed in Gaziantep in south-east Turkey.\n\nThey had been due to travel on Monday but were delayed.\n\nThe International Search and Rescue Team (UK-ISAR) - made up of firefighters and staff from 14 fire and rescue services from across the country - will cut their way into buildings and help to locate survivors.\n\nThey include emergency medical personnel who will conduct a full assessment of the situation on the ground, the Foreign Office said.\n\nLeading the group, Phil Garrigan, chief fire officer of Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, said: \"The team will be able to use a range of technical expertise, kit and equipment in areas where it is needed most, over the next 14 days, in a bid to save lives.\"\n\nMeanwhile, many in the UK and Turkish community are in anguish over the fate of loved ones.\n\nCengiz Akarsu, from Country Durham, said his childhood friend was still missing following the quake and it would be a \"miracle\" if he was alive.\n\n\"He's got two little kids,\" he told BBC Radio Newcastle. \"I called his brothers - they're on the way but unfortunately the roads going into the city, they've been damaged, and then the bridge has collapsed on the roads, so they cannot pass through.\n\n\"We don't want to believe he died, but when I've spoken to people who live in that area they say its more than a miracle if they come out of that.\n\n\"It is really, really bad.\"\n\nHe added his brother had survived, despite a wall collapsing on him.\n\n\"We are all grateful my family is fine, but the sad thing is, we just know there are a lot of people underneath collapsed buildings.\"\n\nCengiz Akarsu's brother lost his home in the disaster\n\nKitle Eikelberg, from Richmond, London, said some distant relatives had been killed in her home village Maksutusagi in southern Turkey,\n\n\"Distant relatives died, but none of my closer relatives - they managed to escape,\" she said.\n\n\"All my close relatives are in the open or in their cars and no-one has come to the rescue in the villages.\n\n\"It is freezing temperatures, they have no power, no water, and their phone batteries are dying.\"\n\nShe said she was \"broken\" by the \"nightmare\" situation.\n\nKitle Eikelberg lost distant relatives in the village she hails from in southern Turkey\n\nAli Topaloglu, from the Nottingham Turkish Community, told the BBC his family were among those directly affected, with some immediate family killed.\n\nHe said: \"It's shocking. I cannot find the words to describe the situation... it's devastating news.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the British Turkish Association has praised communities across London for raising between £200,000 and £300,000, which has paid for 300 boxes of donated aid to be sent on a Turkish Airlines cargo plane from Heathrow.", "Two huge earthquakes and a series of aftershocks have hit Turkey, Syria and the surrounding region, killing more than 11,000 people and causing widespread destruction.\n\nThe first earthquake, which struck in the early hours of 6 February, was registered as 7.8, classified as \"major\" on the official magnitude scale. Its epicentre was near Gaziantep - a city of more than two million people.\n\nThe intensity of the tremors also brought down tower blocks and public buildings in northern Syria and the quake was felt as far away as Cyprus and Lebanon, both about 250 miles (400km) from the epicentre.\n\nIn Turkey, more than 8,500 people are confirmed to have died, with tens of thousands injured and thousands of buildings destroyed.\n\nThe first earthquake was followed by numerous aftershocks, including one quake which was almost as large as the first - registering as magnitude 7.5 - about nine hours later with its epicentre about 60 miles (100km) further north in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.\n\nThe second quake devastated the city of Kahramanmaras\n\nOn Tuesday, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three month state of emergency in the south-east of the country, covering 10 cities affected.\n\nIn the Mediterranean port city of Iskenderun, in the province of Hatay, about 75 miles (120km) from Gaziantep, buildings and docks were reduced to rubble.\n\nA fire at the port of Iskenderun has also hampered aid efforts with many containers destroyed and those stuck in the port blocking supplies being brought in.\n\nThe historic Yeni Camii mosque, in Malatya, more than 100 miles (160km) from the epicentre, was extensively damaged. Its domes collapsed, leaving it exposed to the winter sky. The mosque was destroyed by a huge earthquake in 1894 and, after reconstruction, damaged by another quake in 1964.\n\nCollapsing buildings killed more than 2,500 people across Syria. In the city of Aleppo, the ancient citadel ravaged by a decade of war has been further damaged by the quake.\n\nIn the village of Besnaya-Bseineh, a large block of residential and commercial buildings was reduced to rubble.", "Archie's mother, Hollie Dance, says she has been subjected to \"vile\" online abuse\n\nThe mother of Archie Battersbee has told his inquest that she believed his death was accidental.\n\nArchie, 12, died in August when his life support was withdrawn following his parents' legal battle with the NHS hospital treating him.\n\nHe was found unconscious at the family home in Southend, Essex, on 7 April last year by his mother, Hollie Dance.\n\nThe court also heard evidence Archie had shared messages with others discussing self-harm and suicide.\n\nMs Dance told Essex's senior coroner Lincoln Brookes that she was unaware of the messages.\n\nAsked how she thought her son died, she told the inquest on Tuesday: \"I think he climbed on the banister and probably fell, causing serious injury to his neck, resulting in unconsciousness.\"\n\nShe added that Archie \"thought he was the next Spider-Man\" and would often climb on things.\n\nIt was her belief, she said, that Archie's death was an \"accident\".\n\nHollie Dance told the inquest that she believed her son died after falling while climbing on the banister at the family home\n\nMr Brookes said: \"The police found he had shared some thoughts with others online or in a WhatsApp group. How were you when you read that?\"\n\nMs Dance replied: \"Heartbroken, very surprised... if there were any marks on his body I would have seen them.\"\n\nShe also told the inquest Archie was the \"apple of my eye\", \"well-loved\" and \"protected\".\n\nArchie died on 6 August when life support was withdrawn after a number of courts agreed with doctors that stopping treatment was in Archie's best interest.\n\nMs Dance described finding her son's body before running outside and screaming for help.\n\nShe said: \"I was crying hysterically, I was saying 'please don't leave mummy, I love you little man'\".\n\n\"I repeated that over and over, I just didn't want him to leave me.\"\n\nArchie suffered brain damage in an incident at home on 7 April\n\nJoseph Norton, in a written statement to the court, said he was in his mother's garden, next to Archie's family home when he heard shouting and thought someone had been stabbed.\n\nHe said: \"I heard a scream, a startling type of scream that alarmed me.\"\n\nMr Norton, who carried out CPR on Archie before ambulance crews arrived, said the boy looked \"pale\" and his lips were turning bluer.\n\nMs Dance had raised concerns about the way her son was carried into the ambulance, saying he was \"carried out by his ankles... like cattle, not my little boy\".\n\nWhen asked about this by the coroner, an attending paramedic said she did not think a neck brace was \"applicable\", adding: \"When we moved him from the property we ensured everyone was still supporting him.\"\n\nShe added there were no obvious signs of \"massive trauma\".\n\nArchie's parents Paul Battersbee and Hollie Dance spent months in a legal battle with the hospital trust treating him\n\nMs Dance told the inquest her son had been affected by the separation of his parents and had been bullied at school, leading to him being removed from mainstream education.\n\nHe loved gymnastics and mixed martial arts, with his first fight scheduled weeks after he was injured, an event he was \"looking forward to\".\n\nFamily members had told her \"he wasn't down, just a bit bored\", in the weeks before the incident.\n\nMs Dance has previously feared he may have been taking part in an online challenge and suffered brain damage.\n\n\"I still don't know if Archie was trying the blackout challenge on April 7 or before, I still don't know what he was watching on TikTok,\" she said.\n\nShe added: \"He hated bullying and loud shouting. I can see that he might possibly be influenced, even though he knew right from wrong, if that's what peers and social media were telling him to do so. I fear that's what was prompted.\"\n\nAt a pre-inquest hearing in November, Mr Brookes said there was \"no evidence\" to substantiate that Archie had been taking part in an online challenge.\n\nThe inquest, expected to last two days, continues.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "A young child was pulled from the rubble in Azaz, after a devastating earthquake shook Syria and Turkey, leaving hundreds of people dead.\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the early hours of Monday while people were asleep and dozens of aftershocks have been felt in the hours since.", "A trial in which return tickets have been scrapped to make fares simpler will be extended as part of a shake-up of the country's railways.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper confirmed that LNER, which operates trains along the East Coast mainline, will extend its trial of selling single tickets only on its routes from Spring.\n\nIf it continues to be successful it will be extended to other operators.\n\nMr Harper made the announcement in a speech setting out railway reforms.\n\nThe government said single leg pricing could provide \"better value\" for passengers.\n\nThere are 55 million fares available in Britain, which makes it difficult for travellers to decide which is best for them.\n\nCurrently, many single tickets are just £1 less than a return, but under the trial, a single is always half the cost of a return.\n\nLondon North Eastern Railway (LNER) is one of few train operators that is publicly-owned. It runs trains between London and the East Midlands, Yorkshire, the North East, and Scotland.\n\nIn 2020 it trialled scrapping return tickets on journeys from London to Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh, which saw the cost of a super off-peak single ticket from London to Edinburgh cut to £73.70 rather than £146.40, or £147.40 for a super off-peak return.\n\nThis trial has been viewed as successful and will be rolled out across the rest of the LNER network. Mr Harper told rail industry leaders in speech on Tuesday that the government would then \"carefully consider the results of those trials\" before extending more widely to other parts of the country.\n\n\"This is not about increasing fares,\" he said. \"I just want passengers to benefit from simpler ticketing that meets their needs.\"\n\nMark Smith runs website Seat61.com which helps people book rail travel around the world. He was a station manager in the 1990s and worked at the Department for Transport in fares and ticketing until 2007.\n\nHe told the BBC that many return tickets cost only slightly more than a single because about 30 years ago British Rail introduced saver return tickets to encourage people to travel further for longer.\n\nMr Smith said the reforms created a \"simple all-one-way fares structure designed for easy sale through today's channels: internet, ticket machines and contactless\".\n\nLater his speech, the transport secretary announced plans to roll out pay-as-you-go ticketing across the South East, which will enable travellers to pay for journeys by tapping in and out with contactless cards or phones - similar to London's Oyster system.\n\nHe also confirmed the government was continuing to go ahead with its plans to create a new organisation, Great British Railways (GBR).\n\nIn 2021, the idea of GBR was announced as a body to replace an \"overcomplicated and fragmented\" system, as well as set timetables and prices, sell tickets in England and manage rail infrastructure.\n\nMr Harper said the country's rail network was \"not fit for purpose\" and was \"financially unsustainable\".\n\nHe added the industry had only survived since the pandemic due to the \"public purse\", with taxpayers funding more than 70% of the sector's income over the past two years and at a cost of £1,000 per household.\n\n\"It isn't fair to continue asking taxpayers to foot the bill,\" he said. \"Many of whom don't regularly use the railways.\"\n\nMr Harper insisted the creation of GBR did not amount to nationalisation, or a return to British Rail - instead pledging to \"enhance\" the role of the private sector in running the country's railways.\n\nMr Harper said he wanted private companies to be involved \"not just in running services but in maximising competition, innovation and revenue growth right across the industry\".\n\nBut Louise Haigh, Labour's shadow transport secretary, has said passengers are \"paying more for less under the Conservatives' broken rail system\".\n\n\"Thirteen years of failure has seen fares soar, more services than ever cancelled, while failing operators continue to be handed millions in taxpayers' cash,\" she added.\n\nMuch of Mark Harper's speech covered familiar ground - talking about the need for major changes to how the railway operates, to fix a broken system.\n\nHe was clear the government wants to spend less public money on the railway.\n\nMr Harper committed to introducing the delayed over-arching body Great British Railways, although provided no timescale.\n\nBut he firmly distanced himself from the idea that this meant returning to British Rail, or Labour's re-nationalisation plans, insisting the private sector would have a greater role.\n\nThere wasn't much in the speech by way of changes that passengers will notice in the short term.\n\nAlthough, as well as the extension to LNER's single ticket trial, he said the government-run operator will trial demand based pricing - meaning prices could go up and down depending on demand.\n\nMinisters insist this is about simplifying tickets, not raising more money - but questions remain about how exactly it will work, and how consumers will be protected.\n\nThe transport secretary's reforms come at a time when Britain's railways are being disrupted by strike action.\n\nRail workers and train drivers have staged a series of walkouts in recent months over disputes involving pay and working practices.\n\nUnion bosses are calling for pay increases in line with the rising cost of living, but train companies have said any pay rises need to go alongside reforms, with the Covid pandemic leaving a hole in the industry's finances.\n\nRegulated rail fares in England are set to rise by up to 5.9% from March.", "Video shows the moment a camera crew run away in panic as a building collapses in Malatya, Turkey, while they're live on air.", "Aid is being stepped up in southern Turkey and northern Syria, after a huge earthquake devastated the region, leaving more than 7,000 people dead.\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep, Turkey in the early hours of Monday, reducing blocks of flats to rubble at a time when most were asleep.\n\nIt is a region where there has not been a major earthquake for more than 200 years, or any warning signs.\n\nNational governments of many countries including the UK, the US, China and Russia are providing aid, including search and rescue experts.\n\nAnd many charities are also launching appeals and sending teams to the area.\n\nThe British Red Cross was one of the first major UK charities to launch its appeal.\n\nIt is working in conjunction with the Turkish Red Crescent and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, and is already on the ground \"providing urgent support during these critical hours\" and evacuating people to safety.\n\nMany of those injured have lost their homes and all their possessions, surviving in freezing conditions or rain with little shelter or food.\n\nLives have been devastated by the natural catastrophe, which has left more than 15,000 injured in Turkey alone\n\nOxfam is another large charity to have launched an appeal.\n\nIt said it would focus on providing \"protection, water and sanitation, shelter and food\", while also assessing the longer-term needs of people in the aftermath of so much destruction.\n\nIts spokesperson in Ankara, Meryem Aslan, said local people were \"shell-shocked\" and struggling to cope \"following two big earthquakes and over 60 aftershocks\".\n\n\"The scale of destruction is vast. People are still in shock and fear, they don't even have time to mourn the lost ones,\" she said.\n\nTurkish and Syrian communities in the UK - many searching for information about missing loved ones - have launched their own local donation drives - many using Facebook to reach volunteers and donors.\n\nA spokesman for the British Turkish Association, based in Luton, said the reaction of \"all communities\" in London had been \"emotional\".\n\nAtilla Ustun, 55, also a chairman of the Luton-Turkish Community Association, spoke to the PA news agency from Heathrow as he helped load a Turkish Airlines cargo plane with more than 300 boxes of donated clothing, medical supplies and aid for babies.\n\n\"All the communities in Luton and around have swarmed to donate... Just locally, in Luton itself, we've raised around £20,000,\" he said, \"but we know that in general, I think in London it's now between £200,000 and 300,000.\"\n\nAli Topaloglu, from the Nottingham Turkish Community, is part of a campaign asking for donations of tents, blankets and clothes for Turkey, as well as money for food parcels.\n\nThe region hit by the earthquake is home to millions of refugees displaced by the Syrian civil war, with northern areas still embroiled in conflict.\n\nIt was already a major hub for NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and charities - many of whom have been there for years, as part of cross-border support for those displaced by war.\n\nOrganisations including Save the Children, Unicef and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) have all launched appeals following the earthquake.\n\nMSF provided immediate support to 23 healthcare facilities across Idlib and Aleppo in north-west Syria, where hospitals and clinics are \"overwhelmed\" and access to the war-torn region for external medical personnel can be difficult.\n\nThe charity is providing emergency medical kits and staff to reinforce local healthcare teams who are \"working around the clock to respond to the huge numbers of wounded\".\n\n\"The needs are very high in north-west Syria as this quake adds a dramatic layer for the vulnerable populations that are still struggling after many years of war\", said Sebastien Gay, head of MSF in Syria.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSave the Children said it had spent a lot of time so far checking on needs, and what was working logistically.\n\nJames Denselow, UK head of conflict and humanitarian advocacy, said: \"Providing shelter is the most urgent type of aid from our perspective, because the cold will kill people in ways that are less spectacular than the earthquake, but equally deadly.\"\n\nHe said with airports out of action and hospitals and clinics collapsed, \"all the sort of places we would normally use are not necessarily accessible\".\n\nHe added the aid route to northern Syria remained inadequate.\n\n\"Northern Syria is an area where we were dealing with severe malnutrition and far more huge humanitarian needs than in other environments before this happened,\" he said.\n\n\"If you're a vulnerable population and then something else like this happens on top of that, obviously what happens to you is likely going to be far worse.\n\n\"We see that with very basic things like children's physiology. The ability of a child to survive crash injury from a building falling on them is far reduced if they are malnourished.\"\n\nHe added: \"This is going to be about getting blankets, food, clean water, education kits - so children don't find their studies completely devastated by this - to them.\n\n\"We need to keep those people warm, we need to keep young infants warm.\"\n\nDavid Wightwick, CEO of medical aid charity UK-Med, said his team were heading to Turkey to assess where their help was most needed, before mobilising their register of hundreds of NHS medics.\n\n\"You can imagine in an area the size affected and with the numbers affected that's not necessarily an easy decision to make,\" he told BBC Radio 4 Today programme.\n\nTypically, the larger humanitarian organisations do not ask for donations of blankets or clothes - but prefer money.\n\n\"What people give today might not be what people need tomorrow,\" states Oxfam, highlighting the delays in aid reaching victims because of shipping times from the UK.\n\n\"Our approach is to work with local organisations and communities on the ground, rather than sending blankets, clothes and other donated goods from the UK\", the charity's humanitarian lead Magnus Corfixen said.\n\n\"In emergencies, we often do cash distributions because it's quicker, allows people to get what they most need and also helps the local economy to recover. From our years of experience, we have found that as well as giving people choices, cash also helps to preserve their dignity.\"", "An aerial view of collapsed buildings in the Turkish city of Hatay\n\nThe sheer scale of the devastation of the earthquake and its aftershocks can be seen in social media photos and videos posted by people in Turkey and Syria. Eyewitnesses have also been speaking about what happened. BBC News has been pulling together and verifying information.\n\nThe tremors of the main quake - which happened at 04:17 local time - were felt more than a hundred miles in each direction from the epicentre - across southern Turkey and in northern Syria.\n\nWitnesses described being shaken from their sleep and running to their cars for safety from the damaged buildings.\n\n\"I have never felt anything like it in the 40 years I've lived,\" said Erdem, living in the city of Gaziantep. \"We were shaken at least three times very strongly, like a baby in a crib.\"\n\nBBC News has been piecing together what happened as the tremors struck and reverberated across Turkey and Syria - using personal testimony and social media posts which we have verified.\n\nIn one verified tweet a camera pans across smoke-filled scenes of rubble and destruction in Iskenderun, southern Turkey.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Authentic voice This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBBC Turkish spoke to earthquake survivors from different cities - all of them said it was the first time they had experienced such severe and long-lasting tremors.\n\nHundreds of buildings are reported to have been destroyed in the Pazarcık district of Kahramanmaraş, to the north of the epicentre.\n\nFootage on Twitter shows an aerial view of the force of the quake in the city's palm tree-lined streets.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Zaid Ahmd  This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOne local resident Veysel Şervan told the BBC that many of his relatives were under the rubble.\n\n\"I barely got myself and my family out of the building. We were just coming out of the wreckage when we saw a person reach out through a small gap. The building collapsed on our friend who tried to save them. They have no chance of escape, it collapsed on them completely. We are in a very difficult situation.\"\n\nVideos have emerged showing large fires in southern Turkey, with people claiming the earthquake has caused gas pipelines to burst and burn out of control.\n\nThe BBC has verified one of the videos as being on the outskirts of the city of Hatay, around 170km from the earthquake epicentre.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Lenar This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA still from drone footage taken over Hatay shows numerous apartment buildings collapsed in one neighbourhood.\n\nThe tremors caused this hospital in the city to collapse at an angle.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Yusuf Belek This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGaziantep resident Russell Peagram, from Essex, described efforts to help elderly neighbours escape from apartment buildings in freezing temperatures.\n\n\"Neighbours got together, it was teamwork. If there was an old lady or an old man who'd come down and you had space in your car, everyone was just getting blankets and sharing them, whatever they could do.\"\n\nThe earthquake reduced the city's castle and the Shirvan Mosque to rubble. Gaziantep castle had been one of the country's best-preserved castles dating back to the Roman period.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 5 by Thomas van Linge This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAftershocks to the east and south of the initial epicentre - including a significant second quake - have been felt since.\n\nHere Turkish TV captured the moment the second earthquake struck in the city of Malatya.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 6 by OSINTdefender This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn Sanliurfa, an eyewitness captured the moment a building collapsed in the Bahçelievler neighbourhood.\n\nBBC journalists were able to confirm the location was in Sanilurfa - rather than, according to an earlier social media claim, Aleppo in Syria.\n\nWe used geolocation tools and checked individual thumbnails from the video to see when it was first posted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 7 by Mahmut Karadağ This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhile in Gaziantep, this moment was captured on video - when it became clear that another building was about to collapse.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 8 by Aleph א This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAcross the border in northern Syria, the situation is just as desperate.\n\nOne resident in Azaz, a city in north-west Syria, told the media how frightening the situation had been.\n\n\"There are 12 families [trapped here] and no-one managed to get out.\"\n\nIn the city of Aleppo, a woman holding a small child, ran as buildings fell in quick succession.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 9 by MOHAMMED HASSAN This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhile in the village of Besnaya-Bseineh, near Harim, before and after images show homes have been flattened - and how the search is on for survivors.", "Savers have access to a host of competitive savings deals, bank bosses have argued, as they faced criticism over poor rates of interest.\n\nThe chief executives of four of the biggest banks in the UK were hauled before MPs who questioned the generosity of their savings rates.\n\nThe UK chief executives of Lloyds, NatWest, HSBC and Barclays said deals had improved as savers shopped around.\n\nThey also said branch closures were a response to consumers' changing habits.\n\nThe Bank of England's benchmark interest rate was at historically low levels for a decade until December 2021, since when it has risen consistently. It is now at 4%, having risen from 0.1%.\n\nMPs on the Treasury Committee said their constituents complained that mortgage rates rose more rapidly than the returns offered to savers when the base rate went up.\n\nDescribed as the highest-paid panel which had sat before the committee for some time - collectively earning more than £10m a year - the quartet of bank bosses argued that this debate incorrectly centred on the interest rate offered on easy-access savings accounts, which typically have a return of less than 1%.\n\nThey argued that regular saver deals offered market-leading rates of interest, and that instant-access products were often a \"gateway\" to higher interest deals.\n\nMatt Hammerstein, from Barclays, Charlie Nunn, from Lloyds Banking Group, Ian Stuart, from HSBC, and Dame Alison Rose, from NatWest, argued that they were also encouraging customers to begin a savings habit.\n\n\"Only one in four people have £100 of savings in their account,\" said Dame Alison. \"There is a real concern about financial confidence in young people. We have targeted savings for young people's accounts as well.\"\n\nSavings levels built considerably during the pandemic, as consumers' ability to spend was curtailed. The soaring cost of living has since dampened some of this saving.\n\nHowever, the bosses - whose banks control 60% of the market - argued that many people were actively searching for better deals as interest rates rose. Mr Nunn said price comparison websites had become highly developed in this area.\n\nWhile some were shopping around, millions were still low on confidence in making good financial decisions, and so needed good guidance.\n\nMany households are also facing the prospect of having to pay more on their mortgage repayments in the coming year.\n\nMr Stuart pointed to a new fixed-rate deal, launched by HSBC on the same day as the hearing, which was the first five-year deal with an interest rate of less than 4% since early October.\n\nHe argued that this showed that mortgage rates were falling, despite the Bank rate still rising, and was far lower than the rates that had been predicted after the mini-budget.\n\nYet, he said that the \"headwinds are ahead of us, not behind us\" when analysing the number of people who were falling behind on mortgage repayments.\n\nThe bank chief executives were also pressed on branch closures, with all accepting they had shut a host of premises in recent years.\n\nMr Stuart said that this was a response to the changing ways people were managing their money.\n\n\"Customer behaviours started to change in 1982 with the advent of the cash machine, and it has been on a journey from that point and it has sped up,\" he said.\n\nHe said that 98% of transactions in December were digital, displaying how the needs of customers from a branch had changed in recent decades.\n\nThe bosses gave examples of cash pods, bank hubs, mobile banking vans, and smart ATMs as alternatives, with specialists often using different channels to talk to customers in their own homes.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC chairman: I regret the distraction this has caused\n\nBBC chairman Richard Sharp has denied that he helped arrange a loan for Boris Johnson when he was prime minister.\n\nMr Sharp was questioned by MPs over his role in loan talks involving Mr Johnson, which came before the then-PM nominated him to chair the BBC board.\n\nThe government has previously said Mr Sharp was appointed on merit.\n\nMr Sharp told the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday he had not given Mr Johnson financial advice.\n\nThe MPs robustly questioned Mr Sharp, with one telling him she could not understand why he had not been \"open and transparent\" about his involvement in the loan discussions during his appointment process.\n\nThe BBC chairman's appearance at the DCMS committee followed press reports last month about his role in a loan for Mr Johnson, weeks before Mr Sharp was announced as government's choice to be the next chairman of the BBC.\n\nMr Sharp confirmed he had introduced his friend Sam Blyth to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case in late 2020, which was shortly before his appointment at the BBC.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC chairman: I regret the distraction this has caused\n\nMr Sharp has previously said Mr Blyth had told him he wanted to provide financial assistance to Mr Johnson after reading about the then-PM's money troubles in the media.\n\nThe Sunday Times previously reported that Mr Blyth's assistance resulted in a loan worth a reported £800,000 to Mr Johnson. Mr Blyth has since told the BBC \"it was much less than reported and not fully drawn\".\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Sharp agreed with acting committee chairman Damian Green that he had \"acted as a sort of introduction agency\" between Mr Blyth and Mr Case.\n\nHe said at a meeting with Mr Case he then raised \"the fact that I'd submitted my application to be the chair of the BBC and that therefore, to avoid a conflict, or perception of conflict, I could have - and we agreed - no further participation in whatever transpired whatsoever. And I didn't.\"\n\nAlthough he accepted he was \"a go-between\" for Mr Blyth and the Cabinet Office, he added: \"I did not provide and have not provided the former prime minister personal financial advice. I know nothing about his [financial] affairs, I never have done. I didn't facilitate a loan.\n\n\"I've nothing to do with it whatsoever. I'm not party to anything that then happened or didn't happen. I've no knowledge of a bank. I've no knowledge of the actual loan.\"\n\nBoris Johnson stood down as prime minister in September\n\nMr Sharp, a former investment banker and Conservative donor, described his relationship with Mr Johnson as \"broadly professional\", and that he only knew of the prime minister's financial issues from press reports.\n\nIt had not crossed his mind to mention the loan discussion when he appeared in front of the committee during his appointment process, he said.\n\nAsked whether he regretted not doing so, Mr Sharp replied: \"Obviously I regret this situation.\"\n\nBut Labour MP Kevin Brennan accused the BBC chairman of a \"monumental failure of judgment\" in not disclosing it.\n\nAnother Labour MP, Julie Elliott, told Mr Sharp that \"it sounds, sitting here, that you were hiding it, that's how it comes across\", which he said was not the case.\n\nShe asked if he could see that his involvement could be perceived as a conflict of interest.\n\nHe replied: \"I can see with the benefit of hindsight, particularly with some of the assertions that have been made, that that is a perfectly legitimate issue for you to raise.\"\n\nAt the time, Mr Sharp did tell the cabinet secretary about his conversation with Mr Blyth. The Sunday Times reported on his involvement in the loan discussions last month.\n\nMr Sharp said: \"It's manifest that this has cause embarrassment for the BBC and I regret that.\"\n\nHe added: \"I acted in good faith to ensure that the rules were followed and in that sense I have no regret for that.\"\n\nMr Blyth's second cousin is Stanley Johnson, the former prime minister's father.\n\nWilliam Shawcross, the commissioner for public appointments, was set to examine how Mr Sharp got the BBC job, but stood aside because of past contact between the pair.\n\nAdam Heppinstall KC has since been appointed in Mr Shawcross's place to look into the appointment.", "As Turkey and Syria begin to assess the damage caused by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has so far left at least 5,000 people dead, countries around the world have mobilised to help the rescue and recovery efforts.\n\nRain and snow are affecting rescuers, but specialised teams from many nations, including Italy, the US, Israel and Taiwan - are on the way.\n\nIraq is providing aid to Syria. Security forces processed supplies from the Red Crescent aid group to send to the neighbouring country\n\nIraqi soldiers and the Iraqi Red Crescent society workers loaded trucks with the materials.\n\nTaiwanese rescuers plan to will assist with search and rescue operations in Turkey.\n\nA specialised team of firefighters from the Czech Republic's Urban Search and Rescue Team will help search for people in the rubble in Turkey.\n\nThe Czech USAR team is specifically trained to find people who may be buried under the rubble.\n\nMembers of the Dutch search and rescue team were to fly out from Eindhoven to provide assistance in Turkey.\n\nAbout 50 firefighters and medical workers left Pisa, Italy, to assist at the Syria-Turkey border with rescue efforts.\n\nRome says further flights will follow after the firefighters arrive, bringing medical personnel and equipment for Turkey.\n\nGreece's prime minister on Monday pledged to make \"every force available\" to aid its neighbour Turkey. They sent supplies and rescuers on a plane on the same day of the quake.\n\nGreece and Turkey have historically suffered from various border and cultural disputes.\n\nBulgarian rescue teams deployed across the Kapikule Border Gate to help with relief efforts across Turkey.\n\nThe \"Olive Branches\" aid section of the Israeli Defence Force left Israel for Turkey to assist with the earthquake recovery efforts. Israel's prime minister also said he had approved sending aid to Syria - whose government does not recognise Israel.\n\nIsrael received the request to aid Syria through diplomatic channels. But Damascus denied requesting assistance.\n\nUS President Joe Biden said his teams were deploying quickly to begin to support Turkish search and rescue efforts.\n\nThe US said they would send two search and rescue teams of nearly 80 people each.\n\nAt the Turkish embassy in Moscow, flowers are laid. A lit candle with a small poster reads \"Condolences to Turkey\". Russia has offered aid to both Turkey and Syria.", "The Jean Genie was released by Bowie in 1972, during his Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane period\n\nDavid Bowie's handwritten lyrics for his track The Jean Genie have been sold for £57,000 at auction.\n\nThe singer, who died in 2016, gave the sheet to the founder of the inaugural David Bowie Fan Club in the 1970s.\n\nThe song, taken from the Aladdin Sane album, was released as a single in 1972 and reached number 2 in the UK charts.\n\nOmega Auctions' Dan Hampson said the owner had decided to part with them after seeing Bowie's lyrics for his hit Starman sell for £203,500 in 2022.\n\nThe lyric sheet for The Jean Genie comprised of 18 lines on a piece of A4 lined paper, which was titled, signed and dated by Bowie.\n\nThe rock star originally gave it to American fan Neal Peters after he founded the New York-based fan club in 1973.\n\nThe auction lot also included a 2009 letter on Neal Peters Collection stationery, which detailed how Bowie gave Mr Peters the lyrics, along with several photocopied documents relating to the fan club and Mr Peters.\n\nThe lyric sheet comprised 18 lines on a piece of A4 lined paper and was titled, signed and dated by Bowie\n\nMr Hampson, the auction manager at the St Helens auction house, said the pre-sale estimate for the sheet had been between £50,000 and £70,000.\n\nHe said the vendor had been \"in possession of this incredible set for a few years and decided to sell after seeing the amazing price achieved when we sold the Starman lyrics last year\".\n\nAfter The Jean Genie sale, auctioneer Paul Fairweather said the firm was \"well pleased with the price achieved for this historic set of lyrics\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Kitle Eikelberg says government aid is yet to reach the village where her relatives live\n\nA woman has told of her devastation after losing relatives following the earthquake in south-east Turkey.\n\nKitle Eikelberg is one of thousands among the UK's Turkish and Syrian communities in anguish as the quake's death toll rises above 5,000.\n\nMs Eikelberg told the BBC she was \"broken\" by the \"loss and destruction\" in her country.\n\nBritish search and rescue specialists sent by the UK government are due to set to fly to Turkey today.\n\nMs Eikelberg, from Richmond, London, said she had been told six distant relatives had died in Maksutusagi - the southern Turkish village she grew up in - during the earthquake, but her two elderly aunts and uncles managed to survive.\n\n\"Distant relatives died, but none of my closer relatives - they managed to escape,\" she said. \"All my close relatives are in the open or in their cars and no-one has come to the rescue in the villages.\n\n\"It is freezing temperatures, they have no power, no water, and their phone batteries are dying.\"\n\nThe mother of two described damaged houses - some collapsed - in the small village, which she visits every summer.\n\n\"People are scared to go in and out because of tremors and they are terrified to get near the houses,\" she said.\n\nMs Eikelberg, who has lived in the UK for 20 years, explained government aid had not reached the village which urgently needs shelter and food. But she claimed efforts by families to help the village had been hampered by damaged roads and authorities.\n\nShe said: \"People are outside in the snow and it is night time now. They need tents and generators\n\n\"They cannot wait. I can't do anything\n\n\"I am broken. It is a nightmare.\"\n\nThe earthquake has also had a profound effect on her daughter. \"We tried to keep her away from it, but she hears it on the radio. She's been crying, worried. Will she ever go back?\"\n\nCengiz Akarsu, from Country Durham in north east England, said his childhood friend remains missing following the quake and it would be a \"miracle\" if he was alive.\n\nHe said his friend lived in an area, seen in footage on the news, in which the \"whole street collapsed\".\n\n\"He's got two little kids,\" he told BBC Radio Newcastle. \"I called his brothers - they're on the way but unfortunately the roads going into the city they've been damaged, and then the bridge has collapsed on the roads so they can not pass through.\n\n\"We don't want to believe he died, but when I've spoken to people who live in that area they say its more than a miracle if they come out of that.\n\n\"It is really really bad.\"\n\nCengiz Akarsu's brother has lost his house in the disaster\n\nHe said his brother had survived when a wall collapsed on him.\n\n\"My family was alright but one of my brothers... his house was damaged heavily and the wall collapsed on him.\n\n\"He managed to get out of it.\n\n\"We are all grateful my family is fine, but the sad thing is we just know there are a lot of people underneath collapsed buildings - one of them is my childhood friend.\"\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude quake struck near the Turkish town of Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday while people were asleep, before a 7.5 magnitude tremor hit later in the day.\n\nRescuers are now racing to save people trapped beneath the rubble after thousands of buildings collapsed in both countries.\n\nAli Topaloglu, from the Nottingham Turkish Community, told the BBC his family had been directly affected.\n\nHe said: \"It's shocking. I can not find the words to describe the situation... it's devastating news. We lost some immediate family.\"\n\nThe chairman of the British Turkish Association said he had been \"inundated\" with calls from people worried about loved ones.\n\nAttila Ustun described it as a \"heartbreaking\" day for Turks everywhere and said there was \"a very large connection\" between the Turkish communities in east and north London and the area where the quake struck.\n\nHe continued: \"Some were born in those cities and towns that are now a disaster zone.\"\n\nMr Ustun said people from Turkish backgrounds had been reaching out after learning family members had died, including \"one gentleman in Bedfordshire who has lost three of his uncles in one property\".\n\nHe added: \"I've been inundated, I had one lady in London crying her eyes out and saying that half of her village is now rubble.\n\n\"People are ringing me asking what they can do to help.\"\n\nThe British Turkish Association is taking donations, particularly winter clothes, at different points across the UK.\n\nThe UK government is sending a team of 76 search and rescue specialists to Turkey to help search for survivors. They are due to fly out later.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly said the impact of the quakes was \"on a scale that we have not seen for quite some time\".\n\nDevelopment Minister Andrew Mitchell said the British team had been due to leave for Turkey on Monday night, but were delayed. On Tuesday morning he suggested they would leave \"imminently\", adding the first 72 hours were \"critical\".\n\nThe UK search and rescue teams have four search dogs, equipment including seismic listening devices, concrete cutting and breaking equipment, as well as a team of emergency medics to assess the situation on the ground.\n\nNo 10 said the government was looking at ways it could support humanitarian action in northwest Syria, and that its first approach would be to work through the United Nations (UN).\n\nThe Foreign Office also said in north-west Syria the White Helmets, humanitarian volunteers who received UK-funding, have mobilised their resources to respond.\n\nDavid Wightwick, CEO of medical aid charity UK-Med, said he and his team were heading to Turkey on Tuesday morning to assess where their help is most needed, before mobilising their register of hundreds of NHS medics.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: \"It's that decision where it's most needed which is the bit that takes up the first day or so.\n\n\"You can imagine in an area the size affected and with the numbers affected that's not necessarily an easy decision to make.\"\n\nCharities are also launching appeals, including The British Red Cross.\n\nIts chief executive, Mike Adamson, said it was \"shocking\" to see the scale of destruction caused by this earthquake with homes, hospitals and roads destroyed across the region.\n\n\"The priority right now is rescuing people from the rubble and Red Cross Red Crescent teams are on the ground in Syria and Turkey providing urgent support during these critical hours.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Political correspondent Ione Wells on the PM's changes to his top team - and why it matters\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has appointed Grant Shapps as the new energy and net zero secretary in a shake-up of government departments.\n\nThe former department which covered business and energy has been broken up as part of the reorganisation.\n\nGreg Hands has replaced Nadhim Zahawi after the former Tory party chairman was sacked over his tax affairs.\n\nA promotion also comes for Lucy Frazer who will head a streamlined department of culture, media, and sport.\n\nMr Sunak's top team of ministers meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the changes.\n\nOpposition parties say reorganising government departments will cost taxpayers millions of pounds and suggest Mr Sunak's reshuffle is a sign of weakness.\n\nBut the government says the changes will help departments focus on the prime minister's priorities.\n\nThe government said the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will be \"tasked with securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and halving inflation\".\n\nThe soaring cost of energy bills - partly driven by the war in Ukraine - is one of the key factors hampering the UK economy, which Mr Sunak has pledged to grow.\n\nMr Sunak promised last summer, when he was campaigning to be Conservative leader, to re-establish a standalone department for energy.\n\nOn the creation of the new department, Mr Sunak said he wanted \"the country to have greater energy security and independence because we can't be held to ransom by hostile foreign countries\".\n\nGrant Shapps has been appointed as the new secretary of state for energy security and net zero\n\nHe described the new energy secretary, Mr Shapps, as \"one of our most capable and experienced ministers\".\n\nLabour's shadow climate and net zero secretary, Ed Miliband, said \"rearranging of deckchairs on the sinking Titanic of failed Conservative energy policy will not rescue the country\".\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Sunak's changes see business and trade merged in one department, headed by Kemi Badenoch, and the creation of a new department focused on science, innovation and technology, led by Michelle Donelan.\n\nMs Donelan will remain in charge of steering the controversial Online Safety Bill - which aims to prevent harmful material on the internet - through Parliament.\n\nThe government says its new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will drive innovation and create new and better-paid jobs.\n\nThe Department for Business and Trade - incorporating the former Department for International Trade - will \"support growth by backing British businesses at home and abroad, promoting investment and championing free trade\".\n\nOther announcements include Graham Stuart remaining as climate and energy minister, George Freeman appointed as a science, innovation and technology minister, and Rachel Maclean made a housing minister.\n\nThere have been no changes to the position of Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister. The BBC understands Mr Sunak is waiting for a report into bullying allegations against Mr Raab before deciding on his future.\n\nMr Hands - formerly a trade minister - will play a key role in Conservative campaigning before local elections in May and a general election expected next year.\n\nHe takes the role just over a week since Mr Zahawi was sacked after an inquiry found he had breached the ministerial code for failing to disclose his tax affairs were under investigation.\n\nThe timing of the reorganisation surprised some in Mr Sunak's party.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats have drawn attention to the cost of rearranging departments as well, citing research by the Institute for Government think tank.\n\nThe think tank has estimated the cost of setting up a new government department at £15m, potentially rising to £34m \"when including loss of productivity as staff adjust to the new organisation\".\n\nMr Sunak has been under pressure to assert his authority over his government and party since taking office in October last year, following the resignation of two prime ministers in a period of heightened political turbulence.\n\nBut his government has been dogged by political controversies in recent weeks and the Conservatives continue to trail Labour in the opinion polls.\n\nIt's a fair bet many voters won't be that fascinated by the tinkering with Whitehall machinery.\n\nBut it's a very Rishi Sunak reshuffle. There was no political pantomime. No parade of the hired and fired up Downing Street. After the seemingly endless reshuffles of last year's Tory party implosion, Mr Sunak has decided to rejig government structures rather than play another round of ministerial musical chairs. So, his Cabinet looks largely the same. He's done nothing to rile his restive parliamentary party.\n\nBut the prime minister's slicing and dicing of government departments does say a lot about his priorities. Most obviously the importance he places on science and innovation in the quest for economic growth. Rishi Sunak, remember, is a Stanford MBA. A California business school graduate who absorbed a \"start up\" mentality he's now applying to some parts of Whitehall.\n\nHe's certainly not the first prime minister to believe re-wiring and re-badging government departments can deliver long-term results.\n\nBut with strikes rolling on, a cost of living crisis and his deputy under investigation for bullying, Rishi Sunak's short-term problems haven't gone away either.", "Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will unveil a new government department focused on energy security and change the responsibilities of three others.\n\nThere will also be a reshuffle of ministers, with some new names in senior roles.\n\nRishi Sunak has been looking for a new party chairman for over a week now, following the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nOne well-placed source told the BBC they expected Mr Zahawi's successor to be the Trade Minister Greg Hands.\n\nMr Sunak's cabinet will be meeting later to discuss the changes.\n\nWere that to be the case, that would mean Mr Sunak would be looking for a new trade minister.\n\nWe understand the current Business Secretary Grant Shapps - a former party chairman - will not be the new party chairman.\n\nIt is also expected that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy will be broken up.\n\nA ministry focused on energy security will be created. The prime minister promised last summer - when he was campaigning for the job - to re-establish a standalone Department for Energy.\n\nIt is thought Mr Sunak wants more focus on securing the UK's energy future, particularly after the recent price spikes.\n\nOne of the new departments is expected to be the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.\n\nThere is uncertainty at the top of government about whether this new department will take on responsibility for online safety, and in particular the Online Safety Bill, or whether it will remain with what was the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.\n\nCulture Secretary Michelle Donelan is expected to take maternity leave this spring.\n\nThe Westminster rumour mill had been alive with chat about a potential reshuffle all weekend, after requests were made for diaries to be shifted prompted suspicions from some.\n\nTalk of a reshuffle had been dismissed by those around the prime minister. But when both The Sun and The Times reported expected changes, Downing Street refused to comment.\n\nThere was fury from some in Whitehall about what was seen as the prime minister's failure to tell his colleagues and the civil service before it was reported by journalists.\n\n\"There are a bunch of civil servants going to bed not knowing which department they're going to be working for in the morning,\" one source said.\n\n\"Surely they should have the courtesy of telling us first.\"\n\nWhen repeatedly asked to comment on or deny suggestions of a reshuffle or Whitehall reorganisation, a Number 10 source said \"no comment\".", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nDetectives investigating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley are focusing their efforts on a river path as they continue the search.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire 10 days ago.\n\nThe force said sightings show her movements from the school, where she dropped her two daughters off, along the river path and into the field.\n\nThey urged drivers or cyclists on Garstang Road to contact them.\n\nHer partner, Paul Ansell, said in a statement released by Lancashire Police: \"It's been 10 days now since Nicola went missing and I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back.\n\n\"This has been such a tough time for the girls especially but also for me and all of Nicola's family and friends, as well as the wider community and I want to thank them for their love and support.\"\n\nPaul Ansell thanked the wider community for their support\n\nIn an update the force said: \"We can say with confidence that by reviewing CCTV, Nicola has not left the field during the key times via Rowanwater, either through the site itself or via the piece of land at the side.\n\n\"Also, we can say that she did not return from the fields along Allotment Lane or via the path at the rear of the Grapes pub on to Garstang Road.\n\n\"Our inquiries now focus on the river path which leads from the fields back to Garstang Road - for that we need drivers and cyclists who travelled that way on the morning of 27 January to make contact.\"\n\nPolice believe Ms Bulley may have fallen into the River Wyre, but they \"remain open minded\" and are continuing to carry out a \"huge number\" of inquiries.\n\nThe force said officers have \"spoken to numerous witnesses, analysed Nicola's mobile phone and Fitbit and searched the derelict house on the other side of the river as well as any empty caravans in the vicinity\".\n\nNicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nDivers are scouring the water and the search continues involving mountain rescue, sniffer dogs and helicopters.\n\nA team of divers from the private Specialist Group International (SGI) have also been assisting with the search.\n\nThe firm's founder Peter Faulding said his team of experts and divers, based in Dorking, Surrey, worked with Lancashire Police and searched \"three or four miles\" of river until it got dark.\n\n\"It's a negative search, no signs of Nicola,\" he said.\n\nSpeaking on TalkTV on Monday night he said: \"This is the most baffling case I've ever worked on.\n\n\"After 24-25 years of doing this type of work and hundreds of cases, I am totally baffled.\"\n\nSearches of the River Wyre are continuing for the tenth day\n\nHis team will look through another stretch of river on Tuesday \"towards where Nicola went originally missing\", he added.\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then went on her usual dog walk alongside the river.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and the dog harness on the ground.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The baby is now in a stable condition after arriving at a hospital on Monday with bruises, lacerations and hypothermia\n\nA newborn girl has been saved by rescuers from beneath the rubble of a building in north-west Syria that was destroyed by an earthquake on Monday.\n\nHer mother went into labour soon after the disaster and gave birth before she died, a relative said. Her father, four siblings and an aunt were also killed.\n\nDramatic footage showed a man carrying the baby, covered in dust, after she was pulled from debris in Jindayris.\n\nA doctor at a hospital in nearby Afrin said she was now in a stable condition.\n\nThe building in which her family lived was one of about 50 reportedly destroyed by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Jindayris, an opposition-held town in Idlib province that is close to the Turkish border.\n\nThe baby's uncle, Khalil al-Suwadi, said relatives had rushed to the scene when they learned of the collapse.\n\n\"We heard a voice while we were digging,\" he told AFP news agency on Tuesday. \"We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord [intact], so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital.\"\n\nPaediatrician Hani Maarouf said the baby had arrived at his hospital in a bad condition, with \"several bruises and lacerations over all her body\".\n\n\"She also arrived with hypothermia because of the harsh cold. We had to warm her up and administer calcium,\" he added.\n\nShe was photographed lying in an incubator and connected to a drip, as a joint funeral was held for her mother Afraa, father Abdullah and her four siblings.\n\nThey are among 1,800 people known to have been killed by the earthquake in Syria, according to the Damascus-based government and the White Helmets, whose volunteer first responders operate in opposition-held areas.\n\nAnother 4,500 people have been killed in Turkey, where the epicentre was.\n\nThe White Helmets have so far reported 1,020 deaths, but they have warned that figure is expected to \"rise dramatically\".\n\n\"Time is running out. Hundreds still trapped under the rubble. Every second could mean saving a life,\" they tweeted on Tuesday.\n\n\"We appeal to all humanitarian organisations and international bodies to provide material support and assistance to organisations responding to this disaster.\"\n\nThe UN has vowed to use \"any and all means\" possible to get aid to people in the north-west, but it has said that deliveries have been halted temporarily due to damaged roads and other logistical issues.\n\nIt has also urged governments not to politicise aid delivery when so many are in desperate need.\n\nA UN Security Council agreement authorises the use of just one border crossing for deliveries from Turkey into the north-west. All other deliveries are meant to go via Damascus, although in the past the government has facilitated only a small amount of \"cross-line\" aid.\n\nEven before the earthquake struck, 4.1 million people in the north-west - most of them women and children - were relying on humanitarian aid to survive.", "David Carrick held a gun to the head of one of his victims, the court heard\n\nA victim of serial rapist David Carrick has spoken of meeting \"evil\" when she was attacked by the Met Police officer who carried out a \"catalogue\" of sexual offences.\n\nCarrick used his role to intimidate women, threatening one with his baton and sending another a picture of his gun saying \"I am the boss\".\n\nHe is being sentenced for 49 offences against 12 women over two decades.\n\nCarrick would \"use his power and control\" to stop victims reporting him.\n\nOn the first day of a two-day sentencing hearing, Southwark Crown Court heard statements from Carrick's victims, including from one who said: \"He was a police officer - what wasn't to trust?\"\n\nAnother said Carrick \"drilled into\" her that he was an officer, and she was deterred from raising the alarm.\n\nHis crimes include dozens of rape and sexual offences spanning 2003 to 2020, mostly committed in Hertfordshire, where he lived.\n\nOpening the case, prosecutor Tom Little KC said 48-year-old Carrick told a woman he met in a London bar in 2003 \"he was the safest person that she could be with and that he was a police officer\" before taking her back to his nearby flat.\n\nMr Little told the court the victim \"froze\" when he put a black handgun to her head and said \"you are not going\", before repeatedly raping her.\n\nHe also put his hands around the victim's throat and \"said he was going to be the last thing she saw\".\n\nMr Little said the woman attended hospital with her injuries. After stating a police officer had raped her, a nurse said \"it might not go to court\" and that \"she might be better to try to put it behind her and move on\".\n\n\"As a result, [the victim] did not report the matter to the police at the time,\" said Mr Little.\n\nIn an impact statement read to the court, one victim said: \"That night I felt that I had encountered evil.\"\n\nAnother said she had not had a relationship since the attack by Carrick and that it had \"shaped my life\".\n\nA different woman spoke about changes in eating habits and \"poisoning myself\" through binge-drinking after encountering Carrick, adding that she had \"self-destructive thoughts\".\n\nDavid Carrick committed many of his crimes in Hertfordshire, where he lived\n\nCarrick was sacked by the Met a day after he pleaded guilty last month and the force's Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has apologised for failings and said opportunities to remove him from policing were missed.\n\nIt emerged he had come to the attention of police over nine incidents, including rape allegations, between 2000 and 2021.\n\nMr Little told the sentencing hearing: \"If the offending had to be accurately and fairly summarised - it was systematic, it was a catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences perpetrated on multiple victims, whether he was in a controlling or coercive relationship with them or not, or even if it was just a single occasion.\n\n\"It did not matter who the victim was... the reality was, if he had the opportunity, he would rape them, sexually abuse or assault them and humiliate them.\"\n\nHe said: \"[Carrick] frequently relied on his charm to beguile and mislead the victims in the first place and would then use his power and control, in part because of what he did for a living, to stop them leaving or consider reporting him.\"\n\nCarrick falsely imprisoned two women, separately, in the under-stairs cupboard on different occasions\n\nAnother woman said Carrick hit her with a whip and would shut her in a small cupboard as punishment while \"whistling at her as if she was a dog\", the court heard.\n\nThe court was told Carrick sent a photograph of himself with a work-issue firearm to her, saying \"remember I am the boss\".\n\nA woman, who met Carrick on a dating website, described him as \"acting like a monster when he was in drink\", which was most of the time.\n\nThe court heard Carrick would call her his \"slave\" and when he asked her to clean his house naked she was \"scared\" because he was a police officer.\n\nMr Little said the offences warranted a life sentence with a minimum term, but fell short of meriting a whole-life order.\n\nThe court heard all of the crimes took place while Carrick, who lived in Stevenage, was a police officer, and that he had undertaken a course on domestic violence in 2005.\n\nIn mitigation, defence barrister, Alisdair Williamson KC, told the court Carrick \"accepts full responsibility for what he has done\".\n\nHe said \"something has profoundly damaged this man\", adding that the defendant \"cannot ask for mercy and does not\".\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the court she would sentence Carrick on Tuesday morning.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nBilly Sharp and Sander Berge scored injury-time goals as Sheffield United ended non-league Wrexham's FA Cup run in a pulsating fourth-round replay.\n\nAnel Ahmedhodzic put United ahead early in the second half before Paul Mullin's penalty brought Wrexham level.\n\nMullin had a second spot-kick saved by Adam Davies before Sharp scored deep in stoppage time.\n\nBerge scored United's third on the counter to set up a fifth-round tie against Tottenham Hotspur.\n\nThe Yorkshire club can look forward to hosting Spurs having finally overcome National League title contenders Wrexham after two exhilarating ties.\n\nUnited had required John Egan's stoppage-time equaliser to secure a 3-3 draw and a replay in the original tie and they needed late goals once more at Bramall Lane.\n\nBoth managers see promotion as their priority this season and with that in mind the hosts made five changes from the original game, including a full debut for Ismaila Coulibaly.\n\nWrexham's line-up showed seven changes from the team which had won 2-1 at Altrincham in their previous National League game.\n\nThe hosts, as expected, dominated the early possession although they did not create any clear-cut chances during the opening 10 minutes, while Wrexham looked to attack on the counter.\n\nA good home move saw Iliman Ndiaye playing in James McAtee but his shot did not trouble goalkeeper Rob Lainton, while an Egan header was cleared by a well-disciplined Wrexham defence.\n\nMullin, looking to add to his tally of eight goals in this season's competition, tried his luck from the edge of the area with a shot which deflected off Egan.\n\nUnited responded with a counter-attack and McAtee broke clear, but opted to go alone rather than squaring to Ndiaye and put the ball wastefully wide.\n\nLainton, who has fought back from a career-threatening wrist injury, made two crucial saves in the space of two minutes to deny Ahmedhodzicć's close-range effort and then Sharp.\n\nAlthough United looked the more likely of the sides to score, Wrexham comfortably kept them at bay to stay in the game at the break.\n\nWrexham, now attacking the end housing 4,700 noisy travelling fans, started the second period brightly.\n\nBut it was Paul Heckingbttom's team who went ahead with Ben Osborn combining well on the right-hand side with Ahmedhodzic, who smashed the ball past Lainton for his fifth goal of the season.\n\nHeckingbottom's men went in search of a second and Sharp was set up by McAtee only to have his effort brilliantly saved.\n\nThat missed opportunity proved significant moments later as Mullin was brought down just inside the area by Ahmedhodzic.\n\nMullin stepped up and hammered the penalty straight down the middle for his 29th goal of the season in all competitions.\n\nWrexham were awarded a second penalty when substitute Oliver Norwood brought down Mullin, but on this occasion the striker was denied by an excellent save by Wales international Davies.\n\nMullin's involvement soon came to and end due to injury, while during the last few minutes of normal time Sharp went close for the home side before having a goal disallowed for offside.\n\nThe game was in stoppage time by the time United felt they should have had a penalty when Norwood's shot was handled.\n\nThe referee's decision to wave play on proved academic as a long clearance found Sharp on the left and he coolly slotted past Lainton.\n\nAs Wrexham looked for an equaliser that would have taken the game into extra time, they were hit on the counter and Berge scored a third from close range to seal the win and bring the curtain down on Wrexham's cup adventure.\n\n\"When it's tense and it's 1-1 we get that breakaway goal and I'm pleased it fell to Bill.\n\n\"I've got the utmost respect for them and what they are doing and it's only a matter of time before they achieve their goals.\n\n\"But it doesn't mean we were going to let them win for everyone else's fairytales. We've got to be selfish in that respect.\n\n\"Credit to my players for the focus and determination to make sure we're not on the wrong end of it.\"\n\n\"What a performance from the lads. We were the better team I thought in the second half.\n\n\"I didn't doubt that we'd respond, I felt we would and we did. We got the penalty to get us back in it and I felt that we were the team that was going to win the game.\n\n\"But the second penalty is obviously the key moment in the game. Cruelly we've lost it late but we've taken a Premiership-bound team in two games right to the wire and that's enormous credit to our lads.\n\n\"The resilience of the side was outstanding.\"\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Substitution, Sheffield United. Andre Brooks replaces James McAtee because of an injury.\n• None Delay in match because of an injury James McAtee (Sheffield United).\n• None Goal! Sheffield United 3, Wrexham 1. Sander Berge (Sheffield United) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the top left corner. Assisted by James McAtee with a through ball.\n• None Goal! Sheffield United 2, Wrexham 1. Billy Sharp (Sheffield United) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner following a fast break.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ollie Palmer (Wrexham) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Jake Bickerstaff.\n• None Sander Berge (Sheffield United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ben Osborn (Sheffield United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by James McAtee.\n• None Attempt missed. John Egan (Sheffield United) header from the centre of the box misses to the right following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Oliver Norwood (Sheffield United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Iliman Ndiaye.\n• None Attempt missed. Max Lowe (Sheffield United) header from very close range is high and wide to the left. Assisted by John Egan with a headed pass following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Oliver Norwood (Sheffield United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Sander Berge.\n• None Offside, Sheffield United. Oliver Norwood tries a through ball, but Billy Sharp is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Billy Sharp (Sheffield United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Oliver Norwood with a through ball. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Rescuers and residents are searching for survivors under the rubble of scores of collapsed buildings in Adana\n\nAt dawn in the biting cold we made our way to a 10-storey building in Adana that had completely collapsed. I met two women wrapped in blankets, heading towards the rubble.\n\nUmmu Bayraktar and Nazife Batmaz are staying in a mosque in the Turkish city, which has become a hub for the relief operation after Monday's earthquake.\n\nTheir own home nearby was badly damaged. We walk and talk as they head to find their friend, one of Ummu's cousins.\n\nA companion urges us not to walk close to another building. It's cracked, he says: \"They'll all have to come down.\"\n\nWe pass two diggers working on the edge of the collapse zone, while six rescue workers use drills and gloved hands to throw down rubble towards them.\n\nWe then take a side street, where I see a group of survivors wrapped in blankets sitting on plastic chairs keeping warm around a fire.\n\nThe two women seek out their friend, Nurten, coddled in a blanket in the freezing cold. She sits and weeps.\n\nHer adult daughter, Senay, was on the second floor of the collapsed building. Nurten has been waiting here all day and all night, but no news has come.\n\n\"When my daughter is lying in the cold, how can I lie down in a warm bed?\" she asks.\n\n\"My daughter never liked the cold, oh God. She is under the earth. My heart is burning,\" she cries.\n\nWe hear the drills and the crump of the digger. Nurten's friends comfort her. Her daughter has two girls of her own - both currently studying abroad. They're trying to head back to Turkey.\n\n\"What am I going to tell the girls? They're coming here today. What am I supposed to tell them? They had entrusted their mother to me,\" Nurten says.\n\nThe sense of loss is spreading more quickly than the search for survivors.\n\nA woman was pulled from the rubble on Tuesday in Hatay, the worst-hit province in Turkey\n\nFurther south, on the Turkish border with Syria, more news came in overnight from Hatay province, one of the worst hit regions.\n\nIn the darkness, footage showed a resident searching in the rubble. He believes someone is alive underneath. \"Speak out loud,\" he pleads.\n\n\"As you see, there is a dead body here. He is dead and nobody has removed him. And a woman's voice is heard from underneath.\"\n\nAs he speaks a woman's voice cries out from the rubble. She cries again, and then bangs on metal trying to hold the man's attention. But there is nothing he alone can do. An entire home is collapsed and it will take machinery to lift the ruins.\n\nThis is a story of unanswered cries, being repeated over and over again across this region.\n\nNearby, another Hatay resident, Deniz, points to the collapsed building where his parents were stranded.\n\n\"They're making noises but nobody is coming. We're devastated. My God... They're calling out. They're saying, 'Save us,' but we can't save them. How are we going to save them?\" he asks.\n\nThousands of buildings reportedly collapsed in Kahramanmaras, which was close to the epicentre\n\nEven closer to the epicentre, in the city Kahramanmaras, fire crackles. There, thousands of buildings are reported collapsed, the number of homeless even higher.\n\nA family gathers, too frightened from aftershocks to go back to their badly hit building. The firewood is all they have. Flames bring a little warmth to bare hands.\n\n\"We barely escaped from inside the house,\" says Neset Guler.\n\n\"We have four children. We left the house with them at the last moment. There are several people trapped inside. It is a huge disaster. Now, we are waiting without water or food, we are in a desperate state.\"\n\nA region awaits help it may be impossible to provide on the scale needed. And in the meantime, more buildings risk falling, and the small fires outdoors will be the only way to stay warm.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "As leader of the Conservative Party, Rishi Sunak has a pressing political challenge: lifting the Tories' poll ratings off the floor before the next general election.\n\nIn less than two years, voters will judge if the prime minister has delivered on key promises - from improving the ailing NHS to stopping small boats crossing the Channel.\n\nAnd it's a fair bet many voters won't be that fascinated by today's tinkering with Whitehall machinery.\n\nBut it's a very Rishi Sunak reshuffle. There was no political pantomime. No parade of the hired and fired up Downing Street.\n\nAfter the seemingly endless reshuffles of last year's Tory Party implosion, Sunak has decided to rejig government structures rather than play another round of ministerial musical chairs.\n\nSo, his cabinet looks largely the same. He's done nothing to rile his restive parliamentary party.", "Energy giant BP has reported record annual profits as it scaled back plans to reduce the amount of oil and gas it produces by 2030.\n\nThe company's profits more than doubled to $27.7bn (£23bn) in 2022, as energy prices soared after Russia invaded Ukraine.\n\nOther energy firms have seen similar rises, with Shell reporting record earnings of nearly $40bn last week.\n\nIt has led to calls for energy firms to pay more tax as people's bills soar.\n\nBP boss Bernard Looney said the British company was \"helping provide the energy the world needs\" while investing the transition to green energy.\n\nBut it came as the firm scaled back plans to cut carbon emissions by reducing its oil and gas output.\n\nThe company - which was one of the first oil and gas giants to announce an ambition to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 - had previously promised that emissions would be 35-40% lower by the end of this decade.\n\nHowever, on Tuesday it said it was now targeting a 20-30% cut, saying it needed to keep investing in oil and gas to meet current demands.\n\nClimate campaign group Greenpeace, whose voice the BBC has included because of the impact of oil and gas production on the environment, said BP's new strategy \"seems to have been strongly undermined by pressure from investors and governments to make even more dirty money out of oil and gas\".\n\nEnergy prices had begun to climb following the end of Covid lockdowns but rose sharply in March last year after Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking concerns about global supplies.\n\nThe price of Brent crude oil reached nearly $128 a barrel, but has since fallen back to about $80. Gas prices also spiked but have come down from their highs.\n\nIt has led to bumper profits for energy companies, but also fuelled a rise in energy bills for households and businesses.\n\nLast year, the government introduced a windfall tax - called the Energy Profits Levy - on the \"extraordinary\" profits being made at energy companies.\n\nThe rate was originally set at 25%, but has now been increased to 35%, and only applies to profits made from extracting UK oil and gas. Oil and gas firms also pay 30% corporation tax on their profits as well as a supplementary 10% rate, taking their total tax rate to 75%.\n\nHowever, they can reduce the amount of tax they pay by factoring in losses or spending on things like decommissioning North Sea oil platforms.\n\nBP said its UK business, which accounts for less than 10% of its global profits, will pay $2.2bn in tax for 2022, including $700m due to the Energy Profits Levy.\n\nAndrew Griffith, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, who the BBC spoke to for the government's position, said the windfall tax struck the \"right balance\" between helping families with the cost of living and securing the UK's energy supplies. He said its aim was to encourage re-investment of the sector's profits back into the economy\n\nNick Butler, previously a senior executive at BP and now a visiting professor at Kings College, who the BBC spoke to because of his industry experience, said oil and gas prices would not remain \"exceptionally high\" forever.\n\n\"This is a temporary situation. Oil and gas prices are going down and the windfall these companies are making won't last.\"\n\nIn a year that BP boss Bernard Looney described the company as a cash machine, it is little wonder that progressive think tank IPPR called these profits scandalous as millions struggled to pay bills.\n\nThe company paid £1.8bn in UK tax - a big increase on a previous estimate - as extra windfall levies pushed the overall tax rate on UK profits to 75%.\n\nLabour said the taxes should be still higher and better incentivise investment in renewables. Perhaps most controversially, BP announced it would miss its targets to reduce oil and gas production by 2030 as it said it would match investment in lower carbon projects with new investment in fossil fuels and extend the life of existing oil and gas projects.\n\nWhile shareholders may be making the least noise today, their voice is arguably the loudest when BP's competitors like Shell and Exxon are also making record profits.\n\nLabour and the Liberal Democrats, who we've included to explain the opposition's point of view, said the profits were outrageous and called on the government to increase the windfall tax.\n\nThe government has had to step in to limit household energy bills, with the average home now paying £2,500 a year, although this is still more than double what it was a year ago.\n\nThe cap on bills will also rise to £3,000 from April, although analysts expect households to pay less than that due to a recent drop in gas prices.\n\nAs well as announcing record profits, BP increased its payout to shareholders by 10%.\n\nBP's results follow similarly strong profits announced by rivals Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron last week.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kaylea Titford had been confined to her bed, weighing 23 stone, in \"degrading\" and \"inhumane\" conditions\n\nA man has been found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter after his daughter was found dead in \"squalor\".\n\nSixteen-year-old Kaylea Titford, who had spina bifida and was morbidly obese, had been confined to her bed in the months before her death in \"degrading\" and \"inhumane\" conditions.\n\nAlun Titford, 45, from Newtown, Powys, was warned to expect prison time as he was convicted at Mold Crown Court.\n\nTitford was granted bail and will be sentenced alongside Lloyd-Jones at Swansea Crown Court on 1 March.\n\n\"There can be no doubt this case passes the custody threshold,\" the judge, Mr Justice Griffiths, told Titford.\n\nThe judge gave the jury of eight men and four women, who took seven hours and 10 minutes to reach a unanimous verdict, a 10-year exemption from jury service.\n\n\"The subject matter was, no doubt, unusually distressing,\" he told jurors.\n\nTitford did not react as the verdict was read.\n\nKaylea's mother Sarah Lloyd-Jones will also be sentenced on 1 March\n\nKaylea weighed almost 23st (146 kg) and had a body mass index of 70 when she died.\n\nShe was found in conditions described as \"unfit for any animal\", in soiled clothing and bed linen, following her death at the family home in Newtown in October 2020.\n\nThe trial heard she had been restricted to her bed for more than six months - since the start of the UK's Covid lockdown - when she died.\n\nThe court heard Kaylea had attended Newtown High School, where she was described as \"funny and chatty\" by staff, but did not return following the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.\n\nKaylea Titford liked sport and enjoyed playing wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis\n\nTitford, who had six children with Lloyd-Jones, said the family would order takeaways four or five nights a week and he thought Kaylea had put on two to three stone (13-19kg) since March.\n\nEmergency service workers, who were called to the house on 10 October, described feeling sick due to a \"rotting\" smell in her room.\n\nFollowing her death, maggots were found which were thought to have been feeding on her body, the jury was told.\n\nThe court heard her bedsheets were soiled and she was lying on a number of puppy toilet training pads.\n\nHer room was dirty and cluttered with bottles of urine and a deep fat fryer with drips of fat down the side, as well as a full cake in a box, the trial heard.\n\nA spokesman for Powys County Council said a child practice review would be carried out by the local authority and involve all relevant agencies following a clear statutory framework.\n\nWales' former children's commissioner Sally Holland said the \"appalling circumstances\" in which Kaylea died made this one of the \"most horrifying cases\" she had come across in more than 25 years in children's services.\n\n\"The review will look at were there missed opportunities to speak to Kaylea directly,\" said Prof Holland.\n\nDyfed-Powys Police said the conditions in which Kaylea were found were \"abhorrent, and indicated shocking neglect over a prolonged period of time\".\n\nKaylea had been restricted to her bed for more than six months since the start of the UK's Covid lockdown when she died\n\n\"The circumstances of Kaylea's death were tragic, and her parents will have to live with the part they played in that for the rest of their lives,\" Det Ch Insp Jonathon Rees said.\n\nNSPCC Cymru said young people with disabilities were three times more at risk of abuse.\n\nAssistant director Tracey Holdsworth said: \"No child should be subjected to the horrific treatment Kaylea Titford was prior to her tragic death.\n\n\"The conscious, prolonged neglect by those who should have cared for her is incredibly distressing.\"\n\nShe said a safeguarding review must leave \"no stone unturned\".\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, the BBC Action Line has links to organisations which can offer support and advice", "Last updated on .From the section Sport Africa\n\nFootballer Christian Atsu has been pulled from the rubble of a building \"with injuries\" after the earthquakes in Turkey, his club's vice-president Mustafa Özat has told Turkish radio.\n\nAtsu, who plays for Hatayspor, was trapped after the earthquakes that have killed at least 4,800 people.\n\nThe Ghana forward, 31, played 107 games for Newcastle and has had spells with Chelsea, Everton and Bournemouth.\n\nHatayspor sporting director Taner Savut is still in the collapsed building.\n\nHatay was one of the areas closest to the epicentre of the earthquake, and has suffered extensive damage.\n\n\"Christian Atsu was removed from the wreckage with injuries,\" Özat told Radyo Gol.\n\n\"Unfortunately, our sporting director Taner Savut is still under the rubble.\n\n\"Hatay was deeply affected. We are coming towards the end of the most dangerous hours.\"\n\nAtsu, who won 65 caps for Ghana, joined Hatayspor in September 2022 after a season with Saudi Arabian team Al-Raed.\n\nHe scored the winning goal in the 90th minute of Hatayspor's Super Lig match against Kasimpasa on Sunday.\n\nThe Ghanaian Football Association tweeted: \"We've received some positive news that Christian Atsu has been successfully rescued from the rubble of the collapsed building and is receiving treatment. Let's continue to pray for Christian.\"", "Just over four years ago, Ruby's dad went to bed one night and never woke up\n\nA 12-year-old girl was left \"shattered\" after her dad died suddenly the night before he planned to book a family holiday.\n\nThe devastating blow came just months after Ruby, from Merthyr Tydfil, had lost her great-grandmother to dementia.\n\nAt the time, in 2018, she felt unable to talk about it or even cry, with people saying \"be brave for mam\".\n\nAfter suffering anxiety, Ruby is slowly regaining confidence and wants everyone to be open about their feelings.\n\n\"It was one of the most horrible feelings,\" she said, looking back.\n\n\"It has been a real struggle losing them and my mental health has been impacted, but it is getting slowly better. The morning he died came as a real shock and I miss him lots.\n\n\"Everyone would say 'be brave for mam'. I felt I had to be fine. There were no tears or anything. I had to keep myself away if I had to deal with emotion.\"\n\nRuby fundraises for the Alzheimer's Society after her great-grandmother's death\n\nIt was five years ago, when Ruby was seven that her great-grandmother died from vascular dementia and Alzheimer's.\n\nThen, in December of 2018, her dad Jamie, who was 38, had been talking about a family holiday before he went to bed.\n\nBut he never woke up - dying suddenly and unexpectedly from a blood clot.\n\nRemembering him fondly, Ruby says: \"Dad was a nutter, to be fair. He was just full of laughter.\"\n\nWhile she is able to talk openly about her father now, when she transitioned from primary to high school, her teachers noticed she was quiet and lacking in confidence.\n\nRuby remembers her dad as being \"full of laughter\"\n\nLooking back, Ruby says she was experiencing feelings of anxiety about a lot of things, and not sharing these only made her situation worse.\n\n\"It was definitely one of the most challenging things I've ever experienced... I didn't talk when I was at my lowest,\" she added.\n\nIt was at this point her teacher signed her up to the Youth Sport Trust's active in mind programme.\n\nThrough a series of games and activities, Ruby was encouraged to discuss her mental health, as well as considering good habits to nurture a healthy mind.\n\nShe was one of 21,216 young people that were part of the six-week programme in Wales and England.\n\nIn groups of 15, they were led by an athlete mentor and five mental health champions.\n\n\"We had our world turned upside down and shattered,\" Ruby's mother Adele admitted.\n\nShe believes her daughter has \"changed so much\" as a result of the sessions and is now that \"confident and bubbly\" pupil in the classroom again.\n\n\"Her dad would be so proud of her,\" Adele added.\n\nRuby's mother believes her dad would be very proud of her\n\n\"They helped me think about losing my Dad and Gi (great-grandmother),\" Ruby said.\n\n\"It made things better because it made me laugh a lot more and helped me to be more active through the games and understand how to keep my body and mind healthy.\"\n\nNow Ruby is on a mission to encourage her friends to open up, adding: \"I don't think there is enough support for young people in society today when it comes to mental health, and I think our generation can be easily overlooked.\n\n\"Young people should never be afraid to share their emotions and how they are feeling.\n\n\"Don't be afraid to cry. I'm not here to judge you for crying.\"\n\nYouth Sport Trust chief executive Ali Oliver added: \"In the shadow of the pandemic, we are taking urgent action to help the many young people who are struggling with their mental health, and to support schools with practical advice and help.\n\n\"A cost of living emergency is increasing inequality across society and these worries are having an impact on young people too.\"", "The Beatles kick off the Coronation playlist, with the message Come Together\n\nThe Beatles, David Bowie, Tom Jones and the Spice Girls are included on an official government Coronation playlist, published on Spotify.\n\nThe Department for Culture, Media and Sport has chosen 27 tracks as a suggested street party soundtrack.\n\nPicked by the DCMS without any external input, the Coronation party selection initially featured 28 - but a Dizzee Rascal track quickly disappeared.\n\nThe grime artist was convicted last year of assaulting his former partner.\n\n\"A track featuring Dizzee Rascal was included in error - and as soon as this was identified, it was removed,\" a DCMS spokeswoman said.\n\nKing Charles III will be crowned on Saturday, 6 May, alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, who has been a longstanding campaigner against domestic violence.\n\nThe playlist published on Monday seems to nod more towards the golden oldies or, as the DCMS suggests, \"classics\".\n\nThe singalong choice begins with The Beatles and the message Come Together, followed by Boney M's Daddy Cool.\n\nEmeli Sande is among the official picks for a Coronation party\n\nA spokeswoman said the playlist had been selected to \"celebrate British and Commonwealth artists ahead of the upcoming Coronation\".\n\nThe selected songs appear on a new website with information about marking the Coronation.\n\nIt includes recipe ideas for parties, including Ken Hom's Coronation lamb and Nadiya Hussain's Coronation aubergine. Coronation chicken was invented for Queen Elizabeth's coronation, in 1953.\n\nDetails have begun to emerge about events planned for the Coronation long weekend.\n\nThis will include traditional sights such as the carriage procession and appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony.\n\nBut there will be no lighting of beacons, ending a tradition from previous jubilees and coronations.\n\nThe Coronation service, at Westminster Abbey, is expected to be more diverse and shorter than the previous three-hour ceremony, in 1953.\n\nOn 7 May, there will be a concert and lightshow at Windsor Castle and street parties during the day.\n\nThe extra bank holiday, on 8 May, will highlight local volunteering projects.", "Rescue workers reach the side of the well shaft on Tuesday morning\n\nA baby girl has been rescued by authorities after she fell down a deep well in northern Thailand.\n\nThe 19-month-old child fell down the 13m (42ft) deep shaft while playing on Monday afternoon in Tak province, near the Myanmar border.\n\nAuthorities launched an overnight rescue operation after the girl's parents - who had been working in a nearby field - raised the alarm.\n\nShe was taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries, officials said.\n\n\"She has signs of fatigue but still has good vital signs,\" local police chief Ratsaran Ketsoising told AFP.\n\nPanic was sparked after the baby girl - who is said to be the daughter of two Myanmarese migrants - fell through a 30cm (12in) wide gap at the top of the well.\n\nThe baby's parents said they had taken her to work with them at a tapioca farm in the Khiri Rat sub-district. They said they had left her under a tree while they worked.\n\nBut they raised the alarm after they were unable to find the child during their break and heard cries coming from the nearby well.\n\nRescue teams were forced to work through the night using a mechanical digger, with which they dug a 10m deep pit adjacent to the well shaft.\n\nOxygen was pumped into the well to allow the child to breathe. Images at the scene showed rescue workers in hard hats working at the bottom of a deep pit.\n\nBut authorities told local media that they feared that the well could collapse in on itself and harm the child if they continued to use the digger, so they used hand-held shovels to remove the final few metres of earth.\n\nPBS Thailand reported that rescue workers reached the child at about 08:00 local time (01:00 GMT), but were unable to pull her out immediately, as she appeared to have suffered an injury to her leg.\n\nHowever, cheers erupted shortly afterwards from the assembled rescue workers after the girl was finally pulled from the well.\n\n\"We are so glad we could rescue her safely,\" rescue worker Chanachart Wancharernrung told reporters. \"We have been trying since yesterday afternoon. We worked without sleep. Everyone helped out.\"", "Bishop Climate Wiseman has been sentenced to one year in jail, suspended for two years\n\nA bishop who sold fake Covid protection kits to his church congregation in south London has been handed a one-year jail term, suspended for two years.\n\nBishop Climate Wiseman, of Kingdom Church, Camberwell, warned people they would \"drop dead\" if they did not buy the kits and was convicted of fraud.\n\nAt Inner London Crown Court, he was also ordered to do 160 hours of unpaid work and pay £60,072 in court costs.\n\nA BBC London investigation exposed his wrongdoing and was used as evidence.\n\nBishop Climate Wiseman pictured arriving at Inner London Crown Court on Monday\n\nThe kits, which he started selling during the first lockdown in 2020, were sold for £91 and consisted of red yarn and bottles of oil.\n\nWiseman claimed anyone who purchased the kits would be \"protected\" from the virus and would have no need for social distancing.\n\nEvidence against him during his trial included secret phone recordings and testimony from a BBC investigations team, who had received a confidential tip-off that the church was selling the kits as a cure for Covid.\n\nThe trial also heard from 10 witnesses from his congregation, including nurses, who believed they had been cured or prevented from getting Covid-19 after using the oil by steam inhalation or rubbing it on their skin.\n\nWiseman had denied fraud and two alternative counts under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.\n\nHe was found guilty by a jury in December of the more serious offence of fraud between 23 March 2020 and 24 March 2021.\n\nAlso known as Dr Climate Wiseman and Climate Irungu, he and his Pentecostal church were investigated in 2016 for offering an oil for sale that was said to cure cancer, but no prosecution was brought after the product was withdrawn.\n\nSouthwark Council condemned Wiseman's \"despicable actions\", \"abuse of power\" and accused him of \"dangerous profiteering\".\n\nIn a statement, a spokesperson for the authority said: \"Wiseman has promised people false cures for many years now, saying his oils cure Covid, cancer, HIV and more, when they patently can't do anything of the sort.\n\n\"We are glad to see that this custodial sentence reflects the seriousness of Wiseman's crimes and hope that it gives pause to anyone who is considering peddling false cures.\"\n\nI remember feeling my heart racing as I went up to give my oath. I knew that I would be asked lots of questions about secret recording which, contrary to what many think or assume, is a highly complex process at the BBC. Such an investigation requires very high levels of evidence to even begin and a very high level of public interest to justify pursuing the story.\n\nDefence barrister Charles Burton seemed to suggest that this had been some kind of fishing \"exercise\", which had involved a level of deception by the BBC approaching the church- posing as migrant workers who had heard of the oil and were interested in it.\n\nI explained the BBC never secretly carried out such an investigation without strong reasons for doing so and needed evidence in advance that can only be tested with undercover recording. I told him that any deception carried out had to be proportionate to the seriousness of what was being looked at, and kept to a bare minimum.\n\nTo do the secret recording at all, the topic needed to be firmly in the public interest - something I felt very strongly about in this case.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The school grounds and buildings cover an extensive area\n\nInvestigations are continuing into the circumstances of the deaths of the head of Epsom College and her family.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, her husband, George, 39, and their daughter, Lettie, seven, were found dead in a property on school grounds on Sunday morning.\n\nSurrey Police said it was confident there was \"no third-party involvement\".\n\nThe deaths have been reported to the coroner and a post-mortem will take place.\n\nResponding to media reports that the school's rifle range had been cordoned off, Surrey Police confirmed it was not part of the scene of the incident.\n\nPolice signs are still up around the college and people wearing hi-vis jackets have been seen walking around the grounds.\n\nThe three bodies were found at a property in the school's grounds in the early hours of Sunday morning\n\nMs Pattison became Epsom's first female head five months ago, after six years as head teacher of Croydon High School in south London.\n\nHer husband George was a chartered accountant who was director of a management consultancy firm called Tanglewood 2016, according to Companies House.\n\nIn December, Ms Pattison told a podcast run by students that her move had been \"a really big change for my family\", adding: \"I've got a new job, my husband got a new job, which wasn't meant to happen, but did, and my daughter has started a new school.\"\n\nSurrey's Police and Crime Commissioner, Lisa Townsend, offered her \"deepest sympathies\", describing the incident as \"awful\".\n\n\"These events will no doubt have a profound and lasting impact on both the staff and students at the college and the wider local community,\" she said.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Drone footage shows massive destruction in Turkey's border province of Hatay. Plumes of smoke billow from flattened buildings as rescue workers climb over collapsed structures looking for survivors.\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the early hours of Monday and caused devastation across southern Turkey and Northern Syria.", "The Welsh government has unveiled its new LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales\n\nMaking it simpler for someone to legally change their gender is part of new proposals being unveiled by the Welsh government.\n\nIt comes after the UK government said it would block similar legislation put forward by the Scottish government.\n\nThe Welsh government called the new LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales an \"ambitious plan with hope\".\n\nCritics of the proposals say it could \"trample over women's rights\".\n\nThe Welsh Tories have also said the community \"don't deserve to be used as a political tool\" to secure more powers.\n\nWales' plan aims to improve the rights of LGBTQ+ people such as banning all aspects of so-called conversion therapy practice, but currently the Welsh Parliament cannot make its own gender recognition law.\n\nIt would be up to the UK government to hand over the powers from Westminster - as things stand Conservative ministers in London have no plans to do so.\n\nStonewall Cymru welcomed the proposals, but said \"we shouldn't be complacent\".\n\nThe document, drawn up as part of a co-operation agreement between the Welsh government and Plaid Cymru, said it would \"trigger\" a request with the UK government to devolve powers related to gender recognition.\n\nLast month, the UK government said it would block legislation put forward by the Scottish government that would make it easier for people in the country to change their legally recognised gender.\n\nIt said the draft law would conflict with equality protections applying across Great Britain.\n\nThe Scottish government argues that the current process is too difficult and invasive\n\nThe Scottish government wanted to speed up and simplify the existing process by which people can obtain a gender recognition certificate - the legal recognition of a transgender person's \"acquired\" gender.\n\nSome campaigners were concerned that allowing anyone to \"self-identify\" could impact on women's rights, such as in women-only spaces and services.\n\nWales-Women's Rights Network said the Welsh government was being \"tone deaf to events in Scotland\" and that it was another government \"prepared to trample over women's rights\".\n\nCurrently, people have to apply to a UK gender recognition panel and typically must present a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.\n\nLast month, First Minister Mark Drakeford said in the Senedd that Wales should have a gender self-identification system, similar to the one approved in Scotland.\n\nUnder the plan, the Welsh government would \"initiate conversations\" with the UK government to implement a recognition for non-binary people on passports and driving licences.\n\nThe Welsh government would also use \"all available powers to ban all aspects\" of so-called conversion therapy practices, which refers to any form of treatment or psychotherapy aiming to change a person's sexual orientation or to suppress a person's gender identity, and \"seek the devolution of any necessary additional powers\".\n\nIn the education sector, the action plan sets out to provide national trans guidance for schools and local authorities in Wales.\n\nThe plan, according to the document, would ensure maternity and fertility services are accessible and straightforward to use for LGBTQ+ people by \"reviewing and improving\" fertility referral pathways.\n\nThe UK government said it had \"a proud history of LGBT rights\" and will ban all forms of conversion therapy in England and Wales - including those targeting transgender people.\n\nIt added that the country also had \"one of the world's most comprehensive and robust legislative protection frameworks for LGBT people\".\n\nHannah Blythyn MS described the new plan as \"ambitious\"\n\nDeputy minister for social partnership Hannah Blythyn said: \"The plan is ambitious but with hope at its heart.\n\n\"We are absolutely committed to meaningful change for LGBTQ+ communities, creating a society and country where LGBTQ+ people are safe to live and love authentically, openly and freely as ourselves.\"\n\nDavinia Green, director of Stonewall Cymru, said: \"An action plan is great, there's some really key and clear commitments as part of it, but we want to see it implemented.\"\n\nDavinia Green, director of charity Stonewall Cymru, has welcomed the plan\n\nPlaid Cymru leader Adam Price added: \"This means delivering change for everyone in society and we are proud to be working with the Welsh government on our shared ambition for Wales to be the most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe.\"\n\nWelsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Equalities, Altaf Hussain MS, said the pandemic has exacerbated structural inequalities for many members of the LGBTQ+ community in Wales.\n\n\"People across the world have a right to be themselves without fear of discrimination or persecution and the Welsh Conservatives will always fight for the rights of communities across Wales,\" he said.\n\n\"While I firmly believe that more needs to be done to support LGBTQ+ people, the further devolution of powers is not the answer.\n\n\"We have seen the chaos that the SNP have brought about with devolved powers and now Labour ministers are seeking to do the same.\n\n\"Members of the LGBTQ+ community deserve our respect, support and understanding, they don't deserve to be used as a political tool by Labour ministers in their bid to secure more powers.\"\n\nThe original version of this story was amended to reflect a more editorially appropriate range of views.", "Emma Pattison became Epsom's first female head five months ago\n\nThe head teacher of Epsom College made a distressed call to a relative before she and her daughter were shot dead by her husband, the BBC understands.\n\nGeorge Pattison is believed to have killed Emma Pattison and Lettie, seven, at the family home in school grounds before taking his own life.\n\nMrs Pattison is understood to have called the relative some time late on Saturday evening.\n\nBy the time the family member arrived, all three were dead.\n\nThe school announced on Tuesday it would close until after the half-term break, after \"incredibly distressing\" details emerged about how Ms Pattison died.\n\nIn a letter to parents, acting headmaster Paul Williams said: \"Now is a time for families to come together and try and process this shocking news.\"\n\nHe urged parents to keep a \"close eye\" on their children, adding: \"The impact on your children cannot be underestimated and we are doing everything we possibly can to support them in whatever way they need.\"\n\nSurrey Police confirmed the family's next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.\n\nPolice said an investigation was being carried out to establish the full chronology and circumstances of the incident.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday\n\nThey confirmed a firearm, licensed and registered to Mr Pattison, had been found at the scene and has been recovered by officers.\n\nHowever, causes of death will not be confirmed until post-mortem examinations have been completed later this week.\n\nSurrey Police made a routine phone call to the 39-year-old chartered accountant in the days preceding the killings, because the details of his new home address needed to be checked.\n\nThe force said that \"due to the short period of time between that contact and this incident, we have made a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)\".\n\nAn IOPC spokesperson said: \"We are assessing the available information to determine what, if any, further action may be required from us.\"\n\nIt is understood that the couple was not known to Surrey Police.\n\nThe school grounds and buildings cover an extensive area\n\nPolice also confirmed they were aware of \"speculation\" regarding a firing range at the school.\n\n\"We can confirm this range does not form part of our scene or our inquiries. Any reporting to suggest otherwise is inaccurate,\" they added.\n\nDet Ch Insp Kimball Edey said: \"This is an incredibly traumatic incident and we are working around the clock to investigate and understand the exact circumstances which led to this point.\n\n\"We understand the public concern and upset, and we will clarify what we can, when we can, while respecting the right to a level of privacy for the families of those who have lost their lives.\"\n\nMrs Pattison was appointed the first female head teacher of Epsom College five months ago. She has been praised for her dedication and inspirational leadership.\n\nPrior to working at Epsom, Mrs Pattison spent six years as the head teacher of Croydon High School in south London.\n\nFormer colleague and friend Cheryl Giovannoni, said Mrs Pattison was a \"adored\" and a \"real inspiration to those around her\".\n\nThe chief executive of the Girls' Day School Trust, of which Croydon High School was a member, said Mrs Pattison \"had this way of relating to people, she had such humanity\".\n\n\"She really understood what they were going through and she just worked so hard. She was so ambitious for the girls in her school and had this mission to make girls' education forward-thinking and inspiring.\"\n\nMr Pattison was a chartered accountant who was director of a management consultancy firm called Tanglewood 2016, according to Companies House.\n\nIn December, Mrs Pattison told a podcast run by students that her move had been \"a really big change for my family\", adding: \"I've got a new job, my husband got a new job, which wasn't meant to happen, but did, and my daughter has started a new school.\"\n\nBoarding students at Epsom College pay more than £42,000 a year, and its alumni include Conservative MP Sir Michael Fallon, broadcaster Jeremy Vine and his brother, the comedian Tim Vine.\n\nThe school, which both boys and girls attend, was founded in 1855 and describes itself as being consistently among the UK's leading schools, based on exam results.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A 53-year-old man has been charged following the disappearance young girl who was later found in the Scottish Borders.\n\nThe child was reported missing on Sunday but was found in the area at about 21:30 on Monday.\n\nAndrew Miller, also known as Amy George, was arrested on Tuesday. Police confirmed he was charged overnight.\n\nHe is expected to appear at Selkirk Sheriff Court on Thursday and a report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.\n\nOfficers have set up a cordon at a property in the village of Gattonside.\n\nA police cordon has been set up around a property in Gattonside\n\nPolice held a press conference on Monday to appeal to the public for information as part of efforts to trace her.\n\nMembers of the public joined the emergency services in the search which went on until Monday night.", "Cost of living policies from the Welsh government do not offer enough help to people facing hardship, a Senedd committee has said.\n\nIt criticised a cut in fuel payments and said a top-up in funding for sixth-form and college students was overdue.\n\nThe comments came ahead of a debate in the Senedd on the Welsh government's £20bn budget for the next year.\n\nThe Welsh government said the key levers for tackling poverty lie with the UK government.\n\nThe debate saw criticism of the Welsh government-Plaid Cymru co-operation deal in the wake of calls from Plaid for rises in income tax.\n\nEvery year, ministers in Cardiff set out how they will divide funding from the UK government and tax between the NHS, councils, education and other Welsh public services.\n\n\"We see little in this draft budget to prevent households falling into hardship,\" the committee said.\n\nIt also said it is disappointed warm home payments of £200 for people on benefits will stop later this year.\n\nAbout 166,000 households benefitted from the £90m Winter Fuel Support scheme, but ministers say they cannot afford to keep it.\n\nThe committee also calls for an increase in the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for 16 to 18-year-olds. The weekly payment has been kept at £30 since the mid-2000s.\n\nA review of the household income that qualifies students for EMA, which last changed in 2012, was \"long overdue and should be undertaken urgently\", it added.\n\nHigh inflation has reduced the value of the Welsh government's £20bn budget, with ministers warning they will not be able to deliver as much as they hoped.\n\nBut the committee says there is not enough detail about cuts, and it calls for a full assessment on the impact of inflation.\n\nCommittee chairman Peredur Owen Griffiths said: \"We understand that the funding decisions facing the Welsh government are extraordinarily tough, but we were surprised and worried at the lack of candour in the draft budget.\n\n\"This is not the right way to deal with our committee and the Senedd generally, and undermines legitimate democratic scrutiny.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru has proposed higher income tax to help pay for better wages in the NHS and social care\n\nIn the budget, Welsh government ruled out using its powers to change income tax.\n\nFinance Minister Rebecca Evans has said she thought \"long and hard\" about whether to put up income tax, but decided it \"didn't feel like the right time to be taxing people more\".\n\nExplaining her decision to the committee, she said there was a danger of high earners moving out of Wales to avoid a tax hike.\n\nBut the absence of a full analysis of this \"suggests that the minister had not seriously considered changing tax rates\", the committee says.\n\nTuesday's debate comes during negotiations between the Welsh government and unions over pay.\n\nMost health unions have suspended strikes while they consult members on an improved pay offer from the government.\n\nBut Ms Evans has said extra cash found to provide a better pay offer to NHS staff means the Welsh government will have \"more difficult choices\" to make in future years.\n\nA Welsh government spokesman said: \"Our draft budget is designed to protect public services and the most vulnerable in the face of a perfect storm of financial pressures.\n\n\"It built on spending plans previously set out in our three-year budget - and already scrutinised and agreed by the Senedd - supporting programmes helping people through the cost-of-living crisis including the Discretionary Assistance Fund, free school meals and the Pupil Development Grant.\"\n\nThe spokesman said the \"difficult financial picture is limiting our ability to make the level of spending commitments we would like to make\" and the \"key levers for tackling poverty\" with tax and welfare \"largely sit with the UK government\".\n\n\"We provided detailed evidence to Senedd committees and look forward to further scrutiny in the debate,\" he added.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nTurkish goalkeeper Ahmet Eyup Turkaslan has died following Monday's earthquake in his home country, his club Yeni Malatyaspor has confirmed.\n\nMore than 5,000 people have lost their lives in Turkey and Syria following the earthquake.\n\n\"Our goalkeeper, Ahmet Eyup Turkaslan, lost his life after being under the collapse of the earthquake. Rest in peace,\" the club said on Twitter.\n\n\"We will not forget you, beautiful person,\" it added.\n\nTurkaslan, 28, played six times for Turkish second division club Yeni Malatyaspor after joining in 2021.\n\nFormer Crystal Palace and Everton winger Yannick Bolasie, who currently plays for Turkish second tier side Caykur Rizespor, said on Twitter: \"RIP brother Eyup Ahmet Turkaslan. One moment you can see someone in the dugout, the next moment they're gone.\"\n\nBolasie added: \"My condolences to all his family and team-mates at Yeni Malatyaspor. Devastating to hear and wish we can all continue to help everyone in need.\"\n• None Christian Atsu: Footballer 'removed from wreckage with injuries' after earthquake", "The recently-detected suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down by US military on Saturday\n\nAt least three suspected Chinese spy balloons flew over the US undetected during the Donald Trump presidency, defence officials have said.\n\nThe US did not detect the balloons at the time, said Gen Glen VanHerck, citing a \"domain awareness gap\".\n\nThey may have initially been classified as UFOs, according to the New York Times and Bloomberg.\n\nThe US has since classified them as surveillance balloons, based on additional intelligence.\n\nGen VanHerck, the Pentagon official responsible for US airspace defence, said on Monday there was a gap in military intelligence at the time.\n\n\"It's my responsibility to detect threats to North America. I will tell you that we did not detect those threats,\" he said.\n\nA suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the US military over the weekend after it spent days travelling through American airspace.\n\nThe US Navy is still working to recover the debris off the coast of South Carolina.\n\nThe balloon incident has strained US-China relations, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week cancelling a planned trip to Beijing.\n\nIt would have been the first high-level meeting of American and Chinese officials there in years.\n\nThe White House has credited a directive by President Joe Biden to intelligence agencies to increase efforts to identify spying operations in the US with helping to flag the recent incident..\n\n\"We enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect,\" said White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan.\n\nOn Monday, John K Kirby, a US National Security Council spokesman, confirmed suspected surveillance balloons flew over the US during Mr Trump's time in office.\n\n\"From every indication that we have, that was for brief periods of time — nothing at all like what we saw last week in terms of duration,\" he said.\n\nOn Truth Social, Mr Trump dismissed the reports as \"fake disinformation\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMark Esper, who served as defence secretary under Mr Trump, told CNN on Friday that he was \"surprised\" to hear of reports of spy balloon from that time.\n\n\"I don't ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,\" he said.\n\nChinese officials have denied that the balloon that crossed the continental US last week was used for spying purposes, claiming it was a weather balloon that had flown off course.", "The couple spoke in August after they made a complaint about the nursery\n\nScotland's health secretary has dropped a £30,000 case against a nursery he accused of discrimination.\n\nHumza Yousaf and his wife, councillor Nadia El-Nakla, claimed to have been told there was no space for their daughter at Little Scholars in Broughty Ferry.\n\nThey alleged applicants with \"white Scottish-sounding names\" were accepted, a claim the nursery denied.\n\nA legal writ had been lodged at Glasgow Sheriff Court in November 2021.\n\nIt followed the Care Inspectorate upholding a formal complaint made by Mr Yousaf and Ms El-Nakla, who was elected as an SNP councillor in Dundee last year.\n\nThe body found the nursery \"did not promote fairness, equality and respect\" when offering placements.\n\nIn response to the legal case being dropped, Little Scholars Day Nursery owner Usha Fowdar said: \"Ms El-Nakla has, very sensibly, opted to drop her legal action in the face of our determination to defend ourselves and our hard-working employees.\n\n\"While I'm pleased our employees will be spared the stress of appearing as witnesses, in one sense I'm also disappointed, as the court case would have been extremely revealing and I'm utterly confident we would have prevailed.\n\n\"Despite this vindication, it has been deeply upsetting to have spent almost 18 months and tens of thousands of pounds defending our small nursery against their false claims.\"\n\nA statement issued on behalf of Ms El-Nakla and Mr Yousaf said the legal proceedings were halted following discussions with Sword Nursery Ltd, the firm that owns the nursery.\n\nThe couple's legal representative, solicitor Aamer Anwar, said: \"They only ever wanted the nursery to accept the findings of the Independent Care Inspectorate investigation and for the nursery to make changes.\n\n\"The nursery owner's may wish to say that they were prepared 100% to go to court, but this was a joint agreement reached and on their acknowledgement of the findings of an independent investigation and implementing the necessary changes in full.\"\n\nHe added: \"Nadia believes that as a mother she was justified in raising this legal action, she felt deeply hurt and hopes that as a result real change will take place.\"\n\nFollowing the initial concerns from Mr Yousaf and his wife, a Daily Record investigation submitted applications with identical requirements to the nursery under the names Aqsa Akhtar and Susan Blake.\n\nThe newspaper said that Aqsa Akhtar had her application rejected, but Susan Blake's was accepted and offered spaces.\n\nMs El-Nakla said she had emailed nursery bosses in May 2021, asking if there were any available places.\n\nThe couple alleged they were told there were \"no available spaces in the nursery\" - the second time they said they had been turned down.\n\nBut they claimed that two days later when a white friend asked if there were spaces for her two-year-old son, the nursery told her places were available on three afternoons a week.\n\nIn August 2021, little Scholars Day Nursery said that any claim that it was not open and inclusive to all was \"demonstrably false\".", "A Metropolitan Police armed officer who used his role to put fear into his victims has admitted dozens of rape and sexual offences against 12 women.\n\nDavid Carrick, 48, who met some victims through dating websites, pleaded guilty to 49 offences across two decades.\n\nThe Met has apologised after it emerged he had come to the attention of police over nine incidents, including rape allegations, between 2000 and 2021.\n\nA senior officer said his offending was \"unprecedented in policing\".\n\nAssistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met's lead for professionalism, said: \"We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behaviour and because we didn't, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation.\n\n\"We are truly sorry that being able to continue to use his role as a police officer may have prolonged the suffering of his victims.\n\n\"We know they felt unable to come forward sooner because he told them they would not be believed.\"\n\nCarrick, who admitted 24 counts of rape, was suspended from duty when he was arrested in October 2021.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"Policing has definitely taken a step back\", says Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray\n\nHis offences spanned 2003 to 2020 and most took place in Hertfordshire, where he lived.\n\nCarrick, from Stevenage, would control what the women wore, what they ate, where they slept and even stopped some of the women from speaking to their own children.\n\nHe was finally stopped when one woman did decide to report him. In October 2021, following publicity about disgraced Metropolitan Police officer PC Wayne Couzens, she contacted police.\n\nJaswant Narwal, chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: \"Carrick held a role where he was trusted with the responsibility of protecting the public, but yet over 17 years, in his private life, he did the exact opposite.\n\n\"This is a man who relentlessly degraded, belittled and sexually assaulted and raped women.\n\n\"As time went on, the severity of his offending intensified as he became emboldened, thinking he would get away with it.\"\n\nDet Ch Insp Iain Moor (second right) and Jaswant Narwal, from the Crown Prosecution Service, spoke to the media outside Southwark Crown Court\n\nShe said the \"scale of the degradation Carrick subjected his victims to is unlike anything I've encountered in my 34 years with the Crown Prosecution Service\".\n\nCarrick, who served with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, met some victims through online dating sites such as Tinder and Badoo, and used his role as a police officer to gain their trust.\n\nHe admitted four counts of rape, false imprisonment and indecent assault relating to a 40-year-old woman in 2003, at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.\n\nIt can now be reported that Carrick had already pleaded guilty to 43 charges, including 20 counts of rape, in December.\n\nCarrick admitted raping nine women, some on multiple occasions over months or years, with many of those attacks involving violence that would have left them physically injured.\n\nDavid Carrick has been suspended from duty at the Metropolitan Police\n\nSpeaking outside court, Det Ch Insp Iain Moor, from Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said: \"The details of David Carrick's crimes are truly shocking.\n\n\"I suspect many will be appalled and sickened by his actions, but I hope the victims and the public more widely are reassured that no-one is above the law and the police service will relentlessly pursue those offenders who target women in this way.\"\n\nHe said he expected even more victims to come forward.\n\nDavid Carrick, as pictured by a court artist, was an armed officer until he was suspended from duty at the Metropolitan Police\n\nCarrick admitted to false imprisonment offences, having on a number of occasions forced one of his victims into a small cupboard under the stairs at his home.\n\nDet Ch Insp Moor, the senior investigating officer, said: \"I have seen bigger dog crates.\"\n\nAfter Carrick's first guilty pleas, the Met stopped his pay and began an accelerated misconduct process, with a hearing due to take place on Tuesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. David Carrick: 'The sheer magnitude of his offending is horrifying'\n\nHarriet Wistrich, director of campaign group the Centre for Women's Justice, said: \"We have known for some time that there has been a culture of impunity for such offending by police officers.\n\n\"Recent reports show a woefully deficient vetting and misconduct system and a largely unchallenged culture of misogyny in some sections of the Met.\n\n\"That Carrick could have not only become a police officer but remain a serving officer for so long whilst he perpetrated these horrific crimes against women, is terrifying.\"\n\nThe Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he was \"absolutely sickened and appalled\" by Carrick's crimes.\n\nHe said \"serious questions must be answered about how he was able to abuse his position as an officer in this horrendous manner\".\n\nIn the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met officer, the force publicly proclaimed its commitment to protecting women and launched an \"action plan\" to try to regain trust.\n\nBut it has now admitted its professional standards department made no attempt to check the full record of another officer accused of rape.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said it was \"an appalling case\" and that Rishi Sunak's \"thoughts are with all of [Carrick's] victims\".\n\n\"There is no place in our police forces for officers who fall so seriously short of the acceptable standards of behaviour and are not fit to wear the uniform.\"\n\nDavid Carrick will be sentenced in February\n\nSal Naseem, from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), said no opportunities to stop Carrick earlier had been identified by police so far.\n\nTwo retired Met officers who dealt with a 2002 allegation of assault and harassment against Carrick may have committed misconduct, but as they cannot face misconduct proceedings, the IOPC decided it was not in the public interest to take further action.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The prime minister's idea for all pupils in England to study some form of maths up until the age of 18 would be challenging to implement, experts say.\n\nA panel of specialists told the Education select committee they broadly support the \"worthy ambition\".\n\nHowever, a lack of maths teachers and a focus on exams meant \"fundamental reform\" would be needed, they said.\n\nIt comes after Rishi Sunak said the UK must \"reimagine our approach to numeracy\".\n\nLast month, Mr Sunak said \"in a world where data is everywhere and statistics underpin every job, letting our children out into that world without those skills is letting our children down\".\n\nThe Education Committee earlier questioned a panel of experts on what a system of studying maths to 18 should look like.\n\nIt heard that currently, a third of young people do not pass their GCSE in maths, creating \"alienation and disengagement\".\n\nNiamh Sweeney, the deputy general secretary of the National Education Union, said part of the problem was that the focus was on passing tests at a young age rather than enjoying learning maths.\n\nShe said the \"unfortunate announcement\" by Mr Sunak \"didn't come with a discussion about workforce\".\n\nThe majority of maths teachers were \"science, geography or PE teachers\" and it was \"really difficult\" to teach out of your subject and maintain high standards, she told the panel.\n\nA focus on maths could have a significant advantage for labour market skills and longer term economic benefits, the chief executive of National Numeracy, Sam Sims, said.\n\nDepending on the year, around 175,000 young people fail their GCSE maths, and that can have significant impact on their confidence, he said.\n\nHe said these young people \"fail by design\" because of the way the grading system works.\n\nMr Sims suggested it could be more like a driving test or \"passport-style certification\" which everybody could pass and which gives young people more confidence.\n\nSir Martin Taylor, chair of the advisory committee on mathematical education for the Royal Society, says there is a need for \"fundamental reform\".\n\nHe believes \"what\" is taught is key and that students need 21st Century skills, including data skills, which is what employers are asking for.\n\nMr Sunak's ambition was largely welcomed when it was announced but many questioned how it would work in practice.\n\nThe Department for Education said its policy teams were currently drawing up some options.", "Ukrainian forces have warned repeatedly of an imminent Russian offensive in the east\n\nTens of thousands of Russians are being sent to eastern Ukraine as part of an offensive planned after 15 February, according to the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk region.\n\n\"We are seeing more and more reserves being deployed in our direction,\" said Serhiy Haidai, who expected a three-pronged Russian advance.\n\nUkraine has warned repeatedly of an imminent offensive.\n\nBut there is widespread scepticism of significant Russian success.\n\nThe UK's defence intelligence briefing said Russia's aim was almost certainly to capture parts of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region that were not already under occupation.\n\nBut the UK said \"it remains unlikely that Russia can build up the forces needed to substantially affect the outcome of the war within the coming weeks\".\n\nRussian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said seven Ukrainians towns had been \"liberated\" in recent weeks and operations were progressing \"with success\" in two more, Bakhmut and Vuhledar.\n\nFor six months, Russian mercenaries -now joined by regular troops - have tried to capture Bakhmut, a small city with a pre-war population of 70,000.\n\nNow a Ukrainian commander, Denis Yaroslavskiy, has said only 2,000 civilians remain and Russian forces have captured parts of the east and north of the city and continue to move forward.\n\nThe head of Russia's Wagner mercenary force said this week that Ukrainian forces were not in retreat anywhere in the city and fierce battles were taking place for every street, house and stairwell.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the military was paying close attention to Russia's attempt to encircle Bakhmut. \"We are countering them,\" he said on Monday night.\n\nHe announced that leaders with military experience were being appointed in border and front-line regions, who could \"prove themselves\" against current threats from Russia.\n\nUkrainian forces said on Tuesday they had shot down a Russian combat aircraft over Bakhmut, but there was no independent confirmation.\n\nRussian forces have made little progress in Ukraine since their retreat from the major southern city of Kherson last November. Last month they captured the town of Soledar north of Bakhmut after an intense battle.\n\nAlmost a year into Russia's invasion, an estimated 300,000 Russian reserve troops have been recruited in recent months in an attempt to break through Ukraine's front lines in the east. Capturing Bakhmut could enable Russian forces to press on towards the bigger cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.\n\nMr Haidai said the Russians' two-month training period was coming to an end and Moscow would need around 10 days to transfer them to the front for a new offensive. He suggested that in Luhansk region they would target three towns: Bilohorivka, Kreminna and Svatove.\n\nPresident Zelensky has appealed to Western countries to hurry sending heavy weaponry to Ukraine to help Ukraine repel Russia's expected offensive. The US agreed last week to send long-range missiles that will enable Ukraine to double its attack range.\n\nThe Russian defence minister warned that Western heavy weapons were drawing Nato countries into the conflict and \"could lead to an unpredictable level of its escalation\".", "Owners of around 50,000 UK properties held by foreign companies remain hidden from public view, despite new transparency laws.\n\nThe Register of Overseas Entities, launched in August 2022, was meant to reveal who ultimately owns UK property.\n\nBut analysis by BBC News and Transparency International found almost half of firms required to declare who is behind them failed to do so.\n\nLabour MP Margaret Hodge said the legislation was not \"fit for purpose\".\n\nA UK government spokesperson said the register has been an \"invaluable source of information for law enforcement, and tax and revenue services\".\n\nThe UK government has long promised to crack down on \"corrupt elites\" from overseas, including \"Russian oligarchs and kleptocrats\", using UK property to launder illegal wealth.\n\nMinisters insisted they would crack down on foreign criminals using UK property to launder money by ensuring they \"can't hide behind secretive chains of shell companies\".\n\nAs a result, under a law passed in February 2022 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, ministers said anonymous foreign companies seeking to buy UK land or property would be required to reveal full details of the individuals who ultimately owned them. Overseas organisations that already owned land in the UK were given a six-month period to do the same.\n\nNow that six-month grace period is up - all the people, whatever their reputations, behind companies that own thousands of British properties should have been uncovered for the first time.\n\nThe BBC and Transparency International matched thousands of filings from the new register with Land Registry records. This analysis suggests that some 18,000 offshore companies - which between them hold more than 50,000 properties in England and Wales - either ignored the law altogether or filed information in such a way that it remains impossible for the public to find out who the individuals are who ultimately own and benefit from them.\n\n\"While the register is starting to serve its intended purpose, our analysis reveals there are far too many companies that could be trying to skirt the rules, not knowing they exist, or ignoring them altogether,\" says Duncan Hames, Director of Policy at Transparency International UK.\n\nTo understand how the law is and isn't working, it helps to look at three very expensive properties. The first is a pair of luxury apartments. Another is a sprawling £48m estate in north London, the third a £10m country mansion.\n\nAll have been linked in some way to figures connected with Vladimir Putin's regime.\n\nFor instance, look at the two luxury flats in central London worth an estimated £11m.\n\nTheir ownership by the former Russian deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov, was first reported by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, set up by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.\n\nAccording to the UK government, who placed him under sanction in March 2022, Mr Shuvalov - who heads the management board of a Russian bank - is \"a core part of Putin's inner circle\".\n\nAnd now the register has confirmed that he and his wife are the ultimate owners of the flats, held through a Russian company, Sova Real Estate LLC.\n\nMr Shuvalov's spokesperson told the BBC last year that these issues \"have been the subject of competent government audits\", and that \"no complaints were ever filed\".\n\nBut while there are thousands of examples where the register is working, the ultimate ownership of thousands of properties remains shielded from public view.\n\nTake Beechwood House, a north London estate bought for £48m in 2008 with a value around £85m.\n\nAfter Russia's invasion of Ukraine 12 months ago, the UK government came down hard on wealthy businessmen close to Putin's regime. Assets were frozen, stopping rich Russians from taking their money out of the UK.\n\nBut it wasn't always clear exactly which assets belonged to these oligarchs.\n\nFor instance, Beechwood House was listed by the government as owned by oligarch and ex-Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov when it announced sanctions against him.\n\nA spokesperson for the oligarch has now told the BBC that he transferred Beechwood House, as well as other assets, to family trusts \"long before sanctions were imposed\" and that while Mr Usmanov was a beneficiary for a period of time, he withdrew \"on an irrevocable basis\".\n\nThe spokesperson added: \"Neither Mr Usmanov nor members of his family are the beneficial owners of these companies.\"\n\nYou would think the register should shed light on who actually owns Beechwood House. But it does not.\n\nThe owner is given as Hanley Limited, an Isle of Man company. And in turn the beneficial owner of Hanley Limited is Swiss company Pomerol Capital SA, which controls it as part of a trust structure.\n\nHowever, nothing about the individuals who own Pomerol Capital is listed on the public register.\n\nThat is because companies owned through trusts - as opposed to other set-ups - are exempt from having their beneficial owner information made public on the register.\n\nSo from the filing, it is impossible to identify the people who own, control or stand to benefit from Beechwood House- a property that the government itself said was owned by Mr Usmanov, which would have made it subject to an asset freeze.\n\nWhile the names of individuals linked to trusts are not included in the register, companies do have to provide their details privately to the corporate registry Companies House.\n\nAnd many other owners have found an even more straightforward means of keeping their names off the register - by simply not complying with the new legislation.\n\nOverseas companies with property in the UK - bought since January 1999 in England and Wales and since December 2014 in Scotland - were supposed to reveal the identity of their owners by 31 January.\n\nBut around half of offshore firms with property in England and Wales - approximately 15,000 - had no matching record in the property register before last week's government deadline.\n\nThis includes the company that owns a £90m home in west London linked with former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. The Cyprus-based firm does not yet appear to have submitted its details to the property register.\n\nMr Abramovich could not be reached for comment.\n\nAs well as the firms that are yet to file, BBC analysis has found that one in four offshore companies that have submitted their details have actually included other foreign firms, not people, as their owners.\n\nSome of these are owned by trusts, as with Beechwood House.\n\nBut that is not the only way in which companies are avoiding publicly disclosing the individuals who are actually behind them.\n\nAnd there is a third category - companies that have filed their details to the property register, but have not complied with the rules.\n\nThe BBC's investigation has identified more than 1,800 companies whose filings do not appear to do so.\n\nAmong these is Uart International, a Panamanian company that, according to Land Registry records, acquired a countryside mansion in 2008.\n\nAs part of the Pandora Papers, a leak of almost 12 million files, the property was owned through an offshore corporate network controlled by Vladimir Chernukhin and his wife, Lubov.\n\nMr Chernukhin is a former Russian deputy minister of finance and businessman who had financial links to oligarchs close to the Kremlin. He moved to the UK after being sacked by Putin in 2004 and insists he is not a supporter of the Russian president.\n\nHis wife Lubov, whom he married in London in 2007, is a major donor to the Conservative Party, having given the Tories more than £2.3m since 2012.\n\nCompanies House records show that Uart International lists another foreign firm as its \"person of significant control\". This means that the individuals who ultimately own the property remain hidden from the public register, despite the change in the legislation.\n\nUnder the new regulations, another anonymous offshore firm should not be named as the owner of a company with UK property.\n\nThere is no indication in the filings that the company owner is a trustee, which would exempt the firm from having their person of significant control revealed on the register - suggesting it could be a violation of the rules.\n\nLawyers for the couple told the BBC that \"Mr and Mrs Chernukhin do not support, and have never supported, the policies of President Putin, nor are they allies of President Putin\" and that they are \"unaware of Uart ever having made corporate filings contrary to the applicable rules and regulations in all relevant jurisdictions\".\n\nWhile the new rules include severe penalties for companies and individuals who do not comply, experts have questioned whether this will work.\n\n\"Although the legislation contains some stringent penalties for non-compliance, the government has failed to equip Companies House with the teeth and resources to apply these in practice,\" says Helena Wood, head of the UK Economic Crime Programme at the Royal United Services Institute think tank.\n\nMargaret Hodge MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax, said the new register was \"turning into a joke\".\n\nShe added: \"We need to know who owns these fantastically expensive properties, why they bought them and how they got the money to do so.\"\n\nA government spokesperson said that Companies House was now \"assessing and preparing cases for enforcement action\" and further legislation would allow it to impose fines and pursue legal avenues against companies that are flouting the law.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a three-month state of emergency in 10 provinces worst-affected by an earthquake that has killed thousands.\n\nMr Erdogan said that the death toll in Turkey has risen to 3,549 people.\n\nMore than 1,600 people are reported to have died in Syria.\n\nIn a televised address, Mr Erdogan said the state of emergency is to ensure that rescue work can be \"carried out quickly\" in the country's south-east.\n\nHe said the measures would allow relief workers and financial aid into the affected regions, but did not give further details.\n\nThe state of emergency will end just before elections on 14 May, when Mr Erdogan will attempt to stay in power after 20 years.\n\nTurkey last imposed a state of emergency in 2016 after a failed coup attempt. It was lifted two years later.\n\nRescuers in Turkey are battling heavy rain and snow as they race against the clock to find survivors of the earthquake that struck in the early hours of Monday.\n\nThe World Health Organization has warned the toll may rise dramatically as rescuers find more victims.\n\nThousands of children may be among the dead following the earthquake and aftershocks, the United Nations has said.\n\nHeavy machinery worked through the night in the city of Adana, with lights illuminating the collapsed buildings and huge slabs of concrete, in scenes repeated across southern Turkey.\n\nOccasionally the work stopped and a call of \"Allahu Akbar\" rose up when a survivor was found, or when the dead were recovered.\n\nAdana is full of the homeless - those who lost their homes and others too fearful of aftershocks to return.\n\nSome left without shoes, coats and phone chargers. Temperatures are expected to drop below freezing later this week.\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude tremor struck at 04:17 (01:17 GMT) on Monday at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep, according to the US Geological Survey.\n\nA later tremor had a magnitude of 7.5 and its epicentre was in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.\n\nOn Tuesday morning, traffic was at a standstill on the main highway to the Turkish city of Maras, close to the epicentre of the quake.\n\nCars occasionally crawled forward, the wet road illuminated by glowing red brake lights. Few rescuers have made it to this part of southern Turkey yet.\n\nOne search and rescue team on their way to the city, their van loaded with specialist equipment and supplies, told the BBC they were eager to start looking for survivors, but they had no idea how bad the devastation would be when they arrived.\n\nNationally, 8,000 people have been rescued from more than 4,700 destroyed buildings, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said in its latest statement.\n\nAs aftershocks continue, rescuers in some areas have been digging through rubble with their bare hands. But freezing conditions are hampering search efforts.\n\nIn the southern province of Hatay, the Reuters news agency reported that a woman's voice was heard calling for help under a pile of rubble.\n\n\"They're making noises, but nobody is coming,\" a resident who gave his name as Deniz said while weeping.\n\n\"We're devastated, we're devastated. My God... They're calling out. They're saying, 'Save us,' but we can't save them. How are we going to save them? There has been nobody since the morning.\"\n\nIn Hatay, Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu - who made 107 appearances for Newcastle - was pulled from the rubble of a building with injuries, his manager Mustafa Özat told Turkish radio.\n\nAtsu now plays for Turkish club Hatayspor. The club's sporting director, Taner Savut, is still under the rubble, Mr Özat said.\n\nMembers of the Turkish military pull two women from under the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay\n\nIn the Turkish city of Osmaniye, near the epicentre, pouring rain hampered rescuers. The city was without power as the cold and rain set in.\n\nOne family camped on the street, scared of the aftershocks, despite the freezing temperatures. Every time they felt an aftershock, the family moved closer into the middle of the street.\n\nA hotel owner in the city told the BBC that of 14 guests staying that night, only seven had been found.\n\nCountries around the world are sending support to help the rescue efforts, including specialist teams, sniffer dogs and equipment.\n\nBut the earthquake has caused significant damage to three airports across Turkey, also creating challenges for aid deliveries.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Diyarbakir, Turkey: 'People are still trapped under the rubble'\n\nAt least 1,600 people are now known to have been killed in Syria, where millions of refugees live in camps on the Turkish border.\n\nTurkey lies in one of the world's most active earthquake zones.\n\nIn 1999 a quake killed more than 17,000 in the north-west, while in 1939, 33,000 people died in the eastern province of Erzincan.\n\nThis earthquake was powerful enough to be felt as far away as Cyprus, Lebanon and Israel.\n\nAre you in the affected region? If it is safe to do so email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nA friend of missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley has said nothing about her disappearance was \"making sense\".\n\nMs Bulley, 45, was last seen walking her dog by the river in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire 11 days ago.\n\nHeather Gibbons said Ms Bulley's family were \"appreciative of all the police have done\" but no-one would know what happened \"until we have some evidence\".\n\nEarlier, a search expert said he had not seen a more unusual case in his 20-year career.\n\nPeter Faulding, who has led a team of underwater experts searching the River Wyre, said another stretch near where she went missing would be investigated.\n\nMs Bulley's partner Paul Ansell issued a fresh appeal on Monday, saying her daughters missed her desperately.\n\nLancashire Police have continued to search the River Wyre for Ms Bulley\n\nSpeaking on the riverbank, Ms Gibbons said speculation on social media about the disappearance had been \"hard\" for the family to deal with and the number of visitors arriving in the area had made it feel like a \"tourist spot\".\n\n\"Up to a certain level, we understand it's human nature, it's natural for everyone to have speculation, because the truth is in this, nothing is making sense,\" she said.\n\nShe added that while the \"turnout for the search\" had been \"amazing... we have noticed it does feel like some people have come to maybe use it as more like a tourist spot\".\n\n\"The truth is if we look at it factually, no-one knows [what has happened] until we have some evidence,\" she said.\n\n\"I know that the family are massively appreciative of all the police have done [and] we feel we have got the best of the best on that water.\n\n\"Hopefully it will be a completion, one way or the other, and if they find nothing, then maybe it's time to start looking down other avenues.\"\n\nDivers from a private search team have worked alongside Lancashire Police officers on the river\n\nA team of divers from a private firm, headed up by Mr Faulding, searched \"three or four miles\" of river until it got dark on Monday.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Breakfast earlier, Mr Faulding said the case was \"so unusual\".\n\n\"I would expect to find Nicola in the water right in front of the bench where she went down,\" he said.\n\n\"In my 20-odd years of doing this, I have worked on hundreds of cases [and] I have never seen anything so unusual.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Search team leader Peter Faulding describes why he is so perplexed\n\nHe later told BBC Radio 5 Live that \"even the police are confused\".\n\n\"The police divers would have found her that day if she had fallen in at that point,\" he said.\n\nLancashire Police officers investigating the disappearance have now focused their efforts on a river path.\n\nThe force said sightings showed Ms Bulley had moved from the school, where she dropped her two daughters off, along the river path and into the field and it urged drivers or cyclists on Garstang Road to get in touch.\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river before she disappeared.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nLancashire Police previously released CCTV images of Ms Bulley, which were captured near the time of her disappearance\n\nIn a statement released by the force on Monday, Mr Ansell said he had \"two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back\".\n\n\"This has been such a tough time for the girls especially, but also for me and all of Nicola's family and friends, as well as the wider community and I want to thank them for their love and support,\" he added.\n\nLancashire Police believe Ms Bulley may have fallen into the River Wyre, but have said they \"remain open minded\" and were continuing to carry out a \"huge number\" of inquiries.\n\nOn Monday, a force representative said they could \"say with confidence\" that Ms Bulley had not left the field during the key times \"via Rowanwater, either through the site itself or via the piece of land at the side\" and did not return from the fields along Allotment Lane or via the path at the rear of the Grapes pub on to Garstang Road.\n\n\"Our inquiries now focus on the river path which leads from the fields back to Garstang Road,\" they said.\n\nThey added that officers had also \"spoken to numerous witnesses, analysed Nicola's mobile phone and Fitbit and searched the derelict house on the other side of the river as well as any empty caravans in the vicinity\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Embattled Republican Congressman George Santos is facing an accusation of sexual misconduct from a former aide.\n\nDerek Myers, 30, also accused Mr Santos of an ethics violation for having him work as a volunteer.\n\nA job offer to Mr Myers was later rescinded, and Mr Santos told news outlet Semafor he was concerned by wiretapping charges faced by the aide during previous work as a journalist.\n\nThe accusations are the latest in a series of controversies for Mr Santos.\n\nThe BBC has reached out to the congressman's office for comment.\n\nOn Twitter on Friday, Mr Myers said he had filed a complaint to the Capitol police and wrote a letter to the House ethics committee, which can investigate violations of House rules, related to incidents he claims took place during his brief time working in Mr Santos's office.\n\nThe letter, which he posted online, details his allegations against Mr Santos. He said he was offered a job late last month in the Long Island congressman's office as his staff assistant.\n\nThe 34-year-old has faced growing calls to resign after he admitted fabricating parts of his resume and biography since his election in New York last year.\n\nHe is also facing multiple investigations over his campaign spending and financial reports. He has previously denied wrongdoing.\n\nAccording to Mr Myers, on 25 January, Mr Santos asked him if he had a profile on Grindr, a popular LGBT dating app. Mr Santos then allegedly informed him that he had a profile on Grindr, Mr Myers said.\n\nOn a separate occasion the same day, Mr Myers was alone with Mr Santos in the congressman's office sorting mail.\n\n\"He called me 'buddy' and insisted I sit next to him on the sofa,\" Mr Myers wrote. \"I proceeded to move forward with a discussion about the mail, but the congressman stopped me by placing his hand on my left leg, near my knee.\"\n\nMr Myers claimed the congressman then invited him to karaoke, which he declined, and proceeded to \"take his hand and move it down my leg into my inner-thigh\", where he \"touched\" his groin.\n\nNext, Mr Myers said Mr Santos told him that his husband was away for the night and invited him to come over.\n\n\"I quickly pushed the congressman's hand away and grabbed the mail from the table and proceeded to discuss the topic of constituent correspondence,\" Mr Myers wrote.\n\nMr Myers was working under the status of \"volunteer\" at the time of the incident, he said, something he told was necessary as he waited for his new-hire paperwork to process through the payroll department. This was something he said he later learned was against House rules.\n\nOn Monday, 30 January, Mr Myers said he was called into Mr Santos' office and asked about his background as a journalist, matters that Mr Myers said had already been discussed prior to receiving a job offer.\n\nLast year, he was charged with wiretapping while working as a journalist in Ohio after publishing audio of court testimony submitted by a courthouse source. The charges have been condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists.\n\nAccording to CBS, the BBC's US partner, Mr Myers said he pleaded not guilty to the charges and the case was automatically dismissed under Ohio's criminal rules of procedure after no indictment was brought within 60 days.\n\nMr Myers said his job offer in Mr Santos's office was rescinded on 1 February.\n\nLast week, Mr Santos told Semafor he expected a progressive news website to publish recordings between the two men, saying: \"He's violated the trust that we had in him\". On Friday, Talking Points Memo published parts of a conversation the two had.\n\nMr Myers said he has not received any response to the letter from the House Ethics Committee, and that the Capitol Police told him a report would be ready on Monday, CBS reported.\n\n\"These matters will hopefully be appropriately addressed by the police and the Ethics Committee, respectively in due time,\" Mr Myers said.", "One in five households with pre-payment meters have not cashed in their energy vouchers issued to help pay bills.\n\nData seen by the BBC showed about 380,000 vouchers, totalling up to 19% of homes, were not redeemed each month in October and in November.\n\nIt means as much as £50m of government support for energy has gone unclaimed by some of the most vulnerable.\n\nThe government urged energy firms to do more to make sure customers got the help they were entitled to.\n\n\"When a voucher is not redeemed, suppliers must make at least three attempts to reach the customer, by more than one means which can include post, email and text message,\" it said.\n\nIt also said that customers could contact their energy supplier to have a voucher reissued even if it has expired. The reissued voucher will then be valid for three months from the date it has expired.\n\nThe Energy Support Scheme provides £400 to each household in Britain.\n\nMost of the homes in England, Scotland and Wales pay their energy bill by direct debit and have been getting about £66 a month knocked off their bills or credited to their account automatically.\n\nHowever, the system has been more cumbersome for the two million households that have a traditional pre-payment meter for their gas or electricity. They receive the support through vouchers in the post or via email.\n\nThe vouchers then need to be taken to a local PayPoint store or a Post Office to be credited onto a meter.\n\nMany households with traditional pre-payment meters are considered among the most vulnerable. Customers pay for their energy in advance, either through an account or using a top-up card and in many cases these meters have often been fitted when people have a history of missing bill payments.\n\nFigures from both PayPoint and the Post Office showed that 81% of vouchers for October and November were cashed before they expired, meaning 19% - roughly 380,000 homes - did not cash those vouchers before the November expiry date on 5 February.\n\nAlthough the deadline has passed, it is still possible for the voucher money to be claimed. A person who has not received their voucher or has not cashed it in time needs to contact their energy supplier, check that their contact details are correct, and ask for the voucher to be reissued to them.\n\nWith exactly the same proportion of vouchers not redeemed for both October and November, it could mean that some households have missed out both months, and therefore be £132 out-of-pocket.\n\nAccording to Citizens Advice, the main reason for people not cashing an energy voucher is because they haven not received it yet.\n\nDr Elizabeth Blakelock, an energy specialist at the charity, said some people had been told to check emails for vouchers, but did not have access to the internet.\n\n\"They don't use an email account regularly so they can't use that method,\" she added. \"And there seems to be many people where their address data is incorrect, so it just hasn't landed on their doorstep.\"\n\nEnergy suppliers have been criticised for their treatment of vulnerable customers, and especially over the issue of forcibly fitted prepayment meters.\n\nCharities say vulnerable people who have been switched have not been able to afford to top-up their meter, leaving them in the cold and dark during the winter.\n\nThe latest data comes during a series of developments on the issue during the last 24 hours including:\n\nDr Blakelock said there was a \"core group\" of people who were \"just not getting the support that they need\".\n\n\"What we need to see is for the energy companies to make it really easy for people to get in contact with them so that they can reissue those vouchers,\" she added.\n\nSteve O'Neill, corporate affairs and marketing director at PayPoint said of the people who cashed their vouchers in its stores, 23% waited less than a day before redeeming it.\n\nAre you still waiting for your voucher to arrive? You can get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A state-backed digital pound is likely to be launched later this decade, according to the Treasury and the Bank of England.\n\nBoth institutions want to ensure the public has access to safe money that is easy to use in the digital age.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt said the central-bank digital currency (CBDC) could be a new \"trusted and accessible\" way to pay.\n\nBut it will not be built until at least 2025.\n\n\"We want to investigate what is possible first, whilst always making sure we protect financial stability,\" Mr Hunt said.\n\nThe Treasury and the Bank of England will formally start a consultation for the digital currency, on Tuesday.\n\nCryptocurrencies are not backed by a central bank and the value can shoot up and down rapidly.\n\nBut while it may use technology similar to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, the digital pound, issued by the Bank of England, would be less volatile. Ten digital pounds will always be worth the same as £10 in cash, the Treasury says.\n\nThough, as holidaymakers will know, the value of the pound does change relative to other currencies.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak asked the Bank of England to look into backing a currency, in 2021, as chancellor.\n\nAnd in October 2022, Mr Sunak's Financial Service Minister Andrew Griffith warned a lengthy delay could create problems for the economy.\n\nRight now, there is probably little need for a digital pound. People use their debit cards or phones, or even watches to fulfil the same function. It is a solution to a problem that does not yet exist.\n\nBut this is looking towards a near future that sounds like monetary science fiction. At its heart it is about data on what you spend, and what the entire population spends. It is a world where people might just choose to trust international private sector brands, in finance or in tech, more than the state. Think Amazon, or Facebook, or maybe Chinese-owned Alibaba or Tiktok having a version of sterling.\n\nCompanies that control the data on everything someone spends, when and where they spend it, will sit on a priceless asset. Unregulated digital currencies could offer those companies incentives to create walled gardens, fragmenting the pound system. It would make controlling the economy more difficult, because £1 might not be worth £1 everywhere.\n\nThis is where today's ideas come in. Neither the Bank of England nor government would have access to the data on transactions with a digital pound. But consumers could pick providers, not just banks, to hold their cash in digital wallets, with varying degrees of privacy. Some users might be comfortable with their wallet provider knowing all their transactions, if they received a discount for example. Others might want to stay as private as possible. The Treasury wants to encourage innovation.\n\nOther, bigger blocs, such as the USA and the Eurozone also want their digital dollars and digital euros to be international means of exchange. That is less of an overt aim here. The eye here is on maintaining UK monetary sovereignty against upheaval from the likes of Big Tech.\n\nIf given the go-ahead, there would then be significant investment to launch the currency.\n\nThere are likely to be initial restrictions on how much of the currency any individual or business could hold.\n\nBank of England governor Andrew Bailey said the digital pound would provide a new way to make payments, \"help businesses, maintain trust in money and better protect financial stability\".\n\nHe stressed the importance of the consultation being the \"foundation\" for what would be a \"profound\" decision for the way we use money in the future.\n\nWhat could a digital pound look like?\n\nCountries around the world, including the US, China and the Eurozone, are considering similar proposals.", "The US Navy has released photos of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot out of the sky on Saturday.\n\nThe US Fleet Forces Command posted several photos on its Facebook page showing large debris of the balloon being hauled into a boat.\n\nThe post said the sailors retrieving the debris on Sunday were part of the Navy's specialist explosives team.\n\nThe device will now be examined to see whether it was indeed spy equipment.\n\nUS officials have described the balloon as being about 200 ft (60m) tall, with the payload portion comparable in size to regional airliners and weighing hundreds - or potentially thousands - of pounds.\n\nChina has repeatedly insisted that the \"airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure - it was completely an accident\".\n\nOn Tuesday, US officials said the Pentagon sought to arrange a phone call between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart after the balloon was shot down, but was rebuffed by China.\n\n\"Lines between our militaries are particularly important in moments like this,\" defence press secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said in a statement. \"Unfortunately, the PRC has declined our request.\"\n\nThe discovery of the balloon set off a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately calling off a weekend trip to China - the first such high level US-China meeting there in years - over the \"irresponsible act\".\n\nThe balloon was retrieved off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a day after being shot down by a fighter jet.\n\nThe navy said the debris was spread over seven miles (11km) of the Atlantic Ocean, and two naval ships - including one with a heavy crane for recovery - were sent to the area. However, the photos reveal the piles of balloon material were able to be pulled aboard by hand.\n\nThe US military has also deployed unmanned underwater vehicles as part of the search effort.\n\nExperts say that the wreckage of the balloon could provide the US with valuable insight into Chinese aerial surveillance technology and techniques, allowing them to better understand what the balloon was capable of and how it transmitted information.\n\nEfforts to recover the balloon's equipment, however, have been complicated by the need to ensure that US personnel are kept safe from potentially dangerous materials, such as explosives or battery components.\n\nUS defence officials first announced they were tracking the strange object on Thursday, and waited until it was safely over water before shooting it down.\n\nFootage on US TV networks showed the balloon falling to the sea after a small explosion.\n\nOn Friday, the Pentagon said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted - this time over Latin America with reported sightings over Costa Rica and Venezuela.\n\nColombia's Air Force says an identified object - believed to be a balloon - was detected on 3 February in the country's airspace at above 55,000ft.\n\nIt says it followed the object until it left the airspace, adding that it did not represent a threat to national security.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The oil painting was a birthday gift for Mrs Thatcher\n\nA portrait of Margaret Thatcher rescued from a rubbish tip has sold at auction for a higher-than-expected £1,100.\n\nThe unsigned oil painting was a gift to the former prime minister and had been kept in a storage unit in London.\n\nIt was sent for disposal 20 years ago but was rescued by the seller's father, who worked in the waste industry.\n\nAuctioneers Sworders, which had expected it to sell for up to £700, said it had attracted a lot of interest and was sold to a buyer in the UK.\n\nThe painting of Mrs Thatcher, from Grantham in Lincolnshire, was a birthday present from Professor Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, who later became president of Indonesia.\n\nA brass plaque on the artwork says: \"From a true friend and admirer with sincere best wishes on your birthday, 13th October 1995.\"\n\nA brass plaque on the oil painting details its presentation\n\nIt was discovered along with other official gifts to Mrs Thatcher including photographs of her posing with SAS soldiers who stormed the Iranian Embassy in 1980.\n\nAlso discovered was a bronze bust of former U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, which was believed to be a gift to Reagan from the PM during state visit in 1982. It sold for £11,700.\n\nIn total all the items were sold for £15,000.\n\nThe seller inherited the items from his father who had taken the items home as souvenirs.\n\nMark Wilkinson from Sworders said the \"exact circumstances how these items came to be thrown away are unknown\".\n\n\"There are some historic objects in the collection, items that point towards some of the important relationships and events in Margaret Thatcher's tenure as the PM,\" he added.\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nThe Premier League has charged Manchester City with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules following a four-year investigation.\n\nIt has referred the club to an independent commission over alleged rule breaches between 2009 and 2018.\n\nIt also accused City of not co-operating since the investigation started in December 2018.\n\nCity said they were \"surprised\" by the charges and are supported by a \"body of irrefutable evidence\".\n\nThe commission can impose punishments ranging from a fine and points deduction to expulsion from the Premier League.\n\n\"Manchester City is surprised by the issuing of these alleged breaches of the Premier League Rules, particularly given the extensive engagement and vast amount of detailed materials that the EPL has been provided with,\" the club said in a statement.\n\n\"The club welcomes the review of this matter by an independent commission, to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.\n\n\"As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.\"\n\nLast season City won their sixth Premier League title since the 2008 takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group.\n\nWhat have City been charged with?\n\nIn a statement the Premier League said City breached rules requiring them to provide \"accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club's financial position\".\n\nThis information covered club revenue, which includes sponsorship income and operating costs.\n\nFurther alleged breaches relate to rules requiring full details of manager remuneration - from the 2009-10 to 2012-13 seasons, when Roberto Mancini was in charge - and player remuneration between 2010-11 and 2015-16.\n\nThe Premier League said City breached rules related to Uefa regulations, including Financial Fair Play (FFP), from 2013-14 to 2017-18, as well as Premier League rules on profitability and sustainability from 2015-16 to 2017-18.\n\nIn 2020 European football governing body Uefa ruled that City committed \"serious breaches\" of FFP regulations between 2012 and 2016.\n\nHowever, a two-year ban from European competitions was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) later that year.\n\nUefa began its investigation into City after German newspaper Der Spiegel published leaked documents in November 2018 alleging the club had inflated the value of a sponsorship deal.\n\nThe proceedings of the commission - chaired by Murray Rosen KC - will be confidential and heard in private.\n\nWhen the Premier League investigation began, City said the allegations were \"entirely false\" and that allegations in Der Spiegel came from \"illegal hacking and out of context publication of City emails\".\n\n'It will be expensive and will drag on' - analysis\n\nCity were not given advance warning of the Premier League statement. They were called at the same time the statement was published.\n\nThey also note the timing of the statement given the white paper on football governance is about to be published. It is felt that bringing this case is likely to be used by the Premier League as evidence of them being able to deal with governance issues itself.\n\nCity are confident in their position and that includes the charges that were time-barred in their Uefa case. The club are understood to have provided the relevant evidence around those charges to the Premier League some time ago.\n\nOn the basis it has taken the Premier League four years to get to this point, do not expect a resolution to this case any time soon.\n\nManchester City have always denied financial wrongdoing. They always said the detail published by Der Spiegel when it was passed information by Football Leaks was incomplete.\n\nWhen Uefa launched its case, City said they had no faith in that investigation and, when it went against them, they went straight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where they were cleared of what they regarded as the substantive allegations, even though some were timed out.\n\nThey will be armed with the very best lawyers, looking line by line at every element of the Premier League's case.\n\nThe charge sheet includes five years of allegations that City have not assisted with their inquiry - which is all of it.\n\nThe whole thing will be expensive and it will drag on.\n\nCity manager Pep Guardiola has always said he was assured by his employers that they have done nothing wrong. Others - La Liga president Javier Tebas is one of the loudest voices - argue vehemently the other way.\n\nShould City win, legally, they will be clear, even if the sniping will continue.\n\nShould they lose, all manner of punishments can be handed down. The Premier League's scope in that sense is completely open-ended and we are in uncharted territory.\n\nWe are now beginning a very long end game. City's reputation - and the reputation of those who own it - is on the line. The outcome, whenever it comes, will be fascinating.\n• Sept 2008: Abu Dhabi United Group agrees takeover of club. On same day Brazil forward Robinho joins from Real Madrid for a then club record £32.5m\n• May 2011: City beat Stoke to win FA Cup, their first major trophy since 1976\n• May 2012: Sergio Aguero scores dramatic stoppage-time winner as Man City win Premier League title on final day of 2011-12 season - their first league title since 1968\n• May 2013: Mancini sacked as manager and replaced by Manuel Pellegrini, who leads City to 2013-14 Premier League title\n• May 2018: City win Premier League with record number of points, wins and goals\n• May 2019: City become the first English team to win all four domestic trophies\n• May 2021: City reach their first Champions League final, where they lose against Chelsea\n• None Club record revenues of £613m and profits of £42m for 2021-22 season\n• None - a list of the world's richest clubs by revenue - for second year in a row ahead of Real Madrid\n• None Won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, six EFL Cups and three Community Shields, but yet to win Champions League\n• None Spent 2.38bn euros (£2.1bn) on new players since the takeover,\n• None Broke the British transfer record twice in £32.5m signing of Robinho in 2008 and £100m capture of Jack Grealish in 2021\n• None Our coverage of Manchester City is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything City - go straight to all the best content", "Blakers, Green, Zhao and Wang (left to right) worked together at the University of New South Wales\n\nFour pioneers behind the electricity-generating silicon solar cell have won this year's Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.\n\nMartin Green, Andrew Blakers, Jianhua Zhao and Aihua Wang developed so-called Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell, or Perc, technology.\n\nThis transformed the efficiency of solar panels and is now built into 90% of all installations worldwide.\n\nThe team is to be honoured at a special ceremony later in the year.\n\nThe quartet will share a £500,000 award and a trophy, to be presented by the Princess Royal.\n\n\"Our winners did something wonderful, which was to increase the efficiency with which a solar cell converts light into electricity, and it was a really quite dramatic change,\" explained Lord Browne of Madingley, chairman of the QE Prize for Engineering Foundation.\n\n\"With their breakthrough we went from around 16-18% efficiency to something like 25%. That's a big jump,\" he told BBC News.\n\nToday, solar uptake is rocketing as the world tries to move away from fossil fuels. Some estimates suggest that by the 2030s, solar will have more installed capacity than coal, oil, gas, nuclear and hydro put together.\n\nWhen Australian Martin Green started investigating solar energy following the oil crisis of the 1970s, solar cells were used largely just on satellites in space.\n\nIf you'd wanted to put that technology on your roof, it would have cost much more than your house.\n\nBut Prof Green's persistence kicked off a revolution. And with Prof Blakers and Drs Zhao and Wang in his University of New South Wales laboratory, the team not only managed to drive up efficiency but do it in a way that became relatively straightforward to manufacture.\n\nIn a solar cell, photons - or particles of light - strike silicon atoms to free electrons and set up a current. Perc technology boosted performance by remodelling the rear of the cell to reduce the ability of electrons to recombine with atoms. It also kept many more photons in play.\n\nProf Blakers recalled: \"Traditionally, the rear surface just had a layer of metal aluminium printed directly into it, and so that wasn't a very good reflector of light. And it also gobbled up any electron that went anywhere near the back surface.\n\n\"Replacing that crude back metal contact with a more sophisticated contact served both purposes and led to quite significant increases in cell efficiency.\"\n\nThe right properties for the rear surface were found in materials such as silicon dioxide, aluminium oxide and silicon nitride.\n\nIndustry started to pick up the Perc approach in 2012, and by 2018 it had become utterly dominant, with China positioning itself as the home of global production. Extraordinarily, one out of every seven panels produced worldwide is now manufactured by a single Chinese facility, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).\n\nThe country's supremacy can be laid directly at the feet of Drs Zhao and Wang and other Chinese students who studied in Prof Green's lab and then returned home to initiate manufacturing.\n\n\"We were among the first to start Perc production,\" said Dr Zhao.\n\n\"There are two provinces that do most of the manufacturing today. China dominates because of cost; it's so much cheaper to produce solar panels there,\" added Dr Wang.\n\nCommercial cells typically have efficiencies - the amount of electrical energy that can be extracted from the input of sunlight - of 22-23%. The theoretical upper-limit is about 29%.\n\nSolar cell manufacturing is totally dominated today by China - thanks in part to Drs Zhao and Wang\n\nProf Green is experimenting with \"cell modules\" in which materials are stacked on top of silicon and customised to collect the photons in the sunlight spectrum that might ordinarily be lost in a standard set-up.\n\n\"We hold the world record for efficiency in a cell module of 40.6%,\" he told BBC News. \"But it's hard to see how this approach can be made cheap enough for commercial production. There's a lot of interest right now in a material called perovskite - a common mineral - but the cells use heavy elements, like lead. The cells also aren't as stable as silicon.\"\n\nThe IEA is expecting global solar capacity to almost triple over the 2022-2027 period. Currently, solar is providing about half of new-build electricity generation capacity worldwide.\n\nEven given this rapid uptake, Prof Alan Finkel, a former chief scientific advisor to the Australian government, believes \"transforming our energy system will be the hardest economic challenge in human history\".\n\n\"Solar is a wonderful source of clean energy that's significant across the planet, not just in advanced countries but also in less well developed countries. It's easier to put in a solar-powered micro-grid than it is to bring a transmission line from a coal-fired generator. Solar is cheap, reliable and durable, and it will do the heavy-lifting to get us away from fossil fuels,\" he said.\n\nProf Green has previously won the Global Energy Prize, the Japan Prize and the Millennium Technology Prize. He has now supervised over 120 PhD students, including Andrew Blakers, Jianhua Zhao and Aihua Wang.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Martin Green: \"Silicon is an ideal material for photovoltaics. Abundant, non toxic and stable\"", "Entire city blocks have been turned to rubble in the city of Antakya\n\nBodies of people killed in the earthquake in southern Turkey on Monday are being left out on the street as the hunt continues for survivors.\n\nMore than 7,000 people are known to have died in Turkey and northern Syria, which was also devastated by the quake.\n\nThe United Nations warned that thousands of children may be among the dead.\n\nMonday's 7.8 magnitude quake struck at 04:17 (01:17 GMT) near the city of Gaziantep.\n\nA later tremor was nearly as big, with its epicentre in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.\n\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a three-month state of emergency in the 10 provinces worst affected by the earthquake.\n\nHe said the measures would allow relief workers and financial aid into the affected regions but did not give further details.\n\nAround 70 countries are sending aid to Turkey, but there is growing anger in some places that help is not arriving fast enough.\n\nIn the city of Antakya, some of the dead were left laid out on the pavement for hours as rescue workers and ambulances struggled to cope with the scale of the disaster.\n\nFamily members of those missing combed through the rubble looking for their loved ones. A group of men using sledgehammers and other tools found the bodies of a man and a young girl who were trapped. They called to official rescuers to use their power tools to help, but they said they had to concentrate on the living.\n\nThe men kept digging until the bodies were freed.\n\nThere is growing anger that there isn't enough help. One woman told the BBC that rescuers came and took pictures of the building belonging to her boyfriend's family where they believed 11 people were trapped, but they didn't return.\n\nShe said they heard voices for hours, but then there was silence.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFurther north in Kahramanmaras, close to the epicentre of the second quake, there is a delay in help arriving because the mountainous roads are gridlocked by those trying to leave.\n\nRows of buildings have collapsed into piles of debris that rescuers are trying to cope with, while a bitterly cold wind blew smoke and dust from the rubble into their eyes.\n\nSurvivors now living on the streets are having to hunt for food and to burn furniture they find to keep warm. Temperatures are expected to drop below freezing later this week.\n\nIt's a similar situation in the port city of Iskenderun, where now homeless people are taking shelter in open space away from buildings.\n\nOne woman the BBC spoke to is sheltering with her children and grandchildren, including a six-year-old who has epilepsy. Relief workers have brought them duvets and they have been given some bread but there has been no other support so far.\n\n\"I'm devastated,\" a doctor at a local hospital told Reuters. \"I see bodies inside, everywhere. Although I'm used to seeing bodies because of my expertise, it's very difficult also for me.\"\n\nThe port in Iskenderun has been closed until further notice because of a major fire, meaning ships carrying cargo bound for the earthquake disaster zone are being diverted.\n\nThe blaze is thought to have been caused when an oil-filled shipping container tipped over as a result of the earthquake and then flames spread to the surrounding freight.\n\nEmergency services are having trouble getting access to the site because of damage from the quake and other containers now blocking the entrance. An attempt to use a fire-fighting boat to tackle the blaze has failed.\n\nThe port at Iskenderun has been closed until further notice due to a fire\n\nThere have also been reports of difficulties getting aid to northern Syria, especially in opposition-held areas. Control there is divided between the government and other opposition groups. They remain embroiled in conflict as a result of an ongoing civil war.\n\nEven before the earthquake the situation in much of the region was critical, with freezing weather, crumbling infrastructure and a cholera outbreak causing misery for many of those who live there. More than four million people, mainly women and children, were already relying on aid.\n\nThe north-west especially has become one of the hardest places to reach, with only one small crossing on the Turkish border available to transport resources to opposition-held areas.\n\nThe UN said on Tuesday that it was temporarily stopping aid flows to Syria because of damage to the route, with no clear idea of when it would restart.\n\nSyria's UN envoy has said that any support must come from within the country and not across the border with Turkey, leading those in opposition-held areas to worry that it may be withheld for political reasons.\n\nThe scenes of devastation have been interspersed with brief moments of hope. A baby born under the rubble near the city of Afrin has been rescued after being found still attached to its mother, who died after giving birth.", "Nicola Bulley was last seen by the river in St Michael's on Wyre\n\nPolice have said they are \"fully open\" to new information about the disappearance of Nicola Bulley but remain convinced she fell in the river.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire 11 days ago.\n\nPolice said officers were following about 500 lines of inquiry and were contacting some 700 motorists seen in the area on 27 January.\n\nDetectives have also analysed data from her Fitbit smart watch, they said.\n\nSpeaking in a press conference, Supt Sally Riley said thousands of pieces of information had been received from members of the public, with a team of 40 detectives working on the case.\n\nShe said: \"This is normal in a missing person inquiry and does not indicate that there is any suspicious element to this story.\n\n\"The inquiry team remains fully open-minded to any information that may indicate where Nicola is or what happened to her.\"\n\nThe search has been continuing on the River Wyre\n\nBut she added: \"All these extensive inquiries however have so far not found anything of note.\"\n\nLancashire Police has been working with the coastguard, fire service and underwater search experts Specialist Group International to search the river and riverbank using sonar, pole cameras and underwater drones.\n\nSupt Riley added: \"As I said on Friday, the river is a complex area to search. It's not a still water, it's a fast-flowing moving water that is tidal in parts, and this makes it particularly complex.\n\n\"We have already discounted particular areas of the river but as they are tidal we have re-searched them to ensure that nothing has been washed back into those searched areas.\"\n\nThe detective also criticised amateur investigators reportedly breaking into properties near where Ms Bulley was last seen.\n\n\"There are some properties along the riverside which are empty or derelict and while it may be well-intentioned that people think that could be a line of inquiry, I would ask them to desist from doing that,\" she said.\n\n\"In some cases it may be criminal if they are breaking in, causing damage or committing a burglary.\n\n\"We have gone into derelict property, including ones on the riverside, and any under renovation that were empty, with the permission of those owners and their knowledge.\"\n\nSupt Riley also repeated a call for people to avoid \"distressing\" speculation about what may have happened to Ms Bulley.\n\nMs Bulley's friend Heather Gibbons earlier said unfounded rumours about the disappearance had been \"hard\" for the family to deal with and the number of visitors arriving in the area had made it feel like a \"tourist spot\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA search expert earlier said he had not seen a more unusual case in his 20-year career.\n\nPeter Faulding, who has led a team of underwater experts, said: \"I would expect to find Nicola in the water right in front of the bench where she went down. This is so strange.\"\n\nOn Monday Ms Bulley's partner Paul Ansell issued a fresh appeal for information, saying her children missed their mother desperately.\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ismael Alrij and his son, Mustafa, in hospital five minutes before the earthquake struck\n\nIsmael Alrij had just left his six-year-old son, Mustafa, in the hospital when the ground started to violently shake. Watching the building start to fall apart, Ismael could only fear the worst.\n\n\"Then the earthquake got stronger,\" Ismael tells me in a series of voice messages over WhatsApp, the connection patchy. \"The power went out and the entrance to the hospital, which was made from glass, started shattering.\n\n\"It was like a doomsday scenario,\" he says. \"I started imagining how I would have to rescue my son from the rubble.\"\n\nA minute later, Mustafa emerged, running towards him, screaming and crying. He had ripped out his own drip, and blood was oozing from his arm.\n\nIsmael rushed to help not only his own son but others escaping the building amid panic and confusion in the dark. He sheltered nurses and a pregnant woman due to give birth in his car for 20 minutes before racing home to find out about his own family.\n\nIsmael's wife and other child were safe, and the house was still standing.\n\nThe situation there in al-Dana, north-western Syria, was chaotic and desperate. Ismael had watched two residential buildings collapse but power and internet cuts meant rescue services could not be called. It was an hour, he says, before anybody could get there to look for survivors.\n\nDoctors in north-western Syria say needs are immense after the earthquake\n\nAl-Dana is an opposition-held town in Idlib province, near the border with Turkey. Civil defence units are the only emergency first responders in the absence of any government services, but the scale of the devastation made it impossible for them to reach everyone affected.\n\nA few hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck at 04:18 local (01:18 GMT), Ismael, a journalist, went to look around.\n\n\"The damage is indescribable,\" he says. \"The areas most affected are ones which were previously bombarded by Syrian government or Russian forces.\"\n\nThe Syrian uprising in 2011 descended into a bitter civil war in which the Syrian regime, backed by Russia, pounded rebel-held areas.\n\nFor the past three years there has been a shaky ceasefire in north-western Syria. The region is split into a patchwork of zones controlled either by Syrian opposition forces or the Damascus-based government.\n\nIsmael saw dozens of residential buildings destroyed in the town of Atareb, north of the government-controlled city of Aleppo.\n\n\"There are many buildings and neighbourhoods which rescue teams can't reach because of a shortage of equipment,\" he says.\n\n\"We really need help from international organisations.\"\n\nOne such group which was already functioning is the Syrian American Medical Society (Sams), which supports hospitals across the opposition-held north-west.\n\nDr Osama Salloum, who was called to the Sams hospital in Atareb, says he \"could not understand what was happening\" in the first few moments of the quake.\n\n\"I felt death was close,\" he says. \"I kept hearing buildings and rocks fall.\"\n\nBy the time he left the hospital there had been about 53 deaths there - a figure which he says rose to more than 120 by the time we spoke. \"I could not count the number of injured,\" he adds.\n\nThe earthquake also hit areas under government control in the north. Aya was on a visit to her family in the coastal city of Latakia when it struck.\n\nThe 26-year-old chef was asleep with her mother and three siblings when the power went out.\n\n\"I got out of bed but was not sure what woke me up,\" she tells me. \"I didn't understand what was happening until I found the rest of my family also up.\"\n\nHer family home is on a main road and has glass windows throughout.\n\n\"We couldn't move because of how strong the quake was,\" she says. \"We remained rooted on the spot.\"\n\nAya's mother has Parkinson's disease. She was petrified and panicking.\n\n\"I was in shock and couldn't move,\" says Aya. \"I kept looking at how the walls were shaking and moving back and forth. I can't describe to you how crazy the situation was.\"", "Postal workers will no longer go on strike later this month after a legal challenge from Royal Mail, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) says.\n\nAbout 115,000 workers had planned to walk out from 12:30 GMT on 16 February, until 12:30 on 17 February in an ongoing row over pay and conditions.\n\nBut union bosses said late on Monday that they would not fight a legal challenge to the action.\n\nRoyal Mail said the cancelled strike would mean \"relief\" for customers.\n\nThe company said it legally challenged the industrial action on grounds to do with the reasons the strike had been called, citing what it described as a \"legal error\".\n\n\"We welcome the fact that the strike action has been called off,\" Royal Mail said. \"It will be a relief to our customers and we intend to use this time and space for further discussions to try to agree a deal.\"\n\nThe CWU said its legal team had advised that \"given the laws in this country are heavily weighted against working people\", there was a risk that losing in court against Royal Mail's challenge could impact a new strike ballot.\n\n\"The postal executive do not believe it is worth risking the status of the new ballot to defend a ballot mandate that expires on 17 February,\" it said.\n\nThe union said it would re-enter negotiations with Royal Mail later this week, but added \"the focus of the whole union must remain on winning\" the ballot to give it a fresh mandate.\n\nIf the talks failed the CWU would \"significantly step up the programme of strike action\", it said.\n\nRoyal Mail workers staged several strikes at the end of last year, in a move which cost the firm millions at one of the busiest times of the year for parcel deliveries.\n\nWorkers have been offered a pay deal which Royal Mail says is worth up to 9% over 18 months.\n\nBut, the CWU says its members want more due to inflation - the rate at which prices rise - near a 40-year high.\n\nThe union also objects to Royal Mail's proposed changes to working conditions, including the introduction of compulsory Sunday working.\n\nThe CWU said Royal Mail's legal challenge was \"the latest in a long list of deliberate, sustained and co-ordinated attacks\" on members.\n\nBut Royal Mail claimed the mistake was not the first it attributed to the CWU, arguing six days of rolling strike days in October last year were cancelled because of \"irregularities\".\n• None Royal Mail says strikes have cost it millions", "Styles and his dancers performed As It Was, one of the biggest hits of last year\n\nTwo of Harry Styles' dancers have said they had to quickly adapt their Grammy Awards routine after the stage started spinning in the wrong direction.\n\nThe ex-One Direction star performed his single As It Was at Sunday's ceremony, where he won album of the year.\n\nThe British singer and his dancers performed on a giant turntable, and rehearsed with it revolving one way.\n\nBut on the night, it started spinning the opposite way, \"freaking us all out on live television\", one dancer said.\n\n\"The moment the curtain opened and it was time to perform, our turntable started spinning in reverse, backward,\" explained dancer Brandon Mathis.\n\n\"There was nothing we could do to stop it. So after a week of rehearsing this piece perfectly going one way, the moment it's time to perform, it starts going the other way, and in real time we have to troubleshoot and do a complete piece in reverse.\n\n\"Talk about professionalism,\" he added in his explanation on his Instagram story, which is no longer available.\n\nTwo dancers said they had to think on their feet when the turntable they had rehearsed on started spinning the wrong way\n\nStyles and some of his dancers pictured preparing for their performance\n\nOne dancer said performing while spinning requires a \"special type of balance\"\n\nHis account was echoed by another back-up dancer, Dexter Da Rocha, in a since-deleted TikTok post.\n\n\"We rehearsed for 10 days getting down these beautiful formations and sliding off the turntable... and Harry did such a good job integrating into it,\" Da Rocha explained.\n\n\"This whole time we're practicing with the turntable counter-clockwise. We did it loads of times and got it down to the point where we were at dress rehearsal, it was spotless and beautiful.\"\n\nBut when the turntable started turning the wrong way on the night, Da Rocha said the dancers tried to \"get the attention of the technician\", but it was live TV and they \"couldn't yell\" so the technician didn't hear them.\n\n\"So, to switch all those patterns on the spot, having not even walked in that direction... like it sounds it'd be easy to walk, it's like a treadmill, but I swear to god, since it's circular, it pulls you in different directions and it's such a special type of balance.\"\n\nDa Rocha praised Styles, saying he \"did his best to be able to walk and reverse everything while he was singing and reverse his entire duet, which was incredible\".\n\nStyles, pictured with Grammys host Trevor Noah, won two prizes including album of the year for Harry's House\n\nThe Recording Academy, the organisation behind the Grammys, has not yet responded to the BBC's request for comment.\n\nStyles won two of the six Grammys he was nominated for on Sunday - best pop vocal album and album of the year for Harry's House.\n\nAlbum of the year is widely seen as the night's top prize, and Styles held off competition from artists including Adele, Lizzo, Coldplay and Beyoncé, who had widely been seen as the frontrunner.\n\nAccepting the award, Styles said: \"I've been so inspired by every artist in this category with me.\n\n\"But it's important for us to remember that there's no such thing as the best in music. This doesn't happen very often to people like me so this is very nice, thank you.\"", "A worker who alleges reviewing graphic social media posts harmed his mental health can sue Facebook owner Meta, a Kenyan labour court says.\n\nDaniel Motaung claims he was paid about $2.20 (£1.80) per hour to review posts including beheadings and child abuse.\n\nHe is also suing his then employer Sama, which Meta had contracted to review posts.\n\nMeta argued that the court had no jurisdiction because the company is not based in Kenya, Reuters reported.\n\nBut the court disagreed and found that Meta and Sama were \"proper parties\" to the case.\n\nMeta declined to comment, but legal campaign group Foxglove expected it to appeal.\n\nIn 2020, Meta paid $52m to settle a case brought by US content moderators over mental health issues which they said they developed on the job.\n\nThe Kenyan case is supported by Foxglove, whose director Cori Crider said that a key point had been established: \"Daniel's win today should send a message to Facebook, and by proxy, all of big tech in Africa.\n\n\"Kenyan justice is equal to any tech giant, and the giants would do well to wake up and respect Kenyan people - and their law.\"\n\nAmnesty International Kenya head Irungu Houghton told BBC World Service's Focus on Africa programme: \"We are extremely delighted by the ruling. It is not just historic but globally significant.\"\n\nIt was a major development Meta would now face legal action in the global South and could open the door for \"content moderators to be protected in a court of law in the countries in which they live\", he said.\n\nFacebook employs thousands of moderators to review content flagged by users or artificial intelligence systems to see if it violates the platform's community standards, and to remove it if necessary.\n\nMr Motaung said the first graphic video he saw was \"a live video of someone being beheaded\".\n\nHe told the BBC in May 2022 that he suffers flashbacks where he imagines he is the victim.\n\nMr Motaung, who says he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, believes that his co-workers also struggled with the content they had to view.\n\n\"I would see people walking off the production floor to cry, you know, that type of thing,\" he said.\n\nMr Motaung was recruited from South Africa to work for Sama in Nairobi, where much of the moderation for East and South Africa was handled.\n\nHe claims the support given to moderators was inadequate.\n\nSama has called his accusations \"both disappointing and inaccurate\", arguing that it provided all members of its workforce with a competitive wage, benefits, upward mobility, and a robust mental health and wellness programme.\n\nThe firm has since ended its moderation work for Meta.\n\nMeta has previously declined to comment directly on the legal action, but has said it requires partners \"to provide industry-leading pay, benefits and support\".\n\nKenyan lawyer Mercy Mutemi (centre), who is working on both cases against Meta, outside court\n\nCampaigners say Monday's court ruling could have significance for other cases they are attempting to bring.\n\nIn December, a case, also backed by Foxglove, was launched in Kenya, alleging Facebook's algorithm helped fuel the viral spread of hate and violence during Ethiopia's civil war.\n\nThe case asks the court to require the creation of a $2bn fund for victims of hate on Facebook and changes to the platform's algorithm.\n\nMeta said that hate speech and incitement to violence were against the platform's rules, and says it invests heavily in moderation and tech to remove such content.\n\nIt told the BBC: \"We employ staff with local knowledge and expertise and continue to develop our capabilities to catch violating content in the most widely spoken languages in the country, including Amharic, Oromo, Somali and Tigrinya.\"", "Liz Truss beat Rishi Sunak in the first of last year's Conservative leadership contests, but now serves on the backbenches\n\nThere is always a risk for any prime minister that your predecessor ends up as a backseat driver.\n\nThe problem for Rishi Sunak is he has a minibus full of them behind him.\n\nThe final three are still in the House of Commons.\n\nThe latest to lurch their hands towards the minibus wheel - Liz Truss.\n\nWe have heard nothing from her in person since she left office.\n\nMs Truss spoke out for the first time this weekend since she was forced to resign as prime minister\n\nVia a treatise in the Sunday Telegraph and the best part of an hour's conversation with the Spectator - two organs broadly sympathetic to her instincts - a defiant argument that amounts to \"why I was right but I got the implementation wrong, and everyone else was against me\".\n\nAnd so, by implication, a critique of Mr Sunak, even though he wasn't mentioned at all in her article, and only fleetingly in her interview.\n\nAnd all this, incidentally, after Boris Johnson was interviewed on TalkTV by Sunak sceptic and fellow Conservative MP Nadine Dorries on Friday night.\n\nAnd before Sir John Major appears in front of MPs on Tuesday to talk about the Northern Ireland Protocol, one of the thorniest issues the prime minister faces.\n\nWhat should we take from Ms Truss's argument?\n\nThe key thing is she holds to the view that her diagnosis of the UK's problems, as she sees them, is a lack of growth, and the underlying reason for this is an insufficiently Conservative approach to managing the economy - not least cutting tax.\n\nWhatever you might think of that argument, it matters, because it illustrates in technicolour a discussion that burns away within the Conservative Party.\n\nSo, to Ms Truss in her own words in her Spectator interview.\n\nInteresting, for we've heard nothing from her since she left office, until now.\n\nThere are moments of considerable understatement.\n\nThings \"didn't work out\", she says.\n\nThere was \"system resistance\" she argues - the civil service and others, she claims, were sceptical about her approach.\n\nShe had, she acknowledges, \"insufficient political support\".\n\nAgain, an observation with a sprinkling of understatement.\n\nThere is at least some candour, too, about what she sees as her failings - \"the communication wasn't good enough\", and \"I didn't have good enough infrastructure\", a reference to the team assembled around her.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Liz Truss on whether or not she wants to be PM again\n\nShe wasn't questioned directly and bluntly on her tendency in both the Telegraph and the Spectator to blame plenty of other people while appearing to accept a limit to her personal responsibility.\n\nNor to apologise for causing a period of unprecedented political turmoil.\n\nShe accepts now that \"I simply did not know about\" what are called Liability Driven Investments - something at the core of the market turbulence that came along after her disastrous mini budget.\n\nThere is both an acknowledgement of ignorance but a delivery of blame - suggesting the Treasury or Bank of England should have warned her.\n\nBut her rival in the leadership race in the summer, the man who is now prime minister, had said over and over again her economic plans would be a disaster.\n\nIn an interview that was more intellectual than theatrical or particularly challenging, Liz Truss did, though, sketch out a fascinating argument about what she sees as the country's - and even the Conservative Party's - political instincts right now.\n\nThey are, she concludes, at odds with her own, and that helps explain why she failed.\n\nShe argues that, in the UK and elsewhere, there has been what she calls a \"drift\" towards \"more socially democratic policies: higher taxes, higher spending, bigger government, relatively low interest rates and cheap money. There's no doubt that those of us on the side of politics who believe in smaller government and free markets have not been winning the argument.\"\n\nIncluding, that is, to those in her own party.\n\nWhy might this be? The cuts since 2010? The massive government interventions during the pandemic? The state of public services?\n\nTaxes and government spending are at generationally high levels, with neither the Conservatives or Labour promising to radically reduce this any time soon.\n\nSo perhaps, in that observation of political reality right now, Ms Truss is right.\n\nBut - fairly or otherwise - has her stint as prime minister, as short as it was calamitous, buried her political philosophy in a box marked \"toxic, never reopen\"?\n\nPlenty of Conservatives think the blunt truth to that is yes, at least any time soon.\n\nOthers, who are more sympathetic, wonder if there are elements of her prospectus, around housebuilding and childcare for instance, where there may be hope of them being dug up and reincarnated.\n\nLabour, privately, are delighted various former occupiers of No 10 are now occupying the airwaves too.\n\nMeanwhile, the prime minister's official spokesman has said that Mr Sunak \"will always listen to views of former prime ministers\" and that it's \"healthy to have a diverse debate\".\n\nCan you hear the gritted teeth from where you are too?", "Emma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday\n\nThe head of private school Epsom College has been found dead along with her husband and seven-year-old daughter in a property on school grounds.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday.\n\nOfficers from Surrey Police said they were confident there was \"no third-party involvement\".\n\nEpsom College said the community would be \"coming together\" to \"process the news, grieve and pay our respects\".\n\nDet Ch Insp Kimball Edey said: \"On behalf of Surrey Police, my team, and I, I first want to express my sincerest condolences to the friends and family of Emma, Lettie and George, as well as to the students and staff of Epsom College, for their tragic loss.\n\n\"I want to give my assurance that we will conduct a thorough investigation into what took place... and hope to be able to bring some peace in these traumatic circumstances. I would ask that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time.\"\n\nMs Pattison became Epsom's first female head only five months ago after six years as head teacher of Croydon High School in south London.\n\nHer husband George was a chartered accountant who was director of a management consultancy firm called Tanglewood 2016, according to Companies House.\n\nIn December, Ms Pattison told a podcast run by students that her move had been \"a really big change for my family\", adding: \"I've got a new job, my husband got a new job, which wasn't meant to happen, but did, and my daughter has started a new school.\"\n\nThe flag is currently flying at half mast in tribute to Ms Pattison\n\nPolice officers remain at the scene and security guards in hi-vis clothing have been spotted at school entrances.\n\nPupils in uniform could be seen walking just inside the main gate of the school, where the flag is flying at half mast.\n\nThe grounds, near Epsom Downs racecourse, are made up of school buildings and residential properties.\n\nThe school grounds and buildings cover an extensive area\n\nIn a tweet, the college said: \"We hope everyone will respect the privacy of Emma's family at this time and allow the college's pupils, staff and wider community the time and space necessary to come to terms with this loss.\"\n\nThe school also confirmed it would be in close contact with Surrey Police.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Epsom College This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe chair of the board of governors at Epsom called his late colleague \"a wonderful teacher, but most of all, a delightful person\".\n\n\"On behalf of everyone at Epsom College, I want to convey our utter shock and disbelief at this tragic news,\" Dr Alastair Wells said.\n\n\"Our immediate thoughts and condolences are with Emma's family, friends and loved ones, and to the many pupils and colleagues whose lives she enriched throughout her distinguished career.\"\n\nCroydon High School described Ms Pattison as \"hugely respected and much loved\".\n\n\"She was a warm, energetic, compassionate leader, dedicated teacher and generous, insightful colleague and friend,\" the school said.\n\nEmma Pattison became Epsom's first female head five months ago\n\nA parent whose daughter attends Croydon High School said the news was \"an utter shock and tragedy\".\n\nShe told BBC News: \"In her time as head teacher, she turned the school around, and she did so many things that enriched the children's lives.\n\n\"She was slight but very formidable, she knew all of the pupils by name. She was exactly what you would want from a head teacher.\"\n\nLocal MP Chris Grayling said: \"This is an appalling tragedy and my heart goes out to their family and friends and to everyone at Epsom College as well as at the little girl's school.\"\n\nPolice officers remain at the scene of what they said was a \"tragic incident\"\n\nSurrey's Police and Crime Commissioner, Lisa Townsend, offered her \"deepest sympathies\", describing the incident as \"awful\".\n\n\"These events will no doubt have a profound and lasting impact on both the staff and students at the college and the wider local community,\" she said.\n\nInsp Jon Vale, Epsom and Ewell's borough commander, said: \"We're aware that this tragic incident will have caused concern and upset in the local community.\n\n\"While this is believed to be an isolated incident, in the coming days our local officers will remain in the area to offer reassurance to students, parents, teachers and the local community.\n\n\"I would like to thank the school and the community for their understanding and patience while the investigation continues.\"\n\nSurrey Police added that the deaths had been reported to the coroner.\n\nBoarding students at the college pay more than £42,000 a year, and its alumni include Conservative MP Sir Michael Fallon, broadcaster Jeremy Vine and his brother, the comedian Tim Vine.\n\nThe school, which both boys and girls attend, was founded in 1855 and describes itself as being consistently among the UK's leading schools, based on exam results.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSyria's war-torn city of Aleppo is one of the places to have borne the brunt of the deadly earthquake, which also devastated parts of southern Turkey.\n\nMore than 1,600 people have been reported dead so far in northern Syria following the quake.\n\nEmergency rescue teams said many buildings were damaged or destroyed and that people were trapped under the rubble.\n\nThe region is home to millions of refugees displaced by the civil war.\n\nControl of northern Syria is divided between the government, Kurdish-led forces and other rebel groups. They remain embroiled in conflict.\n\nEven before the earthquake the situation in much of the region was critical, with freezing weather, crumbling infrastructure and a cholera outbreak causing misery for many of those who live there.\n\nMuch of Aleppo was destroyed in the civil war, which broke out in 2011 when a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad turned into violence.\n\nWhile there have been efforts to rebuild the city - Syria's pre-war commercial hub - there is dilapidated infrastructure, plus destroyed buildings, and power outages are common.\n\nAccording to separate figures from the Syrian government and the White Helmets rescue group, which operates in rebel-controlled areas, more than 1,600 people have died in the region so far after the earthquake.\n\nA video published on social media, and verified by the BBC, showed a building in Aleppo crashing to the ground as onlookers rushed to safety.\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the Turkish city of Gaziantep. Twelve hours later, a second quake, which was nearly as large, struck 130km (80 miles) to the north.\n\nSome Aleppo residents told Reuters they have nowhere to go, either because their homes have been destroyed or because they are afraid of further quakes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Syrian Civil Defence: \"We need the international community to do something\"\n\nA spokesperson for the White Helmets described north-western Syria as a \"disaster area\" and said families remained trapped under the rubble.\n\nOne man in the town of Jandairis told AFP news agency he had lost 12 members of his family in the earthquake. Another said some of his relatives were trapped under the rubble.\n\n\"We hear their voices, they're still alive, but there's no way to get them out,\" he said. \" There's no one to rescue them. There's no machinery.\"\n\nIn government-controlled areas, all of the country's emergency services have been made available, including the army and student volunteers. However, BBC Monitoring's Hesham Shawish, a Middle East specialist, says this is not enough to deal with the scale of the destruction.\n\nThe International Rescue Committee, a charity with more than 1,000 members of staff on the ground in opposition-held areas of Syria, said it was already dealing with the region's first cholera outbreak in a decade and preparing for approaching snowstorms when the quake hit.\n\nMark Kaye, the organisation's Middle East advocacy director, described the situation as a \"crisis within a crisis within a crisis\" and said vast swathes of the region were beyond contact because of damage to communication networks.\n\nIt may also take some time for international aid to arrive. North-western Syria has become one of the hardest places to reach, with only one small crossing on the Turkish border available to transport resources to opposition-held areas.\n\nThe Idlib region is among those that have been worst affected in Syria\n\nSome people in remote areas of Syria are said to have been displaced as many as 20 times due to the civil war.\n\nHundreds of thousands of civilians and fighters have been killed in the conflict and the resulting humanitarian crisis has been compounded in recent years by an unprecedented economic downturn.\n\nEntire neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure, including hospitals, across Syria were already in ruins as a result of the fighting before the earthquake struck.\n\nThe government has called for international assistance - appealing specifically to United Nations member states, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups.\n\nHowever, it has reportedly rejected claims that it has asked for Israel's aid. The two countries are still technically at war and don't currently have any diplomatic relations.\n\nDozens of other nations have promised help, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. The UN said it has teams on the ground that are assessing the situation and providing assistance.\n\nThe BBC's chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, has said that Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, may be forced to accept help from Western countries and neighbours he has often condemned for backing his enemies.\n\nRussia, which already has a military presence in Syria due to its involvement in the civil war on the government's side, has also pledged its support.\n\nAre you in the affected region? If it is safe to do so email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "On Tuesday the NHS in England will be recovering from one of the biggest strikes in its history. But there will not be much respite.\n\nWhile ambulance workers are back at work, nurses remain on the picket line. The industrial action by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) affects 73 NHS trusts in England, which is which is just over a third of the total.\n\nThe government says that the NHS strikes so far have led to 88,000 appointments and operations being cancelled in England.\n\nBut the advice remains the same: assume your appointment is going ahead if you haven't been contacted.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nMembers of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) are continuing their walkout over pay in England on Tuesday.\n\nA full list of the trusts affected is available on the RCN's website.\n\nIf you have a hospital appointment in England you should still go, unless told otherwise, according to the NHS.\n\nPatients in hospital will be informed how their care will be affected on a ward-by-ward basis.\n\nIntensive and emergency care will still be provided, but routine check-ups and other operations may be affected.\n\nServices such as chemotherapy, kidney dialysis and intensive care will be staffed, as part of emergency cover.\n\nThe biggest disruption is likely to be in pre-booked treatment such as hernia repair, hip replacements or outpatient clinics.\n\nGP practices will run as normal, and people should go to scheduled appointments.\n\nNHS medical director Sir Stephen Powis has said it is \"vital that people do not put off seeking care and come forward for treatment\".\n\nAnyone who is seriously ill or injured should still call 999, or call 111 for non-life threatening care.\n\nThe nurses strikes on each day will last for 12 hours.\n\nRemember the action is only in England. Welsh NHS staff suspended their planned strike action following an improved offer from ministers.\n\nAnd the RCN and GMB unions in Scotland have put strike action on hold to allow talks on a 2023 pay offer.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "\"While there are some very good people doing very good work\" in the police, \"cases like this and abuses like this really expose the culture that exists\", Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women's Aid, tells BBC News.\n\nA \"prevailingly misogynistic and sexist\" culture within the Metropolitan Police means \"women have lost considerable trust\" in the force, she says.\n\nShe calls for \"action to be taken\" - \"real scrutiny around who's coming into the police, real scrutiny of the culture, training, we need for violence against women to be prioritised\", not just within the Met but \"all forces across the country\".\n\n\"The system is just not set up to support women who have experience sexual violence, any form of violence against women and girls or domestic abuse,\" she says.\n\nShe adds that having more female officers trained to deal with reports of violence and abuse \"to help survivors tell their stories\" would help.\n\nNazeer says more training is needed to bring about a \"culture shift\" as a priority for all forces across the country, who need to deal urgently with \"how they're positioning women and how seriously they're taking women. It needs to be absolutely prioritised when it comes to training\".", "Dominic Raab denies the allegations against him\n\nA former senior civil servant who worked closely with Dominic Raab has described his behaviour as \"nasty and difficult\".\n\nIn an anonymous interview with BBC Newsnight, he accuses the deputy prime minister and justice secretary of using \"demeaning tactics to make himself the most powerful person in the room\".\n\nMr Raab is being investigated by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC over claims of bullying.\n\nHe has vehemently denied the allegations against him, and has said he has never sworn or shouted in a meeting.\n\nHe is now the subject of eight formal complaints.\n\nThe FDA trade union, which represents civil servants, has said it understands dozens of people are involved in those complaints. These span several years and a number of government departments.\n\nThe former civil servant - who has not made a formal complaint against Mr Raab - told the BBC, \"I saw him seething at other senior people, hard staring at you, you know like cold fury.\n\n\"It was pretty sinister - and raising his voice. He would make examples of very senior members of staff in front of more junior members and vice versa.\"\n\nWhen challenged on whether this was bullying or just a secretary of state being direct and assertive while doing an important job, the person said they had no doubt it was \"unacceptable behaviour\".\n\n\"No, it's bullying. I mean, the worst thing is the sort of the cold anger and making people wait in silence.\n\n\"Expecting people to turn up very, very quickly without knowing really why they're there. Treating his private office with contempt and doing so publicly.\n\n\"There were long silences, which if you tried to continue speaking he would tell you to wait or stop talking.\n\n\"And he would expect everyone to have the answers to all his questions even when he wanted information on topics outside of the knowledge of the people in the room. He would get cross with his private office on these occasions for not ensuring all the right people were in the room\", he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rishi Sunak says he will not pre-judge the report into claims about Dominic Raab\n\nBut supporters of the deputy prime minister call these allegations \"nonsense\".\n\nThe BBC has spoken to several people at Westminster who don't recognise this characterisation, and believe he has always behaved with professionalism and integrity, and does not tolerate bullying.\n\nIn November last year, Conservative MP Helen Grant, who worked with Mr Raab when he was foreign secretary, tweeted: \"I witnessed a very decent, hard working minister with high professional standards and a solid work ethic. Dominic has zero tolerance for bullying.\"\n\nEarlier this month, another Conservative MP, James Daly, told the Sunday Telegraph: \"During the time I have worked with Dominic Raab, he has always been kind, courteous and utterly professional\".\n\nOne former senior civil servant, who worked with Mr Raab, said: \"He was very professional to me.\" He described Mr Raab as \"incredibly hard working\" and \"very demanding\".\n\n\"Being on the end of his expectations wouldn't be nice if you're not prepared for it. It's tough. There's perfectionism there,\" he added.\n\n\"He had a view how he wanted things done. He expected delivery but doesn't understand how to get it done.\"\n\nBut the former civil servant who spoke to Newsnight said Mr Raab is not suitable to work in policy-making.\n\n\"I am concerned that he is not fit to run a department - not least because his behaviour has an impact on, for example in the MoJ, on the quality of operational delivery of our prisons, our probation service and our courts as well as on the quality of policy development and legislation.\n\n\"All of which has real-life consequences for the public.\n\n\"I think he behaved like a monster at times\", he said.\n\nThere have been claims from people close to Mr Raab that some civil servants are trying to force him out - something his former colleague strongly rejects.\n\nHe said Mr Raab was not physically intimidating but was \"somebody who didn't make you feel safe in the room\".\n\n\"He would cut people short, telling people to stop talking. If he didn't like what someone was saying he would tell them to stop and then turn to another person and say 'I don't understand a word of what x is saying, can you explain this?', our source added.\n\nThey had heard that Mr Raab had \"apparently tried to change\" his behaviour towards colleagues at the MoJ since the allegations broke in the media, but \"that's not enough for the big handful of people who have been part of complaining\" to Adam Tolley KC.\n\nIn a statement, the Ministry of Justice said: \"There is zero tolerance for bullying across the civil service.\n\n\"The deputy prime minister leads a professional department, driving forward major reforms, where civil servants are valued and the level of ambition is high.\n\n\"There is an independent investigation under way and it would be inappropriate to comment further on issues relating to it until it is completed.\"\n\nAsked about the bullying claims in relation to Mr Raab, former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has previously said: \"We mustn't be too snowflakey about it. People need to be able to say this job has not been done well enough and needs to be done better.\"\n\nSpeaking to reporters on Tuesday, before the latest claims, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he would not pre-judge the findings of the investigation into Mr Raab's conduct.\n\nBut he added: \"As people have seen from how I've acted in the past when I am presented with conclusive independent findings that someone in my government has not acted with the integrity or standards I would expect, I won't hesitate to take swift and decisive action.\"\n\nMr Raab's former colleague was interviewed anonymously to protect his identity.\n\nWatch the full interview on BBC Newsnight at 10.30pm on BBC Two and afterwards on the BBC iPlayer.", "Microsoft has announced a new version of Bing\n\nMicrosoft has announced a new version of its search engine Bing, which incorporates the latest in artificial intelligence.\n\nThe overhaul deploys OpenAI's ChatGPT technology, which has taken the world by storm since its launch last year.\n\nThe move is by far the biggest threat Google has seen to its dominance in web search - and marks the beginning of an AI arms race between the companies.\n\nDeveloped by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, ChatGPT uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to search requests.\n\nMr Nadella said he thought it was poised to change the nature of online search - and interactions with many other software.\n\n\"This technology will reshape pretty much every software category that we know,\" he said.\n\nBing will now respond to search queries with more detailed answers - not just links to websites.\n\nUsers are also able to chat with the bot to better tailor their queries. More contextual answers will be added on the right hand side of a search page.\n\nThe new Bing search engine will be live right away - with a limited number of searches for each person.\n\nThe announcement comes a day after Google revealed details of its own new chatbot, Bard.\n\nBoth companies are scrambling to get their products to market.\n\nIn a note to investors after the announcement, analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said he thought that Microsoft's investment would \"massively boost\" the firm's ability to compete.\n\n\"This is just the first step on the AI front ... as [the] AI arms race takes place among Big Tech,\" he said.\n\nMicrosoft, an early backer of San Francisco-based OpenAI, has been investing billions in artificial intelligence.\n\nLast month it announced it was extending its collaboration with OpenAI in a \"multiyear, multibillion dollar investment\".\n\nIt has since announced a new premium tier of Microsoft Teams - its messaging software - that will feature ChatGPT, including a feature that automatically generates notes and highlights of meetings.\n\nMicrosoft said Bing will use OpenAI technology that is even more advanced than the ChatGPT technology unveiled last year. The powers will also be incorporated into its Edge web browser.\n\nAnalysts say ChatGPT - which has been used by students to pass exams and tests - has the potential to be incredibly disruptive to multiple professions, including journalism.\n\nBut it has been criticised for confidently giving answers that are wrong. It also works on datasets that are generally scraped from 2021 or earlier - so many of its answers can feel outdated.", "Lewis won two Brit Awards as a member of girl group All Saints\n\nSinger Shaznay Lewis has said it \"does not feel right that female artists have suffered\" as a result of category changes at the Brit Awards.\n\nBest male and best female have been merged into one best artist category to allow non-binary acts to compete.\n\nHowever, the shortlist for this year's best artist prize is all-male.\n\nLewis, who won two Brits as a member of All Saints, welcomed the awards body's intentions, but said: \"Progressive ideas should benefit everyone.\"\n\nWriting in the Radio Times, she said: \"How can that be the case if we do not acknowledge female artists, who are symbols of empowerment to millions of young aspiring women?\"\n\nThe singer and songwriter described the category change as a \"welcome and wonderful step\" for recognising talent regardless of an artist's gender.\n\nHowever, she continued: \"If the Brits are meant to be accolades for all, how can we persist with a category that this year has excluded half of the population, women? I'm hoping it won't be the case in 2024.\"\n\nHarry Styles, who won record of the year at Sunday's Grammys, is the favourite to win artist of the year at the Brits\n\nAdele was the first winner of the newly-titled artist of the year category in 2022, following the release of her fourth album 30.\n\nShe said in her acceptance speech: \"I understand why the name of this award has changed but I really love being a woman and being a female artist. I'm really proud of us.\"\n\nThis year, the best artist nominees are Fred Again, Central Cee, George Ezra, Stormzy and Harry Styles.\n\nFemale artists such as Charli XCX and Florence + The Machine missed out, although acts like Wet Leg, Nova Twins and Cat Burns are recognised in other categories.\n\nLewis said: \"Women, predictably, have suffered as a result [of merging the categories]. It does not feel right.\"\n\nShe questioned why women faced being \"disregarded and excluded\", and asked whether it was because female artists were not seen as \"equally bankable\" by the music industry.\n\nAdele said she \"loved being a female artist\" when she accepted the first artist of the year prize last year\n\nBrits organisers said the changes were made because \"it was time to progress to judging artists solely on the quality and popularity of their work, rather than on who they are, or how they choose to identify\".\n\nThey said 42% of nominations this year featured women, but that a key factor behind the best artist shortlist was \"unfortunately, there were relatively few commercially successful releases by women in 2022 compared to those by men\".\n\nA statement on Monday added: \"We recognise this points to wider issues around the representation of women in music that must also be addressed.\"\n\nOrganisers carry out an annual review of the awards, they said, adding that they would examine the artist of the year question after this year's ceremony on Saturday.\n\n\"We are wholeheartedly committed to a considered review of the categories over the immediate months following this year's event, and this will include industry consultation and discussion, in line with what we instigated over the past five years, with any conclusions and actions made ahead of the 2024 event.\"\n\nAll Saints at the Brit Awards '98 (Left to right: Melanie Blatt, Nicole and Natalie Appleton, Shaznay Lewis)\n\nHowever, they suggested more time may be needed to assess whether women are at a disadvantage.\n\nThe statement said: \"We believe that any changes made to award categories should be carefully evaluated over time. Last year Adele was voted the inaugural AOTY, and women triumphed in 10 out of the 15 categories.\"\n\nAll Saints won best single and best video for their hit Never Ever at the Brit Awards in 1998.\n\nBoth categories were gender neutral and saw the girl group compete against male acts such as Elton John, Blur, Radiohead, Oasis and David Bowie.\n\nHowever, the existence of gendered categories that year meant there were other guaranteed female winners, with Shola Ama winning best British female solo artist and Bjork winning best international female.\n\nLewis said the group were hugely proud of their accomplishment, writing: \"We played a major part in ensuring that the Brits was a space for women to thrive. Is that still the case?\"\n\nThe two awards won by All Saints were voted for by the public - but most of the winners and nominees at the ceremony are chosen by the Brits Voting Academy, which is made up of about 1,200 members.", "The decision to shoot the balloon down triggered a diplomatic spat between the US and China\n\nA suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the US coast was about 200 ft (60m) tall and carrying an airliner-sized load, officials say.\n\nAt a briefing on Monday, a US defence official said the size and make-up of the object informed the decision not to shoot it down while it was over land.\n\n\"Picture large debris weighing hundreds if not thousands of pounds falling out of the sky,\" Gen Glen VanHerck said.\n\nThe US is still working to recover debris off the coast of South Carolina.\n\nRemnants of the object - which the US believes is a spy balloon but China says is a weather monitoring device blown astray - have been collected from a roughly 1,500m (4,920 ft) by 1,500m sized area, but it is thought debris is spread over a far larger site.\n\nMultiple fighter jets were involved in the operation to shoot it down, but only one US Air Force F-22 took the shot at 14:39 local time (19:39 GMT) on Saturday days after it first appeared over US territory. It sent debris hurtling down about six nautical miles off the US coast.\n\n\"They have recovered some remnants off the surface of the sea and weather conditions did not permit much undersea surveillance of the debris field,\" National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.\n\nHe said US personnel would \"in the coming days be able to get down there and take a better look at what's on the bottom of the ocean, but it's just started\".\n\nThere is no plan to give the remnants back to China, officials said, adding that the retrieved debris would be analysed by intelligence experts.\n\nA number of specialist ships have been deployed to the area, including an oceanographic survey ship that uses sonar and other means to map out a debris field, Gen VanHerck, who commands both the US military's Northern Command and joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Command, or Norad, said.\n\nHe added that while the balloon was several hundred feet tall, the payload - the portion which would have carried equipment - was about the same size as a regional airliner.\n\nGen VanHerck said the US was still working to determine whether the debris includes potentially dangerous materials, such as explosives or battery components.\n\nRepublican politicians have accused US President Joe Biden of a dereliction of duty for allowing the balloon to traverse the country unhindered.\n\nThe decision to shoot it down also triggered a diplomatic spat between the US and China, and prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a scheduled trip to Beijing that had been aimed at easing tensions.\n\nOn Monday, China accused the US of using \"indiscriminate force\" when it downed the balloon. It said it \"obviously overreacted and seriously violated the spirit of international law\".\n\nThe US believes the balloon was being used to monitor sensitive military sites.\n\nAdm Mike Mullen, former chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, rejected China's suggestion it might have blown off course, saying it was manoeuvrable because \"it has propellers on it\".\n\n\"This was not an accident. This was deliberate. It was intelligence,\" he added.\n\nA Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has confirmed that a second balloon - currently floating over Latin America - is also Chinese.", "Members of the PCS union walked out on February 1\n\nAbout 100,000 civil servants are set to strike on the day the chancellor unveils the Spring Budget, the Public and Commercial Services union has said.\n\nMark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said members would walk out on 15 March as part of an ongoing row with the government over pay and conditions.\n\nThe PCS has been calling for a 10% pay rise, better pensions, job security and no cuts to redundancy terms.\n\nThe government said the union's demands would cost an \"unaffordable £2.4bn\".\n\nThe PCS represents thousands of workers who work in government departments as well as workers at organisations such as Ofsted, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and Border Force.\n\nThe union said its members from 123 government departments would take part in the industrial action, which include staff at the Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care and the Home Office.\n\nSome 100,000 civil servants previously walked out on February 1.\n\nMr Serwotka said PCS members were \"suffering a completely unacceptable decline in their pay\".\n\n\"Rishi Sunak doesn't seem to understand that the more he ignores our members' demands for a pay rise to get them through the cost-of-living crisis, the more angry and more determined he makes them,\" he said.\n\nHe said the prime minister could \"end this dispute tomorrow if he puts more money on the table\".\n\n\"If he refuses to do that, more action is inevitable,\" Mr Serwotka added.\n\nThe Spring Budget in March will see Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who is in charge of the government's finances, outline to the House of Commons his plans for taxation and spending.\n\nThe government has previously offered civil servants a 2% to 3% pay rise, but union bosses have been calling for a rise of 10%, a similar level to the rate of overall inflation in the UK, which is at a 40-year high.\n\nPrice rises have been squeezing household budgets and there has been a wave of strikes across the UK in sectors ranging from healthcare to railways in recent months.\n\nThe government said it valued the work of civil servants and added it was \"committed to constructively engaging with unions\".\n\n\"But the PCS Union's demands would cost an unaffordable £2.4bn at a time when our focus must be on bringing down inflation to ease the pressure on households across the country,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"That is why public sector pay awards strike a careful balance between recognising the vital importance of public sector workers, while delivering value for taxpayers and being careful not to drive even higher prices in the future.\"", "Google is launching an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered chatbot called Bard to rival ChatGPT.\n\nBard will be used by a group of testers before being rolled out to the public in the coming weeks, the firm said.\n\nBard is built on Google's existing large language model Lamda, which one engineer described as being so human-like in its responses that he believed it was sentient.\n\nThe tech giant also announced new AI tools for its current search engine.\n\nAI chatbots are designed to answer questions and find information. ChatGPT is the best-known example. They use what's on the internet as an enormous database of knowledge although there are concerns that this can also include offensive material and disinformation.\n\n\"Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world's knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models,\" wrote Google boss Sundar Pichai in a blog.\n\nMr Pichai stressed that he wanted Google's AI services to be \"bold and responsible\" but did not elaborate on how Bard would be prevented from sharing harmful or abusive content.\n\nThe platform will initially operate on a \"lightweight\" version of Lamda, requiring less power so that more people can use it at once, he said.\n\nGoogle's announcement follows wide speculation that Microsoft is about to bring the AI chatbot ChatGPT to its search engine Bing, following a multi-billion dollar investment in the firm behind it, OpenAI.\n\nChatGPT can answer questions and carry out requests in text form, based on information from the internet as it was in 2021. It can generate speeches, songs, marketing copy, news articles and student essays.\n\nIt is currently free for people to use, although it costs the firm a few pennies each time somebody does. OpenAI recently announced a subscription tier to complement free access.\n\nBut the ultimate aim of chatbots lies in internet search, experts believe - replacing pages of web links with one definitive answer.\n\nSundar Pichai said that people are using Google search to ask more nuanced questions than previously.\n\nWhereas, for example, a common question about the piano in the past may have been how many keys it has, now it is more likely to be whether it is more difficult to learn than the guitar - which does not have an immediate factual answer.\n\n\"AI can be helpful in these moments, synthesizing insights for questions where there's no one right answer,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Soon, you'll see AI-powered features in Search that distil complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web.\"\n\nYou can follow Zoe Kleinman on Twitter @zsk.", "Mark Cavendish and his wife Peta, pictured two months before the robbery, were in their home at the time of the incident\n\nTwo men have been jailed for a knifepoint robbery at the family home of elite cyclist Mark Cavendish.\n\nRomario Henry, 31, of south-east London, and Ali Sesay, 28, of Kent, broke into Mr Cavendish's home in Ongar, Essex, on 27 November 2021.\n\nHenry, who denied the crime, was found guilty of two counts of robbery last month. Sesay pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.\n\nChelmsford Crown Court sentenced Henry to 15 years in prison and Sesay 12.\n\nThe court was told the balaclava-wearing intruders broke into Mr Cavendish's home and threatened to stab the Olympian, who was recovering from breaking his ribs in a cycling crash.\n\nMr Cavendish's wife, Peta, and children were in the property.\n\nFighting back tears during the sentencing, Mrs Cavendish said the robbery had \"turned a loving family home into a constant reminder of threat and fear\".\n\nAli Sesay (left), 28, of Kent, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the robbery and Romario Henry, 31, of south-east London, 15\n\nReading her victim personal statement from the witness box, she said the family \"could potentially sell the property due to the continuing fear\" but in the current economic climate this could cause \"considerable loss\".\n\nMrs Cavendish said she was \"in the early stages of pregnancy\" when the raid happened and a time when she \"should have been happy and excited was then transformed into a period of stress and worry\".\n\nShe had told the jury during the trial how she covered her three-year-old child, who was in bed with her, with a duvet so that they could not see what was happening.\n\nTwo Richard Mille watches, valued at £400,000 and £300,000, were among the items taken in the raid at about 02:30 GMT.\n\nTwo Richard Mille watches, valued at £400,000 and £300,000, were among the items taken\n\nMr and Mrs Cavendish were brand ambassadors for the Richard Mille watches stolen in the raid\n\nThe court was told Mr Cavendish, who jointly holds the record for most stage wins in the Tour de France, was robbed of a watch, phone and safe.\n\nHis wife was robbed of a watch, phone and suitcase.\n\nJudge David Turner, sentencing, said: \"This was planned, targeted, orchestrated, ruthless offending aimed at an internationally known sportsman and his wife who happened to be brand ambassadors for exceptionally valuable Richard Mille watches.\"\n\nDuring the trial, Mrs Cavendish told jurors one of the intruders \"dragged\" her husband \"from his feet and started punching him\".\n\nOne had him in a headlock, she said, adding: \"One of them held a large black knife to his throat and they said 'where's the watches?' and 'do you want me to stab you?\"'\n\nShe agreed with a suggestion that it was a Rambo-style knife.\n\nMrs Cavendish speaking outside Chelmsford Crown Court after the sentencing\n\nSpeaking outside the court after sentencing, she said: \"No family should ever have to go through what we went through and I'm glad that two of the people have been sent to jail today for significant periods of time.\n\n\"But no matter what the sentence was any parent will understand, I'm sure, that no time in prison could make up for what they did to us that night.\"\n\nPolice said they were trying to locate two men, George Goddard and Jo Jobson (right) in relation to the incident\n\nDet Insp Tony Atkin, from Essex Police, said: \"The strength the Cavendish family has shown since this incident, throughout the investigation and throughout the trial has been incredible.\n\n\"Today, we've seen two men sentenced for their part in an incident that, as Peta says, no family should ever have to go through.\n\n\"Unfortunately, they did. And since then, we have done everything in our power to identify those involved.\"\n\nPolice said they were trying to locate two men George Goddard and Jo Jobson in relation to the incident.\n\nSesay, of Rainham, Kent, also admitted to six unrelated firearms offences and was sentenced to a further eight years in prison, consecutive to the 12-year jail sentence for the robbery.\n\nGraeme Molloy, for Sesay, said the defendant was \"truly sorry for his role\" in the robbery and had admitted his involvement.\n\nArchangelo Power, for Henry, said the defendant's brother had been murdered three-and-a-half months before the robbery and that had a \"significant bearing\" on his \"psychological make-up\".\n\nHenry, of Bell Green, Lewisham, appeared on trial with co-defendant Oludewa Okorosobo, 28, of Flaxman Road, Camberwell, south London, who was found not guilty.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Teams working in Syria have pulled two children to safety from the earthquake ruins, in separate rescues in Aleppo and Idlib.", "The home secretary said David Carrick's crimes were a \"scar on our police\"\n\nSerial rapist and former Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick will serve a minimum of 30 years in jail.\n\nCarrick was told he had taken \"monstrous advantage of women\" as he was sentenced to 36 life terms.\n\nThe 48-year-old committed violent and degrading sexual offences against a dozen women over two decades.\n\nHis victims, one of whom had a gun held to her head while being raped and another who was hit with a whip, spoke of how they had \"encountered evil\".\n\nFlanked by two security guards, Carrick showed no emotion as he was sentenced by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb.\n\n\"You behaved as if you were untouchable,\" she told him.\n\n\"The malign influence of men like you in positions of power stands in the way of a revolution of women's dignity.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The former police officer used his occupation to \"entice victims\", said Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb\n\nThe judge also praised the bravery of his victims, some of whom were in the packed courtroom, saying that the voice of courage cannot be denied.\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman said Carrick's crimes, carried out from 2003 to 2020, were a \"scar on our police\".\n\nCarrick falsely imprisoned two women, separately, in the under-stairs cupboard on different occasions\n\nSouthwark Crown Court heard he would \"use his power and control\" to stop victims reporting him, with one stating it was \"drilled into\" her that he was a police officer.\n\nIn statements read out in court, another victim said she felt she had \"encountered evil\" after being repeatedly raped by Carrick who put a handgun to her head.\n\nAnother woman said Carrick hit her with a whip and would shut her in a small cupboard as punishment while \"whistling at her as if she was a dog\".\n\nCarrick's crimes include dozens of rape and sexual offences, mostly committed in Hertfordshire, where he lived, and all took place while he was a serving officer.\n\nChief executive of Women's Aid, Farah Nazeer, told the BBC that while the jail term was an \"acceptable sentence in a very, very unacceptable situation\", she added that it came 17 years, 12 victims and at least 85 offences too late.\n\nMs Nazeer said the victims' \"courage and bravery should be commended and that will send a message to other women in that situation that justice can be achieved\".\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: \"These convictions represent a spectacular downfall for a man charged with upholding the law, and empowered to do so even to the extent of being authorised to bear a firearm in the execution of his duty.\n\n\"You were bold and, at times, relentless, trusting that no victim would overcome her shame and fear to report you.\n\n\"For nearly two decades you were proved right, but now a combination of those 12 women, by coming forward, and your police colleagues, by acting on their evidence, have exposed you and brought you low.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCarrick, who had undertaken a course on domestic violence in 2005, was sacked by the Met the day after he pleaded guilty. The force's Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has apologised for failings and said opportunities to remove him from policing were missed.\n\nHe had previously come to the attention of police over nine incidents, including rape allegations, between 2000 and 2021.\n\nFollowing sentencing, Sir Mark described Carrick's crimes as \"unspeakably evil\".\n\n\"He exploited his position as a police officer in the most disgusting way. He should not have been a police officer,\" he added.\n\n\"Behind a public appearance of propriety and trustworthiness you took monstrous advantage of women,\" the judge said.\n\nDefence barrister, Alisdair Williamson KC, told the court \"something has profoundly damaged this man\", adding that Carrick \"cannot ask for mercy and does not\".\n\nHe was sentenced to a minimum term of 32 years in jail, which he must serve before he can be considered for parole.\n\nTaking into account the time he has already spent in prison on remand, it means he will spend at least another 30 years and 239 days in prison, when he would be in his late 70s.\n\nDavid Carrick committed many of his crimes in Hertfordshire, where he lived\n\nThe court heard Carrick had attempted to take his own life while on remand at Belmarsh prison in south-east London, but was found not to be suffering from any mental disorder.\n\nThe judge told him he was driven to try and take his own life \"as a self-pitying reaction to the shame brought on you by these proceedings rather than remorse.\"\n\nDet Insp Iain Moor, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, said detectives had set up a special reporting portal for people to share information about Carrick.\n\n\"If anyone else thinks they have been a victim, we still want to hear from you and we will support you,\" he said.\n\n\"As a serving police officer he has brought shame on the profession and was not fit to wear the uniform, but I hope that our determination to get justice for the victims in this case, will go some way to reassuring the public that nobody is above the law and we will bring people like David Carrick to justice.\"\n\nThe home secretary added: \"It is vital we uncover how he was able to wear the uniform for so long.\"\n\nDavid Carrick held a gun to the head of one of his victims, the court heard\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan said: \"This should never have been allowed to happen and must never happen again.\n\n\"There can be no hiding place for those who abuse their position of trust and authority within the police.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said: \"This is a shocking and appalling case which demonstrates a vile abuse of power and the public are rightly sickened by it.\n\n\"It now is rightly for the police to address the failings in the case and restore public confidence and that's something that the Met Commissioner, we know, is very much seeking to do.\"\n\nThe home secretary has previously said the case would be considered in the inquiry, chaired by Dame Elish Angiolini KC, which was set up to look into the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, who was another serving Met police officer.\n\nThe prosecution in Carrick's case said it fell short of meriting a whole-life order, and Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she agreed, stating: \"Of the utmost gravity though this is, the 'wholly exceptional circumstances' test is not met.\"\n\nFollowing the sentencing, the Attorney General's Office said it had received \"multiple requests\" under the unduly lenient sentence scheme, which allows people and authorities to ask for sentences to be reviewed.\n\nIt said the case would \"of course\" be considered for referral to the Court of Appeal. Law officers have 28 days from sentencing to refer a case to the court.\n\nThe prime minster's spokesman added that the government was still planning to take steps to strip Carrick of his police pension.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Awards watchers were shocked that Danielle Deadwyler was not nominated for the best actress Oscar\n\nUS actress Danielle Deadwyler has claimed the film industry is \"deeply impacted by systemic racism\", after no black women were nominated for best actress at this year's Oscars.\n\nDeadwyler was expected to be recognised for her performance in the drama Till.\n\nBut she missed out on a nomination, as did Viola Davis, who was also widely tipped to be in the running.\n\nDeadwyler said there is a \"trickle-down effect\" of racism in society on many institutions in American life.\n\nIn Till, the actress plays the mother of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Deadwyler said: \"Cinematic history is 100+ years old. I would dare say the system is deeply, deeply impacted by systemic racism that has shaped our country.\n\n\"And if we're still dealing with systemic racism in this country that is leading us to the loss of a Tyre Nichols, that carries us from the loss of Emmett, there is a trickle-down effect of how racism impacts our lives - from the educational system to the film industry to everything, any part of quotidian American life.\"\n\nDeadwyler (right) plays Mamie Till-Mobley in the film, the mother of Emmett Till, played by Jalyn Hall\n\nDeadwyler was widely praised for her performance in Till, and was considered one of the favourites to be nominated in the leading actress category at this year's Academy Awards.\n\nAfter she was snubbed when the nominations were announced in January, Till writer and director Chinonye Chukwu accused Hollywood of \"unabashed misogyny towards Black women\".\n\nReferring to those comments, Deadwyler told Radio 4: \"Yes there is value to what [Chukwu] said, and it's imperative that every quality of our life begin to truly, deeply interrogate and change and rupture and radically shift the way they seek to actually be an equitable institution.\"\n\nAsked whether the Oscars or wider society needs to change, Deadwyler replied: \"It's from both ends... It's got to come from every angle.\"\n\nThe Academy has increased the number of female and black and ethnic minority voters since the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in 2015.\n\nDeadwyler noted that very few black women had been recognised at the Oscars, and there were often \"numerous decades in between\" those who had.\n\nShe referred to Hattie McDaniel's supporting actress win in 1940 and Halle Berry's leading actress win in 2002, which remains the only victory in that category for a black woman.\n\n\"You have to begin to question why there are these gaps,\" Deadwyler said. \"Before I was even in consideration for anything, these are the things that I witnessed.\n\n\"So these are critical questions of, how do you begin to actually bring equity to spaces which have long been led or deeply impacted by white supremacy, ideologies, thoughts and practises?\"\n\nHalle Berry, pictured with Denzel Washington in 2002, is the only black woman to have won best leading actress at the Oscars\n\nThis year's best actress nominees are Michelle Yeoh, Cate Blanchett, Ana De Armas, Michelle Williams and Andrea Riseborough.\n\nBritish actress Riseborough scored a shock nomination following a campaign driven by a number of Hollywood A-listers.\n\nThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences conducted a review into the campaign and said some tactics \"caused concern\", but her nomination was not revoked.\n\nWilliams was recognised despite a debate in Hollywood over whether she should have been nominated in the supporting actress category.\n\nNo black men are nominated for best lead actor this year. Two black performers - Angela Bassett and Brian Tyree Henry - are in the running in the supporting categories. The winners will be announced on 12 March.", "If you want to know what 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement has achieved have a look - and a listen - to five parties standing side-by-side condemning the brutal attack on Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell.\n\nWe cannot know what - if anything - was in the minds of the terrorists who gunned him down in Omagh on Wednesday night.\n\nBut if any part of it was to say the agreement has not worked it may just have had the opposite effect.\n\nSome context here. The people currently trying to organise events to mark the accord's 25th birthday do so in the knowledge that the prospect of the cake being iced may be fading.\n\nIn other words the big prize of restoring devolution at Stormont in time for the big day may be slipping from their grasp unless the gloom around a potential deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol lifts soonish.\n\nBut while there is no doubt politics - and the stop/start nature of Stormont - has been the big failure of the past 25 years, the attempted murder of John Caldwell has given our feuding politicians the opportunity to show they remain united against attempts to drag Northern Ireland back into violence.", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell has been involved in a number of major investigations\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland has arrested a fifth man in connection with the shooting of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell.\n\nThe man, aged 43, was arrested in Stewartstown, County Tyrone, on Friday evening.\n\nTwo gunmen shot the 48-year-old several times in front of his young son at a sports complex in Omagh on Wednesday.\n\nInvestigators said their main line of enquiry into the attempted murder was dissident republican group the New IRA.\n\nDissident republicans oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal and continue to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nFour men - aged 22, 38, 45, and 47 - arrested in the Omagh and Coalisland areas of Tyrone on Thursday and Friday - remain in custody.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell is critically ill after he was shot while putting footballs into his car after coaching young people at football.\n\nHe remains heavily sedated in hospital. His wife and son had been left seriously affected by his shooting, Chief Constable Simon Byrne said.\n\nMr Byrne provided an update alongside leaders from Northern Ireland's five main parties on Friday.\n\nPolitical leaders presented a united front with the chief constable, which Mr Byrne said was a significant show of solidarity that showed the \"sheer sense of outrage at this pointless and senseless attack\".\n\nThe chief constable met leaders from Sinn Féin, the DUP, Alliance, UUP and the SDLP\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell suffered life-changing injuries in the attack, according to the chairman of Northern Ireland's Police Federation, Liam Kelly.\n\nHe is one of the best-known detectives in the PSNI, often fronting press conferences on major inquiries during his 26-year career.\n\nHe had coached a Beragh Swifts training session at Youth Sport Omagh when the gunmen approached and shot him at about 20:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nChildren ran in terror when the shots rang out in the car park of the sports complex.\n\nTwo gunmen, who were dressed in dark clothing, carried out the attack and fled the scene of the shooting on foot, police said.\n\nAt least two other vehicles were struck by their volley of shots.\n\nThe attack appears to underscore the re-emergence on the New IRA after nearly four years of surface-level inactivity.\n\nIn 2019 the dissident republican grouping shot dead journalist Lyra McKee as she watched rioting unfold in Londonderry.\n\nWithin a year, its suspected leadership was rounded-up by the PSNI following a surveillance operation run by MI5 using an alleged agent.\n\nTen individuals are currently awaiting trial on almost 50 terrorism charges as a result of Operation Arbacia.\n\nIn the aftermath, the New IRA was viewed as being in complete disarray and last year, for the first time in more than a decade, the government announced the threat level in Northern Ireland was being lowered from severe to substantial.\n\nIt might not have sounded much, but it was a hugely symbolic moment.\n\nAttacks, or attempted attacks, dropped markedly: the years 2020-22 saw a virtual absence of activity.\n\nBut the New IRA was re-organising and in November it mounted a roadside bomb attack, using military grade explosives, on a police patrol car in Strabane.\n\nThe armour-plated vehicle did its job and two officers inside escaped injury.\n\nThe attack has now been followed up with the attempted murder, less than 20 miles away, of Det Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nPolice believe the gunmen then made off in a small, dark car, which was found burnt out at Racolpa Road, outside Omagh.\n\nThe Racolpa Road was closed between the Rushill Road and Crocknacor Road.\n\nThis car at a nearby farmyard on the Racolpa Road outside Omagh is thought to have been used by the gunmen\n\nBeragh Swifts chairman Ricky Lyons said the club was supporting the young players who witnessed the shooting.\n\n\"He was taking a kids' training session - it's hard to compute that someone would try to attempt to kill John at that moment,\" said Mr Lyons.\n\nIrish Football Association (IFA) President Conrad Kirkwood said he had received a message from Det Ch Insp Caldwell earlier this week about hosting a football seminar at his club.\n\n\"This is a guy who, despite having a busy day job, is absolutely invested in trying to make things better - it makes it even more tragic,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA recovery vehicle carrying two cars left the Youth Sport Omagh complex under police escort on Thursday night.\n\nOn Friday evening a police cordon put in place at the scene was lifted.\n\nA rally to condemn the attack will be held at Omagh's courthouse on Saturday morning.\n\nIt will take place close to where 29 people died after a bombing in the County Tyrone town on 15 August 1998 - the biggest single atrocity in the Troubles.\n\nA walk of solidarity will also take place at Beragh Swifts Football Club on Saturday, with attendees encouraged to wear the club's colours.\n\nPolice on the Racolpa Road in Omagh where what is believed to be a getaway car was found\n\nAn Garda Síochána (police in the Republic of Ireland) continue to work closely with the PSNI after the shooting, a spokesperson said.\n\nGardaí previously said it had intensified patrolling in border counties following the attack.\n\nIt added that it will provide the PSNI with assistance as required as the investigation continues.\n\nLast March, the the threat level posed by dissident republican terrorism in Northern Ireland was lowered from severe to substantial for the first time in 12 years.\n\nThe decision to lower the threat level was taken by the Security Service (MI5) after assessing a wide range of information, independently of ministers.\n\nSince 2010 it had been \"severe\", meaning attacks are highly likely. It is now \"substantial\", meaning attacks are likely.\n\nThe threat level is assessed over a period of time rather than in reaction to one event.\n\nDt Ch Insp Caldwell has been the senior detective in high-profile inquiries including:\n\nHe had received a number of threats in the past, BBC News NI understands, and was aware his investigations of dissident republican attacks made him a high-profile target.\n\nHe continued to carry out his activities as a football coach and whether that was a pattern that aided the targeting of him is of course a matter for the investigation.\n\nThe last gun attack on a PSNI officer was in January 2017.\n\nThe PSNI officer was hit by automatic gunfire at a petrol station in north Belfast.", "The boy was found with a stab wound in the residential area of Gladdis Road in Bournemouth\n\nA 13-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder after another teenager was stabbed.\n\nThe teenager, 14, was found with a single stab wound in Gladdis Road, Bournemouth, on Wednesday evening and taken to hospital in a critical condition.\n\nHis injuries are no longer thought to be life-threatening.\n\nThe case has been referred to the police watchdog over previous contact with the 14-year-old.\n\nDorset Police said three local teenage boys - one aged 14 and two 15-year-olds - had also been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.\n\nThe force also appealed for two men who were travelling in a pick-up truck and flagged down officers at the scene to get in touch, as it is thought they may have witnessed the stabbing.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A deal between London and Brussels is close - but can Rishi Sunak push it through?\n\n\"It's all about leadership now\" - it is not, any longer, according to that particular diplomatic source, about the finer details of customs posts; the never-ending tangle of whether it's UK or EU law that's supreme; or whether a sausage that's been made in Bolton needs to be inspected if it is going to be sold in Belfast.\n\nA deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol is so close that the negotiating teams have been consulting the thesaurus to help pick a name, in scenes reminiscent of the '80s political comedy, \"Yes Minister\".\n\nSorting out the protocol - those post-Brexit trading arrangements - matters practically if you live in or do business with Northern Ireland.\n\nAnd it matters symbolically a great deal for Rishi Sunak and the government, eager for this bitter hangover from the Brexit negotiations to fade.\n\nThe agreement, whatever it ends up being named, is broadly done, and likely to be unveiled on Monday.\n\nOne Whitehall source says there's been a \"very disciplined approach to solving the problems\"; now an arrangement has been struck that \"unambiguously works\" after weeks of working through the issues.\n\nBut that painstaking practical negotiation could come to naught if it's not matched with political force.\n\nIt's in the constitution of some ranks of the Conservative backbenches and some parts of the Northern Irish Unionist DUP to be suspicious of what emanates from any group in charge in Number 10.\n\nAdd in the fact that many on the Eurosceptic wing of the Tory party are, politely put, not natural supporters of Mr Sunak.\n\nSome, like the former leader Iain Duncan Smith and the DUP's Sammy Wilson, have been setting tests for the deal before they know for sure what's in the final version - easier perhaps then to cry foul later on.\n\nIt is rarely possible to please all of the people all of the time. But on the issue of Brexit and Northern Ireland, it is near impossible.\n\nA diplomat says, \"the government simply needs to push it forward, knowing that part of the DUP will not be pleased\" - so the question is whether Mr Sunak's push to get a deal through is stronger than the resistance it will inevitably find along the way.\n\nNumber 10's handling of the matter so far could make that harder. Mr Sunak is not the first prime minister to preside over a \"will they, won't they?\" phase during talks with the EU.\n\nBut while a deal's been in the offing, there's been something of a vacuum, giving space for critics to opine.\n\nNotably it's given time for Boris Johnson to pile in too, making clear in the last few days that his support won't come easy. He's still a totem for Brexit, and is becoming a rallying point for Mr Sunak's critics.\n\nAs the Whitehall source says, \"the key dynamic which is emerging is that Boris is throwing himself to the forefront of the opposition\" - that won't make the prime minister's life any easier.\n\nIrony alert - remember that Boris Johnson was the prime minister who signed up to the Northern Ireland Protocol in the first place.\n\nFormer PM Boris Johnson has been weighing in on the NI Protocol\n\nAnd it's worth noting that the deal thought to be on offer concedes far more ground to the UK than was thought possible then.\n\nIn fact, one member of Theresa May's team told me they would have \"bitten your arm off\" for the kind of arrangements that are now in play.\n\nThere is a likely acceptance of different customs routes, \"green lanes\" and \"red lanes\" for goods heading from Great Britain to Northern Ireland; it's likely too the EU has given ground on state aid.\n\nBut like it or not, for Rishi Sunak's Number 10, when his old boss speaks, many Conservatives and Brexiteers listen.\n\nDon't be surprised to see, in the coming days, heated political arguments contrasting the agreements that Mr Sunak has reached, and the Northern Ireland Protocol bill that Boris Johnson's government introduced.\n\nThat bill is making its way through Parliament now and would, controversially, give the UK government the power to ignore the treaty that's already signed into law.\n\nAnd don't underestimate the strength of feeling.\n\nOne former cabinet minister told me the expected deal would \"let down the die-hard leavers\", leaving the party vulnerable to attacks from the right, and would \"split the Conservatives\".\n\nUnless there is a \"miracle surprise\", the same source cautioned that they and many of their colleagues won't back the deal.\n\nThe options for Mr Sunak then are that the deal passes (if there is a vote) \"grudgingly\", or if it falls, \"it leaves his authority in tatters\".\n\nIt is even, they suggest, a \"conceivable option\" that the government ends up falling apart if the prime minister tries to ram it through. All this, of course, is happening in the context of a PM stuck way behind in the polls.\n\nThere was also disbelief in some quarters at the suggestion that the EU president would appear alongside the King to help boost the chances of a deal.\n\nBuckingham Palace, as a rule, tries to appear beyond politics, well above the fray.\n\nYet there was the suggestion that Ursula von der Leyen would meet publicly with the King this weekend at Windsor Castle, and even that the deal itself might be given the title the Windsor Agreement - to \"throw a bit of glamour\" around the closing stages, a source suggested.\n\nBut I'm told the European Commission disapproved. Downing Street says officially that the reason the visit was called off was \"operational\".\n\nWhatever the whole truth, it's made for a messy 24 hours since our colleagues at Sky News broke the story. And it met with disapproval in the very DUP circles that the prime minister needs to get on board.\n\nThe Unionists are deeply committed to, and proud of, the monarchy. Arlene Foster, the former DUP leader, was rarely seen without her glittering brooch in the shape of the crown. But the impression that Downing Street was trying to play the Palace into the process has rankled.\n\nThe DUP former deputy leader, Lord Dodds, said, \"to plan for politicising the monarchy in this way is very serious and reinforces the questions about No 10's political judgement over the protocol\".\n\nThat doesn't sound like a political leader in the mood to play nice.\n\nWe know that Rishi Sunak has been able to find a way to strike an agreement with the EU to help ease the problems that stemmed from the special arrangements for Northern Ireland.\n\nWe know Number 10 has been willing to spend political energy and effort getting this far.\n\nBut once the black and white of the deal emerges into the light of day, political guile, presentation and force may be required to drive it through.\n\nSo far in Downing Street, Rishi Sunak has tried to avoid fights with his party. This time, on this most fraught of issues, an almighty argument awaits.", "Police divers were out on the water on Saturday afternoon\n\nTwo bodies have been recovered following a major search operation for the missing crew of a tug after it overturned off Greenock in Inverclyde.\n\nEmergency crews were called to East India Harbour at about 15:30 on Friday.\n\nA Police Scotland marine unit was seen out on the water on Saturday morning while divers later joined the search.\n\nThe force confirmed the bodies were discovered at about 13:40.\n\nOfficers said formal identification had yet to take place but the next of kin of both missing crew members had been informed.\n\nCh Insp Damian Kane said: \"Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the men at this difficult time and I would ask that their privacy is respected.\n\n\"I would like to thank the local community for their patience and support as searches were ongoing and as we continue to carry out our inquiries.\"\n\nThe tug capsized on Friday afternoon on the River Clyde\n\nClyde Marine Services said it was \"deeply saddened\" by the loss of the two crew members.\n\nA spokesman said: \"Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the two men at this most difficult of times.\n\n\"The company is fully co-operating with the official investigations which are ongoing.\"\n\nEyewitnesses told BBC Scotland they had seen the tug escorting the Hebridean Princess cruise ship into the harbour at about 15:30 when it was apparently pulled over.\n\nImages from the scene showed rescue teams in inflatables and a police boat surrounding the capsized tug while a helicopter hovered overhead.\n\nDaniel McBride said the tug had capsized \"pretty instantaneously\".\n\nHe added: \"At that point I contacted the coastguard and was asked to go and keep eyes, so I parked up and watched.\n\n\"Within 12 minutes the first coastguard vessel came. At that point the boat was still capsized with a hull visible in the water.\n\n\"I witnessed them bashing on the hull, I guess trying to see if there was any signs inside. Unfortunately then the boat went down a short time afterwards.\"\n\nHM Coastguard said rescue teams from Helensburgh and Greenock, a lifeboat from Helensburgh RNLI and the coastguard helicopter from Prestwick were involved in the search on Friday.\n\nMultiple vessels on the Clyde also responded, including a Ministry of Defence Police boat.\n\nPolice confirmed a multi-agency investigation into the incident was under way.\n\nScottish Greens West Scotland MSP Ross Greer said: \"This is devastating news. All of our thoughts and prayers are very much with the family, friends and colleagues of those involved.\n\n\"I also pay tribute to the coastguard, RNLI and all those who assisted with the search and rescue effort.\n\n\"Investigators should now be given the space needed to look into the circumstances of this terrible incident.\"", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell has been involved in high-profile investigations into dissident republican attacks\n\nPolice investigating the attempted murder of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell have arrested a sixth man.\n\nThe 71-year-old was arrested in Omagh on Saturday under the Terrorism Act.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell was shot multiple times in front of his young son at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, after coaching under-15s at football.\n\nEarlier, detectives were given more time to question four men already held in connection with Wednesday evening's shooting.\n\nA court in Belfast granted an extension to the detention of the suspects, aged 22, 38, 45 and 47, until 22:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nThey and another man, aged 43, remain in custody having been arrested on Thursday and Friday in the Omagh and Coalisland areas of County Tyrone.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell is critically ill in hospital following the attack.\n\nPolicing representative body the Police Federation for Northern Ireland said he had suffered life-changing injuries.\n\nOn Saturday more than 1,000 people took part in a walk and a rally to show support for the senior Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer who was off duty when he was shot.\n\nMany attending the rally held posters which said \"no going back! Unite against paramilitary violence\".\n\nPeople took part in a rally outside Omagh Courthouse\n\nThe PSNI's main line of inquiry is that dissident republican group the New IRA was responsible for shooting the 48-year-old in the car park of the Youth Sport Omagh site.\n\nDissident republicans oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal and continue to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe route from Beragh Swifts FC to Beragh Red Knights GAA club was short but significant - Constable Ronan Kerr was a member of the GAA club when he was murdered in 2011.\n\nA security alert is ongoing in Beragh after a suspicious object was found on Dervahroy Road\n\nOn Saturday afternoon, after the walk, police confirmed that a security alert was ongoing in the Beragh area after a suspicious object was found on Dervahroy Road.\n\nThe PSNI said it was too early to speculate on whether the events were linked.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Omagh police shooting: 'We're wrapping our arms around Caldwell family'\n\nThe rally, which was organised by trade unionists, was held after the walk on Saturday morning, near the site of a 1998 bombing which was the single most deadly atrocity in Northern Ireland's Troubles, killing 29 people.\n\nThe bombing was carried out by dissident republican group the Real IRA.\n\nPeople gathered in Omagh in protest against violence\n\nBeragh Red Knights GAA club coach Celine Curran said the attack on Det Ch Insp Caldwell has \"affected the community as a whole in Beragh\".\n\n\"It's really hit everybody very hard,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\nCarmel Quinn and Celine Curran are both Beragh Red Knights coaches\n\n\"We're all coaches at the end of the day. We're all parents at the end of the day.\n\n\"Our children go to Youth Sport as well - it's got nothing to do with religion.\n\n\"We are here in support of a father who was doing a coaching job and a son who has witnessed something life-changing.\"\n\nBovelle Hamilton, who has known John since he was a boy, says the turnout was amazing\n\nBovelle Hamilton has known Det Ch Insp Caldwell since he was eight years old and came to show support to him and his family.\n\n\"We are absolutely shocked at what happened to him,\" she said.\n\nGeoffrey Irwin also took part in the walk.\n\nHe said: \"I know John personally, I went to primary school with him and also high school in Omagh.\"\n\nHe added that John was \"very dedicated\" to the club and gave up his free time to volunteer.\n\nGeoffrey Irwin went to school with the senior detective\n\nOn Friday, the leaders of Northern Ireland's five main political parties presented a united front with PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne.\n\nMr Byrne said it was a significant show of solidarity that showed the \"sheer sense of outrage at this pointless and senseless attack\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPolice believe the gunmen made off in a small, dark car, which was found burnt out at Racolpa Road, outside Omagh.\n\nAn Garda Síochána (police in the Republic of Ireland) continue to work closely with the PSNI after the shooting, a spokesperson said.\n\nGardaí previously said it had intensified patrolling in border counties following the attack.\n\nIt added that it would provide the PSNI with assistance as required as the investigation continues.\n\nLast March, the the threat level posed by dissident republican terrorism in Northern Ireland was lowered from severe to substantial for the first time in 12 years.\n\nThe decision to lower the threat level was taken by the Security Service (MI5) after assessing a wide range of information, independently of ministers.\n\nSince 2010 it had been \"severe\", meaning attacks are highly likely. It is now \"substantial\", meaning attacks are likely.\n\nThe threat level is assessed over a period of time rather than in reaction to one event.\n\nThe attack appears to underscore the re-emergence on the New IRA after nearly four years of surface-level inactivity.\n\nIn 2019, the dissident republican grouping shot dead journalist Lyra McKee as she watched rioting unfold in Londonderry.\n\nWithin a year, its suspected leadership was rounded-up by the PSNI following a surveillance operation run by MI5 using an alleged agent.\n\nTen individuals are currently awaiting trial on almost 50 terrorism charges as a result of Operation Arbacia.\n\nIn the aftermath, the New IRA was viewed as being in complete disarray and last year, for the first time in more than a decade, the government announced the threat level in Northern Ireland was being lowered from severe to substantial.\n\nIt might not have sounded much, but it was a hugely symbolic moment.\n\nAttacks, or attempted attacks, dropped markedly: the years 2020-22 saw a virtual absence of activity.\n\nBut the New IRA was re-organising and in November it mounted a roadside bomb attack, using military grade explosives, on a police patrol car in Strabane.\n\nThe armour-plated vehicle did its job and two officers inside escaped injury.\n\nThe attack has now been followed up with the attempted murder, less than 20 miles away, of Det Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nDt Ch Insp Caldwell has been the senior detective in high-profile inquiries including:\n\nHe had received a number of threats in the past, BBC News NI understands, and was aware his investigations of dissident republican attacks made him a high-profile target.\n\nHe continued to carry out his activities as a football coach and whether that was a pattern that aided the targeting of him is of course a matter for the investigation.\n\nThe last gun attack on a PSNI officer was in January 2017.\n\nThe PSNI officer was hit by automatic gunfire at a petrol station in north Belfast.", "Emergency crews were called to East India Harbour at about 15:30 on Friday\n\nA major search operation has been launched for two crew members of a tug after it overturned off Greenock in the west of Scotland.\n\nEmergency crews were called to East India Harbour at about 15:30 on Friday. Rescuers were seen climbing onto the overturned hull before it sank.\n\nHM Coastguard and a police helicopter and dive and marine unit continued searches until about 20:00.\n\nPolice Scotland said the operation would resume on Saturday morning.\n\nEyewitnesses told BBC Scotland they had seen the tug escorting the Hebridean Princess cruise ship into the harbour at about 15:30 when it was apparently pulled over.\n\nImages from the scene showed rescue teams in inflatables and a police boat surrounding the capsized tug while a helicopter hovered overhead.\n\nDaniel McBride said the tug had capsized \"pretty instantaneously\".\n\nHe added: \"At that point I contacted the coastguard and was asked to go and keep eyes, so I parked up and watched.\n\n\"Within 12 minutes the first coastguard vessel came. At that point the boat was still capsized with a hull visible in the water.\n\n\"I witnessed them bashing on the hull, I guess trying to see if there was any signs inside. Unfortunately then the boat went down a short time afterwards.\"\n\nHe said there were a number of boats in the area, as well as a helicopter, but he had not seen anyone being pulled out.\n\nPolice cordoned off the area around the harbour.\n\nA police cordon has been put in place around the harbour\n\nA Police Scotland spokesperson said: \"Officers, including Police Scotland's Dive and Marine Unit and Air Support Unit, have been carrying out searches in the area and these searches will resume on the morning of Saturday, 25 February.\n\n\"Enquiries are ongoing, assisted by partners, to establish the full circumstances.\"\n\nHM Coastguard said the vessel was believed to have two crew members on board.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Coastguard Rescue Teams from Helensburgh and Greenock, a lifeboat from Helensburgh RNLI and the Coastguard helicopter from Prestwick were sent to assist and searched the area.\n\n\"Multiple vessels on the Clyde in the vicinity of the incident also responded, including an MOD Police vessel.\n\n\"The Coastguard's involvement in the surface search was terminated at 20:00.\"", "For over a decade, stolen images of a former adult star have been used to scam victims out of thousands of dollars. How does it feel to be the unwitting face of so many romance scams?\n\nAlmost every day, Vanessa gets messages from men who believe they are in a relationship with her - some even think she's their wife. They are angry, confused and some want their money back - which they say they sent her to pay for daily expenses, hospital bills, or to help relatives.\n\nBut it is all a lie. Vanessa doesn't know these men. Instead, her pictures and videos - lifted from her past life in adult entertainment - have been used as the bait in online romance scams dating back to the mid-2000s. Victims had money extorted through fake online profiles using Vanessa's name or likeness, in a type of romance scam called catfishing.\n\nThe flood of messages containing tales of lost money and ruined lives have taken their toll.\n\n\"I started becoming depressed, and blaming myself - maybe if my pictures weren't out there, these men wouldn't be getting scammed,\" Vanessa says - we're not using her surname to protect her full identity.\n\nFor about eight years, Vanessa worked as a \"camgirl\" - streaming explicit material live on the internet via webcam. Because she was a bit shy when she started out, she decided to create an alter ego called Janessa Brazil. \"It's not really me, it's Janessa, so I won't be ashamed,\" she thought.\n\nShe picked the surname Brazil not only because it's where she was born, but also because it's one of the most popular search terms on the internet. It was a savvy decision. \"I hate that name,\" she says now. \"But it helped me get popular quickly.\"\n\nBehind every catfish, there's the bait. Listen to Love, Janessa from the BBC World Service and CBC Podcasts.\n\nFor a while, things were great. Vanessa enjoyed the relationship with her fans, who would pay up to $20 (£17) per minute to watch and interact with her. \"I want to please them. I want to have fun with them. And they get hooked,\" she says.\n\nAt the peak of her career, she says she was earning about a million US dollars a year. Janessa had her own website, a successful brand and a vibrant online presence. But in 2016 her online profile went dark.\n\nIt took us nine months to find her for the podcast Love, Janessa. When we finally spoke to Vanessa in her modest apartment on the US east coast, she told us that part of the reason she quit making online content was to try to stop the scammers. \"I no longer want to give them the power to use anything of mine ever again,\" she says.\n\nVanessa first became aware scammers were pretending to be her when a man posted in the chat during a live show, adamant that he was her husband and she had promised him that she'd stop camming. She thought it was a prank, but asked him to email her.\n\nMore victims came forward with similar stories, posting comments during her shows, and asking her to prove her identity. Scammers also popped up with weird requests for her - like putting on a red hat - images they then used to trick victims.\n\nThe constant comments, emails and tense atmosphere began to affect her business. \"It was a nightmare,\" says Vanessa. \"But I felt bad for these guys. What am I supposed to do?\"\n\nAt first she tried to respond to every email, which took hours each day. She says her then husband, who was also her manager, also started monitoring the messages. He told scam victims that he and Vanessa were not liable for the money the men had lost.\n\n\"If I got all the money that these guys sent all these scammers, I would be a billionaire today, not sitting here in my little apartment,\" she says.\n\nVanessa thinks it's in many men's nature to want to take care of women, which explains why they send money to someone they haven't met.\n\n\"Even if they don't have the money, they're still willing to give it, just to feel loved,\" she says.\n\nRoberto Marini, an Italian in his early 30s, was hooked by a fake Janessa. It began with a message on Facebook from a striking young woman calling herself Hannah, who complimented him on his start-up business - a sustainable farm on the island of Sardinia.\n\nAfter three months of exchanging pictures and loving messages, she began to ask for money. It was for little things at first, like a broken phone, but soon she needed more. She told him she had a tough life - when she wasn't looking after sick relatives she had to make a living in adult entertainment.\n\nRoberto wanted to save her, feeling a \"father-ish energy\" towards her. But he was frustrated that they could never seem to speak in person - every time they arranged a call, her phone would break or something else would come up.\n\nThen he discovered thousands of pictures and videos of Hannah online - except they were of adult entertainment star Janessa Brazil - and many were more explicit than the ones Hannah had ever sent him.\n\nTheir love felt real, so he wondered whether she did not want to reveal her true identity in case it complicated their relationship.\n\nConfused, Roberto joined one of Janessa Brazil's live online shows. \"Is it really you?\" he typed into the chat. He didn't get the answers he wanted, and he was paying by the minute so didn't stay long.\n\nIn his quest to find out the truth, Roberto also emailed her, along with many other people he thought might be the real Janessa. During our interview with her, Vanessa looked back at her inbox and found a message from him amongst thousands of emails.\n\n\"Hi. I have the need to talk with the real Janessa Brazil,\" he had written in 2016. She had replied an hour later, \"I am the real Janessa Brazil.\"\n\nHe asked her a few more questions trying to find out if they had spoken before. This email exchange was the first and only contact they'd ever had.\n\nBut that was not the end. Roberto remained ensnared by scammers. He says he sent them a total of $250,000 (£207,500) over four years, draining his savings and borrowing money from friends and family, as well as taking out loans.\n\nWe found Roberto through his online posts warning others that fake accounts were conning people using Janessa's stolen images. But, even after everything that had happened to him, part of him still believed he had a deep connection with the real Janessa.\n\nThat is the sign of a successful scam, says Dr Aunshul Rege, a criminal justice expert from Philadelphia who has studied online romance scams.\n\nShe says messages are often sent by criminal networks working in teams to groom victims, sharing images and information. She has even found an example of the manuals they use - practical how-to guides that also list excuses to avoid a phone call which might expose them.\n\nThe scams follow a pattern - love bombing, threats of a break-up and then requests for financial help, supposedly to allow the couple to finally be together. The tactics are so formulaic as to be chillingly familiar to anyone who has been at the receiving end, but they work.\n\n\"As human beings we are wired to help each other out. That's just how we're built,\" Dr Rege says.\n\nVanessa says she hates these cruel tactics. \"They show love and then take it away. The guys get desperate and they're willing to do anything to get it back,\" she says.\n\nDr Rege thinks it's likely Roberto's scam was run by an organised group. She says there are huge networks that operate around the world, with substantial numbers originating from Turkey, China, UAE, UK, Nigeria and Ghana.\n\nOne of the places Roberto was asked to send money was Ghana, home to a group of online scammers called the Sakawa Boys. We tracked some of them down in Accra. \"Ofa\", a softly-spoken young man, told us that impersonating people online is time-consuming and involves a lot of administration - if only to keep track of the lies. He admitted the work made him \"feel bad\", but that he had made over $50,000 (£41,500).\n\nWhen shown images of Janessa, Ofa said he had not used them himself, but understood why they would be a favourite among scammers. He also said that for a scam to work, he would need a variety of pictures showing the women in everyday situations - like cooking or at the gym.\n\nVanessa thinks her pictures have been used partly because she shared so many candid moments from her daily life. \"I put myself out there completely, so they had a lot to work with,\" she says.\n\nBut she draws a clear line between her professional alter ego and her real self. \"Vanessa has panic attacks. Janessa doesn't,\" she says.\n\nEventually the unstoppable tide of scam victims grew into \"a monster\" that traumatised Vanessa.\n\nHaving to perform every day on camera began to affect her mental health and her marriage. Exhausted, Vanessa told us she started drinking before her shows. She says she hates watching videos from that time because she can see her own unhappiness.\n\nBy 2016, she says she couldn't take it any longer and decided to quit. She says she packed her car, left her home and husband, and drove off to a new life. Now she is training as a therapist, and writing a memoir - taking back control of her own story.\n\nVanessa has never gone to the authorities to report scammers using her image. She doesn't think they would take her complaints seriously. \"They're going to look at me like, 'You're a porn star' and laugh at my face,\" she says.\n\nOver the years since, she has become more resilient. She knows scammers may never stop pretending to be her, but she understands why some victims get caught in the trap.\n\n\"When it comes to love, we can be so dumb,\" she says. \"I know, I've been there. It's like, 'Damn! I'm smarter than this!' So it happens to all of us.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Dr Aunshul Rege has some practical tips for dealing with online romance scams", "The Pet Shop Boys were just starting out when they wrote a thank-you letter to Radio 1's Janice Long\n\nA letter written by Pet Shop Boys star Neil Tennant, thanking Radio 1's Janice Long for playing the band's debut single in 1984, has been discovered in a record shop in Altrincham.\n\nThe note was tucked into the sleeve of a 12-inch copy of West End Girls that shop owner Trevor Morris bought in a job lot of vinyl at an auction.\n\n\"They mustn't have checked it to see what was inside,\" he tells the BBC.\n\n\"My guess is they thought it was a bog-standard Pet Shop Boys record.\"\n\nWhen he contacted the auction house to ask whether they had sold the memorabilia in error, they insisted he keep it.\n\n\"They were just like, 'What a great find for you!\" he laughs.\n\nThe type-written letter is dated 12 April, 1984 - three days after West End Girls was released.\n\nTennant, who was still working as a journalist at Smash Hits magazine, thanks Long for her support and provides some background to the band, which he formed with musician Chris Lowe.\n\n\"I met the disco producer Bobby 'O' in New York last summer when I was over there doing a feature on The Police,\" writes the then-29-year-old,\n\n\"I played Bobby a cassette of the songs myself and Chris Lowe had written and he immediately suggested we recorded with him. We've now recorded half an album and are due to go back to New York quite soon to finish it.\n\n\"Anyway, hope you like the 12\" I've enclosed and thanks for playing West End Girls on Thursday. As far as I'm concerned, you're now an honorary Pet Shop Girl!\"\n\nNeil Tennant worked as an editor at Smash Hits while he tried to get Pet Shop Boys off the ground\n\nThe discovery is significant because this early version of West End Girls was a significant false start for the Pet Shop Boys.\n\nAfter it stalled at number 133 in the UK charts, the duo were dropped by their record label, Epic.\n\nBut when the song started to achieve success in European clubs, they were snapped up by Parlophone and rerecorded the song with new lyrics and production by Stephen Hague.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Pet Shop Boys - Topic This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe revised version hit number one in the US and UK in 1986, setting in motion an impeccable run of hits, including Rent, Left To My Own Devices, It's A Sin and Being Boring.\n\nIn 2020, the Guardian called West End Girls the greatest number one of the 1980s.\n\nTennant says he remembers writing to several DJs - including David \"Kid\" Jensen, Gary Crowley and Janice Long, who sadly died two years ago - giving them 12-inch copies of the original mix.\n\n\"They all played it on their radio shows which was very exciting for us, in spite of the record not entering even the Top 100. It was a start,\" he tells the BBC.\n\n\"The Bobby 'O' album was never finished but songs we recorded with him included It's A Sin, Rent and Opportunities.\n\n\"Janice remained a friendly supporter of PSB and Chris and I always enjoyed seeing her. She interviewed us for her BBC Wales show in 2020 and sadly that was the last time we saw her.\n\n\"I'm very happy to remember her as an honorary Pet Shop Girl!\"\n\nJanice Long presented Radio 1's review show, Singled Out, and the early evening new music programme throughout the 1980s\n\nPristine copies of West End Girls' first pressing can sell for up to £200 - but Trevor Morris sold his copy, complete with Tennant's letter, for just £40 last week.\n\n\"I'm not so sure it's a priceless collector's item,\" he says. \"I think it's probably priceless to somebody that loves the Pet Shop Boys, but worth tuppence ha'penny to somebody else.\n\n\"You know, the whole point of this shop is not for it to be a massive money spinner. It's really about sharing music with people.\"\n\nMorris only opened his store, called Dead Cloud Records, in the Greater Manchester town three weeks ago, using money he made by selling his previous business, which specialised in elderly care.\n\n\"Looking after people is incredibly rewarding,\" he said, \"but I've always wanted to work in music - and the easy route to that is through a record shop.\"\n\nTrevor Morris opened his second-hand record shop in Altrincham's Oxford Street earlier this month\n\nLocal journalist David Prior was covering the store's opening for the Altrincham Today website when he spotted the record, and made Morris an offer.\n\n\"I've always been a Pet Shop Boys fan, so I instantly realised what a bit of pop memorabilia this was,\" he says.\n\nJournalist David Prior with his bargain piece of PSB memorabilia\n\n\"At the heart of it is this tale of a music journalist embarking on a pop career, and hustling to get his his new cut out into the world.\n\n\"I instantly thought to myself, 'I've got to have this'.\n\n\"I couldn't believe it was so cheap. I was prepared to pay several times that price!\"\n\nPrior says the letter will now be displayed, \"in as prominent a place in my house as I can find\".", "Vernon Kay has filled in for the likes of Zoe Ball, Steve Wright, Rylan Clark and Dermot O'Leary on Radio 2\n\nVernon Kay will replace presenter Ken Bruce on his weekday mid-morning slot on Radio 2, the BBC has confirmed.\n\nBruce announced on air in January that he would be leaving the station after 31 years in the role.\n\n\"Vernon is a lovely bloke and I wish him all the best,\" Bruce told BBC News, adding that he \"wouldn't dare give anyone else tips about broadcasting\".\n\nKay, who is known for presenting ITV's All Star Family Fortunes, said taking over the show was \"a dream come true\".\n\n\"And what an honour to follow in the footsteps of the mighty Ken Bruce,\" he added in a statement. \"I'm absolutely over the moon to be handed the microphone.\"\n\nBruce, who has worked for the BBC for 46 years, announced on Twitter that he would be presenting his final show on 3 March.\n\nHe tweeted on Friday: \"I had intended fulfilling my contract until the end of March but the BBC has decided it wants me to leave earlier. Let's enjoy the week ahead!\"\n\nKay has previously had his own shows on Radio 1 and Radio X, and currently presents Radio 2's Dance Sounds of the 90s - with his \"Back to Bolton Cheesy Bangers\".\n\nThe 48-year-old, who is married to Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly, will start his new show in May.\n\nDJ Gary Davies will fill the gap between Bruce's departure and Kay's first show.\n\nThe mid-morning show, famous for its daily Popmaster quiz, is Britain's most listened to radio programme and currently has more than 8.5 million weekly listeners, according to data from industry body Rajar.\n\nBruce will take the Popmaster format with him when he moves to the rival commercial station, Greatest Hits Radio.\n\nHis departure comes shortly after Steve Wright left Radio 2, ending a 23-year stint as the station's afternoon host. Wright stressed he was not retiring, and would keep his Sunday morning show.\n\nOther popular presenters who have also left the station in the past year include Paul O'Grady and Vanessa Feltz.\n\nWright was replaced by Scott Mills, while O'Grady's slot is now hosted by Rob Beckett.\n\nWeather presenter Owain Wyn Evans took over from Feltz to host the early breakfast show from Cardiff.\n\nVernon Kay, pictured with Tess Daly, hosted a show on Radio 1 for eight years\n\nThe Bolton-born presenter began his career as a model, which led to him presenting links on Channel 4's teen-targeted T4 strand.\n\nMoving into radio, he hosted his own BBC Radio 1 show between 2004 and 2012, and went on to host the mid-morning show on Radio X between 2015 and 2017.\n\nThe bubbly TV and radio personality also helmed the ITV game show All Star Family Fortunes - a celebrity version of the long-running quiz show - from 2006 to 2015, as well as two series of Beat the Star from 2008 until 2009.\n\nIn 2010, he co-anchored another ITV game show, The Whole 19 Yards, alongside Caroline Flack. The same year, over in the US, the Brit fronted the six-part series Skating with the Stars.\n\nA fan of American Football since his youth, Kay, who has also played the sport, presented The American Football Show on Channel 4 in 2013. And since the start of the 2018-19 season, he has presented live Formula E coverage, too.\n\nAlongside Gabby Logan, he fronted the celebrity diving show Splash! from 2013-2014.\n\nAn occasional stand-in presenter on the One Show and This Morning, Kay also finished in third place on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2020.\n\nOver the years, he has featured on shows such as Shooting Stars, Bo' Selecta! and Would I Lie To You?, as well as the Masked Singer. His film cameos include Shaun of the Dead.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News in 2021, around the launch of his new ITV series Game of Talents, Kay said he felt \"shackled\" using an autocue and that it was more his style to prepare before shows and then \"have a laugh in the studio\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBruce has been one of Radio 2's longest-serving hosts, joining the BBC in 1977 and taking his first regular Radio 2 slot in 1984.\n\nThe 72-year-old Scotsman, who has also presented the station's Eurovision coverage since 1988, said last month he had \"decided the time is right for me to move on from Radio 2\". Adding that he'd had \"a tremendously happy time\" but it was \"time for a change\".\n\nHis replacement, Kay, will be familiar voice to Radio 2 listeners, having previously filled in for the likes of Zoe Ball, Steve Wright, Rylan Clark and Dermot O'Leary.\n\nHelen Thomas, head of Radio 2 said the station was \"thrilled to welcome\" Kay on board permanently, describing him as \"a hugely talented, warm and witty host\", and one who has \"already proved himself to be a firm favourite with our listeners when he's presented many and varied shows across the station\".\n\nOther upcoming plans announced by the station on Friday include a Van Morrison Blues Show special, presented by Cerys Matthews; Tony Blackburn spinning soul specials at Easter; and the Jazz Show with Jamie Cullum celebrating the music of Nina Simone.\n\nElsewhere listeners will be treated to a Country Music Season, to mark the station's official link to the Country 2 Country Music Festival, while Jo Whiley will celebrate the 12 inch single in a new documentary.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nEngland heaped more misery on troubled Wales with a scrappy Six Nations victory in Cardiff.\n\nA frantic first half saw the teams separated by a try from England wing Anthony Watson.\n\nWales wing Louis Rees-Zammit managed an intercept try before England responded with scores from Kyle Sinckler and Ollie Lawrence.\n\nWales' players had threatened to go on strike in the build-up and could not overcome their troubled preparation.\n\nThey have now lost 12 of their last 15 games and suffered a third successive Six Nations defeat since Warren Gatland's return as head coach.\n\nWales have endured their worst start in the tournament since 2007 and have to travel to face Italy and France as they bid to avoid a first Six Nations whitewash in 20 years. This defeat means Wales will drop to 10th in the world rankings.\n• None 'England must push on with big games to come'\n• None Wooden Spoon 'the last thing you want' - Gatland\n• None Rugby Union Daily podcast: England have final say in Cardiff\n\nFollowing an opening weekend defeat by Scotland, England have picked up successive wins over Italy and Wales and could even afford to miss out on 10 points as a result of four missed kicks from captain Owen Farrell.\n\nEngland full-back Freddie Steward was named player of the match as he dominated the aerial battle, with Wales continually kicking to him.\n\nIt was England's biggest victory in Cardiff since 2003 and first win at the Principality Stadium since 2017.\n\nSteve Borthwick's side now face France and Ireland in their final two matches.\n\nEven by rugby's self-destructive standards, the chaotic last 10 days in the Welsh game take some beating.\n\nAn 11th-hour agreement struck between the national squad and Welsh rugby bosses on Wednesday evening averted a potential strike over player contracts that would have seen this game called off.\n\nIt was uncertain whether Wales would be galvanised or drained by a traumatic period in their history, with a build-up which saw a training session cancelled so negotiations could continue.\n\nAs well as turmoil wherever you look off the field, Wales had troubles on it, with two heavy defeats by Ireland and Scotland before this and Gatland still searching for his best side in his second stint in charge.\n\nHe made nine more changes for this game, with centre Mason Grady thrown in to make his debut.\n\nGrady formed a midfield partnership with fellow 20-year-old Joe Hawkins, who was winning just his fourth cap, while Owen Williams made his first Test start in the fabled Wales number 10 jersey.\n\nThe loss of more than 300 caps in the back division - with Liam Williams, George North and Dan Biggar not involved in the starting side - was balanced out by the return of veteran forwards Alun Wyn Jones, Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric.\n\nIn contrast England were more settled, with wing Watson replacing the injured Ollie Hassell-Collins in the only change to the side that beat Italy.\n\nEngland were intent on silencing the crowd after a emotive week for the Welsh players. They managed to do just that.\n\nIt was the visitors that made the early inroads, with Farrell slotting over the opening penalty.\n\nEngland's back-row trio all made an early impression with Alex Dombrandt taking a towering high ball, Jack Willis achieving a turnover and Lewis Ludlam impressing in attack and defence.\n\nEngland demonstrated attacking intent with Max Malins and Lawrence creating the space for Watson to dive over to score in his first international for almost two years.\n\nFarrell's conversion hit the post before full-back Leigh Halfpenny opened Wales' account with a penalty in his first start since July 2021.\n\nHalfpenny was given a fearsome welcome back to international rugby after he was repeatedly smashed by England tacklers as the visitors enjoyed the ascendancy in the aerial battle in the first half.\n\nFarrell failed to add three points with a missed penalty after Wales prop Tomas Francis was penalised at a scrum.\n\nWales produced their most encouraging attacking endeavours towards the end of the first half.\n\nBreaks from Rees-Zammit and prop Gareth Thomas were thwarted by expert breakdown steals from Dombrandt and Ludlam as England led 8-3 at half-time.\n\nWales again demonstrated a lack of clinical edge after forays into the opposition's 22.\n\nRees-Zammit lit up the Cardiff stadium early in the second half after intercepting a loose pass from Malins to sprint away to score. Halfpenny converted to give Wales the lead for the first time.\n\nThat proved short-lived as England prop Sinckler burrowed over from short range.\n\nIt was Cardiff redemption for Sinckler after Wales had wound him up four years ago and forced him to be replaced early in the second half of that match.\n\nWales brought on backline reinforcements with Biggar replacing Williams, who appeared to be carrying a hip injury.\n\nCentre Nick Tompkins was also introduced for Josh Adams with Grady switching to the left wing.\n\nFarrell missed a third kick at goal before Wales brought on Dafydd Jenkins and Tommy Reffell, who they hoped would give them more success at the breakdown.\n\nCourtney Lawes came on to win his 97th England cap - his first appearance since leading the July 2022 tour to Australia with concussion, neck, glute and calf injuries disrupting his season.\n\nLawes was involved as England attempted to close out the game with a defining try but Tipuric initially frustrated them with a turnover.\n\nEngland were not to be denied, though, and centre Lawrence provided the final score.\n• None A raw documentary goes inside the high-stakes world of parole hearings\n• None Are eco laundry products better for the environment? Greg Foot investigates how such claims come out in the wash...", "BBC News NI takes a look at significant events involving dissident republicans since March 2009.\n\nThe term \"dissident republicans\" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.\n\nDissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.\n\nThe groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.\n\nThey have continued to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in a single state but their activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services.\n\nA list containing the details of 10,000 police officers and civilian staff is in the hands of dissident republicans, police confirmed.\n\nThe information was contained in a spreadsheet mistakenly released as part of a PSNI response to a freedom of information request.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne said the data breach was on an industrial scale and included the surnames, initials and ranks of colleagues.\n\nHe said dissident republicans could use the information, part of which appeared in redacted form on a wall in west Belfast, to \"intimidate or target officers and staff\".\n\nYoung hooded men prepare to throw a petrol bomb at police vehicle in Londonderry.\n\nPolice described a petrol bomb attack on officers as \"senseless and reckless\".\n\nThe trouble followed an illegal republican parade in Londonderry and came on the eve of a visit by US President Joe Biden to Belfast.\n\nDCI John Caldwell was also released from hospital in April and in a later interview said children witnessed \"horrors that no child should ever have to\".\n\nThe terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland is increased from substantial to severe, meaning the risk of attack or attacks is now \"highly likely\" instead of \"likely\".\n\nThe move, based on an MI5 intelligence assessment, reverses a downgrade to the threat level in 2022, the first such downgrade in 12 years.\n\nA severe threat level is one step below critical, the highest level of threat.\n\nIt comes after the shooting of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell in February and a bomb attack on police officers in November 2022.\n\nSenior police officer Det Ch Insp John Caldwell was shot at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, on 22 February.\n\nHe was off duty and was putting footballs into the boot of his car after coaching young people when two gunmen approached him and shot him several times.\n\nPolice said the primary focus of their investigation was on violent dissident republicans, including the New IRA.\n\nThe New IRA later claimed responsibility in a typed statement which appeared in Londonderry on Sunday 26 February.\n\nAn attempted murder investigation was launched after a police patrol vehicle was damaged in a bomb attack in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 17 November.\n\nPolice said a strong line of inquiry was that the New IRA was behind the attack.\n\nFour men who were arrested were later released.\n\nA grey Ford Mondeo was hijacked by a number of men before being driven to a police station\n\nOn 20 November a delivery driver was held at gunpoint by a number of men and forced to abandon his car outside Waterside police station in Londonderry.\n\nA suspicious device, which was later described by police as an elaborate hoax, was placed in the vehicle.\n\nCh Supt Nigel Goddard described the attack as \"reckless\" and said detectives believed the New IRA were involved.\n\nOfficers were attacked with petrol bombs following an Easter parade linked to dissident republicans in Derry.\n\nThe police described the attack at the City Cemetery on 18 April as \"premeditated violence\".\n\nThe violence broke out following a parade that had been planned by the National Republican Commemoration Committee, which organises events on behalf of the anti-agreement republican party, Saoradh - a party police say is linked to the New IRA.\n\nA police officer was targeted in this attack in Dungiven\n\nA bomb was left near a police officer's car outside her home on 19 April in County Londonderry in what the police said was an attempt to kill her and her young daughter.\n\nThe explosive was attached to a container of flammable liquid next to her car in Dungiven.\n\nPolice said they linked the attempted murder to the New IRA.\n\nPolice provided this image of the bomb\n\nA bomb was found in the Creggan area of Derry after police searches in the area on 9 September.\n\nThe device was found in a parked car and was described by detectives as in \"an advanced state of readiness\" and was made safe by Army technical officers.\n\nIt contained commercial explosives which could have been triggered by a command wire.\n\nDuring the searches, police were attacked with stones and petrol bombs.\n\nPolice photos show the bomb just metres from the door of a house\n\nA mortar bomb was left near a police station in Church View, Strabane on 7 September.\n\nHomes were evacuated and Army technical officers made the device safe.\n\nPolice said the device had been an attempt to target police officers but that it could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the vicinity.\n\nA 33-year-old man was arrested under terrorism legislation but was released after questioning.\n\nA police officer at the scene of the bomb at Cavan Road, Fermanagh\n\nA bomb exploded near Wattlebridge in County Fermanagh, on 19 August.\n\nPolice said it was an attempt to lure officers to their deaths. Initially, a report received by police suggested a device had been left on the Wattlebridge Road.\n\nPolice believed a hoax device was used to lure police and soldiers into the area in order to catch them by surprise with a real bomb on the Cavan Road.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne later blamed the Continuity IRA for the attack.\n\nDissident republicans tried to murder police officers during an attack in Craigavon, County Armagh, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.\n\nA long bang was heard on the Tullygally Road and a \"viable device\" was later found.\n\nPolice said they believed the attack was set up to target officers responding to a call from the public.\n\nThe bomb was discovered at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast\n\nThe \"New IRA\" claimed responsibility for a bomb under a police officer's car at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast.\n\nThe Irish News said the group issued a statement to the newspaper using a recognised codeword.\n\nPolice said they believed \"violent dissident republicans\" were behind the attack.\n\nA journalist is shot dead while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry.\n\nPolice blame the killing of 29-year-old Lyra McKee on dissident republicans.\n\nThe previous week a horizontal mortar tube and command wire were found in Castlewellan, County Down.\n\nThe PSNI said the tube contained no explosive device and it was likely to be collected for use elsewhere\n\nThe device sent to Heathrow Airport caught fire when staff opened it\n\nFive small explosive packages were found at locations across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe letter bombs were sent in the post to Waterloo Station in London, buildings near Heathrow and London City airports and Glasgow University. A further device was found at a post depot in County Limerick.\n\nThe New IRA said it was behind the letter bombs, according to the Irish News.\n\nThe bomb exploded outside Bishop Street Courthouse in Derry\n\nA bomb placed inside a van explodes in the centre of Derry.\n\nThe blast happened on a Saturday night outside Bishop Street Courthouse.\n\nThe PSNI said the attack may have been carried out by the New IRA, adding that a pizza delivery man had a gun held to his head when his van was hijacked for the bombing.\n\nThe bullets and guns exploded after being left in a hot boiler house\n\nA stash of bullets and guns believed to belong to dissident republicans exploded after being left on top of a hot boiler at a house in west Belfast.\n\nResponding to reports of a house fire in Rodney Drive, police and firefighters discovered two AK-47s, two sawn-off shot guns, a high-powered rifle with a silencer and three pipe bombs.\n\nPolice blamed the New IRA and said the weapons were believed to have been used in previous attempts to murder police officers in Belfast in 2015 and 2017.\n\nThe weapons including two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube\n\nPolice said a \"significant amount of dangerous weapons\" were seized during a 12-day search operation in counties Armagh and Tyrone.\n\nThirteen searches took place on land and properties in Lurgan and Benburb from 29 April to 11 May.\n\nThe weapons included two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube.\n\nPolice believed the munitions belonged to two dissident republican paramilitary groups - Arm Na Poblachta. (Army of the Republic) and the Continuity IRA.\n\nPetrol bombs and stones were thrown at police vehicles during an illegal dissident republican parade in Derry on 2 April.\n\nAbout 200 people attended the Easter Rising 1916 commemoration parade in the Creggan estate.\n\nA neighbour said Raymond Johnston had been making pancakes for Pancake Tuesday when he was murdered\n\nDissident republicans may have been behind the murder of a man in west Belfast, police said.\n\nRaymond Johnston, 28, was shot dead in front of an 11-year-old girl and his partner at a house in Glenbawn Avenue on 13 February.\n\nPolice said the main line of inquiry was that Mr Johnson was murdered by dissidents.\n\nIn a statement, it said that \"at this time the environment is not conducive to armed conflict\".\n\nThe group said it would \"suspend all armed actions against the British state\" with immediate effect.\n\nIt was responsible for a number of high-profile attacks, including the attempted murder of police officer Peadar Heffron and a bomb attack at Palace barracks in Holywood.\n\nCharges suggested that Ciarán Maxwell first became involved in terrorism in 2011\n\nFormer Royal Marine Ciarán Maxwell pleaded guilty to offences related to dissident republican terrorism, including bomb-making and storing stolen weapons.\n\nThe County Antrim man had compiled a library of terrorism documents, including instructions on how to make explosives and tactics used by terrorist organisations.\n\nHe also had maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack, and a stash of explosives in purpose-built hides in England and Northern Ireland.\n\nHe was jailed for 18 years.\n\nThe bomb exploded as it was being examined by the Army\n\nA bomb exploded outside the home of a serving police officer in Derry on 22 February as Army experts tried to defuse it.\n\nThe device, which police described as more intricate than a pipe bomb, was reportedly discovered under a car in Culmore in the city.\n\nChildren were in the area at the time, police said.\n\nMeanwhile a gun attack on a 16-year-old boy in west Belfast on 16 February was \"child abuse,\" a senior police officer said.\n\nThe attack followed a similar one the previous night, when a man was shot in the legs close to a benefits office on the Falls Road.\n\nThe shooting happened at a petrol station on the Crumlin Road\n\nA police officer is injured in a gun attack at a garage on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast on 22 January.\n\nPolice said automatic gunfire was sprayed across the garage forecourt in a \"crazy\" attack.\n\nThe number of paramilitary-style shootings in west Belfast doubled in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to police figures.\n\nOn 15 January, police said a bomb discovered during a security operation in Poleglass, west Belfast, was \"designed to kill or seriously injure police officers\".\n\nA 45-year-old mechanic caught at a bomb-making factory on a farm was told he would spend 11 years behind bars.\n\nBarry Petticrew was arrested in October 2014 after undercover police surveillance on farm buildings near Kinawley, County Fermanagh.\n\nPolice found pipes, timer units, ammunition and high grade explosives in the buildings.\n\nExplosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered by Irish police\n\nOn 6 December, a 25-year-old dissident republican was jailed in Dublin for five years.\n\nDonal Ó Coisdealbha from Killester, north Dublin was arrested on explosive charges in the run-up to the visit of Prince Charles to Ireland in 2015.\n\nHe was arrested during a Garda (Irish police) operation when explosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered.\n\nFollowing the sentencing, police released a photo of the heavily bloodstained scene of the shooting\n\nA man who admitted taking part in a paramilitary shooting in Belfast was sentenced to five years in jail and a further five years on licence.\n\nPatrick Joseph O'Neill, of no fixed address, was one of three masked men who forced their way into the victim's home in Ardoyne in November 2010.\n\nThe man was shot several times in the legs and groin in front of his mother, who fought back with kitchen knives.\n\nThe dissident republican group Óglaigh na hÉireann claimed responsibility for the shooting shortly after it took place.\n\nJoe Reilly was shot dead in a house at Glenwood Court\n\nWest Belfast man Joe Reilly, 43, was shot dead in his Glenwood Court, Poleglass home on 20 October.\n\nIt is understood a second man who was in the house was tied up by the gang.\n\nThe shooting was the second in the small estate in less than a week - the other victim was shot in the leg.\n\nPolice later said they believed the the murder was carried out by a paramilitary organisation and there may have been a drugs link.\n\nDissident republicans formed a new political party called Saoradh - the Irish word for liberation.\n\nSeveral high-profile dissidents from both sides of the border were among about 150 people at its first conference in Newry.\n\nThe discovery of arms in a County Antrim forest on 17 May was one of the most significant in recent years, police said.\n\nA \"terrorist hide\" was uncovered at Capanagh Forest near Larne after two members of the public found suspicious objects in the woods on Saturday.\n\nSome of the items found included an armour-piercing improvised rocket and two anti-personnel mines.\n\nThe threat level from Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Great Britain was raised from moderate to substantial.\n\nTwo Claymore mines were among the arms found in Capanagh Forest\n\nA man died after being shot three times in the leg in an alleyway at Butler Place, north Belfast, on15 April.\n\nMichael McGibbon, 33, was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he later died.\n\nPolice said Mr McGibbon contacted them to say two masked men had arrived at his house on the evening of 14 April.\n\nThe men asked him to come out of the house but he refused and the men told him they would come back.\n\nThe shooting took place in an alleyway at Butler Place in north Belfast\n\nPolice said his killing carried the hallmarks of a paramilitary murder.\n\nAdrian Ismay was the 32nd prison staff member to be murdered in Northern Ireland because of his job\n\nA murder investigation was launched after the death of prison officer Adrian Ismay, 11 days after he was injured in a booby-trap bomb attack in east Belfast.\n\nThe device exploded under the 52-year-old officer's van as he drove over a speed ramp in Hillsborough Drive on 4 March.\n\nDays later, the New IRA said it carried out the attack.\n\nMr Ismay was thought to have been making a good recovery from his injuries, but was rushed back to hospital on 15 March, where he died.\n\nA post-mortem examination found his death was as a \"direct result of the injuries\" he sustained in the bomb.\n\nDissident republicans were dealt \"a significant blow\" by a weapons and explosives find in the Republic of Ireland, the gardaí (Irish police) said.\n\nThe weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, mortars, detonators and other bomb parts, were discovered in County Monaghan, close to the border with Rosslea in County Fermanagh, on 1 December.\n\nOn 15 December, a further arms find, described as a \"significant cache\" by Irish broadcaster RTÉ, was made in County Louth.\n\nA number of shots hit the passenger window of a police car in an attack in west Belfast\n\nA gun attack on police officers in west Belfast on 26 November, in which up to eight shots were fired, was treated as attempted murder.\n\nA number of shots struck the passenger side of a police car parked at Rossnareen Avenue.\n\nTwo officers who were in the car were not injured but were said to have been badly shaken.\n\nSupt Mark McEwan said that from September 2014 there had been 15 bomb incidents in the Derry City and Strabane District council area.\n\nThey included seven attacks on the police.\n\nOn 10 October, a bomb was found in the grounds of a Derry hotel ahead of a police recruitment event.\n\nThe police recruitment event was cancelled. Two other police recruitment events in Belfast and Omagh went ahead despite bomb alerts at the planned venues.\n\nOn 16 October police said a \"military-style hand grenade\" was thrown at a patrol in Belfast as officers responded to reports of anti-social behaviour.\n\nPolice say the device, which failed to explode, was thrown at officers near Pottingers Quay.\n\nDissident republicans were suspected of being responsible for the attack.\n\nPolice found a mortar bomb during an alert in Strabane\n\nPolice said a mortar bomb found in a graveyard in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 1 August was an attempt to kill officers.\n\nThe device was positioned where it could be used to attack passing PSNI patrols, police said.\n\nA bomb was found under a police officer's car in Eglinton, near Derry, on 18 June.\n\nPolice said the attack was a \"clear attempt to murder police officers\".\n\nPSNI district commander Mark McEwan said the wife of the officer was also a member of the PSNI.\n\nTwo bombs found close to an Army Reserve centre in Derry were left about 20m from nearby homes.\n\nThe devices were left at the perimeter fence of the Caw Camp Army base and were discovered at 11:00 BST on 4 May.\n\nAbout 15 homes in Caw Park and Rockport Park were evacuated during the security operation.\n\nPolice said a bomb left at Brompton Park in north Belfast was designed to kill officers\n\nA device found in north Belfast on 1 May was a substantial bomb targeting police officers, the PSNI said.\n\nA controlled explosion was carried out on the device at the Crumlin Road junction with Brompton Park.\n\nThe PSNI blamed dissident republicans for the bomb and said it could have caused \"carnage\".\n\nOn 28 April, a bomb exploded outside a probation office in Crawford Square, Derry.\n\nPolice said they were given an \"inadequate\" warning before the device went off.\n\nA bomb was found during a search of the Curryneiran estate in Derry\n\nA bomb is found was found during a security alert in the Curryneiran estate in Derry on 17 February.\n\nPolice said they believe the bomb was intended to kill officers and that those who had left it showed a \"callous disregard for the safety of the community and police officers\".\n\nMeanwhile at least 40 dissident republican prisoners were involved in an incident at Maghaberry Prison on 2 February.\n\nPrison management withdrew staff from the landings in Roe House housing dissidents.\n\nA protest, involving about 200 people, took place outside the prison in support of the republican prisoners.\n\nOn 8 January, the head of MI5 says most dissident republican attacks in Northern Ireland in 2014 were foiled.\n\nAndrew Parker said of more than 20 such attacks, most were unsuccessful and that up to four times that amount had been prevented.\n\nHe made the remarks during a speech in which he gave a stark warning of the dangers UK was facing from terrorism.\n\nHe said it was \"unrealistic to expect every attack plan to be stopped\".\n\nDissident republicans are believed to have used a home-made rocket launcher in an attack on a police Land Rover at Twaddell Avenue in north Belfast on 16 November .\n\nIt struck the Land Rover and caused some damage, but no-one was injured.\n\nPolice described the attack as a \"cold, calculated attempt to kill police officers\".\n\nMeanwhile gardaí described the seizure of guns and bomb-making material during searches in Dublin on 15 November as a \"major setback\" for dissident republicans.\n\nAn AK-47 rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and a number of semi-automatic pistols were found in searches in the Ballymun, East Wall and Cloughran areas of Dublin.\n\nThe Irish Army carried out a controlled explosion at one search location where bomb components were discovered.\n\nA device that hit a police vehicle in Derry on 2 November was understood to have been a mortar, fired by command wire.\n\nDissident republicans were responsible for the attack, police said.\n\nPolice foiled an attempted bomb attack in Strabane's Ballycolman estate on 23 October.\n\nOfficers were lured to Ballycolman estate on 23 October to investigate reports of a bomb thrown at a police patrol vehicle the previous night.\n\nThe alert was a hoax but then a real bomb, packed with nails, was discovered in the garden of a nearby house.\n\nDissident republicans claimed responsibility for a device that partially exploded outside an Orange hall in County Armagh on 29 September.\n\nIn a phone call to the Irish News, a group calling itself The Irish Volunteers admitted it placed the device at Carnagh Orange hall in Keady.\n\nOn 16 June, police investigating dissident republican activity said they recovered two suspected pipe bombs in County Tyrone.\n\nOn the night of 29 May, a masked man threw what police have described as a \"firebomb\" into the reception area of the Everglades Hotel, in the Prehen area of Derry.\n\nThe hotel was evacuated and the device exploded a short time later when Army bomb experts were working to make it safe.\n\nNo-one was injured in the explosion but the reception was extensively damaged.\n\nThe man who took the bomb into the hotel said he was from the IRA.\n\nA prominent dissident republican was shot dead in west Belfast on 18 April.\n\nTommy Crossan was shot a number of times at a fuel depot off the Springfield Road.\n\nMr Crossan, 43, was once a senior figure in the Continuity IRA.\n\nIt was believed he had been expelled from the group some years ago after falling out with other dissidents.\n\nPolice said a bomb found at a County Tyrone golf course had the capability to kill or cause serious injury.\n\nBomb disposal experts made the device safe after it was discovered at Strabane Golf Club on 31 March.\n\nA Belfast man with known dissident republican links died on 28 March a week after he was shot in a Dublin gun attack.\n\nDeclan Smith, 32, was shot in the face by a lone gunman as he dropped his child at a crèche on Holywell Avenue, Donaghmede.\n\nHe was wanted by police in Northern Ireland for questioning about the murder of two men in Belfast in 2007.\n\nOn the night of 14 March, dissidents use a command wire to fire a mortar at a police Land Rover on the Falls Road in west Belfast.\n\nThe device hit the Land Rover, but police said it caused minimal damage.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack.\n\nThe dissident group calling itself the New IRA said it carried out the attack and claimed the mortar used contained the military explosive Semtex and a commercial detonator.\n\nSeven letter bombs delivered to army careers offices in England bore \"the hallmarks of Northern Ireland-related terrorism\", Downing Street said.\n\nThe packages were sent to offices in Oxford, Slough, Kent, Brighton, Hampshire and Berkshire.\n\nOn 13 December, a bomb in a sports bag exploded in Belfast's busy Cathedral Quarter.\n\nAbout 1,000 people were affected by the alert, including people out for Christmas dinners, pub-goers and children out to watch Christmas pantos.\n\nA telephone warning was made to a newspaper, but police said the bomb exploded about 150 metres away as the area was being cleared.\n\nDissident republican group, Óglaigh na hÉireann, said it was were responsible.\n\nOn 5 December, two police vehicles were struck 10 times by gunfire from assault rifles while travelling along the Crumlin Road in north Belfast.\n\nA bomb, containing 60kgs (132lbs) of home-made explosives, partially exploded inside a car in Belfast city centre on 24 November.\n\nA masked gang hijacked the car, placed a bomb on board and ordered the driver to take it to a shopping centre.\n\nIt exploded as Army bomb experts prepared to examine the car left at the entrance to Victoria Square car park.\n\nOn 21 November, a bus driver was ordered to drive to a police station in Derry with a bomb on board.\n\nThe bus driver drove a short distance to Northland Road, got her passengers off the bus and called the police.\n\nA former police officer is the target of an under-car booby-trap bomb off the King's Road in east Belfast.\n\nThe man spotted the device when he checked under his vehicle at Kingsway Park, near Tullycarnet estate on 8 November.\n\nThe man was about to take his 12-year-old daughter to school.\n\nDissidents are blamed for a number of letter bomb attacks at the end of the month.\n\nA package addressed to the Northern Ireland secretary was made safe at Stormont Castle, two letter bombs addressed to senior police officers were intercepted at postal sorting offices, and a similar device was sent to the offices of the Public Prosecution Service in Derry.\n\nTwo police officers escaped injury after two pipe bombs are thrown at them in north Belfast.\n\nThe officers were responding to an emergency 999 call in Ballysillan in the early hours of 28 May.\n\nPolice were fired on in the Foxes Glen area of west Belfast\n\nThey had just got out of their vehicle on the Upper Crumlin Road when the devices were thrown. They took cover as the bombs exploded.\n\nPolice escaped injury after a bomb in a bin exploded on the Levin Road in Lurgan in County Armagh on 30 March.\n\nOfficers were investigating reports of an illegal parade when the device went off near a primary school.\n\nPetrol bombs were thrown at police during follow-up searches in the Kilwilkie area.\n\nPolice say a bomb meant to kill or injure officers on the outskirts of Belfast on 9 March may have been detonated by mobile telephone.\n\nOfficers were responding to a call on Duncrue pathway near the M5 motorway when the bomb partially exploded.\n\nOn 4 March, four live mortar bombs which police said were \"primed and ready to go\" were intercepted in a van in Derry.\n\nThe van had its roof cut back to allow the mortars to be fired. Police say they believed the target was a police station.\n\nIt is the first time dissidents had attempted this type of mortar attack.\n\nAn off-duty policeman found a bomb attached to the underside of his car on the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast.\n\nA bomb was found under a police officer's car in east Belfast\n\nThe officer found the device during a routine check of his family car on 30 December, as he prepared to take his wife and two children out to lunch.\n\nAn Irish newspaper reported that a paramilitary plot to murder a British soldier as he returned to the Republic of Ireland on home leave had been foiled by Irish police.\n\nThe Irish Independent said the Continuity IRA planned to shoot the soldier when he returned to County Limerick for his Christmas holidays.\n\nOn the first day of the month, a prison officer was shot and killed on the M1 in County Armagh as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison, Northern Ireland's high security jail.\n\nMr Black was shot as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison\n\nDavid Black, 52-year-old father of two, was the first prison officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland in almost 20 years.\n\nOn 12 November, a paramilitary group calling itself \"the IRA\" claimed responsibility for the murder.\n\nThe following day, a bomb was found close to a primary school in west Belfast.\n\nPolice said the device \"could have been an under-car booby trap designed to kill and maim\".\n\nSecurity forces were the target of two bombs left in Derry on 20 September.\n\nA pipe bomb and booby trap bomb on a timer were both made safe by the Army.\n\nThe pipe bomb was left in a holdall at Derry City Council's office grounds and the booby trap attached to a bicycle chained to railings on a walkway at the back of the offices.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for leaving the bombs.\n\nOn 26 July, some dissident republican paramilitary groups issued a statement saying they were to come together under the banner of \"the IRA\".\n\nThe Guardian newspaper said the Real IRA had been joined by Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) and a coalition of independent armed republican groups and individuals.\n\nA gunman fired towards police lines from within a crowd gathered at Brompton Park in Ardoyne on 12 July.\n\nRepublican Action Against Drugs said it was behind a bomb attack on a police vehicle in Derry on 2 June.\n\nThe front of the jeep was badly damaged in what is understood to have been a pipe bomb attack in Creggan. The police described the attack as attempted murder.\n\nA pipe bomb was left under a car belonging to the elderly parents of a police officer in Derry on 15 April.\n\nA number of homes were evacuated while Army bomb experts dealt with the device at Drumleck Drive in Shantallow.\n\nA 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line in Newry\n\nA fully primed 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line near Newry on 26 April and made safe the following day.\n\nA senior police officer said those who left it had a \"destructive, murderous intent\".\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Alastair Finlay said it was as \"big a device as we have seen for a long time\".\n\nOn 30 March two men were convicted of murdering police officer Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon in March 2009.\n\nTwo men were convicted of murdering Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon\n\nThe 48-year-old officer was shot dead after he and colleagues responded to a 999 call.\n\nConvicted of the murder were Brendan McConville, 40, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon, and John Paul Wootton, 20, of Collindale, Lurgan.\n\nDerry man Andrew Allen was shot dead in Buncrana, County Donegal, on 9 February.\n\nThe 24-year-old father of two was shot at a house in Links View Park, Lisfannon.\n\nRepublican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) later admitted it murdered Mr Allen who had been forced to leave his home city the previous year.\n\nStrabane man Martin Kelly was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on 24 January for the murder of a man in County Donegal.\n\nAndrew Burns, 27, from Strabane, was shot twice in the back in February 2008 in a church car park.\n\nThe murder was linked to the dissident republican group, Oglaigh na hEireann. Kelly, from Barrack Steet, was also sentenced to eight years in prison for possession of a firearm.\n\nOn 20 January, Brian Shivers was convicted of the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene Barracks in March 2009.\n\nPolice in Derry believed dissident republicans were responsible for two bomb attacks on 19 January.\n\nThe bombs exploded at the tourist centre on Foyle Street and on Strand Road, close to the DHSS office, within 10 minutes of each other.\n\nHomes and businesses in the city were evacuated and no-one was injured.\n\nA bomb was left in the soldier's car in north Belfast\n\nA Scottish soldier found a bomb inside his car outside his girlfriend's house in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast.\n\nIt is understood the device contained a trip wire attached to the seat belt.\n\nPolice say if the bomb had gone off the soldier, and others in the vicinity, could have been killed. Dissidents admitted they carried out the attack.\n\nA bomb outside the City of Culture offices was blamed on dissidents\n\nA bomb exploded outside the City of Culture offices in Derry on 12 October.\n\nSecurity sources said the attack had all the hallmarks of dissident republicans, who damaged a door of the same building with a pipe bomb in January.\n\nThe Real IRA was blamed for two bomb attacks near Claudy, County Londonderry on 14 September.\n\nOne of the bombs exploded outside the family home of a Catholic police officer. No-one was in the house at the time.\n\nThe other device was made safe at the home of a retired doctor who works for the police.\n\nTwo masked men threw a holdall containing a bomb into a Santander bank branch in Derry's Diamond just after midday on Saturday 21 May.\n\nPolice cleared the area and the bomb exploded an hour later. No-one was injured.\n\nHowever, significant damage was caused inside the building.\n\nThe grenade was thrown at officers during a security alert\n\nA grenade was thrown at police officers during a security alert at Southway in Derry on 9 May.\n\nThe device, which was described as \"viable\", failed to explode.\n\nTwo children were talking to the officers when the grenade was thrown.\n\nThe mother of one of them said he could have been killed and whoever threw the grenade must have seen the children.\n\nThe Real IRA, threatened to kill more police officers and declared its opposition to Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to the Republic of Ireland.\n\nA statement was read out by a masked man at a rally organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in Derry on Easter Monday, 25 April.\n\nA 500lb bomb was left in a van at an underpass on the main Belfast to Dublin road in Newry.\n\nConstable Ronan Kerr was killed after a bomb exploded under his car outside his home in Omagh on 2 April.\n\nNo group claimed responsibility for the attack but dissident republicans were blamed.\n\nThe 25-year-old had joined the police in May 2010 and had been working in the community for five months.\n\nForensic experts at the scene of Derry courthouse bomb\n\nThe PSNI described a bomb left near Bishop Street Courthouse as a \"substantial viable device\".\n\nDistrict commander Stephen Martin said a beer keg, left in a stolen car, contained around 50kg of home-made explosives.\n\nA number of shots were fired at police officers at Glen Road in Derry on the night of 2 March.\n\nPolice said it was an attempt to kill.\n\nA policeman found an unexploded grenade outside his home in County Fermanagh.\n\nThe device was discovered at the property in Drumreer Road, Maguiresbridge, on 23 December.\n\nA grenade was found outside a police officer's home in County Fermanagh\n\nIn the Republic, three men from Northern Ireland were jailed for IRA membership on 15 December.\n\nGerard McGarrigle, 46, from Mount Carmel Heights in Strabane was sentenced to five years in prison.\n\nDesmond Donnelly, 58, from Drumall, Lisnarick, Fermanagh and Jim Murphy, 63, from Floraville in Enniskillen, were given three years and nine months.\n\nThey were arrested in Letterkenny in February after Irish police received a tip-off that dissident republicans were about to carry out a 'tiger' kidnapping\n\nA military hand grenade was used to attack police officers called to a robbery at Shaw's Road in west Belfast on 5 November.\n\nThree police officers were hurt and one of them suffered serious arm injuries when the grenade was thrown by a cyclist.\n\nThe dissident paramilitary group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) said it was responsible for the attack.\n\nThe Ulster Bank on Culmore Road was damaged in a car bomb attack in Derry\n\nA car bomb exploded close to the Ulster Bank, shops and a hotel on Derry's Culmore Road on 4 October.\n\nThe area had been cleared when the bomb exploded, but the blast was so strong that a police officer who was standing close to the cordon was knocked off his feet.\n\nLurgan man Paul McCaugherty was jailed for 20 years for a dissident republican gun smuggling plot that was uncovered after an MI5 sting operation.\n\nMcCaugherty was found guilty of attempting to import weapons and explosives.\n\nDermot Declan Gregory from Crossmaglen, was found guilty of making a Portuguese property available for the purpose of terrorism. He was sentenced to four years.\n\nThree children suffered minor injuries when a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan's North Street on 14 August.\n\nThe bomb went off at a junction where police would have been expected to put up a cordon around the school. The explosion injured the children after it blew a hole in a metal fence.\n\nThree children were hurt after a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan\n\nA booby trap partially exploded under the car of a former policeman in Cookstown, County Tyrone, on 10 August.\n\nThe man was unhurt in the attak.\n\nA bomb was found under the car of a Catholic policewoman in Kilkeel in County Down on 8 August.\n\nIt is believed the device fell off the car before being spotted by the officer.\n\nA booby-trap bomb was found in the driveway of a soldier's house in Bangor\n\nOn 4 August, booby trap bomb was found under a soldier's car in Bangor.\n\nIt then fell off and he discovered it as he was about to leave his home.\n\nA car that exploded outside a police station in Derry contained 200lb of homemade explosives.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack, which happened on 3 August, but several businesses were badly damaged in the blast.\n\nA bomb exploded between Belleeks and Cullyhanna in south Armagh, blowing a crater in the road and damaging a stone bridge on 10 July.\n\nPolice viewed it as an attempt to lure them into the area in order to carry out a follow-up ambush.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for organising two nights of sustained rioting in the Broadway and Bog Meadows areas of west Belfast on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July.\n\nLater rioting on 11, 12, 13 and 14 July in south and north Belfast, Lurgan and Derry is also believed to have involved dissidents.\n\nDissidents were believed to have organised riots in Belfast\n\nScores of police officers were injured during the violence, which featured gun attacks, petrol bombs and other missiles being thrown.\n\nShots were fired at Crossmaglen PSNI station on 2 July.\n\nDissident republicans said they were behind two similar attacks in December and January.\n\nA car bomb exploded outside Newtownhamilton Police Station in County Armagh, injuring two people.\n\nPeople also reported hearing gunshots before the blast.\n\nThere were five pipe bomb attacks on houses in the west of Northern Ireland in a week - two of them claimed by a group calling itself Republican Action Against Drugs.\n\nA car bomb was defused outside Newtownhamilton police station in south Armagh on Tuesday 13 April.\n\nA bomb in a hijacked taxi exploded outside Palace Barracks in Holywood, on Monday 12 April - the day policing and justice powers were transferred to Northern Ireland.\n\nThe barracks is home to MI5's headquarters in Northern Ireland.\n\nPolice said a car bomb left outside Crossmaglen on Easter Saturday night could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the area.\n\nThe bomb - made up of a number of flammable containers - was made safe by Army experts.\n\nKieran Doherty was murdered by the Real IRA\n\nThe naked and bound body of 31-year-old Kieran Doherty was found close to the Irish border near Derry on 24 February.\n\nThe Real IRA said it killed Mr Doherty who, it claimed, was one of its members.\n\nTwo days earlier a bomb damaged the gates of Newry courthouse in County Down.\n\nOfficers were evacuating the area when the bomb went off. Police said it was a miracle no-one was killed.\n\nA 33-year-old Catholic police officer was seriously injured in a dissident republican car bomb about a mile from his home in Randalstown in County Antrim.\n\nOn the last day of the month the Real IRA opened fire on a police station in County Armagh.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack in Bessbrook.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for leaving a car containing a 400lb (181kg) bomb outside the Policing Board's headquarters in Belfast.\n\nThe car, which had been driven through a barrier by two men who then ran off, burst into flames when the device partially exploded.\n\nOn the same night, shots were fired during an undercover police operation in the County Fermanagh village of Garrison, in what police described as an attempt to kill a trainee PSNI officer.\n\nOne of Northern Ireland's top judges moved out of his Belfast home over fears of a dissident republican threat against him.\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party politician Ian Paisley junior said police had warned him that dissident republicans were planning to murder him.\n\nMr Paisley, who was then a member of the Policing Board, said officers contacted him to inform him of the foiled attack.\n\nA police officer's partner was injured when a bomb exploded under her car in east Belfast.\n\nThe 38-year-old was reversing the vehicle out of the driveway of a house when the device exploded.\n\nIn the same month a bomb exploded inside a Territorial Army base in north Belfast.\n\nThe police confirmed that \"some blast damage\" had occurred inside the base off the Antrim Road and shrapnel from the overnight explosion was found in neighbouring streets.\n\nThe PSNI said a 600lb (272kg) bomb left near the Irish border in south Armagh was intended to kill its officers.\n\nThe bomb was defused by the Army near the village of Forkhill.\n\nDays later the Real IRA claimed responsibility for placing two explosive devices near the homes of a policeman's relatives in Derry.\n\nThe first device exploded outside his parents' home while a second device, which was found outside his sister's home, was taken away for examination by the Army.\n\nConor Murphy, then a Sinn Féin MP and minister in Northern Ireland's devolved administration, blamed dissident republicans for an arson attack on his home in south Armagh.\n\nDissident republicans were suspected of involvement in a petrol bomb attack on the Derry home of senior Sinn Féin member Mitchel McLaughlin.\n\nNorthern Ireland's then Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said dissident republicans had threatened to kill him.\n\nSappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey died in the attack\n\nTwo young soldiers were shot dead as they collected pizzas outside Massereene Barracks in County Antrim.\n\nSappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey were killed just hours before they were due to be deployed to Afghanistan.\n\nThe Real IRA was blamed for the attack.\n\nWithin 48 hours policeman Stephen Carroll was shot dead in Craigavon, County Armagh, becoming the first police officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1998.", "There is concern among some Conservative MPs that an EU deal could slip through their grasp\n\nRishi Sunak started the week in the green lane heading for a deal and ended up trapped in the red lane with no clear path out.\n\nThe prime minister thought he had his paperwork complete after months of delicate negotiation.\n\nAll he needed was clearance from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and his backbench Brexiteer MPs before signing off with the EU.\n\nBut, as his predecessors at Number 10 discovered, dealing with the DUP is challenging.\n\nThanks to those same predecessors, trust between DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and the Tory leadership has been slowly eroded.\n\nThat is why the party was not moved by the assurances offered by the prime minister in the House of Commons on Wednesday.\n\n\"We've heard the same warm words from the same dispatch box before, it counts for nothing,\" said one DUP MP.\n\nThat is why the DUP leader warned against \"tweaking\" the protocol and demanded the \"legally binding text\" be rewritten.\n\nSir Jeffrey Donaldson led a DUP delegation to meet the PM near Belfast on Monday\n\nUnless the DUP can read it in a bill, they can't sell it.\n\nWhile sidestepping that part of Sir Jeffrey's question, the prime minister hinted in another answer that legislative changes are in the mix.\n\nThat will be key for the DUP to be able say the old Northern Ireland Protocol is gone.\n\nBut any changes will come in the form of new legislation \"overlaying\" what has gone before both in London and Brussels.\n\nSo the EU will equally be able to say the original protocol text remains.\n\nNuances like that matter when it comes spinning and disguising compromises if we ever reach the point of a deal.\n\nJudging by the Westminster whispers this week that is far from clear.\n\nThere is real concern among some less vocal Tories that a deal which was within touching distance could slip through their grasp.\n\nSome of those non-European Research Group (ERG) MPs question why the Prime Minister is spending so much political capital on an issue which does not stir their voters at a time when other more pressing issues need attention.\n\nThe protocol does not appear in Mr Sunak's five key priorities and there is a budget looming within weeks.\n\n\"There are some on our back benches who are certifiable and Mr Sunak needs to stand up to them\" said one frustrated Tory.\n\nAfter briefing heavily that the deal was to be published this week, Team Sunak are now in crisis management.\n\nThe daily calls with European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic on the surface suggest Brussels is being squeezed for more concessions, but equally it could be for the optics ahead of a deal being agreed next week.\n\nMr Sunak has invested too much to walk away.\n\nHe cannot sit on a deal which provides much needed remedies for businesses struggling under the burden of the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nPlus, he is desperate to bank the gains he has secured.\n\nThat may include taking back control of state aid, VAT and other tax breaks in Northern Ireland which, under the protocol, fell to Brussels.\n\nThat was leaked this week and was not totally discounted by sources in Brussels.\n\nSuch leaks are useful in countering back bench and DUP pressure in the absence of publishing the deal.\n\nCould this be one of the important areas where Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told us real progress has been made?\n\nBut what the prime minister really needs is for the DUP to hold back on its verdict of any deal.\n\nThis would allow the government time to win over business leaders and other stake holders before the DUP passes judgement.\n\nBut if the government is to secure its goal of restoring the Stormont institutions then the DUP will have to be won over at some stage\n\nThe party is expecting the deal to be published early next week and it will likely flag concerns but reserve full judgement until it sees any accompanying legal text\n\nWith a council election looming in May, rejecting the deal is the easiest option for Sir Jeffrey.\n\nBut saying no is not a long term sustainable position and that is the calculation the government will be banking on", "New underwater footage has offered a glimpse of a shipwrecked warship that sank while carrying a future king.\n\nHundreds of people died when the Gloucester ran aground off the coast of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1682, nearly killing the Duke of York, who became King James II of England.\n\nIts discovery in 2007 was kept a secret until 2022 for security reasons and was described as the \"single most significant historic maritime discovery since the raising of the Mary Rose.\"\n\nDivers have taken hundreds of photos of the site to create a 3D model for a new exhibition at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery.", "A birthday party for Logan Roy in the second series was filmed in the V&A in Dundee\n\nThe creator of Emmy-award winning drama Succession says the upcoming fourth season will be its last.\n\nJesse Armstrong said in an interview with The New Yorker that he \"never thought this could go on forever\".\n\nThe final series of show - which follows Logan Roy, the owner of a media empire, and his family - begins next month.\n\nArmstrong said he and the show's other writers had been planning its end since 2021.\n\n\"I feel deeply conflicted. I quite enjoy this period when we're editing - where the whole season is there but we haven't put it out yet. I like the interregnum,\" said Armstrong, who also wrote Fresh Meat and Peep Show.\n\n\"And I also quite liked the period where me and my close collaborators knew that this was probably it, or this was it, but hadn't had to face up to it in the world.\"\n\nThe HBO series, which stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook, has won 13 Emmys, two Golden Globes and a Bafta.\n\nArmstrong said HBO, which confirmed the show was ending by retweeting The New Yorker article on Twitter, let him have full control of when the show would end.\n\n\"HBO has been generous and would probably have done more seasons, and they have been nice about saying, 'It's your decision',\" he said.\n\nArmstrong, who also wrote for The Thick of It and Veep, says he has not ruled out other shows about the Roy dynasty.\n\n\"I do think that this succession story that we were telling is complete,\" he said.\n\n\"This is the muscular season to exhaust all our reserves of interest, and I think there's some pain in all these characters that's really strong.\n\n\"But the feeling that there could be something else in an allied world, or allied characters, or some of the same characters - that's also strong in me.\"\n\nThe first episode of the final season airs on 27 March.", "Mir Ali Koçer says he was traumatised by covering the earthquake's aftermath\n\nFreelance journalist Mir Ali Koçer was 200 miles from the epicentre when Turkey was struck by a deadly earthquake on 6 February. Grabbing his camera and microphone, he drove down to the affected region to interview survivors.\n\nHe shared stories of survivors and rescuers on Twitter and is now under investigation on suspicion of spreading \"fake news\" and could face up to three years in jail.\n\nHe is one of at least four journalists being investigated for reporting or commenting on the earthquake.\n\nPress freedom groups say dozens more have been detained, harassed or prevented from reporting.\n\nAt least 50,000 people were killed when earthquakes hit both Turkey and Syria.\n\nTurkey's authorities have not commented on the detentions.\n\nOn the night of the earthquake, Mr Koçer - who is Kurdish and contributes to pro-opposition news sites such as Bianet and Duvar - was smoking on his balcony in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir, when his two dogs suddenly started barking.\n\nHe later remembered how they had barked just like that in 2020, seconds before a smaller earthquake hit eastern Turkey.\n\n\"I felt I was shaking. I felt the house shaking, I felt the TV shaking,\" says Mr Koçer. He hid under a dinner table with the dogs and then rushed outside.\n\nMr Koçer left Diyarbakir and drove to the city of Gaziantep. He was shocked by scenes of destruction and victims enduring freezing temperatures in towns near the very epicentre of the quake.\n\nAt least 3,000 of the earthquake's victims died in Gaziantep.\n\n\"When holding the microphone, behind the camera or in front of the camera, I could not hold back my tears,\" Mr Koçer recalls.\n\nMr Koçer was touched by the influx of volunteers and rescue teams coming from Western Turkey, and he shared their stories on Twitter. Some of the survivors told him they received no aid for days. Similar complaints were cited across pro-opposition media outlets.\n\nVisiting the earthquake-affected areas, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the people he would rebuild their cities. But he also warned that those spreading \"fake news\" and \"causing social chaos\" would be prosecuted, calling them \"provocateurs\".\n\nMr Koçer says that while he was reporting from the region hit by the earthquake, Diyarbakir police left a note at his apartment, instructing him to visit the police station and give a statement.\n\nAt the station, he was told that he was being investigated under a recently introduced disinformation law. He said the police questioned him about his reporting from the earthquake epicentre and accused him of spreading false information.\n\nTurkey's new law was adopted in October. It criminalised the public spreading of disinformation and gave the state much broader powers to control news sites and social media.\n\nThe Venice Commission, a legal watchdog of the Council of Europe, said the law would interfere with freedom of expression.\n\nMr Koçer insists that he was meticulous in his work and interviewed all sides, from survivors to the police, the gendarmerie and rescue workers. \"I did not share information without thorough research and analysis,\" he says.\n\nReporters Without Borders (RSF) called the investigation against Mr Koçer \"absurd\" and urged the authorities to drop it.\n\nAccording to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an advocacy group, at least three more journalists are facing criminal charges.\n\nMerdan Yanardağ and Enver Aysever are prominent Istanbul-based political commentators with large social media followings. Both have criticised the government's rescue efforts. They're both under investigation along with Mehmet Güleş, who, like Mr Koçer, is based in Diyarbakir. He was detained on suspicion of \"inciting hatred\" for interviewing a volunteer critical of the government's rescue effort and later released, according to RSF.\n\nAgony in Diyarbakir after the earthquake\n\nThe number of other journalists under investigation is unclear. On Tuesday, the police said they detained 134 people over \"provocative posts\" and arrested 25 of them, but their identities have not been disclosed. Some of those detained may well have been spreading falsehoods, including one that Afghan migrants had been scavenging in ruined neighbourhoods.\n\nBut critics say the clampdown has gone far beyond those spreading harmful disinformation.\n\n\"The government is trying to suppress information coming from the quake zone,\" says cyber rights expert Yaman Akdeniz who teaches at the Istanbul Bilgi University.\n\nThe arrests came after Turkey's presidential communications director warned against \"lethal disinformation\" jeopardising the rescue efforts. The directorate also rolled out a smartphone app called \"Disinformation Reporting Service\" encouraging people to report manipulative posts about the quake.\n\n\"Any time [Turkish] officials and the government are being criticised, they don't like it,\" says Arzu Geybulla, a journalist in Istanbul covering digital authoritarianism and censorship.\n\n\"But this time they are perhaps more vocal.\"\n\nThe BBC contacted Turkey's presidential directorate for communications asking about the journalists investigated and the calls by advocacy groups to drop investigations, but has had no response.", "The Prince and Princess of Wales sang the Welsh national anthem at Principality Stadium, Cardiff\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales stood side by side to cheer on opposite sides as Wales hosted England for their Six Nations match in Cardiff.\n\nPrince William is the patron of the Welsh Rugby Union, while his wife Catherine is patron of English rugby after taking over from Prince Harry.\n\nSpeaking before the match, the prince joked that \"it's going to be a very tense journey home\".\n\nThe final score saw Wales defeated 10-20 to England at Principality Stadium.\n\nKate wore a red and white Catherine Walker coat, which William described as \"diplomatic\", and the prince wore a red tie and red scarf to support Wales.\n\nKate met with injured players supported by the Welsh Charitable Trust\n\nAhead of the match, the royal couple met injured players helped by the Welsh Charitable Trust, which William is also a patron of.\n\nThey officially opened a new space, known as the Sir Tasker Watkins Suite, which will be used by injured players and their families before matches.\n\nSpeaking at the reception, the prince said: \"I'm looking forward to today. We need a little lift after the past week, don't we?\n\n\"It's going to be a very tense journey home. If we win today my wife won't speak to me. It will be a tense evening.\"\n\nThe princess laughed when she was asked about her support for England and said: \"The atmosphere is always second-to-none, so I'm looking forward to that.\"\n\nThe Prince of Wales was greeted by former Welsh rugby player Ieuan Evans\n\nKate took over as patron of the Rugby Football Union from the Duke of Sussex last year.\n\nThe couple spoke about their children during the visit, sharing how Prince George is now learning to tackle, rather than playing tag rugby - a non-contact version of the game.\n\nThe princess added: \"Because he is tall, he has the physique. But then there is Louis coming. Charlotte also does rugby.\"\n\nBefore the national anthems were played, there was a silence to mark the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine.\n\nThe match was at risk of being called off earlier this week after a threat of strikes from Wales' players over contract issues.\n\nDespite the threat being withdrawn on Wednesday, Wales' captain Ken Owens described the lead-up to the Six Nations match as \"horrendous\".", "Residents in Nottinghamshire park homes have seen delays in receiving payments\n\nAlmost a million households can now start applying for government help towards their energy bills, which was promised to help them through the winter.\n\nMost households have been getting £400 in energy support, paid in monthly instalments since October.\n\nBut those in park homes, care homes and living off-grid have not yet seen a penny. Some say they feel \"forgotten\".\n\nThe government says it knows this is a difficult time for families.\n\nIt says it is working to serve these additional households.\n\nBut it could still take weeks for these households to receive the payment.\n\nSue Marshall has lived in her park home near Mansfield in Nottinghamshire for nine years. She is one of 85,000 park home owners in the UK.\n\nSue Marshall says people were scared to put the heating on because they were worried about their bills\n\nShe lives in her home all year round and pays council tax in the usual way, but when it comes to her energy bills she pays via the park home owner and does not have a direct relationship with the supplier. This means she has to apply for the rebate and has not received it automatically.\n\n\"I feel as if we have been forgotten,\" says Sue. \"Nothing at all has come to fruition.\"\n\nJohn Halfpenny and Linda King are also residents on the site. They say they were initially told they would be able to apply in December, but are only now putting their applications in for their rebates - five months after the first automatic payments began.\n\nThe government's online portal is now open for people like Sue, John and Linda to apply for the £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme Alternative Funding.\n\nSome 900,000 households can apply, including those who live in houseboats or have a communal electricity supply.\n\nIt will be open until the end of May and the payment will arrive in one lump sum, although it could take up to six weeks.\n\nThe BBC understands that once an application has been made, the information will be passed to the local council for verification, which could include a home visit.\n\nJohn Halfpenny and Linda King say winter payment delays made them feel \"second class\"\n\n\"Everyone else has got theirs, it just makes you feel like you're second class,\" says Linda.\n\nThe money was promised to help households through the winter, but as John points out, \"we've already paid for our winter.\"\n\nSue adds that if the site's residents had received the rebate sooner, they would not have been so worried about using the oven, or gas.\n\n\"People on their own and with ill health need the heating on, but they daren't do it because they're scared of the big bills,\" she says.\n\nAnd there are others who are still owed money.\n\nPatrick Raven lives in the middle of Chesterfield, but his home does not have mains gas. Instead, he uses bottled gas and the price of it is not capped.\n\nPatrick Raven has seen prices for bottled gas for his home increase dramatically\n\n\"The price a year ago was £105 for two [bottles of liquid petroleum gas], now it's £168,\" says Patrick. \"In the winter it lasts about four weeks.\"\n\nBecause residents like Patrick are paying more for their energy, households which use alternative fuels such as heating oil, LPG or biomass are due an additional £200 payment.\n\nIt should arrive as credit on their electricity bill, but if not, households will have to apply on the government website.\n\nPatrick's payment has not arrived yet. \"[I feel] a bit peeved. I think it's crazy. Most likely we will get it eventually but it may be summer when we least need it, because we need it now. We've needed it during the winter, for the cold spells.\"\n\nThe Alternative Fuels Payment application on the government website is due to open by the end of February.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We know this is a difficult time for families which is why the government has been paying for half of the typical household's energy bill this winter.\n\n\"These are complex schemes to administer and needs a separate approach from the Energy Bills Support Scheme.\"", "UK health experts are sharing details of their Covid-style plans against bird flu, including modelling for the unlikely scenario that it could mutate and cause a pandemic in people.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says there is no evidence H5N1 virus is an imminent threat or can spread between people, despite some getting sick after contact with infected birds.\n\nBut there is no room for complacency.\n\nOne expert told the BBC \"we must prepare for the worst\" just in case.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) is urging heightened vigilance from all countries, following the death of an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia from H5N1.\n\nThe girl's father has also tested positive, according to Cambodia's health minister.\n\nInvestigators are working to establish if infected birds were the cause, rather than a case of human-to-human transmission.\n\nHumans rarely get bird flu, but when they do it is usually from coming into direct contact with infected birds.\n\nSince late 2021, the world has been experiencing one of the worst global avian influenza outbreaks on record, with tens of millions of poultry culled and mass wild bird die-offs.\n\nAnd there have been a few infections in some mammals, including foxes and otters in the UK.\n\nDr Meera Chand, from the UKHSA, said all of the latest evidence suggested H5N1 could not currently spread easily to people.\n\n\"However, viruses constantly evolve, and we remain vigilant for any evidence of changing risk to the population, as well as working with partners to address gaps in the scientific evidence.\"\n\nIn preparation for a worst-case scenario of human-to-human spread, the UKHSA is modelling:\n\nWhen the Covid pandemic hit, there were no suitable vaccines available to fight that virus. But for bird flu, there are already several good candidates that might help.\n\nWHO-affiliated labs already hold two flu virus strains that are closely related to the circulating H5N1 virus, that manufacturers can use to develop new shots if needed, experts said at a meeting on Friday.\n\nProf Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London, is a member of Nervtag - the group that advises the British government on new and emerging threats from respiratory viruses.\n\nHe told the BBC that the fact that we are still in a Covid pandemic in no way lessened the possibility of another pandemic coming from elsewhere.\n\n\"We absolutely need to watch this one,\" he said.\n\n\"The good news at the moment is that there's no evidence of human-to-human spread.\n\n\"We need to prepare for the worst but obviously hope for the best, to use the old phrase.\"\n\nProf Sir Andrew Pollard, part of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine team, told the BBC that bird flu had \"pandemic potential\" as humans did not have immunity.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: \"In the human population at the moment there is no immunity against this strain of H5N1 because we never had an outbreak of that in humans.\n\n\"So there's just no immunity, and that's why it has pandemic potential... and why it's so important to be vigilant.\"\n\n\"Not another pandemic\" might well be the exasperated response of many to talk of the risks from bird flu.\n\nCovid fatigue is understandable but the H5N1 virus is a real concern to many scientists who monitor global disease threats.\n\nThankfully, the virus does not spread easily from birds to humans, requiring close contact. That would need to change if the threat of a human pandemic was to be realised, which would require the virus to mutate.\n\nSince 2003 the WHO has recorded 868 cases in humans, of which 457 were fatal, so the mortality rate is more than 50%.\n\nScientists want to see better surveillance, more investment in vaccines and antivirals - so that should the worst ever happen, the world will be better prepared than it was when Covid emerged.\n• None Bird flu 'spills over' to otters and foxes in UK\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Each ballot paper is being carefully checked\n\nEarly results have started to arrive from Nigeria's tightest election since the end of military rule in 1999.\n\nOfficial results from the south-western Ekiti state show a clear victory for ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu in one of his strongholds.\n\nFurther results will not be formally announced until 10:00 GMT.\n\nFollowing widespread delays and attacks on some polling stations on Saturday, voting was postponed until Sunday in parts of the country.\n\nVoting continued through the night in some areas.\n\nTurnout appears to be high, especially among young people who make up about a third of the 87 million eligible voters.\n\nThis makes it the biggest democratic exercise in Africa.\n\nThe election has seen an unprecedented challenge to the two-party system that has dominated Nigeria for 24 years.\n\nPeter Obi from the previously little known Labour Party, Mr Tinubu from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are all seen as potential winners. There are 15 other presidential candidates.\n\nA candidate needs to have the most votes and 25% of ballots cast in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states to be declared the winner.\n\nOtherwise, there will be a run-off within 21 days - a first in Nigeria's history.\n\nSaturday's voting was marred by long delays at polling stations, as well as scattered reports of ballot-box snatching and attacks by armed men, especially in southern areas, where Mr Obi has his support base.\n\nDr Nkem Okoli was just about to vote in the Lekki district of the biggest city Lagos when masked men attacked the polling station.\n\n\"There was pandemonium. There were bottles flying everywhere,\" she told the BBC. \"They broke [the ballot box]. They stole the phones of the officials. Now we can't vote.\"\n\nIn some areas, voting did not begin until around 18:00 local time - three-and-a-half hours after polls were due to close.\n\nFirst-time voter Susan Ekpoh told the BBC that she spent 13 hours at her polling station in the capital, Abuja, only leaving at midnight.\n\nShe said when it got dark, election officials said they needed light to see what they were doing, so she and others used their car headlights to illuminate proceedings.\n\nThe southern Bayelsa state was among those areas where voting was delayed until Sunday - it is not clear how many parts of the country saw voting postponed.\n\nHarrison Rosaline hopes the elections will deliver a better future for her two-week old baby\n\nHarrison Rosaline said she waited for five hours to vote on Saturday in Bayelsa's capital, Yenagoa, without seeing any election officials. But she returned, with her two-week old baby, and is delighted to have finally cast her ballot.\n\n\"I was motivated because I want a better Nigeria. I want this country to be good for everybody, including my baby,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThere is tension in parts of Rivers and Lagos states, where some political parties have asked their members to go to the centres where votes are being collated, to prevent them being manipulated.\n\nThere have also been complaints over the use of the recently introduced electronic voting system, with many voters accusing electoral officials of refusing to upload the results at the polling units as they are supposed to.\n\nHowever, in those areas where voting went smoothly, results are being posted outside individual polling stations.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The mood at Nigeria's polls in 60 seconds\n\nThe results from tens of thousands of polling stations around the country are being added up. An official from the electoral body in each of Nigeria's 36 states will then travel to the capital, Abuja, where the results will be announced state-by-state.\n\nFinal results are not expected before Monday at the earliest, and possibly not until Wednesday.\n\nAt a press briefing on Saturday, electoral chief Mahmood Yakubu apologised for the delays in voting.\n\nIn the north-eastern state of Borno, Mr Yakubu said that militant Islamists had opened fire on electoral officers from a mountain top in the Gwoza area, injuring a number of officials.\n\nWhoever wins will have to deal with a crumbling economy, high youth unemployment, and widespread insecurity which saw 10,000 killed last year.\n\nVoters also cast their ballots for 109 federal senators and 360 members of the house of representatives.\n\nMr Obi, 61, enjoys fervent support among some sections of Nigeria's youth, especially in the largely Christian south.\n\nAlthough he was in the PDP before then, he is seen as a relatively fresh face. The wealthy businessman served as governor of the south-eastern Anambra State from 2006 to 2014. His backers, known as the \"OBIdients\", say he is the only candidate with integrity, but his critics argue that a vote for him is wasted because one of the two traditional parties is more likely to win.\n\nThe PDP's Mr Abubakar, 76, is the only major candidate from the country's mainly Muslim north. He has run for the presidency five times before - all of which he has lost. He has been dogged by accusations of corruption and cronyism, which he denies.\n\nMost of his career has been spent in the corridors of power, having worked as a top civil servant, vice-president and a prominent businessman.\n\nMost people consider the election a referendum on the APC, which has overseen a period of economic hardship and worsening insecurity.\n\nIts candidate, Mr Tinubu, 70, is credited with building Lagos during his two terms as governor until 2007.\n\nHe is known as a political godfather in the south-west region, where he wields huge influence, but like Mr Abubakar, has also been dogged by allegations of corruption over the years and poor health, both of which he denies.\n\nAdditional reporting by BBC teams around the country.", "Orchards are being dug up across the Garden of England as growing the fruit is no longer financially viable\n\nApple farmers in Kent are digging up their orchards in the face of stagnant returns on the fruit.\n\nFruit grower Richard Budd, from Marden, has removed 50 acres (20 hectares) of apple trees from his land.\n\nHe said the UK's food security was \"increasingly under threat\" as orchards disappear and future buyers will need foreign importers.\n\nThe industry is on a \"knife edge\", according to British Apples & Pears Limited (BAPL).\n\nApples are being left to rot in the fields while issues with shortages, which could last until May, affect supermarkets in the UK.\n\nInput prices - which include picking, energy, haulage and packaging - have risen 23%, while the amount supermarkets pay growers for their produce has increased 0.8% year-on-year, BAPL said.\n\nReuben Collingwood, from Tenterden, is a fourth generation farmer who said his fruit-growing business was facing huge financial losses.\n\nHe described the situation as \"pretty catastrophic\".\n\n\"We use a lot electricity for our cold storage to be able to provide food throughout the winter,\" he explained.\n\n\"That's gone up 300% on last year, labour's gone up 15% and it's due to go up again in April.\"\n\nFruit grower Richard Budd said farmers have a clear choice whether to stay and make a loss or pursue other avenues\n\nWithout change, growers envisage a future of imported apples and pears, and increasing food shortages.\n\nMr Budd said: \"When that fruit's gone, it won't come back. So we'll have to source it from either abroad or we will see empty supermarket shelves.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Vladimir Putin has been at Russia's helm for more than 20 years\n\nI keep thinking back to something I heard on Russian state TV three years ago.\n\nAt the time Russians were being urged to support changes to the constitution that would enable Vladimir Putin to stay in power for another 16 years.\n\nTo persuade the public, the news anchor portrayed President Putin as a sea captain steering the good ship Russia through stormy waters of global unrest.\n\n\"Russia is an oasis of stability, a safe harbour,\" he continued. \"If it wasn't for Putin what would have become of us?\"\n\nSo much for an oasis of stability and safe harbour. On 24 February 2022, the Kremlin captain set sail in a storm of his own making. And headed straight for the iceberg.\n\nVladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has brought death and destruction to Russia's neighbour. It has resulted in huge military casualties for his own country: some estimates put the number of dead Russian soldiers in the tens of thousands.\n\nHundreds of thousands of Russian citizens have been drafted into the army and Russian prisoners (including convicted killers) have been recruited to fight in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the war has impacted energy and food prices around the world and continues to threaten European and global security.\n\nSo why did Russia's president set a course for war and territorial conquest?\n\nMr Putin attended a military ceremony on Thursday to mark Defender of the Fatherland Day\n\n\"On the horizon were the Russian presidential elections of 2024,\" points out political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann.\n\n\"Two years before that vote [the Kremlin] wanted some victorious event. In 2022 they would achieve their objectives. In 2023 they would instil in the minds of Russians how fortunate they were to have such a captain steering the ship, not just through troubled waters, but bringing them to new and richer shores. Then in 2024 people would vote. Bingo. What could go wrong?\"\n\nPlenty, if your plans are based on misassumptions and miscalculations.\n\nThe Kremlin had expected its \"special military operation\" to be lightning fast. Within weeks, it thought, Ukraine would be back in Russia's orbit. President Putin had seriously underestimated Ukraine's capacity to resist and fight back, as well as the determination of Western nations to support Kyiv.\n\nRussia's leader has yet to acknowledge, though, that he made a mistake by invading Ukraine. Mr Putin's way is to push on, to escalate, to raise the stakes.\n\nWhich brings me on to two key questions: how does Vladimir Putin view the situation one year on and what will be his next move in Ukraine?\n\nThis week he gave us some clues.\n\nHis state-of-the-nation address was packed with anti-Western bile. He continues to blame America and Nato for the war in Ukraine, and to portray Russia as an innocent party. His decision to suspend participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and America, New Start, shows that President Putin has no intention of pulling back from Ukraine or ending his standoff with the West.\n\nThe following day, at a Moscow football stadium, Mr Putin shared the stage with Russian soldiers back from the front line. At what was a highly choreographed pro-Kremlin rally, President Putin told the crowd that \"there are battles going on right now on [Russia's] historical frontiers\" and praised Russia's \"courageous warriors\".\n\nConclusion: don't expect any Kremlin U-turns. This Russian president is not for turning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\n\"If he faces no resistance, he will go as far as can,\" believes Andrei Illarionov, President Putin's former economic adviser. \"There is no other way to stop him other than military resistance.\"\n\nBut what about talks over tanks? Is negotiating peace with Mr Putin possible?\n\n\"It's possible to sit down with anyone,\" Andrei Illarionov continues, \"but we have an historic record of sitting down with Putin and making agreements with him.\n\n\"Putin violated all the documents. The agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the bilateral treaty between Russia and Ukraine, the treaty on the internationally recognised border of Russia and Ukraine, the UN charter, the Helsinki Act of 1975, the Budapest Memorandum. And so on. There is no document he would not violate.\"\n\nWhen it comes to breaking agreements, the Russian authorities have a long list of their own grudges to level at the West. Topping that list is Moscow's assertion that the West broke a promise it made in the 1990s not to enlarge the Nato alliance eastwards.\n\nAnd yet in his early years in office, Vladimir Putin appeared not to view Nato as a threat. In 2000 he even did not exclude Russia one day becoming a member of the Alliance. Two years later, asked to comment on Ukraine's stated intention of joining Nato, President Putin replied: \"Ukraine is a sovereign state and is entitled to choose itself how to ensure its own security…\" He insisted the issue would not cloud relations between Moscow and Kyiv.\n\nOn Tuesday the Russian president delivered his annual state-of-the-nation address\n\nPutin circa 2023 is a very different character. Seething with resentment at the \"collective West\", he styles himself as leader of a besieged fortress, repelling the alleged attempts of Russia's enemies to destroy his country. From his speeches and comments - and his references to imperial Russian rulers like Peter the Great and Catherine the Great - Mr Putin appears to believe he is destined to recreate the Russian empire in some shape or form.\n\nBut at what cost to Russia? President Putin once earned himself a reputation for bringing stability to his country. That has disappeared amid rising military casualties, mobilisation and economic sanctions. Several hundred thousand Russians have left the country since the start of the war, many of them young, skilled and educated: a brain drain that will hurt Russia's economy even more.\n\nAs a result of the war, suddenly, there are a lot of groups around with guns, including private military companies, like Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner group and regional battalions. Relations with the regular armed forces are far from harmonious. The conflict between Russia's Ministry of Defence and Wagner is an example of public infighting within the elites.\n\n\"Civil war is likely to cover Russia for the next decade,\" believes Konstantin Remchukov, owner and editor of Moscow-based newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. \"There are too many interest groups who understand that in these conditions there's a chance to redistribute wealth.\"\n\n\"The real chance to avoid civil war will be if the right person comes to power immediately after Putin. A person who has authority over the elites and the resoluteness to isolate those eager to exploit the situation.\"\n\n\"Are the Russian elites discussing who the right man or woman is?\" I ask Konstantin.\n\n\"Quietly. With the lights off. They do discuss this. They will have their voice.\"\n\n\"And does Putin know these discussions are happening?\"\n\n\"He knows. I think he knows everything.\"\n\nThis week the speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament declared: \"As long as there's Putin, there's Russia.\"\n\nIt was a statement of loyalty, but not of fact. Russia will survive - it has managed to for centuries. Vladimir Putin's fate, however, is linked irrevocably now to the outcome of the war in Ukraine.", "Christie Harnett and Emily Moore both died while under the care of the trust\n\nA mental health trust is to be prosecuted after three patients died in its care.\n\nThe Care Quality Commission (CQC) is bringing charges against the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) NHS Trust.\n\nIt is thought they relate to the deaths of Christie Harnett, 17, Emily Moore, 18, and a third person.\n\nThe trust is said to have failed \"to provide safe care and treatment\" which exposed patients to \"significant risk of avoidable harm\".\n\nBoth young women had previously been treated at West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough, which was closed down by inspectors after significant concerns were raised in 2019.\n\nMiss Harnett, from Newton Aycliffe died at the hospital in 2019.\n\nMiss Moore, from Shildon, died after taking her own life at Lanchester Road Hospital in Durham in 2020. Both had complex mental health issues and took their own lives.\n\nIt is not known who the third person is.\n\nWest Lane was a mental health unit for children and adolescents\n\nLast year, independent reports commissioned by NHS England found including gaps in the \"care and service delivery\" across a number of agencies over the treatment provided to the two of them.\n\nIn June last year, the CQC, which regulates health and social care services in England, said it was prosecuting the trust over its failure to protect Miss Harnett.\n\nAt the time, it said the circumstances surrounding the death meant the CQC had looked \"at all the evidence to determine if it meets the threshold for the CQC to prosecute the provider\".\n\nAnd \"in this case it was concluded that it did meet the threshold and a prosecution was necessary and in the public interest\".\n\nOn Friday, the CQC confirmed it was now prosecuting the trust over the deaths of two more people.\n\nA spokesperson for the CQC refused to confirm the patients involved, but said all had been in the trust's care.\n\nHowever, the father of Miss Moore, David Moore, told the BBC that some of the alleged offences related to the care of his daughter.\n\nThe CQC said the trust \"breached\" the Health and Social Care Act, which relates to healthcare providers' responsibility to \"ensure people receive safe care and treatment\".\n\nIn response, a spokesperson for the trust said: \"We have fully cooperated with the Care Quality Commission's investigation and continue to work closely with them.\n\n\"We remain focused on delivering safe and kind care to our patients and have made significant progress in the last couple of years.\"\n\nThe first hearing is set to take place on 17 May at Teesside Magistrates' Court.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Zelensky said victory \"will inevitably await us\"\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he plans to meet China's leader Xi Jinping to discuss Beijing's proposals on ending the war in Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking on the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion, he said the proposal signalled that China was involved in the search for peace.\n\n\"I really want to believe that China will not supply weapons to Russia,\" he said.\n\nChina's plan calls for peace talks and respect for national sovereignty.\n\nHowever, the 12-point document does not specifically say that Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine, and it also condemns the usage of \"unilateral sanctions\", in what is seen as a veiled criticism of Ukraine's allies in the West.\n\nThe Chinese authorities have so far not publicly responded to Mr Zelensky's call for a summit with Mr Xi.\n\nMeanwhile, Russia hailed the Chinese peace proposals. \"We share Beijing's views,\" the foreign ministry in Moscow said in a statement.\n\nEarlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Beijing was considering supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia - a claim strongly denied by Beijing. On Friday, American media again reported that the Chinese government was considering sending drones and artillery shells to Moscow.\n\nAsked about the Chinese plan, US President Joe Biden told ABC News on Friday: \"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's applauding it, so how could it be any good?\n\n\"I've seen nothing in the plan that would indicate that there is something that would be beneficial to anyone other than Russia,\" he added.\n\nChina appears to be siding with Russia, though it would like to find a way of rescuing President Putin by arranging some kind of face-saving peace deal, says the BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson.\n\nThe Chinese proposals follow a visit by the country's top diplomat Wang Yi to Moscow, where he met President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.\n\nAfter the talks, Mr Wang was quoted by China's state-run Xinhua news agency as saying that Beijing was willing to \"deepen political trust\" and \"strengthen strategic coordination\" with Moscow.\n\nWestern officials gave the latest proposals a lukewarm reception. Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said Beijing \"doesn't have much credibility\" because it had \"not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine\".\n\nPresident Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and Russian troops made significant advances during the first few days in Ukraine's north, east and south.\n\nBut the attack on the capital Kyiv was soon repulsed and the Ukrainian military was later able to retake large areas.\n\nThe conflict - the biggest in Europe since World War Two - has since become a grinding war of attrition.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\nAt a lengthy news conference in Kyiv on Friday, Mr Zelensky also said victory \"will inevitably await us\" if allies \"respect their promises and deadlines\".\n\nPoland said it had already delivered four German-made Leopard II tanks to Ukraine and was ready to deliver more. Germany has said it will provide 14 Leopard tanks, with Spain and Canada also sending tanks.\n\nThe US - by far the biggest provider of military aid to Ukraine - has pledged to send 31 of its M1 Abrams tanks and the UK is providing 14 Challenger 2 tanks.\n\nThe Ukrainian leader added that his country had failed to engage sufficiently with countries in Africa and Latin America after many nations in those continents abstained during a UN General Assembly vote on a resolution condemning Russia's invasion.\n\n\"We didn't work well for many years, we didn't pay attention, I think it's a big mistake,\" he said.\n\nAsked if he could name his worst moment of the war so far, Mr Zelensky said Bucha, a town outside Kyiv where Russian troops are accused of having killed civilians in the early part of the war. The small town had been under Russian control until Ukrainian troops fought back last April to reclaim it.\n\n\"What I saw. It was horrible,\" Mr Zelensky said, visibly moved.\n\nThe US marked a year since Russia invaded Ukraine by announcing a new range of sanctions against Russia and new aid for Ukraine.\n\nThe latest restrictions target more than 100 entities both within Russia and worldwide, including banks and suppliers of defence equipment. The US said it wanted to stop those helping Russia exploit loopholes to get sanctioned materials.\n\nThe White House's fresh round of aid for Ukraine is worth $12bn (£10bn), comprising $2bn from the Department of Defense including ammunition and drones and $10bn from the State Department including budgetary support to the Ukrainian government.\n\nA further $550m will be supplied to both Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova to strengthen their energy infrastructure.\n\nMoldova is Europe's poorest country and has been heavily impacted by the war. Its leaders have warned for several weeks that Russia is plotting to seize power.\n\nIt comes days after US President Joe Biden flew to Kyiv for a surprise visit and held talks with Mr Zelensky.\n\nOn Friday, the EU also approved its 10th round of sanctions against Russia, imposing restrictions on technology that has a civilian and military dual use.", "For over a decade, stolen images of a former adult star have been used to scam victims out of thousands of dollars. How does it feel to be the unwitting face of so many romance scams?\n\nAlmost every day, Vanessa gets messages from men who believe they are in a relationship with her - some even think she's their wife. They are angry, confused and some want their money back - which they say they sent her to pay for daily expenses, hospital bills, or to help relatives.\n\nBut it is all a lie. Vanessa doesn't know these men. Instead, her pictures and videos - lifted from her past life in adult entertainment - have been used as the bait in online romance scams dating back to the mid-2000s. Victims had money extorted through fake online profiles using Vanessa's name or likeness, in a type of romance scam called catfishing.\n\nThe flood of messages containing tales of lost money and ruined lives have taken their toll.\n\n\"I started becoming depressed, and blaming myself - maybe if my pictures weren't out there, these men wouldn't be getting scammed,\" Vanessa says - we're not using her surname to protect her full identity.\n\nFor about eight years, Vanessa worked as a \"camgirl\" - streaming explicit material live on the internet via webcam. Because she was a bit shy when she started out, she decided to create an alter ego called Janessa Brazil. \"It's not really me, it's Janessa, so I won't be ashamed,\" she thought.\n\nShe picked the surname Brazil not only because it's where she was born, but also because it's one of the most popular search terms on the internet. It was a savvy decision. \"I hate that name,\" she says now. \"But it helped me get popular quickly.\"\n\nBehind every catfish, there's the bait. Listen to Love, Janessa from the BBC World Service and CBC Podcasts.\n\nFor a while, things were great. Vanessa enjoyed the relationship with her fans, who would pay up to $20 (£17) per minute to watch and interact with her. \"I want to please them. I want to have fun with them. And they get hooked,\" she says.\n\nAt the peak of her career, she says she was earning about a million US dollars a year. Janessa had her own website, a successful brand and a vibrant online presence. But in 2016 her online profile went dark.\n\nIt took us nine months to find her for the podcast Love, Janessa. When we finally spoke to Vanessa in her modest apartment on the US east coast, she told us that part of the reason she quit making online content was to try to stop the scammers. \"I no longer want to give them the power to use anything of mine ever again,\" she says.\n\nVanessa first became aware scammers were pretending to be her when a man posted in the chat during a live show, adamant that he was her husband and she had promised him that she'd stop camming. She thought it was a prank, but asked him to email her.\n\nMore victims came forward with similar stories, posting comments during her shows, and asking her to prove her identity. Scammers also popped up with weird requests for her - like putting on a red hat - images they then used to trick victims.\n\nThe constant comments, emails and tense atmosphere began to affect her business. \"It was a nightmare,\" says Vanessa. \"But I felt bad for these guys. What am I supposed to do?\"\n\nAt first she tried to respond to every email, which took hours each day. She says her then husband, who was also her manager, also started monitoring the messages. He told scam victims that he and Vanessa were not liable for the money the men had lost.\n\n\"If I got all the money that these guys sent all these scammers, I would be a billionaire today, not sitting here in my little apartment,\" she says.\n\nVanessa thinks it's in many men's nature to want to take care of women, which explains why they send money to someone they haven't met.\n\n\"Even if they don't have the money, they're still willing to give it, just to feel loved,\" she says.\n\nRoberto Marini, an Italian in his early 30s, was hooked by a fake Janessa. It began with a message on Facebook from a striking young woman calling herself Hannah, who complimented him on his start-up business - a sustainable farm on the island of Sardinia.\n\nAfter three months of exchanging pictures and loving messages, she began to ask for money. It was for little things at first, like a broken phone, but soon she needed more. She told him she had a tough life - when she wasn't looking after sick relatives she had to make a living in adult entertainment.\n\nRoberto wanted to save her, feeling a \"father-ish energy\" towards her. But he was frustrated that they could never seem to speak in person - every time they arranged a call, her phone would break or something else would come up.\n\nThen he discovered thousands of pictures and videos of Hannah online - except they were of adult entertainment star Janessa Brazil - and many were more explicit than the ones Hannah had ever sent him.\n\nTheir love felt real, so he wondered whether she did not want to reveal her true identity in case it complicated their relationship.\n\nConfused, Roberto joined one of Janessa Brazil's live online shows. \"Is it really you?\" he typed into the chat. He didn't get the answers he wanted, and he was paying by the minute so didn't stay long.\n\nIn his quest to find out the truth, Roberto also emailed her, along with many other people he thought might be the real Janessa. During our interview with her, Vanessa looked back at her inbox and found a message from him amongst thousands of emails.\n\n\"Hi. I have the need to talk with the real Janessa Brazil,\" he had written in 2016. She had replied an hour later, \"I am the real Janessa Brazil.\"\n\nHe asked her a few more questions trying to find out if they had spoken before. This email exchange was the first and only contact they'd ever had.\n\nBut that was not the end. Roberto remained ensnared by scammers. He says he sent them a total of $250,000 (£207,500) over four years, draining his savings and borrowing money from friends and family, as well as taking out loans.\n\nWe found Roberto through his online posts warning others that fake accounts were conning people using Janessa's stolen images. But, even after everything that had happened to him, part of him still believed he had a deep connection with the real Janessa.\n\nThat is the sign of a successful scam, says Dr Aunshul Rege, a criminal justice expert from Philadelphia who has studied online romance scams.\n\nShe says messages are often sent by criminal networks working in teams to groom victims, sharing images and information. She has even found an example of the manuals they use - practical how-to guides that also list excuses to avoid a phone call which might expose them.\n\nThe scams follow a pattern - love bombing, threats of a break-up and then requests for financial help, supposedly to allow the couple to finally be together. The tactics are so formulaic as to be chillingly familiar to anyone who has been at the receiving end, but they work.\n\n\"As human beings we are wired to help each other out. That's just how we're built,\" Dr Rege says.\n\nVanessa says she hates these cruel tactics. \"They show love and then take it away. The guys get desperate and they're willing to do anything to get it back,\" she says.\n\nDr Rege thinks it's likely Roberto's scam was run by an organised group. She says there are huge networks that operate around the world, with substantial numbers originating from Turkey, China, UAE, UK, Nigeria and Ghana.\n\nOne of the places Roberto was asked to send money was Ghana, home to a group of online scammers called the Sakawa Boys. We tracked some of them down in Accra. \"Ofa\", a softly-spoken young man, told us that impersonating people online is time-consuming and involves a lot of administration - if only to keep track of the lies. He admitted the work made him \"feel bad\", but that he had made over $50,000 (£41,500).\n\nWhen shown images of Janessa, Ofa said he had not used them himself, but understood why they would be a favourite among scammers. He also said that for a scam to work, he would need a variety of pictures showing the women in everyday situations - like cooking or at the gym.\n\nVanessa thinks her pictures have been used partly because she shared so many candid moments from her daily life. \"I put myself out there completely, so they had a lot to work with,\" she says.\n\nBut she draws a clear line between her professional alter ego and her real self. \"Vanessa has panic attacks. Janessa doesn't,\" she says.\n\nEventually the unstoppable tide of scam victims grew into \"a monster\" that traumatised Vanessa.\n\nHaving to perform every day on camera began to affect her mental health and her marriage. Exhausted, Vanessa told us she started drinking before her shows. She says she hates watching videos from that time because she can see her own unhappiness.\n\nBy 2016, she says she couldn't take it any longer and decided to quit. She says she packed her car, left her home and husband, and drove off to a new life. Now she is training as a therapist, and writing a memoir - taking back control of her own story.\n\nVanessa has never gone to the authorities to report scammers using her image. She doesn't think they would take her complaints seriously. \"They're going to look at me like, 'You're a porn star' and laugh at my face,\" she says.\n\nOver the years since, she has become more resilient. She knows scammers may never stop pretending to be her, but she understands why some victims get caught in the trap.\n\n\"When it comes to love, we can be so dumb,\" she says. \"I know, I've been there. It's like, 'Damn! I'm smarter than this!' So it happens to all of us.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Dr Aunshul Rege has some practical tips for dealing with online romance scams", "The DUP will want to look beyond the headlines and study the legal text which will accompany the NI Protocol deal\n\nThe moment of truth is fast approaching for the DUP.\n\nThe final pieces of a deal between the UK and EU are falling into place - even down to the title, with The Windsor Agreement being floated as an option.\n\nOnce published - most likely on Monday - the spotlight will fall on Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his party.\n\nBut don't expect a quick response, that is not the DUP way. The party will reserve judgement on any deal.\n\nThey will want to look beyond the headlines and study the legal text which will accompany the deal.\n\nThat will be the acid test - does it meet the party's key demands?\n\nThough open to interpretation in parts, their demands deal with removing trade barriers across the Irish Sea and \"restoring Northern Ireland sovereign place in the UK\".\n\nFixing the \"democratic deficit\" will also be key for the DUP.\n\nExpect to see a beefed up role for the assembly when it comes to deciding what EU legislation will apply in Northern Ireland.\n\nBut will it amount to more of a say in the decision making process, stopping short of a veto which the EU insist it will not allow.\n\nThat will be key and may require some constructive ambiguity to allow both the DUP and EU to sell the deal.\n\nCrucially the new legal text which will \"overlay\" the previous legislation will allow the DUP to claim the protocol has been replaced, though the EU will argue the protocol remains intact with its original legal text unchanged.\n\nRishi Sunak could make another visit to Northern Ireland to try and shore up DUP support for a deal\n\nBefore passing verdict on the deal, the DUP will consult those businesses struggling under the burden of the protocol - the same businesses Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been trying to box off before publishing his deal.\n\nIf it works for businesses on the frontline then it adds more pressure on the DUP to say yes.\n\nBut the very fact the government is poised to publish the deal signals some level of DUP support.\n\nTo run the risk of a quick DUP rejection would have been reckless.\n\nDon't rule out another last dash by the prime minister to Northern Ireland to shore up their support.", "While imprisoned, Ahmed Rabbani built a name for himself as an accomplished artist\n\nTwo brothers from Pakistan who were held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay for nearly 20 years have been released without charge.\n\nAbdul and Mohammed Ahmed Rabbani were arrested in Pakistan in 2002.\n\nThe Pentagon said Abdul Rabbani operated an al-Qaeda safe house, while his brother organised travel and funds for the group's leaders.\n\nThe brothers alleged that they were tortured by CIA officers, before being transferred to Guantanamo.\n\nBoth have now been repatriated to Pakistan.\n\nThe Guantanamo camp, in Cuba, was established by then-President George W Bush in 2002 to house foreign terrorism suspects following the 9/11 terror attacks in New York. It is on a US Navy base.\n\nBut the camp has come to symbolise some of the excesses of the \"war on terror\" due to interrogation methods that critics say amount to torture, and detainees being held for long periods without trial.\n\nUS President Joe Biden says he hopes to close the facility, where 32 people are still being detained. At its peak in 2003 the facility held 680 prisoners at one time.\n\n\"The United States appreciates the willingness of the Government of Pakistan and other partners to support ongoing US efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,\" the Pentagon said in a statement.\n\nThe brothers were captured by Pakistan's security services in the city of Karachi in September 2002. It took almost two years for them to be transferred to Guantanamo after originally being held at a CIA detention facility in Afghanistan.\n\nIn 2013, Ahmed Rabbani began a series of hunger strikes that lasted for seven years. He would survive on nutritional supplements, sometimes forcibly fed to him through a tube.\n\nClive Stafford Smith, a lawyer with the 3D Centre who has represented both men, told the BBC that he will attempt to sue over the brothers' detention, \"but their chance of compensation are slim. Neither will they get a simple apology\".\n\nBoth men were approved for release in 2021. It is unclear why they remained imprisoned.\n\nAhmed Rabbani's wife was pregnant at the time of his arrest and just five months later she gave birth to their son. He has never met his son.\n\n\"I have been talking with Ahmed's son Jawad who is 20 and had never met or touched his dad as his mother was pregnant when Ahmed was kidnapped. I have met Jawad several times, and I wish I would have been there for their first hug,\" Mr Stafford Smith said.\n\nDuring his time at Guantanamo, Ahmed Rabbani built a name for himself as an accomplished artist. He has an exhibition in Karachi planned in May, with 12 other Pakistani artists inspired by his work, Mr Stafford Smith added.\n\nMaya Foa, director of justice charity Reprieve, which provided legal representation to Ahmed Rabbani until last year, called his two decades of imprisonment a \"tragedy\" that \"exemplifies how far the USA strayed from its founding principles during the 'war on terror' era\".\n\n\"They robbed a family of a son, a husband and a father. That injustice can never be rectified. A full reckoning of the harms caused by the disastrous 'war on terror' can only begin when Guantanamo is closed for good,\" she said.", "Riham Sheble said: \"I was forced to fight on so many fronts. It was exhausting.\"\n\nA university has agreed to pay £12,000 in damages to a student with advanced cancer, after it initially rejected an extension to her studies, a union says.\n\nInternational postgraduate film and television studies student, Riham Sheble, was receiving treatment for a rare and aggressive form of cancer.\n\nShe said the University of Warwick's decision not to grant her more time to study was \"utterly unjust\".\n\nThe university said it had got it wrong and worked to put it right.\n\nThe decision was reversed and the university wrote to Ms Sheble to offer its \"sincere apologies\".\n\nThe settlement was said to be in recognition of the distress caused by not allowing her to extend her course as a result of her health condition.\n\nMs Sheble, who is Egyptian, was diagnosed in February 2021 and asked for an extension to her studies in April 2022.\n\nShe said: \"These battles were imposed on me at a time when I was contending with death and at war with my own body.\n\n\"I was forced to fight on so many fronts. It was exhausting.\"\n\nThe university said it was \"sorry for the way the student was made to feel\"\n\nA campaign was started in June last year between URBC, Warwick University and College Union and Warwick students' union officers, who had collectively made representations on Ms Sheble's behalf.\n\nAn investigation was carried out into a complaint \"made by a student relating to how the university had processed a request\" to extend their period of registration, a spokesperson at Warwick said.\n\nThey added: \"That investigation found that we could have shown greater flexibility in this case. We accepted this conclusion and recognised we had got this wrong.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added it wrote to the Home Office on the student's behalf \"asking for her mother to be allowed to come into the UK to support her, which was successful\".\n\nThey said: \"We also felt it was the right thing to do to make a payment to the student rather than contest it through a potentially lengthy complaints process, given the unique circumstances involved in this case.\"\n\nWarwick UCU and the Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC) campaign both said Ms Sheble had \"won a significant victory for migrant students with disabilities in the UK\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "More than 87 million people are eligible to vote\n\nVoting has officially closed in Nigeria's most competitive presidential election since military rule ended, but long queues remain at polling stations as millions wait to cast their ballots.\n\nSecurity fears and logistical problems are being blamed for delays to voting.\n\nSome polling stations have been attacked by criminal gangs, who carted away voting machines.\n\nThe elections are the biggest democratic exercise in Africa, with 87 million people eligible to vote.\n\nPolitics has been dominated by two parties - the ruling APC and the PDP - since military rule ended in 1999.\n\nBut this time, there is also a strong challenge from a third-party candidate in the race to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari - the Labour Party's Peter Obi, who is backed by many young people.\n\nSome voters complained to the BBC that their polling stations had failed to open, two hours before they were due to close.\n\nVoting machines malfunctioned in some areas, with voters told to return later.\n\nAt a press briefing, the electoral chief, Mahmood Yakubu, apologised for the delays, but he said that everyone who was in a queue by 13:30 GMT (14:30 local time) would be allowed to vote, even though polling stations were officially supposed to close by then.\n\nMr Yakubu added that armed men had attacked some polling units in the southern state of Delta and the northern state of Katsina, where voter card verification machines were carted away.\n\nThey were subsequently replaced and security boosted to allow voting to take place, he said.\n\nThere have been also been reports of violence and ballot boxes being snatched in Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city.\n\nIn the north-eastern state of Borno, Mr Yakubu said that militant Islamists had opened fire on electoral officers from a mountain top in the Gwoza area, injuring a number of officials.\n\nThe lead-up to the polls was overshadowed by a cash shortage caused by a botched attempt to redesign the currency, leading to widespread chaos at banks and cash machines as desperate people sought access to their money.\n\nThe new notes were introduced in order to tackle inflation, and also vote-buying. On the eve of the election a member of the House of Representatives was arrested with almost $500,000 (£419,000) in cash, and a list of people he was supposed to give it to, police say.\n\nWhoever wins will have to deal with the currency redesign, a crumbling economy, high youth unemployment, and widespread insecurity which saw 10,000 killed last year.\n\nElections are also being held for 109 federal senators and 360 members of the house of representatives, with another vote for state governors in March.\n\nThe election has seen a huge interest from young people - a third of eligible voters are below 35 - which may lead to a high voter turn-out than the 35% recorded in 2019.\n\nMr Obi, 61, is hoping to break up Nigeria's two-party system after joining the Labour Party last May.\n\nAlthough he was in the PDP before then, he is seen as a relatively fresh face and enjoys fervent support among some sections of Nigeria's youth, especially in the south.\n\nThe wealthy businessman served as governor of the south-eastern Anambra State from 2006 to 2014. His backers, known as the \"OBIdients\", say he is the only candidate with integrity, but his critics argue that a vote for him is wasted as he is unlikely to win.\n\nInstead, the PDP, which ruled until 2015, wants Nigerians to vote for Mr Abubakar, 76 - the only major candidate from the country's mainly Muslim north.\n\nHe has run for the presidency five times before - all of which he has lost. He has been dogged by accusations of corruption and cronyism, which he denies.\n\nMost of his career has been spent in the corridors of power, having worked as a top civil servant, vice-president and a prominent businessman.\n\nMost people consider the election a referendum on the APC, which has overseen a period of economic hardship and worsening insecurity.\n\nIts candidate, Mr Tinubu, 70, is credited with building Nigeria's commercial hub Lagos, during his two terms as governor until 2007.\n\nHe is known as a political godfather in the south-west region, where he wields huge influence, but like Mr Abubakar, has also been dogged by allegations of corruption over the years and poor health, both of which he denies.\n\nIt is the first time national elections are being conducted using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), a facial and fingerprints technology that is thought to improve transparency by making it harder to rig the elections.\n\nA newly introduced facial recognition and fingerprints scanner has been used in the elections\n\nA candidate needs to have the most votes and 25% of ballots cast in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states to be declared the winner.\n\nOtherwise, there will be a run-off within 21 days - a first in Nigeria's history.\n\n* Additional reporting by BBC teams around the country.", "In this demo, the hand on screen is squeezing but the student's actual hand is not\n\nA system which can translate human brain activity into actions without any physical movement is being developed by a neurotech firm called Cogitat.\n\nWhen wearing a prototype headset, basic actions in virtual reality can be carried out by thinking about them.\n\nSo for example, in a game where a VR jet ski is controlled by handles, you move by thinking about it, rather than squeezing your hands.\n\nIt is called brain-computer interface and there are many neurotech companies exploring it.\n\nOne aim is that it could eventually allow people who have suffered a stroke, or have other brain injuries, to control phones or computers remotely.\n\nNeuralink's method requires a chip being placed into the brain itself. The firm has so far only worked with animals, and has been criticised for their treatment. It has released videos it says demonstrate a monkey playing the video game Pong with its mind, and the brain activity of a pig with a chip implanted in its brain.\n\nCogitat is one of the firms developing a system which works on top of the head rather than inside it.\n\nIt could one day take the form of a headband worn with a VR headset. Some companies are already creating their own hardware but, as a university spin-off, Cogitat is concentrating only on the tech behind it.\n\nIt is led by NHS consultant Allan Ponniah and computer scientist Dimitrios Adamos from Imperial College London.\n\nThe tech is in developmental stages, but has already been tried out on stroke patients, with positive results. The aim is to encourage them to continue with rehabilitation exercises by making them more engaging.\n\n\"When a person has had a stroke, and they can't move their arm, they're very demotivated to partake in rehabilitation. But our technology will allow them to imagine moving their hand and seeing a hand move on the screen, which we believe will motivate them to start their course of physiotherapy,\" Mr Ponniah told BBC podcast Tech Tent.\n\nI tried it out and it is a very weird experience. For starters, it is harder than it sounds to think about making a movement without actually making it. And you also have to try not to think about other things, which increases your brain activity and creates more noise for the tech to decode while it looks for the motor signal.\n\nI had never seen my own brain activity laid out on a screen in front of me in real time before, like a complicated, multi-layered cardiogram. That was strange in itself - seeing the essence of my thoughts on a graph. But when you hear that VR jet ski engine roar, just because you have thought about doing it, it is an incredible feeling.\n\nOf course the prototype device was not totally reading my mind. It was not translating my thoughts or looking deep into my soul. It was only focused on motor skill signals.\n\n\"If you don't choose to interact with the system, nothing happens,\" says Mr Adamos. \"There's nothing picked up from you if you stop using it.\"\n\nOther firms focus on different types of brain activity - visual signals for example, so you can focus on a number and press buttons on a screen. It is also possible - but controversial - to concentrate on more personal responses such as likes and dislikes.\n\nCogitat says it expects to have a working prototype of its technology within the next 12 months - but there are several challenges which still lie ahead for neurotech.\n\nExperts are still learning about brain activity. It is individual to each of us and it is not constant. It changes throughout the day and may be affected by factors like tiredness and dehydration as well as ageing. This means any brain activity reading systems require continual recalibration.\n\nCogitat is training its tech on a database of hundreds of volunteers who have been testing it out, which speeds up the calibration process. I met some of the team - mostly students, who were very enthusiastic, not to mention patient, as they guided me through the demonstration.\n\nMr Adamos tells me proudly that in a recent global machine-learning competition, Cogitat not only took first place but also beat a team from the US Army.\n\nHe offered everybody some time off to celebrate - but nobody took it.\n\n\"They were all in the next day,\" he says. \"It's really fascinating for us, and everybody who's joined this journey.\"\n\nYou can follow Zoe Kleinman on Twitter @zsk.", "Diaries are being cleared, travel plans changed and everyone involved kept on high alert.\n\nEven the most cautious officials are whispering that maybe, this time, it really is \"on\".\n\nNegotiators, who are said to be \"burnt out\", will be on edge to see if a deal is done to change contentious post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland, known as the protocol.\n\nMonday is the mooted moment when a possible deal could be announced.\n\nBig chunks have already spilled out through unofficial channels, about how checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will be eased, even eliminated.\n\nExpect changes as well to rules on business subsidies and on VAT, along with a softened role for the European Court of Justice, the EU's top court, in policing trading arrangements.\n\nAnd Northern Ireland could get a beefed-up role in saying which EU rules apply to them.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party, the largest unionist party in Northern Ireland, says it won't re-enter power-sharing at Stormont unless it is satisfied that a deal meets its seven tests.\n\nSome Brexit-supporting Tory MPs are warning that unionism mustn't be \"betrayed\".\n\nThe political pushback Rishi Sunak faced this week led some in Brussels to fear the prime minister had lost control of the narrative.\n\nThe empty space left by the lack of an expected announcement earlier this week was being filled with leaks and red lines.\n\n\"How long until the sharks in Westminster eat him alive?\" asked one EU diplomat.\n\nSome on the British side were also getting impatient.\n\nKing Charles had been due to meet the President of the European Commission in the UK on Saturday, the BBC understands, but Downing Street says the visit was cancelled due to operational reasons. The meeting between the King and Ursula von der Leyen was not part of the negotiations between the UK and the EU.\n\nAll the while, Downing Street and the European Commission continued to insist talks were ongoing.\n\nThe EU's chief negotiator Maros Sefcovic hinted things were in more of a tweaking phase with i's being dotted and t's being crossed.\n\nPrivately, there were forlorn whispers in Brussels that Mr Sunak might have lost his nerve.\n\nBut there are also those who suspect that the government had to be seen to fight it out a little longer.\n\nA question in the coming week will be whether Mr Sunak really can boast any last-minute gains.\n\nEven UK officials admit that major concessions aren't likely at this stage, given Mr Sefcovic would need to seek a new set of negotiating instructions from EU member states.\n\nSo next week, if it all goes ahead, will be a test of Mr Sunak the political salesman.\n\nHis handling of it all so far hasn't exactly won wide praise.\n\nOne Brexit-backing Tory accused Mr Sunak of a failed attempt to \"bounce\" MPs into an agreement, leaving him \"between a rock and a hard place\".\n\nThey dismissed the idea the prime minister could rely on Labour votes to pass a deal in the Commons, calling it \"potentially disastrous for the government\".\n\nDespite the criticism, there are insiders who point out that getting Brexit deals over the line is never a pain-free process.\n\nFor all the obstacles and warnings that Mr Sunak might be about to take a big political gamble at home, it's worth remembering the wider wins that may be on his mind.\n\nPulling off a deal could restore full UK access to the EU's flagship Horizon science research scheme.\n\nAnd the big, obvious goal is of course getting the DUP on side and Stormont back up and running - maybe even in time for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April.\n\nThat would be welcomed by the United States, which has made it clear that it does not like the alternative: the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.\n\nThat's the legislation, launched under Boris Johnson, to allow British ministers to scrap parts of the protocol.\n\nIf Mr Sunak can't reach a deal with the EU, he'd be under even more pressure to do something he's shown reluctance to do - press ahead with passing the bill.\n\nIn response, the EU would probably relaunch legal action, which could be the prelude to a trade war.\n\nSo even though some say that the prime minister is taking a gamble, the alternative isn't risk free.", "The tug capsized on Friday afternoon on the River Clyde\n\nA search operation has resumed for two crew members of a tug after it overturned off Greenock in Inverclyde.\n\nEmergency crews were called to East India Harbour at about 15:30 on Friday. Rescuers were seen climbing onto the overturned hull before it sank.\n\nHM Coastguard and a police helicopter and dive and marine unit continued searches until about 20:00.\n\nA Police Scotland marine unit was seen out on the water on Saturday morning while divers later joined the search.\n\nA spokesperson for the force said: \"Searches resumed this morning after a tugboat capsized off Custom House Quay, Greenock.\n\n\"Officers, including Police Scotland's Dive and Marine Unit, are at the scene as enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances.\"\n\nIt's a bitterly cold day in Greenock and the water is calm.\n\nThere's still a fair amount of police here and a cordon round a large area of the harbour remains in place.\n\nA van from the Marine Policing Unit is parked up next to the harbour-side.\n\nJust after 11:30 a police boat went out into the water but there's no official word yet from Police Scotland as to what shape the investigation is taking.\n\nEyewitnesses told BBC Scotland they had seen the tug escorting the Hebridean Princess cruise ship into the harbour at about 15:30 when it was apparently pulled over.\n\nImages from the scene showed rescue teams in inflatables and a police boat surrounding the capsized tug while a helicopter hovered overhead.\n\nDaniel McBride said the tug had capsized \"pretty instantaneously\".\n\nHe added: \"At that point I contacted the coastguard and was asked to go and keep eyes, so I parked up and watched.\n\n\"Within 12 minutes the first coastguard vessel came. At that point the boat was still capsized with a hull visible in the water.\n\n\"I witnessed them bashing on the hull, I guess trying to see if there was any signs inside. Unfortunately then the boat went down a short time afterwards.\"\n\nHe said there were a number of boats in the area, as well as a helicopter, but he had not seen anyone being pulled out.\n\nOfficers cordoned off the area around the harbour.\n\nA police cordon has been put in place around the harbour\n\nHM Coastguard said the vessel was believed to have two crew members on board.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Coastguard rescue teams from Helensburgh and Greenock, a lifeboat from Helensburgh RNLI and the coastguard helicopter from Prestwick were sent to assist and searched the area.\n\n\"Multiple vessels on the Clyde in the vicinity of the incident also responded, including an MOD police vessel.\n\n\"The coastguard's involvement in the surface search was terminated at 20:00.\"\n• None Search for two crew members after tug capsizes", "John Caldwell, seen here in 2020, was shot multiple times\n\nIt's almost 25 years since the peace agreement which largely ended the Troubles was signed, but in Omagh today there are disturbing echoes of the past.\n\nIt seems that the more the details of this attack emerge, the more horrifying the picture is.\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell, a husband and father, had been coaching an under-15 football team and was shot because he was a detective.\n\nHe was putting footballs into his car with his son when two men approached him and opened fire.\n\nHe ran for his life, but was shot.\n\nHe fell down and the gunmen continued to fire at him.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said children ran in \"sheer terror\" as the attack unfolded.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell has a high profile in Northern Ireland and has led a number of investigations into organised crime and dissident republican paramilitaries.\n\nThe focus of the police investigation is the dissident republican group known as the New IRA, thought to be the largest and the most active of the armed groups that oppose the peace process in Northern Ireland.\n\nThose organisations mainly grew out of splinter groups from the Provisional IRA during the peace process which took shape in the 1990s.\n\nThe groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.\n\nTheir activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services, but groups like the New IRA continue to target members of the police service.\n\nAttacks, particularly attacks of this nature, are relatively rare and had been that way in recent years.\n\nBut the police have always been very clear that they still pose a threat to officers' lives and the events of last night demonstrate just how real that threatened.\n\nAn armed police officer on duty near the sports complex in Omagh where John Caldwell was shot\n\nSpeaking earlier, Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said all PSNI officers worked against a \"backdrop of substantial threats\".\n\nPolice officers in Northern continue to take take steps to protect their personal security.\n\nFor example it is relatively well known that it is commonplace for officers to check underneath their cars for bombs before driving.\n\nThe last police officer who was murdered in Northern Ireland was Constable Ronan Kerr and he was killed by a booby trap bomb underneath his car and that happened here in Omagh in 2011.", "The players' dispute had left a doubt that the game would be played\n\nWales and England will clash in the Six Nations on Saturday after a tumultuous week that threatened the game.\n\nThe Cardiff encounter had been in doubt as Welsh players considered strike action over their contract dispute.\n\nFans and businesses breathed sighs of relief when a compromise was reached that meant the match will be played.\n\nWales captain Ken Owens said the team had been \"galvanised,\" but as the clock ticked closer to kick-off, fans' confidence in the team remained mixed.\n\nJason Parry, 47, from Kenfig Hill in Bridgend county, was \"apprehensive\" because of the \"distractions\".\n\n\"There's still a bit of excitement to see how the new blood coming into the team do,\" he said.\n\n\"Getting the youngsters on is important because I think we need to give them the experience to develop their game and go further in the competition.\"\n\nHe said the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) needed to \"get their house in order\" after the Owens dubbed Wales a \"laughing stock\" on Wednesday.\n\nBut for the moment the focus is on the game.\n\n\"It's about us turning up tomorrow and doing what we need to do,\" he said.\n\nJason Parry, pictured with son Jayden, was glad to see new blood in the Wales team\n\nHis son, Jayden, 12, said: \"We're not doing well at the minute. I think we just need to play rugby.\"\n\nJamie Uren, from nearby Cornelly, said it was time Wales got back on top, but he worried the team could only do that if things behind the scenes were running smoothly.\n\nDespite this he predicted a Welsh win.\n\nThe 31-year-old said: \"The boys aren't going to be behind the scenes drinking coffee, they'll be knocking lumps out of each other and they're still going to be fired up.\n\n\"We don't need any extra fuel on an England match, we'll come out firing.\"\n\nKenfig Hill RFC secretary Richard Underhill said everyone at the club had been left downhearted by \"everything that's been going on\" at the WRU.\n\nRichard Underhill of Kenfig Hill RFC says people have been left downhearted by problems at the WRU\n\n\"People just want to get on with playing and put all the off-field stuff behind them and concentrate on playing the match,\" he said.\n\nHe forecast a tight game, but said: \"I think there'll be a big response from the players.\"\n\nEarlier this week Cardiff Licensees Forum chairman Nick Newman said it would have been a \"catastrophe\" had the game been called off.\n\nRob Toogood, of the Fuel rock club, in the city centre, said businesses pinned their years on the autumn internationals and Six Nations games.\n\nMatch days could pull in a week's trade in a night, he said.\n\nHe said: \"You put up with a lot of road closures for getting your stock in, but you put up with that and you love it, because of the things that come with it, the economic benefits to the city, the thousands of people here.\"\n\nJamie Uren believes it's time Wales got back on top\n\n\"It's going to be a great weekend,\" he said.\n\nFans travelling to the game have been advised to plan ahead.\n\nDrivers are warned the M4 is likely to be busy and are urged by Cardiff council to use the park and ride system.\n\nNumerous roads in Cardiff will be closed and some buses will be diverted.\n\nTransport for Wales is running a full rail timetable, but trains are expected to be busy.\n\nChief operations officer Jan Chaudry-Van der Velde,said: \"We're expecting another very busy weekend.\n\n\"In addition to the extra capacity provided by Great Western Railway, we'll be running our full TfW rail timetable, and every available carriage will be in use to provide as much capacity as possible.\"\n\nRock club boss Rob Toogood is delighted the match is going ahead\n\nFans are advised to leave plenty of time for their trip.\n\n\"We're also running a number of return coaches to Cardiff from across south and west Wales to complement our rail services and add extra capacity,\" Mr Chaudry-Van der Velde said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Thor the walrus - seen on the south and east coasts of England - arrives in Iceland\n\nA walrus that drew crowds when spotted on the south and east coasts of England appears to have arrived in Iceland.\n\nThe mammal, named Thor, appeared in Hampshire in December before spending New Year in Scarborough and heading 70 miles further north to Blyth, Northumberland.\n\nThe walrus was reported as in Breiðdalsvík, Iceland, on Friday.\n\nBritish Divers Marine Life Rescue said it could confirm from markings that it was Thor.\n\n\"After Thor's visit to the UK we wondered if we would ever see him again,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"We are delighted to have been informed that he is in Iceland.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The Arctic walrus was filmed re-entering the sea in Scarborough\n\nThor was reported as having arrived in Breiðdalsvík on the east coast of Iceland, about 850 miles (1360km) from Blyth.\n\nIcelandic broadcaster RUV said he settled on a pontoon in the town's harbour on Friday morning and had once again drawn interested onlookers.\n\nBDLMR said it could match the pale patches on the animal's foreflippers with pictures taken in Scarborough.\n\nThe walrus, thought to be aged between three and five, drew crowds to the North Yorkshire resort after being spotted on a slipway on 30 December.\n\nThe town's New Year's Eve fireworks were cancelled in order not to distress him, before he made a later appearance 70 miles further up the coast at the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club in Blyth.\n\nThor had spent several hours on the beach at Calshot near Southampton on 12 December.\n\nHe is known to have visited the Netherlands and Dieppe in France in 2022 and it is thought he could have travelled from as far as the Canadian Arctic.\n\nWorld Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) Rod Downie said after the Calshot appearance that Thor was likely to try to make his way back to Arctic waters.\n\nThor the walrus rested at Calshot beach in Hampshire for several hours\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Finance ministers of the world's largest economies have failed to agree on a closing statement following a summit in India, after China refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nBeijing declined to accept parts of a G20 statement that deplored Russia's aggression \"in the strongest terms\".\n\nMoscow said \"anti-Russian\" Western countries had \"destabilised\" the G20.\n\nIt comes after China this week published a plan to end the conflict that was viewed by some as pro-Russian.\n\nIndia, which hosted this week's G20 talks in the southern city of Bengaluru, issued a wide-ranging \"chair's summary\" from the meeting, noting there were \"different assessments of the situation\" in Ukraine, and on sanctions imposed on Russia.\n\nA footnote said that two paragraphs summarising the war were \"agreed to by all member countries except Russia and China\". The paragraphs were adapted from the G20 Bali Leaders' Declaration in November, and criticised \"in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine\".\n\nAfter taking a back seat since the invasion a year ago, Beijing has stepped up its diplomacy efforts surrounding the conflict in recent weeks. Its top diplomat Wang Yi toured Europe this week, culminating in a warm welcome by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.\n\nChina also this week published a 12-point plan for ending the war in Ukraine, in which it called for peace talks and respect for national sovereignty. However, the 12-point document did not specifically say that Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine, and did not condemn Russia's invasion.\n\nThe Chinese document was welcomed by Russia, prompting US President Joe Biden to comment: \"[President] Putin's applauding it, so how could it be any good?\"\n\nAfter the G20 meeting, Ajay Seth, a senior Indian official, said in a press conference that Russian and Chinese representatives did not agree to the wording on Ukraine because \"their mandate is to deal with economic and financial issues\".\n\n\"On the other hand, all the other 18 countries felt that the war has got implications for the global economy\" and needed to be mentioned, he added.\n\nThe 17-paragraph summary of the summit also referenced the recent earthquake in Turkey, debt in low- and middle-income countries, global tax policy, and food insecurity.\n\nRussia's foreign ministry said it regretted the fact that \"the activities of the G20 continue to be destabilised by the Western collective and used in an anti-Russian... way\".\n\nIt accused the United States, European Union and G7 nations of \"clear blackmail\", urging them to \"acknowledge the objective realities of a multipolar world\".\n\nBut German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said: \"This is a war. And this war has a cause, has one cause, and that is Russia and Vladimir Putin. That must be expressed clearly at this G20 finance meeting.\"\n\nPrevious meetings of G20 members have also failed to produce a joint statement since Russia invaded Ukraine last February.\n\nOn Thursday, the UN General Assembly in New York overwhelmingly backed a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The motion was backed by 141 nations with 32 abstaining and seven - including Russia - voting against.", "Ben Wallace was given a demonstration of a new Ajax vehicle at Bovington Camp military base in Dorset\n\nThe Army's \"troubled\" programme to build the new Ajax armoured vehicle \"has turned a corner\" according to the defence secretary.\n\nBen Wallace said he was confident recent fixes had put the project back on track after a series of embarrassing setbacks and delays.\n\nThe £5.5bn Ministry of Defence (MoD) project has been running for 12 years.\n\nIt promised to deliver 589 armoured vehicles, with the first ones due to enter service in 2019.\n\nHowever, the Army is still waiting for testing to be completed.\n\nThe aim was to provide a family of hi-tech vehicles for battle, including reconnaissance, troop carrying and recovery and repair.\n\nAjax is armed with a 40mm cannon, which can be fired on the move, and carries a suite of sensors to identify targets.\n\nThe defence secretary hailed the progress made during his visit to the Dorset military base\n\nInitial trials were plagued with problems, including excessive noise and vibration. Some of those testing the vehicle complained of hearing loss and others suffered injuries like white finger - a numbness linked to the use of heavy machinery.\n\nMore than 300 individuals taking part in trials had to be assessed for hearing loss, with some found to be suffering longer term damage.\n\nTrials have had to be halted twice and the MoD said at the time it could not determine a realistic timescale for the introduction of Ajax. There was even speculation the programme might be cancelled.\n\nBut this week, Mr Wallace said the MoD, the Army and the main contractor, General Dynamics UK, had been working hard to resolve the issues.\n\nHe hailed the progress on a visit to the British army's Bovington Camp military base in Dorset.\n\nAfter going for a drive in one of the vehicles, he told the BBC: \"It's performing very well and I'm confident we've turned the corner. We've done the remedies.\"\n\nAjax can reach speeds of up to 43mph (70km/h) and has been tested to withstand blasts, to fire on the move and carry additional armour weighing up to 50 tonnes.\n\nThe fixes include remounting hand controls to avoid excessive vibration and a redesign of seat mountings and cushions.\n\nNoise has been reduced thanks to dual-layer hearing protection for soldiers operating the vehicle, with an inner ear piece for communication covered by noise-cancelling headphones.\n\nThe vehicles are being assembled by General Dynamics UK in South Wales.\n\nSome 414 hulls have already been built and 116 turrets are ready to be fitted once trials are completed.\n\nThe final stage of trials is expected to last for 18 months but it could be another two years before Ajax finally enters service with the Army.", "A deal on post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland could be announced in the coming days, UK and EU sources have indicated to the BBC.\n\nIt comes after plans to sign off an agreement between the two sides earlier this week were delayed.\n\nDevelopments are said to be moving \"hour-by-hour\" - and a deal could still fail to materialise.\n\nDowning Street told reporters earlier that \"intensive discussions\" with the EU were ongoing.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has been trying to win support for changes to post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland, known as the protocol.\n\nDowning Street said on Friday evening that Mr Sunak had made \"good progress\" during the call, with a source saying it was \"positive\" and negotiations would continue with the leaders agreeing to \"discuss this further in coming days.\"\n\nIt is also understood Mr Sunak was meeting with a number of big food retailers.\n\nOne major supermarket has told the BBC that it was their understanding that a deal has been reached, but the prime minister wants the backing of retailers.\n\nMonday is being mooted as a possible moment for the prime minister to finally reveal his plans. However, similar expectations were building at exactly this time last week.\n\nIt had been hoped that Ms von der Leyen could head to London last Monday to seal an agreement, after more than a year of negotiations.\n\nBut it never happened, and there were nerves in EU circles about whether Mr Sunak could close a deal.\n\nMr Sunak has been facing pressure from his backbenchers over the future role of European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU's top court, in policing the application of EU laws in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe protocol, which was agreed under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and came into force in 2021, saw Northern Ireland continue to follow some EU laws to get round the need for checks at the UK's border with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which has set its own tests for its support, has also expressed reservations about the continuing role of the ECJ and EU law.\n\nA source from the DUP told the BBC they had not been involved in any talks with the prime minister on Friday and had no meetings scheduled over the weekend.\n\nMr Sunak has been trying to win them over to a deal, as the party is currently blocking the formation of devolved government in Northern Ireland.\n\nBoth the UK and EU have continued to insist that negotiations are ongoing, despite multiple sources suggesting that a broad deal has been on the table for weeks.\n\nEarlier, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the government would not sign off a deal until the DUP's concerns had been \"addressed\".\n\n\"The things they're concerned about, the things we're concerned about, are absolutely in alignment,\" he told Times Radio.\n\n\"So when, hopefully, we get those issues resolved then I would hope that the DUP would recognise that we've addressed their concerns.\"\n\nConservative MPs are under orders to be in the Commons on Monday - although Tory MPs have indicated the instructions, known as a three-line whip, are not unusual for the start of the week.\n\nThe protocol has proved highly unpopular among unionists in Northern Ireland, and soured relations between the UK and EU.\n\nTalks to secure changes demanded by British business groups and politicians have been happening, on and off, since the autumn of 2021.\n\nNegotiators are said to have settled on a \"red and green lane\" system to ease border checks on goods from Great Britain destined to remain in Northern Ireland.\n\nThis would allow reduced checks for firms signing up to a \"trusted trader\" scheme, with the UK in exchange giving the EU more access to its real-time trading data.\n\nEU sources have insisted the ECJ will continue to have oversight of EU rules in Northern Ireland, a red line among the 27-country organisation.\n\nBut it's thought the court's role will be softened, while officials have also been in talks about how to reshape rules on VAT and government subsidies for businesses.\n• None What can we expect from a deal on the NI Protocol?", "The first group of 2,000 suspected gang members in El Salvador have been moved to a huge new prison, the centrepiece of President Nayib Bukele's self-declared war on crime.\n\nTens of thousands of suspected gangsters have been rounded up in the country under a state of emergency following a spike in murders and other violent crime.\n\nThe jail will eventually hold more than 40,000 people.\n\nPictures show the first massive group of inmates - tattooed and barefoot - being led to the facility in shackles.\n\nThe prisoners are left sitting on the floor with their hands behind their shaven heads, stacked closely together, before being taken to their cells.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPresident Bukele tweeted that the first 2,000 people were transferred \"at dawn, in a single operation\" to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, which he says is the largest jail in the Americas.\n\n\"This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, all mixed, unable to do any further harm to the population.\"\n\nThe mega-prison - in Tecoluca, 74 kilometers (46 miles) southeast of the capital San Salvador - comprises eight buildings. Each has 32 cells of about 100 square meters (1,075 square feet) to hold \"more than 100\" prisoners, the government says.\n\nThe cells only have two sinks and two toilets each.\n\nPresident Bukele declared a \"war on gangs\" last March, passing emergency measures which have been extended several times.\n\nThe emergency powers have been controversial as they limit some constitutional rights, such as allowing the security forces to arrest suspects without a warrant.\n\nMore than 64,000 suspects have been arrested in the anti-crime drive.\n\nAuthorities have said criminal gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio-18 number tens of thousands and are responsible for homicides, extortion and drug-trafficking. The aim of the mass arrests is to make the gangs \"disappear altogether\", the government says.\n\nHuman rights organisations have argued that innocent people have been caught up in the policy, and some of those held have reported being subjected to \"cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment\".", "It is now raining heavily in the capital, Abuja - the first time this year and symbolically marking the official end to voting.\n\nThose who are superstitious are reading meanings into the rain, while those who stayed around during the sorting of ballots at polling stations have scuttled for cover.\n\nIt has been an eventful day with security fears and logistical problems being blamed for delays to voting – people are still in queues in some parts of the country.\n\nSome images sum up the enthusiasm of young voters, like the bride who turned up to vote in her wedding dress:\n\nAmid violence at a polling station in Lagos state, a woman was stabbed but later returned to vote with her patched up face to cheers from other voters.\n\nAll eyes will now be on the central collation centre here in Abuja where the results from the hundreds of thousands of polling units will be sent - it is likely to be a slow process.\n\nThere will now be a nail-biting wait for the outcome of the most competitive presidential election since the end of military rule.\n\nOn that note we end our live coverage of the vote. BBCAfrica.com will have the latest updates.", "MP Theo Clarke said she had received dozens of calls from angry constituents, who had berated her for taking time off\n\nThe Conservative MP for Stafford, Theo Clarke, has been deselected.\n\nMs Clarke, who has represented the town since 2019, said she was \"deeply disappointed\" not to have been adopted as candidate by a constituency association committee.\n\nIn a statement posted on Twitter, the politician said she had faced abuse after announcing plans to take maternity leave.\n\nShe says she now intends to seek the support of rank and file members.\n\n\"Living at home in the new constituency and working here, I stood on a record of successfully bringing investment into Stafford such as millions for mental health services and crucial infrastructure,\" Ms Clarke said on Friday.\n\nShe added: \"Our town will soon see investment from the Levelling Up Fund and the Shared Prosperity Fund is already transforming the town centre with the Shire Hall due to fully reopen soon.\n\n\"I tirelessly campaigned for these wins, they will make a difference and make Stafford an even greater, better place to live, work and raise a family.\"\n\nMs Clarke, the niece of former business secretary and North East Somerset Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, was elected as MP for Stafford in 2019 with a majority of more than 14,000 during Boris Johnson's landslide victory.\n\nThe constituency boundaries of her current seat are being revised to take in more rural areas to the west of the town ahead of the next general election.\n\nHer deselection comes less than a week after the new mother returned to Parliament on 20 February, having spent six months on maternity leave after giving birth to her daughter.\n\nIn December last year, she revealed she had received dozens of phone calls from angry constituents who had berated her for taking time off.\n\nShe added: \"I have only returned from maternity this week and I have been very disappointed by the abuse that I have received since I announced I was having a baby.\n\n\"The selection committee have made their decision and it is my full intention to go the membership.\"\n\nAlongside her role as MP for Stafford, Theo Clarke also held the position of UK Trade Envoy to Kenya until her resignation last July in protest of Boris Johnson's leadership.\n\nIn a stinging resignation letter, Ms Clarke rebuked Mr Johnson for his handling of sexual abuse allegations surrounding the then Conservative MP Chris Pincher, who holds the neighbouring seat of Tamworth in Staffordshire.\n\nMs Clarke was one of dozens of MPs whose resignations ultimately led to Mr Johnson having to stand down as prime minister.\n\nThere is speculation, however, that those MPs who played a part in Mr Johnson's downfall are now facing a backlash from Tory grassroots.\n\nEarlier this week the veteran Conservative MP Damian Green was also deselected by his local association.\n\nBoth Mr Green and Ms Clarke could still put their names forward however when the selection of MPs goes to the wider constituency membership.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Wang Yi struck a friendly pose for Hungarian media as he met Foreign and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto\n\nOver the past year, leaders in the West have tried to cajole China to help them end the Ukraine war. Now Beijing has given its firmest response yet - and it's not something many in the West would like.\n\nIn recent days, China has launched an assertive charm offensive, kicking off with top diplomat Wang Yi's tour of Europe, which culminated in a warm welcome by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.\n\nBeijing has released not one but two position papers - the first offering the Chinese solution to the war, and the other outlining a plan for world peace. These largely retread China's talking points from the past year, calling for respect for sovereignty (for Ukraine) and the protection of national security interests (for Russia), while opposing the use of unilateral sanctions (by the US).\n\nThe West may come away unimpressed - but convincing them was never likely the main goal for Beijing.\n\nFirstly, it clearly seeks to position itself as a global peacemaker. An obvious clue about who it's really trying to charm lies in one of its papers, where it mentions engaging South East Asia, Africa and South America - the so-called Global South.\n\nIn preaching an alternative vision to a US-led world order, it is wooing the rest of the globe, which is watching to see how the West handles the Ukraine crisis.\n\nBut another goal is to send a clear message to the US.\n\n\"There is an element of defiance,\" said Alexander Korolev, an expert in Sino-Russian ties at the University of New South Wales. \"It is signalling: 'If things get ugly between us, I have someone to go to. Russia is not alone, which means that I will not be alone when there is a confrontation… don't get comfortable in bullying me.'\"\n\nThe timing, say observers, is a giveaway. Relations between the US and China have hit a new low, exacerbated by the spy balloon saga. Some have also questioned why China - if its intention is to help end the war - is only just now making its big diplomatic push for Ukraine peace.\n\n\"China had ample opportunities to display leadership, it was invited early on to contribute to ending the war… If the goal was to truly display the image of a global leader, you don't have to sit on the fence for one year and try to perform a diplomatic dance,\" said Dr Korolev.\n\nThere was a third goal, and it could be seen in Mr Wang's itinerary.\n\nBy visiting France, Germany, Italy and Hungary, whose leaders China perceives as taking less of a hardline stance on Russia, Mr Wang may have been testing the waters to see if China could lure some of Europe into China's orbit.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\nBeijing sees a \"logical convergence of interests\" with these countries, said Zhang Xin, an international political economy expert with the East China Normal University in Shanghai. \"It believes the US has hegemonic power, and that a large part of the Transatlantic world could benefit from detaching from that system.\"\n\nBut whether China will succeed in that particular goal is questionable. Mr Wang's speech at the Munich Security Conference, where he criticised the US, did not play well in a roomful of America's staunchest allies and, according to diplomats, only spawned greater distrust of China's true motives.\n\nHis tour \"was a very overt push to say: 'We don't have problems with Europe, we have problems with the US, we can fix things with you Europeans and you need to understand that the US is leading you down a problematic road'\", said Andrew Small, a senior fellow specialising in Europe-China relations at the German Marshall Fund think tank.\n\n\"But I think in most places in Europe, this message doesn't have much traction.\"\n\nThe key question now is whether Beijing will live up to its word of making peace as it tightens its embrace of Russia.\n\nThe US has warned this week that China was considering supplying lethal weapons to Russia, and that Chinese firms had already been supplying non-lethal dual-use technology - items which could have both civilian and military uses, such as drones and semi-conductors.\n\nPublicly China has reacted with angry rhetoric. But behind closed doors, Mr Wang made it clear to top EU official Josep Borrell that it will not provide weapons to Russia.\n\nAccording to Mr Borrell, Mr Wang had also asked: \"Why do you show concern for me maybe providing arms to Russia when you are providing arms to Ukraine?\"\n\nIt is a revealing line, say observers, showing that Beijing still truly believes the West is to blame for fuelling the war.\n\n\"Sending weapons to any warring party is considered as further escalation - that is the position of the Chinese state so far,\" said Dr Zhang.\n\nThere is scepticism that Beijing would supply weapons to Moscow, given how it runs counter to Chinese interests.\n\nSuch a move would be seen by others as a clear escalation of the war, and would lead to sanctions and disruption of trade with the West - hugely damaging for China, as the EU and US are among its top trading partners.\n\nIt would also raise global tensions significantly and likely push US allies further into Washington's embrace, stymieing Beijing's plan to woo some of them away.\n\nWhat is more likely to happen, say observers, is that Beijing will continue or even step up indirect support to Russia, such as boosting economic trade - which has provided a financial lifeline to Moscow - and abstaining from sanctions on Russia.\n\nThey may even supply more dual-use technology through third party states such as Iran or North Korea, according to Dr Small, so that they can lend support \"as deniably as possible\".\n\nBut as the war drags on, the issue of giving lethal weapons will resurface, he warned.\n\n\"There hasn't been a question yet on what kind of significant things China could be asked to do, because previously Russia didn't need to resupply,\" said Dr Small. \"But they are hitting that juncture. How long is China willing to say to Russia it will not do it?\"\n\nDays before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin declared they had a \"friendship without limits\".\n\nA year on, China will have to answer the question of how far it would go for its special friend.", "Sir Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher's press chief in Downing Street, has died, his family have announced.\n\nKnown for his straight-talking approach, Sir Bernard served in No 10 throughout Mrs Thatcher's premiership from 1979 to 1990.\n\nThe former journalist, who was 90, died on Friday lunchtime after a short illness, surrounded by his family, a statement said.\n\nHis son John said: \"My family will miss him greatly.\n\n\"To the wider world he is known as Margaret Thatcher's chief press secretary, a formidable operator in the political and Whitehall jungles.\n\n\"But to me he was my dad - and a great dad at that. He was a fellow football fan and an adoring grandfather and great-grandfather.\"\n\nBorn in Halifax on 21 June 1932, Sir Bernard left school at 16, and made his name as a campaigning journalist for the Hebden Bridge Times and later the Yorkshire Post.\n\nHe wrote columns for the local Labour Party newspaper, labelling the Conservative governments of Edward Heath and Alec Douglas-Home enemies of the workers.\n\nIn 1965, he moved to London to become an industrial correspondent for The Guardian.\n\nAfter being passed over for promotion, Sir Bernard joined the civil service as a government press officer, positioning himself as a bitter enemy of \"spin\" and criticising those who practised the \"black art\".\n\nDuring Labour's years in power, he worked for left-wingers Barbara Castle and Tony Benn.\n\nIn May 1979, when the Conservatives swept to power, he was chosen to become chief press secretary for the new government.\n\nSome doubted the former Labour-supporting campaigner could work for a Tory leader. But like Lady Thatcher, Sir Bernard was an outsider.\n\nHe would handle the media for Mrs Thatcher throughout her premiership.\n\nFor a decade, he was her media champion, often clashing with journalists and sometimes her own cabinet ministers.\n\nHe was known for briefing against ministers who displeased their boss, famously labelling John Biffen a \"semi-detached member of the government\" after he criticised Thatcherism.\n\nWhen Mrs Thatcher was ultimately deposed, few thought Sir Bernard could work for anyone else.\n\nHe retired - with a knighthood - to a modest bungalow in Purley, south London, and returned to journalism alongside writing his memoir, Kill The Messenger.\n\nFree to speak his mind after leaving government, Sir Bernard sometimes sparked outrage.\n\nHe refused to retreat from his view that the 1989 Hillsborough disaster - which claimed the lives of 97 Liverpool supporters - had been caused by \"tanked-up yobs\".\n\nAnd in a 1996 letter replying to fan Graham Skinner - whose friend had died in the disaster - Sir Bernard said Liverpool should \"shut up about Hillsborough\".\n\nHe also accused Scottish nationalists of being \"fuelled\" by the \"smell of oil and money in oil\".\n\nHe was still filing regular columns to The Yorkshire Post and the Daily Express until weeks before his death.\n\nSir Bernard was married to Nancy Ingham, a former policewoman, for 60 years until she died in 2017.\n\nHe leaves a son, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild.", "The epicentre of the earthquake was just north of Brynmawr, Blaenau Gwent\n\nAn earthquake has shaken parts of Wales, with tremors felt for 100 miles.\n\nThe British Geological Survey (BGS) said the 3.7 magnitude quake was at 23:59 GMT on Friday and was 2.2 miles (3.6 km) under the Earth's surface.\n\nThe epicentre was north of Brynmawr, Blaenau Gwent, and west of Crickhowell, Powys, but people on Twitter reported feeling it as far away as Birmingham.\n\nGwent Police said it received multiple calls overnight but it was \"business as usual\" for the force.\n\nBBC journalist Alex Humphreys said she felt the \"mini earthquake\" in Cardiff, 30 miles (50km) away.\n\n\"My whole bed shook,\" she tweeted. Others described it as a \"scary\" experience.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Alex Humphreys This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBrian Baptie, BGS head of seismology, said it was the largest earthquake in south Wales since a 4.6 magnitude quake about 25 miles (40km) west, near Swansea, in February 2018.\n\nHe added that, on average, Britain only gets about one earthquake with a magnitude of 3.7 or greater each year.\n\nThe largest earthquake ever recorded in the UK was in the North Sea on 7 June 1931, with a magnitude of 6.1.\n\nThe epicentre was in the Dogger Bank area, 75 miles (120km) north-east of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.\n\nWales' most powerful quake was on the Llyn Peninsula, Gwynedd, in 1984 - measuring 5.4, it began at a depth of more than 12 miles (20km).\n\nThe BGS said smaller quakes were not unusual in Wales, with 70 measuring more than 3.5 between 1727 and 1984.\n\nA 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Swansea in 1906 was one of the most damaging British earthquakes of the 20th Century, with damage to chimneys and walls reported across south Wales.\n\nIn Ebbw Vale shoppers said they had been left shaken and stirred.\n\nGerald Davies called the moment \"strange\", adding: \"It freaked me out a bit but I didn't realise it was an earthquake until this morning when I heard people taking about it on the buses.\n\n\"We're not used to feeling earthquakes here.\"\n\nA seismograph shows the force and duration of Friday night's quake\n\nAlison Stephens said: \"I live in a house that has a cellar underneath and I thought something in the cellar had collapsed.\n\n\"But my daughter and husband were in the living room and went, 'oh my god did you hear that?'\n\n\"Then everyone was out in the street going, 'oh my God, was that an earthquake'?\"\n\nShe said it was \"quite a rumble\".\n\nCaroline Davies thought nothing of it until people started messaging on Saturday.\n\n\"My husband was sat on one sofa and I was sat on the other... and it just wobbled,\" she said.\n\nListeners told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that they felt the \"earth shake\" in Ebbw Vale, which brought people out of their homes and into the streets.\n\nRobert Griffiths, from Rhiwbina, Cardiff, said he had just sat down to watch TV after a night out when \"all of a sudden the whole house shook\".\n\n\"The ceiling creaked, we immediately turned the television off and thought 'what on Earth was that?'\n\n\"It was kind of like 20 trucks had driven in front of the house so it was most unusual and quite strange.\"\n\nStephanie Palfrey from Blackrock, near Abergavenny, said she \"thought the mountain right behind the house was sliding down\".\n\n\"Other villagers came out of their homes to see what the noise was,\" she said.\n\n\"We live in an old cottage. You could hear it rattling. It was quite something.\"\n\nThe British Geological Survey said the quake's epicentre was just north of Brynmawr and west of Crickhowell\n\nGeoffrey Davies described an \"almighty bang\" at Llangattock, near Crickhowell.\n\n\"Initially we didn't know what to think. It was the sort of bang I had never heard,\" he added.\n\n\"When someone says 'it shook you to the core', it was that kind of feeling.\"\n\nElsewhere, Cat said she \"thought we were going mad\" in Blaenavon, Torfaen, as her \"bed and house shook side to side\".\n\nDr Ian Stimpson, a senior geologist at Keele University, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, said such events \"happen relatively infrequently\" in the UK.\n\n\"They are a big shock. An earthquake of this size, probably the UK has about three of them a year on average,\" he said.\n\n\"These earthquakes are way smaller than the Turkish earthquake for example - that was a million times more powerful than the earthquake last night.\"\n\nOther recent earthquakes in Wales were much smaller than Friday's.\n\nThe BGS reported a tremor with a magnitude of 0.9 in Llwynmawr, near Chirk, Wrexham, on 4 February, one of 1.1 at Llandybie, Carmarthenshire, on 20 January and one with a magnitude of 2 at Llanbedr, Powys, on 27 December.", "Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is the first sitting leader to march in Sydney's Mardi Gras parade\n\nAnthony Albanese has become Australia's first sitting prime minister to take part in Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade - one of the biggest events of its kind in the world.\n\nHuge crowds packed the city's Oxford Street as more than 12,000 participants and 200 floats passed by.\n\nIt is the first time the parade has been held in its traditional form since 2019 due to Covid restrictions.\n\n\"This is a celebration of modern Australia,\" Mr Albanese said.\n\nHe added that it was \"unfortunate\" that he was the country's first leader to march in the parade while in office.\n\n\"People want to see that their government is inclusive and represents everyone no matter who they love, no matter what their identity, no matter where they live.\"\n\nIt is the first time since the coronavirus pandemic that Sydney's Mardi Gras has been held as a parade\n\nPenny Wong, the first openly gay female in Australia's parliament, also took part in the celebrations.\n\nThe presence of the prime minister, who has marched in the parade in the past as an MP, was greeted with cheers but his critics have accused him of pandering to a minority that's hijacking Australia's social agenda.\n\nOpposition MP, Barnaby Joyce, criticised Mr Albanese for attending a party instead of dealing with a crime crisis in Alice Springs - a remote town in Australia's Northern Territory.\n\nMr Albanese wasn't the only politician to attend Mardi Gras - members of other parties, including the Greens and Liberals, also came to show their support.\n\nThousands of people have taken part in this year's Mardi Gras parade\n\nIt's not the first time an Australian prime minister has attended the event - Malcolm Turnbull was present in 2016 but did not march.\n\nThe Mardi Gras parade has been running since 1978 and grew out of a protest marking the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots - an uprising by members of the LGBT community in New York more than 50 years ago.\n\nFor the past two years the parade has been held as a seated event at the Sydney Cricket Ground due to the pandemic.\n\nThis year's event coincides in Sydney with WorldPride, which promotes LGBTQ+ rights globally.\n\nOther world leaders who have taken part in pride parades in the past include Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his former New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern.", "Last year's show was hosted by Turin - Romanian act WRS is seen performing here\n\nThe Eurovision Song Contest, being held in Liverpool in May, will get £10m from the UK government, it has been announced.\n\nIt will be spent on operational costs like security and visas, as well as making sure the event \"showcases Ukrainian culture\".\n\nLocal authorities in Liverpool have already pledged £4m in funding.\n\nAbout 3,000 tickets to the song contest will also be made available for Ukrainians living in the UK.\n\nLiverpool is staging the event at its M&S Bank Arena on behalf of Ukraine, whose Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 show, as the war means it cannot take up hosting duties.\n\nIt will be the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the UK for 25 years.\n\nSam Ryder came second for the United Kingdom in 2022 after years of disappointing results\n\nThe tickets for Ukrainians living in the UK, across nine shows, allows \"compatriots here to enjoy the event and celebrate our country's rich culture and music\", said Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko.\n\nThere will be a £20 charge for each sale, with the cost subsidised by the DCMS for those on the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Ukraine Extension Scheme, who are eligible to apply for tickets.\n\nThe government funding is intended to \"support security, visa arrangements and other operational aspects of the contest\", the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said.\n\nThe money will also support Liverpool City Council as well as host broadcaster the BBC's partnerships with Ukrainian acts \"to ensure a collaborative show celebrating music and how it unites people\", it said in a statement. It is the first time the government has confirmed its financial contribution.\n\nLast year the Italian government did not directly pledge any money towards the annual event, the BBC has learned.\n\nInstead, the host city of Turin spent roughly £10m on the song contest - with officials claiming it made the money back \"seven times\" over through tourism.\n\nMore than 160 million people tuned in to see acts like Moldova's Zdob perform last year\n\nSome broadcasters are understood to have had reservations about competing in 2023 because of the additional costs of transporting equipment, due to the UK no longer being a member of the European Union.\n\nOne delegate from a competing broadcaster, who didn't want to be named, explained this year's contest in Liverpool \"will have an extra hassle\".\n\n\"Normally delegations have the choice to either create the props themselves and ship it to the host country, or build them in the host country,\" they told the BBC.\n\nThey claimed shipments to the UK could not be guaranteed to arrive on time as there are \"more forms\", adding they believed it was much easier in previous years, as props and other materials did not have to go through customs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The rundown on the 2023 contest in 50 seconds\n\nUnusually, as part of the £10m UK government commitment, the BBC will receive some financial assistance, the DCMS confirmed - but neither it nor the BBC would confirm what this sum was.\n\nThe majority of the funding package will go, the government says, towards ensuring \"the inclusion of Ukrainian culture\", but it did not give further detail when asked.\n\nThe bulk of the overall cost of this year's Eurovision falls to the BBC, as host broadcaster, after it accepted the invitation when organisers ruled it could not be in Ukraine following Russia's invasion.\n\nIt is estimated the corporation will spend between £8m and £17m putting on the song contest - a significant jump from what it normally spends participating, at a time when it is reducing head count to save millions. The broadcaster is also closing channels and axing programmes. It says it's to prioritise digital content and \"grow the value we deliver to local audiences everywhere\".\n\nThe 37 broadcasters taking part in Eurovision all pay a fee to enter, which in recent years has totalled a combined sum of about £5m. The BBC does not make its contribution public.\n\nThis year's Eurovision takes place in May - the week after the King's coronation\n\nThe BBC said further details on general release tickets would be issued in due course.\n\nThere are two semi-finals ahead of the grand final - on 13 May - that fans will be able to pay to go to, as well as six preview shows.\n\nCulture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: \"We are honoured to be supporting the BBC and Liverpool in hosting it on their behalf, and are determined to make sure the Ukrainian people are at the heart of this event.\"\n\nLabour declined to comment on the funding announcement.\n\nAll the build-up, insights and analysis is explored each week on a new BBC podcast called Eurovisioncast.\n\nEurovisioncast is available on BBC Sounds, or search wherever you get your podcasts from.", "Forensics officers surrounded John Caldwell's car the day after he was shot\n\nUnlike previous chief constables, Simon Byrne, until Wednesday night, had never taken a phone call like it.\n\nIt was news that John Caldwell - one of his top investigators - was fighting for his life.\n\nAt a press conference the next day, he spoke of it being a deeply troubling day for an organisation which had suffered so much in the past.\n\nBehind him were memorial gardens honouring more than 300 officers murdered in decades gone by.\n\nThe shooting of Det Ch Insp Caldwell sent a shockwave through the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the wider community.\n\nBased on the New IRA being named by the police as having been responsible, it is arguably the most significant dissident republican attack in Northern Ireland for many years.\n\nThere is a feeling this was the attempted assassination of a major target - a \"relentless investigator\" in the words of a former colleague Chris Noble, now the chief constable of Staffordshire Police.\n\nMultiple investigations had brought the 48-year-old detective face-to-face with suspected killers in both organised crime gangs and terrorist groups.\n\nBut it was the New IRA who sent two gunmen to ambush him off-duty in front of his son at a training session for young footballers.\n\nSomeone who worked alongside him said: \"Undoubtedly he was a bigger target because of who he was.\"\n\nHe lived under several threat warnings, one of which is being linked to his inquiries into the unsolved murder of PSNI officer Ronan Kerr, 25, by a dissident undercar bomb in Omagh in 2011.\n\nNo-one has been charged with the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr\n\nOn the 10th anniversary of the constable's killing, Det Ch Insp Caldwell was the public face of a fresh PSNI appeal for information and a determination to bring justice.\n\nIn the same County Tyrone town last Wednesday, he came very close to becoming the first police officer murdered since Mr Kerr.\n\nThe attack appears to underscore, in brutal fashion, the re-emergence on the New IRA after nearly four years of surface level inactivity.\n\nIn 2019, it shot dead journalist Lyra McKee as she watched rioting unfold in Londonderry.\n\nWithin a year, its suspected leadership was rounded-up by the PSNI following a surveillance operation run by MI5 using an alleged agent.\n\nTen individuals are currently awaiting trial on almost 50 terrorism charges as a result of Operation Arbacia.\n\nIn the aftermath, the New IRA was viewed as being in complete disarray and the main narrative pushed in policing and security circles was that the threat it posed had been severally blunted.\n\nAs a consequence last year, for the first time in more than a decade, the government announced the threat level in Northern Ireland was being lowered from severe to substantial.\n\nIt might not have sounded much - the risk of attack went down from highly likely to likely - but it was a hugely symbolic moment.\n\nAttacks, or attempted attacks, dropped markedly: the years 2020-22 saw a virtual absence of activity.\n\nBut the New IRA was reorganising and in November it mounted a roadside bomb attack, using military grade explosives, on a police patrol car in Strabane.\n\nThe armour-plated vehicle did its job and two officers inside escaped injury.\n\nThe attack has now been followed up with the attempted murder, fewer than 20 miles away, of Det Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nSo what can be drawn from these events?\n\nFirstly, the New IRA had been disrupted but not crushed.\n\nIt does, however, remain a small organisation with insignificant support, albeit one which is once again demonstrating an intermittent ability to carry out acts of violence.\n\nIt has nothing remotely near the capacity of its predecessor, the Provisional IRA.\n\nMI5 recordings from the Operation Arbacia case reveal the New IRA as having been desperate to acquire weaponry.\n\nEstimates of members have not been provided for dissemination for years.\n\nBut no-one has suggested they have drastically altered from what was briefed out in security circles at that point - perhaps up to 100 people prepared to directly engage in acts of terrorism.\n\nIt is scattered operationally around Derry, Strabane and other parts of County Tyrone, and west Belfast.\n\nThe New IRA is the biggest and most active of the dissident groups which exist as opponents to the 1998 Northern Ireland peace settlement.\n\nThe Continuity IRA has largely been quiet since the discovery of a bomb attached to a lorry trailer intended to cause \"a Brexit attack\" on a cross-channel ferry, or at Belfast docks, in early 2020.\n\nThe other currently active organisation is Arm na Poblachta, which late in 2022 forced a delivery driver at gunpoint to transport a small bomb to Waterside police station in Derry.\n\nThere is some sense that dissident groups could be trying to gain momentum with Stormont down and politics being portrayed as failing.\n\nThere is also the approaching 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which dissidents see as a capitulation by the republican mainstream to continued partition of the island of Ireland into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.\n\nAll this will be occupying the minds of the PSNI and MI5 - which has assumed the lead role in intelligence gathering since 2007.\n\nFor PSNI officers, the shooting of one its most high-profile detectives will serve as a wake up call in terms of personal security.\n\nThe vast majority of its 6,700 officers never served in the Royal Ulster Constabulary during the Troubles and are now being urged to be more vigilant than at any point recently.\n\nThe security developments arrive at a difficult time for the PSNI.\n\nIt is not replacing 300 officers who left over the past 12 months due to budget problems and it is potentially looking at further significant cutbacks in the years ahead.\n\nAlready at its lowest numbers since its formation two decades ago, it could shrink to around 6,000 officers by 2025.\n\nThis will play out politically in coming days and weeks, with the organisation asking can it contend with a reinvigorated dissident threat with diminished manpower and resources?", "Laurel Aldridge pictured on the day she went missing\n\nPolice searching for Mackenzie Crook's sister-in-law Laurel Aldridge have found a woman's body 11 days after she went missing.\n\nMs Aldridge, 62, was last seen leaving her home in Walberton, near Arundel, West Sussex, on 14 February.\n\nSussex Police earlier said a body was found in the Tortington Lane area of Arundel.\n\nThe force said it was seeking to confirm her identity and the family had been informed.\n\nCrook, who is known for roles in The Office, Pirates Of The Caribbean and Worzel Gummidge, had been helping in the search, which Ms Aldridge's son Matthew described as a \"nightmare\".\n\nMackenzie Crook had been helping with the search\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Australia has busted a \"hive\" of spies which has been operating in the country for years, its intelligence chief says.\n\nMike Burgess did not identify any countries behind the network, but said the undercover operatives appeared to be \"highly trained\".\n\nThe group would study and \"potentially seduce\" targets including judges, journalists and veterans, he claimed.\n\nIt shows the threat posed by foreign spies is at an all-time high, he added.\n\nWhile delivering his annual threat assessment in Canberra, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio) chief outlined a \"concerted campaign\" to infiltrate the Australian media to shape reporting and gain information on sources.\n\nA \"lackey\" planned to offer journalists all-expenses-paid study tours of a foreign country, he said, where spies with the \"home-ground advantage\" would seek to gain information to leverage.\n\nAnd Mr Burgess also detailed thwarted plots from two different countries to physically harm Australian residents - a week after the government revealed that an Iranian plot targeting a dissident in Australia had been disrupted.\n\nHe again did not name the countries, but said the targets were critics of foreign regimes.\n\n\"In one case, the intelligence service started monitoring a human rights activist and plotted to lure the target offshore, where the individual could be - quote - 'disposed of',\" he said.\n\n\"In another, a lackey was dispatched to locate specific dissidents and - quote - 'deal with them'.\"\n\nMr Burgess said Asio had weeded out the spies after an \"intense and sustained\" campaign.\n\n\"They were good - but Asio was better... working with our partners, we removed them. The hive is history,\" he said.\n\nBut the threat posed by foreign intelligence has been worsening, Mr Burgess said, particularly since Australia signed the Aukus security agreement with the US and the UK.\n\n\"Asio is... busier than any time in our 74-year history. Busier than the Cold War, busier than 9/11, busier than the height of the caliphate.\"\n\n\"From where I sit, it looks like hand-to-hand combat.\"\n\nMr Burgess also used the speech to criticise thousands of \"reckless\" Australians advertising their security clearances on social media networking sites, as well as former Australian defence personnel involved in foreign military training programmes.\n\n\"It is critical our allies know we can keep our secrets, and keep their secrets,\" Mr Burgess said.", "Ms Begum was 15 when she joined the self-styled Islamic State group in 2015\n\nShamima Begum has lost her challenge over the decision to deprive her of British citizenship despite a \"credible\" case she was trafficked.\n\nMr Justice Jay told the semi-secret court dealing with her case that her appeal had been fully dismissed.\n\nThe ruling means the 23-year-old remains barred from returning to the UK and stuck in a camp in northern Syria.\n\nHer legal team said the case was \"nowhere near over\" and the decision will be challenged.\n\nMs Begum was 15 years old when she travelled to join the self-styled Islamic State group in 2015.\n\nShe went on to have three children, all of whom have died, after marrying a fighter with the group.\n\nIn 2019, the then home secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of her British citizenship, preventing her coming home, and leaving her detained as an IS supporter in a camp.\n\nThe Special Immigration Appeals Commission has ruled that decision, taken after ministers received national security advice about Ms Begum's threat to the UK, had been lawful - even though her lawyers had presented strong arguments she was a victim.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"I'm ashamed of myself\" - Shamima Begum (speaking in June 2022)\n\nListen to The Shamima Begum Story investigative podcast on BBC Sounds and watch the film on BBC iPlayer.\n\nDuring the appeal hearing last November, Ms Begum's lawyers argued the decision had been unlawful because the home secretary had failed to consider whether she had been a victim of child trafficking - in effect arguing she had been groomed and tricked into joining the fighters, along with school friends Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase in February 2015.\n\nMs Sultana was reportedly killed in a bombing raid in 2016, but the fate of Amira Abase is unknown.\n\nAs all UK consular services are suspended in Syria, it is extremely difficult for the government to confirm the whereabouts of the British nationals.\n\nThat was the first time judges had to consider whether the state's obligations to combat trafficking and abuse of children should have any influence over national security decisions.\n\nMr Justice Jay revealed the complexity of the case had caused the panel of three \"great concern and difficulty\".\n\n\"The commission concluded that there was a credible suspicion that Ms Begum had been trafficked to Syria,\" he said in his summary.\n\n\"The motive for bringing her to Syria was sexual exploitation to which, as a child, she could not give a valid consent.\n\n\"The commission also concluded that there were arguable breaches of duty on the part of various state bodies in permitting Ms Begum to leave the country as she did and eventually cross the border from Turkey into Syria.\"\n\nBut despite those concerns, the judge said even if Ms Begum had been trafficked, that did not trump the home secretary's legal duty to make a national security decision to strip her of her British nationality.\n\n\"There is some merit in the argument that those advising the secretary of state see this as a black and white issue, when many would say that there are shades of grey,\" said the judge in his summary.\n\nBut despite those questions over how the case had been handled, the commission concluded the home secretary had still acted within his powers - even if there could have been a different outcome.\n\n\"If asked to evaluate all the circumstances of Ms Begum's case, reasonable people with knowledge of all the relevant evidence will differ, in particular in relation to the issue of the extent to which her travel to Syria was voluntary and the weight to be given to that factor in the context of all others,\" said the judge.\n\n\"Likewise, reasonable people will differ as to the threat she posed in February 2019 to the national security of the United Kingdom, and as to how that threat should be balanced against all countervailing considerations.\n\n\"However, under our constitutional settlement these sensitive issues are for the secretary of state to evaluate and not for the commission.\"\n\nThis isn't the first time a legal challenge by Ms Begum's lawyers has failed. In February 2020 the same commission rejected her team's argument that she had been made \"de facto stateless\" when her citizenship was removed.\n\nIt agreed with the Home Office's position that since she was technically entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship, it wasn't legally obliged to allow her to keep her UK rights.\n\nIn February 2021, the Supreme Court said she could not return to the UK to fight her case on security grounds.\n\nUnlike the UK, other western countries like France, Germany and Australia have allowed an increasing number of former IS supporters back.\n\nAll US citizens who travelled to Syria to join the self-styled Islamic State group have been allowed to return to the country, barrister Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the BBC.\n\nHe said the pace of repatriations \"seems to be increasing\", with Germany allowing 100 citizens back, France allowing more than 100, and Sweden also allowing citizens to return in double figures.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"Little by little, countries are beginning to change their posture from [a] strategic distance to try and manage their return.\n\n\"There is a bit of a risk that the UK could become a bit of an outlier.\"\n\nIn a statement, Ms Begum's lawyers Gareth Pierce and Daniel Furner called on Suella Braverman, the current home secretary, to look at the case again \"in light of the commission's troubling findings\".\n\nThey said the decision removes protections for British child trafficking victims in cases where national security is involved and leaves their client \"in unlawful, arbitrary and indefinite detention without trial in a Syrian camp\".\n\nHer legal team said \"every possible avenue to challenge this decision will be urgently pursued\" without providing further details of any potential appeal.\n\nA spokesman for the Home Office said it was \"pleased\" with the outcome, adding: \"The government's priority remains maintaining the safety and security of the UK and we will robustly defend any decision made in doing so.\"\n\nMr Javid also welcomed the ruling. Ministers must have the \"power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it\", he said.\n\nHuman rights groups and campaigners have criticised the ruling and the government's position, maintaining that Ms Begum was a child exploitation victim.\n\nSteve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK's refugee and migrant rights director, said: \"The home secretary shouldn't be in the business of exiling British citizens.\"\n\nConservative MP David Davis, who has repeatedly challenged the government on civil liberties issues, described the situation as a \"shameful abdication of responsibility and must be remedied\".", "We've now heard a little bit more from Downing Street on some of the issues that came up in PMQs.\n\nOn progress on a Northern Ireland Protocol deal, the prime minister's spokesman said Rishi Sunak had spoken to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday evening.\n\n\"The leaders discussed the good progress made in the negotiations. Intensive discussions continue. They agreed to speak again in the coming days,\" the spokesman.told reporters.\n\nOn the question - asked at PMQs by Sir Keir Starmer - of whether Parliament will get a vote on any Northern Ireland Protocol deal that is reached, the PM's press secretary said: \"We are not going to get ahead of ourselves... We would be getting into hypotheticals to talk about a vote.\"\n\nOn whether the government will drop the bill going through parliament which would allow minister to override the Northern Ireland Protocol, the spokesman said: \"It is a longstanding position of the Government that we want to resolve the issues in partnership with the EU by negotiation rather than legislate domestically.\n\n\"In the absence of that negotiated solution, the Protocol Bill is an important piece of legislation to ensure we safeguard Northern Ireland's position in the Union.\"", "Floral tributes were laid following the shootings in Plymouth in August 2021\n\nFirearms laws could be reformed in the wake of shootings in Plymouth and the Isle of Skye, the government has said.\n\nHome Office minister Chris Philp committed to make \"any further changes needed to protect the public\".\n\nMr Philp made a statement to the House of Commons following the conclusion of the inquest into the victims of the Plymouth shootings.\n\nThe inquest jury found \"a serious failure at a national level\" to implement previous recommended reforms.\n\nJake Davison killed his mother Maxine, 51, Sophie Martyn, three, her father Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, in the Keyham area of Plymouth in August 2021, before he turned the gun on himself.\n\nA series of shootings took place in Skye in August 2022 in which one man died.\n\nPolice were called to a series of incidents around Skye in August\n\nThe families of Keyham gunman Davison's victims have demanded an overhaul of the 50-year-old Firearms Act after accusing police of granting him \"a licence to kill\".\n\nMr Philp told MPs: \"We must ensure our controls on firearms are as robust as possible and learn the lessons of the tragic deaths in Keyham, and also in Scotland, and we therefore await the coroner's anticipated report into the prevention of future deaths with keen interest.\"\n\nLabour's Luke Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, who has been campaigning for firearms reform, asked Mr Philp to meet with the families of the victims.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Luke Pollard MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Philp agreed and said he wanted to \"listen to their concerns directly and make sure their voice is heard in government\".\n\nMr Pollard also called for \"comprehensive changes to our gun laws to make sure that no other community anywhere in the country will have to go through what we have in Plymouth\".\n\nJake Davison killed five people before taking his own life in the Keyham area of Plymouth\n\nJurors at the Keyham inquest were critical of the failings within the Devon and Cornwall Police firearms licensing unit, which handed the apprentice crane operator back his shotgun five weeks before the killings.\n\nMr Philp said Devon and Cornwall Police could face a further review of its firearms licensing arrangements.\n\nHe said the force had assured the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) that changes had been made following the watchdog's recent recommendations.\n\nMr Philp added: \"Depending on what the coroner might recommend shortly, I am currently minded to ask the inspectorate to go and look specifically at the arrangements that Devon and Cornwall have in place for firearms licensing to confirm their suitability.\"\n\nOn Tuesday, at the conclusion of a separate inquest into Davison's death, the barrister representing Davison's remaining family, Nick Stanage, called on the coroner to \"do all you can as soon as you can to make recommendations for actions, not words, that might begin at long last to protect the public from future atrocities\".\n\nThe coroner for Plymouth, Ian Arrow, told the jury he would be writing a prevention of future deaths report on a number of issues revealed during the inquests including training for firearms licencing staff, the differences on licencing shotguns and firearms, fees for licencing and mandatory markers on health records.\n\nHe said: \"It's imperative that we do not lose the momentum of what this series of inquests have revealed.\n\n\"There have been lessons learned in previous years but they did not seem to have been properly addressed.\"\n\nJohnny Mercer, Conservative MP for Plymouth Moor View, said on Twitter the police were \"not supported by strong enough legislation\".\n\nHe said he would \"be writing to the home secretary calling for an overhaul of the 1968 Firearms Act to change the onus on proving need for weapons like this, from permissive law to the gun-owner demonstrating why they need it\".\n\nThe British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), the UK's largest shooting organisation, has opposed calls for changes to firearms licensing.\n\nChristopher Graffius, BASC's executive director of communications and public affairs, said, in the Keyham case, the fault lay \"not with the existing laws but with their inconsistent application by Devon and Cornwall Police\".\n\nThe BASC said it had written to the coroner regarding what it thought could help prevent future shootings and said it would discuss these recommendations with the government.\n\nMr Graffius said it had previously asked for a national firearms licensing regulator to improve standards in training.\n\nHowever, the BASC opposed the recommendation made by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to remove any distinction between what is required for firearms and shotgun certificates.\n\nMr Graffius said removing the distinction would \"impose an unnecessary burden that would do nothing to improve public safety\".\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The team of rescuers used a button tow to bunny-hop up the 478m (1568ft) hill\n\nA mountain rescue team used a ski tow to bunny-hop up a hill to carry out the \"unique\" rescue of an injured woman.\n\nThe hillwalker broke her ankle after slipping on Caerketton Hill in the Pentland Hills, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, at about 17:45 on Sunday.\n\nThe incident took place above the Midlothian Snowsports Centre, so Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team used one of the ski tows to get up the hill.\n\nThen they made a sledge to get the woman back down the dry ski slope.\n\nDave Wright, the rescue team's incident manager, told BBC Scotland they had improvised when they discovered the hillwalker was lying directly above the ski centre.\n\nIn an effort to get to the woman more quickly in the dark, wet and windy conditions, they used a button tow to get up the hill.\n\nBut this presented a challenge because the team of 15 rescuers were not wearing skis.\n\nThe team said the rescue was made harder by low cloud and poor weather conditions\n\n\"The ski centre said it was quite difficult to master the bunny-hop if you have never done it before,\" he said.\n\n\"The tow pulls you up in jerking motions and without skis you are pulled into the air.\"\n\nTo do it successfully, they had to bounce from one leg and land on the other, before pushing off again.\n\nWhen they reached the injured woman, the team made a sledge using a stretcher with skids on the bottom.\n\nThey then used a long rope to slide this down the dry ski slope to a waiting ambulance at the bottom of the hill.\n\nThe woman was put on a makeshift sledge before gliding down the dry ski slope\n\nMr Wright said the stretcher and the walker would have weighed more than 100kgs (16 stones) in total.\n\n\"It's heavy, so by sledging her down it saved us a lot of time,\" he said.\n\n\"The conditions out there were terrible, there was very low cloud and by improvising in this way we saved at least two hours from the rescue.\n\n\"This was a very unique rescue and one we are very proud of.\"\n\nHe added that the woman, who was in her 50s, had been kitted out in the correct winter walking gear when she fell.\n\nThe injured woman was taken to safety down the dry ski slope\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Junior doctors in England have voted in favour of taking strike action in their fight to get more pay.\n\nMembers of the British Medical Association (BMA) are now expected to take part in a 72-hour walkout, possibly as early as mid-March.\n\nThe union said junior doctor roles had seen pay cut by 26% since 2008 once inflation was taken into account.\n\nBut experts said if a different measure of inflation is used, the fall in pay was lower.\n\nThe ballot by the BMA involved nearly 48,000 members working across hospitals and the community - more than two-thirds of the junior doctor workforce.\n\nMore than three-quarters of those balloted took part, with 98% voting in favour of action.\n\nBMA junior doctors committee co-chairman Dr Robert Laurenson said the vote showed the strength of feeling about the issue.\n\n\"We are frustrated, in despair and angry and we have voted in our thousands to say, 'in the name of our profession, our patients, and our NHS, doctors won't take it any more'.\n\n\"The government has only itself to blame, standing by in silent indifference as our members are forced to take this difficult decision.\"\n\nThe results come as nurses and ambulance staff are warning they will escalate their industrial action in their dispute over pay.\n\nMembers of the Royal College of Nursing will walk out across half of frontline services in England next week for 48 hours.\n\nMeanwhile, Unison, the biggest union in the ambulance service, is expected to announce more strike dates now that its mandate has increased from five of England's 10 ambulance services to nine.\n\nThe term \"junior doctors\" covers everyone who has just graduated from medical school through to those with many years' experience on the front line. The last time they went on strike was in 2016 over a new contract that had been introduced.\n\nThis year, junior doctors' pay increased by 2% as part of a four-year agreement that featured an overall rise of 8.2% between 2019-20 and 2022-23.\n\nCurrently, the basic starting salary for a junior doctor is £29,000, but average earnings are higher once extra payments for things like unsociable hours are taken into account.\n\nBy the end of their training, which can last 15 years for some, basic pay is more than £53,000.\n\nThese are doctors with huge responsibility, leading teams, carrying out surgery and making life-and-death decisions.\n\nOverall they account for more than 40% of the medical workforce.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How strike rules could be about to change\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said that, alongside an 8.2% pay rise over four years, the current deal also introduced higher bands of pay for the most experienced staff, and increased rates for night shifts.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said he had met with the BMA to discuss pay and conditions. The pay award for the 2023-24 financial year is expected to be announced in the coming months.\n\n\"We hugely value the work of junior doctors and it is deeply disappointing some union members have voted for strike action,\" Mr Barclay added.\n\nSources at the BMA have said the pay demand does not necessarily need to be paid in one go, but until the government agreed to restoring pay, action would continue.\n\nThe BMA has yet to decide whether to strike elsewhere in the UK as it awaits more information from ministers about their pay plans in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nSaffron Cordery, of NHS Providers, which represents health managers, said the prospect of a 72-hour strike was \"extremely worrying\".\n\n\"An urgent resolution is needed if we are to prevent harm to patients.\"\n\nJunior doctors will walk out of both routine and emergency care - although by law they they can only withdraw from life-and-limb emergency care if the NHS has found other staff to cover for them.\n\nDuring the 2016 walkout consultants stepped in, but this meant a huge amount of pre-planned treatments such as knee and hip replacements had to be cancelled.\n\nCorrection: We amended this piece on the day of publication to reflect the fact the BMA is asking for a pay rise to reverse the cut of 26% since 2008 once inflation is taken into account. We had initially reported it as a demand for a 26% pay rise. The BMA is actually after an increase of 35% to make up for the 26% cut.", "Alfie Woollett died after he \"lost his footing\" when climbing a fire escape at The Kings\n\nA university football coach fell to his death from a nightclub fire escape after trying to get into a fancy dress party, an inquest has heard.\n\nAlfie Woollett, 21, lost his footing as he attempted to get into The Kings in Churchill Way, Cardiff, in March 2022.\n\nHis cause of death was a \"traumatic head injury\" and a coroner concluded it was an alcohol-related death.\n\nCardiff Metropolitan University, where he also coached, and Cardiff University held a minute's silence for him.\n\nPontypridd Coroner's Court was told that Mr Woollett, of Looe, Cornwall, was out drinking with friends who tried to get into a fancy dress party at The Kings, but he was told to leave by security because he was too drunk.\n\nThe Cardiff Met student tried to get back in by climbing over the fire escape, but fell to the ground at the back of the nightclub when he \"lost his footing\".\n\nHe was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nToxicological results showed he was more than four times the legal drink-drive limit, which the inquest was told was \"a level which in itself can be fatal\".\n\nMr Woollett's team, Looe Town Football Club, held a memorial match for him in May with more than 150 fans paying tribute.\n\nLooe Town club chairman Pete Lewis said: \"As a community, a club, as teams, and as individuals we are devastated to hear of the passing of Alfie Woollett, one of our own.\n\n\"His infectious smile, bubbly personality, competitive nature, skill, and determination made him a player that all respected and loved.\"", "State media footage of the coal mine's collapse in Alxa League, Inner Mongolia\n\nAt least four people have died and 49 more are missing after a mine collapsed in China's northern Inner Mongolia region on Wednesday.\n\nChinese leader Xi Jinping ordered a search and rescue operation which has so far found six survivors in the open-pit mine at Alxa League.\n\nBut desperate efforts to retrieve others were temporarily disrupted by two landslides.\n\nIt is not yet clear what caused the slope at the mine to give way.\n\nMore than 900 rescue workers had been deployed to the scene, Xinhua news agency reported.\n\nMr Xi has instructed authorities to make \"every possible effort\" to find survivors.\n\nWei Zhiguo, leader of the rescue mission, said the operation had been interrupted by a \"large landslide\" on Wednesday evening. This had halted some search efforts overnight, which were also hampered by a second landslide later in the day.\n\n\"The rescue work is being carried out in an orderly and tense manner,\" he told state broadcaster CCTV.\n\nPolice told CCTV that an investigation was underway, and that the relevant persons have been \"controlled\".\n\nThe mine collapsed around 13:00 local time (0500 GMT) on Wednesday, burying more than 50 workers. It affected a \"wide area\", authorities said.\n\nThe collapse left a pile of debris roughly 500m (1,640ft) across and an estimated 80m high.\n\nCCTV reported the shaft had been operated by the Xinjing Coal Mining Company, which has not issued a statement yet.\n\nMines in China's Inner Mongolia region are some of China's top coal producers. Chinese mines have also been trying to boost output over the past year in a bid to boost supplies and lower prices.\n\nAccidents are not uncommon in China, where industrial safety regulations can be poorly enforced. In December 2020, 23 miners died after a carbon monoxide leak at a coal mine. And in January 2021, 10 miners were killed in a blast at a gold mine in Shandong province.", "The Tube strike is due to take place on 15 March\n\nLondon Underground drivers are to strike on 15 March, Budget Day, a train drivers' union has announced.\n\nAslef said the dispute was over a failure to accept changes to working arrangements and changes to pensions should happen by agreement.\n\nFinn Brennan, from Aslef, added it would be the first day of action \"in a protracted dispute\" with Transport for London (TfL).\n\nTfL urged the union to call off the \"damaging strike\".\n\nTube train drivers voted by 99%, on a turnout of 77%, in favour of a walk out, the union said.\n\nMr Brennan, the union's organiser on London Underground, said its members were not prepared to put up with \"threats\" to working conditions and pensions.\n\n\"We understand that TfL faces financial challenges, post-pandemic, but our members are simply not prepared to pay the price for the government's failure to properly fund London's public transport system,\" he said.\n\nMr Brennan added the union was prepared to discuss and negotiate on changes, however it wanted an \"unequivocal commitment\" from TfL that \"management would not continue to force through detrimental changes without agreement\".\n\nNick Dent, director of customer operations at TfL, said the transport authority had not proposed changes to pensions, and had been working with the unions to \"see how we can make London Underground a fairer and more sustainable place\".\n\nHe added: \"We want to make London Underground a better place to work so we urge Aslef to call off this damaging strike and continue working with us.\"\n\nIn 2022 commuters endured six 24-hour strikes by the RMT union in a row over pension changes and job cuts.\n\nA £3.6bn government bailout of TfL in August required the transport body to develop options around pensions.\n\nAslef are the biggest Tube drivers union and last time they went on strike in 2015, the network shut down.\n\nUnion representatives say this is not a dispute over pay - it is about changes to existing working agreements, and crucially it's about pension reform.\n\nAs part of the government's bailout of TfL during the pandemic, it said the organisation had to carry out a pension review, as some in government thought savings could be made there, saying pensions were too generous.\n\nThose pensions are a huge red line for the unions.\n\nThe union is expecting an announcement next week on pension reform, and Aslef is making its intentions very clear ahead of that with this pre-emptive strike, literally.\n\nLast year, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who is also chair of TfL, said the strikes were \"having a serious impact\" on commuters.\n\nHe said he had repeatedly asked the unions to call off the strike and find a resolution with TfL, although he added he would \"not support any unfair changes to pensions that attack the terms and conditions of transport workers\".\n\nThere were six 24-hour Tube strikes in 2022\n\nLondon Underground workers received an 8.4% pay rise in April in a four-year deal, which guarantees 15,000 Tube workers an annual pay increase of 0.2% above the Retail Price Index, a measure of inflation published by the Office for National Statistics.\n\nThe strike comes as more than 100,000 civil servants in the Public and Commercial Services union are also walking out on the same day in a long running dispute over jobs, pay and pensions.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Olena's daughter Kateryna, 13, studied at a top secondary school in Kyiv and is doing her homework in a hotel room for now\n\nA Ukrainian family who have lived in a hotel for seven months say they have nowhere to go after being told they were ineligible for social housing.\n\nOlena, 38, has been living with her mother and 13-year-old daughter in Swansea after fleeing the war, but were told to find somewhere new by 17 March.\n\nSwansea council said it had a team supporting refugees to move into more suitable accommodation.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was working with local authorities.\n\nThe Welsh government said recently that welcome centres that have housed Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of the war are set to close in an effort to help them move into long-term accommodation.\n\nOlena, a lawyer from Kyiv, said the situation facing her and her daughter, Kateryna, 13, and 69-year-old mother - also called Kateryna - was \"stressful\".\n\nShe said she got a letter from the Welsh government on 6 February saying they must independently find accommodation and leave their hotel by 17 March.\n\nOlena, her daughter Kateryna and her mother Kateryna left behind a busy life in Kyiv because of the war\n\n\"We don't know where we will be in a few weeks - that means we cannot plan anything, and we don't know when we will be back home,\" she explained.\n\n\"There is so much unknown, like will we continue with our English classes,\" she said. \"If my daughter will go to school, if my mother will be able to get medical support if she became ill.\"\n\nOlena is one of 3,000 Ukrainians to have received help from the Welsh government since the start of the war.\n\nMany first went to welcome centres, often repurposed hotel buildings like the one where Olena's family currently live.\n\nShe said she applied for social housing in September, but her application had not been processed and other options had been \"rejected\".\n\nShe said they have no information from Swansea council about where they will be moving or if it will be to another town or city.\n\nOlena worked as a lawyer with a development company in Kyiv before the war\n\n\"[That] will mean a different school for Kateryna,\" she said. \"We asked about social housing, and we were told Ukrainians will not receive social housing and are not eligible.\"\n\nShe said Kateryna was studying at one of the best schools in Kyiv and has plans to study at Oxford or Cambridge, but fears moving again will set her back.\n\nKateryna travels an hour by bus to reach her comprehensive, but said she was welcomed by pupils and teachers and some fellow students are Ukrainian.\n\nThe family have lived together in a hotel room for seven months\n\n\"If I move schools again, I will lose my friends and I find it hard to meet new people, so that is stressful for me to think about,\" she said.\n\n\"Life is OK here. I usually put headphones on to do my homework because I have to study in the hotel room with Mum and grandmother here too,\" she said.\n\n\"I just miss my desk back home with all my books.\"\n\nNot having a permanent address, she said, causes other issues like not being able to get a mobile phone contract.\n\nOlena says not having a permanent address has disqualified them from getting a mobile phone contract\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"We are working closely with local authorities to ensure people can move into longer term accommodation and continue to feel supported.\n\n\"The partnership between Welsh government, local authorities and local housing associations,\" they said, \"continues to play a hugely successful role in safely welcoming Ukrainian people to Wales and assisting them move onto longer term accommodation\".\n\nSwansea council said: \"We have a team that is directly supporting Ukrainian refugees to move into more suitable accommodation.\n\n\"This includes securing private rented accommodation by negotiating on their behalf with registered landlords and where necessary assisting with appropriate support, including rent in advance and bonds.\n\n\"We have already successfully accommodated a number of Ukrainian families into the private rented sector.\"\n\nLooking to the future, Olena said she believes Ukraine will win the war \"very soon\".\n\n\"I really want to go home because we had a very good life in Ukraine which we never wanted to change,\" she added.\n\nKateryna said: \"I really want to return, to return to my school - my lyceum. I want to continue my studies and go to university and make Ukraine better every day\".", "Armed guards were stationed outside the BBC's office in Delhi\n\nBritish MPs have described searches of the BBC's offices in India by tax authorities as \"intimidation\".\n\nSome staff were subjected to overnight questioning when premises in Delhi and Mumbai were targeted last week.\n\nThe BBC, which is cooperating with the investigation, recently aired a documentary critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the UK.\n\nForeign Office minister David Rutley said the government was following the matter closely.\n\nLabour shadow minister Fabian Hamilton said \"criticism cannot be shut down unnecessarily\" in a democracy during a Commons debate on Tuesday.\n\nThe Labour MP expressed concern about the motive behind the India searches \"regardless of the official narrative as to why they took place\".\n\nHe continued: \"The BBC is a globally respected broadcaster rightly renowned for its high-quality, trustworthy reporting, it should be free to report and operate without intimidation.\"\n\nThe DUP's Jim Shannon described the searches as \"a deliberate act of intimidation following the release of an unflattering documentary about the country's leader\".\n\nHe called on the government to summon the Indian High Commission over the issue.\n\nConservative Sir Julian Lewis also described the searches as \"extremely worrying\".\n\nForeign Office minister David Rutley declined to comment on the matter directly but added: \"Respect for the rule of law is an essential element of an effective democracy, so too is an independent media and freedom of speech.\"\n\nThe India government has been strongly critical of the documentary about Narendra Modi\n\nThe documentary India: The Modi Question focused on the prime minister's role in anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002, when he was chief minister of the state.\n\nIndia's government has called it \"hostile propaganda\" and attempted to block it being aired domestically, including by detaining Delhi students at a screening.\n\nA BBC spokesperson said: \"The income tax authorities have left our offices in Delhi and Mumbai. We will continue to cooperate with the authorities and hope matters are resolved as soon as possible.\n\n\"We are supporting staff - some of whom have faced lengthy questioning or been required to stay overnight - and their welfare is our priority. Our output is back to normal and we remain committed to serving our audiences in India and beyond.\n\n\"The BBC is a trusted, independent media organisation and we stand by our colleagues and journalists who will continue to report without fear or favour.\"\n\nIndia Central Board of Direct Taxes claimed to have gathered \"crucial evidence\" and found \"several discrepancies and inconsistencies\" after the raid.\n\nIt said in a statement: \"The department gathered several evidences pertaining to the operation of the organisation which indicate that tax has not been paid on certain remittances which have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group.\"", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while out walking her dog on 27 January\n\nBroadcasting regulator Ofcom has said it was \"extremely concerned\" to hear complaints made about ITV and Sky News by the family of Nicola Bulley.\n\nOfcom said it had written to both \"to ask them to explain their actions\".\n\nThe family said the broadcasters contacted them despite their appeal for privacy on Sunday when a body - later confirmed to be that of the 45-year-old mother-of-two - was found in a river.\n\nITV said it will cooperate fully with Ofcom. Sky News has yet to comment.\n\nMs Bulley's family criticised parts of the media and some members of the public for their \"absolutely appalling\" conduct since she disappeared while walking her dog along the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on 27 January.\n\nIt is understood Sky News has received Ofcom's letter and will work closely with the watchdog to answer its questions.\n\nITV said: \"As a responsible broadcaster, we will cooperate fully and respond in detail to Ofcom's request for information.\n\n\"We express sincere condolences to the family at this difficult time and we will not be commenting further.\"\n\nITV News had believed Ms Bulley's family were willing to engage with the media, it is understood, but withdrew when a family member declined to speak to them and have not made contact since.\n\nFormer Sunday Telegraph editor Baroness Wheatcroft also responded to Ms Bulley's family condemnation of some media organisations, including for allegedly not respecting their privacy.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe crossbench peer said there was \"every reason for people to be deeply upset\".\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Baroness Wheatcroft said the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) must \"demonstrate it really has teeth\" and examine how Ms Bulley's disappearance was reported.\n\n\"I absolutely agree that the editors in this case do not seem to have behaved as they should and I think it's the opportunity for IPSO to demonstrate that it means business,\" she said.\n\n\"As a former newspaper editor I'd always hope that my reporters respected the people they're dealing with and in any situation like the Nicola Bulley case if the family said 'lay off' they would have absolutely run a mile.\"\n\nPeople had been behaving \"very badly, not least members of the public and social media\", she added.\n\n\"It's become the most extraordinary feeding frenzy.\"\n\nEvan Harris, former director of campaign group Hacked Off, said: \"There's one big difference between the people on social media, who I condemn, and newspapers.\n\n\"That's the editor. These purport to be an edited, curated product, therefore they can be regulated and they should be regulated. It's hard to regulate a bloke in his basement.\"\n\nNicola Bulley's family said broadcasters contacted them despite their appeal for privacy\n\nAt a meeting of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, SNP MP John Nicholson referred to a news report which he said told of people \"literally hunting for clues as tourists in the village\", and included references to people taking selfies on the bench near to where Ms Bulley disappeared.\n\nMr Nicholson suggested such people were \"enjoying the attention and feeling that they're at the centre of a drama\" which was \"deeply distressing for the family\".\n\nAreeq Chowdhury, head of policy, data and digital technologies at the Royal Society - a fellowship of some of the world's most eminent scientists - told the committee the media frenzy in Ms Bulley's case was \"disgusting\".\n\nHe said people taking selfies at the site where she went missing could have been seeking a sense of \"personal validation\" or hoping to make money from online clicks.\n\nIn a statement issued after police confirmed Ms Bulley's death on Monday, her family said her partner Paul Ansell had been falsely accused of wrongdoing and her friends and family \"misquoted and vilified\".\n\nThey said: \"We tried [on Sunday] to take in what we had been told in the day, only to have Sky News and ITV making contact with us directly when we expressly asked for privacy.\n\n\"They again have taken it upon themselves to run stories about us to sell papers and increase their own profiles.\n\n\"It is shameful they have acted in this way. Leave us alone now.\n\n\"Do the press and other media channels and so-called professionals not know when to stop? These are our lives and our children's lives.\"\n\nThe family said it was \"absolutely appalling and can't happen to another family\".\n\nFormer ITN editor-in-chief Stewart Purvis, who has also worked as a senior Ofcom executive, said: \"I think the whole issue of how you approach the families of those who have suffered, who are suffering from the disappearance and possibly the death of a loved one, is a continuing issue in the media.\"\n\nHe said the lack of a public response from ITV or Sky News suggested they were \"uncomfortable with the position they are in\".\n\n\"I'm sure they don't want to get into a public row with the family, but if they had a proper defence of this situation, I think we would have heard it from them by now, and I'm sure they're clustered in a group at the moment trying to work out what to say,\" he added.\n\nDominic Ponsford, editor-in-chief of media trade website Press Gazette, told BBC Radio 5 Live there had been research into media approaches to families following the death of a loved one.\n\n\"Families have said it's much worse if a terrible case like this ignored by the media,\" he said.\n\n\"Sometimes unexplained or abrupt deaths are ignored by the media for whatever reason and that can be very hard for a family.\n\n\"And also what can be very hard is when journalists don't approach them and try and get information from social media and get things wrong, which can be very, very hard as well on families.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Downing Street said it expected Lancashire Police to be \"transparent\" about its internal investigation into how it handled the case.\n\nThe force was criticised for revealing some aspects of her private life during the investigation.\n\nZoe Billingham, formerly Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, said people may be \"more fearful of stepping forward to report loved ones missing\" after the \"gross invasion of privacy\" suffered by Ms Bulley and her family.\n\nMs Billingham, who independently assessed police forces in her former role, said: \"It's definitely not my job to judge Lancashire Police, but what I would say is what we've seen over the last few days is a gross invasion of privacy.\n\n\"And my message to women out there would be that if your loved one, if your mum or your sister went missing, what we've seen over the last few days is not OK; it's not what we would ordinarily see in a missing persons investigation.\"\n\nAsked whether Rishi Sunak believed an independent, external review would be necessary, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: \"Our position is to allow the existing process to report back.\n\n\"We would expect them to detail their findings and then obviously we will consider the next steps as appropriate.\"\n\nThe investigation into Ms Bulley's disappearance has attracted widespread speculation, with internet conspiracy theories rife.\n\nMembers of the public even visited St Michael's on Wyre to conduct their own searches, some of which were posted on social media sites including TikTok.\n\nMr Ansell became the focus for criticism, with some falsely accusing him of involvement in her disappearance.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have reportedly dismissed claims they were planning to sue the creators of cartoon comedy South Park.\n\nAn episode titled The Worldwide Privacy Tour features two characters who bear a resemblance to Harry and Meghan, embarking on a tour across the world demanding their privacy.\n\nThe couple's spokesperson told People: \"It's all frankly nonsense. Totally baseless, boring reports.\"\n\nCentred around a red-headed character and his wife who relocate to South Park, Colorado, the \"Prince of Canada\" is seen promoting his book around the world.\n\nStan Marsh, one of the show's main characters, refers to the fictional couple as the \"dumb prince and his stupid wife\".\n\nCreated by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park first premiered on Comedy Central in 1997 and has often featured characters who bear a resemblance to famous faces.\n\nThe animated series begins every episode with a disclaimer saying that all its characters are fictional.\n\nHowever, while Harry and Meghan's names are never mentioned in the episode, the fictional Prince of Canada's book appears to be a reference to Prince Harry's memoir, Spare, which was released at the beginning of the year.\n\nSpare became the fastest-selling non-fiction book in the UK since records began in 1998. It sold 467,183 copies in its first week, according to official figures from Nielsen BookData.\n\nThe book outlines highly personal grievances and bitterness in the Royal Family, such as a claim he and Prince William urged their father not to marry Camilla.\n\nIt also provides behind-the-scenes details of the conflict he had with his brother, Prince William, the heir to the throne.\n\nHarry sat down with UK and US broadcasters to promote the book, with CBS describing their interview with the royal as \"explosive\".", "More than half of schools in England closed or partially closed on 1 February, the first National Education Union strike.\n\nTeacher strikes will go ahead next week unless there is \"real progress\" in talks over pay before Saturday, the National Education Union (NEU) says.\n\nThe NEU said it would recommend calling off strikes to its executive committee on Saturday - but only if a \"serious proposal\" had been made by ministers.\n\nThe government, meanwhile, said it would only hold formal talks if the strikes were called off.\n\nTeachers are due to walk out across the north of England next Tuesday.\n\nStrikes will follow in the Midlands and the NEU's eastern region on Wednesday, then in Wales and the south of England on Thursday.\n\nThe NEU's announcement, put in writing to ministers, comes after the government proposed a 3% pay rise for most teachers next year.\n\nMost state school teachers in England and Wales had a 5% rise in 2022.\n\nThe NEU, which is calling for an above-inflation pay rise, said the latest offer was not enough.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Department for Education (DfE) said it was willing to \"move into formal talks on pay, conditions and reform\" - but only if the NEU called off next week's strike action.\n\nIn response, Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, said ministers were \"requiring the NEU to give up the only thing that has brought government to the negotiating table, without any assurance that the negotiations are, indeed, serious and in good faith\".\n\n\"We are prepared, should the negotiations make real progress, to pause next week's strikes,\" they said.\n\n\"But the government has to show good faith. We ask ministers to drop its preconditions and to begin serious negotiations.\"\n\nThe NAHT school leaders' union called the government's announcement on Tuesday an \"olive branch with thorns attached\" and said it had \"no understanding of how to conduct good industrial relations\".\n\nMeanwhile, intensive talks are taking place on Wednesday between ministers and the Royal College of Nursing after the union halted next week's 48-hour strike in England.\n\nThe government has suggested an increase of 3.5% for all NHS staff.", "The barriers are already waiting for fans near Cardiff Central railway station\n\nThe cancellation of Wales' Six Nations match against England would be \"a catastrophe\" for businesses in Cardiff, a hospitality boss has said.\n\nWales players are threatening not to play on Saturday because of a contracts dispute with Welsh rugby chiefs.\n\nThey said their demands should be met by Wednesday to avoid strike action.\n\nNick Newman, chair of the Cardiff Licensees Forum, said the impact of the fixture's cancellation would be \"unimaginable\".\n\nMr Newman, who works for Croeso pub group and manages the Blue Bell pub in Cardiff, said: \"This would be nothing less than a catastrophe, coming after what we've already been through in the last few years.\"\n\nHe said while he hasn't worked out the exact potential losses, each business would likely make the equivalent of \"a very good week of sales\" on the matchday alone, \"not including business from night before and on Sunday, [from] people who are still around\".\n\nMr Newman said the threat of the match being called off was already causing stress to businesses trying to plan ahead.\n\n\"Planning for this match started 12 months ago, and all cellars in the city are full to bursting with beer, wines and spirits. On top of that add food, much of which is perishable,\" he said.\n\nSpeaking to Radio Wales Breakfast, he added that, despite an increase in \"rugby tourism\" recently, \"the visitors from over the border in England don't have to book so far in advance\".\n\n\"In the context of things, it's the tens of thousands of Welsh ticket holders that we would anticipate travelling to the city for the game that just won't come,\" he said.\n\nWales players gave bosses until Wednesday to resolve their contracts dispute\n\nMr Newman added that a cancellation would also cause \"reputational damage\" for Cardiff.\n\n\"When people are investing their hard-earned money into trips like this and it gets called off on the week of the game, you just think: 'What is going on?'\"\n\nIf players refuse to take the pitch it could be the end of Welsh rugby as we know it, says Hayley Lewis from Cardiff\n\n\"I think I'd be quite sad,\" said rugby fan Hayley Lewis from Cardiff. \"I think it will be very down for Welsh rugby and I think it could possibly be the end of Welsh rugby as we know it.\"\n\nShe said the players were in a \"difficult position\".\n\n\"I can see why they want to strike but I really hope the game goes ahead,\" she said. \"Fingers crossed they get talking today and get things resolved and [the game] will go ahead.\"\n\n\"They just got to treat [the players] better,\" said Neil Parker from Quakers Yard in Merthyr Tydfil. \"They want to know their future and you can't blame them.\n\n\"They work hard for what they're doing so they've got to have their future covered.\"\n\nFans look forward most to Wales playing England in Cardiff, says fan Neil Parker\n\nBut another fan called on the players to sort out the dispute off the pitch.\n\n\"They're going to spoil a lot of people's enjoyment on the weekend,\" said Barry, from Wenvoe, in the Vale of Glamorgan.\n\n\"Alright they want more money, everybody wants more money but do it in a different way. Don't spoil the match.\"\n\nFan will be \"not very happy\" and pubs will lose a lot of money, says Barry from Wenvoe, Vale of Glamorgan\n\nGwennan, from Cardiff, said she trusted the players had \"good reasons\" to be in dispute.\n\n\"I know how important it is for them and that they wouldn't let everybody down unless there's a very good reason,\" she said.\n\nIt would be \"disappointing\" if the match does not go ahead says Gwennan from Cardiff, who hopes it could be rescheduled\n\n\"I think we'd survive,\" she said. \"Everybody would understand if the players felt that passionate about it, then we'll go with what they think.\n\n\"I'm sure they can reschedule it for another time.\"\n\nKaren Matthews, general manager of the Holiday Inn Express and Staybridge Suites hotels in Cardiff Bay, added: \"It's an absolute concern for the industry.\n\n\"We are all planning for it to be a strong weekend, so it's really difficult for us to make sure we have the staffing, and contacting the supply chain about the bar stock, all of that this late in the day.\n\n\"It would be a very big hit that we would have to take, for the hotels I have here but also for others that are closer to the stadium.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby\n\nThe decision on whether Wales' Six Nations match against England goes ahead has reached the deadline day of 22 February set by Welsh players.\n\nSaturday's game is in doubt with Wales players threatening not to play because of a dispute with Welsh rugby bosses over contracts.\n\nWales head coach Warren Gatland had said he was hopeful the matter would be resolved on Tuesday despite delaying naming his team.\n\nA resolution has yet to materialise.\n\nThis takes matters into the deadline day the Wales players have set of Wednesday for the issues to be resolved as talks continue.\n\nGatland revealed a training session on Tuesday afternoon had been cancelled so players could continue negotiations and said the threat from the national squad not to play against England was genuine.\n\nThere are meetings on Wednesday between the players and the Professional Rugby Board (PRB), which runs the professional game in Wales and is made up of representatives from the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and four regions - Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets.\n\nThe PRB met in the morning and addressed Wales' professional players in the afternoon.\n\nThe players want three issues resolved before they agree to take the field at Principality Stadium for a match worth close to £10m for Welsh rugby.\n• None The removal of the 60-cap selection rule in Wales whereby a player plying his trade outside the country cannot be picked unless he has made at least that number of Test appearances\n• None The removal of Welsh rugby bosses' demand that players accept 80% in set wages, with 20% available in bonuses\n\nPRB chair Malcolm Wall has said the 60-cap rule is under review and it is believed they are considering bringing the requirement down to between 25 and 40 caps.\n\nHowever, Wall stated his organisation was intent on pressing ahead with the fixed/variable contracts which mean players are only guaranteed 80% of salaries.\n\nIt is understood the PRB are considering a concession on this issue as they weigh up a renegotiation or a removal.\n\nWall also said the PRB will invite the WRPA to be represented at meetings and that an official position on the board would have to be formalised.\n\nGatland, who said he was unaware of the severity of the issue when he decided to return to Wales after predecessor Wayne Pivac's departure in December 2022, says his players will be in the right frame of mind to play if the match goes ahead.\n\n\"I don't think there is going to be any lack of motivation for a player playing against England,\" he said.\n\n\"If things are resolved they will be completely focused on the game.\"\n• None Go Hard or Go Home:\n• None Why did Michaella McCollum try to smuggle £1.5m of cocaine?", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nLiverpool have been left with a mountainous task to keep their Champions League ambitions alive after they were torn apart by ruthless Real Madrid at Anfield.\n\nHolders Real - who beat Liverpool in last season's final in Paris - became the first side to score five at Anfield in Europe despite going two goals down early on as Liverpool made a dream start to this last-16 tie.\n\nDarwin Nunez's brilliant flick put Liverpool ahead after only four minutes before Mohamed Salah cashed in on Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois' poor clearance to double their advantage 10 minutes later.\n\nLiverpool's supporters, who had vented their fury at being wrongly blamed for the chaos at last season's final by holding up a flag emblazoned with \"Uefa Liars\" and loudly jeering the Champions League anthem, were soon to have their thunderous celebrations silenced in emphatic fashion.\n\nVinicius Junior's brilliant 21st-minute strike pulled a goal back before Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson followed Courtois' lead by hacking a clearance straight at the Brazilian, holding his head in anguish as the ball looped behind him into the net in front of a disbelieving Kop.\n\nIt changed the whole emphasis of the contest, Real going ahead two minutes after the break when Eder Militao headed in Luka Modric's free-kick.\n\nReal then rammed home their superiority as Karim Benzema's shot deflected in off Joe Gomez, the French striker then coolly adding a fifth after more brilliant work by the ageless Modric.\n\nLiverpool have pulled off spectacular comebacks before, but it would be truly extraordinary if they turned this one around at the Bernabeu.\n• None 'We want this trophy' - Real 'favourites' for glory\n• None Is there any hope for second leg? Send us your views on Liverpool's display\n• None How the game at Anfield unfolded\n\nLiverpool made the start of their dreams as they rattled Real with their high-tempo play, getting the two goals they thought would provide the platform for a night of glory.\n\nInstead, Anfield was reduced to near silence by the end as Jurgen Klopp's side were reduced to chasing shadows in the face of Real's imperious style and lethal threat in front of goal.\n\nLiverpool did not help their cause with mistakes and dreadful defending, offering up invitations to a side of vast experience and world-class quality that is dangerous enough without being delivered gifts.\n\nAlisson was guilty of an uncharacteristic error that saw Real draw level and you could visibly see the belief draining out of the side that has struck fear into opponents so many times at Anfield.\n\nMilitao's routine header from a free-kick was also helped by poor marking while the unhappy Gomez was unfortunate to deflect in Benzema's first.\n\nThe danger then was that Liverpool would concede even more as they barely raised a threat after the break.\n\nKlopp will no doubt invoke the spirit of Barcelona in the 2019 Champions League semi-final - when Liverpool overcame a 3-0 first-leg deficit to advance with a stunning 4-0 win at Anfield - but this is not the same Liverpool, Real are not as flimsy as the Catalans and this time the second leg is in Spain.\n\nIf Liverpool somehow pull this one off, it would be one of the most spectacular feats in their history.\n\nReal's run to winning the Champions League last season was full of moments when they looked to be in genuine strife, first against Chelsea then especially against Manchester City in the semi-final.\n\nAnd yet, under the calm guidance and wisdom the great coach Carlo Ancelotti, Real held their nerve on those occasions to win, eventually lifting the trophy against the opponents they blew away at Anfield on Tuesday.\n\nVinicius was the catalyst in Paris and turned the game here, firing a shot cross past Alisson before closing down the keeper for Real's second.\n\nAfter that, Real were truly outstanding as they controlled possession, kept Liverpool at arm's length with ease and put away those three second-half goals that put them in complete command of this tie.\n\nInspired by the two great veterans Modric and Benzema, Real have an iron belief that they will prevail and so it proved again.\n\nMany sides would have subsided after going two goals down so soon but Real simply kept playing, confident their chances would come, and they did.\n\nAncelotti is too experienced to allow any complacency but he will know this is a truly outstanding result for any side to achieve at Anfield, even the Champions League holders.\n• None James Milner (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of Liverpool is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Liverpool - go straight to all the best content", "Nicola Bulley was last seen during a riverside walk\n\nAn investigation has been launched into a police visit to Nicola Bulley's home weeks before her disappearance.\n\nThe 45-year-old was the focus of a huge missing person search before she was found in the River Wyre, a mile from when she was last seen on 27 January.\n\nLancashire Police previously said officers were called to a \"concern for welfare report\" at her home on 10 January.\n\nAn inquest into Ms Bulley's death was earlier opened and adjourned.\n\nA spokesman for the Independent Office for Police Conduct said: \"Following a referral by Lancashire Constabulary on Thursday, we have started an independent investigation regarding contact the force had with Nicola Bulley on 10 January.\n\nHe said the investigation was \"in its very early stages\".\n\nThe inquest hearing at Preston Coroner's Court revealed the mother-of-two had been identified by dental records.\n\nHer family was informed of the date of the inquest but they had chosen not to attend, coroner Dr James Adeley said.\n\nHe said they had done so for \"reasons I can quite understand\".\n\nDr Adeley said he had contacted surgeon Andrew Edwards to ask him to compare dental records obtained by police from the Great Eccleston dental surgery.\n\nHe said the surgeon had examined the body and found restorative work carried out was identical.\n\n\"I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities, and more, that positive identification has been made,\" the coroner said.\n\nHe said remaining evidence gathered by police and the post-mortem examination required \"further evaluation\" and a full inquest - which aims to find out the circumstances surrounding her death including how she died - was likely to be held in June, once availability of a pathologist had been checked.\n\nFlowers and ribbons have been left paying tribute to the mother-of-two\n\nHe said: \"This will allow time to collate the facts of the case and allow the experts involved to finalise the findings from investigations that still need to be undertaken.\"\n\nThe hearing was attended by six members of the press and lasted about five minutes.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her dog by the river after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.\n\nHer dog was found shortly afterwards along with her phone - still connected to a work conference call - on a bench by a steep riverbank.\n\nA major search operation got under way but it was 23 days before her body was found in the river.\n\nIn a tribute released on Monday, Ms Bulley's family described her as \"the centre of our world\" and \"the one who made our lives so special\".\n\n\"We will never forget Nikki, how could we,\" they said.\n\nPolice and sections of the media have been criticised for their conduct during the search for Ms Bulley.\n\nBroadcasting regulator Ofcom said it was \"extremely concerned\" to hear complaints made about ITV and Sky News by Ms Bulley's family and said it had written to both \"to ask them to explain their actions\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Last updated on .From the section Sport\n\nA coalition of almost 200 sports governing bodies, health organisations and top athletes has written to UK prime minister Rishi Sunak warning of the \"final straw\" for many gyms, pools and clubs because of the \"ongoing energy crisis\".\n\nThe group makes an \"urgent plea\" for the government to \"think again and provide the necessary support to the sport, recreation and physical activity sector\".\n\nRebecca Adlington, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Daley Thompson and Paralympians David Weir, Jonnie Peacock and Ellie Robinson are among a host of past and present athletes to have signed.\n\nThe Rugby Football Union (RFU), England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), British Cycling, Swim England and the British Paralympic Association are other signatories representing many sports bodies across the UK.\n\nThe government is scaling back its energy support scheme from April with the leisure sector losing out. While libraries, museums and galleries will be eligible for extra help, pools and leisure centres will not be protected.\n\nThe coalition says this will lead to \"an escalation of service reductions and closures at swimming pools, gyms, leisure centres, community facilities and clubs across the UK\", and \"represents a cliff edge for these vital but energy-intensive services\".\n\nFigures compiled by trade body UK Active show that in the past year 29 leisure centres, pools or gyms have closed temporarily or permanently because of rising energy prices.\n\nMore than 300 others have mitigated against higher bills, including by reducing their hours, increasing their fees or lowering pool temperatures.\n\nThe group - which also includes the Youth Sport Trust, Active Partnerships and the Local Government Association, asks the prime minister to reclassify swimming pools as energy intensive so they have access to a higher level of discount on prices.\n\nIt also wants ministers to set out what \"tangible support\" it will provide to the wider sector to help navigate the energy crisis, warning the current approach will have \"incredibly damaging consequences for our national health and prosperity\".\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We know our grassroots sports facilities are contending with increases in running costs.\n\n\"We provided an £18bn package of support for organisations including clubs, pools, leisure centres, schools, charities and businesses through the winter.\n\n\"We made £1bn available to ensure the survival of sports and leisure sectors during the pandemic, giving councils an additional £3.7bn to deliver key services such as leisure centres and swimming pools, and we are investing £300m to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities across the UK.\"\n• None Go Hard or Go Home:\n• None Why did Michaella McCollum try to smuggle £1.5m of cocaine?", "A Conservative MP's comments that nurses using food banks were just not budgeting properly have been called \"heartless\" by a union.\n\nSimon Clarke told BBC Radio Tees nurses on an \"average salary of £35,000 a year\" should not rely on charity.\n\nThe Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP was talking after nurses began their latest two-day strike.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said his remarks were \"disgusting, heartless and dangerously out of touch\".\n\nMr Clarke said an average nursing salary of £35,000 was not \"a salary on which you want to be relying on a food bank\"\n\nMr Clarke earlier told BBC Radio Tees: \"If you are using food banks and your average salary is £35,000 a year then something is wrong with your budgeting because £35,000 is not a salary on which you want to be relying on a food bank.\n\n\"I think we just need to be clear on this, this debate has got out of hand - the average nurse's salary is £35,000 and senior nurses earn up to about £47,000.\"\n\nHe said nurses needed \"to take responsibility in their lives\".\n\nNurses were walking out on Wednesday and Thursday, following two strike days before Christmas.\n\nOn Tuesday the RCN announced they would also strike on 6 and 7 February.\n\nPat Cullen, the RCN's general secretary, said she had met staff \"from every corner of the nation\" who were frightened about \"not being able to meet their bills\".\n\n\"To criticise anybody using a food bank is disgusting, heartless and dangerously out of touch,\" she said.\n\n\"Sky-high inflation means some nursing staff are living on a financial knife-edge and even their own employer, NHS trusts across the country, are being forced to open food banks to feed their staff.\n\n\"When nurses are having to pay hundreds of pounds a month just to get to work, can't afford to put food on the table, and are forced to cut back on shifts because they can't afford ever-increasing childcare costs, something is seriously wrong.\n\nNurse Elizabeth Thomas, who was on the picket line in Durham on Wednesday, said Mr Clarke's comments were out of touch\n\nElizabeth Thomas, a nurse joining her colleagues on the picket line outside the University Hospital of North Durham, said Mr Clarke was out of touch, adding he was \"not actively listening to what professionals are saying and does not have a grip on the reality of staffing and pay across the aboard\".\n\nVivienne Dove, an RCN senior regional officer, added her colleagues did not get paid £35,000 as band 5 nurses.\n\nA starting salary for a band 5 nurse, which Ms Dove said made up \"the bulk of the workforce in the community and on hospital wards\", is just over £27,000 a year while nurses with four years' experience could earn close to £33,000.\n\nThe MP, whose constituency covers Middlesbrough's James Cook University Hospital, said he saluted the \"professionalism and dedication of all those who work to provide care\" but could not back the pay demands while the UK had high rates of inflation.\n\nThe union has asked for pay rises of 5% above the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rate of inflation, which currently stands at 14%.\n\nThe governments in England and Wales have given an average of 4.75% to NHS staff, with everyone guaranteed at least £1,400.\n\n\"My message is the public recognises the immense contribution our NHS makes to our society,\" Mr Clarke said.\n\n\"But a 19% pay deal is irresponsible, totally unaffordable for this country which cannot do this - and it would worsen our inflation very dramatically were we to give way on this.\n\n\"I would ask them to accept what I think is a responsible pay deal and I would ask them to get back to treating patients.\"\n\nMs Cullen said the issue was not just about pay, \"it's about being able to recruit and retain enough nurses to safely care for our country\".\n\n\"At the moment nursing staff are leaving in their droves because they can get paid the same, or marginally less, to work a job where they're not responsible for people's lives in a crumbling NHS - and that doesn't take everything they have, emotionally and psychologically.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.", "In 2020, data showed black and Asian people were statistically more likely to die as result of Covid-19 than white people\n\nPeople from ethnic minority backgrounds are no longer significantly more likely to die of Covid-19, new Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows.\n\nAnalysts looked at mortality rates for different ethnic communities between January and November 2022, when Omicron was the dominant Covid variant.\n\nEarly in the pandemic, deaths involving coronavirus were higher among black and Asian people than white people.\n\nThe highest risk was among Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean and Pakistani groups.\n\nCovid mortality rates for all ethnic minorities decreased last year. The latest data shows there is no significant statistical difference between the number of Covid deaths among ethnic minorities and the white population.\n\nThe ONS also said that \"all cause\" mortality rates - measuring how likely people are to die of any cause, including Covid-19 - have returned to pre-pandemic patterns.\n\nThe reasons for this change are complex, and experts say there are \"various factors\" to consider.\n\nDr Veena Raleigh, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at The King's Fund, told the BBC that at the start of the pandemic \"we knew very little about [Covid-19], how it transmitted, and how to mitigate its spread and impact\".\n\n\"The virus had its greatest impact on people who were most vulnerable or exposed to the infection - that was older people and people working in frontline jobs, key workers in the NHS, public transport etc. And of course, ethnic minorities are disproportionately working in those roles,\" she said.\n\n\"Initially the virus had a terrible impact in terms of mortality. But over time, we learned more about how this virus transmits. For example, various social measures to control the spread of infection were introduced, like mask-wearing and social distancing. So that helped to moderate ethnic differences.\n\n\"And then, of course, the vaccination programme came in. And although vaccination rates are lower in some ethnic minority groups, nonetheless, a significant proportion of the population is vaccinated - or has some immunity because they've been exposed to the virus.\n\n\"All of these factors have contributed to reducing ethnic differences in Covid-19 mortality over time.\"\n\nMortality rates are also lower in general with Omicron, in contrast to other variants.\n\nA previous study from the ONS, published in the British Medical Journal last June, compared deaths from Omicron BA.1 with another variant, Delta.\n\nIt found that the risk of dying from Covid-19 was 66% lower for those who contracted Omicron than it was for patients who contracted Delta.\n\nA spokesperson for the think tank Runnymede told the BBC: \"Covid-19 was not just a health crisis; it was also a social and economic crisis.\n\n\"Unequal health outcomes are not confined to Covid-19, and longstanding racial and economic inequality is at the heart of understanding the pandemic.\n\n\"It is precisely because these inequalities are so systemic and interlinked that, when crisis hit, certain communities were impacted first, the hardest and in multiple ways.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA large metal sphere that washed up on a shore in Japan has perplexed locals and set off a flurry of speculation.\n\nAuthorities can't say what it is yet - not even the police or bomb squad sent to investigate.\n\nBut what is known is that it's hollow - and not a threat. Many suspect it to be a type of buoy.\n\nThe find in coastal city Hamamatsu has been variously dubbed \"Godzilla egg\", \"mooring buoy\" and \"from outer space\" by fascinated locals.\n\nJapanese broadcaster NHK showed footage of two officials on Enshuhama Beach looking at the rusty, metal sphere that appeared about 1.5m (4.9ft) wide.\n\nIt had been found by a local who alerted police after noticing the unusual object on the shore.\n\nAuthorities cordoned off the area and conducted X-ray exams which did not reveal much more - other than confirming the object was safe.\n\nA runner on the beach told local media he was surprised by the commotion, as the ball had been there for some time. \"I tried to push it but it wouldn't budge,\" NHK reported him saying.\n\nLocal authorities have said the object will be removed soon.\n\nThis kind of find might not normally raise suspicion - but it comes amid general nervousness over unidentified objects since the US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month.\n\nJapan separately expressed concern to China on Wednesday about suspected surveillance balloons spotted over its skies at least three times since 2019 - an allegation it first made last week. Beijing denies claims of espionage.\n\nThe two countries' defence ministers met on Wednesday, in the first senior bilateral security dialogue in four years. Both sides agreed to work toward launching a communications hotline this spring.\n• None The China factor at the heart of Quad summit", "The NASUWT says it wants a pay offer \"which addresses seriously the real-terms erosion of teachers' salaries since 2010\"\n\nA teaching union has rejected a revised pay offer put forward by the Welsh government.\n\nThe head of the NASUWT union said the rejection in a \"consultative survey\" of members reflects the \"depth of anger\" among teachers.\n\n\"The revised offer represents a further real terms pay cut for teachers,\" said Dr Patrick Roach.\n\nThe Welsh government has said it believes the offer it has put forward is a \"strong one\".\n\nPreviously, the union balloted members, but the number who voted did not cross the turnout threshold to strike.\n\nA total of 69% of respondents to the union survey said they wished to reject the offer, and a further 66% also said they felt the revised offer was unfair in the current circumstances.\n\n\"We are also concerned about the lack of detail from the Welsh government to a number of its proposals, and it is disappointing that we are yet to receive satisfactory answers to a number of questions we have raised,\" said Mr Roach.\n\n\"The NASUWT is committed to a further industrial action ballot of members in Wales unless an improved offer is forthcoming.\"\n\nTeachers and school heads were made an improved offer by the Welsh government earlier in February. Ministers offered an extra 1.5% pay rise, plus 1.5% as a one-off payment, on top of the earlier 5%.\n\nThe Welsh government spokesman said at the time of that offer that it included \"significant non-pay commitments relating to workload in the short, medium and long term\".\n\nNeil Butler, the NASUWT national official for Wales, said: \"It is clear that members support our view that a competitive and just pay award for teachers which will support recruitment and retention into the profession is more than necessary, it is essential.\n\n\"The Welsh government must come forward with a further pay offer which addresses seriously the real-terms erosion of teachers' salaries since 2010 which has happened on their watch.\"\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"Everyone recognises the excellent work of our workforce, but they also recognise the challenging financial constraints we are operating in.\n\n\"We believe an offer that is the equivalent of an 8% pay rise, with 6.5% consolidated, is a strong one in the context of a reducing Welsh government budget.\n\n\"For teachers to be able to benefit from an additional backdated pay rise for 2022-23, an agreement will be needed by mid-March.\"", "Unions have warned on the future of UK steelmaking after British Steel announced it will shut its coking ovens in Scunthorpe and cut up to 260 jobs.\n\nThe Chinese-owned firm blamed an \"unprecedented\" rise in energy costs and demands to be greener.\n\nThe biggest steelworkers' union said the cuts could have a \"catastrophic impact\" on steel production in the UK.\n\nCoking ovens turn coal into coke which burns at the higher temperature needed for furnaces used in steel production.\n\nThe closure of the ovens at its Scunthorpe headquarters, which means British Steel will import coke, has been seen as a concerning indicator about the health and future of the UK steel industry.\n\nThe government said the decision by British Steel was \"very disappointing\" while negotiations were ongoing with the sector over funding support.\n\nBritish Steel currently employs around 4,200 workers in the UK and is owned by Chinese company Jingye.\n\nMaking steel requires a lot of energy, and with prices soaring in recent months, the costs of making the metal have also gone up.\n\nThe company said its energy bills and carbon-offsetting costs increased by £190m last year and \"decisive action\" was needed.\n\nIt added that its coke ovens were \"reaching the end of their operational life\" and that closing them would \"bring environmental benefits including reductions in emissions to air and water\".\n\nAlun Davies, national officer of the Community Trade Union, which represents the majority of steelworkers, said the union would \"not accept redundancies\" and added \"nothing is off the table when it comes to protecting our members' jobs\".\n\n\"British Steel's plan to close the coke ovens could have a catastrophic impact on jobs and steel production at Scunthorpe and the UK as a whole,\" he added.\n\nMr Davies claimed closing the ovens would see the company \"depending on unreliable imported coke\" wand would \"risk our sovereign capability to produce steel in the UK\".\n\nThe Unite union, which also represents steelworkers, accused Jingye of reneging on investment promises and said the UK government had \"no serious plan for the industry\".\n\nGeneral secretary Sharon Graham added that she was yet to see \"any financial justification for the closure of the coking ovens\".\n\nBut British Steel chief executive Xifeng Han said steelmaking in the UK was \"uncompetitive\" when compared to other international markets.\n\n\"Our energy costs, carbon costs and labour costs are some of the highest across the world, which are factors that we cannot influence directly,\" he said.\n\nMr Han said the plan was to \"streamline\" the business while keeping \"the period of uncertainty for our colleagues as short as we can\".\n\nHe said the company was undergoing its biggest transformation in its 130-year history, \"to make sure we can deliver the steel Britain requires\".\n\nThe government has been holding negotiations with British Steel's owners over a £300m support package, along with others in the industry.\n\nThe government said it would continue to work with British Steel to find a \"solution for the business and the wider sector, which plays a vital role in the UK economy\".\n\nJingye has invested £330m in British Steel since it bought the business in 2020. Mr Han said the owners were \"committed\" to the company for the long term, but warned the transition to greener forms of energy to make steel was a \"major challenge\".\n\nGovernment offers to the firm have so far been rejected on the basis they come with too many strings attached, including job guarantees for 10 years, union sources have previously told the BBC.\n\nThe offers are also too small to help with the estimated £2bn cost of transitioning from blast furnaces to more energy efficient electric arc furnaces, they said.\n\nJonathan Reynolds, Labour's Shadow Business Secretary, said workers needed \"a government on their side securing the bright future our steel sector could have\".", "Shaye Groves used information from true crime documentaries to plan her alibi\n\nA serial killer-obsessed woman who stabbed her on-off boyfriend to death with a dagger has been jailed for life.\n\nShaye Groves slit Frankie Fitzgerald's throat before plunging the blade into his chest 17 times at her home in Havant, Hampshire, in July 2022.\n\nThe 27-year-old, who was found guilty of murder after a trial, used information from true crime documentaries to plan her alibi.\n\nShe was jailed for a minimum of 23 years at Winchester Crown Court.\n\nFrankie Fitzgerald died at Shaye Groves' home in Havant in July 2022\n\nDuring her trial it was heard the pair shared a mutual interest in BDSM and a camera was set up in Groves' bedroom to record them having sex.\n\nPolice found framed pictures of notorious killers such as Myra Hindley and Peter Sutcliffe on her walls and books about criminals, including the notorious prisoner Charles Bronson.\n\nShe had knives, Viking axes and kept a Celtic dagger, used to kill Mr Fitzgerald, under her pillow or close to her bed.\n\nMr Fitzgerald, 25, who had two children, died at Groves' home in the early hours of 17July 2022.\n\nProsecutors said she acted out of jealousy and stabbed Mr Fitzgerald as he slept after she discovered he had been messaging who she mistakenly thought was a 13-year-old girl on social media.\n\nThe individual turned out to be 17, and had been blocked by Mr Fitzgerald.\n\nShaye Groves decorated her bedroom with portraits of notorious murderers and violent criminals\n\nSteven Perian KC, prosecuting, said Groves used knowledge gained from documentaries to portray herself to a friend as a victim of sexual violence.\n\nShe sent a friend videos of the pair having sex, edited to appear as rape - but the prosecution said the original footage showed it was actually consensual.\n\nMr Perian added: \"The Crown say that the defendant - by reading about and watching murder documentaries - she was familiar with crime scenes, how to create a false narrative and how to set up a false alibi.\"\n\nIn a victim impact statement read in court, Mr Fitzgerald's mother Rosanne described him as \"the shining light - a kind and beautiful person\".\n\nHis father Barry's statement spoke of the family being \"broken\" by his killing.\n\n\"He had his life in front of him - this was snatched away. I'm not sure we'll ever get over this.\"\n\nPassing sentence, judge The Hon Mr Justice Kerr said Groves was a \"manipulative, possessive and jealous woman\".\n\nHe said she and Mr Fitzgerald's relationship had a \"dangerous dynamic\" and was \"marked by rough sex, cocaine and alcohol\".\n\n\"You lost your temper and acted upon impulse. You loved the man you killed and killed the man you loved,\" he added.\n\nFollowing the sentencing, Det Ch Insp Nicola Burton said Mr Fitzgerald had died in a \"shocking and sustained attack\".\n\n\"As always, our thoughts first and foremost remain with Frankie's family, friends and loved ones.\n\n\"I would like to praise their courage and hope that this sentence helps them to begin to move forward, despite knowing that nothing can fill the void left in their family by the loss of Frankie.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The country is no stranger to chronic food shortages\n\nThe country is no stranger to chronic food shortages, but border controls, poor weather and sanctions have worsened the situation in recent years.\n\nTop officials are expected to meet at the end of February to discuss a \"fundamental change\" to agriculture policy, state media has said.\n\nThis is a \"very important and urgent task\" amid \"pressing\" farming issues, news aggregator KCNA Watch reported.\n\nThe news comes as Pyongyang continues its displays of military might.\n\nOne state newspaper has likened using foreign aid to \"poisoned candy\". On Wednesday, Rondong Sinmun wrote that \"imperialists\" used aid as a \"trap to plunder and subjugate\" recipient countries.\n\nSouth Korea's unification ministry has reportedly also sounded the alarm on the food shortages and asked the World Food Programme (WFP) for help.\n\nSatellite imagery from South Korean authorities shows that the North produced 180,000 tonnes less food in 2022 than in 2021.\n\nIn June, the WFP raised concerns that extreme weather conditions like drought and flooding could reduce production of both winter and spring crops. State media also reported late last year that the country was experiencing its \"second worst\" drought on record.\n\nAs forecasted, food prices have risen this year amid poor harvests and people have been turning to inexpensive alternatives, said Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein, who works with North Korea-centred publication 38North.org.\n\nThe price of corn has risen 20% at the start of 2023, with growing demand for the less preferred - compared to rice - but more affordable staple, reported Rimjin-gang, a North Korean magazine based in Japan.\n\n\"If people are buying more corn it means food overall is getting more expensive, and staple foods like rice in particular,\" Mr Silberstein said. A kilogram of the crop now costs about 3,400 North Korean won (£3.10; $3.80).\n\nNorth Korea is ranked one of the poorest countries in the world. Recent estimates are scarce, but CIA World Factbook estimates its gross domestic product per capita to be around $1,700 in 2015.\n\nThat said, the actual situation and numbers are unclear, given North Korea's opaque economy.\n\n\"Due to North Korea's strict Covid border measures on goods and people, there's no way for any outsiders to go into the country and check for themselves what the situation is,\" said James Fretwell, an analyst at NK News.\n\nPeople take part in an annual rice planting event in Nampho City in Chongsan-ri, near Nampho on May 12, 2019\n\nA file photo shows North Koreans taking part in an annual rice planting event in Nampho city in 2019\n\nThese measures have also made it difficult for organisations outside North Korea to send help in times of crisis, he added.\n\nNorth Korea has also strictly restricted cross-border trade and traffic since January 2020.\n\nSokeel Park, South Korea country director in non-profit Liberty in North Korea (Link), described the regime's response to the pandemic as \"extreme and paranoid\".\n\nMr Park, whose organisation helps resettle North Korean refugees in South Korea or the US, said the supply of basic necessities in the North has been dwindling since the start of the pandemic. Link has heard multiple credible reports of people starving to death, Mr Park said.\n\nThe country has also seen a significant decline in humanitarian aid from the international community - the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said North Korea received $2.3m (£1.9m) from international organisations and other agencies last year, down from $14m in 2021.\n\nWhile this may be a result of prolonged border closures, some relief workers told the BBC that international sanctions, which have tightened in response to North Korea's military provocations, have also hindered the delivery of humanitarian supplies.\n\nStill, there are some signs that cross-border economic activity is starting again. Nikkei Asia reported last week that some truck travel with China, which accounts for over 90% of North Korea's trade, has resumed.\n\nBut that does not necessarily mean standards of living will improve for ordinary North Koreans.\n\nMuch of North Korea's spending goes on the military - its latest missile launchers were displayed earlier in February\n\nMuch of North Korea's spending goes on the military - its latest missile launchers were displayed earlier in February\n\nMr Park said the regime has focused its resources on its missile prowess and propaganda, at high social costs. Pyongyang fired a record number of ballistic missiles last year - more than 70, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, which can potentially reach the US mainland. Early this month, it showed off its largest-ever display of ICBMs at a military parade.\n\n\"The regime has acknowledged how hard things are for ordinary North Korean people, but continues to prioritise propaganda and pageantry for the Kim family, missile launches, and strict controls [on] the population,\" Mr Park added.\n\nExperts worry that the situation on the ground will deteriorate further, leading to a famine as devastating as the one the country experienced in the mid-to-late 1990s, often known in official documents as the \"Arduous March\". Estimates put the number of deaths between 600,000 to a million.\n\n\"We don't seem to be near the levels of the 1990s famine,\" Mr Silberstein said. \"But margins are razor thin. So even a slightly lessened supply of food could potentially have dire consequences.\"", "John Swinney said his budget provided relief for those in most need\n\nMSPs have voted to approve the Scottish government's budget for the coming financial year.\n\nThe plans include an income tax rise for everyone in Scotland earning more than £43,662.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said his 2023/24 proposals would help people who had been worst affected by the cost of living crisis.\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives said the SNP was widening the tax differentials with the rest of the UK.\n\nMSPs voted by 68 to 57 to pass the budget bill.\n\nDuring a debate in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Swinney - who is standing in for Finance Secretary Kate Forbes - also announced an extra £100m in funding for Scottish councils.\n\nThis came after extra funding was received from the UK government.\n\nMr Swinney said there would be a 3% real-terms increase in council funding.\n\nThe extra £100m for local authorities is in addition to last week's announcement of £123m to support a new pay offer for teachers, which has been rejected by the EIS union.\n\nMr Swinney said the new cash was to fund pay rises for non-teaching staff, and he hoped a \"swift agreement\" could be reached in those pay negotiations.\n\nHe also said there would be an extra £6.6m for Creative Scotland, which had faced using its reserves to maintain the current funding agreements for the arts in the coming year.\n\nCreative Scotland said it welcomed the decision to reverse the proposed reduction in its funding.\n\nUnder the budget, Scotland's income tax changes will see both the higher and top rates increased by 1p, rising to 42p and 47p in the pound respectively.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nWhile the threshold for the 42p tax rate will be frozen, the Scottish government is proposing those earning £125,140 a year or more will pay the very top rate of income tax.\n\nThe lowering of the top rate tax threshold from £150,000 has already been announced for other parts of the UK by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.\n\nIncome tax rates in Scotland, as well as several other taxes, are set by the Scottish government rather than at Westminster.\n\nThe increases are a significant departure from the SNP's manifesto aim not to alter income tax rates for the duration of this parliament.\n\nMr Swinney previously said that the changes will raise a total of £553m next year when taken alongside changes to other taxes including Land and Buildings Transaction Tax - the Scottish equivalent of stamp duty.\n\nAhead of the vote Mr Swinney highlighted an increase in the Scottish Child Payment and a £5.2bn investment in Social Security, with benefits due to rise by 10.1% from April.\n\nThe chancellor had already confirmed that benefits and pensions paid by the UK government would also rise by that figure.\n\nThe deputy first minister also said his income tax proposals would result in record funding of more than £19bn for health and social care.\n\nMr Swinney added: \"The budget rejects austerity and provides relief for those in most need.\n\n\"It invests in transforming the economy and creating sustainable, high quality jobs which pay a fair wage, while confirming our commitment to future generations by continuing the drive towards net zero.\"\n\nHealth and social care is one of the biggest challenges facing the Scottish government\n\nThe Scottish Greens, who are in government with the SNP at Holyrood, said the budget \"puts tackling child poverty and helping the most vulnerable at its heart\".\n\nThe party's finance spokesman Ross Greer added that it was \"the greenest budget in the history of the Scottish parliament\".\n\nBut the Scottish Conservatives said the SNP was taxing middle and higher earners much more.\n\nThe party's finance spokeswoman Liz Smith said: \"Scots are cumulatively paying more than £1bn extra a year in tax, yet because of slower growth this is raising just £325m extra for public services.\n\n\"John Swinney is in danger of creating substantial disincentives to living and working in Scotland.\n\n\"Instead of seeing any benefits for stumping up more cash to the taxman, all Scots see is public service cuts - in health, in education, in transport, housing, the creative arts and, of course, in local government.\"\n\nLabour's Daniel Johnson said the SNP's new leader would inevitably make changes to the budget.\n\n\"This is not a budget that will last. I don't see any of the leadership candidates, once elected, leaving the budget well alone,\" he said.\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the budget was \"just not good enough\".\n\nCreative Scotland said it welcomed the decision to reverse plans to cut its budget.\n\nThe Holyrood budget set out in draft on December 15 was a cold blast of bleak midwinter. At the same time, we were told that the economy was heading into an unusually long downturn.\n\nThe final stage of the legislative process in February comes with some hopes that the economic downturn will not be as harsh as previously forecast. And if you think next year's budget looks very difficult, they look a lot worse for the years that follow.\n\nHealth and social care get a lot more, rising to £19bn, though whether the proposed National Care Service will get all that it has been allocated may be down to the next first minister. The legislation for that is bringing political problems, to say the least.\n\nTo accommodate a sizeable boost to those priorities as well as a rise in spending on welfare benefits - notably taking the Scottish Child Payment to £25 per week - means a squeeze on other spending.\n\nLocal authorities tend to complain most loudly, and with quite good reason. They have started setting council tax, at 5% more from April, while making deep cuts to services and grants to local organisations.\n\nAmong the unknowns, though, is how much will have to be found in next year's budget to settle pay claims by public sector workers. As things stand, there is no pay policy.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jenny with her father Hamish Dawson on her wedding day in 1980\n\n\"I can't bear that his blood is inside me,\" says Jenny Pearson about her father Hamish Dawson.\n\n\"If I could have some form of transfusion, I would do it.\"\n\nJenny knew her father was emotionally and physically abusive when she was a child in the 1970s. But it was just last summer she heard the details of the sexual abuse he carried out on pupils while he was a teacher at a top private school.\n\nFor most of her childhood Jenny lived with her parents in school boarding houses belonging to Edinburgh Academy, where her father worked.\n\nShe knew at the time his behaviour was odd but only recently found out the true horror of his actions.\n\nAmong his victims was the BBC radio presenter Nicky Campbell, who revealed the sexual abuse on his podcast Different last year.\n\nIt was the first time 61-year-old Campbell had spoken out about the abuse he suffered when he was a pupil at the school almost 50 years ago.\n\nHe named Hamish Dawson as the teacher with the \"wandering hands\" who had abused him and fellow students.\n\nThe memories of her traumatic childhood came flooding back as Jenny listened to Campbell recall how he was abused.\n\nShe immediately emailed asking for a chance to speak to him and other victims.\n\nNicky Campbell was a pupil at Edinburgh Academy in the 1970s\n\nHamish Dawson died in 2009 and his daughter Jenny was estranged from him for many years before that.\n\nOn the latest edition of the podcast, she tells Campbell her immediate reaction was anger that her father was dead and could not hear the testimony of his victims.\n\nShe tells Campbell she was not angry about what he said and to hear the truth come out was a huge vindication of the appalling abuse she suffered herself.\n\nIn their conversation, Campbell tells Jenny that when he was 12 or 13, her father would call out boys to the front of the class, put them over his knee and stroke their penis.\n\nSince Campbell first spoke of the abuse he witnessed and experienced at the private school, almost 100 other Edinburgh Academy victims have come forward - and it became clear Dawson's abuse went far beyond \"wandering hands\".\n\nOne of the survivors told Campbell that Dawson would abuse the boys in the dormitories, stripping his chosen victim in full view of his peers, tying them to the bed with school ties, before assaulting them.\n\nWithin hours of hearing the original broadcast, Jenny, who works as a therapist, got in touch with Campbell.\n\nShe says: \"I wanted to reach out because I believe in the truth and I can't bear secrets and collusion.\"\n\nJenny spent hours on the phone with men who had been abused by her father.\n\n\"I felt morally compelled to do something,\" she says.\n\nJenny says the conversations she had were extraordinary.\n\n\"It probably sounds bizarre to say - but they were wonderful,\" she says.\n\n\"We spoke the same language from different perspectives.\"\n\nJenny at her Sixth Form ball in 1975\n\nJenny, who is now 64, says the conversations with abuse survivors have reawakened memories from her own childhood, some of which were very graphic.\n\nHer family had moved into the Edinburgh Academy boarding houses when she was seven.\n\nShe spent seven years at the private school's Dundas House and another five at nearby Mackenzie House before leaving home at 18 and never returning.\n\nThe family living quarters were under the same roof as the dorms where the boarding pupils stayed.\n\nJenny says her father would go through the fire doors every evening and she would not see him again until the next day. She says that during her teenage years she hardly saw him at all.\n\nShe was always told \"he's with the boys\".\n\n\"I can say hand-on-heart, I didn't miss him,\" she says.\n\nHowever, Jenny says she did resent being left alone with her mother who suffered from mental illness and often behaved like a \"screaming banshee\".\n\n\"My parents were an abomination,\" she says.\n\nTeenage Jenny in the back garden of Mackenzie House\n\nWhen she lived in the boarding house, Jenny used to loathe the schoolboys who would leer and snigger when she went to the bathroom.\n\n\"I always felt so exposed and vulnerable,\" she says.\n\n\"I felt invaded, I felt violated, I felt belittled. I knew there was sexual stuff so it was scary and there was not a safe adult to go to.\"\n\nBut Jenny now feels the boys must have hated her and everything to do with the Dawsons because of her father's behaviour.\n\n\"I did not know that at the time,\" she says. \"I was just a wee girl.\"\n\nDuring the conversation, Campbell asks Jenny if it was a shock that her father was a sexual and physical abuser of children.\n\n\"I did not know the extent,\" she says. \"It did not come as a total shock.\n\n\"I always knew he used to wallop the boys because he used to walk about with the slipper he used. I now know he used other things.\"\n\nCampbell asks what it is like to say: \"My father was a paedophile\".\n\n\"It's appalling,\" she says. \"It's repulsive. It's shameful. It's disgusting.\n\n\"I have spent my whole professional life fighting for the rights of children and young people.\n\n\"I feel we are the antithesis of each other and I am glad about that.\"\n\nHamish Dawson suddenly quit Edinburgh Academy and took early retirement at the age of 56.\n\nJenny says this had never made any sense to her.\n\n\"I thought he would die there,\" she says. \"It felt like he was married to the academy.\"\n\nAccording to Nicky Campbell, the rumour at the time was that pornography was found in his briefcase and he was forced to leave.\n\nAfter leaving school, Jenny went to study abroad and saw as little as possible of her parents.\n\nIn response her father wrote her a letter in which he formally asked her never to contact them again.\n\nIn a statement, Edinburgh Academy said: \"Like any right-minded person we are appalled by the reports of historical abuse.\n\n\"Schools should be safe places for children and we encourage anyone who has been the victim of abuse to contact the police.\n\n\"We continue to work closely with authorities such as Police Scotland and the Scottish Child Abuse inquiry as they investigate what has happened.\n\n\"They are rightly leading on establishing the facts and what action might need to follow.\n\n\"We will respect that process by not commenting about their ongoing work.\n\n\"The wellbeing of children is at the heart of our school ethos today and we have robust measures in place to safeguard every student entrusted to our care.\"\n\nTo hear Jenny's story and the stories of other victims of the teachers of Edinburgh Academy listen to Nicky Campbell's Different podcast available on BBC Sounds.\n\nThe In Dark Corners podcast - which looks at abuse in Britain's most elite boarding schools - is available on BBC Sounds.\n\nIf you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, information and support is available via the BBC Action Line.", "Rail operators have apologised after train timetable information systems were temporarily out of action across the UK on Wednesday morning.\n\nLive departure boards and online journey planners were affected, causing confusion for passengers.\n\nThe operators LNER, Northern, Cross Country Trains and Greater Anglia all reported issues.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, said the issue was now fixed.\n\n\"This morning the industry real time train running information system was temporarily down which affected live departure boards and online journey planners,\" it said.\n\n\"We would like to apologise to our passengers for any inconvenience this may have caused.\"\n\nEarlier National Rail had advised people to purchase tickets at stations or onboard trains rather than online.\n\nNo train services were affected by the glitch, but some ticket purchases were impacted.\n\nCross Country Trains tweeted that due to a \"fault affecting all train operators\" information for services \"may not be available\" on its app, website and also other train information services.\n\n\"We are working with our industry partners to resolve the issue as soon as possible,\" the company said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by National Rail This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGreater Anglia said customers would need to purchase tickets from the station or ticket vending machines \"until this has been resolved\".\n\n\"We are hoping to have this resolved as soon as possible,\" it said. \"Apologies for any inconvenience caused.\"\n\nOne passenger asked National Rail why they couldn't buy an advance ticket early on Wednesday.\n\n\"Can I still board? Or will i get fined. Queues are massive,\" they said.\n\nAnother added their season ticket was showing on his phone \"as having no active tickets\".", "The man convicted of killing rapper Nipsey Hussle has been sentenced to at least 60 years in prison.\n\nEric R. Holder, Jr. was found guilty of first-degree murder last July for killing Hussle - whose real name is Ermias Asghedom - outside Hussle's South Los Angeles clothing store in 2019.\n\nTwo bystanders were also hit and injured in the incident.\n\nSuperior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke announced Holder's 60 years to life sentence on Wednesday after hearing from one of Hussle's friends as well as reading a letter from Holder's father.\n\nHolder was found guilty of murder as well as two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter for the two bystanders injured in the shooting after a months-long trial.\n\nHe was not eligible for the death penalty and was widely expected to receive a life sentence.\n\nWearing orange jail attire, he did not react when his sentence was read out.\n\nHolder's attorney told ABC News he planned to appeal the verdict.\n\n\"It was always going to be tough given the high-profile circumstances surrounding the case,\" the attorney, Aaron Jansen, said.\n\nProsecutors said during the murder trial that the attack was premeditated, while Holder's defence team argued it was a heat-of-the-moment decision.\n\nHolder's defence attorney said he was provoked by a conversation he had with Hussle about rumours that he was cooperating with police.\n\nHussle was struck by gunfire at least 10 times, after which Holder kicked him in the head and fled the scene, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John McKinney told the court, according to the Associated Press.\n\nHussle grew up in South Los Angeles, where he was a member of the Rollin' 60s street gang as a teenager.\n\nHe opened the Marathon Clothing store as a way of investing in his community. Before his death, he had also reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department to discuss ways to help prevent gang violence in the neighbourhood.\n\nThe rapper won two posthumous Grammy awards for best rap performance and best rap/song collaboration in 2020. He was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\nHussle leaves two children. His murder has sparked an outpouring of support from fans across the country who have posted tributes to the rapper.", "The selfie has reportedly achieved \"legendary status\" within the Pentagon\n\nThe US Department of Defense has released an image taken by an airman as he flew over the Chinese balloon shot down earlier this month.\n\nThe selfie was taken from the cockpit of a U-2 spy plane as military leaders tracked the high-altitude balloon's progress over the continental US.\n\nBeijing has maintained that the balloon was a weather ship blown off course.\n\nBut Washington says the balloon was part of a sprawling Chinese intelligence collection programme.\n\nAs the balloon flew over US territory, at least two planes gathered information on its features and trajectory.\n\nA senior State Department official said earlier this month that fly-bys revealed it \"was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations\".\n\nOfficials first became aware of the balloon when it crossed into Alaskan airspace on 28 January.\n\nFighter jets belonging to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) - a joint operation between the US and Canada - identified the foreign object, but the military did not shoot it down at the time.\n\nOfficials explained they could not shoot the balloon down over land because its size and likely debris field posed a threat to civilians on the ground.\n\nOne defence official told US lawmakers earlier this month the balloon was as tall as the Statue of Liberty and had \"a jetliner-size payload\".\n\nThe BBC's Gordon Corera breaks down what we know about spy balloons\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nThe image released on Wednesday was taken the day before the balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February. The photo has reportedly \"gained legendary status\" inside the Pentagon.\n\nThe balloon was said to be hovering at 60,000 feet (18,200m) in the air.\n\nU-2 planes routinely fly at altitudes over 70,000 feet, according to the Air Force.\n\nThe single-seater reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft, nicknamed the Dragon Lady, were previously flown by the CIA. Pilots are required to wear full pressure suits similar to those worn by astronauts.\n\nRecovery efforts for the balloon's scattered remnants in the Atlantic Ocean ended last Friday.\n\nPieces of the debris, including its payload, have been recovered and are being studied, the Pentagon's deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were last seen in East Sussex on 8 January\n\nA missing couple are putting their \"baby at risk by not accessing medical care\", a senior midwife has said.\n\nConstance Marten, her partner Mark Gordon - a convicted sex offender - and their baby have been missing for more than six weeks.\n\nTheir car was found on fire near Bolton on 5 January, and it is believed Ms Marten gave birth either in or near the car a day or two earlier.\n\nDetectives have said the family could be \"absolutely anywhere in the UK\".\n\nThey were last seen on 8 January walking along Cantercrow Hill, in Newhaven - but police say they could have moved some considerable distance since then.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police has made a renewed appeal to find the family.\n\nMs Marten, 35, and her baby are not thought to have received medical attention.\n\nAddressing Ms Marten, director of midwifery for Barts Health NHS Trust, Shereen Nimmo, said \"it's not too late\" to get help and \"to make sure your baby is healthy\".\n\n\"Constance, my name is Shereen and I'm here to speak to you as a midwife and a mother. I am not here to judge you but here to help you and your baby.\"\n\nShe urged Ms Marten \"to do the right thing\", adding: \"All we want to do is help you.\"\n\n\"You're putting your baby at risk by not accessing medical care, so it's really important that you come and see a midwife, doctor or another healthcare professional as soon as possible\", said Ms Nimmo.\n\n\"Sleeping with your baby in an unsafe environment puts them at risk,\" she added.\n\nShe said that without midwifery and medical help, \"your baby might not be getting the best start in life that we know you want for them\".\n\nThe family were picked up by CCTV on Whitechapel Road in London on 7 January\n\nPolice say they are continuing to offer a reward of up to £10,000 for any information that leads to the family being found.\n\nIt is unknown whether the baby was full-term or has any health issues, which is why officers remain committed to finding them, the force said.\n\nDet Supt Lewis Basford said the force had been \"working around the clock behind the scenes\" and had viewed more than 630 hours of CCTV.\n\n\"I would like to stress that we are not doing this and putting so many resources and efforts into finding the family just to be awkward or to interfere.\n\n\"We have a genuine concern for the health and wellbeing of the baby, and Constance and Mark, and it is our duty to ensure that they are okay.\"\n\nReferencing a large amount of cash the couple was known to have, Det Supt Basford said: \"We know that cash will be coming to an end... that really influences the appeal today\".\n\nHe urged the public to be mindful that Ms Marten and Mr Gordon might not always be out together and one could be gathering supplies while the other stays with the baby.\n\n\"They could be absolutely anywhere in the UK, so we need everyone to remain vigilant\", added Det Supt Basford.\n\nDet Supt Basford continued, saying \"we know the couple do move very quickly\" based on their movements in the first few days of the investigation.\n\nAnd he said this missing persons case was unique due to concerns for the baby's welfare and because Ms Marten had not sought any medical attention.\n\nPolice previously said the couple and their baby were thought to be camping in the East Sussex countryside.\n\nThe baby was less than a week old when the family arrived at the East Sussex port by taxi, just before 05:00 GMT on 8 January.\n\nThe couple left their home in Eltham, south-east London, in September 2022 when Ms Marten began showing signs of pregnancy, police said, and have since led a nomadic lifestyle.\n\nMs Marten has been estranged from her wealthy family for several years. She grew up in a stately home in Dorset which was used as a set for the 1996 film of Jane Austen's Emma.\n\nMs Marten is said to have lived an isolated life with her boyfriend since they met in 2016.", "Some 12,000 asylum seekers to the UK are to be considered for refugee status without face-to-face interviews.\n\nA 10-page Home Office questionnaire will decide the cases of people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen who applied before last July.\n\nThe move aims to reduce the asylum backlog which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to end this year.\n\nThe Home Office says this is not an asylum amnesty - but it will streamline the system for five nationalities.\n\nApplicants from these countries already have 95% of their asylum claims accepted, says the Home Office.\n\nThe usual security and criminal checks will still be conducted and biometrics taken, but, for the first time, there will be no face-to-face interviews, say officials.\n\nInstead, eligible asylum seekers must fill out a form and answer up to 40 questions.\n\nThe questionnaire must be completed in English and returned within 20 working days, or the Home Office may consider the asylum application has been withdrawn.\n\nHowever, officials say there will be a follow-up notification if no reply is received, and every application will be considered on its own merits.\n\nThe British Red Cross warned that the 20-day limit could have \"devastating\" impacts on people who need protection, may not speak English and are likely traumatised from fleeing persecution and war.\n\nHaving previously stressed the importance of in-person interviews, the Home Office is likely to face criticism that the fast-tracking has more to do with the prime minister's promise to cut the asylum backlog, than having rigorous checks for identifying individuals with no right to be in the UK.\n\nLast month, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a young man outside a Bournemouth takeaway.\n\nIt emerged that, before coming to the UK, Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai had been convicted of murder in Serbia and was a fugitive.\n\nThe Home Office says all individuals involved in the new process will be checked against criminal databases, and will be subject to security vetting.\n\nThe number of asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their case in the UK has soared to record levels - with around 166,000 people in the backlog.\n\nData published on Thursday show the number of asylum claims in the UK was almost 75,000 in 2022, the highest number for 19 years.\n\nAlmost 110,000 people have been waiting for longer than six months for a decision on their case.\n\nMore than three-quarters of asylum decisions made in 2022 were in favour of granting asylum - the highest number for more than 30 years.\n\nIn December, Mr Sunak pledged to halve the number of people who had been waiting longer than six months for an initial decision on their asylum application. More than 92,000 people have been identified in that group.\n\nBut Downing Street's determination to sort out the asylum backlog appears to mean making it simpler for thousands of migrants, some of whom will have arrived in small boats, to get permission to stay in the UK.\n\nThe policy may be uncomfortable for Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who portrays herself as tough on those who claim asylum having arrived by an irregular route.\n\nA record 45,756 people successfully reached the UK in small boats last year.\n\nIn an interview with GB News on Wednesday, Ms Braverman said: \"It's clear that we have an unsustainable situation in towns and cities around our country whereby, because of the overwhelming numbers of people arriving here illegally and our legal duties to accommodate them, we are now having to house them in hotels.\"\n\nThe Home Office intends to double the number of asylum caseworkers this year to help deal with record numbers waiting for a ruling on their request for sanctuary in the UK.\n\nThe Refugee Council and the British Red Cross have previously urged the government to introduce an accelerated process for asylum seekers from countries with high acceptance rates. Last year, they recommended 40,000 cases from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria, Sudan and Iran should be in this category.\n\nThe exclusion of Sudanese and Iranian asylum seekers from the list of people offered the Home Office's streamlined process is because the grant rates for those nationalities is slightly lower, although still about 80%.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Breakfast, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the asylum system was \"broken\".\n\nSir Keir said many of the people arriving in the UK were brought by \"criminal gangs who are making money out of human misery\", adding that Labour would establish a specialist unit within the National Crime Agency to deal with the issue.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"It's damning that the Home Office isn't doing this already, given Labour has been calling for the fast-tracking of cases - including for safe countries like Albania - for months and the UNHCR recommended it two years ago.\n\n\"Meanwhile, the asylum backlog has skyrocketed - up by 50% since Rishi Sunak promised to clear it.\"\n\nShe added a Labour government would get return agreements in place so unsuccessful asylum seekers could be safely returned and take stronger action against gangs responsible for dangerous small boat crossings.", "Tesco is the latest supermarket to introduce limits on sales of certain fruit and vegetables due to shortages of fresh produce.\n\nIt follows similar moves by Aldi, Asda and Morrisons, with other supermarkets also said to be facing problems after extreme weather hit harvests abroad.\n\nTesco is putting limits of three per customer on sales of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.\n\nHowever, Sainsbury's, Lidl, Waitrose and M&S have not announced any limits.\n\nPictures of empty shelves at various supermarkets have been circulating on social media in recent days.\n\nThe shortages are largely the result of extreme weather in Spain and north Africa, which has affected harvests, according to the UK government.\n\nA significant proportion of the fruit and vegetables consumed by the UK at this time of year come from those regions.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium, which represents supermarkets, says the shortages are expected to last \"a few weeks\" until the UK growing season gets under way and shops find alternative sources of produce.\n\nTesco, Britain's largest grocer, said it was introducing limits as a precautionary measure to ensure customers could get the produce they needed.\n\nIt said the limits applied both to loose fruit and vegetables and to produce sold in packs.\n\nCrop yields in southern Spain have been hit by unusually cold weather, while in Morocco they have been affected by floods. Storms there have also led to ferries being delayed or cancelled transporting goods.\n\nThe UK also gets some produce at this time of year from domestic growers and the Netherlands. But farmers in both countries have cut back on their use of greenhouses to grow winter crops due to higher electricity prices.\n\nIt follows a period of extreme weather in the UK that has also hit domestic crop yields.\n\nA spell of heatwaves in June 2022 led to the fourth warmest UK summer on record as temperatures broke 40C for the first time. And in December the country was hit by a series of sharp and prolonged frosts.\n\nTim O'Malley, managing director of Nationwide Produce, one of the UK's largest fresh food producers, said British carrots, parsnips, cabbages and cauliflower had been affected by the poor weather.\n\nHe said on Tuesday that there may be price rises as a result of the shortages in the coming weeks.\n\nIt comes as food prices are already rising at their fastest rate in 45 years, climbing 16.7% in the year to January.\n\nOlive oil is another product which has been hit by extreme weather, with summer heatwaves in Spain affecting yields. As a result prices in UK supermarkets have surged in recent months.\n\nRachael Flaszczak, who owns The Snug Coffee House in Atherton, near Manchester, said she's struggled to get eggs \"for a while now\", but over the past three weeks she has also found it difficult to source tomatoes, spinach and rocket.\n\n\"We go to the supermarket to try and get our stock for the next day and we just see empty, overturned crates,\" she said.\n\nSupermarkets have told her they are only getting a small amount of stock, which is being used up,\n\n\"There is nothing left when we try and get our stock at the end of the day for the following day,\" she said.\n\n\"It does affect business because we're having to travel around to get what we need and that's taking more time and we're spending more on fuel,\" she said.\n\nMs Flaszczak added: \"There's no shortages over there [in the EU] so it has to be something to do with Brexit.\"\n\nAnecdotal evidence suggests the UK has been bearing the brunt of the shortages.\n\nHowever, problems have also been reported in Ireland, and Tesco says stock levels there are affected.\n\nIndustry sources suggested the UK may be suffering because of lower domestic production and a more complex supply chain.\n\nHowever, they said Brexit was unlikely to be a factor.\n\nMr O'Malley put the problems partly down to the way the UK buys its fruit and veg.\n\n\"There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that the European continental retailers are probably getting a bigger share than the UK,\" he said.\n\nRetailers in the UK tend to buy fruit and veg on a longer-term model, paying a price for the year, whereas many European countries use shorter-term models, which buy on a \"month to month basis\", he said.\n\nThe main impact of new border rules for fruit and vegetable imports will not be known until January 2024.\n\nImports from Morocco, which is outside the EU, are already subject to border checks.\n\nThe government said it understood \"public concerns\" around the supply of fresh vegetables, but added the UK has a \"highly resilient food supply chain and is well equipped to deal with disruption\".\n\nAsked if Brexit was having an impact on the shortages, a government spokesperson said: \"We remain in close contact with suppliers, who are clear that current issues relating to the availability of certain fruits and vegetables were predominately caused by poor weather in Spain and North Africa where they are produced.\"\n\nAre you seeing food shortages or full shelves where you are? Is your business affected by these restrictions? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Suella Braverman has played down the prospect she could resign over new post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland.\n\nHowever, the home secretary told GB News she could not support any renegotiated deal that allows the EU a \"foothold\" in the region.\n\nIt comes amid pressure on Rishi Sunak from his backbenchers over the future role of the EU's top court.\n\nEarlier, the PM declined to say what role it might have, telling MPs that talks were still ongoing.\n\nHe added that any new set of rules would need to guarantee \"sovereignty\" for Northern Ireland, without giving further details.\n\nThe current rules, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, were negotiated by Boris Johnson and came into force in 2021.\n\nIt has seen Northern Ireland continue to follow some EU laws, to get round the need for checks at the UK's border with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe extent to which this will continue under any new arrangement has emerged as a key flashpoint for Brexit-backing Tory MPs, as well as the DUP, the region's largest unionist party.\n\nSome Tory MPs have also expressed concern about allowing the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to have the final say on what EU laws mean - a red line for the 27-country bloc.\n\nMs Braverman, a staunch Brexiteer, previously resigned from Theresa May's government over her \"backstop\" proposals to prevent checks, which was ultimately abandoned.\n\nAsked during an interview with GB News whether she could do the same over a new protocol deal, she replied: \"I don't think we need to be talking about resignation.\n\n\"I've taken a very forthright position in the past because I've found the terms of previous agreements intolerable.\"\n\nHowever, she warned she would not support a deal \"selling out on Northern Ireland, and allowing the EU a foothold in the United Kingdom\".\n\nIt was vital, she added, to \"safeguard what we've gained from the Brexit vote\" and \"properly take back control\".\n\n\"I know the prime minister shares that objective,\" she added.\n\nMs Braverman previously chaired the European Research Group (ERG) of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, some of whom have expressed concern about where the current EU talks might end up.\n\nIn her GB News interview, she appeared to echo a view expressed by some ERG members that any new agreement will need to have the support of the DUP.\n\nThe party is preventing a devolved government being formed in Northern Ireland in protest until its concerns have been addressed.\n\n\"Ultimately, Stormont will only function if the DUP supports any proposal,\" she added.\n\nAt Prime Minister's Questions earlier, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said any new deal would have to address the \"fundamental constitutional issues\" of how EU law applies in the region.\n\nIt was unacceptable, he added, that \"EU laws are imposed on Northern Ireland with no democratic scrutiny or consent\".\n\nMr Sunak said he had heard the demands \"loud and clear\", adding that \"addressing the democratic deficit is an essential part of the negotiations\".\n• None What can we expect from a deal on the NI Protocol?", "Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes are leading candidates to be the next first minister\n\nNothing lasts forever. That is true in politics as it is in life.\n\nAs they wash ashore, some political tides reshape the landscape before, eventually, they recede again.\n\nAre we at such a moment? Is this the turning of the tide for the Scottish National Party and its campaign to end the 316-year old union between Scotland and England?\n\nThe answer to that question may lie with one of three people: Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes or Ash Regan, all of whom are vying to take over from Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and Scotland's First Minister.\n\nMs Regan has not yet been available for interviews but on Monday I sat down with two frontrunners, Ms Forbes and Mr Yousaf.\n\nWhat did we learn? Actually a surprising amount.\n\nKate Forbes told me that she would not have backed the Scottish government's controversial bill designed to make it easier to legally change gender.\n\nWe had guessed that this was probably her view but this was the first on-the-record confirmation.\n\n\"I would not have been able to vote for the principle of self-ID,\" the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, who is taking a break from her maternity leave to launch the campaign, told me.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Forbes says she was \"extraordinarily torn\" about whether to stand as first minister\n\nHer fellow contender, Ash Regan resigned as community safety minister to oppose the bill and, had the vote not fallen during Ms Forbes' leave, the finance secretary would surely have had to do the same.\n\n\"That would have been a decision that I'd have had to take in discussion with colleagues,\" she said.\n\nAt the heart of Ms Forbes' identity is her membership of the socially conservative Free Church of Scotland, whose evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland in 1843.\n\nShe told me that a \"significant glare of scrutiny\" on her in this regard was fair enough but, she added, \"I think we get into very dangerous territory when we say that certain public offices are barred to certain minority groups.\"\n\n\"I'm talking to you as somebody who has a Christian faith. I've never kept that a secret,\" she went on.\n\n\"But I would like to ask in the last six years, when have I ever imposed that on other people?\"\n\nThere has indeed been a lot of discussion about Ms Forbes' faith but rather less about Mr Yousaf's.\n\nHe describes himself as a proud Muslim who will be fasting during Ramadan, which falls in the final week of the short leadership campaign.\n\nI asked him why he thought there had been more focus on Christianity than Islam, thus far.\n\n\"I don't legislate on the basis of my faith,\" he replied, adding that he had a track record of supporting gender reform, gay marriage and buffer zones around abortion clinics.\n\nMs Forbes insisted that she did not legislate on the basis of her faith either, favouring votes of conscience on some social issues, where an individual can put aside party allegiance to cast a ballot on the basis of their morals, without political repercussions.\n\nShe too gave the example of gay marriage. As a Christian, she explained, she believed marriage to be between a man and a women but she insisted she would defend the law as \"a servant of democracy.\"\n\nHer position was no different, she insisted, to that of the former German chancellor Angela Merkel, who voted against same-sex marriage in her homeland, or many other Christian, Muslim or Jewish worshippers.\n\n\"As a servant of democracy in a country where this is law, I would defend to the hilt your right, and anybody else's right, to live and to love without harassment or fear,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Humza Yousaf says his experience in government is a key asset in his bid to become first minister.\n\nSo both leading candidates are people of faith but both insist they are democrats too.\n\nOn how to handle the issue of gender though there is a sharp difference between the pair.\n\nThe Gender Recognition Reform Bill passed by Holyrood just before Christmas is in limbo, blocked by the UK government from receiving royal assent under Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 which established the framework of devolution, on the basis that it interferes with equalities law which applies throughout Great Britain.\n\nMr Yousaf said that, like Ms Sturgeon, he favoured challenging that decision by seeking a judicial review of it at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.\n\nMs Forbes, on the other hand, dismissed such an approach.\n\n\"My polling as it were is based on conversations with normal, ordinary people over the last seven months and to a person they say 'focus on the NHS, focus on the cost of living crisis, and focus on making the case for independence.' That I think is more of a priority than legal cases so I would be loath to challenge it,\" she explained.\n\nOpponents of the principle of gender self-identification, which lies at the heart of the bill, say they have been vindicated by the case of Isla Bryson, the double rapist who opted to change gender from male to female after being charged.\n\nThat's a thorny issue for Mr Yousaf who, perhaps inadvertently, highlighted a problem with existing gender law, which he supports.\n\n\"Isla Bryson, by law, has the right to self-identify, that's the law even before the gender recognition reform even was discussed in parliament,\" he said.\n\nHowever, he added: \"I don't think they're a genuine trans person at all. I think they're doing it for their own selfish, dishonest, despicable reasons.\"\n\nPushed, he said he was happy to refer to Bryson as \"he\" not \"they\".\n\nAsh Regan has also thrown her hat into the ring in the leadership race\n\nThe SNP has been in power at Holyrood for 16 years. All governments tire and this one is no exception. There is no shortage of problems for an incoming leader to tackle.\n\nExcess deaths remain stubbornly high even as memories of the pandemic recede. Waiting times and staff shortages are causing misery in the NHS. Drugs deaths have been at or near record levels in recent years. Ms Sturgeon failed in her own \"defining mission\" to close the attainment gap between the richest and the poorest school pupils.\n\nBoth leading candidates insist they would bring fresh energy to tackling these deep, difficult problems.\n\n\"We need to focus on our priorities and we need to focus on delivery,\" said Ms Forbes.\n\n\"I've got the experience,\" said Mr Yousaf, who held the transport and justice briefs before becoming health secretary.\n\nThe new leader must also wrestle with restlessness in their party — and in the wider independence movement — about independence.\n\nThe current first minister had struggled to map a path to that destination, having been thwarted by Westminster's refusal to approve a second referendum and by the UK Supreme Court's ruling that Holyrood could not hold one itself.\n\nMs Sturgeon's final, failed throw of the dice was to try to reframe the next general election as a referendum in all but name.\n\nInternal opposition to that plan appears to have been a significant factor in her resignation, and both Ms Forbes and Mr Yousaf are now backing away from it.\n\n\"I have to say I'm not wedded to that view,\" says the MSP for Glasgow Pollok, diplomatically, pointing out \"disadvantages\" with the strategy such as the fact that, unlike in the 2014 referendum, the franchise would not include 16 and 17 year olds or European citizens.\n\nMr Yousaf called for further party discussion on tactics, adding: \"We have to be honest about it because if anybody is cooking up a plan that isn't going to work, isn't based in reality, then I think we've got to just give that short shrift. \"\n\nEither Kate Forbes or Humza Yousaf would be the youngest leader in the devolution era\n\nFocus on building the case for independence until it was clearly the \"settled will of the Scottish people\" and the mechanism by which it would be achieved would become clear, he argued.\n\nMs Forbes appeared to agree but she also stressed that independence could only be won through providing economic growth, rooted in thriving industries and a fair deal for workers.\n\n\"Competent government\" and \"competent leadership\" were, she said, key to achieving these aims.\n\n\"Ultimately, the only way that we are going to secure independence is when the people of Scotland, by a significant percentage, want independence,\" added Ms Forbes.\n\nBoth candidates are youthful — Mr Yousaf is 37 and Ms Forbes is 32 but the government which they serve is old, in democratic terms at least.\n\nEither one would be the youngest leader in the devolution era, which began when the Scottish Parliament opened in Edinburgh in 1999.\n\nThe previous record-holder, Labour's Jack McConnell, was 41 when he took office in 2001.\n\nLord McConnell's party is watching this contest closely, sensing an opportunity to recover some ground lost in the aftermath of the 2014 referendum when Labour won the day on the constitution only to watch hordes of its voters then defect to Ms Sturgeon's SNP.\n\nStill, Labour's dominance in Scottish politics lasted for half a century. The SNP is 16 years into its hegemony.\n\nThat's a long time in politics but not long enough to tell, yet, if the tide has indeed turned.", "Strike action has targeted the constituency of Education Secertary Shirley-Anne Somerville\n\nScotland's largest teachers' union has defended its decision to stage three days of targeted strike action.\n\nThe Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) members have taken action at schools in the constituencies of politicians close to the pay dispute.\n\nThese include areas represented by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney.\n\nMr Swinney, whose own son is affected by the strike action, said it was \"inequitable and indefensible\".\n\nBut EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said the union, which rejected a new pay offer last week, had been \"left with no other option but to escalate action to intensify the pressure on key decision-makers\".\n\nOn Wednesday afternoon members of the NASUWT teaching union also confirmed they had turned the revised pay offer.\n\nEarlier Ms Bradley told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that the targeted action was designed to \"bring a swifter resolution to the dispute\".\n\nMs Bradley said the action was \"very much focused on the politicians\"and there was \"no intent to target more or less affluent areas\".\n\nShe added: \"It is very clear the targets for this swathe of action are decision-makers who continue to withhold the very modest resource that would bring forth a settlement to this dispute.\"\n\nDr Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, said while the latest pay proposals were a \"marginal improvement\" they still amounted to a real terms pay cut.\n\nHe added: \"The fact that the majority of our members have told us they reject this offer reflects the depth of anger amongst teachers who have endured cuts to their pay, despite rising levels of workload and deterioration in their working conditions.\n\n\"Our members expect a real pay rise which reflects the hugely important and challenging nature of teaching.\"\n\nMr Swinney said he was \"very sorry\" for the families and young people affected by the latest strike action.\n\n\"I think it is completely inequitable and indefensible,\" he said.\n\n\"I talk to lots of teachers and many of them can't understand why that offer has not been put to them.\"\n\nHe said that if they accepted the deal, there would be an 11.5% increase in their pay packets by the end of April.\n\n\"I think that requires reconsideration because teachers need to be given the chance to vote on that,\" Mr Swinney added.\n\n\"The government and local authorities have moved. We have put more money on the table and tried to resolve the issue.\n\n\"The fact it hasn't been put to members means it is difficult to hear any justification [for the action].\"\n\nTargeting schools in five areas echoes the long-running teachers' dispute of the mid 1980s, when there was additional action in the constituencies of some Conservative government ministers.\n\nBut there is a significant practical difference this time.\n\nIn the 1980s, the targeted schools were often, though not always, in relatively prosperous areas with few children who could be considered disadvantaged.\n\nBut some of the schools affected this time serve areas which are not affluent.\n\nIt should be stressed that it is not the intention of the union to target individual children or families - it is about putting pressure on politicians.\n\nBut inevitably the new tactic is something of a gamble.\n\nIs there a risk that targeting could prove counterproductive and alienate some parents? Or will it add to the pressure on senior politicians to improve the pay offer and lead to a resolution?\n\nThe latest offer included a 6% pay rise for the current year - backdated to April 2022 for teachers who earn up to £80,000 - and a further 5.5% in the new financial year.\n\nThe EIS is seeking a 10% pay increase, which ministers say is unaffordable.\n\nWhile the EIS and NASUWT have now turned down the offer the SSTA union said they would consider it.\n\nThe schools targeted in the latest action face 10 days of strikes over the next two months if the dispute is not settled.\n\nTwo days of national strike action are planned on 28 February and 1 March.\n\nThis will be followed by a further 20 days of regional rolling strikes across Scotland between 13 March and 21 April, with each school being hit twice.\n\nSchools in Nicola Sturgeon's constituency were also targeted\n\nThe targeted strikes are taking place between Wednesday and Friday this week in the constituencies of Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow Southside), John Swinney (Perthshire North), Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville (Dunfermline) and the East Dunbartonshire Council area of Scottish Greens education spokesperson Ross Greer's West Scotland region.\n\nA further three days of action from 7 March will target these constituencies and the ward of Dumfries and Galloway councillor Katie Hagmann, the resources spokesperson for council umbrella body Cosla.\n\nMs Somerville said she was focused on resolving the dispute and has written an open letter to pupils outlining the support available during industrial action.\n\nShe said the threat of further disruption in the run-up to exams was \"particularly concerning\".\n\nShe has written to local authorities asking them to consider how secondary schools can remain open for pupils preparing for exams, which is \"being reviewed by councils on a school by school basis.\"\n\nLeanne McGuire, chair of the Glasgow City Parents Group, said they could not support the latest targeted action as it was \"unfair\" to pupils and families in those areas.\n\n\"The area of Nicola Sturgeon's constituency (Glasgow Southside) contains certain high-deprivation areas,\" she told Good Morning Scotland.\n\n\"Those pupils are already at a disadvantage when it comes to education, and we just feel these additional six days put them at further disadvantage, compared to peers on the opposite side of the city.\"", "Palestinian youths threw stones and other objects at Israeli armoured troop carriers\n\nIsraeli troops have killed at least 11 Palestinians and wounded dozens more during a raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials say.\n\nExplosions and gunfire sounded as troops entered the old city of Nablus on Wednesday morning, sparking armed clashes with Palestinian gunmen.\n\nThe Israeli military said it killed three wanted militants holed up inside a house who refused to surrender.\n\nSeveral of those killed outside were civilians, including two elderly men.\n\nThe Palestinian health ministry said 72-year-old Adnan Saabe Baara was one of them. Video footage purportedly showed his body in a street next to bags of bread, in what is usually a busy market area.\n\nA 61-year-old man, Abdul Hadi Ashqar, and a 16-year-old boy, Mohammad Shaaban, were also shot dead, the ministry said.\n\nAnother elderly man, Anan Shawkat Annab, 66, who suffered from tear-gas inhalation, died in hospital on Wednesday evening.\n\nSix members of the Lions' Den and other militant groups were killed during the raid, the Lions' Den said in a Telegram post.\n\nThe number of dead is one more than that of an Israeli military raid last month in Jenin, which was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2005.\n\nWhat makes this raid even more significant is the huge numbers wounded, with the Palestinian health ministry saying more than 80 people have suffered bullet wounds. Five different hospitals in Nablus are currently treating them.\n\nSenior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh condemned what he described as a \"massacre\", while a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he held Israel's government responsible for \"this dangerous escalation, which is pushing the region toward tension and an explosion\".\n\nThe militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, warned that it was \"monitoring the escalating crimes conducted by the enemy against our people in the occupied West Bank and is running out of patience\".\n\nA large crowd of mourners gathered in Nablus on Wednesday afternoon for the funerals of those killed\n\nThe raid lasted four hours and took place in the middle of morning, when the narrow streets of the old city are often packed with families and people shopping.\n\nResident Khalil Shaheen described hearing an explosion, which woke him up.\n\n\"I looked out the window and saw special forces with dogs, and they were connecting wires, which I assume are for TNT [explosives], God knows,\" he said.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it \"upgraded\" its operation after forces were shot at by Palestinian gunmen. Its troops fired shoulder-launched missiles at the building where the wanted militants were hiding, which caused it to partially collapse.\n\nIt said it acted when it did because it had real-time information - thought to be a geolocated Facebook post - on the location of one of the militants.\n\n\"We saw the threat and we had to go in and finish the work,\" IDF spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht said in a briefing to reporters.\n\nBut Palestinian videos posted on social media also show young men in the street, who appear unarmed, apparently being fired at while running away, with one falling to the ground as gunshots are heard. The IDF described the footage as \"problematic\" and said it was being reviewed.\n\nTwo of the militants in the encircled building were Muhammad Junaidi, a commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and another senior militant figure, Hussam Isleem.\n\nThe IDF said they and the third militant, Walid Dkhail, were suspected of carrying out previous shooting attacks, including one in the West Bank last October that killed an Israeli soldier, and of planning more attacks in the near future. Two other suspects were arrested in Nablus last week.\n\nDuring the raid, Isleem recorded a WhatsApp audio message that was shared on social media, saying: \"We're in trouble, but we won't surrender ourselves. We won't hand over our weapons. I'll die as a martyr. Keep carrying weapons after us.\"\n\nIsleem's house had been raided by Israeli forces earlier this month and his family interrogated. His father told Palestinian media afterwards that forces told him his son should hand himself in or he would be killed.\n\nBoth Isleem and Junaidi were active in the Lions' Den - a new militant group that emerged in Nablus over the last year amid a collapse in control by the official Palestinian Authority security forces.\n\nAs with a similar group in the nearby city of Jenin, the young gunmen used TikTok and Telegram to spread a message of armed resistance against the Israeli occupation to a new generation of Palestinians.\n\nIsrael has targeted parts of both cities in waves of search, arrest and intelligence-gathering raids, saying it is trying to stem the spate of deadly attacks against Israelis.\n\nSo far this year, more than 60 Palestinians - including militants and civilians - have been killed, while 11 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis.\n\nWednesday's deadly raid in Nablus is a further sign that recent attempts led by the US to ease tensions are failing.\n\nThis week, the Palestinian Authority abandoned its push for a vote at the UN Security Council on a resolution which would have censured Israel's new nationalist government over its plans to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank.\n\nAs part of an apparent understanding, Israel then said it would not announce new settlements in the coming months. According to sources quoted in the Israeli media, Israel was also to lower the intensity of its raids into Palestinian cities.", "The number of people who have never been married or in a civil partnership has continued to rise, official statistics show.\n\nData from the 2021 census for England and Wales show nearly four in 10 adults have never been married or been in a civil partnership, up from three in 10 at the start of the century.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS), which revealed the data, said it was \"fascinating\".\n\nThe proportion of adults who have never been married or in a civil partnership has risen steadily over recent decades.\n\nIn 2021, 37.9% of adults (18.4 million) had never been married or in a civil partnership.\n\nThis was up from 34.6% of adults (15.7 million) in 2011, 30.1% (12.5 million) in 2001 and 26.3% (10.5 million) in 1991.\n\nThe latest statistics also revealed the long-term increase in the proportion of adults who are divorced or who have had a civil partnership dissolved has slowed.\n\nIn 2021, the proportion of divorced adults was 9.1% (4.4 million), similar to the 9% (4.1 million) in 2011. In 2001, the proportion was 6.2% (2.5 million).\n\nWhen looking at ethnic groups - after taking age into account - the highest proportions of adults who never been married or civil partnered are within the black, black British, black Welsh, Caribbean or African and \"mixed and multiple\" ethnic groups.\n\nThe lowest proportions are in the Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh ethnic groups.\n\nMeanwhile same-sex married couples and those in same-sex civil partnerships - who make up 0.42% of the population (201,000) - are more likely to be younger, have no religion and have higher-level qualifications than adults in opposite-sex marriages.\n\nONS demography topic lead Steve Smallwood said the census \"gives us a fascinating picture of how society is changing\".", "More than 40 people have been killed, and at least 40 others are still missing, after landslides hit coastal towns in Brazil's São Paulo state.\n\nHeavy rain caused flooding and landslides in towns along the coast, including Barro do Sahy, Juquehy and São Sebastião.\n\nFamily and friends have been joining the rescue operation to find those still buried in the mud.", "Hannah Waddingham says she's been a Eurovision fan for years\n\nTed Lasso star Hannah Waddingham will co-host this year's Eurovision Song Contest, alongside Alesha Dixon and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina.\n\nThe presenting trio will front the two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May, with Graham Norton joining them for the grand final on Saturday, 13 May.\n\nMore than 160 million are expected to watch the competition globally.\n\nThe UK is hosting on behalf of 2022 winner Ukraine, which cannot stage the event due to Russia's ongoing invasion.\n\nEmmy-award winning actress Waddingham said it was \"a great privilege\" to be involved.\n\n\"It's one of the world's greatest music festivals,\" the Game of Thrones and Sex Education actress added.\n\n\"But this year, perhaps more than ever, it is such a great honour to be standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, a country which has carried itself with such strength and unity.\"\n\nThis year's competition is being held in Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine who won last year's event\n\nBritain's Got Talent judge and singer Alesha Dixon said: \"There is just something about the buzz and anticipation of a live show that can't be rivalled. Eurovision delivers that excitement, creativity and talent, but on a vast, global scale\".\n\nShe joins Waddingham, an accomplished West End and Broadway actress, and Julia Sanina, frontwoman of Ukrainian alternative band The Hardkiss, who will appear on tonight's The One Show.\n\n\"I'm so excited to showcase Ukrainian culture and creativity, and to help put on a show to make my country proud,\" Sanina said. \"I can't wait to get to Liverpool and meet the fans and the rest of the Eurovision family.\"\n\nIt is an all-female line-up for the knock out stages.\n\nLongstanding Eurovision commentator Graham Norton will join the three hosts for the grand final, describing it as \"the greatest show on earth\".\n\n\"Every year that I'm involved it's a huge honour,\" he said. \"This year is even more special and I personally feel a big responsibility to make our Ukrainian colleagues proud.\"\n\nHe will also share commentating duties on the final with actress and comedian Mel Giedroyc, who has previously been involved in the BBC's semi-final coverage.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The rundown on the 2023 contest in 50 seconds\n\nThe BBC, which agreed to step in for Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC, also confirmed BBC Radio 2 presenters Scott Mills and Rylan will be the semi-final commentators for the BBC.\n\nUkrainian broadcaster Timur Miroshnychenko, who hosted Eurovision in Ukraine in 2017, will also be involved in the live shows, as well as hosting the opening ceremony, which will be streamed online with BBC One's Morning Live presenter Sam Quek.\n\nSpeaking on Eurovisioncast, the BBC's Eurovision podcast, 2022 Eurovision co-host Alessandro Cattelan said the key to helming the contest is to immerse yourself in it.\n\n\"The thing I liked the most was the mood in the city, the whole three weeks before the show,\" he said.\n\n\"It was a big honour to be on the stage and it was a zero stress event because it was about the contestants\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Timur Miroshnychenko, broadcasting from bunker, jumps for joy at Ukraine win\n\nLike all major international events, there's a significant cost putting on Eurovision and the bill is shared.\n\nLocal government in Liverpool has committed to £4m for attractions around May's contest. It will go towards initiatives like a fan village with big screens and stages for live music, as well as other city-wide events.\n\nThe UK government also says it will contribute financially - although it hasn't said by how much - claiming a lot of money will be made back by hosting the event.\n\nOfficials in Turin spent around £10m hosting Eurovision in 2022 but they got that figure back \"seven times\", mainly from the hospitality industry.\n\nThe bulk of the cost will fall to the BBC as host broadcaster. It's estimated Eurovision will cost the corporation between £8m and £17m - a significant jump from what it normally spends participating.\n\nSam Ryder came second at this year's Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom\n\nFurther information about tickets to Eurovision, with fans able to buy them for nine shows (including rehearsals) is expected in the coming weeks.\n\nAll 37 participating broadcasters have around a month left to confirm the song and artist they'll be sending to the song contest.\n\nAll the build-up, insights and analysis is explored each week on a new BBC podcast called Eurovisioncast.\n\nEurovisioncast is available on BBC Sounds, or search wherever you get your podcasts from.", "The search for Nicola Bulley and investigation into her disappearance has drawn huge scrutiny\n\nPolice handling of the disappearance of Nicola Bulley is to be the subject of an independent review, Lancashire's police and crime commissioner has said.\n\nShe went missing on 27 January and was found dead in the River Wyre on Sunday.\n\nAndrew Snowden has commissioned the College of Policing to review the case including the force's release of personal information about Ms Bulley.\n\nLancashire Police had \"done their utmost\" but \"the narrative has been lost at times\", he said.\n\nThe force said it welcomed the review and was \"keen to take the opportunity to learn\".\n\nPolice were criticised for revealing the 45-year-old had been struggling with the menopause and alcohol issues.\n\nThe review will focus on the investigation and search, communication and public engagement, and the releasing of personal information.\n\nIt comes after the police watchdog confirmed it has launched an investigation into a police visit to Ms Bulley's home weeks before her disappearance.\n\nMr Snowden said: \"The public understandably feel that there remain questions about the handling of elements of the police investigation, how it was communicated and the decision to release personal information, which need to be answered and explained.\"\n\n\"Now that the investigation and search is concluded it is right we ask those questions around why that information was released and make sure that is properly reviewed,\" he said.\n\nHe said the case was \"completely unprecedented in the scale of social media and media interest\".\n\nAndrew Snowden has commissioned an independent review into the handling of the Nicola Bulley case\n\n\"Overall [Lancashire Police] have done their utmost in what has been a media frenzy at times to get across those key messages but I do think... those messages did not get through at critical times and control was lost over the narrative about why the police were making certain decisions,\" he said.\n\nHe said a full independent review would \"ensure lessons can be learned, not just for Lancashire, but for all forces\".\n\n\"This includes how such cases can be best investigated and communicated under such spotlight and scrutiny,\" he added.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct said it was investigating a visit to Ms Bulley's home on 10 January when officers were called to a \"concern for welfare report\" and health professionals also attended.\n\nLancashire Police said no arrests were made.\n\nThe Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has also said it has made initial inquiries with the force to understand \"the reasoning which led to the disclosure\" of Ms Bulley's personal information.\n\nIn a statement, an ICO spokeswoman said: \"We will assess the information provided to consider whether any further action is necessary.\"\n\nMeanwhile, broadcasting regulator Ofcom has said it is \"extremely concerned\" at complaints made by Ms Bulley's family over ITV and Sky News' conduct and said it had written to both \"to ask them to explain their actions\".\n\nPolicing's professional body will conduct a \"full independent review\" into Lancashire Constabulary's handling of the case, focusing on the investigation and search, communication and public engagement, and the releasing of personal information.\n\nThe police watchdog has launched an investigation after a welfare check was carried out at Ms Bulley's home 17 days before she went missing.\n\nThe independent body set up to uphold information rights has made initial inquiries with the force to understand release of personal information about Ms Bulley.\n\nBroadcasting regulator Ofcom has written to both ITV and Sky News contact after complaints were made by Ms Bulley's family over their conduct in the aftermath of the mortgage adviser's body being found.\n\nThe inquest will seek to determine when and how Ms Bulley died.\n\nThe inquest into Ms Bulley's death was earlier opened and adjourned.\n\nPreston Coroner's Court heard she was identified by her dental records.\n\nHer family chose not to attend \"for reasons I can quite understand\", senior coroner Dr James Adeley said.\n\nHe said a full inquest, which will ascertain when and how Ms Bulley died, was likely to be held in June.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her dog by the river after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school in St Michael's on Wyre.\n\nHer dog was found shortly afterwards along with her phone - still connected to a work conference call - on a bench by a steep riverbank.\n\nA major search operation was undertaken but it was more than three weeks before her body was found.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The shooting took place at Youth Sport on the Killyclogher Road in Omagh\n\nAn off-duty police officer is in a critical but stable condition after being shot at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone.\n\nThere are unconfirmed reports that he was hit several times on the Killyclogher Road at about 20:00 GMT.\n\nThe Police Federation for Northern Ireland said two gunmen were involved and he was shot while he coached young people playing football.\n\nRishi Sunak said he was \"appalled by the disgraceful shooting\".\n\n\"There is no place in our society for those who seek to harm public servants protecting communities,\" said the prime minister.\n\nPolice Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Simon Byrne said he was \"shocked and saddened\" by the events.\n\n\"We will relentlessly pursue those responsible,\" he tweeted.\n\nThe victim is being treated at Altnagelvin Area Hospital in Londonderry.\n\nPolice forensic officers are carrying out an examination of the grounds of the sports facility where the off-duty officer was shot.\n\nLocal politicians who arrived shortly after the gun attack say it was a chaotic scene as parents arrived to pick up children from training.\n\nForensics are at the scene at Youth Sport on Wednesday night\n\nThey say it was very busy this evening with a number of different sports groups using the facility.\n\nThe complex has been sealed off while police commence their investigation.\n\nA number of cars remain in the car park, within the police cordon, with the entire complex now a crime scene.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said it received a call about the shooting at Youth Sport Omagh at 20:00 GMT and sent a crew.\n\nPolice went to the scene of the shooting on Wednesday night\n\nSinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said it was an \"outrageous and shameful attack\" and added: \"I unreservedly condemn this reprehensible attempt to murder a police officer.\"\n\nDemocratic Unionist leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson condemned the \"cowards responsible for this\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Alan RodgersUH This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFormer justice minister and Alliance leader Naomi Long said her thoughts were with those affected by this \"evil act of cowardice\".\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood, MP, said it was a \"chilling attack on an individual serving his community\".\n\nUlster Unionist assembly member Tom Elliott said it was a \"despicable and cowardly action\".\n\nThe Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, said that \"those responsible for such horror must be brought to justice\".\n\nTaoiseach (Irish PM) Leo Vardakar said he condemned the \"grotesque act of attempted murder\".\n\nThe Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, said he was \"shocked and appalled\" by the shooting.\n\nThis is probably the most serious attack on a police officer since the murder of Ronan Kerr in 2011.\n\nThat attack, like this, took place in Omagh.\n\nThe officer targeted is a detective of quite senior rank.\n\nHe has a public profile, having carried out media duties as the lead officer on several high-profile cases.\n\nThese cover both dissident republican violence and crime gang murders.\n\nThe police have said nothing officially about a potential motive for the shooting.\n\nBut among fellow officers, suspicion in the first instance has fallen on dissident groups.\n\nDespite a relative lull in activity in recent years, the New IRA in particular has continued to target police officers.\n\nThe Police Federation for Northern Ireland said it \"condemned this appalling and barbaric act of violence on an off-duty officer\".\n\n\"Our thoughts are with our colleague and his family. These gunmen offer nothing to society. Anyone with information should come forward.\"\n\nAn Garda Síochána (Irish police) said it had intensified patrolling in border counties.\n\nThe last gun attack on a PSNI officer was in January 2017. The PSNI officer was hit by an automatic gunfire at a petrol station in north Belfast.\n\nThe officer was hit at least twice in his right arm, and it is thought a bulletproof vest may have saved his life.", "Shamima Begum joined the Islamic State group \"with her eyes open\", government lawyers have told a tribunal.\n\nMs Begum's British citizenship was removed after she travelled to IS-controlled Syria aged 15.\n\nChallenging the decision, her legal team argue she was trafficked to Syria for sexual exploitation.\n\nBut at a hearing on Thursday, Home Office lawyers defending the decision said it didn't matter Ms Begum was only 15 when she travelled there.\n\nSir James Eadie KC, on behalf of the Home Office, said: \"You could well have been radicalised and manipulated at an age when you are vulnerable... but nevertheless however unfortunate it might be you are now a risk.\n\n\"You can still be a risk of setting off a bomb in London or in Manchester… even if you have been trafficked at a young age.\"\n\nThe case is being heard at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which has similar standing to the High Court, and can hear national security evidence in secret if necessary.\n\nSir James told the tribunal: \"The assessment made by the Security Service [MI5] was that [Ms Begum's] travel was voluntary and demonstrated her determination and commitment to aligning with Isil.\"\n\nIsil is another name for IS, meaning \"Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant\".\n\nHe went on: \"She travelled for the purpose of aligning with Isil, and once in Syria she did in fact align with Isil.\n\n\"The assessment is that she did that with her eyes open.\n\n\"The ideology of Isil and their uncompromising brutality had been widely covered in the media.\"\n\nMs Begum's lawyers argue the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid should have taken into account she was trafficked to Syria for sexual exploitation purposes when making his decision in 2019.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shamima Begum speaking to the I'm Not a Monster podcast, says she needed help from traffickers to reach Syria\n\nIn August, a BBC News investigation revealed Ms Begum was smuggled into Syria by an intelligence agent who was working for Canada at the time. The Canadian government has said that it will \"follow up\" on the allegations.\n\nShe left her home in London in February 2015 with her two Bethnal Green school friends Amira Abase, aged 15, and Kadiza Sultana, aged 16. Within days she was in IS-controlled territory in Syria and was soon married to an IS fighter.\n\nMs Sultana is believed to have been killed in a Russian air strike in Syria, according to her family's solicitor.\n\nGovernment papers say Ms Sultana is assessed to have died, and Ms Abase is assessed to have died in 2019.\n\nMs Begum remains in a camp controlled by armed guards in northern Syria.\n\nIn 2019, she was found by the Times newspaper, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp. Her baby later died of pneumonia and Ms Begum said she had previously lost two other children.\n\nSir James said Ms Begum had been \"further radicalised and desensitised to violence\" during her four years in IS territory before she was captured, and pointed out in her first interviews she expressed few regrets about travelling to join IS.\n\nHe added there have been cases where women have plotted terror attacks on the UK, and Britain had learned about the threat it faced in the \"hard school\" of \"repeated deaths, including children, in the UK\".\n\nThe tribunal also heard a statement from Ms Begum's mother, Asma Begum.\n\nIn extracts read by her daughter's barrister Dan Squires KC, Mrs Begum said: \"My child Shamima was taken from me in a way I did not understand at the time.\"\n\nShe added: \"I have never for a moment stopped loving my daughter and wanting her home with me.\"\n\nThe hearing is due to conclude on Friday and a decision will be released at a later date.", "Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby\n\nCoverage: Live on BBC One, S4C, Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, the BBC Sport website & app; live text commentary on BBC Sport website & app.\n\nWales' Six Nations match against England will go ahead after the Welsh players decided against strike action.\n\nSaturday's game in Cardiff was in doubt with players threatening not to play because of a dispute with Welsh rugby bosses over contracts.\n\nBut the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and Wales squad players have reached a compromise on some key issues.\n\nWarren Gatland's players return on Thursday for his team announcement after a scheduled Wednesday off.\n\nDuring it, the players and WRU chiefs agreed to amend a rule that stopped players who had moved outside the country and not won 60 caps from playing for Wales again.\n\nPlayers based outside Wales will now be free to play for the country if they have won 25 caps or more.\n• None Still work to do on contracts - WRPA chair Hewitt\n• None Rugby Union Daily: The game is on!\n\nPlayers and agents will also have the option of a fixed contract or a fixed and variable deal instead of the previous offer of 80% salary as basic pay with 20% made up in bonuses.\n\nOn Tuesday, head coach Gatland had said he was confident the matter would be resolved despite delaying naming his side and cancelling a scheduled training session.\n\nHad the game been called off it would have cost the WRU almost £10m.\n\nThe Wales players were also seeking Wales Rugby Players' Association (WRPA) representation at Professional Rugby Board (PRB) meetings.\n\nPRB chairman Malcolm Wall stated the players' demand for that voice on the committee that oversees professional rugby in Wales will be accepted with WRPA Gareth Lewis attending all PRB meetings with immediate effect.\n\nGatland revealed a training session on Tuesday afternoon had been cancelled so players could continue negotiations and admitted the strike threat was genuine.\n\nThe Wales players had set a deadline of Wednesday for the issues to be resolved.\n\nThere was a meeting on Wednesday morning of the PRB which is made up of representatives from the WRU and four regions - Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets.\n\nThe PRB, including Wall, WRU acting chief executive Nigel Walker and regional bosses, then met more than 100 of Wales' professional players in the Vale of Glamorgan hotel, which is the national squad's training base.\n\nWalker and Wall attended a virtual WRU board meeting before a further meeting with Wales captain Ken Owens. After a day of negotiations, word of a deal finally arrived.\n\nOwens admitted the reputation of Welsh rugby had been tarnished after the players had to resort to this situation.\n\n\"We are happy hence why the game is on Saturday,\" said Owens. \"There has been huge frustration over the last number of months and it is disappointing that it got to this stage.\n\n\"We felt we had to make a stand, but the conversations that have taken place over the last 10 days or so have shown that some positive resolutions can be found.\n\n\"If we can continue to do that in the future, we don't end up in a position like this. It has been a difficult period and it has got to be a long-term solution.\n\n\"Welsh rugby can't keep going on this merry-go-round of crisis after crisis, because it is affecting everyone in the game.\n\n\"We need to pull together now and find the best way forward, and do it together to put Welsh rugby at the top end of world rugby, and not the laughing stock, which I think we are at the moment.\"\n\n\"Ken has used that phrase 'laughing stock', I'll let other people decide whether we are a laughing stock,\" Walker said.\n\n\"It's been an unedifying period for us, there are no two ways about it. It is my job over the next six months to make sure we're not having conversations like this in the future.\n\n\"I understand the position the players were in and we at the PRB shouldn't have put them in that position.\n\n\"So, once you recognise you put them in a difficult position and they responded the way they responded, you know you've got something wrong. We are going to make sure we don't get into this position again.\n\n\"There's a number of things we've got to do to ensure this dialogue continues from here on in and any issues are dealt with swiftly.\"\n\nThe WRU and regions are still to formally sign the six-year financial framework with Walker adding contracts will be start to be offered next week.\n\nIn the meantime the England game will go ahead and Owens insisted the threat to not play on Saturday was real but believes Wales will be ready to perform to their best.\n\n\"It has been a distraction with everything that has been going on, but I have got to commend the players' professionalism in this,\" added Owens.\n\n\"When we have crossed that white line at training, we've prepared well and done our work as professional players. We are ready for Saturday.\n\n\"We have fronted up in training and prepared as we would for any Test match and are looking forward to going toe to toe with England.\"\n• None Go Hard or Go Home:\n• None Why did Michaella McCollum try to smuggle £1.5m of cocaine?", "It's with that recap of today's events that we'll pause today's live coverage. Thanks as always for coming on the journey with us.\n\nWe saw a show of solidarity with Ukraine from Nato countries in Eastern Europe, including Hungary, whose prime minister has attempted to maintain cordial relations with Russia. There were also warm words between Russia and China - with Moscow showing gratitude to the latter for its \"balanced\" position on Ukraine.\n\nMy colleagues in the BBC's digital news team will be updating you throughout the week, as the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches on Friday. Head here for an article on today's events.\n\nToday's live page was the work of Emily McGarvey, Thomas Mackintosh, James Harness, Rachel Russell, Laura Gozzi, George Wright, Oliver Slow, Michael Sheils McNamee and Alys Davies. It was edited by Sarah Fowler, Tom Spender and me.", "Shamima Begum has said she accepts that she joined a terror group when she fled Britain as a schoolgirl for Islamic State (IS) - and said she understands the public anger towards her.\n\nIn interviews spanning more than a year, Ms Begum - who was stripped of British citizenship as a national security risk - revealed that she was fed detailed instructions by IS members, but also undertook her own planning for the journey in 2015.\n\nGiving her first full account of her flight to Syria, she told the BBC podcast The Shamima Begum Story that she had been \"relieved\" to make it out of the UK and said that when she left, she expected never to return.\n\nMs Begum said she knows the public now see her \"as a danger, as a risk, as a potential risk to them, to their safety, to their way of living\".\n\nBut she said that \"I'm not this person that they think I am\".\n\nMs Begum is the best-known case among thousands of men, women and children who have been held in Syrian detention camps and prisons since the IS \"caliphate\" was defeated in 2019. Many come from countries that do not want them back.\n\nNow the 23-year-old - who had three children in Syria, all of whom died - is in a legal battle with the British government to try to have her citizenship restored so she can return to London.\n\nThe tribunal hearing has centred on whether she was a victim of trafficking for sexual exploitation, or a committed IS volunteer who is a threat to the UK.\n\nIS has been notorious for atrocities such as mass killings, abductions and beheadings. Its terror cells were responsible for targeted attacks in Paris in 2015 and Brussels in 2016, and the group also claimed responsibility for attacks in the UK, including the Manchester Arena bombing and the London Bridge attack in 2017.\n\nAcknowledging that the public see her as a potential danger if she should return, Ms Begum said she is \"not a bad person\" and blamed her portrayal in the media. She said: \"I'm just so much more than ISIS and I'm so much more than everything I've been through.\"\n\nDoes she understand society's anger towards her? \"Yes, I do understand,\" she said.\n\n\"But I don't think it's actually towards me. I think it's towards ISIS,\" she added, using another name for IS - the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. \"When they think of ISIS they think of me because I've been put on the media so much.\"\n\nChallenged that the media coverage was a consequence of her decision to join IS, she said: \"But what was there to obsess over, we went to ISIS that was it, it was over, it was over and done with, what more is there to say?\n\n\"Like, they just wanted to continue the story because it was a story, it was the big story.\"\n\nPressed further on whether she accepts that she did join a terror group, she said: \"Yes, I did.\"\n\nMs Begum is one of thousands living in camps since IS was defeated, unwanted by their former countries\n\nFormer children's minister Tim Loughton told the BBC it was still not clear why Ms Begum joined IS as a teenager and \"what forces brainwashed her\", but he said public sympathy for her when she first went missing had increasingly been replaced by anger.\n\nHe said many people were justifiably suspicious that she was now \"putting on an act\" in appearing to \"transition from a heavily veiled Muslim young woman to somebody wearing Western clothes\" as if she had \"stayed in east London as a normal British teenager\".\n\n\"I think most people will say that, frankly, we owe her nothing. She got herself into this mess and frankly it's down to her to work out how she's going to get out of it,\" he said.\n\nAccording to Ms Begum's account, the preparation for her and two other girls from Bethnal Green to join IS in Raqqa involved their own research as well as explicit instructions from the terror group's members. One of the girls later died and the other is also believed to have been killed in Syria.\n\nShe said there were \"people online telling us and, like, advising us on what to do and what not to do\", with \"a long list of detailed instructions\", including what cover story to use if they were caught.\n\nBut she added the information they searched for on the internet themselves included travel costs and bits of Turkish language they would need before they crossed over the border to IS-controlled Syria.\n\nTasnime Akunjee, a lawyer who represented the families of the girls, told the BBC that he searched their rooms after they fled, looking for clues: receipts, phone bills, texts, emails.\n\n\"I've never seen anything so thoroughly dry-cleaned of evidence or information as these young teenagers managed to do themselves,\" said Mr Akunjee, a criminal lawyer with 20 years' experience. \"They must have had a great deal of trust in whoever it is that they were speaking to, to follow that, to follow their advice very, very carefully.\"\n\nHe said just one scrap of paper was found in Ms Begum's house. It was a shopping list, detailing items they would need for their trip to the IS caliphate and how much they cost - a phone for £75, socks for £4, taxi for £100 - with a name or an initial of one of the girls next to each.\n\nMs Begum, centre, says she \"probably looked guilty\" passing through Gatwick Airport, but no one noticed\n\nMs Begum denied the list was hers, saying it had been left by Amira, one of the other girls.\n\n\"We tried so hard to clear up our tracks and just one of us was stupid,\" she said.\n\nMs Begum said they tried to pack light for the journey. \"People used to say like, pack nice clothes so you can dress nicely for your husband but I don't know,\" she said, referring to the fact that they were expected to marry IS fighters.\n\nWhile they showed sophistication in concealing their intentions to join IS, other aspects of their planning betrayed the age of the teenage runaways.\n\nMs Begum said she stocked up with chocolate bars that she knew she would not be able to buy in Syria: \"about 30\" mint Aero bars.\n\n\"You can find a lot of things in this country but you cannot find mint chocolate,\" she said.\n\nOne woman who went to school with Ms Begum said she had been \"a ghost\", who was quiet and kept to a small friendship group.\n\nMs Begum says her family \"thought I was too, like, weak to do something so crazy, so they did not think in a million years I could do that\" - referring to her recruitment by IS.\n\n\"I've always been a more secluded person. That's why it's so hard the way my life has turned out being all over the media because I'm not a person that likes a lot of attention on me,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe Shamima Begum Story podcast is available on BBC Sounds and a feature length documentary will be on BBC iPlayer from early February.", "The NSPCC has investigated the growing use of VR headsets and the potential risks for children\n\nPaedophiles are using VR headsets to view and store child abuse imagery, crime figures show for the first time.\n\nThe NSPCC obtained the data after a Freedom of Information request to all 45 forces in the UK about numbers of child abuse image offences.\n\nIt found forces had recorded eight offences involving headsets and VR.\n\nThe charity is warning the growing use of virtual reality headsets to explore the so-called Metaverse exposes children to new risks online.\n\nSir Peter Wanless, the NSPCC's chief executive, said: \"We hear from young people who feel powerless and let down as sexual abuse risks becoming normalised.\"\n\nVR headsets allow access to a variety of virtual games, chat rooms and experiences, sometimes known as the \"Metaverse\".\n\nMark Zuckerberg founded Meta, embracing the idea of the Metaverse. He believes VR is an important part of the company's future and has invested billions in the technology.\n\nThe UK government expects the spending on virtual and augmented reality technology to reach more than £60bn by 2030.\n\nCatherine Allen is an expert on VR and CEO of an immersive technology company, Limina Immersive.\n\nShe said: \"This is an emerging, fast growing threat that politicians and technology companies need to take seriously.\n\n\"Online offenders will flock to places where there is little scrutiny or regulation and we can see this happening in VR.\"\n\nThe government says that VR headsets and the Metaverse are covered by the Online Safety Bill, which is going through the Lords at the moment.\n\nA spokesman from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said if platforms failed to protect children, \"companies will face huge fines and could face criminal sanctions against senior managers\".\n\nThe figures involving VR are, however, small compared to the overall picture.\n\nThey showed a record 30,925 number of offences were committed in the year 2021/2022, involving the possession and sharing of indecent images of children.\n\nThe NSPCC warned that \"unregulated social media is fuelling the unprecedented scale\" of the problem.\n\nSir Peter said the figures were \"incredibly alarming\", but \"reflect just the tip of the iceberg of what children are experiencing online\".\n\nSocial media or gaming sites were named in 9,888 offences.\n\nSnapchat was named in 4,293 offences, Instagram in 1,363, Facebook in 1,361, and messaging platform WhatsApp in 547.\n\nFrom its inception, VR and augmented reality has been used legally in the world of commercial adult sex work.\n\nIt has been argued that it would only be a matter of time before the same technology was used to groom and sexually exploit children, as well as to share illegal content.\n\nThe BBC first found in 2017 that VR headsets were being used to sexually exploit children.\n\nIn this instance, a man based in Egypt was advertising the sale of child abuse images and videos online.\n\nHe offered that material in VR, with a price tag of $160 (£132). He claimed that the footage was shot using a 360 degree camera, and offered \"technical support\".\n\nIn 2022, the BBC reported that a Metaverse app allowed children to enter strip clubs.\n\nThe NSPCC is calling on the government to create a statutory child safety advocate through the Online Safety Bill.\n\nA spokesman for the Department of Culture Media and Sport said the Bill included \"tough, world leading measures\" to protect children.\n\nIn a statement, Snapchat said: \"Snap has dedicated teams around the world working closely with police, experts and industry partners.\"\n\nIt added that if sexual content exploiting children is discovered, \"we immediately remove it, delete the account and report the offender to the authorities\".\n\nMeta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and the Meta Quest headset, said: \"This horrific content is banned on our apps.\"\n\n\"We lead the industry in the development and use of technology to prevent and remove this content,\" a spokesperson added.", "Julia, who has severe mobility issues and home care debts of £4,700, fears bailiffs will be called\n\nMore than 60,000 adults with disabilities and long-term illnesses in England were chased for debts by councils last year after failing to pay for their social care support at home.\n\nClaimants told the BBC they can't afford the charges amid rising food and rent prices, along with the additional costs of living with disabilities.\n\nCouncils took legal action against 330 people in 2021-22.\n\nThe Local Government Association said such action was a \"last option\".\n\nCouncils ask social care recipients to contribute towards the home care they receive in nearly all areas of England, but previous BBC research found charges had risen by thousands of pounds a year for some adults.\n\nSome disabled people have now told the BBC they felt they had little choice but to live without home care, while others said they feared bailiffs being called in over unpaid debts.\n\nCampaign group Disabled People Against Cuts said the charges were discriminatory, leaving disabled people \"to live on very, very little money\".\n\nIt said financial assessments were too often rushed by stretched local authorities, and they had sometimes not been updated to include recent hikes in energy bills and rent.\n\nIn many cases, the campaign group said councils also failed to account for all the additional expenses disabled people face in maintaining their health and wellbeing, such as accessible transport, adapted clothing or special dietary requirements.\n\nOnly people who have the highest need for help, and savings or assets of less than £23,250, are eligible for council-subsidised care in England.\n\nPaula Robinson, from Greater Manchester, says she was \"shocked and distraught\" to receive a letter from her council warning of potential legal action, even while she was appealing against the increased charges that drove her into £3,000 of debt.\n\nShe has ME - also known as chronic fatigue syndrome - and an endocrine disorder, and says the stress of the debt led her to question whether \"life's worth living\".\n\nThe amount the council charged for her social care package - including visits from carers who prepared meals and helped with bathing - had risen by more than £4,000 a year, from £10 a week to £93 a week.\n\nPaula lives on benefits and says the increased charges \"wiped out\" her ability to pay for vitamins and physiotherapy that help ease her ME.\n\nBut, still facing the higher charges of £93 a week, Paula decided to decline any further social care and now lives without home support.\n\nShe said this has led to a deterioration in her physical health.\n\n\"I can't even have family to visit sometimes, because I'm too ill,\" she said\n\nRochdale Borough Council said it uses full financial assessments to ensure payments are fair, and takes a \"sensitive, case-by-case approach\" to recovering debt.\n\nRick Burgess, from Disabled People Against Cuts, said some assessments did not take into account hikes in the cost of living\n\nData from 79 of 152 local authorities in England - obtained by the BBC through Freedom of Information requests - shows that councils began more than 60,000 debt collection procedures against social care claimants living in the community in 2021-22.\n\nOne of those worrying about enforcement action is Julia, who has severe mobility issues and a rare skin condition, and receives 13 hours of support each week at her home in St Leonards-on-Sea.\n\nJulia, who lives on benefits, says she is unable to afford the charges of more than £58 a week, and was taken to court last year by her local authority for a debt of £4,700.\n\nShe is now fearful that bailiffs will be used against her.\n\n\"I'm always trying to be positive, but the fight is wearing me out and making me more ill,\" she said.\n\nEast Sussex County Council said the debt recovery process \"will only ever begin after extensive discussions and assessments\".\n\nCampaigner Rick Burgess, from Disabled People Against Cuts, is now calling for all councils to update claimants' assessment to reflect the rising cost of living, and to put in place better support for those struggling with repayments.\n\nCouncillor David Fothergill of the Local Government Association, which represents councils in England, told the BBC rising demand and squeezed budgets meant councils had to collect money owed, but that legal action was a last resort.\n\n\"What councils should be doing, and I think the vast majority of councils do in the vast majority of cases, is they work with residents to find a solution [for how the debt can be settled].\"\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said regulations ensured local authorities leave claimants with a set amount of money to live off once their social care charges have been paid - known as the \"minimum income guarantee\".\n\nThe amount changes to meet different people's circumstances. Single claimants over the state pension age currently have a protected income of £194.70 a week.\n\nApproaches to social care charging differ across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where expected contributions are lower than in most councils in England.", "There is a more conciliatory mood in the air.\n\nThe tone and the tenor of what ministers and their teams are saying feels a little warmer.\n\nBut that doesn't mean all of these strikes are suddenly going to stop.\n\nIn the talks ministers have offered, the government is pointedly not saying anything is off the table.\n\n\"We won't start putting limitations on these talks,\" is how one senior figure put it to me.\n\nIn other words, maybe just maybe, doing something about pay for this financial year as well as next.\n\nThe Health Secretary for England Steve Barclay will meet the Royal College of Nursing on Wednesday and there will be further meetings in the coming days.\n\nHe believes there has been \"a more constructive dialogue\" since Christmas, as it was put to me, with a better atmosphere and plenty of meetings which have allowed for this breakthrough.\n\nBut an attempt by the Department for Education to pull off something similar - avoiding the strikes in parts of England and across Wales next week - didn't work. The National Education Union has said \"no\" because the offer isn't good enough.\n\nThe context of what is happening here is important.\n\nThere is an ongoing discussion about the next financial year's pay deals, starting in April.\n\nThe Treasury says anything above 5% would risk fuelling inflation. But it says 3.5% is affordable.\n\nBut the independent Pay Review Bodies are likely to recommend more and the government has repeatedly put great store on accepting their recommendations.\n\nAnd inflation is expected to fall.\n\nThe factors that might help start to bring some of these disputes towards resolution may be slowly assembling.\n\nThe unions, though, point out many of their members have had real terms pay cuts for year after year.\n\nAnd offers that may amount, to them, to be less bad than they have been but still not great won't prompt jubilation.\n\nSo these developments might amount to a turning point.\n\nBut it's far from the end.", "The attack happened at the St Thomas d'Aquin school in south-west France\n\nA high school student has stabbed a teacher to death in a school in the French town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz.\n\nFrench government spokesman Olivier Véran confirmed Wednesday's attack and said the perpetrator was 16 years old.\n\nPolice attended Saint-Thomas d'Aquin school with the local prosecutor, where the student was arrested.\n\nFrench newspaper Sud Ouest said the attacker entered the classroom while the teacher was giving a Spanish class and attacked her.\n\nThe teacher was in her 50s and died of cardiac arrest after emergency services arrived at the school, local media reported.\n\nFrench TV station BFM said the attacker locked the classroom door and stabbed the teacher in her chest.\n\nLocal prosecutor Jerome Bourrier said that an investigation had been opened by local police for assassination and the suspect was in custody. He added that the suspect was not known to the police or the justice system.\n\nThe prosecutor will give a news conference on Thursday afternoon to give further details about the investigation.\n\nFrance's Education Minister Pap Ndiaye called the attack \"a tragedy of extreme gravity\" and expressed his condolences.\n\n\"Today is a time of emotion and a time for solidarity,\" he said on a visit to the school. \"The whole nation is present here to express its sorrow and emotion.\"\n\nLocal media reported the student might have been suffering from mental health issues. They said at this stage of the investigation there was no suggestion the incident was terror-related.\n\nIn a news conference, Mr Véran said the government would support educators across the country in the wake of the incident.\n\n\"I can hardly imagine the trauma that this represents,\" he said.\n\nThe school is a private, Catholic establishment near the centre of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a well known French summer holiday location.\n\nBy lunchtime, students who had been told to remain in their classrooms were able to leave the school and many were collected by their parents.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nBlocking clubs from joining a breakaway European Super League will be among the powers held by English football's new independent regulator.\n\nThe plan for a regulator, recommended by a fan-led review last year, has been confirmed by the UK government.\n\nPreventing historic clubs going out of business is one of the aims, as well as giving fans greater input and a new owners' and directors' test.\n\nThe main purposes of the proposed new regulator will be:\n• None Stopping English clubs from joining closed-shop competitions, which are judged to harm the domestic game\n• None Preventing a repeat of financial failings seen at numerous clubs, notably the collapses of Bury and Macclesfield\n• None Introducing a more stringent owners' and directors' test to protect clubs and fans\n• None Giving fans power to stop owners changing a club's name, badge and traditional kit colours\n• None Ensuring a fair distribution of money filters down the English football pyramid from the Premier League\n\n\"The English game remains one of the UK's greatest cultural exports, with clubs and leagues around the world modelling themselves on its success,\" the government said before its white paper on football governance - a policy document which outlines the proposed legislation - is released on Thursday.\n\n\"That is why the government is today taking the necessary and targeted steps to ensure that continues for generations.\"\n• None Does English football need regulator? Listen to Voice of the UK on BBC Sounds\n\nThe Premier League was understood to be wary of a regulatory body when the proposals were announced in April last year.\n\nThe league says it is \"vital\" a regulator does not lead to any \"unintended consequences\" that could affect its global appeal and success.\n\nWhat will the regulator cover?\n\nSix English clubs - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - were among a dozen from across the continent that announced plans to form a European Super League in a shock move in April 2021.\n\nIt sparked a tumultuous few days in English and European football.\n\nFans quickly demonstrated their anger at the plan outside English clubs' stadiums - with similarly vitriolic protests taking place across Europe - forcing the Premier League clubs to back down and apologise.\n\nDespite the U-turn, the debate over the future of top-level European football has continued.\n\n\"The regulator will have the power to prevent English clubs from joining new competitions that do not meet a predetermined criteria, in consultation with the FA and fans,\" said the government.\n\n\"That criteria could include measures to stop clubs participating in closed-shop breakaway competitions which harm the domestic game, such as the European Super League.\"\n\nA new licensing system will require every club - from the Premier League to the National League - to prove it has a sustainable business model implemented by responsible custodians as part of an application process.\n\nIf clubs are not granted a license by the regulator, they will not be allowed to compete.\n\nAnother key power of the regulator will be ensuring fans have a greater say in their club's strategic decisions.\n\nMoves by owners which may prove controversial - for example, changing the name, badge and traditional kit colours, or moving stadium - will not be allowed to be made before consulting fans.\n\nIt will \"put fans back at the heart of how football is run\", says the government.\n\nThe test to determine the suitability of owners and directors of English clubs has long been under scrutiny.\n\nThe regulator will introduce an \"enhanced\" test which will operate alongside the current process implemented by the Premier League, Football League and Football Association.\n\nAccording to the government, it will lead to \"ensuring good custodians of clubs, stronger due diligence on sources of wealth and a requirement for robust financial planning\".\n\nThe suitability of Premier League's owners' and directors' test has been criticised in the past, most recently following the Saudi Arabian-backed takeover of Newcastle.\n\nAmnesty International urged the league to change the test to address human rights issues, with the Saudi state accused of human rights abuses.\n\nA bid for Manchester United by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, the chairman of one of Qatar's biggest banks, has also raised concerns among human rights and LGBTQ+ groups.\n\nRequirements that currently prohibit someone from becoming an owner or director of a Premier League club include criminal convictions, a ban by a sporting or professional body or breaches of key football regulations such as match-fixing.\n\nThe regulator will have backstop powers to impose a new financial settlement, which effectively means it can force the Premier League to share more money across the pyramid.\n\nEFL chairman Rick Parry wants a 25% share of pooled broadcast revenue with the Premier League, merit-based payments across all four divisions, and the abolition of 'parachute payments' to teams relegated from the top flight.\n\nBut the EFL has told its clubs it is \"not hopeful\" of securing the settlement it is looking for.\n\nWhile discussions between the bodies are ongoing, the new regulator will force arbitration if an agreement is not reached.\n\n\"The Premier League remains the envy of club competitions around the world and the government remains fully behind its continued success,\" said the government.\n\n\"But in order to secure the financial sustainability of clubs at all levels, a solution led by those running the leagues and their clubs is needed, and remains the government's preferred outcome.\n\n\"However, if the football authorities cannot reach an agreement the regulator would have targeted powers of last resort to intervene and facilitate an agreement as and when necessary.\"\n\nThe Premier League has said it gives away 15% of its revenue already and in 2020 also agreed a £250m rescue package to help ease the financial challenge faced by EFL clubs as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nParachute payments are solidarity payments made to help relegated sides adjust to lower revenues. Clubs receive 55% of the amount each Premier League side get as part of a share of broadcast revenue in the first year after relegation, followed by 45% in year two and 20% in year three.\n\nThe payments have been criticised for creating 'yo-yo' clubs and financial disparity between sides in the Championship.\n\nWhy was this move necessary?\n\nThe need for the introduction of a regulatory body in English football has divided opinion.\n\nBut its creation is seen as one of the most radical transformations of the game's governance since Sheffield FC was formed in 1857.\n\nLast year's fan-led review was chaired by former sports minister Tracey Crouch following a number of high-profile crises in the sport.\n\nThe government initially promised a fan-led review in its 2019 general election manifesto after Bury were expelled from League One following the collapse of a takeover bid.\n\nThe review was brought forward as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused matches to be held behind closed doors and affected revenue, along with the failed attempt to launch a 12-team European Super League in 2021.\n\nThe review's recommendations seek to address concerns over the financial disparity between the Premier League and the Championship, with clubs in the second tier breaching profitability and sustainability rules in attempts to gain promotion.\n\nWhat has the reaction been?\n\nUK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the \"bold new plans\" would put fans \"back at the heart of football\".\n\n\"Since its inception over 165 years ago, English football has been bringing people together, providing a source of pride for communities and inspiration to millions of fans across the country,\" he said.\n\n\"Yet despite the success of the sport both at home and abroad, we know that there are real challenges which threaten the stability of clubs both big and small.\n\n\"The new plans will protect the rich heritage and traditions of our much-loved clubs and safeguard the beautiful game for future generations.\"\n\nSports minister Stuart Andrew told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"There's a lot to celebrate about English football. It is hugely successful in many areas. But there is no doubt some serious problems do exist.\n\n\"The fan-led review spent a considerable amount of time getting evidence about the experiences many fans had with their individual clubs and it's clear some of them are not being managed well.\n\n\"We had hoped football would sort this problem out themselves, but frankly they haven't.\"\n\nLabour welcomed the move for a independent regulator but shadow culture, media and sport secretary Lucy Powell MP said the Conservative government should have published the white paper sooner.\n\n\"Fans are desperate for a say on the future of their clubs and the game. We can afford no further delay,\" she said.\n\n\"The government should urgently bring forward legislation, or take responsibility for any clubs that go under, spiral into decline or which are bought by unsuitable new owners, in the years they've wasted bringing the regulator.\"\n\nKevin Miles, chief executive of the Football Supporters' Association, said the group \"warmly welcomed\" the introduction of a regulator.\n\n\"The football governance white paper clearly addresses our key concerns around ownership, rogue competitions and sustainability,\" Miles said.\n\n\"We support any proposals that offer fans a greater voice in the running of their clubs.\"\n\nThe Premier League said it appreciated the government's \"commitment\" to protecting the league's success, but cautioned: \"It is vital regulation does not damage the game or its ability to attract investment and grow interest.\"\n\nA statement added that the league would work \"constructively\" with stakeholders to ensure the regulator \"does not lead to any unintended consequences that could affect the Premier League's position as the most-watched football league in the world\".\n\nCrystal Palace co-owner Steve Parish said there would be \"a lot of intense detail to work out\" from the proposals.\n\n\"It is unprecedented, we will be the only sporting industry to be regulated by the government,\" he told BBC Newsnight.\n\n\"Of course there is a lot of fantastic broad brushstrokes in the press release and the white paper, but the devil will be in the detail.\"\n\nThe English Football League said it supported the proposals around enhanced regulation.\n\n\"The EFL has been clear that the English game needs a fundamental financial reset in order make the game sustainable,\" a statement read.\n\n\"The white paper represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity that must be seized to address the systemic issues that football has been unable to sort itself over the last 30 years.\"\n\nFootball Association chief executive Mark Bullingham highlighted the recommendation to increase funding of the grassroots game as being an important part of football's long-term future.\n\n\"The white paper rightly focus on ensuring our game moves forward with well-run clubs operating on a more sustainable financial footing,\" Maheta Molango, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said.\n\n\"We will work to ensure that the important mechanisms and structures that exist to protect players' rights and conditions are properly understood and maintained as part of any future financial reforms in the game.\"\n\nAugust 2019: Bury were expelled from League One following the collapse of a takeover bid.\n\nDecember 2019: Conservatives promise a fan-led review in its 2019 general election manifesto in response to Bury's demise.\n\n2020-21 season: Covid-19 pandemic causes matches to be held behind closed doors, affecting revenue.\n\nApril 2021: A proposed European Super League, involving six Premier League clubs, collapses within days amid widespread condemnation from other clubs and players as well as governing bodies, politicians and fans.\n\nOctober 2021: Amnesty International urges changes to the Premier League owners' and directors' test \"to address human rights issues\" following the Saudi Arabian-backed takeover of Newcastle United.\n\nNovember 2021: An independent regulator is among 10 recommendations made by a fan-led review, chaired by former Sports Minister Tracey Crouch, on how to improve football governance.\n\nMarch 2022: Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is sanctioned by the UK government as part of its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Abramovich selling the club to American businessman Todd Boehly in May.\n\nNovember 2022: Representatives of 29 clubs write to the government urging it to press on with plans for an independent football regulator.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Doctors and nurses would receive a 3.5% pay increase under government recommendations\n\nThe government has recommended offering millions of public sector workers below inflation pay increases.\n\nJudges, police officers, teachers, nurses doctors and dentists in England will be offered a 3.5% pay increase under proposals.\n\nThe recommendations will now be considered by independent pay review bodies.\n\nPublic sector workers are holding strike action after rejecting last year's pay deal.\n\nVarious government departments published their evidence to pay review bodies for the 2023-24 financial year, starting in April.\n\nThe Treasury says anything above 5% would risk fuelling inflation. But it says 3.5% is affordable.\n\nThe independent pay review bodies are likely to recommend more and the government has repeatedly put great store on accepting their recommendations, says BBC Political Editor Chris Mason.\n\nInflation is also expected to fall.\n\nThe GMB union called the pay offer a \"disgrace\" which will not prevent ongoing ambulance strikes.\n\nThe proposal \"shows this government's true colours\", Rachel Harrison, GMB's national secretary, said.\n\n\"Ambulance workers - and others across the NHS including cleaners, porters and care workers- who are the backbone of the health service deserve better.\n\n\"Ministers have no intentions of recognising the true value of the entire workforce.\"\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing has called off next week's 48-hour strike in England to re-start talks with the government following the new pay recommendations.\n\nEducation Secretary Gillian Keegan has written to the National Education Union urging it to call off teachers strikes next week across the North of England if it wants to negotiate pay.\n\nNEU joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said there was \"nothing substantial\" in the education secretary's letter and the strikes would go ahead.\n\nBut he added: \"Our national executive meets on Saturday, they could change that decision.\n\n\"There is time for the [Department for Education] to make clear that they will talk about pay rises for this school year and would fund those potential pay rises.\n\n\"There is time for them to tell us they are willing to move beyond a 3% pay rise for next September and to fund such pay rises\".\n\nLatest figures show for inflation was 10.1% in January, down from 10.5% in December 2022.\n\nSara Gorton, head of health at the union Unison, said: \"If the government was actively trying to worsen the crisis in the NHS, it couldn't have done better than this.\n\n\"Vacancies are at an all-time high and this pitiful pay suggestion does nothing to solve the growing staffing emergency.\"", "The Lords Committee called for more investment in engineers, citing Octopus Energy's new heat pump training centre\n\nThe government's flagship green heating scheme has been described as \"seriously failing\" by a Lords inquiry.\n\nThe Boiler Upgrade Scheme grants households £5,000 to help switch from a gas boiler to a low-carbon heat pump.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Lords Climate Change Committee said grant take-up is so low the national target for green heating is \"very unlikely to be met\".\n\nThe government responded by saying it would launch a marketing campaign to make people more aware of the scheme.\n\nHeating in UK homes produces nearly 17% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions, which are responsible for climate change.\n\nTo meet the UK's climate change targets, the government wants to install 600,000 low-carbon heat pumps annually within five years - currently only 50,000 are installed annually.\n\nThe Boiler Upgrade Scheme was meant to kick-start the heat pump industry in England and Wales, and reduce the cost of installation for homeowners.\n\nBut in her letter to the government, Baroness Parminter, chair of the Lords Committee, heavily criticised ministers for not doing more to raise awareness of the scheme - which is on track to issue just half of the allocated grants.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"The scheme isn't working as well as it needs to. It is absolutely critical that the government boosts public awareness... we need to give people the confidence to know about why these changes are important.\"\n\nSwitching to heat pumps should reduce emissions as the UK moves towards renewable energy. Based on current forecast costs heat pumps may be cheaper to run, but energy prices can fluctuate.\n\nAnthony Hibbs got a heat pump installed in his new-build home in Newcastle-under-Lyme through the scheme last year. He told the BBC his new heating system was \"absolutely brilliant\".\n\nBut he said finding information on installers and the scheme was difficult: \"I had to look online and do a lot of research. It wasn't easy at first and I have never seen the scheme advertised as such.\"\n\nThe government's own research from Autumn 2022 shows 80% of people in the UK did not know what a heat pump was, let alone were aware of the scheme.\n\nAnthony Hibbs said the Boiler Upgrade Scheme made a heat pump affordable for his family\n\nA government spokesperson told the BBC: \"We've recently launched a marketing campaign to further increase public awareness and will consider options to ensure our targets are met.\"\n\nJohn Taylor, 71, another recipient of the BUS voucher, also said the government needed to make it clearer which installers to use: \"I searched online and found cowboys out there. There is not a lot of guidance leading you to decent people - you are on your own.\"\n\nThere are an estimated 3,000 heat pump installers in the UK compared to 130,000 registered gas heating engineers.\n\nThe committee said the government is funding some training places for installers but needed to give more certainty to engineers that it is worth investing their time in getting retrained.\n\nThe problems with the scheme are reminiscent of the government's previous Green Homes Grant which was meant to support households with energy efficiency measures like insulation, but was scrapped after less than a year in 2021 for lack of installers.\n\nBut Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Octopus Energy, which was praised by the Committee for its investment in heat pump design and training, said the scheme had boosted confidence in the industry and Octopus Energy has 50,000 people on its waiting list for a heat pump.\n\nShe said: \"Government and business need to work together on this, we hope the grant will continue.\n\n\"We know we can generate demand, and the grant would help people with the cost… it's kind of a perfect relationship.\"\n\nThe committee has said that for lower- and middle-income households the grant is not enough, and they are being put off by the higher upfront costs of installing a heat pump compared to a gas boiler.\n\nEven with the grant, Mr Taylor and Mr Hibbs spent £8,500 and £6,000 respectively on their heat pumps.\n\nStew Horne, head of policy at The Energy Savings Trust told the BBC: \"That upfront cost is a real issue, and policy has to focus on addressing that... through grants or low-cost loans or through green finance.\"\n\nHe said that model was not new and was already being used in Scotland, where they also offer a free energy advice service to help households navigate installing a new heating system.\n\nCountries like France and Germany have also pledged twice as much money to their low carbon heating schemes and offer larger grants for low-income households up to £9,700 to make heat pumps more affordable.\n\nIn her letter to government Baroness Parminter said additional support and funding needed to be offered to households, similar to the schemes in France\n\nThe Lords Committee for Environment and Climate Change said the government needed to expand the programme to match this scale and also guarantee that the unspent funding from Year 1 of the BUS - which they estimate at about £75m - would roll over to subsequent years.\n\nThe government declined to comment on what would happen to this unspent funding.\n\nBaroness Parminter told the BBC she had made it very clear to government: \"They have got to get that money back. It is not going to be acceptable if the underspend in the first year somehow disappears back to the treasury. The money was set aside for a good purpose.\"\n\nCorrection 17 July 2023: An earlier version of this article suggested homes will be cheaper to heat using heat pumps but did not take energy prices into account which may fluctuate.", "Intensive talks are due to start later between ministers and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) after the union halted next week's 48-hour strike in England.\n\nHealth Secretary Stephen Barclay will sit down with RCN leader Pat Cullen to discuss a compromise deal to end the stand-off over pay.\n\nThe talks are likely to focus on next year's pay rise, which is due in April.\n\nOne option is to backdate it by several months, effectively giving nurses an extra pay boost for part of this year.\n\nNurses - and other NHS staff except doctors - were given an average of 4.75% this year.\n\nThat award had prompted a wave of strikes by unions representing nurses, ambulance staff and physios, who wanted an above-inflation increase.\n\nThe Treasury has refused to sanction any revisiting of that award, fearing it would fuel inflation.\n\nBut the resumption of talks came after the government set out its plan for next year's pay award.\n\nIt has suggested an increase of 3.5% for all NHS staff in its submission to the independent NHS Pay Review Body.\n\nThe final offer though could be higher - in previous years the pay review body has recommended more than the government initially offered, to which the government has subsequently agreed.\n\nIf next year's pay award is backdated to before April, it would effectively mean a double boost in pay for those months.\n\nSpeaking ahead of the talks, Ms Cullen said: \"We will put our plans on the table, they can put their plans on the table - but I'm confident that we will come out with a fair pay settlement for our nursing staff.\"\n\nShe added they would make sure no stone was left unturned and a fair pay deal was reached as quickly as possible so they could end the strikes.\n\nGovernment sources said they were delighted to be back talking again and were determined to reach a \"fair and reasonable settlement\".\n\nOther health unions said they were disappointed not to have been invited to the discussions.\n\nA spokesman for one, Unison, said the government's decision to meet just the RCN alone - and not them as well - would do \"nothing to solve the NHS pay dispute\".\n\nAs the talks were taking place, the union announced a walkout across nine of England's 10 ambulance services on 8 March. A smaller number of other services, including hospitals and NHS Blood and Transplant, will also be involved.\n\nNext week's walkout by RCN members in England, from 1 to 3 March, was set to be the biggest strike of this winter's pay dispute, with half of frontline services affected.\n\nThe action would have included nursing staff from intensive care units, cancer care and other services that were previously exempted.\n\nSir Julian Hartley, chief executive at NHS Providers which represents health managers, said the NHS would be \"breathing a sign of relief\".\n\n\"The past weeks have seen a worrying escalation of industrial action, which has hit patients hard. This is the glimmer of hope we all needed,\" he added.\n\nThe NHS, however, faces further industrial action from unions representing ambulance drivers and junior doctors, and more strike dates could yet be announced.\n\nThe Scottish government has offered NHS staff - including nurses - a new pay offer for the coming year which includes a one-off payment and an average salary rise of 6.5% from April.\n\nIn Wales, nurses are currently being balloted over a new pay deal from the Welsh government, and the RCN has put some planned walkouts for February on hold.", "Rowling said she had received \"direct threats of violence\" as a result of her stance\n\nHarry Potter author JK Rowling has said she is not concerned about how the backlash to her position on transgender issues will affect her legacy.\n\nShe said anyone who thinks she is has \"profoundly\" misunderstood her.\n\nShe has been called transphobic for her views on gender identity and allowing trans women into women-only spaces.\n\nRowling told a new podcast she \"never meant to upset anyone\", but added: \"However, I was not uncomfortable with getting off my pedestal.\"\n\nReferring to fans who claim she has \"ruined\" her legacy, the writer said they \"could not have misunderstood me more profoundly\".\n\n\"I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy,\" she continued.\n\n\"What a pompous way to live your life, walking around thinking, what will my legacy be? Whatever, I'll be dead. I care about now. I care about the living.\"\n\nRowling has attracted extensive criticism for a series of comments voicing concerns about how trans issues affect women's rights, and her opposition to Scotland's gender recognition bill.\n\nIn an essay on her website in 2020, she wrote: \"When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman… you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside.\"\n\nHer position has been interpreted by some as transphobic, leading to calls for a boycott of the Harry Potter franchise, ranging from its books and movies to the blockbuster video game Hogwarts Legacy.\n\nRalph Fiennes, who played Lord Voldemort, came to the author's defence, calling the abuse she has received \"disgusting\" and \"appalling\".\n\nShe has denied being transphobic, saying she respects \"every trans person's right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them\" and that she wants trans people to be free from discrimination and abuse.\n\nStars including Eddie Izzard and Helena Bonham Carter have also said they do not consider Rowling's views to be transphobic, but reflective of her own experience of abuse.\n\nDaniel Radcliffe is among the stars who have distanced themselves from JK Rowling\n\nIn the podcast, titled The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, the author said she had also received \"direct threats of violence\" as a result of her stance.\n\n\"I have had people coming to my house where my kids live, and I've had my address posted online. I've had what the police, anyway, would regard as credible threats.\"\n\nRowling later said many questions do not necessarily have clear-cut answers.\n\n\"There is a huge appeal, and I try to show this in the Potter books, to black and white thinking.\n\n\"It's the easiest place to be and in many ways it's the safest place to be. If you take an all-or-nothing position on anything, you will definitely find comrades, you will easily find a community. 'I've sworn allegiance to this one simple idea.'\n\n\"What I've tried to show in the Potter books, and what I feel strongly myself, is that we should mistrust ourselves most when we are certain.\"\n\nThe Witch Trials of JK Rowling is a seven-part series presented by Megan Phelps-Roper, who was raised for 26 years in the extremist Westboro Baptist Church, before escaping in 2012.\n\nThe first two episodes, released on Tuesday, attempt to draw parallels between the Christian fundamentalists who sought to ban the Harry Potter books in the early 2000s, and the activists who are criticising Rowling today.\n\nAsked about the protesters who burned her books in the early 2000s, claiming they promoted witchcraft, Rowling said: \"Book burners, by definition, have placed themselves across a line of rational debate.\n\n\"There is no book on this planet that I would burn, including books that I do think are damaging. Burning, to me, is the last resort of people who cannot argue.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRishi Sunak has sidestepped questions about what a deal with the European Union on post-Brexit trading agreements for Northern Ireland could look like.\n\nDuring PMQs, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer challenged Mr Sunak over whether Northern Ireland would still be subject to some EU laws.\n\nMr Sunak said \"intensive discussions\" with the EU were ongoing.\n\nAsked if MPs would get a vote on any deal, Mr Sunak said Parliament would be able to \"express its view\".\n\nLegally, the government only has to offer MPs a vote on any changes in limited circumstances but it will face pressure to give backbenchers a say.\n\nLabour has said it would back the government in a vote. However, the prime minister could still face a rebellion from Brexit-supporting Conservative MPs.\n\nMany in the European Research Group of Tory backbenchers are opposed to the EU's top court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), having a future role in overseeing any agreement.\n\nWhen Sir Keir pressed the prime minister over whether this would be the case, Mr Sunak said the Labour leader was talking about a deal that was still being finalised and \"he hasn't even seen\".\n\nHe accused Sir Keir of wanting to give the EU \"a blank cheque and agree to anything they offer\".\n\n\"It's not a strategy, that's surrender,\" he added.\n\nMr Sunak told MPs: \"I am a Conservative, a Brexiter and a unionist, and any agreement that we reach needs to tick all three boxes.\n\n\"It needs to ensure sovereignty for Northern Ireland, it needs to safeguard Northern Ireland's place in our union, and it needs to find practical solutions to the problems faced by people and businesses.\"\n\nSir Keir said Mr Sunak was not being \"honest\" with Tory MPs and \"pulling the wool over their eyes\".\n\nThe prime minister also refused to confirm whether, if a deal was secured, he would drop the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.\n\nThe legislation, which is currently paused in Parliament, would give the government powers to unilaterally scrap parts of the treaty and has been a source of tension with the EU.\n\nThe protocol, which came into effect in 2021, aims to ensure free movement of goods across the Irish land border by conducting checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain instead.\n\nUnionist parties oppose the current rules and argue that placing an effective border across the Irish Sea undermines Northern Ireland's place within the UK.\n\nNegotiations to try and resolve issues with the treaty have been going on for more than a year, and there were suggestions a resolution could come this week.\n\nHowever, progress appears to have stalled and the leader of Northern Ireland's largest unionist party, the DUP, has said \"there are still some very key issues that need to be resolved\".\n\nThe party is preventing a devolved government being formed in Northern Ireland in protest until its concerns have been addressed.\n\nA majority of members of the Stormont assembly are in favour of the protocol in some form remaining in place.\n\nSinn Féin, the Alliance Party and the SDLP have said improvements to the protocol are needed to ease its implementation.\n\nDuring PMQs, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said it was \"unacceptable that EU laws are imposed on Northern Ireland with no democratic scrutiny or consent\" and called for the legally binding treaty text to be rewritten.\n\nMr Sunak said he had heard the demands \"loud and clear\", adding that \"addressing the democratic deficit is an essential part of the negotiations\".\n\nThe BBC's Jessica Parker says that Brussels has insisted that renegotiating the text is a no-go, arguing sufficient flexibilities can be found within the existing treaty.\n\nThe UK has previously called for rewriting of the agreement, but it seems more likely at this stage that a fresh legal text will \"overlay\" the deal.\n\nThat way, the EU can say it has stuck to its guns of \"no renegotiation\" but the UK can say that the new agreement has changed the primary treaty and the way it operates.\n\nMeanwhile, the prime minister has held a video call with Northern Ireland business leaders on the protocol.\n\nIt is understood he was told any new deal needs to balance the free flow of goods from Great Britain with the access to the EU market provided by the protocol.\n\nCrucially the prime minister refused to clearly answer two key questions: if his government was planning to drop its controversial Protocol Bill.\n\nAnd would Parliament get a vote on a final protocol deal?\n\nTo that question, the prime minister said MPs would be able to \"express a view\"? But is that the same as getting a vote?\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson demanded the legally binding text of the protocol needed to be rewritten to restore Northern Ireland's place in the UK.\n\nIn response, the prime minister chose his words carefully.\n\nHe said dealing with the democratic deficit was key but avoided assuring the DUP that it would be dealt with through legislation.\n\nThe DUP will judge any protocol deal on what changes in law and not what is said in the Commons chamber.", "The crashed British F-35 was deployed on HMS Queen Elizabeth\n\nThe pilot of a British fighter jet that rolled off a Royal Navy aircraft carrier has spoken of his relief at managing to eject from the £100m F-35.\n\nSpeaking soon after the incident in November 2021, the pilot, known as Hux, recalled having only seconds to react.\n\nAn official investigation concluded the sudden loss of power on take-off was probably caused by a cover being left on one of the aircraft's jet intakes.\n\nHis story is included in a BBC series called The Warship: Tour of Duty.\n\nThe documentary also reveals how the Royal Navy's HMS Queen Elizabeth ship was harassed by Russian aircraft and how it played a risky game of hide-and-seek with the Chinese Navy.\n\nThe Royal Navy pilot spoke to the film-makers shortly after he was rescued and was still suffering from cuts and bruises caused by the high-speed ejection.\n\nHe describes how the jet suddenly lost acceleration: \"I tried for emergency power - that didn't work, then I tried to slap on the brakes - that didn't work either… so I kind of knew it was going to roll off the ship.\"\n\nHux's life was saved by his ejector seat - which he describes as the most advanced in the world. That and extremely good luck.\n\nAs his parachute activated, he says he saw the sea beneath him \"and then a second later I could see the flight deck of the ship starting to appear beneath me\".\n\nHe just managed to make it on to the deck - by a few feet - before being pulled to safety. If he had not landed on the carrier, he risked being dragged under the 65,000-tonne warship.\n\nLeaked video from the ship's on-board camera showed the moment the F-35 fell into the sea.\n\nThe ejection left Hux with minor injuries to his neck\n\nAn official investigation concluded that the sudden loss of power was probably caused by a blockage - a cover mistakenly left on a jet intake.\n\nThe aircraft - the most advanced stealth fighter in the world which is operated jointly in the UK by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force - was later recovered from the sea bed to ensure it did not fall into the wrong hands.\n\nChris Terrill, who filmed the documentary, said the F-35 crash was \"a shock to everyone\", but said the response of the ship's company was \"as immediate as it was extraordinary\".\n\n\"An aircraft might have been lost but there was a pilot, a shipmate, who had to be saved,\" he said.\n\n\"Training kicked in but there was an extra energy and urgency to the sailors' execution of their emergency procedures. It was terrifying but inspiring to see.\"\n\nThe six-part series follows HMS Queen Elizabeth's eight-month, 49,000-nautical mile voyage to the Pacific Ocean and back last year.\n\nIt shows how the carrier was harried by missile-armed Russian aircraft in the eastern Mediterranean. F-35 jets are seen intercepting them to stop them getting too close to the carrier.\n\nThe documentary describes it as one step down from real combat. In the operations room a warfare officer suggests putting the Russian aircraft in their sights for a \"theoretical kill\" to warn them away.\n\nF-35s are also put on standby when another ship from the carrier strike group, HMS Defender, has an even closer encounter with the Russians while sailing in the Black Sea.\n\nIn the South China Sea, HMS Queen Elizabeth engages in a game of cat and mouse with the Chinese Navy.\n\nA Royal Navy frigate and helicopters try to find a Chinese submarine before it is able to get close enough to take a photograph from its periscope.\n\nIt is the kind of image that could be used for propaganda purposes - showing how easy it would be to target a large ship. But the submarine is successfully located using sonar before it gets too close.\n\nWarship also tells the story of life on board during one of the Royal Navy's longest deployments during the Covid pandemic, where at the height of the outbreak about 400 sailors - more than a quarter of the crew - were in isolation with either confirmed or suspected infections.\n\nWatch episodes one to five of The Warship: Tour of Duty now on BBC iPlayer. Episode six is on BBC Two this Sunday, 26 February, at 21:00 GMT.", "HIs family announced the lawsuit at the memorial where he was killed 58 years ago\n\nA daughter of murdered black civil rights activist Malcolm X says she is suing New York City Police Department and other agencies for his 1965 murder.\n\nIlyasah Shabazz says US officials fraudulently concealed evidence that they \"conspired to and executed their plan to assassinate\" her father.\n\nShe announced the planned legal action at the site where he was fatally shot in New York exactly 58 years ago.\n\nThe FBI and CIA were also named in the legal filing, a lawyer said.\n\nMrs Shabazz, 60, was two years old when she saw her father gunned down. Three armed men shot him 21 times as he was preparing to speak at a Harlem auditorium.\n\n\"For years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder,\" she said on Tuesday at the venue, which has since been converted into a memorial site, as she filed notices of claims, a precursor to a lawsuit.\n\nIlyasah Shabazz, seen with her father the year before his death\n\nAt the news conference, Benjamin Crump - the lawyer who is representing the family - alleged that powerful figures in the American government had conspired to kill Malcolm X.\n\nHe mentioned former FBI Director J Edgar Hoover throughout his remarks.\n\nMr Crump said Malcolm X's family intends to file a wrongful death lawsuit seeking damages in the range of $100m (£83m).\n\n\"It's not just about the triggermen,\" he said. \"It's about those who conspired with the triggermen to do this dastardly deed.\"\n\nThe NYPD told the BBC it would not comment on pending litigation. The FBI and CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\n\nMalcolm X was a lead spokesman for the Nation of Islam - which advocated separatism for black Americans - before his acrimonious split from the organisation. He was 39 when he was killed.\n\nOne man, a Nation of Islam member, confessed to killing him.\n\nIn 2021, two other men convicted of killing him had their convictions thrown out after a New York state judge declared there had been a miscarriage of justice.\n\nThe two men were later fully exonerated after New York's attorney general found prosecutors had withheld evidence that would have probably cleared them of the murder.\n\nFamily of the wrongly convicted men sued and won $26m from New York City and $10m from New York state.", "Dan Walker said he could have died if he had not been wearing a helmet\n\nTV presenter Dan Walker has said wearing a helmet saved his life in a bicycle crash in Sheffield.\n\nMr Walker, 45, said he was hit by a car while cycling on Monday, leaving him \"battered and bruised\".\n\nThe Channel 5 presenter, who used to work on BBC Breakfast, was taken to hospital and was \"amazed\" to have not broken any bones.\n\n\"The helmet I was wearing saved my life today so - if you're on a bike - get one on your head,\" he tweeted.\n\nMr Walker posted photos from inside a Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) vehicle alongside two members of staff, after the incident on Moore Street in Sheffield city centre on Monday morning.\n\nHe said he had been \"blown away by all the lovely messages\" he had received.\n\nMr Walker said his face was \"a mess\" after the collision\n\n\"Very thankful to still be here. I have no memory of anything and just remember coming round on the tarmac with paramedics & police around me,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"Smashed my watch & phone, ruined my trousers, my bike is a mess but I'm still here,\" he added.\n\nHe said he would be drinking food through a straw following the crash, and thanked the NHS staff for their help during his ordeal.\n\nHowever, he said since posting about the crash he had been lectured by people telling him \"bike helmets aren't important\".\n\n\"The emergency services at the scene yesterday told me I probably wouldn't be here if I wasn't wearing one,\" he added.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Pret-a-Manger has said it will stop making smoothies, frappes and milkshakes in another blow to its UK customers and drinks subscribers.\n\nThe chain had previously received thousands of complaints that not all drinks included in its £25-a-month subscription service were available.\n\nNow the blended drinks, which can be more expensive and take longer to make, will be phased out altogether.\n\nPret said they would be replaced by iced drinks by the summer.\n\nBlenders were being removed to make way for new ice machines, in what Pret called \"the biggest drinks innovation in more than five years\".\n\nSmoothies and frappes will still be available in select shops until 29 May, it said.\n\nThe chain's subscription service launched in the summer of 2020 promising five drinks a day - with 30 minutes between each order.\n\nThe drinks available included all coffees, teas, hot chocolate, fruit smoothies, milkshakes and frappes including all extras such as syrups, cream and extra shots of caffeine.\n\nBut as reported by the BBC last year, the Advertising Standards Authority received thousands of complaints about the lack of cold, blended drinks.\n\nWe spoke to staff who admitted turning off machines because of the sheer pressure to serve huge queues of subscribers. The staff said they told customers the machines were \"broken\" or \"we've run out\" or \"there haven't been any deliveries\".\n\nStaff have long complained that smoothies take far too long to make and many stores have slowly removed the blended cold drinks from the menus.\n\nOne staff member told the BBC: \"For the company it's much more expensive to provide smoothies - fruit juice, fruit - and it takes time to make them. There's far too much demand from subscribers. The company will replace them with iced drinks - not blended - which take much less time to make and are cheaper.\"\n\nCustomers have flooded social media with gripes about availability of the cold drink element of the subscription. Charlotte from Brighton said that she had noticed many local stores had told her \"the cold drinks will return in the summer\" and Thomas from London said he \"wouldn't actually mind paying a smoothie supplement on my subscription if availability was better guaranteed\".\n\nHe said: \"When I complained in the Great Peter Street branch, they muttered some nonsense about there 'not being the demand for them' despite admitting they served 600 a day. I wish they'd be more transparent rather than spouting all these tall stories\".\n\nFiona from Reading tweeted Pret about the lack of blended drinks and got the reply: \"We do switch up our menu every so often, and in order to free up space for new things we sometimes have to bid farewell to others. There's always a chance we might bring these back (especially if people ask), so we'll be sure to put in a good word with our team.\"\n\nPret had suggested frappes and smoothies would be removed from the subscription in 2021 but it told the BBC: \"There was a public outcry so Pret listened and kept them as part of the subscription.\"\n\nBut it seems that despite the demand, Pret has decided at last to drop all smoothies, frappes and milkshakes from their subscription model.\n\nThe company told the BBC: \"To get shops ready for the new range, Pret is beginning to install new ice machines in its UK shops, removing blenders to make way for them. Smoothies and frappes will still be available in select shops until 29 May.\"\n\nDo you have a drinks subscription with Pret? How will this affect you? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Asda and Morrisons are putting limits on purchases of some fruit and vegetables as supermarkets face shortages of fresh produce.\n\nAsda said it was capping sales of items such as tomatoes, peppers and lettuce at three each per customer.\n\nMorrisons said limits of two on products like cucumbers would be introduced at stores from Tuesday.\n\nHowever, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Lidl, Aldi, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer currently do not have limits in place.\n\nPictures of empty supermarket shelves have been circulating on social media, after shoppers found it hard to get some items in recent days.\n\nThe shortages - which are affecting Ireland too - are largely the result of extreme weather in Spain and north Africa, where floods, snow and hail have affected harvests.\n\nDuring this time of year, a significant proportion of what the UK consumes usually comes from those regions.\n\nThe shortages are expected to last \"a few weeks\" until the UK growing season begins and retailers find alternative sources of supply, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.\n\nAndrew Opie, director of Food and Sustainability at the trade group, added that supermarkets are \"adept at managing supply chain issues\" and were working with farmers to ensure the continued supply of fresh produce.\n\nAs well as tomatoes, peppers and lettuce, Asda said it was also limiting sales of salad bags, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflowers and raspberry punnets.\n\n\"Like other supermarkets, we are experiencing sourcing challenges on some products that are grown in southern Spain and north Africa,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nMorrisons said as well that cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers were affected at its shops.\n\nIn the winter months the UK imports around 95% of its tomatoes and 90% of its lettuces, most of it from Spain and north Africa, according to the BRC.\n\nSouthern Spain has been suffering unusually cold weather and in Morocco crop yields have been affected by floods, while storms have led to ferries being delayed or cancelled.\n\nMeanwhile in the UK and Netherlands, farmers have cut back on their use of greenhouses to grow winter crops due to higher electricity prices.\n\nPaul Smith, from wholesaler Oliver Kay, said with lower levels of planting this year, there was less surplus available to offset reduced yields elsewhere.\n\n\"Growers across the UK and Europe have been battling with severe weather conditions for a number of months now,\" he said.\n\nA spell of heatwaves in June 2022 led to the fourth warmest UK summer on record and temperatures broke the 40C mark for the first time. That was followed by sharp, prolonged freezes in December.\n\nTim O'Malley, managing director of Nationwide Produce, one of the UK's largest fresh produce firms, has warned his customers that could mean \"major shortages\" in domestically grown crops too.\n\nUK crops of carrots, parsnips, cabbage and cauliflower had been affected by the poor weather, Mr O'Malley said.\n\n\"We are about to see serious shortages and price hikes on these lines in the coming weeks and months,\" he said.\n\n\"The biggest issue we now have as an industry is not inflation, it's mother nature,\" he added.\n\nMinette Batters, president of the National Farmers' Union, called for more support for growers, describing it as \"ridiculous\" that the horticulture sector was not included in the government's support scheme for energy intensive industries.\n\nHowever, farming minister, Mark Spencer, said the shortages were the result of \"weather events in other parts of the world\" rather than the challenges facing UK producers.\n\nAnecdotal evidence suggests the UK has been bearing the brunt of the shortages, but problems have also been reported in Ireland.\n\nTesco Ireland said its stock levels were temporarily affected, while the locally-owned chain SuperValu has also reported problems.\n\nIndustry sources suggested the UK may be suffering because of lower domestic production and more complex supply chains, as well as a price-sensitive market. But they said Brexit was unlikely to be a factor.\n\nThe main impact of new border procedures for fruit and vegetable imports will not be felt until January 2024 - while imports from Morocco, which is outside the EU, are already subject to border checks.\n\nIndustry sources, include wholesaler Ken Mortimer, whose firm Heritage Fine Food Company supplies restaurants and schools in the south west of England, said they did not believe Brexit was at the root of current shortages.\n\nHave you been affected by issues raised here? Are there shortages of salad and vegetables where you are? You can get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The former face of Mexico's war on drugs has been convicted by a US jury of drug trafficking.\n\nGenaro García Luna, once Mexico's security minister, was found guilty of taking millions of dollars from Mexico's biggest crime group, the Sinaloa drug cartel.\n\nGarcía Luna - who was arrested in the state of Texas in 2019 - had pleaded not guilty.\n\nThe 54-year-old could face life in prison.\n\nAt a minimum, García Luna will serve the mandatory minimum of 20 years, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.\n\nThe verdict came after a four-week trial and three days of jury deliberation in the US District Court in Brooklyn, New York.\n\nProsecutors said the former head of the Mexican equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation accepted millions of dollars stuffed in briefcases and delivered by members of Joaquín \"El Chapo\" Guzmán's Sinaloa drug cartel.\n\nGarcía Luna, who moved to the US after leaving office, is the highest-ranking Mexican official ever to be tried in the US.\n\nOn Twitter, a spokesperson for current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, praised the decision and took aim at former Mexican President Felipe Calderón.\n\nGarcía Luna served under Mr Calderón, who oversaw a crackdown on drug cartels beginning in 2006.\n\n\"Justice has arrived for the former squire of Felipe Calderón,\" Mr Ramirez Cuevas wrote. \"The crimes against our people will never be forgotten.\"\n\nIn a statement to BBC News, Mr Calderón defended his administration's handling of the fight against organised crime and said that the verdict against García Luna was \"already being used to politically attack me.\"\n\n\"I have been the president who has acted the most against organised crime,\" he said. \"I fought to build an authentic rule of law, without which there is no freedom, justice or development.\"\n\nMr Calderón added that \"with the information available at the time, I took due diligence measures in the creation and operation of the government team\".\n\nIoan Grillo, a Mexico-based British author and expert on Mexico's criminal underworld, told BBC News the conviction has \"big implications\" for both the US and Mexico governments' fight against corruption and organised crime.\n\n\"This could encourage prosecutors to go after other cases,\" he said. \"They took a certain risk by not having physical evidence and convicting him on testimony from drug traffickers.\"\n\nHe added García Luna's conviction could also help dissuade Mexican officials from being \"openly corrupt\".\n\n\"If you're a Mexican agent, you'll be thinking about how much you expose yourself to the Americans,\" he said.\n\nThe ex-minister - widely considered the architect of Mexico's war on drugs - was said to have shared information with the Sinaloa drug cartel about its rivals and warned the group about law enforcement operations.\n\nThe claims against García Luna's involvement with the Sinaloa cartel first came to light during a trial against Guzmán, who was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in 2019.\n\nA former cartel member named Jesus \"Rey\" Zambada testified during Guzmán's trial that he had delivered millions of dollars in payments to García Luna.\n\nThe case against the former minister was built on the testimony of nine cooperating witnesses, mostly convicted cartel members, including Zambada.\n\nGarcía Luna declined to testify at the trial, but his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, took the stand and attempted to downplay their finances and lifestyle.\n\nIn her closing argument, US prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy said the Sinaloa cartel could not have built a \"global cocaine empire\" without García Luna's aid.\n\n\"They paid the defendant bribes for protection,\" she said. \"And they got what they paid for.\"\n\nGarcía Luna's lawyers argued the witnesses were testifying against him to \"save themselves\" after committing \"horrific crimes\".\n\nAlejandro Hope, a former Mexican intelligence official, said the conviction would come as no surprise to those closely following the trial in Mexico.\n\n\"It was certainly enough to convince the jury, although many others will be unconvinced,\" he told BBC News.\n\nThe conviction could \"complicate some parts\" of US-Mexico cooperation, he said.\n\n\"There won't be any sort of rupture or open dispute,\" he added. \"But ... it will be known that the US has its eyes on Mexican officials. For some, that will make things difficult.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC goes undercover on Kenya’s tea plantations\n\nKenya's parliament has ordered an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse on tea plantations revealed in a BBC report.\n\nLawmaker Beatrice Kemei said she watched the report with \"utter shock\".\n\nThe BBC found more than 70 women had been abused by their managers at plantations operated, for years, by two British companies, Unilever and James Finlay.\n\nThe companies say they are shocked by the allegations. Four managers have been suspended.\n\nThe Fairtrade Foundation described the allegations as \"appalling\", and said the investigation - by BBC Africa Eye and BBC Panaroma - were \"nothing less than a #MeToo moment for tea\".\n\nMs Kemei, who serves as woman representative for a tea-growing area in Kericho county, said the report highlighted the \"entrenched\" sexual harassment at \"tea multinationals operating in our country\".\n\nMP Beatrice Elachi said it was unfortunate that such incidents were still taking place.\n\n\"Today is a very difficult day for me as a woman, leader and citizen of Kenya. Today I've been reminded that slavery still exists in this nation; I cannot explain how a man has violated women in tea plantations for 30 years and nothing has been done,\" she was quoted by local media as saying.\n\nDeputy Speaker Gladys Shollei ordered a committee of MPs to complete an investigation into the allegations within two weeks.\n\nIn the BBC investigation, one woman said she had been infected with HIV by her supervisor, after being pressured into having sex with him.\n\nAnother woman said a divisional manager stopped her job until she agreed to have sex with him.\n\n\"It is just torture; he wants to sleep with you, then you get a job,\" she said.\n\nA BBC undercover reporter, who posed as a jobseeker, was invited to a job interview by a recruiter for James Finlay & Co.\n\nIt turned out to be in a hotel room, where she was pinned against a window and asked to undress by the recruiter, who has worked on Finlay's plantations for more than 30 years, and had already been flagged as a \"predator\" by a number of women who spoke to the BBC.\n\n\"I'll give you some money, then I'll give you a job. I have helped you, help me,\" he said.\n\n\"We'll lie down, finish and go. Then you come and work.\"\n\nUnilever faced similar allegations more than 10 years ago and launched a \"zero tolerance\" approach to sexual harassment as well as a reporting system and other measures, but the BBC found evidence that allegations of sexual harassment were not being acted on.\n\nThe BBC's Tom Odula spoke to women who worked on tea farms run by both companies. A number told him that because work is so scarce, they are left with no choice but to give in to the sexual demands of their bosses or face having no income.\n\nBritish supermarket chain Tesco said it takes the allegations \"extremely seriously\" and is in \"constant dialogue\" with Finlay's to ensure \"robust measures\" are taken.\n\nIn response to the BBC investigation, Sainsbury's, another supermarket chain, said: \"These horrific allegations have no place in our supply chain.\"\n\nOn Monday, it issued a revised, updated statement saying it will \"take robust action to safeguard workers\" in its \"tea supply chain.\"\n\nStarbucks also issued a statement on Monday, saying it was \"deeply concerned\" and has taken \"immediate action\" to suspend purchasing from James Finlay & Co in Kenya.\n\nJames Finlay & Co said it had suspended the manager, and had reported him to the police. It was investigating whether its Kenyan operation has \"an endemic issue with sexual violence\", the company added.\n\nUnilever said it was \"deeply shocked and saddened\" by the allegations. The company sold its operation in Kenya while the BBC was secretly filming.\n\nThe new owner, Lipton Teas and Infusions, said it had suspended two managers, and had ordered a \"full and independent investigation\".\n\nHave you been affected by the issues in our investigation into sex for work? Do you have any information or stories to share? If you would like to share your experience with BBC Africa Eye or BBC Panorama, please submit your message below. There is an option to remain anonymous, if you'd prefer to.\n\nDue to the volume of messages we receive, we cannot respond to everyone but we do appreciate every response:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Ford has announced plans to cut 1,300 jobs in the UK over the next two years, a fifth of its total workforce in the country.\n\nIt is part of a major restructuring programme that will see the carmaker cut 3,800 jobs overall across Europe.\n\nFord is cutting back on development staff as it faces an uncertain economic future and prepares for the transition to electric vehicles.\n\nMost of the UK cuts will be at its research site at Dunton in Essex.\n\nSeveral hundred back-office posts are also expected to be closed at sites across the country. But production sites at Halewood, Dagenham and Daventry will not be affected.\n\nThe Unite union said it would be working with Ford to protect \"as many jobs as possible\".\n\nConservative MP John Baron, whose Basildon and Billericay constituency includes the Dunton site, called the news \"disappointing\".\n\n\"Whilst I understand that Ford are looking to make these cuts via voluntary separation programmes, I know it will be a worrying time for my constituents who are employed at the Dunton site.\"\n\nHowever, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said it was not \"just a UK phenomenon\".\n\nHe said he was working on a \"rapid response service\" that will be put into action \"very shortly\" to help those made redundant get back into work.\n\nThe announcement comes less than two years after Ford closed its engine plant in Bridgend.\n\n\"Here in Europe we've got a pretty difficult economic situation, and the outlook is uncertain,\" explained Tim Slatter, chairman of Ford of Britain.\n\n\"High inflation, higher interest rates, the ongoing war in Ukraine, cost of energy and so on.\"\n\nBut he insisted that was not the only factor. Ford of Europe is preparing for a major transformation of its business.\n\nBy 2030, it expects all the cars it builds in the region to be fully electric.\n\nTwo out of three commercial vehicles will be either electric or plug-in hybrids by the same date.\n\n\"We are completely reinventing the Ford brand in Europe. Unapologetically American, outstanding design and connected services that will differentiate Ford and delight our customers in Europe,\" said Martin Sander, head of Ford's electric vehicles division in Europe.\n\n\"Unapologetically American\" - that's how the boss of Ford Europe described the company today. It's a phrase that the US president could well have applied to economic policies that make no secret of an intention to lure as much manufacturing to the US as possible - and it has got Europe worried.\n\nThe Inflation Reduction Act is a piece of US legislation which will dangle a total of $370bn worth of subsidies in front of companies that set up new, greener production and supply chains in the US.\n\nThe EU is considering responding by allowing national governments more freedom to subsidise their own industries - the kind of state aid the UK thought was constrained by EU membership.\n\nGovernment ministers insist the UK is a leader in green technology but in the auto industry is widely seen to be falling behind both the EU and US in battery production with only one plant in operation.\n\nThe car-making map of the world is being redrawn right now and the UK will need to act fast if it wants to be on it.\n\nThe Unite union said there needed to be \"concrete plans\" to transform the UK's vehicle production and transport network and keep \"high quality\" jobs in the country.\n\n\"Ford's announcement is another stark reminder that the shift to electrification needs a just transition that requires long-term investment and planning from automakers and a proper industrial strategy from government,\" said Unite national officer Des Quinn.\n\nFord will also be attempting to move away from being seen as a mass-market supplier of relatively cheap, everyday transport.\n\nInstead, it wants to develop a slimmer line-up of more exotic vehicles, which exploit evocative brand names - something it has already done with the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck.\n\nIt also wants to focus on its portfolio of commercial vehicles, notably the Transit.\n\nFord will make its last Fiesta in June\n\nIt has already ceased production of the Mondeo. In June, the final Fiesta will roll off the production line in Cologne.\n\nThe one-time best-selling runabout is no longer considered viable to make, and there will be no direct successor. The Fiesta name is expected to be consigned to history.\n\nBut developing new electric cars is an expensive process - and there have been hiccups.\n\nOn Tuesday, Ford said it had temporarily stopped production and shipments for the F-150 after discovering a potential battery issue. It did not say when manufacturing would restart.\n\nFord has said it plans to invest some $50bn (£41bn) over the next few years in developing electric cars.\n\nAs part of this scheme, it has committed £380m to transform its gearbox factory at Halewood on Merseyside into a facility capable of producing hundreds of thousands of electric motors every year.\n\nFord believes that as development of traditional petrol and diesel vehicles tails off, it will require fewer product development staff - because although they require sophisticated software, electric cars are mechanically pretty simple.\n\nSo this is an area in which it thinks it can make savings. A total of 2,800 engineering jobs are to be cut across Europe, most of them in the UK and Germany.\n\n\"These are difficult decisions, not taken lightly,\" said Ford's Martin Sander.\n\n\"We recognise the uncertainty it creates for our team, and I assure them we will be offering them our full support in the months ahead.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Survivors rescued after seven days under rubble\n\nA young girl has been saved from the rubble of a block of flats in southern Turkey, more than a week after the devastating earthquake struck.\n\nMiray had been trapped in the ruins for 178 hours - seven-and-a-half days.\n\nVideo showed workers cheering and shouting \"God is great\" as she was lifted out of the darkness.\n\nSeveral others were saved on Monday, including a 13-year-old boy trapped for 182 hours. But rescues are becoming rarer as the death toll passes 35,000.\n\nThis is partly due to limits on how long the human body can survive without water.\n\nOther factors include how much space the trapped person has to breathe and how bad their injuries are, an emergency medicine specialist told the BBC.\n\nProf Tony Redmond also said the cold temperatures in Turkey and Syria were a double-edged sword.\n\nIf you are very cold, your blood vessels shrink and you can last a little longer from your injuries, he explained. But getting too cold is harmful in itself.\n\nThe death toll in Turkey and neighbouring Syria is expected to rise dramatically, with the United Nations' humanitarian chief warning it could double.\n\nMiray - the young girl rescued on Monday in the city of Adiyaman - was attached to a stretcher and carried away by rescue workers. Local media reported teams on the ground were hoping to find her older sister.\n\nIn hard-hit Hatay province, 13-year-old Kaan was rescued after being trapped for 182 hours - as well as a woman called Naide Umay, found alive after 175 hours.\n\nIn the city of Kahramanmaras, rescue workers had made contact with a grandmother, mother and baby - all stuck, but alive - and were working to reach them.\n\nThousands of teams across the region - including coal miners and experts using thermal cameras and sniffer dogs - have been scouring the remains of collapsed buildings to find remaining survivors.\n\nBut hopes of finding people alive are dwindling and there is a sense that the rescue mission will soon end.\n\nThe focus is shifting to recovery, with officials looking at shelter, food and healthcare.\n\nQuestions are also being raised about whether the natural disaster's impact was made worse by human failings.\n\nPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but during one visit to a disaster zone last week, he appeared to blame fate.\n\nOfficials say they have issued 113 arrest warrants in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed, with 12 people taken into custody, including contractors.", "Continuing on that theme... we have a similar question from Ohio: Aren't the three balloons sighted after the first one way too small to carry surveillance equipment and more likely to be of civilian origin? Even the descriptions by the pilots suggest they were launched by pranksters trying to cause chaos.\n\nThey are certainly much smaller than the Chinese balloon. US officials have said one is the size of a small car, whereas the balloon was 200 feet tall and its surveillance equipment was like the size of two or three buses.\n\nThey say another of the UFO’s was shaped like an octagon but had no obvious equipment attached. None of the three were sending out communication signals, they were unmanned and without propulsion, apparently being moved by the wind.\n\nSo these objects could very well be of civilian origin, even pranks, we just don’t know. We do know that the White House doesn’t believe they’re aliens from outer space. And that they were most likely spotted because the military was looking more closely at the sky.\n\nAfter the Chinese balloon incident NORAD, the joint US-Canadian airspace command, adjusted its radar system to be more sensitive so it’s picking up more incursions.", "US officials are facing mounting pressure to explain why multiple unidentified flying objects flying over North America are being shot down.\n\nThe BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera explains what the latest is in this saga.", "The HPV screening test is used in the rest of the UK and has also been adopted in the Republic of Ireland\n\nThe lead investigator in the Republic of Ireland's cervical check screening controversy has said it is awful that Northern Ireland has not adopted HPV (human papillomavirus) testing.\n\nHPV is the cause of most cervical cancers.\n\nThe HPV screening test is used in the rest of the UK and has been adopted in the Republic of Ireland.\n\nDr Gabriel Scally said there could be \"no excuse\" in Northern Ireland for \"lagging behind\".\n\nIn England, Scotland, and Wales, HPV testing has already replaced cell (cytological) tests, but Northern Ireland has yet to make the switch.\n\nWhile Stormont's Department of Health has committed to moving to this testing method, without an executive and guaranteed funding there is a question over what happens next.\n\nBefore the HPV test was available, labs could only look for suspicious cells in smear samples that suggested cancer may already be present, or soon could be.\n\nA HPV infection comes before the development of abnormal cells.\n\n\"England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland all use a new test, a much more accurate test, a test that actually detects the presence of the virus,\" Dr Scally told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster.\n\nProf Gabriel Scally said there was no excuse for Northern Ireland lagging behind\n\n\"If a woman doesn't have the virus, it is very unlikely that she will have a cervical cancer potential problem,\" he continued.\n\n\"All of those screening services in other parts of Britain and Ireland have moved to a system where the first thing that is done on the sample that is taken from the woman is it is tested for the virus.\n\n\"Unfortunately, screening is never 100 per cent accurate, there are some missed cases, but the HPV test, the primary screening test, reduces that really dramatically by about 50-60 per cent and that's really important at reducing the overall level of cervical cancer amongst women.\n\n\"At the moment, the testing system in Northern Ireland still relies almost 100 per cent on people looking down a microscope and you are making very difficult judgements in a very short period of time and the test is much better.\n\n\"It is absolutely awful that the test hasn't been rolled out in Northern Ireland and there can be no excuse for lagging behind, because it means that there will be more missed abnormalities and that creates the potential for cancer developing.\"\n\nDr Scally said that Northern Ireland should be moving to eradicate cervical cancer.\n\n\"The HPV testing and HPV vaccination for all young people and getting that level of vaccination up as high as possible, those are the two routes to eradicating cervical cancer and that's what the Republic of Ireland has set as their goal.\n\n\"They are working very hard to do it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What happens during a smear test?\n\nLast week, BBC News NI reported that a woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer had learned that she had three previous abnormal smear tests that were missed.\n\nSusan, not her real name, had to undergo a radical hysterectomy when a test in 2019 revealed cancerous cells.\n\nThe 45-year-old said she was devastated at the diagnosis and shocked and upset that previous tests had been misread.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Southern and Western health trusts, which were involved in Susan's care, have apologised.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMeanwhile, a former Stormont minister has warned that lives are being put \"at risk\" because of how long it is taking for women to receive their smear test results.\n\nClaire Sugden said one of her constituents was recently told she would have to wait a minimum of five months.\n\nAccording to health trust targets, patients should be given smear test results with one month in 80% of cases.\n\nMs Sugden described recent stories about missed cervical cancer diagnoses as a \"travesty\".\n\n\"The reality is, however, that an arguably broader danger to women's health is the extremely long times that women are having to wait to receive their results,\" she added.\n\nAfter hearing Susan's story, BBC News NI found that the Southern Health Trust (SHT) is beginning a review or risk assessment, which will be carried out by the Royal College of Pathology.\n\nThe review is expected to take 10 weeks to complete and could affect hundreds of women.\n\nIt will attempt to establish if there was a greater chance of missing abnormalities in screening samples in the trust between 2019 and 2021.\n\nThe SHT has confirmed that \"work involving a number of screening staff will be examined as part of the risk assessment\".\n\nIt aims to prevent cervical cancer - by identifying and treating abnormalities that could develop into cancer if left untreated.\n\nBut screening cannot identify every single case of cancer or pre-cancer - it is not a diagnostic test for cancer.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, screening is offered to women between the ages of 25 and 64.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, you can contact the BBC Action Line for support.", "Aras has \"a strong personality\", his grandfather Mehmet says\n\nDwarfed by his adult hospital bed, five-year-old Aras is resting on his back playing with a model car.\n\nHe is one of Turkey's miracles.\n\nRescue teams freed him from the rubble of his home in the now devastated city of Kahramanmaras, 105 hours after the earthquake.\n\nWhen he was brought into the intensive care unit, hypothermia had set in and his body temperature had dropped to 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit).\n\nAras may have survived, but his seven-year-old sister Hiranur did not. Neither did his nine-year-old brother Alp. Nor his father.\n\nJust one of so many families irrevocably broken by this disaster.\n\nSitting at Aras's bedside and gently ruffling his grandson's dark hair Is Mehmet.\n\n\"He's an honest boy. He has a strong personality. He's sincere. He's not a spoilt boy.\"\n\nAlthough now 72, Mehmet tells us he will for the rest of his days look after Aras as if he were his own son.\n\n\"The rescuers did so well to save him,\" he says, \"and by God's grace, they gave him back to us alive.\"\n\nAras winces a little as the doctor changes the bandage on his swollen left foot. He's making a good recovery.\n\nAras's mum also survived - but he hasn't seen her since their world imploded. She is being treated at another hospital in the city but is expected to recover.\n\nDr Mehmet Cihan, a paediatrician, travelled from Istanbul as quickly as he could to help his colleagues in Kahramanmaras\n\nIt was in an intensive care unit set up by Israeli doctors where Aras's own life was saved.\n\nDr Daniel King said that they managed to save 17 patients with severe injuries who had been under the rubble for as much as six days. Most were hypothermic and suffering from kidney failure because of the low temperatures and lack of water.\n\nBut as we walked through the ward on Monday, it was not just a child with a remarkable story but also a 65-year-old man.\n\nSamir from Syria was plucked from the rubble after enduring six freezing nights.\n\nDoctors then saved him, but both his legs had to be amputated.\n\nFor the medics at the heart of this disaster it's been an exhausting and traumatic week.\n\nPaediatrician Dr Mehmet Cihan travelled from Istanbul as quickly as he could to help colleagues in this broken city.\n\n\"It's very bad. Too many children have lost their parents. I don't know. It's very hard for me... too hard for me.\"\n\nDr Bryony Pointon says Turkish and international doctors and nurses are quite overwhelmed\n\nThe international medical effort reaches far beyond Kahramanmaras.\n\nIn the town of Turkoglu, green British tents pitched by NHS doctors stand alongside Turkish tents with red tarpaulin.\n\nUK doctors are setting up a field hospital in the grounds of the town's hospital which was damaged in the quake.\n\nThe need for emergency care in the hours after the earthquake may have passed - but 80,000 people living here are lacking many medical services.\n\nDr Bryony Pointon is a GP from Chichester, who has come to Turkey as part of UK-Med - a front-line medical aid charity funded by the British government.\n\n\"We are working with the Turkish doctors and nurses that are here - setting up their own tents and seeing patients but they are quite overwhelmed,\" she explains.\n\n\"After all the trauma you have the people who have their usual chronic illnesses - they are still unwell, they don't have the facilities to cope. So, we will see those patients, as many as we can.\"\n\nDoctors and nurses from around the world are now in Turkey to help with the physical injuries.\n\nBut the mental trauma is also profound - both the personal and the national.\n\nAdditional reporting by by Naomi Scherbel-Ball and Dogu Eroglu", "The war in Ukraine will “likely” continue into at least next year, according to a UK defence and security think tank.\n\nAs the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), says the West needs to support a counter-offensive from Ukraine in the coming months.\n\nThis is to ensure that Kyiv is “well placed to fight a long war, because the chances of this war finishing this year are pretty slim”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier.\n\nNeither Ukraine nor Russia have an advantage over the other at the moment, he says. He adds that reports that Western intelligence shows Russia is massing aircraft within striking distance of Ukraine are a concern, but not an emergency.\n\nLooking at Russian gains, he says: “It doesn't look anything like the large-scale capture of Ukrainian territory which we saw in the initial phases of the invasion, not least because Ukrainians are now mobilised and prepared and fighting very hard for their own territory.\"\n\n“It's also the case that Russia is losing a lot of people and a lot of equipment and there is a real question about how far they can sustain an offensive for a long period.”", "Nigel Owens came out in 2007 and retired from refereeing international matches in 2020\n\nRugby referee Nigel Owens has said he is \"100% confident\" the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) will be a better place.\n\nIt comes after an ex-colleague claimed the use of homophobic slurs about Mr Owens went unchallenged in the office.\n\nMr Owens, who came out as gay in 2007, said he was unaware of the facts surrounding the matter and believes the union would have dealt with it if it had been made aware at the time.\n\nMr Owens' ex-colleague Martyn Lewis told BBC Wales that some colleagues within the union had too much control.\n\nHe also described hearing homophobic language aimed at Mr Owens, and despite his attempts to have the matter dealt with, it was never tackled at a more senior level.\n\nMr Owens told the BBC Radio Wales Breakfast programme that he knew nothing about people using slurs about him within the organisation, but it was \"very disappointing\" to hear about.\n\n\"The only thing I will say is if I would've been made aware of this, and I am very 100% confident that if the union would've been made aware of this, that they would have acted on it,\" he said.\n\n\"I have no doubt because they've been hugely supportive of me and people within the LGBT community.\"\n\nMartyn Lewis claims the language describing Nigel Owens was part of everyday speech in the WRU's office environment\n\nIt is one of many accusations, including racism, sexism and misogyny, thrown at the WRU after a BBC Wales investigation.\n\nAn independent panel has started looking into the culture at the WRU after a tumultuous few weeks which saw the union's chief executive Steve Phillips resign.\n\nMr Owens said it was important for people to address ill behaviour, but understood that can be nerve-racking to do, especially if people are \"afraid of who those individuals may be\".\n\nThe referee, who retired from international rugby in 2020, went on to defend the WRU's priorities.\n\n\"The language that has allegedly been used is unacceptable, but there are good people within the WRU whose priorities of diversity and values of respect will be at the forefront of their minds in moving things forward,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm confident it will be a better place and these things will be dealt with and (people) will be held accountable.\"\n\nWelsh rugby is at the centre of a storm about sexism and misogyny\n\nHe added that respect should be a theme in every work place and that he is sure \"that will be the case in the WRU\".\n\nMr Walker said: \"We work hard on equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the WRU, but we also know that we have let individuals down in the past and also in very recent history. That is why we have determined that an independent review is essential.\n\n\"The Rt Hon Dame Anne Rafferty DBE PC has been appointed as chairwoman of the independent review panel and it's full terms of reference have been published.\n\n\"We welcome this intervention and look forward to its recommendations and to implementing necessary change.\n\n\"Finally, it is important for those of us here now at the WRU to sincerely apologise for the actions, attitudes and behaviours described.\n\n\"Our game has failed the affected individuals and we are deeply sorry.\"", "Emily Lewis was on a day out with her family when the crash happened\n\nA \"thrill ride\" speedboat skipper who careered into a metal buoy leaving a teenage passenger with fatal injuries has been cleared of manslaughter.\n\nBut Michael Lawrence was convicted of failing to maintain a proper lookout and a safe speed during the crash that killed 15-year-old Emily Lewis in Southampton Water on 22 August 2020.\n\nEmily was taken to hospital where her parents later made the decision to turn off her life support machine.\n\nLawrence will be sentenced on 17 March.\n\nMichael Howley, 52, who owned the Seadogz rigid inflatable boat (RIB) involved in the crash, was found guilty by majority verdict of failing to operate the boat safely.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The trial heard the boat was driven straight at the buoy for 14 seconds before the crash\n\nThe trial at Winchester Crown Court heard how Emily's parents had taken her and her sister on the Seadogz RIB during the summer holidays.\n\nThe RIB was recorded traveling at speeds of 47.8 knots - in excess of an expired speed limit of 40 knots (46mph) that the prosecution said Lawrence had believed to still be in place.\n\nThe ride took place in \"perfect conditions\", with the Stormforce 950 RIB crossing the wake of the Red Falcon ferry five times, the court heard.\n\nIt then headed straight towards the North West Netley buoy, which measures 4.69m above the water line and weighs five tonnes, throwing two passengers into the water and injuring several others on impact.\n\nMichael Lawrence, the boat's skipper, took a selfie on the boat on the day of the crash\n\nEmily was crushed against a metal handrail while a number of other passengers were seriously injured.\n\nHer family were told by doctors she had suffered oxygen starvation to the brain and her injuries were \"unsurvivable\".\n\nChristine Agnew KC, prosecuting, said the boat was driven straight at the buoy for 14 seconds at 36.6 knots and accused 55-year-old Lawrence of gross negligence manslaughter.\n\nImmediately following the tragedy, Lawrence told witnesses his face mask had blown over his eyes, she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The jury was shown a police re-enactment of the speedboat's course\n\nHowever, the skipper told the jury he had lost his vision in what felt like \"a split second\".\n\nThe court heard a medical cause such as a blood clot in an artery in his eye was unlikely to have caused vision loss as it was unlikely to have affected both eyes at once.\n\nMs Agnew told the jury that Lawrence was either distracted or miscalculated a sharp turn around the buoy.\n\n\"In either event the prosecution say that his actions that day fell far below those of a competent skipper,\" she said.\n\nMichael Lawrence had pleaded not guilty to all charges at Winchester Crown Court\n\nLawrence was said in court to be an \"extremely experienced mariner\" and his co-defendant described him as \"Mr Safe and Mr Cautious\".\n\nAs well as serving as an RNLI lifeboatman for 20 years, he held a number of qualifications and was also the principal of his training centre, which held powerboat courses.\n\nIt was put to Lawrence during the trial that \"some mariners can be show-offs\" and asked if that described him.\n\n\"No,\" he replied. \"I tried to give a ride that was the ride they expected and wanted - well within the limits of the boat and within my capability.\"\n\nSeadogz owner Michael Howley will be sentenced next month\n\nHe added: \"I've spent my whole life on the water and my whole life I have gone to show people how to be safe on the water and I have gone out to try to save people.\"\n\nLawrence said he had neither aimed the boat at the buoy nor deliberately tried to change direction from it at \"the last moment\" as it was a practice he considered unsafe.\n\nHe said his final memories before the crash were losing his vision in what felt like \"a split second\" and, when it returned, he saw the buoy and attempted to stop the boat.\n\nThe damaged speedboat was pictured after being pulled out of the water\n\nAfter the verdict for Seadogz owner Howley was read out, prosecutor David Richards told the court three other people had suffered injuries in separate accidents involving the company's vessels.\n\nIn one incident in 2012, a man was severely injured and later paid £300,000 in a settlement, the barrister said.\n\nHowley's defence barrister James Newton-Price KC said no court proceedings had taken place following these other cases.\n\nHe said the accidents happened over a period of 10 years and that it was \"not surprising\" given the nature of the rides that RIBs undertook.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The film was based on the DC Comics character Barbara Gordon - or Batgirl - played by Leslie Grace\n\nThe star of the scrapped Batgirl movie has said the production faced \"obstacles\" while filming in Glasgow.\n\nUS actress Leslie Grace said hearing the news that Warner Bros had decided not to release the film was like \"deflating a balloon\".\n\nBut in an interview with US trade publication Variety, she admitted the shoot was not short of problems.\n\n\"Half of the shoot was night shoots in Scotland where it never stopped raining,\" she said.\n\n\"So there were obstacles, but at the end of the day, because of the incredible crew, nothing that ever got in the way of us delivering what we knew we wanted to deliver for this film.\"\n\nShe added: \"Even though I would've loved to share that with the rest of the world, nothing can take that experience away from us.\"\n\nThe decision that the film would be axed was made suddenly in August last year just months before it was due to be released.\n\nFilmed entirely in Scotland, it also starred Oscar-nominated actor Brendan Fraser, as well as Michael Keaton and JK Simmons.\n\nSpeaking to Variety, Grace said she had found out the news \"like the rest of you\" - after reading reports in the media.\n\n\"And then my phone just started blowing up,\" she added.\n\nActress Leslie Grace was spotted in Glasgow in January last year\n\nThe production was filmed entirely in Glasgow\n\nBatgirl reportedly cost an estimated $70m (£57.6m) and the film was scheduled for release in late 2022 - though the decision to cancel its release was reportedly due to poor screen tests.\n\nIn January last year, the Trongate area of Glasgow was transformed by set builders into Gotham City for the production, with alterations made to shop fronts and police cars.\n\nThe film was was due to focus on Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham police commissioner Jim Gordon.\n\nIn an online statement following the announcement, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah said they were \"saddened and shocked\" by the news they wished fans could have the \"opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves\".\n\nFraser, who has picked up a best actor nomination at this year's Oscars for his performance in The Whale, told Variety that the news about Batgirl had been a \"gut punch\".\n\nThe actor said the most \"lamentable\" part of the decision by Warner Bros had been that \"a whole generation of little girls are going to have to wait longer to see a Batgirl and say, 'Hey, she looks like me'.\"\n\nWhen Warner Bros announced Batgirl would be scrapped, a spokesman said the decision reflected a \"strategic shift\" in relation to the DC universe and HMB Max.\n\n\"Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance,\" he added", "The Queen Consort will be crowned with Queen Mary's Crown (pictured), avoiding the presence of the Koh-i-Noor\n\nThe controversial Koh-i-Noor diamond will not be used in the coronation, says Buckingham Palace.\n\nInstead Camilla, the Queen Consort, will be crowned with Queen Mary's Crown, which has been taken out of the Tower of London to be resized for the 6 May coronation.\n\nIt is thought to be the first time in \"recent history\" that an existing crown will be \"recycled\" for a coronation.\n\nDiamonds from Queen Elizabeth II's jewellery will also be added.\n\nCamilla, who will be crowned alongside the King at Westminster Abbey, has had to cancel her public engagements this week after testing positive for Covid.\n\nThe Queen Mother's crown (pictured), which has the Koh-i-Noor diamond fitted in the front middle cross, will not be used during the ceremony\n\nOwnership of the Koh-i-Noor, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, has been disputed, and there were concerns about a diplomatic row with India if it had been used.\n\nIndia has made several claims to be the rightful owner of the diamond, which was used in the coronation of the Queen Mother.\n\nInstead, Buckingham Palace says Camilla will be crowned with Queen Mary's crown - and claims its re-use is in the \"interests of sustainability and efficiency\".\n\nCamilla, the Queen Consort, tested positive with Covid this week\n\nIn a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, the crown will be reset using diamonds from her personal jewellery collection, using diamonds known as Cullinan III, IV and V.\n\nThese diamonds were worn by the late Queen in brooches and were taken from the Cullinan diamond, discovered in South Africa.\n\nKing Charles III will wear the St Edward's Crown, regarded as the centrepiece of the Crown Jewels. It is back on display at the Tower of London after being modified to fit the monarch.\n\nIt was first made for King Charles II in 1661 as a replacement for an earlier crown which was destroyed in the aftermath of the English Civil War.\n\nThe late Queen Elizabeth II also used the St Edward's Crown during her coronation but other monarchs through history have opted for smaller or custom-made crowns.\n\nWhat we know about the Coronation long weekend so far:\n\nSunday 7 May: Concert and lightshow at Windsor Castle; Coronation Big Lunch street parties\n\nMonday 8 May: Extra bank holiday; Big Help Out encouraging people to get involved in local volunteering\n\nThe King will wear the St Edward's Crown, regarded as the centrepiece of the Crown Jewels collection\n\nAlthough it is not the largest or most flawless diamond in the world, the Koh-i-Noor's history has marked it out as one of the most controversial.\n\nCompeting theories and myths about the origins of the stone stretch over many years but historians agree it was taken from India by Nader Shah, an Iranian ruler, in 1739.\n\nThrough plunder and conquest it changed hands several times before being signed over to a British governor-general in 1849 following the annexation of the Punjab.\n\nThe circumstances in which it was signed over to the East India Company - which had conquered swathes of the Indian subcontinent - by a defeated boy king are disputed.\n\nIt was reputedly a \"gift\" but Anita Anand, a BBC journalist who has co-authored a book on the Koh-i-Noor, said: \"I don't know of many 'gifts' that are handed over at the point of a bayonet.\"\n\nPrince Albert had it recut in the 1850s to make it shine brighter and it was set in a brooch for Queen Victoria. It was eventually incorporated into the Crown Jewels.\n\nClaims to rightful ownership of the diamond have also been made by some in Pakistan and Afghanistan.\n• None What we know about King Charles's Coronation", "Paris Davis was one of the first black officers in the US Army's Special Forces, known as the Green Berets\n\nOne of the first black officers in the US Army's Special Forces will receive recognition for his service in the Vietnam War with the Medal of Honor - after almost 60 years.\n\nCol Paris Davis, who is now retired, disobeyed orders and rescued his troops who were wounded in an attack in 1965.\n\nHis nomination for the highest combat award was lost by the military during the height of the civil rights era.\n\nPresident Joe Biden phoned the 83-year-old to deliver the good news.\n\n\"The call today from President Biden prompted a wave of memories of the men and women I served with in Vietnam - from the members of 5th Special Forces Group and other U.S. military units to the doctors and nurses who cared for our wounded,\" Col Davis said in a statement released by him and his family.\n\n\"I am so very grateful for my family and friends within the military and elsewhere who kept alive the story of A-team, A-321 at Camp Bong Son,\" the statement continued.\n\n\"I think often of those fateful 19 hours on June 18, 1965 and what our team did to make sure we left no man behind on that battlefield.\"\n\nThe then Army captain disobeyed his commands to leave a battle, but later said he could not leave men behind.\n\nThough he was hit by gunfire and a grenade, Col Davis went back to a rice paddy for two seriously injured men - Billy Waugh and Robert Brown.\n\nCBS News, the BBC's US partner, reported that Col Davis recalled telling his commanding officer: \"Sir, I'm just not going to leave. I still have an American out there.\"\n\nMr Waugh went on to recommend Col Davis for the medal, as did his commander, Billy Cole.\n\nBut then the paperwork mysteriously vanished - twice.\n\nMilitary historian Doug Sterner said it was extremely odd and rare for nomination paperwork of this kind to be lost.\n\nOver the years, comrades and volunteers advocated on Col Davis' behalf to receive the honour.\n\n\"I thought that maybe this was just one of those racist things that shouldn't have happened, but did happen and when [the paperwork] got lost a second time I was convinced,\" Col Davis told CBS News in an interview.\n\nHe said racism was something he had experienced during his 23 years in the Army.\n\nIn January 2021, former acting US defence secretary Christopher Miller ordered a review of Col Davis' case.\n\nIn an opinion piece in USA Today, Mr Miller said \"bureaucracy has a way of perpetuating injustice\".\n\n\"Awarding Davis the Medal of Honor now might not untangle much military bureaucracy,\" he wrote. \"But it would address an injustice.\"\n\nMore than 58,000 US military personnel are known to have died during the Vietnam War, according to the US National Archives.\n\nThe White House has not yet confirmed a date for Col Davis' medal ceremony.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n• None Medal of Honor for first black soldier since Vietnam", "A man has been convicted of murdering his wife of 30 years with a hammer at their home in Glasgow.\n\nPeter Maher delivered at least 11 blows to Jeanna Maher in their Drumchapel home in September 2018.\n\nA jury heard how two of their sons discovered the 51-year-old's body in her bedroom.\n\nMaher was convicted following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow. He faces a life sentence when the case calls again on Wednesday.\n\nThe trial was mainly held in his absence due to his disruptive behaviour in court.\n\nMaher had denied the killing and said he did not know who the culprit was.\n\nThe court heard how the 61-year-old had a history of abusive behaviour towards the mother-of-three.\n\nMrs Maher's sister Margaret McCandless said: \"He would put her down constantly. He would tell her to sit down, shut up in front of people.\n\n\"She could not voice an opinion. She was not allowed to go out, she was stupid, too old....] do not do this, do not do that.\"\n\nJeanna Maher was found dead in her house in Dewar Drive, Drumchapel\n\nMs Maher worked three different jobs and was known as \"Mrs Asda\" for the long hours she put in at the Bearsden branch.\n\nHer husband had once failed to get a job at the supermarket his wife worked in and, days later, she came into work badly hurt.\n\nColleague Angela McShane recalled: \"Her eye was really black. I said: 'What happened?'.\n\n\"She said she had asked Peter for the remote, he had thrown it and hit her in the face.\"\n\nThe witness also spoke of Mrs Maher later having marks on her arms, but claimed she had done it while working in a chip shop.\n\nHer son Stephen, 35, recalled discovering his mother's body after returning home from work with his younger brother Richard.\n\nMaher answered the door when they arrived, but Stephen told prosecutors that his father seemed the \"same as any normal day.\"\n\nStephen said he went upstairs and saw his parents' room was an \"absolute bombsite\" with \"everything everywhere\".\n\nHe recalled shouting downstairs asking where his mother was.\n\nHis brother Richard also went into the room and pulled back the bed covers before letting out a \"gasp\" or \"scream\" upon finding his mum lying there.\n\nProsecutor Steven Borthwick KC asked Stephen: \"What condition was she in?\"\n\nHe told jurors: \"Really bad. She was covered in blood. The top part of her skull was missing.\n\n\"Her hands were tied up, her feet were tied up.\"\n\nStephen believed Mrs Maher's hands were bound with a neck tie and possibly a wire for her feet.\n\nHe immediately dialled 999 and was told to try CPR, but he told prosecutors it would not have had any effect.\n\nMaher later claimed to police he had been out that afternoon walking their dog.\n\nHe stated he \"did not know who was responsible\" and \"did not know anyone that would harm his wife\".\n\nPathologist Marjorie Turner concluded Mrs Maher died from blunt force trauma to the head.\n\nIn a post-mortem report, Dr Turner noted her head injury was \"indicative of multiple blows with a heavy blunt object... at least 11 to the scalp alone, but probably many more.\"\n\nDet Supt Scott McCallum, from Police Scotland's major investigation team, said: \"Jeanna was a much loved mother to her three sons and her extended family.\n\n\"She was an incredibly popular member of the community, with many friends.\n\n\"It has been a very difficult time for all of them, and although today's verdict won't change what happened, I hope this outcome will help bring Jeanna's family some closure.\n\n\"This was a brutal attack on a woman who should have been safe in her own home and Peter Maher will now have to face the consequences for his actions.\"\n\nMaher first appeared in court in 2018, but the following year he was assessed as unfit to stand trial.\n\nProsecutors later raised proceedings against him once again and Maher went on trial in April 2022.\n\nThe case was halted again after Maher sacked his then lawyers. The latest trial began in late January.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sunak: Typhoon planes kept on \"24/7 readiness\" to police UK airspace\n\nThe government will do \"whatever it takes\" to keep the UK safe from spy balloons, Rishi Sunak has said.\n\nThe PM said a \"quick reaction alert force\" of RAF Typhoon jets was on stand-by 24/7 to \"police our airspace\".\n\nBut \"national security matters\" prevented him from commenting in more detail.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace is conducting a security review after the US military shot down a series of objects in Western airspace.\n\nOn 4 February, the US military shot down a Chinese spy balloon after it travelled over sensitive military sites across North America. China has claimed the object was a weather balloon gone astray.\n\nSince then, the three other \"unidentified objects\" have been downed across North America.\n\nOn Friday, the US military shot down an unknown \"car-sized\" object flying in US airspace off the coast of Alaska.\n\nCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday that he ordered a US warplane to shoot down an unidentified object that was flying high over northern Canada.\n\nUS fighter jets also shot down an \"unidentified object\" over Michigan on Sunday.\n\n\"People should be reassured that we have all the capabilities in place to keep the country safe,\" Mr Sunak said on Monday.\n\n\"We have something called the quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important.\"\n\nTransport minister Richard Holden earlier suggested that it was \"possible\" that Chinese spy balloons might already have flown over the UK.\n\nHe said the UK government was \"concerned about what's going on\" in the US and had to be \"robust\" in how it dealt with Beijing.\n\nA Typhoon jet takes off from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire\n\nDowning Street said that the UK was \"well prepared\" to deal with security threats to British airspace, with threats judged on a \"case-by-case\" basis.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman indicated that the UK's approach to China will be reviewed as part of the update to the ongoing security review.\n\n\"China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests,\" the spokesman said.\n\n\"It is a challenge that grows more acute as it moves to even greater authoritarianism.\n\n\"You will know we are updating the Integrated Review and it will take into account some of these evolving challenges we are seeing,\" the spokesman said.\n\nMr Wallace said on Sunday that the UK and its allies would \"review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security\".\n\n\"This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse,\" the Defence Secretary said.\n\nTobias Ellwood, the Conservative chairman of the Commons defence select committee, said China was \"exploiting the West's weakness\" with the potential spy balloons.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Aerial footage reveals the extent of flooding in Hawke's Bay in New Zealand's east\n\nNew Zealand's prime minister says Cyclone Gabrielle, which for days battered the North Island, is a weather event not seen \"in a generation\".\n\nChris Hipkins' government earlier declared a state of emergency - only the third in New Zealand's history.\n\nAt least three people have died. About a third of the country's population of five million live in affected areas.\n\nOn Wednesday, the cyclone weakened and moved away from the North Island. But many people remain displaced.\n\nSome were forced to swim from their homes to safety after rivers burst their banks. Others have been rescued from rooftops.\n\nAbout a quarter of a million people are without power. Falling trees have smashed houses, and landslides have carried others away and blocked roads.\n\nThe storm's damage has been most extensive in coastal communities on the far north and east coast of the North Island - with areas like Hawke's Bay, Coromandel and Northland among the worst hit.\n\nCommunications to one town in the region have been completely cut after a river burst its banks.\n\nCivil defence authorities in the region said they couldn't cope with the scale of the damage. Australia and the UK have pledged to help.\n\nOn Wednesday, two deaths were confirmed in the Hawke's Bay area.\n\nThe authorities also said they found the body of a missing firefighter who had been caught in a landslide in Muriwai, west of Auckland. A second firefighter involved was critically injured, rescue agencies said.\n\nMarcelle Smith, whose family lives in a cliff-front property in Parua Bay on the east coast of the North Island, told the BBC she had fled inland with her two young children on Monday night.\n\nHer husband remained behind to set up protections for their home. Some embankments set up had already been washed away and they were still battling wild weather on Tuesday.\n\n\"We are trying to do everything we can to protect what we have put our lives into. It's man versus nature at this point,\" she told the BBC.\n\nLocal media reported that some residents in Hawke's Bay had to swim through bedroom windows to escape as waters flooded their homes. People have been warned they could be without power for weeks.\n\nAerial pictures of flooded regions showed people stranded on rooftops waiting for rescue.\n\nThe vast scale of the damage includes uprooted trees, bent street lights and poles, and row after row of flooded homes.\n\nNew Zealand's Defence Force released dramatic pictures of officials rescuing a stranded sailor, whose yacht was swept out to sea when its anchor cable snapped amid strong winds.\n\nNavy officials rescued a stranded sailor whose boat was swept into sea\n\n\"The severity and the damage that we are seeing has not been experienced in a generation,\" Mr Hipkins said on Tuesday.\n\n\"We are still building a picture of the effects of the cyclone as it continues to unfold. But what we do know is the impact is significant and it is widespread.\"\n\nHe has pledged NZ$11.5m (£6m; US$7.3m) in aid to support those affected by the disaster.\n\nDeclaring the national state of emergency on Tuesday morning, the Minister for Emergency Management, Kieran McAnulty, described the storm as \"unprecedented\".\n\nThe emergency order enables the government to streamline its response to the disaster. It has been applied to the Northland, Auckland, Tairawhiti, Tararua, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Hawke's Bay regions.\n\nNew Zealand has only previously declared a national state of emergency on two occasions - during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.\n\nThe government has attributed the scale of the disaster to climate change.\n\n\"The severity of it, of course, [is] made worse by the fact that our global temperatures have already increased by 1.1 degrees,\" said climate change minister James Shaw.\n\n\"We need to stop making excuses for inaction. We cannot put our heads in the sand when the beach is flooding. We must act now.\"\n\nCyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand just two weeks after unprecedented downpours and flooding in the same region, which killed four people.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Huge waves and heavy rain as Cyclone Gabrielle lashes New Zealand", "Two teenagers have been arrested over Brianna Ghey's death\n\nA 16-year-old girl who was stabbed to death in a park was \"strong, fearless and one of a kind\", her family said.\n\nBrianna Ghey was found wounded and lying on a path in Linear Park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nHer relatives paid tribute to the \"much loved daughter, granddaughter, and baby sister\", and said her death had left a \"massive hole\" .\n\nBrianna was a transgender girl but detectives said there was no evidence to suggest it was a hate crime.\n\nA boy and girl, both 15, have been arrested on suspicion of her murder.\n\nThey are from the local area and remain in custody, Cheshire Police said.\n\nBrianna's family, who are from the nearby town of Birchwood, said she was \"beautiful, witty and hilarious\".\n\nThey continued: \"She was a larger than life character who would leave a lasting impression on all who met her.\n\n\"The loss of her young life has left a massive hole in our family, and we know that the teachers and her friends who were involved in her life will feel the same.\n\nPolice said there would be increased patrols in the area\n\nThey also thanked people for their support, adding: \"The continuation of respect for [our] privacy is greatly appreciated.\"\n\nDet Ch Supt Mike Evans said various lines of inquiry were under way and officers were trying to establish the \"exact circumstances\".\n\n\"At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that the circumstances surrounding Brianna's death are hate related,\" he said.\n\nEmma Mills, the head teacher of Brianna's school Birchwood Community High, said: \"We are shocked and truly devastated.\n\n\"This is understandably a very difficult and distressing time for many and we will do our utmost to support our pupils and wider school community.\"\n\nFriends of Brianna have left flowers and other tributes at the entrance of the park where the teenager died.\n\nA young girl arrived with her father dressed in her school uniform and broke down in tears as she left her own tribute.\n\nTwo other 16-year-olds said they spoke to Brianna in the days before her death and were shocked by what has happened.\n\nThere is still a lot of police activity here with several vans and police cars in the surrounding streets.\n\nTributes have also been paid to Brianna on social media and in particular Tik Tok, where she had a huge following. One message described her as a \"sweet angel\" and a \"beautiful girl\".\n\nIn a tweet, LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall said: \"Our thoughts are with Brianna Ghey, a young trans woman, and her loved ones. We urge anyone who may have information which will help the police with their enquiries to come forward.\"\n\nAlso on Twitter, Labour MP Jess Phillips said Brianna's death was \"utterly tragic\" and sent her parents \"love\" on their \"unimaginable loss\".\n\nDonations on a GoFundMe crowdfunding page set up for Brianna's family, which said the schoolgirl was \"looking forward to taking her exams this year\", have passed £25,000.\n\nPolice earlier said a post-mortem examination was planned and officers were still searching for the weapon used. They are also trying to establish a motive for the attack.\n\nExtra patrols have been sent to the area, which is a well-known dog-walking spot.\n\nWitnesses and anybody with CCTV or dashcam footage have been urged to contact Cheshire Police.\n\nBrianna was found by members of the public lying injured on a path\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Dáithí Mac Gabhann's family want the law changed to help transplant patients\n\nThe father of a boy who needs a heart transplant has expressed disappointment in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) after it said it would block an assembly Speaker election on Tuesday.\n\nAssembly members had planned to meet to pass a new law on organ donation.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson wrote to party members at the weekend to confirm his party's move.\n\nDáithí's Mac Gabhann's father Máirtín said an \"opportunity\" will be missed due to the DUP's action.\n\nThe Northern Ireland secretary said that amending legislation in Westminster is unlikely because of the narrow scope of the bill.\n\nChris Heaton-Harris again urged the parties to reform the Northern Ireland Assembly because \"people in Northern Ireland expect and deserve the devolved institutions to be functioning fully\".\n\nAssembly members had been urged to take their seats on Tuesday to elect a Speaker and implement a new \"opt-out\" organ donation law inspired by Dáithí.\n\nHowever, the DUP is continuing its year-long boycott of power-sharing at Stormont in protest of the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nThe DUP has said the legislation can be dealt with at Westminster, but Mr Mac Gabhann said time is not on his family's side.\n\n\"It's going to have to be Westminster, but again that's another few weeks of uncertainties and it's weeks that we don't have really,\" he told BBC News NI's Talkback programme.\n\nAs the political deadlock continues, Mr Mac Gabhann said that speaking to political parties, \"I keep hearing the word possibility, could, would - you know - I need more than that, I need guarantees at this stage\".\n\nIn his letter on Saturday, first reported by the PA news agency, Sir Jeffrey accused others of using the law to \"blackmail\" his party to return to power-sharing.\n\nSir Jeffrey Donaldson wrote to DUP members over the weekend to make his party's position clear\n\n\"We will not be nominating a Speaker on Tuesday,\" Sir Jeffrey wrote. \"Westminster is sovereign and can resolve the issue quickly.\"\n\nThe DUP leader also criticised Sinn Féin for what he called the party's \"false outrage\" over the issue.\n\n\"Given Sinn Féin's politicking on the matter, let's see if they take their seats in Westminster to help pass this law in the House of Commons. We won't hold our breath.\"\n\nA Sinn Féin motion to recall the assembly received support from the Alliance Party and People Before Profit.\n\nIf a Speaker is not elected, the organ donation legislation will not be passed on Tuesday.\n\nPat Sheehan said there was uncertainty about whether Westminster could pass the law\n\nIn response to DUP's decision not to nominate a Speaker, Sinn Féin's Pat Sheehan said: \"That's disappointing… the most disappointment I think will be felt by the families who are dependent on these regulations being passed\".\n\nSpeaking to Good Morning Ulster, he said if the assembly cannot put forward legislation, \"there is some uncertainty about the procedure in Westminster\".\n\n\"First of all, Jeffrey [Donaldson] can't even bring forward an amendment until next week and there's no certainty around whether the Speaker [at Westminster] will accept an amendment,\" he said.\n\nSocial Democratic and Labour Party assembly member Colin McGrath said the legislation would help people that are on the organ donation list in Northern Ireland, adding that if no Speaker is nominated, \"there's a chance that some of them won't make it\".\n\nAlliance Party MLA Paula Bradshaw said the DUP \"needs to stop playing games with people's lives\", while Mike Nesbitt, of the Ulster Unionist Party, told The Nolan Show that Tuesday's assembly session could descend into \"mudslinging\".\n\nTraditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister also told the programme the passing of the law should be up to Westminster.\n\nDáithí MacGabhann on the steps of Stormont after the bill passed last year\n\nThe DUP has repeatedly blocked the election of a new Stormont Speaker as part of its protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol - a set of post-Brexit trade rules which introduced new checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe assembly cannot carry out its business or pass any new laws without a Speaker in post.\n\nThe Organ and Consent Bill - also known as Dáithí's Law - would mean that all adults in Northern Ireland would be considered as a potential organ donor after their death, unless they specifically stated otherwise.\n\nNorthern Ireland is the only part of the UK where an \"opt-out\" organ donation system is not in place.\n\nDáithí's Law was introduced in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2021 and passed its final stage in the assembly in February 2022.\n\nHowever, additional legislation is needed to specify which organs and tissues are covered under the opt-out system and for that assembly members would have to take their seats.\n\nLast week, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said a proposal to take the legislation through Westminster instead of Stormont would take too long to complete and he urged assembly members to resolve the issue themselves.", "Camilla, the Queen Consort, has tested positive for Covid, Buckingham Palace has announced.\n\nShe is said to be suffering cold symptoms and has cancelled her public engagements for the week.\n\nThe Queen Consort, aged 75, had already pulled out of a planned visit to the West Midlands on Tuesday.\n\nShe has previously had Covid and is understood to be fully vaccinated and is said to be in \"good spirits\" and resting.\n\nBuckingham Palace had initially said the Queen Consort was cancelling a trip because of a \"seasonal illness\", but she has subsequently tested positive for Covid.\n\nCamilla had previously tested positive almost exactly a year ago, with her husband, then Prince Charles, also catching Covid in the same outbreak in February 2022.\n\nBut royal sources say that this week there are no changes planned for King Charles' engagements.\n\nThe couple have urged people to get the Covid vaccine and have both had their booster jabs.\n\nAbout one million people in the UK had coronavirus in the week to 31 January, according to estimates from ONS's most recent infection survey - which is about one in 65 people.\n\nIn England, latest data shows about 96% of people in Camilla's 75-79-year-old age group are vaccinated, with 78.7% having their most recent vaccination three to six months ago.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage shows the moment the police car is forced off the road\n\nFootage has been released showing the moment a stolen van rammed a police car on the M1.\n\nNottinghamshire Police released the video after Robert Wingate, 24, and Deimantas Palaima, 19, were jailed.\n\nThe pair's white Mercedes Sprinter, stolen from Sheffield, had been chased up the M1 during the early hours of 2 December 2021\n\nThe pursuit resulted in two officers being injured after their car was forced into a barrier.\n\nPolice had initially tried to stop the stolen van as it headed north after being spotted near Leicester Forest East Services.\n\nOfficers said the van, which was travelling at more than 70mph, weaved across the road and and hit multiple police vehicles as the pair tried to escape.\n\nAs attempts were made to box the van in, a police car was rammed, causing it to swerve and hit the barrier at speed.\n\nPalaima (left} filmed the pursuit on his phone as the van rammed into police vehicles, the force said\n\nDet Sgt Matt Dumbrell, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: \"It's a miracle our two officers who were rammed off the road were not seriously injured.\n\n\"This dangerous driving showed total disregard for the safety of others using the road and put the lives of others at serious risk.\"\n\nThe chase, which spanned four counties, was brought to a stop outside Barnsley after the van hit a stinger.\n\nThree other police vehicles were damaged, including one which was hit by a wheel which came off the rammed car.\n\nWingate, of HMP Hull, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods, aggravated vehicle taking, two charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and four counts of criminal damage.\n\nHe was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. He was also banned from driving for three years and three months.\n\nPalaima, of Throstle Row, Middleton, Leeds, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods, aggravated vehicle taking (being carried), two charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and one count of criminal damage.\n\nHe was jailed for 25 months and banned from driving for 25 months.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. No indication of aliens... I loved ET but I'll leave it there - WH spokeswoman\n\nThe sensors from a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down over the US earlier this month have been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, the US says.\n\nSearch crews found \"significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified\", said US Northern Command.\n\nThe FBI is examining the items, which the US said were used to spy on sensitive military sites.\n\nThe US has shot down three more objects since the first on 4 February.\n\n\"Large sections of the structure\" were also recovered on Monday off the coast of South Carolina, military officials said.\n\nAbout 30-40ft (9-12m) of the balloon's antennas were among the items found, according to CBS, the BBC's US partner.\n\nUS officials said the high-altitude balloon originated in China and was used for surveillance, but China said it was a weather-monitoring airship that had blown astray.\n\nSince that first incident, American fighter jets have shot down three more high-altitude objects - over Alaska, Canada's Yukon territory, and Lake Huron on the US-Canada border.\n\nBut officials have not said these objects were suspected spy balloons.\n\nIn the Lake Huron strike, the first Sidewinder missile fired by the US F-16 warplane missed its target and exploded in an unknown location, US media reported, citing military sources.\n\nThe second missile hit the target. Each Sidewinder missile costs more than $400,000 (£330,000).\n\nOfficials have said the slow-moving unidentified objects, all of which have been smaller than the first balloon, may be difficult for military pilots to target.\n\nWhite House spokesman John Kirby said on Monday the three other objects were shot down \"out of an abundance of caution\".\n\nThey did not pose \"any direct threat to people on the ground\", but were destroyed \"to protect our security, our interests and flight safety\", he said.\n\nThe balloon shot down over South Carolina was described by officials as the size of three buses.\n\nThe second object, over Alaska, was described as the size of a \"small car\". The third object, over the Yukon, was \"cylindrical\". And the fourth, over Michigan, was said to be \"octagonal\" with strings attached.\n\nA Pentagon memo later reported in US media said the flying object shot down over Yukon appeared to be a \"small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it\".\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Kirby said that the objects did not appear to be involved in intelligence collection and \"could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities, and therefore benign\".\n\nBut he noted no company, organisation or government have said they were the owners of the objects.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nThe recovery of the balloon shot down on 4 February was delayed due to bad weather.\n\nEfforts are under way to collect debris from where the other objects were blown out of the sky.\n\nCanadian Armed Forces Major-General Paul Prévost said all three of the most recent objects to be shot down appeared to be \"lighter than air\" machines, and described the Lake Huron object as \"a suspected balloon\".\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken is considering meeting China's most senior diplomat, Wang Yi, later this week at a security conference in Munich, Germany, sources familiar with the negotiations told US media on Monday.\n\nAmid the row over high-altitude aircraft, America's top diplomat cancelled a visit to Beijing that was initially planned for last week.\n\nMeanwhile, in a sign of heightened tensions over the incidents in the US, Romania scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday to investigate an aerial object entering European airspace.\n\nBut the country's defence ministry said the pilots were unable to locate it and abandoned the mission after half an hour.\n\nNavy divers helped recover the balloon from the Atlantic Ocean\n\nWhat are your questions for our experts on the US balloons story?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. No indication of aliens... I loved ET but I'll leave it there - WH spokeswoman\n\nThe White House has said its decision to shoot down three objects flying over North American airspace this weekend was \"out of an abundance of caution\".\n\nThe objects posed a threat to commercial flights and were downed in the \"best interests\" of the American people, spokesman John Kirby said.\n\nThe US is scrutinising its airspace more closely since the recent incursion of a suspected spy balloon from China.\n\nBeijing has alleged that Washington is flying its own balloons over China.\n\nChina's foreign ministry said on Monday that the US had flown balloons into its airspace more than 10 times in the past year.\n\n\"It's not uncommon as well for the US to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,\" spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.\n\nSpeaking from the White House, Mr Kirby denied the allegation: \"We are not flying surveillance balloons over China. I'm not aware of any other craft we're flying into Chinese airspace.\"\n\nOn 4 February, a high-altitude balloon was downed off the coast of South Carolina after moving for days over the continental US.\n\nUS officials said it had originated in China and was used to monitor sensitive military sites, but China denied the object was used for spying and said it was a weather monitoring device that had blown astray.\n\nSince that first incident, American fighter jets have shot down three more high-altitude objects in as many days - over Alaska, Canada's Yukon territory, and Michigan - and the administration has been under pressure to identify the objects.\n\nA Pentagon spokesman on Sunday appeared to suggest the US had not ruled out that the objects were of an extraterrestrial nature, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denied this at Monday's press briefing.\n\n\"There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,\" she said. \"I wanted to be sure the American people knew that and it is important for us to say that from here.\"\n\nMr Kirby, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, joined Ms Jean-Pierre at the briefing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nThere were differences between the alleged Chinese spy balloon and the three objects downed over the weekend, he said. The latter did not pose \"any direct threat to people on the ground\", but were taken down \"to protect our security, our interests and flight safety\".\n\nEfforts are currently under way to collect debris from where the objects fell, but Mr Kirby noted the objects in Alaska and Canada were in remote terrain and would be difficult to find in winter weather conditions, while the object in Michigan, he said, lay in the deep waters of Lake Huron.\n\nOfficials have not yet been able to \"definitively assess\" these objects, but have not ruled out the possibility they were conducting surveillance, he said.\n\nHe accused Beijing of operating a \"balloon programme for intelligence collection\" that has ties to the Chinese military and was not detected during the Trump administration.\n\n\"We detected it. We tracked it, and we have been carefully studying it to learn as much as we can,\" he said.\n\nCanada's federal police force said on Monday that the search area in the Yukon Territory was about 3,000 sq km (1,1600 sq miles) and that experts were analysing wind models from Sunday to try to narrow the search field.\n\nRoyal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Sean McGillis said the search in the Yukon was \"treacherous\" as the debris was probably located in \"rugged mountain terrain with a very high level of snowpack\".\n\nMr McGillis added that there was a possibility the fragments from the Yukon and Lake Huron incidents might never be recovered because of their remote locations.\n\nCanadian Armed Forces Major-General Paul Prévost concurred that the three most recent objects to be shot down differed from the first balloon.\n\nHe said all three appeared to be \"lighter than air\" machines, and described the Lake Huron object as \"a suspected balloon\".\n\nThe military chief added that any members of the public who discover debris should contact the police directly.\n\nThe row over high-altitude aircrafts led America's top diplomat to cancel a visit to Beijing that was initially planned for last week.\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken is now considering meeting China's senior-most diplomat, Wang Yi, later this week at a security conference in Munich, Germany, sources familiar with the negotiations told US media on Monday.", "Refuse collections are among services funded by local councils\n\nMillions of households are facing an increase in their council tax from April, as local authorities try to balance their books.\n\nThe County Councils Network (CCN) found three-quarters of English councils with social care duties that have published budget details are planning a 5% hike.\n\nThis is the maximum allowed without a local vote, and would add £100 a year to bills for average Band D properties.\n\nThe government said councils should consider money pressure on residents.\n\nIt said the amount local authorities will be able to spend next year was set to rise by £5.1bn, representing an average 9% rise for local authorities.\n\nWork and Pension Secretary Mel Stride said the rise would be a \"below inflation increase\". Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rose by 10.5% in the 12 months to December.\n\nThe government had put \"about £60bn worth of funding for the current year into local authorities,\" Mr Stride added.\n\nHe said: \"It is for local authorities who are elected by local electors to take those decisions to try and get that balance between the pressure they're putting on local tax payers but also making sure they're able to continue to provide those services.\"\n\nBut council leaders say they have \"little choice\" but to raise tax in order to protect services, despite the rising cost of living for residents.\n\nThe CCN has analysed the budget plans of 114 out of the 152 councils in England with responsibility for social care that have published details so far.\n\nIt found 113 are planning to increase council tax, with 84 proposing a 5% rise from April and just one - Central Bedfordshire - keeping tax at its current rate.\n\nThe remaining 38 councils have yet to set out their plans. Three councils - Croydon, Thurrock and Slough - have special permission to increase tax above 5%, after effectively declaring bankruptcy.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nLocal authorities with social care duties will be able to raise council tax by up to 5% from April without consulting local residents, following an announcement at November's autumn statement.\n\nOne authority planning to increase by the full amount, Hampshire County Council, said even with the hike it would still need to dip into its reserves to fill a financial deficit next year.\n\nThe average council tax for a Band D property in England for 2022/23 was £1,966. A 5% rise would add £98 a year to bills for an average property from April, although the amount will vary across England depending on location.\n\nSome council leaders say the council tax system is unfair, as it raises different amounts in different parts of the country. It is currently subject to a review by Levelling Up Minister Lee Rowley.\n\nLibraries are also funded by local councils\n\nMinisters say the amount available to councils next year is set to increase to almost £60bn, representing an average rise of 9.4%.\n\nThe Local Government Association, which represents more than 350 councils in England and Wales, says this figure assumes all councils will raise council tax by the maximum amount.\n\nIt has also expressed concern that a \"significant proportion\" of the increase is made up of one-off grants, ring-fenced funding, and some re-allocation of existing funding.\n\nSam Corcoran, the Labour leader of Cheshire East Council and CCN's vice-chairman, said rising inflation and demand for social care services meant councils were setting their budgets in \"the most difficult circumstances in decades\".\n\nHe added that despite pressures on residents, authorities had \"little choice\" but to put up council tax, with the alternative \"drastic cuts to frontline services\" given the financial pressures on councils.\n\nThe Levelling Up Department, which oversees council funding in England, said its increases to council funding would also see deprived areas getting more per household.\n\n\"Our approach to council tax balances the need to deliver vital services while protecting residents from excessive increases,\" a spokesperson added.\n\n\"We expect local authorities to take into consideration the challenges many households are facing.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Liverpool\n\nLiverpool captain Jordan Henderson says the outcome of an independent report into last season's Champions League final in Paris must be a \"turning point\" for how fans are treated.\n\nFans were penned in and teargassed outside Stade de France at the game against Real Madrid on 28 May 2022.\n\nThe report ruled Uefa bore \"primary responsibility\" for the chaotic scenes, adding it was \"remarkable\" no-one died.\n\n\"The sooner action is taken, the better,\" said Henderson.\n\nThe England midfielder tweeted: \"The Paris report needs to be a turning point for the treatment of football fans. No one should have their safety jeopardised by inadequate organisation.\"\n\nLiverpool want Uefa to \"fully and transparently\" fulfil recommendations made in the report and action must be taken \"to ensure there are no more near misses\".\n• None 'Carnival of horrors' - what we learned from Champions League final report\n\nThe club added the \"fundamental safety failings\" had \"exacerbated the suffering\" of the families, friends and survivors of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.\n\n\"We implore Uefa to fully enact the recommendations as outlined by the panel - no matter how difficult - to ensure supporter safety is the number one priority at the heart of every Uefa football fixture,\" Liverpool said.\n\nThe report - commissioned by Uefa three days after the final which Liverpool lost 1-0 - made 21 recommendations in an attempt to ensure \"everything possible is done\" to prevent a similar incident happening at a major sporting event.\n\nThe recommendations include using only digital tickets and Uefa ensuring its own safety and security unit has \"primary responsibility\" for Champions League final operations.\n\nIt also warned French authorities this should be a \"wake-up call\" before it hosts the 2023 Rugby World Cup and 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.\n\nLiverpool MP Ian Byrne has written to French president Emmanuel Macron demanding \"nothing short of a full public apology\".\n\nUefa and French authorities initially blamed ticketless Liverpool fans for the events, but the report - released on Monday - said there was \"no evidence\" to support the \"reprehensible\" claims.\n\nIt added the collective action of Liverpool supporters was \"probably instrumental\" in preventing \"more serious injuries and deaths\" outside the stadium.\n\n\"Shocking false narratives were peddled in the immediate aftermath of that night in Paris; narratives that have since been totally disproven,\" said Liverpool.\n\n\"The independent French Senate report published in July 2022 found Liverpool supporters were unfairly and wrongly blamed for the chaotic scenes to divert attention from the real organisational failures.\n\n\"The Independent Senate report also published 15 recommendations for improvements. No action has been taken on these recommendations to date.\"\n\nFor many Liverpool fans, the incident and subsequent attempted attribution of blame on supporters evoked painful memories of the Hillsborough disaster.\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool supporters died as a result of the April 1989 disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium, where fans were crushed because of overcrowding in the Leppings Lane end at an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.\n\n\"It is shocking that more than 30 years after the Hillsborough disaster any club and our group of fans would be subject to such fundamental safety failings which have had such a devastating impact on so many,\" the club added.\n\n\"But even more concerning is the realisation that for families, friends and survivors of Hillsborough, Paris has only exacerbated their suffering.\n\n\"Our thoughts go out to all our fans who have suffered as a result of Paris and we would remind them of the mental health support we put in place in the days following the disaster that was the Uefa Champions League final in Paris.\"\n• None Panorama - The Champions League Final - What went wrong?\n\nWhat has been the reaction?\n\nThe report was released about an hour before Liverpool's home win against Merseyside rivals Everton on Monday.\n\nThe findings were thought to be set for publication on Tuesday, but details of the investigation's conclusions were reported by a number of media organisations earlier on Monday.\n\nLiverpool said they had not received a copy of the report before seeing the stories in the media.\n\nOn Tuesday, Liverpool supporters' group Spirit of Shankly said, like Liverpool, it welcomed the report's findings into the \"horrendous situations\" that unfolded in Paris.\n\n\"What should have been the highlight of the season for travelling supporters of Liverpool and Real Madrid - in Uefa's words a 'festival of football' - turned out to be a maelstrom of chaos and alarm that led to some fans fearing for their life,\" the group said.\n\n\"The blame game began even before a ball was kicked, and in the immediate aftermath those supposedly in charge - Uefa and the authorities - had no hesitation in pointing the finger at supporters.\"\n\nIt added it expected an apology from European football's governing body \"for the lies and smears Uefa so quickly aimed at supporters, without whom their competition and showcase final would be nothing\".\n\nIn his letter to President Macron , Byrne - Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby - said: \"I am sure you can appreciate that nothing short of a full public apology and retraction by French police authorities, French football authorities, your government and Uefa will suffice, due to the immense pain caused by this falsified narrative of blame.\n\n\"There is an urgent need for a full and unequivocal apology by all parties for this deeply hurtful and - for many Liverpool fans - triggering ploy to shift the blame.\"\n\nSpeaking to LBC , Paris deputy mayor Pierre Rabadan said the organisation of the final was \"done too quickly\".\n\nIt was moved to the French capital in February 2022 after Russia was stripped of the match following the nation's invasion of Ukraine.\n\n\"The organisation was going probably too quickly, we can say today. Normally the organisation takes around ten months to organise a Champions League final,\" said Rabadan.\n\n\"Here everything was organised in the last two months before the events. We can say that they had mistakes.\"\n\nThe Football Supporters' Association head of policing and casework Amanda Jacks said of the report: \"This is a total exoneration of Liverpool fans who were smeared by those responsible for this fiasco in an attempt to cover up their own failings.\n\n\"The panel has made clear to Uefa that this report has to be taken seriously and cannot be allowed to sit in a drawer gathering dust.\"\n\nMore than 2,000 Liverpool supporters who claim they were injured or left with psychological trauma after the final are part of a class-action lawsuit against Uefa seeking damages.\n\nTony Winterburn, of law firm Pogust Goodhead who are co-running the legal case, said: \"An apology is a start, but it simply does not go far enough.\n\n\"We want our clients, alongside all other fans who have been proven to be blameless, to be compensated for the psychological and physical trauma they experienced on that day and for the subsequent trauma they experienced after the event when authorities continued to place blame at their door despite knowing this was untrue.\"\n\nA Football Association spokesperson said: \"We welcome the findings of the very detailed and thorough report, and are pleased that Liverpool fans have been praised for their exemplary behaviour on the night - behaviour which saved lives.\n\n\"The reports contains important recommendations which are relevant to everyone involved in the delivery of major football events, and positive action should be taken to ensure that this never happens again.\"\n\nCulture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: \"We urged a full review into the disturbing events at last year's Champions League final, so I welcome this report - particularly the recognition that Liverpool fans behaved faultlessly throughout.\n\n\"I hope Uefa will act on its recommendations so that this doesn't happen at a match again.\"\n\nLabour's shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said: \"Lessons must be learned. This was a 'near miss' of a much more fatal situation. It only didn't become so because of the actions of fans.\"\n• None Listen to the latest The Red Kop podcast\n• None Our coverage of Liverpool is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Liverpool - go straight to all the best content", "Jakub Jankto: Czech Republic international midfielder comes out as gay Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nJakub Jankto has made 10 league appearances for Sparta Prague since joining on loan from Getafe in August Czech Republic's Jakub Jankto \"no longer wants to hide\" as he becomes the first current international in men's football to publicly come out as gay. The Sparta Prague midfielder, 27, on loan from Spanish side Getafe, made the announcement on Twitter on Monday. Jankto made his senior debut for the Czech Republic in 2017 and has scored four goals in 45 appearances. \"Like everybody else, I have my strengths, I have my weaknesses, I have a family, I have my friends,\" he said. \"I have a job that I have been doing as best as I can for years with seriousness, with professionalism and passion.\" He added: \"Like everybody else, I also want to live my life in freedom without fears, without prejudice, without violence but with love. \"I am homosexual and I no longer want to hide myself.\" Last year, Blackpool's Jake Daniels became the first professional player in the UK men's game for more than 30 years to come out while still playing. Prior to Daniels, Justin Fashanu was the last active men's professional footballer in the UK to come out during his playing career, featuring for clubs in England and Scotland after announcing in October 1990 that he was gay. Before Jankto publicly came out, Adelaide United player Josh Cavallo was the only current openly gay top-flight male professional footballer in the world, having come out in October 2021. In a statement, Sparta Prague said Jankto had openly discussed his sexual orientation with the club's management, coach and team-mates \"some time ago\". \"Everything else concerns his personal life,\" the club added. \"No further comment. No further questions. You have our support. Live your life, Jakub.\" Former Aston Villa and Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, 40, who came out in January 2014, a few months after retiring because of injury problems, tweeted: \"What a player! What a personality! Well done Jakub for speaking up and leading the way for others.\" Since joining on loan in August, Jankto has made 10 league appearances for Sparta Prague, scoring once and providing one assist. He spent the majority of his club career in Italy with Udinese, Ascoli and Sampdoria, before signing for Spanish side Getafe in 2021.\n• None Why did Michaella McCollum try to smuggle £1.5m of cocaine?\n• None Who will be left deserted in Dubai?:", "An AI-generated image is being used to seek donations\n\nScammers are using the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria to try to trick people into donating to fake causes, security experts have warned.\n\nThese scams claim to raise money for survivors, left without heat or water following the disasters that have killed more than 35,000 people.\n\nBut instead of helping those in need, scammers are channelling donations away from real charities, and into their own PayPal accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.\n\nWe've identified some of the main methods used by scammers, and tools you can use to double check before donating.\n\nOn TikTok Live, content creators can make money by receiving digital gifts. Now, TikTok accounts are posting photos of devastation, looped footage and recordings of TVs showing rescue efforts, whilst asking for donations.\n\nCaptions include phrases like \"Let's help Turkey\", \"Pray for Turkey\" and \"Donate for earthquake victims\".\n\nOne account, which was live for over three hours, showed a pixelated aerial image of destroyed buildings, accompanied by sound effects of explosions. Off-camera, a male voice laughs and speaks in Chinese. The video's caption is \"Let's help Turkey. Donation\".\n\nTikTok livestreams show photos with sound effects and ask for donations\n\nAnother video shows a picture of a distressed child running from an explosion. The livestream host's message is \"Please help achieve this goal\"- an apparent plea for TikTok gifts.\n\nBut the photo of the child is not from last week's earthquakes. A reverse image search found the same image had been posted on Twitter in 2018 with the caption \"Stop Afrin Genocide\", referring to a city in north-western Syria where Turkish forces and their allies in the Syrian opposition ousted a Kurdish militia in that year.\n\nAn old photo is used to ask for donations on TikTok\n\nAnother word of caution about gifting on TikTok: a BBC investigation found TikTok takes up to 70% of the proceeds of digital gifts, although TikTok says it takes less than that.\n\nA TikTok spokesperson told the BBC: \"We are deeply saddened by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria and are contributing to aid earthquake relief efforts.\n\n\"We're also actively working to prevent people from scamming and misleading community members who want to help.\"\n\nOn Twitter, people are sharing emotive images alongside links to cryptocurrency wallets asking for donations.\n\nOne account posted the same appeal eight times in 12 hours, with an image of a firefighter holding a small child amid collapsed buildings.\n\nThe picture used, however, is not real. Greek newspaper OEMA reports that it was created by the Major General of the Aegean fire brigade Panagiotis Kotridis using Artificial Intelligence software Midjourney.\n\nAI image generators often make mistakes, and Twitter users were quick to spot that this firefighter has six digits on his right hand. To verify this further, we asked colleagues from the BBC's tech research hub the Blue Room (part of BBC Research & Development) to try to generate similar images using the same software.\n\nThey asked the software for an \"image of firefighter in aftermath of an earthquake rescuing young child and wearing helmet with Greek flag\", and were given these options:\n\nFurthermore, one of the crypto wallet addresses had been used in scam and spam tweets from 2018. The other address had been posted on Russian social media website VK alongside pornographic content.\n\nWhen the BBC contacted the person tweeting the appeal, they denied it was a scam. They said they had poor connectivity, but answered our questions on Twitter using Google Translate.\n\n\"My aim is to be able to help people affected by the earthquake if I manage to raise funds\", they said. \"Now people are cold in the disaster area, and especially babies do not have food. I can prove this process with receipts.\"\n\nHowever, they have not yet sent us receipts or proof of their identity.\n\nElsewhere on Twitter, scammers create fake fundraising accounts and post links to PayPal.\n\nAx Sharma, cyber security expert at Sonatype, says these accounts retweet news articles and reply to tweets by celebrities and businesses to gain visibility.\n\n\"They create fake disaster relief accounts that appear to be legitimate organisations or news outlets, but then drive funds to their own PayPal addresses,\" he told the BBC.\n\nOne example is @TurkeyRelief, which joined Twitter in January, has just 31 followers, and touts for donations via PayPal. The PayPal account has so far received US$900 in donations. But that includes $500 from the creator of the page, who donated to their own cause. Mr Sharma says this is \"to make the fundraiser appear authentic\".\n\nIt's one of more than 100 fundraisers launched on PayPal in recent days asking for donations to support those affected by the earthquakes, some of which are fake.\n\nMr Sharma says donors should be especially wary of accounts that say they are in Turkey, because PayPal has not been operating in Turkey since 2016.\n\n\"There are real charities outside of Turkey using PayPal, but when these fundraisers say they're in Turkey, that's a red flag,\" he says.\n\nOther things to be vigilant of are anonymous donations and appeals that have raised small amounts. You would expect real charities to have \"significant funds\" according to Mr Sharma, yet many of the PayPal fundraisers have less than £100.\n\nMore than 100 fundraisers have launched on PayPal since the earthquakes struck, some of which are scams\n\nPayPal has suspended the fraudulent account. A PayPal spokesperson told the BBC: \"While the vast majority of people using PayPal to accept donations have the best intentions, there are inevitably some who attempt to prey on the charitable nature and generosity of others.\n\n\"PayPal teams are always working diligently to scrutinise and ban accounts, particularly in the wake of events like the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, so that donations go to intended causes.\"\n\nTwitter has also suspended @TurkeyRelief, but the company did not reply to requests for comment.\n\nHow to avoid scams and donate safely\n\nIt's common to see the same crypto addresses and websites recycled and adapted to scam people out of money following any breaking news story. We investigated scammers' tactics in depth following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war\n\nYou can also listen to our podcast on BBC Trending: How humanitarian crises are exploited online", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nHundreds of grassroots referees have told the BBC they fear for their safety when refereeing and are dissatisfied with current measures to tackle abuse.\n\nMore than 900 referees in England responded to a Radio 5 Live questionnaire, with 293 saying they had been physically abused by spectators, players, coaches or managers.\n\nSome described being punched, headbutted and spat at.\n\nAlmost all the respondents had experienced some form of verbal abuse.\n\nThe president of the Referees' Association in England, which distributed the questionnaire to its 7,000 members, says the abuse of match officials is having a significant impact on their mental health and they are only ever \"one decision away from a smack in the mouth\".\n\n\"One day in this country a referee will lose his or her life. It happened in Holland a few years ago and they really changed their culture in football,\" said Paul Field.\n\nThe Football Association (FA) says a small minority of people abuse referees but such behaviour is \"completely unacceptable\".\n\nIt has pledged to \"continue to do everything we can\" to stamp it out, including stronger sanctions and the launch of a three-year strategy to help tackle the issue.\n\nA trial of referees wearing body cameras in adult grassroots football is planned to start this year.\n\nField said anyone banned at grassroots level for abusing referees should not be allowed to attend any matches and called for the FA to inform elite clubs, with a view to preventing them from buying tickets for games.\n\nHe said some parents' behaviour on the sidelines was \"shocking\" while players often imitate the behaviour of top-level professionals who question decisions.\n\nThere were 122 referees aged 17 and under who responded to the questionnaire - more than 100 said they had been verbally abused by coaches/managers (105), spectators (109) or players (102).\n• None Why I love being a referee and won't quit\n• None It can't go on' - 380 bans for referee attacks\n• None Of the 927 respondents, 908 said they'd experienced verbal abuse from either spectators, players, coaches or managers.\n• None Many (778) had been sworn at while officiating, while 375 had received personal abuse about things like their appearance, gender, race or sexual orientation.\n• physical abuse from either spectators, players, coaches or managers.\n• threat of violence against them or their loved ones had been made against 283 of the respondents.\n• None Verbal or physical abuse had negatively affected the mental health of 361 who answered the questionnaire.\n• None There were 57 people who had received a death threat against them or their loved ones.\n• None The amount of abuse towards referees is worse now than five years ago, according to 440 of the respondents.\n• None There were 378 of the 927 referees who said they are \"often\" or \"sometimes\" worried about their safety.\n• None Many respondents (506) were either moderately or very dissatisfied with measures currently being taken to tackle referee abuse by the English FA.\n\n*The figures in the questionnaire are not statistically representative.\n\nWhat the referees say\n\nRyan, 30, from Lancashire, once had to hide in a back street for an hour after being chased by players.\n\n\"Every week when you go out as a referee, you think what's going to happen this week. I sometimes don't want to turn up. It's freezing cold and you're going to stand there for 90 minutes to be abused, for £30, which is what you get paid,\" he said.\n\n\"Without a referee turning up at the weekend, you're not going to have football and grassroots will eventually end up going into the abyss.\"\n\nHe called for referees to be issued with body cameras, which the FA is hoping to pilot in a trial this year.\n\nMegan, 18, from Oxfordshire, had a parent come on the pitch with raised fists after she sent a child off.\n\n\"He was yelling abuse at me and saying this is why girls shouldn't be in football,\" she said.\n\n\"I think he got a six-match ban and fined, but that isn't enough.\n\n\"It was probably the scariest experience I've had when I've been watching, playing or reffing football. It really had an impact on my mental health, I was just worried all the time. I took two weeks off and worked my way back.\n\n\"All referees get abuse and I also get abuse because of my gender - I'm female in a male-dominated area. I've had people comment on my chest in the middle of a game.\"\n\nAdrian, 59, Portsmouth: \"In nearly 24 years of refereeing, I have been threatened, verbally abused, been told they know where I live, also been assaulted five times. Why I carry on I don't know - suppose the love of football.\"\n\nBill, 74, Leamington Spa: \"I have been stopped from driving my car by players lying in front of my car and jumping on the bonnet. Quite a few years ago I was punched from behind and kicked on the floor. I don't look my age and have vast experience with a good reputation so I can handle myself. But younger refs are walking away.\"\n\nJoe, 18, Romford: \"I've been assaulted by a grown adult player when I was 16, threatened multiple times by managers and parents. A player at under-14 level threatened to have me stabbed and 'get his gang on me'. Managers have threatened to see me in the car park. Players have also said this.\n\n\"We need legislation at government level which offers us protection. The police need to take assaults on referees as criminal matters not just 'a football matter', and the FA needs to invest more and increase sanctions.\"\n\nJacob, 15, Essex: \"I've had players at under-13 level swearing at me and parents undermining my authority.\"\n\n'Players have a responsibility to tone it down' - Sutton\n\nFormer Premier League striker Chris Sutton - whose father was a referee - was asked by Radio 5 Live to referee his first match, a junior game, to find out what it's like on the other side.\n\n\"Any form of abuse is totally unacceptable,\" said the former Norwich, Blackburn, Celtic and Chelsea forward who presents the BBC's 606 football phone-in show.\n\n\"It's an issue that needs to be dealt with, otherwise grassroots football won't survive.\"\n\nSutton has admitted to previously confronting a young referee while watching his son play and now wants to address the issue.\n\n\"I walked on the field because I was concerned about how badly injured he was. I shouldn't have done that. I realise how difficult it is,\" he said.\n\nSutton said players at all levels should stop swearing at referees.\n\n\"We see Premier League and other professional players do that on a regular basis. I've done it. It doesn't make it right and all players have a responsibility to tone it down.\"\n\nWhat the FA says\n\nA FA spokesperson said: \"We have over 28,000 referees in England, and they are the lifeblood of our game.\n\n\"We understand the challenges that some of them face, and we have been very clear that all forms of abuse, whether on or off the pitch, are completely unacceptable.\n\n\"While it is only a small minority of people who behave badly to referees, this is still too many, and we will continue to do everything we can to stamp out this behaviour from our game.\n\n\"Through stronger sanctions, leading innovations and a new three-year refereeing strategy coming soon, we are determined to tackle this issue and build a safer and more inclusive environment for our match officials to have happy and fulfilling long term experiences as referees.\"\n\n*BBC Radio 5 Live sent the questionnaire out via the Referees' Association in England to its 7,000 members.\n\nIt was also sent out to the Referees' Association of Northern Ireland and the Referees' Association of Wales but insufficient responses were received. There is no independent referees' association for Scotland and the Scottish FA declined to send it out to its referees.", "Wayne Couzens, who will never be freed from prison, is due to be sentenced on 6 March for the indecent exposure offences\n\nFormer Met Police officer Wayne Couzens has admitted three counts of indecent exposure, one of which he committed four days before killing Sarah Everard.\n\nThe pleas relate to three incidents in Kent - two offences at a fast-food restaurant in February 2021, and another at woodland in Deal in 2020.\n\nThree remaining counts will not be pursued by the prosecution and will be left on file, the Old Bailey heard.\n\nThe 50-year-old entered the pleas by video-link from Frankland Prison.\n\nCouzens, who had a long grey beard and wore a grey tracksuit, is serving a whole-life sentence at the Durham prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Ms Everard in March 2021.\n\nOn both 14 and 27 February 2021, Couzens exposed his genitals to staff at the drive-in fast food restaurant. He is said to have looked straight at the workers while sitting in his car as he paid for his food.\n\nMrs Justice May told the Old Bailey: \"The female staff were shaken, upset and angry.\"\n\nStaff took a registration number after the second incident and identified the car from CCTV as a black Seat. It was registered to Couzens, who had in any case used a credit card in his name to pay.\n\nThis happened four days before the then-serving officer with the Met Police used his position to trick Ms Everard into his car.\n\nThe significance of Wayne Couzens' guilty pleas should not be underestimated: we now know he was a serial sex offender before he murdered Sarah Everard.\n\nBut more importantly his number-plate was given to Met Police officers after he exposed himself in February 2021.\n\nIt's fair to say if the police had carried out the correct checks they would have realised he was a police officer, but he was free, just days later, to murder Sarah Everard using his status as a policeman.\n\nMany women have said the police don't take indecent exposure seriously enough despite the fact it's known often to lead to more serious offences.\n\nIt's fair to say this was a missed opportunity to stop Wayne Couzens.\n\nDet Ch Insp Katherine Goodwin, who led the team which originally investigated the murder of Sarah Everard, said Couzens had \"tried to frighten and demean\" his victims, \"but they have only shown strength and dignity in reporting him and supporting this investigation\".\n\n\"I would like to thank them for their patience, co-operation and help throughout the case,\" she added.\n\nDeputy Assistant Commissioner for professionalism in the Met, Bas Javid, said: \"We know the public will, understandably, be sickened at yet more grotesque crimes by Couzens.\n\n\"The process of flushing out the corrupt and the criminal from the Met will be slow and painful, but is necessary and we will continue to do so.\"\n\nLast year, Couzens failed in an attempt to have his whole-life term reduced, when the Lord Chief Justice ruled the crimes against Ms Everard were so exceptional the tariff should stand.\n\nCouzens is due to be sentenced for the indecent exposure offences on 6 March.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "More people are entering or returning to work as the cost of living continues to bite into household finances.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics said a record number of people moved out of \"economic inactivity\", which is defined as people not looking for work, between July and December, as more got jobs.\n\nIt was driven by people in the 16-24 age group, as well as 50-64-year-olds.\n\nOne analyst suggested a \"great unretirement\" trend had emerged, with older people returning to work.\n\nThe UK's economic inactivity rate, the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 who are not in work or seeking to be, had been falling in general since records started in 1971, but then it increased during the Covid pandemic.\n\nThis increase was partly due to those aged 50 to 64 taking early retirement and illness, as well as inactivity among students.\n\nBut the trend has started to reverse in recent months. The ONS said the fall in economic inactivity during the latest three-month period was helped by more of those aged 16 to 24 either getting jobs or looking for work.\n\nAn increase in employment was also driven by part-time workers.\n\nDarren Morgan of the ONS said that in the last three months of 2022 fewer people remained outside the labour market altogether, with some moving straight into jobs and others starting to seek work again.\n\n\"This meant that although employment rose again, unemployment also edged up,\" he added.\n\nThe trend is partly down to the rising cost of living, according to Helen Morrissey, head of pension analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown.\n\n\"The great unretirement helped drive a record number of people back to work in the year to October-December,\" she said.\n\n\"People are realising their pensions may not go as far as they had expected. However, we also know some of these people stopped work because of long-term sickness, so better health may have encouraged them to reconsider a return to work.\"\n\nHowever, she added that young people entering the workplace, many for the first time from education, also played a \"major role\" in the rate falling.\n\nUK economic growth has flatlined in recent months and the Bank of England expects the UK to enter a recession this year. Many industries have struggled to recruit workers, though job vacancies are falling.\n\nThe government has been considering plans to coax retired middle-aged workers back into jobs to try to boost the economy, with reports older workers could be offered a \"midlife MoT\" to assess finances and opportunities for work.\n\nKate Shoesmith of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation said the Spring Budget was an opportunity for the government to provide extra support.\n\n\"Improving childcare support and provision to enable more parents to work and older workers such as grandparents to stay in work is vital, as is reinvigorating welfare to work schemes,\" she said.\n\nMark Hassan-Ali says his business offers the over-50s flexibility\n\nMark Hassan-Ali from the N Family Club nursery in Balham, London said the over-50s workforce was \"definitely an untapped area\" in his sector.\n\nHe said the nursery had partnered with an organisation called Restless who specifically target recruiting the over-50s.\n\n\"Flexibility is what we are offering over-50s because we know that people have outside responsibilities, we know that working isn't the biggest thing in their diaries day to day,\" he said.\n\nThe jobs market is very closely watched by the Bank of England. Their concern is that rising rates of pay puts more money into the economy and that can keep inflation higher for longer, prompting further calls for yet higher wages, causing an inflationary spiral.\n\nThat means the the Bank may have to combat that with further interest rate rises to suck some of that money back out.\n\nThese figures are a mixed bag. Although wage rises in the private and public sector increased to 7.3% and 4.2% respectively, with an average of 6.7%, an increasing number of people of working age are returning to the workforce.\n\nThat is good news for the Bank of England as it increases the supply of labour at the same time as we see that demand - the number of vacancies - is falling.\n\nWhile that may encourage the Bank that supply and demand for labour is becoming more balanced, it also means that employers are scaling back their hiring intentions - a sign they think the economic outlook is getting worse. Taken together these numbers seem to confirm the view that the economy will remain stagnant at best or slip into recession this year.\n\nWith rising energy and food prices squeezing household finances, many worker have asked for pay rises in recent months.\n\nPay, excluding bonuses, increased at an annual pace of 6.7% between October and December 2022, which was the strongest growth seen outside of the Covid pandemic.\n\nHowever, when adjusted for inflation which is at 10.5%, regular pay fell by 2.5%.\n\nThe ONS also said that 843,000 working days were lost to strike action in December, which was the highest number since November 2011.\n\nThe total number of strike days from June to December 2022 was more than 2.4 million, the highest total for a calendar year since 1989. There is no ONS data on the number of strike days from February 2020 to May 2022.\n\nThousands of workers have gone on strike in recent months over pay and working conditions.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has warned the UK is \"not out of the woods\" despite it narrowly avoiding a recession last year, said: \"The best thing we can do to make people's wages go further is stick to our plan to halve inflation this year.\"\n\nBut Rachel Reeves, Labour's shadow chancellor, said the UK's economy was \"stuck in the slow lane\" and called for more government measures to \"prevent yet more harm from the cost of living crisis\".", "The work has appeared on a wall in Margate\n\nA Banksy artwork that appeared in Margate has been dismantled by the local council hours after the elusive artist claimed the piece as his.\n\nThe mural shows a 1950s housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth, apparently shutting a man in a freezer.\n\nThe piece - called \"Valentine's day mascara\" by Banksy - had also incorporated a broken freezer and other items, which were all later removed.\n\nThe freezer will return \"once it has been made safe\", the council said.\n\nA statement from Thanet District Council added: \"A fridge freezer which is believed to have been part of the installation has been removed by council operatives on the grounds of safety as it was on public land.\"\n\nBanksy published a picture of the work on his Instagram page on Valentine's Day morning, and many of the comments suggest he is referencing fighting violence against women.\n\nThe artist also posted pictures showing a close-up of the woman's smiling, but seemingly battered face.\n\nThe artwork also featured a variety of rubbish on the ground, including a broken white garden chair, a blue crate and an empty beer bottle.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe resident of the property where the painting was created, who asked not to be named, said the freezer and other items had been removed \"very quickly\" and put into a truck at midday on Tuesday.\n\nDiscussing how she felt about the removal, the tenant said: \"I'm absolutely upset because it's not really nice. It was part of the art, they should be very happy because Margate could get bigger attention, positive attention.\n\n\"Why did they move those parts? It's just silly.\"\n\nReferring to the council, she added: \"Earlier, no-one was interested if the rubbish was on the street. I mean, they were, but not that quickly.\n\n\"Even if you report something to them about taking the rubbish, they are acting one or two weeks later, not immediately.\"\n\nMany local Margate residents commented on the removal of the freezer on social media, with some accusing the council of spoiling the artwork.\n\nAmong them was Richard Llewellyn, who said: \"The alley, a public footpath that leads almost to where the Banksy art piece is, has been like this for weeks and weeks. It's shocking what is in the pile.\n\n\"Yet the council can arrive as quick as anything to remove part of the artwork 200 metres away. Someone's priorities a little wrong me thinks.\"\n\nAnother comment said: \"Probably been there for months....only became a health and safety issue once it became a piece of art.\"\n\nThe council said the fridge freezer \"is now in storage and will be returned once it has been made safe to the public\".\n\nThe statement added: \"We will be contacting the owner of the property to discuss the options to preserve the artwork for the district.\"\n\nBanksy has previously created artwork for Valentines Day, including a piece which appeared three years ago in Bristol, the reputed home city of the artist.\n\nThe mural appears to show a woman with a missing tooth and a swollen eye\n\nIn December, Banksy created 50 screenprints which are to be sold to raise funds for a charity supporting the people of Ukraine.\n\nThe anonymous graffiti artist previously confirmed he had spent time in Ukraine after posting a video of an artist spray-painting designs in the war-torn country and speaking to locals.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Richard Sharp says he is \"confident\" appointment was on merit\n\nRichard Sharp is facing renewed pressure to stand down as BBC chairman.\n\nJonathan Dimbleby and Baroness Wheatcroft have joined a growing chorus of voices questioning his position.\n\nMr Sharp is facing criticism for his role in facilitating a £800,000 loan for then-prime minister Boris Johnson.\n\nAn MPs' committee said Mr Sharp made \"significant errors of judgement\" in doing so while applying for the BBC job. He insists he got the job on merit.\n\nOn Monday Rishi Sunak declined to say if he had confidence in Mr Sharp, and instead said he would wait for the outcome of an inquiry ordered by the commissioner for public appointments.\n\nMr Sunak's official spokesperson, when later asked directly if the prime minister had confidence in Mr Sharp, said: \"Yes, we are confident the process was followed,\" adding: \"But there is a review into this process and we will look at that carefully.\"\n\nVeteran BBC broadcaster Mr Dimbleby told BBC Newsnight: \"What [Mr Sharp] should do honourably is fall on his sword.\"\n\n\"I have no doubt that he was appointed on merit on the basis of the available facts,\" he said. \"The issue is simply about transparency and accountability.\"\n\nHe warned the credibility of the corporation in the public's view was at stake, adding \"the BBC needs this like it needs a hole in the head\".\n\nCrossbench peer Baroness Wheatcroft, who sits on the Lords Communications and Digital Committee, said it was \"impossible\" not to agree with Mr Dimbleby's position.\n\n\"Even if Mr Sharp behaved absolutely correctly, it doesn't look right, it doesn't smell right, and it doesn't feel right for the BBC to have a chairman who is now being questioned about his judgment,\" she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"It may be the sort of thing that happens all the time in the circles that Mr Sharp moves in, and it may be that £800,000 is just chicken feed as far as he is concerned, but to most people who love the BBC £800,000 is a massive sum,\" she added.\n\n\"He did a favour for a prime minister who was in need at a time when the prime minister was being asked to do Mr Sharp a massive favour and grant him one of the plum jobs in British broadcasting.\"\n\nSir David Normington, ex-commissioner for public appointments, told BBC Radio 4's World at One that the situation was \"very damaging\".\n\nBetween 2011 and 2016 the retired civil servant was responsible for monitoring government appointments of chairs and non-executive directors of public bodies or members of advisory committees.\n\nHe said: \"It's damaging Mr Sharp, it's damaging the BBC and the government and more important - it's undermining public confidence in the appointments system.\"\n\nHe explained that ministers were free to appoint friends and donors and called for more independent scrutiny of appointments.\n\n\"It should be the [independent] panel that is responsible for putting forward the names of people who are best suited for that role - and I don't think that happens at the moment.\"\n\nThe role of BBC chair is appointed by the government and includes upholding and protecting the BBC's independence and ensuring the BBC fulfils its mission to inform, educate and entertain, among other things.\n\nBBC News has contacted Mr Sharp and all other BBC board members for comment.\n\nLabour and the SNP have suggested that Mr Sharp's position is untenable.\n\nA report published by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Sunday concluded that Mr Sharp should not have become involved in facilitating the loan while applying for the BBC job.\n\nMr Sharp acted as a \"go-between\" for Sam Blyth, Canadian millionaire and distant cousin of Mr Johnson, who had said he would be willing to act as guarantor on the loan after learning the then-prime minister was in financial difficulty.\n\nMr Sharp, who was working as a Treasury adviser at the time, approached Simon Case, the country's most senior civil servant, to arrange a meeting between the pair.\n\nThe report found Mr Sharp should have disclosed his knowledge of the talks as potential conflicts of interest during his BBC application.\n\nMr Sharp insists his involvement in the matter ended with that single meeting, despite admitting he met socially with Mr Johnson and Mr Blyth at Chequers months later.\n\nLast week he told MPs he \"didn't arrange the loan\" but did not refute acting as a \"sort of introduction agency\".\n\nHe admitted the affair had embarrassed the BBC but insisted he had \"acted in good faith to ensure that the rules were followed\".\n• None Richard Sharp confident BBC appointment was on merit. Video, 00:00:36Richard Sharp confident BBC appointment was on merit", "Mr Tuniyaz (left), seen in this file picture from 2019, is the governor of Xinjiang province\n\nA Chinese Communist Party official accused of overseeing human rights abuses has cancelled a visit to the UK.\n\nMPs urged the government to block Erkin Tuniyaz from travelling to London.\n\nThe senior figure is governor of China's north-western Xinjiang province.\n\nIn 2021, MPs approved a non-binding Commons motion which declared Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang were \"suffering crimes against humanity and genocide\".\n\nA Foreign Office spokesperson said they understood Mr Tuniyaz had pulled out of the trip.\n\nThe government insists it did not invite him and that he would not have been granted an audience with a minister.\n\n\"The UK government will continue to use all opportunities to take action against China's unacceptable human rights abuses in Xinjiang,\" a Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement.\n\nChina has been accused of systematic human rights abuses against the Muslim minority, where hundreds of thousands have been detained in camps.\n\nThe United Nations has accused China of \"serious human rights violations\" and possible crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThree students were killed and five others injured after a gunman opened fire on the Michigan State University (MSU) campus on Monday night.\n\nThe victims were all students at the university, police said, and the injured remain in critical condition.\n\nThe police said a caller's tip led them to the suspected gunman, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.\n\nThe suspect, who has since been identified, had no ties to MSU.\n\n\"We can confirm that the 43-year-old suspect had no affiliation to the university. He was not a student, faculty, or staff, current or previous,\" Chris Rozman of the Michigan State University Police said.\n\nQuestions still remain about the motive of the gunman, who was identified as 43-year-old Anthony McRae.\n\n\"We have absolutely no idea what the motive was at this point,\" Mr Rozman said.\n\nThe names of the victims have not yet been released.\n\nDr Denny Martin, the Chief Medical Officer of Sparrow Hospital, where the victims were taken for treatment, said four of the injured required surgery and one was taken to critical care. All five remain in hospital.\n\n\"This is something that we practice for very often, but never want to do,\" said a visibly emotional Dr Martin at Tuesday's news conference.\n\nThe gunman opened fire shortly before 20:30 local time (01:30 GMT) at Berkey Hall, a building located north of the MSU campus in the city of East Lansing.\n\nResponding officers found multiple students who were injured - two of whom died on the scene.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPolice said the suspect then walked over to the nearby MSU Union building, where they received several more reports of gunshots. The third victim died inside the building, they said.\n\nThe suspect then quickly fled the scene, sparking a large manhunt involving hundreds of officers.\n\nHe was found nearly four hours later at 11:45 local time in the City of Lansing, around three miles (4.82 km) northwest of campus, after police released a photo of him and a citizen called in a tip that helped locate him.\n\nThe photo, taken from surveillance footage, showed the suspect wearing a denim jacket, a navy baseball cap and red trainers.\n\nA picture was released of the suspect before his death was announced\n\nAs the manhunt was ongoing, students were told to \"shelter in place\". Some reported on social media that they were hiding.\n\nOne - Drew Russ, an 18-year-old from Los Angeles - was watching Star Wars with friends at his dorm when a deluge of text messages arrived.\n\nHe and everyone on his floor in the dorm, which is about a mile from Berkey Hall, stayed put, he told MSNBC on Monday night.\n\n\"I couldn't believe this was happening on my college campus,\" he said.\n\nAnother student jumped out of a first-floor window at Berkey Hall, her parents said.\n\nMike and Natalie Papoulias rushed to the campus on Monday night from Jackson, Michigan, after receiving a call from their daughter, they told local media.\n\nIn a text message, the daughter said: \"I heard somebody get shot, Mom. It's terrifying. I could smell the gunpowder.\"\n\nCity officials said the shooting has rocked the small communities of MSU and East Lansing.\n\n\"We went to school here, we got children here, we got family, this is us,\" said Marlon Lynch, chief of campus police at the university.\n\nAll campus activities have been cancelled for at least 48 hours, said MSU president Teresa Woodruff, \"to give ourselves time to think and to grieve and to be together\".\n\nAt Tuesday's news conference, Democrat House representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said she was \"filled with rage\" to be talking about yet another school shooting.\n\n\"The most haunting picture of last night was watching the cameras pan through the crowd and seeing a young person wearing an 'Oxford Strong' sweatshirt,\" she said. The shirts were handed out to survivors of the Oxford High School shooting near Detroit, Michigan 15 months ago.\n\n\"We have children in Michigan who are living their second school shooting in under a year and a half,\" she said. \"If this is not a wake-up call to do something, I don't know what is.\"\n\nIn a statement, President Joe Biden said the victims in Michigan and those grieving other mass shootings are owed action on gun reform.\n\n\"The fact that this shooting took place the night before this country marks five years since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, should cause every American to exclaim 'enough' and demand that Congress take action,\" he said.\n\nThe shooting is the latest in a growing number in schools and college campuses across the US.\n\nIn November, three members of the University of Virginia football team were killed on campus, while 10 people were killed in a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon in 2015.\n\nIn 2007, 33 lives were lost in a shooting at Virginia Tech.\n\nMeanwhile, police in New Jersey said a town's public and private schools were closed on Tuesday due to a threat connected to the Michigan State suspect.\n\nA statement from the Ewing police department said its officers were informed the suspected gunman had ties to Ewing Township, and that a note containing a threat to two public schools there had been discovered.", "The eastern Donetsk region in Ukraine is being targeted by heavy Russian bombardments\n\nA British man has died in Ukraine, the Foreign Office has confirmed.\n\nThe man's identity has not yet been confirmed but British officials are in contact with local Ukrainian authorities.\n\nHe is one of eight British men known to have died in Ukraine since the Russian invasion started last year. Many volunteer fighters and aid workers have travelled to the country from the UK.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was supporting the man's family.\n\nThe UK government has not disclosed any more information about the circumstances surrounding his death.\n\nA Foreign Office spokesperson said: \"We are supporting the family of a British national who died in Ukraine, and are in contact with the local authorities\".\n\nThe Foreign Office advises against all travel to Ukraine, amid the ongoing invasion, saying there is a \"real risk to life\".\n\nAny British nationals still in Ukraine should leave immediately if it is safe to do so, it said.\n\nIt comes less than a month after British nationals Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw were confirmed dead in eastern Ukraine.\n\nTheir families said the pair were attempting to rescue an elderly woman when their cars were hit by a shell at Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region.\n\nA national one-minute silence will take place in the UK to mark the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, the government said.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to lead the tribute to the \"bravery and resilience\" of the Ukrainian people at 11:00 GMT on 24 February.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Sunak said: \"Russia's unjustifiable attack brought war and destruction to our continent once again, and it has forced millions from their homes and devastated families across Ukraine and Russia.\n\n\"I am incredibly proud of the UK's response, and throughout this past year, the UK public have shown their true generosity of spirit and their enduring belief in freedom.\"\n\nScott Sibley, from Lincolnshire, died after being struck by mortar fire in Ukraine in April.\n\nWhile Craig Mackintosh, from Thetford, Norfolk was killed while volunteering as a medic in August.\n\nBritish aid worker Paul Urey, who was captured by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine, died in detention last July.\n\nAlmost one year on since the start of the conflict, what questions do you have about the war in Ukraine?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.\n• None Bakhmut: 'Little by little, the Russians are winning'", "The FBI is examining wreckage from the first balloon shot down\n\nThe White House has said there is no indication three flying objects blasted out of the sky over the weekend by the US military are linked to alleged Chinese spying.\n\nThe objects may be \"tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign\", spokesman John Kirby said.\n\nUS and Canadian officials have not yet located or recovered any wreckage from the three downed aircraft.\n\nBeijing earlier accused the US of \"a trigger-happy overreaction\".\n\nChina has denied one of its balloons, which was destroyed by a US fighter jet earlier this month off South Carolina, was being used for espionage, saying it was merely a weather-monitoring airship that had blown off course.\n\nAt Tuesday's daily news conference, Mr Kirby said it will be difficult to determine the purpose or origin of the three other objects that were destroyed over Alaska, Canada and Michigan until the debris is found and analysed.\n\n\"We haven't seen any indication or anything that points specifically to the idea that these three objects were part of the PRC's [People's Republic of China] spying programme,\" the White House National Security Council told reporters, \"or that they were definitively involved in external intelligence collection efforts\".\n\nA \"leading explanation\" being considered by US intelligence, he added, was that \"these could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign\".\n\nBut he noted that no company, organisation or government had yet laid claim to the objects.\n\nIn the most recent strike - over Lake Huron - the first Sidewinder missile fired by a US F-16 warplane missed its target, the top US general has confirmed.\n\n\"First shot missed. Second shot hit,\" said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley during a visit to Brussels on Tuesday.\n\n\"We go to great lengths to make sure that the airspace is clear and the backdrop is clear up to the max effective range of the missile. And in this case, the missiles land, or the missile landed, harmlessly in the water of Lake Huron.\"\n\nA spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, criticised the American response.\n\n\"Many in the US have been asking, 'what good can such costly action possibly bring to the US and its taxpayers?'\" said Wang Wenbin on Tuesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nSensors from the alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down over the US on 4 February were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, and are being analysed by the FBI.\n\nSearch crews found \"significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified\" off the coast of South Carolina, said US Northern Command.\n\nThe Chinese balloon was being tracked by US intelligence since its lift-off from a base on Hainan Island on the south coast of China earlier this month, US media report.\n\nShortly after take-off the balloon drifted towards the US islands of Guam and Hawaii before moving north towards Alaska, American officials told CBS News, the BBC's partner.\n\nThe unnamed officials say that its path indicates that it could have been blown off course by weather, but that it was back under the Chinese control again by the time it reached the continental US.\n\nThe entire US Senate received a classified briefing on Tuesday about the matter from military leaders.\n\nSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber would launch an inquiry into why the aircraft were not detected earlier.\n\n\"It's a good question,\" Mr Schumer told reporters. \"We need to answer it.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Romania scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday to investigate an aerial object entering European airspace.\n\nBut the country's defence ministry said the pilots were unable to locate it and abandoned the mission after half an hour.\n\nNavy divers helped recover the balloon from the Atlantic Ocean\n\nWhat are your questions for our experts on the US balloons story?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nUefa bears \"primary responsibility\" for the chaotic scenes that \"almost led to disaster\" before last year's Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, says an independent report.\n\nFans were penned in and teargassed outside Paris's Stade de France as kick-off was delayed by 36 minutes.\n\n\"It is remarkable no one lost their life,\" said the report, which Uefa commissioned after the 28 May final.\n\nUefa and French authorities initially blamed ticketless fans for the events.\n\nThe report says there is \"no evidence\" to support the \"reprehensible\" claims.\n\n\"The panel has concluded that Uefa, as event owner, bears primary responsibility for failures which almost led to disaster,\" said the report.\n\n\"All the stakeholders interviewed by the panel have agreed that this situation was a near-miss: a term used when an event almost turns into a mass fatality catastrophe.\"\n• None What happened at the Champions League final?\n\nWhile it said there was \"contributory fault\" from other bodies - particularly French police and the French Football Federation - the findings said European governing body Uefa was \"at the wheel\".\n\n\"Uefa should have retained a monitoring and oversight role [of security], to ensure it all worked. It self-evidently did not,\" the report added.\n\nWhat else did the report find?\n\nUefa commissioned the independent report three days after the match - the showpiece of European club football which Liverpool went on to lose 1-0 - took place in the French capital.\n\nThe European governing body said a \"comprehensive review\" would examine a number of factors that include the decision-making, responsibility and behaviour of all parties involved in the final.\n\nThe investigation found eight key factors that \"almost led to disaster\" because of Uefa's failure, which included:\n• None a disproportionately large number of Liverpool supporters being directed to the Stade de France Saint-Denis train station\n• None poor route planning between the train station and the stadium\n• None inadequate ticketing systems and entry mechanisms at the additional security perimeters\n• None large groups of locals gaining entry to the stadium and a failure to police them\n• None police using tear gas and pepper spray in the concourses\n\nIt also said the collective action of Liverpool supporters was \"probably instrumental\" in preventing \"more serious injuries and deaths\" outside the stadium.\n\nThe investigation was chaired by Dr Tiago Brandao Rodrigues, a Portuguese politician, with the panel also including experts and consultants from legal, policing and event-management fields, along with representatives from football fan groups.\n\n\"The enthusiasm around the game rapidly turned into a real 'near miss' which was harmful to a significant number of fans from both clubs,\" said Dr Rodrigues.\n\n\"This should never have happened at such an important sporting event, and it is unacceptable that it took place at the heart of the European continent.\"\n\nThe report made 21 recommendations in an attempt to ensure \"everything possible is done\" to prevent any similar incident happening again at a major sporting event.\n\nIt also warned French authorities this should be a \"wake-up call\" before it hosts the 2023 Rugby World Cup and 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.\n• None Panorama - The Champions League Final - What went wrong?\n\nFor many Liverpool fans, the incident and subsequent attempted attribution of blame on supporters has evoked painful memories of the Hillsborough disaster.\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool supporters died as a result of the April 1989 disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium, where fans were crushed because of overcrowding in the Leppings Lane End at an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.\n\nAfter years of smear campaigns, a new inquest concluded in 2016 the behaviour of Liverpool supporters played no part in the deaths and those who died were unlawfully killed.\n\nThe accusations made by Uefa and French authorities about alleged ticketless Liverpool fans in Paris were criticised by the Rodrigues-led report.\n\n\"The parallels between Hillsborough 1989 and Paris 2022 are palpable,\" it added.\n\n\"The similarities include the fact both events were preventable and both were caused by the failures of those responsible for public safety.\n\nFollowing the publication of the review into the Paris scenes, Uefa apologised \"most sincerely\" for the events which unfolded.\n\nUefa said it would also announce a \"special refund scheme\" for affected fans.\n\n\"In particular, I would like to apologise to the supporters of Liverpool,\" Uefa general secretary Theodore Theodoridis said.\n\n\"For the experiences many of them had when attending the game and for the messages released prior to and during the game, which had the effect of unjustly blaming them for the situation leading to the delayed kick-off.\"\n\nWhat have Liverpool and fans said?\n\nUefa initially aimed to publish the findings of the investigation by November last year.\n\nThe report was released on Monday, about an hour before Liverpool's home game against Merseyside rivals Everton.\n\nSteve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, says the findings \"vindicated\" the Liverpool fans who had said Uefa and the French authorities were responsible for the events.\n\n\"Fans who travelled to Paris expecting the night of their lives were put in harm's way by the very people who are meant to protect them,\" Rotheram, who was at the match, said.\n\n\"The organisation before, during and after the game - and the heavy-handed treatment of fans - was predicated on flawed intelligence and the inaccurate preconceptions and prejudices of the authorities.\"\n\nThe findings were thought to be set for publication on Tuesday, but details of the investigation's conclusions were reported by a number of media organisations earlier on Monday.\n\nLiverpool said they had not received a copy of the report before seeing the stories in the media.\n\n\"It's hugely disappointing that a report of such significance, such importance to football supporters' lives and future safety, should be leaked and published in this way,\" said the club.\n\nLiverpool supporters' group Spirit of Shankly was also unhappy the report had been leaked before being seen by the club and their supporters.\n\n\"It's disappointing and insensitive to release a report of this magnitude without first releasing to supporters who were there,\" a spokesman told the BBC.\n\nWhat happened outside the Stade de France?\n\nUefa initially blamed the \"late arrival\" of fans for the problems, which delayed kick-off by more than half an hour.\n\nMany Liverpool fans said they had been at the stadium hours before kick-off - scheduled for 21:00 local time - but were stopped from getting into the ground.\n\nThe gates opened at 18:00 local time and fans had been told to arrive early to ease congestion.\n\nLiverpool supporters arriving shortly after that time said already-large crowds were not moving through a ticket checkpoint and led to fans being crammed in underpasses outside the stadium.\n\nFive minutes before kick-off, at 20:55, Uefa announced that the start of the match was delayed \"for security reasons\" until 21:15.\n\nEyewitnesses said the French police began to use pepper spray, causing the crowd to stampede backwards and leaving some of them vomiting as others rushed for water from neighbouring bars to ease the pain.\n\nAt 21:14 Uefa announced a further delay to kick-off. Eventually, the match began at 21:36.\n\nFrance's interior and sports ministers acknowledged difficulties in managing crowds at the final but initially pointed blame at Liverpool fans and local youths trying to force their way into the stadium.\n\nFrench sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said Liverpool had let their supporters \"out in the wild\", prompting Liverpool chairman Tom Werner to demand an apology for her comments.\n\nShortly after the final, a spokesperson for France's independent police commissioner's union (SICP), Mathieu Valet, told the BBC's Newshour that \"supporters without tickets or with fake tickets were not the main problem\".\n\nHe said it was down to \"three or four hundred French and undocumented delinquents\" who had gained access to the stadium's concourse.\n\n\"It's clear that we needed more police - we didn't have enough on the ground,\" he said.", "When one of the world's most promising chess players, 25-year-old Sara Khadem, decided to play at an international tournament without her headscarf, in solidarity with the protest movement in Iran, she thought a warning would be the worst that would happen to her.\n\nInstead, she can't return to Iran - there are arrest papers waiting for her, and she now lives in exile in southern Spain, with her husband and one-year-old son.\n\nShe and her family asked the BBC not to reveal her precise location; their worry is that there may be repercussions even thousands of miles away from Iran.\n\nWomen in Iran are required to wear headscarves in public, even when abroad. But a few are choosing not to, in support of the women and girls spearheading the protests inside the country, following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September. One of them, the climber Elnaz Rekabi, was forced to recant and it is unclear what her situation is, now that she is back in Iran.\n\nSara Khadem said there was a slow evolution of her decision to play in the tournament in Kazakhstan in December last year without her headscarf. The contestants only wore them in front of the cameras, and she felt that was hypocritical. Given the sacrifices being made by the women and girls on the streets of Iran, some of them risking their lives, it was the least she could do, she said.\n\nHad she considered joining the demonstrators herself? \"Yes of course,\" she replied. But her young son, Sam, held her back. She said: \"I have responsibilities to him, and I thought perhaps I could use my influence in other ways.\"\n\nSara Khadem has been playing chess competitively since she was about eight years old. This is not the first time she has fallen foul of the Islamic Republic's strict codes of behaviour.\n\nIn 2020, a Ukrainian plane which took off from Tehran airport was shot down by, as it turned out, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, killing 176 people. It was three days before the authorities admitted their error. Ms Khadem said on social media she was planning to leave the national team. She did not mention the flight - nevertheless, she was forced to sign a confession saying she did not mean anything political by her post.\n\nThe next time she went to the airport, her passport was confiscated. She thought her career was over.\n\nNow that her life has changed utterly, does she have any regrets? Without hesitation she said no. \"I miss my family, but I would not say I regret the decision. I still represent Iran, and I am Iranian, and the people of Iran still see me as Iranian.\"\n\nIt struck me that she does not regard herself as political, though she acknowledges that so much in Iran is political. She said, \"I'm not an activist, and I don't have any messages for people risking so much. The people who are protesting in the streets are inspiring to me and so many others.\"\n\nMore on the Iran protests:\n\nHer husband, Ardeshir Ahmadi, is a film director and internet show presenter, who has also had direct experience of being on the wrong side of the Islamic Republic. A documentary film about hip hop resulted in him being beaten and imprisoned for three months. The decision which led to their exile was a joint one.\n\nShe has been able to stay in Spain because of the golden visa rule, which allows anyone who buys a property valued at half a million euros (£442,000; $536,000) to gain residency.\n\nPrime Minister Pedro Sánchez invited Sara Khadem to meet him. The day turned out to be bittersweet.\n\n\"It was on that day that I was issued with arrest orders at home. So I had mixed feelings: I was appreciated in this country - and in my own country, where you have achieved lots of success, you get arrest papers.\"", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nTwo people have been arrested after malicious messages were sent to a number of parish councillors over missing Nicola Bulley.\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January after a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nA man, aged 49, from Manchester was arrested on suspicion of malicious communications offences, Lancashire Police said.\n\nA woman, 20, of Oldham has also been held on suspicion of the same offence.\n\nThe force said the man has since been bailed until 12 May while the woman remains in custody, adding inquiries were \"ongoing\".\n\nWyre Council removed the contact details of Inskip with Sowerby Parish councillors after several received \"vile\" telephone calls over the weekend in relation to Ms Bulley's case.\n\nMounted police have been searching for the missing dog walker\n\nLeader of the council Michael Vincent described the messages as \"vile\" and said it would \"not tolerate\" abuse of elected members.\n\n\"It is a shame we have had to take this step at such a difficult time and appropriate steps are being taken to ensure that residents are still able to contact their elected representatives,\" he said.\n\nEarlier the mother of missing Claudia Lawrence said Ms Bulley's disappearance brought back \"painful\" memories.\n\nJoan Lawrence's 35-year-old daughter has not been seen since she failed to arrive for work at the University of York in March 2009.\n\nThe force is working on one hypothesis the mortgage adviser could have fallen into the river during her walk after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school that morning.\n\nMs Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10 GMT.\n\nAbout 25 minutes later her phone, still connected to a Teams call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has said he was \"100% convinced\" she did not fall into the water.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Two teenagers have been arrested over Brianna Ghey's death\n\nCandle-lit vigils are to be held across the UK for 16-year-old Brianna Ghey who was stabbed to death in a park.\n\nThe schoolgirl was found lying wounded on a path in Linear Park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nVigils are planned for this evening in Liverpool and Bristol, with others expected over the comings days in Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds.\n\nAdditional events are planned in Aberdeen, Reading, Plymouth, Brighton, Belfast, London and York.\n\nBrianna's family paid tribute to the \"much loved daughter, granddaughter, and baby sister\", and said her death had left a \"massive hole\".\n\nShe was a transgender girl but police have said there is no evidence to suggest the killing was a hate crime.\n\nA boy and girl, both 15, have been arrested on suspicion of murder\n\nThe vigils across the country are being organised by members of the transgender community and supporters.\n\nA boy and girl, both 15, were arrested on suspicion of her murder.\n\nLocal councillor Valerie Allen was near the park at the time of the attack, she told BBC North West Today: \"I didn't see a thing but then I saw the police cars coming flying down and knew something had happened.\"\n\nMs Allen added: \"It really is devastating and people are very, very sad at the loss of someone so young.\"\n\nDonations on a GoFundMe crowdfunding page set up for Brianna's family, which said the schoolgirl was \"looking forward to taking her exams this year\", have passed £70,000.\n\nPolice said a post-mortem examination was planned and officers were still searching for the weapon used. They are also trying to establish a motive for the attack.\n\nExtra patrols have seen in the area, which is a well-known dog-walking spot, while witnesses have been urged to contact Cheshire Police.\n\nMore and more floral tributes were being left at the park\n\nBrianna was found by members of the public lying injured on a path\n\nTributes have also been paid to Brianna on social media and in particular Tik Tok, where she had a huge following.\n\nOne message described her as a \"sweet angel\" and a \"beautiful girl\".\n\nIn a tweet, LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall said: \"Our thoughts are with Brianna Ghey, a young trans woman, and her loved ones. We urge anyone who may have information which will help the police with their enquiries to come forward.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ashley Dale's death was one of three gun killings within a week in Liverpool last year\n\nTwo more men have been charged with the murder of a woman who was shot dead in her back garden, police have said.\n\nAshley Dale, 28, was found with a gunshot wound in Old Swan, Liverpool, just before 01:00 BST on 21 August last year.\n\nThe Knowsley Council worker died in hospital from her injuries.\n\nNiall Barry, 26, of Moscow Drive, Tuebrook, and Sean Zeisz, 27, of Longreach Road, Huyton, are due before magistrates in Liverpool on Tuesday.\n\nJames Witham, 40, of Ashbury Road, Huyton, and Joseph Peers, 28, of Woodlands Road, Roby, have also been charged with murder and possession of a firearm with intent.\n\nThey previously appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on 2 February.\n\nA 25-year-old man, of no fixed address, who has been charged with assisting an offender, is due to appear at the same court on 1 March.\n\nMerseyside Police previously said Ms Dale, an environmental health officer, was not believed to have been the intended target of the shooting.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Brianna Ghey was found injured in Linear Park in Culcheth and died at the scene\n\nPolice investigating the killing of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey have said they are now considering whether it could have been a hate crime.\n\nThe schoolgirl was found lying with stab wounds on a path in Linear Park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nPolice have been granted a 30-hour extension to question a boy and girl, both aged 15, who have been arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nThey said all lines of inquiry were \"being explored\", including hate crime.\n\nBrianna was a transgender girl but Cheshire Police detectives previously said there was no evidence to suggest the killing was \"hate related\".\n\nThey said a post-mortem examination was planned and officers were still searching for the weapon used. They are also trying to establish a motive for the attack.\n\nFloral tributes were being left at the park where Brianna was killed\n\nA statement from the force urged people to \"please continue to avoid speculation online and be wary of sharing misinformation\".\n\nBrianna's family earlier paid tribute to the \"much loved daughter, granddaughter, and baby sister\", and said her death had left a \"massive hole\".\n\nCandle-lit vigils are to be held across the UK, with events due to be held this evening in Liverpool and Bristol.\n\nEvents - organised by members of the transgender community and supporters - are also planned in the coming days in cities including Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast and York.\n\nLocal councillor Valerie Allen was near the park at the time of the attack, she told BBC North West Today: \"I didn't see a thing but then I saw the police cars coming flying down and knew something had happened.\n\n\"It really is devastating and people are very, very sad at the loss of someone so young.\"\n\nA boy and girl, both 15, have been arrested on suspicion of murder\n\nTributes have also been paid to Brianna on social media and in particular Tik Tok, where she had a huge following.\n\nOne message described her as a \"sweet angel\" and a \"beautiful girl\".\n\nLGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall tweeted: \"Our thoughts are with Brianna Ghey, a young trans woman, and her loved ones. We urge anyone who may have information which will help the police with their enquiries to come forward.\"\n\nDonations on a GoFundMe crowdfunding page set up for Brianna's family, which said the schoolgirl \"brought a lot of laughter to those who knew her\" and \"looking forward to taking her exams this year\", have passed £70,000.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Grammy award-winning a cappella group has said a Christian college in Florida abruptly cancelled a performance over the sexuality of some of its members.\n\nThe King's Singers, founded in Cambridge, UK, said it was given just two hours' notice of Pensacola Christian College's (PCC) decision to axe the gig last Saturday.\n\n\"The college cannot knowingly give an implied or direct endorsement of anything that violates Holy Scripture, the foundation for our sincerely held beliefs,\" the school said in a statement.\n\n\"PCC cancelled a concert with The King's Singers upon learning that one of the artists openly maintained a lifestyle that contradicts Scripture.\"\n\nIn a statement posted on social media on Monday, The King's Singers said the incident was the first time a performance had been cancelled at short notice in its 55-year history.\n\n\"It has become clear to us, from a flood of correspondence from students and members of the public, that these concerns related to the sexuality of members of our group,\" the British group said.\n\n\"Our belief is that music can build a common language that allows people with different views and perspectives to come together,\" it said.\n\nThe group also said it had previously performed at the college without issue and it was aware of the school's fundamentalist Christian background.\n\n\"We look forward to seeing our friends in northern Florida again soon, in a context where we're celebrated for who we are, as well as for the music we make.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The King's Singers This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The King's Singers\n\nThe college's statement said the group \"were given full remuneration\" despite the show not going ahead.\n\nIt declined to provide further information when asked about the reasons for its decision.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Pensacola Christian College This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPensacola Christian College is a Christian school of about 4,000 students based in north-west Florida.\n\nThe school \"educates students based on biblical values\", according to its website.\n\n\"Pensacola Christian College maintains a Christian-traditional philosophy of education in contrast to humanistic, progressive systems of education.\n\n\"This philosophy is based on the word of God and is rooted in objective reality and absolutes, as opposed to relativism.\"\n\nOne section of the school's website said \"the Scripture forbids any form of sexual immorality including adultery, fornication, homosexuality\".\n\nThe King's Singers, which won Best Classical Crossover Album at the 2009 Grammys, confirmed it plans to continue a North America tour this week with performances in Canada.", "Council leaders have agreed on a new pay offer for teachers, with extra cash from the Scottish government.\n\nThe government says it has found £156m to fund a two-year deal.\n\nThe new offer involves a 6% pay rise in the current year and a further 5.5% in the new financial year, which starts in April.\n\nThe largest teaching union, the EIS, has been striking for a 10% rise this year.\n\nEmployers - represented by the local government body Cosla - have presented their offer as an 11.5% rise over two years.\n\nThe government said it would mean an overall increase of more than £5,000 over two years for the 70% of classroom teachers who are at the top of their main grade pay scale.\n\nIt is not clear if this package would be enough to end the dispute, with a series of further strikes - including some targeting the constituencies of senior ministers - already scheduled.\n\nThe Scottish government has previously said it had no more money and would have to raid other budgets to pay for an increased offer.\n\nTheir £156m for teachers is part of a pot of around £300m which would also enable councils to offer their other staff a 5.5% pay rise in 2023/24.\n\nThe previous pay offer, made in November, was worth between 5% and 6.85% for most staff.\n\nTeachers are next due to strike on 28 February and 1 March\n\nEIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said the union was still awaiting written notification of a revised offer.\n\nShe said: \"It is unacceptable that details of a revised offer have been shared with the media before the offer has been made to teaching unions.\n\n\"Once we eventually receive the offer, it will then be for the EIS salaries committee to discuss the terms of that offer and to adopt a position in relation to it.\"\n\nEducation Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the offer \"would see teacher pay increase by almost 30% since January 2018\".\n\nMs Somerville said she had written to the unions asking them to suspend planned industrial action while their members consider the new offer.\n\nShe said: \"While union demands for an in-year 10% increase are unaffordable within the Scottish government's fixed budget, we have looked for compromise and we have arrived at a deal that is fair, affordable, and sustainable for everyone involved.\n\n\"The Scottish government is supporting this new offer with additional funding of £156m.\n\n\"This is on top of the £50m that we have already provided to local authorities in support of an enhanced pay offer for teachers.\n\n\"The offer is being made at a time of extraordinary financial pressure on the Scottish government budget.\"\n\nTeachers unions are likely to respond formally to the new pay offer on Wednesday.\n\nThey will decide whether to put it to their members and whether to call off the next strikes.\n\nBut the offer seems to fall well below the aspirations of the unions.\n\nThey wanted a 10% rise backdated to April covering the 2022/23 financial year.\n\nThe new headline offer for this period is 6%.\n\nThe pay offer covering the 2023/24 financial year is a distinct issue for them.\n\nThe Scottish government and councils say they have compromised and hope unions will too.\n\nBut will unions be prepared to accept an offer which is still well below the one they have been campaigning for?\n\nCosla's resources spokesperson, councillor Katie Hagmann, said: \"Given the funding assurances received from the Scottish government, leaders have agreed to submit a revised offer to the trade unions tonight.\n\n\"Cosla leaders are clear that it is in all of our interests, not least those of children, young people and families, to conclude the teachers' pay negotiations as quickly as we can to bring back stability and certainty in our schools.\n\n\"We are determined to provide a fair and affordable pay offer to all our employees, including teachers.\n\n\"In that regard, following today's meeting leaders agreed to mandate me to take a refreshed offer to the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) and we hope that this is acceptable to them.\"\n\nThe next national strike action is due to be held on 28 February and 1 March.\n\nThe EIS is also planning strikes in a number of areas, including the Glasgow constituency of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Dunfermline constituency of Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville.\n\nThe EIS salaries committee and executive committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss a response to the offer and the potential implications for upcoming strike action in schools.\n\nThe ongoing dispute centres on the pay rise which teachers were due to receive in April last year.\n\nThe most recent offer was made before the first strike by the EIS union in November.\n\nNearly all pupils in Scotland have lost three or four days' worth of education since then.", "Brianna's family have paid tribute to the \"much loved\" schoolgirl\n\nCandlelit vigils have been held for 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, who was stabbed to death in a park.\n\nThe schoolgirl was found lying wounded on a path in Linear Park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nShe was a transgender girl and detectives are considering whether her death was a hate crime, as they try to establish a motive for the attack.\n\nThe vigils, organised by members of the transgender community, were held in Liverpool and Bristol.\n\nCrowds gathered outside St George's Hall in Liverpool on Tuesday night\n\nIn the coming days, further vigils are due to be held in cities across the UK\n\nPeople gathered together at College Green in Bristol city centre on Tuesday evening while at the same time a vigil took place at St George's Hall in Liverpool.\n\nIn the coming days, vigils are due to be held in cities around the UK including Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds.\n\nTwo teenagers have been arrested over Brianna's death\n\nAdditional events are planned in Aberdeen, Reading, Plymouth, Brighton, Belfast, London and York.\n\nBrianna's family have paid tribute to their \"much loved daughter, granddaughter, and baby sister\", and said her death had left a \"massive hole\".\n\nPlacards were also displayed at the vigil in Liverpool saying \"rest in love\"\n\nDonations on a crowdfunding page set up for Brianna's family, which said the schoolgirl was \"looking forward to taking her exams this year\", have reached nearly £80,000.\n\nPolice said a post-mortem examination was planned and searches were continuing for the weapon used.\n\nOfficers have also been granted a 30-hour extension to question a boy and girl, both aged 15, who have been arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nAdditional events are planned across the UK\n\nPeople gathered together at College Green in Bristol city centre on Tuesday evening\n\nTributes have also been paid to Brianna on social media and in particular TikTok, where she had a huge following.\n\nOne message described her as a \"sweet angel\" and a \"beautiful girl\".\n\nBrianna was stabbed to death in a park in Cheshire on Saturday\n\nPeople embraced at the vigil at College Green in Bristol\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The rules around police misconduct proceedings could change\n\nForty-seven police officers in Scotland have resigned or retired during misconduct proceedings against them since 2019, the BBC can reveal.\n\nIf an officer leaves Police Scotland, misconduct proceedings are automatically scrapped.\n\nThe figure was revealed after a freedom of information (FOI) request by BBC Newsnight.\n\nLast year, the Scottish government said it would change the rules to allow hearings to continue.\n\nFollowing a public consultation, it said this would \"promote transparency and maintain public confidence\".\n\nThere are currently 16,644 full-time police officers in Scotland.\n\nAccording to the FOI figures, during misconduct proceedings:\n\nHowever, the rules are different in England and Wales. The Policing and Crime Act 2017 extends the system to former officers, so the proceedings continue even if the officer leaves their post.\n\nThe FOI data also shows, during the same timeframe, Police Scotland received 332 allegations of gross misconduct and 1,182 allegations of misconduct against officers.\n\nAfter the public consultation, the Scottish Justice Secretary Keith Brown said the government would \"carefully consider\" the responses.\n\nKeith Brown said the government would review the consultation responses\n\nThe consultation followed Dame Elish Angiolini's independent review in 2020 into how police complaints and allegations of misconduct in Scotland should be handled.\n\nThe former Lord Advocate recommended that the police align with the rules in England and Wales.\n\n\"I believe there is a strong public interest in dealing fully and thoroughly with police officers' gross misconduct after they have left the police service and no longer hold the important office of constable,\" she said.\n\nDame Angiolini said that, if appropriate, \"their names [should be] added to Police Barred and Advisory Lists which I also recommend should be maintained for Scotland.\"\n\nHowever, the Scottish Police Federation believe the rules should stay the same.\n\nGeneral secretary-elect David Kennedy said: \"The Scottish Police Federation are opposed to any employee or police officer being unable to resign or retire whilst they wait on the service or employer to finish misconduct proceedings against them.\n\n\"Police officers in Scotland if accused of criminality are reported to the Crown in the first instance and after criminal procedures have finished then face misconduct (procedures).\n\n\"If an officer is convicted of a crime, it would be normal that they may choose to resign as a police officer rather than endure misconduct proceedings to force them from the service.\n\n\"Misconduct allegations can also be for less serious offences that would not be career ending but officers still choose to resign or retire.\"\n\nHe added: \"The main point in gross misconduct proceedings is to make sure that police officers who remain in service are fit to hold the office of constable.\n\n\"Someone resigning gets the same result as any misconduct process would and is at much less cost to the public purse.\n\n\"There is no financial gain to an officer resigning versus being dismissed.\"\n\nBut Conservative MSP Russell Findlay, the party's shadow community safety minister, said the FOI figures were \"further evidence of Scotland's dysfunctional system of police complaints and governance which fails the public and the majority of good officers\".\n\nHe said: \"Angiolini made 111 recommendations and it's not good enough that the majority of the most significant ones, including an end to officers being able to quit while under investigation, have been kicked into the long grass.\"\n\nThe Scottish Police Authority said it supported Dame Elish Angiolini's recommendations.\n\n\"Both Police Scotland and the authority have made significant progress in addressing issues raised in her report since then,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"Implementation of those remaining recommendations requiring legislative change will further strengthen the complaints handling across policing and build public trust and confidence in the system.\"\n\nA Scottish government spokesperson said it had delivered 55 out of 72 of the non-legislative recommendations for improvement.\n\nThey added: \"The report recommended that gross misconduct proceedings should continue even if an officer leaves office along with other recommendations to improve clarity and confidence in misconduct proceedings.\n\n\"The Police Complaints and Misconduct Handling Bill to be introduced later this year will deliver on the recommendations needing legislation to deliver them.\"\n\nDeputy Chief Constable Fiona Taylor said: \"Police Scotland demands the highest levels of integrity from our officers and staff and when someone fails to meet this standard we take the appropriate action.\n\n\"We have no ability under current conduct regulations to prevent an officer from resigning.\"\n• None 'More powers' for watchdog over police complaints", "Last updated on .From the section Scottish Cup\n\nDarvel could not repeat their Scottish Cup heroics as Falkirk defeated their sixth-tier hosts to book a place in the quarter-finals against Ayr.\n\nTwo goals in two first-half minutes from Gary Oliver and Callumn Morrison put the League 1 club in a commanding position before a PJ Morrison own goal gave Aberdeen's conquerors hope.\n\nBut the floodgates opened after Chris McGowan's red card with Liam Henderson, Aidan Nesbitt and Craig McGuffie scoring late on to put an end to Darvel's fairy tale.\n\nThe visitors' reward is a home tie against Championship side Ayr, with the victor heading to Hampden Park for the semis.\n\nScrambling one off the line early on, Darvel, who beat Aberdeen in the previous round in what is now looked upon as the tournament's biggest ever shock, could only hold out for 22 minutes. Nesbitt won the ball near the halfway line and drove forward, putting Oliver through with a defence-splitting pass, and the striker finished calmly.\n\nFifteen seconds after the restart, Falkirk had their second. Henderson assisted this time, curling a through ball that Callumn Morrison hit first time between the keeper's legs.\n\nDarvel did their utmost to find a way back into the match, with McGowan forcing PJ Morrison into two good saves. However, the goalie was caught out by a McShane cross at his front post, which he turned into his own net.\n\nThere would be no happy ending for the sixth-tier side. McGowan was then sent off for a second yellow card and John McGlynn's side took full advantage.\n\nFirstly, Henderson looped a perfect header into the top corner before Nesbitt's brilliant curled finish gave Falkirk a two-goal cushion, and McGuffie made it 5-1 when he capitalised on a Chris Truesdale mistake.\n\nWhat they said\n\nDarvel boss Mick Kennedy: \"I'm slightly deflated. I'm disappointed with the two goals we lose first-half. The reality is you can't go down to 10 men against that standard of team.\n\n\"I'm immensely proud of everything the players have achieved to date. It's been a remarkable journey and I'm grateful for that.\"\n\nFalkirk manager John McGlynn: \"Credit to our players to respond and get that third goal. I thought our players rose to the challenge. It was as a big challenge coming here today, congrats to Mick and his team. They've been different class and were good tonight again.\n\n\"The big dangle of the carrot was the finance. All football clubs are struggling and Falkirk are no different. This will be a big help.\"\n• None Attempt missed. Matthew Wright (Falkirk) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left.\n• None Goal! Darvel 1, Falkirk 5. Craig McGuffie (Falkirk) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt missed. Rumarn Burrell (Falkirk) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right.\n• None Goal! Darvel 1, Falkirk 4. Aidan Nesbitt (Falkirk) right footed shot from the left side of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Liam Henderson.\n• None Goal! Darvel 1, Falkirk 3. Liam Henderson (Falkirk) header from the centre of the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Callumn Morrison.\n• None Second yellow card to Chris McGowan (Darvel) for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "King Charles heard from Syrians who had lost family in the earthquake\n\nKing Charles has heard emotional pleas for urgent help from families who have lost relatives in the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.\n\nThe King spoke to a Syrian man who had lost his mother, father and other family in this \"catastrophe\".\n\n\"Seven days my family were under the rubble and no rescue teams reached them,\" said Salah Al-Asmar.\n\nThe King was hearing first-hand stories from the Syrian community in an event at Trafalgar Square in London.\n\nA temporary \"Syria House\" has been opened in the square, providing a focus for the earthquake relief efforts of the Syrian community in the UK, many already displaced by the country's civil war.\n\nSalah Al-Asmar told King Charles about the urgent need for help in places hit by the earthquake\n\nMr Al-Asmar, who works with the White Helmets emergency relief group, was originally from Syria, but his family had been living across the border in Turkey when they were lost in the earthquake.\n\n\"I couldn't sleep for seven days, before I heard, unfortunately, all of them had died,\" said Mr Al-Asmar, who had been comforted by the King.\n\n\"We need more help,\" he told the King, calling for a more rapid response from the international community, when thousands of lives had been lost and \"thousands of houses have been totally destroyed\".\n\nThe King asked if enough assistance was arriving, but he was told of delays - and he called over a Foreign Office aide to speak to the Syrian family.\n\nMr Al-Asmar said the impact of the earthquake was even worse than Syria's war.\n\n\"We faced airstrikes, we faced forced displacement, we faced clashes, but we didn't face such a catastrophe,\" he said.\n\n\"There is a need for hospitals, doctors... food support, schools.\"\n\nAnd Syrians in the UK who were asylum seekers were struggling to be able to travel back to find their relatives, said Mr Al-Asmar.\n\nThe King heard from other grieving families and was shown pictures and films of the damage caused by the earthquake and was given a traditional offering of Syrian coffee and dates.\n\nMayor of London Sadiq Khan was also on the visit to the Syria House in Trafalgar Square, which will be used to draw attention to the scale of the humanitarian disaster.\n\nEarlier in the day, the King had met volunteers from the UK's Turkish community who had also been organising help for people caught up in the earthquake.\n\nThe King, who had personally donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee fund, had said he was \"deeply sorry\" about the earthquake.\n\nBuckingham Palace said the King had wanted to meet these community groups involved in relief efforts.\n\n\"He has been kept abreast of developments and is determined to help not just with financial support but to help with as much practical support as possible and raise awareness as to what is going on in both nations,\" said a palace source.", "The body of Sarah Everard was found hidden in woodland\n\nMet Police officer Wayne Couzens has been sentenced to a whole-life term for the murder of Sarah Everard, in a case that sparked national outrage and calls for more action to tackle violence against women.\n\nCouzens admitted the kidnap, rape and murder of the 33-year-old marketing executive when he appeared in court several months ago.\n\nBut it was only during his sentencing that the full details of his crimes emerged.\n\nMs Everard was walking home from a friend's house in Clapham, south London, at about 21:30 BST on 3 March when she was abducted.\n\nCouzens' choice of victim was random, but the attack was planned.\n\nIn his sentencing remarks, Lord Justice Fulford said there had been \"significant planning and premeditation\" by Couzens.\n\nThe police officer had \"long planned to carry out a violent sexual assault on a yet-to-be-selected victim\" who he intended to coerce into his custody, noted the judge.\n\nCouzens spent at least a month travelling to London from Deal, Kent, where he lived, to research how best to carry out his crimes.\n\nSeveral days before the attack, he booked a hire car, which he would use for the abduction, as well as a roll of self-adhesive film advertised as a carpet protector on Amazon.\n\nAfter finishing a 12-hour shift at the US embassy that morning, Couzens, a parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer, went out \"hunting\" for a lone, young woman to kidnap and rape, the prosecution said.\n\nCCTV footage played in court showed Couzens and Ms Everard beside a vehicle on Poynders Road in Clapham\n\nThe court heard how Couzens used the knowledge he had gained from working on Covid patrols in January and his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card to trick his victim under the guise of a fake arrest for breaching coronavirus guidelines.\n\nThe 48-year-old, who had been a police officer since 2002, handcuffed her before bundling her into the car and driving away.\n\nThe abduction was witnessed by a couple travelling past in a car - but they believed they had seen an undercover police officer carrying out a legitimate arrest, so did not intervene.\n\nThe whole kidnapping took less than five minutes.\n\nCouzens then drove to Dover in Kent, where he transferred Ms Everard to his own car, before travelling to a remote rural area nearby.\n\nIt was there that he raped and murdered his victim - strangling her with his police belt.\n\nBy 02:31 Couzens had left the scene and was spotted at a service station buying drinks.\n\nHe visited the site where Ms Everard's body was dumped twice, leaving just before dawn.\n\nThe next day, as the search for her escalated, Couzens bought petrol, which he used to burn her body inside a fridge.\n\nHe also purchased two green rubble bags, which he used to dump the remains in a pond near an area of woodland he owned in Hoads Wood, Ashford.\n\nA week after she disappeared, Ms Everard's body was found in a woodland stream, just metres from land owned by Couzens.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A CCTV timeline shows key evidence used to arrest and prosecute Wayne Couzens\n\nMeanwhile, Couzens returned to normal life, carrying out mundane activities like calling a vet about his dog.\n\nDays later, he even took his wife and two children on a family trip to the woods where he had burnt his victim's body.\n\nHowever, on the 8 March, the day he was due to return to work, he reported in sick.\n\nThe following day he was arrested at his home in Deal.\n\nIn a brief police interview, he told a false story about being threatened by an Eastern European gang, claiming they had demanded he deliver \"another girl\" after he had underpaid a prostitute a few weeks before. He then claimed he kidnapped Ms Everard, drove out of London and handed her over to three men in a van in a layby in Kent, while she was alive and uninjured.\n\nBut after Ms Everard's body was discovered in a pond just 130 metres from land owned by Couzens, he was charged.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In video from a police interview at his home on 9 March, Couzens denies knowing Sarah Everard\n\nCouzens has since been sacked by the Met, but the force is still facing questions over whether chances were missed to prevent his predatory behaviour.\n\nAfter Ms Everard's murder, the police watchdog announced it was probing alleged failures by the Met to investigate two indecent exposure incidents linked to Couzens in February.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct is also investigating alleged failures by Kent Police to investigate a flashing incident linked to Couzens in 2015.\n\nCouzens transferred to the Met in 2018, from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, where he had worked since 2011.\n\nTwo years later he began working for the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command as an authorised firearms officer at diplomatic premises around central London.\n\nIn July, appearing by video link from Belmarsh high security jail, Couzens pleaded guilty to murder at the Old Bailey.\n\nOn Wednesday he appeared in court again - this time in person - for a two-day sentencing hearing.\n\nThere, he faced Ms Everard's mother, father and sister, who described to the court the torment of losing their loved one in such horrendous circumstances.\n\nHer father, Jeremy, demanded that Couzens looked at him as he told the murderer he could never forgive him for taking away his daughter.\n\nHer mother, Susan, said she was \"tormented\" at the thought of what her \"precious little girl\" had endured.\n\n\"I go through the sequence of events. I wonder when she realised she was in mortal danger,\" she told the court.\n\n\"Burning her body was the final insult. It meant we could never again see her sweet face and never say goodbye.\n\n\"Our lives will never be the same. We should be a family of five, but now we are four. Her death leaves a yawning chasm in our lives that cannot be filled.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nTottenham will have to produce a Champions League comeback after Brahim Diaz gave AC Milan a narrow win in the first leg of their last-16 tie at the San Siro.\n\nDiaz nodded in early on after Spurs goalkeeper Fraser Forster had saved a Theo Hernandez shot and then superbly got a hand on the scorer's initial follow-up attempt.\n\nAntonio Conte's side looked relatively comfortable for long periods of the contest against the seven-time European champions - as a youthful pairing of Pape Sarr and Oliver Skipp deputised ably for the suspended Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and the injured Rodrigo Bentancur in midfield.\n\nHowever, they were rarely able to build any attacking momentum with their front three of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and, until his withdrawal, Dejan Kulusevski well shackled by a disciplined home defence.\n\nAside from ambitious long-range efforts from Emerson Royal and Sarr, Conte's side appeared most capable of threatening from set-pieces but neither Kane nor Eric Dier were able to direct headers on goal from two excellent Son deliveries.\n\nIn the end, Spurs were grateful for the profligacy of the hosts as Belgian midfielder Charles de Ketelaere and German defender Malick Thiaw both headed excellent opportunities - to put the Italian side firmly in control of the tie - wide.\n\nHad either nodded in from close range, Spurs would have faced an even more challenging recovery operation in the return leg in London on Wednesday, 8 March.\n\nAs it is, they must try to turn the tie round without Dier, who will be suspended after he collected a second-half booking.\n\nPrior to last Friday's victory over Torino, Stefano Pioli's side had endured a miserable start to 2023, picking up just two points from a possible 15 - and slipping to fifth in Serie A.\n\nHowever, while they do not possess the star quality or swagger of the great Milan sides, they displayed plenty of know-how to carve out a slender lead.\n\nTheir only regret will be not to have put the tie beyond a Spurs side that competed well but barely laid a glove on them in the final third.\n\nAs it is, a place in the quarter-finals very much hangs in the balance, although Conte will still have to figure out a way to compensate for the loss of Uruguay international Bentancur, who has become a key player since arriving from Juventus just over 12 months ago.\n\nThe Italian will also demand greater diligence in defence from his side with Argentine Cristian Romero sure to come under scrutiny for his role in Milan's win.\n\nThe World Cup-winning centre-back was outjumped and left floundering by Hernandez in the build-up to the home side's goal and was later booked for an ill-timed challenge on the lively Rafael Leao.\n\nStopping the Portugal international's menacing runs in the second leg will be critical to Spurs' hopes as they bid to prevent Milan from reaching the quarter-finals for the first time since 2012.\n• None Richarlison (Tottenham Hotspur) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur) header from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Ivan Perisic with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt missed. Ben Davies (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Oliver Skipp.\n• None Offside, Tottenham Hotspur. Eric Dier tries a through ball, but Ben Davies is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Pape Sarr (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Richarlison. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "The US embassy in Moscow has warned that it has limited ability to help its citizens in Russia\n\nThe US has warned its citizens to leave Russia immediately or risk wrongful detention or conscription to fight in Ukraine.\n\nIn a new travel warning, the State Department said Russia may refuse to acknowledge US-Russian dual citizenship.\n\nThe warning added that US citizens had already \"been interrogated without cause and threatened\".\n\nIt is unclear how many US citizens are travelling or living in Russia and a State Department spokesperson told the BBC that it does not track the travel of US citizens abroad.\n\nFollowing the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, several thousand Americans reportedly fled the country.\n\nIn its newly updated travel warning, the State Department said those still in Russia face the potential for \"harassment and singling out\".\n\nDual citizens also face the prospect of being conscripted as part of a wider Russia military mobilisation to support operations in Ukraine, it said.\n\n\"Russia may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals' US citizenship, deny their access to US consular assistance, subject them to mobilisation, prevent their departure from Russia, and/or conscript them,\" the warning reads.\n\nA number of US citizens - including former and current government personnel and private business people - have already been taken into custody, interrogated and harassed, according to the State Department.\n\n\"Russian security services may fail to notify the US Embassy of the detention of a US citizen and unreasonably delay US consular assistance,\" the warning reads. \"Russian security services are increasing the arbitrary enforcement of local laws to target foreign and international organisations they consider 'undesirable'.\"\n\nIn a statement quoted by Russian news agency TASS, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the US had issued similar warnings \"many times\".\n\n\"This is not the first time we have heard this,\" he said.\n\nThe last US warning for its citizens to leave came in September, when Russian authorities announced a partial mobilisation of military reservists.\n\nMr Peskov also said that any dual US-Russian citizens \"are primarily Russian citizens, regardless of what citizenship they have\".\n\nBesides Russia, the State Department has \"do not travel\" advisories for 18 other countries including Afghanistan, Syria, Haiti, North Korea, Somalia, Ukraine and Yemen.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Mr Urs' sister Arzu and her son M.Sahin Karatas died in the earthquake\n\nA businessman based in Northern Ireland has spoken of his devastation after his sister and her family were killed in the earthquake in Turkey.\n\nIbrahim Urs is originally from Hatay Province, Turkey, and now lives in Coleraine, County Londonderry.\n\nA week after the earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, the number of those killed has risen to more than 35,000.\n\nThe UN has warned that that figure could double.\n\nMr Urs said his sister and her husband, Arzu and Niyazi Karatas and their two sons - Batuhan dinc and M. Sahin Karatas - were among those who had died after a building collapsed.\n\nHe travelled home to Turkey where his family members were all buried together on Sunday.\n\n\"All my family is so sad - we are feeling really bad at the moment,\" he told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra.\n\nMr Urs said his sister had been like \"a second mother\" to him.\n\n\"She was so young, all the kids are so young as well, one of them is 11-years-old and one of them is seven years old, they are so young,\" he added.\n\nHe has travelled to Antakya in Turkey, attending the family funerals this week, and is providing further support to his relatives.\n\nArzu and Niyazi Karatas with their sons who were killed in the earthquake\n\nMr Urs said he was now planning to bring his sister's daughter who survived the earthquake, but has lost her mother, father and brothers, back to Northern Ireland.\n\nShe was pulled from the rubble having witnessed the tragic deaths of her family.\n\n\"We are just trying to treat her the best way we can,\" he said.\n\n\"She has lost everything. She has to live with this trauma. I will try to get the documents sorted out for her.\"\n\nA scene of devastation in Hatay on 8 February 2023\n\nMr Urs runs a barber shop in Kingsgate Street in Coleraine and praised the people of Northern Ireland for the support they had provided following the earthquake.\n\n\"They have supported me with many messages, many texts and phone calls, I really appreciate it,\" he added.\n\n\"I didn't expect it... I feel like I have a really big family there.\n\n\"I really appreciate everyone.\"", "Buildings were shattered in parts of north-western Syria, like Jindayris\n\nSyria's government has agreed to allow the UN to use two more border crossings to deliver aid to opposition-held north-western areas devastated by last week's earthquakes, the UN says.\n\n\"It's going to make a big difference. We are now using just one crossing,\" a UN spokesman told the BBC.\n\nBut the White Helmets rescue group criticised the UN for waiting for President Bashar al-Assad's permission.\n\nMany Syrians have been angry over the lack of aid for their war-torn nation.\n\nCountries with friendly relations with Mr Assad, including Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, began flying supplies to government-controlled areas of Syria soon after the earthquakes struck nieghbouring southern Turkey eight days ago.\n\nBut the opposition-held north-west - where some 4.1 million people were relying on humanitarian assistance to survive even before the disaster - received no aid deliveries from the UN via Turkey until Thursday.\n\nThe UN blamed damage to roads leading to the Bab al-Hawa crossing, which is the only land route the UN Security Council has authorised it to use.\n\nAs of Monday, 58 aid lorries had crossed into the opposition enclave, carrying food, tents and medicines. However, they did not include the heavy machinery and other specialist equipment requested by the White Helmets, whose first responders are leading the rescue effort there.\n\nThe use of any other crossings with Turkey has been vetoed by Russia, a key ally of Mr Assad, and China since 2020. Until now, they have insisted that all other UN deliveries must go via Damascus and cross the front-lines, even though just 10 such convoys were approved during the whole of last year.\n\nThe UN made the announcement about using the Bab al-Salameh and al-Rai border crossings - which are both controlled by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels - after high-level talks with President Assad in Damascus on Monday.\n\nIt said the crossings would initially be open for three months.\n\n\"Very shortly we will use the other two crossings,\" UN Secretary General António Guterres' spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told BBC Radio 4's World Tonight programme.\n\n\"We hope that the agreement will last as long as we need to use it. We will start using it as quickly as possible and I don't want to make any assumptions, the only thing I want to assume is that people will put politics aside wherever they stand in this conflict.\"\n\nHe did not give any further details on when the two crossings would open and defended the delay in waiting for the government's permission.\n\n\"It is our understanding that other aid organisations not affiliated with the UN have been using these border crossings. We have to operate within certain perimeters, that's the nature of the United Nations.\"\n\nMr Assad did not comment on the announcement. But when asked by a reporter why it had taken a week, his envoy to the UN, Bassam al-Sabbagh, replied: \"Why are you asking me?... We are not the one controlling these borders.\"\n\nThe head of the White Helmets accused Mr Assad of a \"cynical move that has come far too late\" and criticised the UN's decision to seek his approval.\n\n\"The UN's insistence on waiting for the Syrian regime's permission - the very regime that has bombed, gassed, starved, forcibly displaced and imprisoned millions of Syrians - is unforgivable,\" he wrote in an opinion piece for CNN.\n\n\"It is no secret that the Syrian regime is not a credible partner in addressing the suffering of all Syrians in a neutral and impartial manner.\"\n\nMr Saleh separately told Reuters news agency that the search operation for survivors underneath the rubble of collapsed buildings in the north-west was about to come to a close.\n\n\"The indications we have are that there are not any [survivors], but we are trying to do our final checks and on all sites,\" he said.\n\nThe White Helmets have so far reported 2,274 deaths and 12,400 injuries across the north-west.\n\nSatellite photographs released by Maxar on Monday showed the devastation in Jindayris, a town close to the Turkish border where they say more than 200 buildings have been completely destroyed.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe White Helmets have recovered at least 517 bodies in Jindayris and described the situation there as \"catastrophic\".\n\nThe government has reported 1,414 deaths and 2,349 injuries across its territory.\n\nAleppo province was badly affected, with more than 200,000 people left homeless, according to the UN.", "Police officers stand outside the BBC offices in building complex in New Delhi\n\nBBC offices in India have been searched as part of an investigation by income tax authorities.\n\nThe searches in New Delhi and Mumbai come weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary in the UK critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.\n\nThe BBC said that it was \"fully co-operating\" with authorities.\n\n\"We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible,\" a short statement added.\n\nAlthough the documentary was broadcast on television only in the UK, India's government has attempted to block people sharing India: The Modi Question online, calling it \"hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage\" with a \"colonial mind-set\".\n\nLast month, police in Delhi detained students as they gathered to watch the film.\n\nThe documentary focused on the prime minister's role in anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002, when he was chief minister of the state.\n\nThe general secretary of the opposition Congress party, KC Venugopal, said Tuesday's search \"reeks of desperation and shows that the Modi government is scared of criticism\".\n\n\"We condemn these intimidation tactics in the harshest terms. This undemocratic and dictatorial attitude cannot go on any longer,\" he tweeted.\n\nBut Gaurav Bhatia, a spokesman from Mr Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), described the BBC as the \"most corrupt organisation in the world\".\n\n\"India is a country which gives an opportunity to every organisation,\" he said, \"as long as you don't spew venom.\"\n\nHe added the searches were lawful and the timing had nothing to do with the government.\n\nThe Editors Guild of India - a non-profit group which promotes press freedom - said it was \"deeply concerned\" about the searches.\n\nThey are a \"continuation of a trend of using government agencies to intimidate and harass press organisations that are critical of government policies or the ruling establishment\", it said.\n\nAmnesty International India's Board accused authorities of \"trying to harass and intimidate the BBC over its critical coverage of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party\".\n\nIt said the \"overbroad powers of the Income Tax Department are repeatedly being weaponised to silence dissent\".\n\nThe documentary highlights a previously unpublished report, obtained by the BBC from the UK Foreign Office, which raises questions about Mr Modi's actions during the 2002 riots.\n\nThe rioting began the day after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was set on fire, killing dozens. More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the subsequent violence.\n\nThe Foreign Office report claims that Mr Modi was \"directly responsible\" for the \"climate of impunity\" that enabled the violence.\n\nIn 2005, the US denied Mr Modi a visa under a law that bars the entry of foreign officials seen to be responsible for \"severe violations of religious freedom\".\n\nMr Modi has long rejected accusations against him, and has not apologised for the riots. In 2013, a Supreme Court panel also said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him.\n\nThe BBC said last month that the Indian government was offered a right to reply to the documentary but it declined.\n\nThe broadcaster said the film was \"rigorously researched\" and \"a wide range of voices, witnesses and experts were approached, and we have featured a range of opinions, including responses from people in the BJP\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From January: Students arrested before screening of BBC Modi documentary\n\nThe targeting of organisations seen as critical of the government is not uncommon in India.\n\nIn 2020, Amnesty International was forced to halt its India operations, with the group accusing the government of pursuing a \"witch-hunt\" against human rights organisations.\n\nOxfam was also searched last year along with other local non-government organisations.\n\nThe Editors Guild of India said tax authorities raided four other media outlets in 2021, after they carried negative coverage of the government.\n\nAccording to the non-profit group Reporters Without Borders press freedom has fallen since Mr Modi came to power.\n\nThe group's World Press Freedom Index ranks India 150th of 180 countries, down 10 places since 2014.", "Wayne Couzens, who will never be freed from prison, is due to be sentenced next month for indecent exposure\n\nTwo police officers face misconduct cases over the handling of indecent exposure reports against Wayne Couzens, the former Met Police officer who murdered Sarah Everard.\n\nOn Monday, Couzens admitted three offences, including exposing himself at a drive-through four days before he abducted Ms Everard on 3 March 2021.\n\nA Met officer, who quit in 2022, has a case to answer for gross misconduct.\n\nAnd a sergeant from the Kent force will face a misconduct meeting.\n\nCouzens, 50, is serving a whole-life sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Ms Everard, whom he snatched from the street while she was walking home in south London.\n\nThe guilty pleas made on Monday related to three incidents in Kent - two offences at a fast-food restaurant in February 2021, and another at woodland in Deal in November 2020.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) carried out two investigations and has released the findings following the conclusion of the criminal case.\n\nThe first, which has resulted in a Met police constable facing gross misconduct allegations, looked into whether procedures like CCTV gathering, vehicle checks and collecting evidence were carried out properly.\n\nInvestigators were interested in a week-long period starting on 3 March 2021, the day the officer first visited the restaurant to carry out inquiries, and ending when the operation was taken over by another team.\n\nBy the time Ms Everard was kidnapped, the Met's indecent exposure investigation had not uncovered Couzens' occupation.\n\nHe was arrested on 9 March on suspicion of abduction and was charged with murder shortly after.\n\nIndecent exposure leads to sentences ranging from a fine through to two years in jail.\n\nHad Wayne Couzens been convicted for any of the incidents (the earliest allegation dates back to 2015) he would probably have been imprisoned because his role as a serving police officer would have been an aggravating factor.\n\nHe would have been thrown out of the uniform before he could abuse his position and powers to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard.\n\nEven if he had only been identified for the 2021 exposures, that would have been enough to suspend him in the immediate period before he killed.\n\nThe IOPC's investigation was limited to allegations of individual failures, but a separate inquiry set up by the Home Office will consider what three police forces knew - or could have known - and when.\n\nThe awful truth now appears to be that Couzens was following a path of escalating sexual violence. And that is why these offences are so important in establishing whether Couzens could have been stopped.\n\nThe officer accused of misconduct resigned and left the organisation in 2022, the Met said in response to the IOPC. The independent hearing will go ahead \"as soon as possible\", despite the officer no longer being employed by the force.\n\nBBC News asked the Met, IOPC and Home Office whether the officer was currently employed by another police force but none would provide further information.\n\nThe conduct of another Met officer was also looked into by the IOPC, but it was found they had no case to answer.\n\nThe sergeant in Kent is alleged to have breached professional standards in relation to a June 2015 incident in Dover. A man reportedly exposed himself to a pedestrian in a vehicle \"identified as belonging to Couzens\", the IOPC said.\n\nThis incident is not one which Couzens pleaded guilty to this week but the IOPC investigation into how that matter was handled began in May 2021.\n\nIt found no evidence to suggest Couzens was identified as a police officer or that he was spoken to by police.\n\nThe IOPC said the sergeant has a \"case to answer for misconduct for alleged failures in following all reasonable lines of inquiry before the case was closed\".\n\nAssistant chief constable of Kent Police Tracey Harman said the force referred itself to the watchdog over the 2015 indecent exposure allegation.\n\nShe confirmed no arrests were made as part of the investigation at the time.\n\nOn both 14 and 27 February 2021, Couzens exposed his genitals to staff at the drive-through restaurant and is said to have looked straight at the workers while sitting in his car as he paid for his food.\n\nThe second offence happened four days before he used his position to trick Ms Everard into his car.\n\nThe IOPC said it was now up to the Metropolitan and Kent police forces to organise disciplinary proceedings and consider the evidence to decide whether the allegations against the officers are proven or not.\n\nCouzens is due to be sentenced for the indecent exposure offences on 6 March.\n\nThree remaining counts Couzens faced will not be pursued by the prosecution and will be left on file, the Old Bailey heard on Monday.\n\nAn independent inquiry led by Dame Elisha Angiolini is looking at Sarah Everard's murder and will consider the exposure incidents as part of an analysis of whether any opportunities to prevent it were missed.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "The UK must \"wake up\" to the threat posed by China's challenges to global security, the ex-head of MI6 has said.\n\nSir Alex Younger, who led the UK's Intelligence Service between 2014 and 2020, said Western nations are \"under full press of Chinese espionage\".\n\nUS military have shot down four objects - including a suspected Chinese spy balloon - in the past week.\n\nSir Alex told the BBC the UK must place limits on tolerating countries \"who behave in an unacceptable way\",\n\nOn 4 February, the US military shot down a Chinese spy balloon after it travelled over sensitive military sites across North America. China has claimed the object was a weather balloon gone astray.\n\nSince then, the three other \"unidentified objects\" have been downed across North America.\n\nSir Alex Younger was head of MI6 between 2014 and 2020\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sir Alex said \"this balloon scenario demonstrates there is no trust\" between China and western nations.\n\n\"This is a gross and really visibly transgression of the sovereignty of many nations.\"\n\nThe UK must recognise \"we're in a competition\" with China, Sir Alex said.\n\nHe said: \"We need to wake up to this.\n\n\"We need to double down on the strengths that we possess to face this systemic competition that's going on.\"\n\nThe Ministry of Defence is conducting a security review following the incursions into North American airspace.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said: \"The UK and her allies will review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security.\n\n\"This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the government will do \"whatever it takes\" to keep the UK safe from spy balloons.\n\nOn Monday the prime minister said a \"quick reaction alert force\" of RAF Typhoon jets was on stand-by 24/7 to police UK airspace.\n\nIn November, Mr Sunak declared the so-called \"golden era\" of UK relations with China over after seven years of closer economic ties promoted by David Cameron's administration.\n\nThe UK's mobile providers are banned from buying new 5G equipment from Huawei, over fears the technology can be accessed by the Chinese state.\n\nCompanies must also remove all the firm's 5G kit from their networks by 2027.\n\nHuawei has denied being controlled by the Chinese government or posing a security threat.\n\nA cross-party group of MPs, including former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, are calling for Chinese governor Erkin Tuniyaz to be arrested during a potential visit to the UK this week.\n\nMr Tuniyaz is head of the Xinjiang province, where the UN has said crimes against humanity may be taking place against Uyghurs.\n\nSir Iain was sanctioned by the Chinese government in 2021 along with dozens of MPs over their criticism of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Five things to know about Nikki Haley\n\nNikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, has announced she is a candidate to become US president in 2024.\n\n\"Now is not the time to hold back. Now is the time for a strong and proud America,\" she tweeted, linking to a campaign video.\n\nShe is the second major Republican candidate to run - her ex-boss, Donald Trump, launched his bid in November.\n\nMs Haley is the third Indian American to seek a presidential nomination.\n\nThe former governor, 51, said in 2021 that she wouldn't challenge Mr Trump for the White House. But she changed her position in recent months, citing the need for \"generational change\".\n\nOther Republicans who are tipped to launch their own White House campaigns include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice-President Mike Pence.\n\nMs Haley has previously criticised Mr Trump's behaviour up to and during the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.\n\nThe day after the riot, she said in a speech that \"his actions since election day will be judged harshly by history\".\n\nNikki Haley was previously a UN ambassador in the Donald Trump administration\n\nMost early polls show Mr Trump with a comfortable lead in South Carolina, whose primary he won on his way to the presidency in 2016 - an indication of the uphill battle the former ambassador will have, even on what should be friendly ground.\n\nA recent survey by the polling firm Trafalgar Group that included current and likely candidates has Mr Trump in first place with 43% and Ms Haley in fourth at 12%.\n\nBut another opinion poll released on Tuesday suggested Mr Trump's once-resilient political strength could be softening among members of his party.\n\nForty per cent of registered Republicans said he should not run for the White House in 2024, according to the Reuters/Ipsos survey, even as he remained the favourite among the party's field of potential candidates.\n\nThe same poll found that 52% of registered Democrats do not support Mr Biden running for re-election.\n\nOther Indian Americans to run before Ms Haley were Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, whose bid in 2015 never gained significant traction, and current Vice-President Kamala Harris, who sought the 2020 nomination.", "Foiled again - a Cadbury Creme Egg thief is convicted in court\n\nA man who stole 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs, causing a police panic about Easter, has been convicted in court.\n\nJoby Pool was surrounded by a mountain of the foil-wrapped chocolate when police caught up with him at the weekend.\n\nRecognising he was foiled too, he surrendered to officers with his hands up, prosecutors said.\n\nHe is due to be sentenced in Crown Court next month.\n\nPool, 32, used a stolen lorry with false plates to snatch a trailer containing the eggs from an industrial unit in Telford on Saturday, Kidderminster Magistrates' Court heard.\n\nThe BBC reported on Monday how the vehicle was stopped on the M42 motorway, leading West Mercia Police to say its officers - hunting someone \"presumably purporting to be the Easter bunny\" - had \"saved Easter\".\n\nThe defendant was caught transporting 200,000 of these chocolate treats\n\nAt court on Tuesday, Pool, from Dewsbury Road, Tingley, near Leeds, pleaded guilty to criminal damage and theft.\n\nProsecutor Owen Beale said the offence was not \"spur of the moment\", and there had been \"significant planning\".\n\nPolice said Pool had used a metal grinder to get through the gates of the industrial unit from where he stole the eggs and other varieties of chocolate.\n\nHis plan fell apart when he reached the northbound M42 where police pounced.\n\nMr Beale said: \"He gave up at junction 11 and walked towards the police with his hands up - he was arrested and the load was recovered.\"\n\nThe haul was said to be worth more than £31,000 - about £9,000 less than Monday's police estimate.\n\nMagistrates were told Pool had previous convictions in 2019 for similar offences including theft, handling stolen goods and driving while disqualified.\n\nHe has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Shrewsbury Crown Court on 14 March for sentencing.\n\nJohn McMillan, solicitor for the defendant, said his self-employed client knew a substantial sentence was likely.\n\nHe added: \"There has been no interference with the food products that were taken - they will be in a condition that they can go back on the shelves.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nA council has removed parish councillors' contact details after several received \"vile\" telephone calls over missing Nicola Bulley.\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January after a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nWyre Council leader Michael Vincent said the abusive calls made on Saturday had been reported to police.\n\nHe said it would \"not tolerate\" abuse of elected members. Lancashire Police said it was \"looking into\" the matter.\n\nThe force is working on one hypothesis the mortgage adviser could have fallen into the river during her walk after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school that morning.\n\nOfficers are continuing to search the water, heading towards Morecambe Bay, with mounted police also taking part in the search in Knott End.\n\nMounted police in Knott End search for the missing dog walker\n\nWyre Council said it has removed contact details for Inskip with Sowerby Parish Council members temporarily from its website after some received inappropriate phone calls and emails relating to the missing dog walker case.\n\n\"We appreciate the emotional gravity of the situation, however, we will not tolerate any form of abuse of any of our elected members of Wyre Borough Council or any of the town and parish councils within our borders or our staff,\" Mr Vincent said.\n\n\"It is a shame we have had to take this step at such a difficult time and appropriate steps are being taken to ensure that residents are still able to contact their elected representatives.\"\n\nThe search for Nicola Bulley continues after she was last seen on a dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre\n\nDescribing the calls as \"vile\" he also reiterated appeals for people to stay away from the village after an influx of visitors from far afield since Ms Bulley's disappearance.\n\n\"It has been busier than ever this weekend,\" he said.\n\n\"People seem to want to play detectives but please stay away and leave it to the police.\n\n\"The community want to return to some sort of normality.\"\n\nHe said some residents had been left scared by people peering into their properties at night leading them to bring in private security.\n\nThe leader of Wyre Council says it will not tolerate abuse of councillors or staff\n\nLast week, police said they had stopped people filming on social media at houses near where Ms Bulley disappeared.\n\nIt said it had issued two dispersal notices to individuals and warned others about anti-social behaviour in the area.\n\nMr Vincent praised locals for how they had come together since Ms Bulley has vanished.\n\n\"The community has shown great strength and resilience during the investigation and we urge everyone to continue to show compassion and empathy.\"\n\nIt comes as a friends leave yellow ribbons with messages of hope on a footbridge over the River Wyre near to where Ms Bulley was last seen.\n\nMs Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10 GMT.\n\nAbout 25 minutes later her phone, still connected to a Teams call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has said he was \"100% convinced\" she did not fall into the water.\n\nHe said he wanted to keep \"all options open\" about her disappearance but his \"gut instinct\" told him she was not in the river.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "David Ballantyne Smith claims he was not paid and was motivated by an employment grievance\n\nA Russian spy at the British embassy in Berlin was caught by a sting operation, the OId Bailey has heard.\n\nBriton David Ballantyne Smith, 58, was working as a security guard when he passed secret information to Russian authorities.\n\nThe court heard how two fake Russian operatives working undercover helped lead to his arrest in August 2021.\n\nProsecutors claim Smith held strong anti-UK views and was paid for information.\n\nSmith pleaded guilty to eight charges last year and has returned to court for legal argument about his motivation.\n\nHe claims he was not paid and was motivated by an employment grievance while suffering mental health issues.\n\nThe Old Bailey heard how one undercover operative posed as a \"walk-in\" Russian informant called \"Dmitry\" when he was escorted into the British embassy by Smith on 5 August 2021.\n\nAfterwards, Smith was seen on CCTV recording the earlier footage of Dmitry.\n\n\"The prosecution allege he... knows the potential significance of the Dmitry incident because he has taken the recordings with a view to passing that material on,\" Alison Morgan KC told the court.\n\nA second undercover operative met him in the street and claimed to be a Russian intelligence officer called \"Irina\".\n\n\"Irina was deployed to play the role of the GRU [Russian spy agency] officer and to see whether someone - Dmitry - was providing information to the UK that could be damaging to Russia,\" said Ms Morgan.\n\nSmith was recorded covertly and appeared cautious, telling Irina he needed to speak to \"someone\" first.\n\nThe undercover sting was prompted by a letter Smith sent in November 2020 to a military staff member at the Russian Embassy in Berlin.\n\nProsecutors say Smith received money in exchange for information and favoured Russia and its leadership.\n\nSmith said he only intended to \"inconvenience and embarrass\" the embassy\n\nThey say there were unaccounted-for funds, including 800 euro (£700) in cash found at his home in Potsdam.\n\nSmith has denied leaking secrets to Russia for money and claimed he only intended to \"inconvenience and embarrass\" the embassy, where he had worked since 2016.\n\nProsecutors say his deliberate engagement with Russian authorities by providing them with confidential and sensitive information showed intent to harm British interests.\n\nItems seized from his flat included travel documents and sheets of blank embassy headed paper.\n\nPhotographs taken at that address showed a Russian Federation flag, a Soviet military hat, a Communist toy Lada car and a Russian cuddly toy Rottweiler dog wearing a military hat.\n\nA cartoon seized from his work locker showed Russian President Vladimir Putin in military attire holding the head of former German chancellor Angela Merkel.\n\nSmith, who is originally from Scotland, was extradited on 6 April last year and then arrested at Heathrow for offences under the Official Secrets Act.\n\nLast November, Smith pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Official Secrets Act by committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state.\n\nSmith is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.", "This is the first big-budget adaptation of the Harry Potter universe in years\n\nHogwarts Legacy, a major video game adaptation of the wizarding world created by JK Rowling, has arrived, following a fierce online debate.\n\nAn open world adventure title like this has been at the top of some Harry Potter fans' wish lists for some time.\n\nBut others are calling for a boycott because of Rowling's public comments on issues about transgender people.\n\nDespite the controversy, it is predicted by some to be the biggest-selling premium release of 2023.\n\nThe title has already broken records for the number of people watching streamers playing preview copies. At one point, it's reported that 1.3 million people were watching content related to the game on Twitch.\n\nSome have pushed back against the boycott, arguing that choosing to play the game doesn't automatically mean they support the author's statements.\n\nThe title sees players attend the school made famous by Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger - but before their time, back in the 1800s.\n\nYou can zoom around on a broomstick, learn to cast spells, explore the castle, fight giant spiders and collect a variety of hats and scarves to wear as you go.\n\nHogwarts Legacy allows players to live the life of a student at the wizarding school in the 1800s\n\nCritical reaction to the game itself has been largely positive, with review aggregator Metacritic scoring the PlayStation 5 version at 86%.\n\nThe Guardian's games editor Keza MacDonald wasn't as enthusiastic as some, writing: \"Hogwarts Legacy derives its magic from its setting, not from its game design, which is competent but unspectacular.\"\n\nShe said the game feels too familiar to others in the genre to really stand out, but concluded that its \"magical moments and the setting rescue it from mediocrity, but only if the Wizarding World still has you under its spell\".\n\nTravis Northup, reviewing for IGN, wrote: \"Its open-world adventure captures all the excitement and wonder of the Wizarding World with its memorable new characters, challenging and nuanced combat, and a wonderfully executed Hogwarts student fantasy that kept me glued to my controller for dozens of hours.\"\n\nHe scored it nine out of 10 but did comment on some technical issues, a lacklustre main story and some poor enemy variety as drawbacks.\n\nHaving spent roughly a third of the estimated 35 hours it would take to finish the main game playing myself, I think the attention to detail is impressive and it comes into its own as a simulation of life in Hogwarts - but elements of the gameplay are a little repetitive.\n\nIt's clear that the developers have made a significant attempt to modernise the setting. The character customisation options are thorough for all ethnic backgrounds, there is global representation in the non-playable-characters, as well as gay and trans representation.\n\nThat effort has not won over some gamers, who see it as too close to the wizarding world's divisive creator.\n\nRowling herself has previously suggested her income is a sign that her opinions don't alienate audiences.\n\nShe has spoken against the erasure of women and allowing transgender people access to single-sex spaces. Critics have argued that \"diminishes the identity\" of trans people. However, she has said she supports trans rights and wants trans people to be free from discrimination and abuse.\n\nIn 2020, she said: \"My life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it's hateful to say so.\n\n\"I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn't hate to speak the truth.\"\n\nBut just weeks before launch, one of the performers in the game, Heartstopper actor Sebastian Croft, distanced himself from the title - and most of discussion around the release has, until now, been to do with the calls for a boycott.\n\nTrans activist Eva Echo feels it's important for people to understand the strength of feeling in the LGBTQ+ community. \"By buying the game you're sending a clear message that it's taking priority over the lives of trans people,\" she said.\n\nBoycotting it \"will allow us to send a very clear message that we won't stand by this and allow JK Rowling to have an even bigger platform\", she added.\n\nOne of those refusing to play the game is Twitch streamer and YouTube creator Zannah.\n\nMany people are calling for gamers to boycott the release\n\nShe said trans friends started talking about the game and asked for support. \"They want their friends, their allies, to not play the game because it will support JK Rowling both monetarily and also by uplifting her in social regard, because obviously people are playing in the world she created.\n\n\"The more I listened to the people who were affected and what they had to say, the more it was really not important enough for me to play when my friends were talking about how harmful it was to them.\"\n\nBut, as the Twitch viewing statistics suggest, the appetite to plunge into life in a digital Hogwarts is high.\n\nOne of those who has already been playing a preview copy is content creator, streamer and role-playing game fan Mirandalorian from Ohio.\n\nShe grew up with Harry Potter and said that universe \"was her escape\", so has been excited about the game for some time because \"nostalgia is such a powerful emotion\".\n\nDespite that, she admits being fearful and hesitant about playing the game publicly. \"I don't ever want to isolate people or hurt anyone's feelings ever,\" she said.\n\nThe streamer thinks the debate around the game, and whether playing it is a show of support for Rowling's public comments, has \"overshadowed what is an amazing experience for so many\".\n\n\"I think, 20 years after the books came out, the world is in a different paradigm now - where it's not really JK Rowling's any more. It's the community's instead.\n\n\"Even though she might have had some stake in it, the game is the vision of the director, the actors and developers - they brought it to life. It's a living, breathing world at this point. We do have to acknowledge that.\"\n\nHogwarts Legacy is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, it will be released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch later in the year.\n\nFor more gaming content, go to Press X to Continue, the BBC Sounds gaming Podcast.", "Chariots of Fire director Hugh Hudson has died aged 86 following a short illness.\n\nHis family said in a statement the \"beloved husband and father\", died at Charing Cross Hospital in London on Friday.\n\nHe is survived by his wife Maryam, his son Thomas and his first wife Sue.\n\nActor Nigel Havers, who starred in the 1981 film about the story of two British runners in the 1920s, said he was \"beyond devastated\" by his death.\n\nHe added: \"Chariots of Fire was one of the greatest experiences of my professional life, and, like so many others, I owe much of what followed to him. I shall miss him greatly.\"\n\nThe film was nominated for a total of seven Oscars, including a best director nod for Hudson, and won four - best picture, original score, writing and costume design in 1982.\n\nAccording to the British Film Institute (BFI), it became \"one of the decade's most controversial British films\" due to its perception as a \"radical indictment of establishment snobbery\".\n\nIt is ranked at number 19 on the BFI's Top 100 British Films.\n\nBorn in 1936 in London, Hudson went to boarding school before going on to study at Eton College but he was said to resent his association with the famous school.\n\nAfter leaving Eton, he entered national service in the Dragoon Guards, and remained in the Army reserve of Officers until being discharged in 1960.\n\nHis move to the creative industry came later in the '60s, working in a London-based advertising firm before going into documentaries and television commercials.\n\nHis work brought him to the attention of producer David Puttnam, who would later go on to produce Chariots Of Fire.\n\nNews of Hudson's death comes less than nine months after the death of the film's composer, Vangelis.\n\nThe Greek electronic composer, who took home the Oscar in 1982 for the score to Chariots of Fire, died in May in a French hospital.\n\nHudson is survived by his wife, former James Bond actress Maryam D'Abo who starred in The Living Daylights.", "The RMT union has rejected the rail industry's latest offers, dampening any hopes the lengthy dispute was close to its end.\n\nNetwork Rail and the train companies' group had called the proposals their \"best and final\".\n\nRMT boss Mick Lynch branded the offers \"dreadful\", while the transport secretary called the move \"a kick in the teeth for passengers\".\n\nThe industry and government say members should be given a vote.\n\nThe rejection was made by the national executive committee. Twenty officials and representatives sit on the body but the RMT said the decision was made following a wide-ranging consultation with every level of the union involved in the national rail dispute.\n\nMr Lynch said the offers did not meet members' expectations \"on pay, job security or working conditions\".\n\nThe RMT said it would now seek further meetings with Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) - which represents train operating companies - to try to work towards a settlement.\n\nBut it will start preparing to re-ballot its members when the existing strike mandate runs out in late May.\n\nIt is a significant moment in the ongoing national rail dispute - not just because the RMT has rejected what were billed as final offers from the employers, but because the union is now talking explicitly about seeking an \"unconditional\" pay deal.\n\nThe government and industry have said all along that a pay increase would have to be funded by \"reforms\".\n\nThere had been movement in the dispute in recent months and on all sides the tone had become less antagonistic. But it is clearly not as close to a resolution as some onlookers had hoped.\n\nThe RDG said on Friday that passengers and \"many hard-working RMT members will be deeply dismayed that the union leadership has opted to reject our fair proposals without putting out a vote to their full membership in a democratic referendum\".\n\nIt said it had made \"substantial changes\" to its offer after recent negotiations, including a minimum 9% pay increase over two years which rail workers \"will now miss out on, without even having had an opportunity to have their say\".\n\n\"We removed driver-only operation and gave an improved job security offer,\" the group said, adding: \"The railway's financial crisis is not going away.\"\n\n\"The RMT leadership must now accept the urgent need to make the railway fit for the future for both our people, and the communities the railway serves,\" it said.\n\nLast month, the RDG put forward a list of changes to working practices which it said could fund a 5% pay rise for 2022 and a further 4% this year.\n\nSeparately Network Rail, whose employees include maintenance and signalling staff, offered a package including a 5% pay increase last year and 4% for 2023, plus other benefits such as discounted travel for family. Members rejected this in December.\n\nNetwork Rail recently put forward a slightly updated offer, but kept the pay element the same.\n\nThe RMT said it was seeking \"an unconditional pay offer, a job security agreement and no detrimental changes being imposed on members terms, conditions and working practices\".\n\nThe transport secretary echoed the rail industry's position that RMT members should be given a vote on the deals on the table.\n\nMark Harper said workers are \"being blocked from having a say on their own future\" and that a decision had been made for them behind closed doors.\n\nPlanned changes to how maintenance teams at Network Rail work are a particular point of contention for the RMT.\n\nThe union said it viewed proposed plans as \"unsafe\" and unworkable. Network Rail has always insisted safety would not be compromised.\n\nMr Lynch said: \"We have carried out an in-depth consultation of our 40,000 members and the message we have received, loud and clear, is to reject these dreadful offers.\n\n\"Our members cannot accept the ripping up of their terms and conditions or to have safety standards on the railway put into jeopardy under the guise of so-called modernisation.\n\n\"If our union did accept these offers, we would see a severe reduction in scheduled maintenance tasks, making the railways less safe, the closure of all ticket offices, and thousands of jobs stripped out of the industry when the railways need more investment, not less.\"\n\nNetwork Rail's chief negotiator Tim Shoveller claimed employees want to accept the offer and said the RMT \"is condemning its members to continuing a fruitless, pointless and costly dispute for everyone involved\".\n\n\"Our rank-and-file employees are telling us they want to take the current improved offer that's on the table and to end this dispute but the RMT leadership refuses to listen and instead takes soundings from the echo chamber of its most active members,\" he said.\n\nThis is separate to the train drivers' dispute. The drivers' main union, Aslef, says it hopes to have more talks next week.\n\nA smaller union, the TSSA, said on Friday that thousands of its members would be given a vote on the offers from the train companies.", "Russian participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics \"cannot be covered up with pretend neutrality or a white flag\", Ukraine president Volodymr Zelensky says.\n\nZelensky was speaking at a summit of 36 nations on Friday to discuss Russian and Belarusian athletes' participation in next year's Games.\n\nThe summit was chaired by UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer.\n\nA collective statement is expected to be agreed in the coming days.\n\nThe summit was called after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was \"exploring a pathway\" for athletes from the two nations to compete as neutrals.\n\nThat move has been criticised amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking via live video link, Zelensky told the delegation: \"While Russia kills and terrorises, representatives of the terrorist state have no place at sports and Olympic competitions.\n\n\"And it cannot be covered up with some pretended neutrality or a white flag, because Russia is now a country that stains everything with blood - even the white flag.\n\n\"It must be recognised. And this must be recognised, in particular, at the level of the International Olympic Committee.\"\n\nRussian sports minister Oleg Matytsin said calls to ban their athletes from the Olympics were unacceptable.\n\nIn his opening address, Zelensky told the delegation - which included ministers and senior representatives from countries including France, Germany, Poland, the United States and Canada - that 228 Ukrainian athletes and coaches had died since Russia's invasion in February 2022.\n\nHe called for the Olympic movement to be \"safeguarded\", noting that \"many Russian athletes are associated with the sports clubs of the Russian army and security state agencies\".\n\n\"If the Olympic sports were killings and missile strikes, then you know which national team would occupy the first place,\" he said.\n\nHe later added: \"If, God forbid, the Olympic principles are destroyed and Russian athletes are allowed to participate in any competitions or the Olympic Games, it's just a matter of time before the terrorist state forces them to play along with the war propaganda.\"\n\nIn January, the IOC suggested Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete under neutral flags in Paris, saying \"no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport\".\n\nUkraine's sports minister Vadym Guttsait has said the country could boycott the Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete.\n\nA large number of other nations have already voiced their opposition to the potential inclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes.\n\n\"Now we see an undisguised desire to destroy the unity of international sports and the international Olympic movement, to make sport a means of pressure to resolve political issues,\" Russian minister Matytsin told state news agency Tass.\n\n\"This is a direct interference of ministers in the activities of independent international sports organisations, an attempt to dictate the conditions for the participation of athletes in international competitions, which is absolutely unacceptable.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the IOC urged Ukraine to drop threats of boycotting the Games in Paris.\n\nIn a letter to Guttsait, which has been seen by the BBC, IOC president Thomas Bach said comments from Ukrainian officials suggesting allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes would promote the war are \"defamatory\".\n\n\"Russia has destroyed Ukrainian sporting infrastructure and stopped opportunities for Ukrainian athletes,\" Frazer told the summit.\n\n\"There is danger here that the world wishes to move on and back to business as usual. However, the situation in Ukraine has not changed since the IOC's initial decision last February on banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from competition.\n\n\"As long as Putin continues his war, Russia and Belarus must not be allowed to compete on the world stage or be represented at the Olympics.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThree people have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder following clashes outside a Merseyside hotel providing refuge for asylum seekers.\n\nA police van was set on fire after a rally against refugees and a counter-protest by pro-migrant groups took place near the Suites Hotel, Knowsley.\n\nPolice said missiles were thrown at officers but there were no injuries.\n\nProtesters and counter protesters gathered at the hotel in the Ribblers Lane area at 18:30 GMT, they added.\n\nThe Suites had been previously named as accommodation where asylum seekers are being housed.\n\nA couple of hours into the action, the \"initially peaceful\" protest grew violent, Merseyside Police said, leading to additional officers being called to the area.\n\nA police van was burnt out in the clash\n\nKnowsley MP Sir George Howarth called for calm, saying: \"I have referred an alleged incident posted on social media, which has triggered a demonstration outside the Suites Hotel, to Merseyside Police and Knowsley Council.\n\n\"Until the police have investigated the matter, it is too soon to jump to conclusions, and the effort on the part of some to inflame the situation is emphatically wrong.\"\n\nSir George added: \"Those demonstrating against refugees at this protest tonight do not represent this community.\"\n\nThe BBC is yet to establish the nature of the protest.\n\nWitnesses described the scene as \"terrifying\"\n\nClare Moseley, founder of refugee charity Care4Calais, told the BBC she had been part of a counter-protest in solidarity with migrants.\n\nShe said she was \"deeply shocked and shaken\" to see \"hundreds\" of protesters, who she described as \"far-right\", angry at migrants in the hotel.\n\nThe protesters had broken through police lines to surround the hotel at around 20:15 GMT, Ms Moseley added, describing the scene as \"like a war zone\".\n\nShe said: \"The far-right people were very organised and very violent.\n\n\"All you could hear was fighting in every direction. Fireworks going off, banging, rocks flying, smashing glass, and you could hear people shouting.\n\n\"The police van went right up in flames and exploded, then [the protesters] broke through again and started fighting with the police.\"\n\nShe added that counter protesters had been \"barricaded in a car park\".\n\n\"We were stuck there for ages, whilst the police were fighting in different areas.\n\n\"I was really frightened for us, I was really frightened for the people in the hotel. These are people who have come from war zones. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be for them.\"\n\nThe three people who were arrested have been taken to police stations for questioning.\n\nA man who was staying at the hotel when the protests broke out said people were \"crying and suffering\" during the violence.\n\nThe man from East Africa, who had been accommodated at Suites Hotel for the past seven months and did not want to be named, told PA news: \"It was burning and everybody in the world was praying.\n\n\"We come from different lifestyles so it doesn't surprise me to see a vehicle burning.\"\n\nHe added that despite Friday night's events, \"people have been welcoming here\".\n\nAhmed, who did not want to give his second name, said he had been staying at the hotel for a month after travelling from Egypt, where he was a teacher.\n\nThe 34-year-old said others staying in the hotel included doctors and engineers, adding: \"I was afraid. We came to the UK for safety.\"\n\nKnowsley Council said it had been given less than 48 hours' notice in January 2022 of the Home Office's intention to temporarily accommodate asylum seekers at the hotel.\n\nIt is understood the government appointed private company Serco to manage the hotel site and provide support to asylum seekers there.\n\nKnowsley Council said it was \"not involved in that contract\" and was not being paid to accommodate asylum seekers, but said it was committed to supporting people fleeing persecution.\n\nThe government has been accommodating asylum seekers in Knowsley since 2016, the council said.\n\nThe BBC has contacted the Home Office for a response.\n\nPolice said they were initially facilitating peaceful protests before they turned violent\n\nChief Constable of Merseyside Police Serena Kennedy said there would be \"an increased police presence\" over the weekend.\n\nShe tweeted: \"We will be continuing in our identification of those mindless individuals who were responsible for the offences this evening.\"\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Paul White said the incident was \"completely unacceptable\" and put \"those present, our officers and the wider community in danger\".\n\n\"For officers and police vehicles to be damaged in the course of their duty protecting the public is disgraceful,\" he said.\n\nThe husk of a police van lies burnt to the metal outside the gates of the Suites Hotel.\n\nFrom a window, a man staying at the hotel peers down at the debris below. Bottles, paving stones, rocks and sticks litter the roads, the aftermath of the violence.\n\nPolice allow me through to see what happened but only when they've taken three young men they've just arrested into the back of a waiting police van which then drives off.\n\nOn the road, a piece of paper flutters by. \"This is our city\" it says, hinting at the issues which may be involved in this protest.\n\nPolice are continuing to review evidence of the incident, and are asking the public to contact them directly with any information, rather than posting it on social media.\n\nA number of road closures have been in place on the East Lancs Road and police urged motorists to avoid the area.\n\nMerseyside's police commissioner Emily Spurrell, who oversees Merseyside Police and is appointed through a public vote, called the incident \"deeply shocking\" and added \"there is absolutely no excuses for this\".\n\nAnd shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called the behaviour of protesters \"shameful and appalling\".\n\nMark Davies, of the Refugee Council, said those who had participated had brought \"shame on this country's long and proud record\" of helping those in need.\n\n\"These are appalling scenes and our thoughts are with those staying at the hotel. This must be terrifying for them.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nAre you in the area? If it is safe to do so email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew and Anthony Daniels on the set of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back\n\nStar Wars memorabilia left in an attic by Chewbacca star Peter Mayhew and set for auction is to be returned to his widow after she issued a public plea.\n\nScripts and call sheets from the films were due to be sold after a couple who found them in their loft 25 years later passed them to auctioneers.\n\nHis widow, Angie, pleaded to halt the sale, saying leaving the items was one of her husband's \"biggest regrets\".\n\nAuctioneer Angus Ashworth said he was \"happy\" to return the items.\n\nWriting on the Peter Mayhew Foundation's Twitter account, Mrs Mayhew said she had previously lived in the property with her husband, who was 7ft 3in (2.2m), but when they moved out his \"movement challenges\" made it \"impossible\" for him to get into the attic to collect the items.\n\nShe said it was \"one of Peter's and my biggest regrets that we had to leave these items behind\" and described it as \"heart-breaking\" to see them go up for sale.\n\nPeter Mayhew, left, and Harrison Ford pictured at the European Premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015\n\nMr Ashworth, based in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, explained: \"I was approached by a lovely older couple who were clearing their attic a quarter of a century after moving into their property.\n\n\"The contents of the attic included a bag of Star Wars memorabilia, which I thought might be of some interest to Star Wars fans.\n\n\"This wasn't unusual, film memorabilia comes up for auction all the time and there was some subsequent press interest.\n\n\"The first I knew that the Peter Mayhew Foundation wanted to acquire it was following a tweet which garnered a lot of misinformed responses.\"\n\nThe scripts had been collecting dust in an attic for decades\n\nMr Ashworth said: \"Nobody had approached us to discuss it and had they done so I would of course have talked to the vendors.\n\n\"The monetary value of the lot is fairly modest, but knowing how much it means to the foundation, and given that it had been in the attic for over 24 years, the vendors are quite happy to donate it to the foundation to have permanently within their personal collection, not for profit, so that fans can access it in perpetuity.\n\n\"I can only apologise to all of the Star Wars fans who had already shown great interest in owning a bit of film history.\"\n\nBorn in Barnes, London, Mr Mayhew played Wookiee warrior Chewbacca in Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).\n\nDespite health issues arising from his height, that at one time required him to use a wheelchair, he returned for the sequels Revenge Of The Sith (2005) and The Force Awakens (2015) before handing the role to Finnish actor Joonas Suotamo.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Labour's victory in the West Lancashire by-election shows the Conservatives have \"run out of road,\" Rachel Reeves has said.\n\nThe shadow chancellor said the result, which saw a 10.5% swing from the Tories, had sent a \"clear message\" to Rishi Sunak.\n\nThe party's candidate Ashley Dalton will replace Rosie Cooper, who stood down as the area's MP after 17 years.\n\nIt follows two recent by-election holds for Labour in north-west England.\n\nThe party had been widely expected to retain the West Lancashire seat, which they have held since 1992.\n\nIts winning 8,326 majority is similar to that after the last election in 2019, but its share of the vote increased from 52.1% to 62.3%.\n\nThe result is the latest indication of the task facing Mr Sunak ahead of local elections in May, with the Tories trailing Labour in national polls.\n\nMs Reeves told reporters the by-election win was a \"strong result\" for her party, with voters there \"sending a clear message to Rishi Sunak and his government that frankly they are no longer fit to govern\".\n\n\"People want a general election and a choice now about who is in government, because this government have run out of ideas and they've run out of road,\" she added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The West Lancashire by-election result shows the government has \"run of out road\" says the shadow chancellor\n\nHowever, Blackpool South MP Scott Benton, who was involved in the Tory campaign, said the swing to Labour was \"modest\" and \"very similar to what you'd expect given the national polling\".\n\n\"Governments generally have challenging by-elections. We've been in power for 12 years, so you would expect to see this type of result,\" he added.\n\n\"If [Labour leader] Keir Starmer were on course to win a general election, I think you would have expected a record Labour majority here.\"\n\nMs Dalton had twice unsuccessfully campaigned to become an MP, previously losing in Rochford and Southend East.\n\nThe part-time charity worker will now replace Rosie Cooper, who announced she was quitting as an MP last September to take a senior NHS job in Merseyside.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats finished fourth, behind Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party).\n\nConservative candidate Mike Prendergast was formerly the Tory group leader on nearby Sefton Council.\n\nThe West Lancashire seat was created in 1983 following a boundaries review. While its first MP was Conservative Ken Hind, Labour has held it since 1992.\n\nIn December Labour held the constituencies of Chester and Stretford and Urmston in Greater Manchester after by-elections there.\n\nLabour's win in West Lancashire was widely expected, but can it tell us anything about a bigger political picture?\n\nThe shift in support from the Conservatives to Labour since 2019, if repeated nationally, would just about be enough for Sir Keir Starmer to move into Number 10. But only just.\n\nThat swing of 10.5% is about the same as Labour achieved in the last by-election in Stretford & Urmston - another relatively safe seat for them.\n\nBut if Labour were looking for a tubthumping result that suggested a landslide win at the next general election, they didn't get it.\n\nThat won't provide much consolation for the Conservatives though, who can't hide from a convincing defeat reflecting their poor showing in national opinion polls.\n\nBut in a winter by-election where barely one in three people turned out to vote, it's hard to draw any firm conclusions.", "More than 22,000 people are now known to have died in Monday's earthquakes in Turkey and Syria - though the UN warns the disaster's full extent is still unclear.\n\nRescuers are still searching rubble for survivors, but hopes are fading more than four days since the first quake.\n\nTens of thousands of people have spent a freezing fourth night in makeshift shelters, after losing their homes.\n\nTurkey's president called the quake \"the disaster of the century\".\n\nA major international relief effort is gathering pace. On Thursday the World Bank pledged $1.78bn (£1.38bn) in aid to Turkey including immediate finance for rebuilding basic infrastructure and to support those affected by the earthquakes.\n\nAnother donation came from the US, which pledged a package of $85m to both countries.\n\nMeanwhile, the efforts of 100,000 or more rescue personnel on the ground are being hampered by logistical hurdles including vehicle shortages and devastated roads.\n\nUN chief Antonio Guterres warned the full extent of the catastrophe was still \"unfolding before our eyes\", especially in Syria where a long-running civil war has devastated the country.\n\nOn Thursday, the first UN humanitarian aid crossed the border into north-western Syria through Idlib's Bab al-Hawa crossing.\n\nThe crossing is the only way UN aid can reach the region without travelling through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.\n\nMr Guterres promised more help was on its way and he urged the UN Security Council to allow supplies to be delivered through more than one border crossing.\n\n\"This is the moment of unity, it's not a moment to politicise or to divide but it is obvious that we need massive support,\" he said.\n\nMunira Mohammad, a mother of four who fled Aleppo in Syria after the quake, told Reuters on Thursday that her family was in desperate need of heating and more supplies, saying: \"Last night we couldn't sleep because it was so cold. It is very bad.\"\n\nThe White Helmets rescue group said the only UN convoy that reached the region did not contain specialised equipment to free people trapped beneath the rubble.\n\nOfficials said on Friday that 18,342 people had died in Turkey, surpassing the more than 17,000 killed when a similar quake hit northwest Turkey in 1999.\n\nAn earlier update from Syria had put the toll there at 3,377.\n\nLater on Friday, the confirmed death toll surpassed 22,000.\n\nThe tremor ranks among the most deadly natural disasters of the century - surpassing others such as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.\n\nResat Gozlu, a survivor in south-eastern Turkey who is now living on the floor of a sports complex with his family, said rescue workers did not arrive until three days after the quake.\n\nHe said many remain trapped under the rubble and others died of hypothermia.\n\n\"If this continues there could be serious health issues and illness,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) earlier warned a second humanitarian disaster will strike unless survivors can get access to shelter, food, water and medicine \"very fast\".\n\nThe WHO's Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, told the BBC the organisation's staff in Turkey's Gaziantep were sleeping in cars because \"there's still hundreds and hundreds of aftershocks\".\n\nDr Kluge said communities in Syria depended on water reservoirs, which were the first to fall. He said the reservoirs need to be replaced or the country faces cholera outbreaks - which he said was an issue before the earthquake.\n\nSatellite imagery shows a fault line in Turkey after the earthquake", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPassengers on a flight from Edinburgh saw flames shoot from a wing as their plane was forced into an emergency landing minutes after take-off.\n\nDelta Airlines flight DAL209 to New York quickly diverted to land at Prestwick after suffering engine problems.\n\nFootage has emerged on social media of flames around the aircraft's wing.\n\nShocked passengers reported hearing a loud bang before the plane was diverted.\n\nBBC Scotland News journalist Laura Pettigrew was on the flight.\n\nShe said: \"The plane took off and there was a loud engine noise, similar to the noise normally during take-off and landing, but it seemed to continue once we were in the air.\n\n\"The captain walked up the length of the plane and then there was a Tannoy announcement - although no-one could hear it.\n\n\"But we soon realised we were preparing to land.\n\n\"When the plane touched down we could see fire trucks and firefighters with hoses rushing towards us.\"\n\nShe added: \"We were told to leave all our belongings and get off as quickly as we could.\n\n\"There was no real panic among passengers, more just confusion. However some families with kids were pretty distressed.\"\n\nMs Pettigrew said she was not aware how serious the incident was until they got into the terminal and heard people talking about what had happened.\n\nShe added that the air crew on board the plane were \"amazing\".\n\n\"They kept everyone calm,\" she said. \"The pilots seemed to do a smooth job of getting us down safely. Apparently the cabin crew were preparing for a crash landing.\"\n\nFire crews surrounded the plane during the landing\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service confirmed they were in attendance to help airport fire crews.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"We were requested at 11:23 to assist our fire service partners at Prestwick Airport.\"\n\n\"Operations Control mobilised four appliances to the site, where firefighters remain working to support their partners.\"\n\nA statement from Delta said: \"Delta flight 209 from Edinburgh to New York-JFK safely diverted to Glasgow Prestwick Airport after a mechanical issue with one of the aircraft's two engines.\n\n\"We apologise to our customers for this inconvenience and are working to get them to their final destinations via Edinburgh.\"", "Former Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery has denied suggestions that his tax affairs may not have been in order.\n\nHe told the BBC he had never been investigated by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and had never paid a tax penalty.\n\nThe MP for Wansbeck added that he \"does not owe a single penny\" in tax.\n\nThe tax expert and campaigner Dan Neidle believes there are questions to answer over payments Mr Lavery received from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and whether the correct tax had been paid.\n\nThe i newspaper has published a series of questions which they have sent to Mr Lavery - who was chairman of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership - about payments dating back to more than a decade ago.\n\nMr Lavery had received redundancy or termination payments from the NUM when he became a Labour MP in 2010.\n\nThe union maintained that his post as general secretary of Northumberland NUM was deleted when he became an MP and therefore he was entitled to redundancy or termination payments, in line with his contracts of employment.\n\nHe received £30,600 in 2010 and a further £30,000 in 2011.\n\nWhen the trade union watchdog, the Certification Officer, looked into the issue in 2017, they said: \"Both the union and Mr Lavery were given the opportunity to provide documentary evidence to show a process or decision by which Mr Lavery was made redundant. Neither was able to do so and stated that no such documentary evidence existed.\"\n\nHowever, the officer decided not to pursue the matter further.\n\nThe i, and Mr Neidle, who helped to uncover details about the tax affairs of Nadhim Zahawi which led to him being sacked as Conservative Party chairman, have now questioned whether the payments genuinely were redundancy payments.\n\nThe paper suggested that if no redundancy process was undertaken then the entire payment from his union should have been declared to HMRC as income.\n\nIt asked whether Mr Lavery had done this and if he had paid tax on the sum.\n\nMr Lavery declined to answer the i's question directly but told the paper no additional payments had been requested by HMRC and no penalties had been applied.\n\nIt is understood that HMRC did seek to clarify in 2017 whether the payments constituted redundancy and has subsequently not taken any action.\n\nMr Lavery, now a backbench MP, told the BBC he believes that personal tax affairs should remain confidential, but he insists that he has never been under investigation by HMRC and that he \"does not owe a single penny\" in tax.\n\nHe added that it would be \"preposterous\" to draw any parallel between his tax affairs and those of Mr Zahawi.\n\nMr Neidle, a Labour party member, said: \"When there are undocumented payments... it is reasonable to ask whether the correct tax has been paid on the payments.\"\n\nA Labour spokesman said it was up to Mr Lavery himself to respond to any questions about his tax affairs.", "The 10-day-old baby was taken to an ambulance after being saved from a collapsed building\n\nA new-born baby and his mother have been rescued from rubble in Turkey, around 90 hours after the first of Monday's deadly earthquakes.\n\nThe 10-day-old boy, named Yagiz, was retrieved from a ruined structure in the southern Hatay province.\n\nFootage showed the child being carefully taken out overnight - a sight described by local media as miraculous.\n\nHopes of finding many more survivors are diminishing, amid freezing-cold weather four days after the disaster.\n\nHowever, search and rescue efforts continue in both Turkey and neighbouring Syria - which was struck by the quakes as well.\n\nNew-born Yagiz was pictured wrapped in a thermal blanket being carried to an ambulance to receive treatment.\n\nHis mother was brought out on a stretcher. There were no further updates immediately available over the health of both.\n\nIstanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu - whose teams were reportedly involved in the rescue - tweeted about the rescue, saying it happened in the town of Samandag.\n\nFootage obtained by the Reuters news agency also showed a man being retrieved from the ruins, though it was not known if he had any connection to the other two.\n\nMore than 21,000 people have died - most of them in Turkey - after Monday morning's initial 7.8-magnitude tremor and the hundreds of aftershocks that followed.\n\nThere have also been fears of a secondary catastrophe, as many people have been made homeless and are lacking shelter, water, fuel and electricity.\n\nTurkish President Recap Tayyip Erdogan has described it as the \"disaster of the century\".\n\nOpposition figures have accused Mr Erdogan of failing to prepare for the earthquake and have questioned how estimated 88bn lira ($4.6bn; £3.8bn) raised from an \"earthquake tax\" was spent. The levy - first imposed in the wake of a massive quake in 1999 that killed more than 17,000 people - was meant to have been spent on disaster prevention and the development of emergency services.\n\nKemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party said on Wednesday that Mr Erdogan's government \"has not prepared for an earthquake for 20 years\".\n\nDespite the devastation, stories of remarkable escapes or heroic rescues have been emerging over the past days.\n\nThousands of people have offered to adopt a baby girl who was born under a collapsed building in north-west Syria.\n\nWhen she was rescued, baby Aya - meaning miracle in Arabic - was still connected by her umbilical cord to her mother, who died along with other family members.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Air Force plane over Alaska after US strikes 'object'\n\nUS President Joe Biden ordered a fighter jet to shoot down an unidentified \"high-altitude object\" off Alaska on Friday, the White House says.\n\nSpokesman John Kirby said the unmanned object was \"the size of a small car\" and posed a \"reasonable threat\" to civilian aviation.\n\nThe object's purpose and origin was unclear, Mr Kirby said.\n\nIt comes a week after the American military destroyed a Chinese balloon over US territorial waters.\n\nSpeaking at the White House on Friday, Mr Kirby said the debris field of the object shot down on Friday was \"much, much smaller\" than the balloon shot down last Saturday off the coast of South Carolina.\n\nHe said that the object was flying at 40,000ft (12,000m) over the northern coast of Alaska.\n\nIt had already flown across Alaska at a speed of 20 to 40mph (64km/h) and was out over the sea travelling towards the North Pole, when it was shot down.\n\nCommercial airlines can fly as high as 45,000ft.\n\nHelicopters and transport aircraft have been deployed to collect debris from the frozen waters of the Beaufort Sea.\n\n\"We do not know who owns it, whether it's state owned or corporate owned or privately owned,\" Mr Kirby said.\n\nThe object was first spotted on Thursday night, though officials did not specify a time.\n\nHe said two fighter jets had approached the object and assessed there was nobody on board, and this information was available to Mr Biden when he made his decision.\n\n\"We're going to remain vigilant about our airspace,\" Mr Kirby asserted. \"The president takes his obligations to protect our national security interests as paramount.\"\n\nAccording to ABC News, the object seemed to have no propulsion.\n\nIt seemed to be floating, \"cylindrical and silver-ish grey\", reports the network's chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz, citing an unnamed US official.\n\nPentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the object was \"not similar in size or shape\" to last week's Chinese balloon.\n\nHe confirmed that an F-22 jet had shot down the object with a sidewinder missile at 13:45 EST (18:45 GMT) on Friday.\n\nThe Pentagon said an F-22, seen here in an archive photograph, shot down the object on Friday afternoon local time\n\nThe warplane was scrambled from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.\n\nGen Ryder said a significant amount of debris had been recovered so far. It was being loaded on to vessels and taken to \"labs for subsequent analysis\", he added.\n\nOfficials said they had not yet determined whether the object was involved in surveillance, and Mr Kirby corrected a reporter who referred to it as a balloon.\n\nHe did not specify where exactly the object was shot down, but the Federal Aviation Administration said it had closed about 10 sq miles of US airspace airspace above Deadhorse, northern Alaska, before the F-22 fired.\n\nThe site is about 130 miles from the border of Canada, whose Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter he had been briefed on the \"object that violated American airspace\" and \"supported the decision to take action\".\n\nNo other objects of a threatening nature have been identified above the US at this time, according to the White House.\n\nMr Kirby said the object did not appear to have the manoeuvrable capability of the Chinese balloon and seemed to be \"virtually at the whim of the wind\".\n\nHours after the US shot down the balloon last Saturday, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Chinese counterpart via their special crisis line.\n\nBut Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe declined to pick up, according to the Pentagon.\n\nChinese officials on Friday accused the US of \"political manipulation and hype\".\n\nIn an interview on Thursday, President Biden defended his handling of the Chinese balloon, maintaining that it was not \"a major breach\".\n\nLate on Friday, five Chinese companies and one research institute were added to the US government's trade blacklist. Organisations were placed on the list for their alleged support of Chinese military aerospace programmes - including airships and balloons - the US Commerce Department announced.", "There has been no trace of Nicola Bulley since 27 January, when she was last seen walking her dog\n\nA friend of Nicola Bulley has said the search for the mother-of-two without any answers is \"almost like torture\" - a fortnight on from her disappearance.\n\nDespite \"unimaginable frustration\", Emma White said Ms Bulley's friends and family would never give up hope.\n\nMs White has joined others in St Michael's on Wyre later, holding placards to jog people's memories.\n\nResidents have had to bring in private security following an increase in people coming to the village.\n\nIt comes after Lancashire Police issued two dispersal notices on Thursday to break up groups, including amateur investigators and people filming police activity around the area where Ms Bulley disappeared.\n\nMs Bulley was last seen on a dog walk by the River Wyre on 27 January.\n\nMs Bulley dropped off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school before she took her springer spaniel Willow for the riverside walk\n\nPolice believe she fell into the river but underwater searches have failed to find her so far.\n\nThey have been extended to Morecambe Bay and Knott End after Peter Faulding, head of a specialist diving team, said Ms Bulley was \"categorically not\" in the section of river where police think she fell in.\n\nMs White told BBC Radio 4 Today: \"We just need Nikki home for her two beautiful girls who want their mummy.\n\n\"It's just rollercoaster, it's almost like torture - just unimaginable frustration in the sense that everyone's come together working so hard, from the police community to people on the ground looking, you expect to be rewarded for when you put hard work in.\n\n\"So we just need something, anything - a piece of information that can lead us down a different inquiry.\"\n\nThe police search and rescue team were pictured on the river bank near to Shard Bridge on the River Wyre\n\nMs Bulley dropped off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school before she took her springer spaniel Willow for the riverside walk.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a work Teams call, was found on a bench on a riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nPolice have dismissed suggestions Ms Bulley was a victim of crime, but detectives said they remained \"fully open-minded\" to any information that indicates where she is or what happened to her.\n\nOfficers previously warned members of the public not to \"take the law into their own hands\" by breaking into empty or derelict riverside properties to try to find Ms Bulley.\n\nSecurity service owner Spencer Sutcliffe, who offered his services for free after being approached for help by a local residents group, said local people were \"frightened\".\n\n\"People have had property broken into and people have been aggressive towards residents,\" he said.\n\nCandles have been lit on an altar at St Michael's Church\n\nHe urged people not to come to the village if they don't need to and \"let the police do their job\".\n\nLancashire Police also said it may take legal action \"where appropriate\" after a number of \"grossly offensive\" comments were made on social media.\n\nEmma White appealed for information two weeks on from the disappearance of her friend\n\nMs White added: \"A dispersal order - what a misuse of police time and wasting valuable resources that almost take away from ultimate goal to bring Nikki home.\n\n\"So we say don't speculate, don't make any conspiracy theories up and certainly don't take the law into your own hands.\n\n\"If you can't be kind, don't say anything on social media.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The baby Coquerel's sifaka was born in December\n\nA critically endangered primate, nicknamed the dancing lemur because of the way it moves, has been bred for the first time in Europe, a zoo has said.\n\nChester Zoo said the birth of the baby Coquerel's sifaka was a \"landmark moment for the species\".\n\nA representative said the \"precious youngster\" arrived to parents Beatrice and Elliot 18 months after the duo were translocated from the US.\n\nMammals curator Mark Brayshaw said both mother and baby were \"doing great\".\n\nThe species is only found in the wild in the treetops of north-west Madagascar and had suffered an 80% decline in the last 30 years due to widespread deforestation.\n\nThey are distinguishable from other lemurs because of the way they move, maintaining an upright posture and spring side to side along the floor on their back legs.\n\nThe critically endangered primate gets its nickname due to the unique way it moves\n\nThe zoo representative said the primates were critically endangered in the wild and the family trio at Chester represented almost half of the seven Coquerel's sifakas being cared for in Europe.\n\nThe new arrival weighed 4oz (119g) and would be clinging tightly to its mother's belly \"for several weeks, before riding on her back like a backpack until around six months old\", they said.\n\nThey added that staff would determine the sex of the tiny primate, which was born in December, \"once it starts to branch away and explore on its own\".\n\nMr Brayshaw said it would not be long \"until this bright-eyed baby will be bouncing between tree to tree just like its parents\".\n\nThe zoo's director of animals and plants said the birth was \"a real landmark moment for conservation\"\n\nMike Jordan, the zoo's director of animals and plants, said the birth was \"a real landmark moment for conservation\".\n\nHe said it had \"kickstarted\" the European breeding programme for the species which could be \"the lifeboat that prevents them from becoming wiped out completely\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The sounds of war are becoming routine at this market a few miles inside Russia's border with Ukraine. I hear explosions in the distance. But no-one flinches.\n\nJust metres away other stalls have been reduced to twisted metal. They were hit by a mortar a few days before.\n\nAt the time the market was shut, so no-one was hurt. But many stalls remain closed and there's only a handful of customers. Sandbags are stacked up outside some of the buildings.\n\nIn many parts of Russia this feels like a virtual war: a conflict being played out on television, far from home. But in Russia's Belgorod region war feels very real and very close.\n\nRaisa Alexandrovna, who sells sweets here, has lost her sense of security.\n\n\"No-one's protecting us,\" Raisa tells me. \"When people go home at night, they don't know if they'll still be in one piece in the morning.\"\n\nEveryone I speak to at the market tells me they live in fear of Ukrainian shelling. But they omit to mention that it was their country that invaded Ukraine.\n\nA number of stalls at the market have been hit by mortars\n\nThey confirm that, one year, ago, life here was quiet and peaceful. Yet, they decline to join the dots and blame the Kremlin for what has transpired.\n\n\"We had to start this military operation,\" Raisa insists. \"It's the right thing. We just should have been better prepared for it. We should have drafted people into the army right away. So many of our young men are dying. There'll be no one left for our women to marry.\"\n\n\"But what about the Ukrainians who've been killed because of Russia's invasion?\" I ask.\n\n\"Yes, people on both sides have been killed,\" replies Raisa. \"But the minds of Ukrainians have been altered. A new generation has grown up there hating Russians. We need to re-educate them. Re-make them.\"\n\nIn the city of Belgorod, the regional capital, a giant letter 'Z' - the symbol of Russia's military operation - has been erected along a busy highway. In recent months there have been explosions, too, in Belgorod, including at the airport, an oil depot and an apparent strike on a power plant. Suddenly residents are having to think about where to take cover. Shelters have been opened in cellars and in basements of apartment blocks.\n\nBelgorod is full of billboards and slogans supporting Russian soldiers\n\nConversations here run similar to those at the market, with most people telling me: yes, security only became a problem after the invasion, but, no, they don't blame the invasion itself. It's as if there's a psychological firewall preventing people from connecting the deteriorating security situation to the decision of their president.\n\nIf there is a firewall, patriotic messaging feeds it.\n\nStaring down from billboards and advertising hoardings in Belgorod are the portraits of decorated Russian soldiers who've been fighting in Ukraine. The images and slogans encourage the public to rally round the flag.\n\n\"Thank you for your heroic deeds!\" reads one poster.\n\n\"For the Motherland!\" declares another.\n\n\"Everything for the front line! Everything for victory!\"\n\n\"Believe in Yourself, but Live for Russia!\"\n\nIn addition to the slogans on the street, there's also the propaganda on Russian state TV. From morning till night news bulletins and talk shows assure viewers that Russia is in the right; that Ukraine and the West are the aggressors and that in this conflict the very future of Russia is at stake.\n\nIn a Belgorod knitting shop, I get chatting to the owner. He clearly believes that, by criticising Russia, the West is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes.\n\n\"The West plays a negative role,\" he tells me. \"It obviously wants to destroy Russia. We've seen that before. Under Adolf Hitler.\"\n\n\"Ukraine is a Western puppet,\" Ksenya says, \"and the West has always wanted to destroy Russia. Hitler wanted to grab our land. Who doesn't? We have such an enormous country.\"\n\nNot everyone shares that view but few are willing to admit it in public.\n\n\"I don't believe I can influence the situation,\" says Ivan, further up the street. \"I understand which country I'm living in and what the authorities have done to prevent ordinary people from expressing their opinions. Any such expression is dangerous.\"\n\nSandbags protect a number of buildings now throughout the Russian border town\n\nReferences to Hitler are not accidental. You hear them all the time on Russian TV. To spark patriotic fervour and boost public support for the \"special military operation,\" the Kremlin paints the war in Ukraine in similar colours as World War Two: as Russia fighting fascism, battling to defend the Motherland from foreign invaders.\n\nThe reality is very different. In 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. In 2022 Vladimir Putin's Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\n\nIn wasteland outside Belgorod I see first-hand how connections to World War Two are being created. A group of armed men have agreed to meet me. They call themselves \"Smersh\" (\"Death to Spies\") after a notorious counter-intelligence unit created by Joseph Stalin in World War Two. They will not reveal their faces - or their names - but will talk briefly about their activities.\n\n\"At the moment we are training a territorial defence force for Belgorod region,\" one man says. \"Some of those in training have experience in fighting. Some are former police and ex-military. They will defend Belgorod region if there is an attack on Russia. As for us, we will carry out any task the commander-in-chief may give us, in any town, anywhere in the world.\"\n\nUkrainians are Russians. They've just forgotten about it.\n\nAmong the men being trained is Evgeny Bakalo, a local writer and businessman. In Belgorod Evgeny has set up a support group for Ukrainians who've crossed into Russia to escape the war. Mr Bakalo's opinion of Ukraine chimes with the controversial views of President Putin.\n\n\"We're one people,\" he tells me. \"Ukrainians are Russians. They've just forgotten about it.\"\n\nA year of war and fierce Ukrainian resistance suggest the opposite: that now, more than at any other time in its post-Soviet history, the Ukrainian people value their sovereignty and independence and are determined not to be forced back into Moscow's orbit.\n\nMeanwhile, Moscow continues to portray Ukrainian officials as neo-Nazis and Western governments as Nazi sympathisers: another reason for the Kremlin's frequent references to the 1940s.\n\nUnder President Putin, the national idea is constructed around World War Two - what most Russians refer to as the Great Patriotic War: both the Soviet Union's victory in that war, and the enormous human cost of that victory. It is a hugely emotive subject.\n\nOlga's husband has volunteered to fight for Russia\n\nOlga, who runs a church choir in Belgorod, tells me she is \"very frightened\" when the city is being shelled. When I suggest to her that this wouldn't be happening if the \"special military operation\" hadn't started, her immediate reaction is to reference World War Two.\n\n\"I return us to the Great Patriotic War,\" Olga tells me, \"which was a time of great sacrifice. There are always sacrifices being made. When our men go off to fight they know they may be killed.\"\n\nOlga's husband isn't at home. He's volunteered to fight in the \"special military operation\". She accepts the official view - the version of events that much of the world dismisses as the Kremlin's alternative reality.\n\n\"Russia didn't provoke this war,\" Olga tells me. \"A Russian will give you the shirt off his back. Russia didn't attack Ukraine. Russians are peace-loving and generous.\"", "The official logo for King Charles III's coronation, to feature in street parties, social media and souvenirs, has been revealed by Buckingham Palace.\n\nIt has been created by Sir Jony Ive, known for his innovative designs of Apple gadgets, including the iPhone.\n\nThis is a more traditional image, with flowers forming the shape of the St Edward's crown used in the coronation.\n\nThe floral design highlights the \"optimism of spring\" and reflects the King's love of nature, says Sir Jony.\n\n\"The design was inspired by King Charles's love of the planet, nature, and his deep concern for the natural world,\" said the former Apple design guru, who is more usually associated with sleek tech designs of equipment such as iMacs and iPods.\n\nThe logo, to be used for events over the coronation long weekend in May, features a rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock - emblems from across the United Kingdom.\n\nIt's in contrast to the very stark design of the new King Charles stamps revealed this week, which has no crown or decoration.\n\nThe logo, also available in a Welsh-language version, is the latest detail to be revealed from the planned celebrations to mark the coronation, which will be held at Westminster Abbey on 6 May.\n\nThe day will include a carriage procession and traditional appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony, although it is still not known who will be attending - with no confirmation yet whether the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be there.\n\nOn Sunday 7 May there will be a music concert and light show at Windsor Castle, and this week a public ballot opened for the 10,000 free tickets on offer for the event.\n\nThere will be an extra bank holiday on Monday 8 May, with events highlighting the work of volunteers.", "Lucy Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and trying to kill 10 others\n\nThe trial of nurse Lucy Letby has heard one of her alleged victims must have been in extreme pain at the time of her final and fatal collapse.\n\nThe 33-year-old is accused of murdering the girl, referred to as Child I, at Countess of Chester Hospital in October 2015.\n\nDr Sandy Bohin told the trial at Manchester Crown Court the baby's crying was \"inconsolable\".\n\nMs Letby denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others.\n\nDr Bohin, an expert instructed by the prosecution, reviewed a report by another expert on Child I.\n\nIt is alleged Ms Letby made three attempts to kill the baby before succeeding on the fourth attempt.\n\nDr Bohin told Nick Johnson KC, prosecuting, that in her opinion Child I's death was caused by air being injected into her bloodstream.\n\nShe said one of the reasons for her conclusion was that Child I was very distressed at the time of her final collapse.\n\nThe babies were being cared for on the neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital\n\nDr Bohin said: \"Nurses get a sense of why babies are crying.\"\n\nShe said it may be because of hunger and often a baby can be consoled by a cuddle or a dummy, but \"this was very different\".\n\n\"This was inconsolable crying, which is extremely unusual. [Child I] was in pain and must have been in extreme pain to be that distressed.\"\n\nCross-examined by Ben Myers KC, defending Ms Letby, originally of Hereford, Dr Bohin denied that she was \"rubber stamping\" the earlier report by another prosecution expert, Dr Dewi Evans.\n\nMr Myers said to her: \"We don't know what your conclusion would have been if you'd not been provided with Dr Evans's report first?\"\n\nDr Bohin replied: \"That's correct, but my duty is to give an independent review and that's what I've done.\"\n\nMr Myers suggested that Dr Bohin was \"adapting\" air embolism [as the cause of death] where she had not found any other cause.\n\nDr Bohin replied: \"That's not the case.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The suspected Chinese spy balloon spotted over the city of Billings in the state of Montana\n\nNews of an alleged Chinese spy balloon floating over the US has left many wondering why Beijing would want to use a relatively unsophisticated tool for its surveillance of the US mainland.\n\nChina has said the balloon, spotted over the state of Montana, is merely a \"civilian airship\" which deviated from its planned route, but the US suspects it is a \"high-altitude surveillance\" device.\n\nWhatever the capabilities of this particular balloon, the US has taken the threat seriously enough to postpone Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China, which was due to take place on 5 and 6 February.\n\nBalloons are one of the oldest forms of surveillance technology. The Japanese military used them to launch incendiary bombs in the US during World War Two. They were also widely used by the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.\n\nMore recently, the US has reportedly been considering adding high-altitude inflatables into the Pentagon's surveillance network. Modern balloons typically hover between 24km-37km above the earth's surface (80,000ft-120,000ft).\n\n\"Beijing is probably trying to signal to Washington: 'While we want to improve ties, we are also ever ready for sustained competition, using any means necessary,' without severely inflaming tensions,\" independent air-power analyst He Yuan Ming told the BBC.\n\n\"And what better tool for this than a seemingly innocuous balloon?\"\n\nThe balloon's anticipated flight path near certain missile bases suggests it is unlikely it has drifted off course, He Yuan Ming said.\n\nThe US Department of Defence on Thursday said the balloon is \"significantly above where civilian air traffic is active\".\n\nBut China expert Benjamin Ho said Beijing had more sophisticated surveillance technology at its disposal.\n\n\"They have other means to spy out American infrastructure, or whatever information they wanted to obtain. The balloon was to send a signal to the Americans, and also to see how the Americans would react,\" explained Dr Ho - coordinator of the China programme at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.\n\nIt may even be the case that China wanted the US to detect the balloon.\n\n\"It's possible that being spotted was the whole point. China might be using the balloon to demonstrate that it has a sophisticated technological capability to penetrate US airspace without risking a serious escalation. In this regard, a balloon is a pretty ideal choice,\" said Arthur Holland Michel from the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.\n\nNevertheless, the experts point out that balloons can be fitted with modern technology like spy cameras and radar sensors, and there are some advantages to using balloons for surveillance - chief of which is that it is less expensive and easier to deploy than drones or satellites.\n\nThe balloon's slower speed also allows it to loiter over and monitor the target area for longer periods. A satellite's movement, on the other hand, is restricted to its orbital pass.", "Monday's double earthquake in Turkey and Syria caused devastation across the region, killing thousands and destroying buildings and neighbourhoods in dozens on cities.\n\nIn Kahramanmaras, which was near the epicentre of both quakes, aerial photographs reveal the extent of the damage caused in just one of those neighbourhoods.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nBBC analysis using a mixture of satellite images, photos and drone footage from before and after the earthquake shows how much of the area around the city's 12 Subat stadium has been flattened in the disaster.\n\nThe satellite image taken after the earthquakes is dominated by the tent city that has been set up in the stadium - usually the home of Kahramanmarasspor football club - but now filled with more than 200 tents, each capable of sheltering a family or even two.\n\nThe large Gazi middle school near the stadium is still standing but looks badly damaged - two neighbouring residential tower blocks, next to the school, were completely collapsed.\n\nOn a normal Monday, some 2,000 students would have been attending lessons at Gazi middle school.\n\nBut schools across the country were closed until 13 February after the first quake struck before dawn on Monday.\n\n​​It is as you round the corner of Kuddusi Baba Boulevard and into the usually busy shopping street of Azerbaijan Boulevard that the full scale of destruction begins to unfold.\n\nBefore Monday the street was full of shops and cafes, many with several storeys of apartments above them, but all that is left now is rubble.\n\nAnd looking back towards the stadium over the ruined the apartment blocks you can see the private Sular hospital - damaged but still standing - although the four-star Sahra hotel next door was among the flattened buildings.\n\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the tent city in the stadium on Wednesday where he met survivors and defended the state's response amid criticism it had been too slow.\n\nHe acknowledged there had been \"issues at airports and on the roads\" but insisted the situation was improving, adding: \"We have mobilised all our resources. The state is doing its job.\"\n\nIt's not known how many have died in the city but on Tuesday evening officials said more than 1,200 people had died in the province - the death toll nationally has more than trebled to almost 13,000 since that last province-by-province update.\n\nTurkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) says it has sent more than 140,000 tents and 1.2m blankets to the 10 provinces worst hit by the disaster.\n\nAn estimated 2,000 people could be sheltering in the 12 Subat stadium but tens of thousands more have been left homeless across Turkey and neighbouring Syria.", "Raheem's mother Shantal said her son had been bullied \"from the get-go\"\n\nPolice have dropped an investigation into an alleged assault in which an 11-year-old boy lost a finger.\n\nRaheem Bailey, a pupil at Abertillery Learning Community in Blaenau Gwent, claimed he caught his finger climbing a fence trying to escape bullies.\n\nGwent Police said it took such reports \"extremely seriously\" but the nine-month investigation has concluded no-one else was involved in the injury.\n\nThe force said it had met Raheem's family to inform them of the outcome.\n\nRaheem's mother Shantal Bailey said her son was attacked on 17 May by a group of children who kicked him when he was on the floor.\n\nRaheem underwent surgery following the incident but doctors had to amputate the finger.\n\nGwent Police described the investigation as \"complex\" and said: \"Officers have interviewed several people under caution and viewed CCTV footage from the school.\n\n\"Our investigation found that Raheem left the school premises of his own accord, and no other persons were involved in him sustaining the injury to his hand.\n\n\"After undertaking a detailed and thorough investigation we will not be taking any further action.\"\n\nRaheem said he had been subjected to continued abuse at school\n\nBoxer Anthony Joshua and footballer Jadon Sancho were among those to send messages of support to Raheem.\n\nMs Bailey set up a fundraising campaign following the incident which has received over £100,000 in donations. She is looking into having a prosthetic fitted.\n\nGwent Police added: \"We have worked closely with the school leadership team and the local authority and have appreciated their co-operation though this complex investigation.\n\n\"We all remain committed to keeping children safe.\"\n\nBlaenau Gwent council said its thoughts were with Raheem and his family and that it was commissioning an independent review to identify any lessons to improve the response to future incidents.\n\n\"First and foremost, a young person has suffered a life-changing injury, and our thoughts remain with the learner and his family,\" a council statement read.\n\n\"This has been an extremely difficult time for all involved. The incident unfortunately led to widespread commentary on social media and in the press, including by some high profile stakeholders.\n\n\"The press and social media coverage fuelled unhelpful speculation during an ongoing police investigation when the school and the council were unable to comment.\"", "A man suspected of attacking a congresswoman in the lift of her Washington DC apartment building on Thursday has been arrested, police say.\n\nAngie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, fought back by throwing hot coffee at the assailant, a police report says.\n\nKendrick Hamlin is accused of punching her and grabbing her neck.\n\nThe 26-year-old, of no fixed address, has been charged with simple assault. The case is not thought to be politically motivated.\n\nElected to Congress in 2018, Ms Craig, 50, is a mother-of-four and serves as co-chairwoman of the Congressional Equality Caucus.\n\nShe was attacked at around 07:10 local time (12:10 GMT) on Thursday, police say.\n\nHer chief of staff Nick Coe said in a statement that she \"defended herself from the attacker and suffered bruising, but is otherwise physically okay\".\n\nShe called 911 emergency services and the \"assailant fled the scene\".\n\nHe said Ms Craig thanked DC Metropolitan Police Department \"for their quick response and asks for privacy at this time\".\n\nAccording to a public incident report from the Metropolitan Police Department, Ms Craig told investigators that there was a person acting erratically and possibly under the influence of drugs in the lobby of her apartment building in the busy H Street area near Capitol Hill.\n\nWhen she boarded the lift, the person followed her inside and \"began to randomly do push-ups\" after she bade him good morning, says the report.\n\nThe person allegedly punched Ms Craig in the chin and grabbed her neck.\n\nShe reportedly defended herself by throwing hot coffee at the attacker.\n\nPolice had earlier released a photo of the suspect and asked the public for help identifying him.\n\nHouse of Representatives Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the caucus was \"horrified\" by the attack.\n\nUS Senator Amy Klobuchar tweeted: \"To give you a sense of how strong Angie is, she went straight to the Hill this morning and attended a meeting... no one messes with Angie.\"\n\nMs Craig serves Minnesota's second district, an area south of the city of St Paul.\n\nLast year Congress approved funding to beef up security for lawmakers, who receive thousands of threats every year.\n\nThe US Capitol Police investigated about 7,500 cases of potential threats against lawmakers in 2022, slightly down from the previous year.\n\nLast October a man broke into the San Francisco home of the then Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and attacked her husband with a hammer, inflicting serious injuries.\n\nShe was not at home but the suspect shouted: \"Where's Nancy?\" and told police he planned to take her hostage.\n\nOnly members of congressional leadership automatically get full-time security protection but the extra funding will go towards helping others that need it on request.", "Burt Bacharach pictured at the Glastonbury Festival in 2015\n\nOne of pop music's greatest composers, Burt Bacharach, has died aged 94.\n\nHe wrote enduring hits like I Say A Little Prayer, Walk On By and What The World Needs Now Is Love.\n\nAlong with lyricist Hal David, he also wrote numerous movie themes including What's New Pussycat?, Alfie and The Look Of Love - a major hit for Dusty Springfield.\n\nAnother collaborator, Dionne Warwick, said the songwriter's death was like \"losing a family member\".\n\nBacharach died on Wednesday at home in Los Angeles of natural causes, his publicist Tina Brausam said.\n\nKnown for his airborne melodies and sumptuous orchestral arrangements, Bacharach was one of the most important songwriters of the 20th Century.\n\nOver his career, he scored more than 50 chart hits in the US and UK, with artists including Warwick, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Costello all recording his songs.\n\nBacharach won six Grammy Awards and was nominated 21 times\n\nBacharach won three Oscars, two Golden Globes and six competitive Grammy Awards, and was hailed as music's \"greatest living composer\" when he accepted the Grammy lifetime achievement honour in 2008.\n\nIn her tribute, Warwick said: \"These words I've been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner.\n\n\"On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run-ins but always found a way to let each other know our family like roots were the most important part of our relationship.\"\n\nOther music stars shared their thoughts about Bacharach. The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson said he was \"a hero of mine and very influential on my work\", adding: \"He was a giant in the music business. His songs will live forever,\" he added.\n\nFormer Oasis star Noel Gallagher posted: \"RIP Maestro. It was a pleasure to have known you.\"\n\nOscar-winning songwriter Diane Warren said the field had \"lost its Beethoven\", while film and TV composer David Arnold agreed he was \"one of the greatest songwriters of all time\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Diane Warren This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by DavidGArnold This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Kinks guitarist Dave Davies said Bacharach was \"probably one of the most influential songwriters of our time\" and \"a great inspiration\".\n\nCharlatans frontman Tim Burgess said Bacharach left \"one of the greatest songwriting legacies in the history of ever\", adding: \"Farewell Burt Bacharach, you were a king.\"\n\nBacharach's music touched multiple genres, from cool jazz and rhythm and blues, to bossa nova and traditional pop - but they shared one thing in common: you could recognise them within a couple of notes.\n\nIt was a style inspired by his tutor, French jazz musician Darius Milhaud.\n\n\"His observation was: Never be ashamed of something that's melodic, one could whistle,\" Bacharach recalled. \"That was a valuable lesson I learned from him. Never forgot that one. Never be afraid of something that you can whistle.\"\n\nBorn in Missouri, Bacharach grew up in New York City, where he first studied cello, drums and piano as a child.\n\nEnraptured by jazz and be-bop, he would often sneak out to watch sets by his heroes Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and began playing in jazz bands of his own in the 1940s.\n\nAfter graduating from school, he studied music theory and composition. Even when his education was interrupted by a spell in the military, he toured army bases as a uniformed concert pianist.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Composer Burt Bacharach at his piano in 1964\n\nAfter returning home, he toured with Marlene Dietrich, becoming her personal conductor - but said his early success was all down to luck.\n\n\"I wasn't chasing it. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was caught in the drift of things,\" he later reflected. \"I'm not a person who will walk over people, kill people, step on people to get to the next place where they want to be. Things just happened for me. I was very fortunate.\"\n\nBacharach with Dionne Warwick in the studio in 1964\n\nIn the 1950s, he was hired to work in New York's Brill Building, an epicentre of the music industry, and started writing country-rock smashes like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Only Love Can Break A Heart for Gene Pitney.\n\nHe scored his first UK number one in 1957 with Michael Holliday's sweet-but-charming The Story of My Life - a song that was originally recorded by Marty Robbins in the US.\n\nThat song also happened to be his first collaboration with Hal David, with whom he forged one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the '60s.\n\nTheir sophisticated, debonair pop was often at odds with the more raucous sounds of rock 'n' roll, but the hits kept coming - especially when they teamed up with Dionne Warwick.\n\nOver a period of 10 years, the trio enjoyed 39 consecutive US hits, including such memorable songs as Walk On By, Don't Make Me Over, I'll Never Fall In Love Again and Promises, Promises.\n\nBacharach and lyricist Hal David won Oscars in 1969 for their music for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid\n\nWarwick later sued Bacharach after he and David stopped working together, leaving her without new material to record.\n\nIt was a \"very costly and unfortunate\" dispute, Bacharach told the Guardian in 2019, adding: \"I stupidly handled it wrong.\"\n\nHe and Warwick reconciled for the 1985 charity single That's What Friends Are For, which raised $1.5m for the American Foundation for Aids Research (AmFar) - and also featured vocals from Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight.\n\nOutside of that partnership, Bacharach and David won a Grammy and an Oscar in 1969 for Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, performed by BJ Thomas and featured in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.\n\nBacharach's music for the film also won the Oscar for best original score.\n\nPictured on stage in London with Adele in 2008\n\nAlthough his hits tailed off in later years, Bacharach remained a popular figure, collaborating with Adele, Sheryl Crow and Dr Dre, among others.\n\nOasis guitarist Noel Gallagher was a huge admirer, and once admitted to lifting the chords for Half The World Away from Bacharach's This Guy's In Love With You.\n\n\"It sounds exactly the same. I'm surprised he's not sued me yet.\"\n\nBacharach made a memorable appearance in the second Austin Powers film, performing I'll Never Fall in Love Again on an open top bus with Elvis Costello.\n\nIn 2016, he also wrote the score for John Asher's indie drama Po, saying he identified with the story, which explores the impact of autism on children.\n\nBacharach received the 2012 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from US President Barack Obama\n\nBacharach's daughter Nikki had died of suicide in 2007, at the age of 40, after a lifelong struggle with Asperger's syndrome.\n\nThe musician was married four times, to Paula Stewart in 1953, actress Angie Dickinson in 1958, his frequent musical collaborator Carole Bayer Sager in 1982, and finally Jane Hansen in 1993.\n\nHe is survived by Hansen and their children Oliver and Raleigh, as well as son Cristopher from his marriage to Bayer Sager.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Nicola Bulley's partner '100% convinced' her body's not in the river\n\nThe partner of missing Nicola Bulley is \"100 per cent convinced\" she did not fall in the river, as detectives say they are keeping an open mind about what happened.\n\nThe 45-year-old vanished two weeks ago on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire.\n\nPaul Ansell told Channel 5 the family was going through \"unprecedented hell\".\n\nLancashire Police said Ms Bulley \"may have\" gone into the river but it was examining all \"potential scenarios\".\n\nDivers have searched the River Wyre and surrounding countryside, but no trace of Ms Bulley has been found.\n\nFocus of the police search on Thursday switched from St Michael's to around 10 miles downstream where the river empties into the sea at Morecambe Bay, with police patrol boats and rescue boats spotted on the river and in the bay.\n\nNicola Bulley, 45, was last seen two weeks ago on a riverside dog walk\n\nReferencing the search Mr Ansell said: \"Extensive searching, you know, as you're probably aware, has gone on in that river.\n\n\"The fact that the divers and underwater rescue team and all that were in that river on the day, and thankfully found absolutely nothing, in the part where you would have to presume is her last known location.\"\n\nHe said: \"Personally, I am 100 per cent convinced it's not the river, that's my opinion\".\n\nLancashire Police earlier ruled out third-party involvement and said detectives were treating the case as a missing person inquiry, but added they were \"fully open\" to new information about her disappearance.\n\nIn an update on Friday, a force representative said: \"Throughout this investigation we have been keeping an open mind about what might have happened to Nicola, and we continue to look at all the potential scenarios to eliminate them.\n\n\"We are reviewing our decisions regularly.\n\n\"Based on all the work we have done up to now our belief remains that Nicola may have fallen into the river for some reason, but we are continuing to investigate all possible leads, and this involves viewing CCTV, Dashcam footage and speaking to people who are providing us with information.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: What does the search for Nicola Bulley look like now?\n\nSpeaking on the Channel 5 programme, Vanished: Where is Nicola Bulley?, Mr Ansell added: \"Nikki would never give up on us ever. She wouldn't give up on anybody. And we're not gonna ever give up on her like, we're going to find her.\n\n\"There has to be a way to find out what happened, there has to be. You cannot, you cannot walk your dog down a river and just vanish into thin air.\n\n\"Something happened that day, something.\"\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river on 27 January.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nPolice also addressed concerns over a red van that had been reported to them.\n\nThe force said: \"We would like to stress that while this has been reported to us and we are making efforts to identify the owner at this time there is nothing to suggest this was anything other than one of many hundreds of vehicles in the area that morning.\"\n\nEarlier, one of Ms Bulley's friends said the continuing search without any answers was \"almost like torture.\n\nEmma White had joined others in St Michael's on Wyre holding placards by the main road to jog people's memories.\n\n\"We just need Nikki home for her two beautiful girls who want their mummy,\" she said.\n\nThe search has been extended to Morecambe Bay\n\nResidents have had to bring in private security following an increase in people coming to the village.\n\nIt comes after Lancashire Police issued two dispersal notices on Thursday to break up groups, including amateur investigators and people filming police activity around the area where Ms Bulley disappeared.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Press regulator Ipso has launched an investigation into Jeremy Clarkson's column about the Duchess of Sussex.\n\nThe watchdog received more than 25,000 complaints about the article published in the Sun Newspaper in December.\n\nIpso is taking forward complaints from two groups, The Fawcett Society and The Wilde Foundation, which said they were affected by breaches in accuracy, harassment and discrimination.\n\nClarkson wrote that he \"hated [Meghan] on a cellular level\" in the column.\n\nThe piece became the Independent Press Standards Organisation's most complained-about article and the organisation has begun an investigation after examining the complaints it received.\n\nThe Fawcett Society is a gender equality charity while The Wilde Foundation is a charity that helps victims and survivors of abuse.\n\nClarkson, the former Top Gear presenter, co-hosts the Amazon Prime series The Grand Tour and a documentary series Clarkson's Farm. He took over hosting the ITV gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2018.\n\nIn the column, Clarkson wrote that he was \"dreaming of the day when [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while crowds chant, 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her\".\n\nClarkson's comments were widely criticised and his daughter, Emily, said: \"I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.\"\n\nClarkson, 62, later apologised and released a statement before Christmas saying he was \"horrified\" after \"causing so much hurt\".\n\nHe posted a message to social media, describing a reference he made to a scene in Game of Thrones as \"clumsy\".\n\nThe Sun also apologised, saying it regretted publishing the column and was \"sincerely sorry\".\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex criticised the Sun's apology as \"nothing more than a PR stunt\".\n\nA spokesperson for the couple accused the Sun of profiting off and exploiting \"hate, violence and misogyny\".\n\n\"A true apology would be a shift in their coverage and ethical standards for all,\" they said.\n\nClarkson said he emailed Harry and Meghan on Christmas Day to say his language had been \"disgraceful\" and he was \"profoundly sorry\".\n\nA spokesperson for Harry and Meghan said at the time that the article was not an isolated incident for Clarkson.\n\nIpso said it will make public the outcome of the investigation when it is concluded.", "Craig Murray was jailed for eight months in May 2021 over blogs he wrote about the trial of Alex Salmond.\n\nA former diplomat has claimed to have obtained an SNP MP's stolen emails.\n\nCraig Murray said he secured Stewart McDonald's emails after making a number of inquiries but had no involvement in the initial hack.\n\nMr Murray has now vowed to publish material which he deems to be non-personal and in the public interest.\n\nBBC Scotland has asked Mr McDonald and the SNP for comment. Police Scotland said it had received a report and was assessing it.\n\nIn a blog post on Friday, Mr Murray - who is a long-standing critic of the SNP leadership - also claimed the cache included emails between Mr McDonald and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nThe Glasgow South MP told the BBC on Wednesday that his emails had been stolen last month and he feared they would be made public.\n\nThe group responsible are believed to be linked to Russia's spy services.\n\nThe UK's cyber-defence agency has warned about targeted attacks on politicians in recent weeks.\n\nMr McDonald, the SNP's former defence spokesman, said he decided to go public to warn others of the risks and limit the potential damage as he waits to see what the hackers do with the stolen material.\n\nMr McDonald said he decided to go public to warn others of the risks\n\nBut on Friday, Mr Murray claimed he had a cache of the politician's missing emails.\n\nWriting on his blog, he said: \"I have obtained access to all of Stewart McDonald's emails, after approaching a number of people to find out who might have them.\n\n\"I had no hand in obtaining the emails nor prior knowledge. I am grateful they have been so generously shared.\"\n\nMr Murray insisted \"nothing purely personal\" about Mr McDonald would appear.\n\nHe also said anything related to the MP's constituents \"will remain absolutely and properly confidential\".\n\nMr Murray said he intended to publish material in which he said there was a \"legitimate public interest\".\n\nThis included interactions with Nato, the Ministry of Defence, parliamentary committees, intelligence agencies and foreign powers.\n\nIn May 2021, Mr Murray was jailed for eight months over blogs he wrote about the trial of Alex Salmond.\n\nThe ex-ambassador posted a series of articles online about the former first minister's High Court trial in 2020.\n\nProsecutors raised concerns that complainers could be identified via his writing, breaching a court order.\n\nMr Murray lost a legal challenge over his sentence last March.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesman said: \"A report has been received and is being assessed.\"", "Only devastation remains inside Aleppo, a Syrian city that was already dealing with the effects of a years-long civil war before the deadly earthquake hit on Monday. The BBC is one of the first international outlets to report from the government-controlled city, where over 400 people have died.\n\nWe travelled to the affected parts of the war-torn city on Friday with the Syrian government's permission.\n\nAs we entered the damaged neighbourhoods, it was difficult to distinguish between the destruction caused by this country's 12-year long civil war, and the devastation caused by the earthquake.\n\nWe saw residents waiting around in the cold squares surrounded by debris, many wrapped in blankets and coats.\n\nIn the eastern neighbourhood of al-Shaar, the sound of diggers rang out against the backdrop of multi-storey buildings flattened to the ground.\n\n\"We know someone in that building who lived on the first floor... he didn't have enough time to get out of his house,\" one woman told us, gesturing towards a pile of rubble.\n\n\"The building collapsed while he was still in there. He died alongside his wife and children,\" she said.\n\nOnly one of his daughters was saved from under the rubble and is in the hospital now.\n\nThe quake has brought more misery to a country already gripped by crisis.\n\nThe death toll across government and rebel-held areas has reached nearly 4,000, with more than 7,000 people reported injured or unaccounted for.\n\nMuch of Aleppo was destroyed in the civil war, which broke out in 2011 when a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad turned violent.\n\nDespite efforts to rebuild some parts of the former cosmopolitan hub, the city still bears the wounds of the war between the Russian-backed Syrian government and rebel groups.\n\nNow, rescue teams have to pull down even some of the buildings still standing, out of fear they might collapse later on.\n\nRescuers are having to demolish some buildings because they are so unsafe\n\n\"Two buildings near me came down; they each contained around 30 flats, and at least five people were living in each flat,\" on man told us.\n\n\"There are around 60 or 70 people still trapped under the rubble; only four or five people got out,\" he said.\n\nRescue efforts have been hampered by the instability of the buildings left standing.\n\n\"As you can see the buildings are shaking while we work to save people. We can't have that under international health and safety guidelines. So we've evacuated the residents\" an army officer told us.\n\n\"There are a large numbers of people in shelters. Most of them are people who were evacuated because their buildings are not safe,\" he continued.\n\nThousands of residents from the worst-hit eastern districts of Aleppo have been forced into shelters.\n\nAfter years of war and now a hugely destructive earthquake, what comes next for them is unknown.\n• None How do rescue teams reach people under rubble?", "Opponents of President Erdogan say the heavy loss of life is down to politics Image caption: Opponents of President Erdogan say the heavy loss of life is down to politics\n\nTurkey's most devastating earthquake since 1939 has raised big questions about whether such a large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and whether President Erdogan's government could have done more to save lives.\n\nWith elections on the horizon, his future is on the line after 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity have gone unheeded.\n\nBut it took time for the response to build and some villages could not be reached for days. More than 30,000 people from the professional and voluntary sector eventually arrived, along with teams from many other countries.\n\nMore than 6,000 buildings collapsed and workers from Turkey's Afad disaster authority were themselves caught up in the earthquakes.\n\nThose initial hours were critical but roads were damaged and search and rescue teams struggled to get through until day two or day three.\n\nTurkey has more experience of earthquakes than almost any other country but the founder of the main volunteer rescue group believes this time, politics got in the way.\n\nPresident Erdogan has accepted that search efforts were not as fast as the government wanted, despite Turkey having the \"largest search and rescue team in the world right now\".", "Thousands of people have offered to adopt the baby girl who was born under the rubble of a collapsed building in north-west Syria, following Monday's earthquake.\n\nWhen she was rescued, baby Aya - meaning miracle in Arabic - was still connected to her mother by her umbilical cord.\n\nHer mother, father and all four of her siblings died after the quake hit the town of Jindayris.\n\n\"She arrived on Monday in such a bad state, she had bumps, bruises, she was cold and barely breathing,\" said Hani Marouf, the paediatrician looking after her.\n\nShe is now in a stable condition.\n\nVideos of Aya's rescue went viral on social media. Footage showed a man sprinting from the collapsed debris of a building, holding a baby covered in dust.\n\nKhalil al-Suwadi, a distant relative, who was there when she was pulled to safety, brought the newborn to Dr Marouf in the Syrian city of Afrin.\n\nThousands of people on social media have now asked for details to adopt her. One report said her great uncle would adopt her.\n\n\"I would like to adopt her and give her a decent life,\" said one person.\n\nA Kuwaiti TV anchor said, \"I'm ready to take care of and adopt this child... if legal procedures allow me to.\"\n\nThe hospital manager, Khalid Attiah, says he has received dozens of calls from people all over the world wanting to adopt baby Aya.\n\nDr Attiah, who has a daughter just four months older than her, said, \"I won't allow anyone to adopt her now. Until her distant family return, I'm treating her like one of my own.\"\n\nFor now, his wife is breastfeeding her alongside their own daughter.\n\nIn Aya's home town of Jindayris, people have been searching through collapsed buildings for loved ones.\n\nA journalist there, Mohammed al-Adnan told the BBC, \"The situation is a disaster. There are so many people under the rubble. There are still people we haven't got out yet.\"\n\nHe estimated that 90% of the town had been destroyed and most of the help so far had come from local people.\n\nRescuers from the White Helmets organisation, who are all too familiar with pulling people out of the rubble for over a decade during Syria's civil war, have been helping in Jindayris.\n\n\"The rescuers can end up being victims too because of how unstable the building is,\" said Mohammed al-Kamel.\n\n\"We just pulled three bodies out of this rubble and we think there is a family in there that is still alive - we will keep on working,\" he said.\n\nIn Syria, more than 3,000 deaths have been reported following the earthquake.\n\nThis figure doesn't include those who have died in opposition-held areas of the country.", "Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Keshav Singhal aims to have his patients sent home on the same day\n\nChanges to hip and knee surgery could halve waiting lists at one hospital within a year, say doctors.\n\nTweaks to surgeries at the Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend have allowed more patients to be sent home on the same day.\n\nTherefore, a shortage of hospital beds is not a barrier for them.\n\nIt comes as over 37,000 orthopaedic patients are waiting over one year for surgery in Wales.\n\nConsultant orthopaedic surgeon Keshav Singhal said a number of \"minor tweaks\" were made to the procedure \"but all of them add up to a huge effect\".\n\nHe said the anaesthetic and pain medication given to patients is \"fine-tuned\" to reduce pain and nausea after the operation and extra time is spent pinpointing any potential area of bleeding and cauterising it to \"prevent wound leakage\".\n\n\"In day surgery we are not constrained by beds - there are no beds here,\" said Mr Singhal.\n\n\"Patients can come in, be very well cared for in a state of the art day-surgery unit, and go home in the evening, and that totally cuts down on the inpatient beds.\"\n\nFormer pub owner Cheron White, 68, recently benefitted from the new system for eligible patients in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board.\n\n\"It frees up beds for people who really need it,\" said the mother of five from Porthcawl.\n\n\"This is an operation, I'm not ill. Why stay in hospital if I'm not ill?\"\n\nCheron White wants to be more mobile following her operation\n\nFollowing her surgery Ms White said: \"I want to be as mobile as possible, to thank the hospital in a way - they've given me this opportunity to be mobile.\n\n\"It was awful just sitting there, getting older and not being able to do things - it was making me feel older, but in my head I'm not an old person.\"\n\nThe lack of capacity in hospitals has been the catalyst for innovation in orthopaedic surgery, according to Mr Singhal.\n\nTraditionally people might have required several days in hospital after a joint replacement, but fewer beds are currently available across Wales because around 1,000 people every month can't be discharged because of the lack of social care.\n\nThe numbers waiting more than a year for trauma and orthopaedic surgery in Wales currently stands at 37,396, with over a third of those waiting longer than two years.\n\nMr Singhal explained day surgery is only suitable for patients who are relatively fit, motivated to do the rehabilitation exercises, and with family support.\n\nCheron White was one of the eligible patients in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board\n\nHe explained that patient reassurance and awareness of what will happen is key.\n\n\"The patients are worried - if I move around too quickly am I going to do any damage to my joint? If I move would I cause myself more pain?\n\n\"Once we reassure them on those two counts and make sure the pain is controlled, their motivation kicks in.\n\n\"They know the quicker they move, the less chance of deep vein thrombosis, or wound stiffness and a quicker recovery.\"\n\nWhile day-surgery joint replacements aren't unusual, the tweaks made have meant the hospital has been able to formalise this alternative route for some patients.\n\nThis then frees up capacity on other surgical lists for those with more complex needs, who will require a bed on a ward.\n\n\"Absolutely the catalyst was the absence of inpatient beds,\" said Mr Singhal.\n\n\"Because of Covid we had a whole restructuring of services, so we had to make sure that we are still able to carry on these operations without beds. This was the ideal pathway.\n\n\"We hope that if we were to adopt this practice across the board, we would probably massively dent the current waiting times in Wales and indeed across the UK.\"\n\nAnaesthetist Dr Gareth Parry is also part of the new system, and said the changes they've introduced have improved things for patients.\n\nDr Gareth Parry said people were feeling sick after surgery\n\n\"The most noticeable thing was almost 20% of people were feeling quite sick after surgery and that went down to being something that was quite uncommon,\" he said.\n\nIn November there were 748,271 patient pathways awaiting treatment in Wales, which is estimated to be around 586,000 individual patients, as some patients will be on more than one \"pathway\" to treatment.\n\nMr Singhal said day surgery for joint replacement has been done for a number of years in America and some hospitals in England have done it, but he believes they're the first to do it in an organised manner in Wales.", "A Russian woman living in New York city has been found guilty of attempting to murder her doppelgänger in a bizarre identity-theft plot.\n\nViktoria Nasyrova tried to kill her beautician Olga Tsvyk in 2016 by giving her a piece of cheesecake poisoned with a strong sedative.\n\nHowever Ms Tsvyk survived, and when she returned from hospital, found her identity documents had been stolen.\n\nNasyrova will be sentenced next month, and is facing up to 25 years in prison.\n\nAt the time, the pair looked quite similar, with dark hair and the same skin complexion, and they were both Russian speakers.\n\n\"The jury saw through the deception and schemes of the defendant,\" Melinda Katz, the Queens District Attorney said in a statement.\n\n\"Fortunately, her victim survived and the poison led right back to the culprit,\" Ms Katz added.\n\nThe jury heard that in August 2016, Nasyrova, now 47, went to her beautician's house in Queens with a box of cheesecake - eating two pieces herself, and offering the third, poisoned slice to Ms Tsvyk, who was 35 at the time. She started to vomit and went to lie down.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Prosecutor describes the pain inflicted by the poisoning\n\n\"Before passing out, the woman's last memory was of seeing the defendant walking around her room,\" Ms Katz's statement said.\n\nMs Tsvyk's friend found her unconscious the next day, her clothes changed to lacey lingerie and pills scattered around the floor as if she had tried to take her own life.\n\nWhen she finally returned home, Ms Tsvyk's Ukrainian passport and US work permit were missing, as well as jewellery and about $4,000 (£3,300) in cash, the prosecutor said during opening statements.\n\nPhenazepam, a strong sedative, was detected in remnants of the cheesecake, and the pills scattered on the floor were also confirmed to be the same drug.\n\nNasyrova, who lives in Brooklyn, was convicted on Thursday of attempted murder, assault and unlawful imprisonment.\n\nThis is not the first time she has been in trouble with the law.\n\nIn 2015, Interpol issued a red notice for her arrest over the murder of a woman in Russia a year earlier. She is accused of killing her neighbour Alla Alekseenko and stealing her life savings.\n\nNasyrova, who US media reports is a former dominatrix, has also been accused of drugging and robbing men she met on dating websites.\n\nHer crimes - both alleged and convicted - were the subject of a documentary by CBS's investigative programme 48 Hours in 2017.\n\nViktoria Nasyrova is allegedly wanted in Russia for murder", "Two NHS nurses have died in a car crash while on holiday together in the US.\n\nIt was reported they died in a crash involving a Jeep and a bus near the Grand Canyon, Arizona, on 3 February.\n\nThe hospital said the two friends were \"much-loved\" by their colleagues and that staff had been left \"shocked and saddened\" by news of their deaths.\n\nThe nurses had moved from Portugal to work at University Hospital Southampton\n\nGail Byrne, the trust's chief nursing officer, said Ms Brandão and Ms Moreira had \"bright careers ahead of them\" after joining the hospital seven and five years ago respectively.\n\n\"The friends were well-known for their kindness, empathy and enthusiasm,\" said Ms Byrne.\n\n\"Both were passionate about nursing and providing the very best care for our patients.\n\n\"Outside of work they shared a love for new experiences, adventure and living life to the fullest.\"\n\nShe said the pair would be \"sorely missed\" and and that the hospital was sending its \"love and condolences\" to their families.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nElon Musk's SpaceX company has performed a key test on its huge new rocket system, Starship.\n\nEngineers conducted what's called a \"static fire\", simultaneously igniting 31 out of 33 of the engines at the base of the vehicle's lower-segment.\n\nThe firing lasted only a few seconds, with everything clamped in place to prevent any movement.\n\nStarship will become the most powerful operational rocket system in history when it makes its maiden flight.\n\nThis could occur in the coming weeks, assuming SpaceX is satisfied with the outcome of Thursday's test.\n\nThe static fire took place at SpaceX's R&D facility in Boca Chica on the Texas/Mexico border.\n\nOn Twitter Elon Musk said that the team had turned off one engine before the test and that another engine stopped itself, leaving 31 engines firing overall.\n\nBut, he added, it was \"still enough engines to reach orbit\".\n\nEven though this was not the full contingent of engines, it was still notable for the number of engines working in concert. The closest parallel is probably the N1 rocket that the Soviets developed in the late 1960s to take cosmonauts to the Moon.\n\nIt had 30 engines arranged in two rings. But the N1 failed on all four of its flights and was eventually cancelled.\n\nThe SpaceX Super Heavy booster, with all 33 modern power units, should produce roughly 70% more thrust off the launch pad than the N1. Even the US space agency Nasa's new mega-rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which flew for the first time back in November, is dwarfed by the capability being built into Starship.\n\nMr Musk has high hopes for the vehicle. The entrepreneur wants to use it to send satellites and people into Earth orbit and beyond.\n\nNasa has already contracted SpaceX to develop a version that can play a role in its Artemis programme, to once again land astronauts on the Moon.\n\nMr Musk himself is focused on Mars. He's long held the ambition to get to the Red Planet, to establish settlements and, as he puts it, to make humans \"a multi-planet species\". He's also talked about point-to-point travel, taking passengers from one side of our world to the other in rapid time.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A drone looks down on the static fire\n\nIf Starship can be made to work it will be a game-changer, not just because of the mass it will be able to lift into space.\n\nThe concept is designed to be fully reusable, with both parts - the Super Heavy booster and the ship on top - coming back to Earth to fly, time and time again.\n\nThis means it could operate much like an airliner. The long-term cost savings compared with conventional, one-time-use rockets would be immense.\n\nSpaceX will now review its data to understand why it couldn't fire all 33 engines on this occasion. It will also inspect the launch pad to see what, if any, damage occurred during the short firing. Previous, smaller-scale engine tests had fractured the concrete under the launch mount, requiring repairs.\n\nMr Musk has talked about an orbital attempt of the full Starship system in late February or March.\n\nThe ship, or upper-stage of the rocket, was removed for Thursday's test in case there was a catastrophic failure of the booster.\n\nStarship development takes place at Boca Chica on the Gulf coast of Texas\n\nLooking up at the 33 engines under the Super Heavy booster", "There has been no trace of Nicola Bulley since 27 January\n\nThe search for missing mum Nicola Bulley has shifted from the river near to where she vanished \"further downstream\" and out towards the sea.\n\nMs Bulley, 45, was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire on 27 January.\n\nPolice search teams were spotted where the River Wyre empties into the Irish Sea at Morecambe Bay near Knott End.\n\nMeanwhile, officers said they had stopped people filming on social media at houses near where she disappeared.\n\nLancashire Police said it had issued two dispersal notices, warned others about anti-social behaviour in the area, and officers were looking into \"grossly offensive\" comments made online.\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river on 27 January.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nPolice search teams have extended the search downstream into the estuary and out to the coast\n\nDespite a major search, including divers, drones and a police helicopter, there has been no trace of Ms Bulley since she was last seen at 09:10 GMT.\n\nPolice believe she fell in the river, but detectives said they remain \"fully open-minded\" to any information that indicates where she is or what happened to her.\n\nThe River Wyre is about 32 miles (52km) long and the search has now been extended to Morecambe Bay and about 10 miles (16km) downstream to Knott End.\n\nA dinghy with two officers on board could be seen downstream where the River Wyre meets the Irish Sea at Morecambe Bay.\n\nAn orange rescue boat was also spotted appearing to do sweeps at the river off Knott End-on-Sea, at the mouth of the bay.\n\nPolice search teams were spotted searching the waters of the estuary\n\nThe force said the search had moved \"further downstream into the area of the river which becomes tidal and then out towards the sea\".\n\nA specialist diving team, Specialist Group International (SGI), earlier assisted police in the search of the river at the request of Ms Bulley's family.\n\nThe firm's founder Peter Faulding said his team was pulling out because he believed Ms Bulley was \"categorically not\" in the area of river where police believe she fell in.\n\nTwo dispersal notices, which remain in place for 48 hours, were issued in St Michael's on Wyre at about 20:40 GMT on Wednesday.\n\n\"We will not tolerate criminality, including trespass and criminal damage,\" a force representative said.\n\nDivers have searched the River Wyre and the search area has now been extended\n\nOn Tuesday, Supt Sally Riley had warned about some people speculating online.\n\nThe force said it was looking into a number of \"grossly offensive\" comments made on social media and it would \"not hesitate to take action where appropriate\".\n\nMs Bulley's friend Emma White said conspiracy theories being spread online were hindering the search.\n\nMs Bulley's friend Emma White says police are doing \"tremendous\" work\n\nShe told BBC Radio Lancashire an abandoned house across the river from the spot where Ms Bulley's mobile phone was found had been \"searched inside and out\" and she urged people to stay away.\n\n\"Please, please, please don't be going into the village... and knocking on people's doors or doing Youtube or TikTok [videos],\" she said.\n\nMs White said three police vans had responded to 999 calls on Wednesday due to this behaviour, \"which is not only taking the efforts away from looking for Nicola but also the community\".\n\n\"We are begging please do not take the matter into your own hands,\" she said.\n\n\"The police are doing tremendous work so we need to leave it to them.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This six-month-old girl - whose face is badly bruised - in known only as \"anonymous\" by her tag\n\nThe wounded children in Adana City Hospital are too young to know how much they've lost.\n\nI watched doctors in the intensive care unit bottle-feed an injured six-month-old girl whose parents can't be found.\n\nThere are hundreds more cases of unidentified children whose parents are dead or untraceable.\n\nThe earthquake broke their homes and now it has taken away their names.\n\nDr Nursah Keskin grips the hand of the baby girl in intensive care - known only by the tag on her bed: \"Anonymous\".\n\nShe has multiple fractures, a black eye and her face is badly bruised; but she turns and smiles at us.\n\n\"We know where she was found and how she got here. But we're trying to find an address. The search is continuing,\" says Dr Keskin, a paediatrician and deputy director at the hospital.\n\nThis little girl - believed to be aged five or six - has a head trauma and multiple fractures\n\nMany of these cases are children rescued from collapsed buildings in other regions. They were brought to Adana because the hospital is still standing.\n\nMany other medical centres in the disaster zone have fallen or are damaged. Adana became a rescue hub.\n\nIn one transfer, newborn babies were rushed here from a maternity ward in a badly-hit hospital in the city of Iskenderun.\n\nTurkish health officials say across the country's disaster zone there are currently more than 260 wounded children who they have not been able to identify.\n\nThat figure may rise significantly as more areas are reached and the scale of homelessness fully emerges.\n\nDr Ilknur Banlicesur, a paediatric surgeon, says many children cannot talk because of the shock\n\nI follow Dr Keskin through the packed corridors. Earthquake survivors lie on trolleys, others are wrapped in blankets on mattresses in an emergency area. We head towards the surgery ward, also filled with injured children.\n\nWe meet a girl the doctors say is five or six years old. She's sleeping and hooked up to intravenous drips. The staff say she has a head trauma and multiple fractures.\n\nI ask if she has been able to tell them her name.\n\n\"No, it's only eye-contact and gestures,\" says Dr Ilknur Banlicesur, a paediatric surgeon.\n\n\"Because of the shock, these children cannot really talk. They know their names. Once they're stabilised a couple of days later we can [try to] talk,\" she explains.\n\nHealth officials have been trying to match unidentified children to addresses. But often the addresses are nothing more than ruins. In at least 100 cases, nameless children have already been taken into care.\n\nTurkish social media has been filled with posts showing missing children, giving details of which floor they lived on in collapsed buildings, expressing hope they may have been rescued and taken to hospital.\n\nSurviving relatives and health ministry officials have been travelling between medical centres trying to find them.\n\nIn the Adana hospital, the wounded keep coming. They are shocked and exhausted.\n\nEveryone here is a survivor, patients and medics alike.\n\nDr Keskin lost relatives to the earthquake and sheltered in the hospital with her children as aftershocks struck.\n\nI ask her how she is coping.\n\n\"I'm good, I'm trying to be good, because [the children] really need us.\n\n\"But I say thank God, I still have my children. I can't think of a bigger pain for a mother than losing her child.\"\n\nNext to us, young patients in wards wait for their parents to come back.\n\nSome have been reunited. But the rest remain the earthquake's anonymous children.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "UK forces helping a child during the evacuation of the airport in Afghanistan's capital Kabul\n\nThe UK's withdrawal from Afghanistan was \"a dark chapter\" for the UK, senior Conservative Tobias Ellwood has said.\n\nThe Defence Committee, led by Mr Ellwood, is urging the government to hold an \"honest\" inquiry into the UK's departure from Afghanistan, which led to the return of the Taliban to power.\n\nThe MPs' report warns the country is again becoming a haven for terrorists.\n\nThey also say thousands of people eligible for evacuation to the UK are still living at risk in Afghanistan.\n\nResponding to the report, the government said it worked \"tirelessly to safely evacuate as many people out of Afghanistan as possible\".\n\nThe Ministry of Defence spokesperson added: \"We owe a debt of gratitude to Afghan citizens who worked for, or with, the UK armed forces in Afghanistan and to date we have relocated over 12,100 individuals under the scheme.\"\n\nThe department estimates there are around 300 eligible Afghans plus their families whom it is still trying to locate to bring back to the UK.\n\nIt added it would respond fully to the MPs' report in due course.\n\nIn 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, US-led troops - including British forces - invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban government.\n\nTwenty years later, America and its allies pulled out of the country leading to the sudden collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government and the resurgence of the Taliban.\n\nBritain's 20-year military presence in Afghanistan cost nearly £30bn and the lives of 457 British military personnel.\n\nMr Ellwood, chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee, describes the UK's withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 as \"a dark chapter in UK military history\" - not just for the troops who served there, but also for those Afghans who helped them.\n\nHis committee's 30-page report argues the speed at which the Afghan government fell was \"a greater surprise to the military establishment than it might have been\".\n\nThe report calls for an \"open, honest and detailed review\" of the decisions made by the UK during its time in Afghanistan.\n\nWhile the MPs praise the evacuation effort in 2021 - which saw 15,000 people bought to the UK - they also say the plans should have been better prepared.\n\nThey argue a lack of effective co-operation has led to \"real and painful human consequences for those who reasonably expected to be evacuated but were not\".\n\nSeveral thousand Afghans eligible for relocation are still stranded and should be flown back to the UK for their own safety, the MPs say.\n\nMr Ellwood welcomed funding for veterans and praised British troops who served in Afghanistan. \"The bravery of those on the ground was never in doubt,\" he said.", "A union said 100 women would lose their jobs if the city's three remaining lap dancing venues were forced to close\n\nA ban on lap dancing clubs in Edinburgh that was due to come into force later this year has been overturned.\n\nCouncillors voted to limit the number of sexual entertainment venues (SEVs) in the city from the current four to zero from April.\n\nA group of club owners and performers launched a legal challenge to the move.\n\nThe Court of Session agreed with them that the city council had acted illegally by effectively banning lap-dancing clubs.\n\nLord Richardson ruled that the council's plan to stop awarding licences to adult entertainment venues - the so called nil cap - was unlawful.\n\nHe also concluded that councillors had been given incorrect legal advice about the impact of the decision they had made in March of last year.\n\nThe legal representatives believed that the council could still award licences to adult entertainment venues on a discretionary basis.\n\nBut lawyers for four Edinburgh based venues - including the Burke and Hare, the Western Bar and Diamond Dolls - believed this was incorrect and that the decision meant that their venues would not be allowed to operate.\n\nThey argued that the council's plan would put the jobs of 100 women at risk.\n\nIn a lengthy written ruling, Lord Richardson agreed that the council's decision amounted to an unlawful ban on adult venues in Edinburgh.\n\nHe added: \"I do not consider that the respondent (the council) has put forward a good reason why the erroneous decision should not be quashed\".\n\nA crowd-funded judicial review was heard at the court in early December.\n\nMembers of the United Sex Workers (USW) union highlighted concerns about its members potentially having to work in unsafe, unregulated environments if the three remaining adult venues in the city were forced to close.\n\nThe union said workers were \"incredibly pleased\" at the court's ruling as the closure of all lap dancing clubs in the city would have \"meant many of our members losing their livelihoods or having to move away from their homes and families to find work elsewhere\".\n\nIt added: \"Not only is this a huge win for strippers in Edinburgh, who are no longer facing the prospect of forced mass-unemployment in the middle of a recession, but for the working rights of strippers across Britain.\n\n\"Nil-caps are a violent, anti-worker policy that removes strippers' access to safe workplaces, workers rights and their ability to improve their own working conditions.\n\n\"Now they have been found unlawful, we hope this puts an end to local councils imposing strip club bans and closing down our places of work, for good.\"\n\nErin, a stripper for 15 years, says \"I take my clothes off for a living and I am proud of it\"\n\nErin, an Edinburgh-based stripper, told BBC Scotland the last year had been \"very distressing\" not knowing if her employment venues would be shut down.\n\n\"I was looking to have to move in April to somewhere else where strip clubs are allowed, because I have no intention of stopping being a dancer,\" she said.\n\n\"But there are other women who are mothers and have families here who don't have that option. They would just be forced out of work and into the benefits system.\n\n\"It has been stressful. I have been part of the union and fighting this from day one. We raised the money for the legal fees in four weeks - the public support has been amazing - but even then, the council tried to block us being part of the judicial review. They didn't want to hear our voices.\n\n\"We didn't know which way it as going to go so it's absolutely amazing. It is good for Edinburgh but also good for sex workers around the UK.\n\n\"If it is unlawful in Edinburgh, it should be unlawful in any city. So it is a massive step forward for us as strippers and sex workers as a union.\n\n\"I have done this job for 15 years and I continue to want to do it. I know it is not for everybody but it creates options for women who wouldn't have opportunities elsewhere. To take that away from women would just be wrong.\n\n\"The violence against women argument has been debunked. The cities where strip clubs have been closed, violence against women has gone up.\n\n\"If this ban had gone through, we would have been pushed into working in underground, dangerous places with no CCTV and no bouncers. Here we have safety and the other girls are looking out for you.\n\n\"I feel safer in a strip club than I do a normal bar. If somebody tries to grab you here, I can tell the bouncers and they get thrown out. We actually have the power in strip clubs.\"\n\nSteve MacDonald from the Club Operators Action Group, which brought the legal action, said it would work with the regulatory committee and licensing board to continue providing \"a proven safe working environment for all our staff members, customers and particularly our performers\".\n\nThe council's regulatory committee originally voted by a majority of five to four to effectively ban the clubs, but its membership has changed since May's local elections.\n\nThree of Edinburgh's lap dancing clubs - Burke & Hare, Western Bar and Baby Dolls - are in the West Port area of the city\n\nEarlier this week the new committee backed a 12-week consultation - once the outcome of the judicial review was known - to allow the council to review the policy.\n\nA City of Edinburgh Council spokesman said: \"We have received the ruling of the judicial review which we are considering in detail before deciding on our next steps.\"\n\nThe Scottish government brought in laws in 2019 allowing councils to limit the number of lap dancing venues.\n\nIn March last year, Glasgow City Council agreed to allow the city's three lap dancing clubs to continue trading, and awarded licences for the first time in September.", "A US team has already brought thousands of pounds of equipment to Turkey\n\nThe top humanitarian aid agency in the US government has pledged $85m (£70m) in urgent life-saving relief for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria.\n\nThe US Agency for International Development (USAID) funding will go towards shelter, cold weather supplies, food, water and healthcare.\n\nThe moves comes as countries around the world send search crews and aid to the region, where over 20,000 have died.\n\nRescuers say supplies are needed now or more people will die from the cold.\n\nIn a statement on Thursday, USAID said it is also providing \"hygiene and sanitation assistance to keep people safe and healthy\".\n\nThe agency's director, Samantha Power, has already deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (Dart), which is currently operating out of the Turkish cities of Adiyaman, Adana and Ankara.\n\nThe team consists of around 200 people, including disaster recovery experts, 159 search and rescue personnel and 12 dogs. The group has brought around 170,000lbs in equipment, including machines capable of moving rubble.\n\nUS troops are also in the region to help shuttle supplies around by helicopter amid the widespread destruction of roads, USAID deputy director Isobel Coleman told CBS News on Thursday.\n\n\"It's cold. It's winter. People need shelter. They need food, they need water, hygiene,\" she said of the quake zone, speaking from Ukraine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nGovernments around the world have pledged aid and rescuers to help in the aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on Monday.\n\nCanada has pledged C$10m ($7.4m, £6.1m) and offered to match an additional C$10m in donations.\n\nRescue crews have also been sent by India, Germany, South Korea, Israel and many other nations.\n\nThe World Health Organization warned on Thursday that \"a lot of people\" are surviving \"out in the open, in worsening and horrific conditions\".", "MPs will receive a 2.9% pay increase from April, taking their salary from £84,144 to £86,584.\n\nThe Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which sets MPs' pay, said this was in line with the average public sector workers' rise in 2022/23.\n\nThe government's \"evolving approach to public sector pay\" had been a factor, Ipsa chairman Richard Lloyd said.\n\nRail workers, nurses, ambulance staff, civil servants and teachers have taken part in strikes over pay recently.\n\nHouseholds across the country have been struggling with cost-of-living pressures, including high energy prices and high inflation.\n\nFollowing the annual public sector pay review process, civil servants were awarded a 2% increase for 2022/23; nurses received 4%, teachers 5%, and doctors and dentists 4.5%.\n\nPrison officers got a minimum of 4%, and members of the armed forces 3.75%.\n\nPolice officers received a pay rise of at least £1.900. Police, prison officers and service personnel are all barred from taking strike action.\n\nMr Lloyd said: \"We have once again considered very carefully the extremely difficult economic circumstances, the government's evolving approach to public sector pay in the light of forecasted rates of inflation, and the principle that MPs' pay should be reflective of their responsibility in our democracy.\n\n\"Our aim is to ensure that pay is fair for MPs, regardless of their financial circumstances. Serving as an MP should not be the preserve of those wealthy enough to fund it themselves.\"\n\nIpsa was set up in 2009, largely as a response to the MPs' expenses scandal, in an attempt to make the expenses system more transparent and to reach independent decisions on MPs' salaries.", "Isla Bryson, a convicted rapist, was moved from Cornton Vale to a male wing at HMP Edinburgh\n\nThe logic of an individual being able to change their own gender with minimum fuss would suggest the answer is yes.\n\nLast month, after being convicted of raping two women, Bryson was initially sent to the all-female jail at Cornton Vale in Stirling for assessment.\n\nBut critics said the 31-year-old's decision, taken after being charged, to renounce the male identity of Adam Graham should not be accepted at face value.\n\nThe stark question of whether even a rapist should be extended the courtesy of being able to insist that they are a woman is now at the heart of the controversy.\n\nAt a news conference and in the Scottish Parliament this week, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was repeatedly asked whether she thought Bryson was a man or a woman.\n\nBryson was convicted of rapes carried out while known as Adam Graham\n\nThe case has provoked an outcry, after which the inmate was moved from the female prison estate to the male wing of Edinburgh's Saughton jail, and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) paused the movement of all transgender prisoners while it carried out an urgent review.\n\nThe charity Scottish Trans – which campaigns for \"equality, rights and inclusion\" for transgender and non-binary people – said it favoured an \"individualised risk assessment\" in such cases and that no-one convicted of sexual violence who posed a risk to women should be housed in the female prison estate.\n\nThe SPS review of the Bryson case agrees with that. It says information about the prisoner was conflicting and limited, while decision making could have been quicker.\n\nBut it concludes that Bryson did not come into contact with any female prisoners.\n\nThe SPS says all transgender prisoners will now be sent for an initial assessment to establishments which align with their gender at birth, and no-one with a history of violence – including sexual offences – will be housed in the female estate, at least while a wider review of the issue is completed.\n\nBefore the review's publication, the first minister repeatedly insisted she had confidence in the prison service's handling of \"these matters\".\n\nAs the politician arguably most closely associated with the concept of gender self-identification, Ms Sturgeon has clearly found the Bryson case, along with that of Tiffany Scott, tricky to handle.\n\nBut the SNP leader's support for the pause in transgender prisoner transfers drew a scornful reaction from her arch-critic, JK Rowling.\n\nThe author tweeted Ms Sturgeon had \"made it very clear that every woman's group and safeguarding expert raising concerns about her supposedly progressive agenda is a bigot\".\n\nShe added: \"What can possibly have changed? Surely not her cast iron principles?\"\n\nJK Rowling posted a picture of herself wearing a t-shirt that described Nicola Sturgeon as a \"destroyer of women's rights\"\n\nAt a news conference on Monday, the first minister tried very hard not to reference Bryson's gender at all, instead referring to \"the individual\".\n\n\"My comments about her, err, the person, being a rapist is in context of what should happen to them within the prison service,\" she said.\n\nA few minutes later Tom Gordon of The Herald pounced.\n\n\"I think you just referred to Isla Bryson using the word 'her', does that mean you do in fact think she is a woman?\" he asked.\n\nAn uncomfortable exchange followed, with Ms Sturgeon at one point exclaiming in frustration: \"Well, fine!\"\n\n\"She regards herself as a woman. I regard the individual as a rapist,\" was the closest the SNP leader came to clarifying her position.\n\nThe muddle, say the critics, underlines the foolishness of legislation designed to make it easier for people in Scotland to switch gender.\n\nThe Gender Recognition Reform Bill passed at Holyrood in December would remove medical, legal and administrative hurdles which must currently be cleared before someone in Scotland can obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), which enables them to change the sex recorded on their birth certificate.\n\nIt would also cut the age limit to do so from 18 to 16, a move which polls suggest is particularly unpopular with the public.\n\nAt present this process is governed throughout Great Britain by the Gender Recognition Act 2004, though a GRC is not needed to amend a driving licence or passport.\n\nThe First Minister points out that the Holyrood bill passed by a wide margin of 86 votes to 39, with support from MSPs of all parties including a handful of Conservatives.\n\nSome campaigners for trans rights say society is indulging in a bout of moral panic, increasing the risk of transgender people being the victims of hate crimes which were already rising sharply.\n\nA wide range of organisations, from Amnesty International to Scottish Womens Aid and the Scottish Trades Union Congress, have been robust defenders of the law.\n\nIn a joint statement last month they said the bill would have no impact \"on women's services, the operation of the Equality Act, or single sex spaces\".\n\n\"Our organisations see the paths to equality for women and trans people as being deeply interconnected and dependent on our shared efforts to dismantle patriarchal systems that impose barriers to full equality for us all,\" they concluded.\n\nBut opponents say the act would conflict with the Westminster Equality Act 2010 by, for example, making it more difficult for women-only spaces to exclude people who were born biologically male.\n\nThe UK government has blocked it from receiving royal assent.\n\nThis is where the culture wars and the constitution collide, with Ms Sturgeon describing the UK government's action as an attack on democracy. It remains very likely that she will seek a judicial review of the move.\n\nIn doing so she will not have unanimous support in the SNP, let alone in the wider independence movement.\n\n\"It may infuriate Nicola Sturgeon,\" wrote former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars in the Sunday Times, \"but it seems that JK Rowling's political judgment is superior: the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill will be Sturgeon's poll tax.\"\n\nIn the Sunday Post, former SNP MSP Joan McAlpine described gender self-ID as a \"personal passion of the first minister\", adding that she \"must answer for any harm done - to women, obviously, but also to her party and the cause of independence\".\n\nAlex Salmond, now leader of the Alba Party, told BBC Radio 4's World at One that his successor as first minister had been \"reduced to incoherence\" on the subject, with self-ID \"dissolving to dust when it clashes with reality\".\n\nThere is now a wider debate about organisations embracing the concept of self-ID.\n\nFor example, Police Scotland guidance for its own workforce states that obtaining a gender recognition certificate or undergoing a \"medical intervention such as hormone treatment or surgery\" is not necessary to transition gender.\n\n\"All team members are entitled to use toilet and changing facilities for the sex in which they are currently living, regardless of whether they undergo gender reassignment.\" the guidance adds.\n\nThat is similar to internal guidance issued by London's Metropolitan Police force, which states that a trans person \"does not need to 'prove' their right to use the toilet in anyway, including producing a Gender Recognition Certificate\".\n\nThe Equality Act \"prohibits discrimination, for example in employment or the provision of public services, on the basis of protected characteristics, one of which is gender reassignment\", though it does allow providers of single-sex services to exclude transgender people if that is regarded as \"a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim\".\n\nAn example given in the legislation is that of a group counselling session for female victims of sexual assault.\n\nHowever, these restrictions are limited and in a recent case at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, judge Lady Haldane concluded that the meaning of sex for the purposes of the Act was \"not limited to biological or birth sex, but includes those in possession of a GRC obtained in accordance with the 2004 Act stating their acquired gender, and thus their sex\".\n\nHow that affects the exemptions in the 2010 Equality Act has been a matter of debate.\n\nOther European countries have also moved to enshrine gender self-ID in law, including Ireland and more recently Spain, while Wales is also taking steps to make it easier to legally change gender.\n\nJournalists have also had to grapple with this issue.\n\nThe BBC News website style guide says \"'gender identity' means how people feel or present themselves, distinct from their biological sex or sexual orientation\".\n\nIt adds: \"A person born male who lives as a female, would typically be described as a 'transgender woman' and would take the pronoun 'she'. And vice versa.\n\n\"We generally use the term and pronoun preferred by the person in question, unless there are editorial reasons not to do so.\"\n\nThis Bryson case raises fundamental questions about the human condition.\n\nWho are we? Is our identity determined by body or mind? Is gender fluid? Is sex immutable?\n\nSuch questions have challenged philosophers in the abstract for centuries. Now they are challenging our leaders in the most vivid and practical manner.", "MP Janet Daby has asked for an investigation into procedures at the school\n\nMPs have demanded a school is investigated after a black pupil was injured in what police described as a serious racially aggravated assault.\n\nDistressing footage shared widely online showed the girl being punched, kicked and having her hair pulled.\n\nIt led to protests outside Thomas Knyvett College in Ashford by people concerned the school did not do enough to help her.\n\nHead teacher Richard Beeson said \"all necessary steps\" were being taken.\n\nThe attack spilled into the road where the victim was set upon by a group of children as bystanders looked on.\n\nAmong the high profile names putting the spotlight on the school was British rapper Dave, who tweeted to his 866,000 followers that action should be taken against any staff members who didn't protect the girl.\n\nMP Janet Daby said she lost sleep after watching the footage, which prompted a protest outside the school attended by dozens of people.\n\nThe Labour MP for Lewisham East is one of a number of MPs to have signed a letter to the home secretary condemning the attack and Surrey Police's description of it as \"a fight\" between girls.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Janet Daby MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the letter, the MPs said: \"Given that this attack is potentially racially motivated, the description of this incident by Surrey Police as a 'fight between a group of girls' wrongly misrepresents the seriousness of the incident and the impact such language may have on the black community.\n\n\"We therefore ask what discussions [the Home Office] has had with Surrey Police regarding this description and that this is corrected as a matter of urgency.\"\n\nSurrey Police said it was aware of the letter.\n\nA spokeswoman said the force's initial description of the attack was used because \"this is how it was reported into our call centre\".\n\n\"The next day once we had further, confirmed information regarding the circumstances and the events leading up to the attack, we updated our statement to reflect it was a serious, racially aggravated assault and this is how we have referred to it since,\" she said.\n\n\"We understand the importance this has in bringing confidence to the community, that we will treat incidents of this nature with the seriousness they deserve.\"\n\nSpeaking in parliament, Ms Daby asked that the Department for Education \"look into what practices are not and are taking place in that school regarding safeguarding, and also address the professional performance of the school teachers\".\n\nIn response, Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons, said: \"It is being investigated, and of course, those investigations are separate from government. Quite rightly so.\n\n\"I will write... to raise her concerns, to the secretary of state.\"\n\nIn a statement shared on Twitter, the school's head teacher, Richard Beeson, said: \"We can assure you that we are taking all necessary steps to ensure this isolated incident is dealt with and that student safety is our paramount concern.\"\n\nThe BBC has approached the school for comment.\n\nThe All-Party Parliamentary Group for Race Equality in Education tweeted: \"We believe there are still some very serious safeguarding questions for the school to answer.\"\n\nSurrey Police officers were called to the junction of Salcombe Road and Stanwell Road in Ashford at 14:30 GMT on Monday.\n\nOfficers earlier described the incident outside Thomas Knyvett College as \"distressing\" and asked people not to share videos of it on social media.\n\nA 39-year-old woman, a 16-year-old girl and two 11-year-old girls were arrested on suspicion of attempted racially aggravated grievous bodily harm.\n\nA 43-year-old man and the 39-year-old woman were also arrested on suspicion of child neglect and intentionally encouraging and assisting the commission of an indictable only offence.\n\nThe 16-year-old girl was also arrested on suspicion of malicious communications.\n\nSurrey Police said all those arrested have been released on bail until a date in March.\n\nCh Insp Dallas McDermott said: \"We know this will be concerning and upsetting for the victims, their friends and family, and for the wider community who are understandably shocked and outraged at the violence in this video.\n\n\"I want to make clear that the suspects being bailed does not mean justice won't be pursued further or achieved.\"\n\nA sixth suspect, a 15-year-old girl, is being urged to hand herself in.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Five arrested after schoolgirl hurt in attack\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "It will soon be illegal to smoke cannabis on the street in Amsterdam's red light district under new regulations unveiled by the city.\n\nThe laws will come into effect from mid-May and aim to improve liveability for residents who have long complained of disruption caused by tourists.\n\nSex workers will also have to close their venues at 3am.\n\nLocal media reported that almost all councillors supported taking action to reduce nuisance to residents.\n\nThe city council also announced on Thursday that restaurants and bars would have to close by 2am on Fridays and Saturdays and no new visitors would be allowed into the old city district after 1am.\n\nCurrently, the sale of alcohol from shops, liquor stores and cafes in the red light district is illegal from Thursday to Sunday after 4pm. Now, the council will ask vendors to completely remove alcohol from their shopfronts during that time, or hide them from view.\n\nIt is illegal to consume alcohol in most public spaces in Amsterdam.\n\nThe Dutch capital is well known for its cannabis cafes and attracts millions of tourists a year. But locals have complained they attract street dealers and that drug and alcohol abuse is driving up crime rates.\n\nUnder current laws in the Netherlands it is a criminal offence to possess, produce or deal drugs. However, the Dutch have a \"toleration policy\" that allows coffee shops to sell cannabis under strict conditions. One of those conditions is that coffee shops must not cause any nuisance and the government has ordered them to stop attracting foreign drug users.\n\nIn addition to the new laws, the Amsterdam council will launch a \"stay away\" campaign in the spring to target tourists travelling to the capital for drugs, alcohol and sex purposes.", "The future King Charles on a big screen at the last major royal concert, for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, in 2022\n\nA ballot has opened for 10,000 free tickets for a star-studded concert at Windsor Castle to mark the King's coronation.\n\nThe televised show will be on 7 May, the day after King Charles is crowned at Westminster Abbey.\n\nThe BBC has promised the line-up will feature \"musical icons and contemporary stars\".\n\nThere are 5,000 pairs of tickets in the ballot, which opened at 07:00 GMT on Friday and will close on 28 February.\n\nEach applicant in the ballot will be able to nominate a guest.\n\nPeople must be 18 or over to apply for a ticket, with the guests required to be over 11.\n\nThe tickets would be allocated based on the geographical spread of the UK population, the BBC said, with those successful notified by late April.\n\nThe castle's east lawn would see \"a world-class orchestra play interpretations of musical favourites fronted by fantastic entertainers, alongside performers from the world of dance and the arts\", the BBC said.\n\nIt \"will also feature a selection of spoken-word sequences delivered by stars of stage and screen\", a statement added.\n\nThe evening event will last for two to three hours, with the full line-up to be confirmed later.\n\nMore tickets will be made available to a range of charities and the event will be broadcast on BBC TV, radio and online.\n\nBBC chief content officer Charlotte Moore said: \"The coronation concert on the BBC will bring the nation together to mark this momentous occasion and we are thrilled to be able to offer the public the opportunity to be part of the event at Windsor Castle through a national ballot, as well as providing audiences with exclusive coverage across TV and radio.\"\n\nHave you applied for tickets? Share your experiences haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "It seems almost insensitive to start to have a deep dive into the science behind Monday's earthquake events in Turkey.\n\nMore than 22,000 people are already confirmed dead and an unknown number still lie trapped, with the window for their rescue closing rapidly.\n\nAnd yet the science will go on. The insights gleaned from this event will save lives in the future.\n\nTake a look at the map on this page. It is the most precise yet produced of how the ground lurched in response to the enormous energies that were unleashed.\n\nThe data behind it was acquired in the early hours of Friday by the European Union's Sentinel-1A satellite as it traversed north to south over Turkey at an altitude of 700km (435 miles).\n\nThe Sentinel carries a radar instrument that is able to sense the ground in all weathers, day and night.\n\nIt is routinely scanning this earthquake-prone region of the world, tracing the often very subtle changes in elevation at the Earth's surface.\n\nExcept, of course, the changes on Monday were not subtle at all; they were dramatic. The ground bent, buckled and in places ripped apart.\n\nResearchers use the technique of interferometry to compare \"before\" and \"after\" views. But you do not really need to be an expert to see the consequences for Turkey in the latest Sentinel map.\n\nThe red colours here describe movement towards the satellite since it last flew over the country; the blue colours record the movement away from the spacecraft.\n\nIt is abundantly clear how the ground has been deformed along and near the East Anatolian Fault line.\n\nFor both the Magnitude 7.8 quake that struck first on Monday at 01:17 GMT and the Magnitude 7.5 event at 10:24, the motion is \"left-lateral\". That is to say: whichever side of the fault you are on, the other side has moved to the left. And by several metres in places.\n\nThe shocking thing is that the lines of rupture have gone right through settlements; in lots of places they will have gone right through buildings.\n\nThe Sentinel map will help scientists understand exactly what happened on Monday, and this knowledge will feed into their models for how earthquakes work in the region, and then ultimately into the risk assessments that the Turkish authorities will use as they plan the recovery.\n\nThere is sure to be a lot of discussion about how the two major tremors were related and what that could mean for further instability.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by OzdemirAlpay This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe map was processed by the UK Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (Comet). Its director, Prof Tim Wright, said the Sentinel observations vividly brought home the scale of the forces involved.\n\n\"News outlets always show earthquakes as 'the epicentre', as if it is a single point source (like a bomb). Actually, all earthquakes are caused by slip on extended faults, and the bigger the quake the bigger the fault that ruptured,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"We can map those ruptures with satellites because the ground around them is displaced, in this case by up to 5m or 6m. The rupture of the first event was 300km or so long and the second big event ruptured another 140km or so of a different fault. To put those distances in context, London to Paris is roughly 345km.\n\n\"Damage will be highest near the fault but of course spreads over a wide region either side of the fault, too. It's absolutely horrific.\"\n\nThe insights will assist Turkish authorities as they plan the recovery\n\nIn the era before satellites, geologists would map earthquake faults by walking the lines of rupture. It was a laborious process that naturally also missed a lot of detail. Radar interferometry from space was developed in the 1990s, and in recent years it has become a particularly compelling tool.\n\nIn part that is down to the quality of the sensors now in orbit, but it is also the result of more powerful computers and smarter algorithms.\n\nIt is possible today to get a data product on to the computers of experts, ready for analysis, within hours of a satellite making an overhead pass. Comet, unfortunately, had to wait several days for Sentinel-1A to be in the right part of the sky to get an optimal view of Turkey. But this will improve as more and more radar satellites are launched.\n\n\"By the end of the decade, we should be able to do this kind of analysis within a day of most damaging earthquakes, and then we would be more useful for the relief effort. As things stand, we are of course outside the 72-hour window for search and rescue,\" Prof Wright said.", "On Friday, ambulance workers are going on strike in five regions in England.\n\nUnison, which is organising the action, says that staff can leave the picket lines to respond to emergency calls.\n\nIt's been a difficult week for the NHS with strikes affecting not just the ambulance service but nurses and physiotherapists as well. NHS England says the industrial action has led to 137,000 non-urgent appointments being cancelled over the last few weeks.\n\nStaff at 150 universities in the UK are also on strike on Friday. This action is being organised by the University College Union and it says that 70,000 staff are taking part.\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nMembers of the Unison trade union - which represents nearly half of ambulance workers - are striking on Friday in five regions: London, Yorkshire, the South West, the North West and the North East.\n\nThe start times and lengths of the walkouts vary between ambulance services, but most will last for about 12 hours.\n\nThe action will involve all ambulance employees, including call centre and control room staff, not just emergency crews.\n\nAmbulances will still be sent to the most life-threatening calls - known as Category 1, which includes cardiac arrests. But it is up to each NHS trust in consultation with the union to decide which calls are responded to.\n\nMembers of the University and College Union will go on strike again on Friday at 150 universities, continuing its action that is taking place on 18 days during February and March.\n\nAcademic staff and those in other professional roles including administrators, librarians and technicians are taking part.\n\nThe strike is over a range of issues, including pay, conditions and pensions.\n\nStaff walked out on three days in November, although the Universities and College Employers Association said it caused little disruption.\n\nUniversities UK, which represents 140 institutions, said some universities extended coursework deadlines and rescheduled teaching.\n\nIf students feel the measures put in place are not good enough, they can complain using their university's complaints procedure.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Ryanair will operate 26 weekly flights from Cardiff airport, including a new route a to Belfast\n\nRyanair has launched a new route and announced an increase in overall flights from Cardiff Airport.\n\nThis summer the budget airline will operate 26 weekly flights from the airport - a 63% increase from last year - including a new route to Belfast.\n\nIt comes after rival airline Wizz Air pulled out of the airport last month citing \"high operational costs\".\n\nCardiff Airport boss Spencer Birns said he was \"grateful\" for Ryanair's \"commitment\" to the airport.\n\nEach week Ryanair will operate 14 flights to and from Dublin and four flights each on its Malaga, Belfast and Faro routes.\n\nLast month David Bryon, former head of another airline, BMI Baby, said the airport was in the wrong place and claimed no one in their \"right mind\" would invest in it.\n\n\"There just isn't the volume [of passengers]. Not only is Cardiff Airport on the coast, which limits its catchment, it's on the wrong side of Cardiff,\" he said at the time.\n\nThe airport has been owned by the Welsh government since its £52m purchase in 2013, however it was valued in 2021 at just £15m.\n\nMr Birns, who was appointed CEO of the airport in 2021, previously said the Covid pandemic had \"wiped it out\" and that it could take four years to fully recover.\n\nPassenger numbers have fallen from 1.6 million before the pandemic in 2019 to 812,000 in the year to November 2022.\n\nA spokeswoman for Ryanair said: \"We look forward to welcoming hundreds of thousands of customers onboard our flights to/from Cardiff this summer.\"\n\nMr Birns added: \"We are grateful for Ryanair's commitment to working with us to grow more flight choice from Cardiff and we look forward to developing further options for our customers with the airline.\n\n\"Ryanair continues to recognise that people living in Wales want to fly to and from their local airport and this increase in choice is a good step for building on future opportunities with the airline in Wales.\"", "Sales of second-hand cars fell sharply last year as fewer used models came onto the market, industry figures show.\n\nA shortage of parts driven by Covid meant fewer new cars were produced, and people hung on to their cars longer as they waited to upgrade.\n\nSome 6.9 million used cars changed hands, down from 7.5 million in 2021, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).\n\nHowever, it said the situation was starting to ease.\n\nThe SMMT also said sales of second-hand electric vehicles had bucked the trend.\n\nAt the height of the pandemic, car dealerships were closed and production lines shut down.\n\nThen, as the world began to open up a shortage of computer chips - which are commonly used in modern vehicles - caused further disruption.\n\nThat hit the new car market, where sales slumped to a 30-year low in 2022.\n\nThe shortage of vehicles fed through to the much larger second-hand market. As a result, used car prices soared in 2021 and have only just begun to stabilise.\n\nAccording to car magazine Autotrader, the average price of a used Fiat Panda was £5,765 in January - up 18.7% compared to a year ago - while a Toyota Avensis cost £5,825 - up 17.9%.\n\nHowever, the price of a second-hand Suzuki Vitara was £14,786 - down 9% - while a Skoda Yeti cost £9,893, down 9.4%.\n\nMore than six and a half million used cars changed hands last year. While that's down on 2021, and still well below the pre-pandemic level, it's still an impressive number.\n\nMany people in this country, especially those who live in rural areas with limited public transport, need cars to get around.\n\nSome say the recent wave of strikes has made them more reluctant to use public transport as well.\n\nFor those on lower incomes who need cheap transport, the supply shortage has been a real problem.\n\nIt has pushed up the prices of many popular models at a time when the cost of living generally has been rising fast.\n\nDespite the overall slump in second-hand car sales last year, more used electric cars changed hands, the SMMT said.\n\nA record 71,071 used pure electric vehicles found new owners - up 37.5% - while sales of second-hand hybrids and plug-in hybrids rose by 8.6% and 3.6%.\n\nElectric vehicles only account for a small proportion of the used car market, but Mike Hawes, boss of the SMMT, said the uptake of used electrified vehicles \"demonstrates a growing appetite for these models\".\n\n\"With new car registrations growth expected this year, more of the latest low and zero emission models should become available to second owners,\" he said.\n\nThe most popular second-hand model sold in 2022 was the Ford Fiesta, followed by the Vauxhall Corsa and Volkswagen Golf, according to the SMMT.\n\nThe most popular colour was black, followed by blue and grey.\n\nHowever, the group said some buyers had been more adventurous, with 4,461 pink, 6,708 turquoise and 18,658 bronze used vehicles changing hands during the year.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNewly convicted or remanded transgender prison inmates will initially be placed in jails according to their sex at birth, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has confirmed.\n\nThe policy was confirmed in an urgent review which found a double rapist being placed in a women's jail did not put female prisoners at risk of harm.\n\nHowever, the SPS said it received \"conflicting\" details on Isla Bryson.\n\nIt also called for an urgent review of admission rules for some inmates.\n\nThe investigation was ordered by Justice Secretary Keith Brown in the wake of a public outcry after Bryson was initially housed in segregation at Cornton Vale prison in Stirling.\n\nIsla Bryson, a convicted rapist, was moved from Cornton Vale to a male wing at HMP Edinburgh\n\nBryson - who will be sentenced later this month for raping two women while she was known as a man called Adam Graham - was then moved to a male wing at HMP Edinburgh.\n\nIn an interview with BBC Scotland, Mr Brown initially said the rule applied only to transgender people convicted of violence against women.\n\nBut after an intervention from a member of his staff, the justice secretary clarified that all transgender prisoners will go into an assessment in a prison service facility which matches the sex of their birth.\n\nHe added: \"That will very often be a process which is undertaken in a segregated environment, before an assessment is made as to where the person goes.\n\n\"And if it turns out the person has that history [of violence against women or girls] then of course they will not be going to, if they are a trans woman, to the female estate.\"\n\nSPS chief executive Teresa Medhurst said in a letter to Mr Brown that was published alongside a summary of the Bryson case review that she had ordered an urgent review of all transgender women in Scottish prisons.\n\nShe said: \"Until these reviews are complete, any transgender person currently in custody and who has any history of violence against women - including sexual offences - will not be relocated from the male to the female estate.\n\n\"In addition, any newly convicted or remanded transgender prisoner will initially be placed in an establishment commensurate with their birth gender.\"\n\nUnder guidance drawn up in 2014, the prison service says \"accommodation provided must be the one that best suits the person in custody's needs and should reflect the gender in which the person in custody is currently living.\"\n\nHowever an updated SPS policy from last month stated that no newly convicted or remanded transgender prisoner with a history of violence against women would be housed in female prison facilities.\n\nThe latest change means that transgender women will now automatically go to a male prison regardless of whether or not they have previous convictions of violence against women. They will then be assessed before a decision is taken on where to place them longer-term.\n\nHowever, the review says that in \"exceptional circumstances\" a transgender person with a history of violence against women could potentially be relocated to or placed in a prison which does not match their sex at birth, with ministerial approval.\n\nA protest against transgender women being housed in female prisons was held outside the Scottish Parliament on Thursday\n\nThe SPS review made four key recommendations to the Scottish government.\n\nIt found the prison service received \"conflicting and limited information\" about Bryson beyond the immediate convictions and said a \"shared justice process\" for the admission of transgender people to prisons should be considered.\n\nThe SPS also called for an urgent review of admission rules and improved communications about transgender prisoners from other justice sector organisations.\n\nThe report concluded SPS policy was followed in Bryson's case and said an individualised approach to risk assessments should continue.\n\n\"It is recommended that this person centred, individualised approach, which seeks to balance the rights of the individual with the risks they pose to themselves and to others continues and is encouraged,\" the report said.\n\nKey findings and recommendations resulting from the review were published on Thursday, but Ms Medhurst said she believed it was \"not necessary\" to publish the full report due to the level of personal information it contains.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross urged the first minister to publish in full the review of the Bryson case at First Minister's Questions earlier on Thursday, with Ms Sturgeon pledging only to release the key findings.\n\nBryson was found guilty of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 in Clydebank and Glasgow before she changed gender.\n\nThe review into the handling of that case by the prison service was completed by the Scottish Prison Service last Friday, with a summary being made public on Thursday afternoon.\n\nThe SPS has also been conducting a Gender Identity and Gender Reassignment (GIGR) policy review since 2019 in response to concerns raised about welfare of people in its care.\n\nMr Brown confirmed the new policy on assessing transgender prisoners would remain in place pending the findings of the GIGR review.\n\nIn response to the Bryson report, he said: \"All recommendations from the review have been accepted by Ms Medhurst as chief executive and will be progressed by SPS in collaboration with others as needed.\n\n\"As confirmed in the letter, SPS will factor the learning identified from this review into its GIGR policy review, which is ongoing.\"\n\nAt the heart of this case are two awful crimes and two women who were raped.\n\nAt points in the frenzy surrounding Isla Bryson those facts have been drowned out and so it is worth pausing to reflect what this fiasco must be like for the victims.\n\nIt is also a case which is having an impact on other women who are survivors of sexual violence and on trans people who feel unfairly stigmatised by some of the coverage.\n\nThat having been said, the handling of the Isla Bryson case has also been a huge headache for the Scottish government.\n\nFirst Nicola Sturgeon stumbled when answering questions about what the case means for the principle of gender self-identification, which she has championed.\n\nThen the Scottish Government was forced to clarify a misleading news release and the Justice Secretary struggled to explain precisely what the SPS was doing.\n\nAll of this is producing criticism from the SNP's opponents as you would expect but it is also generating frustration for many supporters of independence, worried that the rolling rows are damaging their cause.\n• None The two sides of Scotland's gender law debate", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 3 and 10 February.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nSeeing eye to eye: \"Was at Kirkcudbright taking photos of squirrels at Barrhill Woods,\" says Andrew Murray of this reflective shot.\n\nLight and shade: \"Taken in Arbroath, the sun makes a lovely lampshade,\" suggests Moyra Miller.\n\nPurple haze: \"An awesome sunrise In Arisaig,\" says Keith Verrall.\n\nRise and shine: \"Managed to capture this glorious scene at Aberdeen beach,\" says Dennis Grattan. \"A moment later it was gone.\"\n\nSol-tire: \"Sunrise and saltires over a frosty start at Dumfries and Galloway Golf Club,\" says Stuart Japp.\n\nMotherly love: That was how Chris Hart described this shot.\n\nIt blue me away: \"Mellon Udrigle beach Wester Ross with my husband walking in the distance,\" says Jane Sayliss.\n\nSwan about: \"So friendly,\" says Alex Mcbarber on the Moray Firth. \"But that's probably because it was interested in our food.\"\n\nCapital project: \"I’m a student photographer at South Lanarkshire College and this image was taken on a field trip to Edinburgh,\" explains John McQuade of his moody skyline shot.\n\nEverything will be all white: \"A couple of hillwalkers coming towards me on Càrn na Caim in the Cairngorms,\" says Paul Climie. \"A beautiful day to be out on the hills.\"\n\nBest of bothy worlds: \"Just leaving after a very windy night into the mist again,\" says Tony McAndrew at White Laggan Bothy, Galloway.\n\nI think we need an otter one: \"One fish, three otters, one outcome,\" says David Mercer of his Bute wildlife shot.\n\nPecking order: \"This male Great Spotted Woodpecker - the male has a red spot on the back of his head - was at Morton Lochs when I stopped for a break from cycling through Fife,\" says Eric Niven.\n\nDouble take: \"Loch Lochy on a drive to Skye,\" says Sharron Sweeney. \"The reflections on the water were stunning.\"\n\nSitting on the fence: Sparrowhawk spotted by Martin Pirie in the back garden in Haddington.\n\nBit of a fuzzy head: \"Low cloud hits the top of Slioch on an otherwise clear day at Loch Maree,\" says David Munro from Adelaide in South Australia.\n\nLittle and large: \"This photo of the Highland coo was taken on holiday at Plockton,\" says Judi Shaw. \"It wasn't until later I saw the wagtail having a conversation with it. Beautiful.\"\n\nFreeze frame: \"Four of us were on our way to do one of the gullies on Stob Coire and had stopped for a coffee and a sandwich when Vernon spotted this frozen waterfall and decided to have a go at it,\" says Neil Lea. \"When about 20ft up he realised that there was water running between the rock and the ice and discretion took over from valour.\"\n\nSpring time: \"My four-month-old spaniel Sadie flying through Blairadam Woods, Kelty, on our daily walks,\" says Rory Mitchell.\n\nThistle do nicely: \"An ecstatic 11-year-old Ludo experiencing his first ever Calcutta Cup match win and at Twickenham,\" says dad Alastair Lindsay after Scotland's rugby victory over England.\n\nHigh standards: \"I took this picture when flying Deeside Gliding Club's brand new glider,\" says Geoff Palmer. \"Heading up Glen Muick, with Loch Muick under the cloud.\"\n\nGetting your ducks in a row: \"Eiders filing out of Pittenweem Harbour,\" says Steve Buckland.\n\nSeven up: \"Walking friends at Bunnet Stane, by West Lomond Hill, Fife,\" says Moira Naismith.\n\nAstern look: \"A boat at Crail harbour, I love the texture and detail of the wall behind,\" says Ian Barnes.\n\nRed alert: \"Robin enjoying a winter day at the Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh,\" says Kimberly Simpson.\n\nA little drop of magic: \"A solo snowdrop discovered on a walk around the Monkland Canal in Coatbridge,\" says John Bogie.\n\nThe nut cracker: \"This squirrel was making sure of a fair share,\" says Hazel Thomson in Elgin.\n\nSurf's up: Thurso East beach was the scene of this action shot from Isabel Rapson.\n\nCrow road: \"Went for a walk along the Caledonian Canal and there were crows everywhere,\" says Alex Mackintosh. \"I like how they look so mysterious.\"\n\nFather and sun: \"Myself and my son Fin witnessed this special sunset over Alisa Craig from Croy beach,\" says Dave Peters. \"Just lovely.\"\n\nHolmes and (Wat)son: \"The family enjoyed a nice wander round the story stroll at Rozelle Park, Ayr,\" says Katie Watson. \"Various wicker figures are dotted round the park and here is Sherlock Holmes inspecting my son, Taylan.\"\n\nLove birds: \"A trip to Balloch in the hope of seeing a Mandarin duck or two and I was rewarded with this sighting,\" says Jacki Gordon.\n\nGoing with the flow: \"The secret little waterfall on Bennachie in Aberdeenshire that takes a bit of effort to find,\" says Ralph Greig. \"Sometime in the past a small lookout had been built and then forgotten about.\"\n\nStag night: \"This is friendly Callum catching the gossip in Glen Torridon,\" says Ewan MacNeilage.\n\nA wee head's up: \"Lovely little Robin spotted at the Japanese Garden near Dollar,\" says Emma Legge.\n\nOn yer bike: \"This was taken in St Vincent’s Place in Glasgow and features Callum and his ever so trendy bicycle,\" says Mark Coles. \"I think the combination of Callum’s biker chic and the cheerful Hello Glasgow sign sum up what a stylish and and upbeat place Glasgow is.\"\n\nA high benchmark: \"A stunning sunset made for interesting silhouettes on the reservoir path,\" says Yvonne Macfarlane at Milngavie waterworks.\n\nQuiet reflection: Debbie Barkhouse says she took this lovely shot at Girvan beach when she was still grieving the loss of her mum, and that it would mean a lot to her to see it featured.\n\nSome down time: \"I took this picture of the striking sunset from my back garden just outside Elsrickle, South Lanarkshire, looking towards Tinto Hill,\" says John Beresford. \"The colour and shape seemed to change by the minute.\"\n\nPretty in pink: \"On my way home from work in Fife I saw this beautiful subtle pink hue in the sky,\" says Brian Nicholson. \"I stopped off at the North Queensferry side of the Queensferry Crossing to get this image of it with this amazing sky.\"\n\nA fine balancing act: The moon over Bennachie in this spectacular shot from William Bird.\n\nShip a'Hoy: \"Sunset in Stromness, Orkney, just as the NorthLink ferry was heading out into rough seas towards Hoy,\" says Sophie Cook.\n\nMoon landing: Fishermen with their catch in the evening darkness after arriving at Stonehaven Harbour, as spotted by Dominik Lagowski.\n\nTreemendous sight: \"I was walking in South Queensferry and was in awe at the fire in the sky,\" says Stephen Pusey. \"It was an astonishing sunset. What a show.\"\n\nBy the light of the silvery moon: \"I heard these geese before I saw them, heading down towards the River Forth,\" says Brian Colston.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Charaya White, 28, from Birmingham, said she first thought her car had been in an accident\n\nCars have been stripped of parts in a spate of separate thefts while parked in Birmingham city centre, a BBC investigation has found.\n\nMotorists came forward after one woman's car was targeted in Digbeth, while she attended a concert.\n\nThe BBC has learned of nine similar incidents in the Digbeth area in January alone.\n\nThree motorists told us their cars had also been stripped by thieves last year, all at the same car park.\n\nCharaya White, 28, from Birmingham, said the ordeal had brought on a panic attack when she found parts of her Citroen C1 were scavenged at New Canal Street car park in May 2022.\n\nBefore and after photos show the damage to the bonnet of Ms White's Citroen C1\n\n\"Initially I thought my car had been hit by someone in the car park,\" Ms White said, who had parked there for 24 hours as she caught the train to London for her birthday.\n\n\"I literally just broke down... I just went into a state of shock,\" she said.\n\nMs White brought a civil court case for negligence against the owners of the car park, Good Value Parking Limited, but ended up dropping it, she said, due to a lack of evidence.\n\nShe said CCTV cameras pointing towards her parked car had not been working.\n\nGood Value Parking Limited, managed by Gallan Group, has been contacted by the BBC\n\nShe added she had chosen this particular car park because there were signs claiming it was patrolled.\n\nGood Value Parking Limited, which is managed by Gallan Group, has been approached by the BBC for comment, but has yet to respond.\n\n\"A lot of people have said 'it's just a car', but I rely on my car a lot,\" Ms White said.\n\nBecause she is asthmatic, Ms White said she needed her car for doctors appointments and to get to work. She said she was relying on taxis to do her shopping, which were costing her £12 a trip.\n\n\"I was in the process of trying to buy a house, but because my car had been stolen and was a write off, I was in the position between choosing my car or buying a house.\n\n\"If I was to take out new credit, it would affect my credit score,\" Ms White said, who is currently still renting.\n\nMeg Matthews said the ordeal had caused her to be too frightened to go back into the city centre\n\nMeg Matthews said she had booked a day's parking while she went to London on a train with a friend.\n\nThe 21-year-old walked back to the car park on her own at about 23:00 GMT.\n\n\"I sat down and shut my door, I heard glass shatter, looked to the side of me and my window was completely smashed,\" Ms Matthews said.\n\n\"That's when I looked forward and realised my bonnet was missing.\"\n\nShe said she had called the police straight away, who told her they could not send anyone out to see her.\n\n\"I was then stuck in my car for at least half an hour until my friend could actually come and get me,\" she said.\n\nMs Matthews said she contacted the car park who said the CCTV cameras did not work\n\nMs Matthews said officers had told her to contact her insurance company as there was nothing they could do.\n\nShe said she had felt stranded by the police and scared as a young woman, alone in a car park late at night.\n\nWest Midlands Police said an 18-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of theft in January, but bailed with conditions while inquires continue.\n\nA spokesperson for the force said: \"We've stepped up patrols around car parks in Digbeth after a number of vehicles have been stripped of parts.\n\n\"We received nine reports during January and we know the inconvenience and frustration this causes for car owners.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added officers were also working with cadets to offer crime prevention advice.\n\nMs Matthews heard glass shatter when she got into her car at night and shut the door\n\nThe day after the theft, the carcass of Ms Matthews' car was taken away by her insurance company and her annual premium has now gone up by about £500.\n\nWhile both Ms Matthews and Ms White have been affected financially by the thefts, they both say the incidents have also damaged their confidence.\n\nMs White said she felt her personal space had been invaded.\n\n\"I don't know why, but I had it in my head that they were going to come into my flat and try and maybe take something else,\" she said.\n\nMs Matthews said she had not returned to Birmingham for a while.\n\n\"I went back with my friend the other week but ended up having a panic attack and coming home,\" she said.\n\nCaleb and his partner's Toyota Yaris was stripped of parts while at a concert in Digbeth\n\nStudent Caleb, whose partner's car was also stripped of parts at New Canal Street car park, spoke of the \"traumatising experience\".\n\nHe said he had called the police, who said it had been logged and for the couple to arrange their own recovery. However, when he revisited his case weeks later, he said it had been discontinued due to a lack of evidence.\n\nIn December, West Midlands Police said officers had arrested more than 100 suspected car criminals within three months in a crackdown on vehicle crime.\n\nA specialist vehicle crime taskforce was set up in September, involving officers with local knowledge.\n\nWork has included operations to close down so-called chop shops, which act as a market for car thieves.\n\nIn autumn last year, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said it was aware of a number of car-part thefts in the West Midlands and Scotland. It added it was not something forces were seeing as a significant emerging trend nationally, but the situation was being closely monitored.\n\nAn NPCC spokesperson said: \"We encourage everyone to use reputable garages to reduce the risk of stolen parts being used in your vehicle.\n\n\"Wherever possible, try to park your vehicle where it will be visible. Dark and secluded areas can be attractive to thieves.\n\n\"If you are using a car park, we encourage use of those which have the safer parking status Park Mark (The Safer Parking Scheme), which is awarded to parking facilities that have met the requirements of a risk assessment conducted by the police and are regularly assessed to ensure their accreditation.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Natalia Gavrilita said her government had to deal with \"many crises caused by Russian aggression\"\n\nMoldova's government has collapsed and its pro-EU prime minister has stepped down after 18 months of political and economic turbulence.\n\nEurope's poorest country was struggling with \"multiple crises\", outgoing PM Natalia Gavrilita said on Friday.\n\nWith the war raging in neighbouring Ukraine, Moldova has been facing inflation, high energy prices, a refugee influx and Russian aggression.\n\nThe news came just hours after Russian missiles flew over Moldovan airspace.\n\nAnnouncing her resignation on Friday, Ms Gavrilita said that when her government was elected in 2021, no one expected it would have to manage \"so many crises caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine\".\n\nMoldova is precariously close to the war - it shares a 1,222km (759 mile) border with Ukraine, and has suffered greatly from the fallout of Russia's invasion.\n\n\"I took over the government with an anti-corruption, pro-development and pro-European mandate at a time when corruption schemes had captured all the institutions and the oligarchs felt untouchable,\" Ms Gavrilita said at a news conference.\n\n\"We were immediately faced with energy blackmail, and those who did this hoped that we would give in,\" she said, referring to the Kremlin.\n\nAn energy crisis was sparked last year when Russia suddenly reduced its gas supplies to Moldova, which relied 100% on Russia for gas. It caused inflation to skyrocket and there was public unrest over the high energy costs.\n\nPresident Maia Sandu thanked Ms Gavrilita for her \"enormous sacrifice and efforts to lead the country in a time of so many crises\".\n\n\"We have stability, peace and development, where others wanted war and bankruptcy,\" the president said.\n\nShe has already nominated her former defence adviser Dorin Recean - who is also pro-EU - as the next prime minister. The Moldovan parliament will vote to confirm his nomination next week.\n\nIn the earlier days of the war in Ukraine, there were fears the conflict would spill over into Moldova, or that Russia might invade it too.\n\nThat concern has receded for now, but as Moldova moves ever closer to joining the European Union, pressure has increased from Russia - which has tried to undermine the former Soviet state, and the EU's influence.\n\nIn a stark warning on Thursday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had a plan to \"destroy\" Moldova, according to Ukrainian intelligence.\n\n\"These documents show who, when and how Russia is going to break democracy of Moldova and establish control,\" he told EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.\n\n\"I immediately warned Moldova about these threats,\" he added.\n\nMoldovan intelligence services later confirmed they had also identified \"subversive activities\" aimed at \"undermining the state of the Republic of Moldova, destabilizing and violating public order.\"\n\nThere are also renewed tensions in Transnistria, a breakaway territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists that runs along Moldova's border with Ukraine, and where some 1,500 Russian soldiers are stationed.\n\nLast week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of trying to turn Moldova against Russia - as he claimed it had already done with Ukraine.\n\nNatalia Gavrilita became prime minister in August 2021 when President Sandu's pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) won a landslide parliamentary election.\n\nShe previously served as finance minister from June 2019 to November 2019 in when Ms Sandu was prime minister.", "A senior health official in Beijing has urged China's local leaders to find ways to boost the country's birth rate.\n\nYang Wenzhuang said officials must take active steps to tackle the detrimental effects of China's long-standing anti-population growth policy.\n\nHe also urged officials to \"make bold innovations\" in tackling the cost of childcare and education.\n\nChina reported in January that its population had fallen for the first time in 60 years.\n\nIn 2022, there was just 6.77 births per 1,000 people in China, the lowest birth rate on record and down from 7.52 births in the previous year.\n\nThe country's strict one-child policy - which was implemented from 1980 to 2015 to respond to runaway population growth - has been blamed for the decline. Families that broke the rules were fined and, in some cases, even lost jobs.\n\nThe limit was increased nationally for married couples to two in 2016, and boosted further to three in 2021. But one province - Sichuan - has adopted even looser rules.\n\nMr Yang - who heads the country's Population Monitoring and Family Development department - said officials had to \"firmly grasp the important window period of population development\".\n\nSpeaking to a state-backed health magazine, Mr Yang said concerns about the cost of childcare were having a detrimental impact on population growth. He also identified challenges around money and career goals as causes for the decline.\n\n\"Local governments should be encouraged to actively explore and make bold innovations in reducing the cost of childbirth, childcare and education\" to promote the long-term balanced development of the population, Mr Yang said.\n\nSome provinces have already begun implementing new measures to try to boost the birth rate, including giving money to sperm donors.\n\nIn Sichuan, health authorities said they would allow unmarried couples to raise a family and enjoy benefits reserved for married couples. Previously there was a ban on single women registering a birth.\n\nAuthorities in the region also announced that couples would be allowed to have as many children as they want - a major reversal of the one-child policy.\n\nA shrinking population, falling birth rate and the prospect of a fast-aging population poses a long-term challenge to the world's second largest economy, which only recently dropped ultra-strict Covid-19 curbs.\n\nIn 2022, the population dropped by 850,000 people to 1.41175 billion, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. It was the first decline since 1961, the last year of China's Great Famine.\n\nA surging Indian population also threatens to overtake China and push it down to second place.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dominic Raab says media reports on bullying claims he denies are \"mostly incorrect\".\n\nDominic Raab has insisted he \"behaved professionally at all times\" despite facing allegations of bullying.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister said he would not comment on recent \"anonymous reports in the media\".\n\nIn his experience, he added, such reports were \"mostly incorrect\".\n\nHe said he would respect the outcome of an inquiry into his behaviour led by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC.\n\nDave Penman, the leader of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants, criticised Mr Raab for speaking out while the inquiry into bullying allegations against him is active.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Penman said: \"What we need is for this inquiry to conclude as quickly as possible and for the protagonist in it, who has been reminded about confidentiality, to stop giving comments to the public.\"\n\nAsked whether being \"difficult\" to work with should bar a politician from ministerial office, Mr Penman replied: \"What you have to remember here is bullies are not good managers.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has recently come under pressure to suspend Mr Raab.\n\nLast week former Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry argued Mr Raab should be removed from his government roles until Mr Tolley's investigation had been completed.\n\nLabour, the Liberal Democrats and the FDA Union for civil servants have also backed calls for a suspension.\n\nHowever, the prime minister has insisted he will wait for the outcome of the inquiry before taking any action.\n\nMr Raab, a close political ally of the prime minister, asked in November for the inquiry to be launched following several complaints from civil servants who had worked for him.\n\nEight formal complaints have been made against the minister, including six from his time at the Ministry of Justice, one while at the Foreign Office and one from his time at the now-defunct Brexit department.\n\nAt least three senior civil servants have given evidence to Mr Tolley's inquiry. The BBC has been told this includes Philip Rycroft who served in the Brexit department and Antonia Romeo, the current permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice.\n\nMr Tolley's report is not expected to be completed for several weeks.\n\nMr Raab is a close ally of the prime minister\n\nEarlier this week a former senior civil servant, in an anonymous interview with BBC Newsnight, described Mr Raab as being \"nasty and difficult\".\n\nAsked during a BBC interview if he would be able to continue in government, Mr Raab said: \"I'm not going to comment on anonymous reports in the media - my experience is that they are mostly incorrect.\n\n\"I'm confident I have behaved professionally at all times.\"\n\nMr Raab has been MP for the Surrey constituency of Esher and Walton since 2010.\n\nDuring his time in Parliament, he has served as a minister under David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.\n\nLast year he was sacked by Liz Truss but brought back into government when Mr Sunak took over as prime minister.\n\nSpeaking to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Rabb was asked if he was any more robust than the late Margaret Thatcher.\n\nHe said it was difficult \"to compare different eras\".\n\n\"I think standards of professionalism, whether they're in the business sector, the voluntary sector or the public sector should involve setting high standards and zero bullying and those two things are perfectly reconcilable,\" he added.", "The Duchess was surprised to see former teacher Jim Embury, now a volunteer at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth\n\nThe Duchess of Cornwall had a surprise encounter with her former prep school teacher during a visit to the county.\n\nShe and the Duke of Cornwall were on their first official joint visit to the county since taking on their new roles.\n\nJim Embury, now a volunteer at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, was among the crowd gathering to greet them.\n\nThe Duchess said \"Oh my goodness!\" and hugged Mr Embury, before adding: \"I do recognise you.\"\n\nShe asked: \"Are you based here now? And you are volunteering here? Wow. That is such a small world.\n\n\"I'm trying to teach my daughter all the things you probably taught me.\"\n\nThe Duchess gave her former school teacher a hug during the couple's first official joint visit since taking on their new roles\n\nSpeaking after the meeting, Mr Embury said he taught Kate history in the mid-1990s.\n\nAsked what sort of pupil she was, he replied: \"I have to say fantastic.\n\n\"It was a great class and she was a great participant and a great kid. It was 25 years ago.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Duchess of Cornwall does the hokey cokey\n\nAlso in the crowd was a protester holding a blank sheet of paper, who shouted \"No more monarchy!\" at the couple.\n\nThe man, who did not want to give his name, was held back by police who he said \"were worried that people were going to get annoyed and attack\".\n\nSpeaking afterwards, he added: \"It is the 21st Century. We don't need a monarchy - it's ridiculous.\"\n\nAt the museum the royal couple met volunteers working on boats including the Kiwi, a 14ft sailing dinghy presented to the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh as a wedding present.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cornwall have had a number of engagements in Falmouth\n\nThey tried their hand at riveting on a Helford Delta Class boat dating back to the 1940s, made of mahogany and oak.\n\nWilliam said: \"It's probably safer if you show us - we don't want to be the ones who put a hole in it.\"\n\nAs they lined up to have a go, he told his wife: \"Make sure you do the right one; it's a bit like that Only Fools And Horses sketch with the chandeliers.\"\n\nThe couple met people supported by Young and Talented Cornwall, which provides financial support to young people in the county.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess played table tennis at the Dracaena Centre\n\nPoppy Luxton, 16, who is being funded through the scheme for her sailing, said: \"They were saying how their children go sailing on the dinghy... She was saying she really thinks sport and getting outdoors is great for children.\"\n\nWilliam and Kate discussed the benefits of music with Imogen Dowse, 18, a cellist and singer, who performed as the couple walked through the museum.\n\nMiss Dowse, a chorister at Truro Cathedral, said: \"We spoke about how music has life-changing benefits on mental health and educational development. They are trying to get their children into playing musical instruments... I recommended the cello.\"\n\nIn November, William made his first official visit to Cornwall since taking the title Duke of Cornwall.\n\nWilliam, who is still Duke of Cambridge, became the heir apparent, and the Prince of Wales, after the death of his grandmother and the accession of his father Charles to the throne.\n\nThe couple visited the Dracaena Centre, a community hub where people can access a wide range of support and services\n\nKate is now known as the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "Residents of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv took shelter in metro stations amid Friday's Russian attack\n\nRussia's latest aerial attack on Ukraine saw missiles cross Moldovan airspace, Ukrainian and Moldovan officials have said.\n\nKyiv's top general said missiles also flew above Romania - a claim denied by Romania, but later repeated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.\n\nMr Zelensky said the missiles represented a \"challenge\" to Nato, of which Romania is a member country.\n\nDuring a regular call with journalists, Dmitry Peskov told the BBC it was a matter for the defence ministry, which is yet to comment.\n\nMoldova's country's defence ministry described the missile flyover as a \"violation\", and summoned the Russian ambassador for an explanation - having done the same following a similar incident in October.\n\nThe incident occurred on a day of political turbulence in Chisinau, during which the whole government resigned.\n\nFor its part, Romania insisted that Russian missiles had not strayed into its airspace \"at any time\".\n\nBut Mr Zelensky doubled down on the Ukrainian military's Romanian claim, writing that the Russian missiles posed questions for \"collective security\".\n\nIn a post on the Telegram messaging app, he added there were \"victims\" of the assault, without specifying a number.\n\nThe Ukrainian air force said 71 missiles were fired in Friday's \"massive\" attack, of which it shot down 61.\n\nIn the aftermath, an aide of Mr Zelensky reiterated a call for the West to donate fighter jets, and criticised \"political hesitation\" over the provision of new arms to his country.\n\nMr Zelensky himself had spent the previous day meeting EU leaders and appealing for planes to be sent - following another visit to the UK for the same purpose.\n\nUkraine is suffering blackouts after energy facilities were targeted in six regions.\n\nSome 150,000 homes were without electricity in the eastern Kharkiv region alone, and seven people were injured, officials said.\n\nExplosions were also heard in Kyiv, although the city's mayor said nobody was hurt. Residents sheltered in the capital's metro system, and school lessons were reportedly held in one station.\n\nOther regions, including Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, also came under fire, and the governor of Mykolaiv region described at least three \"waves\" of missiles.\n\nMoscow has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's energy facilities over the winter, and Ukraine's state energy firm described Friday's assault as the fourteenth of its kind.\n\nSuch attacks have been described by some analysts as war crimes, although Russia denies intentionally harming civilians.\n\nEnergy workers in the country have increasingly dangerous jobs - and 98 of them lost their lives while performing their duties last year, an official recently told Latvian media.\n\nOn Friday, the boss of Ukraine's state-owned rail network tweeted a defiant message as the aerial attacks began.\n\nOlexander Kamyshin wrote: \"Trains will start delaying, but none will be cancelled. Promise. We are determined.\"\n\nLasting Russian gains made during the war have been restricted to Ukraine's south and east", "Nadine Dorries hit out at \"MPs who drank the Kool-Aid and got rid of Boris Johnson\"\n\nFormer culture secretary Nadine Dorries has said she will not be standing as an MP at the next general election.\n\nMs Dorries, who has been Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005, said it had been \"such an honour\" to serve her constituents.\n\nSpeaking on her own TalkTV show, Ms Dorries hit out at \"MPs who drank the Kool-Aid and got rid of Boris Johnson\".\n\nMs Dorries said: \"Despite it being a job that I've loved for every year that I've done it, I'm now off.\"\n\nShe has been a critic of Rishi Sunak's government since he entered Number 10 and is writing a book about the political downfall of Mr Johnson\n\nShe described \"the lack of cohesion, the infighting and occasionally the sheer stupidity from those who think we could remove a sitting prime minister\".\n\nShe added: \"That they could do that and the public would let us get away with it. I'm afraid it's this behaviour that I now just have to remove myself from.\"\n\nParliament's anti-corruption watchdog found Ms Dorries broke the ministerial code by not consulting it before she took the TV job.\n\nMs Dorries blamed her party's ousting of Boris Johnson for her decision to stand down\n\nBorn Nadine Bargery in Liverpool in 1957 to a Protestant mother and an Irish immigrant Catholic father, Ms Dorries had an unconventional path to Parliament.\n\nAfter school, Ms Dorries trained as a nurse training at Warrington Hospital in the 1970s.\n\nShe came late to active politics, and until 1997 had considered joining Labour.\n\nBut By 2001 Ms Dorries had joined the Conservatives, unsuccessfully standing as the party's candidate for Hazel Grove in the 2001 general election.\n\nShe was then hired by Sir Oliver Letwin, then the shadow chancellor, to run his communications before successfully standing for Parliament in 2005.\n\nOnce in Parliament, Ms Dorries was a vocal critic of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne, once describing them as \"a pair of posh boys who don't know the price of a pint of milk\". Neither Mr Cameron nor successor Theresa May made her a minister.\n\nWhile one the backbenches Ms Dorries became a successful author of romantic historical novels drawing heavily on own life and childhood.\n\nShe hit the headlines in 2012 when she joined ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity, only to be suspended by her parliamentary party for six months.\n\nMs Dorries, a strong supporter of Leave in the Brexit referendum, became a close ally of Mr Johnson, supporting his 2019 leadership bid.\n\nWhen Mr Johnson entered Downing Street he made her a health minister before appointing her culture secretary in September 2021.\n\nShe was elected with a majority of more than 24,000 at the 2019 election.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Lutfi Erguven hopes for good news about his cousin while watching rescuers search through rubble\n\nOutside a small community centre in Enfield, north London, Lutfi Erguven is intently watching something on his phone.\n\nOn the small screen, rescuers can be seen digging through rubble. They're looking for people trapped in wreckage in Mr Erguven's home town in southern Turkey. A series of earthquakes hit southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday morning, killing more than 15,000 people - a death toll that is expected to rise.\n\nHe isn't watching a clip from a news bulletin, Mr Erguven tells BBC News - it's a Zoom call. Rescue teams are sharing their efforts in a video call so that Turkish people in the UK and elsewhere can join the search for their loved ones remotely. Mr Erguven has given them the name of his cousin. He hopes that they find him alive.\n\n\"They haven't found my cousin yet, but they've found other people,\" he says. \"That's good news for us as well.\"\n\nMr Erguven explains that he has travelled from his home in Edinburgh down to London to join others from his community in person. While there are Turkish communities across the UK, the vast majority live in north London. Mr Erguven is also Alevi, a minority religion that is prevalent in the worst-hit areas of southern Turkey.\n\nThe Zoom link, he says, has been shared in Turkish WhatsApp groups. Dozens of people have been joining in the hopes of finding out their loved ones are safe.\n\nIn normal times, the British Alevi Federation centre focuses on more light-hearted community activities, such as Turkish music classes and beginners' cycling courses for adult women. But now it has arranged an emergency relief trip, with a small group of people flying into the country before driving long-distance to badly affected areas. They're also transporting large containers full of blankets, heaters, and toiletries.\n\nAtescan Ates, a second-year law student, tells BBC News that, as soon as they heard about the disaster, he and other younger people immediately used social media to organise donations.\n\n\"A lot of us have a decent amount of followers on social media, so we started posting: 'These are the places you can go to to donate - if you can't go, contact us, and we'll come and pick donations up directly from your house',\" he says. \"We drove around London, from south to north, everywhere, on Monday and Tuesday.\"\n\nThey then worked through the night until about 01:00 on Wednesday, packing the donations up, ready to be transported to Turkey on Wednesday afternoon.\n\n\"It was a massive communal effort,\" Mr Ates says. \"Unfortunately, in the past few decades, there's been quite a lot of divide among the people of Turkey - whether it's the Turks, Kurds, Alevis or Sunnis. But you can see, when a disaster happens, everyone can put everything aside and come together. We may be different but our families, our neighbours - they're all under the same rubble.\"\n\nSilan Polat and Sevgi Akgoz are part of the group that's been sorting through donations. The trip, they say, is going to be a struggle for those going.\n\nSevgi Akgoz, left, and Silan Polat, right, are worried about family in Turkey\n\n\"Some of the villages are blocked off because the roads are damaged, so people from here are going to try and access those areas however they can,\" Ms Akgoz says. \"There's no electricity, so some people can't even contact us to let us know where they are or what they need.\"\n\nHer mum's cousin, she adds, is now homeless and \"trying to survive in their garage\" with their children in -3C temperatures. Others in their village are sleeping in their cars, or out on the street.\n\nMs Polat, whose dad is one of the people going to Turkey, adds: \"It's such a poor area. We go to our parents' and grandparents' villages, and people think 'oh there's technology, people have phones' - they don't, it's a different realm. They don't have access to anything, so they didn't have any pre-warning [about the earthquake]. They don't have news, they don't have electricity or computers.\"\n\nMany of the buildings that collapsed, she adds, were built recently - and were supposed to withstand earthquakes.\n\n\"This scale of disaster could have, and should have, been prevented,\" Ms Polat says.\n\nMs Akgoz says she's been heartened to see people come together - but also can't help but feel guilty.\n\nShe says: \"I feel ashamed to sit in my warm house. I feel ashamed to feel full. When I'm about to sleep, I feel ashamed to sleep because I know my family and my friends, my loved ones are there freezing in the cold.\"", "There will be no investigation into police contact with a man days before he killed his wife, Epsom College's head, a watchdog has said.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, was found dead along with her seven-year-old daughter, Lettie, and husband on Sunday.\n\nGeorge Pattison is believed to have shot the pair before killing himself.\n\nThe police watchdog said it had reviewed Surrey Police's contact with Mr Pattison about his firearms licence and no probe was required.\n\nSurrey Police had made contact with Mr Pattison on 2 February after he recently updated a gun licence in order to change his address following their move from Caterham, Surrey.\n\nThe 39-year-old chartered accountant's legally owned gun was later discovered at their home on the school grounds, where the family was found dead. The force is investigating the deaths as a possible murder-suicide.\n\nThe Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) reviewed Surrey Police's interaction over the firearms licence after a mandatory referral by the force.\n\nAn IOPC spokesperson said: \"We have reviewed the recent contact Surrey Police had with Mr Pattison regarding his firearms licence and have decided that no investigation is required.\n\n\"Following a thorough assessment of the available evidence, we determined on 8 February that the matter should be returned to the force to handle as it deems appropriate.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead in the early hours of Sunday\n\n\"We have reminded the force of its obligations, and that if evidence were to come to light that anyone serving with the police may have breached standards of professional behaviour or committed a criminal offence in connection with this, they should refer relevant matters to us.\"\n\nAlthough Mr Pattison's gun licence had been recently updated, and officers made contact with him about that, the force said neither he nor his wife were subject to an ongoing investigation.\n\nIt comes after it was revealed Mrs Pattison was reported to police in 2016 for allegedly hitting him.\n\nSeven years earlier, the BBC understands Mr Pattison reported an alleged domestic assault to Surrey Police. Mrs Pattison was questioned by officers, but no further action was taken.\n\nSince the shooting, tributes have poured in for Mrs Pattison, who became the first female head of the private Epsom College only five months ago, after six years as head teacher of Croydon High School in south London.\n\nMrs Pattison is understood to have called a relative some time late on Saturday evening, but by the time the family member arrived, all three of them were dead.\n\nPolice said an investigation was being carried out to establish the full chronology and circumstances of the incident.\n\nThe causes of death will not be confirmed until post-mortem examinations have been completed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jeremy Hunt: \"We're not out of the woods yet\"\n\nThe UK narrowly avoided falling into recession in 2022, new figures show, after the economy saw zero growth between October and December.\n\nThis is despite a sharp 0.5% fall in economic output during December, partly due to strike action, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt said the figures showed \"underlying resilience\" but said \"we are not out of the woods\".\n\nThe Bank of England still expects the UK to enter recession this year.\n\nBut it thinks it will be shorter and less severe than previously forecast.\n\nThe Bank of England is the UK's central bank. The BBC included its view as it has a central role in managing the overall state of the economy.\n\nOne of the ways it does that is by changing interest rates. Recently, it has been raising rates in a bid to tackle the soaring cost of living.\n\nMr Hunt, who the BBC spoke to for the government's position, said that high inflation remains a problem and continues to cause \"pain for families up and down the country\".\n\nInflation - or the rate at which prices are rising - is slowing but at 10.5% remains close to a 40-year high.\n\nThe ONS, which published the economic output figures, said there was no growth in the final three months of 2022.\n\nThis is the first estimate for the period and figures are often revised later on.\n\nOn Friday, the ONS revised up its figures for the July to September quarter, to show that the economy shrank by 0.2% instead of the previous estimate of a 0.3% fall.\n\nA recession is typically defined as when the economy shrinks for two consecutive three-month periods. This usually means it is performing badly and companies may make less money and cut jobs, leaving the government with less tax revenue.\n\nThe figures for December, however, were worse than expected, and there will be no celebrations at the Treasury.\n\nDarren Morgan from the ONS said there was a fall in health services with fewer operations and GP visits, while school attendance also dropped in the week before schools broke up for Christmas.\n\nHe explained that in terms of public services, the ONS measures things like teachers' wages, and how much investment is made in schools and the health services. \"The services they provide are a really important part of the economy so we include it in our measurement,\" he said.\n\nHe also said that sporting activities, particularly football, were impacted because of the World Cup.\n\nHe said people were not \"able to enjoy top-flight football due to the absence of Premier League football until Boxing Day, as the World Cup continued\".\n\nMr Morgan added that rail and postal industries \"had a poor month\". \"We certainly saw the impact of strikes as both fell heavily in December.\"\n\nStrike action on trains caused disruption on the railways and on the roads in December. Postal workers also went on strike on a series of days in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nThe year-on-year comparison is not the same as adding up the quarterly growth figures.\n\nIt is a comparison of the full year with the full previous 12 months, which in 2021 included the lockdown at the beginning. When compared against that low base, the UK's economy was 4% bigger in 2022 than in 2021.\n\nThat was the biggest increase of all G7 nations for last year.\n\nBut the UK is also still the only G7 country where the economy is smaller than pre-pandemic levels.\n\nLabour and the Liberal Democrats, who we've included to explain opposing parties' point of view, warned the latest figures make for grim reading.\n\nRachel Reeves, Labour's shadow chancellor, said they show the economy \"is stuck in the slow lane\".\n\nShe added: \"We must bring in urgent measures to prevent yet more harm from the cost of living crisis, using a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants to stop the energy price cap going up in April so that people have more money in their pockets.\"\n\nLiberal Democrat MP Sarah Olney said: \"Britain is dangling on over the edge of a recession after months of economic vandalism and chaos in government.\n\n\"The blame for these gloomy figures lies squarely with the government, who have botched budgets, failed to tackle inflation and have no plan for growth.\"\n\nIf you run a small business, how have you been affected by the state of the UK economy? Get in touch.\n\nAntonia Sanchez-Toomey, owner of Tailormade Living, says sales were down sharply over Christmas\n\nAntonia Sanchez-Toomey runs Tailormade Living in Enfield, north London, a company selling items such as scented candles and accessories for the home.\n\nThe BBC spoke to Ms Sanchez-Toomey ahead of the data to understand how a typical small business is faring in the current economic climate.\n\nShe says it is businesses like hers that suffer when the economy shrinks and people cut back on luxuries.\n\n\"We sell non-essential products,\" she says.\n\n\"People are cutting back on those sorts of things. So they might still come in for a gift, but if they would buy a gift and then something for themselves, it's the 'something for themselves' that's not happening anymore.\"\n\nShe says in 2022, sales were down year-on-year and down by about 40% over Christmas, which she says was a shock.\n\n\"And then we've just had our quietest January ever,\" she says. \"So we've had to make lots of cuts within the business. And that has affected some of my team members. And I've just got this real sense that consumer confidence is at an all-time low.\"\n\nMost forecasters now predict 2023 will see a milder downturn than previously expected because of a fall in energy prices. But some think the UK will avoid a technical recession completely.\n\nThere was an upbeat take from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, an economic think tank, which forecast that the UK will swerve a recession.\n\nBut both the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund were gloomier, expecting the UK economy to shrink in 2023.\n\nThe UK economy is more sensitive to gas prices, to rising interest rates and has a specific issue about the failure of the workforce to return to its pre-pandemic size.\n\nThe latest numbers and the early evidence from this year could still pile on the pressure for the government to do more over the workforce and over the further rise in domestic energy bills coming in the spring.\n\nMr Hunt will outline his plans for taxation and spending in the Budget on 15 March.\n\nSeparate statistics from the ONS showed that the UK's annual trade deficit for goods and services widened by £85bn to £108bn in 2022 when compared with the year before mainly due to a rise in the value of imports.\n\nThis was largely driven by the soaring cost of food and fuel.", "A plan to close a rural Catholic primary school in County Tyrone has been called \"incomprehensible and illogical\" by its board of governors.\n\nThe Bishop of Clogher is also opposing the plan from the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) to close St Mary's Primary in Fivemiletown.\n\nPupil numbers at St Mary's have risen in recent years and the school is not in financial deficit.\n\nBut the CCMS has said that with only 42 children the school is not sustainable.\n\nThrough the Education Authority (EA), CCMS has formally proposed closing the school in August 2023.\n\nIn a statement to BBC News NI, CCMS encouraged \"all interested parties to engage with the statutory consultation process currently under way\".\n\nBut St Mary's governors have said they are \"determined to see Catholic education persist in Fivemiletown\".\n\n\"For a Catholic body to deny the propagation of the Catholic faith, and the opportunity for Catholics to receive a Catholic education within their own area, is incomprehensible and illogical,\" the governors said in a detailed submission opposing the closure.\n\nMairaid Kelly, whose daughter Mary-Kate attends the school, says the school is sustainable\n\nAccording to documents published by the EA the Catholic Bishop of Clogher, Bishop Larry Duffy, also disagreed with the closure proposal.\n\nThe head and governors of the local controlled primary Fivemiletown PS - where pupils are mainly Protestant - have also objected to the plan to close St Mary's.\n\nThe two schools participate in shared education classes and activities, including a joint carol service.\n\nIf the closure goes ahead the nearest Catholic primary school for pupils in Fivemiletown will be in Brookeborough, almost six miles away.\n\nSt Mary's Primary has been open in Fivemiletown since 1969 and was originally built to house 87 pupils.\n\nPupil numbers fell to 27 in 2019 but have since increased to 42 in 2022.\n\nThat is below the sustainability threshold of 105 pupils for a rural primary recommended by the Department of Education (DE).\n\nIn the documents published by the EA, CCMS said \"the current challenging circumstances do not provide for a sustainable school\".\n\nCCMS also pointed out that pupils from a number of year groups are taught together in \"composite classes\" in the school.\n\nBut Mairaid Kelly - who is a governor at St Mary's and whose daughter Mary-Kate is in Primary One - told BBC News NI that there was cross-community support for keeping St Mary's open.\n\n\"We've been really heartened by the amount of support we've received from right across our whole community, including elected representatives - from the DUP to Sinn Féin to SDLP and a whole range of independents,\" she said.\n\nMairaid Kelly says the school is all they have in terms of a hub for the Catholic community\n\n\"If the decision went through that they would close St Mary's our children would be bussed in various different directions to various different schools considerable distances away.\n\n\"We are a small school, we don't pretend otherwise.\n\n\"But we are a strong vibrant, sustainable school living within our means with rising enrolment.\"\n\nMs Kelly also told BBC News NI it would be \"devastating\" for the Catholic community in Fivemiletown if the school closed.\n\n\"The school is really all we have in terms of a hub for the Catholic community,\" she said.\n\n\"None of the local schools can actually take all of our children en masse so they'll just be splintered in lots and lots of different directions.\"\n\nMs Kelly also said she expected increased need for school places in the area as there were plans to build more houses in Fivemiletown over the coming years.\n\n\"If anything the demand for our school is going to increase over the next five to 10 years, not ebb away,\" she said.\n\nIn an initial EA consultation on closing St Mary's, 96 out of 98 respondents disagreed with the plan - including Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Mid Ulster District Council and Bishop Duffy.\n\nA further two-month statutory consultation on the closure plan is now being carried out by the EA.\n\nThe CCMS said: \"Any decision on the proposal will be made by the education minister/permanent secretary following the completion of the consultation process.\"", "Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden smiled for the cameras at the G20 summit in November\n\nEven before America's top diplomat Anthony Blinken postponed his visit to Beijing, the US-China relationship was at an all-time low.\n\nJust how low became painfully evident when a day before his departure, an apparent Chinese spy balloon over the state of Montana roiled the tensions he was trying to address.\n\nEventually, the Chinese foreign ministry claimed the unmanned airship was used for weather research and had blown off course.\n\nThe accompanying expression of regret suggested Beijing did not want the incident to mar the secretary of state's visit - the first of its kind in five years.\n\nHours after China's apology, the US State Department called off the trip.\n\nGiven how wide the rift has become, the fact that the trip was happening in the first place had been cause for celebration.\n\nBut now what remains is a sense of huge missed opportunity.\n\nAll along, US officials had made clear that this was not about breakthroughs. It was about talking.\n\nMr Blinken wants to \"avoid competition veering into conflict\".\n\n\"One of the ways you do that is making sure that you actually have good lines of communication,\" he said in a speech last month, calling for \"putting some guardrails into the relationship.\"\n\n\"I think the goal [was] to basically fast-forward this Cold War to its détente phase, thereby skipping a Cuban Missile Crisis,\" says Jude Blanchette, a China expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.\n\nIt hasn't been an easy ride for the world's two biggest economies.\n\nA Trump-era trade war, tensions over Taiwan and an increasingly assertive China under Xi Jinping derailed the relationship in recent years. And it plummeted further as China refused to condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThen came a meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in November.\n\nThe two leaders expressed the desire to avoid conflict and reduced the heat of their rhetoric.\n\nAnd Mr Blinken wanted to build on that.\n\nEven before the balloon went up, the shift was one of tone, more than substance.\n\nThe Americans have continued to press ahead with the economic restrictions and military expansion in the region, angering Beijing.\n\nIn the past week, Japan and the Netherlands were reported to have reached an agreement with Washington to restrict exports of advanced chip manufacturing equipment to China.\n\nThis would be only the latest step by the US to limit Beijing's access to sensitive semiconductor technology, cutting it out of microchip supply chains.\n\n\"This shows the US has taken a much harder line on tech transfer, trying to get key allies on board,\" says Chris Miller, a professor of international history who wrote a book about US-China tensions over chip technology.\n\nAnd in the past few days, the US military announced it was expanding its presence in the Philippines - one of several moves to strengthen regional alliances as it positions itself to counter China amid growing concern over a possible conflict with Taiwan.\n\nBut the Biden administration still wanted to talk.\n\nMr Blanchett said the White House thought this was a good time to do so, because it had won some breathing room with a Congress hawkish on China by establishing a track record of being tough on Beijing, moving beyond steps taken by former President Donald Trump.\n\nInstead, the balloon gave Republicans an opening to lead the charge in demanding action against China's \"brazen disregard for US sovereignty\".\n\nState department officials emphasised they had not given up, that the diplomatic contacts continued to set up another meeting.\n\nBut they gave no date, adding to the sense of a consequential relationship in limbo.", "Dominic Raab should be suspended as deputy prime minister until an inquiry into bullying allegations against him is over, an ex-Tory chairman has said.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Jake Berry said MPs and ministers were \"not some form of special human being\" and should be treated \"like anyone else\".\n\nMr Raab, also the justice secretary, is facing several complaints from civil servants who have worked with him in a range of government departments.\n\nHe has denied allegations of bullying.\n\nIn November, Mr Raab asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to launch an investigation into his own conduct after claims emerged about his behaviour towards staff.\n\nThe inquiry - led by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC - is ongoing, but Mr Sunak has come under pressure to suspend Mr Raab until it is concluded.\n\nMr Berry, who was Conservative Party chairman in 2022, told Radio 4's Week in Westminster: \"It would be very bizarre if you had someone in any other workplace who wasn't suspended pending that investigation.\n\n\"MPs and ministers are not some form of special human being - I think they should just be treated like anyone else is in their workplace.\"\n\nHe said there should be a formal mechanism whereby ministers could be suspended during investigations.\n\nCurrently, it is not possible for a prime minister to formally temporarily remove a minister - although they could sack someone with the understanding the minister would return if cleared by an investigation.\n\nHannah White, from the Institute for Government think tank, says introducing a formal suspension mechanism could have some advantages - including allowing a minister to claim back lost salary if an inquiry concluded they had not broken any rules.\n\nHowever, she says it could discourage prime ministers from ordering investigations in the first place and increase ministerial turnover.\n\nAsked about Mr Sunak's handling of the standards issues, Mr Berry said: \"We have a system in Parliament that you're either in a job or you're not in a job.\n\n\"The way these sort of complaints would be dealt with in the private sector is you would be suspended while they were investigated.\"\n\nLabour and the Liberal Democrats, as well as the FDA union for senior civil servants, have also called for Mr Raab's suspension.\n\nMr Sunak has said he will wait for the outcome of Mr Tolley's inquiry before taking any action.\n\nListen to the full interview with Jake Berry on The Week in Westminster on Radio 4 at 11:00 GMT on Saturday 4 February or on demand on BBC Sounds afterwards.", "Several streets have been evacuated within a 100m cordon, after police found \"suspicious items\"\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of explosive offences, following a security scare in the town of Belper.\n\nHomes on multiple streets in the Derbyshire town were evacuated, after police were called to a house on Acorn Drive at about 18:00 GMT on Friday.\n\nOfficers found some \"suspicious items\" during a search, the force said.\n\nAn Explosive Ordnance Disposal team has drawn a 100m cordon around the house, with the nearby Strutt Centre acting as a shelter for the evacuated residents.\n\nStreets within the cordon include Acorn Way, Acorn Drive, Swinney Lane and Swinney Bank.\n\nA police spokeswoman said there was \"no indication\" as to how long the evacuation and road closures would remain in place.\n\nAcorn Drive is closed at its junction with Mill Street, while Swinney Lane is closed between its junction with Mill Street and just after the junction with Swinney Bank.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sam Smith has achieved their third number one album\n\nSam Smith says they are \"truly overwhelmed\" after their album Gloria went straight to number one.\n\nIt is the 30-year-old singer's third album to reach the top of the charts after their 2014 debut The Lonely Hour and 2017's The Thrill Of It All.\n\nThe album features collaborations with Koffee, Jessie Reyez and Ed Sheeran.\n\nIt comes as the pop artist's music video for song I'm Not Here to Make Friends was criticised online this week for being over-sexualised.\n\nThey are seen dancing in a corset and nipple tassels, surrounded by scantily-clad dancers.\n\nFans have been defending Smith, saying they are being targeted for being queer and plus size.\n\nSmith, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, said: \"Thank you to all my amazing sailors who have made Gloria this week's number one album.\n\n\"I'm truly overwhelmed and could not have done this without you. I love you all, this is for us.\"\n\nSmith is set to perform at this weekend's Grammy Awards and could collaborate with German trans singer Kim Petras on the album's lead single Unholy.\n\nGloria has been described by Smith in the past as feeling \"like a coming of age\" and that it helped them \"through some dark times\".\n\nElsewhere on the singles chart, Miley Cyrus held on to number one for a third consecutive week with Flowers, which this week was streamed more than 12 million times.", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nThe sister of a missing mother who disappeared on a dog walk is urging members of the public to \"keep an open mind\" and continue the search.\n\nNicola Bulley, 45, was last seen next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire a week ago.\n\nLancashire Police said on Friday officers believed she had fallen into the river.\n\nBut Ms Bulley's sister, Louise Cunningham, said there was \"no evidence whatsoever\" of that.\n\nIn a post on Facebook, she said: \"Please keep sharing my Nikki\", adding that a river fall was \"just a theory\".\n\nShe added: \"Everyone needs to keep an open mind as not all CCTV and leads have been investigated fully, the police confirmed the case is far from over.\"\n\nA major search has been continuing, including police divers, drones, a helicopter and search and rescue teams but no trace of her has been found.\n\nPolice said their \"working hypothesis is that she has fallen into the river for some reason\".\n\nThey said there was \"no evidence\" of anything suspicious.\n\nIn an interview with The Sun, one of Ms Bulley's friends, Emma White said police were working to get data from her Fitbit watch.\n\n\"The Fitbit had not been synched since Tuesday,\" she said.\n\n\"The police are trying other ways to try to get information from it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Bulley's friend Emma White: \"We've still got a missing piece of the jigsaw\"\n\nMs White, who has been helping in the search, told the BBC earlier she believed \"we're actually no further on than sadly last Friday\".\n\n\"We still have no evidence and that's why we're out again in force.\n\n\"You don't base life on a hypothesis, do you? You absolutely can have hypotheses but then you need something to back that hypothesis up to become factual.\"\n\nMs Bulley was last seen walking her dog Willow near the River Wyre after dropping off her children, aged six and nine, at school on the morning of 27 January.\n\nThe spaniel was found about 25 minutes after Ms Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10 GMT.\n\nHer phone was also found on a riverside bench - still connected to a work call.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said: \"There is absolutely nothing to suggest from all the extensive enquiries we have made that anything untoward has happened to [Ms Bulley] or that there is any third-party involvement in her disappearance.\"\n\nShe said it remained a missing person inquiry.\n\nDetectives said they were \"as confident as we can be that Nicola has not left the field where she was last seen and our working hypothesis is that she has fallen into the river for some reason\".\n\n\"Our investigation remains open and we will of course act on any new information which comes to light.\"\n\nMs Bulley's partner Paul Ansell said he would \"never lose hope\" of finding her.\n\nPolice have urged locals to look out along the river for clothing that Ms Bulley was last seen wearing.\n\nThis includes an ankle-length black quilted gilet jacket, a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat, black jeans, green walking socks, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace and a pale blue Fitbit.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Juliette Lamour said she wants to carefully invest the jackpot earnings\n\nWhen Juliette Lamour won a lotto jackpot on her first try, the sensible teen immediately turned to a financial adviser, or Dad, as she calls him.\n\nThe 18-year-old just scooped C$48m ($35.8m; £29.7m), becoming the youngest Canadian ever to win such a big prize.\n\nBut while many teens suddenly endowed with unimaginable wealth might run wild, Juliette intends to keep her feet firmly planted on the ground.\n\nThe university student plans to finish her studies and become a doctor.\n\n\"I was crying - happy tears - of course,\" she said at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation on Friday as she celebrated last month's win.\n\n\"I still can't believe I hit the Gold Ball jackpot on my very first lottery ticket!\"\n\nJuliette, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, said she had forgotten all about the lottery ticket until she heard news that someone from her hometown had won the 7 January draw.\n\nWhen she went to check her ticket through a mobile app, a jingle started to play and \"Big Winner\" flashed on the screen.\n\n\"My colleague fell to his knees in disbelief,\" Juliette said.\n\n\"He was yelling. In fact, everyone was yelling that I won $48 million.\"\n\nHer boss told her she could leave early, but her mother insisted she stay and finish her shift.\n\nJuliette said she will \"carefully\" invest the majority of the jackpot with the help of her money manager father.\n\nIn fact, her dad has already given her the best piece of financial advice - it was his idea to buy the Lotto 6/49 quick pick.\n\nJuliette plans to invest some of the money to fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor without worrying about grants or loans.\n\nShe wants to return to northern Ontario to practice medicine and give back to her community, she said.\n\nBut Juliette does plan to have a little fun with the jackpot winnings.\n\n\"Once school is done, my family and I will pick a continent and start exploring,\" she said.\n\n\"I want to experience different countries, study their history and culture, try their food, and listen to their language.\"\n\nShe's also hoping to abide by some of the advice loved ones have shared with her.\n\n\"Money doesn't define you,\" she said. \"It's the work you do that will define you.\"", "HMS Portland is pictured (foreground) tracking a Russian warship and tanker last month through the North Sea\n\nA \"small number\" of navy personnel were taken to hospital after problems with water supplies on board their warship.\n\nSubmarine hunter HMS Portland returned to Portsmouth on Friday following a \"contaminated water\" incident.\n\nA Royal Navy spokesperson said it was a \"precautionary measure\" after an issue with the ship's fresh water systems.\n\nThey said measures were being taken to \"safeguard the ship's company\" during investigations, with HMS Richmond on standby to provide any necessary cover.\n\nIt is thought that one of the crew members put the wrong chemical into the frigate's water system - designed to convert sea water into drinking water. The sailor, on realising the error, subsequently raised the alarm.\n\nAll those taken to hospital \"are expected to make a full recovery\", with the majority of those involved already discharged, a statement from the Royal Navy said.\n\n\"The recent issue with contaminated water in HMS Portland will be investigated thoroughly.\"\n\n\"We take the health and welfare of our people very seriously and will review processes to ensure this does not happen again,\" the statement added.\n\nAn investigation is now under way.\n\nHMS Portland spent much of last year patrolling UK waters and, last July, co-operated with Nato allies on a submarine-hunting exercise in the North Atlantic.\n\nIt helped track two Russian submarines as they sailed into the North Sea along the Norwegian coast.\n\nLast month it tracked a Russian warship as it sailed in international waters close to the UK.\n\nThe Type 23 frigate was commissioned in 2001 and over the years has been used in anti-drug missions in the Caribbean (2007) and deployed against pirates off the Horn of Africa (2009).\n\nThe ship also helped with disaster relief in Belize following Hurricane Dean in 2007.\n\nIt underwent a lengthy refit in 2021 which included an overhaul of machinery, computers and IT systems.", "The US says additional military aid to Ukraine worth $2.2bn (£1.83bn) will include long-range missiles capable of doubling its attack range.\n\nIt brings the total amount of military aid given to Ukraine to more than $29.3bn (£24.31bn) since February 2022.\n\nThe package includes ground-launched small-diameter bombs (GLSDB) which can hit targets 150km (93 miles) away.\n\nBut officials refused to be drawn on speculation that the munitions could be used to attack parts of annexed Crimea.\n\n\"When it comes to Ukrainian plans on operations, clearly that is their decision,\" Pentagon spokesperson Brig Gen Pat Ryder told reporters.\n\n\"This gives them a longer-range capability, long-range fires capability, that will enable them, again, to conduct operations in defence of their country and take back their sovereign territory, Russian-occupied areas.\"\n\nRussia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and considers it part of its territory. But it has come under sporadic fire from Ukrainian forces in recent months.\n\nWestern nations have repeatedly ruled out providing Ukraine with offensive weapons - such as fighter jets - which it could use to strike against Russia itself.\n\nIn a tweet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the US and President Joe Biden for the additional aid.\n\n\"The more long-range our weapons are and the more mobile our troops are, the sooner Russia's brutal aggression will end,\" Mr Zelensky wrote. \"Together with [the US] we stand against terror.\"\n\nPresident Zelensky has long urged the West to provide his forces with artillery capable of firing over greater distances.\n\nPreviously, Ukraine's longest range weapon was the Himars rocket system, which can hit targets at a range of up to 80km (50 miles). Kyiv used the system to devastating effect during its counter-offensive in the south and east last year.\n\nThe GLSDB also gives Ukraine forces an ability to strike anywhere in the Russian-occupied Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. It also allows Ukraine to threaten Russian supply lines in the east.\n\nManufactured by Boeing and Saab, GLSDB is a gliding rocket with a small bomb attached, capable of striking a target within one metre of its position.\n\nAnd it can be fired from a variety of weapons systems, including the Himars and M270 MLRS systems already in use in Ukraine. However, both the Pentagon and Boeing refused to comment on delivery dates for the system, with some reports suggesting that it could take up to nine months before it reaches Ukraine.\n\nThe new package - which will also include additional Himars missiles and 250 Javelin anti-armour systems - comes amid mounting concerns that Western nations have been too slow to provide fresh military aid to Ukraine.\n\n\"GLSDB should have been approved last fall, US House of Representatives Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers said in a tweet. \"Every day it's not approved is a day it's delayed getting it into the hands of a Ukrainian ready to kill a Russian.\"\n\nIn recent days, reports have emerged that a Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region has been gaining momentum, with pro-Kremlin bloggers suggesting that the town of Bakhmut, long a focal point of Russian attacks, has been surrounded from three-sides.\n\nBut President Zelensky said his forces were entrenched around the town and would not surrender it to Russian assaults.\n\n\"We consider Backhmut to be our fortress,\" the Ukrainian leader said. \"If weapon [deliveries] are accelerated - namely long-range weapons - we will not only not withdraw from Bakhmut, we will begin to de-occupy Donbas, which has been occupied since 2014.\"\n\nMr Zelensky said earlier that a long-rumoured Russian spring offensive in the region had already begun and his Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said earlier this week that Moscow had mobilised some 500,000 troops for the renewed assault.\n\nMeanwhile, the Ukrainian leader has been holding new EU accession talks with the bloc's leaders, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel, in Kyiv.\n\nSpeaking after the summit, Mr Zelensky said the leaders had reached an \"understanding that it is possible to start negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the European Union this year\".\n\nBut Ms von der Leyen said there were \"no rigid timelines\" in place and emphasised that Ukraine had political goals it must meet before joining the block.\n\nThe EU has repeatedly underlined the need for Ukraine to step up its fight against endemic corruption, reform its judiciary by weeding out political interference and strengthen its economy.\n\nElsewhere, Germany has announced plans to send Leopard 1 tanks to Ukraine. The earlier model of the Leopard 2s - which Berlin has already promised to provide - can be delivered to Kyiv sooner than the advanced model.", "Courts waved through applications by energy firms to forcibly install prepayment meters in people's homes, according to internal advice from a top magistrate leaked to the BBC.\n\nPrevious guidelines required careful scrutiny of warrant applications, but new advice to courts deems those rules \"disproportionate\".\n\nEnergy firms can apply for warrants when bills go unpaid for a long period.\n\nBut suppliers were told to stop force-fitting meters earlier this week.\n\nThe energy regulator Ofgem told energy companies not to forcibly install the meters following a report from The Times showing debt agents had broken into vulnerable people's homes.\n\nBut in recent days warrants are still being issued. Privately industry voices are concerned that having ruled out disconnecting customers, and pausing prepayment meters, there is now a \"charter for non-payers\".\n\nThe new advice for magistrates was posted within the last month on an internal website for magistrates, by the National Leadership Magistrate Duncan Webster.\n\nIn an internal FAQ post for magistrates, Mr Webster told magistrates the \"advice given to justices has not kept up with changes in the way utility companies operate\". As the remedy sought by energy companies for unpaid bills is no longer disconnection, but installation of a prepayment meter, \"checks magistrates have been asked to make are now disproportionate and go far beyond the legal requirements\".\n\nIn 2022, as the cost of living crisis took hold, magistrates approved more than 1,000 warrants a day. Almost all of these claims are now authorised electronically or over the phone, by specific magistrates courts allocated to each energy company.\n\nEnergy company agents apply by telephone and send in large spreadsheets with between 100 and 1000 cases, where customers are told they do have the right to contest the warrant, but many do not respond. The hearings will sign off, issue and send all the electronic warrants in \"a maximum of 15 minutes\" according to evidence from pilots.\n\nLegal experts suggest that the advice showed that magistrates were no longer safeguarding vulnerable people and were instead accepting the word of big energy companies \"in good faith\".\n\nCalls are being made for the almost automated system of approval for warrants to be overhauled. Caroline Flint, chair of the government's Committee on Fuel Poverty, said it was making the situation \"worse for already fuel-poor households\".\n\nThe committee said no action by an energy company should make it harder for anyone to heat their home and that the system needed a complete overhaul.\n\nThe court system earns a per case fee from the arrangement, an important source of income after a decade when funding for the judicial system has been cut back substantially.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The whole system of prepayment meters needs review\n\nOne magistrate, and former Justice of the Peace, stepped down last August after being left unable to check vulnerable people were being protected when a warrant for a prepayment meter was sought.\n\nRobin Cantrill-Fenwick told BBC Newsnight changes to the court system meant magistrates \"were doing nothing more than rubber stamping\" warrants.\n\nHe said the lack of scrutiny is putting vulnerable households at risk.\n\nGovernment officials have suggested current advice is a matter for the judiciary. A judicial source said \"it just explains what the current law and processes that magistrates are bound to apply\".\n\nScotland's court service has said it will review the process for utility warrants following outcry over forced installation of pay-as-you-go meters.\n\nThe Magistrates' Leadership Executive has been approached for comment.", "Nicola Bulley vanished while walking her dog in the village of St Michael's on Wyre\n\nPolice investigating the disappearance of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley believe she fell into a river.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on a dog walk a week ago.\n\nA major search for Ms Bulley continues, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nLancashire Police said its \"main working hypothesis\" was that she fell into the River Wyre and this was \"not suspicious but a tragic case of a missing person\".\n\nMs Bulley, a mortgage adviser from Inskip, Lancashire, vanished while walking her dog after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school on 27 January.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said the last confirmed sighting of Ms Bulley was at 09:10 GMT when she was seen on the upper field.\n\nOfficers were alerted to her disappearance when her spaniel, Willow, was found running loose off Garstang Road about 25 minutes after she was last seen by another dog walker.\n\nAt 09:20 police believe her phone was on a bench while connected to a work Teams meeting, which ended 10 minutes later.\n\nDetectives believe Ms Bulley vanished in that 10-minute window.\n\nSupt Riley said police had looked through dashcam, CCTV and doorbell footage which allowed detectives to \"eliminate any trace so far of Nicola having left the riverside\".\n\nShe said this was \"really important\" for the investigation.\n\n\"We believe that Nicola was in the riverside area and remained at the riverside area,\" Supt Riley said.\n\n\"We remain open to any inquiries that might lead us to question that, but at this time we understand that she was by the river.\"\n\nLouise Cunningham, Ms Bulley's sister, has encouraged members of the public to still keep an eye out for her sibling as the police were working on \"a theory\".\n\nIn a post on Facebook, she urged people to \"keep an open mind\", adding: \"the police confirmed the case is far from over\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Sally Riley says police are not treating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley as suspicious.\n\nThe coastguard, mountain rescue and fire crews have joined police in ongoing searches of the river and nearby footpaths.\n\n\"Our main working hypothesis therefore is that Nicola has sadly fallen into the river, that there is no third party or criminal involvement and that this is not suspicious, but a tragic case of a missing person,\" Supt Riley said.\n\n\"This is particularly important because speculation otherwise can be really distressing for the family and for Nicola's children.\"\n\nSupt Riley said Ms Bulley's disappearance had \"understandably caused a huge amount of concern and upset in the local community, as well as being an absolutely awful time for her family\".\n\nHer partner Paul Ansell, 44, said earlier that the family had been living in \"perpetual hell\".\n\nHe said: \"We're never going to lose the hope.\n\n\"But, right now, it is as though she has vanished into thin air. It's just insane.\"\n\nMs Bulley's friend Emma White described her as \"the most beautiful person\" and \"the kindest soul - she's thoughtful, she's caring\".\n\n\"And then you add her and Paul together, add a little bit of magic, and they've created these two beautiful humans who just want to know where their mummy is,\" she said.\n\n\"They are the most close-knit family. Those poor girls asking questions, 'where's mummy, how is mummy?'\"\n\nPaul Ansell said he was trying to stay strong for his daughters\n\nSupt Riley said an \"issue\" with Ms Bulley's dog may have led her to the water's edge.\n\n\"She puts her phone down to go and deal with the dog momentarily, and Nicola may have fallen in,\" she said.\n\n\"We assume the dog didn't get into the river, but we don't know why Nicola may have if she did.\"\n\nMs Riley said the dog was dry and that Ms Bulley could swim.\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on the bench (top left) where police continue to search\n\nMs Bulley has lived in Lancashire for 25 years but is originally from near Chelmsford, Essex, and has a southern accent.\n\nShe was last seen wearing an ankle-length black quilted gilet jacket, a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat which was worn underneath the gilet and tight-fitting black jeans.\n\nShe was also wearing long green walking socks tucked into her jeans, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace and a pale blue Fitbit.\n\nSupt Riley urged people to \"pay heed to those very specific clothing descriptions\" and advised the public to \"keep themselves safe\" in the search for Ms Bulley.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Lev Tahor settled in Central America after coming under investigation in Canada\n\nWhen Mexican police raided a self-styled Jewish sect, former members hoped it would spell the end of the group, which has been accused of crimes against children. Instead, the case collapsed and the sect recovered - but not before details about the cloistered community were exposed, including its plans for mass slaughter if outside authorities intervened. One former member, who recently fled, spoke to the BBC about his ordeal.\n\nWarning: This story contains details of physical and sexual abuse\n\nWhen Yisrael Amir got married, he and his bride stood under the chupah, the traditional Jewish wedding canopy, surrounded by members of their community. But what should be a couple's happiest day was for them a nightmare.\n\nYisrael and his wife, Malke (not her real name), were both 16 and had met there and then for the first time. The marriage had been organised by leaders of the group which they had been brought into as children. The group is Lev Tahor, Hebrew for Pure Heart, which claims to follow a fundamentalist version of Judaism. Former members though, along with an Israeli court among others, say it is nothing but a cult.\n\n\"We had no choice,\" Yisrael, now 22, tells me as we sit and talk in the back yard of his aunt's house, just south of Tel Aviv. \"The rabbi called me into his office and said, 'Next week you're getting married. If you refuse you get punished'.\n\n\"My sister was 13 and they forced her to marry a 19-year-old. She was crying. She cried so much they punished her by banning her from speaking for a year. She could not say a word - not ask for food, not ask for the toilet, nothing.\"\n\nYisrael's aunt, Orit, has been deeply involved in the fight against Lev Tahor\n\nThis was part of life at the group's compound in Guatemala, where the legal age for marriage is 18 for both men and women. Most of Lev Tahor had settled in the Central American country in 2013 after fleeing Canada, where it faced allegations of child abuse. It has denied these claims.\n\nYisrael says his sister could not speak properly after the year-long punishment ended. Such treatments are part of a catalogue of alleged abuses meted out by leaders and those in positions of authority in the group, according to Yisrael and other former members. These reportedly include beatings for minor infractions, with children forced to thank their tormentors for hitting them.\n\nBut, according to Yisrael, there was much worse.\n\n\"I saw every day Shlomo Helbrans [the founder of Lev Tahor] and another leader take boys in their room, boys as young as eight, then afterwards he sent them to the mikveh [ritual bath used for purification]. I didn't understand what he did with them. Now I know.\"\n\nYisrael says boys and girls told him they were sexually abused - and raped.\n\nThe BBC tried to speak to alleged child victims of rape who have left the group, but none were willing to talk. A US-based support group, Lev Tahor Survivors (LTS), told the BBC there are child rape victims among its members, while a source involved in an official investigation says Central American authorities have sworn statements from ex-members that rapes were committed.\n\nShlomo Helbrans (left) founded and led the group until his death\n\n\"Helbrans cast himself as a Messiah-like figure who could do what he liked because he was a holy man,\" says Yisrael. \"He told us he had come from Heaven to 'mend' people and had supernatural powers and his followers believed him.\"\n\nOne of the ways the group exerts control over its members, Yisrael says, is to remove children from their parents and place them with new \"families\". Biological parents are forbidden to have any further contact with them.\n\nThis is what happened to Yisrael. At the age of 12, he was taken from their home in Israel, along with his six siblings, to join the group in Guatemala City by their father, Shaul. Yisrael says Lev Tahor had falsely promised his family that life in Guatemala would be paradise, with animals for the children to play with.\n\nInstead \"it was a complete shock,\" he says. \"Everyone was separated from each other. Children had to sleep on stone floors. We were woken up about 3am every day, then prayers all day long, no food, no water, no talking to other children. If the rabbi [Helbrans] lectured us, it would go on for hours. Sometimes I would fall asleep standing up.\n\n\"Every single thing was controlled. You could only go to the toilet when they said you could.\"\n\n\"We had no education. We did not even study Torah [holiest books of the Jewish Bible] or Talmud [a principal Jewish book of laws] because that would have opened our minds - just Helbrans' writings, which we had to learn by heart. We did not go to sleep until 11pm.\"\n\nThe community based itself in the jungle, isolated from the outside world (surveillance photo)\n\nThe group was covertly watched by an undercover Israeli team and police\n\nYisrael says members were only allowed to eat certain vegetables and fruit. The leaders banned meat, fish and eggs, claiming that they may be affected by genetic engineering. This they said rendered them unkosher (prohibited under Jewish dietary laws). Yisrael believes the real reason was just to keep members weak by depriving them of protein.\n\n\"Helbrans, though, ate everything he wanted - eggs, fish, meat. He said it was for his health, and you weren't allowed to question it.\"\n\nHelbrans died in Mexico in 2017, drowning in a river. His son, Nachman, described in US court documents as \"more extreme\" than his father, took over.\n\n\"When I was taken there as a child, I just knew it all felt wrong but couldn't do anything,\" says Yisrael. \"But later I just knew I had to get out.\"\n\nThat point came when his wife Malke had a baby boy, Nevo, two years after they were married.\n\n\"They knew where you were at all times, but one day the leaders sent me to get something printed in the town [Oratorio, to where the group had moved]. It was an internet store, and I remembered what a computer looked like from when I was a child back home. I didn't know how to use one, so I asked the store owner for help.\"\n\nAfter learning about Google, Yisrael asked the owner to look up Lev Tahor - and was shocked by what he found. \"There were articles about this cult, and it confirmed what I thought.\" Among the results were reports about how his aunt, Orit, back in Israel, was fighting the group.\n\n\"I thought that Orit had forgotten us,\" says Yisrael. \"I didn't know she was doing everything to rescue our family.\"\n\nYisrael found her email address and sent her a message. Orit says she was shocked to get it. They started communicating, with Yisrael returning to the store whenever he was sent on errands. Then using money he had secretly earned, Yisrael bought a mobile phone and rang his aunt.\n\n\"When she heard my voice she was so happy,\" he says with a smile. \"She told me she would come to take me out, and a few days after that I escaped.\"\n\n\"One night I slipped out the gate and ran for 15 minutes through the jungle until I came to a highway. I stopped a bus and it took me to Guatemala City, about two hours away. I was frightened members would come looking for me.\n\n\"Orit was waiting for me but I didn't recognise her, and at first I didn't know whether to hug her because she was not dressed like women in Lev Tahor, where touching the opposite sex [outside of marriage] was strictly forbidden.\"\n\nOne of the hallmarks of the group is its requirement for females from the age of three to wear a full-body cloak, which it argues is for modesty. In public, females are seen to also cover their faces apart from their eyes. The practice has earned Lev Tahor the nickname the Jewish Taliban in media reports.\n\nAt first Yisrael did not want to leave without his son, but Orit promised they would return for the boy, and they left Guatemala for Israel. By then 19, Yisrael had in effect been living an isolated existence for five years and struggled to adjust.\n\n\"I had to start life from zero,\" he says, \"to meet people, to make friends, to even learn the language again - it was very, very difficult.\"\n\nHe and Orit returned to Guatemala several times to try to reclaim Yisrael's son, but to no avail.\n\nThen, last September, following an undercover operation by a four-man team (including former Mossad agents, an ex-police officer and a lawyer) from Israel, an elite police unit raided Lev Tahor's hideout in Mexico's Chiapas state, to where some of the group had relocated.\n\nMembers were forced to live in squalid conditions at the base in Mexico\n\nThe raid had been authorised by a state judge who had examined evidence of criminal activity, including drug trafficking and rape, gathered by Mexico's Special Prosecutor for Organised Crime. This included an order which the BBC has seen from a leader of the group, instructing mothers to kill their children - apparently with poison - if welfare services came to take them away.\n\n\"If some people come to take our children from us… we have to sacrifice lives so the cursed ones will not desecrate the spirit of our pure children… [in] the way it was instructed by our holiness [Shlomo Helbrans] before he died,\" a translation of the document reads.\n\n\"It must be done in a way they [the children] don't suffer… nor disfigure their body… so they [women] will use what we will distribute [which] has to be given to the children immediately… without explaining to them what it is so as not to frighten them.\"\n\nIt then instructs the women to kill themselves after they have killed the children.\n\nChildren were immediately separated from adults as a precaution and the compound emptied.\n\nNevo was among those brought out and was reunited with Yisrael. \"I cried,\" Yisrael says, \"but Nevo was calm. I'm sure he felt that I was his father.\"\n\nYisrael flew back to Israel with Nevo after the boy was released in the raid\n\nMalke was also evacuated but refused to leave the group. She and two dozen others were held at a government shelter, but five days later they escaped. Two leaders arrested on the orders of the state judge on suspicion of human trafficking and serious sexual offences were freed by a local judge.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Members of the group forced their way past guards while making their escape\n\nYisrael's account of abuses by Lev Tahor has not been independently verified, but it parallels testimonies of other former members.\n\n\"I completely deny all the accusations,\" he told the BBC. \"The greatest evidence we have is the words of the [local] judge in Mexico. After hearing all the evidence from A to Z, the judge decisively decided to close the case.\" Mr Goldman said the group was the victim of \"a persecution\".\n\nAlthough the finding by the local judge has not been set aside, a source with intimate knowledge of the case says they were not presented with the evidence gathered by the federal investigator.\n\nAll those who fled from the government shelter in Mexico, as well as the two freed leaders, have returned to Guatemala, according to the source.\n\nSome 8,000 miles (12,000 km) away, Yisrael continues to rebuild his life with Nevo at their new home on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Forbidden from using technology for years, he is now studying computer science at Bar Ilan University, with the aim of becoming a software engineer.\n\n\"After that,\" he says, \"the sky's the limit.\"", "The annual Beargrease Dog Sled Marathon took place this week in the cold and snow of northern Minnesota. After months of training, dogs ran the 300-mile (480km) course.", "John Lydon, sometimes known as Johnny Rotten, said he had wanted to do Eurovision to share his wife's story\n\nJohn Lydon, the former Sex Pistols frontman, has failed in his bid to represent Ireland at Eurovision.\n\nThe 67-year-old had hoped his song Hawaii, about his wife Nora who lives with Alzheimer's, would be chosen \"to bring awareness\" to the disease.\n\nInstead the band Wild Youth was chosen to fly the Irish flag at the song contest in Liverpool in May.\n\nThey're up against 14 other countries who'll be cut down to 10 in a semi-final.\n\nDespite its record seven wins, Ireland has only qualified for the grand final twice since 2013.\n\nSpeaking after their victory was announced, Wild Youth's singer Conor O'Donohoe said: \"I'm shaking, we hope we can do the best job\".\n\nHe and his bandmates have previously supported Lewis Capaldi, Niall Horan and The Script on tour and have been tipped to be the next big band to break out of Ireland for years.\n\nWild Youth are hoping to bring Ireland success for the first time since 1996\n\nThe winner was selected by TV viewers, and national and international juries made up of music experts.\n\nIn the end, the result came down to the public vote as Wild Youth were tied on points with another act, each being backed by one of the juries, but the band edged ahead on the public vote.\n\nLydon's group Public Image Ltd - which he formed in 1978 after the Sex Pistols split - was part of the six acts who performed on Irish TV's the Late Late Show on Friday night.\n\nHost Ryan Tubridy told BBC News it was a \"beautiful reason\" Lydon hoped to represent Ireland.\n\n\"We were talking about how neurologically music can trigger something that allows people to remember,\" he said.\n\n\"He loves his wife and he wants her to be recognised and he wants her disease to be spoken about and eventually cured.\"\n\nDuring rehearsals Lydon told the BBC he was nervous about the prospect of being selected to be the Irish entry, because it would mean more time away from Nora, who's being looked after by family at home in Los Angeles.\n\nAlzheimer's affects nearly one million people in the UK and 55 million worldwide. Numbers are expected to rise significantly over the coming decades.\n\nIn 2022 the first drug to slow down the condition was described as \"momentous\", although its impact will help future diagnosis rather than people with the condition now.\n\nDementia UK said: \"By choosing to share his experience through this competition and his song Hawaii, more awareness can be raised about dementia.\"\n\nThe winners, Wild Youth, appeared shocked on stage as their name was announced as the Eurovision hopefuls.\n\n\"I just wanted to do this because it was something fresh,\" O'Donohoe told BBC News. \"So many people watch it now, it's an amazing competition and it's fun.\"\n\nOnly 10 countries from each semi-final qualify for the Saturday grand final on 13 May\n\nThe United Kingdom is hosting the competition on behalf of Ukraine, who won in 2022.\n\nOn Tuesday Liverpool was handed \"the official keys\" to Eurovision in a handover ceremony which included the semi-final allocation draw.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The rundown of Eurovision the 2023 contest in 50 seconds\n\nWild Youth's We Are One joins a handful of other songs already announced for the song contest this year. In total 37 countries will participate and the broadcasters involved have until late March to confirm their acts.\n\nEurovisioncast is available on BBC Sounds, or search wherever you get your podcasts from.", "Locals in Santiago have been looting beer after the truck carrying it was involved in an accident.\n\nThe vehicle, carrying around 18 tonnes of beer, overturned when it was overtaken.\n\nThere are no reports of injuries.", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen for a week\n\nNicola Bulley's partner has said he is focusing on \"staying as strong as I can\" for their two daughters, a week after her disappearance.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on 27 January.\n\nA major search for Ms Bulley continues, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nPaul Ansell said: \"We're never going to lose the hope. But, right now, it is as though she has vanished into thin air. It's just insane.\"\n\nHe said he \"cannot get his head around\" his partner's disappearance, adding: \"Every single scenario comes to a brick wall. Every single one of them.\n\n\"All we are doing is sitting there going round and round and round, going through every scenario.\"\n\nMr Ansell, 44, said he was focusing on looking after their daughters - aged six and nine - and said \"I don't even want to actually think\" about how he was coping.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"It just seems absolutely impossible', says Nicola's partner, Paul\n\nThanking friends and the wider community, Mr Ansell added: \"The only thing we can take [from the situation] is, you know, that level of support. It's out of this world.\n\n\"It gives us a great amount of comfort, knowing that's going on. We don't have anything else.\n\n\"We're never going to lose the hope. But, right now, it is as though she has vanished into thin air. It's just insane.\"\n\nMs Bulley's friend Emma White described her as \"the most beautiful person\" and \"the kindest soul - she's thoughtful, she's caring.\n\n\"And then you add her and Paul together, add a little bit of magic, and they've created these two beautiful humans who just want to know where their mummy is.\n\n\"They are the most close-knit family. Those poor girls asking questions, 'where's mummy, how is mummy?'\"\n\nNeighbours and friends are desperate to help\n\nMs White also told BBC Breakfast: \"Seven days on, such a tough milestone today for all the family and friends.\n\n\"We're out in force today. We've had banners made, placards with her face, so the idea is that seven days on there might be someone that's passing today that passed last Friday, that might be able to shed that glimmer of hope we need.\n\n\"Anybody with any information to help these guys - we just need something. It's not making sense, we've got no information.\"\n\nLuke Sumner said: \"We're going to do absolutely everything possible to find some information as to where Nicola has gone.\n\n\"The community spirit has been absolutely phenomenal.\"\n\nNicola Bulley's phone was found on a riverside bench, still connected to a work call\n\nMs Bulley, a mortgage adviser, has lived in Lancashire for 25 years but is originally from near Chelmsford, Essex, and has a southern accent.\n\nPolice were alerted to her disappearance when her spaniel, Willow, was found running loose off Garstang Road about 25 minutes after she was last seen by another dog walker.\n\nHer phone was later found on a riverside bench, still connected to a work call.\n\nA harness and lead for her springer spaniel, Willow, was also discovered on the bench.\n\nPolice said officers were keeping an \"open mind\" about what had happened, but did not believe Ms Bulley had been attacked.\n\nNicola Bulley was walking her dog Willow when she disappeared\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The head of the UK's biggest nursing union has urged Rishi Sunak to make a new pay offer to avoid next week's planned strikes in England going ahead.\n\nIn a letter seen by the BBC, head of the Royal College of Nursing Pat Cullen said she was \"appealing directly\" to Mr Sunak for the first time.\n\nCiting pay negotiations in Wales and Scotland, she said a renewed offer or fresh talks could halt the action.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said the action was \"regrettable\".\n\nMonday is thought to be biggest day of strike action in NHS history.\n\nNurses in England and ambulance staff in England and Wales have coordinated action for the first time in an ongoing row about pay and working conditions.\n\nStaff from both services will strike on Monday, and nurses will also strike on Tuesday. Ambulance staff are also poised to take part in walkouts on Friday.\n\nIn a letter to the prime minister, Ms Cullen wrote that a \"meaningful\" pay offer from the government could still avert strike action.\n\nShe drew a comparison with his swift action in sacking Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi after he was found to have breached the ministerial code in relation to his tax affairs.\n\n\"As shown by last weekend's fast-paced changes in Cabinet, big decisions can be made by you at any point in the week in the interests of good government,\" she wrote.\n\n\"I am urging you to use this weekend to reset your government in the eyes of the public and demonstrate it is on the side of the hardworking, decent taxpayer.\n\n\"There could be no simpler way to demonstrate this commitment than bringing the nurse strike to a swift close.\"\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nMr Barclay said while NHS contingency plans are in place, the strikes \"will undoubtedly have an impact on patients and cause delays to NHS services\".\n\nHe said: \"We accepted the recommendations of the independent pay review body to give over one million NHS workers, including nurses and ambulance workers, a pay rise of at least £1,400 this financial year.\n\n\"I have been having constructive talks with unions about what is affordable for 2023/24, and urge them to call off the strikes and come back around the table.\"\n\nThe renewed calls for a government response from the RCN come after Welsh NHS staff suspended strike action following an improved offer from ministers.\n\n\"Yesterday, the Welsh government made an offer of an additional 3% for the current financial year,\" Ms Cullen wrote.\n\n\"Consequently, we cancelled our strike action in Wales for Monday and Tuesday. In Scotland, negotiations continue over additional funding for the current year too and there are no planned strikes.\n\n\"Your government looks increasingly isolated in refusing to reopen 2022/23,\" she said, adding she had made it clear in meetings with England's Health Secretary Steve Barclay \"that opening negotiations and making meaningful offers can avert strike action\".\n\nReferring to the prime minister's comments in an interview this week to mark his 100th day in office - in which he said nurses should be treated as \"an exception\" - Ms Cullen said the prime minister \"appeared to demonstrate a change in tone in respect of the strike by nursing staff\".\n\nMs Cullen urged Mr Sunak to \"use this weekend to reset your government in the eyes of the public\" and show it is \"on the side of the hardworking, decent taxpayer\" by bringing the dispute to an end.\n\nIn England, most NHS staff have already received a pay rise of roughly £1,400 this year - worth about 4% on average for nurses. The RCN is calling for a 19% pay rise, although it has indicated it may meet the government \"halfway\".\n\nUnions representing ambulance workers and physiotherapists also want above-inflation pay rises, but have not specified a figure.\n\nThe government says the demands are unaffordable, and that pay rises are decided by independent pay review bodies.\n\nUnion members in England are planning to strike on 6 and 7 February.\n\nHave you had a medical appointment or operation cancelled due to the strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux has said the motive for the shooting is still not clear\n\nTwo men have been arrested - one of them after a gun battle with police - for the \"cartel-style execution\" in California last month of a family, including a teen mother and her baby.\n\nAngel Uriarte, 35, was wounded in a shootout with police as he was detained and was having surgery, said officials.\n\nNoah David Beard, 25, was taken into custody without incident. Their alleged motive remains unclear.\n\nThe six victims were gunned down on 16 January in the rural town of Goshen.\n\nBoth suspects were detained early on Friday and face six counts of murder and other crimes.\n\n\"I'm happy we were able to put these two men behind bars,\" said Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, adding that Mr Uriarte was expected to survive an exchange of fire with federal agents.\n\nHe added that the suspects and members of the victims' families were known to have a long history of gang violence.\n\nFour generations of one family - ranging in age from 10 months to 72 - were killed in the attack in the San Joaquin Valley.\n\nAuthorities had offered a $10,000 (£8,297) reward for information leading to the suspects' arrests.\n\nMr Boudreaux said the manhunt was known as \"Operation Nightmare\", and it involved around-the-clock surveillance of the suspects and multiple search warrants, some of which included inmates' cells in state prisons.\n\nThe county sheriff said one of the victims, teenage mother Elyssa Parraz, 16, had just days earlier been reunited with her 10-month-old baby, Nycholas Parraz, who had been living in foster care.\n\nThe baby's grandmother and great-grandmother were also among the victims, police and family say.\n\nAt a news conference in January, Mr Boudreaux said the child and mother appeared to have been fleeing the scene, and that forensic evidence showed the killer had stood over the victims and fired at their heads from above.\n\nA few survivors remained at the \"horrific\" scene when officers arrived, he said.\n• None Baby among six killed in possible cartel hit in US", "Alyson Nelson was killed in Whitehead in April 2022\n\nA man is to stand trial in autumn this year for the murder of his former partner in her home in County Antrim.\n\nWilliam Finlay, 67, is accused of killing Alyson Nelson in Whitehead in April last year.\n\nThe 64-year-old former nurse died from a stab wound.\n\nOn Friday Mr Finlay, from Old Forde Gardens in Whitehead, gave a plea of \"not guilty\" when he appeared at Belfast Crown Court by videolink with Maghaberry Prison.\n\nHe is charged with murdering Ms Nelson, with the offence \"aggravated by reason of involving domestic abuse.\"\n\nThe judge then addressed the defence barrister, saying: \"I have seen the defence statements and there's no dispute on behalf of Mr Finlay that he killed Ms Nelson.\n\n\"The issue that he wishes to explore is a psychiatric one - is that right?\"\n\nThe defence barrister confirmed that and said expert reports were being sought to determine Mr Finlay's state of mind \"at the time of the commission of the offence\".\n\nThe barrister also said Mr Finlay sustained a head injury \"years ago\" but the medical reports relating to that \"are out of the jurisdiction\" and are being obtained by defence lawyers.\n\nThe judge set the date for trial as 11 September this year and said he would review the case on 26 May.", "Pilloried around the country, and the world, Liz Truss wants to tell her side of the story\n\n\"Liz was mad but right. Rishi is wrong but competent.\"\n\nThose blunt sentences come from a serving government minister - and they sum up the problem the PM may be about to face. Liz Truss is set to return to the political fray, via a Sunday morning newspaper comment piece, just four months after her rapid exit from No 10.\n\nHer time in charge was a disaster. The financial markets melted. The shelf life of her premiership was compared, in real-time, with that of a wilting lettuce (it outlasted her).\n\nWhy on earth would she want to crawl out from under the duvet - and why would anyone listen?\n\nHere is the official explanation from her camp: \"Liz remains an active politician, keen to draw on more than a decade of experience in government as she contributes to national and international debates on a variety of issues.\"\n\nSo far, so vanilla. Why shouldn't a former prime minister have her say?\n\nBut here's the less official explanation from one of her political pals: ''It's human nature to want to justify what you did.\"\n\nPilloried around the country, and the world, Ms Truss wants to tell her side of the story - to explain what really happened, \"not the fairytales\", as one ally puts it.\n\nIt's worth noting that she's doing so in her own words in the Sunday Telegraph - a newspaper that's broadly sympathetic to her cause - and then in a pre-recorded chat for a podcast later in the week. She is not yet, despite our own invitation and no doubt many others, sitting down for live interviews with no holds barred.\n\nLike many in her tribe, Ms Truss has never been short of that priceless political quality: a brass neck. Despite presiding over what many in the party see as one of the most disastrous political reigns in history, she is expected to argue that, essentially, she was right.\n\nOne ally says \"she doesn't shirk responsibility\" - but she's expected to restate her argument for low taxes and an economic shake-up.\n\nAnd by arguing that she was fundamentally right, the implication is that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is fundamentally wrong.\n\nAnother former cabinet minister and colleague of hers says that \"she reckons the government is not a Conservative [government], it's a social democratic government\". In certain Tory circles, that is the same as saying something very rude indeed.\n\nWill her attempted comeback matter? You might agree with a different government minister, who says \"it won't be troublesome at all, because she was a false prophet\". It might even remind people, they suggest (or hope), of what they see as the madness during her short time in office, and make the public appreciate the relative calm under Mr Sunak.\n\nAnother member of the cabinet is less subtle, telling me: \"She caused economic catastrophe four months ago, to say, 'let's have another go' is nuts.\" They add that \"there are plenty of people in the party who will NEVER forgive her - she never turns up, and nobody cares\".\n\nPolitical parties tend to dislike even a whiff of disloyalty - another minister says that it might be an \"old fashioned view, but former leaders tend to get respect and credit if they are seen to be helping the current one\".\n\nIn other words - Liz, not now!\n\nThere are two reasons why the Conservatives and No 10 can't just shrug off what Ms Truss has to say.\n\nFirst, Rishi Sunak's pitch to the country was to end the chaos and start anew. Whether it's Ms Truss popping up, or Boris Johnson cantering around the world, ghosts of the chaotic Conservative past are never far away. Politics is, at root, a contest to get heard - and clamour from former leaders makes it harder for the man or woman in charge to win.\n\nAnd second, while nobody in the party would argue that Ms Truss went about her mission the right way, there are plenty of Conservatives who feel in their bones that her principles were entirely right. There's already an itchiness on the back benches about Mr Sunak's handling of the economy, and a rising demand for tax cuts that Ms Truss will help fuel.\n\nThe party is not in open revolt, but it's not in a happy place - as I discussed last week when the prime minister marked 100 days in office. Conservative MPs and some business groups reckon that, even with a microscope, it'd be pretty hard to find a convincing government plan to get the economy growing.\n\nLiz Truss didn't have a mandate from the country for the rapid tax cuts she wanted - I well remember the tumbleweed in our studio when we asked her, after days of chaos, how many people had actually voted for her plans.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Politics This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut remember, Conservative members did vote for her - and her ideas. That's why one former minister believes her re-appearance this weekend will cause trouble \"because it will remind members they backed her, not him\" - and that \"the reason he is in power is because his team destroyed the fundamental principle of being a Tory - low tax - our members are still angry\".\n\nIt is of course the public - all of you - not political parties who make the ultimate judgement on our leaders. The verdict on Ms Truss was fast and fierce, her premiership was over in a flash. But what she stood for remains, and can't be dismissed as a terrible political accident.\n\nP.S. While we wait for Ms Truss' words in full, we are waiting too for Downing Street to appoint its next Conservative party chair after the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi. Several different sources whisper that no one wants to do the job - one source tells me it's been suggested to three different MPs who have all said no, another MP says \"no one wants to do it\", not wanting to take the blame for an anticipated battering at the polls in the May local elections.\n\nThe suggestion that the job has been dangled and declined has been emphatically denied by a source involved in the discussions, who suggests the Prime Minister is in no rush and that there hasn't been any formal considerations yet. And with the potential exit of Dominic Raab from government after an inquiry into his behaviour, which could report around the end of the month, No 10 might have to fill not one, but two jobs at the cabinet table - so best to wait.\n\nThe man who was party chair during Truss's eventful time in charge is Jake Berry, who joins us on the show tomorrow.", "Complaints have reached a record high, increasing more than 50% in two years\n\nComplaints made to the Energy Ombudsman by frustrated customers are at a record high, new data shows.\n\nFigures shared with the BBC show 105,340 complaints were received by the Ombudsman in 2022, a jump of nearly 20,000 complaints since last year.\n\nThe data comes as energy suppliers are under scrutiny over their practices, as customers struggle with rising bills.\n\nEnergy UK, which represents suppliers, said the Ombudsman \"plays an important role\" in resolving complex cases.\n\nCustomers can appeal to the Energy Ombudsman to independently examine disputes between them and their supplier if the supplier has failed to satisfactorily resolve an issue.\n\nIncorrect billing, poor customer service and problems with switching suppliers are the main causes of complaint, BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme found.\n\nOf the cases heard, 75% ended up being resolved in the customer's favour.\n\nDuring the past year, energy bills have soared for UK households, deepening the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nThe price hike is principally attributed to the war in Ukraine prompting a reduction in the supply of Russian gas, in addition to the demand for energy skyrocketing after Covid restrictions came to an end around the world.\n\nTo deal with the surge, the government introduced an energy price guarantee which means that the typical household should pay no more than £2,500 (rising to £3,000) in April. This is not an absolute maximum and will vary depending on energy use.\n\nIt also introduced a one-off cost-of-living payment, with all households automatically receiving a £400 discount on their fuel bills, spread over six months between October 2022 and March 2023.\n\nBut data from Which? suggests many UK households are still struggling to keep up with their bills, with some 2.3 million UK households missing an essential payment last month, up from 1.9 million in December.\n\nEnergy suppliers are also facing renewed scrutiny following shocking media reports about the forced installation of pre-payment meters in the homes of vulnerable people.\n\nEnergy suppliers were being given permission to force entry into some of the UK's poorest homes when customers fell behind on bills in order to install pre-payment meters, an i newspaper investigation in December revealed.\n\nPre-payment meters are the most expensive way to pay for energy, with customers' bills increasing by more than £700 in the last year. There are currently more than four million UK households on pre-payment meters.\n\nMore recently, an investigation by The Times found that debt agents for British Gas had broken into homes to fit meters. Following the Times report, energy companies have been asked by the industry regulator Ofgem to suspend the forced installation of pre-payment meters.\n\nJonathan Brearley, the regulator's boss, said he had ordered the review into pre-payment meters to \"uncover poor practice\" and that he would not hesitate to take the \"strongest action in our powers\" where needed.\n\nOn Thursday, Chris O'Shea, the boss of Centrica which owns British Gas, told the BBC: \"There is nothing that I can say that can express the horror I had when I heard this.\n\n\"It is completely unacceptable. The contractor that we've employed - Arvato - has let us down, but I am accountable for this.\"\n\nEnergy UK said, while it \"works tirelessly\" to resolve complaints, its members have seen a fourfold increase in the number of people contacting them.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"With millions of people struggling to pay energy bills as the cost of living soars, more people than ever are contacting their energy supplier for help. Customer service teams have seen a fourfold increase in customer contact and are doing their best to respond to the huge numbers of customers getting in touch - often about complex issues.\n\n\"Our members work tirelessly to resolve complaints themselves. However, where they are unable to come to a resolution with the customer themselves, the Ombudsman plays an important role in making sure complaints can be resolved.\"", "The FTSE 100 stock index has closed at a record high, lifted by investors betting that a weak pound will help UK firms abroad and that the worst of the cost of living crisis has passed.\n\nThe index of the UK's biggest publicly listed companies gained more than 1%, to end the day at 7,901.8 points.\n\nThat was the highest level in almost five years, passing the previous closing record set in May 2018.\n\nThe milestone follows years of the UK lagging other big financial markets.\n\nBut the shares have benefited from a weaker pound.\n\nThat is because the index on the London Stock Exchange has many firms with big footprints overseas. A weak pound makes goods they export cheaper for foreign buyers and helps inflate the value of business done elsewhere.\n\nThe FTSE 250, which includes more domestically focused firms, has yet to return to its 2021 highs.\n\nSuch an emphatic bounceback in the value of our leading shares may seem surprising in the midst of an economic downturn.\n\nBut it is what these companies do - and where they make their money - that counts.\n\nThe FTSE 100 is dominated by banking and energy companies, which have performed relatively well, the latter sharply boosted by higher oil and gas prices.\n\nAnd overall, the bulk of the money earned by companies on the index comes from overseas: earnings which rise in value when the pound falls against the dollar.\n\nIn fact, look at the value of the companies on the index in dollars, and it looks a relative bargain to some investors compared with many other stock markets.\n\nAdding to the optimism too are signs that price rises around the globe have peaked, so could be slowing soon - and so interest rates may soon do so as well, making borrowing cheaper and helping money flow more freely through the economy.\n\nThe renewed momentum in markets may be welcomed by investors - including holders of pension funds. But we're only five weeks into what could be another eventful year.\n\nA pound is worth about $1.21, 11% lower than a year ago, despite recent weakening in the dollar. Sterling is also down 6% against the Euro compared with a year ago.\n\nAnalysts said shares were also buoyed by signs that the economic picture is brightening as inflation - the rate at which prices rise - shows signs of slowing across key global economies.\n\nAJ Bell markets analyst Russ Mould said: \"A lot of the [economic] news seems bad, but markets are saying that was priced in during 2022's heavy mid-year falls, and the bad news is known.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the Bank of England's Andrew Bailey said the recession in the UK was likely to be shorter and less severe than previously thought.\n\nHe also hinted that UK interest rates could be nearing a peak.\n\nThe Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) said it would only raise rates further if it sees evidence of more persistent pressure on the economy from rising prices.\n\nMichael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said that after years of underperformance, the FTSE closing high was a significant moment for UK investors.\n\nHe added that the market could reach new peaks in the coming weeks.\n\n\"Putting the current economic concerns aside, there's every reason to suppose if interest rates remain at current levels, that the FTSE 100 can push on further,\" he said.", "Continuing industrial action is making hospital bosses \"increasingly restless\" and they want the government to find a solution, an NHS chief has said.\n\nNHS Confederation leader Matthew Taylor says it will be difficult to clear backlogs and improve emergency care unless strikes come to an end.\n\nNext week, NHS England will undergo the biggest bout of strikes in its history.\n\nMr Taylor is concerned the NHS coping with strike days so far has nurtured a sense of \"business as usual\".\n\nThe NHS Confederation speaks on behalf of NHS organisations and their 1.5 million employees - including managers running local trusts.\n\nMr Taylor said: \"NHS leaders have managed the impact of the individual strike days very well up until now, but they are growing increasingly restless about the impact this dispute is having on patient care at a time when they have made solid progress to recover services after the pandemic.\"\n\nAnd hospitals this week will face their biggest challenges yet to keep services going.\n\nMonday will see combined industrial action, as members from the Royal College of Nursing will walk out alongside call handlers, paramedics and other ambulance staff - who are members of either the GMB and Unite unions.\n\nThe strike will affect non-life threatening calls only and people are advised to use the 999 service in an emergency.\n\nTuesday will see members of the RCN union go on strike again. The union represents roughly two-thirds of NHS nurses.\n\nThey are taking industrial action over pay, but life-preserving treatment must be provided, and all nurses in intensive and emergency care are expected to work.\n\nNHS physiotherapists across England will go on strike on Thursday over pay and staffing, and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) says 4,200 members are involved.\n\nAnd on Friday, thousands of ambulance staff across five services in England - London, Yorkshire, South West, North East, and North West - are striking.\n\nPay and working conditions are the two main reasons behind the latest bout of industrial action.\n\nThe government says the demands are unaffordable, and that pay rises are decided by independent pay review bodies.\n\nThe NHS Confederation represents NHS organisations and their 1.5 million employees.\n\nIn a BBC interview, Mr Taylor warned that the NHS's steady recovery from the issues caused from the pandemic will be jeopardised if strike action continues. He added that the reasons why the NHS has been able to get through strike action is largely because \"the public seems to hold back from using services\".\n\nHe called on the government and trade unions to be \"pragmatic\" and \"creative\" when they meet for talks.\n\nHowever, he added: \"Even if we had no trade unions, even if we had no industrial action, we would still have 130,000 vacancies in the NHS, we would still have problems in recruiting staff and retaining staff and motivating staff.\n\n\"So I think it falls to the government to recognise that there are genuine issues around pay in the NHS.\"\n\nMeanwhile, most Welsh NHS staff suspended their strike action planned for next week following an improved offer from Welsh government ministers. Because health is devolved in all four nations of the UK, separate deals can be struck.", "Last updated on .From the section Athletics\n\nUK Athletics wants a change in legislation to ensure the women's category is lawfully reserved for competitors who are recorded female at birth.\n\nThe governing body says all transgender athletes should be allowed to compete with men in an open category.\n\nChair Ian Beattie said the governing body wanted athletics to be a \"welcoming environment for all\", but added it had a responsibility to \"ensure fairness\" in women's competition.\n\nHowever, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it was \"disappointed\" UKA chose to publicise \"inaccurate advice\" and questioned its interpretation of the Equality Act 2010.\n\nUKA disagrees with the use of testosterone suppression for transgender women, saying there is \"currently no scientifically robust, independent research showing that all male performance advantage is eliminated\".\n\nUKA added it has seen \"no evidence that it is safe for transgender women to reduce their hormonal levels by testosterone suppression\", and that there is \"insufficient research to understand the effects on transgender women if such testosterone suppression is carried out suddenly\".\n\nTherefore it would instead like to reserve the female category for those who were recorded female at birth and have not undergone transition.\n\nUKA does not believe the 'sporting exemption' introduced in the Equality Act 2010 allows them to lawfully exclude transgender women in possession of a Gender Recognition Certificate from competing.\n\nHowever, the UK government disagrees with UK Athletics' stance that the law does not allow it to ban transgender women from female events on fairness grounds.\n\nIt believes the 2010 Equality Act does allow sports to protect the female category by putting restrictions on the participation of transgender athletes.\n\nThe EHRC agreed, citing section 195 of the act, which relates to sport.\n\nIt states that sporting organisations have an exemption to discriminate on grounds of sex in a \"gender-affected activity\" and discriminate on grounds of gender reassignment where necessary to secure \"fair competition\" or \"the safety of competitors\".\n\nResponding to the UKA statement on Friday, the EHRC said it is \"therefore likely to be lawful for a sporting body or organisation to adopt a trans exclusive policy in relation to gender-based sporting competition where they can evidence that it is necessary to do so in order to secure fair competition or the safety of competitors\".\n\n\"We reached out to UK Athletics and offered to discuss the legal advice underpinning their statement,\" it added.\n\n\"We are disappointed that they have chosen to publicise their inaccurate advice and we would urge all organisations to consult our website which explains equality law and how it relates to these issues.\"\n\nIt is the latest development in a series of sports debating, reviewing and adjusting their transgender inclusion policies.\n\nLast year, British Triathlon became the first British sporting body to establish a new 'open' category in which transgender athletes can compete.\n• None What do the scientists say?\n\nUKA's stance contrasts with that of World Athletics, which has proposed continuing to allow transgender women to compete in female international track and field events.\n\nThe world governing body has said its \"preferred option\" was to tighten the sport's eligibility rules, but still use testosterone limits as the basis for inclusion.\n\nA policy document suggesting the amendments to its transgender inclusion policy has been sent to World Athletics' member federations as part of a consultation process before a vote next month.\n\nWhat has been the reaction?\n\nLGBTQ+ charity Stonewall said it was \"vital\" that sports use \"robust evidence from the actual practice and experience of their sports, when seeking to update inclusion and participation policies\".\n\nStonewall director of communications Robbie de Santos added: \"The scientific evidence base on trans people in sport is developing but is far from conclusive.\"\n\nAccording to 2021 census data, 0.1% of the population of England and Wales identified as transgender men, with the same number identifying as transgender women.\n\nDe Santos said that although the transgender population \"may be small\" they have \"every right\" to participate in and enjoy the benefits of sport.\n\nA Fair Play for Women spokesperson said they were \"pleased\" by UK Athletics' call for a change in legislation.\n\n\"Categories are how we make sport inclusive,\" they said.\n\n\"Categories in sport work by keeping people out, not by letting people choose what category they want to be in.\n\n\"Open and female options means there is a place for everyone,\" they added, citing a 2021 report from the Sports Councils Equality Group (SCEG) that suggested adding 'open' and 'universal' categories to improve transgender inclusion in sport.\n\nUKA chair Beattie said: \"We would appeal to all those engaged in this discussion online to share their thoughts in a way that is respectful of the differing opinions and sensitive nature of the debate.\"\n\nLast week, British shot putter Amelia Strickler claimed World Athletic's revised rules \"would leave women at a serious disadvantage\", while long-distance runner Eilish McColgan said \"a lot more work needs to be done\" around the possible advantages of transgender women competing in elite female athletics.\n\nOther sports have banned transgender women from participating in elite female competition if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty amid concerns they have an unfair advantage.\n\nIn June 2022, World Athletics president Lord Coe welcomed the move by Fina - swimming's world governing body - to stop transgender athletes from competing in women's elite races if they had gone through any part of the process of male puberty, insisting \"fairness is non-negotiable\".\n\nFina's decision followed a report by a taskforce of leading figures from the world of medicine, law and sport which said that going through male puberty meant transgender women retained a \"relative performance advantage over biological females\", even after medication to reduce testosterone.\n\nFina also aimed to establish an 'open' category at competitions for swimmers whose gender identity is different than their sex recorded at birth.\n\nWhile such moves have been praised for protecting female sport, some critics have said these rules are discriminatory.\n\nOlympic diving champion Tom Daley was \"furious\" at Fina's approach, saying: \"Anyone that's told that they can't compete or can't do something they love just because of who they are, it's not on.\"\n\nUS winger and two-time World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe also criticised the exclusion of transgender women in some sports.\n\nThe Rugby Football League and Rugby Football Union also banned transgender women from competing in female-only forms of their games.\n\nIt followed World Rugby becoming the first international sports federation to say transgender women cannot compete at the elite and international level of the women's game in 2020.\n• None Do more expensive AA batteries last longer? Sliced Bread is charged up to find out\n• None Jack Whitehall tells all about the cult sitcom", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe US has shot down a giant Chinese balloon that it says has been spying on key military sites across America.\n\nThe Department of Defence confirmed its fighter jets brought down the balloon over US territorial waters.\n\nChina's foreign ministry later expressed \"strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US's use of force to attack civilian unmanned aircraft\".\n\nFootage on US TV networks showed the balloon falling to the sea after a small explosion.\n\nAn F-22 jet fighter engaged the high-altitude balloon with one missile - an AIM-9X Sidewinder - and it went down about six nautical miles off the US coast at 14:39 EST (19:39 GMT), a defence official told reporters.\n\nDefence officials told US media the debris landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.\n\nThe military is now trying to recover debris which is spread over seven miles (11km). Two naval ships, including one with a heavy crane for recovery, are in the area.\n\nIn a Pentagon statement a senior US defence official said that \"while we took all necessary steps to protect against the PRC [China] surveillance balloon's collection of sensitive information, the surveillance balloon's overflight of US territory was of intelligence value to us.\n\n\"We were able to study and scrutinise the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable,\" the official added.\n\nUS President Joe Biden had been under pressure to shoot it down since defence officials first announced they were tracking it on Thursday.\n\nAfterwards, Mr Biden said: \"They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it.\"\n\nIn a statement a few hours later, the Chinese foreign ministry said: \"The Chinese side has repeatedly informed the US side after verification that the airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure - it was completely an accident.\"\n\nThe discovery of the balloon set off a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately calling off this weekend's trip to China over the \"irresponsible act\".\n\nThe Chinese authorities have denied it is a spying aircraft, and instead said it was a weather ship blown astray.\n\nReacting to the incident, Taiwan's foreign ministry said in a statement: \"The Chinese Communist Party government's actions that violate international law and violate the airspace and sovereignty of other countries should not be tolerated in a civilised international community.\"\n\nChina considers self-ruled Taiwan a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing's control. President Xi Jinping has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this.\n\nBut Taiwan sees itself as independent, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.\n\nPresident Biden first approved the plan to down the balloon on Wednesday, but the Pentagon said it had decided to wait until the object was over water so as not to put people on the ground at undue risk.\n\nGroundwork for the operation was laid when the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly paused all civilian flights at three airports around the South Carolina coast on Saturday afternoon because of a \"national security effort\".\n\nThe coast guard also advised mariners to leave the area due to military operations \"that present a significant hazard\".\n\nAn eyewitness on the coast, Hayley Walsh, told BBC News she saw three fighter jets circling before the missile was fired, then \"we heard a huge boom, the house shook\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOne senior military official told CNN the recovery of debris should be \"fairly easy\" and could take \"relatively short time\". The official added that \"capable Navy divers\" could be deployed to assist in the operation.\n\nDefence officials also revealed on Saturday the balloon had first entered US airspace on 28 January near the Aleutian Islands, before moving to Canadian airspace three days later, and re-entering the US on 31 January. The object was spotted in the US state of Montana, which is home to a number of sensitive nuclear missile sites.\n\nRelations between China and the US have been exacerbated by the incident, with the Pentagon calling it an \"unacceptable violation\" of US sovereignty.\n\nMr Blinken - America's top diplomat - told Beijing it was \"an irresponsible act\" ahead of his now-cancelled trip on 5-6 February - it would have been the first such high level US-China meeting there in years.\n\nBut China sought to play down the cancellation of his visit, saying in a statement on Saturday that neither side had formally announced a plan for a trip.\n\nChina's foreign ministry said Beijing \"would not accept any groundless conjecture or hype\" and accused \"some politicians and media in the United States\" of using the incident \"as a pretext to attack and smear China.\"\n\nOn Friday, the Pentagon said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted - this time over Latin America with reported sightings over Costa Rica and Venezuela.\n\nColombia's Air Force says an identified object - believed to be a balloon - was detected on 3 February in the country's airspace at above 55,000ft.\n\nIt says it followed the object until it left the airspace, adding that it did not represent a threat to national security.\n\nChina has not yet commented publicly on the reported second balloon.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken has said China's decision to fly an apparent spy balloon over the US is \"unacceptable and irresponsible\".\n\nThe top American diplomat has abruptly cancelled a trip to Beijing, which would have been the first high level US-China meeting there in years.\n\nChina earlier expressed regret, saying it was a weather airship that had been blown astray into American airspace.\n\nThe incident comes amid fraying tensions between the US and China.\n\nLater on Friday the Pentagon said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted - this time over Latin America.\n\n\"We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,\" said Pentagon press secretary Brig Gen Patrick Ryder. He provided no further details about the balloon's location.\n\nMr Blinken described the Chinese balloon over the US as \"a violation of our sovereignty\".\n\n\"This is an unacceptable as well as an irresponsible action,\" he said. \"It's even more irresponsible coming on the eve of a long-planned visit.\"\n\nAmerica's top diplomat was set to visit Beijing from 5 to 6 February to hold talks on a wide range of issues, including security, Taiwan and Covid-19.\n\nBut on Thursday US defence officials announced they were tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon over the United States.\n\nWhile the balloon was, the Pentagon said, \"travelling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic\" and did \"not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground\", its presence sparked outrage.\n\nOn Friday, China finally acknowledged the balloon was its property, saying that it was a civilian airship used for meteorological research, which deviated from its route because of bad weather.\n\nA statement from China's Foreign Ministry said that it regretted the incident and would work with the US to resolve the issue.\n\nHowever, the state department official said that while the US acknowledged China's claim about the balloon's purpose, it stood by the assessment that it was being used for surveillance.\n\nAnother trip by Mr Blinken to China would be planned \"at the earliest opportunity\", another senior state department official said, adding that Washington planned to maintain \"open lines of communication\" about the incident.\n\nAnthony Blinken was expected in China on 5 and 6 February\n\nThe official added that the state department had informed close US allies about the violation of US airspace.\n\nIn a statement, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada - the country's foreign ministry - said that it had summoned China's ambassador over the incident and would \"vigorously express\" its position to Chinese officials.\n\nA White House spokesperson said that US President Joe Biden agreed with Mr Blinken that it was \"not appropriate\" to go to China at this time.\n\nMr Biden did not take questions about the balloon following remarks about the US economy on Friday morning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'At first I thought it was a star'\n\nAccording to US officials, the aircraft flew over Alaska and Canada before appearing in the US state of Montana, which is home to a number of sensitive nuclear missile sites.\n\nBy Friday morning, the balloon was moving east \"over the centre of the continental US\" at an altitude of about 60,000ft (18,200m) according to Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder.\n\nKansas Senator Roger Marshall said on Twitter that the balloon was over the north-eastern part of his state early on Friday afternoon.\n\nGen Ryder added that US officials are monitoring the object and reviewing \"options\". He said the balloon - which he described as \"manoeuvrable\" - posed no military or physical threat to people on the ground.\n\nAlthough fighter planes were alerted, the US decided not to shoot the object down due to the dangers of falling debris, officials said.\n\nSeveral Republican lawmakers - as well as former President Donald Trump - have urged the US to down the alleged spy craft.\n\n\"Shoot down the balloon,\" Mr Trump said in a short message on his Truth Social social media platform.\n\nOn Twitter, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that the balloon incident was \"a destabilizing action that must be addressed\".\n\nThe Biden administration must now contend with China \"hawks\" on both sides of the political spectrum.\n\nMontana Democratic Senator Jon Tester said in a statement that he was \"still waiting on real answers\".\n\nSpeaking to CBS, a US official described the payload of the balloon - the attached part from which the alleged surveillance is carried out - as being as large as two or three school buses. The balloon itself is significantly larger.\n\nChinese officials have previously publicly expressed interest in the potential military and intelligence-gathering potential of balloons.\n\n\"Technological advances have opened a new door for the use of balloons,\" an article in the military-run Liberation Army Daily said last year.\n\nIn 2022, Taiwan's defence ministry said it had detected Chinese balloons over its territory.", "A wave overturned a boat in rough seas off the Pacific coast of the US, as the coastguard was attempting to rescue a person on board.\n\nThe boat was about six miles (10km) from land, at the mouth of the Columbia River in the north-west of the country.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nChina has urged \"cool-headed\" handling of a dispute over a giant Chinese balloon heading for the eastern US.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier called off a visit to Beijing, saying the \"surveillance\" balloon's presence was \"an irresponsible act\".\n\nLater the US reported a second Chinese balloon floating over Latin America.\n\nChina expressed regret over the balloon over the US, saying it was a weather airship that had been blown astray. It was last spotted over Missouri.\n\nIt is expected to reach America's east coast near the Carolinas this weekend.\n\nThe US has decided not to shoot down the high-altitude airship due to the danger of falling debris.\n\nThe incident comes amid fraying tensions between the US and China.\n\nIn a statement on Saturday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing \"never violated the territory and airspace of any sovereign country\".\n\nIt said its senior foreign policy official Wang Yi had discussed the incident with Mr Blinken over the phone, stressing that maintaining communication channels at all levels was important, \"especially in dealing with some unexpected situations in a calm and reliable manner\".\n\nIt added that Beijing \"would not accept any groundless conjecture or hype\" and accused \"some politicians and media in the United States\" of using the incident \"as a pretext to attack and smear China.\"\n\nAccording to US officials, the airship floated over Alaska and Canada before appearing over the US state of Montana, which is home to a number of sensitive nuclear missile sites.\n\nThe incident angered top US officials, with Mr Blinken saying he had told Beijing the balloon's presence was \"a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law\" and \"an irresponsible act\". He called it \"unacceptable\" and \"even more irresponsible coming on the eve of a long-planned visit\".\n\nAmerica's top diplomat had been set to visit Beijing from 5 to 6 February to hold talks on a wide range of issues, including security, Taiwan and Covid-19. It would have been the first high-level US-China meeting there in years.\n\nBut on Thursday, US defence officials announced they were tracking a giant surveillance balloon over the US.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'At first I thought it was a star'\n\nWhile the balloon was, the Pentagon said, \"travelling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic\" and did \"not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground\", its presence sparked outrage.\n\nOn Friday, China finally acknowledged the balloon was its property, saying that it was a civilian airship used for meteorological research, which deviated from its route because of bad weather.\n\nAnd late on Friday, the Pentagon said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted - this time over Latin America.\n\n\"We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,\" said Pentagon press secretary Brig Gen Patrick Ryder.\n\nHe provided no further details about its location, but there have been reported sightings over Costa Rica and Venezuela.\n\nChina has so far made no public comments on the reported second balloon.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nCoverage: Watch Scotland and Wales home games live on BBC One; match commentary on Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra or BBC Sounds; live text on BBC digital services; highlights on BBC Two, BBC Sport website and app\n\nOne of the most competitive Six Nations tournaments in recent years begins with a blockbuster day of action on Saturday.\n\nWales, inspired by the return of heroic head coach Warren Gatland, host world number one side Ireland first in a match live on BBC One.\n\nThen Steve Borthwick takes charge of his first game as England boss when Scotland travel to Twickenham.\n\nThe weekend concludes when an improving Italy host defending Grand Slam champions France on Sunday.\n\nHere is all you need to know about the 2023 Six Nations, including where to watch the opening matches and a cheat sheet on each game to prepare for the weekend.\n• None How each team is shaping up for the Six Nations\n\nWhat is the prediction for Wales v Ireland?\n\nWarren Gatland named his squad to face Ireland early because he wanted to \"talk about rugby\" with the Welsh Rugby Union currently mired in allegations of sexism and misogyny.\n\nGatland, who took back the head coach role in December after a successful 11-year stint previously and following a poor 2022 for Wales, has said he wants to win the Six Nations and not just use the tournament to prepare for September's World Cup in France.\n\nThat shows in the experienced side he has selected, with Wales' oldest captain Ken Owens, who is 36, the starting hooker and 37-year-old Alun Wyn Jones in the second row.\n\nLiam Williams was drafted in on Thursday to replace injured full-back Leigh Halfpenny, while 20-year-old centre Joe Hawkins adds some youth on his Six Nations debut.\n\nWales may be buoyed by the fact that they won four Six Nations titles - including three Grand Slams - with Gatland, but Ireland are the form team.\n\nAndy Farrell's side are top of the world rankings and are expecting to compete with Grand Slam champions France for this year's title.\n\nHowever, Ireland have been known to peak at the wrong time before a World Cup - they lost in the quarter-finals in 2019 after starting the year's tournament as world number one.\n\nFarrell points out that Cardiff \"has not been a great hunting ground\", with Ireland's last Six Nations victory there coming in 2013.\n\nIreland are without star prop Tadhg Furlong due to injury. Furlong is replaced by Finlay Bealham, with captain Johnny Sexton fit to start at fly-half and World Rugby men's player of the year Josh van der Flier at flanker.\n• None How to follow the 2023 Six Nations\n\nWhile Steve Borthwick is taking charge of his first Six Nations as England head coach, Scotland counterpart Gregor Townsend may be heading into his last with his contract ending after the World Cup.\n\nThe sides arrive at Twickenham on different trajectories too. England fans, some of whom booed when their team ended a disappointing 2022 with defeat by South Africa, wait with anticipation to see whether Borthwick can turn their fortunes around.\n\nScotland arrive in possession of the Calcutta Cup - the historic trophy the two sides play for in this fixture - and having claimed a first win at Twickenham since 1983 on their last visit to London.\n\nTownsend describes this match as \"the biggest game of our championship\".\n\nDespite Scotland winning their last two Six Nations encounters, England are favourites - but scrum-half Danny Care says: \"I have no idea what is going to happen.\"\n\nWing Ollie Hassell-Collins will make his debut for England, while centre Manu Tuilagi has been left out in favour of Joe Marchant.\n\nIt was previously suggested that captain Owen Farrell would start at fly-half but, with inside centre Henry Slade injured, the Saracens back will take Slade's place and resume his partnership with 23-year-old Harlequins 10 Marcus Smith.\n\nFor Scotland, three-cap back row Luke Crosbie starts and the more experienced Hamish Watson is excluded, with Finn Russell starting at fly-half and Stuart Hogg returning from injury at full-back.\n\nWhat will happen in Italy v France?\n\nItaly return to the Six Nations after winning their first match in the tournament since 2015 against Wales last year.\n\nThey also beat Australia in the autumn, but hosting defending Grand Slam champions and world number two side France is not an ideal start to 2023.\n\nFormer England wing Ugo Monye said on the Rugby Union Daily podcast that \"the Six Nations became whole again\" when Italy won; there had been questions over whether they should retain their place in the tournament.\n\nWith the help of star back Ange Capuozzo, Italy may well create more ripples this year.\n\nA far more star-studded French side will travel to Rome, though, led by captain and scrum-half Antoine Dupont as they seek to become the first men's team to successfully defend a Six Nations Grand Slam.\n\nPredict where the teams will finish at the end of the 2023 Six Nations.\n\nCan't see this selector? Visit this page\n\nHow can I follow the Six Nations?\n\nIn Saturday's opening game, world number one side Ireland travel to Cardiff to face Wales. That will be on BBC One and iPlayer from 13:15 GMT and you can listen on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.\n\nEngland host Scotland in their opener later that day, with that fixture kicking off at 16:45 GMT on ITV and BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\nOn Sunday, Italy welcome France to Rome at 15:00 GMT and that match is on ITV and BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra.\n\nHighlights and analysis of the weekend's games will be on Six Nations Rugby Special, hosted by Ugo Monye, on BBC Two and iPlayer from 18:15 GMT on Sunday.\n\nThe BBC Sport website and app will have live text commentary of all matches and BBC Radio 5 Live will provide insight and analysis on the Rugby Union Daily podcast.", "Andrew Bagshaw, pictured left, and Christopher Parry helped those most in need, according to their families\n\nThe bodies of two British volunteers killed in eastern Ukraine in January have been recovered as part of a prisoner swap with Russia.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff said the bodies of Chris Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 47, had now been returned to Ukraine.\n\nNo indication has been given as to when they will be handed to British embassy staff to be flown home.\n\nThe families of the men said they were killed during a humanitarian rescue.\n\nThe two volunteers were last seen heading to the city of Soledar on 6 January.\n\nMr Bagshaw's family said the pair were attempting to help an elderly woman when their cars were hit by a shell.\n\nSoledar had been the focus of intense fighting and last month Russia's military claimed to have captured the Ukrainian salt-mine town after a long battle. The government in Kyiv disputed the claim.\n\nDespite the continued fighting in Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, Ukraine's chief of staff, said 116 Ukrainian soldiers had been released on Saturday.\n\nHe said released prisoners included defenders of Mariupol, partisans from Kherson and snipers from Bakhmut, as well as two personnel from special operations.\n\nRussia's defence ministry said 63 servicemen had been returned as part of a \"complex mediation process\".\n\nIt said it included people of a \"sensitive category\" thanks to the mediation of the United Arab Emirates, though it did not specify what those people did.\n\nIt is the second prisoner swap carried out between the two countries so far this year.\n\nMr Yermak said Ukraine is continuing efforts to bring everyone home.\n\nMr Parry and Mr Bagshaw had been in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine doing voluntary work.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn a statement issued by the UK Foreign Office last month, Mr Parry's family said his \"selfless determination in helping the old, young and disadvantaged\" in Ukraine had made them \"extremely proud\".\n\n\"We never imagined we would be saying goodbye to Chris when he had such a full life ahead of him. He was a caring son, fantastic brother, a best friend to so many and a loving partner to Olga,\" they said.\n\nThey added that Mr Parry, originally from Truro in Cornwall, \"found himself drawn to Ukraine in March in its darkest hour at the start of the Russian invasion and helped those most in need, saving over 400 lives plus many abandoned animals.\"\n\nScientific researcher Mr Bagshaw was a British national but lived in New Zealand. He had been a volunteer in Ukraine since April.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Bagshaw's family said last month: \"Andrew selflessly took many personal risks and saved many lives; we love him and are very proud indeed of what he did.\n\n\"The world needs to be strong and stand with Ukraine, giving them the military support they need now, and help to rebuild their shattered country after the war.\"\n\nAnother foreign national volunteering in Ukraine, Pete Reed, was killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut - the location of heavy fighting in recent days - on Thursday.\n\nMr Reed, a 33-year-old American volunteer aid worker, was killed \"while rendering aid,\" according to a statement from the humanitarian aid group he founded, Global Response Medicine.\n\nThe UK government has previously warned against all travel to Ukraine, saying there is \"a real risk to life\".\n\nBritish nationals still in Ukraine should leave immediately if it is safe to do so, it added.", "The Rideau Canal, in Ottawa, is the world's longest skating rink\n\nDespite frosty weather this week, the world's longest skating rink will be closed because of a warmer-than-average temperatures.\n\nDuring the colder months, Ottawa's Rideau Canal turns into 7.8km (4.8 miles) of icy fun.\n\nBut the canal in Canada's capital will have its latest start in over 50 years because of this year's mild winter.\n\nTemperatures dropped to -26C (-15F) on Friday, but hovered around -5C (12F) in January and -2C (28F) in December.\n\nUntil this year, the latest canal opening was 2 February, in 2002 - the first and only time the canal had opened as late as February since records began in 1971. Over the past 52 years, the average start date has shifted later and later.\n\nBefore the 1995-96 winter season, the canal would typically open at the end of December. Over the last 26 years, however, the canal has typically opened on 10 January.\n\nThis has been Ottawa's third warmest winter according to records dating back to 1872, Environment Canada told the Ottawa Citizen. Previous record-breakers were in 2001 and 1931.\n\nThe skating season typically starts when a 30cm (1ft) thickness of good-quality ice has formed, according to the National Capital Commission (NCC), the organisation in charge of the canal. That requires about 10 to 14 consecutive days of temperatures between -10C and -20C.\n\nLast year, the NCC partnered with researchers at Carleton University to examine the potential impact of climate change on skating on the canal.\n\nEach year Ottawa, Canada's capital city, hosts a Winterlude festival that celebrates the fun that snow and ice can bring, with tobogganing and ice sculptures, as well as skating along the canal. The annual event, which begins on Saturday, attracts as many as a million people.\n\nBut the canal will not be able to open at the start of this year's festival, which puts a damper on some of the activities.\n\n\"Our teams are working relentlessly to safely open a section of the skateway, flooding the ice surface every evening,\" said Valerie Dufour, a spokesperson for the NCC.\n\n\"The cold snap over the weekend is good news, but we had to deal with mild temperatures and a lot of snow up until now.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Giving the hormone kisspeptin to men and women with low sex drive could help boost their sexual brain activity, two small trials suggest.\n\nScans of participants' brains while they watched erotic videos showed the hormone was able to stimulate key areas linked to sexual desire.\n\nThe UK researchers say kisspeptin has potential to treat a condition that affects up to 10% of people.\n\nBut much larger studies are needed first to confirm their findings.\n\nYounger people are more likely to say low sexual desire is a problem than older people, the Imperial College London researchers say.\n\nNot everyone is bothered by it, but when it becomes distressing, it can have devastating psychological and social impacts.\n\nPeter, not his real name, 43, had suffered with low sexual appetite all his life when he volunteered for the trial.\n\n\"I always had excuses - too tired or too stressed - for not having sex,\" he says.\n\n\"But I couldn't tell partners because I didn't want them to confuse it with a lack of attraction.\"\n\nKisspeptin is a naturally-occurring hormone that stimulates the release of other reproductive hormones inside the body. It plays a crucial role during puberty.\n\nPrevious research found it can stimulate women's ovaries to produce eggs, while it has also been shown to improve mood in healthy men.\n\nThis is the first time it has been tested on people with loss of libido which affects their life.\n\n\"Women and men with low sexual desire find there is too much thinking about performance - they are introspective and that suppresses primal urges so they are not aroused,\" explains co-study author Dr Alexander Comninos, from Imperial College.\n\n\"Kisspeptin restores normal balance so there is less self-monitoring,\" he says.\n\nThe hormone works differently to the drug Viagra, which treats erectile dysfunction by improving blood supply to the penis.\n\nThe studies - of 32 heterosexual men (aged 21-52) and 32 heterosexual women (aged 19-48) - are the first to trial kisspeptin in people with hypoactive sexual desire disorder.\n\nThose taking part were hooked up to a kisspeptin drip and then, on another occasion, to a dummy drip.\n\nTheir mood, behaviour and brain activity were analysed while watching erotic videos in an MRI scanner.\n\nMen also had their penis measured for rigidity at the same time.\n\nPeter says the experience of lying in a scanner while his erection was measured for the trial was \"surreal\".\n\nHe is glad he took part though. \"I'm a dad now. The week I had the dose I conceived my son,\" he says.\n\nNo-one can prove whether that was linked to the hormone or not, but Peter says he feels he \"has more of an interest in initiating sex now\".\n\nKisspeptin was found to improve activity in key brain regions linked to sexual desire in both men and women.\n\nThose who were most distressed by their low sex drive showed the greatest improvements.\n\nAnd penile rigidity increased by up to 56% when men were given kisspeptin compared to placebo, the study reports.\n\n\"Most saw a positive effect in the MRI scanner - which is not a very sexy environment - so maybe at home in the bedroom the effect may be more pronounced,\" Dr Comninos said.\n\nOverall, women said they felt \"more sexy\" during kisspeptin while men reported improved \"happiness about sex\".\n\nThe study in women and the study in men are both published in JAMA Network Open.\n\nThe NHS website says low sex drive is quite common and can be caused by a variety of factors, including relationship problems, stress, erectile dysfunction or vaginal dryness, lower hormone levels during the menopause and tiredness after having a baby.\n\nTaking certain medicines, for example antidepressants, or using certain contraceptives can also have an effect on libido, as can drinking too much alcohol.\n\nSome long-term conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, an underactive thyroid or cancer. can also affect sex drive.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Preston Hemphill had already been suspended while his role was investigated\n\nA sixth police officer involved in the events leading to the arrest of Tyre Nichols has been fired, the Memphis police department has said.\n\nMr Nichols, a 29-year-old father, died in hospital three days after being pulled over and beaten by police.\n\nFive other police officers have already been fired and charged with his murder.\n\nMr Hemphill, who had served in Memphis' police force since 2018, was suspended from the force while he was investigated for his role in the arrest of Mr Nichols. But that information was not made public until Monday.\n\nA police statement released on Friday said that as well as breaking rules relating to the deployment of a stun gun, Mr Hemphill had broken rules of \"personal conduct\" and \"truthfulness\".\n\nA lawyer representing Mr Hemphill, Lee Gerald, told Reuters \"while we disagree with this termination, Preston Hemphill will continue to cooperate with all authorities in the investigation into the death of Mr. Nichols.\"\n\nVideos released by Memphis police last week showed an officer firing a Taser at Mr Nichols after he was pulled from his car during a traffic stop.\n\nMr Nichols managed to escape the scene, before then being caught up and brutally beaten by officers.\n\nFive officers, who are all black, have been charged with Mr Nichols' murder, who was also black.\n\nThree Memphis emergency workers have also been fired for failing to provide adequate medical treatment for Mr Nichols at the scene.\n\nA seventh officer has been suspended but has not been identified.\n\nOther police officers, emergency workers and others who prepared documentation of the incident may also face criminal charges, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said in comments cited by Reuters.\n\nTyre Nichols' death has led to protests and reignited discussion about police brutality in the US.\n\nAt his funeral earlier this week, which was attended by US Vice-President Kamala Harris, his grieving family called for justice and reform.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Kamala Harris says Nichols had a right to feel safe", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nForecasters say the coldest wind chill ever has been recorded in the continental US as an Arctic cold snap freezes a swathe of North America.\n\nThe National Weather Service (NWS) said the icy gusts on Mount Washington in New Hampshire on Friday produced a wind chill of -108F (-78C).\n\nNearly 100 million people across the north-eastern US and Canada are shivering in the frigid blast.\n\nAuthorities warned frostbite could strike in less than 10 minutes.\n\nResidents from Manitoba to Maine are being urged to limit their time outdoors until Saturday in the \"once-in-a-generation\" cold snap.\n\nThe NWS said the actual temperature on the summit of Mount Washington dropped to a low of -47F as of Saturday morning- the coldest ever recorded there by the Mount Washington Observatory.\n\nThe combined effect of wind and cold is also expected to bring some of the lowest wind chill temperatures since the 1980s in the New England state of Maine, as well as in Quebec and parts of eastern Canada.\n\nPower companies were expecting historic levels of energy consumption into Saturday morning during the coldest period.\n\nBoston is under a cold emergency. Public schools have been closed in the city, as well as in nearby Worcester and in Buffalo, New York.\n\nNew York City - which could see wind chills as low as -10F (-23C) - has enacted an emergency designation that allows the homeless to go to any shelter to seek warmth.\n\nNor were the Midwestern states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio spared by the freezing temperatures.\n\nParts of Canada were expecting temperatures as low as -58F. An extreme cold advisory issued by Environment Canada on Friday morning blanketed the Maritimes, most of Quebec and all of Ontario, spilling into Manitoba.\n\nIn Toronto, the wind chill plunged the temperature to -29C (-20F) on Friday.\n\nForecasters predict temperatures will rebound by the end of the weekend.\n\nThe drop in temperatures is attributed to a powerful Arctic front that stretches from the Canadian maritime provinces to the core of the US.\n\nThe brutal winter weather follows this week's deadly ice storm in parts of Texas, where temperatures have begun to climb above freezing, and ice was expected to melt on Friday.\n\nAt least 11 people have died in the bad weather in the US south since Monday. There were eight fatalities in Texas, two in Oklahoma and one in Arkansas.\n\nMore than 250,000 people were still without power as of Friday night in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and New York, according to poweroutage.us.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The Swan River flows through Perth and Fremantle\n\nA 16-year-old girl has died after being attacked by a shark while swimming in a river in Western Australia.\n\nShe was pronounced dead after being pulled from the Swan River in the city of Fremantle, near Perth, on Saturday.\n\nIt is believed the girl, from Perth, was riding jet skis with friends on the river when the incident happened.\n\nInsp Paul Robinson, from Western Australia Police, said it was possible the girl had jumped in the water to swim with dolphins seen nearby.\n\nHe described the incident as \"very, very traumatic\" and the family of the girl was \"absolutely devastated by the news\".\n\nPeople have been urged to take \"additional caution\" and to abide by any beach closures.\n\nFisheries experts say it is unusual to find sharks in that part of the river, Mr Robinson said.\n\nThis is believed to be the first fatal shark attack in the Swan River since a 13-year-old boy was killed in January 1923.\n\nAustralia typically records about 20 shark attacks each year, with most in New South Wales and Western Australia.\n\nThere were two fatal shark attacks in 2021, and seven in 2020.\n\nHistorically, dying from a shark bite is not common. In more than a century of records, Australia's shark attack mortality rate is 0.9 - less than one person per year.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nDuhan van der Merwe's late try gave Scotland back-to-back wins at Twickenham for the first time, turning Calcutta Cup history on its head with a stunning Six Nations victory against a spirited England.\n\nAfter Huw Jones and Max Malins traded scores, Van der Merwe scored an individual try that will go down in Six Nations history to take Scotland ahead again.\n\nEngland stayed patient and were rewarded as Malins finished off a well-worked team try before Owen Farrell's penalty put them one point up at half-time.\n\nBen White kept Scotland within one after Ellis Genge's try, before Farrell and Scotland fly-half Finn Russell traded penalties to leave the score at 23-22 with 10 minutes left.\n\nA sensational attack followed, allowing Van der Merwe to score another and make Scottish wins at Twickenham almost as regular as Glastonbury after claiming the first in 38 years in 2021.\n\nSteve Borthwick's England showed fight and contributed to an electrifying match, but they could not give their head coach victory in his first game in charge as Scotland won the Calcutta Cup for the third time in a row.\n• None More to come from Scots, says emotional Townsend\n• None England have to go through pain to grow - Borthwick\n\nFor so long the Calcutta Cup had been a predictable fixture thanks to England's dominance, but with Scotland winning the past two and given Borthwick's lack of time with his side there was a sense of the unknown at Twickenham.\n\nThe stage was set and all 46 players involved duly delivered one of the most entertaining matches Twickenham has seen in some time.\n\nEngland had been booed by some supporters after losing to South Africa here in November and looked desperate to never hear that noise again.\n\nTheir desire was personified in a physical performance and Scotland responded with a cunning and fleet-footed backline.\n\nAfter a period of dull kicking - long forgotten in the breathless closing minutes - it was the latter that worked first as the risky inclusion of Jones in place of Chris Harris at 13 paid off early.\n\nJones went through a gap and later sprinted on to a kick from Sione Tuipulotu to claim his fifth try in five Six Nations fixtures against England.\n\nBorthwick's England regime already looked on the precipice, but Malins' sensational take of Marcus Smith's kick to score was the sigh of relief the hosts needed.\n\nThey did not always look to have the clarity Borthwick has promised, but at times England did play with freedom.\n\nThat freedom was nothing in the face of Scotland's belief.\n\nIn one for the history books, Van der Merwe sliced through England's defence, flying around five tacklers to cover half the pitch and score.\n\nMalins scored a second thanks to an overlap created by smart work from his team-mates, and Farrell landed his penalty on the half-time whistle to take England 13-12 up at the break.\n\nThe fans at Twickenham got their money's worth from the first half alone and few would have predicted what was to follow in the next 40 minutes.\n\nEngland continued to fight for everything, dominating an early scrum after having the worst-performing pack in tier one in 2022.\n\nThe forwards were to thank for Genge's try too, as the hosts went back to basics and battered their way over the tryline after a line-out.\n\nAnother moment of individual Scotland magic turned things around once more. White sniped around Ben Curry off a ruck and found England's defence again wanting to get over.\n\nWhite was another selection risk taken by Townsend as he left the more experienced Ali Price on the bench - and it was another one that paid off.\n\nRussell's conversion cut England's lead to one point once more, but the home fans were calmed as the hosts seemed in the ascendancy.\n\nFarrell's penalty put his side four points up and Scotland looked more hesitant until Russell's boot cut the lead again to reignite his team.\n\nScotland must find the consistency they have lacked in previous tournaments if they are to compete for the title, but one thing is for certain: Twickenham holds no fear for them.\n\nEverything suddenly clicked in the visitors' attack and they flowed closer and closer to the tryline before Van der Merwe eventually found enough space on the wing to give voice to the travelling fans.\n\nDuhan van der Merwe's first try might have been enough to earn him man of the match, but the second definitely sealed it.\n\n'A monstrous win for Scotland' - what they said\n\nFormer Scotland captain John Barclay on Radio 5 Live: \"That was some game. I cannot wait to watch it back. There is so much to admire in how both teams have played.\n\n\"In the build-up we knew it was going to be tight. I didn't see that on week one with the players throwing the kitchen sink at it like that. That is a monstrous win for Scotland.\"\n\nFormer England scrum-half Matt Dawson on 5 Live: \"There are positives to take away from the England performance.\n\n\"However, there were opportunities that I would expect senior international players to be making in the last knockings of the game. Whether that's drop goals, discipline, territory. If you are going to win a Test match you have to do that.\"\n\nFormer Scotland prop Peter Wright on BBC Radio Scotland: \"Scotland's attack functioned at the right times. Van der Merwe's two scores were outstanding.\n\n\"Defensively, having so little possession, they were solid. It was a great steal to win it at the end.\"\n\nScotland have won four and drawn one of the past six encounters with England. They have not lost at Twickenham since a 61-21 defeat in 2017.\n• None Do more expensive AA batteries last longer? Sliced Bread is charged up to find out\n• None Jack Whitehall tells all about the cult sitcom", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen for almost a week\n\nThe family of missing Nicola Bulley have made an emotional appeal for her safe return, with her sister insisting \"people don't just vanish into thin air\".\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, last Friday morning.\n\nSpeaking to Sky News, Ms Bulley's sister Louise Cunningham said it felt like they were \"stuck in a nightmare\".\n\nDetectives earlier said they had found a potential witness.\n\n\"We're going round and round in circles trying to piece together what could have possibly happened,\" Ms Cunningham said.\n\nLancashire Police earlier released a CCTV image of a woman who was walking a small white dog in the area.\n\nShe had since been identified, the force said.\n\nOfficers previously said the woman, who was captured on CCTV at about 08:50 GMT on Allotment Lane, close to where Ms Bulley was last seen, might have information to help the investigation.\n\nA major search involving police divers, drones, a helicopter and sniffer dogs has been continuing, but no trace of Ms Bulley has been found.\n\nHer sister added: \"We just want her home, we need her home, her children need her home. It's absolutely heartbreaking.\"\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, 44, said the family was living in \"perpetual hell\" with two girls \"desperate to have their mummy back\".\n\nPolice were alerted after Ms Bulley's dog was found running loose off Garstang Road about 25 minutes after she was last spotted by a witness.\n\nHer phone was later found on a bench, still connected to a work call.\n\nA harness and lead for her springer spaniel, Willow, was also discovered on the bench.\n\nPolice said officers were keeping an \"open mind\" about what happened, but did not believe Ms Bulley had been attacked.\n\nThere is nothing to suggest any third party involvement in Ms Bulley's disappearance, the force added.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said: \"We know that Nicola going missing has caused a great deal of concern for the wider local community, as well as obviously being an awful time for her family.\n\n\"I appreciate that there are unanswered questions about what has happened to Nicola, but I would urge people not to speculate or spread false rumours.\"\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on the bench (top left) where police continue to search\n\nMs Bulley's parents earlier told the Mirror that her two daughters, aged six and nine, who she had just dropped off at school, were \"sobbing their hearts out\" because \"mummy is lost\".\n\nA key witness, who was walking a white fluffy dog in the area, was located and spoken to on Tuesday.\n\nSpecialist search teams from Lancashire Fire and Rescue and police scour the River Wyre\n\nA woman called Amanda said she and her husband saw Ms Bulley and her dog shortly before she disappeared.\n\n\"It is a lady that comes on [the walk] every day. The dog you see every day. I believe there has been a telephone left,\" she said.\n\n\"Just an absolute mystery. Can't explain it.\"\n\nNicola Bulley has been missing since she took her dog for a walk on Friday morning\n\nAnother woman in the area told the BBC she had seen the dog moments after it was found.\n\nShe recognised the spaniel and knew who it belonged to, adding that it was \"bone dry\" and showed no signs of having been in the river that morning.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Tesla's Elon Musk has been cleared of wrongdoing for a tweet in which he said he had \"funding secured\" to take the electric carmaker back into private ownership.\n\nShareholders argued he misled them with his posts in August 2018, and they had lost billions of dollars because of them.\n\nIf found liable, Musk could have been ordered to pay out billions in damages.\n\nIt took the nine jurors less than two hours to reach their verdict on the class-action lawsuit on Friday afternoon.\n\nMr Musk - who had wanted the trial moved to Texas, where Tesla is based, arguing he could not get a fair trial in San Francisco - welcomed the outcome.\n\nTaking to Twitter, the social media platform he bought for $44bn last October, he posted: \"Thank goodness, the wisdom of the people has prevailed!\n\n\"I am deeply appreciative of the jury's unanimous finding of innocence in the Tesla 420 take-private case.\"\n\nCentral to the lawsuit was Mr Musk's tweet on 7 August 2018: \"Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.\"\n\nThe plaintiffs also argued Mr Musk had lied when he tweeted later in the day that \"investor support is confirmed\".\n\nThe stock price surged after the tweets, but fell back again within days as it became clear the deal would not go through.\n\nAccording to an economist hired by the shareholders, investor losses were calculated as high as $12bn, after many made decisions about buying and selling their shares based on the tweet.\n\nThe US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Mr Musk over his tweets, accusing him of lying to investors. Mr Musk agreed to step aside as Tesla board chairman and settled for $20m.\n\nDuring the three-week trial, Mr Musk - who also leads SpaceX and Twitter - had argued he thought he had a verbal commitment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund for the deal.\n\nDuring his nearly nine hours on the witness stand, the world's second-richest man said: \"Just because I tweet something does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly.\"\n\nShareholders had argued that \"funding secured\" suggested more than a verbal agreement.\n\nAlthough Tesla's share price shot up after the tweet was posted, Mr Musk also questioned whether his tweets had any effect on Tesla's share price.\n\n\"At one point I tweeted that I thought that, in my opinion, the stock price was too high... and it went higher, which is counterintuitive,\" he said - arguing the effect his tweets have on the stock price can be unpredictable.\n\nMr Musk said he eventually scrapped the plan to take Tesla private after his discussions with smaller investors led him to believe they would prefer that the firm remain publicly traded.\n\nHe was not in court when the verdict was read, but he was present during closing arguments earlier on Friday as duelling portraits were drawn of him by the rival legal teams.\n\nNicholas Porritt, a lawyer for the Tesla shareholders, said: \"Our society is based on rules. We need rules to save us from anarchy. Rules should apply to Elon Musk like everyone else.\"\n\nMr Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, said: \"Just because it's a bad tweet doesn't make it a fraud.\"\n\nAfter the verdict, Mr Porritt said: \"We are disappointed with the verdict and are considering next steps.\"\n\nMr Musk was generally calm during his testimony - though at times he appeared annoyed at the line of questioning.\n\nThere were also times of levity. After a lawyer representing shareholders accidentally called Elon Musk \"Mr Tweet\", Elon Musk promptly changed his name on Twitter to the same moniker.\n\nSeveral Tesla directors also testified, including James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch. They testified that Mr Musk did not need the Tesla board to review buyout tweets.\n\nSecurities fraud lawyer Reed Kathrein called the tweet about taking Tesla private \"as concrete a statement of taking a company private as there can be\", and said the not guilty verdict was \"a travesty to investors and the securities laws\".", "Andrew Tate speaks to reporters as he leaves Romania's anti-organized crime and terrorism directorate.\n\nAn alleged victim in the case against online influencer Andrew Tate appears to have told prosecutors that she was forced to earn a minimum of €10,000 (£9,000) a month on social media platforms, under the threat of physical violence.\n\nThe testimony, which appears in a leaked court document seen by the BBC, says \"the alleged victim continued working to a strict schedule… staying live on TikTok for 12 hours with only a five-minute break\", with the defendants \"forcing her to earn a minimum of €10,000 a month and threatening to beat her if she didn't perform her job\".\n\nThe document also outlines the witness's fear that the group would publish intimate videos and photos of her if she tried to quit, as she says they did in the case of another woman.\n\nAndrew Tate and his brother Tristan are being held in preventive custody in Romania while police investigate allegations of human trafficking and rape, which both men deny.\n\nTwo Romanian women and close associates of theirs, Georgiana Naghel and Luana Radu, are also being held alongside them.\n\nThe leaked document from the Romanian court, which contains more detailed allegations than publicly available court statements, also describes debts being used as \"a form of psychological coercion\" by the group.\n\n\"So-called 'fines' were imposed by the defendants if the girls did not post on OnlyFans,\" the document claims, with one witness owing \"at that time, the sum of €4,000.\"\n\nIn a separate piece of testimony, another witness describes working on the TikTok and OnlyFans platforms for several months in 2021 without a contract, on a schedule set by one of the defendants, saying that she was allowed to keep 50% of her earnings, with the remaining 50% divided between the Tate brothers and their alleged manager.\n\nShe also alleges she was not allowed to leave the location unless accompanied.\n\nSome of the alleged victims \"den[y] any form of exploitation by the four defendants\", the court says, but \"these statements do not reflect reality, as... the victims of human trafficking do not always recognise the fact that they have been enslaved and exploited\".\n\n30 December 2022 - Court rules Tate brothers will stay in detention for 30 days\n\n1 February 2023 - Appeal against extension is rejected by judges\n\nProsecutors believe that Andrew Tate used \"the lover-boy method\" of recruiting women, appearing to offer them the chance of a serious and committed relationship, before coercing them to produce pornographic material for online sites.\n\nThe defendants are due to remain in custody until 27 February. No charges have yet been brought against them.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"You know I'm innocent\" - Andrew Tate yells to reporters", "Former Justice of the Peace Robin Cantrill-Fenwick quit after six years\n\nA magistrate has said he quit after being left unable to check vulnerable people were being protected when energy firms sought warrants to force-fit prepayment meters.\n\nRobin Cantrill-Fenwick said changes to the court system meant magistrates \"were doing nothing more than rubber stamping\" warrants.\n\nHe said the lack of scrutiny is putting vulnerable households at risk.\n\nThe energy regulator made the announcement after The Times exposed how debt agents for British Gas had broken into vulnerable people's homes to fit meters. Ofgem has also opened an investigation into British Gas.\n\nEnergy suppliers can apply to a court for a warrant to force-fit a prepayment meter for customers in arrears.\n\nHowever, they are required to have exhausted all other options first and should not do so for vulnerable customers such as the elderly and those with young children.\n\nMr Cantrill-Fenwick, a former Justice of the Peace, told BBC Newsnight: \"When I started, the energy companies would come to court and we would be able to question the applicant.\n\n\"We could establish whether there might be young children in the premises or people who were clinically vulnerable. We could, and would sometimes, decline a warrant.\"\n\nBut in 2019, a new online and telephone application system for magistrates came into force. And while the number of warrant applications jumped the number of refusals plunged.\n\nIn 2019, warrant applications reached 278,966 and 1,824 refusals were granted, according to the Ministry of Justice. In 2022, applications for warrants hit 367,140 and there were just 56 refusals.\n\n\"Over time the process changed. Rather than looking at individual applications, we would just get a list of addresses,\" said Mr Cantrill-Fenwick.\n\n\"The person applying on behalf of the energy company would read out a template statement saying 'we've done our job' and there was nothing we could do.\"\n\nHousehold energy bills have soared in recent months, firstly as economies reopened following Covid shutdowns and then as Russia's war in Ukraine caused disruption to global supplies.\n\nHigher energy prices have pushed up inflation which in the UK stood at 10.5% in December, close to a 40-year high.\n\nMr Cantrill-Fenwick said: \"Energy companies are making far too many warrant applications when they should only be used very exceptionally.\"\n\nCaroline Flint, former shadow energy secretary who now chairs the Committee on Fuel Poverty, said that while she would welcome a change in the law allowing forced installations: \"I think the courts need to look to themselves on this as well.\"\n\nShe said: \"From the reports that I've read, it does suggest that the information that is being given by the energy [firms] to the courts - which is to assure them that they have gone through the processes of trying to work with these families and showing due diligence - that due diligence hasn't been followed.\n\n\"I think there is a question about just how these warrants seem to be being waved through.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Judicial Office said: \"Magistrates deal with cases based on the evidence and the relevant legislation. The only applications that are dealt with in bulk are ones that are uncontested.\n\n\"Individuals who wish to contest or challenge an application still have the opportunity to have their case considered by magistrates.\n\n\"If an application is contested, the warrant will not be granted by the magistrate and the magistrate will list the case for a contested hearing to determine whether or not it should be granted.\"\n\nMr Cantrill-Fenwick, who is a member of the Liberal Democrats, had been a magistrate for six years before stepping down in August.\n\n\"If you are a person who is in acute financial distress and a court is going to consider granting power to enter your home, you want to know that the court has given it serious consideration, and none of that is true anymore,\" he said.\n\n\"I simply got to a point, I just couldn't imagine going into a court and putting my signature to one of those warrants. We were doing nothing more than rubber stamping.\"\n\nA few months ago, Sarah (not her real name), who has long-term health problems and mobility issues, woke up in bed to the sound of men's voices.\n\n\"It was just terrible, I was so scared,\" she told Newsnight. \"I thought someone had broken in to take something. I went downstairs and there were two men in my living room and more outside.\"\n\nThe men were installing a prepayment meter on behalf of her energy company after she had fallen behind on her bills.\n\n\"Now even when the doors are locked, I don't feel like I'm safe,\" she said. \"I just think someone else is going to come into my house. It feels like it was invaded.\"\n\nSarah wanted to be anonymous because she doesn't want her energy company to know who she is so Newsnight has not been able to put her claims to them. She is also ashamed about how much she is struggling financially.\n\n\"I can't work because of my health problems and it's getting harder and harder to pay bills,\" she said.\n\n\"A lot of people may be in a good position income wise, but life doesn't always come that way for some. We don't deserve to have strangers come into our homes.\"", "Lord of the Bins collects household, building and office waste across East and West Sussex\n\nA waste collection firm in Brighton has been told by lawyers for the Lord of the Rings franchise to change its name.\n\nLord of the Bins collects household, building and office waste across East Sussex and West Sussex.\n\nNick Lockwood and Dan Walker, who run the company, said they were contacted by Middle-earth Enterprises, who own the worldwide rights to The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.\n\nThe pair said they faced the prospect of spending thousands to rebrand.\n\n\"Middle-earth Enterprises has sent and is enforcing a cease and desist, claiming we're in breach of their trademarks,\" Mr Lockwood said.\n\n\"They claim customers could think they were endorsed by or affiliated to Lord Of The Rings. But anyone in their right mind knows we're a completely separate and non-competitive business.\"\n\nThe company also claimed they were ordered to ditch their slogan, One Ring to Remove It All.\n\n\"We now have the prospect of spending thousands of pounds and effort rebranding, to appease a multi-billion pound company,\" Mr Lockwood added.\n\n\"We will survive this storm and continue providing a great service for our city, whatever our name.\"\n\nMiddle-earth Enterprises has been approached for comment.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "A young Princess of Wales is pictured in the garden, alongside the description: 'with Dad, by Mum'\n\nThe Princess of Wales has shared a new photo of herself as a baby and urged others to do the same, as part of her newly launched early years campaign.\n\nShaping Us, about the importance of early childhood and the impact it can have on later life, has been described as the princess's \"life's work\".\n\nOn Saturday, Catherine tweeted a photo of her as a baby with her father.\n\nShe said baby photos encouraged people to talk about childhood and prompted \"smiles and memories too\".\n\nCatherine, mother to three young children, shared the image of herself reaching out to touch her father Michael Middleton's face, alongside the caption: \"Faces are a baby's best toy.\"\n\n\"This weekend, we'd love for you all to spend time with your friends, families, colleagues and communities talking about your early childhoods and how they've shaped your lives,\" the princess wrote, in a series of tweets.\n\n\"I hope you'll also consider joining me in sharing a picture of yourselves before your fifth birthday to help with those conversations and to share some smiles and memories too.\"\n\nThe early years initiative aims to increase public awareness of the significance of the first five years of life, in terms of the future physical and mental well-being of adults.\n\nRoyal sources say the Princess of Wales had been struck, while carrying out royal duties, by how often people's difficulties in areas such as mental health and addiction had their origins in their early years. This led to her decision to champion the importance of a happy and healthy start in life.\n\nLaunching the campaign earlier this week, she wrote in an open letter that not enough attention is paid to how children's first five years profoundly shape \"the adults we become\" and that she is determined to change that.\n\n\"It's like building a house - without strong foundations, without this sort of solid start in life, then those building blocks are much harder to build later on in life,\" she told radio presenter Roman Kemp, in a video recorded last month and posted on YouTube.\n\n\"The importance of having healthy and strong relationships in a child's life is really critical\" she said, adding that \"raising children today is tough... [but] love goes a long way\".\n\nMembers of the public and celebrities shared their baby images in response to the princess's message - with many people praising the initiative and commenting on how alike Prince Louis is to the young Catherine.\n\nPresenters Fearne Cotton and Zoe Ball, chef Jamie Oliver and footballer Harry Kane were among those who posted a picture of themselves, capturing them in their early youth.\n\n\"Possibly the age I started to cultivate my own style and love of clothes and definitely the age I started to get super passionate about art and creativity,\" wrote Cotton, who has been a prominent backer of the Shaping Us campaign.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by fearnecotton This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRadio 2 DJ Ball shared an image of herself with her dad, presenter Johnny Ball, saying: \"My Dad was, and still is a great storyteller and bedtime stories with him were often my favourite part of the day.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post 2 by zoetheball This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd alongside a picture of himself in roller skates, Oliver wrote that he counted himself lucky for his happy childhood \"growing up in his mum & dad's pub\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jamie Oliver This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nPolice searching for a missing mum who vanished while walking her dog have traced a witness they wanted to speak to.\n\nNicola Bulley, 45, was last seen a week ago walking next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nLancashire Police believe she may have fallen in the river.\n\nOn Saturday, police released an image of a potential witness who was seen in the area at the time.\n\nThe force began a search to track down a woman seen wearing a yellow coat and pushing a pram, who was walking on Garstang Road and Blackpool Lane on 27 January.\n\nLater that evening, the force wrote that it was \"pleased to say that the woman came forward very quickly\", stressing that she was \"very much being treated as a witness\".\n\n\"[The woman] was one of many people in St Michael's on Friday, 27 January,\" Lancashire Police wrote in a Facebook post.\n\n\"Our enquiries to find Nicola are extensive and will include speaking to as many members of the public as possible.\"\n\nMs Bulley was last seen walking her dog, Willow, near the River Wyre after dropping her two children off at primary school.\n\nThe spaniel was found about 25 minutes after Ms Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at approximately 09:10 GMT.\n\nDetectives have also made a fresh appeal for drivers who might have dashcam footage from the area where Ms Bulley was last seen to come forward.\n\n\"It is really important that we gather as much footage as possible from the area that morning, so we can review every piece meticulously to establish whether Nicola can be seen,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nA major search for Ms Bulley has been continuing, involving police divers, drones and a helicopter - but as yet, nothing has been found to explain her disappearance.\n\nPolice said their \"working hypothesis is that she has fallen into the river for some reason\", adding there was \"no evidence\" of anything suspicious.\n\nSupt Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, told The Sunday Times that officers found \"no evidence of a slip or fall\" near the bench where Nicola's mobile phone was found but said falling from a sheer riverbank may leave no trace.\n\n\"I think if it had been a sloping bank, a common-sense view would be that you would expect to find scuff marks,\" Supt Riley said.\n\n\"If it is sheer and you lose your footing, you might not have any marks left on the grass. All of that has been subjected to a detailed search.\"\n\nMs Bulley's sister, Louise Cunningham, has urged people to \"keep an open mind\" about what might have happened, insisting there was \"no evidence whatsoever\" that she had fallen into the river.\n\nIn a post on Facebook, she said: \"Please keep sharing my Nikki\", adding that suggestions she had fallen into the river were \"just a theory\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Bulley's friend Emma White: \"We've still got a missing piece of the jigsaw\"\n\nMs Bulley's friend, Emma White, told The Sun police were working on extracting data from Ms Bulley's Fitbit watch.\n\n\"The Fitbit had not been synced since Tuesday,\" she said, adding: \"The police are trying other ways to try to get information from it.\"\n\nEarlier, she told the BBC: \"We still have no evidence and that's why we're out again in force.\n\n\"You don't base life on a hypothesis, do you? You absolutely can have hypotheses, but then you need something to back that hypothesis up to become factual.\"\n\nDetectives said they were \"as confident as we can be that Nicola has not left the field where she was last seen, and our working hypothesis is that she has fallen into the river for some reason\".\n\n\"Our investigation remains open and we will of course act on any new information which comes to light.\"\n\nThey said that social media speculation and abuse aimed at some people assisting the investigation was \"totally unacceptable\".\n\n\"We would urge people to remember that we are investigating the disappearance of Nicola, and the priority is Nicola and her family. We want to find her and provide answers to her family.\"\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, said he would \"never lose hope\" of finding her.\n\nPolice have urged locals to look out along the river for clothing that Ms Bulley was last seen wearing.\n\nThis included an ankle-length black, quilted gilet jacket, a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat, black jeans, green walking socks, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace and the Fitbit, which is pale blue.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has fired a government aide who made derogatory remarks about LGBT couples.\n\nMasayoshi Arai reportedly said he would not want to live next to, or look at, people in same-sex relationships.\n\nMr Arai also warned that permitting gay marriage in Japan would lead to many abandoning the country.\n\nMr Kishida said the remarks were \"outrageous\" and \"completely incompatible\" with his government's policies.\n\nJapan - a country still largely bound by traditional gender roles and family values - is the only G7 nation that does not recognise same-sex marriage.\n\nA number of same-sex couples have also filed lawsuits across Japan in recent years arguing that the ban on same-sex marriage violates the country's constitution.\n\nPrior to Mr Arai's dismissal, Mr Kishida had talked about issues surrounding same-sex marriage in parliament.\n\nHe stated that it needed to be carefully considered because of its potential impact on traditional family structures.\n\nThe resignation comes as Fumio Kishida's approval ratings have plummeted in recent months\n\nMr Arai reacted to the remarks afterwards, telling reporters that he \"wouldn't like it if [LGBT couples] lived next door\" and \"doesn't even want to look at them.\"\n\nHe added that it would \"change the way society is\" and \"quite a few people would abandon this country,\" according to Kyodo News.\n\nIn response, Mr Kishida said he had dismissed Mr Arai, adding: \"We have been respecting diversity and realising an inclusive society.\"\n\nMr Arai later apologised, stating that his remarks were not appropriate and were not representative of the prime minister's views.\n\nHis resignation represents a further blow to Mr Kishida, whose government has seen plummeting approval ratings after a number of his ministers have resigned over various scandals in recent months.", "A jury has been shown harrowing footage of emergency service attempts to save two children who had been stabbed.\n\nThe children's mother is charged with murdering her eight-week-old son and attempting to murder his two-year-old sister in July 2021.\n\nThe woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, accepts she stabbed the children but denies the charges.\n\nOn Friday Belfast Crown Court was shown bodycam footage from police officers who attended the scene.\n\nIn the footage, a police officer is seen performing CPR on the baby on the floor beside the woman.\n\nShe is heard saying: \"Come on little (child's name). I'm so sorry.\"\n\nShe also said \"it's his fault\" several times.\n\nThe woman was seen being arrested for murder and attempted murder.\n\nIn the footage she is seen covered in blood with what police described as \"superficial\" wounds to her neck and hand.\n\nShe is filmed telling officers she used a knife to stab her children and that the knife is on top of a bed.\n\nThe woman also asks them to locate a black book in the kitchen where she said she \"wrote everything down\".\n\nPolice officers then take her to the Mater Hospital in Belfast for treatment.\n\nFootage was also shown of desperate attempts by police officers to get the toddler to hospital for treatment.\n\nOfficers are seen carrying her out of her home, wrapped in a blood-stained blanket.\n\nThe child is heard screaming while an officer repeatedly tells her \"you're OK sweetheart, you're OK\", as they drive at speed to get medical assistance.\n\nBoth children were taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where the baby was later pronounced dead.\n\nThe court also heard from paramedics who attended the scene.\n\nSpeaking to the court about the toddler, one paramedic said: \"Everything that could be done was done.\"\n\nAnother paramedic who treated the baby said: \"Every effort was made to preserve the baby's life.\"\n\nThe defendant cried in the dock throughout today's evidence.", "On 15 February, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced she was standing down after eight years\n\nOn the face of it, the tide of Scottish independence has turned. With Nicola Sturgeon's resignation, a formidable champion of Scottish statehood leaves the stage.\n\nThe movement - famous for the discipline with which it enforced party unity - is visibly divided, caught up in a series of rancorous culture wars. The broad coalition that Sturgeon built up over years - from working class ex-Labour voters to an energetic community of LGBTQ activists - may be in danger of fragmenting.\n\nThe pro-Union parties are poised. Labour has most to gain. As the prospect of independence recedes into the distant future, will former Labour supporters drift back, pinning their hopes on a Keir Starmer victory in the UK?\n\nNicola Sturgeon's departure seems like a defeat for a movement that has been on the rise for a quarter of a century.\n\nSo the urgent question now is this: Has the forward march of an independent Scotland been turned back? Does the independence ambition end with her leadership?\n\nI've been reporting on the independence question, on and off, for more than 30 years. In 1992, I spent the night of the general election at SNP headquarters in Edinburgh. The party was expecting an electoral breakthrough - perhaps 10 or 12 seats in the House of Commons - after more than a decade of increasingly unpopular Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher and John Major.\n\nBut as the night wore on and Major edged his way to an overall majority, the SNP's confident anticipation turned to despair. The party won just two seats. I became uncomfortably aware that I was the only person in the room who wasn't a party supporter. I felt as though I was intruding on private grief.\n\nTwenty-three years later, on election night 2015, I was a guest at the home of a prominent Labour-supporting family. When the BBC flashed the exit poll at 22:00, predicting (accurately as it turned out) a virtual Labour wipe out in Scotland, and an SNP landslide, the shock in the room was intense. I was intruding again, I thought, on private grief.\n\nWhat happened, in the years between those two moments, that allowed the independence movement to breach the walls of Labour's Fortress Scotland and sweep through all but three of the country's parliamentary constituencies?\n\nI have been watching, over the course of my adult lifetime, a long, slow generational pivot away from the robust, secure unionism of the Scotland I grew up in.\n\nI have a clear sense of what we have been pivoting away from - just not what kind of Scotland we are pivoting towards.\n\nFor me, there is something more telling than the rise of nationalist sentiment, and that is the story of what has happened to the Union itself, to pro-Union sentiment, and to the way Scots have thought about their place within the Union.\n\nIt is the story of the falling away, over decades, of much of what it has meant to be British in Scotland.\n\nI grew up in Galloway in the rural south west of Scotland. In the 70s, when I was a child, a sense of British identity seemed unassailable. Even when our constituency returned a Scottish Nationalist MP to Parliament in 1974, one of 11 elected that year, few people saw their victory as a serious threat to the long-term viability of the Union.\n\nFor back then, Scotland was a very British country. The economic landscape was still dominated by the great Victorian heavy industries of coal, steel and shipbuilding. The working-class communities they sustained were huge and had proud civic identities.\n\nThose industries were also pan-British enterprises, shared across the four nations. If you were a miner in Fife you were connected, in a community of shared interests and aspirations, with miners in Yorkshire and South Wales. You were in the same trade union, with its pantheon of working-class heroes who'd led the struggle for better wages and safer workplaces. The sense of belonging was powerful.\n\nScottish Nationalists campaigning in Motherwell, which was dominated by the steel industry, would be told on the doorstep: \"But I work for something called British Steel. It pays a decent wage, gives me job security, five weeks holiday and a pension at the end. Are you going to unpick all of that?\"\n\nThose communities were bedrocks of British identity in Scotland, as well as of Labour solidarity.\n\nA miner at Baads Colliery to the west of Edinburgh, 1962\n\nIn the 1980s and 1990s those industries were swept away. One of the great socio-economic pillars on which British identity had sat crumbled to dust as those communities, over time, fragmented and dispersed, and their old industries slipped, with each decade that passed, further into the middle-distance of collective memory.\n\nAfter Sturgeon's resignation, I went back to Glenluce, the village I grew up in. I walked past my childhood home. My grandparents had lived in the same street - not far from where my great-great-grandparents had raised their children in the 19th Century.\n\nWhen they thought of the world, they didn't think of Paris or Berlin or Rome; they thought of Cape Town and Bombay, of Singapore and Melbourne. They had relatives who had settled in the parts of the world that were coloured British Empire pink on the map. When letters arrived from some distant sun-dappled place, the stamps carried the familiar, unifying face of the British monarch.\n\nTo those generations, the British Empire was what bound Scotland into the Union. It was a huge, shared British enterprise, built upon a set of values that people across the nations of the United Kingdom broadly shared. We might be radically rethinking the legacy of Empire in our own day, but to them, the experience of Empire was a powerful sustaining force of British identity in Scotland.\n\nAllan Little in the village of Glenluce where he grew up\n\nMy parents were born in the 1930s. They lived as children through World War Two and grew into adulthood in a world in which the UK enjoyed immense moral standing.\n\nAt the age of 17, my father joined the RAF. He watched the 1953 Coronation on an air base in West Germany, alongside other young men from Bangor and Belfast and Birmingham. The shared Britishness of their young lives was as natural as the air they breathed.\n\nThe British Empire would come to an end when they were in their 20s and 30s, but their generation were heirs to a new kind of Britain - the cradle-to-grave welfare state, the new NHS, full employment, social housing (I was born in a council house). But there was something else new for families like ours - a chance that their children would one day make it to university or college. And, in my family, we did.\n\nThat post-war Britain was also built on a set of values that were shared across the nations of the United Kingdom; values that achieved cross-party consensus and which prevailed for 40 years.\n\nMy generation entered adulthood in the 1980s, at a time when the post-war settlement appeared irrevocably broken down and when the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, offered a bold and radical new vision of Britain's future.\n\nIt was, by her own definition, a plan to roll back the frontiers of a state that was outdated, and collapsing under its own weight.\n\nFor nearly two decades, the United Kingdom as a whole returned Conservative governments under Thatcher and then Major. But Scotland never embraced Thatcherism - and Conservative electoral fortunes declined until, in 1997, there wasn't a single Tory MP left in Scotland.\n\nIn these decades, a long slow divergence in political aspirations took place, with England (particularly the south of England) and Scotland voting for different kinds of Britain. This divergence would resume in 2010. When Gordon Brown's Labour government lost the election of that year, due to a swing to the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in England, none of Scotland's Labour MPs lost their seat, and many were elected with strengthened majorities.\n\nIf the Union had always been at its strongest when it was built on shared values, those values now started coming under strain.\n\nWhen I was a child, public representations of Scottish identity seemed bizarre. On TV, we had the White Heather Club - women in white frocks and tartan sashes dancing impossibly complicated reels and strathspeys; men in kilts playing accordions and singing kitsch songs about exile and nostalgia. It was caricature and had no connection to lived experience.\n\nAndy Stewart, host of the long-running BBC variety show The White Heather Club, with musician Alistair McHarg in 1959\n\nBut in the 70s and 80s, slowly, that representation of Scottishness began to be eclipsed. Scottish culture was speaking increasingly in its own voice. Much of it was coming from a cohort of young working-class people who'd been (like me) the first in their families to get a college or university education. And a lot of it was explicitly left-wing.\n\nIn the 1980s, Labour responded to this shifting social, political and cultural climate, by embracing an idea that had traditionally divided the Labour movement - a Scottish Parliament.\n\nThat experience of being governed, through the Scottish Office, by a party that had repeatedly lost elections in Scotland, changed public opinion. Opposition leaders began to argue not just against specific government policies in Scotland, but about the very right of Westminster to impose them. The policies lacked democratic legitimacy because they had, the argument ran, been repeatedly rejected by Scots at the ballot box.\n\nIn 1997 when Tony Blair's New Labour came to power, Scotland voted by a majority of three to one to establish a Scottish Parliament. Devolution was the biggest transfer of legislative power from Westminster since the Act of Union in 1707.\n\nAnd in that tumult, the SNP - long seen as a relatively marginal force - began to reinvent itself, and more crucially, reinvent the independence prospectus. Under Alex Salmond's leadership, the party moved away from its traditional appeal to the politics of national identity - the flag, the literature, the culture and symbols of national sentiment - and towards the politics of social justice. It presented itself to the Scottish electorate as a modern, mainstream European social democratic party.\n\nThe independence cause began to converge with the cause of social justice and greater equality. This made the SNP a threat to Labour's dominant position in Scotland. And, though it took a long time, the SNP began to win elections by appealing to traditional Labour voters and by enthusing the young.\n\nThis realignment of political allegiances happened under Salmond's leadership. But no-one embodied it more fully than Nicola Sturgeon, from a working class Ayrshire background, who had also been the first in her family to go to university.\n\nNicola Sturgeon at the launch of the SNP's 1999 Holyrood election manifesto\n\nWhen I was reporting on the referendum campaign of 2014, few of the young people who energised the Yes movement wanted to talk about nationality. They wanted to talk about fairness, about the injustices of the growing levels of economic inequality that seemed to them to characterise the UK.\n\nIn 2014, Brown was among the first in Labour to see that many of the party's traditional voters were planning to vote Yes. It was the start of a landslip. Many Labour voters jumped ship to vote Yes, and then, the following year, to help the SNP to its astonishing landslide.\n\nThough the Yes movement lost the referendum decisively, the experience changed the political map. The old left-right divide that had defined Scottish politics for a century was replaced: the new fault line was independence.\n\nThe Yes movement brought support for independence to 45% - with nearly 85% of the electorate voting, the highest turnout in Scottish electoral history.\n\nBetter Together \"No\" campaign banners spray painted with \"Yes\" graffiti near Dundee, in August 2014 before the referendum\n\nIt is striking that, for all her popularity and the admiration she commands, eight years after Sturgeon assumed the leadership of that movement, the dial has hardly moved. Support for independence still hovers just below 50%.\n\nWhy has the unpopularity of Brexit not led to a decisive surge in support for independence? Why did the deeply unpopular premiership of Boris Johnson not change the numbers? And if Sturgeon - probably the most gifted champion of Scottish statehood the movement has ever produced - hasn't been able to build a sustained majority for independence, what chance will her successor have?\n\nThe movement she hands over is a cultural as well as a political phenomenon. The idea that an independent Scotland will be a fairer society than the United Kingdom is its core belief.\n\nLGBTQ rights are also at the heart of the movement. But Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform Bill opened up a bitter divide in her own party and threatens to split wide open the broad coalition that has been key to the SNP's success.\n\nWomen's rights protesters outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, February 2023\n\nThe Bill had cross-party support in the Scottish Parliament: Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens and even some Conservatives all backed it. But powerful voices in Sturgeon's own party bitterly denounced it, including the MP Joanna Cherry; the leadership contender Ash Regan, who resigned from the Scottish government to oppose it; and Kate Forbes, the finance secretary, who said she would have voted against it had she not been on maternity leave at the time.\n\nBut most concerning for the independence cause, opinion polls suggested Scots were not in favour of many of the measures in the Bill. For once, Sturgeon's radical instincts and convictions, which have so often in her career walked hand-in-hand with public opinion, have collided with it.\n\nSo this may be a turning point for the independence movement. The era of Salmond and Sturgeon, which transformed the fortunes of the SNP and redrew the map of Scottish and UK politics, is over.\n\nIts signature project - to secure an independence referendum by winning elections - appears to have run into a dead end. Nicola Sturgeon proposed turning the next UK general election into a de facto referendum. An SNP victory would be taken as a mandate to open independence negotiations with Westminster. Few, even in her own party, thought this a viable proposition. The next leader will have to offer independence supporters a credible alternative route to Scottish statehood.\n\nIs there an alternative route? Many commentators think that if support for independence rises to, say, 60% or more and stays there for a sustained period, then a UK government will, in the end, be unable to deny a second referendum indefinitely.\n\nDrill into those opinion polls that show support for independence hovering somewhere around 50%, and look at the age demographics. The young remain overwhelmingly in favour of independence - by more than 70% in some age groups. There is even strong support among the middle-aged.\n\nIt is only in my own age group, the over 60s, the cohort that still has personal memories a Britain built on a set of shared values and a sense of purpose held in common, where the Union retains commandingly solid majority support.\n\nThis leads many nationalists to believe time is on their side - that the fruit of independence is ripening on the tree of age demographics and will one day fall into their lap.\n\nNothing is inevitable - the young grow older - but those polls suggest that the long, slow generational pivot away from British identity in Scotland has not been reversed. And that is a long-term challenge the Union will have to meet if it is to survive, whatever direction the SNP takes under its new leader.", "Australian firm Recharge Industries has bought the defunct battery maker Britishvolt out of administration.\n\nBritishvolt had planned to build a £4bn battery plant near the Port of Blyth in Northumberland but it collapsed last month after running out of money.\n\nIts downfall was blamed on a lack of battery experience, proven technology, customers and revenue.\n\nRecharge Industries has in many ways a similar profile - it is a start up with little manufacturing experience.\n\nThe Australian company is ultimately owned and run by a New York-based investment fund called Scale Facilitation.\n\n\"What we are bringing is validated technology,\" the fund's Australian chief executive David Collard told the BBC.\n\n\"The US defence industry has validated it and it is already supplied to the UK navy through a subcontractor.\"\n\nThe new owners will keep the Britishvolt brand name but have very different plans for the future.\n\nThe company intends to start by focusing on batteries for energy storage and hopes to have those products available by the end of 2025.\n\nIt then intends to produce batteries for high-performance sports cars.\n\nThe prospect of a much-needed plant that can produce batteries for high-volume carmakers in the UK looks many years off.\n\nBut does Mr Collard understand why many in government and the automotive industry are nervous that it won't deliver what UK industry needs without involvement from major manufacturers like Ford, GM, JLR and BMW?\n\n\"They all started somewhere before they became big. We've got accelerated growth and have been successful all along the way,\" he said.\n\nRecharge Industries certainly has big ambitions. It is planning to build a similar plant in Mr Collard's hometown of Geelong, near Melbourne. He has spent time fostering relations with government and opposition leaders there.\n\nHe conceded he hadn't made the same level of connections in the UK yet, but had engaged with the owners of the Northumberland site.\n\n\"I spent a lot of time with Northumberland County Council. They genuinely want a gigafactory and the best thing for their people,\" he said.\n\nMr Collard conceded he might not be the right person to deliver that.\n\n\"I'm not saying I'm the best person in the world to run this project, but at the end of the day the administrators had a legal obligation to get the best return for creditors. But I do think they care, as individuals, what the future holds.\"\n\nThe deal comes just days after the Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove announced £20.7m in funding for Blyth.\n\nThe administrators of Britishvolt, EY, said the company had been sold for an undisclosed sum, with its remaining employees transferring to Recharge as part of the deal.\n\n\"The sale of the business will help to support the development of technology and infrastructure needed for the UK's energy transition,\" it said.\n\nBritishvolt's collapse, with the loss of more than 200 jobs, had been seen as a blow to the government's \"levelling up\" agenda instigated by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nThe government had offered £100m to the former Britishvolt owners if they hit certain construction milestones.\n\nMr Collard said he would happily accept government funding but wanted broad political support. \"Anyone will take free money but at the end of the day what we want is bi-partisan support and we have that in Australia and the US.\"\n\nHe described the site as \"shovel ready\" but said it would be six to 12 months before the first shovel would be used on site.\n\nUltimately, he hopes the site will create up to 8,000 jobs on site and in the supply chain.\n\nThat would be a great outcome for the region and the UK economy but this project does not seem to be the answer yet to the UK's pressing car battery needs.\n\nThe UK currently has only one Chinese-owned battery plant, which is next to the Nissan factory in Sunderland.\n\nThere are 35 plants planned or already under construction in the European Union.", "The boy has been charged with driving offences\n\nA 14-year-old boy has been charged after a car crashed into a house in Derby.\n\nDerbyshire Police said the crash occurred in Grampian Way, close to the Swallowdale Road roundabout, at 02:30 GMT on Saturday.\n\nOfficers had just begun pursuing the vehicle after it was taken from a nearby property.\n\nThe boy is accused of aggravated vehicle taking, driving without a licence, and driving without insurance.\n\nThe boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is due to appear at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court on Monday.\n\nPolice said the crash happened after an officer spotted the VW Sharan, which had been taken from Stenson Road.\n\nAfter a pursuit \"of a matter of seconds\", the car crashed into the house.\n\nAssessment of the structural integrity of the buildings is ongoing\n\nThe boy was arrested at the scene and taken to hospital as a precaution, but was not found to be seriously injured.\n\nPolice initially said structural engineers had found the house was so badly damaged, it would need to be demolished along with the adjoining home.\n\nThe force later clarified that was not the case, with assessments ongoing \"as to the structural integrity of the buildings\".\n\nThe section of Grampian Way remains closed following the crash, and the public has been urged not to approach the homes \"due to the danger they pose\".\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Laura Kuenssberg asks Dominic Raab if he is a bully\n\nDeputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has said he would resign if an inquiry finds he has bullied civil servants.\n\nA senior lawyer is investigating eight complaints of bullying against Mr Raab, who was appointed deputy prime minister and justice secretary last October.\n\nWhen asked if he was a bully, on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Raab replied \"no\", saying he had always \"behaved professionally\".\n\nHe told Sky News \"if an allegation of bullying is upheld, I would resign\".\n\nSpeaking on the BBC, Mr Raab said: \"I am confident I behaved professionally throughout​.\"\n\nAsked whether there should be \"more plain speaking in politics\", he replied: \"Yes, absolutely.\"\n\nIt was right for ministers to \"challenge assumptions and test ideas\" when working with civil servants, he added.\n\nAntonia Romeo, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, has spoken to the Tolley investigation, the BBC understands\n\nThe bullying complaints relate to Mr Raab's previous periods as justice secretary and foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, and his time as Brexit secretary under Theresa May.\n\nIn November the prime minister appointed Adam Tolley KC to investigate the allegations of bullying against Mr Raab.\n\nAt least three senior civil servants who worked with Mr Raab have given evidence to the inquiry into his behaviour as witnesses.\n\nThe BBC has found that other civil servants who allegedly planned to file complaints did not after learning they would have been identified to Mr Raab as part of Mr Tolley's inquiry.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Raab said he would \"learn lessons as we go\" over his dealings with civil servants.\n\nBut added: \"I think for the lion's share of the time civil servants and ministers work very effectively together.\"\n\nDave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union - which represents civil servants - dismissed Mr Raab's comments.\n\nMr Penman told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show: \"The picture he paints is that everything is fine in the civil service and the relationship between ministers and civil servants is OK.\n\n\"That's not the picture civil servants speak of, that's not their experience.\"\n\nThe FDA has found one in six civil servants had seen unacceptable workplace behaviour by a minister in the past year.\n\nThe findings came from the union's annual survey of senior civil servants, which also found 69.3% of respondents said they had no confidence in the current complaints system.\n\nThe survey was conducted over four weeks leading up to 13 January and had 650 respondents. The headcount of the senior civil service is around 7,000.\n\nBoth Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for Rishi Sunak to suspend Mr Raab during Mr Tolley's investigation.\n\nThe prime minister has said he will wait for the outcome of the inquiry before taking any action.\n\nMr Sunak has been under pressure to explain what he knew about the allegations before reappointing Mr Raab as to the cabinet.\n\nIn November, the prime minister repeatedly declined to say whether he had informal warnings about Mr Raab's behaviour before bringing him back into government.\n\nMr Tolley is not expected to report his findings for several weeks and the prime minister will decide the justice secretary's political future when the investigation concludes.\n\nPrivately, many Conservative MPs, including ministers, have told the BBC they fear the allegations could yet cost Mr Raab his job.\n\nMr Raab was justice secretary and deputy prime minister when Boris Johnson was succeeded by Liz Truss.\n\nShe sacked him, but he was reappointed to those roles when Mr Sunak entered Downing Street in October.\n\nMr Raab previously served in the cabinet as foreign secretary from 2020-21 and Brexit secretary in 2018.", "The boy was found with a stab wound in the residential area of Gladdis Road in Bournemouth\n\nA 13-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder after another teenager was stabbed.\n\nThe teenager, 14, was found with a single stab wound in Gladdis Road, Bournemouth, on Wednesday evening and taken to hospital in a critical condition.\n\nHis injuries are no longer thought to be life-threatening.\n\nThe case has been referred to the police watchdog over previous contact with the 14-year-old.\n\nDorset Police said three local teenage boys - one aged 14 and two 15-year-olds - had also been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.\n\nThe force also appealed for two men who were travelling in a pick-up truck and flagged down officers at the scene to get in touch, as it is thought they may have witnessed the stabbing.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The storm, which is expected to weaken, is one of the strongest to hit the western US state\n\nMass power outages, flooding and the closures of both motorways and beaches are affecting California as a rare winter storm sweeps the US state.\n\nMore than 120,000 people - many of them in the Los Angeles area - are without electricity after days of fierce winds.\n\nThe main north-south motorway on the West Coast, Interstate 5, remains shut in the mountainous section known as the Grapevine.\n\nThe storm, which is due to weaken, is one of the strongest to hit the state.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Saturday, all beaches were closed for several hours due to lightning strikes in LA County, the authorities said.\n\nThere were also reports of flights grounded in the region.\n\nA man jogs on Venice Beach, Los Angeles, before beaches were shut\n\nThe National Weather Service (NWS) warned of heavy rains and thunderstorms over Southern California, in its bulletin just after 20:00 GMT on Saturday (12:00 local time).\n\n\"As the front moves inland, snow will move over the Northern Intermountain Region and into Northern California on Sunday morning,\" the NWS said.\n\nResidents of the state capital of Sacramento have been warned to avoid travel from Sunday to Wednesday with rain and snow starting up again.\n\nIn Oregon, California's northern neighbour, a state of emergency was declared in one county as a precaution. The authorities said this would ensure the necessary resources and equipment could be quickly allocated if later requested.\n\nSo far there have been no reports of any storm-related deaths or serious injuries.\n\nEarlier this week, snowflakes were seen falling in Los Angeles, a city famed for its palm trees and sun-kissed boulevards.\n\nLocal residents were seen marvelling at the unfamiliar sight of a snow flurry around the Hollywood sign on Mount Lee.\n\nAnd San Francisco broke a 132-year record low temperature for 24 February, dipping to 39F (4C) on Friday morning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Scott Adams's comic strip is known for its satirical office humour, where engineer Dilbert is the main character\n\nMany US newspapers including the Washington Post have dropped the long-running Dilbert cartoon strip after its creator made racist comments.\n\nIn a video on YouTube, Scott Adams, who is white, said black Americans were part of a \"hate group\" and that white people should \"get the hell away\" from them.\n\nMr Adams, 65, later acknowledged that his career was destroyed.\n\nHe said most of his income would be gone by next week.\n\nDilbert has been a mainstay of the funny pages of America's newspapers, and features a put-upon office worker and a talking dog, who together take aim at the fads of corporate culture.\n\nAmong those media outlets that have dropped the Dilbert cartoon strip are the USA Today network, which operates dozens of newspapers, and the Los Angeles Times.\n\nHis comments were made in response to a survey conducted by the firm Rasmussen Reports in which people were asked to agree or disagree with the phrase: \"It's OK to be white.\"\n\nThe phrase is believed to have emerged in 2017 as a trolling campaign and has since been used by white supremacists.\n\nAccording to the poll, 53% of black respondents agreed with the statement, but 26% disagreed and others were not sure.\n\nMr Adams said that those that disagreed were a \"hate group\".\n\n\"I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people… because there is no fixing this,\" he said.\n\nDilbert - which is written and illustrated by Mr Adams - was first published in 1989.", "Linda (right) said she enjoyed dancing the night away with her friends\n\nA woman with terminal cancer who decided to throw a party rather than have a funeral said she had \"the best night\" of her life.\n\nLinda Williams, 76, from High Wycombe, \"hates funerals\" and wanted to be able to \"dance the night away\" with her friends instead.\n\nAfter being diagnosed with terminal cancer a year ago, she started organising the party.\n\n\"I had an absolute blast,\" the former Tai Chi instructor said.\n\n\"I've never been to a good funeral, they're miserable things, so I decided I wanted a celebration of my life,\" she said.\n\n\"I nearly died two weeks before it so I had a cardboard cut-out made just in case but I was able to be there with all my friends.\"\n\nLinda organised for a cardboard cut-out to be made for her party in case she died before it\n\nMs Williams has always loved Spitfires - her parents were both in the RAF and she grew up near their base in Walters Ash, where she used to see the planes flying over her house.\n\nShe started writing a bucket list when she was diagnosed and number one was a flight in a Spitfire. It was \"absolutely crazy, fantastic and more than I ever wished for\", and her son followed behind in a chaser plane, she said.\n\nLinda and her friends before her Spitfire flight\n\nNext up was the 1940s-themed party, which was held in October, that featured six performances, a raffle, a union jack cake and spam sandwiches.\n\n\"I themed my party around The Battle of Britain, which felt perfect because the 1940s were all about pulling together, when you have nothing, and sacrificing to keep your freedom,\" she said.\n\nShe dressed as a Spitfire pilot and wore a parachute tied to her back, as if she had just jumped out of the plane. The 124 guests had to use the code word enigma to gain entry to the party.\n\nLinda says she loves the sound of the engine of the Spitfire\n\nHowever, Ms Williams nearly did not make the big event after her health deteriorated.\n\n\"I very nearly died just before it but I thought 'I am going to flipping well get there'. I just decided I would go for it and everybody had a phenomenal time,\" she said.\n\nLinda had to sleep for two days following her party as she used so much energy on the dance floor\n\n\"I was so excited I got there at 6pm, it didn't kick off until half seven. My legs were swollen but I still managed to dance all night and I had lots of lovely cuddles,\" she said.\n\n\"I didn't leave until one in the morning, I was high on adrenaline, and I slept for nearly two days after.\"\n\nMs Williams said she was so grateful to her friends for organising the party. She met many of them at a Lindy Hop dance class she started attending at the age of 69.\n\nLinda (left) said she wanted to thanks her friends for helping organise the party, including Jo (right)\n\nOne of them, Jo Oxlade, said it was fantastic to be involved in planning such a unique celebration.\n\n\"Linda was very clear with us from the start that this party would go ahead whether she was here or not,\" she said.\n\n\"She said 'if I'm there on the night I want this song, but if I have died I want a different song' so we had very clear instructions.\n\n\"She is just an amazing and inspiring person who we are lucky to be friends with.\"\n\nLinda and her friends share a passion for the 1940s\n\nA few months ago, Ms Williams decided she had \"had enough of hospitals\" and made the decision to be cared for at home by nurses from the charity Rennie Grove Hospice Care.\n\nMs Williams credits her \"wonderful\" nurses with keeping her alive long enough to attend the party.\n\n\"They saved my life on that occasion, which meant I could attend my own party celebrating friendship, camaraderie, and the joy of dance,\" she added.\n\nFiona O'Neill, a senior hospice at home nurse, said: \"Lin is such a fighter, she made sure that she pulled through and made it to her party. She always sees the positive in life and is a real pleasure to care for.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The new stamps depict a man resembling Russian President Vladimir Putin being flipped during a judo match with a young boy\n\nUkraine has issued postage stamps featuring a mural by renowned UK graffiti artist Banksy to mark the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion.\n\nThe mural depicts a man resembling Russian President Vladimir Putin being flipped during a judo match with a young boy.\n\nThe original art is on a house that was devastated by Russian shelling in the town of Borodyanka, near the capital Kyiv.\n\nA phrase with an abbreviated expletive addressing the Russian leader has been added to the bottom left corner of the stamps.\n\nMr Putin is a judo black belt and an admirer of the martial art.\n\nMany Ukrainians see Banksy's mural as a metaphor of Ukraine's fierce resistance to the Russian invasion, which began on 24 February 2022.\n\nQueues were reported in Kyiv on Friday as residents rushed to buy the new stamps from the main post office, Holovposhtamt.\n\n\"It's a very cool gesture for the world to understand Ukraine, that we remain in the spotlight,\" Maxime, 26, told the AFP news agency.\n\nShe added that she was delighted to see a \"first stamp from one of Banksy's works\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Banksy releases footage of his art in Ukraine\n\nBanksy has produced art works on buildings in several Ukrainian towns that have been among the worst-hit during the ongoing war.\n\nBorodyanka was seized by Russian troops in the first few days of the invasion. After the town was recaptured in the spring, Ukrainian officials accused the Russians of committing mass war crimes there.\n\nThis followed the discovery of hundreds of bodies of Ukrainian civilians in mass graves in areas around Kyiv. Some had their hands tied and had apparently been shot at close range.\n\nRussia denies killing civilians, and - without offering any evidence - says Ukraine staged the scenes.", "A deal between London and Brussels is close - but can Rishi Sunak push it through?\n\n\"It's all about leadership now\" - it is not, any longer, according to that particular diplomatic source, about the finer details of customs posts; the never-ending tangle of whether it's UK or EU law that's supreme; or whether a sausage that's been made in Bolton needs to be inspected if it is going to be sold in Belfast.\n\nA deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol is so close that the negotiating teams have been consulting the thesaurus to help pick a name, in scenes reminiscent of the '80s political comedy, \"Yes Minister\".\n\nSorting out the protocol - those post-Brexit trading arrangements - matters practically if you live in or do business with Northern Ireland.\n\nAnd it matters symbolically a great deal for Rishi Sunak and the government, eager for this bitter hangover from the Brexit negotiations to fade.\n\nThe agreement, whatever it ends up being named, is broadly done, and likely to be unveiled on Monday.\n\nOne Whitehall source says there's been a \"very disciplined approach to solving the problems\"; now an arrangement has been struck that \"unambiguously works\" after weeks of working through the issues.\n\nBut that painstaking practical negotiation could come to naught if it's not matched with political force.\n\nIt's in the constitution of some ranks of the Conservative backbenches and some parts of the Northern Irish Unionist DUP to be suspicious of what emanates from any group in charge in Number 10.\n\nAdd in the fact that many on the Eurosceptic wing of the Tory party are, politely put, not natural supporters of Mr Sunak.\n\nSome, like the former leader Iain Duncan Smith and the DUP's Sammy Wilson, have been setting tests for the deal before they know for sure what's in the final version - easier perhaps then to cry foul later on.\n\nIt is rarely possible to please all of the people all of the time. But on the issue of Brexit and Northern Ireland, it is near impossible.\n\nA diplomat says, \"the government simply needs to push it forward, knowing that part of the DUP will not be pleased\" - so the question is whether Mr Sunak's push to get a deal through is stronger than the resistance it will inevitably find along the way.\n\nNumber 10's handling of the matter so far could make that harder. Mr Sunak is not the first prime minister to preside over a \"will they, won't they?\" phase during talks with the EU.\n\nBut while a deal's been in the offing, there's been something of a vacuum, giving space for critics to opine.\n\nNotably it's given time for Boris Johnson to pile in too, making clear in the last few days that his support won't come easy. He's still a totem for Brexit, and is becoming a rallying point for Mr Sunak's critics.\n\nAs the Whitehall source says, \"the key dynamic which is emerging is that Boris is throwing himself to the forefront of the opposition\" - that won't make the prime minister's life any easier.\n\nIrony alert - remember that Boris Johnson was the prime minister who signed up to the Northern Ireland Protocol in the first place.\n\nFormer PM Boris Johnson has been weighing in on the NI Protocol\n\nAnd it's worth noting that the deal thought to be on offer concedes far more ground to the UK than was thought possible then.\n\nIn fact, one member of Theresa May's team told me they would have \"bitten your arm off\" for the kind of arrangements that are now in play.\n\nThere is a likely acceptance of different customs routes, \"green lanes\" and \"red lanes\" for goods heading from Great Britain to Northern Ireland; it's likely too the EU has given ground on state aid.\n\nBut like it or not, for Rishi Sunak's Number 10, when his old boss speaks, many Conservatives and Brexiteers listen.\n\nDon't be surprised to see, in the coming days, heated political arguments contrasting the agreements that Mr Sunak has reached, and the Northern Ireland Protocol bill that Boris Johnson's government introduced.\n\nThat bill is making its way through Parliament now and would, controversially, give the UK government the power to ignore the treaty that's already signed into law.\n\nAnd don't underestimate the strength of feeling.\n\nOne former cabinet minister told me the expected deal would \"let down the die-hard leavers\", leaving the party vulnerable to attacks from the right, and would \"split the Conservatives\".\n\nUnless there is a \"miracle surprise\", the same source cautioned that they and many of their colleagues won't back the deal.\n\nThe options for Mr Sunak then are that the deal passes (if there is a vote) \"grudgingly\", or if it falls, \"it leaves his authority in tatters\".\n\nIt is even, they suggest, a \"conceivable option\" that the government ends up falling apart if the prime minister tries to ram it through. All this, of course, is happening in the context of a PM stuck way behind in the polls.\n\nThere was also disbelief in some quarters at the suggestion that the EU president would appear alongside the King to help boost the chances of a deal.\n\nBuckingham Palace, as a rule, tries to appear beyond politics, well above the fray.\n\nYet there was the suggestion that Ursula von der Leyen would meet publicly with the King this weekend at Windsor Castle, and even that the deal itself might be given the title the Windsor Agreement - to \"throw a bit of glamour\" around the closing stages, a source suggested.\n\nBut I'm told the European Commission disapproved. Downing Street says officially that the reason the visit was called off was \"operational\".\n\nWhatever the whole truth, it's made for a messy 24 hours since our colleagues at Sky News broke the story. And it met with disapproval in the very DUP circles that the prime minister needs to get on board.\n\nThe Unionists are deeply committed to, and proud of, the monarchy. Arlene Foster, the former DUP leader, was rarely seen without her glittering brooch in the shape of the crown. But the impression that Downing Street was trying to play the Palace into the process has rankled.\n\nThe DUP former deputy leader, Lord Dodds, said, \"to plan for politicising the monarchy in this way is very serious and reinforces the questions about No 10's political judgement over the protocol\".\n\nThat doesn't sound like a political leader in the mood to play nice.\n\nWe know that Rishi Sunak has been able to find a way to strike an agreement with the EU to help ease the problems that stemmed from the special arrangements for Northern Ireland.\n\nWe know Number 10 has been willing to spend political energy and effort getting this far.\n\nBut once the black and white of the deal emerges into the light of day, political guile, presentation and force may be required to drive it through.\n\nSo far in Downing Street, Rishi Sunak has tried to avoid fights with his party. This time, on this most fraught of issues, an almighty argument awaits.", "Police divers were out on the water on Saturday afternoon\n\nTwo bodies have been recovered following a major search operation for the missing crew of a tug after it overturned off Greenock in Inverclyde.\n\nEmergency crews were called to East India Harbour at about 15:30 on Friday.\n\nA Police Scotland marine unit was seen out on the water on Saturday morning while divers later joined the search.\n\nThe force confirmed the bodies were discovered at about 13:40.\n\nOfficers said formal identification had yet to take place but the next of kin of both missing crew members had been informed.\n\nCh Insp Damian Kane said: \"Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the men at this difficult time and I would ask that their privacy is respected.\n\n\"I would like to thank the local community for their patience and support as searches were ongoing and as we continue to carry out our inquiries.\"\n\nThe tug capsized on Friday afternoon on the River Clyde\n\nClyde Marine Services said it was \"deeply saddened\" by the loss of the two crew members.\n\nA spokesman said: \"Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the two men at this most difficult of times.\n\n\"The company is fully co-operating with the official investigations which are ongoing.\"\n\nEyewitnesses told BBC Scotland they had seen the tug escorting the Hebridean Princess cruise ship into the harbour at about 15:30 when it was apparently pulled over.\n\nImages from the scene showed rescue teams in inflatables and a police boat surrounding the capsized tug while a helicopter hovered overhead.\n\nDaniel McBride said the tug had capsized \"pretty instantaneously\".\n\nHe added: \"At that point I contacted the coastguard and was asked to go and keep eyes, so I parked up and watched.\n\n\"Within 12 minutes the first coastguard vessel came. At that point the boat was still capsized with a hull visible in the water.\n\n\"I witnessed them bashing on the hull, I guess trying to see if there was any signs inside. Unfortunately then the boat went down a short time afterwards.\"\n\nHM Coastguard said rescue teams from Helensburgh and Greenock, a lifeboat from Helensburgh RNLI and the coastguard helicopter from Prestwick were involved in the search on Friday.\n\nMultiple vessels on the Clyde also responded, including a Ministry of Defence Police boat.\n\nPolice confirmed a multi-agency investigation into the incident was under way.\n\nScottish Greens West Scotland MSP Ross Greer said: \"This is devastating news. All of our thoughts and prayers are very much with the family, friends and colleagues of those involved.\n\n\"I also pay tribute to the coastguard, RNLI and all those who assisted with the search and rescue effort.\n\n\"Investigators should now be given the space needed to look into the circumstances of this terrible incident.\"", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell has been involved in high-profile investigations into dissident republican attacks\n\nPolice investigating the attempted murder of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell have arrested a sixth man.\n\nThe 71-year-old was arrested in Omagh on Saturday under the Terrorism Act.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell was shot multiple times in front of his young son at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, after coaching under-15s at football.\n\nEarlier, detectives were given more time to question four men already held in connection with Wednesday evening's shooting.\n\nA court in Belfast granted an extension to the detention of the suspects, aged 22, 38, 45 and 47, until 22:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nThey and another man, aged 43, remain in custody having been arrested on Thursday and Friday in the Omagh and Coalisland areas of County Tyrone.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell is critically ill in hospital following the attack.\n\nPolicing representative body the Police Federation for Northern Ireland said he had suffered life-changing injuries.\n\nOn Saturday more than 1,000 people took part in a walk and a rally to show support for the senior Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer who was off duty when he was shot.\n\nMany attending the rally held posters which said \"no going back! Unite against paramilitary violence\".\n\nPeople took part in a rally outside Omagh Courthouse\n\nThe PSNI's main line of inquiry is that dissident republican group the New IRA was responsible for shooting the 48-year-old in the car park of the Youth Sport Omagh site.\n\nDissident republicans oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal and continue to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe route from Beragh Swifts FC to Beragh Red Knights GAA club was short but significant - Constable Ronan Kerr was a member of the GAA club when he was murdered in 2011.\n\nA security alert is ongoing in Beragh after a suspicious object was found on Dervahroy Road\n\nOn Saturday afternoon, after the walk, police confirmed that a security alert was ongoing in the Beragh area after a suspicious object was found on Dervahroy Road.\n\nThe PSNI said it was too early to speculate on whether the events were linked.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Omagh police shooting: 'We're wrapping our arms around Caldwell family'\n\nThe rally, which was organised by trade unionists, was held after the walk on Saturday morning, near the site of a 1998 bombing which was the single most deadly atrocity in Northern Ireland's Troubles, killing 29 people.\n\nThe bombing was carried out by dissident republican group the Real IRA.\n\nPeople gathered in Omagh in protest against violence\n\nBeragh Red Knights GAA club coach Celine Curran said the attack on Det Ch Insp Caldwell has \"affected the community as a whole in Beragh\".\n\n\"It's really hit everybody very hard,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\nCarmel Quinn and Celine Curran are both Beragh Red Knights coaches\n\n\"We're all coaches at the end of the day. We're all parents at the end of the day.\n\n\"Our children go to Youth Sport as well - it's got nothing to do with religion.\n\n\"We are here in support of a father who was doing a coaching job and a son who has witnessed something life-changing.\"\n\nBovelle Hamilton, who has known John since he was a boy, says the turnout was amazing\n\nBovelle Hamilton has known Det Ch Insp Caldwell since he was eight years old and came to show support to him and his family.\n\n\"We are absolutely shocked at what happened to him,\" she said.\n\nGeoffrey Irwin also took part in the walk.\n\nHe said: \"I know John personally, I went to primary school with him and also high school in Omagh.\"\n\nHe added that John was \"very dedicated\" to the club and gave up his free time to volunteer.\n\nGeoffrey Irwin went to school with the senior detective\n\nOn Friday, the leaders of Northern Ireland's five main political parties presented a united front with PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne.\n\nMr Byrne said it was a significant show of solidarity that showed the \"sheer sense of outrage at this pointless and senseless attack\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPolice believe the gunmen made off in a small, dark car, which was found burnt out at Racolpa Road, outside Omagh.\n\nAn Garda Síochána (police in the Republic of Ireland) continue to work closely with the PSNI after the shooting, a spokesperson said.\n\nGardaí previously said it had intensified patrolling in border counties following the attack.\n\nIt added that it would provide the PSNI with assistance as required as the investigation continues.\n\nLast March, the the threat level posed by dissident republican terrorism in Northern Ireland was lowered from severe to substantial for the first time in 12 years.\n\nThe decision to lower the threat level was taken by the Security Service (MI5) after assessing a wide range of information, independently of ministers.\n\nSince 2010 it had been \"severe\", meaning attacks are highly likely. It is now \"substantial\", meaning attacks are likely.\n\nThe threat level is assessed over a period of time rather than in reaction to one event.\n\nThe attack appears to underscore the re-emergence on the New IRA after nearly four years of surface-level inactivity.\n\nIn 2019, the dissident republican grouping shot dead journalist Lyra McKee as she watched rioting unfold in Londonderry.\n\nWithin a year, its suspected leadership was rounded-up by the PSNI following a surveillance operation run by MI5 using an alleged agent.\n\nTen individuals are currently awaiting trial on almost 50 terrorism charges as a result of Operation Arbacia.\n\nIn the aftermath, the New IRA was viewed as being in complete disarray and last year, for the first time in more than a decade, the government announced the threat level in Northern Ireland was being lowered from severe to substantial.\n\nIt might not have sounded much, but it was a hugely symbolic moment.\n\nAttacks, or attempted attacks, dropped markedly: the years 2020-22 saw a virtual absence of activity.\n\nBut the New IRA was re-organising and in November it mounted a roadside bomb attack, using military grade explosives, on a police patrol car in Strabane.\n\nThe armour-plated vehicle did its job and two officers inside escaped injury.\n\nThe attack has now been followed up with the attempted murder, less than 20 miles away, of Det Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nDt Ch Insp Caldwell has been the senior detective in high-profile inquiries including:\n\nHe had received a number of threats in the past, BBC News NI understands, and was aware his investigations of dissident republican attacks made him a high-profile target.\n\nHe continued to carry out his activities as a football coach and whether that was a pattern that aided the targeting of him is of course a matter for the investigation.\n\nThe last gun attack on a PSNI officer was in January 2017.\n\nThe PSNI officer was hit by automatic gunfire at a petrol station in north Belfast.", "Britishvolt's plans for a gigafactory at Blyth were much vaunted but came to nought\n\nCollapsed electric car battery business Britishvolt might have found a lifeline after an Australian start-up lodged a late rescue bid.\n\nThe UK company entered administration on 17 January when it failed to attract any viable bids to keep it afloat, with the loss of hundreds of jobs.\n\nIt had planned to build a giant factory to make batteries for electric vehicles in Cambois near Blyth, Northumberland.\n\nThe company, which is backed by New York-based Scale Facilitation, confirmed it had made a non-binding offer, as first reported in the Australian Financial Review.\n\nRecharge is already understood to be planning a similar electric car battery plant in Geelong, near Melbourne.\n\nA takeover of Britishvolt would make \"strategic sense,\" according to David Collard, Scale Facilitation's founder and chief executive.\n\n\"Strengthening our friends in the UK, especially when most others are kicking them when they're down, is in our interest and definitely in the spirit of Aukus (the Australia-UK-US security pact).\"\n\nLabour MP Ian Lavery welcomed the potential rescue, as he led an adjournment debate on the matter at the end of Wednesday's sitting in the House of Commons.\n\nThe Wansbeck MP, whose constituency is home to the site, said it was \"very encouraging\" but warned another collapse must be avoided at all costs.\n\n\"We cannot have another false dawn, we cannot have another Britishvolt, where a project of this magnitude, the land, the planning, everything in place, for the government to go cold and step back from assisting our regions,\" he said.\n\nBusiness minister Nusrat Ghani told the Commons the government would \"seriously\" consider any takeover bid and it was committed to the site in Northumberland.\n\n\"This is a fantastic site. All the ingredients are in play. I can confirm that any credible options going forward, that we will of course take them very seriously.\n\n\"This government is determined to make that site work for Blyth as it will for the whole of the United Kingdom.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.", "Sophie Buchaillard was 16 when she began writing to her pen pal at a refugee camp in Goma\n\nA woman whose childhood pen pal suddenly stopped writing after fleeing the Rwanda genocide has written a novel to \"exorcise the grief of not knowing what happened\" to her.\n\nSophie Buchaillard's pen pal Victoria, 16, was separated from her parents while fleeing the 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed in the space of 100 days.\n\nMost of the dead were Tutsis - and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus.\n\nVictoria was staying at a refugee camp in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo.\n\nThe pair corresponded frequently, until one day Victoria wrote that she was being moved and would get back in touch as soon as she could.\n\nSophie, who was living in Paris and was also 16 at the time, wrote to Victoria's teachers at the camp and was put in touch with a charity in Rwanda that reunites people - but to no avail.\n\nAt first she feared she had offended her friend, but as months turned into years she began to realise the precariousness of the situation her friend had found herself in.\n\n\"Growing up it dawned on me that something terrible may have happened, she might have died or been killed, or all sorts of other things could have happened to her,\" said Sophie, who now lives in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan.\n\n\"It's only when I started doing research retrospectively that I understood the full scale of what life in the camp must have been.\"\n\nIn the '90s it was more common for children to have pen pals from far-flung places, and the unlikely friendship was forged when Sophie's school put her in touch with Victoria.\n\nVictoria wanted to be a translator, so it was an opportunity for her to correspond in French.\n\n\"When we started to write I would have been cosy at home in my parents' flat in Paris and she would have been in the refugee camp in Goma. Our experiences couldn't have been more different,\" said Sophie.\n\nShe remembered Victoria said she was from the Kigali area, her father worked in the local administration there, and before the genocide they had lived in a house with a garden.\n\nSophie said despite Victoria's horrific situation there was a \"strange normality\" about her letters and they wrote about \"normal 16-year-old things\".\n\nSophie lives in hope that she will find out what happened to Victoria\n\n\"She was more focused on what life had been like before, the life she would return to, and treating that moment in the refugee camp as as a blip, as a parenthesis outside of normal,\" said Sophie.\n\nShe said her friend always came across as very calm.\n\n\"It occurred to me later in life that what I assumed was calmness was probably trauma. It would have been difficult for her to process all of that at the time.\"\n\nAfter the letters stopped, Sophie said she was concerned for her friend but never completely gave up hope that she was okay.\n\n\"I always hoped that she just went back to her normal life... and that it was more desirable not to continue to write,\" she said.\n\nPhotographs of victims of the 1994 Rwanda genocide on display at the Kigali Memorial for Victims\n\nA couple of years after her final letter from Victoria, Sophie went to university. Later she lived in Spain and the US before coming to the UK as a student in 2001, getting married and settling in south Wales.\n\nShe never forgot Victoria, and would find herself writing poems and short stories about her friend.\n\n\"Writing has very powerful cathartic abilities and makes it possible to access the subconscious, I suppose,\" she said.\n\nSkulls of victims of the Rwanda genocide at the Ntarama Genocide Memorial in Kigali\n\nIn her 40s, Sophie decided to leave her job at Cardiff University and study a masters in creative writing with the hope of becoming a writer.\n\nShe began writing and once again Victoria appeared on her page.\n\nThis led her to spend seven months researching Rwanda before writing her masters portfolio, which became the beginning of her novel 'This is Not Who We Are'.\n\nThe novel follows the lives of two women, Iris from Paris and Victoria from Rwanda.\n\nTwenty years after their unlikely pen pal correspondence comes to a sudden end, Iris is working as a journalist in London and sets about trying to find her pen friend.\n\n\"Part of it was trying to articulate life as a migrant myself in the UK at the time of Brexit, and trying to find out what happens when the country where you live tells you very loud and clear that you're not welcome,\" said Sophie.\n\nIt was also about trying to work through the nagging unanswered questions she had about Victoria.\n\n\"Part of the exercise for me was a way to maybe find out what happened to Victoria,\" she said.\n\n\"It was a way to exorcise the grief of not knowing what happened.\"\n\nAs soon as the book was published, Sophie sent 10 books to Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda in the hope that someone would read her book and recognise the story.\n\n\"I'm of a hopeful nature, and I live in hope that the writing of the book somehow will touch someone who knows what happened to her.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAt least 59 migrants, including 12 children, have died and dozens more are feared missing after their boat sank in rough seas off southern Italy.\n\nThe vessel broke apart while trying to land near Crotone on Sunday. Migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Iran were on board.\n\nA baby was among the dead, Italian officials said.\n\nInterior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who visited the scene, said as many as 30 people may still be missing.\n\nBodies were recovered from the beach at a nearby seaside resort in the Calabria region.\n\nThe coastguard said 80 people had been found alive, \"including some who managed to reach the shore after the sinking\".\n\nThe exact number of people who were on the boat, which had sailed from Turkey several days ago, is not clear.\n\nRescue workers told the AFP news agency that the vessel had been carrying \"more than 200 people\", which would mean more than 60 people unaccounted for.\n\nMany of the migrants were fleeing very difficult conditions, Italy's president said.\n\nPakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif referenced reports that more than two dozen Pakistanis were among the dead, and called the news \"deeply concerning and worrisome\". He instructed Pakistan's diplomats to \"ascertain facts as early as possible\".\n\nThe vessel is reported to have sunk after it crashed against rocks during rough weather, sparking a large search-and-rescue operation on land and at sea.\n\nVideo footage shows timber from the wreckage that had been smashed into pieces washing up on the beach, along with parts of the hull.\n\nSurvivors are seen huddled under blankets, attended to by Red Cross workers. Some have been taken to hospital.\n\n\"There had been landings but never a tragedy like this,\" the mayor of Cutro, Antonio Ceraso, told Rai News.\n\nDozens of people managed to survive the boat's sinking\n\nOne survivor was arrested on migrant trafficking charges, customs police said.\n\nItalian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni - elected last year partly on a pledge to stem the flow of migrants into Italy - expressed \"deep sorrow\" and blamed the deaths on traffickers.\n\n\"It is inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women and children for the price of the 'ticket' they paid in the false perspective of a safe journey,\" she said in a statement.\n\n\"The government is committed to preventing departures, and with them the unfolding of these tragedies, and will continue to do so.\"\n\nMs Meloni's right-wing government has vowed to stop migrants reaching Italy's shores and in the last few days pushed through a tough new law tightening the rules on rescues.\n\nCarlo Calenda, Italy's former economy minister, said people in difficulty at sea should be rescued \"whatever the cost\", but added that \"illegal immigration routes must be closed\".\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula van der Leyen said she was \"deeply saddened\" by the incident, adding that the \"loss of life of innocent migrants is a tragedy\". She said it was crucial to \"redouble our efforts\" to make progress on reforming EU asylum rules to tackle the challenges regarding migration to Europe.\n\nPope Francis, who often defends the rights of migrants, has said he is praying for the dead, the missing and those who survived.\n\nAccording to monitoring groups, more than 20,000 people have died or gone missing at sea in the central Mediterranean since 2014.\n\nRegina Catrambone, director of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station, which carries out search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, told the BBC that European countries must work together to help those in need.\n\nShe also called for an end to the \"myopic vision\" that says that countries that are physically closer to Africa and the Middle East should take the lead on tackling the issue.\n\n\"Still there is no co-operation among the European states to actively co-ordinate together to go and help the people in need,\" she said, urging governments to work together to improve search and rescue efforts and develop safe and legal routes.", "Robert Brown was jailed for 26 years for manslaughter\n\nThe mother of a woman killed by her pilot husband more than a decade ago has called on the justice secretary to intervene over his possible release.\n\nBritish Airways captain Robert Brown admitted the manslaughter of his wife Joanna, 46, in 2010 and was jailed for 26 years.\n\nHer mother Diana Parkes, 83, asked Dominic Raab to meet her to discuss her family's concerns.\n\nMr Raab said he would look at the parole case \"very rigorously\".\n\nThe former pilot bludgeoned his wife to death with a claw hammer in their family home in Berkshire October 2010 as their two young children cowered in a playroom.\n\nHe buried his wife's body in a pre-dug grave in Windsor Great Park.\n\nBrown, who believed he was \"stitched up\" by a prenuptial agreement, was acquitted of murder by a jury at Reading Crown Court in May 2011.\n\nHe had previously admitted manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility.\n\nBrown, formerly of North Street, Winkfield was sentenced to 24 years for manslaughter and a further two years for an offence of obstructing a coroner in the execution of his duty.\n\nDominic Raab was asked about Robert Brown's release on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg\n\nMrs Parkes, has said the family is \"very fearful\" about the prospect of Brown being released later in the year without first being mentally assessed.\n\nShe said she wanted to meet Mr Raab \"so I can explain in person why this case has gone so wrong\".\n\nSpeaking on Sunday to Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Raab said \"of course\" he would meet the family.\n\n\"Within the powers I've got, I'll look at this as I would any other - very rigorously,\" he said.\n\nHe said he could not comment on whether he would block Brown's release, but said parole decisions were scrutinised \"exceptionally carefully\".\n\n\"And I've also been clear, I don't think the parole service powers are adequate at the moment, which is why we'll be bringing forward legislation to reform that - I hope that's something which will have widespread support,\" he added.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson wants better access to charging points for disabled drivers\n\nBaroness Tanni Grey-Thompson is calling for improved access for all users of electric vehicle charging points.\n\nThe 11-time Paralympic gold medallist, who uses a wheelchair, said she had to opt for a diesel vehicle rather than an electric model as \"accessibility is being ignored\".\n\nShe is seeking government assurances that more will be done to make charging points more accessible in the future.\n\nThe Department for Transport said charge points should be reachable.\n\nIt added they should also have \"adequate space\".\n\nBaroness Grey-Thompson said: \"It's really simple - I can't reach them.\n\n\"The problems are... the step, it's the barrier. Some of the bays are quite busy but I have to be able to open my car door really wide.\n\n\"A lot of places don't accommodate for that.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said in a document from 2021 it aimed to deliver \"a charging point facility for every 20 miles of the strategic trunk network across Wales by 2025\" by working with the private sector.\n\nFor every 100,000 people in Wales there are currently 47 charging points, according to UK government figures published in January.\n\nAcross the UK the figure is 55. The number is highest in In London, where there are 131 charging points per 100,000 population.\n\nThe UK government has just pledged £56m for 2,400 EV charge points in 16 English council areas.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBaroness Grey-Thompson said: \"If they are not accessible, I don't know what I would do - I would just run out of charge\"\n\nNew cars and vans powered wholly by petrol and diesel will not be sold in the UK from 2030.\n\nBaroness Grey-Thompson, chairwoman of Sport Wales, raised her concerns online, tweeting a photograph of a charging point she said was inaccessible to her.\n\n\"When it kicks in and we are all having to move to electric vehicles, I want to know what the government is doing to make sure they [charging points] are accessible.\n\n\"I put a question in this week to the government,\" she said, referring to her role as a peer in the House of Lords.\n\n\"There was a big announcement about charging points but what is happening to make sure they are accessible?\n\nCharity Motability, which supports disabled people with transportation issues, has published best-practice standards for designing accessible public charge points for electric vehicles after forming a partnership with the UK government.\n\n\"If they aren't accessible I would have to take someone with me - it's just ridiculous - accessibility is being ignored,\" said Baroness Grey-Thompson.\n\n\"I can look on my sat nav and find a garage and some pay points but if they are not accessible, I don't know what I would do - I would just run out of charge.\"\n\nThe Department for Transport said: \"We want everyone to be able to make the switch to electric vehicles and public charge points should be an accessible height with adequate space.\n\n\"Last year a government-backed national standard was published to help the industry create and install charge points that everyone can use easily, making the experience better and fairer across the UK.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nEngland heaped more misery on troubled Wales with a scrappy Six Nations victory in Cardiff.\n\nA frantic first half saw the teams separated by a try from England wing Anthony Watson.\n\nWales wing Louis Rees-Zammit managed an intercept try before England responded with scores from Kyle Sinckler and Ollie Lawrence.\n\nWales' players had threatened to go on strike in the build-up and could not overcome their troubled preparation.\n\nThey have now lost 12 of their last 15 games and suffered a third successive Six Nations defeat since Warren Gatland's return as head coach.\n\nWales have endured their worst start in the tournament since 2007 and have to travel to face Italy and France as they bid to avoid a first Six Nations whitewash in 20 years. This defeat means Wales will drop to 10th in the world rankings.\n• None 'England must push on with big games to come'\n• None Wooden Spoon 'the last thing you want' - Gatland\n• None Rugby Union Daily podcast: England have final say in Cardiff\n\nFollowing an opening weekend defeat by Scotland, England have picked up successive wins over Italy and Wales and could even afford to miss out on 10 points as a result of four missed kicks from captain Owen Farrell.\n\nEngland full-back Freddie Steward was named player of the match as he dominated the aerial battle, with Wales continually kicking to him.\n\nIt was England's biggest victory in Cardiff since 2003 and first win at the Principality Stadium since 2017.\n\nSteve Borthwick's side now face France and Ireland in their final two matches.\n\nEven by rugby's self-destructive standards, the chaotic last 10 days in the Welsh game take some beating.\n\nAn 11th-hour agreement struck between the national squad and Welsh rugby bosses on Wednesday evening averted a potential strike over player contracts that would have seen this game called off.\n\nIt was uncertain whether Wales would be galvanised or drained by a traumatic period in their history, with a build-up which saw a training session cancelled so negotiations could continue.\n\nAs well as turmoil wherever you look off the field, Wales had troubles on it, with two heavy defeats by Ireland and Scotland before this and Gatland still searching for his best side in his second stint in charge.\n\nHe made nine more changes for this game, with centre Mason Grady thrown in to make his debut.\n\nGrady formed a midfield partnership with fellow 20-year-old Joe Hawkins, who was winning just his fourth cap, while Owen Williams made his first Test start in the fabled Wales number 10 jersey.\n\nThe loss of more than 300 caps in the back division - with Liam Williams, George North and Dan Biggar not involved in the starting side - was balanced out by the return of veteran forwards Alun Wyn Jones, Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric.\n\nIn contrast England were more settled, with wing Watson replacing the injured Ollie Hassell-Collins in the only change to the side that beat Italy.\n\nEngland were intent on silencing the crowd after a emotive week for the Welsh players. They managed to do just that.\n\nIt was the visitors that made the early inroads, with Farrell slotting over the opening penalty.\n\nEngland's back-row trio all made an early impression with Alex Dombrandt taking a towering high ball, Jack Willis achieving a turnover and Lewis Ludlam impressing in attack and defence.\n\nEngland demonstrated attacking intent with Max Malins and Lawrence creating the space for Watson to dive over to score in his first international for almost two years.\n\nFarrell's conversion hit the post before full-back Leigh Halfpenny opened Wales' account with a penalty in his first start since July 2021.\n\nHalfpenny was given a fearsome welcome back to international rugby after he was repeatedly smashed by England tacklers as the visitors enjoyed the ascendancy in the aerial battle in the first half.\n\nFarrell failed to add three points with a missed penalty after Wales prop Tomas Francis was penalised at a scrum.\n\nWales produced their most encouraging attacking endeavours towards the end of the first half.\n\nBreaks from Rees-Zammit and prop Gareth Thomas were thwarted by expert breakdown steals from Dombrandt and Ludlam as England led 8-3 at half-time.\n\nWales again demonstrated a lack of clinical edge after forays into the opposition's 22.\n\nRees-Zammit lit up the Cardiff stadium early in the second half after intercepting a loose pass from Malins to sprint away to score. Halfpenny converted to give Wales the lead for the first time.\n\nThat proved short-lived as England prop Sinckler burrowed over from short range.\n\nIt was Cardiff redemption for Sinckler after Wales had wound him up four years ago and forced him to be replaced early in the second half of that match.\n\nWales brought on backline reinforcements with Biggar replacing Williams, who appeared to be carrying a hip injury.\n\nCentre Nick Tompkins was also introduced for Josh Adams with Grady switching to the left wing.\n\nFarrell missed a third kick at goal before Wales brought on Dafydd Jenkins and Tommy Reffell, who they hoped would give them more success at the breakdown.\n\nCourtney Lawes came on to win his 97th England cap - his first appearance since leading the July 2022 tour to Australia with concussion, neck, glute and calf injuries disrupting his season.\n\nLawes was involved as England attempted to close out the game with a defining try but Tipuric initially frustrated them with a turnover.\n\nEngland were not to be denied, though, and centre Lawrence provided the final score.\n• None A raw documentary goes inside the high-stakes world of parole hearings\n• None Are eco laundry products better for the environment? Greg Foot investigates how such claims come out in the wash...", "An Australian firm has been named as the preferred bidder for Britishvolt, the UK battery start-up which collapsed last month.\n\nRecharge Industries, which is owned by New York fund Scale Facilitation Partners, has entered an agreement to buy Britishvolt's business and assets.\n\nBritishvolt was put into administration after running out of money.\n\nIt had planned to build a giant factory to make electric car batteries near Blyth, Northumberland.\n\nEY, the accountancy firm and administrator to Britishvolt which has been overseeing the sale, said: \"Completion of the acquisition is expected to occur within the next seven days.\"\n\nRecharge Industries is building a facility in Australia to produce batteries for electric vehicles.\n\nLittle detail has emerged on its plans for the Britishvolt business, which had hoped to build a £3.8bn factory as part a long-term strategy to boost the UK's manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries.\n\nIt had been hoped it would create 3,000 skilled jobs. Instead, more than 200 people lost their jobs when Britishvolt collapsed.\n\nIt was forced to delay the start of production at the plant a number of times, most recently blaming \"difficult external economic headwinds including rampant inflation and rising interest rates\".\n\nBuilding this battery plant is seen as absolutely vital to securing the future of UK car manufacturing. But the last time an ambitious start-up, with unproven technology led by people unheard of in the battery and car world, attempted this it ended up in the spectacular failure of Britishvolt, which collapsed into administration last month.\n\nWinning the bid to buy Britishvolt out of administration, Recharge Industries conceded they had paid a premium over the other bidders, but said that was indicative of their confidence in a project that would bring together Australian minerals, US battery know-how and a promising UK site.\n\nBut the people who decided who won are not required to care about any of that. The administrators EY have just one job - getting the most cash for the people owed money by the defunct Britishvolt.\n\nThe government insists that while it is \"monitoring the situation\", this is a matter between private businesses. But industry figures remain frustrated and disappointed that ministers don't feel the need to take a more muscular and strategic role in such a key development.\n\nToday's announcement begs more questions than it answers and should be seen as a beginning rather than the end of this process.\n\nDavid Collard, chief executive of Scale Facilitation and founder of Recharge Industries, said it \"can't wait to get started making a reality of our plans to build the UK's first gigafactory\".\n\nRecharge is building a battery-making factory in Geelong, Melbourne which, according to its website, will begin operating in 2024.\n\nRecharge reportedly beat a number of others to become the preferred bidder for Britishvolt.\n\nEY said it followed a process \"that involved the consideration of multiple approaches from interested parties and numerous offers received\".\n\nIndriatti van Hien, deputy fund manager at Janus Henderson Investments, told the BBC: \"The acquisition of Britishvolt will really give them a toe-hold in Europe.\n\n\"It is interesting really because there are a lot of British companies bidding for this asset too.\"\n\nBritishvolt's collapse was a blow to the government's \"levelling up\" agenda started by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nIt was hoped it would boost the economy in Blyth which was one of the main so-called \"red wall\" seats to change hands from Labour to the Conservatives in the 2019 General Election.\n\nThe government had committed £100m in funding for the project. That had helped the company to secure a further £1.7bn in funding from private investors.\n\nThe then Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said Britishvolt's factory and the jobs it would create was \"exactly what levelling up looks like\".", "Reports suggest France had not agreed to welcome the Ocean Viking and was forced into doing so by an Italian announcement\n\nItaly's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called France's government \"aggressive\" and \"incomprehensible\" after it criticised Italy for refusing to let a migrant vessel dock.\n\nItaly recently accepted three NGO boats rescuing migrants crossing from Libya after blocking them for some time.\n\nIt also declared France had agreed to welcome another ship: the Ocean Viking.\n\nThat announcement drew cheers from Italy's Deputy PM Matteo Salvini, who rejoiced that \"the air has changed\".\n\nBut reports suggest French authorities had not actually agreed to a deal.\n\nIn Paris, Italy's public announcement is being seen as a way of forcing it into accepting the boat.\n\nFrench Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said France would exceptionally let the Ocean Viking dock - with the ship arriving in Toulon on Friday morning.\n\nBut he described Italy's actions as reprehensible and selfish, warning of \"very serious consequences\".\n\nIn a press conference on Friday, Ms Meloni said she was struck by France's \"aggressive reaction\" which she also described as unjustified.\n\nThe comments come amid an increasingly explosive war of words between the two European Union members over migration, on which Italy's new right-wing government has vowed to clamp down.\n\nFrance has now suspended an agreement to take in 3,500 migrants relocated from Italy, urged other EU members to do the same and tightened controls on its borders with Italy.\n\nMs Meloni has warned it would not be \"intelligent\" for the EU to isolate Italy.\n\nShe stressed that her country had taken in almost 90,000 migrants this year, while Ocean Viking, with 234 on board, was the first NGO rescue boat that France had ever accepted.\n\n\"The situation cannot continue this way,\" she added, saying that France's reaction had betrayed a lack of European solidarity.\n\nThe unequal burden-sharing of migration has long caused friction within the EU, and Italy, Greece and Spain and have argued that they cannot be expected to shoulder the weight.\n\nDomestic politics has also fed into the row - on both sides of the border.\n\nItaly's prime minister - the country's first far-right leader since World War Two - campaigned on halting migrant boats and needs to please her electoral base.\n\nIn France, President Emmanuel Macron faces pressure from the far-right's National Rally, whose leader Marine Le Pen has been quick to capitalise on the issue.\n\nShe accused Emmanuel Macron of \"dramatic laxity\" by accepting the ship, denouncing his failure to stop \"massive and anarchic immigration\".\n\nWhatever the motive, the result is now the worst crisis between France and Italy since 2019, when the then Italian deputy prime minister paid a solidarity visit to the anti-government gilets jaunes (yellow vest) protesters in France, prompting Paris to withdraw its ambassador to Rome.\n\nIt is rare for western EU members to criticise each other so openly - and does not bode well for relations between Italy's new government and its traditional allies.", "While we wait for news out of Downing Street and/or the European Union, let's step back a moment and take in what it is we're talking about.\n\nThese talks aimed at getting a new agreement follow the adoption of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is a trading arrangement negotiated during Brexit talks, that was brought into force at the start of 2021. It allows goods to be smoothly transported across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland without checks.\n\nBefore Brexit happened, this was simple because both sides followed the same EU rules. However, after the UK left the EU, special trading arrangements were needed because Northern Ireland borders the Republic of Ireland, which remains part of the EU. This became the key sticking point of the Brexit negotiations between the UK and EU.\n\nThe EU has strict food rules and requires border checks when certain goods - such as milk and eggs - arrive from non-EU countries. A land border is a sensitive issue because of Northern Ireland’s troubled past and it was feared that cameras or border posts - as part of these checks - could cause fresh instability.\n\nSo, the UK and the EU signed the Protocol as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement in order to protect the Northern Ireland peace deal - the Good Friday Agreement. It’s now part of international law.", "The Prince and Princess of Wales sang the Welsh national anthem at Principality Stadium, Cardiff\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales stood side by side to cheer on opposite sides as Wales hosted England for their Six Nations match in Cardiff.\n\nPrince William is the patron of the Welsh Rugby Union, while his wife Catherine is patron of English rugby after taking over from Prince Harry.\n\nSpeaking before the match, the prince joked that \"it's going to be a very tense journey home\".\n\nThe final score saw Wales defeated 10-20 to England at Principality Stadium.\n\nKate wore a red and white Catherine Walker coat, which William described as \"diplomatic\", and the prince wore a red tie and red scarf to support Wales.\n\nKate met with injured players supported by the Welsh Charitable Trust\n\nAhead of the match, the royal couple met injured players helped by the Welsh Charitable Trust, which William is also a patron of.\n\nThey officially opened a new space, known as the Sir Tasker Watkins Suite, which will be used by injured players and their families before matches.\n\nSpeaking at the reception, the prince said: \"I'm looking forward to today. We need a little lift after the past week, don't we?\n\n\"It's going to be a very tense journey home. If we win today my wife won't speak to me. It will be a tense evening.\"\n\nThe princess laughed when she was asked about her support for England and said: \"The atmosphere is always second-to-none, so I'm looking forward to that.\"\n\nThe Prince of Wales was greeted by former Welsh rugby player Ieuan Evans\n\nKate took over as patron of the Rugby Football Union from the Duke of Sussex last year.\n\nThe couple spoke about their children during the visit, sharing how Prince George is now learning to tackle, rather than playing tag rugby - a non-contact version of the game.\n\nThe princess added: \"Because he is tall, he has the physique. But then there is Louis coming. Charlotte also does rugby.\"\n\nBefore the national anthems were played, there was a silence to mark the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine.\n\nThe match was at risk of being called off earlier this week after a threat of strikes from Wales' players over contract issues.\n\nDespite the threat being withdrawn on Wednesday, Wales' captain Ken Owens described the lead-up to the Six Nations match as \"horrendous\".", "Each ballot paper is being carefully checked\n\nEarly results have started to arrive from Nigeria's tightest election since the end of military rule in 1999.\n\nOfficial results from the south-western Ekiti state show a clear victory for ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu in one of his strongholds.\n\nFurther results will not be formally announced until 10:00 GMT.\n\nFollowing widespread delays and attacks on some polling stations on Saturday, voting was postponed until Sunday in parts of the country.\n\nVoting continued through the night in some areas.\n\nTurnout appears to be high, especially among young people who make up about a third of the 87 million eligible voters.\n\nThis makes it the biggest democratic exercise in Africa.\n\nThe election has seen an unprecedented challenge to the two-party system that has dominated Nigeria for 24 years.\n\nPeter Obi from the previously little known Labour Party, Mr Tinubu from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are all seen as potential winners. There are 15 other presidential candidates.\n\nA candidate needs to have the most votes and 25% of ballots cast in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states to be declared the winner.\n\nOtherwise, there will be a run-off within 21 days - a first in Nigeria's history.\n\nSaturday's voting was marred by long delays at polling stations, as well as scattered reports of ballot-box snatching and attacks by armed men, especially in southern areas, where Mr Obi has his support base.\n\nDr Nkem Okoli was just about to vote in the Lekki district of the biggest city Lagos when masked men attacked the polling station.\n\n\"There was pandemonium. There were bottles flying everywhere,\" she told the BBC. \"They broke [the ballot box]. They stole the phones of the officials. Now we can't vote.\"\n\nIn some areas, voting did not begin until around 18:00 local time - three-and-a-half hours after polls were due to close.\n\nFirst-time voter Susan Ekpoh told the BBC that she spent 13 hours at her polling station in the capital, Abuja, only leaving at midnight.\n\nShe said when it got dark, election officials said they needed light to see what they were doing, so she and others used their car headlights to illuminate proceedings.\n\nThe southern Bayelsa state was among those areas where voting was delayed until Sunday - it is not clear how many parts of the country saw voting postponed.\n\nHarrison Rosaline hopes the elections will deliver a better future for her two-week old baby\n\nHarrison Rosaline said she waited for five hours to vote on Saturday in Bayelsa's capital, Yenagoa, without seeing any election officials. But she returned, with her two-week old baby, and is delighted to have finally cast her ballot.\n\n\"I was motivated because I want a better Nigeria. I want this country to be good for everybody, including my baby,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThere is tension in parts of Rivers and Lagos states, where some political parties have asked their members to go to the centres where votes are being collated, to prevent them being manipulated.\n\nThere have also been complaints over the use of the recently introduced electronic voting system, with many voters accusing electoral officials of refusing to upload the results at the polling units as they are supposed to.\n\nHowever, in those areas where voting went smoothly, results are being posted outside individual polling stations.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The mood at Nigeria's polls in 60 seconds\n\nThe results from tens of thousands of polling stations around the country are being added up. An official from the electoral body in each of Nigeria's 36 states will then travel to the capital, Abuja, where the results will be announced state-by-state.\n\nFinal results are not expected before Monday at the earliest, and possibly not until Wednesday.\n\nAt a press briefing on Saturday, electoral chief Mahmood Yakubu apologised for the delays in voting.\n\nIn the north-eastern state of Borno, Mr Yakubu said that militant Islamists had opened fire on electoral officers from a mountain top in the Gwoza area, injuring a number of officials.\n\nWhoever wins will have to deal with a crumbling economy, high youth unemployment, and widespread insecurity which saw 10,000 killed last year.\n\nVoters also cast their ballots for 109 federal senators and 360 members of the house of representatives.\n\nMr Obi, 61, enjoys fervent support among some sections of Nigeria's youth, especially in the largely Christian south.\n\nAlthough he was in the PDP before then, he is seen as a relatively fresh face. The wealthy businessman served as governor of the south-eastern Anambra State from 2006 to 2014. His backers, known as the \"OBIdients\", say he is the only candidate with integrity, but his critics argue that a vote for him is wasted because one of the two traditional parties is more likely to win.\n\nThe PDP's Mr Abubakar, 76, is the only major candidate from the country's mainly Muslim north. He has run for the presidency five times before - all of which he has lost. He has been dogged by accusations of corruption and cronyism, which he denies.\n\nMost of his career has been spent in the corridors of power, having worked as a top civil servant, vice-president and a prominent businessman.\n\nMost people consider the election a referendum on the APC, which has overseen a period of economic hardship and worsening insecurity.\n\nIts candidate, Mr Tinubu, 70, is credited with building Lagos during his two terms as governor until 2007.\n\nHe is known as a political godfather in the south-west region, where he wields huge influence, but like Mr Abubakar, has also been dogged by allegations of corruption over the years and poor health, both of which he denies.\n\nAdditional reporting by BBC teams around the country.", "Sir Keir Starmer has said he is not \"talking down\" Britain when warning that Poland is on course to overtake the UK within a decade in terms of the size of its economy per person.\n\nThe Labour leader was launching details of his party's \"mission\" to make the UK the fastest growing G7 economy.\n\nHe was speaking to business leaders and economists in the City of London.\n\nLabour's analysis said Bulgaria and Romania could also overtake the UK if current trends continued until 2040.\n\nAsked in a BBC interview if he was talking down the British economy, Sir Keir said: \"No, I think what's talking down Britain is having absolutely no plan, burning through three prime ministers and four chancellors in one year.\n\n\"My main concern has been that we've got fantastic potential and talent and skills and innovation in Britain but we haven't got the growth that we need. We need a plan for growth, a strategy for growth.\"\n\nMonday's announcement from Labour reveals a little bit more about the opposition's economic priorities. It will measure its G7 chart-topping growth mission on a per capita basis.\n\nLabour explicitly says a \"bad Brexit deal\" is exacerbating the nation's economic challenges, calling for a \"reset\" to relations with Europe.\n\nIt canvases for ideas on both a closer relationship with Europe and the UK response to the US and Europe pouring investment into green and high tech businesses.\n\nAsked to flesh out what Labour's \"reset\" in relations with the EU would mean in practice, Sir Kier reiterated that his party would not be rejoining the European Single Market or Customs Union, but did say he wanted to pursue \"every opportunity\" for trade deals with countries across the world.\n\nHe said Monday's Northern Ireland protocol deal would open the door to stronger post-Brexit relations with Europe, and that was one of the reasons he would lend Labour's votes to the PM to support the deal.\n\n\"I do think we need to reset that relationship with the EU and want to see the UK and EU have a better relationship than we've got now. And I do think that progress on the Protocol is a first step\".\n\nLabour announced last week that if elected, it would pursue five \"missions\": the first is for the UK to achieve the \"highest sustained growth\" in the G7.\n\nThe other missions - broad themes on what Labour wants to achieve in power - include turning the UK into a \"clean energy superpower\", improving the NHS, reforming the justice system and raising education standards.\n\nThe party has promised to provide more specific policy proposals later in the year.\n\n\"We've got to find the courage to take on vested interests,\" Sir Keir said in his speech earlier on Monday.\n\n\"So, if you think it's not government's role to shape markets, that we're only here to serve them; that a labour market which locks in low pay and productivity is something beyond reform; or that the planning system should favour the already wealthy, not the new houses, wind farms and laboratories we need to create more wealth… then that's not going to work for us,\" he said.\n\nIn the first indication of how the mission on the economy would be measured, Labour said it would look at growth in output per person and compare that to other countries.\n\nLabour said the Tories had put the country on a \"path of decline\" and if recent growth trends continued, people in the UK would be worse off than Poland's population by 2030.\n\nIt said UK GDP per capita grew at an average annual rate of 0.5% in real terms between 2010 and 2021, while Poland's grew 3.6%, (based on World Bank data).\n\nIf those trends continued, by 2030 people in the UK would each be £500 ($600) poorer than Poland's population, Labour said, and by 2040 would have fallen behind Hungary and Romania.\n\nIt also plans to look at living standards via the measure of disposable income for the median UK household, with the ambition to make progress towards eliminating the gap between the median British family and those in France and Germany by the end of the parliament.\n\nHowever Sir Keir also suggested he should be judged on whether people \"feel better off\" at the end of a Labour term in government.\n\nLabour has been wooing the business community, suggesting it would provide long-term, stable government in contrast to last autumn's rapid change of Conservative prime ministers, and the disruption on the financial markets.\n\nHowever, Sir Keir has previously said he supports the increase in corporation tax - from 19% to 25% - that is coming in April, arguing that businesses are more concerned about stability than taxes.\n\nHe has also previously promised sweeping constitutional reform, which he said would unleash potential in the nations and regions of the UK, and has said he would \"make Brexit work\".\n\nTesco chairman John Allan said: \"Growth can best be achieved by a partnership between government and business. Now we need to work together to create a detailed plan so that if Labour form the next government, they can hit the ground running on day one.\"\n• None Starmer unveils Labour's five missions for the UK", "Thousands of social housing managers in England could be required to gain formal qualifications as part of government plans to improve standards.\n\nLandlords would also have to investigate and fix damp within strict time limits.\n\nThe proposals come in response to the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who was exposed to mould at his family's home in Rochdale in 2020.\n\nHousing Secretary Michael Gove said people had been \"inexcusably let down\".\n\nThe plans, which would need to be voted through in Parliament, stipulate that managers must have a qualification that comes from a provider regulated by exams watchdog Ofqual, equivalent to a Level 4 or 5 certificate or diploma in housing.\n\nAlternatively, they could have a foundation degree from the Chartered Institute of Housing.\n\nIt would affect about 25,000 people who currently work in the roles.\n\nThe government said ensuring managers had appropriate qualifications would bring social housing more closely into line with other sectors providing frontline services, including social work, teaching, and health and care services.\n\nThe changes would be made through amendments to the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill, according to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.\n\nThe legislation is expected to return to Parliament on 1 March.\n\nAny landlord who failed to meet the new standards requirements could eventually receive an unlimited fine from the Regulator of Social Housing.\n\nSocial housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa said he thought the proposals would increase professionalism in the sector.\n\n\"This should have happened 40 years ago, it should have happened when social housing was first introduced,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\n\"I think the government could go even further with extending the requirement to be qualified when working in housing, right down to housing officers.\"\n\nThe proposals are the latest step in response to the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people in the west London tower block.\n\nGrenfell United, a group of survivors and bereaved family members, said it welcomed the proposals.\n\n\"For six years we have worked relentlessly to hold the government to account to change social housing for tenants across the country.\n\n\"We never gave up. We pushed for professionalisation and for robust regulation to ensure residents are treated with respect and humanity.\"\n\nMr Gove said both Grenfell and the death of Awaab Ishak showed the \"devastating consequences of residents inexcusably being let down by poor performing landlords who consistently failed to listen to them\".\n\nHe continued: \"We know that many social housing residents are not receiving the service or respect they deserve.\n\n\"The changes we are delivering today will make sure social housing managers across the country have the right skills and experience to deliver an excellent service and drive up standards across the board.\"\n\nShadow housing minister Matthew Pennycook said: \"We know from the circumstances leading up to the fire at Grenfell and those surrounding the death of Awaab Ishak that poorly managed social housing can literally kill.\n\n\"It is therefore essential that those managing the homes of social tenants have the necessary qualifications and training to ensure that all tenants are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Vladimir Putin has been at Russia's helm for more than 20 years\n\nI keep thinking back to something I heard on Russian state TV three years ago.\n\nAt the time Russians were being urged to support changes to the constitution that would enable Vladimir Putin to stay in power for another 16 years.\n\nTo persuade the public, the news anchor portrayed President Putin as a sea captain steering the good ship Russia through stormy waters of global unrest.\n\n\"Russia is an oasis of stability, a safe harbour,\" he continued. \"If it wasn't for Putin what would have become of us?\"\n\nSo much for an oasis of stability and safe harbour. On 24 February 2022, the Kremlin captain set sail in a storm of his own making. And headed straight for the iceberg.\n\nVladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has brought death and destruction to Russia's neighbour. It has resulted in huge military casualties for his own country: some estimates put the number of dead Russian soldiers in the tens of thousands.\n\nHundreds of thousands of Russian citizens have been drafted into the army and Russian prisoners (including convicted killers) have been recruited to fight in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the war has impacted energy and food prices around the world and continues to threaten European and global security.\n\nSo why did Russia's president set a course for war and territorial conquest?\n\nMr Putin attended a military ceremony on Thursday to mark Defender of the Fatherland Day\n\n\"On the horizon were the Russian presidential elections of 2024,\" points out political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann.\n\n\"Two years before that vote [the Kremlin] wanted some victorious event. In 2022 they would achieve their objectives. In 2023 they would instil in the minds of Russians how fortunate they were to have such a captain steering the ship, not just through troubled waters, but bringing them to new and richer shores. Then in 2024 people would vote. Bingo. What could go wrong?\"\n\nPlenty, if your plans are based on misassumptions and miscalculations.\n\nThe Kremlin had expected its \"special military operation\" to be lightning fast. Within weeks, it thought, Ukraine would be back in Russia's orbit. President Putin had seriously underestimated Ukraine's capacity to resist and fight back, as well as the determination of Western nations to support Kyiv.\n\nRussia's leader has yet to acknowledge, though, that he made a mistake by invading Ukraine. Mr Putin's way is to push on, to escalate, to raise the stakes.\n\nWhich brings me on to two key questions: how does Vladimir Putin view the situation one year on and what will be his next move in Ukraine?\n\nThis week he gave us some clues.\n\nHis state-of-the-nation address was packed with anti-Western bile. He continues to blame America and Nato for the war in Ukraine, and to portray Russia as an innocent party. His decision to suspend participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and America, New Start, shows that President Putin has no intention of pulling back from Ukraine or ending his standoff with the West.\n\nThe following day, at a Moscow football stadium, Mr Putin shared the stage with Russian soldiers back from the front line. At what was a highly choreographed pro-Kremlin rally, President Putin told the crowd that \"there are battles going on right now on [Russia's] historical frontiers\" and praised Russia's \"courageous warriors\".\n\nConclusion: don't expect any Kremlin U-turns. This Russian president is not for turning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\n\"If he faces no resistance, he will go as far as can,\" believes Andrei Illarionov, President Putin's former economic adviser. \"There is no other way to stop him other than military resistance.\"\n\nBut what about talks over tanks? Is negotiating peace with Mr Putin possible?\n\n\"It's possible to sit down with anyone,\" Andrei Illarionov continues, \"but we have an historic record of sitting down with Putin and making agreements with him.\n\n\"Putin violated all the documents. The agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the bilateral treaty between Russia and Ukraine, the treaty on the internationally recognised border of Russia and Ukraine, the UN charter, the Helsinki Act of 1975, the Budapest Memorandum. And so on. There is no document he would not violate.\"\n\nWhen it comes to breaking agreements, the Russian authorities have a long list of their own grudges to level at the West. Topping that list is Moscow's assertion that the West broke a promise it made in the 1990s not to enlarge the Nato alliance eastwards.\n\nAnd yet in his early years in office, Vladimir Putin appeared not to view Nato as a threat. In 2000 he even did not exclude Russia one day becoming a member of the Alliance. Two years later, asked to comment on Ukraine's stated intention of joining Nato, President Putin replied: \"Ukraine is a sovereign state and is entitled to choose itself how to ensure its own security…\" He insisted the issue would not cloud relations between Moscow and Kyiv.\n\nOn Tuesday the Russian president delivered his annual state-of-the-nation address\n\nPutin circa 2023 is a very different character. Seething with resentment at the \"collective West\", he styles himself as leader of a besieged fortress, repelling the alleged attempts of Russia's enemies to destroy his country. From his speeches and comments - and his references to imperial Russian rulers like Peter the Great and Catherine the Great - Mr Putin appears to believe he is destined to recreate the Russian empire in some shape or form.\n\nBut at what cost to Russia? President Putin once earned himself a reputation for bringing stability to his country. That has disappeared amid rising military casualties, mobilisation and economic sanctions. Several hundred thousand Russians have left the country since the start of the war, many of them young, skilled and educated: a brain drain that will hurt Russia's economy even more.\n\nAs a result of the war, suddenly, there are a lot of groups around with guns, including private military companies, like Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner group and regional battalions. Relations with the regular armed forces are far from harmonious. The conflict between Russia's Ministry of Defence and Wagner is an example of public infighting within the elites.\n\n\"Civil war is likely to cover Russia for the next decade,\" believes Konstantin Remchukov, owner and editor of Moscow-based newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. \"There are too many interest groups who understand that in these conditions there's a chance to redistribute wealth.\"\n\n\"The real chance to avoid civil war will be if the right person comes to power immediately after Putin. A person who has authority over the elites and the resoluteness to isolate those eager to exploit the situation.\"\n\n\"Are the Russian elites discussing who the right man or woman is?\" I ask Konstantin.\n\n\"Quietly. With the lights off. They do discuss this. They will have their voice.\"\n\n\"And does Putin know these discussions are happening?\"\n\n\"He knows. I think he knows everything.\"\n\nThis week the speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament declared: \"As long as there's Putin, there's Russia.\"\n\nIt was a statement of loyalty, but not of fact. Russia will survive - it has managed to for centuries. Vladimir Putin's fate, however, is linked irrevocably now to the outcome of the war in Ukraine.", "Ursula von der Leyen and Rishi Sunak will be meeting in the UK on Monday\n\n\"The jigsaw pieces are well known. They've been on the table for a while,\" a key EU figure recently told me. \"It's a case now of both of us being brave enough to hold hands and jump.\"\n\nRishi Sunak and the European Commission President are both described by their teams as preferring not to sign a deal, rather than go for (another) one they believe is doomed to fail.\n\nBrussels describes Rishi Sunak as a pragmatist. Yes, a Brexiteer but also a practical politician, solutions-focussed, rather than an ideologue.\n\nEU diplomats compare him favourably to his predecessors Liz Truss, who they say \"didn't dare touch the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland\" (you might question if she had the time in her short premiership?), and Boris Johnson, who EU leaders widely believe signed the agreement \"in bad faith\".\n\nThey insist he knew the protocol deal involved checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although he denied that fact in public.\n\nBut why would Mr Sunak attempt to solve this thorny and contentious post-Brexit issue with so much at stake - not least the politics and stability of Northern Ireland as well as of his own Conservative Party.\n\nHe already has plenty of other problems on his plate: strikes, a difficult upcoming budget, local elections in May with the Conservatives trailing in national polls.\n\nBut the EU understood the prime minister had a number of clear reasons to go for a revised Northern Ireland deal: both economic and political.\n\nFirst and foremost, Mr Sunak hopes for improved relations with the US and the EU.\n\nThe Biden administration made it clear that previous UK government talk of unilaterally overriding the current Northern Ireland Agreement would not be \"conducive\" to a trade deal between the UK and US.\n\nAdditionally, this April sees the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Peace Agreement.\n\nThe prime minister is keen for President Biden to come. But first he needs to revise the protocol sufficiently to persuade the Democratic Unionist Party to join and therefore restore the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.\n\nSunnier relations with the UK's biggest trade partner, the EU, is also advantageous for Mr Sunak.\n\nImportantly, if this revised deal falls through, he would be forced to continue with a Bill to unilaterally override key parts of the protocol which could lead to a costly trade war with Brussels - something the prime minister very much hopes to avoid.\n\nA revised agreement and improved bilateral trust could ease future deals with the EU - on the UK joining the attractive Horizon research programme for example, as well as on forging a post-Brexit deal on financial services and making it easier for UK musicians to travel throughout the EU.\n\nIt would also improve relations with France, just ahead of a big Franco-UK summit where combatting people-smuggler boats across the Channel will be a big topic of conversation.\n\nEU-UK relations are already much improved since the fractious days of initial Brexit negotiations.\n\nRussia's invasion of Ukraine reminded both sides of the values and priorities they share. They've worked closely on sanctions against Russia as well as on a country-by-country basis inside Nato.\n\nThere's much hope in the EU that rows over the Northern Ireland Protocol can now become a thing of the past.\n\nThe EU says it accepts the risk to its single market of reduced customs checks as a price worth paying.\n\nSo the ball has been in the UK's court for a while.\n\nThe challenge: how to package and present a deal in order to make it workable and acceptable to the key \"stakeholders\" - public and political in the UK.\n\nUrsula von der Leyen travelling to the UK on Monday is seen as the last piece in the presentation puzzle, but back in Brussels EU diplomats mutter that they're not counting their chickens.\n\nAs one EU figure put it to me: \"We know negotiations with us [the EU] are only part of a UK prime minister's journey. Brexit caused deep internal divisions in the UK. We have tried to negotiate a revised Northern Ireland deal. Now we watch and wait.\"", "Two rival groups clashed outside Hampden Park ahead of the cup final\n\nPolice have launched an investigation into a mass disturbance outside Hampden ahead of the League Cup final.\n\nOfficers confirmed the alarm was raised at about 09:00 on Sunday, six hours before the match between Rangers and Celtic was due to kick-off.\n\nA Police Scotland spokeswoman said a \"large group\" was involved and inquiries were ongoing.\n\nSome Rangers fans had been given access to the grounds by the stadium operators to set up a pre-match display.\n\nNo arrests were made at the time. After the match four people were arrested for disorder related offences and assault but police said the incidents were quickly resolved.\n\nPolice Scotland said it would continue to investigate the earlier disturbance, and urged the clubs to do likewise.\n\nChief Superintendent Mark Sutherland said: \"Prior to today's match supporters of both clubs had been granted pre-arranged access to Hampden Park by the stadium operators to set up displays, with Celtic on Saturday, 25 February and Rangers on the morning of Sunday, 26 February.\n\n\"A stewarding and policing plan was in place to support this arrangement. At around 8.50am on Sunday, 26 February, 2023, during this pre-arranged attendance, a disturbance took place outside the stadium involving supporters from both clubs.\"\n\nA number of videos of the disorder were posted on social media.\n\nOne, filmed from a tenement flat window, showed dozens of individuals walking along Somerville Drive on Glasgow's south side.\n\nA handful of police officers were present but they were unable to prevent a brief fight breaking out with a rival group.\n\nDuring the incident one man is seen being knocked to the ground while another throws a traffic cone nearby.\n\nSome of those involved were wearing blue hats while others were wearing green hats, but the vast majority were dressed in black.\n\nA separate clip, filmed at ground level, shows a group of men shouting as they run along the perimeter of the stadium.\n\nThe footage stops as police officers arrive on a side street facing the national stadium.\n\nCeltic later won the match 2-1, lifting the first trophy of the season.\n\nCORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said the incident was a pre-arranged clash between rival supporters of the Glasgow clubs. Police have confirmed that this was incorrect. We apologise for this error in our reporting.", "For over a decade, stolen images of a former adult star have been used to scam victims out of thousands of dollars. How does it feel to be the unwitting face of so many romance scams?\n\nAlmost every day, Vanessa gets messages from men who believe they are in a relationship with her - some even think she's their wife. They are angry, confused and some want their money back - which they say they sent her to pay for daily expenses, hospital bills, or to help relatives.\n\nBut it is all a lie. Vanessa doesn't know these men. Instead, her pictures and videos - lifted from her past life in adult entertainment - have been used as the bait in online romance scams dating back to the mid-2000s. Victims had money extorted through fake online profiles using Vanessa's name or likeness, in a type of romance scam called catfishing.\n\nThe flood of messages containing tales of lost money and ruined lives have taken their toll.\n\n\"I started becoming depressed, and blaming myself - maybe if my pictures weren't out there, these men wouldn't be getting scammed,\" Vanessa says - we're not using her surname to protect her full identity.\n\nFor about eight years, Vanessa worked as a \"camgirl\" - streaming explicit material live on the internet via webcam. Because she was a bit shy when she started out, she decided to create an alter ego called Janessa Brazil. \"It's not really me, it's Janessa, so I won't be ashamed,\" she thought.\n\nShe picked the surname Brazil not only because it's where she was born, but also because it's one of the most popular search terms on the internet. It was a savvy decision. \"I hate that name,\" she says now. \"But it helped me get popular quickly.\"\n\nBehind every catfish, there's the bait. Listen to Love, Janessa from the BBC World Service and CBC Podcasts.\n\nFor a while, things were great. Vanessa enjoyed the relationship with her fans, who would pay up to $20 (£17) per minute to watch and interact with her. \"I want to please them. I want to have fun with them. And they get hooked,\" she says.\n\nAt the peak of her career, she says she was earning about a million US dollars a year. Janessa had her own website, a successful brand and a vibrant online presence. But in 2016 her online profile went dark.\n\nIt took us nine months to find her for the podcast Love, Janessa. When we finally spoke to Vanessa in her modest apartment on the US east coast, she told us that part of the reason she quit making online content was to try to stop the scammers. \"I no longer want to give them the power to use anything of mine ever again,\" she says.\n\nVanessa first became aware scammers were pretending to be her when a man posted in the chat during a live show, adamant that he was her husband and she had promised him that she'd stop camming. She thought it was a prank, but asked him to email her.\n\nMore victims came forward with similar stories, posting comments during her shows, and asking her to prove her identity. Scammers also popped up with weird requests for her - like putting on a red hat - images they then used to trick victims.\n\nThe constant comments, emails and tense atmosphere began to affect her business. \"It was a nightmare,\" says Vanessa. \"But I felt bad for these guys. What am I supposed to do?\"\n\nAt first she tried to respond to every email, which took hours each day. She says her then husband, who was also her manager, also started monitoring the messages. He told scam victims that he and Vanessa were not liable for the money the men had lost.\n\n\"If I got all the money that these guys sent all these scammers, I would be a billionaire today, not sitting here in my little apartment,\" she says.\n\nVanessa thinks it's in many men's nature to want to take care of women, which explains why they send money to someone they haven't met.\n\n\"Even if they don't have the money, they're still willing to give it, just to feel loved,\" she says.\n\nRoberto Marini, an Italian in his early 30s, was hooked by a fake Janessa. It began with a message on Facebook from a striking young woman calling herself Hannah, who complimented him on his start-up business - a sustainable farm on the island of Sardinia.\n\nAfter three months of exchanging pictures and loving messages, she began to ask for money. It was for little things at first, like a broken phone, but soon she needed more. She told him she had a tough life - when she wasn't looking after sick relatives she had to make a living in adult entertainment.\n\nRoberto wanted to save her, feeling a \"father-ish energy\" towards her. But he was frustrated that they could never seem to speak in person - every time they arranged a call, her phone would break or something else would come up.\n\nThen he discovered thousands of pictures and videos of Hannah online - except they were of adult entertainment star Janessa Brazil - and many were more explicit than the ones Hannah had ever sent him.\n\nTheir love felt real, so he wondered whether she did not want to reveal her true identity in case it complicated their relationship.\n\nConfused, Roberto joined one of Janessa Brazil's live online shows. \"Is it really you?\" he typed into the chat. He didn't get the answers he wanted, and he was paying by the minute so didn't stay long.\n\nIn his quest to find out the truth, Roberto also emailed her, along with many other people he thought might be the real Janessa. During our interview with her, Vanessa looked back at her inbox and found a message from him amongst thousands of emails.\n\n\"Hi. I have the need to talk with the real Janessa Brazil,\" he had written in 2016. She had replied an hour later, \"I am the real Janessa Brazil.\"\n\nHe asked her a few more questions trying to find out if they had spoken before. This email exchange was the first and only contact they'd ever had.\n\nBut that was not the end. Roberto remained ensnared by scammers. He says he sent them a total of $250,000 (£207,500) over four years, draining his savings and borrowing money from friends and family, as well as taking out loans.\n\nWe found Roberto through his online posts warning others that fake accounts were conning people using Janessa's stolen images. But, even after everything that had happened to him, part of him still believed he had a deep connection with the real Janessa.\n\nThat is the sign of a successful scam, says Dr Aunshul Rege, a criminal justice expert from Philadelphia who has studied online romance scams.\n\nShe says messages are often sent by criminal networks working in teams to groom victims, sharing images and information. She has even found an example of the manuals they use - practical how-to guides that also list excuses to avoid a phone call which might expose them.\n\nThe scams follow a pattern - love bombing, threats of a break-up and then requests for financial help, supposedly to allow the couple to finally be together. The tactics are so formulaic as to be chillingly familiar to anyone who has been at the receiving end, but they work.\n\n\"As human beings we are wired to help each other out. That's just how we're built,\" Dr Rege says.\n\nVanessa says she hates these cruel tactics. \"They show love and then take it away. The guys get desperate and they're willing to do anything to get it back,\" she says.\n\nDr Rege thinks it's likely Roberto's scam was run by an organised group. She says there are huge networks that operate around the world, with substantial numbers originating from Turkey, China, UAE, UK, Nigeria and Ghana.\n\nOne of the places Roberto was asked to send money was Ghana, home to a group of online scammers called the Sakawa Boys. We tracked some of them down in Accra. \"Ofa\", a softly-spoken young man, told us that impersonating people online is time-consuming and involves a lot of administration - if only to keep track of the lies. He admitted the work made him \"feel bad\", but that he had made over $50,000 (£41,500).\n\nWhen shown images of Janessa, Ofa said he had not used them himself, but understood why they would be a favourite among scammers. He also said that for a scam to work, he would need a variety of pictures showing the women in everyday situations - like cooking or at the gym.\n\nVanessa thinks her pictures have been used partly because she shared so many candid moments from her daily life. \"I put myself out there completely, so they had a lot to work with,\" she says.\n\nBut she draws a clear line between her professional alter ego and her real self. \"Vanessa has panic attacks. Janessa doesn't,\" she says.\n\nEventually the unstoppable tide of scam victims grew into \"a monster\" that traumatised Vanessa.\n\nHaving to perform every day on camera began to affect her mental health and her marriage. Exhausted, Vanessa told us she started drinking before her shows. She says she hates watching videos from that time because she can see her own unhappiness.\n\nBy 2016, she says she couldn't take it any longer and decided to quit. She says she packed her car, left her home and husband, and drove off to a new life. Now she is training as a therapist, and writing a memoir - taking back control of her own story.\n\nVanessa has never gone to the authorities to report scammers using her image. She doesn't think they would take her complaints seriously. \"They're going to look at me like, 'You're a porn star' and laugh at my face,\" she says.\n\nOver the years since, she has become more resilient. She knows scammers may never stop pretending to be her, but she understands why some victims get caught in the trap.\n\n\"When it comes to love, we can be so dumb,\" she says. \"I know, I've been there. It's like, 'Damn! I'm smarter than this!' So it happens to all of us.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Dr Aunshul Rege has some practical tips for dealing with online romance scams", "The DUP will want to look beyond the headlines and study the legal text which will accompany the NI Protocol deal\n\nThe moment of truth is fast approaching for the DUP.\n\nThe final pieces of a deal between the UK and EU are falling into place - even down to the title, with The Windsor Agreement being floated as an option.\n\nOnce published - most likely on Monday - the spotlight will fall on Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his party.\n\nBut don't expect a quick response, that is not the DUP way. The party will reserve judgement on any deal.\n\nThey will want to look beyond the headlines and study the legal text which will accompany the deal.\n\nThat will be the acid test - does it meet the party's key demands?\n\nThough open to interpretation in parts, their demands deal with removing trade barriers across the Irish Sea and \"restoring Northern Ireland sovereign place in the UK\".\n\nFixing the \"democratic deficit\" will also be key for the DUP.\n\nExpect to see a beefed up role for the assembly when it comes to deciding what EU legislation will apply in Northern Ireland.\n\nBut will it amount to more of a say in the decision making process, stopping short of a veto which the EU insist it will not allow.\n\nThat will be key and may require some constructive ambiguity to allow both the DUP and EU to sell the deal.\n\nCrucially the new legal text which will \"overlay\" the previous legislation will allow the DUP to claim the protocol has been replaced, though the EU will argue the protocol remains intact with its original legal text unchanged.\n\nRishi Sunak could make another visit to Northern Ireland to try and shore up DUP support for a deal\n\nBefore passing verdict on the deal, the DUP will consult those businesses struggling under the burden of the protocol - the same businesses Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been trying to box off before publishing his deal.\n\nIf it works for businesses on the frontline then it adds more pressure on the DUP to say yes.\n\nBut the very fact the government is poised to publish the deal signals some level of DUP support.\n\nTo run the risk of a quick DUP rejection would have been reckless.\n\nDon't rule out another last dash by the prime minister to Northern Ireland to shore up their support.", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nManchester United claimed their first trophy since 2017 with victory over Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.\n\nNewcastle's own wait for silverware, stretching back to 1969, goes on after two goals inside six minutes in the first half established Manchester United's superiority and set them on their way to a first success under manager Erik ten Hag.\n\nCasemiro broke the deadlock after 33 minutes when he headed home Luke Shaw's free-kick.\n\nHis side doubled their advantage after Sven Botman deflected Marcus Rashford's shot out of the reach of Newcastle's debutant keeper Loris Karius, deputising for the suspended Nick Pope.\n\nNewcastle attempted to rally in the second half, but the goals have dried up at the wrong time for Eddie Howe's men.\n\nIt meant Manchester United were back in the honours after last tasting success six years ago when lifting the Europa League under Jose Mourinho, and also winning this competition in the same campaign.\n• None 'We need more trophies' - Man Utd from 'whiners to winners'\n• None All the reaction as Man Utd win first trophy since 2017\n\nUnited's renaissance under Ten Hag now has tangible reward in the shape of a trophy, with the power to add more this season.\n\nThe Dutchman's strong leadership and tactical acumen has transformed them since that nightmare opening to the season when they lost at home to Brighton and shipped four first-half goals in a humiliating loss at Brentford.\n\nThe arrival of the outstanding Casemiro, the superb development of the combative Lisandro Martinez and Rashford's rejuvenation have helped to make the Old Trafford outfit a serious proposition again.\n\nThey were not at their best, but once they took control of this final they did not let Newcastle back in - and this was very much a case of mission accomplished.\n\nAt the heart of it all was Casemiro, a genuinely transformative acquisition. The Brazilian not only made the crucial contribution with the opening goal, but stamped his years of trophy-winning experience with Real Madrid all over this showpiece with his expert positioning and authority.\n\nIt will also increase the growing belief that Ten Hag is the manager who will move Manchester United forward and out of the wilderness that had engulfed them before his arrival at the start of the season.\n\nNo blame on Karius - but Newcastle lack end product\n\nNewcastle's vast Toon Army warmly applauded them at the final whistle, but this will be a bitter disappointment after they travelled south in their hordes with hopes and expectations so high.\n\nThere was certainly no lack of effort, but there is a desperate absence of end product to a side whose momentum in the Premier League has slowed - and that agonising wait to celebrate a trophy continues.\n\nIt showed here as Newcastle got into threatening positions several times in the second half, but never took advantage in a manner that might have exerted a measure of pressure on Manchester United.\n\nAll eyes were on German keeper Karius, drafted in for Pope - suspended after being sent off against Liverpool - and still best remembered for a calamitous performance for Jurgen Klopp's team in their 2018 Champions League final loss to Real Madrid.\n\nNewcastle would have preferred the greater certainty of Pope, but no blame can be attached to Karius here - and he actually made good saves from Wout Weghorst, Rashford and, just before the end, Bruno Fernandes.\n\nThere is no doubt, though, that despite this loss, Newcastle are heading in the right direction under Howe.\n\nThey would have gladly taken a major final at the start of the season, but Wembley once again brought only heartache for the Geordies.\n• None Attempt saved. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Scott McTominay.\n• None Attempt saved. Joelinton (Newcastle United) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by Matt Ritchie with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Jacob Murphy (Newcastle United) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right following a set piece situation.\n• None Casemiro (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Bryce Barker and his colleagues were on a field study trip near Mount Bosavi when they were taken hostage\n\nAn archaeologist and two of his colleagues have been rescued after being held captive for a week by an armed group in Papua New Guinea (PNG).\n\nProfessor Bryce Barker, a New Zealand citizen who lives in Australia, was originally captured at gunpoint with three colleagues as they took part in a field study trip near Mount Bosavi.\n\nOne of the group was freed on Thursday.\n\nPNG's leader has said the group was released without paying the ransom that had been demanded.\n\nPrime Minister James Marape said the kidnappers wanted 3.5m Papua New Guinean Kina ($994,000; £832,000) but the hostages had been rescued \"through covert operations\".\n\n\"We apologise to the families of those taken as hostages for ransom,\" he said. \"To criminals, there is no profit in crime. We thank God that life was protected.\"\n\nPNG's prime minister says Bryce Barker and his colleagues were released without a ransom being paid\n\nThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) named the women who were held with Professor Barker as Jemina Haro, Teppsy Beni and Cathy Alex - all members of his research team.\n\nProfessor Barker works for the University of Southern Queensland and the university's Vice-Chancellor Geraldine Mackenzie said they were relieved he was safe.\n\nShe described the professor as a \"highly regarded archaeologist and a valued colleague\" with many years experience of research in the region.\n\nNew Zealand's foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, wrote on social media that her country \"welcomes the safe release of hostages in PNG including a NZer\".\n\n\"Tenkiu tru for your leadership and cooperation governments of PNG and Australia,\" she added, using the phrase from the creole Tok Pisin or Pidgin language used in PNG that means \"thank-you very much\".\n\nPenny Wong, Australia's foreign minister, has also thanks the PNG government for \"its leadership in securing a safe & peaceful resolution\".\n\nPhilip Mehrtens with TPNPB fighters in video footage sent to the BBC\n\nIn neighbouring Papua, which is controlled by Indonesia, it is understood New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens is still being held captive.\n\nHe was kidnapped more than two weeks ago after landing his plane in Papua's remote mountainous province of Nduga.\n\nThe West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), a rebel group that rejects Indonesian rule, has pledged to release Mr Mehrtens if Papua is granted independence.\n\nSeparately, Indonesian officials said on Friday that they had tightened security in the town of Wamena in the country's eastern region after 10 people were killed during a riot sparked by rumours that a child had been abducted.\n\nSecurity forces reportedly opened fire on locals after suspicion that the authorities were holding the person responsible for the suspected abduction led people to attack a police station and other buildings.", "TV presenter Dan Walker has said his \"whole body aches\" and he has had to eat through a straw since being injured in a bike crash.\n\nDescribing the ordeal in the Sunday Times, Mr Walker said he knew \"he could have died\" when he was hit by a car while cycling in Sheffield on Monday.\n\nHe added he was \"very happy\" he could not remember much about what happened.\n\nBut he said he could recall how \"deeply distressed\" the driver looked, and thanked them for \"staying around\".\n\n\"I know I could have died but I also know how easy it is to make a mistake, even when you're trying to be careful,\" he said in the article.\n\nThe former BBC Breakfast presenter said he \"can't imagine\" what the driver was now going through, adding: \"If you're reading this, I'm going to be OK.\"\n\nMr Walker described struggling to breathe as he lay on the ground for about 25 minutes after the crash, drifting in and out of consciousness.\n\nEverything went black until he saw the faces of two paramedics, a police officer and the driver of the car looking down at him, he added.\n\nDan Walker said he could have died if he had not been wearing a helmet\n\nOnce in the ambulance, paramedics told him they were concerned about his face, now bloodstained and swollen, but that his helmet \"probably saved my life\" and all the damage was in the area below it.\n\nLater at the hospital, an X-ray confirmed that \"despite the pain, nothing was broken\".\n\nMr Walker shared the news of his accident on social media, where he praised the NHS and spoke about his helmet.\n\nBut his message received some backlash. Motorists were angry he was \"on the road at all\" and that the driver hadn't \"finished the job\" - and some cyclists accused him of victim blaming by \"talking about helmets at all\" when the real problem was, they said, \"idiots in their tanks\".\n\nMr Walker continued: \"However I choose to get from A to B, I never feel like I'm in a war and I don't think it's 'my road'. My helmet is smashed and I'm glad that it wasn't my head.\"\n\nHe added his teeth still \"feel bruised\" and he has an ulcer \"the size of a 20p piece\" under his front lip.\n\n\"I have been eating through a straw for most of the week. My left wrist is really painful to move and every day I'm finding another lump or little chunk of flesh missing,\" he said.\n\nThe presenter said he hated \"doing nothing\" and hoped to return to his role as a Channel 5 news anchor.\n\n\"As long as the swelling and bruising have gone down, I think I will go back to work later this week,\" he wrote.", "Next up is Scotland's Health Secretary, and SNP leadership contender, Humza Yousaf.\n\nKuenssberg asks if there's been intolerance in the SNP after the Scottish Association of Mosques said it would not be endorsing any of the three candidates.\n\nYousaf says he is a Muslim and it's fine to hold religious views but he doesn't use his faith as a basis for legislating - that's not a politician's job. The issue of religion has become key in the contest as one of Yousaf's rivals, Kate Forbes, is a committed Christian who has been quizzed about her views on equal marriage.\n\nYousaf has also been accused of missing a Holyrood vote on gay marriage.\n\nKuenssberg asks if it would be acceptable for Scotland to have a first minister who did not believe in gay marriage. He says they must not row back on it but says the people of Scotland need to know that their first minister will stand up for those rights and advance them.\n\nSNP MSP Alex Neil has said in public that Yousaf had asked not to take part in the vote on equal marriage because he was facing pressure from religious leaders.\n\nYousaf repeats his previous denial and says his reason for missing the final vote was because he had an unavoidable meeting with the Pakistani government about a Scottish prisoner on death row.\n\nHe says Neil is backing another candidate for first minister and suggests this could be his motivation for making the claim.", "Police investigating the attempted murder of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell have been given more time to question a 43-year-old man.\n\nA court in Belfast has granted an extension until 22:00 GMT on Tuesday 28 February.\n\nThe senior police officer was shot outside a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, on Wednesday.\n\nSix men remain in custody in connection with the attack. The youngest is 22 and the oldest is aged 71.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell had just finished coaching under-15s at football when he was shot multiple times in front of his young son. He remains critically ill in hospital.\n\nPolicing representative body the Police Federation for Northern Ireland said he had suffered life-changing injuries.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland's main line of inquiry is that dissident republican group the New IRA was responsible for shooting the 48-year-old in the car park of the Youth Sport Omagh site.\n\nDissident republicans oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal and continue to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.", "Finance ministers of the world's largest economies have failed to agree on a closing statement following a summit in India, after China refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nBeijing declined to accept parts of a G20 statement that deplored Russia's aggression \"in the strongest terms\".\n\nMoscow said \"anti-Russian\" Western countries had \"destabilised\" the G20.\n\nIt comes after China this week published a plan to end the conflict that was viewed by some as pro-Russian.\n\nIndia, which hosted this week's G20 talks in the southern city of Bengaluru, issued a wide-ranging \"chair's summary\" from the meeting, noting there were \"different assessments of the situation\" in Ukraine, and on sanctions imposed on Russia.\n\nA footnote said that two paragraphs summarising the war were \"agreed to by all member countries except Russia and China\". The paragraphs were adapted from the G20 Bali Leaders' Declaration in November, and criticised \"in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine\".\n\nAfter taking a back seat since the invasion a year ago, Beijing has stepped up its diplomacy efforts surrounding the conflict in recent weeks. Its top diplomat Wang Yi toured Europe this week, culminating in a warm welcome by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.\n\nChina also this week published a 12-point plan for ending the war in Ukraine, in which it called for peace talks and respect for national sovereignty. However, the 12-point document did not specifically say that Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine, and did not condemn Russia's invasion.\n\nThe Chinese document was welcomed by Russia, prompting US President Joe Biden to comment: \"[President] Putin's applauding it, so how could it be any good?\"\n\nAfter the G20 meeting, Ajay Seth, a senior Indian official, said in a press conference that Russian and Chinese representatives did not agree to the wording on Ukraine because \"their mandate is to deal with economic and financial issues\".\n\n\"On the other hand, all the other 18 countries felt that the war has got implications for the global economy\" and needed to be mentioned, he added.\n\nThe 17-paragraph summary of the summit also referenced the recent earthquake in Turkey, debt in low- and middle-income countries, global tax policy, and food insecurity.\n\nRussia's foreign ministry said it regretted the fact that \"the activities of the G20 continue to be destabilised by the Western collective and used in an anti-Russian... way\".\n\nIt accused the United States, European Union and G7 nations of \"clear blackmail\", urging them to \"acknowledge the objective realities of a multipolar world\".\n\nBut German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said: \"This is a war. And this war has a cause, has one cause, and that is Russia and Vladimir Putin. That must be expressed clearly at this G20 finance meeting.\"\n\nPrevious meetings of G20 members have also failed to produce a joint statement since Russia invaded Ukraine last February.\n\nOn Thursday, the UN General Assembly in New York overwhelmingly backed a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The motion was backed by 141 nations with 32 abstaining and seven - including Russia - voting against.", "At least 33 people have died after a migrant shipwreck off the eastern coast of Italy's Calabria region", "Luciana Berger resigned from the party in February 2019\n\nLuciana Berger is rejoining the Labour Party after resigning in protest at the handling of antisemitism allegations four years ago.\n\nShe was one of several MPs to leave Labour in spring 2019, saying she was \"embarrassed and ashamed\" to stay.\n\nMs Berger has now accepted an apology from Sir Keir Starmer, who said there had been a \"litany of failures\".\n\nThe former Liverpool Wavertree MP said the party had now \"turned a significant corner\" under Sir Keir's leadership.\n\nShe added: \"I'm pleased to be returning to my political home.\"\n\nMs Berger formed The Independent Group with several other Labour and Conservative MPs when she left her party, saying there had been a \"sea of cases\" of antisemitism and that complaints had been brushed under the carpet.\n\nShe later joined the Liberal Democrats and was chosen to contest the seat of Finchley and Golders Green, but failed to win the vote.\n\nSir Keir said he was \"delighted\" Ms Berger had accepted his invitation to rejoin the party, writing on Twitter: \"My test for change was whether those who were rightly appalled by how far we had fallen believe this is their party again.\n\n\"I know we've more to do but we're unrecognisable from the party that forced her out.\"\n\nHe shared letters the pair had exchanged, in which Ms Berger spoke of the \"grim journey\" from 2015 to 2019 \"during which the party fell into the depths of the abyss under Jeremy Corbyn's reign\".\n\nShe said she felt she had no choice other than to leave, writing: \"I never expected to bear witness to the volume and toxicity of anti-Jewish racism espoused by people who had been allowed to join Labour, and to experience a leadership that treated antisemitism within the party's ranks differently to every other kind of racism - and that by refusing to condemn it, encouraged it.\n\n\"But that is exactly what happened.\"\n\nIn his letter, Sir Keir said Ms Berger had been \"forced out by intimidation, thuggery and racism\" and had made a \"brave move\" - albeit one she \"should never have been forced to take\".\n\n\"That day will forever be a stain on Labour's history,\" he added.\n\nSir Keir said she had suffered abuse and was left \"isolated and exposed\", adding the party and British politics were \"poorer places\" without her.\n\nA report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2020 said there had been \"a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent antisemitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it\".\n\nIt found Labour had broken equality law over its handling of antisemitism complaints.\n\nFormer leader Jeremy Corbyn rejected some of the findings, saying the issue had been \"dramatically overstated\" by his critics. He insisted there was no place for antisemitism in Labour, but was suspended from the party by Labour's headquarters.\n\nSir Keir said the findings of the EHRC investigation were \"hard to read\", adding that it had been \"a day of shame for the Labour Party\".\n• None What does the Labour anti-Semitism report say?\n• None Who were the Independent Group?", "Last updated on .From the section Boxing\n\nTommy Fury beat Jake Paul by split decision in arguably the most anticipated contest between two novices in boxing history.\n\nFury, 23, was the busier fighter, landing more accurate punches and demonstrating his boxing fundamentals.\n\nThe former Love Island star, brother of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, was knocked down by YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul in the eighth round.\n\nOne judge scored it 75-74 to Paul, with the other two scoring it 76-73 to Fury.\n\n\"For the past two years this is all that has consumed my life,\" an emotional Fury, who has now won all nine of his professional bouts, said on BT Sport.\n\n\"Everybody thought I was running scared but tonight I made my own legacy.\"\n\nAfter dedicating the fight to his new-born baby daughter Bambi, Fury added: \"This is my first main event, I am going to get bigger and better and if he wants a rematch, bring it on.\"\n\nPaul - who lost for the first time in his seventh professional fight - said: \"All respect to Tommy, he won. Don't judge me by my wins, judge me by my losses.\n\n\"I don't know if I agree with the judges, it is what it is but that is the boxing world.\"\n• None 'Fury vs Paul: Sport or circus?' Listen to Voice of the UK on BBC Sounds\n\nSeveral stars from the world of sport and entertainment were in attendance and many more were following the eight-round bout from home.\n\nBoxing legend Mike Tyson and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo were among those present in the open-top Diriyah Arena in Riyadh.\n\nPopstar Drake shared a screenshot of his $400,000 (£335,000) bet on a Paul KO win, while Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin tweeted: \"There's no better way to celebrate your half birthday than to watch Jake Paul get punched in the head repeatedly.\"\n\nThe main event was given the full big-fight treatment, with legendary Master of Ceremonies Michael Buffer introducing both fighters.\n\nFury, dressed in white with the name of his new-born daughter etched across his robe, walked first to the ring along with trainer and dad John Fury and brother Tyson.\n\nBut with Fury waiting patiently, 'The Problem Child' Paul was still pacing up and down in his dressing room as the mind games continued. When Paul did make his entrance, a chorus of boos echoed around the venue.\n\nUnusually, the fight took place on a Sunday night and while both Paul and Fury boast a huge social media following among younger fans, the first bell did not ring until 22:30 GMT (01:30 local time) - almost an hour later than scheduled.\n\nThe fight was the latest lucrative sporting event to take place in Saudi Arabia.\n\nThe Kingdom has spent billions to bring elite sport to its country but critics, such as human rights organisation Amnesty International, have accused Saudi Arabia of trying to 'sportswash' away the country's \"abysmal\" human rights record.\n\nHow did the fight play out?\n\nAfter all the hype and expectation, it was a scrappy opening minute of the fight. Fury landed a couple of solid jabs and ended the round with the first meaningful punch, a left hook.\n\nFury settled well into the second, rocking Paul's head back with a sharp jab - and even showboated by twirling his hand then landing a flush punch.\n\nWith Paul eyeing up the single power shots, he glanced Fury's forehead with an overhand right but missed wildly on other occasions.\n\nPaul started to use his jab and found success in the third. Then, somewhat bizarrely, Paul's brother Logan was interviewed ringside and with everyone in the arena able to hear, he insulted Fury and his family.\n\nThe fight had already divided opinion in the boxing world and this between-round episode will likely have further cemented the thoughts of traditionalists who feel it is making a mockery of the sport.\n\nThe comments seemed to spur Fury on as he connected with a short right hand and followed it with a flurry of punches from range in the fourth, although Paul ended the round well, landing cleaner blows.\n\nPaul had the best of the fifth round but was deducted a point for a punch to the back of the head. Fury landed terrific uppercuts in the sixth, but then he was also deducted a point for holding. Neither fighter was warned by the referee beforehand.\n\nThe fighters were visibly tired in the seventh, the first time in Fury's career he had gone that deep into a fight. But it was the Briton who edged the round through his work-rate.\n\nIn a frantic final round, with both boxers looking to land the telling blow, Fury hit the deck from a Paul jab. He looked more startled than hurt and insisted to the referee it was a slip.\n\n'It was my destiny'\n\nThe WBC had said the winner will now get a top-40 ranking with the sanctioning body which, in theory, could pave the way for a future world-title shot.\n\nIt was a move that irked many hardcore boxing fans, who feel there are more deserving fighters who should be given a ranking.\n\nIn his short career so far, Paul has boldly - and to the annoyance of those fans - called out the best boxing has to offer.\n\nHe has mentioned the likes of Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, one of the top pound-for-pound stars, and, more recently, former British world champion Carl Froch.\n\nBut he has suffered a loss in his first fight against an opponent with a boxing background. He had previously faced YouTuber AnEson Gib, ex-NBA basketball player Nate Robinson and MMA fighters Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva.\n\n\"I have won in every single way already in life,\" he said. \"I have made it further than I ever thought. I'll take it on the chin but we can run it back.\"\n\nPrior to the fight, Fury was told by his dad and brother he would be disowned if he lost.\n\n\"All the way through, I had a dream and a vision that I would win this fight but now everyone can stand up and take note,\" the winner said.\n\n\"I had pressure on my shoulders and I came through. This to me is a world-title fight - it was my destiny.\"\n\nIt was entertaining, the hype lived up to itself, and it was actually sport.\n\nIt wasn't a masterpiece, but there was a lot of heart and guts. What we ask for in boxing is that the two men or women in the ring give us everything they've got and these two did. It wasn't a great boxing match, but it was a great event.\n\nIf Jake Paul can reach 200m people with one tweet and get it retweeted 10m times in about five minutes no matter what time he sends the tweet, then if millions and millions of new eyeballs are watching the sport, they're not all going to disappear when the boxing finishes.\n\nSo how is 250,000 potentially new fans going to hurt any sport, whether it's tiddly winks or boxing? It has to be positive.\n• None A raw documentary goes inside the high-stakes world of parole hearings\n• None Are eco laundry products better for the environment? Greg Foot investigates how such claims come out in the wash...", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nSecond Test, Wellington, (day three of five)\n\nEngland have work to do in order to win the second Test after New Zealand's defiance following-on in Wellington.\n\nThe home side ended day three on 202-3, 24 behind after beginning their second innings 226 adrift.\n\nTom Latham made 83 and Devon Conway 61 in an opening stand of 149, before New Zealand lost three wickets for 18 runs to the spin of Jack Leach and Joe Root.\n\nBut Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls dug in, at times painstakingly so. Williamson crawled to 25 not out from 81 balls and Nicholls 18 from 70 in an unbroken partnership of 35.\n\nCaptain Tim Southee earlier clubbed 73 from 49 balls to drag the Black Caps to 209 all out in their first innings.\n\nSouthee added 98 for the eighth wicket with Tom Blundell, only for both to fall to Stuart Broad as part of his 4-61.\n\nThen came the New Zealand rearguard, leaving a match that could have been one-sided delicately poised.\n• None TMS podcast: England made to work after New Zealand follow-on\n• None Obdurate New Zealand frustrate England - how day three unfolded\n\nTo enforce or not to enforce?\n\nA decision made by a captain to enforce a follow-on or declare (which England did in their innings) is only ever judged in hindsight.\n\nWhen Ben Stokes opted to use the follow-on - the first time he has had the opportunity under his captaincy and the first enforced by England since August 2020 - it was incredibly hard to argue.\n\nThat New Zealand subsequently batted well does not mean it was a bad call.\n\nIndeed, the fact the Basin Reserve pitch is staying true to its reputation for getting better for batting - it is gradually turning from green to brown - means England could have the best of it when they come to a run chase.\n\nThe hosts' grit will not have come as a surprise to England and, for the first time in the series, the Black Caps looked like the reigning world Test champions.\n\nEngland are still favourites to win this match. They will return refreshed on Monday with a ball that is only three overs old looking to make inroads and limit their eventual target.\n\nBut New Zealand have also given themselves an outside chance of saving the series by becoming the first team to win a Test against England after following on.\n\nFaced with such a huge deficit, left-handed openers Latham and Conway gradually chipped away at England's advantage with old-fashioned Test values: patience, determination and sound judgement.\n\nBoth men left well. Latham was strong off the pads, Conway drove handsomely through the covers and also hit Leach for six over long-on.\n\nAn incredibly sharp chance back to Leach off Latham was the closest England came until Ollie Pope once again showed his value as a close fielder by holding on to Conway's inside edge.\n\nThree overs later, Latham missed a sweep to be lbw to Root and when Leach produced a ripper that turned past Will Young's defensive stroke, New Zealand were three down and still 59 adrift.\n\nBut Williamson and Nicholls dropped anchor with dead-batted defence. Nicholls survived an inside edge flashing past Pope at short leg when he had eight.\n\nThe brief burst with the second new ball could not part them and New Zealand have Daryl Mitchell, Blundell, Michael Bracewell and Southee still to come on Monday.\n\nEngland might have been hoping for victory inside three days when play resumed with New Zealand 138-7, 297 behind.\n\nOn a grey morning, Southee caused chaos. From 23 not out, he swiped 50 from the 30 balls he faced until his dismissal. Three sixes were belted off a single Leach over, another maximum pulled off Ollie Robinson.\n\nHe was put down by Leach - a skyer at fine leg - but next ball chipped Broad to Zak Crawley at mid-wicket.\n\nIn Broad's next over, Tom Blundell hammered to mid-on and was out for 38, then Matt Henry looped a short ball to point.\n\nAfter bowling only 11.2 overs, England invited the Black Caps to bat again, only to encounter some hard toil in the warmest weather of the match.\n\nEngland's pace bowlers got the ball to swing, but bowled a touch too wide to utilise the assistance. There was turn for the spinners, albeit with Leach erring on the short side.\n\nStokes held himself back until the 50th over and sent down two overs of ineffective bouncers, including a wide and three no-balls, before Leach found the breakthrough.\n\n'You're going to have days of hard toil'\n\nEngland assistant coach Paul Collingwood, speaking to BT Sport: \"They've fought really hard today, I think it's been an enthralling day of Test cricket.\n\n\"We know as an England cricket team that you're going to have days like this where it is hard toil. New Zealand have fought hard.\n\n\"But it's had everything today, we had a counter-attack from Southee this morning then we went out there and had a great time with the new ball, just unfortunately didn't get the wickets with Jimmy and Broady up top.\n\n\"They fought hard but we're in a good position still.\"\n• None A raw documentary goes inside the high-stakes world of parole hearings\n• None Are eco laundry products better for the environment? Greg Foot investigates how such claims come out in the wash...", "The first group of 2,000 suspected gang members in El Salvador have been moved to a huge new prison, the centrepiece of President Nayib Bukele's self-declared war on crime.\n\nTens of thousands of suspected gangsters have been rounded up in the country under a state of emergency following a spike in murders and other violent crime.\n\nThe jail will eventually hold more than 40,000 people.\n\nPictures show the first massive group of inmates - tattooed and barefoot - being led to the facility in shackles.\n\nThe prisoners are left sitting on the floor with their hands behind their shaven heads, stacked closely together, before being taken to their cells.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPresident Bukele tweeted that the first 2,000 people were transferred \"at dawn, in a single operation\" to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, which he says is the largest jail in the Americas.\n\n\"This will be their new house, where they will live for decades, all mixed, unable to do any further harm to the population.\"\n\nThe mega-prison - in Tecoluca, 74 kilometers (46 miles) southeast of the capital San Salvador - comprises eight buildings. Each has 32 cells of about 100 square meters (1,075 square feet) to hold \"more than 100\" prisoners, the government says.\n\nThe cells only have two sinks and two toilets each.\n\nPresident Bukele declared a \"war on gangs\" last March, passing emergency measures which have been extended several times.\n\nThe emergency powers have been controversial as they limit some constitutional rights, such as allowing the security forces to arrest suspects without a warrant.\n\nMore than 64,000 suspects have been arrested in the anti-crime drive.\n\nAuthorities have said criminal gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio-18 number tens of thousands and are responsible for homicides, extortion and drug-trafficking. The aim of the mass arrests is to make the gangs \"disappear altogether\", the government says.\n\nHuman rights organisations have argued that innocent people have been caught up in the policy, and some of those held have reported being subjected to \"cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment\".", "Shortages of some fruit and vegetables will last for three to four weeks, a former environment secretary has said.\n\nGeorge Eustice also insisted there was \"nothing much\" the government could have done to prevent empty shelves in supermarkets.\n\nThe government and industry have blamed bad weather in Spain and North Africa for the squeeze.\n\nBut chef and restaurateur Thomasina Miers warned the food system was \"completely broken\".\n\nMajor UK supermarkets have been placing limits on fruit and vegetable sales after shortages, and consumers have faced empty shelves in some shops.\n\nThere are shortages of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, salad bags, broccoli and cauliflowers.\n\nProducers have warned that shortages could last until May, with the situation being made worse by UK growers delaying planting crops because of high energy costs.\n\nBut speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Mr Eustice said he expected the problems to last around \"three-to-four-weeks\".\n\nHe blamed a \"cocktail of weather events\" for the problems, and added that food prices were always closely linked to energy prices, which spiked due to the war in Ukraine.\n\nHe also said there was \"not much different the government could have done in recent months\" and \"there's nothing they can do immediately\" to avoid the problems affecting supply chains.\n\nMr Eustice said supermarkets have to \"work to get it right\" to ensure the disruption to supplies of some vegetables are restored.\n\nHe did acknowledge that action was needed \"longer term\".\n\n\"We should be committing to onshore production, so glasshouse production of cucumbers and tomatoes, we should be trying to build that here,\" he said.\n\nBut Ms Miers, who runs the Wahaca chain of restaurants, called for an overhaul of the government's approach to food.\n\nDescribing the UK's food system as \"completely broken\", she said: \"There's a time bomb we are sitting on\".\n\nShe warned: \"If we think cucumbers and tomatoes are bad, we are looking at way worse in the next decade.\"\n\nMs Miers called for more investment in regenerative farming, and using technology to support farmers to move to more sustainable methods of food production.\n\nBut Mr Eustice defended the government's record, saying: \"We've now got nearly half of farmers in what we call Countryside Stewardship doing exactly the sort of regenerative agriculture that Thomasina talks about.\"", "MP Theo Clarke said she had received dozens of calls from angry constituents, who had berated her for taking time off\n\nThe Conservative MP for Stafford, Theo Clarke, has been deselected.\n\nMs Clarke, who has represented the town since 2019, said she was \"deeply disappointed\" not to have been adopted as candidate by a constituency association committee.\n\nIn a statement posted on Twitter, the politician said she had faced abuse after announcing plans to take maternity leave.\n\nShe says she now intends to seek the support of rank and file members.\n\n\"Living at home in the new constituency and working here, I stood on a record of successfully bringing investment into Stafford such as millions for mental health services and crucial infrastructure,\" Ms Clarke said on Friday.\n\nShe added: \"Our town will soon see investment from the Levelling Up Fund and the Shared Prosperity Fund is already transforming the town centre with the Shire Hall due to fully reopen soon.\n\n\"I tirelessly campaigned for these wins, they will make a difference and make Stafford an even greater, better place to live, work and raise a family.\"\n\nMs Clarke, the niece of former business secretary and North East Somerset Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, was elected as MP for Stafford in 2019 with a majority of more than 14,000 during Boris Johnson's landslide victory.\n\nThe constituency boundaries of her current seat are being revised to take in more rural areas to the west of the town ahead of the next general election.\n\nHer deselection comes less than a week after the new mother returned to Parliament on 20 February, having spent six months on maternity leave after giving birth to her daughter.\n\nIn December last year, she revealed she had received dozens of phone calls from angry constituents who had berated her for taking time off.\n\nShe added: \"I have only returned from maternity this week and I have been very disappointed by the abuse that I have received since I announced I was having a baby.\n\n\"The selection committee have made their decision and it is my full intention to go the membership.\"\n\nAlongside her role as MP for Stafford, Theo Clarke also held the position of UK Trade Envoy to Kenya until her resignation last July in protest of Boris Johnson's leadership.\n\nIn a stinging resignation letter, Ms Clarke rebuked Mr Johnson for his handling of sexual abuse allegations surrounding the then Conservative MP Chris Pincher, who holds the neighbouring seat of Tamworth in Staffordshire.\n\nMs Clarke was one of dozens of MPs whose resignations ultimately led to Mr Johnson having to stand down as prime minister.\n\nThere is speculation, however, that those MPs who played a part in Mr Johnson's downfall are now facing a backlash from Tory grassroots.\n\nEarlier this week the veteran Conservative MP Damian Green was also deselected by his local association.\n\nBoth Mr Green and Ms Clarke could still put their names forward however when the selection of MPs goes to the wider constituency membership.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Matteo Salvini was by Giorgia Meloni's side as she addressed the Chamber of Deputies for the first time\n\nItaly's new far-right leader, Giorgia Meloni, has used her maiden speech to MPs to stress her aim to halt migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean.\n\n\"We must stop illegal departures and human trafficking,\" she said, repeating a campaign pledge to stop boats heading to Italy from North Africa.\n\nFor years Italy has been a hub for irregular migrants heading for Europe.\n\nMore than 77,000 have made the highly dangerous crossing to Italy this year, putting pressure on local communities.\n\nMs Meloni, 45, leads the Brothers of Italy party and has come to power at the head of a right-wing coalition.\n\n\"We do not intend in any way to question the right of asylum for those fleeing wars and persecutions,\" she told the lower house of parliament. \"All we want to do in relation to immigration is to stop the people traffickers from having the choice of deciding who enters Italy.\"\n\nShe said she felt the weight of being her country's first female leader and used the English word \"underdog\" to describe herself, paying tribute to a broad range of Italian women who had gone before her to \"break this ultimate glass ceiling\".\n\nShe was greeted with a standing ovation and cries of \"Giorgia, Giorgia\".\n\nThe Meloni government was only sworn in on Saturday and already it has returned to a theme pursued by one of its parties, the far-right League, in 2018-19.\n\nShortly before the prime minister spoke, the new Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi, threatened to close ports to two rescue boats carrying hundreds of migrants, arguing that the Ocean Viking and Humanity1 were failing to follow rules.\n\nMr Piantedosi played a key role in the earlier policy of preventing rescue boats carrying migrants from docking in Italian ports. That eventually led to the leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, going on trial accused of kidnapping and preventing the rescue boat Open Arms carrying 147 migrants from docking in Sicily in 2019.\n\nMeanwhile, migrant hotline Alarm Phone warned on Tuesday that some 1,350 people including women and children were in distress on two boats that had left the Libyan port of Tobruk and were now adrift in the Strait of Sicily. It said two babies had died after the boat they were in left Tunisia before those on board were picked up by the Italian coast guard.\n\nA spokeswoman for SOS Humanity, the group behind Humanity1, told the BBC they had not yet been given any details of the Rome government's new policy but stressed that under the law of the sea closing ports was against international law when people were rescued in distress.", "The epicentre of the earthquake was just north of Brynmawr, Blaenau Gwent\n\nAn earthquake has shaken parts of Wales, with tremors felt for 100 miles.\n\nThe British Geological Survey (BGS) said the 3.7 magnitude quake was at 23:59 GMT on Friday and was 2.2 miles (3.6 km) under the Earth's surface.\n\nThe epicentre was north of Brynmawr, Blaenau Gwent, and west of Crickhowell, Powys, but people on Twitter reported feeling it as far away as Birmingham.\n\nGwent Police said it received multiple calls overnight but it was \"business as usual\" for the force.\n\nBBC journalist Alex Humphreys said she felt the \"mini earthquake\" in Cardiff, 30 miles (50km) away.\n\n\"My whole bed shook,\" she tweeted. Others described it as a \"scary\" experience.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Alex Humphreys This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBrian Baptie, BGS head of seismology, said it was the largest earthquake in south Wales since a 4.6 magnitude quake about 25 miles (40km) west, near Swansea, in February 2018.\n\nHe added that, on average, Britain only gets about one earthquake with a magnitude of 3.7 or greater each year.\n\nThe largest earthquake ever recorded in the UK was in the North Sea on 7 June 1931, with a magnitude of 6.1.\n\nThe epicentre was in the Dogger Bank area, 75 miles (120km) north-east of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.\n\nWales' most powerful quake was on the Llyn Peninsula, Gwynedd, in 1984 - measuring 5.4, it began at a depth of more than 12 miles (20km).\n\nThe BGS said smaller quakes were not unusual in Wales, with 70 measuring more than 3.5 between 1727 and 1984.\n\nA 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Swansea in 1906 was one of the most damaging British earthquakes of the 20th Century, with damage to chimneys and walls reported across south Wales.\n\nIn Ebbw Vale shoppers said they had been left shaken and stirred.\n\nGerald Davies called the moment \"strange\", adding: \"It freaked me out a bit but I didn't realise it was an earthquake until this morning when I heard people taking about it on the buses.\n\n\"We're not used to feeling earthquakes here.\"\n\nA seismograph shows the force and duration of Friday night's quake\n\nAlison Stephens said: \"I live in a house that has a cellar underneath and I thought something in the cellar had collapsed.\n\n\"But my daughter and husband were in the living room and went, 'oh my god did you hear that?'\n\n\"Then everyone was out in the street going, 'oh my God, was that an earthquake'?\"\n\nShe said it was \"quite a rumble\".\n\nCaroline Davies thought nothing of it until people started messaging on Saturday.\n\n\"My husband was sat on one sofa and I was sat on the other... and it just wobbled,\" she said.\n\nListeners told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that they felt the \"earth shake\" in Ebbw Vale, which brought people out of their homes and into the streets.\n\nRobert Griffiths, from Rhiwbina, Cardiff, said he had just sat down to watch TV after a night out when \"all of a sudden the whole house shook\".\n\n\"The ceiling creaked, we immediately turned the television off and thought 'what on Earth was that?'\n\n\"It was kind of like 20 trucks had driven in front of the house so it was most unusual and quite strange.\"\n\nStephanie Palfrey from Blackrock, near Abergavenny, said she \"thought the mountain right behind the house was sliding down\".\n\n\"Other villagers came out of their homes to see what the noise was,\" she said.\n\n\"We live in an old cottage. You could hear it rattling. It was quite something.\"\n\nThe British Geological Survey said the quake's epicentre was just north of Brynmawr and west of Crickhowell\n\nGeoffrey Davies described an \"almighty bang\" at Llangattock, near Crickhowell.\n\n\"Initially we didn't know what to think. It was the sort of bang I had never heard,\" he added.\n\n\"When someone says 'it shook you to the core', it was that kind of feeling.\"\n\nElsewhere, Cat said she \"thought we were going mad\" in Blaenavon, Torfaen, as her \"bed and house shook side to side\".\n\nDr Ian Stimpson, a senior geologist at Keele University, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, said such events \"happen relatively infrequently\" in the UK.\n\n\"They are a big shock. An earthquake of this size, probably the UK has about three of them a year on average,\" he said.\n\n\"These earthquakes are way smaller than the Turkish earthquake for example - that was a million times more powerful than the earthquake last night.\"\n\nOther recent earthquakes in Wales were much smaller than Friday's.\n\nThe BGS reported a tremor with a magnitude of 0.9 in Llwynmawr, near Chirk, Wrexham, on 4 February, one of 1.1 at Llandybie, Carmarthenshire, on 20 January and one with a magnitude of 2 at Llanbedr, Powys, on 27 December.", "Laurel Aldridge pictured on the day she went missing\n\nPolice searching for Mackenzie Crook's sister-in-law Laurel Aldridge have found a woman's body 11 days after she went missing.\n\nMs Aldridge, 62, was last seen leaving her home in Walberton, near Arundel, West Sussex, on 14 February.\n\nSussex Police earlier said a body was found in the Tortington Lane area of Arundel.\n\nThe force said it was seeking to confirm her identity and the family had been informed.\n\nCrook, who is known for roles in The Office, Pirates Of The Caribbean and Worzel Gummidge, had been helping in the search, which Ms Aldridge's son Matthew described as a \"nightmare\".\n\nMackenzie Crook had been helping with the search\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Video footage recorded in the English Channel by an Albanian migrant seeking work in the UK shows his dangerous journey.\n\nThe man in his early 30s said he paid people smugglers £3,500 ($4,169) to make the trip but was sent home on a rapid deportation flight shortly after arriving in the UK.\n\nHe told the BBC the traffickers threatened him throughout the journey - despite the threat, he managed to film a few shots from the dinghy.\n\nRead more about his experience here.", "A new study has found a third of children who smoke have been offered illegal tobacco\n\nAbout a third of children who smoke have been offered illegal tobacco, new research has found.\n\nThe Action on Smoking and Health Wales (Ash) study comes as the charity launches a campaign to tackle the sale of illegal tobacco to children.\n\nMore than 1,000 11 to 16-year-olds in Wales took part in the survey - the biggest of its kind in the UK.\n\nSuzanne Cass, of Ash, said about 80% of people who start smoking have their first cigarette before the age of 18.\n\n\"This is an addiction of childhood so we need to do everything that we possibly can to make sure that these products do not get into the hands of children,\" said Ms Cass.\n\nThe 32% of child smokers that had been offered illegal tobacco said it had been by friends, family, in educational settings or at shops.\n\nAbout 25% said they had bought them.\n\nSuzanne Cass said the illegal tobacco market needed to be tackled to make sure it does \"not get into the hands of children\"\n\nAsh Wales, Trading Standards and the Welsh government have launched the NoIfs-NoButts website to encourage people to anonymously report illegal tobacco sales.\n\nIllegal tobacco takes numerous forms including \"cheap whites\" - mass-produced cigarettes smuggled from one country to another - fakes designed to resemble famous brands or genuine products where no duty has been paid.\n\nRoger Mapleson, Trading Standards' lead on illegal tobacco in Wales, said there were a few signs to look out for to work out if tobacco is illegal.\n\n\"If somebody's offering you cigarettes, at four, five, six pounds a packet for 20, then it's illegal,\" he said.\n\nTrading Standards' Roger Mapleson said there are many ways to detect if tobacco is being sold illegally\n\n\"The other indicators are from an examination of the packaging. You don't need to be an expert to spot it... legitimate tobacco is now plain packed,\" he added.\n\n\"If it looks like a pack of cigarettes that you'd have seen a few years ago, it's illegal. If the health warnings on the packet are in a foreign language, it's illegal.\"\n\nReports gathered from the NoIfs-NoButts website have already led to raids across Wales.\n\nLast month, a quarter of a million cigarettes and 20kg of rolling tobacco were seized in raids in north Wales.", "Kyle Sambrook had headed to the Highlands to walk and wild camp\n\nThe body of a missing hillwalker who failed to return from a planned trip has been found in a deep gorge in Glencoe following a search.\n\nKyle Sambrook, from West Yorkshire, arrived in the Highlands on 18 February and had intended to walk and wild camp, accompanied by his beagle called Bane.\n\nPolice said their bodies had been found in the the area at about 14:15 on Saturday.\n\nThe force added there did not appear to be suspicious circumstances.\n\nA report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.\n\nMr Sambrook had planned to ascend the 3,353ft (1,022m) mountain Buachaille Etive Mòr.\n\nA major search was launched when he did not return, involving Glencoe, Lochaber, Oban and RAF mountain rescue team volunteers, as well as HM Coastguard.\n\nGlencoe Mountain Rescue Team said volunteers had found the bodies of a man and a dog in a deep gorge above the Fionn Ghleann.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesperson said Mr Sambrook's family wished to thank all involved in the search and had requested their privacy be respected.\n\nThey added: \"Our thoughts are with Kyle's family as we support them at this difficult time.\"\n• None Hillwalker missing with his dog in Glencoe", "Forensics officers surrounded John Caldwell's car the day after he was shot\n\nUnlike previous chief constables, Simon Byrne, until Wednesday night, had never taken a phone call like it.\n\nIt was news that John Caldwell - one of his top investigators - was fighting for his life.\n\nAt a press conference the next day, he spoke of it being a deeply troubling day for an organisation which had suffered so much in the past.\n\nBehind him were memorial gardens honouring more than 300 officers murdered in decades gone by.\n\nThe shooting of Det Ch Insp Caldwell sent a shockwave through the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the wider community.\n\nBased on the New IRA being named by the police as having been responsible, it is arguably the most significant dissident republican attack in Northern Ireland for many years.\n\nThere is a feeling this was the attempted assassination of a major target - a \"relentless investigator\" in the words of a former colleague Chris Noble, now the chief constable of Staffordshire Police.\n\nMultiple investigations had brought the 48-year-old detective face-to-face with suspected killers in both organised crime gangs and terrorist groups.\n\nBut it was the New IRA who sent two gunmen to ambush him off-duty in front of his son at a training session for young footballers.\n\nSomeone who worked alongside him said: \"Undoubtedly he was a bigger target because of who he was.\"\n\nHe lived under several threat warnings, one of which is being linked to his inquiries into the unsolved murder of PSNI officer Ronan Kerr, 25, by a dissident undercar bomb in Omagh in 2011.\n\nNo-one has been charged with the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr\n\nOn the 10th anniversary of the constable's killing, Det Ch Insp Caldwell was the public face of a fresh PSNI appeal for information and a determination to bring justice.\n\nIn the same County Tyrone town last Wednesday, he came very close to becoming the first police officer murdered since Mr Kerr.\n\nThe attack appears to underscore, in brutal fashion, the re-emergence on the New IRA after nearly four years of surface level inactivity.\n\nIn 2019, it shot dead journalist Lyra McKee as she watched rioting unfold in Londonderry.\n\nWithin a year, its suspected leadership was rounded-up by the PSNI following a surveillance operation run by MI5 using an alleged agent.\n\nTen individuals are currently awaiting trial on almost 50 terrorism charges as a result of Operation Arbacia.\n\nIn the aftermath, the New IRA was viewed as being in complete disarray and the main narrative pushed in policing and security circles was that the threat it posed had been severally blunted.\n\nAs a consequence last year, for the first time in more than a decade, the government announced the threat level in Northern Ireland was being lowered from severe to substantial.\n\nIt might not have sounded much - the risk of attack went down from highly likely to likely - but it was a hugely symbolic moment.\n\nAttacks, or attempted attacks, dropped markedly: the years 2020-22 saw a virtual absence of activity.\n\nBut the New IRA was reorganising and in November it mounted a roadside bomb attack, using military grade explosives, on a police patrol car in Strabane.\n\nThe armour-plated vehicle did its job and two officers inside escaped injury.\n\nThe attack has now been followed up with the attempted murder, fewer than 20 miles away, of Det Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nSo what can be drawn from these events?\n\nFirstly, the New IRA had been disrupted but not crushed.\n\nIt does, however, remain a small organisation with insignificant support, albeit one which is once again demonstrating an intermittent ability to carry out acts of violence.\n\nIt has nothing remotely near the capacity of its predecessor, the Provisional IRA.\n\nMI5 recordings from the Operation Arbacia case reveal the New IRA as having been desperate to acquire weaponry.\n\nEstimates of members have not been provided for dissemination for years.\n\nBut no-one has suggested they have drastically altered from what was briefed out in security circles at that point - perhaps up to 100 people prepared to directly engage in acts of terrorism.\n\nIt is scattered operationally around Derry, Strabane and other parts of County Tyrone, and west Belfast.\n\nThe New IRA is the biggest and most active of the dissident groups which exist as opponents to the 1998 Northern Ireland peace settlement.\n\nThe Continuity IRA has largely been quiet since the discovery of a bomb attached to a lorry trailer intended to cause \"a Brexit attack\" on a cross-channel ferry, or at Belfast docks, in early 2020.\n\nThe other currently active organisation is Arm na Poblachta, which late in 2022 forced a delivery driver at gunpoint to transport a small bomb to Waterside police station in Derry.\n\nThere is some sense that dissident groups could be trying to gain momentum with Stormont down and politics being portrayed as failing.\n\nThere is also the approaching 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which dissidents see as a capitulation by the republican mainstream to continued partition of the island of Ireland into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.\n\nAll this will be occupying the minds of the PSNI and MI5 - which has assumed the lead role in intelligence gathering since 2007.\n\nFor PSNI officers, the shooting of one its most high-profile detectives will serve as a wake up call in terms of personal security.\n\nThe vast majority of its 6,700 officers never served in the Royal Ulster Constabulary during the Troubles and are now being urged to be more vigilant than at any point recently.\n\nThe security developments arrive at a difficult time for the PSNI.\n\nIt is not replacing 300 officers who left over the past 12 months due to budget problems and it is potentially looking at further significant cutbacks in the years ahead.\n\nAlready at its lowest numbers since its formation two decades ago, it could shrink to around 6,000 officers by 2025.\n\nThis will play out politically in coming days and weeks, with the organisation asking can it contend with a reinvigorated dissident threat with diminished manpower and resources?", "More than 160,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged in Turkey after the powerful earthquakes\n\nMore than 600 people are now being investigated in Turkey over buildings that collapsed in the deadly earthquake on 6 February, the government has said.\n\nOn Saturday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 184 suspects - including construction contractors and property owners - had already been arrested.\n\nFor years, experts warned that endemic corruption and government policies meant many new buildings were unsafe.\n\nThe confirmed death toll in Turkey and Syria has now exceeded 50,000.\n\nMr Bozdag made the televised remarks from south-eastern Turkey, where the 7.8 magnitude quake struck and was followed by another powerful tremor just hours later.\n\nHis comments showed how the investigation had widened - two weeks ago, the authorities said that 113 arrest warrants had been issued.\n\nAmong those that have been arrested is a mayor of one of the towns close to where the tremors hit, Turkish media reported.\n\nMore than 160,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged in Turkey after the quakes, raising questions about whether the natural disaster's impact was made worse by human failings.\n\nOpposition parties and some construction experts accuse President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's administration of failing to enforce building regulations and trying to divert overall blame for the disaster.\n\nThey say that government policies have allowed so-called amnesties for contractors who avoided building regulations, in order to encourage a construction boom, including in earthquake-prone regions.\n\nMr Erdogan has admitted shortcomings, but has appeared to blame fate for the scale of the disaster.\n\n\"Such things have always happened. It's part of destiny's plan,\" he said during a recent visit to the region.\n\nWith elections on the horizon, Mr Erdogan's future is on the line after 20 years in power - and his pleas for national unity have gone unheeded.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rescuers use specialist cameras to free Irem And Merve from the rubble of their building in Antakya", "The number of new cars made in the UK has sunk to its lowest level for 66 years as firms warn the country is not doing enough to attract manufacturers.\n\nThe 10% drop is the worst performance since 1956, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.\n\nA struggle to get parts due to Covid and a semiconductor shortage have hit the industry worldwide, but the UK has also been hit by factory closures.\n\nCar firms warn the UK has not got a strategy to attract manufacturers.\n\nIn response, the government said it was \"determined\" to ensure the country remains a top global location for car manufacturing.\n\nIn total, the UK produced 775,014 cars last year, down from 1.3 million before the pandemic, with production having fallen every year since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016.\n\nManufacturers hope the car industry will start to accelerate again, but say getting to pre-pandemic levels would require major investment and new car makers to come to the UK.\n\nThey warn that the UK is lagging behind, particularly on offering state aid to manufacturers.\n\nIn the US, the government is planning to offer billions in subsidies to car makers who create electric vehicle supply chains in America.\n\nMike Hawes, chief executive of industry body the SMMT, warns this will \"hoover up\" a lot of international investment, hitting the UK industry further.\n\nThe European Union is considering retaliating by either relaxing state aid rules or by extending Covid recovery or green technology-boosting programmes.\n\nOne of the benefits of Brexit was meant to be escaping from the straitjacket of EU state aid rules which limited the amount of support governments could give to favoured industries.\n\nMr Hawes conceded the UK could be in the unenviable position of offering less support to crucial industries than before it left the EU.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Today programme, he said the UK needed \"something that demonstrates that the UK is open for business and open for these investments\".\n\nThe production figures were also affected by the closure of Honda's factory in Swindon in July 2021 and the fact that Vauxhall Astras have not been made at Ellesmere Port since April 2022.\n\nMr Hawes said the numbers reflected how \"tough\" 2022 was for UK car manufacturing, although the country had still made more electric vehicles than ever before, with almost a third now fully-electric or hybrid.\n\nHe warned the global car industry had already begun investing in electric vehicles and batteries and the UK only had \"a few years\" to act.\n\n\"We need to be on the front foot making sure we have a range of measures that attract investment,\" Mr Hawes said.\n\nHe called for a strategy to accelerate battery production and the shift to electric vehicles, adding that the UK was well placed to succeed given its skilled workforce and engineering expertise.\n\nUK car production was further set back by the collapse of battery start-up Britishvolt last week\n\nUK car production was further set back by the collapse of battery start-up Britishvolt last week.\n\nThe firm had planned to build a giant factory to make electric car batteries in Cambois, near Blyth in Northumberland, but the project ran out of money.\n\nThe UK currently only has one Chinese-owned battery plant next to the Nissan factory in Sunderland, while 35 plants are planned or already under construction in the EU.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We are determined to ensure the UK remains one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing.\n\n\"Our success is evidenced by the £1bn investment in Sunderland in 2021, and we are building on this through a major investment programme to electrify our supply chain and create jobs.\"", "Olivia Newton-John died last year following a long battle with cancer\n\nThousands of people have paid their respects to the late Australian actress and singer Olivia Newton-John at a state memorial in her home city of Melbourne.\n\nThe 73-year-old died in August in the United States following a long battle with breast cancer.\n\nNewton-John was best known for her role as Sandy in the iconic 1978 film Grease and for musical hits such as Physical.\n\nHer daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, has said that her heart is \"broken in two\".\n\n\"I stand here before you so desperately wanting to feel strong and confident and speak eloquently but the truth is, I feel like a little girl lost without her mother,\" said Ms Lattanzi while fighting back tears at the service at Hamer Hall.\n\n\"She was my safe space, my guide, my biggest fan and the earth beneath my feet.\"\n\nOlivia Newton-John's daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, said her heart was \"broken in two\" following her mother's death\n\nJohn Easterling, said every day with his late wife was \"a bit of magic\"\n\nNewton-John's widower, John Easterling, also became emotional while talking about his late wife.\n\n\"We'd each had some hard times in our life before like everyone has and we're just talking about how lucky we were to have found each other,\" he said.\n\n\"Every day with Olivia was supernatural. Every day with Olivia was a bit of magic.\"\n\nThe singer Dannii Minogue said that Newton-John was the reason why she started performing and that the thought of her death was still sinking in.\n\nDelta Goodrem sang a medley of Olivia Newton-John's songs at the end of the memorial service\n\nOther celebrities paid tribute to the late star in video recordings played to the crowd at the memorial, including Sir Elton John, Mariah Carey and Pink.\n\nSir Elton described her as a \"wonderful force of nature\", while Dolly Parton, who sang with Newton-John several times, said she considered her a friend as well as a fellow performer.\n\n\"Olivia, to quote one of your songs - I honestly love you,\" said Parton.\n\nThe service ended with Australian singer Delta Goodrem singing a medley of Newton-John's hits.\n\nGoodrem said being able to celebrate her life was \"incredibly special\".", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nFrance punctured Scotland's rising belief and restored their own Six Nations title hopes with a hard-fought win in an astonishing contest in Paris.\n\nBoth sides suffered red cards in the first 10 minutes, and Scotland trailed 19-0 at one stage before roaring back to make it a four-point game going into the final few minutes.\n\nHowever, France's efficiency won out as a missed Scotland lineout allowed Fabien Galthie's side to go down the pitch, and eventually Gael Fickou powered over to seal a bonus-point win.\n\nIt means Ireland - who visit Murrayfield in two weeks - are the only side left chasing a Grand Slam, with France now level with Scotland and England on 10 points after two wins and a defeat.\n\nRomain Ntamack and Ethan Dumortier had scored either side of a red card for Scotland's Grant Gilchrist, before France's Mohamed Haouas was also sent off.\n\nThomas Ramos grabbed an intercept try and two penalties to keep his side ahead, despite two tries from Scotland's Huw Jones as the visitors put France under severe pressure.\n\nFinn Russell darted over the line and converted his own try to make it a four-point game and set up a grandstand finish with 10 minutes left but ultimately the Scots fell just short.\n• None 'Small margins let lively Scotland down in Paris'\n• None Podcast: 'We're still in the championship. That's a huge motivation'\n• None Rugby Union Daily: The weekend review with Barclay and Warburton\n\nMost people expected there might be fireworks, but the drama was gripping from the moment the ball left Stuart Hogg's boot at kick off.\n\nFrance, clearly hurting from their first loss in over a year to Ireland, laid down the gauntlet as they powered forward before unleashing Ntamack to score in the corner after only four minutes.\n\nAnd when Gilchrist was sent off for a high tackle into the head of Anthony Jelonch and Dumortier crossed in the corner to make it 12-0 after only nine minutes, Scotland looked like they were about to take a historic battering.\n\nHowever, Haouas' moment of madness in flinging himself head first into a clear-out on Ben White handed Scotland a life-line from nowhere and set up a thrilling match.\n\nIt was the prop second sending off against Scotland in three years - his previous coming for punching Jamie Ritchie - and from their the visitors grew in stature.\n\nAnd though Ramos picked off Russell's long pass to scamper away and make it 19-0, Scotland had the better chances, with Zander Fagerson failing by an inch as he lunged for the line, while Duhan van der Merwe was bundled into touch.\n\nJones was finally put under the posts by Russell, but Ramos calmly stroked over a penalty to make it a 15-point game at the break.\n\nThat felt slightly harsh on Scotland, but five minutes after the restart they turned up the pressure. Tuipulotu combined wonderfully with his Glasgow team-mate Jones for the latter's second try.\n\nAnd though Russell's clever show-and-go opened a gap wide enough for him to dart over and move within four points, France were just more ruthless when it counted.\n\nRamos had already ensured the scoreboard was not static for France in the second half with another penalty, and as then an error at the lineout ultimately cost Scotland their chance to snatch victory.\n\nAn overthrow sent France on the march, and though Scotland managed to wrestle back the ball, captain Ritchie was pinged in his own 22 for holding on.\n\nThat set the platform for Fickou to score the match-winning try, which killed Scotland's Grand Slam hopes.", "The Home Office has warned of delays at Dover and other ports including Calais\n\nCoach passengers returning to the UK are facing queues of more than six hours at border checkpoints in Calais.\n\nFerry operator P&O has advised passengers to use the toilet before arriving and to come prepared with refreshments.\n\nBorder Force staff in Calais, Dunkirk, Dover and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel terminal are on a four-day strike over pay.\n\nThe Home Office said it was working to minimise delays.\n\nThe BBC understands the queues include a high volume of coaches bringing pupils home from school half-term trips.\n\nTeachers and pupils from Surrey returning from a ski trip in Austria waited for six and a half hours to board a ferry back to the UK.\n\nA Twitter account for the school ski trip had tweeted that the journey was \"what can only be described as a nightmare of UK passport control\".\n\nQueues began forming on Saturday morning and P&O Ferries issued an update to passengers, asking them to plan for a wait by bringing snacks, drinks and entertainment.\n\nMembers of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) are on the second day of a four-day walkout.\n\nThe union said on Friday that they believed inexperienced staff were being brought in to cover for striking Border Force workers.\n\nPCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: \"Ministers say their priority is security - it obviously isn't.\n\n\"They say they have no money to give our hard-working members a fair pay rise, but then find money to pay non-striking workers a healthy bonus, to pay for their transport across the country and to pay for four nights' hotel accommodation.\n\n\"If ministers were serious about security, they would resolve this dispute immediately by putting money on the table to ensure fully-trained, experienced professionals are guarding our borders.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Tim Shires This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nP&O Ferries told customers that long wait times were \"due to the queues at border control who are also on strike\".\n\nBut the Home Office rejected claims strikes were having an impact on wait times.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"The queues at the Port of Calais today are not due to industrial action. Border Force operations there remain fluid with all booths open and no significant wait times.\n\n\"Border Force and port operators are working hard to ensure all travellers have a safe and secure journey, however we have been clear those entering the UK should expect disruption during strike action.\n\n\"We continue to work closely with port operators at a local and national level to minimise delays.\n\n\"Those travelling into the UK today should keep up-to-date with the latest advice from operators to check how the strike action will affect their journey\".\n\nHow have you been affected by queues at border checkpoints? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Selena Gomez has been praised for explaining how her body changes when she takes medication to treat lupus.\n\nThe singer, 30, has previously been open about her diagnosis with the condition - but she's recently been subject to nasty comments about her appearance.\n\nOn a TikTok live, Selena told fans that when she's taking medication she \"holds a lot of water weight\".\n\n\"I would much rather be healthy and take care of myself,\" she said.\n\n\"My medications are important, and I believe that they're what helps me.\"\n\nLupus is an incurable autoimmune disease where the body's immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal tissue.\n\nSymptoms can be managed using medication. In 2017, Selena revealed she had a kidney transplant linked to her lupus.\n\nKate Appleby and Chris Clarke, both 30, have lupus - and they've told BBC Newsbeat what it means to them to have Selena talk so openly about her experience.\n\n\"Having someone like Selena stand up and shout above the rooftops has full support from myself, and probably the whole lupus community,\" Chris says.\n\nKate, 30, says she can relate to how Selena has been body-shamed\n\nKate, who has nearly 40,000 followers on Instagram and says she's also been a victim of body-shaming, says Selena's bravery is \"incredible\".\n\n\"I go from being very skinny to being a bit curvier.\n\n\"You know, you go from being visibly more ill to your illness being much more hidden,\" she says.\n\n\"And because I have a sort of public profile people then very quickly judge and I've had a lot of criticism from people commenting on not only how my appearance changes, but also how I manage my illness.\"\n\nChris says he hadn't heard of lupus before he was diagnosed\n\nMore women than men have lupus, according to the NHS.\n\nChris also says his medication changes his appetite.\n\n\"I do have a bit of a beer belly, but that's not by drinking beer. I've been on one of the medications, which is a steroid,\" he says.\n\n\"Everyone thinks 'steroids, great - you build up muscle'. But it's not that steroid.\n\n\"It makes you hungry, you want to eat more and trying to control the appetite is a lot harder.\"\n\nAccording to the NHS, lupus is a complex and poorly understood condition that affects many different parts of the body.\n\nIts symptoms range from mild to life-threatening.\n\nThere are some types that just affect skin, but the term is usually used to describe a more severe form of the condition - lupus erythematosus (SLE).\n\nThat affects many parts of the body, including the skin, joints and internal organs.\n\nLots of people can have the condition for a long time without knowing before they get a sudden flare-up.\n\nThe symptoms include extreme tiredness, rashes (especially on the face, wrists and hands) and joint pain and swelling.\n\nEven mild cases can be distressing and have a big impact on quality of life.\n\nBut the symptoms can be similar to more common conditions so it's often hard to diagnose.\n\nChris says Selena raising awareness means a lot, as he hadn't even heard of the condition when he was first diagnosed.\n\n\"What Selena is doing ultimately save lives,\" Kate adds.\n\n\"Going back to mental health issues when I got diagnosed, if there had been someone like Selena at that point, being very vocal and talking about it, would have personally made all the difference for me.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A quick history of aerial espionage. From birds to balloons, and everything in between.\n\nPresident Joe Biden has said he makes no apologies for shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the coast of the US.\n\nHe said the balloon was used for surveillance, but three other objects shot down over North America were unlikely to be foreign spy craft.\n\nThe US would now improve its detection of similar aerial objects, he said.\n\nMr Biden also said he would speak with China's President Xi Jinping soon about this month's incident.\n\n\"I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this, but I make no apologies for taking down that balloon,\" Mr Biden said at the White House on Thursday.\n\nChina has denied the balloon was used for surveillance, instead saying it blew off course while collecting weather data.\n\nBut Mr Biden reiterated the view of US officials that the balloon, which traversed the country at an altitude of about 40,000ft (12,000m) before being blown out of the sky by a US fighter jet over the Atlantic, was in fact used for spying.\n\nHe said the US was continuing to speak with China on the issue. \"We are not looking for a new cold war,\" Mr Biden said.\n\nJoe Biden has been under increasing pressure to talk directly to the public about the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon, as well as the three unidentified objects American fighter jets have scrambled to destroy over the past week.\n\nOn Thursday afternoon he did that - but his brief appearance will do very little to silence critics or those asking for more information and explanations.\n\nHe shed no light on the nature of those objects and provided no further information about the first Chinese balloon. He didn't discuss when the Chinese balloon was first detected, its intended purpose or recent reports that it had been directed toward the US island of Guam but then changed course. Nor did he say why, after a flurry of incidents last week, no new objects have been targeted.\n\nAs an explanatory endeavour, it was weak sauce. And as a public-relations effort, it will probably come up short.\n\nIt may calm the waters for now, but the next time a balloon floats across the American sky, or fighters scramble and missiles fly, the questions will return with renewed urgency.\n\nSpeaking about three other objects subsequently shot down over Alaska, north-west Canada and Lake Huron on the US-Canada border, Mr Biden said the intelligence community believed they were \"most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions\".\n\nThe president said enhanced radar introduced in response to the Chinese balloon might explain the discovery of the three objects.\n\n\"That's why I've directed my team to come back to me with sharper rules for how we will deal with these unidentified objects moving forward, distinguishing between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nMr Biden's comments came after the White House felt the need to dispel suggestions the three objects were of extra-terrestrial origin.\n\nOfficials said the slow-moving unidentified objects did not pose \"any direct threat to people on the ground\" and were destroyed \"to protect our security, our interests and flight safety\".\n\nThe Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which was co-ordinating searches for the objects in Canada, said on Thursday it would suspend the search of Lake Huron, in part due to the low probability of recovery.\n\nOn whether he would take similar action again, Mr Biden said: \"Make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people I will take it down.\"\n\nHe declined to say when he planned to speak with China's President Xi as he was asked during an interview with NBC News.\n\n\"I think the last thing that Xi wants is to fundamentally rip the relationship with the United States and with me,\" Biden told the broadcaster.\n\nChina has repeated its explanation for the balloon shot down on 4 February, with a spokesman telling reporters the US should try to avoid \"misunderstandings and misjudgements\".\n\nAmid the heightened tensions over US skies, military officials said on Thursday that American warplanes had intercepted Russian jets flying near Alaska for a second time this week.\n\nThe North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), which is jointly run by the US and Canada, said in a statement that it was a \"routine\" contact with the Russians.", "A letter sent on behalf of Andrew Tate and his brother threatens to sue one of his accusers and her parents for $300m (£249m) if she does not retract her statements\n\nControversial influencer Andrew Tate has threatened legal action against at least one of the women making rape and human trafficking claims against him.\n\nLawyers for the woman in the US say a \"cease-and-desist\" letter was sent by a US law firm in December, on behalf of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan.\n\nThe letter threatened to sue the woman and her parents for $300m (£249m) if she did not retract her statements.\n\nA lawyer for the Tates said they were pursuing valid claims for defamation.\n\nThe BBC has seen a redacted copy of the letter, apparently sent on behalf of the brothers.\n\n\"In April 2022,\" it reads, \"you falsely stated to a third party that our Client human trafficked you, abused you and held you against your will […] You have repeated false and defamatory statements to the police, the media, and another United States citizen about the Tate brothers.\"\n\nAndrew and Tristan Tate are currently being held in preventative custody in Romania, while police investigate allegations of trafficking and rape, which both men deny.\n\nBenjamin Bull - who works for the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation - says his client is a key witness in the Romanian investigation, and that the letter was designed to do \"one thing and one thing only\":\n\n\"[It] was intended to shut down the witness; stop the witness from bringing testimony forward in any proceedings,\" he said.\n\n\"They want these young ladies to climb into a hole and hide, never come forward [or] describe what they saw and what happened to them. It's clearly an effort to intimidate.\"\n\nAndrew and Tristan Tate are currently being held in preventative custody in Romania\n\nLawyers for the Tates have confirmed to the BBC that the cease-and-desist letter was sent in December, as a civil matter for defamation and slander in the US, but deny any intimidation.\n\nTina Glandian, one of their legal advisors, said there was nothing abnormal in them pursuing valid legal claims for defamation. \"The fact that [the Tates] are incarcerated right now is not a basis for them not to pursue their legal rights,\" she said.\n\nThe investigation into rape and trafficking allegations is believed to rest, at least partly, on the testimony of six women. No charges have yet been brought.\n\nThe Tates' legal team have also revealed that the brothers filed criminal complaints in Romania last April against two women, including the witness who received the cease-and-desist letter in December.\n\nMs Glandian said the criminal complaints in April were filed in response to allegations that two women were being held against their will by the Tate brothers.\n\n\"There was no evidence whatsoever of that,\" she said, \"which is why [the Tates] were not arrested in April. [At that time], they were nothing but victims of false allegations, and they had every right to file criminal complaints for having their homes raided [and] property seized.\"\n\nThe results of those criminal complaints are still pending, she says.\n\nOne of the Tates' legal advisers Tina Glandian said the brothers were pursuing \"their legal rights\"\n\nBenjamin Bull, who represents some of the witnesses in the current Tate investigation, says the impact of legal action on his clients has been upsetting and intimidating.\n\nBut Dani Pinter, part of the same legal team, says it is not just the threat of legal action that is intimidating, but the online harassment many of her clients receive for speaking out.\n\n\"Regular, high production value videos, meant to embarrass and harass them, are shared among Tate's followers,\" she told me.\n\n\"Making really salacious claims, attempting to slut shame them, saying they're liars. But included in that is their private information - where they work, who their family members are - with the clear intention to incite harassment. And it's working.\"\n\nThe two alleged victims she represents have been getting death threats, she says.\n\n\"They're scared to death. They're both in hiding. They feel they can't settle anywhere, because people are trying to find them.\"\n\nProsecutors have been careful to keep the names of the six women in their case strictly confidential. But some have had their full names published on social media.\n\nAnd the names of two witnesses even appeared in a statement to the BBC from the Tates' US communications team. The BBC is not naming them publicly.\n\nAndrew Tate and his brother have no access to their social media while in custody, but they've built a vast and loyal network of fans and supporters who are very active online.\n\nSome accounts appear to be fully-staffed operations, regularly releasing videos and documents designed to undermine the testimony of witnesses and other women making allegations against the Tates.\n\nEarlier this week, one of the most active accounts published the full name, social media handles and WhatsApp messages of one of the alleged victims in the investigation.\n\nThe BBC has approached the account for comment, but has not yet received a response.\n\nEven those who barely break the surface of this story can find themselves a target.\n\nDaria Gusa spoke to the BBC and others about receiving a private message from Andrew Tate's Instagram account when she was 16 years old. It followed the same pattern laid out by him in online speeches about how to win a woman's attention and gain influence over her.\n\nShe did not allege that he had committed any crime.\n\n\"I got a bunch of messages,\" she told me. \"Most were from people saying I was lying or calling me a slut.\"\n\nBut she also received \"10 to 15 threats\" online.\n\n\"I had a guy texting me, telling me 'I know you're studying at this university, the schedule is published online, I know where you are'\" Daria said.\n\nSeveral of her friends, who also appear to have had contact with him, have refused to speak out about their experiences, she says.\n\n\"It's not just the people who work for him,\" she explained. \"It's that there are basically millions of men out there who really idolise these people, and would do anything to protect them and their image, so I think it's completely justifiable that so many girls don't want to speak out.\"\n\nIt is not clear exactly who runs some of the most active accounts defending the Tates, or how much cooperation exists between them.\n\nBut the risks for women making public allegations against Andrew Tate can be high, and they can come from many directions.", "The work appeared on a wall near Grosvenor Place, Margate, on Valentine's Day\n\nA piece by the artist Banksy that appeared in Margate, Kent, on Valentine's Day is to be moved to the town's Dreamland theme park.\n\nThe mural, called \"Valentine's Day Mascara\", shows a 1950s housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth, apparently shutting a man in a freezer.\n\nThe real-life freezer was removed and returned twice in the days following the mural's appearance.\n\nDreamland said it had now been asked to provide a permanent home for the piece.\n\nThe freezer, an integral part of the work, was removed by Thanet District Council on the day the work appeared painted on the side of a house, then returned later in the day after it had been made safe.\n\nIt was removed again by London-based Red Eight Galleries, which said it wanted to \"ensure the integrity\" of the mural.\n\nThe freezer was removed twice during the week, once by the council and once by the work's new owner\n\nEddie Kemsley, CEO of Dreamland Margate, said: \"The arrival of Banksy's latest artwork in Margate has caused a real stir. Everyone in the town is really excited that he has chosen Margate as the location for his latest work, and the fact that he is highlighting such an important issue only makes it more important.\n\n\"Imagine our surprise when we got a call asking if we would be able to host the artwork. We jumped at the chance to help ensure that the piece could remain accessible and within the community.\n\n\"All the details are still being worked out, but we will work closely with the team of qualified experts to find a suitable location, where the public can enjoy this brilliant new addition to the Margate art scene.\"\n\nDreamland's CEO Eddie Kemsley said she \"jumped at the chance\" to house the mural\n\nShe added: \"We understand the current owner of the artwork is keen to raise money to help the local charity, Oasis, which supports those that have been affected by domestic abuse.\n\n\"We will assist the owner of the artwork and Red Eight Gallery on the logistics of how, when and where the piece will be moved and when everything has been finalised, further details will be announced.\"\n\nDreamland said the initial deal was for it to display the mural for 12 months, but the park hoped for an extension.\n\nIt is aimed to have the mural in place by April.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nKyle Walker said Manchester City's performance was \"not acceptable\" after they missed the opportunity to return to the top of the Premier League with a draw against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Chris Wood's late goal cancelled out Bernardo Silva's rocket from 20 yards, with the visitors missing chances in abundance to put the game to bed. \"We've dropped two points here,\" said Walker. \"The chances we had in front of goal - we need to be better, [with] the calibre of players we've got up front we should be scoring them and putting them away.\" Erling Haaland volleyed against the crossbar and ballooned the rebound over the top after Aymeric Laporte's header was brilliantly saved by Forest keeper Keylor Navas. But Morgan Gibbs-White's fizzed cross was tapped in at the far post in the 84th minute for Wood's first Forest goal. \"I'm not blaming anyone,\" Walker told Match of the Day. \"If the strikers aren't getting the luck or hitting the target, us as a defensive unit need to hang on to the 1-0 victory and secure the three points. \"We know that's not acceptable. That's not me being downbeat but we've set such high standards over the last few years that it should be four or five nil, game done and we move onto the next game.\" Forest scored with their only attempt on target, having created four chances to City's 23 The draw extended Forest's unbeaten home run to eight games and meant City dropped to second after Arsenal returned to the top with a 4-2 comeback win against Aston Villa earlier on Saturday. \"The hard work we did on Wednesday [in the win against Arsenal], it hasn't gone to waste, but this is a blow because you put that good shift in and play a game that we're not used to with the low percent of possession, so to come here and drop two points is not ideal,\" Walker said. \"Hopefully there's a few twists and turns in our direction now and we can go and be up there or there abouts to go and win this Premier League.\"\n• None Football Daily: Sports Report: Another twist in the title race\n• None Go straight to all the best Nottingham Forest content After being limited to 37% possession against Arsenal in midweek, the lowest percentage of any Guardiola team in the top flight, City returned to some semblance of normality with a dominant 84% in the opening period on Saturday. Starting his first game after a spell on the sidelines with a foot injury, Phil Foden was a highlight for City, driving forward and making a nuisance of himself to a depleted Forest backline. Silva, playing again as a makeshift left-back, sent a decent effort from range whistling over the bar moments before receiving the ball on the edge of the area and firing a stunning left-footed shot into the roof of the net. The goal was reward for the visitors' continued pressure and they had ample opportunity to prevent the nervy finish, Foden's off-balance pass not quite reaching Haaland for a tap-in and Ilkay Gundogan narrowly misjudging Kyle Walker's cross. But City, for all their dominance, were made to rue their missed chances and were reduced to last-ditch attempts as they scrambled for a late winner. Kevin de Bruyne had seven attempts at goal but found his radar to be off target as City failed to capitalise on any momentum gathered from their victory over title rivals Arsenal on Wednesday. They have now dropped 15 away points this season, compared with 11 in total last term. \"It was a really good game,\" Guardiola told Match of the Day. \"We did everything, we played perfectly, had amazing chances, we were going to see the game out, we couldn't believe it, but this is football. You have to score. \"[It is] one of the best games we've played but we dropped two points.\" Man City best team in world - Cooper as Forest get point Forest will have considered themselves lucky to go into half-time trailing by only one goal having seen the majority of the first period played in their own half. They had won four of their past seven matches at home and showed mere glimpses of danger on the counter-attack as City committed bodies forward. Gibbs-White and Brennan Johnson had chances to break away, with the latter denied by Walker's block before bounding forward again but with no one in support to latch onto his squared ball. Forest were without centre-backs Scott McKenna and Willy Boly, who picked up injuries last time out, and Steve Cooper's side did not put together any meaningful periods of possession or chances. But, as City became frustrated, Forest were patient and ultimately efficient enough to take their opportunity when it finally came, their only shot on target all afternoon. \"It is definitely a positive result,\" said Cooper. \"For me, Manchester City are the best team in the world. They are fascinating to watch and study. There was no shame City had the ball as much as they did. \"We rode a bit of luck but we earned a bit of luck with the goal we scored. That was the plan - just to stay in the game and get one moment,\" he added. \"I owe a lot of gratitude to the players for sticking to the plan.\"\n• None Attempt blocked. Rúben Dias (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Nathan Aké with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jack Grealish (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Bernardo Silva.\n• None Goal! Nottingham Forest 1, Manchester City 1. Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Morgan Gibbs-White.Goal confirmed following VAR Review.\n• None Attempt missed. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Jack Grealish.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Substitution, Nottingham Forest. Chris Wood replaces Serge Aurier because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "More than 250 people gathered at the public meeting\n\nA call has been made to save one of Wales' \"great treasures\" from 60 miles (96km) of pylons over the countryside.\n\nBute Energy wants to connect a proposed windfarm at Nant Mithil, Powys, across the Towy Valley to the energy network near Carmarthen.\n\nMore than 250 people joined a public meeting at Llandovery Rugby Club, where Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price called for a rethink.\n\nThe company said the plan could see energy produced for 200,000 homes.\n\nIt added that it wanted to \"power Wales with clean green energy, and empower local communities through investment, jobs and skills\".\n\nAt Friday's meeting, Mr Price said one of the \"great treasures of Wales\" must be safeguarded.\n\nMr Price, who is the area's Member of the Senedd (MS), said the plan would \"trash a vital part of inheritance\", adding: \"We support the aim of ensuring Wales meets the target of 100% renewable electricity generated in Wales but we don't have to do that by building the cheapest option that will be incredibly environmentally damaging in this area of great sensitivity.\"\n\nHe called for the company to look at the plans again and consider underground infrastructure.\n\nThe Welsh government is aiming for Wales to meet a net zero target by 2050 - meaning as much energy as possible will come from green or renewable sources.\n\nBute Energy provided images of the type of pylons that would be used\n\nBute Energy said its windfarm could produce over 200MW of renewable energy - enough to power 200,000 in Wales.\n\nIt will be revealing more details about its plans in the next few weeks and will ask the public for their feedback, spokesman Aled Rowlands said.\n\nHe added that most people understood the need for renewables and the appropriate infrastructure for the grid, so it was possible to meet a net zero target.\n\nMr Rowlands said the company was based in Wales and was \"developing a unique solution\" for the country, adding: \"We are currently engaging with landowners to help us develop a detailed and accurate assessment of potential routes.\n\n\"Surveying land does not mean it will form part of the route or have infrastructure placed on it. And before we do any surveys, we will agree the scope of work and timing with landowners.\"\n\nMore than 1,000 people have now signed an online petition calling for the electricity cables to be buried underground.", "Seyma Yapar said she \"felt so relieved to see them in person... we hugged and cried\"\n\nA woman said she \"cried for a long time\" when she was reunited with her parents after their house collapsed in the earthquake that hit Turkey.\n\nSeyma Yapar's parents managed to escape as the walls of their home fell in during the disaster on 6 February.\n\nMs Yapar, from Sale, Greater Manchester, managed to fly out and surprise them on Friday.\n\n\"I felt so relieved to see them in person... we hugged and cried together for a long time,\" she said.\n\nMs Yapar said her parents had made it safely to her brother's house in Mugla, a city in the west of the country.\n\nMore than 38,000 people have died since the earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, making it the deadliest in the country's history.\n\nFirdevs and Yahya are afraid of going back to their hometown, their daughter says\n\nMs Yapar said her parents Firdevs and Yahya lived in their neighbour's car for a day before travelling to the closest city to find shelter and then going to her brother's house.\n\n\"I wanted to come and visit them for a few days and gave them a big surprise,\" she said.\n\n\"They didn't even know I was coming.\"\n\nMs Yapar, whose childhood friend, aged 34, died in the quake, said: \"I felt so relieved to see them in person.\n\n\"They were crying when they saw me at the door. We hugged and cried together for a long time.\n\n\"It's really hard to find the exact words to describe how I feel. I was so relieved to see them, but I could see the sadness in their eyes.\"\n\nThe earthquake, which hit near the town of Gaziantep, was closely followed by numerous aftershocks including one quake that was almost as large as the first.\n\nMs Yapar said her parents would now try to find a permanent place to live.\n\nThey are \"a bit afraid\" of going back to their hometown of Belen in Hatay, because it is \"almost wrecked\" and \"everyone is leaving,\" she said.\n\n\"Most of the hospitals are heavily damaged and some are totally destroyed. My parents are old and have some illness to be treated.\"\n\nMs Yapar said her parents \"are not eager to leave their hometown behind\" but she thinks they will have to.\n\n\"They've applied for some rental houses for now and I really need to support them both emotionally and financially.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Twenty-year-old Harvey has Prader-Willi syndrome, which can cause learning difficulties\n\nKatie Price has published a letter from the Met Police telling her officers are facing misconduct proceedings over alleged involvement in a WhatsApp group that targeted her disabled son Harvey.\n\nThe TV star and model called the alleged behaviour \"disgusting\".\n\nThe letter, posted on her Instagram account, says the officers are accused of sharing \"inappropriate and derogatory images\" of her son.\n\nThe Met Police said it was \"unable to discuss the allegations\".\n\nThe revelation of the letter by Price comes 18 months after she called for eight officers under investigation for allegedly sharing inappropriate material about Harvey on WhatsApp to be \"named and shamed\". She added: \"I don't like the police being horrible to Harvey.\"\n\nIn the letter she shared on Instagram earlier on Friday, an investigator from the Met's professional standards department informs her that \"a number of Metropolitan Police officers are alleged to have breached the standards of professional behaviour in regards to discreditable conduct\".\n\nThe letter adds that this related to \"being part of a WhatsApp group chat that has posted inappropriate and derogatory images of your son, Harvey Price\".\n\nKatie Price said the officers facing allegations of misconduct needed to be \"named, shamed and exposed\"\n\nThe letter also states that the accused officers will be subject to a gross misconduct hearing in west London next week.\n\nPrice posted a comment on Instagram, alongside an image of the letter, which read: \"It's disgusting that police officers from here have felt the need to laugh and use disgusting content on Harvey by creating a WhatsApp group.\n\n\"I would attend this court day but I'm away. They need to be named, shamed and exposed.\"\n\nThe Met declined to comment on the matter, but confirmed a hearing was due to commence on 21 February and is expected to last four days.\n\nA notice on the Met's website lists eight people who are facing misconduct allegations relating to their membership of a WhatsApp group between 2016 and 2018.\n\nThe notice adds that the alleged conduct, \"if proven, amounts to gross misconduct and is so serious as to justify dismissal\".\n\nHarvey, born in 2002, was diagnosed with septo-optic dysplasia, a rare genetic disorder affecting his eyesight, as well as autism and Prader-Willi syndrome, which can cause learning difficulties and behavioural problems.\n\nPrice has previously spoken out about social media abuse Harvey has received.\n\nHarvey was also targeted by comedian Frankie Boyle, whose routine on his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights was found by Ofcom in 2011 to appear to \"target and mock the mental and physical disabilities\" of Price's son, then aged eight.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 19 year old saw man with a shotgun and grabbed his pistol\n\nA man armed with three guns fatally shot his ex-wife and five others during a rampage in a small rural town in the US state of Mississippi, police say.\n\nThe victims were killed at several locations, including a store and two homes, in Arkabutla, a community of fewer than 300 people.\n\nPolice have charged a 52-year-old local man with first-degree murder and held him at the county jail.\n\nNo motive for his attack has yet been identified.\n\nThe suspect is believed to have acted alone, said Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves.\n\nThe rampage began when the gunman entered a petrol station convenience store at around 11:00 local time (17:00 GMT) and shot a man to whom he had no apparent connection, Sheriff Brad Lance said.\n\nHe then went to a nearby home where he fatally shot his ex-wife and, according to CNN, struck but did not shoot her fiance.\n\nInvestigators say the gunman then drove to a home next to his own residence and fatally shot a man who may have been his stepfather, as well as an unnamed woman, the New York Times reports.\n\nHe then shot two people, one inside a car and one on the road, not far from his own home. The final two victims appear to have been construction workers on a job at the site, according to Sheriff Lance.\n\nDeputies spotted the suspect inside a vehicle matching witness descriptions and were able to apprehend him near his home after a brief car chase.\n\n\"We don't have a lot of violent crime here. This is shocking,\" said Sheriff Lance. \"I never dreamt that we would deal with something like that here.\"\n\nHe said the suspect had a shotgun and two handguns in his possession.\n\nA primary and secondary school in nearby Coldwater were placed on lockdown during the incident, which unfolded 45 miles (72km) south of Memphis, in neighbouring Tennessee.\n\nEthan Cash, a 19-year-old local resident, told WREG-TV that he had seen the gun-toting suspect.\n\nMr Cash said he also checked the pulse of the victim who died inside his vehicle and drew his own pistol on an injured man nearby who turned out to be the victim's brother.\n\nFriday's incident marks the 73rd mass shooting since the year began, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) non-profit research database.\n\nGVA defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed.\n• None The numbers behind the rise in US mass shootings", "A 130-year-old workingmen's club in a former mining village may be forced to close due to the cost of living crisis.\n\nSince 1893, residents in Tumble, near Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire have used The Great Mountain Workingmen's Club.\n\nIt proved a haven through the Great Depression, two world wars and a miners' strike, but may not survive today's soaring energy prices.\n\nChairwoman Helen Lloyd said: \"I don't know what we'd do if the club closed. It's terrible, really terrible.\"\n\n\"There's a lot that goes on in the club, the football plays out of here, the darts, the rugby, all the way down to the little ones.\n\n\"It's very emotional. These energy companies don't know what they're doing to little villages like ours.\"\n\nThe club has seen its energy bill quadruple rising from £500 a month to £2,500.\n\nIt has been cut off by its energy supplier due to outstanding debt and now runs off a diesel generator so there is only enough power to use a few rooms at a time.\n\nThe club is at the heart of the local community says Helen Lloyd\n\nThe lights above the snooker table are no longer switched on and a planned gig night - a potential vital money-spinner - has had to be cancelled.\n\n\"We can't get the electric on because the generator isn't big enough to run the big room,\" said Mrs Lloyd.\n\n\"We could be doing a lot of money. We've lost a lot of money because we've had to cancel the concert and we've had to give people their ticket money back.\"\n\nSituated directly opposite the Great Mountain Colliery, the club was founded to provide a range of activities, both educational and recreational, for workers and their families. It even provided showers for the miners to wash after their shift.\n\nWith about 600 members it remains the \"hub of the community\" and is home to both the village's rugby and football clubs.\n\nThe club is home to the village's sports teams\n\nAngharad Williams who plays for the women's team Y Piod Pinc cannot imagine life elsewhere.\n\n\"We use this space for things like social events, we use it to catch up with our friends, we use it for training sessions, we use this facility a lot for such a small club,\" she said.\n\nBut with costs soaring members who have owned the building since 2000 are worried.\n\nThey have brought forward membership renewal from June to February and have doubled the cost from £10 to £20 a year.\n\nThey are also reviewing opening hours and are deciding whether to increase bar prices.\n\nDespite the challenges, Ms Williams believes the effort has \"pulled the community together\" even more than ever.\n\n\"Last week this room was full of people in a meeting ready to take action, ready to put down to paper what they were going to do personally,\" she said.\n\n\"They were ready to put their time and effort into the club to get it back to where it was and that speaks for itself.\"", "Amazon will require all office staff to work in-person at least three days a week, ending a policy that left remote work decisions up to team directors.\n\nBoss Andy Jassy informed staff of the change on Friday, saying it would take effect on 1 May.\n\nThe company is joining others such as Disney and Starbucks that have tightened remote work rules this year.\n\nMr Jassy said the change would help strengthen communication, career development and corporate culture.\n\n\"Collaborating and inventing is easier and more effective when we're in person,\" he wrote in a memo shared by the firm.\n\nRemote work shot up during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. It remains far more prevalent than it was before the pandemic, but surveys suggest the practice is slowly being reversed.\n\nThe share of days worked from home fell to 27% in January, from nearly 35% a year earlier, according to a monthly online survey of working arrangements and attitudes that Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom and others have been conducting since May 2020.\n\nDisney's policy, announced in January, requires staff to report to the office at least four days a week as of March.\n\nStarbucks mandates at least three days of in-person work, while gaming firm Activision Blizzard announced plans for a similar policy this week.\n\nHigh profile business leaders such as Elon Musk - who ended remote work completely at Tesla and Twitter - have long made their dislike of the practice known.\n\nBut many staff have resisted the changes, and in some cases, employers have backtracked.\n\nNew York City Mayor Eric Adams recently said that the city would consider relaxing its in-office requirements as it struggles to fill vacancies.\n\nMr Jassy said that executives had had time to observe the pros and cons of different ways of working.\n\n\"I know that for some employees, adjusting again to a new way of working will take some time,\" he wrote. \"But I'm very optimistic about the positive impact this will have in how we serve and invent on behalf of customers, as well as on the growth and success of our employees.\"\n• None 'I quit my job rather than go back to the office'", "The remains of the Ayşe Mehmet Polat apartments in Gaziantep\n\nWith only a bonfire for light and warmth on a bitter winter's night, an extended family sits at the roadside waiting for a miracle.\n\nThey've been here for nine days and nights but their loved ones have not been found.\n\nThis personal grief is being played out in the rubble of one of the most desirable streets money can buy here.\n\n\"This is one of the most luxurious residential areas in Gaziantep,\" says musician Yunus Emre, whose cousin and his family of four are missing. \"The wealthiest live here. Those flats are sold for millions.\"\n\nBut the price of the property in this city meant nothing when the earthquake struck.\n\n\"I'm just angry. I want to bring someone to justice but I don't know who,\" says the 28-year-old. For him, so many parties are culpable in what is not just a national tragedy but, with the collapse of so many buildings, a national scandal.\n\n\"It starts with the contractor,\" he explains.\n\n\"He uses low-quality building material. Next comes the certifying authority. They have the blood of people who died here on their hands.\n\n\"It's not right to scapegoat the contractor. The ones who approved this building are responsible together with the government and the state. They shouldn't have signed off on this building project at all.\"\n\nThe Ayşe Mehmet Polat apartment complex is 24 years old. Four of its six blocks collapsed while other buildings around it stood tall. Safety concerns had been raised by residents long before last week's deadly tremors.\n\nWe came to this site because we had heard that a man said to be the building's contractor had been arrested. He will later tell us through his lawyer he was doing nothing wrong and should bear no responsibility.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nWe spend three days looking at what happened here on 6 February.\n\nAs we return to the complex the next morning, emergency services reveal to us a shocking figure - 136 people are known to have died here as they slept.\n\nAt a petrol station next door, we ask if they have any CCTV footage of when the earthquakes struck. We are given videos from four separate cameras which show the horror unfolding. First, the violent shaking of the lights, then seconds later, people running for their lives before, finally, a thick cloud of smoke and dust enveloping everything in its path.\n\nThe neighbouring apartment buildings collapsed in a matter of seconds.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: CCTV from a petrol station next to the apartment complex shows when one of the earthquakes struck\n\nAs we leave the petrol station, we are drawn to the pile of personal possessions on the edge of the forecourt. It is a deeply upsetting museum of lives suddenly extinguished - homework, dolls, cooking pans and family photos. Scouring the heap, and sobbing inconsolably, is 65-year-old Emel Filik.\n\n\"Everything is gone,\" she tells us.\n\nShe explains that her cousin had been sleeping in one of the four destroyed blocks, and no-one had taken responsibility for keeping the building safe.\n\n\"Once you start to live in your flat, nothing happens. No inspection. Earthquake insurance and property insurance don't work either. The municipality doesn't make checks. No such thing as monitoring.\"\n\nEmel Filik tells us apartment residents were worried about safety before the earthquakes\n\nThere had been concerns about these apartments, she says, adding that the head of the residents' association - a woman known as Selma - had even asked neighbours to come to a meeting to listen to her fears.\n\n\"Six months ago, Selma told us about the problems of the building. She said 'Dear residents, our buildings might collapse at the slightest of earthquakes. Let's strengthen the pillars. If you're short on money, the municipality could help us for a cheaper solution.' She held several meetings. But nothing happened.\"\n\nWe find a phone number for Selma and she confirms she held meetings to express her fears.\n\nBut should residents really have to pay to be safe in their own homes? This was a question of structural integrity, not repainting walls.\n\nThe head of the organisation representing architects in Turkey, Eyüp Muhçu, tells us the ultimate responsibility for making sure buildings are safe rests with the Turkish government.\n\n\"The priority of the central government was not to make the cities safe, but to implement some projects that were solely planned for maximising profits. For this reason, 65% of the current building stock in Turkey is risky. And no measures have been implemented regarding these risky structures.\"\n\nWith two residents having told us there had been potential problems within the blocks - we start trying to find out if those responsible for the building knew about it and whether they did anything.\n\nWhen we had first arrived at the block the previous night, a boy had come up to us briefly to say his dad had pulled seven people from the rubble with his bare hands. It sounded a remarkable story, given the scale of the destruction we could see, but we didn't discount it.\n\nAnd sure enough, when we hear others talking about the bravery of a man called Bahattin Aşan we decide to track him down.\n\n\"I saw the building twirling and crashing down. I came here running, it was dark, raining, there was snow and I was the first responder,\" he tells us.\n\nBahattin Aşan says he pulled seven people from the rubble\n\nBahattin Aşan used to work as a security guard at the housing complex.\n\nHe shows us a harrowing video he took in the smoking ruins, in which he's calling out to those trapped. Some people reply.\n\n\"I rescued seven people by myself. It was like the apocalypse. Even now as I'm telling you this, I'm still shaking,\" he says.\n\nBut what about these supposed concerns over the buildings' safety, I ask? Did he see this?\n\n\"In the car park, I witnessed the defects with my own eyes. When I touched the concrete columns it would crumble to dust in my hands, as though it wasn't concrete at all. Iron was rusting in the columns, the rainfall was damaging and corroded the iron.\"\n\nWhen I ask Bahattin Aşan if he ever reported this, he insists it was obvious to the management as well as the residents.\n\n\"I used to tell a friend that if they were to give me a flat here I wouldn't take it. I said it was because I didn't think the columns were solid and in an earthquake the building would collapse.\"\n\nBut the man accused of being the contractor, Mehmet Akay, says the building complied with regulation at the time it was built. He claims that sewage and water works were added to the property after construction - and that this, or other work, may have damaged the supporting columns.\n\nHow many other security guards and caretakers across Turkey had voiced similar concerns in a country precariously positioned at the crossroads of shifting tectonic plates?\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe immediate picture that is emerging in this Gaziantep neighbourhood is not of a cover-up or conspiracy - but either indifference or inaction.\n\nEveryone knew there was a problem, but nobody did anything.\n\nFor opposition MP Garo Paylan, from the HDP party, who we meet as he visits this site, it is indicative of criminal negligence on an industrial scale in Turkish construction and oversight.\n\n\"This is a crime. This is a sin.\"\n\nMr Paylan accuses the government of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of failing to ensure the safety of new buildings as well as failing to strengthen older ones.\n\n\"The scientists were shouting about it, this disaster is coming, but the government did almost nothing. We warned the cities, we warned them to prepare the rescue teams, but they did nothing and we live this catastrophe. They say this is destiny. No, it is not. In civilised countries these kinds of disasters happen but fewer people die. But here we have tens of thousands of people under the rubble.\"\n\nMehmet Akay, the man whom authorities say was the building contractor for the Ayşe Mehmet Polat complex, was arrested on Saturday 11 February - five days after the earthquakes. He was stopped at Istanbul Airport as he tried to leave the country.\n\nState prosecutors say he was the building contractor, but responding to questions put to him through his lawyer, Mr Akay claims he was the construction co-ordinator, but not the contractor. He also rejects accusations that cheap building materials were used.\n\nMehmet Akay (l) was detained by police in Istanbul\n\nIn Gaziantep, we ask the local authority, Şehitkamil Municipality, for a response. Spokesman Ahmet Aydın Sert says no complaints were received about the complex buildings, and therefore no inspections were made. \"We went through the records and found no irregularities.\"\n\nPresident Erdogan has conceded that the emergency response to the disaster was slow in places, but has urged his people not to listen to those whom he accuses of politicising a tragedy.\n\nHis government denies negligence and claims that more than 98% of buildings that collapsed were older - like the Ayşe Mehmet Polat complex - and built before the ruling party took office.\n\nThere are plenty who would say every country has a moral - if not legal - duty to protect its citizens, no matter the age of their property.\n\nAnd when Turks go to the polls in the summer they will decide for themselves who can best ensure their families are safe in their own homes.", "Many of those in the crowd were students from nearby schools\n\nAbout 1,000 people have turned out for a candlelit vigil in the village where Brianna Ghey was found fatally wounded.\n\nThe 16-year-old transgender girl died after being found stabbed in Linear Park in Culcheth, Warrington, on Saturday.\n\nA boy and girl, both aged 15, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday charged with her murder.\n\nCrowds sang Over The Rainbow while pubs and shops turned their lights off as a sign of respect.\n\nBrianna Ghey was found injured in Linear Park and died at the scene\n\nMayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and his daughter Annie attended the memorial.\n\nHe tweeted: \"Here to remember Brianna, send our love to her family and support to young trans people everywhere.\"\n\nA book of condolence was handed out and Brianna was described as \"our beautiful, gracious and powerful little sister\".\n\nPeople carried posters saying \"Rest in Pride\" at the Birmingham vigil\n\nTricia Anderton, 59, the secretary of Culcheth Village Choir, said this \"awful tragedy has touched the hearts of everyone\" in their \"very close community\".\n\n\"We were very proud to play even just a small part of this evening's vigil for Brianna.\n\n\"We were asked specifically to sing Over The Rainbow, and it was so lovely to hear everyone joining in\", she added.\n\nMembers of the public also gathered outside the Hippodrome Theatre in Birmingham on Friday night and in Southampton, Nottingham and Edinburgh.\n\nEarlier, all of the UK's LGBTQ+ radio stations held a minute's silence in memory of Brianna.\n\nCrowds gathered on Culcheth village green to pay their respects to Brianna, just a few hundred yards from the Linear Park where she was found stabbed a week ago.\n\nMany of those in the crowd were students from nearby schools.\n\nFloral displays and candles were laid out under a tree, and many of those attending wore T-shirts with the slogan Rest In Power and a photo of Brianna.\n\nThere were moving tributes from local dignitaries, including the Mayor of Warrington Jean Flaherty followed by a two-minute silence.\n\nThe event took place behind the local library, which Cheshire police have been using as a temporary base to carry out their investigation into the schoolgirl's death.\n\nTo finish the vigil, a firework display lit the night sky as people made their way home.\n\nA number of vigils have been held over the past week for Brianna and more memorials are planned over the weekend, including another in Warrington on Saturday.\n\nBrianna's family said they had been \"overwhelmed\" by the \"support, positivity and compassion\" they have received.\n\nA fundraising page set up to support the family has raised more than £100,000.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The channel has been one of the main providers of news on the recent wave of anti-government protests in Iran\n\nIndependent TV network Iran International is suspending its operations in the UK because of threats against its London-based journalists.\n\nThe Persian-language TV channel said that the decision was due to a \"significant escalation in state-backed threats from Iran\".\n\n\"Threats had grown to the point that it was felt it was no longer possible to protect the channel's staff,\" it said.\n\nThe station will continue to operate from its offices in Washington DC.\n\nIn November, two British-Iranian journalists from the channel were warned by police of a possible risk to their lives. An armed police presence was stationed near the channel's studios in Chiswick, west London, and concrete barriers were placed outside the building.\n\nLondon's Metropolitan Police said 15 plots had been foiled since the start of 2022 to either kidnap or kill UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the Iranian regime.\n\n\"I cannot believe it has come to this,\" said the network's general manager, Mahmood Enayat.\n\n\"A foreign state has caused such a significant threat to the British public on British soil that we have to move,\" he said.\n\n\"Let's be clear, this is not just a threat to our TV station, but the British public at large.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How Iran state TV tries to control the story of the protests\n\nIran International has been one of the most prominent providers of news on the recent wave of anti-government protests in Iran.\n\nProtests swept across the country in September following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.\n\nIn October, the Iranian government announced sanctions against Iran International and BBC News Persian, accusing them of \"incitement of riots\" and \"support of terrorism\" over their coverage of the anti-government protests that have engulfed the country over the past two months.\n\nThe two UK-based channels are already banned from Iran, but a press freedom watchdog says they are among the main sources of news and information in a country where independent media and journalists are constantly persecuted.\n\nIn November, Iran's Intelligence Minister, Esmail Khatib, said Iran International had been identified by Tehran as a \"terrorist\" organisation, that all co-operation and links with it would be considered a threat against national security, and that its \"agents\" would be pursued, state news agency Irna reported.\n\nHe also accused the UK of spreading propaganda against Iran's clerical establishment and warned it would \"pay for its measures to create insecurity\".", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nFootballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under the rubble of his home almost two weeks after the Turkey earthquake, his agent has confirmed.\n\nThe Ghana international, 31, had spells with Premier League sides Everton, Chelsea and Newcastle.\n\nAtsu had been missing since the 6 February quake that caused the collapse of his apartment in Antakya, Hatay.\n\n\"There are no words to describe our sadness,\" tweeted his Turkish top-flight club Hatayspor.\n\n\"We will not forget you, Atsu. Peace be upon you, beautiful person.\"\n\nIn the aftermath of the quake, Hatayspor initially reported Atsu had been rescued \"with injuries\", but a day later that position changed.\n\nHis agent Nana Sechere, who has been in Hatay, confirmed the news on Saturday on Twitter, writing: \"It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to announce to all well wishers that sadly Christian Atsu's body was recovered this morning.\n\n\"My deepest condolences go to his family and loved ones. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their prayers and support.\"\n\nThe Ghana Football Association said Atsu's body was recovered on Saturday morning after \"almost two weeks of emotional torture\".\n\nThe Ghanaian foreign ministry added that Atsu's elder brother and twin sister were at the site when his body was recovered.\n\nAtsu's body was flown back to Ghana on Saturday for burial.\n\nThe ministry said it sent \"deepest condolences to the widow and family\".\n\nThe earthquake and aftershocks in southern Turkey and northern Syria are known to have killed more than 40,000 people.\n\nAtsu joined Hatayspor in September after a season with Saudi Arabian team Al-Raed and scored the winning goal in a Super Lig match on 5 February.\n\nHe won 65 caps for Ghana and helped his country reach the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations final where they lost to Ivory Coast on penalties. Atsu was later named player of the tournament.\n\nIn a tweet, Ghana's men's team the Black Stars paid tribute to the winger, writing: \"You served our Country well, forever in our hearts. Rest in Peace.\"\n\nHe joined Chelsea from Porto in 2013 and had several loan spells at clubs including Everton and Bournemouth.\n\nAn initial loan period at Newcastle in 2016, in which he helped the team win promotion from the Championship to the Premier League, was made permanent in 2017.\n\nNewcastle forward Allan Saint-Maximin paid tribute to his former team-mate before his side's game against Liverpool on Saturday.\n\n\"It's hard to explain. I'm not going to lie, I'd never seen a guy like that before when I arrived at Newcastle,\" Saint-Maximin told Sky Sports.\n\n\"He was always giving me advice, always. He was a very nice guy, always joking and smiling, when he played or didn't play.\n\n\"He was a great person, so that's why it's sad for me.\"\n\nFormer Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez, who spent just over three years in charge at St James' Park until 2019, said he had been in contact with his former player last month.\n\nBenitez told Sky Sports: \"We were sharing some messages - it's very difficult for me to express in English - but I was feeling so bad and I was trying to contact him.\n\n\"Also, I don't want to forget the rest of the people because there are a lot of people that have been in a really difficult time and I think we have to help in a way and today we have to remember Christian. Really sad.\"\n\nNewcastle said the club was \"profoundly saddened\" by Atsu's death, calling him \"a talented player and a special person, he will always be fondly remembered by our players, staff and supporters\".\n\nEverton said they were \"deeply saddened\" by the news, while Chelsea said they were \"devastated\".\n\nThere were minutes of applause before Premier League games on Saturday and players will also wore black armbands in remembrance.\n\nGhana sports broadcaster Michael Oti Adjei told BBC World Service Sportshour: \"He was always grounded and he had a nice word for everybody.\n\n\"He was a lovely person to deal with and was one heck of a player too. He had a very good left foot and played 65 times for Ghana, scoring more than 10 goals. He paid his dues to the national team.\n\n\"When he made his debut, there was talk of a nickname of Ghana's Messi. Those who knew him were talking of a young Ghanaian player who could potentially become one of the best African players ever.\"", "Heritage Minister Lord Parkinson and Curatorial and Learning Officer Sarah Harvey observe the Birrus Britannicus Roman figurine at Chelmsford Museum in Essex\n\nThe legal definition of \"treasure\" could be broadened in a bid to help museums acquire important items.\n\nThe wording could be changed following a surge in the number of detectorists unearthing historical artefacts.\n\nArts and Heritage Minister Lord Parkinson said the proposed changes would apply to the Treasure Act 1996.\n\nHe noted some items have been lost to private ownership, rather than displayed publicly in museums, due to the existing wording.\n\nUnder the current definition, an item is categorised as treasure if it is at least 300 years old and made at least in part of precious metal, like gold or silver, or part of a hoard.\n\nThe proposed changes would mean that this will be amended to cover exceptional finds of at least 200 years old, regardless of the type of metal they are made of.\n\nIf a coroner assesses an artefact as meeting the legal definition of treasure, it can be acquired by a museum rather than sold privately to the highest bidder.\n\nLord Parkinson said the Treasure Act has \"saved around 6,000 objects which have been shared with museums, more than 220 museums around the country\".\n\n\"But, at the moment, the definition of treasure is very specific,\" he added.\n\nThe Roman figurine Birrus Britannicus does not meet the current definition of treasure, but was saved by another mechanism\n\n\"An item has to be more than 300 years old, it has to be made of a precious metal or part of a hoard,\" Lord Parkinson said. \"We want to widen that so that other important objects don't fall through the net.\n\n\"We're proposing to change the law to make the definition something that is more than 200 years old, to say it can be made of any type of metal but also bringing in a new test of significance.\n\n\"So, to say if this is an item which is significant to a part of local, national or regional history, or if it's connected with a particular individual or event, then it can be classed as treasure too and it can be shared with the public in a museum.\"\n\nHe cited the Crosby Garrett Roman cavalry helmet, discovered near Penrith in Cumbria, as an example of an artefact sold to a private bidder as it did not meet the current definition of treasure.\n\n\"It was made of metal but not of precious metal so it wasn't classed as treasure under the current definition,\" he said. \"We want those sort of items to be shared.\"\n\nHe added: \"Most of the finds of treasure are by detectorists, so we're seeing more objects being discovered and we're seeing more examples of things that don't currently meet the definition being lost or being at risk of being lost to the public.\n\n\"We want to make sure they can be saved for museums.\n\nLord Parkinson said displaying treasures to the public \"can inspire future generations\"\n\nChelmsford Museum in Essex has a Roman figurine in its collection that does not meet the current definition of treasure, but was saved by another mechanism.\n\nLord Parkinson said the copper alloy piece, discovered in Roxwell, Essex, wears a hooded cloak known as a Birrus Britannicus that people wore in Roman Britain.\n\n\"It tells you about the weather at the time, it tells you about fashion, it tells you about the exports from Britain into the Roman Empire,\" he said.\n\n\"These sorts of objects should be shared with people in museums so they can inspire future generations.\"\n\nSarah Harvey, a curator at Chelmsford Museum, said that because the Roman figurine is made of a copper alloy, it did not count as a precious metal.\n\nShe said that the finder, a detectorist, was planning to sell it abroad, and the museum had to go through \"quite a lot of administrative steps to keep it in this country\".\n\n\"With this new definition of treasure we won't have to go through all of those steps, we would have first rights to acquire that sort of item,\" she said.\n\nNicola Potter, of the Cotswold Heritage and Detection Society, is typical of a metal detectorist in the UK when she says she has found \"lots of rubbish and lots of really interesting finds\".\n\nNicola Potter first took metal detecting two years ago\n\nThe 48-year-old from Cheltenham started using a metal detector two years ago and says she does it at least once a week.\n\nA few weeks ago, she unearthed a silver Celtic stater - a small coin decorated with a triple-tailed horse that was used by a local tribe in around 20BC.\n\nThe mother-of-two, who works in financial services, says she cried when she found her first gold ring and first silver hammered coin.\n\n\"It's just an incredible feeling, just to hold something in your hand ... that hasn't seen the light of day for over 2,000 years,\" she said.\n\n\"It's a ridiculous feeling, it's wonderful, it puts a massive smile on your face.\"\n\nMrs Potter said she thought the changes to the Treasure Act were needed \"because there will be far too much history that's being lost by people not declaring it.\"\n\nThe 48-year-old supports the changes to the Treasure Act", "A spy at Berlin's British embassy, who sold secrets to Russia and was caught in an undercover MI5 sting, has been jailed for 13 years and two months.\n\nDavid Smith, 58, tried to damage Britain's interests by passing on details of the embassy and its staff for cash payments, a judge found after the spy pleaded guilty.\n\nThe BBC's Home Affairs correspondent Tom Symonds explains what Mr Smith did, and how he was stopped.", "The former officers, wearing face masks, alongside their lawyers\n\nFive former Memphis police officers charged with murder over the death of Tyre Nichols have pleaded not guilty in their first court appearance.\n\nTadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith were involved in the arrest of Mr Nichols on 7 January.\n\nThey were fired after an internal investigation by the Memphis Police Department.\n\nMr Nichols' death sparked protests against police brutality in the US.\n\nThe judge confirmed the five defendants had pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.\n\nJudge James Jones asked for patience as lawyers build their cases.\n\n\"This case may take some time,\" he said to the defendants standing before him alongside their lawyers at the Shelby County Criminal Court.\n\n\"We do ask for your continued patience and your continued civility in this case,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nichols' mother: Officers could not look me in the face\n\nMembers of Mr Nichols' family were in court with their lawyer, Ben Crump.\n\nMr Nichols' mother RowVaughn Wells spoke to reporters outside court and reflected on seeing the ex-officers in person.\n\n\"They didn't even have the courage to look at me in my face,\" she said.\n\nShe promised to attend every court date until \"we get justice for my son\".\n\n\"Memphis and the whole world needs to see that what's right is done in this case, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later,\" lead prosecutor Paul Hagerman told reporters.\n\nThe ex-officers, dressed in suits and wearing black face masks, stood silently beside their attorneys during the brief hearing.\n\nNone of the defendants spoke. Their lawyers confirmed the not-guilty pleas when asked by the judge.\n\nThe officers were arrested and taken into custody on 26 January after the Memphis police reviewed bodycam footage of the violent arrest.\n\nIn the footage, 29-year-old Mr Nichols can be heard calling for his mother as he is beaten by police after being pulled over for alleged reckless driving.\n\nHe was pepper-sprayed, kicked and punched by the officers and died in hospital three days later.\n\nMemphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said the incident was \"not just a professional failing\", but \"a failing of basic humanity toward another individual\".\n\nRowVaughn Wells previously told BBC News it was the race of the victim - in this case her son - and not the race of the perpetrators that mattered.\n\n\"It's not about the colour of the police officer. We don't care if it's black, white, pink, purple. What they did was wrong,\" she said.\n\nThe fallout from the violent arrest has had ripple effects throughout the city.\n\nIn addition to the arrest of the five officers directly involved, several other staff members were fired and are being investigated.\n\nA special unit that was designed to fight crime in Memphis has been disbanded.\n\nThe former officers are currently out on bail, with the next hearing scheduled on 1 May.\n\nThey face up to 60 years in prison if convicted of murder.", "Images of the demolition were posted on social media by an aide to Mariupol's Ukrainian mayor\n\nRussian authorities have started destroying the ruined theatre in Mariupol, according to an aide to the city's exiled Ukrainian mayor.\n\nPetro Andryushchenko accused the occupying authorities of seeking to cover up the murder of hundreds of civilians when the building was bombed by Russian warplanes in March.\n\nA screen was recently erected around the ruined theatre.\n\nVideo showed a bulldozer knocking down some of the rear of the building.\n\nMr Andryushchenko said the Russians were planning to leave the front of the theatre intact and destroy the rest of the structure, to build a new theatre \"on the bones of Mariupol's people\".\n\nA screen was erected around the ruins of the theatre last month, complete with images of Russian cultural figures.\n\nBefore Russia invaded Ukraine last February and laid siege to Mariupol, the theatre was a focal point of city life.\n\nThis year, Russia's proxy authority that runs the city and the occupied areas of the surrounding Donetsk region has promised the city's remaining population alternative entertainment - a revival of a 1960s Soviet cult musical, The Bremen Town Musicians.\n\nInstead of taking place at the bombed out theatre, it is being staged more than a kilometre away at the Pioneers' Palace.\n\nIt is all a far cry from the glitzy new year celebrations held in Mariupol a year ago.\n\nThis satellite picture from 30 November shows a screen erected around the theatre\n\nEarlier this month journalists from the Associated Press used satellite imagery to estimate that 10,300 new graves had been dug at a Mariupol cemetery.\n\nThe BBC reported in November that witnesses had seen Russian authorities removing bodies from the rubble of destroyed buildings and taking them away for burial. Ukrainian officials believe 25,000 people lost their lives in fighting in the city.\n\nIt took months for Russia to win the siege of Mariupol in May, when hundreds of Ukrainian fighters finally surrendered at the city's Azovstal steel plant.\n\nTwo months earlier, at around 10:00 on 16 March, Russian warplanes dropped two 500kg bombs on the city's theatre which detonated simultaneously, according to a report by Amnesty International, which condemned the attack as a clear war crime.\n\nCivilians had been using the building as a refuge from the siege and a large sign spelling \"children\" had been daubed in Russian in front of the theatre.\n\nSome 1,200 people were inside the building when the bombs struck. Ukrainian authorities believe 300 people were killed but an AP investigation said the number was closer to 600. Many of the bodies were found in the basement.", "Former US President Jimmy Carter will end medical treatment and enter hospice care at his Georgia home, his foundation announced on Saturday.\n\nThe Carter Center said Mr Carter had decided to \"spend his remaining time at home with his family,\" but did not say what had prompted the decision.\n\nMr Carter, 98, has suffered from recent health issues, including a melanoma that spread to his liver and brain.\n\nThe country's oldest living leader, he served one term in office from 1977-81.\n\nDuring his tenure as president Mr Carter faced a spate of foreign policy challenges and the Democrat was defeated in his re-election bid by Ronald Reagan.\n\n\"He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers,\" the Carter Center said in a statement on Saturday.\n\nTerminally ill patients may seek hospice care instead of going through further medical treatment. The priority is not to provide further treatment, but to provide comfort towards the end of a patient's life.\n\nMr Carter's grandson, Jason Carter, a former Georgia state senator, tweeted that he visited \"both of my grandparents yesterday.\"\n\n\"They are at peace and - as always - their home is full of love. Thank you all for your kind words,\" he said.\n\nIn 2021, Mr Carter and his wife Roslyn celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. They have four children together.\n\nIn a tweet on Sunday, US President Joe Biden wrote that he and his wife, Jill Biden, were praying for their \"friends Jimmy and Rosalynn\".\n\n\"We admire you for the strength and humility you have shown in difficult times,\" Mr Biden wrote. \"May you continue your journey with grace and dignity, and God grant you peace.\"\n\nBorn in Georgia in 1924, Mr Carter entered politics in the 1960s when he was elected as state senator, before becoming the state's governor in 1971.\n\nFive years later he defeated the sitting Republican President Gerald Ford to become the 39th commander-in-chief.\n\nBut problems quickly mounted for Mr Carter as president.\n\nAt home, an oil crisis produced high inflation and unemployment, and he struggled to persuade Americans to accept the required austerity measures.\n\nThe high-point of the Carter years was the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978 in which Egypt formally recognised the state of Israel. He also signed a treaty returning control of the Panama Canal to Panama.\n\nBut in 1979 the last Shah of Iran was overthrown and 66 Americans were taken hostage in Tehran in the aftermath. Mr Carter cut off diplomatic relations with Iran in response and introduced a trade embargo.\n\nHowever, the public did not believe he was being tough enough and his popularity slumped as the US hostages were held for 444 days. His approval ratings took a further hit after an attempt to rescue the hostages failed and eight US military members were killed.\n\nIran then delayed the release of the hostages until after Ronald Reagan was sworn in.\n\nCarter defeated the sitting Republican President Gerald Ford to become the 39th president\n\nSince leaving the White House, Mr Carter has remained active, carrying out humanitarian work with his Carter Center.\n\nHe led a delegation that sought to persuade military leaders in Haiti to surrender power in 1994 and he brokered a ceasefire in Bosnia that helped pave the way for the future peace treaty there.\n\nHe went on to gain an international reputation for his work in promoting human rights, winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.\n\nWith Nelson Mandela, he founded The Elders, a group of global leaders who committed themselves to work on peace and human rights.\n\nHe also travelled extensively - well into his early 90s - and took part in annual trips to build homes with the Habitat for Humanity charity.\n\nBut the former president has also battled a host of health issues in recent years. In August 2015, Mr Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver.\n\nThe following year he announced that he needed no further treatment, as an experimental drug had eliminated any sign of cancer.\n\nHe has frequently expressed a striking calmness when dealing with his health challenges.\n\n\"I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes,\" he said in 2015. \"I've had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.\"\n\nMr Carter celebrated his most recent birthday in October in Plains, the tiny Georgia town where he and his wife were born between the First World War and the Great Depression, and where they returned when he left office.\n\nA host of senior US politicians - including Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock - offered their thoughts and prayers to Mr Carter's family as news broke on Saturday night.\n\n\"In this tender time of transitioning, God is surely walking with him,\" Senator Warnock tweeted. \"May he, Rosalynn & the entire Carter family be comforted with that peace and surrounded by our love & prayers.\"", "A car was damaged by a fallen tree in Aberfeldy\n\nThousands of people in northern Scotland spent Friday night without power in the aftermath of Storm Otto.\n\nScottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said its engineers had restored power to more than 43,000 properties throughout Saturday.\n\nFewer than 500 homes were still without supply by 20:00 GMT, according to the company, with hundreds expected to remain unconnected overnight.\n\nSSEN expects to have everyone reconnected by Sunday evening.\n\nThe power cuts are mainly concentrated in Aberdeenshire and include parts of Kennethmont, Lonmay, Rathen, Oyne, Methlick, Glenbuchat, Kininmonth, Pitcaple, Insch and surrounding areas.\n\nMobile food vans are in place serving hot food and drinks.\n\nStorm Otto, the first named storm of the season, was marked by high winds which brought down trees and damaged a number of vehicles and buildings.\n\nWind speeds in excess of 80mph were recorded in a number of places while at Cairngorm mountain the gusts reached 120mph.\n\nTrains, buses and ferry services were delayed or cancelled, with trees blocking many routes in Aberdeenshire.\n\nMeanwhile The Met Office has issued a yellow warning of ice across parts of northern Scotland for between midnight and 0800 on Sunday.\n\nChloe Alexander lost power in her house in Hatton at about 08:00\n\nChloe Alexander, who lives in a farmhouse in Hatton with her husband and two young children, said they lost power at about 08:00 on Friday morning.\n\nThey were also badly affected by Storm Arwen in November 2021.\n\n\"We've got an 18-month-old and a four-year-old to consider so it's mainly concern for them, keeping them warm, making sure they've got food\", she told BBC Scotland.\n\n\"A year and a half ago in November we had no power for four, five days from Storm Arwen so I didn't trust SSEN's response, in the sense that they couldn't provide any reassurance when the power would be back on.\n\n\"After last time they were giving reassurance every 24 hours and at that time my baby was five months old. Thankfully my in-laws are in Peterhead so we were able to go to my in-laws last night because I just didn't trust when the power would go on.\"\n\nShe added the communication and response from SSEN had been \"a lot better\" than in November 2021.\n\nThe firm said it had brought in extra workers to deal with the power cuts and a total of 750 staff were responding to the effects of the storm.\n\n\"Our teams will continue to work hard into the evening to carry out repairs and restore power to those who remain off supply, and we remain confident the majority of customers impacted will be restored today, with all customers expected to be restored by tomorrow evening at the latest.\n\n\"We continue to work closely with our resilience partners to support our customers as required, particularly those on our Priority Services Register, and would encourage anyone who may need additional support to contact our dedicated teams on the power cut helpline, 105.\"\n\nGreg Clarke, also with SSEN, said the organisation had been working hard to \"improve the resilience\" of the network since last year's storm season.\n\nMr Clarke said: \"We've undertaken a significant number of improvements. Everything from making sure we're providing more accurate restoration times to our customers so that the people who are going to be off supply for prolonged periods of time, we can allowed them to make informed decisions with regards to making alternative arrangements.\"\n\nMintlaw resident Kenny McKenzie said he was hoping to relocated to Fraserburgh after losing power at home\n\nKenny McKenzie, told BBC Scotland that a tree was blown down outside his house in Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire and he lost power at 07:45 on Friday.\n\n\"With no word, no internet, no mobile phone, everything stopped working,\" he said.\n\n\"One of our neighbours has a gas cooker so she came round with a flask so that we could have our coffee, which was great first thing in the morning.\n\n\"Hopefully we're going down to Fraserburgh because the power's on there so we'll wait and see if there's a bus, seemingly the buses have stopped as well though nobody seems to know.\"\n\nAny customer who has been off supply for longer than 12 hours is entitled to claim up to £30 for food, per day. Customers are advised to keep receipts.\n\nMore than 100 schools in Aberdeenshire were closed on Friday, with almost 50 in Highland and a handful in Moray also affected.\n\nThe roof of Burnside Primary in Angus was damaged\n\nAngus Council said the Burnside Primary School building was not safe for children and staff, after the roof was seriously damaged.\n\nChildren from P1-7 will be provided with remote learning from 22 February when the school returns from the mid-term break.\n\nNorth East Scotland College in Aberdeen also closed following damage to the roof of its city campus.\n\nBBC Scotland Weather said gusts of 83mph had been recorded in Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire, and 80mph in Lossiemouth, Moray, and at Tain in the Highlands.\n\nThe storm was named Otto by the Danish Met Office. The UK Met Office has adopted the same name.\n\nIt is the first named storm to hit the UK since Franklin last February.\n\nThe Met Office's season for named storms runs from September to September, and the names are given to raise awareness of severe weather.\n\nHow have you been affected by Storm Otto? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A former police chief has said criticism of Lancashire Police's investigation over missing mother Nicola Bulley has been \"unfair\".\n\nThe force faced a backlash after saying the 45-year-old had been struggling with the menopause and alcohol before her disappearance in January.\n\nHer family said they knew beforehand that police were revealing the details.\n\nSir Peter Fahy, former chief at Greater Manchester Police, described the investigators as \"very diligent\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4 Today, he also criticised comments by some journalists about the dress and hairstyle of Det Supt Rebecca Smith, the lead detective in the case, at a police press conference on Wednesday, saying it had \"created huge anger\".\n\nThe investigation has drawn widespread interest since Ms Bulley disappeared during a riverside dog walk after dropping her two daughters at school in St Michael's on Wyre on 27 January.\n\nPolice said they believed she had gone into the river and that her disappearance was not suspicious. However, her family and friends urged people to \"keep an open mind\".\n\nThe case has attracted huge speculation about Ms Bulley's private life, which her friends described as \"incredibly hurtful\".\n\nAt a press conference on Wednesday, police said they had immediately categorised Ms Bulley as high-risk when she was reported missing due to \"specific vulnerabilities\".\n\nThey later issued information about Ms Bulley's struggles with the menopause and alcohol, saying they wanted \"to avoid any further speculation\".\n\nPoliticians - including the prime minister and home secretary - and privacy campaigners raised concerns about the police's release of private details in the public domain.\n\nLancashire Police said it would conduct an internal review into their investigation, led by its head of crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nSir Peter Fahy said comments about police investigators were \"unfair\"\n\nSir Peter said: \"It's disappointing that certain politicians have not perhaps tried to give this a more balanced view and say, yes there is a particular issue about providing personal information and that often happens in major investigations.\"\n\nHe said the release of information in investigations \"gets to the stage where it's not in the public interest\".\n\n\"Part of the difficulty for Lancashire Police is this is just one of the cases where we just do not know what's happened,\" he said.\n\n\"They have closed off a lot of possibilities through their work on mobile phone and the CCTV.\n\n\"A measure of whether a missing person's investigation has been carried out professionally is not really whether that person has been found because tragically there are many, many cases where the person is not located.\"\n\nHe said there was \"a huge feeling in policing that the way that Lancashire Police has been focused on has got to the stage of being unfair\".\n\nHe said media comments about the appearance of Det Supt Smith, who is leading the investigation, at Wednesday's press conference \"created huge anger, particularly among senior police officers, and a number of female chief constables came out yesterday absolutely to condemn that and say how unfair it was - so this is just not helpful\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNorth Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Saturday in a \"surprise\" drill to confirm the weapon's reliability, state media said.\n\nIt flew over 900km (560 miles) for 67 minutes and landed in the Sea of Japan.\n\nPyongyang said the test showed it was capable of countering hostile forces like the US and South Korea.\n\nIt comes ahead of joint exercises between Washington and Seoul next month, designed to help fend off North Korea's increasing nuclear threats.\n\nAuthorities in Pyongyang have threatened to unleash an \"unprecedently strong\" retaliation to any such drills - which it insists are being done in preparation to invade North Korea.\n\nThis was reinforced early on Sunday by Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who said any hostile acts would be met with a \"strong and overwhelming\" response. She also urged the US to end what she called \"threats\" against the regime.\n\nBut she added that the South Korean capital, Seoul, would not be targeted by North Korean missiles.\n\nOn Friday, North Korea showed off its massive military might in a parade that included more than a dozen ICBMs.\n\nSaturday's missile, which is the first to be launched since new year's day, splashed down west of Hokkaido, in Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) at 18:27 (09:27 GMT), Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said. An EEZ is an area of the sea that a country has jurisdiction over. Japan's is a 200-nautical mile area off its coast.\n\nIt reached an altitude of 5,700km (3,510 miles), government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno said in Tokyo. While that is incredibly high - the edge of space is about 100km - it is not the highest a North Korean missile has flown.\n\nIn November, an ICBM reached an altitude of 6,100km. Previously, in January 2022, North Korea released extraordinary photos of the Earth that it claimed were taken from a missile launch that reached 2,000km.\n\nICBMs are particularly worrying because of their long range, including mainland United States.\n\nJapan's Defence Minister Hamada Yasukazu said Saturday's missile would have been able to do this, with a possible range of 14,000km.\n\n\"This series of actions by North Korea threatens the peace and stability of Japan and the international community, and is absolutely unforgivable,\" Mr Matsuno said.\n\nNorth Korea's \"reckless behaviour\" was condemned by the G7 foreign ministers, who are attending a summit in Germany. In a statement, they said it \"threatens regional and international peace and security\" and the UN Security Council needed to take more significant measures against Pyongyang.\n\nSouth Korea's military reported the missile was launched from the Sunan district, north of Pyongyang, where the international airport is located. It is also where North Korea has launched most of its recent ICBM tests.\n\nNorth Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes are banned by the UN Security Council. But this has not stopped Pyongyang from continuing with its weapons development, and holding elaborate military parades to show them off.\n\nJust over a week ago, Pyongyang showed off its largest display ever of intercontinental ballistic missiles in a midnight military parade which was attended by leader Kim Jong-un.", "Nicola Bulley vanished on a riverside dog walk in Lancashire on 27 January\n\nThe prime minister has said he was \"concerned that private information was put into the public domain\" by police investigating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley.\n\nRishi Sunak told broadcasters that he was \"pleased the police are looking at how that happened\".\n\n\"The focus must be on trying to find her,\" he added.\n\nLancashire Police was criticised for making her struggles with alcohol and the menopause public.\n\nSpeaking to Times Radio, Sir Keir Starmer - the leader of the Labour Party and former director of public prosecutions - said he was \"very surprised to see what the police had put out there\".\n\n\"I was not sure why that degree of personal information was necessary,\" he added.\n\nThe home secretary has also raised concerns with police after they revealed personal information about the missing mother of two.\n\nRishi Sunak said his thoughts were with Ms Bulley's friends and family\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Sunak said: \"Well, I agree with the Home Secretary and like her I was concerned that that private information was put into the public domain and I believe that the police are looking at how that happened in the investigation.\n\n\"Obviously my thoughts are with Nicola's friends and family.\"\n\nMs Bulley, 45, disappeared three weeks ago during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, in Lancashire, after dropping off her two daughters at school.\n\nHer phone was found still connected to a work conference call.\n\nLancashire Police said it would conduct an internal review into their investigation, which would be led by its head of crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nEarlier the information commissioner John Edwards said personal details should not be \"disclosed inappropriately\".\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman spoke on Friday to the Chief Constable of Lancashire Police, Chris Rowley, and his senior team, BBC News has been told.\n\nShe \"outlined her concerns over the disclosure of Ms Bulley's personal information and listened to the force's explanation\", a source close to her said.\n\nShe also asked to be kept updated on the investigation, the source added.\n\nPolice officers were pictured on Friday on the Shard Bridge on the River Wyre\n\nIn a statement released on Wednesday, Lancashire Police said Ms Bulley had suffered with \"some significant issues with alcohol\" and \"ongoing struggles with the menopause\".\n\nThis prompted a backlash from campaigners, MPs and legal experts, with some accusing the police of breaching her privacy.\n\nMs Bulley's family later released a statement via the police, in which they elaborated on her health, saying she had suffered significant side effects due to the perimenopause, including \"brain fog\" and \"restless sleep\".\n\nThey also asked for speculation surrounding her private life to end and urged the public to focus on finding their \"wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother\".\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had received a referral from the force regarding the contact officers had with Ms Bulley on 10 January, 17 days before she went missing.\n\nHealth professionals also attended her address, the force said, adding no arrests were made but it was being investigated.\n\nDame Vera Baird, the former victims' commissioner for England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4's Today police had been subject to \"heavy, and in my view, totally justified, criticism\".\n\n\"If it was relevant, it needed to be in a public domain at the start, and it wasn't,\" she said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Bulgarian journalist claims he has been \"banned\" from attending Sunday's Bafta Film Awards ceremony in London because he is a \"security risk\".\n\nChristo Grozev, who features in a Bafta-nominated film about the poisoning of Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny, said he was \"surprised\" that he and his family had been banned.\n\n\"Moments like this show the growing dangers to independent journalists around the world,\" Mr Grozev tweeted.\n\nBafta said safety was its top priority.\n\nHowever not everyone associated with the film, Navalny, have been excluded from the ceremony. Bafta confirmed to PA news agency that several producers will be there.\n\nMr Grozev is the lead Russia investigator for Bellingcat, an investigative journalism group, and is credited with helping to expose the alleged plot to kill Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny with the nerve agent Novichok.\n\nIn the film, Mr Grozev is shown uncovering details that suggest involvement in the poisoning plot by the Kremlin. Russia denies any involvement in the attack, which reportedly involved lacing Mr Navalny's underwear with poison.\n\nOn Twitter, Mr Grozev wrote that he had been \"banned by British police\" from attending the awards ceremony - although the Metropolitan Police said they had no power to do this, and it would be up to the event organisers. It does, however, give advice to event organisers on security matters.\n\nMr Grozev said he only found out that he and his son and been disinvited when he received a message by someone from CNN a few days ago. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that they had tickets to the event, but the invite was withdrawn based on advice from UK police.\n\nThe ban was down to \"concerns about public safety and security,\" he was told, but was given no more information on what those risks were.\n\nMr Grozev added, however, that in recent weeks he has received \"numerous alerts from different law enforcement agencies around Europe that there is credible evidence that my life is in danger\".\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said in a statement that threats by foreign states to journalists in the UK are \"a reality that we are absolutely concerned with\".\n\nIt added that it recognised its advice on security measures could mean \"organisers have difficult choices to make when deciding how best to mitigate any risks to the security of their event\".\n\nBafta said in comments cited by PA news agency that the safety of its guests and staff was a priority, adding that it had \"robust and appropriate security arrangements in place every year.\"", "Mehmet Severoğlu has been a tour guide in Antakya for 20 years\n\nWeaving around fallen slabs of concrete, we make our way deeper into the heart of Antakya, the capital of Turkey's Hatay Province. The city's roads are filled with diggers and rescue workers in hard hats, Turkish military and police.\n\nOur guide, Mehmet Severoğlu, has been a tour guide for 20 years since he retired as an electrical engineer. He has explained the history of Antakya to thousands of tourists, and this is his first time back into the city since the earthquake nearly two weeks ago.\n\n\"Antakya is a place where I find my soul,\" he tells us. \"It is a city with so many different ethnicities, different religions and they all live in tolerance here.\n\n\"It is multicultural, multilingual - tourists enjoy this area a lot. So did I.\"\n\nAntakya, known in Roman and medieval times as Antioch, is an ancient city. Founded in 300 BC, it was a regional capital for the Roman Empire. It was also one of the earliest centres of Christianity and important for both Judaism and Islam.\n\nBut the city is almost unrecognisable. We park next to the region's government office, where the building's clock has stopped at 04:34, which was the time just a few minutes after the earthquake hit on the morning of 6 February.\n\nWe walk past a pile of white stones and black steel ornate gates, the city's Protestant Church. Turning left, we pass a hotel, built when Antakya was under French mandate after World War One. Its stonework is smashed, ripped open to the elements.\n\n\"I cant recognise where I am,\" he says, trying to orientate himself. Almost all his usual points of reference have been destroyed. We try one street, then another, clambering over smashed terracotta roof tiles, splintered wood and bent metal supports.\n\nEach time we climb one pile, the next is even higher, until we can't get much further safely. Above us, the contents of homes bulge precariously - beds, chairs, bricks, door frames, bursting through walls and window frames. They're what remain of the lives that were lived here.\n\nMehmet does recognise one spot from his tours, covered in cement dust, its sign hanging.\n\n\"This store used to serve hummus for 150 years, the best hummus place in Antakya,\" he says. \"When we brought our groups to this place, they would welcome us with hot plates. Now I don't think it will ever be back.\"\n\nI ask him if he knows what happened to the people who ran the shop.\n\n\"Two have left [Antakya], but I have no idea about the rest.\" He pauses, his voice starting to choke. \"Very sad.\"\n\nWe find the remains of the Greek Orthodox Church by spotting its bell, which is now lying on its side at the top of a 3m-high (9ft 8in) pile of bricks. The bell tower it stood in is now dust. Using a drone, we can see the remains of its ornate arches, but the rest of the building is gone.\n\nThe church and bell tower before the quake\n\nThe church after the quake, its bell tower destroyed\n\nWe head to Antakya's synagogue: what would normally be a five-minute walk now requires a 10-minute drive around the few roads that have been cleared.\n\nThe doors are locked, but Mehmet tells us the small community were able to rescue their holy books and flee. He makes a phone call to one of his friends whose restaurant looks to be still standing. When his friend picks up, Mehmet is visibly relieved.\n\n\"I am glad to hear your voice,\" he says. \"I am afraid to call people because I don't know whether they are dead or alive.\"\n\nHis friend tells him that his family has survived, but that his business partner and their entire family were killed.\n\nAntakya's market is empty, except for a few shop owners trying to clear their stores. We see one man weeping outside a butcher's shop where his nephew worked.\n\n\"Our dear one has gone,\" he says. \"The world has ended for me.\"\n\nAn Antakya market before the earthquake\n\nOur final visit is to Habibi Neccar, one of the first mosques in the region of Hatay.\n\n\"This mosque's story is the same as Hatay's history,\" says Mehmet. \"So many civilisations have been and gone here.\n\n\"It is known that seven big earthquakes have been recorded through history here. It is not the first time that Hatay has been destroyed, but each time we have rebuilt. We will be reborn again.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rescuers use specialist cameras to free Irem And Merve from the rubble of their building in Antakya", "Half term in February. Kids bored at home. MPs away from Westminster. Not much is meant to happen, right?\n\nBlink and you would have missed it, but these quiet winter days, according to one government minister, witnessed a \"draw-the-line moment where a new chapter opens\".\n\nOne veteran political campaigner reckons we have just lived through the week \"that changes the next election\".\n\nWhy? Well, in the same few days, Nicola Sturgeon quit. Keir Starmer told Jeremy Corbyn in plain terms that he couldn't run again as a Labour MP. And a Conservative Prime Minister edged close to resolving the tangle over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the last vestige of the long-running arguments over Brexit.\n\nThe first minister's presence in UK politics, Jeremy Corbyn's shadow over Keir Starmer's leadership and the Conservatives' fraught conversations over Northern Ireland have been fixtures of our politics for years.\n\nThe combined effect of removing those three factors could be immense. But, as ever in politics, beware pundits making grand assertions - so let's take each issue in turn.\n\nJust a few weeks ago, Nicola Sturgeon told us she had \"plenty in the tank\". But after a huge controversy over gender rights that left the consummate professional struggling to get her words straight, that fuel ran dry.\n\nThe specific timing of her exit was a shock, but it has been clear for some time that the first minister felt she was edging towards the exit. That is why it was worth asking her how long she intended to serve when we sat down with her.\n\nHer departure matters hugely. Many in the SNP felt \"gutted\", as one of her colleagues wrote.\n\nBut there was glee at the news elsewhere. One minister told me they \"punched the air\" when they heard.\n\nFor all her unrivalled success in elections, Nicola Sturgeon had become someone who divided the public, too. Just as there was a group of well-wishers outside her official residence in Edinburgh as she left, there was a different group who held a celebratory conga in Glasgow's George Square.\n\nNow the political impact is being pored over. Labour sources are pointing already to polls that show them edging closer to the SNP. One insider calls it a \"massive game-changer\", which puts Labour closer to gaining a majority at the next general election.\n\nIt is not unreasonable to assume that without their formidable and seasoned leader, without a settled strategy on independence, the SNP will be an easier opponent.\n\nIt's also not daft for Conservatives to imagine that the SNP's push towards independence could be a lot easier to resist when its most formidable voice has left the stage. An independent Scotland without Nicola Sturgeon? Imagine Brexit without Boris Johnson - a very, very different campaign.\n\nAnd when it comes to managing relationships between Holyrood and Westminster, with a highly experienced and wily politician out of the way there is perhaps less chance of the UK government ending up in knots.\n\nBut wise heads on the unionist and SNP sides caution at jumping to dramatic conclusions. The SNP's dominance in Scottish politics is profound.\n\nThe Scottish public is more or less evenly split on the question of becoming an independent country one day and that has been the case for years. Labour right now has a measly one Scottish MP in Westminster.\n\nAnd while the SNP does not have an immediately obvious compelling successor with a massive presence, that is not to say that a real talent could not emerge. And don't forget, the Conservatives have for years played up Nicola Sturgeon as a political bogeywoman. That campaign trick could lose its power.\n\nOne minister told me: \"The threat of Sturgeon is what kept us unionists together.\" With her exit, how will they respond?\n\nThere's no question overall that her departure has shifted the dial. But a shadow cabinet minister carefully says \"it's an opportunity\" rather than an assumption that the seats will automatically turn red again - Scotland was once Labour's heartland, but that was a very, very long time ago.\n\nWhat has mattered, too, for the party's leadership this week was Keir Starmer making clear that Jeremy Corbyn will not stand again as a Labour MP. In a way, like Nicola Sturgeon's departure, this has been coming for a while, but the choosing of a moment is significant.\n\nFor Keir Starmer's team, it is another step on the road to show, with every sinew, that the party has changed since its calamitous defeat in 2019.\n\nIt has been a slow and painful process. There are very public tensions with the left wing of the party, not just because of Jeremy Corbyn's exclusion, but also because Keir Starmer has ditched some of the promises he made when he ran to be leader.\n\nBut as ever in politics, private fights inside political parties can be put to public use. Cynics might even suggest (surely not) sometimes they are picked on purpose.\n\nKeir Starmer obviously feels strongly and genuinely that ridding the Labour Party of antisemitism was vital, that it was a shameful episode in the party's history, and the public verdict that the party had changed was essential. (You can read more about the latest report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission here.) He also obviously feels that it is impossible for Jeremy Corbyn to represent Labour again.\n\nMr Starmer's decision closes down the possibility that Jeremy Corbyn could be back on the party's benches again. (That doesn't mean, however, that he and his supporters still won't try to make it happen).\n\nCrossing the former leader's name off the list can't make the issue completely disappear. One Labour insider said: \"Starmer is working hard on this because it is still a problem - the fact that he is talking about Corbyn and making it a priority shows it is still an issue.\"\n\nNonetheless, the decision this week is an important symbol, as Keir Starmer moves his party on.\n\nWhat about the prime minister's effort, then, to end a saga of many years and thousands of column inches? Is Rishi Sunak really on the verge of changing the landscape, too?\n\nThis weekend he is in what Number 10 believes could be the closing stages of tortuous negotiations with Brussels to make the Northern Ireland Protocol work - that's the special deal that was worked out as we left the EU to avoid having a hard border on the island of Ireland. To the horror of some unionists, it meant that Northern Ireland is treated differently to the rest of the UK. You can read more about this weekend's talks here.\n\nThere are the classic advance grumblings and warnings from the Brexiteer ranks of the Conservative Party, and the Northern Irish DUP, that if the deal isn't good enough, they won't back it, and ultimately the stalemate could just drag on.\n\nBut a deal seems much closer than it has at any previous point. With an agreement possible in the next couple of days, a vote has been pencilled in for Tuesday to approve the package. If it gets that far, Rishi Sunak just might be about to end an argument that plagued his party for years.\n\nIt's not that Tory backbenchers were ever particularly concerned about sending British sausages to Northern Ireland - it's that the row over the protocol became the totem for the bitter hangover of the Brexit years.\n\nDowning Street is unlikely to be able to push a deal through without a political rumpus, alongside janglings of nerves that Boris Johnson could pile in too.\n\nBut if the deal gets done, and the prime minister gets it through Parliament, a Tory source says it would \"show he's a serious guy who can get stuff done and he'll get credit for that\".\n\nOne loyal minister suggests it would be a major win if Mr Sunak can \"take on\" the right of his party - the \"difficult wing\", they call them.\n\nWith legislation on small boats expected in the next couple of weeks too, the hope in loyal Conservative quarters is that slowly, carefully, the party will re-earn the right to be heard.\n\nThis is politics, though. It's also entirely possible that Rishi Sunak is about to provoke an almighty row - with the DUP furious, some of his backbenches cross too and his authority under pressure.\n\nBut this is not 2019 anymore - the potency of attacks from the most ardent Brexiteers has faded, not least because some of them are in Rishi Sunak's government, and some of the others are spending a lot of time in TV studios.\n\nThere are then, three really important ways in which our politics has been shifting.\n\nThe ideas that Scotland will suddenly stop arguing about the constitution, Labour's factions will cease fighting or the Tories won't wind each other up about Europe any more are crackers.\n\nThe notion, too, that somehow the outcome of the next election has just been decided is daft.\n\nBut this is a moment of transition - the fixings of much of the last few years of politics have come loose.", "Rhod Gilbert: \"I am feeling optimistic and weirdly feeling really happy and really positive\"\n\nComedian Rhod Gilbert said he is \"coming back\" to his former self after undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer.\n\nHe announced in July that he had stage four cancer and was being treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, where he has been a fundraising patron.\n\nThe 54-year-old from Carmarthen said his big recovery goal was leading a fundraising trek to Morocco in October.\n\nBut he admitted he was \"a little way off that at the moment\".\n\nIn a pre-recorded video message for Channel 4's The National Comedy Awards for Stand Up To Cancer, he explained how the cancer centre had been a \"big part\" of his life as a patron for 10 years.\n\n\"So imagine my surprise when I was diagnosed with cancer... because I thought I'd have lifelong immunity,\" he joked.\n\nHe said he was in Cuba on a fundraising trek when he noticed a lump in his neck.\n\nGilbert hopes to be able to join fundraisers trekking in the Atlas Mountains in October\n\n\"I had a sore throat and I couldn't speak and I couldn't breathe and I was postponing and cancelling tour shows and I had terrible spasms in my face and a lot of tightness in the muscles,\" he said.\n\n\"It turns out after a biopsy of this lump in my neck that I have something called head and neck cancer. Cancer of the head sounded pretty serious.\n\n\"So before I knew it, I was having surgery. I was in daily sessions of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.\"\n\nHe described his treatment as \"faultless\" and said he was \"coming back\" to his former self as his facial hair was growing back, his voice was back to normal and he was regaining weight.\n\nHis recovery goal was to lead the cancer centre's fundraising trek to Mount Toubkal, in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, the highest point in North Africa, in October, Gilbert added.\n\n\"I'm a little way off that at the moment, but I am feeling optimistic and weirdly feeling really happy and really positive,\" he said.\n\nIn December, Gilbert postponed a string of live shows after being told he needed additional surgery due to gallstones and recurring gallbladder infections that \"kick like a donkey\".", "At least 53 people have been killed by the Islamic State jihadist militant group in Syria, state media reports.\n\nThe group were reportedly searching for desert truffles when they were targeted in the province of Homs.\n\nThe director of Palmyra hospital said 46 civilians and seven soldiers were killed. The bodies of all victims had gunshot wounds to the head, state news agency SANA reported.\n\nThe jihadist group did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack.\n\nThe UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) - which relies on a wide network of sources on the ground in Syria - said the attack was carried out by jihadists on motorcycles who opened fire on the truffle hunters.\n\nThe group has targeted truffle hunters before in Syria.\n\nSixteen people, mostly civilians, were killed last Saturday in a similar attack targeting foragers in the same area, the SOHR said.\n\nYears of conflict have ravaged parts of the country that remain under the control of rebels, who are battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad. His government is under Western sanctions.\n\nSyria has been dealing with effects of a 12-year long civil war, which broke out in 2011 after pro-democracy demonstrations were met by deadly force from the government.\n\nThe Syrian conflict has left half a million people dead, devastated cities, and drawn in other countries.\n\nIn 2014, the Islamic State seized large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, imposing its brutal rule on almost eight million people.\n\nThe group was driven from its last piece of territory in 2019, but the UN has warned that it remains a persistent threat.", "Last updated on .From the section Man Utd\n\nSheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, the chairman of one of Qatar's biggest banks, has confirmed his foundation will bid to buy Manchester United.\n\nBBC Sport understands that Ineos, owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, also officially made a bid before Friday's 22:00 GMT 'soft deadline' for proposals.\n\nBillionaire Ratcliffe had already stated his interest in buying United.\n\nThe Glazer family, who bought United in 2005, are considering selling as they \"explore strategic alternatives\".\n\nSheikh Jassim's Qatari consortium said: \"The bid plans to return the club to its former glories.\n\n\"The bid will be completely debt free via Sheikh Jassim's Nine Two Foundation, which will look to invest in the football teams, the training centre, the stadium and wider infrastructure, the fan experience and the communities the club supports.\n\n\"The vision of the bid is for Manchester United to be renowned for footballing excellence, and regarded as the greatest football club in the world.\"\n• None Manchester United potential takeover - all you need to know\n• None Listen to the latest The Devils' Advocate podcast\n\nIneos has yet to release a statement, but it is understood the proposal will emphasise that Manchester-born Ratcliffe would be \"a British custodian for the club\" and would aim to \"put the Manchester back into Manchester United\".\n\nThe Ineos group, owned by 70-year-old British billionaire Ratcliffe, has a history of investment in sport and owns French Ligue 1 club Nice and Swiss club Lausanne.\n\nIts sporting portfolio also includes high-profile sailing team Ineos Britannia - led by Sir Ben Ainslie - which is aiming to win the 2024 America's Cup for Great Britain.\n\nIneos also has a five-year partnership with Formula 1 team Mercedes and took over the British-based Team Sky in cycling in 2019.\n\nDescribed as a life-long Manchester United fan, Sheikh Jassim is chairman of Qatari bank QIB and the son of a former prime minister of Qatar.\n\nHis consortium did not provide any details on the amount they proposed to purchase the club for.\n\nThere are also expected to be at least two offers for United from the United States, while there have been suggestions of interest from Saudi Arabia.\n\nThat means there could be up to five parties trying to negotiate a full sale, with others looking to make a smaller investment in return for a partial stake in the 20-time English league champions.\n\nParis St-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi is set to be a key figure in any Qatari ownership bid, even if he could have no direct involvement in the club.\n\nQatar Sports Investment (QSI), headed by Al-Khelaifi, had been looking at the potential for taking a smaller stake in a Premier League club.\n\nHowever, because of Uefa rules that prevent prevent multi-club ownership, any Qatari bid to buy United in its entirety would have to come through private individuals or a different organisation.\n\nThe prospect of Qatari investment in a Premier League club - and two major European teams being owned by the Gulf country - has raised concerns among human rights and LGBTQ+ groups.\n\nDiscussion around dual ownership of football clubs and a potential conflict of interest between a potential Qatari purchase of Manchester United and their current ownership of PSG is being met quizzically in the Gulf state.\n\nThey estimate half of the clubs in the Premier League are involved in dual ownership of one type or another.\n\nManchester City's presence in the City Football Group is one example. West Ham part-owner Daniel Kretinsky is also president of Sparta Prague who, like the Hammers, were in the Europa League last season.\n\nThey also note Ratcliffe's intention to buy United and there is no sign of him relinquishing control at French club Nice, who are four points off a European qualification slot.\n\nIn addition, RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg have already been cleared by Uefa to enter the same European competitions.\n\nGiven PSG chairman Nasser al-Khelaifi is also chairman of the European Clubs' Association, which has been working increasingly closely with Uefa, it is fair to assume any potential problem areas have been ironed out.\n\nNevertheless, sources are insistent this bid is totally separate from the ownership of PSG. It is also being stressed the bid is indicative. The data made available in United's 'data room' has been disappointing, according to sources.\n\nNow the full detail around the financial state of the Old Trafford club has to be made available.\n\nIt is being regarded as the start of the process rather than the end but, with plans also in place to invest in the wider Trafford area, Sheikh Jassim is serious in his desire to take the club out of the Glazer family's control for the first time since 2005.\n\nHe is a United fan, who has been to games. He had the opportunity to get involved in the bidding for Chelsea - which sold for £4.25bn last year - but didn't. He views this as an opportunity he couldn't resist.\n\nHuman rights group Fair Square wrote to Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin on Thursday, copying in Premier League chief Richard Masters, \"to highlight several issues of serious concern\" after reports that \"entities linked to the Qatari government are proposing a bid that would enable them to take a controlling stake in Manchester United\".\n\nThe letter continues: \"In line with Uefa's rules aimed at protecting the integrity of its competitions, we would urge Uefa to outline a clear public position prohibiting any takeover of this nature.\n\n\"No consortium of Qatari investors capable of such an acquisition would be able to convincingly demonstrate their independence from the Qatari state.\"\n\nManchester United LGBTQ+ fan group Rainbow Devils said on Friday: \"Rainbow Devils believe any bidder which seeks to buy Manchester United must commit to making football a sport for everyone, including LGBTQ+ supporters, players and staff.\n\n\"We therefore have deep concern over some of the bids that are being made. We are watching the current process closely with this in mind.\"\n\nA precedent for the Premier League would be the Saudi Arabian-backed £305m takeover of Newcastle United in 2021, which was only completed once the league received \"legally binding assurances\" that the Saudi state would not control the club.\n\nUefa has declined to comment but recently expressed concern about the potential \"material threat\" of multi-club ownership to the integrity of club competitions.\n\nHowever, in 2017 Uefa did allow RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig to play in the Champions League, despite both clubs being closely associated with drinks giant Red Bull.\n\nHow much would United cost?\n\nLast year Chelsea were sold for £4.25bn to a consortium led by American investor Todd Boehly and football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes United would be worth in the region of £5bn.\n\n\"We have seen United's share price more than double over the course of the last few months since the Glazers made the announcement,\" Maguire told BBC News.\n\n\"Presently the shares are valued at about £3.8bn, you add on the debts and we're probably coming to four-and-a-half. You need to persuade people to sell, so I think the asking price if you ask the Glazers it will be seven or eight billion. But I think the offers are more likely to be in the region of five or just over five.\n\n\"Manchester United claim to have 1.1bn fans around the world and yet if you work out their revenues it comes to 500 million, so they are affectively getting 50p per fan per year.\n\n\"You have only got to double that, if you can make it £1 per fan per year, all of a sudden Man Utd become a billion pound a year business, so long as you keep control of costs.\n\n\"By costs we really mean player wages, then United go from a business that is broadly breaking even into one which is making spectacular profits and large returns for investors.\"\n\nWhat happens now?\n\nNeither the the US-based Raine Group, which has been put in charge of finding new owners or investors, nor Manchester United are likely to make a formal statement once the deadline is passed.\n\nIt will be for the Glazer family to decide whether to proceed with a full sale. Co-chairmen Joel and Avi Glazer have always been viewed as the members of the family most interested in retaining some interest.\n\nThe initial aim had been to conclude a deal by the end of March, but confidence has been strong from the outset that it would certainly be done by the end of the season.\n\nNo United official has spoken about the process publicly but precedence dictates chief executive Richard Arnold will take questions from investors when the club announces its second quarter results at some point next month.\n• None Our coverage of Manchester United is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything United - go straight to all the best content", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nReferees in four English grassroots leagues are set to wear bodycams, in what the Football Association says is the first such trial in the world.\n\nThe trial starts this weekend in Middlesbrough before being extended to Liverpool, Worcester and Essex.\n\nFA chief executive Mark Bullingham said he hoped it would have a \"positive impact\" on behaviour towards officials.\n\nIn a recent BBC questionnaire, hundreds of referees said they feared for their safety.\n\nThe trial, approved by football law maker the International Football Association Board (Ifab), will see 100 officials wear bodycams in adult grassroots leagues within the initial three months. Recorded footage will be available to be used in disciplinary hearings as appropriate.\n\nIf successful, the trial will be extended to additional grassroots leagues during the 2023-24 season.\n\n\"Referees are the lifeblood of our game and we thank Ifab for its support in allowing us to undertake this new grassroots bodycam trial, the first of its nature globally,\" added Bullingham.\n\n\"We have listened to feedback from the referee community, and we hope this trial will have a positive impact on the behaviour towards them - so that ultimately they can enjoy officiating in a safe and inclusive environment.\"\n\nMore than 900 referees in England responded to a Radio 5 Live questionnaire, with 293 saying they had been physically abused by spectators, players, coaches or managers.\n\nSome described being punched, headbutted and spat at.\n\nAlmost all the respondents had experienced some form of verbal abuse.\n\nThe president of the Referees' Association in England, which distributed the questionnaire to its 7,000 members, said the abuse of match officials was having a significant impact on their mental health and they are only ever \"one decision away from a smack in the mouth\".\n\n\"One day in this country a referee will lose his or her life. It happened in Holland a few years ago and they really changed their culture in football,\" said Paul Field.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Activists staged said they went to to the Tyburn site at about 04:00 BST\n\nA judge sentencing seven Just Stop Oil protesters has praised their \"admirable aims\" after they disrupted operations at an Esso fuel terminal in Birmingham.\n\nThe site in Tyburn was one of several targeted around the UK last April.\n\nThe protesters were told by District Judge Graham Wilkinson at Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court he was moved by their \"deeply emotive\" explanations.\n\nBut he said: \"If good people with the right motivation do the wrong thing it can never make that wrong thing right.\"\n\nThe defendants were found guilty on Thursday of trespassing at the Esso site in Wood Lane on 3 April. They refused to leave while other group members sat in front of security barriers intending to obstruct or disrupt activity.\n\nThey were each given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay varying costs to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).\n\nNo evidence was offered by the CPS against two women and their charges were dropped.\n\nSentencing them, Mr Wilkinson said it was \"abundantly clear\" they were good people and it had been \"a pleasure throughout\" to deal with them.\n\nA specialist police team removed protesters from Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion from the roof of a tanker\n\n\"Your aims are to slow or even stop the advance of global warming and therefore to preserve the planet not just for generations to come but for existing generations,\" he said.\n\n\"No-one can therefore criticise your motivations and indeed each of you has spoken individually about your own personal experiences, motivations and actions.\n\n\"Many of your explanations for your actions were deeply emotive and I am sure all listening were moved by them, I know I was.\"\n\nHe noted \"substantial mitigation\" in relation to their actions, but added that the wrong thing cannot be made right, even if done by good people with the right motivation.\n\nThe protest lasted several hours at the Birmingham depot\n\nTheir protest was part of a joint effort by Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion which saw 10 \"critical\" sites being blocked including in London, Southampton, Essex, Warwickshire and Staffordshire.\n\nDozens were arrested and the disruption led to four depots temporarily stopping operations.\n\nThe group said its supporters were demanding the government halt licences and consents for any new fossil fuel projects in the UK.\n\nSince Just Stop Oil started its campaign in February last year, it said more than 2,000 people had been arrested.\n\nAfter Thursday's hearing the group said it was continuing with its cause, adding: \"We are going to stop new fossil fuel projects whether those in power agree or not.\"\n\nThe Judicial Office said Just Stop Oil had issued a misleading account of what the judge had said and shared the full wording of his sentencing remarks with the BBC.\n\nThe comments of District Judge Graham Wilkinson in full:\n\n\"As a judge my overriding duty is always to uphold the law without fear or favour.\n\n\"This is not a court of morals, it is a court of law, if I allow my own moral compass or political beliefs to influence my decisions and ignore the law where it is convenient to me to do so then the court becomes one where the rule of law no longer applies.\n\n\"If judges across the criminal justice system did the same then there would be no consistency and no respect for the law, decisions based on the personal beliefs of members of the judiciary cannot be consistent with the rule of law and the ideal that each law will apply to all equally.\n\n\"Trust in the rule of law is an essential ingredient of society and it will erode swiftly if judges make politically or morally-motivated decisions that do not accord with established legal principles. Indeed I would become the self-appointed sheriff if I acted in such a way.\n\n\"It is abundantly clear that you are all good people, intelligent and articulate and you have been a pleasure throughout to deal with.\n\n\"It is unarguable that manmade global warming is real and that we are facing a climate crisis. That is accepted and recognised by the scientific community and most governments (including our own).\n\n\"Your aims are to slow or even stop the advance of global warming and therefore to preserve the planet not just for generations to come but for existing generations.\n\n\"No-one can therefore criticise your motivations and indeed each of you has spoken individually about your own personal experiences, motivations and actions. Many of your explanations for your actions were deeply emotive and I am sure all listening were moved by them, I know I was.\n\n\"In simple terms you are good people with admirable aims. However, if good people with the right motivation do the wrong thing it can never make that wrong thing right, it can only ever act as substantial mitigation.\"\n\nThe defendants who were all convicted of trespass and given a 12-month conditional discharge:\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The coronation music has been the personal choice of King Charles\n\nThe coronation service of King Charles will have 12 newly-commissioned pieces of music, including a composition by Andrew Lloyd Webber.\n\nThe King has personally chosen the music for the ceremony at Westminster Abbey on 6 May.\n\nLord Lloyd-Webber said he wanted his new coronation anthem to reflect a \"joyful occasion\".\n\nA gospel choir will sing and there will be Greek Orthodox music in memory of the King's father, Prince Philip.\n\nThe music will have a traditional tone with pieces from classical composers such as William Byrd, George Handel and Sir Edward Elgar.\n\nBut there has been a coronation theme of combining the modern with the ancient - and new music has been commissioned.\n\nThis includes a coronation march from Patrick Doyle, who has previously written a different kind of royal music, with the award-winning soundtrack for Sir Kenneth Branagh's movie version of Shakespeare's Henry V.\n\nIt still remains uncertain who will be invited to listen to the music in person - in particular, whether Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will be in the congregation.\n\nComposer Andrew Lloyd Webber took part in the Platinum Jubilee concert last year\n\nBeing crowned alongside the King will be Camilla, the Queen Consort, who earlier this week tested positive for Covid.\n\nHowever, suggesting she was recovering, the 75-year-old Queen Consort is scheduled to be back carrying out engagements next week.\n\nCamilla has avoided sensitivities about the crown she will be wearing, with the announcement last week that it would not include the Koh-i-Noor diamond, whose ownership has been disputed.\n\nThe new coronation music will include six pieces for orchestra, five choral works and a piece for the organ.\n\nLord Lloyd-Webber is writing an anthem based on the Biblical text of Psalm 98, that begins: \"O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things.\"\n\nThe composer and theatre owner, aged 74 like the King, has had a long career writing popular musicals, such as The Phantom of the Opera and Cats.\n\nLord Lloyd-Webber, who retired from the House of Lords in 2017, has campaigned to support music and the arts.\n\nThe Queen Consort is expected to be back carrying out engagements next week, after testing positive for Covid last week\n\nThe other composers chosen by the King to write new music are Iain Farrington, Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Paul Mealor, Tarik O'Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Shirley J. Thompson, Judith Weir, Roderick Williams and Debbie Wiseman.\n\nThere will be a \"coronation orchestra\" assembled and soloists will include Welsh opera singer Sir Bryn Terfel.\n\nPart of the service will be sung in Welsh and Sir John Eliot Gardiner will conduct a programme of choral music.\n\nAt the moment when the King is acclaimed, the Latin call \"Vivat\" will be sung by choristers from Westminster School, as it has been for previous coronations, including the late Queen in 1953.\n\nThe coronation service will be held at Westminster Abbey, which last September heard new music commissioned for her funeral.\n\nSome of that music had been commissioned from composers many years before, including Sir James MacMillan, who had been asked in 2011 to secretly write a piece of choral music.\n\nUnable to attend rehearsals, the first time the composer ever heard the piece sung was watching the historic funeral on television.\n\nAs well as music at King Charles' coronation, there will be a concert the following evening at Windsor Castle, which promises to include world-famous headline acts.\n\nWhat we know about the Coronation weekend so far:\n\nSunday 7 May: Concert and lightshow at Windsor Castle; Coronation Big Lunch street parties\n\nMonday 8 May: Extra bank holiday; Big Help Out encouraging people to get involved in local volunteering", "I am walking the same route that Nicola Bulley, 45, followed before she disappeared, along the river in the small Lancashire village of Saint Michael's on Wyre. It's also the same route that amateur social media sleuths take when they come to look into the case themselves.\n\nThey have been turning up in their numbers, prompted by rumours, speculation and conspiracy on social media viewed and shared by millions of people who have never been anywhere near this village.\n\nThe previous day, my TikTok feed had been recommended a clip of one of Nicola's friends appealing for her safe return. But the words \"crisis actor\" - a term used to describe someone who has been paid to act out a tragedy or scenario - had been added by someone else in large font.\n\nMy TikTok \"For You Page\" had been awash with videos speculating about Nicola's disappearance, recommended by TikTok's algorithm because I've shown an interest in them. But in recent days, these have escalated, and had widened out to include conspiracy theories suggesting the disappearance has been staged by the government or other sinister forces. Hence the video about friends \"acting\" I had been recommended.\n\nI have previously covered how conspiracy theorists and trolls target survivors of terror attacks - like the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 - with some going far as to track them down offline to find out if they were lying about their injuries.\n\nThis case is very different, but there has been drastic spiralling of speculation and conspiracy theories, which has triggered statements from Nicola's family, and police who issued a dispersal order.\n\nThis story has been a huge focus for the media, splashed on front pages daily. But I want to understand the scale of the social media frenzy.\n\nVideos on Tik Tok have prompted people to come down to the river bank themselves\n\nMetres from the bench where Nicola's phone was found, I bump into Jack and Stevie. The 20-year-old builders from Darlington have been putting up fencing in the area. But, having finished early for the day, they tell me the social media frenzy has led them down to the river bank.\n\n\"It's all through TikTok,\" Jack tells me. \"[I saw] one video about it and thought I want to look deeper and deeper into it. So you get caught in that loop of looking and looking, and it interests you more and more as you go on.\"\n\nStevie agrees. He wants to know about \"different scenarios and what people think\". In his view interest in the case is still picking up steam on social media, rather than waning.\n\nThey head off, phones at the ready, to poke around the outside of a derelict out-house along the river bank. Neither post their own videos, and they don't agree with the more extreme conspiracies. Nonetheless, they say they find the social media posts compelling.\n\nIn the hours I spend near the bench, I meet others who have come here for the same reason. There's a dad and son who are visiting the scene during the school holidays - filming while they explore. Another pair arrive with two husky dogs, and tell me they've bought them to search the fields near the river.\n\nTourists travelling to scenes of disappearances are nothing new - nor are true crime sleuths online. But the frenzy on social media - and TikTok in particular - seems to be sucking in a huge number of people.\n\nLocal families have left flowers and notes expressing their hope that Nicola returns soon\n\nAs of Friday 17 February, when I checked TikTok, videos discussing Nicola Bulley's case since she first disappeared and using her name as a hashtag have accumulated more than 270 million views. In comparison, posts and videos using these same phrases on other major social media sites have had less traction.\n\nOver the same period, I discovered that Instagram \"reels\" using Nicola Bulley's name have had more than 158 million views, and posts have had around 115,000 interactions - likes, follows and comments. On YouTube, videos I found using the same term have racked up 3.3 million views in total, while on Twitter my analysis of mentions and their potential reach estimates just under 21 million views.\n\nOn Facebook, where it's not possible to assess views easily, I found around 8,500 publicly-available posts on the term with over two million interactions on posts. Facebook groups dedicated to Nicola Bulley have more than 81,000 members, many sharing speculation about the case.\n\nAt a news conference this week, Lancashire police singled out \"TikTok-ers\" whom they said had \"been playing their own private detectives\". They said social media speculation has been a hindrance to their investigation, with Det Supt Becky Smith saying she had \"never seen anything like it\" in 29 years of working for the police.\n\nTikTok videos I found suggesting Nicola Bulley's friends and family could be \"crisis actors\" staging events, questioning whether Nicola is real and alleging the case has been created as a \"distraction\" by the government have accumulated more than 1.5 million views.\n\nThese same conspiracies haven't accumulated as much attention on the other major social media sites. On Twitter, I found eight publicly available tweets that mention \"crisis actors\" and government distractions, with more than 65,500 views according to the site's own data.\n\nOn Facebook, I found two public posts pushing them with only about 150 interactions - and on Instagram and YouTube, I found no relevant posts when I searched using the same terms.\n\nCaroline, who lives in a town nearby, says she has seen hundreds of TikTok videos pushing these false suggestions, some which have been recommended to her.\n\n\"Some of the things they point out in the videos make you think maybe they are onto something,\" she says.\n\n\"Then I give myself a wake-up and think why would they actually be doing that? What would they be acting for? What are we being distracted from?\"\n\nShe was first recommended TikTok videos three days after Nicola disappeared. Since then, she's been hooked - and her own output, once dedicated to dancing with her kids, is now punctuated with clips of her speculating about Nicola. She wants to take part.\n\nIn one, Caroline calls out a false rumour about arrests in the case. But in another, she shares a clip that shows a TikTok influencer called Dan Duffy live-streaming on the app as he tries to enter a house on the other side of the river to where Bulley was last spotted.\n\n\"Being a mum myself I think it's nice to see people sharing hoping it might just trigger someone to come forward,\" she tells me.\n\n\"I also think that people trying to help search for anything that may locate Nicola's whereabouts is great also.\"\n\nThe house in Duffy's video has been at the centre of many rumours on social media, so much so that police stated that they had searched it three times.\n\nComments on Duffy's live stream encouraged him to carry on, and even call out Nicola's name.\n\nDuffy was later arrested and fined by the police for a public order offence. TikTok also removed his account.\n\nA statement from TikTok said that its \"thoughts are with Ms Bulley's family and friends at this difficult time\" .\n\nIt says it \"does not tolerate bullying or harassment on TikTok and we remove content that violates our policies\". It also revealed it is \"deploying additional resources to reduce the potential spread of conspiratorial content about unfolding events by making it ineligible for recommendation to the For You feed\".\n\nNicola Bulley disappeared while out walking her dog\n\nA local dog walker, who doesn't want to be named over fears of backlash online, says he was outraged when he watched Duffy's livestream. He says he's seen people coming to the site, driven by social media.\n\nHe describes crowds of people and TikTokers filming the scene of the disappearance, including bringing children along and trying to climb fences.\n\n\"It's really difficult to hear [these conspiracy theories]. It's down to the police to investigate, not TikTokers,\" he says.\n\nFrustrated locals have resorted to hiring local security to try to keep people away from their property.\n\nThis isn't just about social media. An absence of information, news that leaves us frightened or shocked and distrust are essential ingredients for rumour and conspiracy to thrive. Police have been criticised in recent days for their handling of the case.\n\nThere's also a huge amount of media interest, too. Rumours circulating online find their way into newspapers and new sites.\n\nThen there's the legacy left by the boom of pandemic disinformation.\n\nResearch for the BBC by King's College London suggests that the pandemic has created a \"gateway\" for conspiracy theories denying that tragic events have happened, and calling people \"crisis actors\".\n\nA significant number of people hyper-engaged on social media - with its powerful algorithms - and well-versed in this conspiracy lexicon are being presented with a disappearance at a time when trust in institutions, and the police, is low - providing a perfect storm.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: US Vice-President Kamala Harris says those involved in atrocities \"will be held to account\"\n\nThe US has \"formally determined\" that Russia had committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine, US Vice-President Kamala Harris has said.\n\nSpeaking at the Munich Security Conference, Ms Harris accused Russia of \"gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape and deportation\" since its invasion.\n\nMoscow's ambassador to the US rejected the claims and accused Ms Harris of trying to \"demonise Russia\".\n\nWorld leaders at the conference called for long-term support of Ukraine.\n\nUK PM Rishi Sunak said now was the time to \"double down\" on military support.\n\nThe prime minister argued that Western allies must start planning for the future security of Ukraine, as well as sending the weapons it needs to defend itself now.\n\nThe conference in Germany comes as the one-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches on 24 February.\n\nMs Harris told delegates that the perpetrators of alleged Russian crimes in Ukraine must be held to account.\n\n\"Their actions are an assault on our common values and our common humanity,\" she said.\n\nThe UN defines crimes against humanity as a \"widespread or systemic attack\" on a particular civilian population.\n\nMoscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians during its invasion.\n\nAnatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the US, said the vice-president's claims were a cynical attempt to \"demonise Russia in the course of a hybrid war\".\n\nThey were a way of \"justifying Washington's own actions to fuel the Ukrainian crisis\", he added, referring to the US supply of arms to Kyiv.\n\nBut Ms Harris, a former prosecutor, was adamant that \"in the case of Russia's actions in Ukraine we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity\".\n\nShe cited \"barbaric and inhumane\" atrocities committed during the war in Ukraine, including the scores of bodies found in Bucha shortly after the invasion and the bombing of a theatre in Mariupol.\n\n\"Let us all agree: on behalf of all the victims, both known and unknown, justice must be served,\" Ms Harris said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCrimes against humanity are tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC).\n\nBut the ICC has no powers to arrest suspects and can only exercise jurisdiction within countries which signed up to the agreement that set up the court.\n\nRussia is not a signatory to that agreement, so it is unlikely to extradite any suspects.\n\nThe three-day gathering in Munich will provide a key test of Western support for Kyiv as both sides in the war prepare for spring offensives.\n\nUkraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Moscow had \"waged a genocidal war\" because it did not think Ukrainians \"deserve to exist as a sovereign nation\".\n\nTens of thousands have lost their lives and millions have been forced from their homes as part of Vladimir Putin's invasion.\n\nThis conference has largely been a gathering of American and European leaders. It's a chance for them to reaffirm their support for Ukraine and demonstrate their resolve.\n\nRishi Sunak called for a new Nato charter to guarantee Ukraine's long-term security. Kamala Harris formally accused Russia of committing crimes against humanity.\n\nBut in the margins, there have been voices of doubt.\n\nTake the prime minister of Namibia, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila. She opposed sending more arms to Ukraine and called for a peaceful resolution to the war. Her country, she said, had suffered recession, rising prices and disrupted supply chains.\n\nIt's opinions like that, widely held cross Africa, Asia and South America, that are concentrating transatlantic minds.\n\nThere is realisation among Western policymakers that almost one year after Russia's invasion, they need to remake the case for defending Ukraine.\n\nRussia was also on the agenda during a meeting on Saturday between the Antony Blinken and Wang Yi, the US and China's top foreign policy officials.\n\nDuring talks at the conference in Munich, Mr Blinken warned of consequences if China were to provide material support to Russia's invasion.\n\nMr Blinken is expected to suggest China is \"at least contemplating providing\" lethal assistance to Russia in an interview to be aired on Sunday morning on NBC News.", "Laurel Aldridge was last seen near Arundel on Tuesday\n\nActor Mackenzie Crook has appealed for help in finding his sister-in-law, who has gone missing in West Sussex.\n\nThe star, known for his roles in Pirates of the Caribbean and The Office, is part of a search party looking for Laurel Aldridge.\n\nThe 62-year-old, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy, was last seen in Walberton, near Arundel, on Tuesday, Sussex Police said.\n\nCrook, 51, is urging locals to check in their gardens, bins and garages.\n\n\"It's incredibly difficult. She is in quite a vulnerable position at the moment,\" he told BBC Radio Sussex.\n\n\"She missed a chemotherapy session on Tuesday, so we're really worried about her.\n\n\"There were reported possible sightings of her as far north as Bignor Hill, but we've discounted those and we think she is very much in the local Walberton area.\"\n\nMackenzie Crook is urging locals to check in their gardens, bins and garages\n\nCrook, who grew up in Kent, added that she is a \"wonderful mother\" and \"usually very happy.\"\n\nPolice say they are concerned for Ms Aldridge's welfare, and are urging anyone who sees her to call 999.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nLiverpool's pursuit of a top-four Premier League finish gathered further momentum at the expense of Newcastle United's similar ambitions with a crucial win at St James' Park.\n\nJurgen Klopp's side, who secured their first league win of 2023 in the Merseyside derby against Everton on Monday, took control with two early goals from Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo.\n\nNewcastle's miserable night worsened with a first-half red card for goalkeeper Nick Pope, ruling him out of next Sunday's Carabao Cup final against Manchester United at Wembley.\n\nNunez powered home the opener from Trent Alexander-Arnold's pass after 10 minutes, then Gakpo scored for the second successive match seven minutes later, pouncing on Mohamed Salah's piece of creation to beat Pope.\n\nThe Newcastle keeper then left referee Anthony Taylor with no option but to send him off after 22 minutes when he misjudged a dash from goal in an attempt to challenge Salah. He slipped and had to handle to stop Liverpool's Egypt forward from racing clear.\n\nIronically, Pope's replacement Martin Dubravka is cup-tied for Wembley having played for Manchester United in an earlier round, leaving former Liverpool keeper Loris Karius as the most likely contender to face Erik ten Hag's side.\n\nNewcastle were unable to overcome the handicap as they went down to only their second league defeat this season, the first also coming against Liverpool at Anfield in August.\n\nIt capped a disappointing build-up to Newcastle's first Wembley final since the FA Cup in 1999, but they still showed plenty of spirit despite their numerical disadvantage, Liverpool keeper Alisson turning Allan Saint-Maximin's shot on to the bar, while Dan Burn also rattled the woodwork with a header. The Brazilian also saved well from Miguel Almiron and Callum Wilson.\n\nKlopp will have left Tyneside highly satisfied after desperate away defeats at Brentford, Brighton and Wolverhampton Wanderers as Liverpool now stand only six points behind fourth-placed Newcastle with a game in hand.\n\nLiverpool showed signs of recovering their old menace in the comfortable 2-0 win against Everton in the Merseyside derby.\n\nThe trick was to follow that up against what has been a formidable Newcastle side this season given the inconsistency that has dogged the Reds' campaign.\n\nThis is why Klopp will be elated with the outcome, not simply because it means Newcastle will feel the threat of Liverpool moving closer to the top-four place the Toon Army also have their eyes on.\n\nThis was far from the perfect Liverpool performance, relying too heavily on the outstanding Alisson as their defence was opened up too often for Klopp's liking before Tuesday's last-16 Champions League meeting with holders Real Madrid at Anfield.\n\nThere was, however, so much to be positive about as Nunez turned his good work into a goal with a thumping finish and the improving Gakpo was on the mark again, although Liverpool might be disappointed they did not add to their goal tally.\n\nDiogo Jota also delivered a dangerous cameo as he moves close to full fitness after a long injury absence, while fit-again Virgil van Dijk comfortably came through his first 90 minutes since sustaining a hamstring injury.\n\nThis has been a very good week for Liverpool after so many disappointments this season, with successive victories providing the perfect tonic before the meeting with the side that beat them in last season's Champions League final.\n\nNewcastle's fans swallowed their disappointment at the final whistle by instantly switching attention to their big Wembley date with Manchester United.\n\nEven that was overshadowed by the red card that rules out keeper Pope, such an influential figure in their transformation under Eddie Howe this season. Make no mistake, this is a bitter blow to their hopes of winning the first silverware since the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969.\n\nAnd the added worry for Howe is that Newcastle, so impressive in this campaign, have hit a dry spell at the most crucial point in their season so far, their last league win coming against Fulham in mid-January.\n\nNewcastle will be lifted by the return of Bruno Guimaraes at Wembley, but there was also plenty for the home fans to be encouraged by, despite the result.\n\nTheir side never gave up despite facing a virtually impossible task at 2-0 down and reduced to ten men, playing with character and creating chances throughout - although again there was a lack of end product.\n\nIt was an anti-climax given the high hopes before kick-off, but Newcastle can now fix full focus on their biggest game in years and the chance to end that 54-year trophy drought.\n• None Go straight to all the best Liverpool content\n• None Attempt missed. Diogo Jota (Liverpool) left footed shot from a difficult angle on the left misses to the right. Assisted by Harvey Elliott.\n• None Attempt missed. Diogo Jota (Liverpool) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Diogo Jota (Liverpool) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Andrew Robertson with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt saved. Callum Wilson (Newcastle United) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Anthony Gordon.\n• None Attempt saved. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Harvey Elliott.\n• None Substitution, Newcastle United. Matt Ritchie replaces Joelinton because of an injury.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Delay in match because of an injury Joelinton (Newcastle United).\n• None Attempt saved. Harvey Elliott (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Fabinho.\n• None Offside, Newcastle United. Anthony Gordon tries a through ball, but Sven Botman is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke at the event in support of refugees\n\nHundreds of people attended a rally in support of refugees following violence outside a Merseyside hotel housing asylum seekers a week ago.\n\nLiverpool mayor Joanne Anderson and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joined the event, saying they wanted to \"stand up for refugees\".\n\nA small group also gathered in the city centre to protest about local placements of asylum seekers.\n\nPolice struggled to keep both sides apart during confrontations.\n\nThe demonstrations took place after protests turned violent outside a hotel accommodating asylum seekers in Kirkby on 10 February.\n\nOne man was charged and 14 other people were arrested after a police officer and two members of the public were hurt when missiles including lit fireworks were thrown.\n\nA police van was set on fire after a protest turned violent in Kirkby\n\nThe initial protest had been triggered by an allegation that a man had made inappropriate advances to a local teenage girl.\n\nA man was arrested and released but is no longer living in Merseyside, police said.\n\nOfficers said the Knowsley protest and counter-demonstration had been \"peaceful\" before a group of people arrived who were \"only interested in causing trouble\".\n\nSome of the asylum seekers staying at the hotel said they were afraid after the violence.\n\nHowever, one woman told BBC North West Tonight that she attended the initial protest over concerns for youngsters' safety and did not believe it was racially-motivated.\n\nAnother small protest was held outside the hotel on Friday night despite a police dispersal order against anti-social behaviour.\n\nFollowing Saturday's rally in Liverpool, Mr Corbyn tweeted: \"We will not let the far-right divide us.\"\n\nOne speaker said Liverpool has been \"bringing in people from around the world for as long as we've been a city and we cannot forget our roots\", while another said the city's accent was a result of migration.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The £2 cap on bus fares in England has been extended for three months following warnings that hundreds of services could be cut if it ended.\n\nThe cap applies to more than 130 bus operators outside London.\n\nIt had been due to expire on 31 March, but has been extended until the end of June.\n\nBus operators have been struggling to maintain service levels in the face of rising costs and passenger numbers not recovering to pre-pandemic levels.\n\nThe cap was introduced partly as a cost of living measure but is also meant to encourage people back on to buses.\n\n\"Getting more people onto reliable and affordable buses will strengthen communities and help grow the economy,\" said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.\n\nUp to 15% of services could have been scrapped without further funding, the Confederation of Passenger Transport, which represents bus and coach firms, said earlier this month.\n\nDuring the pandemic the government provided £2bn to support bus firms, who provide the most popular form of public transport in England.\n\nIt said the extension for bus fares would be backed by up to £75m in funding.\n\nThe cities of Manchester, Liverpool and West Yorkshire - all of which have Labour mayors - have already introduced £2 caps as part of longer-term schemes.\n\nThe government said a further £80m would be made available to support critical bus services in England as part of a wider package.\n\n\"We're providing £155m to help passengers save money on fares, get more people on the bus and protect vital bus routes - helping with the cost of living and enabling people to get where they need to in an affordable and convenient way,\" said Transport Secretary Mark Harper.\n\nThe Campaign for Better Transport welcomed the announcement, saying the government should market the scheme so as to attract new people on to buses.\n\n\"However, another extension only gets us so far. We are urging government to implement long-term funding reform to avoid more uncertainty and give everyone access to affordable and reliable bus services,\" said Paul Tuohy from the campaign.\n\nEmily Turner, who went viral on social media after travelling from London to Edinburgh using £2 bus tickets, said the extension would help a lot of people.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Emily Turner This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I don't think this is a fix for many transport problems in this country, but it's definitely a start,\" Emily told the BBC.\n\nThe transport watchdog Transport Focus said the funding would help many people who are struggling with rising living costs.\n\nInflation - the rate at which prices rise - is currently near a 40-year high, but has eased in recent months.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics said the £2 fare cap was a contributing factor in inflation slowing down in January.", "The true extent of cancellations made by the Transpennine Express rail franchise has been revealed in figures published by the rail regulator.\n\nIn a four-week period the company cancelled 1,048 trains before 22:30 GMT on the day before they were due to run, and part of the route on a further 312.\n\nBecause the announcements were not made on the day, these cancellations were not included in official statistics.\n\nTranspennine has said such decisions were \"not taken lightly\".\n\nUsually these pre-planned cancellations - also called P-coding advance cancellations - are used when an emergency timetable is needed in response to poor weather or damage to rail infrastructure.\n\nHowever, in each case the Transpennine trains, which operate across the North of England and into Scotland, were cancelled due to a shortage of available train crew.\n\nThe number of cancellations it made in this way far outstripped any other rail operator in the four weeks to 4 February. For example, government-owned Northern recorded 182 full cancellations, Transport for Wales 30 and LNER 17 - all attributed to staff shortages.\n\nReleasing the figures the Office of Road and Rail (ORR) regulator said Transpennine's cancellations score for that period jumps from an official 8.9% to 23.7% when P-coding was taken into account.\n\nTranspennine has previously said it only resorted to pre-planned cancellations \"when resources are not available to cover advertised services in order to maximise advance notice of service changes for customers\".\n\nIt blamed the \"combined impact of prolonged higher-than-usual sickness levels, the significant driver training programme to facilitate the delivery of the Transpennine route upgrade and an aligned lack of a driver overtime agreement\"\n\n\"[This has] led to the need to remove services from the timetable on a day-by-day basis through pre-planned cancellations.\"\n\nHowever, the practice has come under fire from the ORR which published these figures for the first time on Friday.\n\nIn January the regulator said cancellations were at \"record levels\" and its investigation had \"confirmed a further gap between cancellations statistics and the passenger experience\".\n\nIt said this was \"driven by an increased number of unrecorded 'pre-cancellations'\".\n\n\"For a passenger this could mean that a train they expected to catch when they went to bed can disappear from the timetable by the time they leave for the station unaware that the train has been cancelled.\"\n\nLabour and some Conservative MPs have called for Transpennine's contract, which expires on 28 May, to be withdrawn.\n\nLast month Labour's shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said the service had \"never been worse\".\n\nAnthony Smith, chief executive of the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said passengers were left \"confused and frustrated\" when a train they expected to catch was cancelled the day before they were due to travel, and may well be surprised to find that this doesn't count as a cancellation.\n\n\"Things like this leave a sour taste in the mouth - and damage trust in the railway. The scale of this so-called 'P-coding' on some operators in recent months has highlighted the problem. We are pleased to be contributing the passenger voice in industry discussions about how to address the regulator's concerns.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"It's a natural part of the evolution of a country\", says Hugh Jackman\n\nAustralian actor Hugh Jackman says he thinks it is inevitable that Australia will become a republic in the future.\n\nSpeaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Jackman said a break with the UK's Royal Family would be \"a natural part of evolution\".\n\nBut the X Men star added that he held \"no ill will\" towards King Charles and wished the family \"all the best\".\n\nOn the show, he also discussed therapy, his relationship with his children, and his 6,000-calorie-a-day diet.\n\nThe Australian actor's parents are both from the UK and he recalls celebrating royal occasions as a child.\n\n\"My father made us stop doing whatever we could in 1981 to watch the wedding of Lady Di and Prince Charles,\" he told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.\n\n\"We had Champagne... there was no bunting at our house but if my dad could have found it there would have been.\"\n\nDespite believing that Australia would become a republic, the 54-year-old said he appreciated and admired the work of the Royal Family.\n\n\"I've met the Queen on several occasions, the Queen Mother and Prince Charles... and I see and feel a real genuine desire to be of service to the public,\" he said.\n\nHugh Jackman (left) was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in in The Son\n\nIn Jackman's latest film, The Son, he plays a lawyer with a teenage son from a previous marriage who's suffering from depression.\n\nThe movie explores absentee parenting and the effects of divorce on children, as well as adolescent mental illness.\n\n\"This was a part I knew how to play,\" said Jackman, who received a Golden Globe nomination for his role.\n\n\"I understood that battle of someone who's probably doing too many things at once but feeling that they've got everything under control and they can handle everything,\" he added.\n\n\"It's a little similar to me.\"\n\nJackman opened up about his experience of having therapy, saying it had \"radically\" changed how he sees himself.\n\nHe said he was driven by a \"perfectionist\" streak which made him \"able to do things\" but he recognised how it had also been \"limiting\".\n\n\"I've realised also through this movie that being vulnerable is actually fine. It's something that everyone relates to. And even my children, I'm more vulnerable with them,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hugh Jackman: I want to score against Wrexham\n\nHe also said he believed it was time a superhero movie won an Oscar, and he believed the genre was overlooked for nominations in the same way as comedy films.\n\nHe also addressed his upcoming role in superhero movie Deadpool 3 alongside Ryan Reynolds.\n\nAhead of filming, he said he was eating 6,000 calories a day and training every day of the week.\n\n\"It's harder when you're 54, let me just say that,\" he joked.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Councilman climbs onto debate stage from his wheelchair\n\nA councilman in the city of Denver, Colorado, has spoken of his \"humiliation\" after he had to hoist himself on to a debate stage from his wheelchair as a crowd looked on.\n\nChris Hinds was told the public debate would be wheelchair accessible, but organisers failed to provide a ramp.\n\nVideo from the event shows him trying to drag himself on to the stage.\n\nThe American Disabilities Act (ADA) requires public spaces to accommodate those with disabilities.\n\nMr Hinds told the BBC it was a demoralising experience, adding: \"I thought, 'Here I am on stage, looking like a circus monkey.'\"\n\nBut he said the \"teachable moment\" has also sparked an outpouring of support.\n\nThe councilman, who is paralysed from the chest down, is the first member to use a wheelchair.\n\nOrganisers suggested lifting Mr Hinds and his 400lb (181kg) wheelchair to the stage, but Mr Hinds did not feel it would be safe. Instead, organisers agreed to hold the debate off the stage, at audience level.\n\nIn a statement on Monday, The Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theatre in Denver said there had been \"no requests for additional or enhanced accommodations\" ahead of the debate. Nonetheless, Mr Hinds says, it is required to be compliant with the ADA.\n\nThe venue later apologised, acknowledging that while the theatre was wheelchair accessible, the stage was not.\n\nMr Hinds was an avid runner and soccer player before a crash paralysed him at the age of 34. His experience encouraged him to go into public service and advocate for people with disabilities.\n\nHis 2018 election spurred the city to make the council chambers wheelchair accessible by installing a ramp so Mr Hinds could be inaugurated.\n\nHis advocacy work also inspired the Chris Hinds Act, signed by Colorado's Governor John Hickenlooper in 2018. It prevents the fraudulent use of disability parking in the state.\n\n\"This is just yet another reason why it's important for us to have disability representation in all areas of leadership and influence,\" Mr Hinds told BBC News.", "Police blocked far-right leader Damjan Knezevic as he and other protesters tried to storm the presidency\n\nPro-Russia activists in Serbia joined nationalist protesters outside the presidency this week, in the latest indication of rising Russian influence.\n\nChanting \"no surrender\" and \"treason\", they threatened to riot if Serbia backed an EU plan to normalise relations with Kosovo.\n\nThe government said it did not believe Moscow stoked the protests but the war has heightened tensions in Belgrade.\n\nDeath threats were made towards the president if he signed a deal on Kosovo and three men have been charged with calling for a violent change of Serbia's constitutional order.\n\nAmong them is Serbian far-right leader Damjan Knezevic, who organised the protests. He has publicly backed Russia's Wagner mercenary group, which has played a big role in Russia's war in Ukraine.\n\nHe was recently pictured visiting Wagner's Russian headquarters in St Petersburg. Another man was arrested apparently taking a sniper rifle to the protest.\n\nMr Vucic went on TV to accuse the protest organisers of being paid for with foreigners' cash, vowing that Serbia would never be defeated by lies, threats and a few rifles. \"I don't need someone from Wagner to tap me on the shoulder and tell me what I can and can't do,\" he said.\n\nThe Russian ambassador condemned threats against the Serbian leader. But almost a year into the war in Ukraine, it is clear Serbia is struggling to maintain ties with Moscow while moving closer to the EU.\n\n\"I would do anything for Mother Serbia and Mother Russia. They are the same thing,\" said Vlado Stanic, wearing a T-shirt showing a stern-faced Vladimir Putin and his well-known quote on the invasion: \"Everything is going according to plan.\"\n\nStanic displays an extreme version of a more common mindset, a form of Pan-Slavism that believes Serbia has historic and religious links to Russia.\n\nHe speaks of \"Tsar Putin\" in almost messianic terms, parroting Russian propaganda about its fight against \"fascists and Nazis\". In 2015 he travelled to eastern Ukraine to help Russian forces.\n\nVlado Stanic served a jail sentence in Serbia after he joined Russian forces fighting in eastern Ukraine\n\nHe refuses to speak about what he did in Ukraine's Donbas region, but on his return to Serbia was sent to jail.\n\nCedomir Stoikovic, who is one of Serbia's leading voices against Russian influence, warns that Serbia is under \"hybrid occupation\", which has resulted in in the widespread support that Russia now enjoys.\n\n\"For 15 years Russia has conducted a huge operation in Serbia. Their intelligence service is here on a massive scale. They put money here, buying media and news editors.\"\n\nHe has tried to launch prosecutions against the Russian ambassador and the Wagner group and is now defending a young Ukrainian woman he claims has been unfairly treated because of her nationality.\n\nThe claims are difficult to prove but news coverage of the Russian war in Serbia is often dramatically at odds with other European countries.\n\nOne newspaper ran a story in the run-up to the invasion with the infamous headline \"Ukraine attacks Russia\". Another ran a front-page story claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had accused the West of \"betraying\" Ukraine, when he had said nothing of the sort.\n\nSerbia is something of an outlier among European nations in its support for Russia. It has refused to join Western sanctions, although President Vucic has condemned Russia's invasion.\n\nVlad, a souvenir seller in Belgrade's central Kalemegdan park, is doing a brisk trade in pro-Moscow T-shirts. One bears the Z logo that has become the hallmark of Russia's war. Another bestseller boasts President Putin riding a bear.\n\n\"It isn't Russia against Ukraine, it is Russia against Nato,\" he asserts, reiterating another Putin mantra.\n\nMany in Serbia have never forgiven the West's defensive alliance for 1999 airstrikes against the forces of Slobodan Milosevic.\n\nThey brought to an end to Serbia's brutal ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo, but also caused a lingering hatred amongst many Serbs.\n\nKosovo celebrated 15 years of independence on Friday but it is not recognised by Serbia\n\nKosovo is the theme that runs through all of this and a Nato-led force is still based there.\n\nConsidered by many here to be an essential part of Serbian territory, Kosovo declared independence 15 years ago, a result of years of ethnic tension, bloody conflict and genocidal attacks.\n\nRelations have been fraught, and Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as an independent state, nor do the 50,000 ethnic Serbs who live there.\n\nBut later this month, President Vucic will meet Kosovo's prime minister in Brussels with the US and EU hoping that they sign a peace plan that would send Serbia further on the road towards joining the European Union, and further out of Russia's orbit.\n\nJoe Inwood reports for BBC Newsnight and Albana Kasapi for The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4.", "That's it from us for now\n\nMy colleagues and I are pausing our coverage of the Munich Security Conference - but we'd urge you to check out our report on the day's action here. And head here for a writeup of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's latest comments on future trade arrangements for Northern Ireland - something else he was asked about in Germany today. I've been joined by James Harness, Samuel Horti and Antoinette Radford - thanks for following along.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UK PM Rishi Sunak: \"Now is the moment to double down on our military support (for Ukraine)\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged world leaders to send the most advanced weapons to Ukraine now in order to secure its long-term future.\n\nMr Sunak told the Munich Security Conference that allies must give the country \"advanced, Nato-standard capabilities\".\n\nHe said now was the time to \"double down\" on military support.\n\nThroughout the conference, Ukraine's allies have reiterated the case for defending the country.\n\nThe three-day gathering to discuss global security, taking place in Germany ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion, provided a key test of Western support for Kyiv as both sides in the war prepare for spring offensives.\n\nUkraine's allies tried to demonstrate their resolve and tried to convince the Russian government that they will not give up or give in, even if the cost in \"blood and treasure\" increases in coming months.\n\nMost of those who attended the conference - from heads of state and ministers to diplomats and spies - were from Europe or the US, including US Vice-President Kamala Harris and nearly 30 European heads of government. No Russian officials were invited.\n\nMr Sunak had said he wanted to \"make sure other countries follow our lead\" in providing battle tanks, and training soldiers and aviators on Nato-standard aircrafts.\n\nIn his speech in Germany, he said: \"Ukraine needs more artillery, armoured vehicles and air defences, so now is the time to double down on our military support.\n\n\"When Putin started this war, he gambled that our resolve would falter. Even now he is betting we will lose our nerve.\n\n\"But we proved him wrong then, and we will prove him wrong now.\"\n\nCalling for a new Nato charter to provide assurances of long-term support, Mr Sunak said allies \"must demonstrate that we'll remain by their side, willing and able to help them defend their country again and again\".\n\nHe went on to say that, as well as having a military strategy \"to gain a decisive advantage on the battlefield\", allies also needed \"to rebuild the international order on which our collective security depends\".\n\nMr Sunak said international law needed to be upheld in order to hold Russia to account. He also called for \"a new framework\" for Ukraine's long-term security, and said the international community's response had not been strong enough against Russia's aggression.\n\nBefore his speech, Mr Sunak met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and both agreed on the need to sustain \"the record level of international support for Ukraine\", a Downing Street spokeswoman said.\n\nMr Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also agreed on \"the importance of giving Ukraine the military momentum they need to secure victory against tyranny\" in a meeting on the conference sidelines, said No 10.\n\nThe unspoken question in Munich was what will happen if the participants meet this time next year and the war is still going on.\n\nOf particular concern was whether the political and economic costs of the war could prove too much to bear, as the Russian leadership assumes, or the western alliance will stand firm behind Ukraine.\n\nThe uncertainty around these issues is another reason why allies want to step up support now, to ensure Ukraine can see off any Russian offensive and launch a counter-attack on its own. President Volodymyr Zelensky is not the only one urging speed.\n\nLast week, the Ukrainian leader visited the UK, as well as Paris and Brussels, where he appealed for European leaders to supply his country with modern fighter jets.\n\nThe UK is to start training Ukrainian forces to fly Nato-standard jets and Mr Sunak has said \"nothing is off the table\".\n\nBut Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said there will be no immediate transfer of UK fighter jets to Ukraine.\n\nHe told the BBC it could take months to train pilots and the UK was instead focused on using alternative provision of air cover to Ukraine.\n\nSome Nato member countries are also worried that giving jets to Ukraine would be viewed as escalating the war, risking direct confrontation between the Western military alliance and Russia.\n\nSince Russia invaded on 24 February last year, the UK has spent £2.3bn on military assistance, making the country the second biggest donor behind the US. The government has said it plans to match this spending again this year.\n\nMilitary equipment provided by the UK so far includes tanks, air defence systems and artillery.\n\nHowever, Kyiv has become increasingly frustrated by the time Western weapons have taken to arrive. Deliveries of battle tanks - promised last month by countries including Germany, the US and the UK - are still thought to be weeks away from arriving on the battlefield.\n\nDuring Mr Sunak's meeting with Ms Von der Leyen, the pair also had what Downing Street described as a \"positive discussion\" about fixing issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nThey agreed there had been \"very good progress to find solutions\" but that \"intensive work in the coming days is still needed\" to get a deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements over the line, according to No 10.\n\nIt comes after sources suggested that a deal could be reached between the UK and the European Union as early as next week, after more than a year of negotiations.\n\nAlmost one year on since the start of the conflict, what questions do you have about the war in Ukraine?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Seven days of strikes by tens of thousands of university staff have been paused.\n\nThe planned action during February and early March will no longer go ahead, said the University and College Union (UCU).\n\nThe union said it had made \"significant progress\" across multiple issues during talks with employers.\n\nPausing walkouts over the next fortnight will enable a \"period of calm\", Jo Grady of the UCU said.\n\nThe action had been due to take place on 21, 22, 23, 27 and 28 February and 1 and 2 March.\n\nPlanned strikes after these dates, for 16, 17, 20, 21 and 22 March, will still go ahead.\n\nThe dispute is over pay and conditions, while some members are also striking over pensions.\n\nDr Grady, UCU general secretary, said: \"To allow our ongoing negotiations to continue in a constructive environment, we have agreed to pause action across our pay and working conditions and USS pensions disputes for the next two weeks and create a period of calm.\"\n\nThe dispute over pensions began more than a decade ago, but was reignited by the revaluation of the pension scheme used by academic staff - the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).\n\nThe UCU says the valuation - an assessment of how much money a scheme has - was \"flawed\" because it took place at the start of the pandemic, \"when global markets were crashing\", and recorded a deficit of £14.1bn.\n\nChanges were introduced which meant pension contributions increased and future benefits were reduced.\n\nAccording to the UCU, the average member \"will lose 35% from their guaranteed future retirement income\".\n\nIt says the scheme was more recently found to have a surplus of £1.8bn and is demanding that employers restore staff pension benefits.\n\nIn a joint statement on Friday, UCU and Universities UK said another valuation for 2023 is \"likely to reveal a high probability of being able to improve benefits and reduce contributions\".\n\nUCU paused its strike action on the same day.\n\nUniversity staff on strike had been facing 18 days without pay this month and next - until this latest announcement.\n\nSome UCU members said on social media that they would struggle to afford it, but many of those believed the strike action could lead to long-term financial gain.\n\nUCU has a hardship fund for its members on strike.\n\nStudents had also been facing 18 days without classes, often after already facing disruption to their learning because of Covid.\n\nWhen university staff walked out in November over the same dispute, one student told the BBC she felt she was \"not getting what [she] paid for\".\n\nThe National Union of Students (NUS) has previously said it was supporting the strikes because \"staff working conditions are students' learning conditions\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Three testy moments during the State of the Union\n\nUS President Joe Biden called on Republicans to help \"finish the job\" of delivering for hard-working families in his annual State of the Union address.\n\nThe Democrat stressed the importance of finding consensus as he addressed a divided Congress, where the lower chamber now has a Republican majority.\n\nBut a series of interruptions and heckles showed the uphill task it will be to find co-operation.\n\nIn their speech, Republicans accused the president of \"woke fantasies\".\n\nMr Biden's words were received by a packed chamber and high-profile guests - including U2's Bono - as well as Supreme Court justices.\n\nOver the president's shoulder at the rostrum in the House of Representatives was one of his most vocal critics, the Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy.\n\nMr Biden extended an olive branch to the opposition party, which took over the lower chamber last month with vows to investigate the president's family and Cabinet.\n\n\"To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can't work together in this new Congress,\" said the president.\n\n\"We've been sent here to finish the job!\" he added.\n\nThe president focused mainly on domestic issues, hailing the resilience and strength of the US economy.\n\nUnemployment dropped to a half-century low in January and there are signs that the worst inflation in four decades is cooling. But the president acknowledged American families needed more \"breathing room\".\n\nThe president was flanked by Vice-President Kamala Harris, and Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives\n\nDespite Mr Biden saying he wanted unity, he also took shots at Republicans and at one point accused them of wanting to cut welfare for pensioners.\n\nHalf of the chamber erupted, with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene - the main heckler of the night - shouting \"You're a liar!\"\n\nMr Biden also said that two years after supporters of his predecessor Donald Trump rioted at the US Capitol, America's democracy was \"unbowed and unbroken\".\n\nHe made minimal reference in his hour-long speech to the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that gripped the nation as it crossed US territory before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.\n\nThe president said he was committed to working constructively with the rival superpower but cautioned: \"Make no mistake: as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.\"\n\nIn response to Mr Biden's speech, Beijing said it would \"firmly defend\" its interests and urged the US to work on repairing relations.\n\nRepublicans have been demanding to know why Mr Biden waited a week to act on the balloon. The president's administration has said it wanted to avoid risk to civilians from falling debris.\n\nThe speech was light on foreign policy in general, with Ukraine - the main topic 12 months ago - only getting a mention towards the end when Mr Biden said the US would stand with Kyiv \"as long as it takes\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Huckabee Sanders: Biden has been hijacked by woke mob\n\nMr Biden aired his political wish-list, calling for an assault weapons ban, a minimum tax for billionaires, and access to pre-school for three and four-year-olds - though many of the proposals are likely to go nowhere in Congress.\n\nHe also condemned \"outrageous\" profits by oil companies, but drew scorn from Republicans in the chamber when he said: \"We're going to need oil for at least another decade.\"\n\nFollowing the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis last month, Mr Biden also challenged lawmakers to pass long-stalled reforms to policing, saying: \"Do something.\"\n\nMr Nichols' mother and stepfather were in the audience as guests of First Lady Jill Biden.\n\nRodney Wells and RowVaughn Wells (front left), the parents of Tyre Nichols, attended the speech as guests - alongside Brandon Tsay, hero of the California dance hall shooting, and U2 singer Bono\n\nThe president also emphasised that \"most cops are good, decent people\", drawing a rare standing ovation by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.\n\nThe 80-year-old is expected to announce plans for another presidential run soon, but his age was raised as an issue by the Republican who delivered the party's rebuttal speech after he finished.\n\nArkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused his government of being more preoccupied by \"woke fantasies\" than \"the hard reality Americans face every day\".\n\nMs Huckabee Sanders, 40, is the country's youngest governor and best known for her tenure as press secretary to former President Trump.\n\nIn her pre-recorded message, she said: \"Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn't start and never wanted to fight.\"\n\nRepublicans had left the Congress chamber by this point, departing quickly after the president's speech wrapped up.\n\nAs Mr Biden mingled with some members of Congress, one Democrat shouted with a thumbs up: \"Mr President, that was awesome.\"", "First Lady Jill Biden, in purple, seen with guests of the White House\n\nAs President Joe Biden delivered his second State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress, he was speaking to more than just the high-ranking US officials gathered in the halls of power to hear him.\n\nAll 535 lawmakers - 100 senators and 435 representatives - were invited, and Vice-President Kamala Harris was there in her capacity as Senate president. It was also attended by cabinet members, high-level US military commanders and Supreme Court justices.\n\nBut lawmakers, and the president and first lady, can invite guests and often use their invitations to signal their political priorities.\n\nA president's featured guests are often used to highlight key policy themes being made in the speech.\n\nHere is what to know about some of the notable guests this year, including rock star Bono, former ambassador of Afghanistan Roya Rahmani, and the family of Tyre Nichols.\n\nKamala Harris joined the family of Tyre Nichols at his funeral last week\n\nRowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old man whose death at the hands of Memphis police officers has reignited calls for police reform, were among the invitees.\n\nThey were invited both by Nevada Democratic Representative Steven Horsford, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and by the White House.\n\nThe family spoke with Mr Biden last week after five Memphis officers were charged with murder.\n\nIn his speech, Mr Biden invited Americans to \"imagine what it's like to lose a child at the hands of the law\".\n\nHe also spoke emotionally of the fears that many black Americans have of being pulled over by police.\n\nThe brother of George Floyd, who was killed by police in Minneapolis in 2020, and family members of Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri in 2018, was also in attendance.\n\nDemocratic Representative Ilhan Omar also hosted the father of Amir Lock, who was shot and killed by officers serving a no-knock warrant in Minneapolis last year.\n\nBrandon Tsay, 26, made national headlines in January after he disarmed a gunman who had carried out a shooting in Monterey Park, California that left 11 people dead.\n\nHe was invited to the State of the Union by California Representative Judy Chu, who told the BBC's US partner CBS that she wasn't the only one to reach out to Mr Tsay.\n\n\"Only an hour after I talked to him, President Biden himself asked him to be his guest at the State of the Union. Brandon, how could you turn me down?\" Ms Chu said.\n\nMr Biden hailed his bravery and called for lawmakers to think of his heroism and pass more gun control laws.\n\n\"He saved lives. It's time we do the same as well,\" said Mr Biden.\n\nBono has worked closely with the White House on HIV and Aids relief\n\nThe Irish singer-songwriter and activist was among the 26 people on First Lady Jill Biden's guest list.\n\nIn a statement, the White House said that the 62-year-old rock star was a \"ground-breaking activist in the fight against HIV/Aids and extreme poverty\".\n\nTwenty years ago, he played an important role in the \"President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief\" announced by George W Bush and championed by then-Senator Joe Biden. The initiative has been credited with saving 25 million lives worldwide since its launch.\n\nThe U2 frontman also works with governments around the world to fight poverty and preventable disease and has raised $700m (£584.2m) to combat HIV and Aids in Africa.\n\nIn his speech, Mr Biden never gave a shout out to Bono, but praised efforts to fight against HIV and Aids in Africa.\n\nCongressman Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, announced his guest will be \"Good Samaritan\" Darrell Woodie, who called for help after Mr Steube was seriously injured in an accident in January.\n\nMr Steube was hurt after falling about 25ft (7.6m) from a ladder while cutting tree limbs at his home in Sarasota.\n\nMr Woodie saw the incident and immediately called 911.\n\nThe congressman is still recovering from his injuries in Florida, though Mr Woodie attended the speech as his official guest.\n\nRoya Rahmani served as Afghanistan's ambassador in Washington DC from 2018 to 2021\n\nMichael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee, invited former Afghan ambassador to the US, Roya Rahmani.\n\nIn 2018, Ms Rahmani became Afghanistan's first female ambassador to Washington DC, where she served between December of that year until the collapse of the Afghan government in July 2021. Before that, she was ambassador to Indonesia and to the Association of South East Asians Nations.\n\nShe now has a position as a \"distinguished fellow\" at the Washington DC-based Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and continues to be an advocate for women living in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.\n\n\"Since the United States unilaterally withdrew from Afghanistan last year, paving the way for the Taliban to take over, the situation for women in the country has become dire. Women there - many of whom only ever knew the freedoms of the last 20 years - no longer have rights,\" Mr McCaul said in a statement.\n\n\"I hope my invitation and Ambassador Rahmani's presence will send a signal to the women of Afghanistan that they have not been forgotten.\"\n\nAmong the other names on the White House's guest list is that of Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.\n\nIn October 2022, Mr Pelosi was badly injured by a hammer-wielding intruder who entered their home in San Francisco. Authorities believe the attack was politically motivated.\n\nOther White House's guests included Americans from various walks of life, including teachers, medical professionals, students and business leaders.", "Ali Harbi Ali, who murdered Sir David Amess, engaged with Prevent between 2014 and 2015\n\nThe UK's scheme to prevent terrorism has \"apparently failed\" repeatedly to identify attackers, a highly critical review has concluded.\n\nThe report from the Home Office's hand-picked reviewer says the Prevent strategy has lost its way.\n\nWilliam Shawcross said the nationwide system that aims to identify would-be terrorists has funded a group whose head was sympathetic to the Taliban.\n\nPrevent is a key part of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy. In practical terms, it places public bodies, including schools and the police, under a legal duty to identify people who may turn to extremism, and intervene in their lives before it is too late.\n\nIf the local panels find someone who is at risk of becoming a terrorist, the Prevent teams use specialist mentors or other support programmes to turn around their lives.\n\nIn 2021, ministers asked Mr Shawcross, a former chairman of the Charity Commission and well-known critic of Islamist political influence in Europe, to review Prevent amid mounting concerns about its effectiveness.\n\nIn the report, Mr Shawcross said Prevent had helped some people disengage from terrorism.\n\nBut he added: \"Despite this, all too often those who commit terrorist acts in this country have been previously referred to Prevent.\n\n\"Prevent apparently failed to understand the danger in these cases, and this review demonstrates how such failures might be avoided in the future.\n\n\"Prevent must return to its overarching objective - to stop individuals from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.\"\n\nThe review says Prevent needs a more focused approach to identifying extreme right-wing ideology\n\nMr Shawcross said he had been consistently unable to determine how many community organisations receiving a slice of the £49m Prevent budget were having any impact.\n\n\"Funding too often goes towards generic projects dealing with community cohesion and hate crime, and few [community organisations] could be seen publicly to contest extremist discourse.\n\n\"Some have promoted extremist narratives, including statements that appear sympathetic to the Taliban.\n\n\"As a core principle, the government must cease to engage with or fund those aligned with extremism.\"\n\nAnd he added: \"Prevent's first objective - to tackle the causes of radicalisation and respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism - is not being sufficiently met. Prevent is not doing enough to counter non-violent Islamist extremism.\"\n\nWhile eight out of 10 plot investigations were linked to Islamist causes, less than a fifth of Prevent's caseload was in the same area, he said. Too often, he argued, there was \"a culture of timidity\" when it came to tackling Islamism.\n\nHe also warned that Prevent was burdened with dealing with people who should be receiving alternative support from mental health services.\n\nThe review's 34 recommendations include clarifying Prevent's objectives, including stopping funding going to Islamist groups or others not directly involved in counter-extremism work.\n\nSpeaking to MPs, Ms Braverman said she would implement all the recommendations and report back next year.\n\n\"The review is unflinching. Prevent needs major reform,\" she said.\n\n\"Prevent has shown cultural timidity and an institutional hesitancy to tackle Islamism for fear of the charge of Islamophobia. Prevent's focus must be solely on security, not political correctness.\"\n\nMr Shawcross's appointment was criticised by a range of civil rights campaign groups, including some involved in Muslim or Islamist political causes who accused him of having anti-Islamic views - and they launched their own rival review that says Prevent is discriminatory.\n\nBrendan Cox, whose wife Jo Cox MP was murdered by an extreme right-wing attacker, said he had concerns about the review's conclusions.\n\n\"The Shawcross review risks damaging the programme instead of strengthening it,\" he said.\n\n\"Given his pre-existing outspoken views on Islam, his conclusion that we should focus on Islamists and less on the far right looks like bias not insight.\n\n\"It will be used by Prevent's opponents to 'prove' its supposed anti-Muslim slant. This review is a missed opportunity.\"\n\nAnd Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"Counter-terror police and experts need to be able to follow the evidence on all kinds of terrorist and extremist threats, including Islamist, far right and other new and growing threats.\n\n\"So it is counter-productive for the home secretary to try and create a hierarchy of extremism, or pit different kinds of extremism against each other, when all of them need to be fiercely challenged without fear or favour.\n\n\"Labour is calling for a new wider counter-extremism strategy to include tackling hateful extremism and countering radicalisation online, in prisons and wherever it is found. Today's review fails to do that.\"", "Two huge earthquakes and a series of aftershocks have hit Turkey, Syria and the surrounding region, killing more than 11,000 people and causing widespread destruction.\n\nThe first earthquake, which struck in the early hours of 6 February, was registered as 7.8, classified as \"major\" on the official magnitude scale. Its epicentre was near Gaziantep - a city of more than two million people.\n\nThe intensity of the tremors also brought down tower blocks and public buildings in northern Syria and the quake was felt as far away as Cyprus and Lebanon, both about 250 miles (400km) from the epicentre.\n\nIn Turkey, more than 8,500 people are confirmed to have died, with tens of thousands injured and thousands of buildings destroyed.\n\nThe first earthquake was followed by numerous aftershocks, including one quake which was almost as large as the first - registering as magnitude 7.5 - about nine hours later with its epicentre about 60 miles (100km) further north in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.\n\nThe second quake devastated the city of Kahramanmaras\n\nOn Tuesday, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three month state of emergency in the south-east of the country, covering 10 cities affected.\n\nIn the Mediterranean port city of Iskenderun, in the province of Hatay, about 75 miles (120km) from Gaziantep, buildings and docks were reduced to rubble.\n\nA fire at the port of Iskenderun has also hampered aid efforts with many containers destroyed and those stuck in the port blocking supplies being brought in.\n\nThe historic Yeni Camii mosque, in Malatya, more than 100 miles (160km) from the epicentre, was extensively damaged. Its domes collapsed, leaving it exposed to the winter sky. The mosque was destroyed by a huge earthquake in 1894 and, after reconstruction, damaged by another quake in 1964.\n\nCollapsing buildings killed more than 2,500 people across Syria. In the city of Aleppo, the ancient citadel ravaged by a decade of war has been further damaged by the quake.\n\nIn the village of Besnaya-Bseineh, a large block of residential and commercial buildings was reduced to rubble.", "The wreckage of MH17 was painstakingly reassembled in the Netherlands and later inspected as part of the trial\n\nThere are strong indications that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to supply the missile that downed flight MH17 in 2014, international investigators say.\n\nThe passenger aircraft was hit by a Russian-made missile over Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people.\n\nProsecutors said there was evidence that Mr Putin decided to provide heavy weaponry to Moscow-backed separatists.\n\nThere is no suggestion that Mr Putin ordered the aircraft be shot down.\n\nThe conclusions of the Joint Investigation Team - made up of investigators from five countries - follow a Dutch court ruling from last year which found two Russians and a Ukrainian guilty of murder in absentia.\n\nMoscow - which has denied all involvement in the downing of the plane - dismissed those verdicts as \"scandalous\" and politically motivated.\n\nThe international team, charged with looking into those responsible for launching the missile, said on Wednesday it had exhausted all leads and could not continue with any more criminal proceedings.\n\nThe Boeing 777 was flying from the Dutch capital to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile in July 2014 during a conflict between pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region of Ukraine.\n\nOf the 298 passengers and crew, 196 were Dutch while many of the other passengers came from Malaysia, Australia, the UK, Belgium and other countries.\n\nThe Joint Investigation Team cited the Dutch court which last year ruled that Moscow had \"overall control\" over the Donetsk People's Republic, which controlled the area in July 2014.\n\nIt described recorded telephone conversations where Russian officials said the decision to provide military support \"rests with the President\".\n\n\"There is concrete information that the separatists' request was presented to the president, and that this request was granted,\" it said.\n\nBut it added it was not known whether the request \"explicitly mentions\" the system used to shoot down MH17.\n\n\"Although we speak of strong indications, the high bar of complete and conclusive evidence is not reached,\" investigators said.\n\n\"Furthermore, the President enjoys immunity in his position as Head of State.\"\n\nThe Joint Investigation Team (JIT) is made up of members from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine - the countries worst affected by the shooting down of MH17.\n\nThe team wanted to prove the identities of the missile's crew members, and who was in the chain of command, but admitted that was not possible for now.\n\nUkraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said: \"We will seek to employ all the existing international legal mechanisms to bring [Mr Putin] to justice\" over MH17.\n\nPiet Ploeg lost his brother, his brother's wife, and nephew on MH17. He said he was glad prosecutors had laid out their evidence for Mr Putin's involvement.\n\n\"All the news we heard about Putin and his personal involvement in the downing on MH17 - facilitating with heavy weapons, the fact he decided personally to hand over heavy arms … we always thought he did, but now we heard he did,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"He can't be prosecuted for it because he's a head of state, but the world knows.\"\n\nDutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was \"now clear\" Vladimir Putin was involved in the tragedy.\n\nThis fitted the pattern of a man and country \"only concerned with trying to slow things down, spread falsehoods, injustice and of course a terrible form of aggression since the war in Ukraine\", he said.\n\nMr Rutte added he was bitterly disappointed there was not enough evidence to warrant further prosecutions, but insisted that did not mean the criminal justice process was over.\n\nIn January, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed it would hear a separate Dutch case against Russia over the downing of MH17.", "Wednesday lunchtime normally sees British MPs shouting at each other across the Commons chamber, at Prime Minister's Questions.\n\nBut normal hostilities were suspended this week for the surprise visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and what turned out to be a remarkable Parliamentary occasion.\n\nAfter a sober and subdued PMQs, which saw Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak presenting a united front in their determination to help Ukraine defeat Vladimir Putin, MPs headed to Westminster Hall for Mr Zelensky's big speech.\n\nThe 900-year-old medieval hall was bathed in sunlight from its vast stained glass windows, as MPs, peers, members of the clergy, reporters and assorted dignitaries assembled in an atmosphere of hushed anticipation.\n\nThe Ukrainian president was greeted with warm applause, as he walked through the crowd dressed in his trademark khaki shirt and combat trousers, to take seat on the platform, as the more formally attired Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle made the introductions.\n\nIt was not the first time President Zelensky has delivered a speech to British MPs. In March last year, 13 days after the invasion of Ukraine, he addressed a packed Commons chamber via a screen.\n\nOn that occasion his words were translated. This time he spoke in English, which made his 20 minute address all the more powerful and direct. One or two in the crowd could be seen wiping away a tear.\n\nHis speech was full of praise and gratitude for Britain's support, with special mentions for \"Boris\", the former PM who was watching intently, and \"Rishi\", who had earlier played host to him in Downing Street. It also had much to say about defeating \"evil\" and building a world free from war.\n\nBoris Johnson was singled out for gratitude in Mr Zelensky's speech\n\nBut the Ukrainian president was there to deliver one simple message - his country needs modern fighter jets.\n\nHe chose to do this with a piece of political theatre and a reference to the visit to Buckingham Palace that was next on his itinerary.\n\n\"The King is an air force pilot and in Ukraine today, every air force pilot is a king,\" he said, before asking an aide to hand him a helmet that belonged to a \"real Ukrainian pilot\".\n\nAs he presented the helmet to Sir Lindsay, he read out the inscription on it: \"We have freedom, give us wings to protect it\".\n\nThe gesture was greeted with loud applause.\n\n\"We have freedom, give us wings to protect it\" - words on a pilot's helmet presented to Sir Lindsay Hoyle\n\nSir Lindsay had earlier introduced Mr Zelensky with an anecdote about their first meeting, in October 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when they had shared \"much laughter over an English afternoon tea\".\n\nAs he concluded his speech, Mr Zelensky said: \"Two years ago, I thanked you for delicious English tea... I will be leaving the Parliament today thanking all of you in advance for powerful English planes.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn his way out, the Ukrainian president shared a handshake with Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and a few other MPs, including Mr Johnson.\n\nIf his aim had been to stiffen the resolve of his allies in Britain, then it succeeded, judging by the reaction of MPs afterwards.\n\n\"He sent a very important message to the world that we cannot allow combat fatigue to set in,\" said Conservative MP Alex Shelbrooke, leader of the UK delegation to the Nato Parliamentary assembly.\n\nLabour's Stephen Doughty, a member of the all-party Ukraine group, who has recently visited the country, was among those left with a sense of awe.\n\n\"He's the real deal. You don't get many leaders quite like that in the world.\"\n\nIt was Mr Zelensky's Churchillian \"V for victory\" sign at the end of his speech - as the Ukrainian national anthem played in the background - that was the most powerful moment for the Labour MP.\n\nParticularly, the MP said, as the stained glass windows that bathed the whole occasion in light are a memorial to the staff and members of both houses of Parliament who died in the Second World War.\n\n\"The symbolism of that is incalculable.\"\n\nForeign leaders have addressed both Houses in Westminster Hall before.\n\nCharles De Gaulle, the wartime leader of the free French, was the first in 1960. Since then the historic venue has played host to Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama, among others.\n\nVolodymyr Zelensky was the first leader of a country at war to be given the honour - and his speech will live long in the memory of those that were there.", "Labour Secretary Marty Walsh will be this year's \"designated survivor\"\n\nWhen US President Joe Biden steps onto the dais in the US Capitol for his State of the Union address on Tuesday, a \"who's who\" of Washington power players - lawmakers, Supreme Court Justices and top military brass - will be just feet away.\n\nBut one player will be notably absent - the so-called \"designated survivor\" tasked with taking charge in the event an unforeseen tragedy wipes out or incapacitates the rest of the government officials gathered for the speech.\n\nLabour Secretary Marty Walsh will be this year's designated survivor. Last year, it was Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.\n\nAccording to the non-profit National Constitution Center, the tradition began in the 1950s, when the spectre of a possible nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union loomed in the early Cold War.\n\nIt was only in 1981 that the US government first publicly identified the designated survivor. That year, it was Terrel Bell, then President Ronald Reagan's secretary of education.\n\nSince then, designated survivors have been chosen from a range of government agencies, including the attorney general in the justice department, and a number of cabinet-level secretaries.\n\nUnder former President Donald Trump, the State of the Union designated survivors were the secretaries of agriculture, energy and the interior.\n\nFor the traditional presidential address to a joint session of Congress that followed his election, Mr Trump's designated survivor was Secretary of Veteran Affairs David Shulkin.\n\nDesignated survivors must be eligible for the presidency to be named to the position and will only take on the role of commander in chief if every higher-ranking official in the line of succession is incapacitated.\n\nEligibility requirements demand the person must have been born a US citizen, meaning naturalised citizens like current Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm cannot take on the position.\n\nThe role has also been thrust into the public consciousness in part by Hollywood.\n\nDesignated Survivor, a TV show, has actor Kiefer Sunderland playing the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and taking the helm of the US government after an explosion destroys the Capitol during the State of the Union.\n\nThe reality, however, is far more mundane. Last year, Ms Raimondo watched the speech from a secure location, but otherwise had a normal day.\n\nIn a 2017 Politico essay, one of Bill Clinton's designated survivors, former agriculture secretary Dan Glickman, recalled spending the State of the Union at his daughter's apartment in New York, alongside a military officer carrying the codes necessary to launch the US nuclear arsenal.\n\n\"I sometimes wonder if I would have had the courage to give the order,\" he wrote.", "The image of King Charles III that is to appear on new stamps from 4 April has been revealed by the Royal Mail.\n\nThe minimalist, unadorned picture, with no crown on the stamp or any other decoration, was approved personally by the King.\n\n\"The feedback we got back was that he wanted it to be simple,\" said Royal Mail director of external affairs, David Gold.\n\n\"It's a very human image, with no embellishment,\" he said.\n\nThe design was also intended to provide continuity, influenced by the classic profile of Queen Elizabeth II created by the artist Arnold Machin in 1967.\n\nThe familiar image of Queen Elizabeth II has been used on stamps since 1967\n\nThe new stamp is even more pared back and stark. It does not have any crown or royal symbols - unlike many of the predecessors, where kings' stamps often include an image of a crown and queens are depicted wearing a crown or diadem.\n\n\"It was 70 years that we had the same monarch and since 1967 we've had pretty much the same stamps,\" said Mr Gold.\n\nHe said people would now have to get accustomed to seeing the new image on everyday first- and second-class stamps.\n\nThe first sight of new stamps being unveiled at the Postal Museum in London\n\nBritain's postage stamps are unique in not showing the name of the country, and the new stamps have nothing except the King's head, the price and also, now, an attached barcode.\n\nThe design is based on a sculpture made by artist Martin Jennings for the new King Charles coins - with the image then digitally adapted for stamps.\n\nMillions of new stamps are being printed, which will be used concurrently with those of Queen Elizabeth II, which will be sold until the old stocks run out.\n\nThe image released by the Royal Mail is for so-called \"definitive\" stamps, which are the regular, plain, non-commemorative postage stamps. Some of the first sheets were unveiled at the Postal Museum in London, which is showing an exhibition called the King's Stamp.\n\nKing Charles becomes the seventh monarch to appear on stamps - Queen Victoria was the first, in 1840, when her profile was shown on a \"Penny Black\".\n\nThe picture of Queen Victoria used on the first stamps originated from an earlier sketch drawn when she was 15 years old, and that continued as the image used until her death at the age of 81.\n\nKing Charles has been an inveterate letter writer - figures from the Duchy of Cornwall suggest he personally wrote 1,830 letters in his final year as Prince of Wales, in response to more than 50,000 sent to him by the public.\n\nHis letter writing when Prince of Wales also drew him into accusations of meddling in politics.\n\nDuring the Covid pandemic he wrote a personal letter praising the importance of postal workers as a \"point of daily human contact, a friendly, familiar face\", addressing his envelope to \"Everyone at Royal Mail\".", "Aid is being stepped up in southern Turkey and northern Syria, after a huge earthquake devastated the region, leaving more than 7,000 people dead.\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep, Turkey in the early hours of Monday, reducing blocks of flats to rubble at a time when most were asleep.\n\nIt is a region where there has not been a major earthquake for more than 200 years, or any warning signs.\n\nNational governments of many countries including the UK, the US, China and Russia are providing aid, including search and rescue experts.\n\nAnd many charities are also launching appeals and sending teams to the area.\n\nThe British Red Cross was one of the first major UK charities to launch its appeal.\n\nIt is working in conjunction with the Turkish Red Crescent and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, and is already on the ground \"providing urgent support during these critical hours\" and evacuating people to safety.\n\nMany of those injured have lost their homes and all their possessions, surviving in freezing conditions or rain with little shelter or food.\n\nLives have been devastated by the natural catastrophe, which has left more than 15,000 injured in Turkey alone\n\nOxfam is another large charity to have launched an appeal.\n\nIt said it would focus on providing \"protection, water and sanitation, shelter and food\", while also assessing the longer-term needs of people in the aftermath of so much destruction.\n\nIts spokesperson in Ankara, Meryem Aslan, said local people were \"shell-shocked\" and struggling to cope \"following two big earthquakes and over 60 aftershocks\".\n\n\"The scale of destruction is vast. People are still in shock and fear, they don't even have time to mourn the lost ones,\" she said.\n\nTurkish and Syrian communities in the UK - many searching for information about missing loved ones - have launched their own local donation drives - many using Facebook to reach volunteers and donors.\n\nA spokesman for the British Turkish Association, based in Luton, said the reaction of \"all communities\" in London had been \"emotional\".\n\nAtilla Ustun, 55, also a chairman of the Luton-Turkish Community Association, spoke to the PA news agency from Heathrow as he helped load a Turkish Airlines cargo plane with more than 300 boxes of donated clothing, medical supplies and aid for babies.\n\n\"All the communities in Luton and around have swarmed to donate... Just locally, in Luton itself, we've raised around £20,000,\" he said, \"but we know that in general, I think in London it's now between £200,000 and 300,000.\"\n\nAli Topaloglu, from the Nottingham Turkish Community, is part of a campaign asking for donations of tents, blankets and clothes for Turkey, as well as money for food parcels.\n\nThe region hit by the earthquake is home to millions of refugees displaced by the Syrian civil war, with northern areas still embroiled in conflict.\n\nIt was already a major hub for NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and charities - many of whom have been there for years, as part of cross-border support for those displaced by war.\n\nOrganisations including Save the Children, Unicef and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) have all launched appeals following the earthquake.\n\nMSF provided immediate support to 23 healthcare facilities across Idlib and Aleppo in north-west Syria, where hospitals and clinics are \"overwhelmed\" and access to the war-torn region for external medical personnel can be difficult.\n\nThe charity is providing emergency medical kits and staff to reinforce local healthcare teams who are \"working around the clock to respond to the huge numbers of wounded\".\n\n\"The needs are very high in north-west Syria as this quake adds a dramatic layer for the vulnerable populations that are still struggling after many years of war\", said Sebastien Gay, head of MSF in Syria.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. 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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSave the Children said it had spent a lot of time so far checking on needs, and what was working logistically.\n\nJames Denselow, UK head of conflict and humanitarian advocacy, said: \"Providing shelter is the most urgent type of aid from our perspective, because the cold will kill people in ways that are less spectacular than the earthquake, but equally deadly.\"\n\nHe said with airports out of action and hospitals and clinics collapsed, \"all the sort of places we would normally use are not necessarily accessible\".\n\nHe added the aid route to northern Syria remained inadequate.\n\n\"Northern Syria is an area where we were dealing with severe malnutrition and far more huge humanitarian needs than in other environments before this happened,\" he said.\n\n\"If you're a vulnerable population and then something else like this happens on top of that, obviously what happens to you is likely going to be far worse.\n\n\"We see that with very basic things like children's physiology. The ability of a child to survive crash injury from a building falling on them is far reduced if they are malnourished.\"\n\nHe added: \"This is going to be about getting blankets, food, clean water, education kits - so children don't find their studies completely devastated by this - to them.\n\n\"We need to keep those people warm, we need to keep young infants warm.\"\n\nDavid Wightwick, CEO of medical aid charity UK-Med, said his team were heading to Turkey to assess where their help was most needed, before mobilising their register of hundreds of NHS medics.\n\n\"You can imagine in an area the size affected and with the numbers affected that's not necessarily an easy decision to make,\" he told BBC Radio 4 Today programme.\n\nTypically, the larger humanitarian organisations do not ask for donations of blankets or clothes - but prefer money.\n\n\"What people give today might not be what people need tomorrow,\" states Oxfam, highlighting the delays in aid reaching victims because of shipping times from the UK.\n\n\"Our approach is to work with local organisations and communities on the ground, rather than sending blankets, clothes and other donated goods from the UK\", the charity's humanitarian lead Magnus Corfixen said.\n\n\"In emergencies, we often do cash distributions because it's quicker, allows people to get what they most need and also helps the local economy to recover. From our years of experience, we have found that as well as giving people choices, cash also helps to preserve their dignity.\"", "Katie Waissel took a law degree after appearing on The X Factor\n\nFormer X Factor contestant Katie Waissel has welcomed a move by the BBC and ITV to recruit more psychologists to support people who appear on TV.\n\nThe broadcasters have joined forces to bring in the specialists to help fulfil their duty of care to contributors.\n\nWaissel said she had a \"horrifying\" experience during and after she appeared on The X Factor in 2010.\n\n\"This is a small victory that two huge companies have listened and are making significant changes moving forward.\"\n\nSince appearing on the ITV talent show, Waissel has completed a law degree and set up a foundation to provide legal advice and mental health support for people in the entertainment industry.\n\nShe is also trying to sue Simon Cowell's company Syco, claiming it did not uphold its duty of care when she was on the talent show. Syco has not commented on her legal claims.\n\n\"I can't let anybody else experience even a fraction of what I went through, not only during my time on that show, but post [it] as well,\" she said.\n\n\"Whether you're a participant or working on these shows, the hours are long, and there's an obscene amount of pressure all round.\n\n\"And with the ever-evolving conversations around mental health and mental health support, which has been phenomenal, that should be reflected in the work that people do.\"\n\nITV and the BBC have worked with the British Psychological Society, and are now appealing for registered psychologists who could become eligible to be involved with their programmes. The closing date for applications is this Friday.\n\nSimon Adair, the BBC's director of safety, security and resilience, said the \"health, safety and well-being of the contributors to our programmes is of the utmost importance\".\n\nHe added: \"I'm confident this partnership will strengthen our whole industry by increasing the pool of expert psychologists available to us, ultimately enhancing our ability to protect and support those taking part in productions.\"\n\nITV's chief people officer, David Osborn, said: \"The demand for media psychologists is growing, so we've put together this development scheme to meet those production needs.\n\n\"Working together with the BBC is a big step for our industry, we're coming together to provide the best care for the people who help us make great television.\"\n\nWaissel said she hopes moves like the BBC and ITV scheme would lead to \"a safer space for all to enjoy what should be enjoyed in your line of work, or your passions, or where your heart is\".\n\nShe is also on a committee of people from the creative industry to set up an independent standards authority to guard against bullying, harassment, discrimination and misconduct.\n\nThe X Factor hit its ratings peak in 2010. The show is believed to have had independent psychologists to support contestants while they were on it and afterwards.\n\nResponding to Waissel's legal claim last month, Fremantle, which made the talent show, said the duty of care to contestants was \"of the utmost importance to us\".\n\nThe company said it had \"robust measures in place to ensure contestants are supported, including a dedicated welfare team made up of psychologists, doctors, welfare producers and independent legal and management advisers with no time limit on aftercare once the show has aired\".", "US intelligence sources have insisted the balloon shot down on Saturday was used by the Chinese military for spying.\n\nUnnamed officials told the Washington Post they believed such balloons were used to collect intelligence on strategically relevant territories.\n\nThey include Japan, India, Taiwan and the Philippines.\n\nChinese officials have already denied using such balloons for surveillance.\n\nAn official told the Washington Post that the US intelligence community believed some of the balloons were being flown from Hainan, a southern Chinese island that is home to a naval military base.\n\nQuoting an unnamed senior Biden administration official, CBS News confirmed that the US intelligence community believed the balloon was part, in its words, of an \"aerial surveillance program run by the People's Liberation Army out of Hainan\".\n\nOn Monday, the US briefed 40 allied countries about the alleged espionage, a senior Biden administration official confirmed to CBS News.\n\nIn that briefing, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman also revealed one balloon had circumnavigated the planet in 2019, travelling over Hawaii and Florida.\n\nAccording to the Biden administration official, a group of US Congressional leaders responsible for overseeing national intelligence matters, known as the Gang of Eight, will be briefed on the development on Wednesday, and Congress will be updated on Thursday,\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nLast week, the Pentagon said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted over Costa Rica and Venezuela.\n\nThe discovery of alleged spy balloons has caused a diplomatic row between the US and China.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled a trip to Beijing, set to take place just a few days after the balloon was first detected. It would have been the first meeting of its kind between the two countries in years.\n\n\"This is an unacceptable as well as an irresponsible action,\" he said. \"It's even more irresponsible coming on the eve of a long-planned visit.\"\n\nUS defence officials have previously said at least three suspected Chinese spy balloons flew over the country during Donald Trump's presidency.\n\nAnd according to US officials, the balloon shot down had flown over Alaska and Canada before appearing in the US state of Montana, which is home to a number of sensitive nuclear missile sites.\n\nOn Monday the US Navy released pictures of the debris of the balloon once it was shot out of the sky.\n\nIt was believed to have been nearly 200ft (60m) tall and officials said the debris spread over seven miles (11km) of Atlantic ocean.", "Basil Fawlty, played by John Cleese, will be returning to our screens in a new series\n\nThe UK TV sitcom Fawlty Towers is set to be revived after more than 40 years.\n\nJohn Cleese, who played Basil Fawlty, will be returning to write and star alongside his daughter Camilla Cleese.\n\nThe classic show ran for two series on BBC Two in 1975 and 1979, following the lives of Torquay hotelier Basil and his wife Sybil as they tried to keep their business and marriage afloat.\n\nThe new series will explore how the misanthropic Basil navigates the modern world.\n\nCastle Rock Entertainment announced on Tuesday it had closed a deal with Cleese to bring back the television series, but it's not yet clear which channel or streaming service it would appear on.\n\nThe revival will also see Basil and his daughter, who he has just discovered is his, team up to run a boutique hotel.\n\nThe original cast of Fawlty Towers - Andrew Sachs, Prunella Scales, John Cleese and Connie Booth - on set in 1975\n\nFawlty Towers was originally written by Cleese and his then wife and co-star Connie Booth.\n\nSet in a fictional hotel in the seaside town of Torquay, it found Cleese's snobbish protagonist, Basil Fawlty, struggling to run his business, despite the help of his Booth's character, chambermaid Polly, his wife and the hapless Spanish waiter, Manuel, played by Andrew Sachs.\n\nBasil is shown trying and often failing to keep his struggles - induced by farcical run-ins with hotel guests, staff and tradespeople - secret from Sybil, played by Prunella Scales.\n\nClassic episodes included Basil \"thrashing\" his own car with a tree branch, out of frustration, and Manuel's pet rat running round the hotel when the health inspector visits.\n\nJohn Cleese and his daughter Camilla will both be starring in the new series\n\nCamilla Cleese is the daughter of John Cleese and Barbara Trentham, the late American model and actress.\n\nThe UK-born American actress, writer and producer has credits on the One Show, as well as on the US TV shows @Midnight and the Bachelorette Weekend.\n\nShe has also written and performed stand-up comedy for the likes of the Laugh Factory in Hollywood and the Just For Laughs International Comedy Gala in Sydney. Her writing credits include her father's live show in 2011 called John Cleese: The Alimony Tour.\n\nIn a stand-up performance seven years ago [which carries a warning for swearing], she joked about her parents having been married several times. \"I would like to get married one day,\" she told the audience. \"I'd like to be like my parents: it's really impressive, they've been married almost 42 years... I mean to seven different people! Not at the same time.\"\n\nDirector and actor Rob Reiner of Castle Rock Entertainment, who are set to re-boot the series\n\nThe new series will see actor Rob Reiner, his wife and actress Michelle Reiner, director and producer Matthew George and Derrick Rossi all act as executive producers.\n\nCleese - one of the original members of Monty Python - said when he first met George \"he offered an excellent idea\" which led to \"one of the best creative sessions I can remember\".\n\n\"By dessert we had an overall concept so good that, a few days later, it won the approval of Rob and Michele Reiner,\" he said.\n\n\"Camilla and I look forward enormously to expanding it into a series.\"\n\nGeorge said he was \"obsessed with Fawlty Towers\" and meeting Cleese and his daughter was one of the \"great thrills\" of his life.\n\n\"I've watched the first two seasons so many times I have lost count,\" he said. \"I dreamed of one day being involved in a continuation of the story. Now it's come true.\"\n\nReiner, who is also currently working on the sequel to the cult 1984 rock mockumentary Spinal Tap, described the Fawlty Towers star as a \"comedy legend\". \"Just the idea of working with him makes me laugh.\"\n\nJohn Cleese rose to fame as part of the British surreal comedy troupe Monty Python\n\nWhen Fawlty Towers was broadcast in the 70s, it won several Baftas, including for best scripted comedy, with Cleese also picking up the award for best entertainment performance.\n\nFour decades on, the show is still seen as one of the best of its kind, and in 2019, it was named as the greatest British sitcom of all time by a panel of TV comedy experts for Radio Times magazine.\n\nThe show was remade in the US three times, but all failed; and in a 2009 interview, Cleese said there would never be another series with the original cast.\n\n\"I think everyone would be excited if we did it,\" he said. \"The problem is, when you do do something that is generally accepted as being very good, a horrible problem arises, which is: how do you top it? The expectation of what you will do is so high.\"\n\nIn 2020, Cleese had criticised the BBC after an episode of Fawlty Towers was temporarily removed from a BBC Studios-owned streaming platform, UKTV, because of \"racial slurs\".\n\nIn the 1975 episode, titled The Germans, the character Major Gowen uses highly offensive language, and Cleese's Basil Fawlty deliriously declares \"don't mention the war\".\n\nCleese said: \"I would have hoped that someone at the BBC would understand that there are two ways of making fun of human behaviour.\n\n\"One is to attack it directly. The other is to have someone who is patently a figure of fun, speak up on behalf of that behaviour.\"\n\nWhile the episode is best remembered for Fawlty's goose-stepping, it also contains scenes showing the Major using offensive language about the West Indies cricket team.\n\nAccording to reports, his scenes had already started to be edited out by some broadcasters.\n\nAfter the Black Lives Matter movement returned to prominence in 2020, following the death of George Floyd, broadcasters and streaming services began to re-evaluate their content.\n\nUKTV carried out a review, and the episode was reinstated with a warning about \"offensive content and language\".\n\nIn October 2022, Cleese confirmed he would be hosting his own GB News TV show, warning that viewers \"may not be used to hearing the sort of things I'll be saying\".", "The Jean Genie was released by Bowie in 1972, during his Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane period\n\nDavid Bowie's handwritten lyrics for his track The Jean Genie have been sold for £57,000 at auction.\n\nThe singer, who died in 2016, gave the sheet to the founder of the inaugural David Bowie Fan Club in the 1970s.\n\nThe song, taken from the Aladdin Sane album, was released as a single in 1972 and reached number 2 in the UK charts.\n\nOmega Auctions' Dan Hampson said the owner had decided to part with them after seeing Bowie's lyrics for his hit Starman sell for £203,500 in 2022.\n\nThe lyric sheet for The Jean Genie comprised of 18 lines on a piece of A4 lined paper, which was titled, signed and dated by Bowie.\n\nThe rock star originally gave it to American fan Neal Peters after he founded the New York-based fan club in 1973.\n\nThe auction lot also included a 2009 letter on Neal Peters Collection stationery, which detailed how Bowie gave Mr Peters the lyrics, along with several photocopied documents relating to the fan club and Mr Peters.\n\nThe lyric sheet comprised 18 lines on a piece of A4 lined paper and was titled, signed and dated by Bowie\n\nMr Hampson, the auction manager at the St Helens auction house, said the pre-sale estimate for the sheet had been between £50,000 and £70,000.\n\nHe said the vendor had been \"in possession of this incredible set for a few years and decided to sell after seeing the amazing price achieved when we sold the Starman lyrics last year\".\n\nAfter The Jean Genie sale, auctioneer Paul Fairweather said the firm was \"well pleased with the price achieved for this historic set of lyrics\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Nicola Bulley has been missing since 27 January\n\nA friend of missing Nicola Bulley has said an influx of visitors to the search area has made it feel like a \"tourist spot\".\n\nThe 45-year-old mother-of-two went missing 12 days ago on a riverside walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire.\n\nHeather Gibbons said the family understood \"human nature\" but some people had been turning up to \"do personal social media things\".\n\nPolice warned they would not tolerate harmful speculation and \"online abuse\".\n\nMs Gibbons said: \"The truth is if we look at it factually, no-one knows until we have some evidence.\n\n\"I think it's incredibly hard, but up to a certain level, we understand it's human nature. It's natural for everyone to have speculation, because the truth is, nothing is making sense.\"\n\nShe said the turnout for the search had been \"amazing\".\n\nBut she added: \"We have noticed it does feel like some people have come to maybe use it as more like a tourist spot, to do their own personal social media things which in some ways we see and understand but it is hard, there's a lot of people around as it is.\"\n\nNicola Bulley's partner (left) was pictured at the scene earlier\n\nMs Bulley's partner Paul Ansell earlier visited the spot where police believe she fell into the River Wyre.\n\nHe spent about 10 minutes on the riverbank near the bench where her phone was found, still connected to a work Teams call.\n\nMr Ansell also spoke to Peter Faulding, the private underwater search expert called in by the family to help with the search.\n\nMr Faulding said Mr Ansell was \"extremely obviously upset\" but he \"wanted to go and see where the original entry point was again\".\n\n\"I'm just trying to explain what work we're doing and give him some confidence that Nicola is not in that river over there,\" he said.\n\n\"Normally we find them, this is an unusual situation. And hopefully Nicola will appear somewhere or pop up somewhere.\n\n\"I'm totally baffled by this one, to be honest.\"\n\nHe said his team had one small section of the river to check again later but after that point his own team's involvement in the search would be over.\n\nWyre Council leader Michael Vincent also joined calls for the area not to become a \"morbid tourist destination\".\n\nHe said negative comments and speculation were \"not helpful\" and urged people to stay away from the scene because it was \"distasteful to the family\".\n\nSearches are continuing along the river on Wednesday\n\nHe said: \"The people of Wyre are all genuinely shocked by what's happened. It's rare for Wyre to be in the middle of the news nationwide.\"\n\nMr Vincent said he was confident anyone making malicious comments were \"confined to certain people online who don't appreciate there are real people going through this\".\n\nPolice said they still believed Ms Bulley fell in the river, but remain \"fully open-minded to any information that may indicate where Nicola is or what happened to her\".\n\nSpeaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Supt Sally Riley said: \"We would ask that people in the wider community, particularly on social media and online, do not speculate as to what may have happened to Nicola.\n\n\"We will not tolerate online abuse of anyone, including innocent witnesses, members of the family and friends, of local businesses, or of criminal damage or burglary.\"\n\nHeather Gibbons said some speculation was \"incredibly hurtful\"\n\nShe added: \"We will be taking a strong line on that, as you would expect.\n\n\"We would ask that people in the wider community, particularly on social media and online, do not speculate as to what may have happened to Nicola.\"\n\nMark Smith, who was formerly in the Armed Forces, took a day off work to join the search for Ms Bulley.\n\nAccompanied by his friend Paul Wignall and his dog, they have walked about four miles (6.4km), along the river.\n\nMr Smith said he felt compelled to \"do something to help\", adding: \"It's a local area, and we look after our own round here.\n\n\"It's not a game, we're serious people, we've given up our wages today to come here.\"\n\n(L-R) Paul Wignall and Mark Smith took time off work to join the search\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The former boss of McDonald's has been fined by the US financial watchdog for misleading investors about his firing in 2019.\n\nSteve Easterbrook has agreed to pay a $400,000 penalty, without admitting or denying the claims.\n\nThe fast food chain fired him after finding he had had a consensual relationship with an employee.\n\nAt the time, the Chicago-based firm said that he had \"violated company policy\".\n\nFurther investigation uncovered hidden relationships with other staff members.\n\nThe food giant prohibits \"any kind of intimate relationship between employees in a direct or indirect reporting relationship\".\n\nThe British businessman initially received more than $105m (£86m) as part of a severance package.\n\nBut following an investigation, the other relationships came to light.\n\nMcDonald's said had it been aware of this, it would not have approved the multimillion-dollar deal.\n\nIt launched legal action against Mr Easterbrook, accusing him of lying about sexual relationships with staff.\n\nIn December 2021, Mr Easterbrook returned the money and apologised for failing to uphold the firm's values.\n\nOn Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States said that he had made \"false and misleading statements to investors\".\n\nIt added: \"Easterbrook knew or was reckless in not knowing that his failure to disclose these additional violations of company policy prior to his termination would influence McDonald's disclosures to investors related to his departure and compensation.\"\n\nMcDonald's was also charged by the SEC with \"shortcomings\" in its public disclosures related to Easterbrook's firing.\n\nHowever, the agency said the firm had \"substantially co-operated\" with the investigation and would not be hit with any fines as a result.\n\nMcDonald's said the SEC order reinforced the fact it held Mr Easterbrook \"accountable for his misconduct\".\n\n\"We fired him, and then sued him upon learning that he lied about his behaviour,\" it said.\n\n\"The company continues to ensure our values are part of everything we do, and we are proud of our strong 'speak up' culture that encourages employees to report conduct by any employee, including the CEO, that falls short of our expectations.\"\n\nMr Easterbrook, a UK citizen who grew up in Watford, Hertfordshire, led McDonald's from March 2015 to November 2019, after previously leading its UK operations.\n\nHe was widely credited with revitalising the firm's menus, remodelling stores and using better ingredients. The value of its shares more than doubled during his tenure in the US.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Political correspondent Ione Wells on the PM's changes to his top team - and why it matters\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has appointed Grant Shapps as the new energy and net zero secretary in a shake-up of government departments.\n\nThe former department which covered business and energy has been broken up as part of the reorganisation.\n\nGreg Hands has replaced Nadhim Zahawi after the former Tory party chairman was sacked over his tax affairs.\n\nA promotion also comes for Lucy Frazer who will head a streamlined department of culture, media, and sport.\n\nMr Sunak's top team of ministers meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the changes.\n\nOpposition parties say reorganising government departments will cost taxpayers millions of pounds and suggest Mr Sunak's reshuffle is a sign of weakness.\n\nBut the government says the changes will help departments focus on the prime minister's priorities.\n\nThe government said the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will be \"tasked with securing our long-term energy supply, bringing down bills and halving inflation\".\n\nThe soaring cost of energy bills - partly driven by the war in Ukraine - is one of the key factors hampering the UK economy, which Mr Sunak has pledged to grow.\n\nMr Sunak promised last summer, when he was campaigning to be Conservative leader, to re-establish a standalone department for energy.\n\nOn the creation of the new department, Mr Sunak said he wanted \"the country to have greater energy security and independence because we can't be held to ransom by hostile foreign countries\".\n\nGrant Shapps has been appointed as the new secretary of state for energy security and net zero\n\nHe described the new energy secretary, Mr Shapps, as \"one of our most capable and experienced ministers\".\n\nLabour's shadow climate and net zero secretary, Ed Miliband, said \"rearranging of deckchairs on the sinking Titanic of failed Conservative energy policy will not rescue the country\".\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Sunak's changes see business and trade merged in one department, headed by Kemi Badenoch, and the creation of a new department focused on science, innovation and technology, led by Michelle Donelan.\n\nMs Donelan will remain in charge of steering the controversial Online Safety Bill - which aims to prevent harmful material on the internet - through Parliament.\n\nThe government says its new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will drive innovation and create new and better-paid jobs.\n\nThe Department for Business and Trade - incorporating the former Department for International Trade - will \"support growth by backing British businesses at home and abroad, promoting investment and championing free trade\".\n\nOther announcements include Graham Stuart remaining as climate and energy minister, George Freeman appointed as a science, innovation and technology minister, and Rachel Maclean made a housing minister.\n\nThere have been no changes to the position of Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister. The BBC understands Mr Sunak is waiting for a report into bullying allegations against Mr Raab before deciding on his future.\n\nMr Hands - formerly a trade minister - will play a key role in Conservative campaigning before local elections in May and a general election expected next year.\n\nHe takes the role just over a week since Mr Zahawi was sacked after an inquiry found he had breached the ministerial code for failing to disclose his tax affairs were under investigation.\n\nThe timing of the reorganisation surprised some in Mr Sunak's party.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats have drawn attention to the cost of rearranging departments as well, citing research by the Institute for Government think tank.\n\nThe think tank has estimated the cost of setting up a new government department at £15m, potentially rising to £34m \"when including loss of productivity as staff adjust to the new organisation\".\n\nMr Sunak has been under pressure to assert his authority over his government and party since taking office in October last year, following the resignation of two prime ministers in a period of heightened political turbulence.\n\nBut his government has been dogged by political controversies in recent weeks and the Conservatives continue to trail Labour in the opinion polls.\n\nIt's a fair bet many voters won't be that fascinated by the tinkering with Whitehall machinery.\n\nBut it's a very Rishi Sunak reshuffle. There was no political pantomime. No parade of the hired and fired up Downing Street. After the seemingly endless reshuffles of last year's Tory party implosion, Mr Sunak has decided to rejig government structures rather than play another round of ministerial musical chairs. So, his Cabinet looks largely the same. He's done nothing to rile his restive parliamentary party.\n\nBut the prime minister's slicing and dicing of government departments does say a lot about his priorities. Most obviously the importance he places on science and innovation in the quest for economic growth. Rishi Sunak, remember, is a Stanford MBA. A California business school graduate who absorbed a \"start up\" mentality he's now applying to some parts of Whitehall.\n\nHe's certainly not the first prime minister to believe re-wiring and re-badging government departments can deliver long-term results.\n\nBut with strikes rolling on, a cost of living crisis and his deputy under investigation for bullying, Rishi Sunak's short-term problems haven't gone away either.", "Carlos Acosta and Tony Iommi brought the idea to life\n\nBallet and heavy metal may not be an obvious pairing, but that's the mash-up fans will be getting when Black Sabbath - The Ballet opens later this year.\n\nThe brainchild of Birmingham Royal Ballet director Carlos Acosta and the band's Tony Iommi, the ballet will premiere in Birmingham in September.\n\nIt will feature eight Black Sabbath tracks plus new music inspired by them.\n\nIommi told Radio 4's Today he hopes the \"rags to riches\" tale will attract \"both our fans and ballet fans\".\n\nAcosta told the programme he had been a big fan of the band since a friend introduced him to their music around the year 2000.\n\nFollowing a week's run at the Birmingham Hippodrome from 23 to the 30 September 2023, the full-length three-act ballet will then tour to Plymouth's Theatre Royal and Sadler's Wells in London.\n\nIn a press release announcing the production, guitarist Iommi said: \"I'd never imagined pairing Black Sabbath with ballet but it's got a nice ring to it!\"\n\nHe added: \"I'm looking forward to seeing how this all develops. Black Sabbath have always been innovators and never been predictable, and it doesn't come any more unpredictable than this! I've met with Carlos several times and his enthusiasm is infectious.\"\n\nThe eight Black Sabbath tracks from the show include Paranoid, War Pigs, Orchid and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and the music will be re-orchestrated for the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.\n\nThe idea of a Black Sabbath ballet has been on Acosta's mind since he first arrived in Birmingham at the start of 2020, just before the pandemic hit.\n\nAcosta said: \"Black Sabbath is probably Birmingham's biggest export, the most famous - and infamous - cultural entity to ever emerge from the city - so I was naturally drawn to the idea of a collaboration between what most people might think are the most unlikely of partners.\n\n\"The band's enthusiasm for the project is a huge endorsement. They are putting their trust in us to deliver something completely new and original, and that's quite a responsibility but one that we are beyond excited to take on.\"\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the former ballet star said he had been a fan of the band for more than two decades, and said he felt their song War Pigs still has particular resonance.\n\n\"War Pigs is so relevant today, how sometimes politicians and governments hide behind words. And all the wars happening at the moment... it's timeless.\"\n\nThe band performed at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August\n\nThe Cuban-born dancer added that it was \"incredible\" to meet Iommi, who he described as \"a gentle soul\".\n\n\"We both come from poor working class backgrounds. The band came out of this hardship. They represented so many people.\"\n\nIommi told Today's Nicola Stanbridge the storyline will be a \"rags to riches\" tale and while he \"can appreciate\" ballet as an art form, he has never actually been to a ballet. Yet.\n\n\"I went down to see the rehearsal and they were dancing around me, it was fascinating.\n\n\"I think it's really adventurous to do this. It's hoping to attract both our fans and ballet fans.\"\n\nThe news comes a week after Black Sabbath's frontman Ozzy Osbourne announced he was retiring from performing.\n\nOsbourne told fans he was still struggling to recover from a spine injury he sustained in 2019.", "The baby is now in a stable condition after arriving at a hospital on Monday with bruises, lacerations and hypothermia\n\nA newborn girl has been saved by rescuers from beneath the rubble of a building in north-west Syria that was destroyed by an earthquake on Monday.\n\nHer mother went into labour soon after the disaster and gave birth before she died, a relative said. Her father, four siblings and an aunt were also killed.\n\nDramatic footage showed a man carrying the baby, covered in dust, after she was pulled from debris in Jindayris.\n\nA doctor at a hospital in nearby Afrin said she was now in a stable condition.\n\nThe building in which her family lived was one of about 50 reportedly destroyed by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Jindayris, an opposition-held town in Idlib province that is close to the Turkish border.\n\nThe baby's uncle, Khalil al-Suwadi, said relatives had rushed to the scene when they learned of the collapse.\n\n\"We heard a voice while we were digging,\" he told AFP news agency on Tuesday. \"We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord [intact], so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital.\"\n\nPaediatrician Hani Maarouf said the baby had arrived at his hospital in a bad condition, with \"several bruises and lacerations over all her body\".\n\n\"She also arrived with hypothermia because of the harsh cold. We had to warm her up and administer calcium,\" he added.\n\nShe was photographed lying in an incubator and connected to a drip, as a joint funeral was held for her mother Afraa, father Abdullah and her four siblings.\n\nThey are among 1,800 people known to have been killed by the earthquake in Syria, according to the Damascus-based government and the White Helmets, whose volunteer first responders operate in opposition-held areas.\n\nAnother 4,500 people have been killed in Turkey, where the epicentre was.\n\nThe White Helmets have so far reported 1,020 deaths, but they have warned that figure is expected to \"rise dramatically\".\n\n\"Time is running out. Hundreds still trapped under the rubble. Every second could mean saving a life,\" they tweeted on Tuesday.\n\n\"We appeal to all humanitarian organisations and international bodies to provide material support and assistance to organisations responding to this disaster.\"\n\nThe UN has vowed to use \"any and all means\" possible to get aid to people in the north-west, but it has said that deliveries have been halted temporarily due to damaged roads and other logistical issues.\n\nIt has also urged governments not to politicise aid delivery when so many are in desperate need.\n\nA UN Security Council agreement authorises the use of just one border crossing for deliveries from Turkey into the north-west. All other deliveries are meant to go via Damascus, although in the past the government has facilitated only a small amount of \"cross-line\" aid.\n\nEven before the earthquake struck, 4.1 million people in the north-west - most of them women and children - were relying on humanitarian aid to survive.", "The US president championed the recovery of the economy since the coronavirus pandemic in his State of the Union speech.", "Nicola Bulley has been missing since 27 January\n\nThe search for Nicola Bulley has been extended after a specialist diving team said it had completed its work.\n\nPeter Faulding, from Specialist Group International, said his team were pulling out as the mother-of-two was \"categorically not\" in the area of river where police believe she fell in.\n\nMs Bulley, 45, was last seen walking her dog by the river in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire 12 days ago.\n\nThe search has now been extended as far as Knott End and Morecambe Bay.\n\nMr Faulding, who was called in by the family to help with the search, said: \"We've done very thorough searches all the way down to the weir. Police divers have dived it three times, extremely thoroughly.\n\n\"That area is completely negative - there is no sign of Nicola in that area. The main focus will be the police investigation down the river, which leads out to the estuary.\"\n\nThe search has focused on a section of the River Wyre\n\nHe added: \"If Nicola was in that river I would have found her - I guarantee you that - and she's not in that section of the river.\"\n\nMr Faulding told the media on Wednesday that he felt his team had \"done all they can\".\n\nHe said he could not understand why Nicola was not found on the first day she went missing, adding: \"Wherever she is I hope closure comes soon.\"\n\nNicola Bulley's partner was pictured at the scene earlier\n\nPolice said they still believed Ms Bulley fell in the river, but remained \"fully open-minded to any information that may indicate where Nicola is or what happened to her\".\n\nOfficers are currently following about 500 lines of inquiry and seeking some 700 motorists seen in the area on 27 January.\n\nDetectives have also analysed data from her Fitbit smart watch, they said.\n\nOn Wednesday, Ms Bulley's partner Paul Ansell visited the spot where police believe she fell into the river.\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river on 27 January.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rescuers and residents are searching for survivors under the rubble of scores of collapsed buildings in Adana\n\nAt dawn in the biting cold we made our way to a 10-storey building in Adana that had completely collapsed. I met two women wrapped in blankets, heading towards the rubble.\n\nUmmu Bayraktar and Nazife Batmaz are staying in a mosque in the Turkish city, which has become a hub for the relief operation after Monday's earthquake.\n\nTheir own home nearby was badly damaged. We walk and talk as they head to find their friend, one of Ummu's cousins.\n\nA companion urges us not to walk close to another building. It's cracked, he says: \"They'll all have to come down.\"\n\nWe pass two diggers working on the edge of the collapse zone, while six rescue workers use drills and gloved hands to throw down rubble towards them.\n\nWe then take a side street, where I see a group of survivors wrapped in blankets sitting on plastic chairs keeping warm around a fire.\n\nThe two women seek out their friend, Nurten, coddled in a blanket in the freezing cold. She sits and weeps.\n\nHer adult daughter, Senay, was on the second floor of the collapsed building. Nurten has been waiting here all day and all night, but no news has come.\n\n\"When my daughter is lying in the cold, how can I lie down in a warm bed?\" she asks.\n\n\"My daughter never liked the cold, oh God. She is under the earth. My heart is burning,\" she cries.\n\nWe hear the drills and the crump of the digger. Nurten's friends comfort her. Her daughter has two girls of her own - both currently studying abroad. They're trying to head back to Turkey.\n\n\"What am I going to tell the girls? They're coming here today. What am I supposed to tell them? They had entrusted their mother to me,\" Nurten says.\n\nThe sense of loss is spreading more quickly than the search for survivors.\n\nA woman was pulled from the rubble on Tuesday in Hatay, the worst-hit province in Turkey\n\nFurther south, on the Turkish border with Syria, more news came in overnight from Hatay province, one of the worst hit regions.\n\nIn the darkness, footage showed a resident searching in the rubble. He believes someone is alive underneath. \"Speak out loud,\" he pleads.\n\n\"As you see, there is a dead body here. He is dead and nobody has removed him. And a woman's voice is heard from underneath.\"\n\nAs he speaks a woman's voice cries out from the rubble. She cries again, and then bangs on metal trying to hold the man's attention. But there is nothing he alone can do. An entire home is collapsed and it will take machinery to lift the ruins.\n\nThis is a story of unanswered cries, being repeated over and over again across this region.\n\nNearby, another Hatay resident, Deniz, points to the collapsed building where his parents were stranded.\n\n\"They're making noises but nobody is coming. We're devastated. My God... They're calling out. They're saying, 'Save us,' but we can't save them. How are we going to save them?\" he asks.\n\nThousands of buildings reportedly collapsed in Kahramanmaras, which was close to the epicentre\n\nEven closer to the epicentre, in the city Kahramanmaras, fire crackles. There, thousands of buildings are reported collapsed, the number of homeless even higher.\n\nA family gathers, too frightened from aftershocks to go back to their badly hit building. The firewood is all they have. Flames bring a little warmth to bare hands.\n\n\"We barely escaped from inside the house,\" says Neset Guler.\n\n\"We have four children. We left the house with them at the last moment. There are several people trapped inside. It is a huge disaster. Now, we are waiting without water or food, we are in a desperate state.\"\n\nA region awaits help it may be impossible to provide on the scale needed. And in the meantime, more buildings risk falling, and the small fires outdoors will be the only way to stay warm.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Last updated on .From the section FA Cup\n\nBilly Sharp and Sander Berge scored injury-time goals as Sheffield United ended non-league Wrexham's FA Cup run in a pulsating fourth-round replay.\n\nAnel Ahmedhodzic put United ahead early in the second half before Paul Mullin's penalty brought Wrexham level.\n\nMullin had a second spot-kick saved by Adam Davies before Sharp scored deep in stoppage time.\n\nBerge scored United's third on the counter to set up a fifth-round tie against Tottenham Hotspur.\n\nThe Yorkshire club can look forward to hosting Spurs having finally overcome National League title contenders Wrexham after two exhilarating ties.\n\nUnited had required John Egan's stoppage-time equaliser to secure a 3-3 draw and a replay in the original tie and they needed late goals once more at Bramall Lane.\n\nBoth managers see promotion as their priority this season and with that in mind the hosts made five changes from the original game, including a full debut for Ismaila Coulibaly.\n\nWrexham's line-up showed seven changes from the team which had won 2-1 at Altrincham in their previous National League game.\n\nThe hosts, as expected, dominated the early possession although they did not create any clear-cut chances during the opening 10 minutes, while Wrexham looked to attack on the counter.\n\nA good home move saw Iliman Ndiaye playing in James McAtee but his shot did not trouble goalkeeper Rob Lainton, while an Egan header was cleared by a well-disciplined Wrexham defence.\n\nMullin, looking to add to his tally of eight goals in this season's competition, tried his luck from the edge of the area with a shot which deflected off Egan.\n\nUnited responded with a counter-attack and McAtee broke clear, but opted to go alone rather than squaring to Ndiaye and put the ball wastefully wide.\n\nLainton, who has fought back from a career-threatening wrist injury, made two crucial saves in the space of two minutes to deny Ahmedhodzicć's close-range effort and then Sharp.\n\nAlthough United looked the more likely of the sides to score, Wrexham comfortably kept them at bay to stay in the game at the break.\n\nWrexham, now attacking the end housing 4,700 noisy travelling fans, started the second period brightly.\n\nBut it was Paul Heckingbttom's team who went ahead with Ben Osborn combining well on the right-hand side with Ahmedhodzic, who smashed the ball past Lainton for his fifth goal of the season.\n\nHeckingbottom's men went in search of a second and Sharp was set up by McAtee only to have his effort brilliantly saved.\n\nThat missed opportunity proved significant moments later as Mullin was brought down just inside the area by Ahmedhodzic.\n\nMullin stepped up and hammered the penalty straight down the middle for his 29th goal of the season in all competitions.\n\nWrexham were awarded a second penalty when substitute Oliver Norwood brought down Mullin, but on this occasion the striker was denied by an excellent save by Wales international Davies.\n\nMullin's involvement soon came to and end due to injury, while during the last few minutes of normal time Sharp went close for the home side before having a goal disallowed for offside.\n\nThe game was in stoppage time by the time United felt they should have had a penalty when Norwood's shot was handled.\n\nThe referee's decision to wave play on proved academic as a long clearance found Sharp on the left and he coolly slotted past Lainton.\n\nAs Wrexham looked for an equaliser that would have taken the game into extra time, they were hit on the counter and Berge scored a third from close range to seal the win and bring the curtain down on Wrexham's cup adventure.\n\n\"When it's tense and it's 1-1 we get that breakaway goal and I'm pleased it fell to Bill.\n\n\"I've got the utmost respect for them and what they are doing and it's only a matter of time before they achieve their goals.\n\n\"But it doesn't mean we were going to let them win for everyone else's fairytales. We've got to be selfish in that respect.\n\n\"Credit to my players for the focus and determination to make sure we're not on the wrong end of it.\"\n\n\"What a performance from the lads. We were the better team I thought in the second half.\n\n\"I didn't doubt that we'd respond, I felt we would and we did. We got the penalty to get us back in it and I felt that we were the team that was going to win the game.\n\n\"But the second penalty is obviously the key moment in the game. Cruelly we've lost it late but we've taken a Premiership-bound team in two games right to the wire and that's enormous credit to our lads.\n\n\"The resilience of the side was outstanding.\"\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Substitution, Sheffield United. Andre Brooks replaces James McAtee because of an injury.\n• None Delay in match because of an injury James McAtee (Sheffield United).\n• None Goal! Sheffield United 3, Wrexham 1. Sander Berge (Sheffield United) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the top left corner. Assisted by James McAtee with a through ball.\n• None Goal! Sheffield United 2, Wrexham 1. Billy Sharp (Sheffield United) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner following a fast break.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ollie Palmer (Wrexham) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Jake Bickerstaff.\n• None Sander Berge (Sheffield United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ben Osborn (Sheffield United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by James McAtee.\n• None Attempt missed. John Egan (Sheffield United) header from the centre of the box misses to the right following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Oliver Norwood (Sheffield United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Iliman Ndiaye.\n• None Attempt missed. Max Lowe (Sheffield United) header from very close range is high and wide to the left. Assisted by John Egan with a headed pass following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Oliver Norwood (Sheffield United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Sander Berge.\n• None Offside, Sheffield United. Oliver Norwood tries a through ball, but Billy Sharp is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Billy Sharp (Sheffield United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Oliver Norwood with a through ball. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "The Turkish president met people affected by the earthquakes on Wednesday\n\nTurkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended his government's response to two catastrophic earthquakes, saying it was impossible to prepare for the scale of the disaster.\n\nAt least 15,000 people are confirmed dead in Turkey and northern Syria.\n\nCritics claimed the emergency services' response was too slow and the government was poorly prepared.\n\nMr Erdogan accepted the government had encountered some problems, but said the situation was now \"under control\".\n\n\"If there is one person responsible for this, it is Erdogan,\" he said.\n\nThe president rejected the accusation and said unity was required in the aftermath of the disaster, \"In a period like this, I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest,\" he told reporters in Hatay.\n\nThousands of survivors have been spending a third night in freezing conditions, with hope fading for many trapped under the rubble.\n\nA World Health Organization official has warned there could be significant injuries caused by freezing temperatures among survivors of the quakes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Syria earthquake: Crowds chant ‘God is great’ as family pulled alive from rubble\n\n\"We've got a lot of people who have survived now out in the open, in worsening and horrific conditions,\" said WHO earthquake response incident manager Robert Holden on Wednesday.\n\n\"We are in real danger of seeing a secondary disaster which may cause harm to more people than the initial disaster if we don't move with the same pace and intensity as we are doing on the search and rescue.\"\n\nIn nearby Syria, relief efforts have been complicated by years of conflict that has destroyed the nation's infrastructure.\n\nThe Bab al-Hawa crossing between Turkey and Syria has been closed since the earthquake as the roads were badly damaged.\n\nWhile a senior UN official said the road may soon be accessible, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed the country was working to open two more border gates to help get aid into the country.\n\n\"There are some difficulties in terms of Turkey's and the international community's aid [reaching Syria]. For this reason, efforts are being made to open two more border gates,\" he said.\n\nThe EU has confirmed it will send €3.5m (£3.1m) in aid to Syria following a government request for assistance, but said the aid must be delivered to both government- and rebel-controlled areas.\n\nMore than 1,500 people have died in Idlib province alone and an adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said sanctions were stopping Syria from receiving the aid it needed.\n\n\"We don't have enough bulldozers, we do not have enough cranes, we do not have enough oil due to European and American sanctions,\" Bouthaina Shabban said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment Helen Hewett is held over her attempt to hire a hitman\n\nA woman who tried to hire a hitman to kill a former work colleague after a fling has been found guilty of soliciting murder.\n\nHelen Hewlett, 44, of King's Lynn in Norfolk, paid £17,000 as a deposit to a website used for recruiting contract killers, her trial heard.\n\nShe was arrested after police linked her to payments made to the site.\n\nThe court heard her target was a 50-year-old colleague with whom she had become infatuated after a brief affair.\n\nNorfolk Police issued this screengrab of the message placed on the website used by Helen Hewlett\n\nThe jury was told Hewlett had placed an order on the dark web stating \"need someone killed in Norfolk\", adding it was \"vital it looks like an accident\".\n\nHewlett and Paul Belton met when they worked at the Linda McCartney Frozen Food factory in Fakenham and had a kiss in his car.\n\nHelen Hewlett used the dark web to try to hire a killer to take out a man she had become obsessed with\n\nDuring the trial, Mr Belton said Hewlett had \"become obsessed with him\" and over a period of two years until August 2022 she bombarded him with emails and texts, urging him to meet her.\n\nThese included sexual images and videos of herself.\n\nHewlett became obsessed with a work colleague after they had a kiss in the Linda McCartney car park where they both worked\n\nWhen Mr Belton left to work at the nearby Kinnerton chocolate factory, Hewlett managed to secure a job there too.\n\nWhile at Kinnerton, the court heard Hewlett filed two complaints against Mr Belton to his employers, accusing him of harassment, homophobia and racial abuse.\n\nThe firm told him there was no case to answer, and he was advised to go to the police.\n\nAsked by prosecutor, Marti Blair, why he eventually went to the police, Mr Belton said: \"I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted to be left alone.\"\n\nHewlett followed her victim to the Kinnerton factory, securing a job there, after he joined the firm\n\nThe court heard the police visited Hewlett and she stopped trying to make contact with Mr Belton for a few days, but she resumed emailing soon afterwards saying she was \"sorry\".\n\nPrior to posting the request on the website, Hewlett placed money into an escrow third-party account.\n\nIn her attempt to find a killer, she gave Mr Belton's home and work address and other personal details, the court heard.\n\nHewlett took out a number of loans to pay for the hitman but investigators were unable to say if the cash went to a potential hitman, or if the online killers market site was a scam.\n\nDet Insp Paul Morton said it had been a complex case\n\nFollowing the verdict, Det Insp Paul Morton said: \"This has been a very complex and technical trial with a huge amount of information to consider.\n\n\"This is a rare type of offence and it just shows the dark web is still not a safe place for criminals to hide.\"\n\nThe defendant was cleared of stalking, involving fear or violence to cause serious alarm or distress, but she was found guilty of a lesser charge of stalking, without serious alarm or distress, between January 2021 and August 2022.\n\nHewlett is expected to be sentenced in April.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None Woman accused of trying to hire hitman after fling\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sandi Toksvig, who is a patron of Humanists UK, says she is concerned about the effects on the mental health of the LGBTQ+ community\n\nSandi Toksvig says she was reluctant to speak out about the Church of England's position on same-sex marriage - but felt LGBT people were suffering.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News, the TV host said: \"I can't sit by and let that happen.\"\n\nThe Church's synod is meeting to vote on the bishops' proposals to adopt blessing prayers for same-sex couples.\n\nToksvig has criticised the Church's position - and says a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, last month was \"very disappointing\".\n\nThe broadcaster hit the headlines for her opposition to the Church of England's stance on same-sex marriage late last summer.\n\nShe wrote an open letter to the Archbishop after he, and the Anglican Communion, reaffirmed a 1998 resolution, which said same-sex marriage was wrong.\n\nFollowing a five-year consultation process, bishops have also now decided that there will be no change in the doctrine surrounding \"holy matrimony\" being solely between a man and a woman.\n\nIn an interview with BBC News, Toksvig said: \"I really never wanted this. There are lots of other things I'd rather be talking about.\"\n\nShe added: \"Trust me, being gay is just a normal life. And we want to be allowed to get on with it. But every time somebody condemns you, somebody somewhere in the LGBTQ+ community gets hurt. And I cannot sit by and let that happen.\"\n\nOn Wednesday at the meeting of the Church's national assembly, the General Synod, members will vote on a proposal from bishops that - if they want to - clergy will in future be able to adopt blessing prayers for couples in same-sex civil marriages.\n\nThis proposal has been unpalatable to some conservatives in the Church, but also falls well short of what many progressives had wanted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sandi Toksvig This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFor his part, the Archbishop of Canterbury has celebrated what he sees as a move forward. He has also talked about the difficulty of holding together a Church with people with a wide range of beliefs on gay marriage.\n\nHe has just returned from South Sudan and said he is not just trying to keep together the Church of England, but also the global community of those who follow the Anglican tradition - to which millions belong.\n\nSome conservative bishops abroad have already pulled their churches out of the Anglican Communion because the Church of England allows gay clergy and others threaten to leave if there are moves towards marriage equality.\n\n\"What we are doing is seeking to have a Church that accepts every person is equal, called by Christ to be loved and accepted and valued,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"We are seeking not to match one exclusion with another, in not saying to the conservatives 'we don't like you, so you've got to go away.'\"\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said he was trying to hold the two sides of the debate together and have \"a church that accepts every person is equal\".\n\nHowever, Toksvig told the BBC: \"Here's the thing about 'equality', it is not a word that you qualify, you either have it or you don't have it.\"\n\nThe comedian is not a member of the Church of England. But she says she spoke out because she felt the impact of the message being sent out by the bishops was having an impact far beyond the Church.\n\nAnd while she says she appreciates the fact the debate in the Church is extremely polarised, she said it was not enough to try to keep the two sides together.\n\n\"The problem is there is only one side that is impinging on the lives of others. And I'm afraid the very conservative people who interpret the Bible with less love than I would hope are causing severe mental health problems for the LGBTQ+ community.\"\n\nShe added: \"My wife works in mental health with the queer community and the figures are shocking for a young LGBT person committing suicide, or attempting suicide, not because they feel bad about who they are, but because of the way society stigmatises them. So it's not an equal battle that we're having here.\"\n\n\"Is it okay to hold a Church together by sacrificing LGBTQ+ people on the altar of what they (conservative bishops abroad) believe? Is that okay?\"\n\nToksvig has started a campaign to remove the 26 Church of England bishops who sit in the House of Lords.\n\nHowever, she has attracted criticism in drawing comparisons between the UK parliament and that of the only other country where religious leaders automatically get seats in parliament, Iran.", "Dave the sniffer dog helped a UK team that arrived in the southern Turkish city of Antakya\n\nAntakya felt forsaken. People here had been complaining for days - pleading, in fact, for more help in finding the thousands missing and trapped in the collapsed buildings throughout their city.\n\nHelp from the Turkish government was slow to come, and they wondered: where was all the international aid?\n\nBy late in the third day of aftermath, things had changed. Roads in and out of the southern Turkish city were gridlocked with heavy equipment, ambulances and pickup trucks bringing help - albeit at a snail's pace - to those who had long lost the luxury of patience.\n\nVolunteers who dug for their relatives by hand were now joined by the professionals.\n\n\"Can you please stand back,\" an English voice commanded from one roadside ruin halfway down Ataturk Street. The Brits had arrived.\n\nSome 77 men and women from the UK International Search and Rescue got here on Wednesday afternoon - firefighters, medics and a sniffer dog named Dave.\n\nPhil Irving is usually in charge of a fire station in west Wales. He's responsible for the team's safety and was frankly a little surprised to find himself so close to the border with Syria.\n\nBut he's a veteran of disasters and has been with the International Search and Rescue for 17 years.\n\n\"I went to Haiti in 2010 and this is comparable to the devastation I've witnessed, particularly in this location where it doesn't seem to be that international teams have arrived.\"\n\nThey were only supposed to be surveying buildings, not carrying out rescues yet, when word came - or perhaps Dave the sniffer dog's nose twitched (no one was really very clear) - of a sixty-year-old woman trapped under four floors of apartment block.\n\nA London firefighter, Sarah Mimnagh, spoke to the woman as the rest of the team chipped and hacked at the collapsed building around her - creating a tunnel to bring her out.\n\n\"She smiled at us when she saw us,\" Sarah said. \"It's my first foreign deployment,\" she added, looking really pleased.\n\n\"We're extremely pleased, really emotional when things go well,\" said Jim Chasten, team leader from the Kent Fire and Rescue Service.\n\n\"[It's] a really good outcome. I've already lost track of time, but it's still light, so we couldn't have been here that long.\" In fact, they'd only been on the ground for five hours.\n\nThe rescued woman's name is Salva. She's sixty-years-old and survived three-and-a-half days without food or water. She cried in pain as she was brought out while her son-in-law, Ali Ekenel, cried tears of joy.\n\n\"She's the most important person in the world to my wife,\" he said.\n\nThe men and women from UK International Service and Rescue took a round of applause from the waiting crowd and moved on, looking for more survivors.", "Iskenderun is one of the worst hit cities by the quakes\n\nAnger is growing in Turkey over the government's perceived failure to prepare after thousands died in two huge earthquakes on Monday.\n\nOn a visit to one of the worst-hit regions, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the official death toll in Turkey had climbed to 9,057.\n\nThe main opposition leader has blamed him for the scale of the devastation.\n\nBut Mr Erdogan hit back, saying it was \"not possible\" to be prepared for such a big disaster.\n\nMany in the worst affected areas have have criticised the response by the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) for being too slow. Others say the government was not sufficiently prepared in advance.\n\n\"If there is one person responsible for this, it is Erdogan,\" said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party.\n\nThe president rejected this. He also described those who said they had not seen security forces at all in some areas as \"provocateurs\".\n\n\"This is a time for unity, solidarity. In a period like this, I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest,\" he told reporters in Hatay.\n\nDuring another stop on his tour of areas in the disaster zone earlier today, he acknowledged some initial problems, but said the situation was now \"under control\".\n\nIn the southern Turkish port of Iskenderun on Tuesday, Arzu Dedeoglu said two of her nieces were trapped under the rubble. Her family had arranged a digger with their own resources to remove the debris, but she said officials did not allow them to use it.\n\n\"We waited till late in the evening, but nobody came,\" Ms Dedeoglu said. \"We brought in a caterpillar (digger) with our own means, but they did not want us to use it - they stopped us. We have two kids under the rubble: my sister's daughters, Ayşegül and İlayda.\n\n\"They are gone now, they are gone.\"\n\nWhen emergency services eventually arrived, Ms Dedeoglu yelled that they were \"too late\". Rescue workers paused for a moment, but the girls' family begged them not to stop.\n\n\"Please don't leave - maybe my kids are still alive,\" said their mother.\n\nMr Erdogan has announced a three-month state of emergency in 10 provinces worst-affected by an earthquake. It will end just before elections on 14 May, when the 68-year-old will attempt to stay in power after 20 years.\n\nHis main opposition is an alliance of centre-left and right-wing parties, known as the Table of Six. Mr Kilicdaroglu is expected to be the presidential candidate.\n\nIn a video posted on Twitter, he vowed not to meet the president \"on any platform\", accusing the government of conducting \"PR work\" since the quakes.\n\nAnger is also mounting over an \"earthquake tax\" levied by the Turkish government in the wake of a massive quake in 1999 that killed more than 17,000 people.\n\nThe estimated 88bn lira ($4.6bn; £3.8bn) was meant to have been spent on disaster prevention and the development of emergency services.\n\nQuestions about the \"special communication tax\" - as the authorities call it - are asked every time there is an earthquake in Turkey. But the government has never publicly explained how the money is spent.\n\nAnd Mr Kilicdaroglu said Mr Erdogan's government \"has not prepared for an earthquake for 20 years\".\n\nPresident Erdogan is coming under increased criticism over his government's preparation for the earthquake\n\nBut it is not just the president's main political rival who is voicing anger at the government's lack of preparedness.\n\n\"Where have all our taxes gone, collected since 1999?\" Celal Deniz, 61, told the AFP news agency in the city of Gaziantep. His brother and nephews remain trapped under rubble.\n\nSocial media users have also criticised some Turkish mainstream and pro-government news channels for \"muting\" criticisms by people in affected areas.\n\nVideos have been shared showing an NTV correspondent in Kahramanmaras saying locals were complaining that \"aid is inadequate\", with residents heard in the background asking: \"Where is the state?\"\n\nThe channel then appears to cut the correspondent short before returning to the studio.\n\nAnother video shared online showed a survivor telling a reporter on mainstream Haberturk network that \"no one has come\" to rescue them for days. The reporter subsequently moves away from the survivor and says rescuers have been \"looking everywhere\".\n\nSpeaking in Kahramanmaras, Mr Erdogan acknowledged there had been difficulties with the initial response to the disaster, but blamed the delays on damaged roads and airports.\n\nHe said people should only listen to communication from authorities and ignore \"provocateurs\".\n\nHe is also scheduled to visit Hatay and Pazarcik, epicentre of the quake.\n\n\"The state is doing its job,\" he said.\n\nBut for many in Iskenderun, the state arrived too late.\n\n\"Why didn't you come yesterday, we were still hearing voices from the rubble yesterday!\" one woman shouted at rescue workers on Tuesday.\n\nAnother woman was in tears.\n\n\"We could have saved them if you'd arrived yesterday,\" she said.", "Emma Pattison became Epsom's first female head five months ago\n\nThe head teacher of Epsom College made a distressed call to a relative before she and her daughter were shot dead by her husband, the BBC understands.\n\nGeorge Pattison is believed to have killed Emma Pattison and Lettie, seven, at the family home in school grounds before taking his own life.\n\nMrs Pattison is understood to have called the relative some time late on Saturday evening.\n\nBy the time the family member arrived, all three were dead.\n\nThe school announced on Tuesday it would close until after the half-term break, after \"incredibly distressing\" details emerged about how Ms Pattison died.\n\nIn a letter to parents, acting headmaster Paul Williams said: \"Now is a time for families to come together and try and process this shocking news.\"\n\nHe urged parents to keep a \"close eye\" on their children, adding: \"The impact on your children cannot be underestimated and we are doing everything we possibly can to support them in whatever way they need.\"\n\nSurrey Police confirmed the family's next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.\n\nPolice said an investigation was being carried out to establish the full chronology and circumstances of the incident.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday\n\nThey confirmed a firearm, licensed and registered to Mr Pattison, had been found at the scene and has been recovered by officers.\n\nHowever, causes of death will not be confirmed until post-mortem examinations have been completed later this week.\n\nSurrey Police made a routine phone call to the 39-year-old chartered accountant in the days preceding the killings, because the details of his new home address needed to be checked.\n\nThe force said that \"due to the short period of time between that contact and this incident, we have made a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)\".\n\nAn IOPC spokesperson said: \"We are assessing the available information to determine what, if any, further action may be required from us.\"\n\nIt is understood that the couple was not known to Surrey Police.\n\nThe school grounds and buildings cover an extensive area\n\nPolice also confirmed they were aware of \"speculation\" regarding a firing range at the school.\n\n\"We can confirm this range does not form part of our scene or our inquiries. Any reporting to suggest otherwise is inaccurate,\" they added.\n\nDet Ch Insp Kimball Edey said: \"This is an incredibly traumatic incident and we are working around the clock to investigate and understand the exact circumstances which led to this point.\n\n\"We understand the public concern and upset, and we will clarify what we can, when we can, while respecting the right to a level of privacy for the families of those who have lost their lives.\"\n\nMrs Pattison was appointed the first female head teacher of Epsom College five months ago. She has been praised for her dedication and inspirational leadership.\n\nPrior to working at Epsom, Mrs Pattison spent six years as the head teacher of Croydon High School in south London.\n\nFormer colleague and friend Cheryl Giovannoni, said Mrs Pattison was a \"adored\" and a \"real inspiration to those around her\".\n\nThe chief executive of the Girls' Day School Trust, of which Croydon High School was a member, said Mrs Pattison \"had this way of relating to people, she had such humanity\".\n\n\"She really understood what they were going through and she just worked so hard. She was so ambitious for the girls in her school and had this mission to make girls' education forward-thinking and inspiring.\"\n\nMr Pattison was a chartered accountant who was director of a management consultancy firm called Tanglewood 2016, according to Companies House.\n\nIn December, Mrs Pattison told a podcast run by students that her move had been \"a really big change for my family\", adding: \"I've got a new job, my husband got a new job, which wasn't meant to happen, but did, and my daughter has started a new school.\"\n\nBoarding students at Epsom College pay more than £42,000 a year, and its alumni include Conservative MP Sir Michael Fallon, broadcaster Jeremy Vine and his brother, the comedian Tim Vine.\n\nThe school, which both boys and girls attend, was founded in 1855 and describes itself as being consistently among the UK's leading schools, based on exam results.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mangushev's wife complained that nobody was investigating his shooting\n\nNotorious Russian army captain and mercenary Igor Mangushev has died in hospital, days after he was shot in the head at close range in occupied Ukraine, his friends have said.\n\nMangushev's wife Tatyana described his killing as an execution.\n\nHe commanded an anti-drone unit in occupied Luhansk, but had also been one of the founders of a mercenary group fighting Ukrainian forces in 2014.\n\nHe took to a stage last summer holding a man's skull.\n\nIn a video posted on social media in August, Mangushev was filmed saying the skull belonged to a Ukrainian fighter killed defending the Azovstal steel works in the southern port of Mariupol.\n\nAn extreme nationalist, Mangushev said Russia was not at war with people, but with an idea of Ukraine as an \"anti-Russian state\", and it did not matter how many Ukrainians died.\n\nHe was later known to have collaborated with Russia's most notorious mercenary boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a political strategist.\n\nThe shooting has prompted widespread speculation about who might have carried out the attack at a checkpoint in the occupied Ukrainian town of Kadiivka, some distance from the frontline.\n\nRussian reports said he had been shot at close range with a 9mm bullet fired into the top of his head at an angle of 45 degrees. Russian authorities are investigating the killing and have so far said nothing about the circumstances.\n\nThe bullet had reportedly lodged in his brain. Before he died, pictures showed him lying in a hospital bed.\n\nAnother extreme Russian nationalist, Pavel Gubarev, said everyone knew who was behind the shooting and observed that Prigozhin had for the moment gone quiet.\n\nThe 11-month war in Ukraine has energised the murky world of extremists in Russia and sparked rivalries between them.\n\nAfter the attack, Russia expert Mark Galeotti said it demonstrated that Russia was sliding back towards aspects of the 1990s, \"when murder was a business tactic, and the lines between politics, business, crime and war became near-meaningless\".", "A 53-year-old man has been charged following the disappearance young girl who was later found in the Scottish Borders.\n\nThe child was reported missing on Sunday but was found in the area at about 21:30 on Monday.\n\nAndrew Miller, also known as Amy George, was arrested on Tuesday. Police confirmed he was charged overnight.\n\nHe is expected to appear at Selkirk Sheriff Court on Thursday and a report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.\n\nOfficers have set up a cordon at a property in the village of Gattonside.\n\nA police cordon has been set up around a property in Gattonside\n\nPolice held a press conference on Monday to appeal to the public for information as part of efforts to trace her.\n\nMembers of the public joined the emergency services in the search which went on until Monday night.", "Environmental activists Just Stop Oil are among those to use tactics such as blocking roads\n\nThe House of Lords has overturned plans to clamp down on protest marches that cause too much disruption.\n\nThe government had proposed giving police powers to stop protesters using tactics such as blocking roads and slow marching before disruption takes place.\n\nCritics had described proposals as an attack on the right to protest.\n\nPeers removed the plans from the Public Order Bill on Tuesday. Ministers cannot re-add the policy when the bill returns to the House of Commons.\n\nThe bill was introduced to crack down on disruptive protests by groups such as environmental activists Just Stop Oil, Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion, which have used tactics including blocking roads.\n\nIt covers England and Wales and is currently being scrutinised by the House of Lords. Any changes at this stage could be blocked by peers before they become law.\n\nNo 10 wants to introduce measures that would mean police would not have to wait for disruption to take place to shut down a protest.\n\nIt says forces should also be able to consider the \"total impact\" of a series of protests by the same group, rather than seeing them as standalone incidents.\n\nUnder this existing legislation, if the police want to restrict a protest, they generally have to show it may result in \"serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community\".\n\nBut peers rejected the plans by 254 votes to 240. The proposals were only introduced to the Bill in the Lords and so cannot return during parliamentary ping-pong as it was not in the original legislation that went before the Commons.\n\nThe House of Lords also voted down a government proposal that would allow police officers to search people without suspicion in a designated area to look for items that could be used in offences such as \"locking on\". Peers rejected the measure by 284 votes to 209\n\nA frontbench bid to prevent protesting \"an issue of current debate\" being used as a lawful excuse for blocking a road was also voted down by 248 votes to 239. Ministers cannot re-add this policy either when the bill returns to the Commons.\n\nPeers went on to defy the government again in backing safeguards for journalists in the Bill by 283 votes to 192, majority 91.\n\nMartha Spurrier, director of human rights group Liberty, previously described the proposals as \"a desperate attempt to shut down any route for ordinary people to make their voices heard\".\n\nShe said allowing the police to shut down protests before any disruption had taken place \"sets a dangerous precedent\".\n\nThe Bill builds on the controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which passed last year and was criticised by some groups for introducing curbs on the right to protest.", "A driver who rammed a bus into a busy daycare in Quebec, killing two children, has been charged with first-degree murder.\n\nSix children were injured in the incident - including some who became trapped under the vehicle - in Laval, near Montreal, on Wednesday morning.\n\nPolice believe the suspect, Pierre Ny St-Amand, deliberately drove the bus into the daycare during the morning drop-off.\n\nBut they said a motive was unclear.\n\nThe 51-year-old, who had been employed as a bus driver by the local public transit system for 10 years, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm.\n\nWhile about a dozen others were injured, including the six children, police said they did not expect any more fatalities. The child victims were reported to be of preschool age.\n\nOne eyewitness, Hamdi Ben Chaabane, told CBC News that the driver exited the bus after the crash, took off his clothes and began acting erratically.\n\n\"It was a nightmare. It's horrible. He didn't stop yelling. He wasn't saying words,\" he said.\n\nIn a brief court appearance via video link, the suspect refused to speak during a hearing and was ordered by a judge to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.\n\nHe appeared from a bed at a hospital in Montreal.\n\nThe daycare is located on a quiet cul-de-sac in Laval and the crash happened at about 08:30 (13:30 GMT). Police had cordoned off the area by Wednesday afternoon.\n\nA crisis centre was set up nearby to help parents and families.\n\nBy Wednesday evening, a makeshift memorial to the victims began to grow, as neighbours left stuffed animals and flowers in the snow.\n\n\"When you leave your children at the daycare for the day, you know that they're in good hands,\" Quebec's Families Minister Suzanne Roy told reporters. \"When an event like that can happen, it shakes us and shatters us.\"\n\nPrime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is from Montreal, said his thoughts were \"with families in Laval who are living incredibly difficult moments. We hope that everyone will be OK\".", "BBC Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman paused his live broadcast as rescue teams in Adana, Turkey, called for quiet.\n\nThe search for survivors across southern Turkey and northern Syria continues after Monday's devastating earthquake that killed thousands of people.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. President Zelensky: On behalf of Ukrainians, thank you Britain\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said \"nothing is off the table\" after Volodymyr Zelensky urged the UK to supply Ukraine with fighter jets.\n\nUkraine's president, who was visiting the UK for the first time since Russia's invasion, expressed gratitude for the equipment received so far.\n\nBut he warned that supplies were \"running out\" and that this could result in \"stagnation\" in the conflict.\n\nThe UK is to start training Ukrainian forces to fly Nato-standard jets.\n\nDowning Street said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is investigating what aircraft the UK could potentially offer, but emphasised this was \"a long-term solution\" and that training pilots could take years.\n\nPresident Zelensky's surprise visit to the UK began with meetings in Downing Street, after which he addressed a huge crowd of MPs and peers in the historic setting of Westminster Hall.\n\n\"Freedom will win - we know Russia will lose,\" he told the audience, adding the UK was with his country on a march to \"the most important victory of our lifetime\".\n\nThanking the UK for its \"grit\", he said the country, through its support of Ukraine, had not compromised the \"spirit and ideals of these great islands\".\n\nHe also singled out Boris Johnson for praise, saying the former prime minister had united others \"when it seemed impossible\".\n\nDuring his speech, which was met with applause throughout, the Ukrainian leader presented House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle with the helmet of a Ukrainian pilot.\n\nThe writing on the helmet reads: \"We have freedom, give us wings to protect it.\"\n\nReflecting on his last visit to the UK, in 2020, he recalled thanking his hosts \"for delicious English tea\".\n\n\"I will be leaving Parliament today, thanking you all in advance for powerful English planes.\"\n\nMr Johnson echoed his calls in a statement saying: \"It is time to give the Ukrainians the extra equipment they need to defeat Putin and to restore peace to Ukraine. That means longer range missiles and artillery, it means more tanks, it means planes.\"\n\nThe day started with a commitment from the UK to help train Ukrainian pilots.\n\nBut following an impassioned plea by Zelensky for fighter jets themselves, that pledge gradually shifted.\n\nThe PM has now ordered the defence secretary to examine ways that the UK can provide Ukraine with fighter jets.\n\nThe RAF has a limited number of aircraft it could theoretically provide Ukraine - including about 20 older Typhoon jets.\n\nHowever, there is a danger Britain is writing cheques it will struggle to cash.\n\nThe RAF is already facing a backlog in the training of its own fast jet pilots, maintenance and upkeep of older aircraft is also more difficult.\n\nEven the prime minister has admitted that if Britain does supply fast jets, it will be for the longer term not the near future\n\nAs the first anniversary of Russia's invasion approaches, Western countries have been considering how to bolster support for Ukraine, with the country braced for a renewed Russian offensive later this month.\n\nThe expansion of the UK's training programme signals a shift, after the UK said it was \"not practical\" for it to send its aircraft to Ukraine.\n\nEarlier this year, the UK also announced it would send 14 battle tanks to Ukraine. President Zelensky praised Mr Sunak for taking this \"powerful defensive step\".\n\nPresident Zelensky was applauded throughout his speech by an audience which included Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Keir Starmer, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and the Lib Dem's Ed Davey\n\nIn his address to Parliament, he also urged the UK and the West to continue imposing sanctions \"until Russia is deprived of any possibility to finance the war\".\n\n\"Anyone who invests in terror must be held accountable, anyone who invests in violence must compensate those who have suffered from terror.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, the UK announced a fresh round of sanctions targeting Russia.\n\nThe latest sanctions target IT companies, as well as manufacturers of military equipment such as drones and helicopter parts.\n\nAfter speaking to Parliament, President Zelensky met King Charles at Buckingham Palace.\n\nOn Wednesday afternoon he joined the prime minister on a visit to Dorset where Ukrainian troops are training to use Challenger 2 tanks.\n\nThe two men signed the London Declaration - a statement affirming the UK-Ukraine partnership - before holding a joint press conference.\n\nHe has now arrived in Paris, where he is meeting French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.\n\nOn Thursday he will meet EU leaders and is expected to continue his push for further military assistance as well as Ukraine's aspirations to join the EU.\n\nAhead of their meeting, President Zelensky said he wanted to convey to King Charles Ukraine's gratitude for his support\n\n\"He's the real deal. You don't get many leaders quite like that in the world.\"\n\nLabour's Stephen Doughty - like many crowded into Westminster Hall - was left with a sense of awe by President Zelensky's speech.\n\nOne or two were overcome with emotion, brushing away a tear as they listened to his impassioned words, delivered entirely in English.\n\nFor Mr Doughty, a member of the all-party Ukraine group, who has visited the country recently, it was Mr Zelensky's \"V for victory\" sign at the end of his speech that was the most powerful moment.\n\nThe president had made a reference to Sir Winston Churchill, as he often does when addressing a British audience.\n\nBut it was the fact Mr Zelensky was bathed in sunlight streaming through stained glass windows that are a memorial to those lost in two world wars that will stay with the Labour MP.\n\n\"The symbolism of that is incalculable,\" he said.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Newscast after the speech, Sir Lindsay described the atmosphere in Westminster Hall during President Zelensky's speech as \"very, very moving\".\n\n\"You could hear a pin drop,\" he said, adding \"there were lots of tears… I was speaking to a senior member of Parliament who said: 'I just couldn't stop crying.'\"\n\nHe also said he was planning to display the pilot's helmet in the Speaker's House in Parliament or in his Chorley constituency.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nTurkish goalkeeper Ahmet Eyup Turkaslan has died following Monday's earthquake in his home country, his club Yeni Malatyaspor has confirmed.\n\nMore than 5,000 people have lost their lives in Turkey and Syria following the earthquake.\n\n\"Our goalkeeper, Ahmet Eyup Turkaslan, lost his life after being under the collapse of the earthquake. Rest in peace,\" the club said on Twitter.\n\n\"We will not forget you, beautiful person,\" it added.\n\nTurkaslan, 28, played six times for Turkish second division club Yeni Malatyaspor after joining in 2021.\n\nFormer Crystal Palace and Everton winger Yannick Bolasie, who currently plays for Turkish second tier side Caykur Rizespor, said on Twitter: \"RIP brother Eyup Ahmet Turkaslan. One moment you can see someone in the dugout, the next moment they're gone.\"\n\nBolasie added: \"My condolences to all his family and team-mates at Yeni Malatyaspor. Devastating to hear and wish we can all continue to help everyone in need.\"\n• None Christian Atsu: Footballer 'removed from wreckage with injuries' after earthquake", "All unionist parties in Northern Ireland oppose the protocol and the DUP is refusing to re-enter power sharing until it is replaced\n\nThe Northern Ireland Protocol is lawful, the UK Supreme Court has ruled.\n\nPart of the Brexit deal, the protocol creates a trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.\n\nIt has been challenged by unionist politicians who say it breaches the Acts of Union and the Northern Ireland Act.\n\nThe court unanimously rejected their appeal on all grounds. It had previously been rejected by the High Court and Court of Appeal.\n\nThe protocol was agreed by the UK and EU in 2019 to ensure free movement of trade across the Irish land border after Brexit.\n\nHowever, it means there are new checks and controls on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.\n\nThe unionist case had three aspects:\n\nThe court agreed that the protocol does conflict with the Acts of Union.\n\nHowever, it added that it was Parliament's will that any part of the Acts of Union which conflict with the protocol are suspended.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says the UK government must ensure Northern Ireland's position in the UK is maintained\n\nThe judges said: \"Parliament, by enacting the 2018 Act and the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020, authorised the making of the protocol.\n\n\"The clear intention of Parliament in enacting these Acts was to permit the Crown to make the protocol.\"\n\nOn the second ground the court said the relevant part of the Northern Ireland Act only concerns a referendum about whether Northern Ireland remains part of the UK or joins a united Ireland.\n\nOn the third ground the court found that Parliament had empowered the secretary of state to lawfully make changes to voting rules.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (left), Baroness Kate Hoey (second right), and former first minister Dame Arlene Foster (right) outside the UK Supreme Court in London\n\nResponding to the ruling, a government spokesperson said: \"We welcome that the Supreme Court has reaffirmed the sovereignty of Parliament in approving and legislating for the agreement negotiated in 2019.\n\n\"However, this does not change our determination to address the real problems the protocol is causing in Northern Ireland. Intensive talks with the EU continue to that end, looking across the full range of issues we have raised.\"\n\nA UK government source told the BBC there was \"lots still to work through\" on protocol talks.\n\nThey were speaking before a meeting between Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and the EU's Maros Sefcovic, which took place on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nThe pair held talks in Brussels, as Mr Heaton-Harris also attended a separate event tied to the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nAfter the meeting, he said he and Mr Sefcovic \"agreed solutions to the protocol must work for benefit of all communities and businesses in Northern Ireland\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chris Heaton-Harris MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMinisters overseeing the negotiations are said to be focused on making sure solutions reflect the \"realities\" on the ground.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) withdrew from the power sharing executive in Northern Ireland in February 2022 in protest at the protocol.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the legal challenge \"had highlighted why unionists are opposed to the trading arrangements\".\n\n\"A solution to the protocol was never going to be found in the courts, but the cases have served to highlight some of the reasons why unionists have uniformly rejected the protocol,\" he added.\n\n\"The government must consider this judgment, their own arguments to the court and take the steps necessary to replace the protocol with arrangements that unionists can support.\"\n\nJim Allister of TUV said the court's ruling greatly strengthens his party's stance and it \"must embolden the political campaign against the protocol\".\n\n\"The fact the Supreme Court is satisfied it was lawfully made does not in the least affect its political unacceptability, nor its dire constitutional consequences,\" he added.\n\nThe protocol introduced checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain\n\nSinn Féin Brexit spokesperson Declan Kearney welcomed the judgement, adding the protocol was \"imperfect\" but \"clearly necessary\".\n\n\"Now that legal clarity has been confirmed, it is time to move forward politically and ensure that a deal between the British Government and EU to deliver pragmatic and durable solutions is secured without delay that makes the protocol work better for everyone.\"\n\nThe Social Democratic and Labour Party said the ruling provided \"important clarity\" on the legality of the protocol.\n\n\"Following this judgment, it is now critical that the EU and UK negotiating teams reach a comprehensive resolution that protects our unique access to the Single Market for goods while addressing the concerns around protocol implementation that have given rise to sincere objections related to trade barriers and identity issues in the unionist community,\" assembly member Matthew O'Toole said.\n\nAlliance deputy leader Stephen Farry said political parties in Northern Ireland needed to \"focus on pragmatic solutions going forward\" after the Supreme Court's ruling, which he added \"was not surprising in the slightest\".\n\n\"Northern Ireland was always going to require some special arrangements in the context of a hard Brexit. This protocol or something similar is therefore the inevitable outcome of choices made, and the consequent need to address this region's particular circumstances and to protect the Good Friday Agreement.\"\n\nThe Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases.\n\nIt hears cases considered to be of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population.\n\nA five-judge panel, including Lord Reed, the president of the court, heard the case over two days in November.", "Twenty years ago Winfried Hensinger was told by other scientists that developing a powerful quantum computer was impossible. Now he has made the system behind him that he believes will prove them wrong\n\nScientists have come a step closer to making multi-tasking 'quantum' computers, far more powerful than even today's most advanced supercomputers.\n\nQuantum computers make use of the weird qualities of sub-atomic particles.\n\nSo-called quantum particles can be in two places at the same time and also strangely connected even though they are millions of miles apart.\n\nA Sussex University team transferred quantum information between computer chips at record speeds and accuracy.\n\nThe researchers connected two chips together and sent record amounts of quantum information at unprecedented speeds and reliability\n\nComputer scientists have been trying to make an effective quantum computer for more than 20 years. Firms such as Google, IBM and Microsoft have developed simple machines. But, according to Prof Winfried Hensinger, who led the research at Sussex University, the new development paves the way for systems that can solve complex real world problems that the best computers we have today are incapable of.\n\n\"Right now we have quantum computers with very simple microchips,\" he said. \"What we have achieved here is the ability to realise extremely powerful quantum computers capable of solving some of the most important problems for industries and society.\"\n\nRolls-Royce is investing in quantum computing research to see if it can speed up the design process for their aircraft engines\n\nCurrently, computers solve problems in a simple linear way, one calculation at a time.\n\nIn the quantum realm, particles can be in two places at the same time and researchers want to harness this property to develop computers that can do multiple calculations all at the same time.\n\nQuantum particles can also be millions of miles apart and be strangely connected, mirroring each other's actions instantaneously. Again, that could also be used to develop much more powerful computers.\n\nThe quantum computer chips have to be set up in a clean room an put into a vacuum container as even the slightest contamination can reduce its performance\n\nOne stumbling block has been the need to transfer quantum information between chips quickly and reliably: the information degrades, and errors are introduced.\n\nBut Prof Hensinger's team has made a breakthrough, published in the journal Nature Communications, which may have overcome that obstacle.\n\nThe team developed a system able to transport information from one chip to another with a reliability of 99.999993% at record speeds. That, say the researchers, shows that in principle chips could be slotted together to make a more powerful quantum computer.\n\nThe research team can see individual atoms floating above their chips as the test out their quantum computer\n\nProf Michael Cuthbert, who is the director of the newly established National Quantum Computing Centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire and is independent of the Sussex research group described the development as a \"really important enabling step\". But he said that more work was needed to develop practical systems.\n\n\"To build the type of quantum computer you need in the future, you start off by connecting chips that are the size of your thumbnail until you get something the size of a dinner plate. The Sussex group has shown you can have the stability and speed for that step.\n\n\"But then you need a mechanism to connect these dinner plates together to scale up a machine, potentially as large as a football pitch, in order to carry out realistic and useful computations, and the technology for communications for that scale is not yet available.\"\n\nQuantum computers harness two weird properties of particles at the very small scale - they can be in two places at the same time and be strangely connected even though they are millions of miles apart.\n\nPhD student Sahra Kulmiya, who carried out the Sussex experiment, says that the team are ready for the challenge to take the technology to the next level.\n\n\"It is not just solely a physics problem anymore,\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"It is an engineering problem, a computer science problem and also a mathematical problem.\n\n\"It is really difficult to say how close we are to the realisation of quantum computing, but I'm optimistic in how it can become relevant to us in our everyday lives.\"\n\nOne of the UK's leading engineering firms, Rolls Royce, is also optimistic about the technology. It is working with the Sussex researchers to develop machines that could help them design even better jet engines.\n\nPowerful supercomputers are used to model the flow of air in simulations to test out new designs of aircraft engines.\n\nA quantum computer could in principle track the airflow with even greater accuracy, and do so really quickly, according to Prof Leigh Lapworth, who is leading the development of quantum computing for Rolls-Royce.\n\n\"Quantum computers would be able to do calculations that we can't currently do and others that would take many months or years. The potential of doing those in days would just transform our design systems and lead to even better engines.\"\n\nThe technology could potentially also be used to design drugs more quickly by accurately simulating their chemical reactions, a calculation too difficult for current supercomputers. They could also provide even more accurate systems to forecast weather and project the impact of climate change.\n\nProf Hensinger said he first had the idea of developing a quantum computer more than 20 years ago.\n\n\"People rolled their eyes and said: 'it's impossible'.\"\n\n\"And when people tell me something can't be done, I just love to try. So I have spent the past 20 years removing the barriers one by one to a point where one can now really build a practical quantum computer.\"", "Terri Harris and Zara Aleena were murdered after Probation Service failings\n\nThe majority of the service which tries to prevent criminals reoffending in England and Wales is working at excessive capacity, internal figures seen by the BBC show.\n\nSome officers in the Probation Service have workloads twice as large as their recommended capacity.\n\nA whistleblower warned the risks to the public are \"significant\".\n\nThe government said it would \"recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safe\".\n\nThe revelations about the extent of the probation crisis come after two damning reports into failures to monitor offenders who went on to commit murders.\n\nHis Majesty's Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, said the service failed at every stage to assess the risk of killer Damien Bendall, who murdered his partner Terri Harris, her two children and their 11-year-old friend.\n\nMr Russell also said it was impossible to be sure the public was safe because of the quality of work in parts of the Probation Service, after Jordan McSweeney murdered law student Zara Aleena nine days after being released from prison.\n\nThe internal figures confirm inspectors' concerns about \"unmanageable workloads\", Mr Russell said. He added that staff shortages in some parts of the country are \"severely\" affecting the service's ability to manage offenders, including \"those who pose a serious threat to the public\".\n\nProbation officers play a critical role assessing how much risk criminals pose to us, during the sentencing process, during sentences served in the community, and after someone is released from prison.\n\nTheir jobs combine face-to-face meetings with criminals with writing reports and making checks to prevent them descending back into criminality.\n\nThe BBC has seen a snapshot of data from an internal Probation Service workload measurement system which monitors daily case numbers and warns if staff are operating beyond their capacity.\n\nThe numbers were collected this week and assess workload based on a points system which takes into account the complexity of cases.\n\nIn the 12 regions of England and Wales, 10 were operating at over 100% of capacity. Only Wales and the North East Region were just below.\n\nSeven were \"showing red\" with average scores of more than 110%.\n\nJustice Minister Alex Chalk said in 2021 that \"anyone over 110% for a period of four consecutive weeks is deemed to have an excessive workload\", adding that there were policies to help staff who meet this threshold.\n\nLondon is under most pressure at around 127% of its capacity on average, followed by the Yorkshire and Humber and Eastern England regions at 118%.\n\nOur analysis suggests at the moment the data was collected, more than 400 probation officers were working at 160% of their capacity or more, with some over 200%.\n\nThis includes probation officers still in training, as well as more experienced staff.\n\nIn some cases, staff had individual caseloads of more than 70 people.\n\nThe probation watchdog concluded in 2021 that \"in our opinion, it is difficult for even experienced practitioners to deal with 60, 70, 80 or more cases properly\".\n\nThe figures do fluctuate, but insiders told the BBC the pressure on the workforce creates an inevitable risk of mistakes.\n\nStaff said the workload makes it harder to dig deeper into cases and chase up checks with police forces, who often fail to respond.\n\n\"We are supposed to question everything, but people don't because it opens a can of worms,\" one said.\n\nEven offenders rated low and medium risk can be people capable of killing themselves and others, probation officers say.\n\nA string of cases have demonstrated the risks of failing to carry out checks. One murder a week is committed by an offender on probation.\n\nNadine Marshall, whose son Conner was murdered by David Braddon while he was on probation for drug offences and assaulting a police officer, said the data shows there are not enough probation workers and the service is \"completely inept\".\n\n\"Probation officers are being fed to the dogs by the management and structure of the probation system. They are left to carry a heavy load which is unsustainable,\" she said.\n\nNadine Marshall, pictured with son Conner, said the probation system is \"completely inept\"\n\nAn internal report on the case, marked \"sensitive\" but obtained by the BBC, describes a key probation officer involved feeling \"overwhelmed\" by work and says the \"alertness to risk\" had suffered.\n\nBraddon missed a number of meetings with the service and the reasons were not fully investigated, the report found.\n\nAt moments when an offender breaches the terms of their licence or sentencing conditions, the probation service is under pressure to gather evidence to support an offender being sent or returned to prison.\n\nA whistleblower told the BBC that if this does not happen, \"you're just sitting there waiting for another offence to be committed\".\n\nLow level breaches of sentence conditions are supposed to be dealt with within six days.\n\nBut a recent data snapshot for London also shown to the BBC reveals that of more than 860 breaches, 669 had not been resolved within that target time.\n\nAfter three months, 198 were still outstanding.\n\nA whistleblower told the BBC staff were \"burnt out\" and \"working late every night and weekends\".\n\nAnother junior probation officer said they had dealt with caseloads \"in the high 70s\", sometimes seeing up to 12 offenders a day, though recently the demand had reduced. At one point in the pandemic, an offender they were overseeing committed a serious offence.\n\nPressure on the probation service grew with changes in the law leading to an increasing number of cases requiring their attention.\n\nThen in 2013, there was a disastrous reorganisation of the service. It was reversed by 2021, but the probation inspectorate said it played a major part in pushing up workloads.\n\nCovid made matters worse, with probation officers reduced to going to offenders' doorsteps for face to face meetings.\n\nBy next month 4,000 new probation officers are being recruited, the Ministry of Justice said.\n\nBut front line officers are leaving because of the mental health pressures they face.\n\nIn the year up to September 2022, data reveals that mental health or behavioural issues were the cause of half of all days of staff absence. This figure is rising steadily.\n\nThe Ministry of Justice said \"we have taken immediate steps to address the serious issues raised by recent reviews and are investing £155m more every year into probation to improve the supervision of offenders.\"\n\nThe ministry said the extra spending would \"reduce officers' caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safe\".\n\nThe government is also introducing more rigorous requirements for prisoners to be given parole, and the power for the Justice Secretary Dominic Raab to prevent the most dangerous offenders being released.\n\nHave you been personally affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "New Zealand authorities has seized 3.2 tonnes of cocaine in its largest drug bust\n\nNew Zealand's navy has intercepted a floating haul of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean in what the country says is its largest drug bust ever.\n\nThe stash - weighing total 3.2 tonnes (3,200kg) and worth NZ$500m (£263m; $316m) - was found drifting hundreds of kilometres northwest of New Zealand.\n\nPolice believed it was destined for Australia, where it would have been enough to serve that market for a year.\n\nThe packages were strung up with buoys and some labelled with a Batman symbol.\n\nPictures released by New Zealand police and defence officials also showed cocaine packets labelled with a black four-leaf clover symbol.\n\nThese were the \"trademark logos\" for the drug producers, believed to be in South America, said New Zealand officials.\n\n\"This is the largest find of illicit drugs by New Zealand agencies, by some margin,\" said New Zealand's police commissioner Andrew Coster on Wednesday.\n\n\"It is more than New Zealand would use in 30 years,\" he added.\n\nSome bales had a Batman symbol on them...\n\nand others were wrapped in brown paper with a clover leaf sign\n\nNew Zealand's navy deployed a vessel to retrieve the massive shipment last week, which comprised 81 bales of cocaine.\n\nThey were brought to Auckland in New Zealand's North Island on Tuesday and taken to a security facility to be documented and destroyed, officials said.\n\n\"We believe we have dealt a significant blow to an international criminal syndicate's operation,\" Mr Coster said.\n\nAuthorities did not disclose details of the operation or how they found the drugs. But they said their partners in the Five Eyes intelligence group - which includes Australia, the UK, Canada, and the US - had provided assistance.", "Ongoing HS2 works at Jones Hill Wood in February 2023 in Great Missenden\n\nThe company building the controversial HS2 rail line has underestimated its impact on habitats and wildlife, according to a coalition of wildlife charities.\n\nA report by the Wildlife Trusts found that HS2 Ltd had missed trees, ponds and hedgerows off maps.\n\nIt said the methodology used to calculate the impact on biodiversity of the project was \"fundamentally flawed\".\n\nHS2 Ltd said the trusts' report was \"not reliable\".\n\nThe trusts are calling for construction to be paused and for the government to require HS2 Ltd to re-evaluate the impact construction has on nature.\n\nThe Wildlife Trusts said their investigation took a year to complete.\n\n\"In addition to the catalogue of errors when assessing the pre-existing nature, this audit found that HS2 Ltd's metric (its 'accounting tool' for assessing impacts on nature) is untested, out of date and fundamentally flawed,\" they said.\n\nFor developers to calculate the impact of construction projects on the natural world, features like streams, hedges and woods are given values that can fit into a spreadsheet and be accounted for.\n\nThe trusts' report said that mature hedgerows which \"provide berries, shelter and nesting places for wildlife\" had been given \"a lower nature value than the new hedgerows\" that HS2 Ltd would plant. It said some watercourses, ponds and trees had been \"missed out of the data\".\n\nUsing HS2 Ltd's data where possible, the report found that Phase One, which covers 140 miles of track between London and the West Midlands, would cause almost eight times \"more nature loss\" than accounted for by HS2 Ltd's calculations.\n\nPhase 2a between the West Midlands and Crewe would result in a 42% nature loss, compared with HS2 Ltd's prediction of 17%, according to the document.\n\nDr Rachel Giles from Cheshire Wildlife Trust and author of the report, said she had been shocked by the errors and discrepancies that their audit revealed.\n\n\"HS2 Ltd must stop using a deeply flawed method to calculate the value of nature affected by the construction of the route,\" she said. \"It is astonishing that a flagship infrastructure project is able to use a metric which is untested and not fit for purpose.\n\n\"HS2 Ltd should urgently recalculate the total loss to nature, by re-evaluating existing biodiversity along the entire route whilst there is still time to change the scheme's design and delivery.\"\n\nTom Oliver, professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading, told the BBC that the report was 'hugely worrying\".\n\nHe said that the methodology HS2 Ltd was using was \"ten years out of date\" and that the organisation was \"marking its own homework\".\n\n\"You can't go back in time and undo the phase one work that has happened, but for phase two the importance of these natural habitats is so great, the extra work in terms of recalculating ... seems a no-brainer.\"\n\nA National Eviction Team security patrol outside a fenced off part of Bluebell Wood in Staffordshire which is in the path of HS2\n\nResponding to the trusts' report, a spokesperson for HS2 Ltd said that the organisation \"didn't recognise the figures\" nor did it \"believe them to be reliable\".\n\n\"The Wildlife Trusts have undertaken limited desk research and have not accessed huge areas of land for undertaking ecological survey, in contrast to the ecologists who have compiled HS2's data,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nThey added that it was reviewing its assessment methodology, and intended to \"align more closely with the government's biodiversity metric once it is published in the coming months\".\n\nThe Trusts said that HS2 Ltd should immediately pause all construction and enabling work, and the bill that authorises the Crewe to Manchester leg of the line should be halted. It called on the company to re-map existing habitats and recalculate the impact on nature.", "That brings an end to our coverage of a busy day for both Volodymyr Zelensky and Rishi Sunak.\n\nToday's page has been edited by Jasmine Taylor-Coleman, Sam Hancock and Jamie Whitehead.\n\nIt was written by Aoife Walsh, Thomas Mackintosh, Emily McGarvey, Richard Morris and Chas Geiger.\n\nThank you for joining us.", "The prime minister's idea for all pupils in England to study some form of maths up until the age of 18 would be challenging to implement, experts say.\n\nA panel of specialists told the Education select committee they broadly support the \"worthy ambition\".\n\nHowever, a lack of maths teachers and a focus on exams meant \"fundamental reform\" would be needed, they said.\n\nIt comes after Rishi Sunak said the UK must \"reimagine our approach to numeracy\".\n\nLast month, Mr Sunak said \"in a world where data is everywhere and statistics underpin every job, letting our children out into that world without those skills is letting our children down\".\n\nThe Education Committee earlier questioned a panel of experts on what a system of studying maths to 18 should look like.\n\nIt heard that currently, a third of young people do not pass their GCSE in maths, creating \"alienation and disengagement\".\n\nNiamh Sweeney, the deputy general secretary of the National Education Union, said part of the problem was that the focus was on passing tests at a young age rather than enjoying learning maths.\n\nShe said the \"unfortunate announcement\" by Mr Sunak \"didn't come with a discussion about workforce\".\n\nThe majority of maths teachers were \"science, geography or PE teachers\" and it was \"really difficult\" to teach out of your subject and maintain high standards, she told the panel.\n\nA focus on maths could have a significant advantage for labour market skills and longer term economic benefits, the chief executive of National Numeracy, Sam Sims, said.\n\nDepending on the year, around 175,000 young people fail their GCSE maths, and that can have significant impact on their confidence, he said.\n\nHe said these young people \"fail by design\" because of the way the grading system works.\n\nMr Sims suggested it could be more like a driving test or \"passport-style certification\" which everybody could pass and which gives young people more confidence.\n\nSir Martin Taylor, chair of the advisory committee on mathematical education for the Royal Society, says there is a need for \"fundamental reform\".\n\nHe believes \"what\" is taught is key and that students need 21st Century skills, including data skills, which is what employers are asking for.\n\nMr Sunak's ambition was largely welcomed when it was announced but many questioned how it would work in practice.\n\nThe Department for Education said its policy teams were currently drawing up some options.", "It is widely expected that President Biden will announce in the next couple of months that he will runs for a second presidential term in 2024. Tonight we got a preview of his election platform.\n\nHe boasted about the job creation under his presidency, passage of the infrastructure bill, and manufucturing returning to America.\n\nAdd to that the much better than expected results for Democrats in last years midterm elections and you can see why Biden feels he is a good position to win a second term.\n\nAt the moment, he doesn’t have any serious challengers for the nomination. No other senior Democrats have dared put their names forward as potential candidates before Biden says he is running.\n\nYet convincing Americans he is fit to serve another term will be his big challenge. With low poll numbers, it doesn't necessarily look good for Biden.\n\nBut what his team are relying on is that by election day in 2024 voters will be feeling the benefit of some of the legislation that Biden has already passed.", "Special medals for MPs who are standing down or have been voted out are among suggestions to make the job more attractive to newcomers.\n\nA committee of MPs claims a lack of job support for ex-politicians could put people off a career in Parliament.\n\nOther ideas in their report include certificates for \"core skills\" gained as an MP to help them find work.\n\nEx-MPs should also get 18 months of job advice and support to avoid a post-politics \"career cliff\", it adds.\n\nConservative MP Sir Charles Walker, who chairs the Commons administration committee, said: \"If the public wants the best individuals to represent them in the House of Commons, it is vital that MPs receive the support they need to do - and leave - their jobs well.\"\n\nSir Charles, who is standing down as an MP himself at the next election, after 15 years representing Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire, said political parties also had a duty to ensure Parliament \"can attract and retain talented people of all different backgrounds from across the UK\".\n\nSome MPs had struggled to plan for their career after politics, and found it difficult to explain their skills to potential employers. according to the committee's research.\n\nIt had also heard evidence that the public nature of being an MP, and their \"political baggage\", could hinder their chances of landing a job in some lines of work.\n\nCharles Walker says support for MPs to do and leave their jobs is vital\n\nThe committee said the Commons authorities should work with colleges and universities to fund \"certified micro-qualifications\" for MPs to record the skills they gain in Parliament.\n\nIt also suggested departing MPs could be allowed to attend a special ceremony to mark their contribution to public life.\n\n\"This could be an event with family and friends and/or presentation with a medallion of service,\" it added, with eligibility to be decided by Commons bosses.\n\nMPs are paid a basic salary of £84,144, and receive expenses to cover office costs, employing staff, and having to stay in London.\n\nBBC Research in November 2021 found more than 200 of the 650 MPs declared earnings on top of this, ranging from £50 a year to almost £1m.\n\nMinisters and prime ministers earn a bigger salary - and few ex-PMs struggle for work when they leave politics, with some earning large sums from public speaking, book deals and seats on company boards.\n\nOthers, such as former chancellor George Osborne, who famously had as many as eight jobs at one time, and former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg, who is a top executive at Meta, parent company of Facebook, have enjoyed lucrative post-politics careers.\n\nLess is known about the post-politics activities of lower-profile MPs.\n\nOne academic survey of MPs who left Parliament after the 2010 election found almost half of those aged under 65, who responded, took at least three months to find a new job, with one in 10 taking a full year.\n\nAlthough half were earning more than they had done in Parliament, 40% earned less and 10% the same as their MPs' salary.\n\nThose landing well-paid directorships were a \"minority\", although the survey was carried out in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal, which was acknowledged by the researchers.\n\nIn its report, the committee said the Commons authorities should commission \"empirical data\" on MPs' post-politics careers to help improve careers support.\n• None Rethink over crackdown on MPs' second jobs\n• None Which MPs have second jobs?", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nMarcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho combined to deny manager-less Leeds a rare Old Trafford victory as Manchester United came back from two goals down to snatch a point from a thrilling Roses match.\n\nThe hosts looked finished when Raphael Varane turned Crysencio Summerville's cutback into his own net to put Leeds two ahead after Wilfried Gnonto had given them a first-minute lead.\n\nBut Rashford halved the deficit when he headed home Diogo Dalot's inviting cross before Sancho, only just back to first-team duties after recovering from physical and mental issues, scored his first Premier League goal since September when he drove home from 10 yards after Luke Shaw's initial shot had been blocked.\n\nVarane brought an excellent save out of Illan Meslier as Manchester United hunted a goal to extend their 13-match winning streak on home soil.\n\nAnything less than a point would have been extremely harsh on Leeds, who sacked manager Jesse Marsch on Monday, and they also hit the post through Brenden Aaronson in between the home side's two goals.\n\nThe result moves them a point clear of the relegation zone and above West Ham into 16th, although after this superb contest, the Elland Road rematch in four days' time will be an occasion to relish.\n• None Reaction to the thrilling draw between Man Utd and Leeds\n• None Go straight to all the best Manchester United content\n\nThe general narrative around Elland Road in the wake of Marsch's dismissal has been that the Leeds' hierarchy would use a week that features two games against Manchester United to recruit a replacement before key clashes with relegation rivals Everton and Southampton later this month.\n\nLeeds had not won a league game at Old Trafford since 1981 and before kick-off many of their fans were speculating about what their margin of defeat would be, rather than whether they could get something from the game.\n\nThat assessment reckoned without a super motivated Leeds team, led by former England futsal head coach Michael Skubala and lethargic hosts, who began with a sloppiness seldom seen under Ten Hag since that woeful opening to his tenure that featured defeats to Brighton and Brentford.\n\nItalian teenager Gnonto took maximum advantage of the room afforded to him by a failure to track his first-minute surge to the edge of the area by burying his shot in the bottom corner.\n\nIf he was watching as Varane turned Summerville's cutback into his own net three minutes after the break, Marsch must have wondered why he could not have enjoyed the same slices of fortune.\n\nLeeds are not his responsibility now of course and Skubala's celebrations on the touchline were full of sheer delight, along with those of a coaching team that includes Chris Armas, who spent the second half of last term being derided for his contribution to Ralf Rangnick's Manchester United staff.\n\nFootball management is not so easy though and Skubala went through a full range of emotions as Manchester United fought back, appealing for every throw and free-kick, no matter how obviously it was that they were not his team's.\n\nHowever, with the backing of their noisy support, Leeds made it to the final whistle, lifting some of the pressure off the players and placing the focus back on sporting director Victor Orta, who returned from a trip to Madrid talking to potential managers to see for himself the battling spirit that remains in this group of players.\n\n\"I've been really busy just looking after this job for the last few days,\" said Skubala, adding he did not know whether he would be in charge at the weekend. \"That's up to other people to decide but it's a great opportunity for the players and the staff.\n\n\"If I'm called upon then I just want to help the club in the best way I can.\"\n\nLeeds' supporters paired Rashford and Sancho in a 'you let your country down' song.\n\nThe pair's careers have moved in different directions since that Euro 2020 penalty shootout loss to Italy.\n\nRashford has now scored 20 goals in all competitions - and 12 since the World Cup, when he excelled.\n\nSancho's likely omission from Gareth Southgate's squad for Qatar was put forward as one of the reasons why his early-season form deteriorated, bringing with it physical and mental issues it took a spell training on his own to overcome.\n\nThe former Borussia Dortmund winger's celebration as he ran away had an element of relief to it.\n\nAt a time when Manchester United are without the creativity of Christian Eriksen, the unpredictability of Antony and game management skills of Casemiro, Sancho's quality is something Ten Hag really needs right now.\n• None Attempt missed. Fred (Manchester United) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left.\n• None Attempt blocked. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Jadon Sancho.\n• None Attempt saved. Fred (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Marcus Rashford.\n• None Attempt blocked. Fred (Manchester United) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Jadon Sancho.\n• None Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Luke Shaw with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Jadon Sancho.\n• None Marcel Sabitzer (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Mr McDonald decided to go public to warn others of the risks\n\nAn MP has told the BBC his emails have been stolen and he fears they will be made public.\n\nThe SNP's Stewart McDonald said the hack took place in January and he wanted to pre-empt any publication sharing them.\n\nThe group responsible are believed to be linked to Russia's spy services.\n\nThe UK's cyber-defence agency has warned about targeted attacks on politicians in recent weeks.\n\nOn 13 January Mr McDonald was walking down the street when he received a notification on his phone.\n\nThere was a new message in the MP's private email account.\n\nHe glanced at it - it was from a member of his staff.\n\nThere was nothing suspicious about it and it came from the staff member's real email account.\n\nThe message said there was a password-protected document attached which had a military update on Ukraine.\n\nThis made sense as the MP for Glasgow South had taken a close interest in Ukraine for a number of years, receiving the order of merit from the Ukrainian government.\n\nHe had also been the defence spokesperson for the SNP until last year.\n\nIt brought up a login page for the email account he was using. He put in his password.\n\nStrangely, it then brought up a blank page.\n\nPerhaps it was not loading properly on his phone, he thought?\n\nHe would ask the staff member to resend it next time they spoke.\n\nWhat he did not know yet was that a hacking group believed to be linked to Russia's intelligence services was now inside his account - a group which has on other occasions published emails belonging to public figures.\n\nA few days later, the member of staff mentioned to the MP that he had been locked out of his personal email account because of suspicious activity and was having problems trying to prove his identity and get back in.\n\n\"I meant to ask you about that email you sent. I couldn't open the attachment,\" Mr McDonald recalls saying to him.\n\n\"I didn't send any email,\" the member of staff replied.\n\nAlarm bells were now ringing for the MP.\n\nThe advice was to contact the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), an arm of the UK's intelligence agency, GCHQ.\n\nWorking with the parliamentary security team, they asked for the email and attachment to be sent so they could examine it.\n\nThe NCSC was already preparing to issue an advisory about a hacking group, known as Seaborgium saying it was responsible for a highly targeted campaign against individuals including politicians, activists and journalists.\n\nThat advisory tallies closely with what Mr McDonald experienced - the compromise of individuals, like his staff member, so they can in turn be used to send emails to the primary target.\n\nThese are highly targeted and sophisticated attacks against a small number of people rather than the broad-brush sending of malicious emails that are usually seen.\n\nSources say the advisory was long-planned and confirm the same group is believed to be behind the hack of Mr McDonald's account.\n\nThe British government has not formally accused the Russian state of being behind the group or the hacks but within the wider cyber-security community the group has been identified as linked to Russia's intelligence services.\n\nThe same group is said to have published hacked emails and documents by other individuals, including the former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove, as well as journalist Paul Mason.\n\nMr McDonald says he has decided to go public to warn others of the risks and limit the potential damage as he waits to see what the hackers do with the stolen material.\n\n\"If it is indeed a malicious state-backed group, then, in line with what I've seen elsewhere, I expect them to dump some of the information online.\n\n\"And I can expect them to manipulate and fake some of that content and I want to get out ahead of that to ensure any disinformation attack against me is discredited before it's even published,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"An incident has been reported to us and we are providing the individual with support,\" a spokesperson for the NCSC told the BBC.\n\n\"The NCSC regularly provides security briefings and guidance to parliamentarians to help them defend against the latest cyber threats. This includes expert advice for MPs and their staff available on the NCSC website.\"\n\nMr McDonald continues to be unsure what - if anything - will be done with the stolen material. Even though he was aware of the risks before the incident he has since then taken additional steps to secure his accounts.\n\n\"It can catch people even those who are alive to these threats,\" he said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Onlookers wait in silence - before a woman is carried alive from the rubble days after earthquake\n\nRescue workers called for silence at a fallen apartment building in the southern Turkish city of Iskenderun on Wednesday after hearing signs of life beneath the mounds of rubble.\n\nOnlookers including family, friends and neighbours of the building's residents stopped talking, while cranes and other machinery nearby were switched off.\n\nAfter minutes of silence, rescuers called out for an ambulance, confirming that a woman had been found alive.\n\nThe crowd broke into cheers and tears.\n\nOne woman, whose cousin and aunt lived in the building and are still missing, fell back onto a car bonnet and buried her face in her hands.\n\nOnlookers told the BBC it marked the first time a survivor had been found at the six-storey apartment block since Monday's earthquake reduced it to rubble.\n\nShortly before they were found, a body had been pulled from the debris just a few metres away.\n\nRescue workers and volunteers quickly formed a chain to carry the woman to a waiting ambulance.\n\nLocal residents said she was a single mother in her 50s who lived alone in the building. Her son stood by the ambulance and watched as she was carried down, they added.\n\nSeveral onlookers said it gave them renewed hope that their own missing loved ones would be found. One said she was hoping for a \"miracle\".\n\nRescue workers hugged as the woman was taken away - a rare moment of hope and happiness among so much devastation.\n\nRescue workers hugged each other after the woman was saved\n\nThe mood at the Iskenderun apartment block quickly became sombre again as rescuers resumed the slow work of searching the rubble, largely by hand.\n\nLocal doctor Mehmet Riyat told the BBC medical staff had been overwhelmed since Monday.\n\n\"We've had patients who have been crushed. We've seen lots of broken bones, broken necks, head injuries. And lots of deaths,\" he said.\n\n\"As doctors we have to do our jobs. But when the support teams take over, then we think about our own families.\"\n\nThere is destruction everywhere you turn in Iskenderun - many buildings have been destroyed, including a busy hospital.\n\nTurkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back on Wednesday at mounting anger over the state's response to the disaster. Critics have said emergency efforts have been too slow and that not enough was done to prepare the earthquake-prone region by his government.\n\nBut Mr Erdogan said: \"It's not possible to be prepared for a disaster this big.\"\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck early on Monday morning near the southern city of Gaziantep, which is close to the Syrian border. The death toll currently stands at more than 11,000 people across both countries.", "The UK's reputation for financial stability was dented by a year of political turmoil, says the boss of insurance giant Lloyd's of London.\n\nJohn Neal said confidence in the UK had been hit by a high turnover of prime ministers and a mini-budget which saw the pound drop and mortgage rates soar.\n\nHe said he believed the government could recover its credibility by working with business to get it right.\n\nThe government said it had taken action to \"restore economic stability\".\n\nAs the world's largest insurance market, Lloyd's of London is one of the leading financial institutions in the City of London. It insures a variety of risks from all over the world and is sensitive to the UK's reputation.\n\nMr Neal said the UK's reputation for economic stability had suffered in September when then-Prime Minister Liz Truss and then-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced £45bn of unfunded tax cuts.\n\nThis was followed by days of turmoil on the markets, a fall in the value of the pound and rises in the cost of UK government borrowing and mortgage rates.\n\nMr Neal said other factors that harmed the UK's reputation included having three prime ministers and four chancellors in 2022 as well as the additional costs associated with Brexit.\n\n\"All of them don't help us because I think we had huge credibility around stability and certainty,\" he said. \"And I think what we need to do through 2023 and 2024 is begin to rebuild that stability.\"\n\nHe said the UK should not take its position as a global financial centre for granted.\n\n\"We're at an important moment. We've really got to re-prove our value proposition, I think there's a responsibility on government and us in business to get it right.\n\n\"I think we can get it right but we have got to work hard,\" he said.\n\nThe government said it had taken \"difficult decisions on tax and spend\" to restore economic stability in the UK.\n\n\"We are now focusing on halving inflation, reducing our debt, and growing the economy - including reforming EU-era insurance rules that could unlock over £100bn in investment,\" a spokesperson added.\n\nJohn Neal said three prime ministers and four chancellors in one year had not helped the UK's reputation for stability\n\nLast year was not just a turbulent 12 months in politics, it was a risky and expensive one for insurers. The industry saw losses of more than $120bn (£100bn) from natural disasters - 20% higher than the five-year average.\n\nMr Neal predicted the increasing frequency and severity of floods, hurricanes and wildfires would see that trend continue to rise as the climate changes.\n\n\"I would be really disappointed if you ever sat down with an insurer who denied climate because the statistics are terrifying both in terms of frequency and severity,\" he said.\n\nThe Lloyds market could provide insurance of up to $200bn but at a cost, he added.\n\n\"We can provide insurance but does the cost of that insurance go up? The answer is definitively yes. But there still is an opportunity for the individual to be protected.\"\n\nYou might expect an insurance salesman to say that but he said there are some risks the Lloyd's market could not fully cover.\n\nOne of the fastest emerging classes of risk is cyber-attack. So far the market is small - just $12bn worldwide - but Lloyds has made it clear that state-sponsored systemic cyber-attacks will not be covered.\n\n\"If it was a Russian state-sponsored attack that systemically attacks software, you know, there's no way that any industry has got the money to cover that. That could be a loss of $300 or $400bn I mean, it could be that big,\" Mr Neal said.\n\nAsked how Lloyd's would know if an attack had been launched by a state, he said: \"We would have to take our lead from governments as to how they classified such an attack.\"\n\nGiven the stakes, that could make for an interesting conversation between governments and insurers as to who pays for what.\n\nA more recent systemic risk was Covid and Mr Neal admitted the pandemic was not a great moment for Lloyd's.\n\nThere were protracted disputes about whether so-called business interruption policies to compensate firms for closure were covered by existing policies. There has been a fourfold increase in legal action against insurers for unpaid claims.\n\n\"It [insurance] didn't do its job I agree. So I don't think that was a good day. And I think there's a real pressure on us for ourselves, and the regulators not to repeat that situation,\" he said.\n\nBut Mr Neal insisted the world has rarely needed insurance more.\n\n\"There are only three times in 200 years when we really mattered. And this is one of them,\" he said.\n\n\"If you think of recent events, you know we've had Brexit, we've had Covid, the evidence of systemic risk. We debate climate, we've got war in the Ukraine.\n\n\"Whether you're an individual going through the economic challenges that everybody has today with food prices and energy prices, or a business, risk is at the forefront of your mind.\n\n\"And our job on our best day is to give an individual or a business the confidence to make the brave financial decisions they need to make.\"\n• None How much market chaos did the mini-budget cause?", "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex could be questioned as part of a US defamation case brought by Meghan's half-sister.\n\nSamantha Markle is suing Meghan for \"defamation and injurious falsehoods\", including claims, in an Oprah Winfrey TV interview, of being an \"only child\".\n\nShe is seeking $75,000 (£62,000) damages in a case lodged in March 2022.\n\nOn Tuesday, a judge rejected a bid to stop Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, from having to give evidence in a legal deposition.\n\nA deposition is a formal testimony from a witness or someone involved in a case, given outside of court but under oath.\n\nAnd the ruling, by judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell, in a district court in Florida, means if the case goes further ahead, Meghan and Prince Harry could have to face such questioning.\n\nBut the judge added that a \"preliminary peek\" suggested some of the claims \"may be ripe for dismissal\".\n\nCourt papers in the civil case show that Samantha alleges Meghan:\n\nCourt documents show that Samantha claimed she had a much closer relationship with her half-sister, with \"frequent and regular contact\" throughout her childhood. And she recalls how their father paid for Meghan's \"expensive\" private education and helped launch her acting career.\n\nThe claims are accompanied by 38 \"requests for admission\", which seek to put statements and questions to Meghan.\n\nThis includes the statement: \"Your sister Samantha Markle has driven you to school on a regular basis at a certain period of your life.\"\n\nAccording to court documents, the response from Meghan's legal team is that this is a \"vague and ambiguous\" request and \"not relevant to any party's claim or defence\".\n\nIn response to \"You are not an only child,\" the reply from Meghan's lawyers is that \"a statement that she grew up or did not grow up as an 'only child' cannot be defamatory as a matter of law\".\n\nThey argue that a comment about an only child \"does not distinguish between biological relations, on the one hand, and the manner in which a child was raised, on the other\".\n\nOther statements in Samantha's claim, inviting a response, include \"Queen Elizabeth was not a racist,\" and \"King Charles is not a racist,\" which drew the reply from Meghan's lawyers that this was \"not relevant to any party's claim or defence\".", "Archie's mother, Hollie Dance, says she has been subjected to \"vile\" online abuse\n\nArchie Battersbee died accidentally following a \"prank or experiment\" that went wrong, a coroner concluded.\n\nArchie, 12, was found unconscious at the family home in Southend-on-Sea on 7 April.\n\nHe died four months later in August, following his parents' legal battle with the NHS hospital treating him in London.\n\nThe coroner said there was no evidence he was doing an online challenge at the time, as his mother first believed.\n\nHollie Dance had asked Essex Police to look at her son Archie's phone for any evidence he may have been taking part in a challenge.\n\nNo images or videos of Archie taking part in online challenges were found, a detective told the inquest.\n\nSenior Coroner for Essex, Lincoln Brookes, said he could not \"rule out the possibility\" that was what happened and nor could police, but he said a decision had to be made based on the evidence.\n\nHis medical cause of death was recorded as an unsurvivable catastrophic hypoxic ischemic brain injury.\n\nMr Brookes said Archie \"hadn't intended to harm himself but had done so inadvertently during a prank or experiment that went wrong\".\n\nHe added that it \"probably went wrong very quickly and very badly\".\n\nHe said he had considered a conclusion of suicide, but ruled this out.\n\nWhile Archie had expressed periods of low mood in the preceding 12 months there was no evidence of it at the time of his death, the coroner said.\n\n\"He was full of energy, he was very physical, he was at times very bored,\" said Mr Brookes.\n\n\"He liked to trick, he liked sometimes to carry out acts, or some might describe them as stunts, that would alarm people,\" he said.\n\nArchie's mother Hollie Dance said she believed the coroner's conclusion was correct\n\nSpeaking outside court Ms Dance said she felt the outcome \"was correct\".\n\nShe said the family now wanted time \"to grieve\" but that she would continue to tackle online bullying.\n\nArchie Battersbee was sent a voice note four days before he died telling him his mum had wanted to abort him\n\nMs Dance had said previously that she and members of her family had been subjected to abusive messages from \"online trolls\".\n\n\"The whole idea of raising awareness from day one, even when we weren't 100% sure what Archie had done, was to raise awareness to other parents to prevent something happening again,\" she said.\n\n\"I think we have done that, despite the fact we've been trolled so heavily, it's been worth it.\n\n\"I do think we have saved children's lives.\"\n\nShe said she wanted her son to be remembered as a \"fun-loving, very energetic\" child.\n\nHollie Dance said \"I do think we have saved children's lives\"\n\nThe inquest in Chelmsford heard that Archie received a voice note days before he was found unconscious which told him his mother had wanted to have an abortion.\n\nDet Sgt Tiffany Gore told the inquest officers found a voice note from 3 April in which a young male voice said: \"Oi Archie, do you know why you're angry?\n\n\"Because your mum wanted you to be an abortion.\"\n\nShe said that a second audio note on the same date said: \"You and your mum are the ones sat there all night using.\"\n\nAnother \"heated exchange\" was found dated 15 February 2022 with \"a number of voice notes\" in a second young male voice, she said.\n\nMr Brookes said it could be characterised as a \"heated exchange of bravado\" where threats were exchanged.\n\nVideos and images on Archie's phone showed the youngster taking part in martial arts and \"showed a happy little boy enjoying his hobbies\", the officer said.\n\nThe inquest heard that although Archie had TikTok on his phone, the police had not been able to say for certain he had never seen any online challenges or something containing suicidal thoughts.\n\nHowever, they did establish there had been no internet searches related to online challenges.\n\nArchie's siblings said they could not imagine he would ever intentionally harm himself\n\nThomas Summers, Archie's older brother, described him as a \"joker\".\n\nHe said he had spoken to him hours before he was found unconscious and Archie had told him he was looking to buy a new coat.\n\n\"I do not believe Archie would have intentionally harmed himself in any way when just a few hours before he was looking to buy a coat,\" said his brother.\n\nHe added that Archie was concentrating on his first MMA fight, which was a few weeks away.\n\nArchie's older sister Lauren Summers said she could not recall \"any signs or indications of Archie being in a low mood or displaying unusual behaviour\".\n\nMatthew Badcock, the head teacher at Archie's former primary school, said: \"Although Archie was challenging, he was lovely with it and rarely disrespectful.\"\n\nHe described times when Archie \"would go to the top of the stairwell and was hanging over the top and staff had to pull him back\".\n\nHe said that when he heard of the incident he \"never for one second believed\" Archie was trying to harm himself.\n\n\"My gut reaction was he was doing something athletic or mucking about and it had gone wrong,\" said Mr Badcock.\n\nArchie's parents Paul Battersbee and Hollie Dance spent months in a legal battle with the hospital trust treating him\n\nArchie was on life support at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, and his parents, Paul Battersbee and Hollie Dance, opposed plans to end his life support treatment, but lost a legal battle in the courts.\n\nDr Malik Ramadhan, the medical director of the hospital, but not one of Archie's treating clinicians, was asked to give an overview of Archie's time there.\n\nHe said that when Archie arrived from Southend Hospital there were \"signs of neurological damage\".\n\n\"An initial electrical test of his brain showed there was no activity,\" he said.\n\n\"It was repeated with music being played and his mother with him to see if there was any response and there was no response to any outside stimulation.\"\n\nHe said that the hospital formed the view that it was \"not a survivable injury\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "On Wednesday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise trip to the UK to speak in Westminster Hall and meet King Charles at Buckingham Palace.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak shared a warm embrace with Mr Zelensky when he arrived at Stansted Airport (above).\n\nThe two leaders waved outside Downing Street, before heading inside.\n\nMr Sunak then went to the Commons for the weekly Prime Minster's Questions.\n\nIn his opening words, he said he was \"delighted\" that Mr Zelensky was visiting the UK.\n\nHe said it was \"testament to the unbreakable friendship\" between the UK and Ukraine.\n\nLater on, Mr Zelensky met Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Speaker of the House of Lords, Lord McFall (above and below).\n\nMr Zelensky signed the guestbook at Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster.\n\nHe also met Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party.\n\nMr Zelensky arrived on stage in Westminster Hall and was met with rapturous applause.\n\nSir Lindsay introduced Mr Zelensky and reflected on an afternoon tea the pair shared in October 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"Little did we know our relationship would grow in such turbulent times,\" Sir Lindsay said.\n\nHe spoke about the first speech, made virtually, by Mr Zelensky to the Commons last March, describing the atmosphere as \"electrifying\".\n\nHe said Parliament was \"honoured you put yourself at risk to address us\" in person on Wednesday.\n\nMr Zelensky then spoke in English and said he was there to represent Ukrainian warriors, \"on behalf of our war heroes who are in the trenches protecting Ukraine against enemy missiles\".\n\nMr Zelensky thanked the UK for providing equipment to his soldiers and training for those on the front line, and said the UK has been standing with Kyiv \"since day one\".\n\nThe leader then presented Sir Lindsay with a Ukrainian fighter pilot's helmet.\n\nThe pilot it belonged to is \"one of the most successful aces, and he's one of our kings\", Mr Zelensky said.\n\nThe writing on the helmet reads \"we have freedom, give us wings to protect it\".\n\nThe president then travelled to Buckingham Palace to meet King Charles.\n\nThe two men were pictured standing together as the King held an audience with the Ukrainian president - the first time they had met in person.\n\nMr Sunak and Mr Zelensky then flew together in a helicopter to Dorset for the next stop on the UK visit.\n\nThey were pictured laughing at something on the PM's phone as they prepared to take off.\n\nThey landed at Lulworth Camp, a military base in Dorset, flanked by their teams and military figures.\n\nThe Ukrainian president met soldiers who are being trained in the UK on how to operate Challenger 2 tanks.\n\nHe took time to present medals to some of the troops who will soon be sent to the front line.\n\nMr Sunak and Mr Zelensky gave a joint press conference in front of a tank, the same model the UK is donating to the Ukrainian war effort.\n\nThe PM said \"nothing is off the table\" when asked about providing fighter jets to Ukraine.\n\nSending warplanes was \"part of the conversation\", he told reporters, hours after Number 10 said the defence secretary has been asked to investigate what jets the UK could potentially give.", "The US Navy has released photos of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot out of the sky on Saturday.\n\nThe US Fleet Forces Command posted several photos on its Facebook page showing large debris of the balloon being hauled into a boat.\n\nThe post said the sailors retrieving the debris on Sunday were part of the Navy's specialist explosives team.\n\nThe device will now be examined to see whether it was indeed spy equipment.\n\nUS officials have described the balloon as being about 200 ft (60m) tall, with the payload portion comparable in size to regional airliners and weighing hundreds - or potentially thousands - of pounds.\n\nChina has repeatedly insisted that the \"airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure - it was completely an accident\".\n\nOn Tuesday, US officials said the Pentagon sought to arrange a phone call between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart after the balloon was shot down, but was rebuffed by China.\n\n\"Lines between our militaries are particularly important in moments like this,\" defence press secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said in a statement. \"Unfortunately, the PRC has declined our request.\"\n\nThe discovery of the balloon set off a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately calling off a weekend trip to China - the first such high level US-China meeting there in years - over the \"irresponsible act\".\n\nThe balloon was retrieved off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a day after being shot down by a fighter jet.\n\nThe navy said the debris was spread over seven miles (11km) of the Atlantic Ocean, and two naval ships - including one with a heavy crane for recovery - were sent to the area. However, the photos reveal the piles of balloon material were able to be pulled aboard by hand.\n\nThe US military has also deployed unmanned underwater vehicles as part of the search effort.\n\nExperts say that the wreckage of the balloon could provide the US with valuable insight into Chinese aerial surveillance technology and techniques, allowing them to better understand what the balloon was capable of and how it transmitted information.\n\nEfforts to recover the balloon's equipment, however, have been complicated by the need to ensure that US personnel are kept safe from potentially dangerous materials, such as explosives or battery components.\n\nUS defence officials first announced they were tracking the strange object on Thursday, and waited until it was safely over water before shooting it down.\n\nFootage on US TV networks showed the balloon falling to the sea after a small explosion.\n\nOn Friday, the Pentagon said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted - this time over Latin America with reported sightings over Costa Rica and Venezuela.\n\nColombia's Air Force says an identified object - believed to be a balloon - was detected on 3 February in the country's airspace at above 55,000ft.\n\nIt says it followed the object until it left the airspace, adding that it did not represent a threat to national security.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Ex-CEO Steve Easterbrook has apologised for failing to uphold the firm's values\n\nMcDonald's has settled a lawsuit in which its former chief executive, Steve Easterbook, has returned equity awards and cash worth over $105m.\n\nThe fast food chain had claimed that Mr Easterbrook hid and lied about sexual relationships with three staff.\n\nMr Easterbrook apologised for failing to uphold the firm's values and fulfil his responsibilities.\n\nThe British businessman, 54, initially received the $105m in a severance package in 2019.\n\nHe was fired in November that year, after admitting to having had a consensual relationship with one employee.\n\nAt the time, McDonald's said Mr Easterbrook had \"violated company policy\" and shown \"poor judgement\".\n\nBut further investigation uncovered two more hidden relationships and the firm said that, had it been aware of this, it would not have approved his multi-million dollar pay-off.\n\n\"This settlement holds Steve Easterbrook accountable for his clear misconduct, including the way in which he exploited his position as CEO,\" McDonald's chairman Enrique Hernandez Jr said on Thursday.\n\n\"Today's resolution avoids a protracted court process and moves us beyond a chapter that belongs in our past.\"\n\nIn July 2019, an anonymous tip-off led investigators to find that Mr Easterbrook had sent sexually explicit photographs of three employees to his personal email from his company address.\n\nInvestigators also found messages showing that he approved a grant of company shares worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the employees \"shortly after their first sexual encounter\".\n\nMcDonald's said it had not initially found the photos and messages because Mr Easterbrook had deleted them from his phone.\n\nIt claimed Mr Easterbrook violated his duty to the company by lying when asked about his behaviour in an effort to secure a bigger severance package, committing fraud.\n\nBut Mr Easterbrook's lawyers called the suit \"meritless\", claiming McDonald's had details about his relationships on its computer systems at the time it negotiated the severance deal.\n\nThe case has come as McDonald's faces scrutiny over alleged sexual harassment in its restaurants.\n\nIn April, the chain announced it would implement new training at its 39,000 restaurants to prevent harassment and promote safe and respectful workplaces. The majority of its restaurants are run by franchisees, who will be required to meet the new safer workplace standards starting in January 2022.\n\nThe announcement came after it faced lawsuits by some female employees.\n\nMr Easterbrook, 54, first worked for McDonald's in 1993 as a manager in London before working his way up the company. He left in 2011 to become boss of Pizza Express and then Asian food chain Wagamama, before returning to McDonald's in 2013, eventually becoming its chief executive in 2015.", "Blakers, Green, Zhao and Wang (left to right) worked together at the University of New South Wales\n\nFour pioneers behind the electricity-generating silicon solar cell have won this year's Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.\n\nMartin Green, Andrew Blakers, Jianhua Zhao and Aihua Wang developed so-called Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell, or Perc, technology.\n\nThis transformed the efficiency of solar panels and is now built into 90% of all installations worldwide.\n\nThe team is to be honoured at a special ceremony later in the year.\n\nThe quartet will share a £500,000 award and a trophy, to be presented by the Princess Royal.\n\n\"Our winners did something wonderful, which was to increase the efficiency with which a solar cell converts light into electricity, and it was a really quite dramatic change,\" explained Lord Browne of Madingley, chairman of the QE Prize for Engineering Foundation.\n\n\"With their breakthrough we went from around 16-18% efficiency to something like 25%. That's a big jump,\" he told BBC News.\n\nToday, solar uptake is rocketing as the world tries to move away from fossil fuels. Some estimates suggest that by the 2030s, solar will have more installed capacity than coal, oil, gas, nuclear and hydro put together.\n\nWhen Australian Martin Green started investigating solar energy following the oil crisis of the 1970s, solar cells were used largely just on satellites in space.\n\nIf you'd wanted to put that technology on your roof, it would have cost much more than your house.\n\nBut Prof Green's persistence kicked off a revolution. And with Prof Blakers and Drs Zhao and Wang in his University of New South Wales laboratory, the team not only managed to drive up efficiency but do it in a way that became relatively straightforward to manufacture.\n\nIn a solar cell, photons - or particles of light - strike silicon atoms to free electrons and set up a current. Perc technology boosted performance by remodelling the rear of the cell to reduce the ability of electrons to recombine with atoms. It also kept many more photons in play.\n\nProf Blakers recalled: \"Traditionally, the rear surface just had a layer of metal aluminium printed directly into it, and so that wasn't a very good reflector of light. And it also gobbled up any electron that went anywhere near the back surface.\n\n\"Replacing that crude back metal contact with a more sophisticated contact served both purposes and led to quite significant increases in cell efficiency.\"\n\nThe right properties for the rear surface were found in materials such as silicon dioxide, aluminium oxide and silicon nitride.\n\nIndustry started to pick up the Perc approach in 2012, and by 2018 it had become utterly dominant, with China positioning itself as the home of global production. Extraordinarily, one out of every seven panels produced worldwide is now manufactured by a single Chinese facility, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).\n\nThe country's supremacy can be laid directly at the feet of Drs Zhao and Wang and other Chinese students who studied in Prof Green's lab and then returned home to initiate manufacturing.\n\n\"We were among the first to start Perc production,\" said Dr Zhao.\n\n\"There are two provinces that do most of the manufacturing today. China dominates because of cost; it's so much cheaper to produce solar panels there,\" added Dr Wang.\n\nCommercial cells typically have efficiencies - the amount of electrical energy that can be extracted from the input of sunlight - of 22-23%. The theoretical upper-limit is about 29%.\n\nSolar cell manufacturing is totally dominated today by China - thanks in part to Drs Zhao and Wang\n\nProf Green is experimenting with \"cell modules\" in which materials are stacked on top of silicon and customised to collect the photons in the sunlight spectrum that might ordinarily be lost in a standard set-up.\n\n\"We hold the world record for efficiency in a cell module of 40.6%,\" he told BBC News. \"But it's hard to see how this approach can be made cheap enough for commercial production. There's a lot of interest right now in a material called perovskite - a common mineral - but the cells use heavy elements, like lead. The cells also aren't as stable as silicon.\"\n\nThe IEA is expecting global solar capacity to almost triple over the 2022-2027 period. Currently, solar is providing about half of new-build electricity generation capacity worldwide.\n\nEven given this rapid uptake, Prof Alan Finkel, a former chief scientific advisor to the Australian government, believes \"transforming our energy system will be the hardest economic challenge in human history\".\n\n\"Solar is a wonderful source of clean energy that's significant across the planet, not just in advanced countries but also in less well developed countries. It's easier to put in a solar-powered micro-grid than it is to bring a transmission line from a coal-fired generator. Solar is cheap, reliable and durable, and it will do the heavy-lifting to get us away from fossil fuels,\" he said.\n\nProf Green has previously won the Global Energy Prize, the Japan Prize and the Millennium Technology Prize. He has now supervised over 120 PhD students, including Andrew Blakers, Jianhua Zhao and Aihua Wang.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Martin Green: \"Silicon is an ideal material for photovoltaics. Abundant, non toxic and stable\"", "Entire city blocks have been turned to rubble in the city of Antakya\n\nBodies of people killed in the earthquake in southern Turkey on Monday are being left out on the street as the hunt continues for survivors.\n\nMore than 7,000 people are known to have died in Turkey and northern Syria, which was also devastated by the quake.\n\nThe United Nations warned that thousands of children may be among the dead.\n\nMonday's 7.8 magnitude quake struck at 04:17 (01:17 GMT) near the city of Gaziantep.\n\nA later tremor was nearly as big, with its epicentre in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.\n\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a three-month state of emergency in the 10 provinces worst affected by the earthquake.\n\nHe said the measures would allow relief workers and financial aid into the affected regions but did not give further details.\n\nAround 70 countries are sending aid to Turkey, but there is growing anger in some places that help is not arriving fast enough.\n\nIn the city of Antakya, some of the dead were left laid out on the pavement for hours as rescue workers and ambulances struggled to cope with the scale of the disaster.\n\nFamily members of those missing combed through the rubble looking for their loved ones. A group of men using sledgehammers and other tools found the bodies of a man and a young girl who were trapped. They called to official rescuers to use their power tools to help, but they said they had to concentrate on the living.\n\nThe men kept digging until the bodies were freed.\n\nThere is growing anger that there isn't enough help. One woman told the BBC that rescuers came and took pictures of the building belonging to her boyfriend's family where they believed 11 people were trapped, but they didn't return.\n\nShe said they heard voices for hours, but then there was silence.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFurther north in Kahramanmaras, close to the epicentre of the second quake, there is a delay in help arriving because the mountainous roads are gridlocked by those trying to leave.\n\nRows of buildings have collapsed into piles of debris that rescuers are trying to cope with, while a bitterly cold wind blew smoke and dust from the rubble into their eyes.\n\nSurvivors now living on the streets are having to hunt for food and to burn furniture they find to keep warm. Temperatures are expected to drop below freezing later this week.\n\nIt's a similar situation in the port city of Iskenderun, where now homeless people are taking shelter in open space away from buildings.\n\nOne woman the BBC spoke to is sheltering with her children and grandchildren, including a six-year-old who has epilepsy. Relief workers have brought them duvets and they have been given some bread but there has been no other support so far.\n\n\"I'm devastated,\" a doctor at a local hospital told Reuters. \"I see bodies inside, everywhere. Although I'm used to seeing bodies because of my expertise, it's very difficult also for me.\"\n\nThe port in Iskenderun has been closed until further notice because of a major fire, meaning ships carrying cargo bound for the earthquake disaster zone are being diverted.\n\nThe blaze is thought to have been caused when an oil-filled shipping container tipped over as a result of the earthquake and then flames spread to the surrounding freight.\n\nEmergency services are having trouble getting access to the site because of damage from the quake and other containers now blocking the entrance. An attempt to use a fire-fighting boat to tackle the blaze has failed.\n\nThe port at Iskenderun has been closed until further notice due to a fire\n\nThere have also been reports of difficulties getting aid to northern Syria, especially in opposition-held areas. Control there is divided between the government and other opposition groups. They remain embroiled in conflict as a result of an ongoing civil war.\n\nEven before the earthquake the situation in much of the region was critical, with freezing weather, crumbling infrastructure and a cholera outbreak causing misery for many of those who live there. More than four million people, mainly women and children, were already relying on aid.\n\nThe north-west especially has become one of the hardest places to reach, with only one small crossing on the Turkish border available to transport resources to opposition-held areas.\n\nThe UN said on Tuesday that it was temporarily stopping aid flows to Syria because of damage to the route, with no clear idea of when it would restart.\n\nSyria's UN envoy has said that any support must come from within the country and not across the border with Turkey, leading those in opposition-held areas to worry that it may be withheld for political reasons.\n\nThe scenes of devastation have been interspersed with brief moments of hope. A baby born under the rubble near the city of Afrin has been rescued after being found still attached to its mother, who died after giving birth.", "Emma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday\n\nThe head teacher of Epsom College, who was killed by her husband, was reported to police in 2016 for allegedly hitting him.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, was found dead alongside her seven-year-old daughter Lettie and husband in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nGeorge Pattison is believed to have shot the pair before killing himself.\n\nSeven years earlier, the BBC understands he reported an alleged domestic assault to Surrey Police.\n\nMrs Pattison was questioned by officers, but no further action was taken against her.\n\nAlthough Mr Pattison's gun licence had been recently updated, and officers made contact with him about that, the force said neither he nor his wife were subject to an ongoing investigation.\n\nSince the shooting, tributes have poured in for Mrs Pattison, who became the first female head of the private Epsom College only five months ago, after six years as head teacher of Croydon High School in south London.\n\nOne former colleague at Croydon, Cheryl Giovannoni, described her as \"adored\" and a \"real inspiration\".\n\nMrs Pattison is understood to have called a relative some time late on Saturday evening, but by the time the family member arrived, all three of them were dead.\n\nPolice said an investigation was being carried out to establish the full chronology and circumstances of the incident.\n\nThey confirmed a firearm, licensed and registered to 39-year-old chartered accountant Mr Pattison, had been found at the scene and had been recovered by officers.\n\nHowever, the causes of death will not be confirmed until post-mortem examinations have been completed later this week.\n\nSurrey Police said it had made a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over its recent contact with Mr Pattison.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicola Bulley was last seen by the river in St Michael's on Wyre\n\nPolice have said they are \"fully open\" to new information about the disappearance of Nicola Bulley but remain convinced she fell in the river.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire 11 days ago.\n\nPolice said officers were following about 500 lines of inquiry and were contacting some 700 motorists seen in the area on 27 January.\n\nDetectives have also analysed data from her Fitbit smart watch, they said.\n\nSpeaking in a press conference, Supt Sally Riley said thousands of pieces of information had been received from members of the public, with a team of 40 detectives working on the case.\n\nShe said: \"This is normal in a missing person inquiry and does not indicate that there is any suspicious element to this story.\n\n\"The inquiry team remains fully open-minded to any information that may indicate where Nicola is or what happened to her.\"\n\nThe search has been continuing on the River Wyre\n\nBut she added: \"All these extensive inquiries however have so far not found anything of note.\"\n\nLancashire Police has been working with the coastguard, fire service and underwater search experts Specialist Group International to search the river and riverbank using sonar, pole cameras and underwater drones.\n\nSupt Riley added: \"As I said on Friday, the river is a complex area to search. It's not a still water, it's a fast-flowing moving water that is tidal in parts, and this makes it particularly complex.\n\n\"We have already discounted particular areas of the river but as they are tidal we have re-searched them to ensure that nothing has been washed back into those searched areas.\"\n\nThe detective also criticised amateur investigators reportedly breaking into properties near where Ms Bulley was last seen.\n\n\"There are some properties along the riverside which are empty or derelict and while it may be well-intentioned that people think that could be a line of inquiry, I would ask them to desist from doing that,\" she said.\n\n\"In some cases it may be criminal if they are breaking in, causing damage or committing a burglary.\n\n\"We have gone into derelict property, including ones on the riverside, and any under renovation that were empty, with the permission of those owners and their knowledge.\"\n\nSupt Riley also repeated a call for people to avoid \"distressing\" speculation about what may have happened to Ms Bulley.\n\nMs Bulley's friend Heather Gibbons earlier said unfounded rumours about the disappearance had been \"hard\" for the family to deal with and the number of visitors arriving in the area had made it feel like a \"tourist spot\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA search expert earlier said he had not seen a more unusual case in his 20-year career.\n\nPeter Faulding, who has led a team of underwater experts, said: \"I would expect to find Nicola in the water right in front of the bench where she went down. This is so strange.\"\n\nOn Monday Ms Bulley's partner Paul Ansell issued a fresh appeal for information, saying her children missed their mother desperately.\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jared O'Mara served as MP for Sheffield Hallam from June 2017 to November 2019\n\nA former MP who submitted fake expense claims for £24,000 to fund his cocaine habit has been convicted of fraud.\n\nJared O'Mara, who represented Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019, was thousands of pounds in debt to a drug dealer, the trial at Leeds Crown Court was told.\n\nHe submitted fraudulent invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the body which regulates MPs' business costs and pay.\n\nO'Mara was found guilty at trial of six counts of fraud and cleared of two.\n\nThe court heard O'Mara, 41, made four claims to IPSA for a total of £19,400 for services he said had been provided by a \"fictitious\" organisation called Confident About Autism South Yorkshire.\n\nProsecutors said the former politician had used the postcode of a McDonald's restaurant in the city as the company's business address.\n\nHe was also found guilty of trying to claim £4,650 for services he said his \"chief of staff\" Gareth Arnold had provided to him.\n\nAll the invoices were rejected by IPSA due to a lack of detail about the work carried out, the jury was told.\n\nO'Mara was elected to Parliament for Labour in June 2017, unseating former deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, but quit the party the following year and became an independent after he was suspended by the party over comments he'd posted online before becoming an MP.\n\nCo-defendant Arnold, 30, was found guilty of three counts of fraud relating to the bogus autism organisation and not guilty of three other fraud charges.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Listen to the moment Gareth Arnold calls police about O'Mara's expense claims\n\nAfter the verdicts were returned, O'Mara, who had attended the entire 12-day trial remotely, was told he must attend the sentencing in person.\n\nJudge Tom Bayliss KC told him: \"I've permitted you until now to attend via videolink, I'm afraid that indulgence has now ceased.\"\n\nText and WhatsApp messages between O'Mara and Arnold were read out during the trial, including references to drug use and abandoning an expenses claim already rejected by IPSA four times.\n\n\"I think any more pushing will raise alarms,\" a message read out to court said.\n\nMeanwhile a message in April 2019 from Arnold to a friend said O'Mara was \"a few k in debt with a dealer\", with the friend replying: \"That's a very dangerous game that. He wants to be careful no bad lads come for him. He's on 80k a year.\"\n\nOne message in June 2019 saw Arnold writing he had \"just smashed loads of coke\" with \"local MP\".\n\nThird defendant John Woodliff was cleared of a charge of fraud\n\nAnother from Arnold to O'Mara said the then-MP had been intoxicated before appearing on BBC Look North, with the court told he had drunk a litre of vodka before the TV interview.\n\nArnold, the only defendant of the three who elected to give evidence during the trial, described his former employer's cocaine taking as an \"open secret\" in Sheffield, adding O'Mara had used \"five grams a day\" at one stage, along with a \"bottle of vodka\" and \"60 cigarettes\".\n\nAside from the headlines this case has provided, it has also raised important questions about the process of selecting candidates.\n\nLabour won't say anything on the record about his nomination, but I understand it was a mixture of a lax selection process and time pressures during a snap general election.\n\nO'Mara had been interviewed previously as a potential Labour candidate for the local council elections. He wasn't interviewed as part of the MP selection process.\n\nIn 2017 we were all given only seven weeks' notice of the general election.\n\nThese things, combined with the fact Labour thought they had no chance of kicking former deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg out of Sheffield Hallam, meant they quickly selected Jared O'Mara as their candidate.\n\nLabour sources have told me that the selection and vetting process have since improved.\n\nMark Kelly KC, representing O'Mara, told the court his client had autism, was born with cerebral palsy and was suffering from anxiety and depression at the time of the offences.\n\nHe asked jurors to consider whether O'Mara was acting \"dishonestly or incompetently\" in filing the expenses claims under examination.\n\nO'Mara was also found guilty of submitting a false contract of employment for a third defendant John Woodliff, \"pretending\" he worked as a constituency support officer.\n\nMr Woodliff, 46, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen, who faced one charge of fraud, was cleared of any wrongdoing.\n\nO'Mara, of Walker Close, Sheffield, and Arnold, of School Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire, are due to be sentenced on Thursday.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A plane drops water over the blaze at Iskenderun port on Tuesday Image caption: A plane drops water over the blaze at Iskenderun port on Tuesday\n\nA huge fire at one of Turkey's main container ports has been extinguished, the defence ministry has said.\n\nThe blaze at Iskenderun, on southern Turkey's Mediterranean coast, was caused by Monday's earthquakes.\n\nHundreds of shipping containers caught fire, sending an enormous plume of dense, black smoke into the sky.\n\nEmergency services initially found it difficult to access the fire because of quake damage and dislodged containers blocking the entrance.\n\nMilitary helicopters and planes were used to help bring the fire under control. It was initially extinguished on Tuesday but later reignited.\n\nThe local mayor confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the fire had been extinguished again and that efforts to cool the site were under way.\n\nAll operations were shut down at the port following the earthquake, with shipping firms forced to divert their vessels to other terminals in the region. There has been no word yet on when the port will reopen.", "Ukraine's defence minister says training on new Western weapons will start as early as Monday\n\nUkraine's outgoing defence minister has said the country is anticipating a new Russian offensive later this month.\n\nAt a news conference, Oleksiy Reznikov said not all Western weaponry will have arrived by then, but Ukraine had enough reserves to hold off Russian forces.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky said troops were fighting fiercely in Bakhmut, Vuhledar and Lyman.\n\nMr Reznikov's comments came hours before it was announced that he was to be replaced as defence minister.\n\nMilitary intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov will take his place, according to a Ukrainian politician from Mr Zelensky's party.\n\nThe shake-up comes amid a series of corruption scandals that has plagued the defence ministry.\n\nMr Reznikov has denied media reports that some defence officials are suspected of embezzling public funds for the procurement of food for the army.\n\nUkrainian lawmaker David Arakhamia announced the reshuffle on Sunday, saying that \"war dictates personnel policies\". Mr Reznikov, a familiar face in Ukraine's efforts to secure Western weapons, will now become minister for strategic industries.\n\nPresident Zelensky has already fired a number of senior officials as part of a broad anti-corruption drive across his government.\n\nAt an earlier news conference, Mr Reznikov said Russia did not have all of its resources ready to launch an offensive, but may do so anyway as a symbolic gesture, given the one-year anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion on 24 February.\n\nHe said Russia was expected to prioritise taking the whole of the eastern Donbas as well as launching offensives in the south of Ukraine.\n\nMr Reznikov lost his defence post just hours after he gave a news conference about the expected Russian offensive\n\nThe defence minister also confirmed that troops would start training on German-made Leopard tanks from Monday.\n\nMr Reznikov said Ukraine had secured new long-range missiles with a range of 90-mile (150km), but they will not be used against Russian territory - only against Russian units in occupied areas of Ukraine.\n\n\"I am sure that we will win this war,\" said Mr Reznikov, but he added that without the delivery of Western fighter jets, \"it will cost us more lives\".\n\nDespite the flow of Western weapons to Ukraine, Russia has made gains around the Bakhmut area in recent days, as Russia's army throws more and more soldiers into combat.\n\nRussia's paramilitary mercenary group Wagner have led much of the fighting in the area.\n\nIts head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said there are fierce battles for every street in some areas of the city, and Ukraine's armed forces were \"fighting to the last\".\n\nRussian forces have been attempting to seize control of Bakhmut for months - making it the longest battle since Russia invaded Ukraine almost a year ago.\n\nTaking the area is important to Russia as part of its aim to control the whole of the Donbas region.\n\nIt would also signify a turnaround in Russia's fortunes after it lost ground in Ukraine during recent months.\n\nSpeaking during his nightly address, President Zelensky said: \"Things are very difficult in Donetsk region - fierce battles.\" But, he added, \"we have no alternative to defending ourselves and winning\".\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut are getting increasingly isolated as the Russians continue to make small advances in its attempt to encircle the town.\n\nIt added that the two main roads into Bakhmut were likely being threatened by direct fire.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mum turns TV up to hide shelling from daughter", "Ukrainian forces are now defending the small city of Bakhmut on three fronts\n\nThe soil of Bakhmut is dusted with snow and soaked with blood. This small city in Eastern Ukraine is at the centre of an epic battle.\n\nFor more than six months Russian forces have tried to claim it. Ukrainian troops have resisted, giving rise to the popular slogan here \"Bakhmut holds.\"\n\nNow the Russians are attacking from three sides, with regular troops and fighters from the notorious Wagner mercenary group. The Russians have reached one of the main highways into the city, and are closing in on the outskirts.\n\nThere is house-to-house fighting in some areas on the outskirts, with \"hard battles for every home\" according to the Ukrainian military.\n\nIt feels like Bakhmut is on borrowed time. If so, Ilya and Oleksii intend to use every second of it.\n\nThe two Ukrainian National Guardsmen move swiftly and silently across open ground on the frontlines and then plunge into a trench.\n\nTheir camouflage backpacks contain weapons of war - a drone, a modified hand grenade, and a Velcro strap.\n\nThe German-made grenade had a tail fin attached, made with a 3D printer, to ensure it exploded on impact.\n\nIlya and Oleksii use drones armed with grenades to attack Russian troops a short distance away\n\nIlya - an IT guy turned intelligence officer - makes short work of velcroing the grenade to the drone. Then he launches it towards enemy forces nestled in their trenches, a kilometre and a half away.\n\n\"We know there are a lot of Russian soldiers there, walking, living, and sitting,\" said Oleksii, the drone pilot. \"And so, we just give them [a] gift.\"\n\n\"The aim is not to kill a lot of soldiers but to make them afraid of our sky, to make them watch out every second. It's psychological pressure.\"\n\nHe shows us a drone's eye view as he releases the grenade over a frozen expanse. We can see the impact on his screen but can't tell if they were casualties below.\n\nOleksii says the fighting in Bakhmut is tough, emotionally and physically: \"It's hard, but we are staying here, and we will protect Bakhmut and the area around it as much as we can.\"\n\nBut Ukraine is counting the cost and there's speculation it could withdraw to avoid further heavy losses.\n\nIn the Kremlin, a clock is ticking - counting down to the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of its neighbour, on 24 February 2022. President Putin wants a victory before then. Taking Bakhmut would give him one, and bring him closer to his aim of capturing all of the mineral rich Donbas region.\n\nTo reach Bakhmut you drive along winding back roads. The route we used for previous trips last September is now classed as \"suicidal\" because of constant Russian attacks.\n\nThe city is now a shell. The thud of incoming and outgoing fire echoes through empty streets. Missiles have punched holes through buildings. Power and water supplies are long gone, along with most of the pre-war population of about 70,000.\n\nBut some families have remained here, with their children, sheltering in the shadows.\n\nAnna, who is seven, is a bright spark in an airless dark basement. Tiny gold earrings glint in her ears, her blonde hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she's wearing a pink sweater. Her colourful drawings line the walls but it still feels like a prison cell.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Anna has befriended Pavlo Dyachenko from Ukraine's White Angels, who brings her a sleeping bag\n\nAnna lives with her mother Yulia, grandfather Valery, two cats and Mushka the dog. She proudly shows us her favourite soft toys, but her blue eyes stand out against her pale complexion.\n\n\"I sit in the cellar almost all day long,\" she tells me in a lilting voice. \"Outside I take Mushka for a walk, but she's afraid of these booms and constantly comes back. Only in the morning, when it is quiet at dawn, I can take her out.\"\n\nYulia sits in the gloom nearby, as Anna lists her friends who have already fled. \"I miss them all,\" she says. \"Arina might be in Poland, Masha in Western Ukraine. Diana went somewhere else. Everyone left.\"\n\nBut Yulia is staying put with her daughter. \"Of course, I am worried,\" she tells me. \"But I think it is more or less safe. At least we have everything here, everything is prepared. We think nowhere in Ukraine is safe and we have no means to go abroad.\"\n\nTheir basement shelter is well stocked with food and water, and they get regular deliveries from the White Angels, a unit of Ukrainian police who provide aid and carry out evacuations.\n\nThe team leader, Pavlo Dyachenko, lights up when he sees Anna. In the depths of war, they have forged a bond.\n\nHe has brought Anna a new sleeping bag to keep her warm, but he would rather be getting her and her family out of the line of fire.\n\n\"I don't understand why they are deciding to stay,\" he said. \"Bakhmut is under attack in the evening, in the morning, in the night. It's very dangerous with bombing and shelling all the time.\"\n\nAnna's colourful drawings line the walls of the basement\n\nMore thuds above ground amplify his point.\n\nThe shelling usually intensifies as midday approaches - part of the rhythm of warfare in Bakhmut. After exhausting overnight battles, troops on both sides sleep late into the mornings, before getting back to their guns.\n\nWe race out of the city and onwards through rolling hills that offer a commanding view of the area.\n\n\"These heights are more important for the Russians than Bakhmut itself,\" said a Ukrainian colleague. \"If they can bring their artillery here, they can target bigger cities like Kramatorsk and Slovyansk. \"\n\nBakhmut holds, for now, but for how much longer.", "Network Rail released an image of what the sculpture will look like at New Street Station\n\nA permanent home has been announced for the iconic giant bull from the 2022 Commonwealth Games - Birmingham New Street station.\n\nThe 33ft (10m) sculpture was due to be dismantled at the end of the Games, but won a reprieve after a public outcry.\n\nIt will be housed under the atrium of the station after a petition to save it attracted almost 10,000 signatures.\n\nThe giant mechanical bull was displayed in the city's Centenary Square after its debut at the opening ceremony.\n\nTens of thousands of people crammed to see it at its temporary home during the Birmingham Games last summer and it instantly became one of the city's most popular attractions.\n\nThe mechanical bull was the star of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games\n\nAfter being stored at a temporary facility in Ladywood, the artwork was moved to a workshop in south east England to be modified, said Network Rail.\n\nThe sculpture, originally built and operated as a mechanical structure by special effects company Artem, will be static in its new home and will serve as a \"lasting legacy to the unforgettable Birmingham 2022 Games,\" said Sir Peter Hendy, chair of Network Rail.\n\nLargely made of foam, and lightweight aluminium tubing, the artwork is in the process of being redesigned to make sure it is compliant with building and fire regulations.\n\nThousands visited the bull at its temporary home of Centenary Square during the Games\n\nNetwork Rail said it had worked with Birmingham 2022, Birmingham City Council and the West Midlands Combined Authority to give the bull a home in the city centre to be enjoyed by up to 800,000 people who pass through the station each week.\n\n\"There were many stars during our unforgettable summer of sport and culture - but none were bigger and bolder than the bull,\" said council leader Ian Ward.\n\n\"We had five million visitors to the city centre during the period of the Games and the interest has remained at a high level ever since.\"\n\nVolunteer Nina Chauhan had the honour of performing as one of chain makers who hauled the monument into the arena for the opening ceremony.\n\nMs Chauhan has said the experience has helped her to form life-long friendships with fellow volunteers\n\nShe said: \"I had the most amazing time being a part of the 50 bull chain-holder women.\n\n\"When hearing our magnificent bull will finally be returning to the city, we have been nothing but excited and overjoyed.\"\n\nThe performer added: \"We personally have the legacy of knowing we built a relationship with him after the privilege of pulling him out to the stadium, dancing with him and to have been by his side until the end of the ceremony.\"\n\nNina Chauhan said being part of the opening ceremony has helped her to make new life-long friends\n\nMayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, also welcomed the news saying: \"I look forward to this now beloved bull being enjoyed, marvelled at and photographed by local people and visitors alike in the months and years ahead.\"\n\nA date for the bull's arrival at the railway station is yet to be confirmed.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Challenger 2 tank being used during a military parade in the UK\n\nThe UK is to send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine to bolster the country's war effort, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said.\n\nHe spoke to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in a call on Saturday, during which he confirmed he would send the equipment and additional artillery systems, No 10 said.\n\nDowning Street said the move shows \"the UK's ambition to intensify support.\"\n\nThe government is to issue 14 tanks to Ukraine.\n\nAround 30 AS90s, which are large, self-propelled guns, are also expected to be delivered.\n\nPresident Zelensky has thanked the UK, saying that the decision to send the tanks \"will not only strengthen us on the battlefield, but also send the right signal to other partners\".\n\nHe said the UK's support was \"always strong\" and was \"now impenetrable\".\n\nNo 10 said that during the call, Mr Sunak and Mr Zelensky also discussed recent Ukrainian victories, as well as the \"need to seize on this moment with an acceleration of global military and diplomatic support\".\n\nThe announcement came as a series of missile attacks were launched across Ukraine on Saturday, including in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa.\n\nAt least 14 people were killed in a strike on an apartment block in the eastern city of Dnipro.\n\nMr Sunak said the Challengers, the British Army's main battle tank, would help Kyiv's forces \"push Russian troops back\".\n\nBuilt in the late 1990s, the Challenger tank is more than 20 years old, but it will be the most modern tank at Ukraine's disposal. The tanks will provide Ukraine with better protection, and more accurate firepower.\n\nThe UK will begin training the Ukrainian Armed Forces to use the tanks and guns in the coming days.\n\nWhile the donation alone is not considered a game-changer, it is hoped that the UK's move will inspire other countries to donate more modern equipment to help Ukraine.\n\nChair of the Defence Select Committee Tobias Ellwood said he welcomed the UK \"getting serious about the hardware it supplies Ukraine\", but that international assistance had been \"far too slow\".\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast: \"That's exactly what Russia wants us to do - to remain hesitant.\n\n\"Unless we step forward and support Ukraine, Russia will not go away - and that will mean the bully has won.\"\n\nHe stressed that he wanted to see an arms factory in Eastern Poland which would allow Ukraine to procure its own weapons for the long term.\n\nAs it stands, Poland has plans to send 14 of its German-made Leopard tanks.\n\nBut the tanks, which are in greater supply and used by a number of European armies, need approval from Germany to be exported to Ukraine.\n\nUkraine also has hopes that the US will supply some of its Abrams tanks, which use the same ammunition as the Leopard.\n\nEarlier this month, Germany and the US agreed to join France in sending armoured fighting vehicles to Ukraine - a move seen as a significant boost to its military's capability on the battlefield.\n\nShadow defence secretary John Healey said the government had \"Labour's fullest backing\" for the decision to send the Challengers.\n\nHe said: \"Modern tanks are crucial to Ukraine's efforts to win its battle against Russian aggression.\"\n\nResponding to the news of the Challenger tanks, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: \"As we've said previously, weapons supplies are legitimate targets for Russian strikes.\"\n\nSoledar has been devastated by Russia's bombardment, as shown by this satellite image from Tuesday\n\nEarlier on Saturday, Russia's military announced it had captured the salt-mining town of Soledar after a long battle, calling it an \"important\" step for its offensive.\n\nThe victory would allow Russian troops to push on to the nearby city of Bakhmut, and cut off the Ukrainian forces there, a spokesman said.\n\nBut Ukrainian officials said the fight for Soledar was still going on and accused Russia of \"information noise\".\n• None Ukraine to get Patriot missile training in Oklahoma", "Boris Johnson has registered an advance payment of nearly £2.5m for speaking events, in his latest declaration of outside earnings.\n\nIt brings the former prime minister's declared income since leaving office last September to almost £4.8m.\n\nHe has previously recorded nearly £1.8m in speaking fees since his departure.\n\nMr Johnson has also registered a further £13,500 in accommodation from JCB boss Lord Bamford and his wife Carole for January and February.\n\nIt brings the total value of accommodation he has registered from the couple for him and his family since leaving Downing Street to £74,000.\n\nThe nearly £2.5m advance in his latest declaration is from the New York-based Harry Walker speaking agency, for an unspecified number of speeches.\n\nIt comes on top of almost £1.8m he has registered since leaving office for nine speeches delivered in the US, India, Portugal, the UK and Singapore.\n\nAs well as a £510,000 advance for his political memoirs from publisher HarperCollins, he has also declared £1,943 since leaving No 10 in royalty payments for previously written books.\n\nUnder ministerial rules, former ministers are not allowed to take jobs that involve influencing government for two years after leaving their post.\n\nBut Mr Johnson's latest declarations are the latest demonstration of how much former leaders can earn shortly after leaving office through book deals and on the lucrative speaking circuit.\n\nThe £4.8m in earnings that Mr Johnson has declared since leaving No 10 just over five months ago is more than 50 times his yearly £84,144 MP salary.\n\nA company set up to support his activities as a former PM has also received £1m from crypto currency investor Christopher Harborne.\n\nMr Harborne has previously donated more than £15m to the Conservatives, the Brexit Party, and Reform UK.\n\nMr Johnson was forced to resign by his ministers last July after a series of controversies prompted a mass walk-out among his ministers.\n\nHe attempted a comeback after his successor, Liz Truss, quit within weeks of taking office last September.\n\nBut despite obtaining enough support from Tory MPs to run in the contest to replace her, he ultimately stood aside, clearing the way for Rishi Sunak to become prime minister in October.", "Dominic Raab denies the allegations against him\n\nA former senior civil servant who worked closely with Dominic Raab has described his behaviour as \"nasty and difficult\".\n\nIn an anonymous interview with BBC Newsnight, he accuses the deputy prime minister and justice secretary of using \"demeaning tactics to make himself the most powerful person in the room\".\n\nMr Raab is being investigated by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC over claims of bullying.\n\nHe has vehemently denied the allegations against him, and has said he has never sworn or shouted in a meeting.\n\nHe is now the subject of eight formal complaints.\n\nThe FDA trade union, which represents civil servants, has said it understands dozens of people are involved in those complaints. These span several years and a number of government departments.\n\nThe former civil servant - who has not made a formal complaint against Mr Raab - told the BBC, \"I saw him seething at other senior people, hard staring at you, you know like cold fury.\n\n\"It was pretty sinister - and raising his voice. He would make examples of very senior members of staff in front of more junior members and vice versa.\"\n\nWhen challenged on whether this was bullying or just a secretary of state being direct and assertive while doing an important job, the person said they had no doubt it was \"unacceptable behaviour\".\n\n\"No, it's bullying. I mean, the worst thing is the sort of the cold anger and making people wait in silence.\n\n\"Expecting people to turn up very, very quickly without knowing really why they're there. Treating his private office with contempt and doing so publicly.\n\n\"There were long silences, which if you tried to continue speaking he would tell you to wait or stop talking.\n\n\"And he would expect everyone to have the answers to all his questions even when he wanted information on topics outside of the knowledge of the people in the room. He would get cross with his private office on these occasions for not ensuring all the right people were in the room\", he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rishi Sunak says he will not pre-judge the report into claims about Dominic Raab\n\nBut supporters of the deputy prime minister call these allegations \"nonsense\".\n\nThe BBC has spoken to several people at Westminster who don't recognise this characterisation, and believe he has always behaved with professionalism and integrity, and does not tolerate bullying.\n\nIn November last year, Conservative MP Helen Grant, who worked with Mr Raab when he was foreign secretary, tweeted: \"I witnessed a very decent, hard working minister with high professional standards and a solid work ethic. Dominic has zero tolerance for bullying.\"\n\nEarlier this month, another Conservative MP, James Daly, told the Sunday Telegraph: \"During the time I have worked with Dominic Raab, he has always been kind, courteous and utterly professional\".\n\nOne former senior civil servant, who worked with Mr Raab, said: \"He was very professional to me.\" He described Mr Raab as \"incredibly hard working\" and \"very demanding\".\n\n\"Being on the end of his expectations wouldn't be nice if you're not prepared for it. It's tough. There's perfectionism there,\" he added.\n\n\"He had a view how he wanted things done. He expected delivery but doesn't understand how to get it done.\"\n\nBut the former civil servant who spoke to Newsnight said Mr Raab is not suitable to work in policy-making.\n\n\"I am concerned that he is not fit to run a department - not least because his behaviour has an impact on, for example in the MoJ, on the quality of operational delivery of our prisons, our probation service and our courts as well as on the quality of policy development and legislation.\n\n\"All of which has real-life consequences for the public.\n\n\"I think he behaved like a monster at times\", he said.\n\nThere have been claims from people close to Mr Raab that some civil servants are trying to force him out - something his former colleague strongly rejects.\n\nHe said Mr Raab was not physically intimidating but was \"somebody who didn't make you feel safe in the room\".\n\n\"He would cut people short, telling people to stop talking. If he didn't like what someone was saying he would tell them to stop and then turn to another person and say 'I don't understand a word of what x is saying, can you explain this?', our source added.\n\nThey had heard that Mr Raab had \"apparently tried to change\" his behaviour towards colleagues at the MoJ since the allegations broke in the media, but \"that's not enough for the big handful of people who have been part of complaining\" to Adam Tolley KC.\n\nIn a statement, the Ministry of Justice said: \"There is zero tolerance for bullying across the civil service.\n\n\"The deputy prime minister leads a professional department, driving forward major reforms, where civil servants are valued and the level of ambition is high.\n\n\"There is an independent investigation under way and it would be inappropriate to comment further on issues relating to it until it is completed.\"\n\nAsked about the bullying claims in relation to Mr Raab, former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has previously said: \"We mustn't be too snowflakey about it. People need to be able to say this job has not been done well enough and needs to be done better.\"\n\nSpeaking to reporters on Tuesday, before the latest claims, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he would not pre-judge the findings of the investigation into Mr Raab's conduct.\n\nBut he added: \"As people have seen from how I've acted in the past when I am presented with conclusive independent findings that someone in my government has not acted with the integrity or standards I would expect, I won't hesitate to take swift and decisive action.\"\n\nMr Raab's former colleague was interviewed anonymously to protect his identity.\n\nWatch the full interview on BBC Newsnight at 10.30pm on BBC Two and afterwards on the BBC iPlayer.", "Microsoft has announced a new version of Bing\n\nMicrosoft has announced a new version of its search engine Bing, which incorporates the latest in artificial intelligence.\n\nThe overhaul deploys OpenAI's ChatGPT technology, which has taken the world by storm since its launch last year.\n\nThe move is by far the biggest threat Google has seen to its dominance in web search - and marks the beginning of an AI arms race between the companies.\n\nDeveloped by Microsoft-backed OpenAI, ChatGPT uses deep learning techniques to generate human-like responses to search requests.\n\nMr Nadella said he thought it was poised to change the nature of online search - and interactions with many other software.\n\n\"This technology will reshape pretty much every software category that we know,\" he said.\n\nBing will now respond to search queries with more detailed answers - not just links to websites.\n\nUsers are also able to chat with the bot to better tailor their queries. More contextual answers will be added on the right hand side of a search page.\n\nThe new Bing search engine will be live right away - with a limited number of searches for each person.\n\nThe announcement comes a day after Google revealed details of its own new chatbot, Bard.\n\nBoth companies are scrambling to get their products to market.\n\nIn a note to investors after the announcement, analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said he thought that Microsoft's investment would \"massively boost\" the firm's ability to compete.\n\n\"This is just the first step on the AI front ... as [the] AI arms race takes place among Big Tech,\" he said.\n\nMicrosoft, an early backer of San Francisco-based OpenAI, has been investing billions in artificial intelligence.\n\nLast month it announced it was extending its collaboration with OpenAI in a \"multiyear, multibillion dollar investment\".\n\nIt has since announced a new premium tier of Microsoft Teams - its messaging software - that will feature ChatGPT, including a feature that automatically generates notes and highlights of meetings.\n\nMicrosoft said Bing will use OpenAI technology that is even more advanced than the ChatGPT technology unveiled last year. The powers will also be incorporated into its Edge web browser.\n\nAnalysts say ChatGPT - which has been used by students to pass exams and tests - has the potential to be incredibly disruptive to multiple professions, including journalism.\n\nBut it has been criticised for confidently giving answers that are wrong. It also works on datasets that are generally scraped from 2021 or earlier - so many of its answers can feel outdated.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nLeBron James has become the NBA's all-time leading scorer, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's long-standing record. Los Angeles Lakers star James hit 38 points in a 133-130 defeat by the Oklahoma City Thunder to surpass Abdul-Jabbar's mark of 38,387, set in 1989. Abdul-Jabbar initially broke the scoring record in April 1984, eight months before James was born. \"To be able to be in the presence of a legend and great as Kareem, it means so much to me,\" said James. The 38-year-old, who needed 36 points to break the record, did so with a fadeaway jumper at the end of the third quarter and he finished the match with a career total of 38,390. An emotional James rose both arms in celebration while 75-year-old Abdul-Jabbar, who was at the match at the Lakers home court, stood and applauded. There was a brief break in play for a ceremony to mark the achievement, with James taking a microphone to make a speech on court.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"Everybody that has ever been a part of this run with me the last 20-plus years, I want to say thank you so much because I wouldn't be me without all you. You all helped. Your passion and sacrifices helped me to get to this point,\" he said. \"And to the NBA to Adam Silver, to the late great David Stern, thank you very much for allowing me to be a part of something I always dreamed about. I would never in a million years dreamt this to be even better than what it is tonight.\" Abdul-Jabbar ceremoniously handed over the ball to James to recognise his new record in front of a cheering crowd that included tennis legend John McEnroe, music stars Jay-Z, LL Cool J and Bad Bunny, boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr and actor Denzel Washington. \"I thought it had every chance of being broken. It just had to have someone that the offense focused on continually,\" said Abdul-Jabbar, who retired in 1989. \"LeBron's career is one of someone who planned to dominate this game. You have to give him credit for just the way he played and for the way he's lasted and dominated.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFour-time NBA champion James is in his 20th season in the NBA, having been drafted first overall by hometown team the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. The forward joined the Miami Heat in 2010, winning two titles, before returning to lead Cleveland to the only NBA title in their history in 2016. He has been with the Lakers since 2018 and helped them win the 2020 title, which was also the fourth time he has been named NBA finals MVP. Two-time Olympic champion James has won four regular season MVP titles and appeared in the NBA Finals 10 times. Abdul-Jabbar played in the NBA for 20 seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks and Lakers, during which he won six titles, six regular season MVP crowns and was named finals MVP twice. Asked after the game whether he is the best NBA player of all time, James said: \"I'll let everybody else decide who that is or just talk about it, but it's great barbershop talk. \"Me personally, I'm going to take myself against anybody who's ever played this game. But everyone's going to decide who their favourite is.\"\n\nMany thought this was an insurmountable milestone, but it's finally been surpassed. Lebron 'The King' James has added a new jewel to his crown. For two decades he has been the dominant force in the NBA - playing for his home town team Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and now LA Lakers - winning a championship with each. Amongst all his achievements, this may be considered the greatest yet. He'd already overtaken superstars like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, but for some, breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's long-standing record cements James' status as the best ever. Lebron is still performing at the very top level. He still averages 30 points a game. So the big question now is how much longer can he continue? As he celebrates this achievement with his loved ones, James has made no secret of the fact he wants to stick around long enough to pay with - or against - his eldest son Bronny, 18. And who would bet against him?\n\nJames holds the records as the youngest player to reach every significant points tally from 5,000 to 35,000. He passed six-time NBA champion Jordan into fourth overall in March 2019 and late Lakers great Bryant to move into third all-time in January 2020. James then surpassed Karl Malone into second overall in March last year, a month after he beat Abdul-Jabbar's record for the most combined regular season and play-off points. The NBA's official all-time scoring list only takes into account regular season points. James, a 19-time All-Star, scored 23,119 points in 849 games for the Cavaliers during 11 seasons across two spells. He scored 7,919 points for the Heat in 294 games over four seasons and now has 7,314 points in 266 games over five seasons for the Lakers. James is also in the top-10 all-time lists for assists, steals, defensive rebounds, field goals made and three-pointers made.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. LeBron's high-school coach says 'he never missed practice'\n\nUS President Joe Biden: \"LeBron, congratulations. With your whole heart and soul you broke a hell of a record. You elevated the game. More than that, like Kareem, Bill Russell and others who came before you, you challenged and inspired the nation to be better, do better and live up to our full promise.\" Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson: \"I never thought that Kareem's scoring record would be broken by anybody. It means more to myself and to our fans because you're wearing that purple and gold and broke it as a Laker. This historic moment is so special because we will never see another LeBron James.\" NBA Commissioner Adam Silver: \"It's a towering achievement that speaks to his sustained excellence over 20 seasons in the league. And quite amazingly, LeBron continues to play at an elite level and his basketball history is still being written.\" Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry: Your sustained level of play for 20 years, reaching this pinnacle of scoring in basketball, it is unbelievable. Way down the road, when we're reflecting back on our careers, we'll be able to be at that level knowing what it was like to battle at the highest level.\" Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant: \"It's even funny to just even say that, you know coming from where you have come from, how hard you grinded for this long. It's been an inspiration since day one. Much love and keep setting the bar high.\"\n\n26 June 2003 - drafted number one by the Cleveland Cavaliers 30 October 2003 - makes debut aged 18 against the Sacramento Kings, recording 25 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals 20 February 2005 - makes All-Star Game debut, the first of 19 appearances 7 June 2007 - first NBA Finals appearance for Cleveland, who go on to lose to San Antonio Spurs 24 August 2008 - wins Olympic gold with the USA at Beijing Games 4 May 2009 - wins the first of his four regular season MVP titles 8 July 2010 - joins the Miami Heat after seven seasons with the Cavaliers 21 June 2012 - wins first NBA championship with the Heat and claim first of four Finals MVP titles 20 June 2013 - becomes back-to-back NBA champion with the Heat 11 July 2014 - returns to Cleveland after four seasons in Miami 19 June 2016 - leads the Cavaliers back from 3-1 down against the Golden State Warriors to win their first NBA Championship 9 July 2018 - signs for the Los Angeles Lakers after four years during second stint in Cleveland 11 October 2020 - claims fourth NBA title by beating the Miami Heat, also becoming first player to win Finals MVP for three different teams\n\nLeBron James' fallaway jumper shot with 10.9 seconds left of the third quarter sees him become the NBA's all-time leading scorer\n\nJames then saluted the crowd who roared in celebration\n\nThe game was paused for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to ceremoniously hand over the ball to James, who became emotional as he addressed the crowd\n\nJames was then joined on court by his family, including mum Gloria, wife Savannah and daughter Zhuri\n\nBoxer Floyd Mayweather Jr was among the celebrities courtside to congratulate James\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "As US President Joe Biden puts the finishing touches to his State of the Union address, spare a thought for the behind-the-scenes toil of the White House speechwriters, the hardest-working team in Washington this time of year.\n\nThe annual keynote speech, delivered as part of a primetime extravaganza, often attracts the largest audience a US president will receive all year - and everybody in town wants in on the action.\n\nA sentence here could inspire support for a lawmaker's pet project; a paragraph there could help take a government programme off the chopping block.\n\nCody Keenan knows this all too well. As director of speechwriting in Barack Obama's second term, he was the principal penman behind four State of the Unions.\n\n\"It's the biggest speech you'll write all year, but it's also the most frustrating and annoying and time consuming,\" he says.\n\n\"You still feel a sense of pride and relief when it's all over with,\" he adds.\n\nPresident Biden's first State of the Union last March came only five days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. His second, on Tuesday, will be before a new Congress in which Republicans control one chamber.\n\nThat likely means the speech will take on a much different tone from last year's one, but Mr Keenan argues it should nevertheless pick up from the core message left behind by Mr Biden in his 2022 State of the Union.\n\nHe says the yearly address is like a \"built-in reset\" to the presidential calendar, because it is delivered near the start of the year and many people who don't follow politics daily tune in to listen.\n\nBarack Obama reviews an address with his deputy director of speechwriting Terry Szuplat\n\nUnder Mr Obama, Mr Keenan would begin working on the speech at least a month or two in advance, locking himself inside his windowless workroom beneath the Oval Office for hours on end as the date drew closer.\n\nHis office had a coffee maker, gifted to him by National Security Council aides keen to get an item added to the speech one year.\n\nSome West Wing staffers even staked out the bathroom closest to his office and appealed to him for additions when they saw him come out, he recalls.\n\nIgnoring these entreaties, as well as his swelling email inbox, Mr Keenan and his assistant Susannah Jacobs came up with a system: a big smiley face emoji on his door if the speech was going well and he was open to additions, but a skull and crossbones up if the draft was in rough shape and needed no more cooks.\n\nAnd while Mr Keenan was the lead writer, he always had help - from the remaining half a dozen or so speechwriters on the team, the chief of staff and of course the president himself.\n\n\"The real chief speechwriter was always Barack Obama, whether it was the State of the Union or any other big speech,\" says Terry Szuplat, who helped craft nearly 500 Obama speeches between 2009-17.\n\n\"One of the great myths of speechwriting is that it's somehow speechwriters putting words into the president's mouth and it's just the opposite.\n\n\"It's speechwriters listening [to] and learning [from] the president every single day, and trying as best we can to provide a draft that captures their voice, vision and values.\"\n\nMr Szuplat argues that the State of the Union is a challenge few of these unheralded wordsmiths ever truly relish, a speech that must be given and is inherently high-profile but is rarely ever memorable.\n\n\"There's so many items to be addressed that every speechwriter does their best to pull it together in a coherent narrative with a common theme that brings everything together, but it's just so difficult when you're talking about truly everything - a state of the union,\" the rhetorical handyman says.\n\nCody Keenan (centre) and Terry Szuplat (right) discuss a speech with President Obama\n\nAhead of the speech, Mr Obama would sit down with his lead writers and establish an overarching theme for the address. Thereafter, various officials across the government would be called upon to provide their input, grounding the speech in a list of political realities and fiscal constraints. The core writing team would then sort through that list, prioritising certain items and dropping others.\n\n\"What makes a great State of the Union is lifting it up out of a list of initiatives, programmes and policies, and trying to offer a coherent, compelling story and vision to the American people,\" says Mr Szuplat.\n\nOfficials in the last White House administration have rarely commented on what it was like writing speeches for President Donald Trump. But, according to the New York Times, speech-writing protocols for Mr Trump's State of the Unions hewed fairly close to Obama-era traditions: assembled with the input of various aides, edited by chief speechwriter Stephen Miller and touted as \"100 percent President Trump's own words\".\n\nPresident Biden is notoriously hard to write speeches for, often tinkering with multiple drafts until the last moment and frequently going off script.\n\nHis chief speechwriter, Vinay Reddy, was praised last year by an administration official as being \"fluent in Bidenese\".\n\nMr Reddy is expected to huddle this weekend with Mr Biden at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, to craft and hone a final draft. They will be joined by other senior White House aides as well as historian Jon Meacham.\n\nAs a showdown looms with Republicans over the federal debt limit, a justice department investigation into Mr Biden's handling of classified information and the anticipated launch of his re-election campaign, they will have to strike the right balance on Tuesday night.\n\nOr as Mr Keenan quips: \"Good luck to the speechwriters. I'm glad I'm not the one doing it.\"\n• None What is the State of the Union speech?", "US ships and divers are still searching for debris from the balloon off the South Carolina coast\n\nThe US believes a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down over its territory is part of a wider fleet that has spanned five continents.\n\n\"The United States was not the only target of this broader programme,\" Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.\n\nHe added that the US had shared information gathered from the balloon debris with dozens of other countries.\n\nChina has denied the balloon was being used for spying purposes, and says it was a weather device blown astray.\n\nUS officials have described the balloon as being about 200 ft (60m) tall, with the payload portion comparable in size to regional airliners and weighing hundreds - or potentially thousands - of pounds.\n\nIts presence in US airspace set off a diplomatic crisis and prompted Secretary Blinken to immediately call off a trip to China - the first such high level US-China meeting there in years. It was later shot down by a US fighter jet off the eastern coast.\n\nCiting unnamed officials, the Washington Post reported that the US believes the suspected surveillance balloon project was being operated from China's coastal Hainan province and targeted countries including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.\n\nAt a Wednesday news conference, Defence Department spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder confirmed that the US believed similar balloons had operated over North and South America, South East Asia, East Asia and Europe.\n\n\"We've learned a lot about these balloons and how to track them,\" Gen Ryder said, adding that the US was now confident it had the ability to be \"on the look-out for these kinds of capabilities\".\n\nHe said while the objects were all used for surveillance missions, there were \"variations\" in terms of their size and capabilities.\n\nThe US believes that balloons have operated over US territory on at least four occasions, but Gen Ryder did not give further detail on these instances.\n\nWashington briefed 40 allied countries about the alleged espionage programme earlier this week, a senior Biden administration official confirmed to CBS News, the BBC's US partner.\n\nNaval and Coast Guard ships and divers are still searching for debris from the balloon. It is unclear what intelligence the US has so far gleaned from the remnants, although experts say that the debris could help officials better understand what the balloon was capable of and how it transmitted information.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Tyre Nichols was the father of a four-year-old son\n\nA Memphis policeman took photos of Tyre Nichols, while he sat bashed, bleeding and in need of medical help, newly released documents reveal.\n\nMr Nichols died three days after he was beaten by police during a traffic stop in the Tennessee city last month.\n\nOfficer Demetrius Haley took two photos of Mr Nichols, sharing them with at least five people, the documents show.\n\nHe is one of five Memphis policemen who have been charged with second degree murder.\n\nThe documents, which were first reported by the New York Times, span more than 100 pages, and reveal for the first time the repeated misconduct of each of the officers.\n\nThey show Mr Haley, the officer who pulled Mr Nichols from his car, never explained to the 26-year-old why he was being stopped.\n\nThey used excessive force, the reports say, when they tasered, pepper sprayed, punched, kicked and hit Mr Nichols with a retractable baton - and then left him lying on the ground, injured, needing urgent medical attention.\n\nDemetrius Haley was the first officer to approach Mr Nichols, a 29-year-old father, FedEx worker and keen photographer, on 7 January.\n\n\"You forced the driver out of his vehicle while using loud profanity and wearing a black sweatshirt hoodie over your head,\" the documents, released by the Tennessee Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission reads.\n\nWhile Mr Nichols was handcuffed and slumped against an unmarked police car, Haley stood over him and took two photos, the report says. He then shared them in a text message with a civilian employee, two fellow officers and a female acquaintance.\n\nThe report does not state who the fifth recipient was, but a sixth person was subsequently identified during an investigation.\n\nThe documents describe how Haley and the other officers were \"laughing and bragging\" about their involvement in the incident, while Mr Nichols was left injured and lying on the ground.\n\nIt adds that, contradictory to the officer's claims, Mr Nichols never swore at them or showed any \"violent threats\".\n\nThe report also accuses Haley of making \"untruthful\" claims and omissions in his own incident report, such as failing to mention that he kicked Mr Nichols while he was on the ground.\n\n\"Your on-duty conduct was unjustly [and] blatantly unprofessional,\" it said.\n\nAs well as the five officers charged with murder, a sixth has also been fired, and a seventh unnamed officer has been suspended.\n\nHowever as many as 13 Memphis police officers could be disciplined for \"policy violations\", an attorney for the city said on Tuesday.\n\nThree emergency medical workers have also been fired for not providing Mr Nichols with adequate care.\n\nTyre Nichols' death sparked protests in the US, and the Memphis Police Department disbanded its so-called Scorpion unit, of which all the officers were part of, within days of his death.", "Teams working in Syria have pulled two children to safety from the earthquake ruins, in separate rescues in Aleppo and Idlib.", "The home secretary said David Carrick's crimes were a \"scar on our police\"\n\nSerial rapist and former Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick will serve a minimum of 30 years in jail.\n\nCarrick was told he had taken \"monstrous advantage of women\" as he was sentenced to 36 life terms.\n\nThe 48-year-old committed violent and degrading sexual offences against a dozen women over two decades.\n\nHis victims, one of whom had a gun held to her head while being raped and another who was hit with a whip, spoke of how they had \"encountered evil\".\n\nFlanked by two security guards, Carrick showed no emotion as he was sentenced by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb.\n\n\"You behaved as if you were untouchable,\" she told him.\n\n\"The malign influence of men like you in positions of power stands in the way of a revolution of women's dignity.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The former police officer used his occupation to \"entice victims\", said Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb\n\nThe judge also praised the bravery of his victims, some of whom were in the packed courtroom, saying that the voice of courage cannot be denied.\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman said Carrick's crimes, carried out from 2003 to 2020, were a \"scar on our police\".\n\nCarrick falsely imprisoned two women, separately, in the under-stairs cupboard on different occasions\n\nSouthwark Crown Court heard he would \"use his power and control\" to stop victims reporting him, with one stating it was \"drilled into\" her that he was a police officer.\n\nIn statements read out in court, another victim said she felt she had \"encountered evil\" after being repeatedly raped by Carrick who put a handgun to her head.\n\nAnother woman said Carrick hit her with a whip and would shut her in a small cupboard as punishment while \"whistling at her as if she was a dog\".\n\nCarrick's crimes include dozens of rape and sexual offences, mostly committed in Hertfordshire, where he lived, and all took place while he was a serving officer.\n\nChief executive of Women's Aid, Farah Nazeer, told the BBC that while the jail term was an \"acceptable sentence in a very, very unacceptable situation\", she added that it came 17 years, 12 victims and at least 85 offences too late.\n\nMs Nazeer said the victims' \"courage and bravery should be commended and that will send a message to other women in that situation that justice can be achieved\".\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: \"These convictions represent a spectacular downfall for a man charged with upholding the law, and empowered to do so even to the extent of being authorised to bear a firearm in the execution of his duty.\n\n\"You were bold and, at times, relentless, trusting that no victim would overcome her shame and fear to report you.\n\n\"For nearly two decades you were proved right, but now a combination of those 12 women, by coming forward, and your police colleagues, by acting on their evidence, have exposed you and brought you low.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCarrick, who had undertaken a course on domestic violence in 2005, was sacked by the Met the day after he pleaded guilty. The force's Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has apologised for failings and said opportunities to remove him from policing were missed.\n\nHe had previously come to the attention of police over nine incidents, including rape allegations, between 2000 and 2021.\n\nFollowing sentencing, Sir Mark described Carrick's crimes as \"unspeakably evil\".\n\n\"He exploited his position as a police officer in the most disgusting way. He should not have been a police officer,\" he added.\n\n\"Behind a public appearance of propriety and trustworthiness you took monstrous advantage of women,\" the judge said.\n\nDefence barrister, Alisdair Williamson KC, told the court \"something has profoundly damaged this man\", adding that Carrick \"cannot ask for mercy and does not\".\n\nHe was sentenced to a minimum term of 32 years in jail, which he must serve before he can be considered for parole.\n\nTaking into account the time he has already spent in prison on remand, it means he will spend at least another 30 years and 239 days in prison, when he would be in his late 70s.\n\nDavid Carrick committed many of his crimes in Hertfordshire, where he lived\n\nThe court heard Carrick had attempted to take his own life while on remand at Belmarsh prison in south-east London, but was found not to be suffering from any mental disorder.\n\nThe judge told him he was driven to try and take his own life \"as a self-pitying reaction to the shame brought on you by these proceedings rather than remorse.\"\n\nDet Insp Iain Moor, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, said detectives had set up a special reporting portal for people to share information about Carrick.\n\n\"If anyone else thinks they have been a victim, we still want to hear from you and we will support you,\" he said.\n\n\"As a serving police officer he has brought shame on the profession and was not fit to wear the uniform, but I hope that our determination to get justice for the victims in this case, will go some way to reassuring the public that nobody is above the law and we will bring people like David Carrick to justice.\"\n\nThe home secretary added: \"It is vital we uncover how he was able to wear the uniform for so long.\"\n\nDavid Carrick held a gun to the head of one of his victims, the court heard\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan said: \"This should never have been allowed to happen and must never happen again.\n\n\"There can be no hiding place for those who abuse their position of trust and authority within the police.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said: \"This is a shocking and appalling case which demonstrates a vile abuse of power and the public are rightly sickened by it.\n\n\"It now is rightly for the police to address the failings in the case and restore public confidence and that's something that the Met Commissioner, we know, is very much seeking to do.\"\n\nThe home secretary has previously said the case would be considered in the inquiry, chaired by Dame Elish Angiolini KC, which was set up to look into the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, who was another serving Met police officer.\n\nThe prosecution in Carrick's case said it fell short of meriting a whole-life order, and Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said she agreed, stating: \"Of the utmost gravity though this is, the 'wholly exceptional circumstances' test is not met.\"\n\nFollowing the sentencing, the Attorney General's Office said it had received \"multiple requests\" under the unduly lenient sentence scheme, which allows people and authorities to ask for sentences to be reviewed.\n\nIt said the case would \"of course\" be considered for referral to the Court of Appeal. Law officers have 28 days from sentencing to refer a case to the court.\n\nThe prime minster's spokesman added that the government was still planning to take steps to strip Carrick of his police pension.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Awards watchers were shocked that Danielle Deadwyler was not nominated for the best actress Oscar\n\nUS actress Danielle Deadwyler has claimed the film industry is \"deeply impacted by systemic racism\", after no black women were nominated for best actress at this year's Oscars.\n\nDeadwyler was expected to be recognised for her performance in the drama Till.\n\nBut she missed out on a nomination, as did Viola Davis, who was also widely tipped to be in the running.\n\nDeadwyler said there is a \"trickle-down effect\" of racism in society on many institutions in American life.\n\nIn Till, the actress plays the mother of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Deadwyler said: \"Cinematic history is 100+ years old. I would dare say the system is deeply, deeply impacted by systemic racism that has shaped our country.\n\n\"And if we're still dealing with systemic racism in this country that is leading us to the loss of a Tyre Nichols, that carries us from the loss of Emmett, there is a trickle-down effect of how racism impacts our lives - from the educational system to the film industry to everything, any part of quotidian American life.\"\n\nDeadwyler (right) plays Mamie Till-Mobley in the film, the mother of Emmett Till, played by Jalyn Hall\n\nDeadwyler was widely praised for her performance in Till, and was considered one of the favourites to be nominated in the leading actress category at this year's Academy Awards.\n\nAfter she was snubbed when the nominations were announced in January, Till writer and director Chinonye Chukwu accused Hollywood of \"unabashed misogyny towards Black women\".\n\nReferring to those comments, Deadwyler told Radio 4: \"Yes there is value to what [Chukwu] said, and it's imperative that every quality of our life begin to truly, deeply interrogate and change and rupture and radically shift the way they seek to actually be an equitable institution.\"\n\nAsked whether the Oscars or wider society needs to change, Deadwyler replied: \"It's from both ends... It's got to come from every angle.\"\n\nThe Academy has increased the number of female and black and ethnic minority voters since the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in 2015.\n\nDeadwyler noted that very few black women had been recognised at the Oscars, and there were often \"numerous decades in between\" those who had.\n\nShe referred to Hattie McDaniel's supporting actress win in 1940 and Halle Berry's leading actress win in 2002, which remains the only victory in that category for a black woman.\n\n\"You have to begin to question why there are these gaps,\" Deadwyler said. \"Before I was even in consideration for anything, these are the things that I witnessed.\n\n\"So these are critical questions of, how do you begin to actually bring equity to spaces which have long been led or deeply impacted by white supremacy, ideologies, thoughts and practises?\"\n\nHalle Berry, pictured with Denzel Washington in 2002, is the only black woman to have won best leading actress at the Oscars\n\nThis year's best actress nominees are Michelle Yeoh, Cate Blanchett, Ana De Armas, Michelle Williams and Andrea Riseborough.\n\nBritish actress Riseborough scored a shock nomination following a campaign driven by a number of Hollywood A-listers.\n\nThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences conducted a review into the campaign and said some tactics \"caused concern\", but her nomination was not revoked.\n\nWilliams was recognised despite a debate in Hollywood over whether she should have been nominated in the supporting actress category.\n\nNo black men are nominated for best lead actor this year. Two black performers - Angela Bassett and Brian Tyree Henry - are in the running in the supporting categories. The winners will be announced on 12 March.", "Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden smiled for the cameras at the G20 summit in November\n\nEven before America's top diplomat Anthony Blinken postponed his visit to Beijing, the US-China relationship was at an all-time low.\n\nJust how low became painfully evident when a day before his departure, an apparent Chinese spy balloon over the state of Montana roiled the tensions he was trying to address.\n\nEventually, the Chinese foreign ministry claimed the unmanned airship was used for weather research and had blown off course.\n\nThe accompanying expression of regret suggested Beijing did not want the incident to mar the secretary of state's visit - the first of its kind in five years.\n\nHours after China's apology, the US State Department called off the trip.\n\nGiven how wide the rift has become, the fact that the trip was happening in the first place had been cause for celebration.\n\nBut now what remains is a sense of huge missed opportunity.\n\nAll along, US officials had made clear that this was not about breakthroughs. It was about talking.\n\nMr Blinken wants to \"avoid competition veering into conflict\".\n\n\"One of the ways you do that is making sure that you actually have good lines of communication,\" he said in a speech last month, calling for \"putting some guardrails into the relationship.\"\n\n\"I think the goal [was] to basically fast-forward this Cold War to its détente phase, thereby skipping a Cuban Missile Crisis,\" says Jude Blanchette, a China expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.\n\nIt hasn't been an easy ride for the world's two biggest economies.\n\nA Trump-era trade war, tensions over Taiwan and an increasingly assertive China under Xi Jinping derailed the relationship in recent years. And it plummeted further as China refused to condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThen came a meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in November.\n\nThe two leaders expressed the desire to avoid conflict and reduced the heat of their rhetoric.\n\nAnd Mr Blinken wanted to build on that.\n\nEven before the balloon went up, the shift was one of tone, more than substance.\n\nThe Americans have continued to press ahead with the economic restrictions and military expansion in the region, angering Beijing.\n\nIn the past week, Japan and the Netherlands were reported to have reached an agreement with Washington to restrict exports of advanced chip manufacturing equipment to China.\n\nThis would be only the latest step by the US to limit Beijing's access to sensitive semiconductor technology, cutting it out of microchip supply chains.\n\n\"This shows the US has taken a much harder line on tech transfer, trying to get key allies on board,\" says Chris Miller, a professor of international history who wrote a book about US-China tensions over chip technology.\n\nAnd in the past few days, the US military announced it was expanding its presence in the Philippines - one of several moves to strengthen regional alliances as it positions itself to counter China amid growing concern over a possible conflict with Taiwan.\n\nBut the Biden administration still wanted to talk.\n\nMr Blanchett said the White House thought this was a good time to do so, because it had won some breathing room with a Congress hawkish on China by establishing a track record of being tough on Beijing, moving beyond steps taken by former President Donald Trump.\n\nInstead, the balloon gave Republicans an opening to lead the charge in demanding action against China's \"brazen disregard for US sovereignty\".\n\nState department officials emphasised they had not given up, that the diplomatic contacts continued to set up another meeting.\n\nBut they gave no date, adding to the sense of a consequential relationship in limbo.", "Pope Francis said those with \"homosexual tendencies\" should be welcomed by their churches\n\nPope Francis and the leaders of Protestant churches in England and Scotland have denounced the criminalisation of homosexuality.\n\nSpeaking to reporters after visiting South Sudan, the Pope said such laws were a sin and \"an injustice\".\n\nHe added people with \"homosexual tendencies\" are children of God and should be welcomed by their churches.\n\nHis comments were backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland.\n\nArchbishop Justin Welby and Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, travelled with the Pope to South Sudan where they jointly called for peace in the war-torn country.\n\nIt is the first time the leaders of the three traditions have come together for such a journey in 500 years.\n\nArchbishop Welby and Dr Greenshields praised the Pope's comments during a news conference with reporters on board the papal plane as they travelled from Juba to Rome.\n\n\"I entirely agree with every word he said there,\" said Archbishop Welby, noting that the Anglican church had its own internal divisions over gay rights.\n\nLast month the Church of England said it would refuse to allow same-sex couples to be married in its churches.\n\nExpressing his own support, Dr Greenshields referred to the Bible, saying: \"There is nowhere in the four Gospels that I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whoever he meets, and as Christians that is the only expression that we can give to any human being in any circumstance\".\n\nArchbishop Justin Welby (right) and the Rt Rev Iain Greenshields (left) expressed their support for the Pope's comments in a press conference\n\nDuring the news conference Pope Francis repeated his view that the Catholic Church cannot permit sacramental marriage of same-sex couples.\n\nBut he said he supported so-called civil union legislation, and stressed that laws banning homosexuality were \"a problem that cannot be ignored\".\n\nHe suggested that 50 countries criminalise LGBT people \"in one way or another\", and about 10 have laws carrying the death penalty.\n\nCurrently 66 UN member states criminalise consensual same-sex relations, according to ILGA World - the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.\n\n\"This is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God,\" said the Pope.\n\n\"God loves them. God accompanies them... condemning a person like this is a sin.\"\n\nUnder current Catholic doctrine, gay relationships are referred to as \"deviant behaviour\" and Pope Francis has previously said he was \"worried\" about the \"serious matter\" of homosexuality in the clergy.\n\nBut some conservative Catholics have criticised him for making comments they say are ambiguous about sexual morality.\n\nIn 2013, soon after becoming Pope, he reaffirmed the Catholic Church's position that homosexual acts were sinful, but added that homosexual orientation was not.\n\nFive years later, during a visit to Ireland, Pope Francis stressed that parents could not disown their LGBT children and had to keep them in a loving family.", "Several streets have been evacuated within a 100m cordon, after police found \"suspicious items\"\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of explosive offences, following a security scare in the town of Belper.\n\nHomes on multiple streets in the Derbyshire town were evacuated, after police were called to a house on Acorn Drive at about 18:00 GMT on Friday.\n\nOfficers found some \"suspicious items\" during a search, the force said.\n\nAn Explosive Ordnance Disposal team has drawn a 100m cordon around the house, with the nearby Strutt Centre acting as a shelter for the evacuated residents.\n\nStreets within the cordon include Acorn Way, Acorn Drive, Swinney Lane and Swinney Bank.\n\nA police spokeswoman said there was \"no indication\" as to how long the evacuation and road closures would remain in place.\n\nAcorn Drive is closed at its junction with Mill Street, while Swinney Lane is closed between its junction with Mill Street and just after the junction with Swinney Bank.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nThe sister of a missing mother who disappeared on a dog walk is urging members of the public to \"keep an open mind\" and continue the search.\n\nNicola Bulley, 45, was last seen next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire a week ago.\n\nLancashire Police said on Friday officers believed she had fallen into the river.\n\nBut Ms Bulley's sister, Louise Cunningham, said there was \"no evidence whatsoever\" of that.\n\nIn a post on Facebook, she said: \"Please keep sharing my Nikki\", adding that a river fall was \"just a theory\".\n\nShe added: \"Everyone needs to keep an open mind as not all CCTV and leads have been investigated fully, the police confirmed the case is far from over.\"\n\nA major search has been continuing, including police divers, drones, a helicopter and search and rescue teams but no trace of her has been found.\n\nPolice said their \"working hypothesis is that she has fallen into the river for some reason\".\n\nThey said there was \"no evidence\" of anything suspicious.\n\nIn an interview with The Sun, one of Ms Bulley's friends, Emma White said police were working to get data from her Fitbit watch.\n\n\"The Fitbit had not been synched since Tuesday,\" she said.\n\n\"The police are trying other ways to try to get information from it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Bulley's friend Emma White: \"We've still got a missing piece of the jigsaw\"\n\nMs White, who has been helping in the search, told the BBC earlier she believed \"we're actually no further on than sadly last Friday\".\n\n\"We still have no evidence and that's why we're out again in force.\n\n\"You don't base life on a hypothesis, do you? You absolutely can have hypotheses but then you need something to back that hypothesis up to become factual.\"\n\nMs Bulley was last seen walking her dog Willow near the River Wyre after dropping off her children, aged six and nine, at school on the morning of 27 January.\n\nThe spaniel was found about 25 minutes after Ms Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10 GMT.\n\nHer phone was also found on a riverside bench - still connected to a work call.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said: \"There is absolutely nothing to suggest from all the extensive enquiries we have made that anything untoward has happened to [Ms Bulley] or that there is any third-party involvement in her disappearance.\"\n\nShe said it remained a missing person inquiry.\n\nDetectives said they were \"as confident as we can be that Nicola has not left the field where she was last seen and our working hypothesis is that she has fallen into the river for some reason\".\n\n\"Our investigation remains open and we will of course act on any new information which comes to light.\"\n\nMs Bulley's partner Paul Ansell said he would \"never lose hope\" of finding her.\n\nPolice have urged locals to look out along the river for clothing that Ms Bulley was last seen wearing.\n\nThis includes an ankle-length black quilted gilet jacket, a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat, black jeans, green walking socks, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace and a pale blue Fitbit.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The Liberal Democrats are calling for a higher minimum wage for social care workers to help tackle staff shortages.\n\nUnder the party's plans, staff would be paid at least £2 an hour more than the minimum wage - currently £9.50 an hour for over-23s.\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said carers were not valued enough, and vacancies had left the NHS \"on its knees\".\n\nThe government said it was working to reduce vacancies, and is increasing funding for social care in England.\n\nThe UK national minimum wage sets out the lowest amount a worker can be paid per hour by law.\n\nThe rates are decided by the government, based on the recommendations of an independent advisory group, and change every year.\n\nMore than half of frontline care staff - 850,000 workers - would see their pay improve if there was a £2 an hour uplift to the minimum wage for the sector, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank.\n\nThe Lib Dems said the policy would be funded by increasing the tax on online gambling providers' profits to 42%. The tax - know an Remote Gaming Duty - is currently 21%.\n\nThe party said the government would need to give councils an extra £1bn a year to cover higher staffing costs.\n\nIt added that ministers should also take into account minimum wage rises when setting social care budgets.\n\nThere are more than 165,000 vacancies in adult social care in England, up 52% in a year, the latest official figures show.\n\nThe Lib Dems said \"chronic staff shortages\" were leading to patients being left in hospital waiting for social care, contributing to record waiting times for A&E.\n\nIt added that higher pay for care workers was required to prevent an \"exodus of workers to supermarkets and other better paid jobs\".\n\nSpeaking on BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Ed said his party's plans would deal with \"one of the big problems\" facing the health service.\n\nThe Lib Dem leader, whose teenage son has a neurological condition that means he needs 24/7 care, said he had witnessed the value of care work first-hand.\n\n\"We need these social care workers. They've never been valued enough,\" he added.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care, which is responsible for health policy in England, said most paid carers were employed by private companies, who were responsible for setting pay.\n\nA statement added that the legal minimum wage across all workplaces was set to rise to £10.42 an hour for over-23s from April.\n\n\"We are prioritising health and social care with £14.1bn over the next two years, including up to £7.5bn for adult social care - the biggest funding increase in history,\" the department added.", "Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said she was due to meet with Health Minister Eluned Morgan on Sunday\n\nThe leader of the Unite union has said she is meeting Wales' health minister on Sunday, on the eve of an ambulance service walkout in a row over pay.\n\nUnite general secretary Sharon Graham said she hoped to \"get to the deal that we need to give to our members to solve the dispute\".\n\nOther unions agreed to suspend action after a new pay offer by Eluned Morgan.\n\nMilitary personnel are being drafted in to help drive ambulances during Unite's planned strike on Monday and Tuesday.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said services would be \"much more limited\" during the planned action, including affecting calls to the NHS Wales 111 help line.\n\nUnite, which represents about 25% of all ambulance staff in Wales, said on Friday that members planned to strike unless a better deal was agreed over the weekend.\n\nMilitary personnel are being drafted in to help drive ambulances during Unite's planned strike on Monday\n\nMs Morgan has offered health unions an extra 3% on top of the £1,400 already promised.\n\nMs Graham said: \"What we know - because we got all of our reps together when that offer was put on the table - is our members just won't accept that.\"\n\nBut the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and GMB union ambulance staff have put walkouts on hold to consider the deal.\n\nFinance Minister Rebecca Evans said the extra cash to cover the pay offer to NHS staff meant the Welsh government would have \"more difficult choices\" to make in future years.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Welsh Ambulance This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nShe told BBC Politics Wales it was using £125m from its reserves - the maximum allowed - and the Welsh NHS would have to save £64m annually in order to fund the increased pay offer.\n\n\"My hope would've been that we could have used that financial asset [government reserves] in the next financial year and the year after, because we know that those are going to be even more difficult than this year,\" she added.\n\nAndrew RT Davies, the Welsh Conservatives' Senedd leader, asked why the Welsh government did not \"resolve this sooner so, ultimately, that you could've kept the hospitals going... and the disruption would've been minimised\".\n\nPlaid Cymru Adam Price said the improved pay offer was \"still substantially below the rate of inflation\".\n\n\"But it doesn't really address what is at the core of the dispute - the fact that NHS staff have had a real terms pay cut for over a decade and more,\" he said.\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"We are pleased by the initial reception to the enhanced pay offer made to health trade unions, and we continue to engage with them on a number of non-pay commitments to enhance staff well-being.\n\n\"We again thank those that have participated in the negotiations for their positive engagement and goodwill\".\n\nNurses in England and ambulance staff in England and Wales have coordinated action on Monday in their ongoing row about pay and working conditions.\n\nUK Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the action was \"regrettable\", and \"will undoubtedly have an impact on patients\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shirley-Anne Somerville has called for more compromise to end the dispute\n\nTeachers should suspend their strike action while pay talks continue to allow schools to stay open, the education secretary has said.\n\nShirley-Anne Somerville called for \"more compromise\" as pupils move closer to the exam season.\n\nMembers of the EIS union have held three weeks of rolling strikes affecting two council areas each day.\n\nThe union has accused the Scottish government of \"a complete lack of urgency\" to end the dispute.\n\nThe last day of the current action will take place on Monday in Inverclyde and Shetland.\n\nAnd the EIS has refused to rule out further walkouts during the exam period and said its strategy was being kept \"under review\".\n\nThe education secretary previously said there will be no new pay offer for teachers and that the union's requested 10% pay rise is unaffordable.\n\nThe current 5% offer includes rises of up to 6.85% for the lowest-paid staff.\n\nMembers of the EIS union have been campaigning for a 10% pay rise\n\nMs Somerville told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show that local government body Cosla and the unions \"remain some way apart\".\n\nBut she called for more talks in the coming week.\n\n\"Trade union colleagues have their mandate to strike and I absolutely respect that.\n\n\"But what we could see, as we have seen in other sectors, is a suspension and no further strike dates while talks are continuing.\n\n\"I've asked trade unions to look at that - they have so far refused. But, particularly as we move forward to exam season, I would like them to consider it.\"\n\nPupils could face more disruption in the lead up to the exams period\n\nShe added: \"I would hope that everyone involved would be able to agree that we do not want exams disrupted.\n\n\"As you would expect, Scottish government is working with local government and the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) to make sure contingencies are in place.\n\n\"But I would like to think, for the benefit of children, young people and parents across the country, it wouldn't be too difficult for trade unions to say we absolutely respect children and young people's right to be able to carry out their exam and not have any threats to that hanging over them.\"\n\nEIS salaries convener Des Morris, who is party of the union's negotiation team, said nothing in the government's stance had changed during six months of pay talks.\n\nHe told The Sunday Show: \"It should come as no surprise that our members are out on picket lines.\n\n\"We want this dispute resolved as quickly, and in as timely a manner, as possible. But we keep our industrial action strategy under review.\n\n\"The dates that we have are set out an publicly available.\n\n\"It is up to Scottish government and Cosla to back up their public statements about compromise and movement with actions that match that in the room.\"\n\nScottish Labour have accused the government of \"doing nothing to win back the lost trust of teachers and parents\".\n\nThe party's education spokesperson Michael Marra said: \"While the cabinet secretary goes on television to attack teachers, her government brings nothing new to table in negotiations.\n\n\"It is now months since any offer was made and the unions have nothing further to put to their members.\n\n\"Unless a resolution is found soon, our children will miss out on even more vital education and our teachers will remain feeling undervalued and overworked - all because the SNP are unwilling to find a compromise that works for everyone.\"\n\nScottish Conservative education spokesman Stephen Kerr said Ms Somerville had \"once again passed the buck to teaching unions to resolve this dispute, rather than recognising it's her job to break the impasse\".\n\nHe added: \"The public will rightly be wondering why pupils and parents are being treated with such contempt by Shirley-Anne Somerville.\n\n\"The onus is on the SNP government to resolve this so that pupils approaching vital exams can have the stable education they rightly deserve.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nPakistan's former president General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, has died aged 79.\n\nThe former leader - who was president between 2001 and 2008 - died in Dubai after a long illness, a statement from the country's army said.\n\nHe had survived numerous assassination attempts, and found himself on the front line of the struggle between militant Islamists and the West.\n\nHe supported the US \"war on terror\" after 9/11 despite domestic opposition.\n\nIn 2008 he suffered defeat in the polls and left the country six months later.\n\nWhen he returned in 2013 to try to contest the election, he was arrested and barred from standing. He was charged with high treason and was sentenced to death in absentia only for the decision to be overturned less than a month later.\n\nHe left Pakistan for Dubai in 2016 to seek medical treatment and had been living in exile in the country ever since.\n\nMusharraf died in hospital on Sunday morning. His body will be flown back from the United Arab Emirates to Pakistan on a special flight after his family submitted an application to do so, local TV channel Geo News reports.\n\nIn the statement Pakistan's military expressed its \"heartfelt condolences\" and added: \"May Allah bless the departed soul and give strength to bereaved family.\"\n\nPakistan's President Arif Alvi prayed \"for eternal rest of the departed soul and courage to the bereaved family to bear this loss.\"\n\nPakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed his condolences, as did the country's military leaders.\n\nMusharraf's rule was characterised by extremes. He was credited by some with turning around the economic fortunes of the country while leader.\n\nHe was embroiled in a number of court cases following his loss of power, including accusations of failing to provide adequate security for former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose assassination by the Taliban in 2007 shocked Pakistan and the world.\n\nAnd his career ultimately ended in disgrace and arrest, when he was sentenced to death in absentia for treason in 2019. Though that sentencing was later reversed, he never returned to Pakistan.\n\nDespite these events, Fawad Chaudhury, a former aide of Musharraf and currently a senior leader of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party, praised Musharraf and the influence he had on Pakistan.\n\n\"He is called a military dictator, but there has never been a stronger democratic system than that under him... Pervez Musharraf led Pakistan at a very difficult time, and Pakistanis believe the era of his reign was one of the best in Pakistan's history,\" Mr Chaudhury said in comments cited by Reuters.\n\nHowever, the CEO of Islamabad-based think tank Tabadlab, Mosharraf Zaidi, said Musharraf was responsible for the \"destruction of Pakistan\" during his rule.\n\nHis time in power also divided opinion in India.\n\nMusharraf's involvement while serving as the leader of the country's army in the Kargil conflict in May 1999 - when Pakistani generals secretly ordered an operation to occupy heights in Kargil on the Indian side - caused many in India to view him as an adversary.\n\nBut in one Indian politician's eyes, Musharraf redeemed himself during his presidency. \"Once an implacable foe of India, he became a real force for peace 2002-2007,\" Shashi Tharoor, a former UN diplomat, said.\n\nMr Tharoor said he met Musharraf annually in those years at the UN, and described him as \"smart, engaging and clear in his strategic thinking\".", "Well, now Liz Truss’ version of events is out there, and it’s clear that her former cabinet colleagues don’t want to talk about it much.\n\nGrant Shapps's argument this morning was essentially - we’d all love to cut tax but we can’t do it now. He also tried very hard to avoid addressing his old boss’s criticisms of the Conservative party’s failures over the years, as he sees it, to make the case for free market economics with low taxes and low regulation.\n\nThe problem that he and Rishi Sunak have is that some Conservatives, like Jake Berry in our studio this morning, are only too happy to make that case.\n\nTo say that they have, as he said, \"constituents who feel like the government doesn’t understand their problems\", who feel the burdens on them are too great, and the party they voted for in 2019 isn’t listening.\n\nThere’s a striking spat too between the unions and the government this morning, over whether industrial action in the health service is putting lives at risk.\n\nThe leader of the Unite union, Sharon Graham, said that there were \"categorically\" no talks going on at any level between the government and unions to try to call things off, and accused ministers of misleading the public over standby ambulance provisions that have been put in place.\n\nFor the public, who’ll be affected by the strikes there seems no sign of resolution while the two sides throw stones. Sharon Graham said that in 30 years she had never seen anything like this standstill, calling on the PM himself to come to the table.\n\nBut if you’re hoping that there might be any resolution of the dispute, that feels in vain.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAs the balloon crashed into the sea so did attempts to mend China-US relations.\n\nYou can track the trajectory of China's response to its balloon just as the Pentagon was tracking the trajectory of a high-altitude piece of equipment destined to be blown out of the sky.\n\nWe're investigating; we regret that it is our weather balloon blown off course; we think US politicians and media are hyping this up; everyone stay calm; the US attack on this airship is a serious violation of international practice.\n\nWith Antony Blinken - the US's top diplomat - scheduled to visit China this week, Beijing had initially tried to reassure Washington this had all been an accident.\n\nBut once it became clear that the secretary of state wasn't coming, and that the balloon was not coming back either, the gloves were off.\n\nIt is a long way from where the Chinese government wanted things to be at this moment.\n\nThe US Secretary of State was supposed to be here building bridges or at least trying to stop those that still exist from being destroyed.\n\nMake no mistake. Chinese President Xi Jinping had great hopes for this visit and was, reportedly, even going to meet Mr Blinken himself.\n\nSo what balloon-gathered intelligence could be so good that it was worth scuppering this process?\n\nThe short answer is none. Which is why many analysts think that, even if it was to some extent spying, the deployment of this balloon, in this way, at this time, had to have been an error on the Chinese side.\n\nAnd, if that is the case, somebody is getting hauled over the coals for it, especially given that there are now two of these high-altitude balloons in play, with another floating above Latin America. There has been no word whether it too is supposed to have been blown wildly off course, given its \"limited self-steering capability\".\n\nInternationally, many seem to imagine that China's Communist Party is an all-knowing, locked in, organ of power - something along the lines of a giant, efficient, supercomputer with Xi Jinping toggling the controls.\n\nIt is a massive, sprawling organisation, that is certain. However, it is also made up of departments and power blocks competing for influence, at times hoarding information and even deliberately not foreshadowing their actions lest a rival gain some unwanted advantage.\n\nWhen a clearly visible, equipment-carrying balloon started floating close to US nuclear missile siloes, the assumption from some had been not only that it was spying but that it must have been sent as a message to the Biden administration.\n\nAntony Blinken was expected in China on 5 and 6 February\n\nBut when you consider the damage it has done in terms of derailing a visit that the Chinese government, right up to the very top, wanted to happen, it is hard to see how this analysis stacks up.\n\nWe know that the Blinken trip was important here because we saw how Beijing tried to save it using quite conciliatory language.\n\n\"The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure,\" a foreign ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying.\n\nThe extent to which it was deployed to study the weather or spy doesn't really matter in terms of understanding how crushing this incident has been for those on both sides who have been looking for ways to ease US-China tensions.\n\nAn enormous breakthrough was not expected from Mr Blinken's meetings in Beijing. The meetings themselves were to be the breakthrough.\n\nThey would have spoken about moves towards a set of \"guard rails\", means of communication and lines not to cross in an attempt to prevent a drift towards armed conflict.\n\nPresident Xi also wanted it because he's looking for some big signs back at home that his administration knows what it is doing when it comes to steering China into the future.\n\nA sudden and embarrassing retreat from the zero-Covid approach came just months after China's leader had declared at the Party Congress that there would be no swerving from it.\n\nThen the speed of the about-face led to overcrowded hospital emergency rooms, medicine shortages and an unknown Covid death toll.\n\nThe government now needs to put all this behind it and encourage an image of a China which is turning around economically and opening up again.\n\nA high-level US visit would have been quite useful in this regard.\n\nExamine the protestations from the major superpowers this week.\n\nWashington has said this was a \"clear violation of US sovereignty\" but we all know that it has plenty of its own very sophisticated means of spying on China.\n\nBeijing has condemned this US \"attack on a civilian unmanned airship\" but we all know that if a US surveillance balloon flew into Chinese airspace the People's Liberation Army would have it down in no time.\n\nIn a way, this means that the outrage from both sides contains a fair bit of theatre.\n\nThe upside is that, now the balloon is no more, they will be able to move on from it and reschedule a Beijing visit by Mr Blinken at a time when people are asking each other, \"hey do you remember that whole balloon thing?\".", "EIS members took part in a demonstration outside Bute House in Edinburgh\n\nEducation Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has reiterated that there will be no new pay offer for teachers.\n\nMembers of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) have held three weeks of rolling strikes affecting two council areas each day.\n\nThe last day of that action will take place on Monday in Inverclyde and Shetland.\n\nHowever further industrial action is planned for the end of February and beginning of March.\n\nMinisters and councils have said the union's requested 10% pay rise is unaffordable.\n\nThe current 5% offer includes rises of up to 6.85% for the lowest-paid staff.\n\nMore talks have taken place between the Scottish government, council body Cosla and unions but no further pay offer was made.\n\nMs Somerville said: \"While four offers have been made to date, these have been rejected by teaching unions. Further compromise is clearly required in order to secure a fair and sustainable settlement.\n\n\"Today's discussion was focused on progressing opportunities for compromise. There was a shared understanding that a new offer would not be made.\n\n\"Only Cosla as the employer, can make a new pay offer, through the structures of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for teachers.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the EIS claimed it was within the first minister's power to end the dispute.\n\nEIS Salaries convener Des Morris said: \"The only thing that will settle this dispute is an improved offer to Scotland's teachers, one that is both fair and affordable to them, which will involve additional new money from the Scottish government. This is what was done to settle disputes with other local government workers.\n\n\"It is the first minister who has ultimate control over the purse strings so, if she wishes this dispute to be settled soon, the first minister should authorise the cabinet secretary and her officials to release the comparatively modest additional funding needed to end this dispute.\"\n\nMr Morris said that \"little or no\" progress had been made over pay in the last several months and claimed there were no further meetings of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) planned.\n\nHe added \"As ever, the EIS remains ready and willing to re-enter discussions with the Scottish government and Scottish local authorities to discuss a new pay offer for teachers.\n\n\"We are not, however, willing to continue discussing the same offer that has now been rejected by teachers twice.\n\n\"The Scottish government and Cosla must come up with an improved offer to allow pay discussions to progress towards an agreement that genuinely reflects both the soaring cost of living and the value of Scotland's teachers.\"", "Courts waved through applications by energy firms to forcibly install prepayment meters in people's homes, according to internal advice from a top magistrate leaked to the BBC.\n\nPrevious guidelines required careful scrutiny of warrant applications, but new advice to courts deems those rules \"disproportionate\".\n\nEnergy firms can apply for warrants when bills go unpaid for a long period.\n\nBut suppliers were told to stop force-fitting meters earlier this week.\n\nThe energy regulator Ofgem told energy companies not to forcibly install the meters following a report from The Times showing debt agents had broken into vulnerable people's homes.\n\nBut in recent days warrants are still being issued. Privately industry voices are concerned that having ruled out disconnecting customers, and pausing prepayment meters, there is now a \"charter for non-payers\".\n\nThe new advice for magistrates was posted within the last month on an internal website for magistrates, by the National Leadership Magistrate Duncan Webster.\n\nIn an internal FAQ post for magistrates, Mr Webster told magistrates the \"advice given to justices has not kept up with changes in the way utility companies operate\". As the remedy sought by energy companies for unpaid bills is no longer disconnection, but installation of a prepayment meter, \"checks magistrates have been asked to make are now disproportionate and go far beyond the legal requirements\".\n\nIn 2022, as the cost of living crisis took hold, magistrates approved more than 1,000 warrants a day. Almost all of these claims are now authorised electronically or over the phone, by specific magistrates courts allocated to each energy company.\n\nEnergy company agents apply by telephone and send in large spreadsheets with between 100 and 1000 cases, where customers are told they do have the right to contest the warrant, but many do not respond. The hearings will sign off, issue and send all the electronic warrants in \"a maximum of 15 minutes\" according to evidence from pilots.\n\nLegal experts suggest that the advice showed that magistrates were no longer safeguarding vulnerable people and were instead accepting the word of big energy companies \"in good faith\".\n\nCalls are being made for the almost automated system of approval for warrants to be overhauled. Caroline Flint, chair of the government's Committee on Fuel Poverty, said it was making the situation \"worse for already fuel-poor households\".\n\nThe committee said no action by an energy company should make it harder for anyone to heat their home and that the system needed a complete overhaul.\n\nThe court system earns a per case fee from the arrangement, an important source of income after a decade when funding for the judicial system has been cut back substantially.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The whole system of prepayment meters needs review\n\nOne magistrate, and former Justice of the Peace, stepped down last August after being left unable to check vulnerable people were being protected when a warrant for a prepayment meter was sought.\n\nRobin Cantrill-Fenwick told BBC Newsnight changes to the court system meant magistrates \"were doing nothing more than rubber stamping\" warrants.\n\nHe said the lack of scrutiny is putting vulnerable households at risk.\n\nGovernment officials have suggested current advice is a matter for the judiciary. A judicial source said \"it just explains what the current law and processes that magistrates are bound to apply\".\n\nScotland's court service has said it will review the process for utility warrants following outcry over forced installation of pay-as-you-go meters.\n\nThe Magistrates' Leadership Executive has been approached for comment.", "Some 30 avalanches were reported on Saturday alone in western Austria\n\nTen people have been killed in several avalanches across the Austrian and Swiss Alps over the weekend.\n\nTourists from New Zealand, China and Germany were among the dead at a number of different ski resorts.\n\nAustrian authorities put in place a level four avalanche alert - the second highest - following intense snowfall and wind in the area.\n\nDespite the warnings, ski resorts in western Austria have been filling up due to school holidays in Vienna.\n\nAustrian police announced five deaths on Sunday, including that of a 59-year-old man who was using a snow plough in the western region of Tyrol.\n\nThey also recovered the bodies of a ski guide in Sankt Anton am Arlberg and a 62-year-old man who was cross-country skiing around the summit of Hohe Aifner.\n\nOn Saturday, a 17-year-old New Zealander, a 32-year-old Chinese national and a German man in his 50s - who were all said to be skiing off designated ski trails when avalanches hit - were also found dead.\n\nIn Switzerland, a 56-year-old woman and 52-year-old man were also killed by unstable snow in the south-east canton of Graubuenden on Saturday morning. Swiss police said a third member of their group managed to escape unharmed.\n\nAvalanches are common in both countries. According to Austria's APA news agency, 30 avalanches were reported in the Tyrol region on Saturday alone - 11 of these involving people.\n\nAustria's level four alert level means \"very large avalanches are likely\" - it advises inexperienced skiers to remain on open ski runs and trails and for experienced skiers to stay away from very steep terrain.", "Nicola Bulley vanished while walking her dog in the village of St Michael's on Wyre\n\nPolice investigating the disappearance of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley believe she fell into a river.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, on a dog walk a week ago.\n\nA major search for Ms Bulley continues, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nLancashire Police said its \"main working hypothesis\" was that she fell into the River Wyre and this was \"not suspicious but a tragic case of a missing person\".\n\nMs Bulley, a mortgage adviser from Inskip, Lancashire, vanished while walking her dog after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school on 27 January.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said the last confirmed sighting of Ms Bulley was at 09:10 GMT when she was seen on the upper field.\n\nOfficers were alerted to her disappearance when her spaniel, Willow, was found running loose off Garstang Road about 25 minutes after she was last seen by another dog walker.\n\nAt 09:20 police believe her phone was on a bench while connected to a work Teams meeting, which ended 10 minutes later.\n\nDetectives believe Ms Bulley vanished in that 10-minute window.\n\nSupt Riley said police had looked through dashcam, CCTV and doorbell footage which allowed detectives to \"eliminate any trace so far of Nicola having left the riverside\".\n\nShe said this was \"really important\" for the investigation.\n\n\"We believe that Nicola was in the riverside area and remained at the riverside area,\" Supt Riley said.\n\n\"We remain open to any inquiries that might lead us to question that, but at this time we understand that she was by the river.\"\n\nLouise Cunningham, Ms Bulley's sister, has encouraged members of the public to still keep an eye out for her sibling as the police were working on \"a theory\".\n\nIn a post on Facebook, she urged people to \"keep an open mind\", adding: \"the police confirmed the case is far from over\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Sally Riley says police are not treating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley as suspicious.\n\nThe coastguard, mountain rescue and fire crews have joined police in ongoing searches of the river and nearby footpaths.\n\n\"Our main working hypothesis therefore is that Nicola has sadly fallen into the river, that there is no third party or criminal involvement and that this is not suspicious, but a tragic case of a missing person,\" Supt Riley said.\n\n\"This is particularly important because speculation otherwise can be really distressing for the family and for Nicola's children.\"\n\nSupt Riley said Ms Bulley's disappearance had \"understandably caused a huge amount of concern and upset in the local community, as well as being an absolutely awful time for her family\".\n\nHer partner Paul Ansell, 44, said earlier that the family had been living in \"perpetual hell\".\n\nHe said: \"We're never going to lose the hope.\n\n\"But, right now, it is as though she has vanished into thin air. It's just insane.\"\n\nMs Bulley's friend Emma White described her as \"the most beautiful person\" and \"the kindest soul - she's thoughtful, she's caring\".\n\n\"And then you add her and Paul together, add a little bit of magic, and they've created these two beautiful humans who just want to know where their mummy is,\" she said.\n\n\"They are the most close-knit family. Those poor girls asking questions, 'where's mummy, how is mummy?'\"\n\nPaul Ansell said he was trying to stay strong for his daughters\n\nSupt Riley said an \"issue\" with Ms Bulley's dog may have led her to the water's edge.\n\n\"She puts her phone down to go and deal with the dog momentarily, and Nicola may have fallen in,\" she said.\n\n\"We assume the dog didn't get into the river, but we don't know why Nicola may have if she did.\"\n\nMs Riley said the dog was dry and that Ms Bulley could swim.\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on the bench (top left) where police continue to search\n\nMs Bulley has lived in Lancashire for 25 years but is originally from near Chelmsford, Essex, and has a southern accent.\n\nShe was last seen wearing an ankle-length black quilted gilet jacket, a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat which was worn underneath the gilet and tight-fitting black jeans.\n\nShe was also wearing long green walking socks tucked into her jeans, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace and a pale blue Fitbit.\n\nSupt Riley urged people to \"pay heed to those very specific clothing descriptions\" and advised the public to \"keep themselves safe\" in the search for Ms Bulley.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were last seen in East Sussex on January 8\n\nA missing couple and their newborn baby are believed to be camping in the East Sussex countryside, the Metropolitan Police has said.\n\nConstance Marten, her partner Mark Gordon, 48 - a convicted sex offender - and their four-week-old baby have been missing for the last month.\n\nPolice said their concern \"continues to grow\" and that finding the baby \"remains our top priority\".\n\nMs Marten and the baby are not thought to have received medical attention.\n\nThe 35-year-old is said to have lived an isolated life with her boyfriend since they met in 2016.\n\nPolice have asked people in Newhaven to \"think carefully\" about whether they have seen the family recently, with this one of the last places the couple are known to have been.\n\nThe baby was less than a week old when the family arrived at the East Sussex port by taxi just before 05:00 GMT on 8 January.\n\nPolice say the couple left their home in Eltham, south-east London, in September 2022 when Ms Marten began showing signs of pregnancy, and have since led a nomadic lifestyle.\n\nDetective Superintendent Lewis Basford said: \"While we are very grateful to everyone who has already called, we still need to hear from anyone who has seen the couple since Sunday, 8 January and we are offering a reward of up to £10,000 for any information that leads to the family being found.\n\n\"I am appealing in particular to people who may have spent time in the countryside near Newhaven and elsewhere in Sussex to think carefully as to whether they may have seen Constance and Mark over the past four weeks.\"\n\nHe added that given the time that's passed\" the pair may have travelled on.\n\n\"I also need to hear from anyone who may have seen them further afield,\" Det Supt Basford said.\n\nAround 300 calls to police have been made about the case but \"sadly they have not led to the couple and the baby being found,\" he added.\n\nAs Ms Marten gave birth only a day or two before she went missing without medical assistance and is believed to have been sleeping rough since, police said that finding the baby \"remains our top priority\".\n\nAppealing to the public, Det Supt Basford said: \"Maybe you have information but were reluctant to come forward to help us find the family. It does not matter why you did not speak to us earlier, what matters is doing the right thing now for the good of this highly vulnerable infant.\"\n\nPolice also appealed directly to the family, and asked them \"please pick up the phone and let us know, at the very least, that you're okay\".\n\n\"Constance and Mark, your baby has spent the first month of its short life exposed to the elements when it should be safe and warm and, most importantly, seen by medics.\n\n\"After a month you must be running low on cash. Please pick up the phone and let us know, at the very least, that you are okay. We are ready to come to you and see that you and the baby get medical attention.\"\n\nThe family were picked up by CCTV on Whitechapel Road in London on 7 January\n\nThe investigation to find the family began when the couple's car was found on fire by the side of the M61 near Bolton on 5 January.\n\nPolice soon discovered that many of the their belongings were destroyed in the blaze.\n\nIt then came to light that the couple had abandoned the car when it broke down and took a taxi to Liverpool, and from there to Harwich in Essex.\n\nSince then they have been seen in east London, before travelling to north London and then on to Newhaven, East Sussex.\n\nWhen the couple were last spotted, they were seen carrying a blue two-man tent, sleeping bags and pillows they had purchased from Argos the previous evening, and are believed to have been sleeping rough since.", "Lev Tahor settled in Central America after coming under investigation in Canada\n\nWhen Mexican police raided a self-styled Jewish sect, former members hoped it would spell the end of the group, which has been accused of crimes against children. Instead, the case collapsed and the sect recovered - but not before details about the cloistered community were exposed, including its plans for mass slaughter if outside authorities intervened. One former member, who recently fled, spoke to the BBC about his ordeal.\n\nWarning: This story contains details of physical and sexual abuse\n\nWhen Yisrael Amir got married, he and his bride stood under the chupah, the traditional Jewish wedding canopy, surrounded by members of their community. But what should be a couple's happiest day was for them a nightmare.\n\nYisrael and his wife, Malke (not her real name), were both 16 and had met there and then for the first time. The marriage had been organised by leaders of the group which they had been brought into as children. The group is Lev Tahor, Hebrew for Pure Heart, which claims to follow a fundamentalist version of Judaism. Former members though, along with an Israeli court among others, say it is nothing but a cult.\n\n\"We had no choice,\" Yisrael, now 22, tells me as we sit and talk in the back yard of his aunt's house, just south of Tel Aviv. \"The rabbi called me into his office and said, 'Next week you're getting married. If you refuse you get punished'.\n\n\"My sister was 13 and they forced her to marry a 19-year-old. She was crying. She cried so much they punished her by banning her from speaking for a year. She could not say a word - not ask for food, not ask for the toilet, nothing.\"\n\nYisrael's aunt, Orit, has been deeply involved in the fight against Lev Tahor\n\nThis was part of life at the group's compound in Guatemala, where the legal age for marriage is 18 for both men and women. Most of Lev Tahor had settled in the Central American country in 2013 after fleeing Canada, where it faced allegations of child abuse. It has denied these claims.\n\nYisrael says his sister could not speak properly after the year-long punishment ended. Such treatments are part of a catalogue of alleged abuses meted out by leaders and those in positions of authority in the group, according to Yisrael and other former members. These reportedly include beatings for minor infractions, with children forced to thank their tormentors for hitting them.\n\nBut, according to Yisrael, there was much worse.\n\n\"I saw every day Shlomo Helbrans [the founder of Lev Tahor] and another leader take boys in their room, boys as young as eight, then afterwards he sent them to the mikveh [ritual bath used for purification]. I didn't understand what he did with them. Now I know.\"\n\nYisrael says boys and girls told him they were sexually abused - and raped.\n\nThe BBC tried to speak to alleged child victims of rape who have left the group, but none were willing to talk. A US-based support group, Lev Tahor Survivors (LTS), told the BBC there are child rape victims among its members, while a source involved in an official investigation says Central American authorities have sworn statements from ex-members that rapes were committed.\n\nShlomo Helbrans (left) founded and led the group until his death\n\n\"Helbrans cast himself as a Messiah-like figure who could do what he liked because he was a holy man,\" says Yisrael. \"He told us he had come from Heaven to 'mend' people and had supernatural powers and his followers believed him.\"\n\nOne of the ways the group exerts control over its members, Yisrael says, is to remove children from their parents and place them with new \"families\". Biological parents are forbidden to have any further contact with them.\n\nThis is what happened to Yisrael. At the age of 12, he was taken from their home in Israel, along with his six siblings, to join the group in Guatemala City by their father, Shaul. Yisrael says Lev Tahor had falsely promised his family that life in Guatemala would be paradise, with animals for the children to play with.\n\nInstead \"it was a complete shock,\" he says. \"Everyone was separated from each other. Children had to sleep on stone floors. We were woken up about 3am every day, then prayers all day long, no food, no water, no talking to other children. If the rabbi [Helbrans] lectured us, it would go on for hours. Sometimes I would fall asleep standing up.\n\n\"Every single thing was controlled. You could only go to the toilet when they said you could.\"\n\n\"We had no education. We did not even study Torah [holiest books of the Jewish Bible] or Talmud [a principal Jewish book of laws] because that would have opened our minds - just Helbrans' writings, which we had to learn by heart. We did not go to sleep until 11pm.\"\n\nThe community based itself in the jungle, isolated from the outside world (surveillance photo)\n\nThe group was covertly watched by an undercover Israeli team and police\n\nYisrael says members were only allowed to eat certain vegetables and fruit. The leaders banned meat, fish and eggs, claiming that they may be affected by genetic engineering. This they said rendered them unkosher (prohibited under Jewish dietary laws). Yisrael believes the real reason was just to keep members weak by depriving them of protein.\n\n\"Helbrans, though, ate everything he wanted - eggs, fish, meat. He said it was for his health, and you weren't allowed to question it.\"\n\nHelbrans died in Mexico in 2017, drowning in a river. His son, Nachman, described in US court documents as \"more extreme\" than his father, took over.\n\n\"When I was taken there as a child, I just knew it all felt wrong but couldn't do anything,\" says Yisrael. \"But later I just knew I had to get out.\"\n\nThat point came when his wife Malke had a baby boy, Nevo, two years after they were married.\n\n\"They knew where you were at all times, but one day the leaders sent me to get something printed in the town [Oratorio, to where the group had moved]. It was an internet store, and I remembered what a computer looked like from when I was a child back home. I didn't know how to use one, so I asked the store owner for help.\"\n\nAfter learning about Google, Yisrael asked the owner to look up Lev Tahor - and was shocked by what he found. \"There were articles about this cult, and it confirmed what I thought.\" Among the results were reports about how his aunt, Orit, back in Israel, was fighting the group.\n\n\"I thought that Orit had forgotten us,\" says Yisrael. \"I didn't know she was doing everything to rescue our family.\"\n\nYisrael found her email address and sent her a message. Orit says she was shocked to get it. They started communicating, with Yisrael returning to the store whenever he was sent on errands. Then using money he had secretly earned, Yisrael bought a mobile phone and rang his aunt.\n\n\"When she heard my voice she was so happy,\" he says with a smile. \"She told me she would come to take me out, and a few days after that I escaped.\"\n\n\"One night I slipped out the gate and ran for 15 minutes through the jungle until I came to a highway. I stopped a bus and it took me to Guatemala City, about two hours away. I was frightened members would come looking for me.\n\n\"Orit was waiting for me but I didn't recognise her, and at first I didn't know whether to hug her because she was not dressed like women in Lev Tahor, where touching the opposite sex [outside of marriage] was strictly forbidden.\"\n\nOne of the hallmarks of the group is its requirement for females from the age of three to wear a full-body cloak, which it argues is for modesty. In public, females are seen to also cover their faces apart from their eyes. The practice has earned Lev Tahor the nickname the Jewish Taliban in media reports.\n\nAt first Yisrael did not want to leave without his son, but Orit promised they would return for the boy, and they left Guatemala for Israel. By then 19, Yisrael had in effect been living an isolated existence for five years and struggled to adjust.\n\n\"I had to start life from zero,\" he says, \"to meet people, to make friends, to even learn the language again - it was very, very difficult.\"\n\nHe and Orit returned to Guatemala several times to try to reclaim Yisrael's son, but to no avail.\n\nThen, last September, following an undercover operation by a four-man team (including former Mossad agents, an ex-police officer and a lawyer) from Israel, an elite police unit raided Lev Tahor's hideout in Mexico's Chiapas state, to where some of the group had relocated.\n\nMembers were forced to live in squalid conditions at the base in Mexico\n\nThe raid had been authorised by a state judge who had examined evidence of criminal activity, including drug trafficking and rape, gathered by Mexico's Special Prosecutor for Organised Crime. This included an order which the BBC has seen from a leader of the group, instructing mothers to kill their children - apparently with poison - if welfare services came to take them away.\n\n\"If some people come to take our children from us… we have to sacrifice lives so the cursed ones will not desecrate the spirit of our pure children… [in] the way it was instructed by our holiness [Shlomo Helbrans] before he died,\" a translation of the document reads.\n\n\"It must be done in a way they [the children] don't suffer… nor disfigure their body… so they [women] will use what we will distribute [which] has to be given to the children immediately… without explaining to them what it is so as not to frighten them.\"\n\nIt then instructs the women to kill themselves after they have killed the children.\n\nChildren were immediately separated from adults as a precaution and the compound emptied.\n\nNevo was among those brought out and was reunited with Yisrael. \"I cried,\" Yisrael says, \"but Nevo was calm. I'm sure he felt that I was his father.\"\n\nYisrael flew back to Israel with Nevo after the boy was released in the raid\n\nMalke was also evacuated but refused to leave the group. She and two dozen others were held at a government shelter, but five days later they escaped. Two leaders arrested on the orders of the state judge on suspicion of human trafficking and serious sexual offences were freed by a local judge.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Members of the group forced their way past guards while making their escape\n\nYisrael's account of abuses by Lev Tahor has not been independently verified, but it parallels testimonies of other former members.\n\n\"I completely deny all the accusations,\" he told the BBC. \"The greatest evidence we have is the words of the [local] judge in Mexico. After hearing all the evidence from A to Z, the judge decisively decided to close the case.\" Mr Goldman said the group was the victim of \"a persecution\".\n\nAlthough the finding by the local judge has not been set aside, a source with intimate knowledge of the case says they were not presented with the evidence gathered by the federal investigator.\n\nAll those who fled from the government shelter in Mexico, as well as the two freed leaders, have returned to Guatemala, according to the source.\n\nSome 8,000 miles (12,000 km) away, Yisrael continues to rebuild his life with Nevo at their new home on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Forbidden from using technology for years, he is now studying computer science at Bar Ilan University, with the aim of becoming a software engineer.\n\n\"After that,\" he says, \"the sky's the limit.\"", "The NHS is bracing for its biggest strike yet. For the first time in this dispute, ambulance workers and nurses will walk out together in England on Monday.\n\nThe impact will also be bigger than on previous strike days because more hospital trusts are involved.\n\nIt won't just affect emergency care - many non-urgent appointments and operations will be cancelled.\n\nIn Wales, the strike has been called off by the main ambulance union, the GMB, and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union while they consider a new pay offer from the Welsh government.\n\nBut the Unite union, which also represents ambulance workers in Wales, says its strike will go ahead.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nMembers of the RCN are walking out over pay on Monday 6 February and Tuesday 7 February.\n\nThe RCN has said this is the biggest action so far, with more than a third of hospital trusts in England affected.\n\nThe union has about 300,000 members - roughly two-thirds of NHS nurses.\n\nWelsh NHS staff have suspended strike action following an improved offer from ministers.\n\nThe RCN and GMB unions in Scotland have put strike action on hold to allow talks on a 2023 pay offer.\n\nPeople with a hospital appointment in England should still go, unless they have been told otherwise, according to NHS advice.\n\nPatients in hospital will be informed how their care will be affected on a ward-by-ward basis.\n\nIntensive and emergency care will still be provided, but routine check-ups and other operations may be affected.\n\nServices such as chemotherapy, kidney dialysis and intensive care will be staffed, but other care such as knee and hip replacements and hernia repair are likely to be affected.\n\nGP practices will run as normal, and people should go to scheduled appointments.\n\nAnyone who is seriously ill or injured should still call 999, or 111 for non-urgent care.\n\nThe nurses strikes on each day will last for 12 hours.\n\nAmbulance staff in England are striking over pay on Monday, with further strike dates announced.\n\nPeople should only call an ambulance if they are seriously ill or injured, and there is a risk to life.\n\nThe most life-threatening situations - such as cardiac arrest - will be sent an ambulance.\n\nConditions which are serious but not immediately life-threatening might not be immediately attended.\n\nCalls - such as a woman in late-stage labour - will not be prioritised.\n\nFor other healthcare needs, the NHS advises calling 111, or using 111 online.\n\nAmbulance strikes on 6, 17, 20, and 22 February, and 6 and 20 March will last for up to 26 hours.\n\nThe NHS said it was working with the armed forces \"to ensure ambulance services are supported\".\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Liz Truss' approach 'clearly' not right - Shapps\n\nLiz Truss's radical tax-cutting plan was \"clearly\" not the right approach, according to Grant Shapps, who briefly served in her short-lived government.\n\nIn a return to the political fray, Ms Truss wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that her economic agenda was never given a \"realistic chance\".\n\nBusiness Secretary Mr Shapps said he agreed with Ms Truss on wanting lower taxes - but inflation must fall first.\n\n\"You can't just go straight to those tax cuts,\" he said.\n\nIn her 4,000-word essay, Ms Truss stood by her plans to boost economic growth, arguing they were brought down by \"the left-wing economic establishment\".\n\nBut she acknowledged she was not \"blameless\" for the unravelling of the mini-budget.\n\nThey are the first public comments the former PM has made on her resignation in October of last year.\n\nMs Truss resigned after she and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng introduced a £45bn package of tax cuts - including a cut to the top rate of income tax - which panicked the markets and alienated Tory MPs.\n\nMr Shapps was asked on BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show whether Ms Truss's approach had been the right one.\n\n\"Clearly it wasn't,\" he said.\n\nHe admitted that the UK's tax burden was currently \"very high\", and said he agreed with Ms Truss that Conservatives must be \"making the good arguments\" that a lower-tax economy can be successful in the long term.\n\nBut before the government cuts tax, it must first halve inflation, get \"growth into the economy\" and get debt \"under control\", he said.\n\nGrant Shapps was home secretary under Liz Truss for her final six days in office\n\nHe tried to avoid addressing Truss's criticism that the Conservative Party had failed, for years, to make the case for free-market economics with low taxes and low regulation.\n\nMr Shapps said he took the role of home secretary in the final days of Ms Truss's government out of a sense of \"national duty\", and that by that point \"we'd seen the impact on the markets\".\n\nHe replaced Suella Braverman, who resigned over two data breaches. Six weeks earlier, as Ms Truss entered Downing Street, she had fired Mr Shapps as transport secretary, a role he held under the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nMs Truss's brief time in power - 49 days - made her the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history.\n\nIn her essay, Ms Truss said that while her experience last autumn was \"bruising for me personally\", she believed that over the medium term her policies would have increased growth and therefore brought down debt.\n\nShe argued that the government was made a \"scapegoat\" for developments that had been brewing for some time.\n\n\"Frankly, we were also pushing water uphill. Large parts of the media and the wider public sphere had become unfamiliar with key arguments about tax and economic policy and over time sentiment had shifted leftward,\" she wrote.\n\nShe also said she had not appreciated the strength of the resistance she would face to her plans - including plans to abolish the 45p top rate of income tax.\n\n\"I assumed upon entering Downing Street that my mandate would be respected and accepted. How wrong I was.\"\n\nLiz Truss resigned as prime minister in October 2022 and officially stepped down after a week-long contest to find her successor\n\nMr Kwarteng dropped the 45p income tax proposals 10 days after they were announced, telling the BBC it was \"a massive distraction on what was a strong package\".\n\nLess than a fortnight later, Ms Truss sacked Mr Kwarteng, something she said she was \"deeply disturbed by\". She described Mr Kwarteng in her essay as \"an original thinker and a great advocate for Conservative ideas\" - but that it was clear the tax proposals could not survive.\n\nWith the benefit of hindsight, she would have acted differently during her premiership, she wrote - but she still backs her plans for growth.\n\nSir Jake Berry, who was Conservative party chairman under Ms Truss, said he agreed with her assessment of the problems facing the UK economy, but \"not necessarily the cure\".\n\nSpeaking on the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show, he added that Ms Truss had been wrong to say the Conservatives had failed to make the argument for lower taxes.\n\nMeanwhile, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said Ms Truss's policies \"made working people pay the price\".\n\n\"The Conservatives crashed the economy, sank the pound, put pensions in peril and made working people pay the price through higher mortgages for years to come.\n\n\"After 13 years of low growth, squeezed wages and higher taxes under the Tories, only Labour offers the leadership and ideas to fix our economy and to get it growing.\"\n\nWhile Ms Truss resigned as prime minister, she is still serving in parliament as the MP for South West Norfolk.", "The head of the UK's biggest nursing union has urged Rishi Sunak to make a new pay offer to avoid next week's planned strikes in England going ahead.\n\nIn a letter seen by the BBC, head of the Royal College of Nursing Pat Cullen said she was \"appealing directly\" to Mr Sunak for the first time.\n\nCiting pay negotiations in Wales and Scotland, she said a renewed offer or fresh talks could halt the action.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said the action was \"regrettable\".\n\nMonday is thought to be biggest day of strike action in NHS history.\n\nNurses in England and ambulance staff in England and Wales have coordinated action for the first time in an ongoing row about pay and working conditions.\n\nStaff from both services will strike on Monday, and nurses will also strike on Tuesday. Ambulance staff are also poised to take part in walkouts on Friday.\n\nIn a letter to the prime minister, Ms Cullen wrote that a \"meaningful\" pay offer from the government could still avert strike action.\n\nShe drew a comparison with his swift action in sacking Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi after he was found to have breached the ministerial code in relation to his tax affairs.\n\n\"As shown by last weekend's fast-paced changes in Cabinet, big decisions can be made by you at any point in the week in the interests of good government,\" she wrote.\n\n\"I am urging you to use this weekend to reset your government in the eyes of the public and demonstrate it is on the side of the hardworking, decent taxpayer.\n\n\"There could be no simpler way to demonstrate this commitment than bringing the nurse strike to a swift close.\"\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nMr Barclay said while NHS contingency plans are in place, the strikes \"will undoubtedly have an impact on patients and cause delays to NHS services\".\n\nHe said: \"We accepted the recommendations of the independent pay review body to give over one million NHS workers, including nurses and ambulance workers, a pay rise of at least £1,400 this financial year.\n\n\"I have been having constructive talks with unions about what is affordable for 2023/24, and urge them to call off the strikes and come back around the table.\"\n\nThe renewed calls for a government response from the RCN come after Welsh NHS staff suspended strike action following an improved offer from ministers.\n\n\"Yesterday, the Welsh government made an offer of an additional 3% for the current financial year,\" Ms Cullen wrote.\n\n\"Consequently, we cancelled our strike action in Wales for Monday and Tuesday. In Scotland, negotiations continue over additional funding for the current year too and there are no planned strikes.\n\n\"Your government looks increasingly isolated in refusing to reopen 2022/23,\" she said, adding she had made it clear in meetings with England's Health Secretary Steve Barclay \"that opening negotiations and making meaningful offers can avert strike action\".\n\nReferring to the prime minister's comments in an interview this week to mark his 100th day in office - in which he said nurses should be treated as \"an exception\" - Ms Cullen said the prime minister \"appeared to demonstrate a change in tone in respect of the strike by nursing staff\".\n\nMs Cullen urged Mr Sunak to \"use this weekend to reset your government in the eyes of the public\" and show it is \"on the side of the hardworking, decent taxpayer\" by bringing the dispute to an end.\n\nIn England, most NHS staff have already received a pay rise of roughly £1,400 this year - worth about 4% on average for nurses. The RCN is calling for a 19% pay rise, although it has indicated it may meet the government \"halfway\".\n\nUnions representing ambulance workers and physiotherapists also want above-inflation pay rises, but have not specified a figure.\n\nThe government says the demands are unaffordable, and that pay rises are decided by independent pay review bodies.\n\nUnion members in England are planning to strike on 6 and 7 February.\n\nHave you had a medical appointment or operation cancelled due to the strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Betty Pritchard says it's a pleasure still to be working at the age of 89\n\nAfter 57 years working at the same pharmacy, 89-year-old Betty Pritchard has no plans to retire.\n\nShe has been at Watkin-Davies in Bettws, Newport, since 1965 and said it's a pleasure to show up each day.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt said six million economically inactive adults - excluding students - was a \"shocking waste of talent\".\n\nThe Welsh government said it works to boost over-50s employment to help firms and give a \"more inclusive workforce\".\n\nMr Hunt encouraged people to consider returning to the work force, saying: \"Britain needs you\".\n\nMrs Pritchard, who lives in Bassaleg, Newport, takes two buses to work and back each day.\n\nShe joined the business aged 33, with 13 years' previous experience.\n\nThe pharmacy was run by Mr Davies, and later taken over by his son Christopher. \"I don't think Chris was born when I started,\" she said.\n\nOriginating in a smaller unit nearby, the pharmacy moved premises in the early 1970s. Mrs Pritchard recalled the excitement of flying to Scotland to pick fittings.\n\nNeighbours have come and gone, but some businesses - including a barber's and a fish shop - remain.\n\nShe has seen the pharmacy trade change considerably.\n\n\"When I first started work, you could buy poppy heads - opium,\" she said.\n\n\"It was make-your-own medicine. Then everything became pre-packed. It's so different,\" she said.\n\nMrs Pritchard remembered Mr Davies mixing white liniment treatments, used on match days by Welsh rugby players Jeff Squire, whose wife was a pharmacist there, and Bobby Windsor, who lived nearby.\n\nShe was the full-time manageress until the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"I couldn't work then, because of my age, so I was put on a shelf for a while. I found it very hard. I enjoy gardening and we had good weather, so that helped.\"\n\nNow a part-time employee, she is joined by other long-serving staff members, including her own daughter-in-law.\n\n\"It's a very family-oriented shop. People come in with their grandchildren, and I knew them when they were babies. All the community knows Betty from the chemist. It's really nice.\"\n\nBetty Pritchard says it is like a family, with many of the staff at the pharmacy for years\n\nShe turns 90 in April, but has no plans to retire, \"if they want me\".\n\n\"I'd have to find something else to do [if I left],\" she said.\n\n\"I had a hip operation and I was off for 12 weeks, supposedly, but I came over in a taxi on my crutches.\n\n\"I have seen so many people retire and fall apart. I will know when I want to give up. You know in yourself when you've had enough.\"\n\nBetty Pritchard has seen the Bettws business through many ups and downs\n\nJohn Evans, 66, has been a pub owner for 50 years and landlord of the Black Boy Inn in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, for 20 years.\n\nHe worked for his grandfather and father in pubs and hotels from the age of 11.\n\nHe has stories \"coming out of his ears\", including feeding nearly an entire village during the heavy snow of 1982.\n\nJohn Evans says continuing work past traditional retirement age \"keeps the mind active\"\n\nAsked whether he has considered retiring, he said: \"The way the economy is going at the moment, we'll keep it going for quite a while. My view is that if you keep working, it keeps the mind active and in this industry it keeps the body active too.\n\n\"When you retire, unless you have a large group of friends, it can be lonely. The pub is an important part of the community.\n\n\"People 50-plus are staying on because they remember the times when people had multiple jobs. Society is turning to 'What can the government give me', rather than what can we contribute.\"\n\nKayleigh Jones of Prime Cymru - a charity founded by the King specialising in supporting people aged 50 and over into work - said: \"We hear more and more from clients that they feel their age is a barrier to work.\n\n\"They feel they aren't considered, are pre-judged.\"\n\nShe is pleased that there has been more focus on changing this attitude, particularly as a result of the cost of living crisis.\n\n\"A lot of that age group left the workforce and now want to go back to work,\" she said.\n\nKayleigh Jones, of charity Prime Cymru, says \"age shouldn't be a barrier\" to work\n\n\"People are struggling. They need that income, whereas they might have been able to retire earlier in the past.\n\n\"We have noticed that a lot of what we have been doing all along is becoming more prominent. We have always been shouting about it, but we have not always been heard.\n\n\"It's encouraging to hear people within the government being aware of these issues and encouraging people, because if they are facing discrimination they may not have the confidence.\n\n\"Age definitely shouldn't be a barrier to work. It helps you stay mentally stimulated, involved in the community, and better-off financially.\"\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson added: \"Supporting older workers to stay in work offers employers a rich source of talent and provides a catalyst for a more inclusive workplace overall.\n\n\"That's why we fund a range of initiatives to support older people to do just that - from programmes to help them retrain and develop new skills, to support with overcoming poor health.\"\n• None Plan to help over-50s get jobs", "Jasvir and Nick on their wedding day\n\nJasvir Singh is one of the most prominent Sikh voices in British public life. He is also gay - a fact that he has kept mostly private until now. It's put him at odds with some members of his own community, but he says he now wants to speak up about his sexuality.\n\nJasvir Singh lays out some photographs on the table in front of him and takes a deep breath. They are pictures of joyful moments from the day last summer when he married his husband, Nick.\n\n\"I know that speaking about this is going to be highly controversial,\" he says. \"I'm sure there will be lots of people out there who will be upset, annoyed, even angry at me.\n\n\"But I've got nothing to hide and I know that I have got Waheguru [God] with me, as I have had Waheguru with me all the way.\"\n\nJasvir is a family law barrister and the main Sikh contributor to Radio 4's Thought For The Day. He has just been awarded a CBE for his work bringing faith communities together and advocating for vulnerable groups.\n\nBut through it all, he has lived with a swirl of speculation about his private life - often spilling over into attempts at intimidation - that he now wants to address head-on.\n\n\"There is a very small element of the British Sikh community that makes itself loudly heard. From them I have received death threats for being gay, I have been accused on a TV station of being an infidel and I have even had individuals call me up and threaten to expose me.\"\n\nThough Jasvir says he has not tried to hide his sexual orientation, it is not something he has talked about publicly.\n\nJasvir Singh addressing an audience at a multi-faith forum (including Mayor of London Sadiq Khan)\n\nAfter a video from his wedding recently started being shared on social media, he felt the time was right to speak up. He wanted to tell his story on his own terms, and also to send a message to gay Sikhs facing difficulties.\n\n\"Just as my Sikhism is part of me, so is my sexuality. So is my turban. So is my identity. I can't divorce any one thing from the rest of me. That is who I am.\"\n\nJasvir says that the Sikh religion in which he grew up within his family, was very focused on a central tenet of equality, and says he has never felt his faith to be in conflict with his homosexuality. He points to a pivotal moment when he was 16 years old.\n\n\"I was waiting for my GCSE results and went on a pilgrimage to India. With my dad, I trekked three or four days to a place called Hemkund Sahib, a beautiful idyllic gurdwara [Sikh temple] in the Himalayas.\n\n\"After the arduous journey, I paid my respects but the one thing I prayed for was to be straight. I just wanted to be able to live a life where I did not embarrass people, and where my family would not be ashamed of me.\"\n\nJasvir says that because his sexual orientation did not change after the pilgrimage, he began to feel that this was the way that had been laid out for him by Waheguru. It gave him the confidence to start coming out to friends.\n\nThough many Sikhs see things differently, Jasvir says he never saw any conflict in the religion's teachings and scripture between his faith and his sexual orientation.\n\nThe Guru Granth Sahib, the core Sikh religious text, does not refer to homosexuality at all, but it does make mention of husbands and wives.\n\nIt also speaks of an all-pervading divine spirit and seeing that spirit in everyone irrespective of race or class or gender. This has allowed Sikhs on different sides of the debate to point to scripture as backing up their own position on homosexuality and on same-sex unions.\n\nRecently, however, Jasvir says he has been confronted by an unsurmountable obstacle that meant he could not live out his faith in the way in which he wanted and in the way others can.\n\n\"My husband is white, British, and was not born into a Sikh family. But he understands my Sikhi (Sikhism) and he has respected and embraced that part of my life. We have said we want to have a family and want to bring our children up Sikh.\n\n\"We spoke about the kind of wedding we wanted in great detail, but sadly there was no way of getting married in a gurdwara, even though in my interpretation of the Anand Karaj (the Sikh marriage ceremony), there is no reason for this.\"\n\nThe Golden Temple of Amritsar, one of the holiest sites in Sikhism\n\nSikh organising bodies in the UK and elsewhere see things very differently.\n\nIn 2005, the Sikh religious leadership of the Akal Takht at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in Punjab, restated the position that same-sex marriage was unacceptable.\n\n\"From a faith perspective the position remains rock solid. The Anand Karaj ceremony is only for heterosexual couples,\" says Gurmel Singh, secretary-general of the Supreme Sikh Council in the UK, a representative body of British Sikhs and Sikh places of worship.\n\nGurmel Singh says that he knows and respects Jasvir as a Sikh advocate, but that even in a fast-evolving society, the fundamental doctrines of the faith will not change to allow him to marry a man in a gurdwara.\n\nBut Jasvir recounts a moment which he interprets as acceptance from a Sikh religious figure that deeply touched him. It happened with his fiancé in a gurdwara in the UK in the run up to his civil marriage last year.\n\n\"We went to offer blessings and had taken in a rumalla, a cloth used to cover the scriptures. The granthi, the custodian of the scriptures, saw us come in together and said he would say the ardas [prayers] for us.\n\n\"The granthi asked if there was anything in particular we wanted him to pray for, and we just said, for our wellbeing. But he asked if we were absolutely sure there was nothing else we wanted him to pray for. It was then I realised he had noticed that we both had mehndi [henna] on our hands which is often done in the run-up to getting married.\n\n\"He said the ardas and it was not just for our wellbeing, it was for the coming together of our two families. It was so powerful for me and for the two of us.\"\n\nJasvir and Nick have just returned from their honeymoon, during which they visited gurdwaras in Punjab and in other parts of India.\n\nGiven that the overwhelming majority of Sikhs have origins in Punjab, Jasvir feels edicts made by the faith's religious leaders are heavily influenced by Punjabi culture over scripture, though that is denied by UK Sikh bodies.\n\n\"Sadly I know gay Sikhs who have given up their faith, or who feel their only option was to cut their hair, and to become less faithful, or just focus on their inner faith rather than spend time at the gurdwara.\"\n\nThough he is himself leader of a progressive Sikh organisation in the UK, there are those in the faith community here who do not consider Jasvir a true practising Sikh, but one who wears a turban and follows some aspects of Sikhism.\n\n\"My faith has been a constant in my life through good times and bad. I'm not going to waver from my faith but I'm also not going to be ashamed of my sexuality,\" Jasvir says.\n\nPart of Jasvir's reason for speaking out is also because he says he had never had gay Sikh role models, particularly couples and those who considered themselves to be religious. But he also recognises that he has been relatively privileged.\n\n\"Sadly I have seen some Sikhs who have come out to their family members who have been kicked out of their homes, who have been beaten, who have been called paedophiles, and have had so much thrown at them.\n\n\"When they see that done by family members wearing turbans they associate that image with their faith. They may even be unable to speak openly to someone who's wearing a turban because of what they've experienced.\"\n\nJasvir hopes that by speaking out, he will encourage others to be proud of who they are.\n\nHe says that in the UK, Sikh society is moving towards more acceptance and understanding, and while he is expecting some backlash for speaking up, he is also hoping to be pleasantly surprised by some.\n\n\"When that wedding video was leaked and maliciously spread around social media, it was the way one of my elderly relatives found out I was gay,\" he says.\n\n\"She is in her nineties but she said to another family member, 'As long as he is happy, I am happy' - something we all could learn from.\"\n\nJasvir's story is explored further in Beyond Belief on BBC Radio 4 at 16:30 GMT on Monday 6 Feb", "Pilloried around the country, and the world, Liz Truss wants to tell her side of the story\n\n\"Liz was mad but right. Rishi is wrong but competent.\"\n\nThose blunt sentences come from a serving government minister - and they sum up the problem the PM may be about to face. Liz Truss is set to return to the political fray, via a Sunday morning newspaper comment piece, just four months after her rapid exit from No 10.\n\nHer time in charge was a disaster. The financial markets melted. The shelf life of her premiership was compared, in real-time, with that of a wilting lettuce (it outlasted her).\n\nWhy on earth would she want to crawl out from under the duvet - and why would anyone listen?\n\nHere is the official explanation from her camp: \"Liz remains an active politician, keen to draw on more than a decade of experience in government as she contributes to national and international debates on a variety of issues.\"\n\nSo far, so vanilla. Why shouldn't a former prime minister have her say?\n\nBut here's the less official explanation from one of her political pals: ''It's human nature to want to justify what you did.\"\n\nPilloried around the country, and the world, Ms Truss wants to tell her side of the story - to explain what really happened, \"not the fairytales\", as one ally puts it.\n\nIt's worth noting that she's doing so in her own words in the Sunday Telegraph - a newspaper that's broadly sympathetic to her cause - and then in a pre-recorded chat for a podcast later in the week. She is not yet, despite our own invitation and no doubt many others, sitting down for live interviews with no holds barred.\n\nLike many in her tribe, Ms Truss has never been short of that priceless political quality: a brass neck. Despite presiding over what many in the party see as one of the most disastrous political reigns in history, she is expected to argue that, essentially, she was right.\n\nOne ally says \"she doesn't shirk responsibility\" - but she's expected to restate her argument for low taxes and an economic shake-up.\n\nAnd by arguing that she was fundamentally right, the implication is that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is fundamentally wrong.\n\nAnother former cabinet minister and colleague of hers says that \"she reckons the government is not a Conservative [government], it's a social democratic government\". In certain Tory circles, that is the same as saying something very rude indeed.\n\nWill her attempted comeback matter? You might agree with a different government minister, who says \"it won't be troublesome at all, because she was a false prophet\". It might even remind people, they suggest (or hope), of what they see as the madness during her short time in office, and make the public appreciate the relative calm under Mr Sunak.\n\nAnother member of the cabinet is less subtle, telling me: \"She caused economic catastrophe four months ago, to say, 'let's have another go' is nuts.\" They add that \"there are plenty of people in the party who will NEVER forgive her - she never turns up, and nobody cares\".\n\nPolitical parties tend to dislike even a whiff of disloyalty - another minister says that it might be an \"old fashioned view, but former leaders tend to get respect and credit if they are seen to be helping the current one\".\n\nIn other words - Liz, not now!\n\nThere are two reasons why the Conservatives and No 10 can't just shrug off what Ms Truss has to say.\n\nFirst, Rishi Sunak's pitch to the country was to end the chaos and start anew. Whether it's Ms Truss popping up, or Boris Johnson cantering around the world, ghosts of the chaotic Conservative past are never far away. Politics is, at root, a contest to get heard - and clamour from former leaders makes it harder for the man or woman in charge to win.\n\nAnd second, while nobody in the party would argue that Ms Truss went about her mission the right way, there are plenty of Conservatives who feel in their bones that her principles were entirely right. There's already an itchiness on the back benches about Mr Sunak's handling of the economy, and a rising demand for tax cuts that Ms Truss will help fuel.\n\nThe party is not in open revolt, but it's not in a happy place - as I discussed last week when the prime minister marked 100 days in office. Conservative MPs and some business groups reckon that, even with a microscope, it'd be pretty hard to find a convincing government plan to get the economy growing.\n\nLiz Truss didn't have a mandate from the country for the rapid tax cuts she wanted - I well remember the tumbleweed in our studio when we asked her, after days of chaos, how many people had actually voted for her plans.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Politics This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut remember, Conservative members did vote for her - and her ideas. That's why one former minister believes her re-appearance this weekend will cause trouble \"because it will remind members they backed her, not him\" - and that \"the reason he is in power is because his team destroyed the fundamental principle of being a Tory - low tax - our members are still angry\".\n\nIt is of course the public - all of you - not political parties who make the ultimate judgement on our leaders. The verdict on Ms Truss was fast and fierce, her premiership was over in a flash. But what she stood for remains, and can't be dismissed as a terrible political accident.\n\nP.S. While we wait for Ms Truss' words in full, we are waiting too for Downing Street to appoint its next Conservative party chair after the sacking of Nadhim Zahawi. Several different sources whisper that no one wants to do the job - one source tells me it's been suggested to three different MPs who have all said no, another MP says \"no one wants to do it\", not wanting to take the blame for an anticipated battering at the polls in the May local elections.\n\nThe suggestion that the job has been dangled and declined has been emphatically denied by a source involved in the discussions, who suggests the Prime Minister is in no rush and that there hasn't been any formal considerations yet. And with the potential exit of Dominic Raab from government after an inquiry into his behaviour, which could report around the end of the month, No 10 might have to fill not one, but two jobs at the cabinet table - so best to wait.\n\nThe man who was party chair during Truss's eventful time in charge is Jake Berry, who joins us on the show tomorrow.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe US has shot down a giant Chinese balloon that it says has been spying on key military sites across America.\n\nThe Department of Defence confirmed its fighter jets brought down the balloon over US territorial waters.\n\nChina's foreign ministry later expressed \"strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US's use of force to attack civilian unmanned aircraft\".\n\nFootage on US TV networks showed the balloon falling to the sea after a small explosion.\n\nAn F-22 jet fighter engaged the high-altitude balloon with one missile - an AIM-9X Sidewinder - and it went down about six nautical miles off the US coast at 14:39 EST (19:39 GMT), a defence official told reporters.\n\nDefence officials told US media the debris landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.\n\nThe military is now trying to recover debris which is spread over seven miles (11km). Two naval ships, including one with a heavy crane for recovery, are in the area.\n\nIn a Pentagon statement a senior US defence official said that \"while we took all necessary steps to protect against the PRC [China] surveillance balloon's collection of sensitive information, the surveillance balloon's overflight of US territory was of intelligence value to us.\n\n\"We were able to study and scrutinise the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable,\" the official added.\n\nUS President Joe Biden had been under pressure to shoot it down since defence officials first announced they were tracking it on Thursday.\n\nAfterwards, Mr Biden said: \"They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it.\"\n\nIn a statement a few hours later, the Chinese foreign ministry said: \"The Chinese side has repeatedly informed the US side after verification that the airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure - it was completely an accident.\"\n\nThe discovery of the balloon set off a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately calling off this weekend's trip to China over the \"irresponsible act\".\n\nThe Chinese authorities have denied it is a spying aircraft, and instead said it was a weather ship blown astray.\n\nReacting to the incident, Taiwan's foreign ministry said in a statement: \"The Chinese Communist Party government's actions that violate international law and violate the airspace and sovereignty of other countries should not be tolerated in a civilised international community.\"\n\nChina considers self-ruled Taiwan a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing's control. President Xi Jinping has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this.\n\nBut Taiwan sees itself as independent, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.\n\nPresident Biden first approved the plan to down the balloon on Wednesday, but the Pentagon said it had decided to wait until the object was over water so as not to put people on the ground at undue risk.\n\nGroundwork for the operation was laid when the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly paused all civilian flights at three airports around the South Carolina coast on Saturday afternoon because of a \"national security effort\".\n\nThe coast guard also advised mariners to leave the area due to military operations \"that present a significant hazard\".\n\nAn eyewitness on the coast, Hayley Walsh, told BBC News she saw three fighter jets circling before the missile was fired, then \"we heard a huge boom, the house shook\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOne senior military official told CNN the recovery of debris should be \"fairly easy\" and could take \"relatively short time\". The official added that \"capable Navy divers\" could be deployed to assist in the operation.\n\nDefence officials also revealed on Saturday the balloon had first entered US airspace on 28 January near the Aleutian Islands, before moving to Canadian airspace three days later, and re-entering the US on 31 January. The object was spotted in the US state of Montana, which is home to a number of sensitive nuclear missile sites.\n\nRelations between China and the US have been exacerbated by the incident, with the Pentagon calling it an \"unacceptable violation\" of US sovereignty.\n\nMr Blinken - America's top diplomat - told Beijing it was \"an irresponsible act\" ahead of his now-cancelled trip on 5-6 February - it would have been the first such high level US-China meeting there in years.\n\nBut China sought to play down the cancellation of his visit, saying in a statement on Saturday that neither side had formally announced a plan for a trip.\n\nChina's foreign ministry said Beijing \"would not accept any groundless conjecture or hype\" and accused \"some politicians and media in the United States\" of using the incident \"as a pretext to attack and smear China.\"\n\nOn Friday, the Pentagon said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted - this time over Latin America with reported sightings over Costa Rica and Venezuela.\n\nColombia's Air Force says an identified object - believed to be a balloon - was detected on 3 February in the country's airspace at above 55,000ft.\n\nIt says it followed the object until it left the airspace, adding that it did not represent a threat to national security.\n\nChina has not yet commented publicly on the reported second balloon.", "Ukraine's defence minister says training on new Western weapons will start as early as Monday\n\nUkraine's outgoing defence minister has said the country is anticipating a new Russian offensive later this month.\n\nAt a news conference, Oleksiy Reznikov said not all Western weaponry will have arrived by then, but Ukraine had enough reserves to hold off Russian forces.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky said troops were fighting fiercely in Bakhmut, Vuhledar and Lyman.\n\nMr Reznikov's comments came hours before it was announced that he was to be replaced as defence minister.\n\nMilitary intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov will take his place, according to a Ukrainian politician from Mr Zelensky's party.\n\nThe shake-up comes amid a series of corruption scandals that has plagued the defence ministry.\n\nMr Reznikov has denied media reports that some defence officials are suspected of embezzling public funds for the procurement of food for the army.\n\nUkrainian lawmaker David Arakhamia announced the reshuffle on Sunday, saying that \"war dictates personnel policies\". Mr Reznikov, a familiar face in Ukraine's efforts to secure Western weapons, will now become minister for strategic industries.\n\nPresident Zelensky has already fired a number of senior officials as part of a broad anti-corruption drive across his government.\n\nAt an earlier news conference, Mr Reznikov said Russia did not have all of its resources ready to launch an offensive, but may do so anyway as a symbolic gesture, given the one-year anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion on 24 February.\n\nHe said Russia was expected to prioritise taking the whole of the eastern Donbas as well as launching offensives in the south of Ukraine.\n\nMr Reznikov lost his defence post just hours after he gave a news conference about the expected Russian offensive\n\nThe defence minister also confirmed that troops would start training on German-made Leopard tanks from Monday.\n\nMr Reznikov said Ukraine had secured new long-range missiles with a range of 90-mile (150km), but they will not be used against Russian territory - only against Russian units in occupied areas of Ukraine.\n\n\"I am sure that we will win this war,\" said Mr Reznikov, but he added that without the delivery of Western fighter jets, \"it will cost us more lives\".\n\nDespite the flow of Western weapons to Ukraine, Russia has made gains around the Bakhmut area in recent days, as Russia's army throws more and more soldiers into combat.\n\nRussia's paramilitary mercenary group Wagner have led much of the fighting in the area.\n\nIts head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said there are fierce battles for every street in some areas of the city, and Ukraine's armed forces were \"fighting to the last\".\n\nRussian forces have been attempting to seize control of Bakhmut for months - making it the longest battle since Russia invaded Ukraine almost a year ago.\n\nTaking the area is important to Russia as part of its aim to control the whole of the Donbas region.\n\nIt would also signify a turnaround in Russia's fortunes after it lost ground in Ukraine during recent months.\n\nSpeaking during his nightly address, President Zelensky said: \"Things are very difficult in Donetsk region - fierce battles.\" But, he added, \"we have no alternative to defending ourselves and winning\".\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut are getting increasingly isolated as the Russians continue to make small advances in its attempt to encircle the town.\n\nIt added that the two main roads into Bakhmut were likely being threatened by direct fire.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mum turns TV up to hide shelling from daughter", "A US Air Force F-22 shot down the balloon with an AIM-9 air-to-air missile, the Pentagon said\n\nUS Navy divers are working to recover the wreckage of the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.\n\nAmerica's former top military officer said he expected it would happen relatively quickly so that experts could begin analysing its equipment.\n\nFighter jets brought the craft down over US territorial waters on Saturday and debris is spread over a wide area.\n\nThe US believes the balloon was monitoring sensitive military sites.\n\nIts discovery set off a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately calling off this weekend's trip to China.\n\nThe Chinese authorities denied it was used for spying and insisted it was a weather ship blown astray.\n\nAdmiral Mike Mullen, former chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday he thought the Chinese military might have launched the balloon intentionally to disrupt Mr Blinken's trip to China. His visit would have been the first such high level US-China meeting there in years.\n\nAdm Mullen rejected China's suggestion it might have blown off course, saying it was manoeuvrable because \"it has propellers on it\".\n\n\"This was not an accident. This was deliberate. It was intelligence,\" he added.\n\nRepublican politicians. meanwhile, accused US President Joe Biden of a dereliction of duty for allowing the balloon to traverse the country unhindered.\n\nMarco Rubio, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, told CNN it was a \"brazen effort\" by China to embarrass the president ahead of his State of the Union address on Tuesday.\n\nBrenda Bethune, the mayor of Myrtle Beach which is near to where the object was shot down, said: \"I do have concerns about how the federal government can allow a foreign adversary to fly uninterrupted from Montana to our doorstep.\"\n\nShe said she hoped the government would explain how this happened and how they will prevent it from happening again.\n\nThe high-altitude balloon - thought to be the size of three buses - was shot out of the sky by a Sidewinder air-to-air missile fired from an F-22 jet fighter. It came down about six nautical miles off the US coast at 14:39 EST (19:39 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nUS TV networks broadcast the moment the missile struck, with the giant white object falling to the sea after a small explosion.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMartin Willis said he was visiting Myrtle Beach when he filmed the fighter jet shoot down the suspected surveillance balloon.\n\nHe told the BBC he couldn't believe what he was witnessing. \"It was really exciting. It felt very historic,\" he said.\n\nPolice have warned people in the area not to touch or move any debris they find. \"Tampering could interfere in [the] investigation,\" Horry County Police Department said.\n\nThe remnants of the object landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than officials expected - and is spread over seven miles (11km).\n\nExplaining the decision to shoot the balloon down, a US defence official said in a statement, that \"while we took all necessary steps to protect against the PRC [China] surveillance balloon's collection of sensitive information, the surveillance balloon's overflight of US territory was of intelligence value to us\".\n\nChina's foreign ministry expressed \"strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US's use of force to attack civilian unmanned aircraft\".\n\nIn a written statement, the Chinese government said it would \"resolutely safeguard\" the rights and interests of the company operating the balloon and that it reserved the right to \"make further responses if necessary\".\n\nMr Biden first approved the plan to bring down the balloon on Wednesday, but decided to wait until the object was over water so as not to put people on the ground at risk.\n\nThe US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly paused all civilian flights at three airports around the South Carolina coast and advised mariners to leave the area.\n\nRelations between China and the US have been strained by the incident, with the Pentagon calling it an \"unacceptable violation\" of its sovereignty.\n\nUS military officials on Friday said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted over Latin America. The same day, Colombia's Air Force said an identified object - believed to be a balloon - was detected on 3 February in the country's airspace at above 55,000ft.\n\nIt says it followed the object until it left the airspace, adding that it did not represent a threat to national security.\n\nChina has not commented publicly on the second balloon.", "A wave overturned a boat in rough seas off the Pacific coast of the US, as the coastguard was attempting to rescue a person on board.\n\nThe boat was about six miles (10km) from land, at the mouth of the Columbia River in the north-west of the country.", "Andrew Bagshaw, pictured left, and Christopher Parry helped those most in need, according to their families\n\nThe bodies of two British volunteers killed in eastern Ukraine in January have been recovered as part of a prisoner swap with Russia.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff said the bodies of Chris Parry, 28, and Andrew Bagshaw, 47, had now been returned to Ukraine.\n\nNo indication has been given as to when they will be handed to British embassy staff to be flown home.\n\nThe families of the men said they were killed during a humanitarian rescue.\n\nThe two volunteers were last seen heading to the city of Soledar on 6 January.\n\nMr Bagshaw's family said the pair were attempting to help an elderly woman when their cars were hit by a shell.\n\nSoledar had been the focus of intense fighting and last month Russia's military claimed to have captured the Ukrainian salt-mine town after a long battle. The government in Kyiv disputed the claim.\n\nDespite the continued fighting in Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, Ukraine's chief of staff, said 116 Ukrainian soldiers had been released on Saturday.\n\nHe said released prisoners included defenders of Mariupol, partisans from Kherson and snipers from Bakhmut, as well as two personnel from special operations.\n\nRussia's defence ministry said 63 servicemen had been returned as part of a \"complex mediation process\".\n\nIt said it included people of a \"sensitive category\" thanks to the mediation of the United Arab Emirates, though it did not specify what those people did.\n\nIt is the second prisoner swap carried out between the two countries so far this year.\n\nMr Yermak said Ukraine is continuing efforts to bring everyone home.\n\nMr Parry and Mr Bagshaw had been in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine doing voluntary work.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn a statement issued by the UK Foreign Office last month, Mr Parry's family said his \"selfless determination in helping the old, young and disadvantaged\" in Ukraine had made them \"extremely proud\".\n\n\"We never imagined we would be saying goodbye to Chris when he had such a full life ahead of him. He was a caring son, fantastic brother, a best friend to so many and a loving partner to Olga,\" they said.\n\nThey added that Mr Parry, originally from Truro in Cornwall, \"found himself drawn to Ukraine in March in its darkest hour at the start of the Russian invasion and helped those most in need, saving over 400 lives plus many abandoned animals.\"\n\nScientific researcher Mr Bagshaw was a British national but lived in New Zealand. He had been a volunteer in Ukraine since April.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Bagshaw's family said last month: \"Andrew selflessly took many personal risks and saved many lives; we love him and are very proud indeed of what he did.\n\n\"The world needs to be strong and stand with Ukraine, giving them the military support they need now, and help to rebuild their shattered country after the war.\"\n\nAnother foreign national volunteering in Ukraine, Pete Reed, was killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut - the location of heavy fighting in recent days - on Thursday.\n\nMr Reed, a 33-year-old American volunteer aid worker, was killed \"while rendering aid,\" according to a statement from the humanitarian aid group he founded, Global Response Medicine.\n\nThe UK government has previously warned against all travel to Ukraine, saying there is \"a real risk to life\".\n\nBritish nationals still in Ukraine should leave immediately if it is safe to do so, it added.", "Novelist Hanif Kureishi has spoken of coming \"face to face with death\" after a fall left him paralysed last year.\n\nThe My Beautiful Launderette author fainted and fell on his head while on holiday in Rome in December.\n\nSpeaking from a clinic outside the Italian capital, he said losing the use of his arms, hands and legs has been \"illuminating as well as terrible\".\n\nMr Kureishi said the incident has left him feeling \"like a piece of meat\".\n\n\"I was quite healthy for most of my life before this,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House.\n\n\"I had one or two illnesses here and there and I considered myself healthy. Now, when I sit outside in the garden here I see people walking around, I can't believe they're walking around. I want to say to them 'don't you know it's amazing you can walk around, you can use your arms and legs'.\"\n\nWriting shortly after the incident, the 68-year-old said he collapsed after feeling dizzy following a walk.\n\nWhen he came to, he said he thought he was dying but his partner, Isabella d'Amico, \"saved my life and kept me calm\".\n\nHe described waking up in \"a pool of blood\" with his neck in a \"grotesquely twisted position\". He felt \"profoundly traumatised\" after the incident and could not move his arms and legs.\n\nMr Kureishi has been sharing updates of his experience on Twitter, which he dictates to his son, Carlo.\n\nHe said this new way of writing has been \"pretty difficult and awkward\".\n\n\"This is a completely new experience for me, but I wanted to continue to be a writer, which is my identity which is the last thing I have left to me,\" Mr Kureishi said.\n\nMr Kureishi was treated at the Gemelli hospital, which he said was \"suddenly like being back at school, where you have to make friends with people, you have to negotiate the institution\".\n\nHe would wake up each morning wishing he could go back to life before the incident, as though it was a \"bad dream\".\n\nThe writer said his physiotherapist plans to give him a fork to use soon so he can learn to feed himself again.\n\n\"This position of extreme helplessness, it makes you feel like a big baby,\" he said.\n\n\"But on the other hand, one of the things it does show you is the extreme kindness of other people. It's been an education, I guess, on kindness for me.\"\n\nMr Kureishi first shot to fame in 1985 when his screenplay My Beautiful Laundrette - about the relationship between a British Pakistani boy and his white boyfriend - was nominated for both a Bafta and an Oscar.\n\nThe film, which was directed by Stephen Frears, launched Sir Daniel Day-Lewis's acting career.\n\nHis first book The Buddha of Suburbia won the Whitbread book of the year award for a first novel in 1990. It was turned into a four-part television series by the BBC three years later.", "Emma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday\n\nThe head of private school Epsom College has been found dead along with her husband and seven-year-old daughter in a property on school grounds.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday.\n\nOfficers from Surrey Police said they were confident there was \"no third-party involvement\".\n\nEpsom College said the community would be \"coming together\" to \"process the news, grieve and pay our respects\".\n\nDet Ch Insp Kimball Edey said: \"On behalf of Surrey Police, my team, and I, I first want to express my sincerest condolences to the friends and family of Emma, Lettie and George, as well as to the students and staff of Epsom College, for their tragic loss.\n\n\"I want to give my assurance that we will conduct a thorough investigation into what took place... and hope to be able to bring some peace in these traumatic circumstances. I would ask that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time.\"\n\nMs Pattison became Epsom's first female head only five months ago after six years as head teacher of Croydon High School in south London.\n\nHer husband George was a chartered accountant who was director of a management consultancy firm called Tanglewood 2016, according to Companies House.\n\nIn December, Ms Pattison told a podcast run by students that her move had been \"a really big change for my family\", adding: \"I've got a new job, my husband got a new job, which wasn't meant to happen, but did, and my daughter has started a new school.\"\n\nThe flag is currently flying at half mast in tribute to Ms Pattison\n\nPolice officers remain at the scene and security guards in hi-vis clothing have been spotted at school entrances.\n\nPupils in uniform could be seen walking just inside the main gate of the school, where the flag is flying at half mast.\n\nThe grounds, near Epsom Downs racecourse, are made up of school buildings and residential properties.\n\nThe school grounds and buildings cover an extensive area\n\nIn a tweet, the college said: \"We hope everyone will respect the privacy of Emma's family at this time and allow the college's pupils, staff and wider community the time and space necessary to come to terms with this loss.\"\n\nThe school also confirmed it would be in close contact with Surrey Police.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Epsom College This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe chair of the board of governors at Epsom called his late colleague \"a wonderful teacher, but most of all, a delightful person\".\n\n\"On behalf of everyone at Epsom College, I want to convey our utter shock and disbelief at this tragic news,\" Dr Alastair Wells said.\n\n\"Our immediate thoughts and condolences are with Emma's family, friends and loved ones, and to the many pupils and colleagues whose lives she enriched throughout her distinguished career.\"\n\nCroydon High School described Ms Pattison as \"hugely respected and much loved\".\n\n\"She was a warm, energetic, compassionate leader, dedicated teacher and generous, insightful colleague and friend,\" the school said.\n\nEmma Pattison became Epsom's first female head five months ago\n\nA parent whose daughter attends Croydon High School said the news was \"an utter shock and tragedy\".\n\nShe told BBC News: \"In her time as head teacher, she turned the school around, and she did so many things that enriched the children's lives.\n\n\"She was slight but very formidable, she knew all of the pupils by name. She was exactly what you would want from a head teacher.\"\n\nLocal MP Chris Grayling said: \"This is an appalling tragedy and my heart goes out to their family and friends and to everyone at Epsom College as well as at the little girl's school.\"\n\nPolice officers remain at the scene of what they said was a \"tragic incident\"\n\nSurrey's Police and Crime Commissioner, Lisa Townsend, offered her \"deepest sympathies\", describing the incident as \"awful\".\n\n\"These events will no doubt have a profound and lasting impact on both the staff and students at the college and the wider local community,\" she said.\n\nInsp Jon Vale, Epsom and Ewell's borough commander, said: \"We're aware that this tragic incident will have caused concern and upset in the local community.\n\n\"While this is believed to be an isolated incident, in the coming days our local officers will remain in the area to offer reassurance to students, parents, teachers and the local community.\n\n\"I would like to thank the school and the community for their understanding and patience while the investigation continues.\"\n\nSurrey Police added that the deaths had been reported to the coroner.\n\nBoarding students at the college pay more than £42,000 a year, and its alumni include Conservative MP Sir Michael Fallon, broadcaster Jeremy Vine and his brother, the comedian Tim Vine.\n\nThe school, which both boys and girls attend, was founded in 1855 and describes itself as being consistently among the UK's leading schools, based on exam results.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Great Britain won a first four-man bobsleigh medal at the World Championships for 84 years with silver in St Moritz.\n\nPilot Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Greg Cackett and Arran Gulliver finished joint second with Latvia.\n\nGermany's Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich claimed his fifth consecutive title in a time of four minutes 19.61 seconds, 0.69secs ahead.\n\n\"It's an incredible achievement,\" said Hall, 32, who was fifth in the two-man.\n\n\"It's been a hell of a long time since a four-man crew has won a World Championship medal. To be the ones who have bucked that trend is pretty special.\"\n\nFrederick McEvoy led Britain to their previous four-man medal, also a silver, in Cortina, Italy, in 1939.\n\nHall, whose previous best four-man finish at the World Championships was seventh in 2020, went into the final run trailing Germany by eight hundredths of a second.\n\nBut Friedrich, who won four-man and two-man gold at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics, set a track record time of 1:04.73 as Germany took a comfortable gold.\n\nBritain's men last won a World Championship medal in any discipline in 1966, when Tony Nash and Robin Dixon took two-man bronze in Cortina.\n\nNicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke claimed gold in the women's event in Lake Placid in 2009.", "The business secretary has said the energy regulator allowed itself to have \"the wool pulled over their eyes\" over prepayment meters being force-fitted.\n\nGrant Shapps accused Ofgem of taking the energy companies \"at face value\" instead of listening to customers.\n\nLast week, the Times revealed an agency working for British Gas was breaking into vulnerable people's homes to fit meters that require advance payment.\n\nOfgem said it shared Mr Shapps' shock at that report.\n\nEnergy firms must apply to a court for a warrant to break into a customer's home and install a prepayment meter if an arrears has been built up.\n\nBut suppliers are required to have exhausted all other options before doing so, and should not use that as a solution for vulnerable customers, including elderly people and families with young children.\n\nMr Shapps said that he will give energy firms until Tuesday to report back on what action they will take, potentially including compensation, in response to complaints from any customers who have had prepayment meters wrongfully installed.\n\nHe said that he was \"appalled\" that vulnerable customers had their home broken into \"when there is a clear duty on suppliers to provide them with support\".\n\nHe said: \"I'm also concerned the regulator is too easily having the wool pulled over their eyes by taking at face value what energy companies are telling them.\n\n\"They need to also listen to customers to make sure this treatment of vulnerable consumers doesn't happen again.\"\n\nOfgem has already launched an investigation into British Gas and last week told all energy companies to suspend the forced installation of prepayment meters.\n\nIn response to Mr Shapps, the regulator said energy firms are legally required to submit \"an honest representation of the facts\" and it \"required assessments to be signed off by their boards\".\n\nOfgem said it would be an \"extremely serious matter for any licensee to provide misleading or purposefully inaccurate information\".\n\nIt said it will conduct further reviews of what energy firms have told the regulator and will cross-examine them \"with direct reports from customers and wider stakeholders, and potentially those involved in delivery of services\".\n\nLabour shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said Mr Shapps \"sat on his hands\" and failed to take action over the issue.\n\n\"Now, even after the scandal at British Gas and the millions disconnected by the back door, he still won't adopt Labour's call for a total and ongoing ban on the forced installation of prepayment meters until there is wholesale reform of a discredited, rotten and callous system. \"\n\nIt has also emerged that applications by energy firms for warrants to forcibly install pay-as-you-go meters in homes have been waved through the courts in huge numbers last year following a change of advice on how magistrates should consider such cases.\n\nBut according to a document leaked to BBC News, magistrates in England and Wales were told that it was \"irrational\" to refuse such warrants and that rules requiring them to question the applications were \"disproportionate\".\n\nOne former magistrate, Robin Cantrill-Fenwick, told BBC Two's Newsnight it used to be the case that energy companies would come to court and magistrates could question them over the application.\n\n\"We could establish whether there might be young children in the premises or people who were clinically vulnerable. We could, and would sometimes, decline a warrant,\" he said.\n\nBut in 2019, a new online and telephone application system for magistrates came into force. That year, warrant applications reached 278,966 and 1,824 refusals were granted, according to the Ministry of Justice.\n\nLast year, applications for warrants hit 367,140 and there were 56 refusals.\n\nMr Cantrill-Fenwick, who quit as a magistrate last August, said: \"Over time the process changed. Rather than looking at individual applications, we would just get a list of addresses.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the Judicial Office said: \"Magistrates deal with cases based on the evidence and the relevant legislation. The only applications that are dealt with in bulk are ones that are uncontested.\n\n\"Individuals who wish to contest or challenge an application still have the opportunity to have their case considered by magistrates.\n\nThere are more than four million UK households on prepayment meters. Energy prices have been soaring, partly as Covid restrictions were lifted and economies re-opened but worsened when Russia invaded Ukraine which led to the disruption of supplies.\n\nHigher energy costs for homes and businesses has pushed up inflation, piling pressure on struggling households.\n\nHave you had your home broken into so a prepayment meter can be fitted? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The Swan River flows through Perth and Fremantle\n\nA 16-year-old girl has died after being attacked by a shark while swimming in a river in Western Australia.\n\nShe was pronounced dead after being pulled from the Swan River in the city of Fremantle, near Perth, on Saturday.\n\nIt is believed the girl, from Perth, was riding jet skis with friends on the river when the incident happened.\n\nInsp Paul Robinson, from Western Australia Police, said it was possible the girl had jumped in the water to swim with dolphins seen nearby.\n\nHe described the incident as \"very, very traumatic\" and the family of the girl was \"absolutely devastated by the news\".\n\nPeople have been urged to take \"additional caution\" and to abide by any beach closures.\n\nFisheries experts say it is unusual to find sharks in that part of the river, Mr Robinson said.\n\nThis is believed to be the first fatal shark attack in the Swan River since a 13-year-old boy was killed in January 1923.\n\nAustralia typically records about 20 shark attacks each year, with most in New South Wales and Western Australia.\n\nThere were two fatal shark attacks in 2021, and seven in 2020.\n\nHistorically, dying from a shark bite is not common. In more than a century of records, Australia's shark attack mortality rate is 0.9 - less than one person per year.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nDuhan van der Merwe's late try gave Scotland back-to-back wins at Twickenham for the first time, turning Calcutta Cup history on its head with a stunning Six Nations victory against a spirited England.\n\nAfter Huw Jones and Max Malins traded scores, Van der Merwe scored an individual try that will go down in Six Nations history to take Scotland ahead again.\n\nEngland stayed patient and were rewarded as Malins finished off a well-worked team try before Owen Farrell's penalty put them one point up at half-time.\n\nBen White kept Scotland within one after Ellis Genge's try, before Farrell and Scotland fly-half Finn Russell traded penalties to leave the score at 23-22 with 10 minutes left.\n\nA sensational attack followed, allowing Van der Merwe to score another and make Scottish wins at Twickenham almost as regular as Glastonbury after claiming the first in 38 years in 2021.\n\nSteve Borthwick's England showed fight and contributed to an electrifying match, but they could not give their head coach victory in his first game in charge as Scotland won the Calcutta Cup for the third time in a row.\n• None More to come from Scots, says emotional Townsend\n• None England have to go through pain to grow - Borthwick\n\nFor so long the Calcutta Cup had been a predictable fixture thanks to England's dominance, but with Scotland winning the past two and given Borthwick's lack of time with his side there was a sense of the unknown at Twickenham.\n\nThe stage was set and all 46 players involved duly delivered one of the most entertaining matches Twickenham has seen in some time.\n\nEngland had been booed by some supporters after losing to South Africa here in November and looked desperate to never hear that noise again.\n\nTheir desire was personified in a physical performance and Scotland responded with a cunning and fleet-footed backline.\n\nAfter a period of dull kicking - long forgotten in the breathless closing minutes - it was the latter that worked first as the risky inclusion of Jones in place of Chris Harris at 13 paid off early.\n\nJones went through a gap and later sprinted on to a kick from Sione Tuipulotu to claim his fifth try in five Six Nations fixtures against England.\n\nBorthwick's England regime already looked on the precipice, but Malins' sensational take of Marcus Smith's kick to score was the sigh of relief the hosts needed.\n\nThey did not always look to have the clarity Borthwick has promised, but at times England did play with freedom.\n\nThat freedom was nothing in the face of Scotland's belief.\n\nIn one for the history books, Van der Merwe sliced through England's defence, flying around five tacklers to cover half the pitch and score.\n\nMalins scored a second thanks to an overlap created by smart work from his team-mates, and Farrell landed his penalty on the half-time whistle to take England 13-12 up at the break.\n\nThe fans at Twickenham got their money's worth from the first half alone and few would have predicted what was to follow in the next 40 minutes.\n\nEngland continued to fight for everything, dominating an early scrum after having the worst-performing pack in tier one in 2022.\n\nThe forwards were to thank for Genge's try too, as the hosts went back to basics and battered their way over the tryline after a line-out.\n\nAnother moment of individual Scotland magic turned things around once more. White sniped around Ben Curry off a ruck and found England's defence again wanting to get over.\n\nWhite was another selection risk taken by Townsend as he left the more experienced Ali Price on the bench - and it was another one that paid off.\n\nRussell's conversion cut England's lead to one point once more, but the home fans were calmed as the hosts seemed in the ascendancy.\n\nFarrell's penalty put his side four points up and Scotland looked more hesitant until Russell's boot cut the lead again to reignite his team.\n\nScotland must find the consistency they have lacked in previous tournaments if they are to compete for the title, but one thing is for certain: Twickenham holds no fear for them.\n\nEverything suddenly clicked in the visitors' attack and they flowed closer and closer to the tryline before Van der Merwe eventually found enough space on the wing to give voice to the travelling fans.\n\nDuhan van der Merwe's first try might have been enough to earn him man of the match, but the second definitely sealed it.\n\n'A monstrous win for Scotland' - what they said\n\nFormer Scotland captain John Barclay on Radio 5 Live: \"That was some game. I cannot wait to watch it back. There is so much to admire in how both teams have played.\n\n\"In the build-up we knew it was going to be tight. I didn't see that on week one with the players throwing the kitchen sink at it like that. That is a monstrous win for Scotland.\"\n\nFormer England scrum-half Matt Dawson on 5 Live: \"There are positives to take away from the England performance.\n\n\"However, there were opportunities that I would expect senior international players to be making in the last knockings of the game. Whether that's drop goals, discipline, territory. If you are going to win a Test match you have to do that.\"\n\nFormer Scotland prop Peter Wright on BBC Radio Scotland: \"Scotland's attack functioned at the right times. Van der Merwe's two scores were outstanding.\n\n\"Defensively, having so little possession, they were solid. It was a great steal to win it at the end.\"\n\nScotland have won four and drawn one of the past six encounters with England. They have not lost at Twickenham since a 61-21 defeat in 2017.\n• None Do more expensive AA batteries last longer? Sliced Bread is charged up to find out\n• None Jack Whitehall tells all about the cult sitcom", "Notts County fan Jamie stopped at Meadow Lane as he headed south\n\nA dad has completed a run along the length of the M1 to raise money for a diabetes charity.\n\nJamie Austin has spent the last 10 days following a 220-mile (354 kilometre) route from Leeds to London on back roads and footpaths parallel to the motorway.\n\nHe has raised more than £11,000 for charity JDRF, which researches type 1 diabetes (T1D).\n\nThe 49-year-old Notts County fan was motivated to do the run after his son Henry, 12, was diagnosed with the condition in 2020.\n\nHe set off on 23 January and admitted it had become harder and harder every day.\n\nHe said: \"I started at a pretty good pace and kept it up but, by day five, my knee was hurting pretty badly and I though that might derail the whole thing.\n\n\"I was able to strap it up though and carry on.\"\n\nHenry said it was great to have his dad home\n\nMr Austin, who stopped at Notts County's Meadow Lane ground part way through his route to complete a few laps of the pitch, said: \"People's support has been incredible - especially from the T1D community who I have got to know.\n\n\"And then there have been the people who I met along the way. On day one I met a guy out running and we ran together for 10 or 15 minutes before parting ways.\n\n\"I later found he'd looked me up on Google and donated some money. That was just amazing.\"\n\nJamie (left) was joined by friends such as Thomas Rohde on parts of his journey\n\nAfter finishing the run at his home in East Finchley, Mr Austin said: \"It's been pretty hard but I'm glad I did it - and glad that I've been able to raise a lot of money to support the amazing work the JDRF does.\"\n\nHenry said: \"Dad has been brilliant. I'm glad he did this but it's great to have him home.\"\n\nJamie has raised more than £11,000 for the JDRF charity\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nA friend of a missing mum who vanished on a dog walk has said \"vile theories\" being shared online are \"incredibly hurtful\" for her family, as police condemn social media abuse.\n\nNicola Bulley, 45, was last seen walking next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nPolice believe she may have fallen into the river.\n\nHer friend Heather Gibbons said people may not realise Ms Bulley's family can read their speculation.\n\nAs part of the investigation, detectives have appealed for potential witnesses and released CCTV images from the area.\n\nA woman they urged to come forward on Saturday contacted them shortly after the appeal went out.\n\nDetectives said the online abuse of people who had been helping their inquiry was \"totally unacceptable\".\n\nThe police search has entered its ninth day since Ms Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10 GMT on 27 January, after she had dropped her two daughters off at school.\n\nHer dog Willow and her phone - still connected to a work call - were found at a riverside bench 25 minutes later.\n\nSpecialist divers have been scouring the River Wyre, while volunteers have joined the search along with mountain rescue, sniffer dogs, drones and police helicopters, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Heather Gibbons says some speculation is \"incredibly, incredibly hurtful\"\n\nMs Bulley's disappearance has drawn a lot of attention on social media with thousands of people commenting on the ongoing search, many sending their love and prayers to her family and wishing her home safely.\n\nBut some people have been speculating about what might have happened by discussing the family's finances and relationships.\n\nMs Gibbons told BBC North West Tonight: \"The speculation is massive. I mean it's human nature - everyone's going to have their thoughts, their theories, everyone will be speculating.\n\n\"But to see some of the vile speculation online - some of the theories that are incredibly, incredibly hurtful - I don't think people are realising that the family are sitting at home and are able to access and see all of that.\"\n\nShe said she was concerned that \"as [Ms Bulley's daughters] get older, they will be able to look back and they will be able to see everything that was said\".\n\nMs Bulley's partner Paul Ansell previously described the family's experience after her disappearance as \"perpetual hell\", adding that he would not give up hope of finding her.\n\nSearches of the River Wyre are continuing for the ninth day\n\nA Lancashire Police statement said: \"The speculation and abuse on social media aimed at some people who are merely assisting our inquiry on social media is totally unacceptable.\n\n\"We would urge people to remember that we are investigating the disappearance of Nicola, and the priority is Nicola and her family. We want to find her and provide answers to her family.\"\n\nDetectives said their \"working hypothesis was that she had fallen into the river for some reason\", adding there was \"no evidence\" of anything suspicious or third-party involvement.\n\nMs Bulley's friend, Tilly Ann wrote on Facebook that \"inappropriate comments\" online had been causing \"hurt and distress\".\n\nShe said Ms Bulley was an \"incredibly strong swimmer\", she had not taken a ball out on dog walks for a while and would always remove the dog's harness at the gate.\n\nMs Bulley regularly had her phone on loud speaker and the dog had been dry when it was found, she added.\n\nShe urged everyone to show the family \"as much positivity as possible please\".\n\nSupt Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, told The Sunday Times that officers found \"no evidence of a slip or fall\" near the bench where Nicola's mobile phone was found but said falling from a sheer riverbank may leave no trace.\n\nAnother of Ms Bulley's friends, Luke Sumner, told the BBC family and friends were \"clinging to any sort of hope\", adding: \"If it is a case of her being in the river, then chances of survival are probably very slim. But we have no evidence to say that she has gone into the river.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The groups were separated by a police cordon\n\nHundreds of people have joined a protest and counter-protest in Glasgow over the Scottish government's gender recognition reform proposals.\n\nThe two demonstrations were staged either side of a police cordon in the city's George Square.\n\nSpeakers for the Standing for Women group reiterated their call for the GRR legislation to be scrapped.\n\nThey were challenged by pro-reform groups who danced and sang in support of the right to self-identification.\n\nMSPs at the Scottish Parliament backed the controversial proposals by 86 to 39 in a vote in December.\n\nThe new rules lower the age that people can apply for a gender recognition certificate (GRC) to 16, and removes the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.\n\nSome protesters called for the legislation to be scrapped\n\nScotland is the only nation in the UK to simplify the process of transitioning.\n\nThe UK government has said it has concerns about the legislation and is seeking to prevent it becoming law by blocking Royal Assent.", "Laura Trevelyan (left) explores a former slave plantation on Grenada during her visit in 2022\n\nA UK family will publicly apologise to the people of the Caribbean island of Grenada, where its ancestors had more than 1,000 slaves in the 19th Century.\n\nThe aristocratic Trevelyan family, who owned six sugar plantations in Grenada, will also pay reparations.\n\nShe was shocked that her ancestors had been compensated by the UK government when slavery was abolished in 1833 - but freed African slaves got nothing.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC in a personal capacity on Saturday, Ms Trevelyan recalled her visit to the island for a documentary.\n\n\"It was really horrific... I saw for myself the plantations where slaves were punished, when I saw the instruments of torture that were used to restrain them.\"\n\n\"I felt ashamed, and I also felt that it was my duty. You can't repair the past - but you can acknowledge the pain.\"\n\nMs Trevelyan said seven members of her family would travel to Grenada later in February to issue a public apology.\n\nThe family will give £100,000 ($120,000) to establish a community fund for economic development on the impoverished island and in the eastern Caribbean.\n\nMs Trevelyan said that in 1834, the Trevelyans received about £34,000 for the loss of their \"property\" on Grenada - the equivalent of about £3m in today's money.\n\n\"For me to be giving £100,000 almost 200 years later... maybe that seems like really inadequate,\" she said.\n\n\"But I hope that we're setting an example by apologising for what our ancestors did.\"\n\nThe Grenada National Reparations Commission described the gesture as commendable.\n\nMs Trevelyan, currently a BBC correspondent in New York, said she had wanted to go to Grenada in the wake of the racial reckoning in the US.\n\nA series of killings of African Americans in recent years led to the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in the US, which spread to other countries.\n\nThe BLM's stated key aims are the fight against racially motivated violence - including incidents of police brutality - against black people and other minorities.\n\nThe movement also boosted public pressure in several countries for compensation to address the historic injustice of slavery.", "It's the fifth week of mass protests across Israel over government plans to curb the judiciary's powers.\n\nProtesters say the plans could jeopardise Israel's democratic values.\n\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leading a hard-right government, has dismissed the protests as a refusal to accept the last election results.", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nThe first images of Nicola Bulley on the day she went missing while walking her dog have been shared with the BBC by one of her friends.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen walking next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nDoorbell footage shows her loading her car outside her home on 27 January before driving her two children to school and going for a riverside walk.\n\nPolice believe she may have fallen into the river.\n\nSpecialist divers have been scouring the River Wyre, while volunteers have joined the search along with mountain rescue, sniffer dogs, drones and police helicopters, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nMs Bulley's family and friends continue to appeal for information on the ninth day of the search.\n\nShe is seen on CCTV wearing a long dark coat, leggings and ankle boots with her hair tied in a ponytail.\n\nMs Bulley is seen in the doorbell camera footage loading her dog Willow into the car before setting off for her children's school drop off\n\nMs Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10 GMT.\n\nShe had logged on to a work call beforehand.\n\nHer dog and phone - still connected to the Teams call - were found at a riverside bench about 25 minutes later.\n\nSupt Sally Riley, from Lancashire Police, said they were \"as sure as we can be that Nicola has not left the area where she was last seen and that very sadly for some reason she has fallen into the water\".\n\nShe said there was no evidence of \"anything untoward\" happening to her or any third-party involvement.\n\nMeanwhile, private underwater search and recovery company Specialist Group International (SGI) said it would join the police in its search operation on Monday.\n\nLancashire Police said SGI's offer to assist in the search was \"taken up after speaking with Nicola's family\", adding: \"We continue to lead an extensive and far reaching multi-agency search using a wide range of specialist equipment and resources.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Heather Gibbons says some speculation is \"incredibly, incredibly hurtful\"\n\nDetectives have said they were open to new information and criticised the online abuse of people who had been helping their inquiry, calling it \"totally unacceptable\".\n\nMs Bulley's disappearance has drawn a lot of attention on social media with thousands of people commenting on the ongoing search, many sending support to her family and wishing her home safely.\n\nBut some people have been speculating about what might have happened by discussing the family's finances and relationships.\n\nMs Bulley's friend Heather Gibbons told BBC North West Tonight \"vile\" theories being shared online were hurtful for Ms Bulley's family.\n\n\"I mean it's human nature - everyone's going to have their thoughts, their theories, everyone will be speculating,\" she said.\n\n\"But to see some of the vile speculation online - some of the theories that are incredibly, incredibly hurtful - I don't think people are realising that the family are sitting at home and are able to access and see all of that.\"\n\nShe said she was concerned that \"as [Ms Bulley's daughters] get older, they will be able to look back and they will be able to see everything that was said\".\n\nNicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nAnother friend, Tilly Ann, wrote on Facebook that \"inappropriate comments\" online had been causing \"hurt and distress\".\n\nShe urged everyone to show the family \"as much positivity as possible please\".\n\nThe search has been continuing for the ninth day by the River Wyre\n\nSupt Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, told The Sunday Times that officers found \"no evidence of a slip or fall\" near the bench where Nicola's mobile phone was found but said falling from a sheer riverbank may leave no trace.\n\nAnother of Ms Bulley's friends, Luke Sumner, said family and friends were \"clinging to any sort of hope\", adding: \"If it is a case of her being in the river, then chances of survival are probably very slim. But we have no evidence to say that she has gone into the river.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Adele was taught at the Brit School in Croydon\n\nA renowned music school which launched Adele and Amy Winehouse is looking to expand to Bradford.\n\nThe Brit School in Croydon, south London, opened its doors in 1991, and has since nurtured a host of actors and international music stars.\n\nMusic industry bosses said they were looking to emulate that success in West Yorkshire.\n\nThe British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has submitted plans to the Department for Education (DfE).\n\nBradford has already produced big names such as former One Direction star Zayn Malik and Bad Boy Chiller Crew, who are nominated for Group of the Year at this year's Brit Awards.\n\nHowever, the BPI said the new specialist college for 16 to 19-year-olds, would \"level-up creative opportunity for underserved young people\".\n\nBad Boy Chiller Crew are nominated for Group of the Year at this year's Brit Awards\n\nOther big names from Bradford include Zayn Malik, Kiki Dee and Justin Sullivan of New Model Army\n\nBPI chair YolanDa Brown said: \"Bradford already has a wonderfully vibrant cultural... [and] we are very excited about the benefits of this partnership.\n\n\"We look forward to building upon the proven success of this model to give a greater number of young people from across the North of England an opportunity to pursue a career in the creative industries - both on stage and behind the scenes,\" she added.\n\nMayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, a former Coronation Street star, said she was thrilled that Bradford had been selected.\n\n\"West Yorkshire is the place to be when it comes to culture and creativity - now so more than ever as we draw closer to Bradford's year in the spotlight as the UK's City of Culture 2025,\" she said.\n\n\"What an incredible opportunity it would provide for the talented young people of our region and beyond,\" she added.\n\nThe project is a collaboration between the BPI, Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music, the Brit School and the Day One Trust.\n\nIf approved, the school could open in 2026.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Last updated on .From the section Tottenham\n\n'What a player' - How Spurs play to Kane's strengths Harry Kane says he has got \"plenty of goals to come\" after moving ahead of Jimmy Greaves to become Tottenham Hotspur's all-time top scorer. The England captain scored his 267th goal for Spurs in the 1-0 defeat of Manchester City. Kane, 29, now wants to surpass Alan Shearer's all-time Premier League record of 260 goals. \"Alan has set the record to beat. I'll see if I can beat it,\" said Kane, who is on 200 Premier League goals. \"I'm sure he'll (Shearer) be watching but I'm not sure if he'll be happy or not! I've got plenty of goals to come, I'm feeling good.\" Glenn Murray, a former Premier League striker with Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Brighton, told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"Strikers are greedy, he'll want more. The man in his sights will be a Mr Alan Shearer, I imagine.\" Greaves, who started his career at Chelsea, scored 266 goals in 379 games for Spurs between 1961 and 1970. Kane made his Spurs debut in 2011 and has played 416 times for the club. 'It's a dream come true' - Kane on goal record\n• None Listen to the latest The Far Post podcast Kane's finish in Sunday's game against City was typically well taken, fired in low after he had been set up by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the box. \"When you look at the names who have been here, to overtake Jimmy Greaves - one of the greatest to play the game - I'm extremely grateful,\" Kane told BBC Match of the Day. Kane is the third-highest scorer since the Premier League was formed in 1992 - after Shearer and Wayne Rooney, who scored 208 times. He has scored 17 league goals this season and 19 in total for Spurs - 11 more than the club's next highest scorer, Son Heung-min. Kane is also just one goal away from becoming the leading all-time goalscorer for England. He is tied on 53 with Rooney. Harry Kane's first Premier League goal was in a 5-1 Tottenham win against Sunderland on 7 April 2014 Kane was mobbed by his team-mates after the final whistle before the player addressed supporters in an interview on the pitch. A message of congratulations from the late Greaves' son Danny was also shown on the screens. Later in the Tottenham dressing room, with Kane still in his kit, he took a phone call from manager Antonio Conte, who missed the game after having surgery to remove his gallbladder. The Italian was heard saying \"you make me proud\" to Kane in a conversation on a mobile phone. 'Spurs should cash in on Kane' Despite his success in front of goal, Kane is yet to win a major trophy in his one-club career and was wanted by Manchester City in the summer of 2021. Jamie Carragher, a Champions League winner with Liverpool, does not believe a lack of winners' medals will play too much on Kane's mind. \"If he can go down as the best Spurs player of all time, the record Premier League goalscorer, record England scorer - do you think he'll miss a Carabao Cup medal?\" said the former centre-back said on Sky Sports. However, former Tottenham defender Ramon Vega believes the time could be right for Kane to move in order to win medals. \"He can actually walk away from Spurs now without any question and go to a potentially better platform where they can actually win medals,\" Vega told Sportsworld on the BBC World Service. \"If I was Daniel Levy (Spurs chairman) I think it's the best time now to sell him and really cash in and rebuild. Harry Kane is today, but we need to look for a future Harry Kane.\" Meanwhile, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola congratulated Kane for his \"incredible\" achievement. \"On behalf of Manchester City, I can say congratulations for this incredible milestone. He is an exceptional player,\" said Guardiola. Kane was set up superbly in front of goal by a driving run from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg His low finish was calmly taken, slotted in past Ederson Cue the celebrations, with full-back Emerson Royal the first to reach the forward The rest of the Spurs players soon joined Kane to share in the moment The scoreboard in the stadium marked the moment with a visualisation of his familiar celebration\n• None Our coverage of Tottenham Hotspur is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Spurs - go straight to all the best content", "Liz Truss has made her first comments about her short-lived premiership\n\nLiz Truss has said she was never given a \"realistic chance\" to implement her radical tax-cutting agenda by her party.\n\nIn a 4,000-word essay in the Sunday Telegraph, Ms Truss stood by her plans to boost economic growth, arguing they were brought down by \"the left-wing economic establishment\".\n\nThey are the first public comments the ex-PM has made on her resignation.\n\nBut she said she was not \"blameless\" for the unravelling of the mini-budget.\n\nBusiness Secretary Grant Shapps, who was appointed by Ms Truss as her home secretary during her final week in office, said she \"clearly\" had not had the right approach to taxation.\n\nSpeaking on BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show, he said her desire for lower taxes in the long term was correct, but inflation should have have been lowered first.\n\nMs Truss was forced to quit after she and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's £45bn package of tax cuts panicked the markets and tanked the pound to a record low.\n\nHer brief time in power - 49 days - made her the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history.\n\nMs Truss said that while her experience last autumn was \"bruising for me personally\", she believed that over the medium term her policies would have increased growth and therefore brought down debt.\n\nShe argued that the government was made a \"scapegoat\" for developments that had been brewing for some time.\n\n\"Frankly, we were also pushing water uphill. Large parts of the media and the wider public sphere had become unfamiliar with key arguments about tax and economic policy and over time sentiment had shifted leftward,\" she wrote.\n\n\"Regrettably, the government became a useful scapegoat for problems that had been brewing over a number of months.\"\n\nShe also said she had not appreciated the strength of the resistance she would face to her plans - including plans to abolish the 45p top rate of income tax.\n\n\"I assumed upon entering Downing Street that my mandate would be respected and accepted. How wrong I was. While I anticipated resistance to my programme from the system, I underestimated the extent of it,\" she writes.\n\nMr Kwarteng dropped the 45p income tax proposals 10 days after they were announced, telling the BBC it was \"a massive distraction on what was a strong package\".\n\nLess than a fortnight later, Ms Truss sacked Mr Kwarteng, something she said she was \"deeply disturbed by\".\n\n\"Kwasi Kwarteng had put together a brave package that was genuinely transformative - he is an original thinker and a great advocate for Conservative ideas. But at this point, it was clear that the policy agenda could not survive and my priority had to be avoiding a serious meltdown for the UK,\" she wrote.\n\nWith the benefit of hindsight, she writes that she would have acted differently during her premiership - but she still backs her plans for growth.\n\n\"I have lost track of how many people have written to me or approached me since leaving Downing Street to say that they believe my diagnosis of the problems causing our country's economic lethargy was correct and that they shared my enthusiasm for the solutions I was proposing,\" she said.\n\nAfter 100 days of \"soul searching\" we have a version of events from the shortest serving UK Prime Minister in history.\n\nThis is Liz Truss's catastrophic time in office, described and defended in her own words.\n\nAt some length, she attempts to argue her case and answer for her actions. There is reflection and regret but not the apology which many might expect.\n\nWhat burns through this 4000 word essay is a sense from Liz Truss that almost everything was against her as she makes a case for what might have been.\n\nThe system, officials, Conservative MPs all played a part, she argues, in stopping her from achieving her aim of economic growth through tax cuts and de-regulation.\n\nThere are breathtaking reminders of how high the stakes were as her policies sent shockwaves through the economy - Kwasi Kwarteng had to go to avoid \"a serious meltdown for the UK\" and \"the starkest of warnings\" came from officials that the country may have to default on its debt.\n\nDespite her downfall, Liz Truss argues many still share her enthusiasm for what she was trying to achieve.\n\nSir Jake Berry, who was Conservative party chairman under Ms Truss, said he agreed with her \"diagnosis\" of the problems facing the UK economy, but \"not necessarily the cure\".\n\nSpeaking to Laura Kuenssberg, he added that Ms Truss had been \"wrong\" to say the Conservatives had failed to make the argument for lower taxes.\n\nMeanwhile, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said Ms Truss's policies \"made working people pay the price\".\n\n\"The Conservatives crashed the economy, sank the pound, put pensions in peril and made working people pay the price through higher mortgages for years to come.\n\n\"After 13 years of low growth, squeezed wages and higher taxes under the Tories, only Labour offers the leadership and ideas to fix our economy and to get it growing.\"\n\nWhile Liz Truss resigned as prime minister, she is still serving in parliament as the MP for South West Norfolk.", "Lord of the Bins collects household, building and office waste across East and West Sussex\n\nA waste collection firm in Brighton has been told by lawyers for the Lord of the Rings franchise to change its name.\n\nLord of the Bins collects household, building and office waste across East Sussex and West Sussex.\n\nNick Lockwood and Dan Walker, who run the company, said they were contacted by Middle-earth Enterprises, who own the worldwide rights to The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.\n\nThe pair said they faced the prospect of spending thousands to rebrand.\n\n\"Middle-earth Enterprises has sent and is enforcing a cease and desist, claiming we're in breach of their trademarks,\" Mr Lockwood said.\n\n\"They claim customers could think they were endorsed by or affiliated to Lord Of The Rings. But anyone in their right mind knows we're a completely separate and non-competitive business.\"\n\nThe company also claimed they were ordered to ditch their slogan, One Ring to Remove It All.\n\n\"We now have the prospect of spending thousands of pounds and effort rebranding, to appease a multi-billion pound company,\" Mr Lockwood added.\n\n\"We will survive this storm and continue providing a great service for our city, whatever our name.\"\n\nMiddle-earth Enterprises has been approached for comment.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "A young Princess of Wales is pictured in the garden, alongside the description: 'with Dad, by Mum'\n\nThe Princess of Wales has shared a new photo of herself as a baby and urged others to do the same, as part of her newly launched early years campaign.\n\nShaping Us, about the importance of early childhood and the impact it can have on later life, has been described as the princess's \"life's work\".\n\nOn Saturday, Catherine tweeted a photo of her as a baby with her father.\n\nShe said baby photos encouraged people to talk about childhood and prompted \"smiles and memories too\".\n\nCatherine, mother to three young children, shared the image of herself reaching out to touch her father Michael Middleton's face, alongside the caption: \"Faces are a baby's best toy.\"\n\n\"This weekend, we'd love for you all to spend time with your friends, families, colleagues and communities talking about your early childhoods and how they've shaped your lives,\" the princess wrote, in a series of tweets.\n\n\"I hope you'll also consider joining me in sharing a picture of yourselves before your fifth birthday to help with those conversations and to share some smiles and memories too.\"\n\nThe early years initiative aims to increase public awareness of the significance of the first five years of life, in terms of the future physical and mental well-being of adults.\n\nRoyal sources say the Princess of Wales had been struck, while carrying out royal duties, by how often people's difficulties in areas such as mental health and addiction had their origins in their early years. This led to her decision to champion the importance of a happy and healthy start in life.\n\nLaunching the campaign earlier this week, she wrote in an open letter that not enough attention is paid to how children's first five years profoundly shape \"the adults we become\" and that she is determined to change that.\n\n\"It's like building a house - without strong foundations, without this sort of solid start in life, then those building blocks are much harder to build later on in life,\" she told radio presenter Roman Kemp, in a video recorded last month and posted on YouTube.\n\n\"The importance of having healthy and strong relationships in a child's life is really critical\" she said, adding that \"raising children today is tough... [but] love goes a long way\".\n\nMembers of the public and celebrities shared their baby images in response to the princess's message - with many people praising the initiative and commenting on how alike Prince Louis is to the young Catherine.\n\nPresenters Fearne Cotton and Zoe Ball, chef Jamie Oliver and footballer Harry Kane were among those who posted a picture of themselves, capturing them in their early youth.\n\n\"Possibly the age I started to cultivate my own style and love of clothes and definitely the age I started to get super passionate about art and creativity,\" wrote Cotton, who has been a prominent backer of the Shaping Us campaign.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by fearnecotton This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRadio 2 DJ Ball shared an image of herself with her dad, presenter Johnny Ball, saying: \"My Dad was, and still is a great storyteller and bedtime stories with him were often my favourite part of the day.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post 2 by zoetheball This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnd alongside a picture of himself in roller skates, Oliver wrote that he counted himself lucky for his happy childhood \"growing up in his mum & dad's pub\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jamie Oliver This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Viola Davis accepted her prize as the Grammys kicked off in LA\n\nViola Davis has become the 18th person to achieve the EGOT - winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award - as the Grammy Awards kick off in Los Angeles.\n\nDavis completed her collection by winning best audio book for her autobiography Finding Me.\n\n\"I wrote this book to honour the six-year-old Viola,\" said the star. \"To honour her life, her joy, her trauma, everything.\"\n\nThe star won the best supporting actress Oscar in 2016 for Fences.\n\nHer Emmy Award recognised the TV drama How To Get Away With Murder, and she has two Tony Awards for her theatre work - featured actress in a play for King Hedley II (2001) and lead actress in a play for Fences (2010).\n\n\"I just EGOT!\" announced the star on stage at the Grammys, becoming visibly emotional as she thanked her family for being \"the best chapter in my book\".\n\nThe 17 other EGOT winners include Sir John Gielgud, Rita Moreno, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson.\n\nDavis picked up her prize at the Grammys \"premiere ceremony\", which mostly recognises technical and genre categories.\n\nThe four-hour show also saw rock legend Ozzy Osbourne pick up two awards, just days after he announced his retirement from touring.\n\nHis latest record, Patient Number Nine, was named best rock album, while the song Degradation Rules won best metal performance.\n\nBritish indie duo Wet Leg also received two awards - including best alternative album and best alternative song for their breakout single, Chaise Longue.\n\n\"This is so funny,\" said singer-guitarist Rhian Teasdale. \"What are we even doing here?\"\n\nMeanwhile composer and violinist Stephanie Economou received the first ever Grammy for best video game soundtrack, recognising her work on Assassin's Creed: Dawn Of Ragnarok.\n\nThe premiere ceremony was hosted by YouTube star Randy Rainbow, who went viral during the Trump administration for videos that mixed political commentary with musical theatre numbers.\n\nTaking to the stage at Los Angeles' Crypto,com Arena, he promised not to make cheap jokes about US Republican George Santos, who has admitted to making several false statements in his resume and biography.\n\n\"I will not even say his name,\" said Rainbow. \"Even though he is nominated for best pop vocal album.\"\n\nAdele and Beyoncé go head-to-head for best album, in a re-run of the 2017 ceremony\n\nThe main Grammys ceremony kicks off at Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena on Sunday at 17:00 (local time) / Monday at 01:00 (GMT)\n\nComedian Trevor Noah is hosting for the third time, with performances due from Styles, Lizzo, Bad Bunny and Sam Smith.\n\nBut Noah has hinted that two pop megastars will also be gracing the stage.\n\n\"One of your favourite performers is a woman, and that woman is going to be performing at the Grammys,\" he said on the People's Every Day podcast this weekend.\n\n\"Then one of your other favourite performers is a man, and that man is going to be performing at the Grammys.\n\n\"And you're going, 'Oh, but that could be anyone.' But you know, it's not anyone, though, because you've been listening to their album the whole year and it's been huge.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. We are not in talks with government over pay - Unite boss\n\nThe leader of a union representing striking ambulance workers has called on Rishi Sunak to intervene in the NHS pay dispute.\n\nOn the eve of the biggest week of strikes in NHS history, Unite's Sharon Graham said: \"Where is Rishi Sunak, why is he not at the negotiating table?\"\n\nIt came after the head of a nurses' union urged the PM to offer a new deal to avert nursing strikes in England.\n\nThe government insists its £1,400 rise for NHS workers this year is fair.\n\nBut Unite and other health unions say the increase - an average rise of 4.8% - fails to reflect rising living costs, and needs to be increased.\n\nHealth Secretary Stephen Barclay says he has held \"constructive\" talks with unions over pay for the next financial year, starting in April.\n\nBut speaking on BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Graham said Unite \"are in no talks at any level whatsoever\" with the government about NHS pay, accusing ministers of an \"abdication of responsibility\".\n\nCalling on the prime minister to get personally involved in finding a solution, she said: \"Instead of doing sort of press conferences about other things, come to the table and negotiate - roll your sleeves up and negotiate on the pay in the NHS.\"\n\nHer call for Mr Sunak to intervene in the dispute over NHS pay in England follows a similar appeal from Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing.\n\nIn a letter to the prime minister on Saturday, Ms Cullen wrote: \"I am appealing directly to you for the first time: address this current impasse.\"\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nThe RCN and several other health unions in Wales have suspended planned action next week after the Labour-run Welsh government offered NHS workers an extra 3% on top of the £1,400 for this year.\n\nThe RCN, along with the GMB union and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), has also put strike action on hold in Scotland to allow further talks on the 2023 pay offer.\n\nIn her letter, Ms Cullen said the UK government was looking \"increasingly isolated\" by \"refusing to reopen\" talks over this year's pay deal in England.\n\nAmbulance workers represented by Unite are still set to strike in Wales next week, after the union decided against joining others in suspending action.\n\nBut Ms Graham told Laura Kuenssberg she would be meeting with the Welsh health minister later, in a bid to find a deal.\n\nShe added that the Welsh government needed to \"come back to the table\" with an improved offer - but added the situation in Wales and Scotland was in \"stark contrast\" to the impasse in England.\n\nSpeaking on the same programme, Business Secretary Grant Shapps defended the government's approach to pay in England, adding that the £1,400 rise had been suggested by the NHS pay review body.\n\nThe government says it wants the body, made up of eight advisers, to recommend a pay award for next year in April.\n\nHowever, the health department is yet to present its submission to the body - a key step in the process of drawing up a recommendation. The review body says it has evidence from the Treasury.\n\nHealth unions have said they won't formally submit evidence until the dispute over this year's pay is resolved, instead publishing a document setting out their argument for higher pay.\n\nMonday will see combined industrial action in England, as members from the Royal College of Nursing will walk out alongside call handlers, paramedics and other ambulance staff - who are members of either the GMB and Unite unions.\n\nThe strike will affect non-life threatening calls only and people are advised to use the 999 service in an emergency.\n\nTuesday will see members of the RCN union go on strike again. The union represents roughly two-thirds of NHS nurses.\n\nThey are taking industrial action over pay, but life-preserving treatment must be provided, and all nurses in intensive and emergency care are expected to work.\n\nNHS physiotherapists across England will go on strike on Thursday over pay and staffing, and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) says 4,200 members are involved.\n\nAnd on Friday, thousands of ambulance staff across five services in England - London, Yorkshire, South West, North East, and North West - are striking.\n\nHave you had a medical appointment or operation cancelled due to the strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nPolice searching for a missing mum who vanished while walking her dog have traced a witness they wanted to speak to.\n\nNicola Bulley, 45, was last seen a week ago walking next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nLancashire Police believe she may have fallen in the river.\n\nOn Saturday, police released an image of a potential witness who was seen in the area at the time.\n\nThe force began a search to track down a woman seen wearing a yellow coat and pushing a pram, who was walking on Garstang Road and Blackpool Lane on 27 January.\n\nLater that evening, the force wrote that it was \"pleased to say that the woman came forward very quickly\", stressing that she was \"very much being treated as a witness\".\n\n\"[The woman] was one of many people in St Michael's on Friday, 27 January,\" Lancashire Police wrote in a Facebook post.\n\n\"Our enquiries to find Nicola are extensive and will include speaking to as many members of the public as possible.\"\n\nMs Bulley was last seen walking her dog, Willow, near the River Wyre after dropping her two children off at primary school.\n\nThe spaniel was found about 25 minutes after Ms Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at approximately 09:10 GMT.\n\nDetectives have also made a fresh appeal for drivers who might have dashcam footage from the area where Ms Bulley was last seen to come forward.\n\n\"It is really important that we gather as much footage as possible from the area that morning, so we can review every piece meticulously to establish whether Nicola can be seen,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nA major search for Ms Bulley has been continuing, involving police divers, drones and a helicopter - but as yet, nothing has been found to explain her disappearance.\n\nPolice said their \"working hypothesis is that she has fallen into the river for some reason\", adding there was \"no evidence\" of anything suspicious.\n\nSupt Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, told The Sunday Times that officers found \"no evidence of a slip or fall\" near the bench where Nicola's mobile phone was found but said falling from a sheer riverbank may leave no trace.\n\n\"I think if it had been a sloping bank, a common-sense view would be that you would expect to find scuff marks,\" Supt Riley said.\n\n\"If it is sheer and you lose your footing, you might not have any marks left on the grass. All of that has been subjected to a detailed search.\"\n\nMs Bulley's sister, Louise Cunningham, has urged people to \"keep an open mind\" about what might have happened, insisting there was \"no evidence whatsoever\" that she had fallen into the river.\n\nIn a post on Facebook, she said: \"Please keep sharing my Nikki\", adding that suggestions she had fallen into the river were \"just a theory\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Bulley's friend Emma White: \"We've still got a missing piece of the jigsaw\"\n\nMs Bulley's friend, Emma White, told The Sun police were working on extracting data from Ms Bulley's Fitbit watch.\n\n\"The Fitbit had not been synced since Tuesday,\" she said, adding: \"The police are trying other ways to try to get information from it.\"\n\nEarlier, she told the BBC: \"We still have no evidence and that's why we're out again in force.\n\n\"You don't base life on a hypothesis, do you? You absolutely can have hypotheses, but then you need something to back that hypothesis up to become factual.\"\n\nDetectives said they were \"as confident as we can be that Nicola has not left the field where she was last seen, and our working hypothesis is that she has fallen into the river for some reason\".\n\n\"Our investigation remains open and we will of course act on any new information which comes to light.\"\n\nThey said that social media speculation and abuse aimed at some people assisting the investigation was \"totally unacceptable\".\n\n\"We would urge people to remember that we are investigating the disappearance of Nicola, and the priority is Nicola and her family. We want to find her and provide answers to her family.\"\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, said he would \"never lose hope\" of finding her.\n\nPolice have urged locals to look out along the river for clothing that Ms Bulley was last seen wearing.\n\nThis included an ankle-length black, quilted gilet jacket, a black Engelbert Strauss waist-length coat, black jeans, green walking socks, ankle-length green Next wellies, a necklace and the Fitbit, which is pale blue.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "\"It was the first time I was able to see myself in my mother's eyes,\" said Timothy\n\nTimothy Welch was one of the thousands of babies who were given up for adoption from a mother and baby home in the 1960s.\n\nHe was only six weeks old when he was separated from his birth mother, June Mary Phelps, who was 18 at the time.\n\nHe described how he traced his family roots and met June in Monmouth, where she now lives.\n\nTimothy, 59, a teacher from London, grew up with his adoptive parents Bill and Eunicé.\n\n\"My adoptive parents always said to me 'you were special - you came to us in a different way'.\n\n\"They couldn't have their own children so they started the adoption process and when they were 36 they adopted me.\"\n\nTimothy described his life with his adoptive parents as \"really happy\", and never considered trying to find his birth mother until his adoptive parents died: Bill in 2018 and Eunicé in 2020.\n\nTimothy and his adoptive parents, Bill and Eunicé\n\n\"As an adoptive child you always think about researching your birth family, but whether or not you act on it is another matter,\" said Timothy.\n\n\"A lot of it goes back to identity as a person over the years. I wondered who I was, certain personality traits that were different from my adoptive family.\n\n\"When my adoptive parents died, it makes you feel differently about the world and yourself.\n\n\"A counsellor said to me that after people's adoptive parents die they often re-open the curiosity about their own heritage because we are all searching for connection.\n\n\"I think that's really what it was about for me. It gives you a permission to think - OK what now for myself?\"\n\n\"My adoptive father told me I said when I was a child: 'I hope my birth mother's ok, I think she's beautiful and I understand why she couldn't keep me'\"\n\nTimothy started his search for his birth mother in January 2022 after going through some old family photos.\n\n\"I found a photo of my birthplace - Yateley Haven, Hampshire\" he said.\n\n\"While looking I noticed there was a closed Facebook group for families mothers and children who were born there.\n\n\"I requested to join the group and the moderator Penny Green replied and asked me about my story.\n\n\"As an enthusiastic amateur historian, she was very interested and offered to help me trace my birth parents.\"\n\nPenny Green, an ex-charity worker from Bedfordshire, created the Facebook group for people who were born or have a link to The Haven, a mother and baby home run by the Baptist Church, after being born there herself.\n\nThe 62-year-old explained unmarried mums applied to go there to give birth and their babies were adopted - often forcibly.\n\n\"The theory was back then that they were doing all these unmarried mums a favour because it was not the done thing to be an unmarried mother,\" she said.\n\nAccording to the Yateley Society, The Haven was open from 1945 until 1970, and almost 1,800 babies were born there.\n\nPenny's own mum was 36 when she was sent there by her parents as she was single and pregnant.\n\nPenny Green was vital to Timothy finding his birth family\n\nHowever, unlike many younger mothers, she refused to give Penny up. According to Penny, her mother then changed her name, and told people she was married but the baby's father had been killed in a car crash.\n\nTimothy also believes his mother was a victim of forced adoption, due to the fact she was so young.\n\nHe said: \"June didn't really have a choice, particularly if she wanted to keep working. How would she support me without having a job?\"\n\nPenny said although some mothers at The Haven knew their children were going to be taken away, they didn't get told when or get to say goodbye.\n\n\"One mum made a toy for her baby to have when they were taken, but as she wasn't told when they were taken, she never got to give it to them,\" she said.\n\n\"Some of the mothers were so traumatised they had hidden away and were so scared of bringing up the past.\"\n\nFollowing Penny's advice, Timothy applied to the General Register Office for a copy of his original birth certificate which contained his birth mother's full name, date and place of birth.\n\nPenny then used the electoral roll on and internet searches to locate her.\n\nAfter Penny made the first contact on his behalf, Timothy found his mother's current husband, Michael Mortimer.\n\nTimothy gave Mr Mortimer his email, which he passed on to Timothy's brothers and they arranged a day to meet up in London.\n\n\"Through all this I have felt the support from my brothers which has been wonderful\"\n\n\"They are both wonderful men - kind, thoughtful and reflective,\" he said.\n\n\"I feel very fortunate to have met them at this stage of our lives and am going to enjoy getting to know them and their respective families very much.\n\n\"An extra bonus for me was meeting Chris's partner, Amanda, and Greg's partner, Gemma, and some of their children who are all lovely.\"\n\nAfter 58 years apart, on Saturday, 19 September 2022, Chris and Greg took Timothy to be reunited with his birth mother.\n\nHe said: \"It was the first time I was able to see myself in my mother's eyes.\n\n\"It was emotional but at the same time it felt natural.\n\n\"We spoke about a variety of things but the part I enjoyed the most was just looking at her and taking in the person that she is.\"\n\nTimothy explained that despite long-term health challenges, his mother has a good memory of him and can \"eat an Olympian under the table\".\n\n\"I have been able to start to tell them all about my gorgeous parents who brought me up - keeping them alive in my heart and life\"\n\nTimothy said since the meeting, he is now beginning to piece together details about his early life.\n\n\"My mother was 17 when she was pregnant and just 18 when she gave birth to me. She had another baby boy a year or so earlier when she was 16, who was put up for adoption and she has not seen since,\" he said.\n\n\"She was the youngest of three children - she had a sister Audrey who was 10 years older and a brother Bill who is eight years older. He is still alive.\n\n\"My father's name was Hedayat Mamagan Zardy, an Iranian Muslim. They had a fleeting romance and loved dancing on nights out in Oxford.\n\n\"Attempts to find my birth father and older brother are at very early stages.\"\n\nTimothy explained that June went on to marry in 1966 and had two more sons - his brothers, with whom he is now in contact.\n\nReflecting on his experience of finding his family, Timothy said: \"You have to remain open minded and strong within yourself.\n\n\"Now, I've got brothers so it is interesting to have this extra layer and it's exciting to me.\n\n\"I shall be visiting my mother and look forward to getting to know her as time goes on.\"", "Teachers on the picket line at Preston Tower Primary School in Prestonpans\n\nTeachers are launching a fresh wave of rolling strikes across Scotland as a union leader warned there was no end in sight to the current pay dispute.\n\nOver the next 16 days the action will affect two local authorities a day, starting on Monday with Glasgow and East Lothian.\n\nThe Educational Institute of Scotland last week announced it would be followed by 22 extra days of strikes.\n\nMinisters and councils have said a requested 10% pay rise is unaffordable.\n\nThe current 5% offer includes rises of up to 6.85% for the lowest-paid staff.\n\nOn Friday Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said she remained committed to a \"fair and sustainable pay deal\".\n\nAny new offer would need to be agreed by all 32 council leaders but they are not due to meet until the end of next week.\n\nLast week, strikes closed almost every primary school in Scotland on Tuesday, and every secondary school on Wednesday.\n\nStriking staff were in high sprits at Knox Academy in Haddington\n\nPreliminary exams due to take place also had to be rescheduled for some pupils.\n\nThe strikes also saw all four unions representing teachers and headteachers walk out together for the first time.\n\nMembers of the EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, the NASUWT, Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association (SSTA) and the Association of Headteachers and Deputes (AHDS) unions were involved.\n\nAhead of the latest phase of strike action, EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said there was a willingness to break the deadlock.\n\nBut she told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show: \"In terms of an an end in sight, I think we are still quite a bit away from that because there aren't figures on the table as yet that we can meaningfully work with to see a way through this dispute.\n\n\"There's a bit more work to be done on behalf of Cosla and the Scottish government to get us there.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. EIS general secretary, Andrea Bradley, said there had been no significant changes to the pay offer since August\n\nMs Bradley told the programme the offer that was made in November was \"practically the same\" as the previous one in August.\n\nShe added: \"It has been badged as 'fair and affordable' by the Scottish government, in terms of what is fair and affordable to them, but we have been absolutely clear throughout this process so far that that 5% offer is neither fair nor affordable for our members.\"\n\nAsked if she thought that more effort was being put into ending the nurses' dispute, the EIS general secretary said: \"We are not really in the business of comparing ourselves to other groups of workers.\n\n\"We wish every group of workers who is in pursuit of fair play all the very best and we stand in solidarity with them.\n\n\"What we would say is that with the resource that the Scottish government has they should be able to attend to the needs of both sets of workers.\"\n\nTeachers highlighting their pay claim outside Hillhead High School in Glasgow\n\nEIS members have already taken three days of national strike action - one in November and two in January.\n\nOn Friday the union announced a 22-day programme of additional strike action.\n\nIt will include two days of national strike action in all schools on 28 February and 1 March, followed by a rolling programme of strikes for 20 days between 13 March and 21 April.\n\nOver the second rolling strike period, each local authority area will be impacted by three consecutive days of action, with one day of strike action in all schools bookended by one-day strikes in primary and secondary schools.\n\nSixteen consecutive days of strikes are scheduled by the EIS and AHDS.\n\nBut could the action be called off before the programme is complete?\n\nThis depends on whether a new formal pay offer is made to the teachers unions and, crucially, whether that offer is a significant improvement on the existing one.\n\nA new offer is expected soon but there is no formal timetable.\n\nAny new offer would need to be agreed at a meeting of all 32 council leaders before it could be made officially.\n\nTheir next meeting is not due until the end of next week although a special meeting could be arranged sooner.\n\nSpeaking on Friday, the education secretary said recent meetings had focused on \"examining options for compromise\" rather than tabling a new offer.\n\nMs Somerville added: \"While talks are ongoing, the Scottish government continues to urge the teaching unions to reconsider their plans for industrial action.\n\n\"Strikes in our schools are in no-one's interest - including for pupils, parents and carers who have already had to deal with significant disruption over the past three years.\n\n\"We remain absolutely committed to a fair and sustainable pay deal.\"\n\nLocal authority group Cosla said all parties were eager to seek a resolution but reiterated that the 10% pay rise asked for by unions remained \"unaffordable\".\n\nSpokeswoman Councillor Katie Hagmann said: \"All parties are eager to seek a resolution that not only protects the teaching and wider local government workforce, but also our children and young people's educational experience.\"", "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued the pardons in the build-up to the anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution\n\nIran's supreme leader has pardoned \"tens of thousands\" of prisoners, including many linked to anti-government protests.\n\nState media reports the pardons by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came with conditions.\n\nThe pardons come on the eve of the anniversary of the Islamic revolution in 1979.\n\nDemonstrations erupted last September following the death in custody of a woman held by Iran's morality police.\n\nMahsa Amini, 22, was arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, \"improperly\" - in violation of Iran's strict dress code for women.\n\nAuthorities have portrayed the protests - which are still continuing - as foreign-backed \"riots\" and at times have responded with lethal force.\n\nHuman rights groups say more than 500 demonstrators have been killed, including 70 minors, and around 20,000 have been arrested.\n\nProtests around the country have slowed considerably since the first of the hangings began.\n\nIran's state media says Ayatollah Khamenei's latest pardons came after a letter from the head of the judiciary framed many of those detained as young people who'd been led astray by foreign influence and propaganda.\n\nThe letter claims that a number of protesters had expressed regret and asked for forgiveness.\n\nBut those charged with more serious offences - such as spying for foreign agents, murder or destruction of state property - will not be pardoned.\n\nThe measure will also not extend to any dual nationals currently being detained.\n\nUnder Article 110 of the Iranian constitution, the country's supreme leader has the authority to issue pardons at the recommendation of the judiciary.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The secret diaries of women protesting in Iran\n\nSadeq Rahimi, the deputy judiciary chief, explained that those inmates who are qualified to be pardoned must pledge in writing that they regret what they have done otherwise, they will not be freed.\n\nAccording to a report by the judiciary-affiliated news agency, Mizan, Mr Rahimi said that \"for the first time ever\" defendants who have not received any final verdict will be also pardoned.\n\nOslo-based group Iran Human Rights estimates that at least 100 people in detention are facing death sentences. It says that all defendants have been \"deprived of the right to access their own lawyer, due process and fair trials\".\n\nFour have already been executed for crimes connected to the protests. In January two men were hanged for killing a member of Iran's security forces.\n\nThe pair launched an appeal before their deaths, saying they had been tortured.", "Dead To Me star Christina Applegate, who announced in 2021 she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, walked the red carpet with her daughter Sadie Grace LeNoble. Earlier this month, Applegate told the Los Angeles Times the SAGs would probably be her last awards show as an actor", "On 15 February, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced she was standing down after eight years\n\nOn the face of it, the tide of Scottish independence has turned. With Nicola Sturgeon's resignation, a formidable champion of Scottish statehood leaves the stage.\n\nThe movement - famous for the discipline with which it enforced party unity - is visibly divided, caught up in a series of rancorous culture wars. The broad coalition that Sturgeon built up over years - from working class ex-Labour voters to an energetic community of LGBTQ activists - may be in danger of fragmenting.\n\nThe pro-Union parties are poised. Labour has most to gain. As the prospect of independence recedes into the distant future, will former Labour supporters drift back, pinning their hopes on a Keir Starmer victory in the UK?\n\nNicola Sturgeon's departure seems like a defeat for a movement that has been on the rise for a quarter of a century.\n\nSo the urgent question now is this: Has the forward march of an independent Scotland been turned back? Does the independence ambition end with her leadership?\n\nI've been reporting on the independence question, on and off, for more than 30 years. In 1992, I spent the night of the general election at SNP headquarters in Edinburgh. The party was expecting an electoral breakthrough - perhaps 10 or 12 seats in the House of Commons - after more than a decade of increasingly unpopular Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher and John Major.\n\nBut as the night wore on and Major edged his way to an overall majority, the SNP's confident anticipation turned to despair. The party won just two seats. I became uncomfortably aware that I was the only person in the room who wasn't a party supporter. I felt as though I was intruding on private grief.\n\nTwenty-three years later, on election night 2015, I was a guest at the home of a prominent Labour-supporting family. When the BBC flashed the exit poll at 22:00, predicting (accurately as it turned out) a virtual Labour wipe out in Scotland, and an SNP landslide, the shock in the room was intense. I was intruding again, I thought, on private grief.\n\nWhat happened, in the years between those two moments, that allowed the independence movement to breach the walls of Labour's Fortress Scotland and sweep through all but three of the country's parliamentary constituencies?\n\nI have been watching, over the course of my adult lifetime, a long, slow generational pivot away from the robust, secure unionism of the Scotland I grew up in.\n\nI have a clear sense of what we have been pivoting away from - just not what kind of Scotland we are pivoting towards.\n\nFor me, there is something more telling than the rise of nationalist sentiment, and that is the story of what has happened to the Union itself, to pro-Union sentiment, and to the way Scots have thought about their place within the Union.\n\nIt is the story of the falling away, over decades, of much of what it has meant to be British in Scotland.\n\nI grew up in Galloway in the rural south west of Scotland. In the 70s, when I was a child, a sense of British identity seemed unassailable. Even when our constituency returned a Scottish Nationalist MP to Parliament in 1974, one of 11 elected that year, few people saw their victory as a serious threat to the long-term viability of the Union.\n\nFor back then, Scotland was a very British country. The economic landscape was still dominated by the great Victorian heavy industries of coal, steel and shipbuilding. The working-class communities they sustained were huge and had proud civic identities.\n\nThose industries were also pan-British enterprises, shared across the four nations. If you were a miner in Fife you were connected, in a community of shared interests and aspirations, with miners in Yorkshire and South Wales. You were in the same trade union, with its pantheon of working-class heroes who'd led the struggle for better wages and safer workplaces. The sense of belonging was powerful.\n\nScottish Nationalists campaigning in Motherwell, which was dominated by the steel industry, would be told on the doorstep: \"But I work for something called British Steel. It pays a decent wage, gives me job security, five weeks holiday and a pension at the end. Are you going to unpick all of that?\"\n\nThose communities were bedrocks of British identity in Scotland, as well as of Labour solidarity.\n\nA miner at Baads Colliery to the west of Edinburgh, 1962\n\nIn the 1980s and 1990s those industries were swept away. One of the great socio-economic pillars on which British identity had sat crumbled to dust as those communities, over time, fragmented and dispersed, and their old industries slipped, with each decade that passed, further into the middle-distance of collective memory.\n\nAfter Sturgeon's resignation, I went back to Glenluce, the village I grew up in. I walked past my childhood home. My grandparents had lived in the same street - not far from where my great-great-grandparents had raised their children in the 19th Century.\n\nWhen they thought of the world, they didn't think of Paris or Berlin or Rome; they thought of Cape Town and Bombay, of Singapore and Melbourne. They had relatives who had settled in the parts of the world that were coloured British Empire pink on the map. When letters arrived from some distant sun-dappled place, the stamps carried the familiar, unifying face of the British monarch.\n\nTo those generations, the British Empire was what bound Scotland into the Union. It was a huge, shared British enterprise, built upon a set of values that people across the nations of the United Kingdom broadly shared. We might be radically rethinking the legacy of Empire in our own day, but to them, the experience of Empire was a powerful sustaining force of British identity in Scotland.\n\nAllan Little in the village of Glenluce where he grew up\n\nMy parents were born in the 1930s. They lived as children through World War Two and grew into adulthood in a world in which the UK enjoyed immense moral standing.\n\nAt the age of 17, my father joined the RAF. He watched the 1953 Coronation on an air base in West Germany, alongside other young men from Bangor and Belfast and Birmingham. The shared Britishness of their young lives was as natural as the air they breathed.\n\nThe British Empire would come to an end when they were in their 20s and 30s, but their generation were heirs to a new kind of Britain - the cradle-to-grave welfare state, the new NHS, full employment, social housing (I was born in a council house). But there was something else new for families like ours - a chance that their children would one day make it to university or college. And, in my family, we did.\n\nThat post-war Britain was also built on a set of values that were shared across the nations of the United Kingdom; values that achieved cross-party consensus and which prevailed for 40 years.\n\nMy generation entered adulthood in the 1980s, at a time when the post-war settlement appeared irrevocably broken down and when the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, offered a bold and radical new vision of Britain's future.\n\nIt was, by her own definition, a plan to roll back the frontiers of a state that was outdated, and collapsing under its own weight.\n\nFor nearly two decades, the United Kingdom as a whole returned Conservative governments under Thatcher and then Major. But Scotland never embraced Thatcherism - and Conservative electoral fortunes declined until, in 1997, there wasn't a single Tory MP left in Scotland.\n\nIn these decades, a long slow divergence in political aspirations took place, with England (particularly the south of England) and Scotland voting for different kinds of Britain. This divergence would resume in 2010. When Gordon Brown's Labour government lost the election of that year, due to a swing to the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in England, none of Scotland's Labour MPs lost their seat, and many were elected with strengthened majorities.\n\nIf the Union had always been at its strongest when it was built on shared values, those values now started coming under strain.\n\nWhen I was a child, public representations of Scottish identity seemed bizarre. On TV, we had the White Heather Club - women in white frocks and tartan sashes dancing impossibly complicated reels and strathspeys; men in kilts playing accordions and singing kitsch songs about exile and nostalgia. It was caricature and had no connection to lived experience.\n\nAndy Stewart, host of the long-running BBC variety show The White Heather Club, with musician Alistair McHarg in 1959\n\nBut in the 70s and 80s, slowly, that representation of Scottishness began to be eclipsed. Scottish culture was speaking increasingly in its own voice. Much of it was coming from a cohort of young working-class people who'd been (like me) the first in their families to get a college or university education. And a lot of it was explicitly left-wing.\n\nIn the 1980s, Labour responded to this shifting social, political and cultural climate, by embracing an idea that had traditionally divided the Labour movement - a Scottish Parliament.\n\nThat experience of being governed, through the Scottish Office, by a party that had repeatedly lost elections in Scotland, changed public opinion. Opposition leaders began to argue not just against specific government policies in Scotland, but about the very right of Westminster to impose them. The policies lacked democratic legitimacy because they had, the argument ran, been repeatedly rejected by Scots at the ballot box.\n\nIn 1997 when Tony Blair's New Labour came to power, Scotland voted by a majority of three to one to establish a Scottish Parliament. Devolution was the biggest transfer of legislative power from Westminster since the Act of Union in 1707.\n\nAnd in that tumult, the SNP - long seen as a relatively marginal force - began to reinvent itself, and more crucially, reinvent the independence prospectus. Under Alex Salmond's leadership, the party moved away from its traditional appeal to the politics of national identity - the flag, the literature, the culture and symbols of national sentiment - and towards the politics of social justice. It presented itself to the Scottish electorate as a modern, mainstream European social democratic party.\n\nThe independence cause began to converge with the cause of social justice and greater equality. This made the SNP a threat to Labour's dominant position in Scotland. And, though it took a long time, the SNP began to win elections by appealing to traditional Labour voters and by enthusing the young.\n\nThis realignment of political allegiances happened under Salmond's leadership. But no-one embodied it more fully than Nicola Sturgeon, from a working class Ayrshire background, who had also been the first in her family to go to university.\n\nNicola Sturgeon at the launch of the SNP's 1999 Holyrood election manifesto\n\nWhen I was reporting on the referendum campaign of 2014, few of the young people who energised the Yes movement wanted to talk about nationality. They wanted to talk about fairness, about the injustices of the growing levels of economic inequality that seemed to them to characterise the UK.\n\nIn 2014, Brown was among the first in Labour to see that many of the party's traditional voters were planning to vote Yes. It was the start of a landslip. Many Labour voters jumped ship to vote Yes, and then, the following year, to help the SNP to its astonishing landslide.\n\nThough the Yes movement lost the referendum decisively, the experience changed the political map. The old left-right divide that had defined Scottish politics for a century was replaced: the new fault line was independence.\n\nThe Yes movement brought support for independence to 45% - with nearly 85% of the electorate voting, the highest turnout in Scottish electoral history.\n\nBetter Together \"No\" campaign banners spray painted with \"Yes\" graffiti near Dundee, in August 2014 before the referendum\n\nIt is striking that, for all her popularity and the admiration she commands, eight years after Sturgeon assumed the leadership of that movement, the dial has hardly moved. Support for independence still hovers just below 50%.\n\nWhy has the unpopularity of Brexit not led to a decisive surge in support for independence? Why did the deeply unpopular premiership of Boris Johnson not change the numbers? And if Sturgeon - probably the most gifted champion of Scottish statehood the movement has ever produced - hasn't been able to build a sustained majority for independence, what chance will her successor have?\n\nThe movement she hands over is a cultural as well as a political phenomenon. The idea that an independent Scotland will be a fairer society than the United Kingdom is its core belief.\n\nLGBTQ rights are also at the heart of the movement. But Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform Bill opened up a bitter divide in her own party and threatens to split wide open the broad coalition that has been key to the SNP's success.\n\nWomen's rights protesters outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, February 2023\n\nThe Bill had cross-party support in the Scottish Parliament: Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens and even some Conservatives all backed it. But powerful voices in Sturgeon's own party bitterly denounced it, including the MP Joanna Cherry; the leadership contender Ash Regan, who resigned from the Scottish government to oppose it; and Kate Forbes, the finance secretary, who said she would have voted against it had she not been on maternity leave at the time.\n\nBut most concerning for the independence cause, opinion polls suggested Scots were not in favour of many of the measures in the Bill. For once, Sturgeon's radical instincts and convictions, which have so often in her career walked hand-in-hand with public opinion, have collided with it.\n\nSo this may be a turning point for the independence movement. The era of Salmond and Sturgeon, which transformed the fortunes of the SNP and redrew the map of Scottish and UK politics, is over.\n\nIts signature project - to secure an independence referendum by winning elections - appears to have run into a dead end. Nicola Sturgeon proposed turning the next UK general election into a de facto referendum. An SNP victory would be taken as a mandate to open independence negotiations with Westminster. Few, even in her own party, thought this a viable proposition. The next leader will have to offer independence supporters a credible alternative route to Scottish statehood.\n\nIs there an alternative route? Many commentators think that if support for independence rises to, say, 60% or more and stays there for a sustained period, then a UK government will, in the end, be unable to deny a second referendum indefinitely.\n\nDrill into those opinion polls that show support for independence hovering somewhere around 50%, and look at the age demographics. The young remain overwhelmingly in favour of independence - by more than 70% in some age groups. There is even strong support among the middle-aged.\n\nIt is only in my own age group, the over 60s, the cohort that still has personal memories a Britain built on a set of shared values and a sense of purpose held in common, where the Union retains commandingly solid majority support.\n\nThis leads many nationalists to believe time is on their side - that the fruit of independence is ripening on the tree of age demographics and will one day fall into their lap.\n\nNothing is inevitable - the young grow older - but those polls suggest that the long, slow generational pivot away from British identity in Scotland has not been reversed. And that is a long-term challenge the Union will have to meet if it is to survive, whatever direction the SNP takes under its new leader.", "Australian firm Recharge Industries has bought the defunct battery maker Britishvolt out of administration.\n\nBritishvolt had planned to build a £4bn battery plant near the Port of Blyth in Northumberland but it collapsed last month after running out of money.\n\nIts downfall was blamed on a lack of battery experience, proven technology, customers and revenue.\n\nRecharge Industries has in many ways a similar profile - it is a start up with little manufacturing experience.\n\nThe Australian company is ultimately owned and run by a New York-based investment fund called Scale Facilitation.\n\n\"What we are bringing is validated technology,\" the fund's Australian chief executive David Collard told the BBC.\n\n\"The US defence industry has validated it and it is already supplied to the UK navy through a subcontractor.\"\n\nThe new owners will keep the Britishvolt brand name but have very different plans for the future.\n\nThe company intends to start by focusing on batteries for energy storage and hopes to have those products available by the end of 2025.\n\nIt then intends to produce batteries for high-performance sports cars.\n\nThe prospect of a much-needed plant that can produce batteries for high-volume carmakers in the UK looks many years off.\n\nBut does Mr Collard understand why many in government and the automotive industry are nervous that it won't deliver what UK industry needs without involvement from major manufacturers like Ford, GM, JLR and BMW?\n\n\"They all started somewhere before they became big. We've got accelerated growth and have been successful all along the way,\" he said.\n\nRecharge Industries certainly has big ambitions. It is planning to build a similar plant in Mr Collard's hometown of Geelong, near Melbourne. He has spent time fostering relations with government and opposition leaders there.\n\nHe conceded he hadn't made the same level of connections in the UK yet, but had engaged with the owners of the Northumberland site.\n\n\"I spent a lot of time with Northumberland County Council. They genuinely want a gigafactory and the best thing for their people,\" he said.\n\nMr Collard conceded he might not be the right person to deliver that.\n\n\"I'm not saying I'm the best person in the world to run this project, but at the end of the day the administrators had a legal obligation to get the best return for creditors. But I do think they care, as individuals, what the future holds.\"\n\nThe deal comes just days after the Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove announced £20.7m in funding for Blyth.\n\nThe administrators of Britishvolt, EY, said the company had been sold for an undisclosed sum, with its remaining employees transferring to Recharge as part of the deal.\n\n\"The sale of the business will help to support the development of technology and infrastructure needed for the UK's energy transition,\" it said.\n\nBritishvolt's collapse, with the loss of more than 200 jobs, had been seen as a blow to the government's \"levelling up\" agenda instigated by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nThe government had offered £100m to the former Britishvolt owners if they hit certain construction milestones.\n\nMr Collard said he would happily accept government funding but wanted broad political support. \"Anyone will take free money but at the end of the day what we want is bi-partisan support and we have that in Australia and the US.\"\n\nHe described the site as \"shovel ready\" but said it would be six to 12 months before the first shovel would be used on site.\n\nUltimately, he hopes the site will create up to 8,000 jobs on site and in the supply chain.\n\nThat would be a great outcome for the region and the UK economy but this project does not seem to be the answer yet to the UK's pressing car battery needs.\n\nThe UK currently has only one Chinese-owned battery plant, which is next to the Nissan factory in Sunderland.\n\nThere are 35 plants planned or already under construction in the European Union.", "The boy has been charged with driving offences\n\nA 14-year-old boy has been charged after a car crashed into a house in Derby.\n\nDerbyshire Police said the crash occurred in Grampian Way, close to the Swallowdale Road roundabout, at 02:30 GMT on Saturday.\n\nOfficers had just begun pursuing the vehicle after it was taken from a nearby property.\n\nThe boy is accused of aggravated vehicle taking, driving without a licence, and driving without insurance.\n\nThe boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is due to appear at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court on Monday.\n\nPolice said the crash happened after an officer spotted the VW Sharan, which had been taken from Stenson Road.\n\nAfter a pursuit \"of a matter of seconds\", the car crashed into the house.\n\nAssessment of the structural integrity of the buildings is ongoing\n\nThe boy was arrested at the scene and taken to hospital as a precaution, but was not found to be seriously injured.\n\nPolice initially said structural engineers had found the house was so badly damaged, it would need to be demolished along with the adjoining home.\n\nThe force later clarified that was not the case, with assessments ongoing \"as to the structural integrity of the buildings\".\n\nThe section of Grampian Way remains closed following the crash, and the public has been urged not to approach the homes \"due to the danger they pose\".\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Laura Kuenssberg asks Dominic Raab if he is a bully\n\nDeputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has said he would resign if an inquiry finds he has bullied civil servants.\n\nA senior lawyer is investigating eight complaints of bullying against Mr Raab, who was appointed deputy prime minister and justice secretary last October.\n\nWhen asked if he was a bully, on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Raab replied \"no\", saying he had always \"behaved professionally\".\n\nHe told Sky News \"if an allegation of bullying is upheld, I would resign\".\n\nSpeaking on the BBC, Mr Raab said: \"I am confident I behaved professionally throughout​.\"\n\nAsked whether there should be \"more plain speaking in politics\", he replied: \"Yes, absolutely.\"\n\nIt was right for ministers to \"challenge assumptions and test ideas\" when working with civil servants, he added.\n\nAntonia Romeo, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, has spoken to the Tolley investigation, the BBC understands\n\nThe bullying complaints relate to Mr Raab's previous periods as justice secretary and foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, and his time as Brexit secretary under Theresa May.\n\nIn November the prime minister appointed Adam Tolley KC to investigate the allegations of bullying against Mr Raab.\n\nAt least three senior civil servants who worked with Mr Raab have given evidence to the inquiry into his behaviour as witnesses.\n\nThe BBC has found that other civil servants who allegedly planned to file complaints did not after learning they would have been identified to Mr Raab as part of Mr Tolley's inquiry.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Raab said he would \"learn lessons as we go\" over his dealings with civil servants.\n\nBut added: \"I think for the lion's share of the time civil servants and ministers work very effectively together.\"\n\nDave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union - which represents civil servants - dismissed Mr Raab's comments.\n\nMr Penman told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show: \"The picture he paints is that everything is fine in the civil service and the relationship between ministers and civil servants is OK.\n\n\"That's not the picture civil servants speak of, that's not their experience.\"\n\nThe FDA has found one in six civil servants had seen unacceptable workplace behaviour by a minister in the past year.\n\nThe findings came from the union's annual survey of senior civil servants, which also found 69.3% of respondents said they had no confidence in the current complaints system.\n\nThe survey was conducted over four weeks leading up to 13 January and had 650 respondents. The headcount of the senior civil service is around 7,000.\n\nBoth Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for Rishi Sunak to suspend Mr Raab during Mr Tolley's investigation.\n\nThe prime minister has said he will wait for the outcome of the inquiry before taking any action.\n\nMr Sunak has been under pressure to explain what he knew about the allegations before reappointing Mr Raab as to the cabinet.\n\nIn November, the prime minister repeatedly declined to say whether he had informal warnings about Mr Raab's behaviour before bringing him back into government.\n\nMr Tolley is not expected to report his findings for several weeks and the prime minister will decide the justice secretary's political future when the investigation concludes.\n\nPrivately, many Conservative MPs, including ministers, have told the BBC they fear the allegations could yet cost Mr Raab his job.\n\nMr Raab was justice secretary and deputy prime minister when Boris Johnson was succeeded by Liz Truss.\n\nShe sacked him, but he was reappointed to those roles when Mr Sunak entered Downing Street in October.\n\nMr Raab previously served in the cabinet as foreign secretary from 2020-21 and Brexit secretary in 2018.", "Wizz Air says it will suspend all flights to the Moldovan capital Chisinau from 14 March due to concerns about the safety of its airspace.\n\nA Russian missile was fired over Moldovan airspace earlier this month.\n\nMoldova is one of Europe's poorest economies and has been heavily exposed to the war in Ukraine.\n\nThe airline said: \"Safety of the passengers and crew remain Wizz Air's number one priority...\n\n\"Following the recent developments in Moldova and the elevated, but not imminent, risk in the country's airspace, Wizz Air has made the difficult but responsible decision to suspend all flights to Chisinau from 14 March.\"\n\nMoldova's civil aviation authority said the airline had sought approval for its summer flight schedule on 14 February, and the agency \"determined that flights in the national airspace can be carried out safely by following a number of procedures\".\n\nThe authority said it would take \"all necessary actions\" to return Wizz Air to Chisinau airport as soon as possible, and to attract other low-cost airlines.\n\nWizz Air said there would be more flights from across Europe to the eastern Romanian city of Iasi, near the Moldovan border, as replacements for the Chisinau service.\n\nTensions have been on the rise between Moscow and the Moldovan government.\n\nMoldova, wedged between Romania and Ukraine, became a candidate for EU membership last summer.\n\nThe country of 2.6 million people has struggled with an influx of refugees from Ukraine and tensions with Transnistria, a breakaway pro-Moscow region where some 1,500 Russian soldiers are stationed.\n\nEarlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv's intelligence service had uncovered a Russian plan to destroy Moldova.\n\nAnd Moldovan President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of plotting to bring down Moldova's leadership with the aid of foreign saboteurs from Russia, Serbia, Belarus and Montenegro.\n\nShe said their aim would be to attack government buildings, seize hostages and then spark protests to replace the government with one \"at the service of Russia\".\n\nMeanwhile, Russia's defence ministry has alleged, with no evidence, that Ukrainian saboteurs dressed as Russian troops would attack from Transnistria, to provide a pretext for a Ukrainian invasion.", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell has been involved in high-profile investigations into dissident republican attacks\n\nPolice investigating the attempted murder of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell have arrested a sixth man.\n\nThe 71-year-old was arrested in Omagh on Saturday under the Terrorism Act.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell was shot multiple times in front of his young son at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, after coaching under-15s at football.\n\nEarlier, detectives were given more time to question four men already held in connection with Wednesday evening's shooting.\n\nA court in Belfast granted an extension to the detention of the suspects, aged 22, 38, 45 and 47, until 22:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nThey and another man, aged 43, remain in custody having been arrested on Thursday and Friday in the Omagh and Coalisland areas of County Tyrone.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell is critically ill in hospital following the attack.\n\nPolicing representative body the Police Federation for Northern Ireland said he had suffered life-changing injuries.\n\nOn Saturday more than 1,000 people took part in a walk and a rally to show support for the senior Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer who was off duty when he was shot.\n\nMany attending the rally held posters which said \"no going back! Unite against paramilitary violence\".\n\nPeople took part in a rally outside Omagh Courthouse\n\nThe PSNI's main line of inquiry is that dissident republican group the New IRA was responsible for shooting the 48-year-old in the car park of the Youth Sport Omagh site.\n\nDissident republicans oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal and continue to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe route from Beragh Swifts FC to Beragh Red Knights GAA club was short but significant - Constable Ronan Kerr was a member of the GAA club when he was murdered in 2011.\n\nA security alert is ongoing in Beragh after a suspicious object was found on Dervahroy Road\n\nOn Saturday afternoon, after the walk, police confirmed that a security alert was ongoing in the Beragh area after a suspicious object was found on Dervahroy Road.\n\nThe PSNI said it was too early to speculate on whether the events were linked.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Omagh police shooting: 'We're wrapping our arms around Caldwell family'\n\nThe rally, which was organised by trade unionists, was held after the walk on Saturday morning, near the site of a 1998 bombing which was the single most deadly atrocity in Northern Ireland's Troubles, killing 29 people.\n\nThe bombing was carried out by dissident republican group the Real IRA.\n\nPeople gathered in Omagh in protest against violence\n\nBeragh Red Knights GAA club coach Celine Curran said the attack on Det Ch Insp Caldwell has \"affected the community as a whole in Beragh\".\n\n\"It's really hit everybody very hard,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\nCarmel Quinn and Celine Curran are both Beragh Red Knights coaches\n\n\"We're all coaches at the end of the day. We're all parents at the end of the day.\n\n\"Our children go to Youth Sport as well - it's got nothing to do with religion.\n\n\"We are here in support of a father who was doing a coaching job and a son who has witnessed something life-changing.\"\n\nBovelle Hamilton, who has known John since he was a boy, says the turnout was amazing\n\nBovelle Hamilton has known Det Ch Insp Caldwell since he was eight years old and came to show support to him and his family.\n\n\"We are absolutely shocked at what happened to him,\" she said.\n\nGeoffrey Irwin also took part in the walk.\n\nHe said: \"I know John personally, I went to primary school with him and also high school in Omagh.\"\n\nHe added that John was \"very dedicated\" to the club and gave up his free time to volunteer.\n\nGeoffrey Irwin went to school with the senior detective\n\nOn Friday, the leaders of Northern Ireland's five main political parties presented a united front with PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne.\n\nMr Byrne said it was a significant show of solidarity that showed the \"sheer sense of outrage at this pointless and senseless attack\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPolice believe the gunmen made off in a small, dark car, which was found burnt out at Racolpa Road, outside Omagh.\n\nAn Garda Síochána (police in the Republic of Ireland) continue to work closely with the PSNI after the shooting, a spokesperson said.\n\nGardaí previously said it had intensified patrolling in border counties following the attack.\n\nIt added that it would provide the PSNI with assistance as required as the investigation continues.\n\nLast March, the the threat level posed by dissident republican terrorism in Northern Ireland was lowered from severe to substantial for the first time in 12 years.\n\nThe decision to lower the threat level was taken by the Security Service (MI5) after assessing a wide range of information, independently of ministers.\n\nSince 2010 it had been \"severe\", meaning attacks are highly likely. It is now \"substantial\", meaning attacks are likely.\n\nThe threat level is assessed over a period of time rather than in reaction to one event.\n\nThe attack appears to underscore the re-emergence on the New IRA after nearly four years of surface-level inactivity.\n\nIn 2019, the dissident republican grouping shot dead journalist Lyra McKee as she watched rioting unfold in Londonderry.\n\nWithin a year, its suspected leadership was rounded-up by the PSNI following a surveillance operation run by MI5 using an alleged agent.\n\nTen individuals are currently awaiting trial on almost 50 terrorism charges as a result of Operation Arbacia.\n\nIn the aftermath, the New IRA was viewed as being in complete disarray and last year, for the first time in more than a decade, the government announced the threat level in Northern Ireland was being lowered from severe to substantial.\n\nIt might not have sounded much, but it was a hugely symbolic moment.\n\nAttacks, or attempted attacks, dropped markedly: the years 2020-22 saw a virtual absence of activity.\n\nBut the New IRA was re-organising and in November it mounted a roadside bomb attack, using military grade explosives, on a police patrol car in Strabane.\n\nThe armour-plated vehicle did its job and two officers inside escaped injury.\n\nThe attack has now been followed up with the attempted murder, less than 20 miles away, of Det Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nDt Ch Insp Caldwell has been the senior detective in high-profile inquiries including:\n\nHe had received a number of threats in the past, BBC News NI understands, and was aware his investigations of dissident republican attacks made him a high-profile target.\n\nHe continued to carry out his activities as a football coach and whether that was a pattern that aided the targeting of him is of course a matter for the investigation.\n\nThe last gun attack on a PSNI officer was in January 2017.\n\nThe PSNI officer was hit by automatic gunfire at a petrol station in north Belfast.", "Rules banning some transgender women from female prisons in England and Wales come into force on Monday, the justice secretary has said.\n\nFirst announced by Dominic Raab in October, the ban will apply to trans women with male genitalia, as well as those who are sexual offenders.\n\nMr Raab has now said it will be extended to include trans women convicted of violent offences.\n\nHe said the measures would \"improve safety\" for prisoners.\n\nUnder existing policy already in England and Wales, transgender women prisoners are only placed in a women's estate after a risk assessment by a complex case board.\n\nThe new rules will apply whether or not offenders have a Gender Recognition Certificate.\n\nExemptions will only be made in the \"most exceptional\" cases and with the approval of ministers, the government said. They will be considered for inmates currently in the women's estate who are assessed as low-risk.\n\nTransgender women who cannot be safely accommodated in a men's prison can be imprisoned in a specialist unit, the government added.\n\nThe LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall said it was vital that the prison service individually assessed all prisoners and carried out detailed risk assessments.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Trans prisoners are a vulnerable population, and there is no evidence to suggest that the automatic placing of trans women in line with their sex assigned at birth is safer than an individualised risk assessment.\"\n\nThe reason the policy is coming into force on Monday, despite having been announced four months ago, is because it has taken \"time to do it very carefully and assiduously\", Mr Raab told Sky News on Sunday.\n\nIt comes after the case of Isla Bryson in Scotland - a trans woman who was found guilty of two counts of rape before she had changed gender.\n\nBryson, 31, was convicted in January and was taken to Cornton Vale, a female facility, where she was held in segregation while awaiting sentencing.\n\nFollowing outcry from politicians and the public, she was moved to a male prison within days. But Mr Raab said the rules were not a reaction to Bryson's case.\n\nHe said the government wanted to have a \"liberal, sensitive, tolerant approach\" to the LGBT community, who he said \"suffer a lot in this country\" with mental health issues.\n\n\"We will introduce new rules which mean that any trans offender with their male genitalia intact, or who have been convicted of a sexual offence and, adding to that, if they have been convicted of a violent offence, they will not be allowed into the female prison estate,\" he said.\n\nIn the year ending March 2022, there were 230 transgender prisoners out of almost 80,000 prisoners in England and Wales, according to Ministry of Justice figures.\n\nOf these, 187 reported their legal gender as male and 43 as female.\n\nThere were six transgender women in female estates.", "Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in December on suspicion of human trafficking\n\nA Romanian court has rejected an appeal by Andrew Tate against his continued detention, ruling that he should remain in custody until 29 March.\n\nThe controversial influencer's brother Tristan will also remain in detention.\n\nThey are accused of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group, and are being held in pre-charge detention. Both have denied wrongdoing.\n\nReports in Romania, apparently based on Mr Tate's phone-tapped conversations, had claimed he was a flight risk.\n\nBut the court ruled that the brothers should remain in detention on grounds of protecting public order, and removed three other grounds for holding him - including his potential flight risk, or his influence over alleged victims.\n\nTwo Romanian women, Georgiana Naghel and Luana Radu - who are associates of the Tates and were allowed to leave custody for house arrest last week - were ordered back into detention.\n\nBefore the latest ruling, Mr Tate's lawyer said that his client would not try to evade the Romanian legal system by fleeing abroad.\n\nMr Tate planned to travel to Dubai if released, but only for medical examinations, his lawyer told the BBC.\n\nReports in Romania, which outline phone calls allegedly made by the brothers from custody, were thought to have been part of the case made by prosecutors for extending their detention.\n\nTheir detention had previously been upheld until 27 February, before being extended for another 30 days. The court upheld that decision on Monday.\n\nOne of the Tates' lawyers, Eugen Vidineac, told the BBC that, while the brothers' phone calls in custody were being tapped, nothing they had discussed was illegal.\n\n\"There is no flight risk,\" he said.\n\n\"It was a discussion between Andrew and his secretary, saying that - if he was freed by the judges under these conditions - he will go to Dubai [for medical examinations]\", he added.\n\nIt was not an attempt to escape Romanian justice, he said.\n\nIn 2016, Mr Tate, a former kickboxer, was removed from British TV show Big Brother over a video which appeared to show him attacking a woman.\n\nHe went on to gain notoriety online, with Twitter banning him for saying women should \"bear responsibility\" for being sexually assaulted. He has since been reinstated.\n\nDespite social media bans he gained popularity, particularly among young men, by promoting what he presented as a hyper-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAt least 59 migrants, including 12 children, have died and dozens more are feared missing after their boat sank in rough seas off southern Italy.\n\nThe vessel broke apart while trying to land near Crotone on Sunday. Migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Iran were on board.\n\nA baby was among the dead, Italian officials said.\n\nInterior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who visited the scene, said as many as 30 people may still be missing.\n\nBodies were recovered from the beach at a nearby seaside resort in the Calabria region.\n\nThe coastguard said 80 people had been found alive, \"including some who managed to reach the shore after the sinking\".\n\nThe exact number of people who were on the boat, which had sailed from Turkey several days ago, is not clear.\n\nRescue workers told the AFP news agency that the vessel had been carrying \"more than 200 people\", which would mean more than 60 people unaccounted for.\n\nMany of the migrants were fleeing very difficult conditions, Italy's president said.\n\nPakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif referenced reports that more than two dozen Pakistanis were among the dead, and called the news \"deeply concerning and worrisome\". He instructed Pakistan's diplomats to \"ascertain facts as early as possible\".\n\nThe vessel is reported to have sunk after it crashed against rocks during rough weather, sparking a large search-and-rescue operation on land and at sea.\n\nVideo footage shows timber from the wreckage that had been smashed into pieces washing up on the beach, along with parts of the hull.\n\nSurvivors are seen huddled under blankets, attended to by Red Cross workers. Some have been taken to hospital.\n\n\"There had been landings but never a tragedy like this,\" the mayor of Cutro, Antonio Ceraso, told Rai News.\n\nDozens of people managed to survive the boat's sinking\n\nOne survivor was arrested on migrant trafficking charges, customs police said.\n\nItalian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni - elected last year partly on a pledge to stem the flow of migrants into Italy - expressed \"deep sorrow\" and blamed the deaths on traffickers.\n\n\"It is inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women and children for the price of the 'ticket' they paid in the false perspective of a safe journey,\" she said in a statement.\n\n\"The government is committed to preventing departures, and with them the unfolding of these tragedies, and will continue to do so.\"\n\nMs Meloni's right-wing government has vowed to stop migrants reaching Italy's shores and in the last few days pushed through a tough new law tightening the rules on rescues.\n\nCarlo Calenda, Italy's former economy minister, said people in difficulty at sea should be rescued \"whatever the cost\", but added that \"illegal immigration routes must be closed\".\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula van der Leyen said she was \"deeply saddened\" by the incident, adding that the \"loss of life of innocent migrants is a tragedy\". She said it was crucial to \"redouble our efforts\" to make progress on reforming EU asylum rules to tackle the challenges regarding migration to Europe.\n\nPope Francis, who often defends the rights of migrants, has said he is praying for the dead, the missing and those who survived.\n\nAccording to monitoring groups, more than 20,000 people have died or gone missing at sea in the central Mediterranean since 2014.\n\nRegina Catrambone, director of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station, which carries out search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, told the BBC that European countries must work together to help those in need.\n\nShe also called for an end to the \"myopic vision\" that says that countries that are physically closer to Africa and the Middle East should take the lead on tackling the issue.\n\n\"Still there is no co-operation among the European states to actively co-ordinate together to go and help the people in need,\" she said, urging governments to work together to improve search and rescue efforts and develop safe and legal routes.", "Unite members pictured on the picket line in Belfast on Monday\n\nRoad maintenance workers have gone on strike across Northern Ireland for seven days in a dispute over pay.\n\nThe Department of Infrastructure has urged road users to be careful as essential services like gritting and oil spill clearance will be affected.\n\nHowever, motorways, the A1 and the A4 will not be affected by the industrial action.\n\nAbout 200 of the workers are members of the union Unite and will be joining colleagues from the GMB.\n\nThey are calling for productivity bonuses to be part of their pay, not dependent on a manager's decision.\n\nUnite general secretary Sharon Graham said: \"This productivity payment must be integrated into workers' pay and not subject to the whims of managers.\n\n\"Unite stands fully behind our members in Roads Service.\"\n\nGareth Scott, lead regional officer for roads service workers, told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that Unite members felt they had been left with no alternative.\n\nMr Scott said the productivity bonus scheme in its current format was outdated and in need of reform.\n\n\"We have been arguing about this matter for about four years now and we have made no progress whatsoever,\" he said.\n\n\"There needs to be reform of the pay structures in the lower grades in order to deal with low pay and also to remove a productivity bonus that is stuck in a time warp.\"\n\nLast week, teaching staff and healthcare workers went on strike\n\nThe Department of Infrastructure said essential services which were routinely delivered would be reduced.\n\nThese will include gritting roads; response and clear up of oil spills or debris; repair of serious defects such as manhole and pothole collapses and gully clearing and cleansing.\n\n\"While contingency arrangements are being put in place, this will not replace the full maintenance service and we would therefore ask all road users to be mindful of this and exercise care when making their journeys,\" the statement said.\n\nThe department is working with the Department of Finance and the unions involved to try and resolve the issues around pay.\n\nLast Tuesday, thousands of education and health workers took part in strike action in disputes over pay.", "In Mexico City, protesters filled the central Zocalo Square and adjoining streets\n\nHuge rallies have been held in several Mexican cities against what protesters say are government attempts to undermine the electoral authorities.\n\nThe biggest was in Mexico City, where organisers say 500,000 people marched on the city's main plaza. The local government put the number at 90,000.\n\nLawmakers last week voted to slash the budget of the National Electoral Institute (INE) and cut its staffing.\n\nPresident Andrés Manuel López Obrador accuses the INE of being partisan.\n\nBut opponents describe the recent vote as an attack on democracy itself, pressing the Supreme Court to overturn them as unconstitutional.\n\nOn Sunday, massive crowds gathered in Mexico City's historic Zocalo Square. The demonstrators spilled out into adjoining streets in the city centre.\n\n\"We're fighting to defend our democracy,\" protester Veronica Echevarria was quoted as saying by Reuters. She was wearing a cap emblazoned with the words \"Hands off the INE\". Many demonstrators carried cards with a similar slogan.\n\nSmaller peaceful demonstrations were staged in several other cities.\n\nMany protesters - like on this photo from Guadalajara - carried slogans that read in Spanish: \"Do not touch the INE\"\n\nMexico's Senate approved the reforms on Wednesday, following a similar vote in the lower chamber of parliament. The reforms will come into force once they are signed by President López Obrador.\n\nThe BBC's Mexico correspondent, Will Grant, says it is perhaps the most polemic political issue in Mexico at present.\n\nMr López Obrador, who was elected in July 2018 after two previous failed attempts, has long been critical of the INE, whose staff oversee elections.\n\nLast month, he accusing the independent body of cheating, and said its staff turned a blind eye to \"the stuffing of ballot boxes, falsification of [election] records and vote buying\".\n\nIn his first attempt at becoming president, in 2006, he lost to his conservative rival Felipe Calderón by less than one percentage point. For months, Mr López Obrador refused to recognise the result, which he denounced as fraudulent.\n\nHe also challenged the result of the 2012 election, when he lost to Enrique Peña Nieto.\n\nSince his win in 2018, Mr López Obrador has been pushing for a reform of the INE, which he says will save taxpayers $150m (£125m) a year by drastically reducing the agency's staff.", "BBC News NI takes a look at significant events involving dissident republicans since March 2009.\n\nThe term \"dissident republicans\" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.\n\nDissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.\n\nThe groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.\n\nThey have continued to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in a single state but their activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services.\n\nA list containing the details of 10,000 police officers and civilian staff is in the hands of dissident republicans, police confirmed.\n\nThe information was contained in a spreadsheet mistakenly released as part of a PSNI response to a freedom of information request.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne said the data breach was on an industrial scale and included the surnames, initials and ranks of colleagues.\n\nHe said dissident republicans could use the information, part of which appeared in redacted form on a wall in west Belfast, to \"intimidate or target officers and staff\".\n\nYoung hooded men prepare to throw a petrol bomb at police vehicle in Londonderry.\n\nPolice described a petrol bomb attack on officers as \"senseless and reckless\".\n\nThe trouble followed an illegal republican parade in Londonderry and came on the eve of a visit by US President Joe Biden to Belfast.\n\nDCI John Caldwell was also released from hospital in April and in a later interview said children witnessed \"horrors that no child should ever have to\".\n\nThe terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland is increased from substantial to severe, meaning the risk of attack or attacks is now \"highly likely\" instead of \"likely\".\n\nThe move, based on an MI5 intelligence assessment, reverses a downgrade to the threat level in 2022, the first such downgrade in 12 years.\n\nA severe threat level is one step below critical, the highest level of threat.\n\nIt comes after the shooting of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell in February and a bomb attack on police officers in November 2022.\n\nSenior police officer Det Ch Insp John Caldwell was shot at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, on 22 February.\n\nHe was off duty and was putting footballs into the boot of his car after coaching young people when two gunmen approached him and shot him several times.\n\nPolice said the primary focus of their investigation was on violent dissident republicans, including the New IRA.\n\nThe New IRA later claimed responsibility in a typed statement which appeared in Londonderry on Sunday 26 February.\n\nAn attempted murder investigation was launched after a police patrol vehicle was damaged in a bomb attack in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 17 November.\n\nPolice said a strong line of inquiry was that the New IRA was behind the attack.\n\nFour men who were arrested were later released.\n\nA grey Ford Mondeo was hijacked by a number of men before being driven to a police station\n\nOn 20 November a delivery driver was held at gunpoint by a number of men and forced to abandon his car outside Waterside police station in Londonderry.\n\nA suspicious device, which was later described by police as an elaborate hoax, was placed in the vehicle.\n\nCh Supt Nigel Goddard described the attack as \"reckless\" and said detectives believed the New IRA were involved.\n\nOfficers were attacked with petrol bombs following an Easter parade linked to dissident republicans in Derry.\n\nThe police described the attack at the City Cemetery on 18 April as \"premeditated violence\".\n\nThe violence broke out following a parade that had been planned by the National Republican Commemoration Committee, which organises events on behalf of the anti-agreement republican party, Saoradh - a party police say is linked to the New IRA.\n\nA police officer was targeted in this attack in Dungiven\n\nA bomb was left near a police officer's car outside her home on 19 April in County Londonderry in what the police said was an attempt to kill her and her young daughter.\n\nThe explosive was attached to a container of flammable liquid next to her car in Dungiven.\n\nPolice said they linked the attempted murder to the New IRA.\n\nPolice provided this image of the bomb\n\nA bomb was found in the Creggan area of Derry after police searches in the area on 9 September.\n\nThe device was found in a parked car and was described by detectives as in \"an advanced state of readiness\" and was made safe by Army technical officers.\n\nIt contained commercial explosives which could have been triggered by a command wire.\n\nDuring the searches, police were attacked with stones and petrol bombs.\n\nPolice photos show the bomb just metres from the door of a house\n\nA mortar bomb was left near a police station in Church View, Strabane on 7 September.\n\nHomes were evacuated and Army technical officers made the device safe.\n\nPolice said the device had been an attempt to target police officers but that it could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the vicinity.\n\nA 33-year-old man was arrested under terrorism legislation but was released after questioning.\n\nA police officer at the scene of the bomb at Cavan Road, Fermanagh\n\nA bomb exploded near Wattlebridge in County Fermanagh, on 19 August.\n\nPolice said it was an attempt to lure officers to their deaths. Initially, a report received by police suggested a device had been left on the Wattlebridge Road.\n\nPolice believed a hoax device was used to lure police and soldiers into the area in order to catch them by surprise with a real bomb on the Cavan Road.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne later blamed the Continuity IRA for the attack.\n\nDissident republicans tried to murder police officers during an attack in Craigavon, County Armagh, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.\n\nA long bang was heard on the Tullygally Road and a \"viable device\" was later found.\n\nPolice said they believed the attack was set up to target officers responding to a call from the public.\n\nThe bomb was discovered at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast\n\nThe \"New IRA\" claimed responsibility for a bomb under a police officer's car at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast.\n\nThe Irish News said the group issued a statement to the newspaper using a recognised codeword.\n\nPolice said they believed \"violent dissident republicans\" were behind the attack.\n\nA journalist is shot dead while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry.\n\nPolice blame the killing of 29-year-old Lyra McKee on dissident republicans.\n\nThe previous week a horizontal mortar tube and command wire were found in Castlewellan, County Down.\n\nThe PSNI said the tube contained no explosive device and it was likely to be collected for use elsewhere\n\nThe device sent to Heathrow Airport caught fire when staff opened it\n\nFive small explosive packages were found at locations across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe letter bombs were sent in the post to Waterloo Station in London, buildings near Heathrow and London City airports and Glasgow University. A further device was found at a post depot in County Limerick.\n\nThe New IRA said it was behind the letter bombs, according to the Irish News.\n\nThe bomb exploded outside Bishop Street Courthouse in Derry\n\nA bomb placed inside a van explodes in the centre of Derry.\n\nThe blast happened on a Saturday night outside Bishop Street Courthouse.\n\nThe PSNI said the attack may have been carried out by the New IRA, adding that a pizza delivery man had a gun held to his head when his van was hijacked for the bombing.\n\nThe bullets and guns exploded after being left in a hot boiler house\n\nA stash of bullets and guns believed to belong to dissident republicans exploded after being left on top of a hot boiler at a house in west Belfast.\n\nResponding to reports of a house fire in Rodney Drive, police and firefighters discovered two AK-47s, two sawn-off shot guns, a high-powered rifle with a silencer and three pipe bombs.\n\nPolice blamed the New IRA and said the weapons were believed to have been used in previous attempts to murder police officers in Belfast in 2015 and 2017.\n\nThe weapons including two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube\n\nPolice said a \"significant amount of dangerous weapons\" were seized during a 12-day search operation in counties Armagh and Tyrone.\n\nThirteen searches took place on land and properties in Lurgan and Benburb from 29 April to 11 May.\n\nThe weapons included two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube.\n\nPolice believed the munitions belonged to two dissident republican paramilitary groups - Arm Na Poblachta. (Army of the Republic) and the Continuity IRA.\n\nPetrol bombs and stones were thrown at police vehicles during an illegal dissident republican parade in Derry on 2 April.\n\nAbout 200 people attended the Easter Rising 1916 commemoration parade in the Creggan estate.\n\nA neighbour said Raymond Johnston had been making pancakes for Pancake Tuesday when he was murdered\n\nDissident republicans may have been behind the murder of a man in west Belfast, police said.\n\nRaymond Johnston, 28, was shot dead in front of an 11-year-old girl and his partner at a house in Glenbawn Avenue on 13 February.\n\nPolice said the main line of inquiry was that Mr Johnson was murdered by dissidents.\n\nIn a statement, it said that \"at this time the environment is not conducive to armed conflict\".\n\nThe group said it would \"suspend all armed actions against the British state\" with immediate effect.\n\nIt was responsible for a number of high-profile attacks, including the attempted murder of police officer Peadar Heffron and a bomb attack at Palace barracks in Holywood.\n\nCharges suggested that Ciarán Maxwell first became involved in terrorism in 2011\n\nFormer Royal Marine Ciarán Maxwell pleaded guilty to offences related to dissident republican terrorism, including bomb-making and storing stolen weapons.\n\nThe County Antrim man had compiled a library of terrorism documents, including instructions on how to make explosives and tactics used by terrorist organisations.\n\nHe also had maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack, and a stash of explosives in purpose-built hides in England and Northern Ireland.\n\nHe was jailed for 18 years.\n\nThe bomb exploded as it was being examined by the Army\n\nA bomb exploded outside the home of a serving police officer in Derry on 22 February as Army experts tried to defuse it.\n\nThe device, which police described as more intricate than a pipe bomb, was reportedly discovered under a car in Culmore in the city.\n\nChildren were in the area at the time, police said.\n\nMeanwhile a gun attack on a 16-year-old boy in west Belfast on 16 February was \"child abuse,\" a senior police officer said.\n\nThe attack followed a similar one the previous night, when a man was shot in the legs close to a benefits office on the Falls Road.\n\nThe shooting happened at a petrol station on the Crumlin Road\n\nA police officer is injured in a gun attack at a garage on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast on 22 January.\n\nPolice said automatic gunfire was sprayed across the garage forecourt in a \"crazy\" attack.\n\nThe number of paramilitary-style shootings in west Belfast doubled in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to police figures.\n\nOn 15 January, police said a bomb discovered during a security operation in Poleglass, west Belfast, was \"designed to kill or seriously injure police officers\".\n\nA 45-year-old mechanic caught at a bomb-making factory on a farm was told he would spend 11 years behind bars.\n\nBarry Petticrew was arrested in October 2014 after undercover police surveillance on farm buildings near Kinawley, County Fermanagh.\n\nPolice found pipes, timer units, ammunition and high grade explosives in the buildings.\n\nExplosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered by Irish police\n\nOn 6 December, a 25-year-old dissident republican was jailed in Dublin for five years.\n\nDonal Ó Coisdealbha from Killester, north Dublin was arrested on explosive charges in the run-up to the visit of Prince Charles to Ireland in 2015.\n\nHe was arrested during a Garda (Irish police) operation when explosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered.\n\nFollowing the sentencing, police released a photo of the heavily bloodstained scene of the shooting\n\nA man who admitted taking part in a paramilitary shooting in Belfast was sentenced to five years in jail and a further five years on licence.\n\nPatrick Joseph O'Neill, of no fixed address, was one of three masked men who forced their way into the victim's home in Ardoyne in November 2010.\n\nThe man was shot several times in the legs and groin in front of his mother, who fought back with kitchen knives.\n\nThe dissident republican group Óglaigh na hÉireann claimed responsibility for the shooting shortly after it took place.\n\nJoe Reilly was shot dead in a house at Glenwood Court\n\nWest Belfast man Joe Reilly, 43, was shot dead in his Glenwood Court, Poleglass home on 20 October.\n\nIt is understood a second man who was in the house was tied up by the gang.\n\nThe shooting was the second in the small estate in less than a week - the other victim was shot in the leg.\n\nPolice later said they believed the the murder was carried out by a paramilitary organisation and there may have been a drugs link.\n\nDissident republicans formed a new political party called Saoradh - the Irish word for liberation.\n\nSeveral high-profile dissidents from both sides of the border were among about 150 people at its first conference in Newry.\n\nThe discovery of arms in a County Antrim forest on 17 May was one of the most significant in recent years, police said.\n\nA \"terrorist hide\" was uncovered at Capanagh Forest near Larne after two members of the public found suspicious objects in the woods on Saturday.\n\nSome of the items found included an armour-piercing improvised rocket and two anti-personnel mines.\n\nThe threat level from Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Great Britain was raised from moderate to substantial.\n\nTwo Claymore mines were among the arms found in Capanagh Forest\n\nA man died after being shot three times in the leg in an alleyway at Butler Place, north Belfast, on15 April.\n\nMichael McGibbon, 33, was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he later died.\n\nPolice said Mr McGibbon contacted them to say two masked men had arrived at his house on the evening of 14 April.\n\nThe men asked him to come out of the house but he refused and the men told him they would come back.\n\nThe shooting took place in an alleyway at Butler Place in north Belfast\n\nPolice said his killing carried the hallmarks of a paramilitary murder.\n\nAdrian Ismay was the 32nd prison staff member to be murdered in Northern Ireland because of his job\n\nA murder investigation was launched after the death of prison officer Adrian Ismay, 11 days after he was injured in a booby-trap bomb attack in east Belfast.\n\nThe device exploded under the 52-year-old officer's van as he drove over a speed ramp in Hillsborough Drive on 4 March.\n\nDays later, the New IRA said it carried out the attack.\n\nMr Ismay was thought to have been making a good recovery from his injuries, but was rushed back to hospital on 15 March, where he died.\n\nA post-mortem examination found his death was as a \"direct result of the injuries\" he sustained in the bomb.\n\nDissident republicans were dealt \"a significant blow\" by a weapons and explosives find in the Republic of Ireland, the gardaí (Irish police) said.\n\nThe weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, mortars, detonators and other bomb parts, were discovered in County Monaghan, close to the border with Rosslea in County Fermanagh, on 1 December.\n\nOn 15 December, a further arms find, described as a \"significant cache\" by Irish broadcaster RTÉ, was made in County Louth.\n\nA number of shots hit the passenger window of a police car in an attack in west Belfast\n\nA gun attack on police officers in west Belfast on 26 November, in which up to eight shots were fired, was treated as attempted murder.\n\nA number of shots struck the passenger side of a police car parked at Rossnareen Avenue.\n\nTwo officers who were in the car were not injured but were said to have been badly shaken.\n\nSupt Mark McEwan said that from September 2014 there had been 15 bomb incidents in the Derry City and Strabane District council area.\n\nThey included seven attacks on the police.\n\nOn 10 October, a bomb was found in the grounds of a Derry hotel ahead of a police recruitment event.\n\nThe police recruitment event was cancelled. Two other police recruitment events in Belfast and Omagh went ahead despite bomb alerts at the planned venues.\n\nOn 16 October police said a \"military-style hand grenade\" was thrown at a patrol in Belfast as officers responded to reports of anti-social behaviour.\n\nPolice say the device, which failed to explode, was thrown at officers near Pottingers Quay.\n\nDissident republicans were suspected of being responsible for the attack.\n\nPolice found a mortar bomb during an alert in Strabane\n\nPolice said a mortar bomb found in a graveyard in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 1 August was an attempt to kill officers.\n\nThe device was positioned where it could be used to attack passing PSNI patrols, police said.\n\nA bomb was found under a police officer's car in Eglinton, near Derry, on 18 June.\n\nPolice said the attack was a \"clear attempt to murder police officers\".\n\nPSNI district commander Mark McEwan said the wife of the officer was also a member of the PSNI.\n\nTwo bombs found close to an Army Reserve centre in Derry were left about 20m from nearby homes.\n\nThe devices were left at the perimeter fence of the Caw Camp Army base and were discovered at 11:00 BST on 4 May.\n\nAbout 15 homes in Caw Park and Rockport Park were evacuated during the security operation.\n\nPolice said a bomb left at Brompton Park in north Belfast was designed to kill officers\n\nA device found in north Belfast on 1 May was a substantial bomb targeting police officers, the PSNI said.\n\nA controlled explosion was carried out on the device at the Crumlin Road junction with Brompton Park.\n\nThe PSNI blamed dissident republicans for the bomb and said it could have caused \"carnage\".\n\nOn 28 April, a bomb exploded outside a probation office in Crawford Square, Derry.\n\nPolice said they were given an \"inadequate\" warning before the device went off.\n\nA bomb was found during a search of the Curryneiran estate in Derry\n\nA bomb is found was found during a security alert in the Curryneiran estate in Derry on 17 February.\n\nPolice said they believe the bomb was intended to kill officers and that those who had left it showed a \"callous disregard for the safety of the community and police officers\".\n\nMeanwhile at least 40 dissident republican prisoners were involved in an incident at Maghaberry Prison on 2 February.\n\nPrison management withdrew staff from the landings in Roe House housing dissidents.\n\nA protest, involving about 200 people, took place outside the prison in support of the republican prisoners.\n\nOn 8 January, the head of MI5 says most dissident republican attacks in Northern Ireland in 2014 were foiled.\n\nAndrew Parker said of more than 20 such attacks, most were unsuccessful and that up to four times that amount had been prevented.\n\nHe made the remarks during a speech in which he gave a stark warning of the dangers UK was facing from terrorism.\n\nHe said it was \"unrealistic to expect every attack plan to be stopped\".\n\nDissident republicans are believed to have used a home-made rocket launcher in an attack on a police Land Rover at Twaddell Avenue in north Belfast on 16 November .\n\nIt struck the Land Rover and caused some damage, but no-one was injured.\n\nPolice described the attack as a \"cold, calculated attempt to kill police officers\".\n\nMeanwhile gardaí described the seizure of guns and bomb-making material during searches in Dublin on 15 November as a \"major setback\" for dissident republicans.\n\nAn AK-47 rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and a number of semi-automatic pistols were found in searches in the Ballymun, East Wall and Cloughran areas of Dublin.\n\nThe Irish Army carried out a controlled explosion at one search location where bomb components were discovered.\n\nA device that hit a police vehicle in Derry on 2 November was understood to have been a mortar, fired by command wire.\n\nDissident republicans were responsible for the attack, police said.\n\nPolice foiled an attempted bomb attack in Strabane's Ballycolman estate on 23 October.\n\nOfficers were lured to Ballycolman estate on 23 October to investigate reports of a bomb thrown at a police patrol vehicle the previous night.\n\nThe alert was a hoax but then a real bomb, packed with nails, was discovered in the garden of a nearby house.\n\nDissident republicans claimed responsibility for a device that partially exploded outside an Orange hall in County Armagh on 29 September.\n\nIn a phone call to the Irish News, a group calling itself The Irish Volunteers admitted it placed the device at Carnagh Orange hall in Keady.\n\nOn 16 June, police investigating dissident republican activity said they recovered two suspected pipe bombs in County Tyrone.\n\nOn the night of 29 May, a masked man threw what police have described as a \"firebomb\" into the reception area of the Everglades Hotel, in the Prehen area of Derry.\n\nThe hotel was evacuated and the device exploded a short time later when Army bomb experts were working to make it safe.\n\nNo-one was injured in the explosion but the reception was extensively damaged.\n\nThe man who took the bomb into the hotel said he was from the IRA.\n\nA prominent dissident republican was shot dead in west Belfast on 18 April.\n\nTommy Crossan was shot a number of times at a fuel depot off the Springfield Road.\n\nMr Crossan, 43, was once a senior figure in the Continuity IRA.\n\nIt was believed he had been expelled from the group some years ago after falling out with other dissidents.\n\nPolice said a bomb found at a County Tyrone golf course had the capability to kill or cause serious injury.\n\nBomb disposal experts made the device safe after it was discovered at Strabane Golf Club on 31 March.\n\nA Belfast man with known dissident republican links died on 28 March a week after he was shot in a Dublin gun attack.\n\nDeclan Smith, 32, was shot in the face by a lone gunman as he dropped his child at a crèche on Holywell Avenue, Donaghmede.\n\nHe was wanted by police in Northern Ireland for questioning about the murder of two men in Belfast in 2007.\n\nOn the night of 14 March, dissidents use a command wire to fire a mortar at a police Land Rover on the Falls Road in west Belfast.\n\nThe device hit the Land Rover, but police said it caused minimal damage.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack.\n\nThe dissident group calling itself the New IRA said it carried out the attack and claimed the mortar used contained the military explosive Semtex and a commercial detonator.\n\nSeven letter bombs delivered to army careers offices in England bore \"the hallmarks of Northern Ireland-related terrorism\", Downing Street said.\n\nThe packages were sent to offices in Oxford, Slough, Kent, Brighton, Hampshire and Berkshire.\n\nOn 13 December, a bomb in a sports bag exploded in Belfast's busy Cathedral Quarter.\n\nAbout 1,000 people were affected by the alert, including people out for Christmas dinners, pub-goers and children out to watch Christmas pantos.\n\nA telephone warning was made to a newspaper, but police said the bomb exploded about 150 metres away as the area was being cleared.\n\nDissident republican group, Óglaigh na hÉireann, said it was were responsible.\n\nOn 5 December, two police vehicles were struck 10 times by gunfire from assault rifles while travelling along the Crumlin Road in north Belfast.\n\nA bomb, containing 60kgs (132lbs) of home-made explosives, partially exploded inside a car in Belfast city centre on 24 November.\n\nA masked gang hijacked the car, placed a bomb on board and ordered the driver to take it to a shopping centre.\n\nIt exploded as Army bomb experts prepared to examine the car left at the entrance to Victoria Square car park.\n\nOn 21 November, a bus driver was ordered to drive to a police station in Derry with a bomb on board.\n\nThe bus driver drove a short distance to Northland Road, got her passengers off the bus and called the police.\n\nA former police officer is the target of an under-car booby-trap bomb off the King's Road in east Belfast.\n\nThe man spotted the device when he checked under his vehicle at Kingsway Park, near Tullycarnet estate on 8 November.\n\nThe man was about to take his 12-year-old daughter to school.\n\nDissidents are blamed for a number of letter bomb attacks at the end of the month.\n\nA package addressed to the Northern Ireland secretary was made safe at Stormont Castle, two letter bombs addressed to senior police officers were intercepted at postal sorting offices, and a similar device was sent to the offices of the Public Prosecution Service in Derry.\n\nTwo police officers escaped injury after two pipe bombs are thrown at them in north Belfast.\n\nThe officers were responding to an emergency 999 call in Ballysillan in the early hours of 28 May.\n\nPolice were fired on in the Foxes Glen area of west Belfast\n\nThey had just got out of their vehicle on the Upper Crumlin Road when the devices were thrown. They took cover as the bombs exploded.\n\nPolice escaped injury after a bomb in a bin exploded on the Levin Road in Lurgan in County Armagh on 30 March.\n\nOfficers were investigating reports of an illegal parade when the device went off near a primary school.\n\nPetrol bombs were thrown at police during follow-up searches in the Kilwilkie area.\n\nPolice say a bomb meant to kill or injure officers on the outskirts of Belfast on 9 March may have been detonated by mobile telephone.\n\nOfficers were responding to a call on Duncrue pathway near the M5 motorway when the bomb partially exploded.\n\nOn 4 March, four live mortar bombs which police said were \"primed and ready to go\" were intercepted in a van in Derry.\n\nThe van had its roof cut back to allow the mortars to be fired. Police say they believed the target was a police station.\n\nIt is the first time dissidents had attempted this type of mortar attack.\n\nAn off-duty policeman found a bomb attached to the underside of his car on the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast.\n\nA bomb was found under a police officer's car in east Belfast\n\nThe officer found the device during a routine check of his family car on 30 December, as he prepared to take his wife and two children out to lunch.\n\nAn Irish newspaper reported that a paramilitary plot to murder a British soldier as he returned to the Republic of Ireland on home leave had been foiled by Irish police.\n\nThe Irish Independent said the Continuity IRA planned to shoot the soldier when he returned to County Limerick for his Christmas holidays.\n\nOn the first day of the month, a prison officer was shot and killed on the M1 in County Armagh as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison, Northern Ireland's high security jail.\n\nMr Black was shot as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison\n\nDavid Black, 52-year-old father of two, was the first prison officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland in almost 20 years.\n\nOn 12 November, a paramilitary group calling itself \"the IRA\" claimed responsibility for the murder.\n\nThe following day, a bomb was found close to a primary school in west Belfast.\n\nPolice said the device \"could have been an under-car booby trap designed to kill and maim\".\n\nSecurity forces were the target of two bombs left in Derry on 20 September.\n\nA pipe bomb and booby trap bomb on a timer were both made safe by the Army.\n\nThe pipe bomb was left in a holdall at Derry City Council's office grounds and the booby trap attached to a bicycle chained to railings on a walkway at the back of the offices.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for leaving the bombs.\n\nOn 26 July, some dissident republican paramilitary groups issued a statement saying they were to come together under the banner of \"the IRA\".\n\nThe Guardian newspaper said the Real IRA had been joined by Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) and a coalition of independent armed republican groups and individuals.\n\nA gunman fired towards police lines from within a crowd gathered at Brompton Park in Ardoyne on 12 July.\n\nRepublican Action Against Drugs said it was behind a bomb attack on a police vehicle in Derry on 2 June.\n\nThe front of the jeep was badly damaged in what is understood to have been a pipe bomb attack in Creggan. The police described the attack as attempted murder.\n\nA pipe bomb was left under a car belonging to the elderly parents of a police officer in Derry on 15 April.\n\nA number of homes were evacuated while Army bomb experts dealt with the device at Drumleck Drive in Shantallow.\n\nA 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line in Newry\n\nA fully primed 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line near Newry on 26 April and made safe the following day.\n\nA senior police officer said those who left it had a \"destructive, murderous intent\".\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Alastair Finlay said it was as \"big a device as we have seen for a long time\".\n\nOn 30 March two men were convicted of murdering police officer Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon in March 2009.\n\nTwo men were convicted of murdering Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon\n\nThe 48-year-old officer was shot dead after he and colleagues responded to a 999 call.\n\nConvicted of the murder were Brendan McConville, 40, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon, and John Paul Wootton, 20, of Collindale, Lurgan.\n\nDerry man Andrew Allen was shot dead in Buncrana, County Donegal, on 9 February.\n\nThe 24-year-old father of two was shot at a house in Links View Park, Lisfannon.\n\nRepublican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) later admitted it murdered Mr Allen who had been forced to leave his home city the previous year.\n\nStrabane man Martin Kelly was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on 24 January for the murder of a man in County Donegal.\n\nAndrew Burns, 27, from Strabane, was shot twice in the back in February 2008 in a church car park.\n\nThe murder was linked to the dissident republican group, Oglaigh na hEireann. Kelly, from Barrack Steet, was also sentenced to eight years in prison for possession of a firearm.\n\nOn 20 January, Brian Shivers was convicted of the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene Barracks in March 2009.\n\nPolice in Derry believed dissident republicans were responsible for two bomb attacks on 19 January.\n\nThe bombs exploded at the tourist centre on Foyle Street and on Strand Road, close to the DHSS office, within 10 minutes of each other.\n\nHomes and businesses in the city were evacuated and no-one was injured.\n\nA bomb was left in the soldier's car in north Belfast\n\nA Scottish soldier found a bomb inside his car outside his girlfriend's house in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast.\n\nIt is understood the device contained a trip wire attached to the seat belt.\n\nPolice say if the bomb had gone off the soldier, and others in the vicinity, could have been killed. Dissidents admitted they carried out the attack.\n\nA bomb outside the City of Culture offices was blamed on dissidents\n\nA bomb exploded outside the City of Culture offices in Derry on 12 October.\n\nSecurity sources said the attack had all the hallmarks of dissident republicans, who damaged a door of the same building with a pipe bomb in January.\n\nThe Real IRA was blamed for two bomb attacks near Claudy, County Londonderry on 14 September.\n\nOne of the bombs exploded outside the family home of a Catholic police officer. No-one was in the house at the time.\n\nThe other device was made safe at the home of a retired doctor who works for the police.\n\nTwo masked men threw a holdall containing a bomb into a Santander bank branch in Derry's Diamond just after midday on Saturday 21 May.\n\nPolice cleared the area and the bomb exploded an hour later. No-one was injured.\n\nHowever, significant damage was caused inside the building.\n\nThe grenade was thrown at officers during a security alert\n\nA grenade was thrown at police officers during a security alert at Southway in Derry on 9 May.\n\nThe device, which was described as \"viable\", failed to explode.\n\nTwo children were talking to the officers when the grenade was thrown.\n\nThe mother of one of them said he could have been killed and whoever threw the grenade must have seen the children.\n\nThe Real IRA, threatened to kill more police officers and declared its opposition to Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to the Republic of Ireland.\n\nA statement was read out by a masked man at a rally organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in Derry on Easter Monday, 25 April.\n\nA 500lb bomb was left in a van at an underpass on the main Belfast to Dublin road in Newry.\n\nConstable Ronan Kerr was killed after a bomb exploded under his car outside his home in Omagh on 2 April.\n\nNo group claimed responsibility for the attack but dissident republicans were blamed.\n\nThe 25-year-old had joined the police in May 2010 and had been working in the community for five months.\n\nForensic experts at the scene of Derry courthouse bomb\n\nThe PSNI described a bomb left near Bishop Street Courthouse as a \"substantial viable device\".\n\nDistrict commander Stephen Martin said a beer keg, left in a stolen car, contained around 50kg of home-made explosives.\n\nA number of shots were fired at police officers at Glen Road in Derry on the night of 2 March.\n\nPolice said it was an attempt to kill.\n\nA policeman found an unexploded grenade outside his home in County Fermanagh.\n\nThe device was discovered at the property in Drumreer Road, Maguiresbridge, on 23 December.\n\nA grenade was found outside a police officer's home in County Fermanagh\n\nIn the Republic, three men from Northern Ireland were jailed for IRA membership on 15 December.\n\nGerard McGarrigle, 46, from Mount Carmel Heights in Strabane was sentenced to five years in prison.\n\nDesmond Donnelly, 58, from Drumall, Lisnarick, Fermanagh and Jim Murphy, 63, from Floraville in Enniskillen, were given three years and nine months.\n\nThey were arrested in Letterkenny in February after Irish police received a tip-off that dissident republicans were about to carry out a 'tiger' kidnapping\n\nA military hand grenade was used to attack police officers called to a robbery at Shaw's Road in west Belfast on 5 November.\n\nThree police officers were hurt and one of them suffered serious arm injuries when the grenade was thrown by a cyclist.\n\nThe dissident paramilitary group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) said it was responsible for the attack.\n\nThe Ulster Bank on Culmore Road was damaged in a car bomb attack in Derry\n\nA car bomb exploded close to the Ulster Bank, shops and a hotel on Derry's Culmore Road on 4 October.\n\nThe area had been cleared when the bomb exploded, but the blast was so strong that a police officer who was standing close to the cordon was knocked off his feet.\n\nLurgan man Paul McCaugherty was jailed for 20 years for a dissident republican gun smuggling plot that was uncovered after an MI5 sting operation.\n\nMcCaugherty was found guilty of attempting to import weapons and explosives.\n\nDermot Declan Gregory from Crossmaglen, was found guilty of making a Portuguese property available for the purpose of terrorism. He was sentenced to four years.\n\nThree children suffered minor injuries when a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan's North Street on 14 August.\n\nThe bomb went off at a junction where police would have been expected to put up a cordon around the school. The explosion injured the children after it blew a hole in a metal fence.\n\nThree children were hurt after a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan\n\nA booby trap partially exploded under the car of a former policeman in Cookstown, County Tyrone, on 10 August.\n\nThe man was unhurt in the attak.\n\nA bomb was found under the car of a Catholic policewoman in Kilkeel in County Down on 8 August.\n\nIt is believed the device fell off the car before being spotted by the officer.\n\nA booby-trap bomb was found in the driveway of a soldier's house in Bangor\n\nOn 4 August, booby trap bomb was found under a soldier's car in Bangor.\n\nIt then fell off and he discovered it as he was about to leave his home.\n\nA car that exploded outside a police station in Derry contained 200lb of homemade explosives.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack, which happened on 3 August, but several businesses were badly damaged in the blast.\n\nA bomb exploded between Belleeks and Cullyhanna in south Armagh, blowing a crater in the road and damaging a stone bridge on 10 July.\n\nPolice viewed it as an attempt to lure them into the area in order to carry out a follow-up ambush.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for organising two nights of sustained rioting in the Broadway and Bog Meadows areas of west Belfast on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July.\n\nLater rioting on 11, 12, 13 and 14 July in south and north Belfast, Lurgan and Derry is also believed to have involved dissidents.\n\nDissidents were believed to have organised riots in Belfast\n\nScores of police officers were injured during the violence, which featured gun attacks, petrol bombs and other missiles being thrown.\n\nShots were fired at Crossmaglen PSNI station on 2 July.\n\nDissident republicans said they were behind two similar attacks in December and January.\n\nA car bomb exploded outside Newtownhamilton Police Station in County Armagh, injuring two people.\n\nPeople also reported hearing gunshots before the blast.\n\nThere were five pipe bomb attacks on houses in the west of Northern Ireland in a week - two of them claimed by a group calling itself Republican Action Against Drugs.\n\nA car bomb was defused outside Newtownhamilton police station in south Armagh on Tuesday 13 April.\n\nA bomb in a hijacked taxi exploded outside Palace Barracks in Holywood, on Monday 12 April - the day policing and justice powers were transferred to Northern Ireland.\n\nThe barracks is home to MI5's headquarters in Northern Ireland.\n\nPolice said a car bomb left outside Crossmaglen on Easter Saturday night could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the area.\n\nThe bomb - made up of a number of flammable containers - was made safe by Army experts.\n\nKieran Doherty was murdered by the Real IRA\n\nThe naked and bound body of 31-year-old Kieran Doherty was found close to the Irish border near Derry on 24 February.\n\nThe Real IRA said it killed Mr Doherty who, it claimed, was one of its members.\n\nTwo days earlier a bomb damaged the gates of Newry courthouse in County Down.\n\nOfficers were evacuating the area when the bomb went off. Police said it was a miracle no-one was killed.\n\nA 33-year-old Catholic police officer was seriously injured in a dissident republican car bomb about a mile from his home in Randalstown in County Antrim.\n\nOn the last day of the month the Real IRA opened fire on a police station in County Armagh.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack in Bessbrook.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for leaving a car containing a 400lb (181kg) bomb outside the Policing Board's headquarters in Belfast.\n\nThe car, which had been driven through a barrier by two men who then ran off, burst into flames when the device partially exploded.\n\nOn the same night, shots were fired during an undercover police operation in the County Fermanagh village of Garrison, in what police described as an attempt to kill a trainee PSNI officer.\n\nOne of Northern Ireland's top judges moved out of his Belfast home over fears of a dissident republican threat against him.\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party politician Ian Paisley junior said police had warned him that dissident republicans were planning to murder him.\n\nMr Paisley, who was then a member of the Policing Board, said officers contacted him to inform him of the foiled attack.\n\nA police officer's partner was injured when a bomb exploded under her car in east Belfast.\n\nThe 38-year-old was reversing the vehicle out of the driveway of a house when the device exploded.\n\nIn the same month a bomb exploded inside a Territorial Army base in north Belfast.\n\nThe police confirmed that \"some blast damage\" had occurred inside the base off the Antrim Road and shrapnel from the overnight explosion was found in neighbouring streets.\n\nThe PSNI said a 600lb (272kg) bomb left near the Irish border in south Armagh was intended to kill its officers.\n\nThe bomb was defused by the Army near the village of Forkhill.\n\nDays later the Real IRA claimed responsibility for placing two explosive devices near the homes of a policeman's relatives in Derry.\n\nThe first device exploded outside his parents' home while a second device, which was found outside his sister's home, was taken away for examination by the Army.\n\nConor Murphy, then a Sinn Féin MP and minister in Northern Ireland's devolved administration, blamed dissident republicans for an arson attack on his home in south Armagh.\n\nDissident republicans were suspected of involvement in a petrol bomb attack on the Derry home of senior Sinn Féin member Mitchel McLaughlin.\n\nNorthern Ireland's then Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said dissident republicans had threatened to kill him.\n\nSappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey died in the attack\n\nTwo young soldiers were shot dead as they collected pizzas outside Massereene Barracks in County Antrim.\n\nSappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey were killed just hours before they were due to be deployed to Afghanistan.\n\nThe Real IRA was blamed for the attack.\n\nWithin 48 hours policeman Stephen Carroll was shot dead in Craigavon, County Armagh, becoming the first police officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1998.", "The government is setting up a job centre league table and will give £250 in vouchers to staff who get the most people into work.\n\nIt is part of a pilot scheme in 60 job centres aiming to get more Universal Credit claimants into employment.\n\nThe government said it is right to reward staff when they help people secure work.\n\nBut the PCS union said the scheme was \"gimmicky\" and would not help address the \"poverty pay\" of job centre staff.\n\nAccording to an internal Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) document seen by the BBC, officials want to test whether financial incentives for job centre teams \"drive better outcomes\".\n\nStaff will be set targets, or what the document calls \"into work stretch aspirations\".\n\nStaff at the top performing job centres each month will receive £250 in vouchers. The next best performing staff will get £125 each.\n\nThe pilot will also make it compulsory for Universal Credit claimants who have been on the benefit for thirteen weeks, to visit a job centre every weekday for a fortnight for \"intensive support\". Failure to attend could lead to sanctions.\n\nOne internal document says that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride, has asked that the pilot \"apply more mandatory activities to increase movement into work\". It said this should be delivered within the existing budget and be \"able to be scaled quickly\".\n\nThe department says the 13-week mark is critical because it is the point at which a claimant's prospects of moving into work decreases significantly.\n\nAt present, Universal Credit claimants normally only meet with a work coach once a week for the first three months and once a fortnight after that.\n\nThe PCS union said the scheme was an \"insult\" to its members.\n\nThe union's DWP Group President, Martin Cavanagh, said the pilot would increase the likelihood of claimants being sanctioned due to missed appointments.\n\nHe said the government was ''hell-bent on making it more difficult for people to claim benefits\" and warned the pilot would increase the risk of poverty for jobseekers who fell foul of it.\n\n\"Asking more customers to travel more often into job centres does nothing to help our staff or their workloads,'' he added.\n\nThe union's DWP staff have recently been on strike over pay. They have been offered a 2% pay increase for 2022-23 but are demanding a rise of 10%.\n\nThere are currently 1.3 million unemployed people in the UK and a further 9 million who are economically inactive which means they are neither in work nor looking for work.\n\nMinisters are concerned that economic inactivity could hold back economic growth. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has set up a review of policies to raise workforce participation and could make an announcement in the Budget on 15 March.\n\nThe Resolution Foundation said the best way to boost the workforce was to encourage more mothers in low-income families into work, and to help people who need to take time-off for ill-health to stay attached to their jobs.\n\nA spokesperson for the DWP said: \"It is right that we reward our staff when they go above and beyond, and helping people to secure, stay in, and succeed in work is a key government priority.\n\n\"DWP has an existing in-year reward policy in the form of vouchers to colleagues.\"", "Olivia Newton-John died last year following a long battle with cancer\n\nThousands of people have paid their respects to the late Australian actress and singer Olivia Newton-John at a state memorial in her home city of Melbourne.\n\nThe 73-year-old died in August in the United States following a long battle with breast cancer.\n\nNewton-John was best known for her role as Sandy in the iconic 1978 film Grease and for musical hits such as Physical.\n\nHer daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, has said that her heart is \"broken in two\".\n\n\"I stand here before you so desperately wanting to feel strong and confident and speak eloquently but the truth is, I feel like a little girl lost without her mother,\" said Ms Lattanzi while fighting back tears at the service at Hamer Hall.\n\n\"She was my safe space, my guide, my biggest fan and the earth beneath my feet.\"\n\nOlivia Newton-John's daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, said her heart was \"broken in two\" following her mother's death\n\nJohn Easterling, said every day with his late wife was \"a bit of magic\"\n\nNewton-John's widower, John Easterling, also became emotional while talking about his late wife.\n\n\"We'd each had some hard times in our life before like everyone has and we're just talking about how lucky we were to have found each other,\" he said.\n\n\"Every day with Olivia was supernatural. Every day with Olivia was a bit of magic.\"\n\nThe singer Dannii Minogue said that Newton-John was the reason why she started performing and that the thought of her death was still sinking in.\n\nDelta Goodrem sang a medley of Olivia Newton-John's songs at the end of the memorial service\n\nOther celebrities paid tribute to the late star in video recordings played to the crowd at the memorial, including Sir Elton John, Mariah Carey and Pink.\n\nSir Elton described her as a \"wonderful force of nature\", while Dolly Parton, who sang with Newton-John several times, said she considered her a friend as well as a fellow performer.\n\n\"Olivia, to quote one of your songs - I honestly love you,\" said Parton.\n\nThe service ended with Australian singer Delta Goodrem singing a medley of Newton-John's hits.\n\nGoodrem said being able to celebrate her life was \"incredibly special\".", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell has been involved in high-profile investigations into dissident republican attacks\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell, who was shot in Omagh in County Tyrone, is one of the best-known detectives in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).\n\nHe has been the senior detective in many high-profile inquiries, including the 2011 murder of his colleague Ronan Kerr by dissident republicans.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell was shot multiple times after coaching young people at football on Wednesday night.\n\nHe was putting balls in the back of his car and was accompanied by his son.\n\nThe off-duty police officer had just finished coaching an under-15s football team from Beragh Swifts FC when the attack happened.\n\nRicky Lyons, chairman of the football club, said Det Ch Insp Caldwell was a good man who had played a central role in the club as a volunteer.\n\n\"He cares for the community, he gives back to the community and if that is in you it is in you,\" he said.\n\n\"No matter how busy life is if that's what you want to do that's what you will do and certainly that's what John has done for us.\"\n\nThe football club organised a walk in support of Det Ch Insp Caldwell on Saturday, following the shooting.\n\nThe route from Beragh Swifts FC to Beragh Red Knights GAA club was short but significant - Constable Kerr was a member of the GAA club when he was murdered in 2011.\n\nStephen Brown who attended the walk and knew the senior detective on a personal and a community level said he had touched many people's lives.\n\nBeragh Red Knights GAA club coach Celine Curran said the attack on Det Ch Insp Caldwell had affected the whole community in Beragh.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell, who has been a police officer for 26 years and who is from County Tyrone, often fronts press conferences in the course of major inquiries.\n\nHe had received a number of threats in the past, BBC News NI understands.\n\nHe was aware his investigations relating to dissident republican attacks - including the killing of Lyra McKee in 2019 - made him a high-profile target.\n\nIn January, he spoke to reporters after the killing of Shane Whitla, a 39-year-old father of four who was shot a number of times in the town of Lurgan in County Armagh.\n\nThree men have since been charged with murdering Mr Whitla.\n\nHe was also the initial lead detective investigating the killing of Natalie McNally in Lurgan.\n\nMs McNally, who was 32, was 15 weeks pregnant and was stabbed a number of times at her home on 18 December.\n\nOne man has been charged with the murder of Ms McNally.\n\nThe shooting happened at a sports complex in Omagh\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell was also involved in investigating the murder of Mark Lovell, 58, who was shot a number of times at close range in his car in Newry in County Down on 1 December.\n\nThere have been several attempts to kill PSNI officers in the past few years - most recently when a patrol vehicle was targeted in a roadside bomb attack in Strabane in November.\n\nThe last officer to be killed in the line of duty was Constable Kerr on 2 April 2011.\n\nIn 2021, on the 10th anniversary of his murder in a booby-trap car bomb in County Tyrone, Det Ch Insp Caldwell issued a fresh appeal for information,\n\n\"Despicably, people living in his own community planned and plotted to kill him simply because he was a police officer bravely going out every day to protect people and make communities safer places to live and work,\" he said.\n\n\"No-one deserves to be murdered because of how they earn their respectable living.\"\n\nPSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne said Det Ch Insp Caldwell was \"a father, husband and colleague, and a valued and active member of his local community\".\n\n\"John is held in the highest esteem within our organisation,\" he added.\n\n\"He is a credit to his family and to the police service.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThere are fears more than 100 people, including children, have died after their boat sank off southern Italy.\n\nAt least 63 migrants are confirmed to have died, with 12 children including a baby said to be among the victims.\n\nThe vessel, thought to have carried some 200 people, broke apart while trying to land near Crotone on Sunday.\n\nItaly's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has urged EU institutions to take action to stop clandestine migrant boat journeys.\n\nOn board the boat, which had set out from Turkey a few days earlier, were said to be people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Iran.\n\nAccording to the Pakistani foreign ministry 16 of its citizens had survived the disaster, with four more missing.\n\nThe coastguard said 80 people had been found alive, \"including some who managed to reach the shore after the sinking\", meaning many more remained unaccounted for.\n\nOne survivor was arrested on migrant trafficking charges, customs police said.\n\nAs bodies were recovered from the beach and assistance and relocation operations continued, a group of survivors of the deadly shipwreck struggled to come to terms with the loss of their loved ones.\n\nAt a temporary reception centre in the town of Isola di Capo Rizzuto, some of them were crying without speaking, some were just staring into the void, wrapped in blankets.\n\n\"They are heavily traumatised,\" said Sergio Di Dato, from charity Médecins Sans Frontières. \"Some children have lost their whole family. We are offering them all the support we can.\"\n\nA 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan lost his 28-year-old sister, who died on the beach next to him. He could not find the strength to tell his parents.\n\nA 43-year-old man from Afghanistan survived with his 14-year-old son, but his wife and his three other children, who were 13, nine, and five, did not make it. Another Afghan woman in tears would not move from the beach after losing her husband.\n\n\"This is yet another tragedy happening near our shores. It reminds us all that the Mediterranean is a giant mass grave, with tens of thousands of souls in it, and it continues to widen,\" said Francesco Creazzo, from SOS Méditerranée, an non-governmental organisation engaged in rescue operations in the central Mediterranean.\n\n\"There is no end in sight; in 2013, people said 'never again' to the little white coffins of Lampedusa, in 2015, they said 'never again' in front of the lifeless body of a two-year-old Syrian child on a beach.\n\n\"Now the words 'never again' are not even pronounced any more. We only hear 'no more departures', but unfortunately people keep venturing on this journey and they keep dying,\" he added.\n\nCrotone: Muslims said prayers for the victims as a sea search continued\n\nSpeaking at the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday morning, Secretary General António Guterres called on countries to do more to help refugees and migrants, and called for safer travel routes and strengthened rescue operations.\n\nPrime Minister Meloni - elected last year partly on a pledge to stem the flow of migrants into Italy - on Monday said the only way to tackle the issue of migrant departures \"seriously\" and \"with humanity\" was to stop migrant boat journeys.\n\nSpeaking to Italian public broadcaster Rai 1, she said she had written to the European Council and European Commission calling for immediate action to stop migrant boat departures in order to prevent more deaths.\n\n\"The more people depart, the more risk dying,\" she said.\n\nEarlier on Sunday, she expressed \"deep sorrow\" after the incident and blamed the deaths on people smugglers.\n\n\"It is inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women and children for the price of the 'ticket' they paid in the false perspective of a safe journey,\" she said.\n\n\"The government is committed to preventing departures, and with them the unfolding of these tragedies, and will continue to do so.\"\n\nMs Meloni's right-wing government has vowed to stop migrants reaching Italy's shores and in the last few days pushed through a tough new law tightening the rules on rescues.\n\nThe vessel is reported to have sunk after it crashed against rocks during rough weather.\n\nVideo footage shows timber from the wreckage washing up on the beach, along with parts of the hull.\n\nAccording to monitoring groups, more than 20,000 people have died or gone missing at sea in the central Mediterranean since 2014.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIsraeli settlers have attacked Palestinian villages in the northern occupied West Bank, after two settlers were shot dead by a Palestinian gunman.\n\nOne Palestinian man was killed and more than 100 others were injured in the violence near Nablus on Sunday night, the Palestinian health ministry said.\n\nDozens of cars and houses were also burnt, according to a local official.\n\nIt followed the killings of the two Israelis - brothers from a nearby settlement - along a highway.\n\nThe Israeli military said it was continuing to search for the Palestinian who shot Hillel Yaniv, 22, and Yagel Yaniv, 20, and that it had moved in hundreds of extra troops.\n\nAnd on Monday afternoon, an Israeli-American man was shot and killed in an attack on a highway north of Beit HaArava Junction, in the east of the West Bank near Jericho.\n\nThe man was taken by paramedics to a hospital in Jerusalem, but was later pronounced dead. He was a dual national. US Ambassador Tom Nides expressed his sadness in a tweet.\n\nIsraeli police by the Israeli man's car attacked near Jericho on Monday\n\nThe incidents came after Israeli and Palestinian officials had pledged to de-escalate tensions at a summit in Jordan.\n\nVideos posted hours after the summit ended on Sunday showed a large crowd of Israeli settlers entering the village of Hawara, about 4 miles (6km) south of Nablus, lighting fires and throwing stones.\n\nTen-year-old Lamar Abusarees said her house was one of those set alight.\n\n\"My mother moved us to a corner because there was no safe place. They broke all the windows while we were inside,\" she told Reuters news agency.\n\nA Palestinian official who monitors settlements in the Nablus region, Ghassan Daghlas, told Palestinian Wafa news agency that 30 houses were damaged by stones or burned down in Hawara, and that 15 vehicles were torched.\n\nSettlers also set a barn and three vehicles on fire in nearby Burin, as well as a house and a water tank in Asira al-Qabaliyya, he said.\n\nThe Palestinian health ministry said 37-year-old Sameh Aqtash died after being shot in the stomach during an attack by settlers in Zaatara.\n\nMr Aqtash's brother, Abdul Moneim, said they had been standing outside a blacksmith's when they were attacked by settlers.\n\n\"They left the area and then came back with the occupation [Israeli] army,\" he told AFP news agency. \"The army shot my brother, not the settlers.\"\n\nHowever, the Israeli military said Mr Aqtash was not shot by an Israeli soldier.\n\nThis part of the West Bank falls under full Israeli control, and Palestinians criticised Israeli security forces for failing to protect them.\n\nPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he held the Israeli government fully responsible for what he called \"the terrorist acts carried out by Israeli settlers, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces\".\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appealed for calm and urged settlers to allow the Israeli military and security forces to focus on finding the gunman who killed the two Israelis.\n\n\"I ask that when blood is boiling and the spirit is hot, don't take the law into your hands,\" he said in a video statement.\n\nUN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said he was \"gravely concerned by the deteriorating security situation\".\n\n\"There can be no justification for terrorism, nor for arson and acts of revenge against civilians,\" he added.\n\nThe Israeli brothers were driving through Hawara when a Palestinian rammed their car and shot them\n\nSettlers had called for a march to Hawara in order to \"seek revenge\" for the deadly attack on Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, who lived in the settlement of Har Bracha, which is 1.2 miles south of Nablus.\n\nThe brothers were driving through Hawara when a Palestinian man rammed their car and then shot them both several times.\n\nTheir mother, Esty, said: \"Words can't describe this disaster. Instead of bringing children to the wedding canopy, we need to bury them.\"\n\nShe also appealed for unity among Israelis and stressed that \"responsibility to guarantee security rests solely with the army\".\n\nNo Palestinian militant group has so far claimed they were behind the attack, but the gunman was reportedly wearing a shirt bearing the insignia of the Nablus-based Lions' Den.\n\nMembers of the group were the targets of an Israeli raid in Nablus last Wednesday in which 11 Palestinians, including several civilians, were killed - the deadliest such operation in the West Bank since 2005.\n\nIsraeli forces have been carrying out waves of search, arrest and intelligence-gathering raids in Nablus and the nearby city of Jenin, saying they are trying to stem the spate of deadly attacks against Israelis by Palestinians.\n\nSince the start of this year, more than 60 Palestinians - militants and civilians - have been killed by Israeli forces. On the Israeli side, 14 people have been killed in attacks - all civilians, except for a paramilitary police officer.\n\nMore than 600,000 Jews live in 140 settlements built since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.", "\"Let's hope this is one of the last great rollercoaster moments of Brexit.\"\n\nSo said one government figure to me, anticipating an important moment today - but worldly enough to realise it's not necessarily the end of the story.\n\nThese negotiations, between the government and Brussels, the government and Conservative backbenchers, and the government and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), have resembled diplomatic Jenga - wobbly bricks here, there and everywhere.\n\nOne element has been all but done for a while, and, we expect, to be sorted today - the deal between London and Brussels.\n\nThe prime minister, I hear, spent Sunday calling and texting world leaders with an interest in all of this, and speaking to some cabinet ministers too about the deal to be done on Monday.\n\nThere is still the talks between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.\n\nAmong the things they will talk about, I'm told, is dealing with what some in London regard as a \"democratic deficit\" for Northern Ireland - that it needs more of a say about future changes in EU rules that will have an impact there.\n\nBut let's be clear: the European Commission president would not be coming here unless it was sorted.\n\nDon't be surprised if her visit also includes some sort of meeting with the King. Buckingham Palace declined to comment when I asked if this would happen.\n\nBut it is diplomatically awkward, I'm told, for such promises to be made - as they were last week - for a meeting on Saturday which was then postponed, only for it not to be kept.\n\nI also hear, though, that there are some strong words being exchanged within Whitehall about the whole idea of offering a meeting with the King so close to a major political moment, when Buckingham Palace is always desperate to not look like it is getting involved in politics.\n\nWhat about the politics of all this for Rishi Sunak?\n\nDowning Street will emphasise what they see as the immediate positives of the deal: a better arrangement for Northern Ireland. And resetting relations with the EU.\n\nBoth of these things matter: the former in winning round sceptics, potentially over time, that this does amount to an improvement on what went before.\n\nAnd the latter for everything else the prime minister has to sort with the cooperation of the European Union, not least the issue of small boat crossings in the Channel.\n\nMr Sunak is due in Paris next month for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.\n\nSorting the small boats issue is tremendously difficult but having a decent working relationship with France would help.\n\nRe-establishing devolved government in Northern Ireland is the ultimate prize, but is not being talked up much right now by government sources.\n\nThey hope, of course, that it might follow in time - but that is far from certain. The DUP, having sounded rather sceptical, have now gone rather quiet.\n\nRemember, there are a range of voices within the DUP.\n\nWhat Downing Street will hope for is that the party formally says it will go away and look at the deal, and examine it in detail, rather than instantly and loudly reject it.\n\nBut the politics is tricky for the DUP.\n\nThe leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice, Jim Allister - a rival to the DUP - anticipates \"a day of unprecedented spin and possibly deception as pressure is piled on unionism to give in on the protocol.\" - ie he doesn't sound remotely keen.\n\nThen there are Tory Brexiteers.\n\nSome are now in government, and some are won round.\n\nSteve Baker, now a Northern Ireland minister, went into Downing Street over the weekend and came out and gave a very prominent thumbs up in front of the cameras.\n\nBut Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group of Tory backbenchers, is not convinced.\n\nAnd then, there is one Boris Johnson.\n\nWhat might he say or do, and how much grief might he fancy causing the prime minister? We'll soon find out.\n\nIt's why a diplomatic breakthrough for Mr Sunak is also a moment of political jeopardy.", "BBC Panorama conducted undercover filming in three pregnancy crisis centres to see how they operate\n\nWomen are being misled and manipulated about abortion by some crisis pregnancy advice centres in the UK, according to evidence from a Panorama investigation.\n\nThe centres operate outside the NHS and tend to be registered charities.\n\nMost say they don't refer women for abortions, but offer support and counselling for unplanned pregnancies.\n\nBut the BBC's investigation reveals more than a third of these services give misleading medical information or unethical advice, and sometimes both.\n\nAbortions have been available on the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales for more than 50 years. They have been legal in Northern Ireland since 2019.\n\nPregnancy counselling is available through the NHS and regulated abortion providers, but searching online, Panorama identified 57 crisis pregnancy advice centres advertising.\n\nMost claim to provide a safe space for women to receive support and accurate information about their options.\n\nThe BBC decided to investigate after hearing from women who had been to these centres. One said she had been \"traumatised\" and that the centre had tried to \"manipulate\" her into not having an abortion.\n\nThe Panorama team wanted to find out more, so contacted all 57, posing as women wanting advice about their options, including abortion.\n\nOf these, 34 directed us to the NHS website or regulated abortion providers.\n\nThe NHS says, like any medical treatment, there is a small risk something could go wrong, and that having an abortion does not increase the risk of breast cancer, infertility, or mental health problems.\n\nLeading medic in the field of obstetrics, and director of an abortion provider, Dr Jonathan Lord, said women needed an \"informed choice\" which required \"good quality unbiased information\".\n\nDuring telephone and in-person consultations, Panorama was told:\n\nOne centre said women could experience hallucinations involving babies crying and have \"nightmares of something happening to a child\" after an abortion.\n\nJo Holmes, of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said: \"From a professional-standards point of view... they are not there to advise, they are not there to guide, and they are... not there to give their opinion. This language is designed to make the client feel guilty.\"\n\nIf you need any help with the issues raised in this story, details of help and support can be found here.\n\nWe wanted to find out more about how the centres operate so we went undercover.\n\nWe visited the Crossroads Crisis Pregnancy Centre in Harrow, north-west London, which opened in 2005 and is based in a Baptist church. The centre's website says its trained counsellors provide free and accurate information.\n\nAn undercover reporter told a counsellor she was three weeks pregnant, and asked what an abortion would involve at that stage. The counsellor replied: \"The baby is waiting for the pill to kill it and to get rid of it.\"\n\nListing depression and infertility as possible side effects, she added: \"There is no kind of safe thing because women have had the abortion and some will bleed to death, and all sorts of things happen.\"\n\nThe counsellor later said she was not telling the undercover reporter what to do about her pregnancy.\n\nCrossroads Pregnancy Advice Centre and the counsellor did not respond to Panorama's request for comment.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Counsellor at Crossroads Pregnancy Advice Centre speaks to our undercover reporter\n\nWe also investigated the Tyneside Pregnancy Advice Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne. Its website says it has a \"Christian ethos\" and is committed to providing a caring, compassionate, and professional service. The centre is run by Dr Chris Richards who has anti-abortion views. He is also an NHS paediatrician.\n\nOur undercover reporter visited, saying she was married with two children and had discovered she was pregnant again.\n\nThe adviser asked her what her children would think about her having an abortion. \"Would you be able to tell your daughters about having a termination? Or would it be something you'd always have to keep quiet about?\" she said.\n\nThe reporter was handed a leaflet which said \"avoidance of children\" was a psychological risk. Asked what that meant, the counsellor replied: \"Having the termination and feeling like maybe you shouldn't be around children as a result.\"\n\nThe counsellor added if the reporter wanted to have an abortion, she should consult the NHS website.\n\nMs Holmes described the exchanges as extraordinary. \"It's the woman's experience and she's just trying to manipulate the conversation to her end,\" she said.\n\nDr Richards said: \"We have a 14-year track record of compliance with all our regulatory obligations and over 1,200 women have benefited from the work of our staff and volunteers.\" He added that anyone who has read the centre's website can see \"where they are coming from\".\n\nYou can watch Panorama: Crisis Pregnancy Centres Uncovered on 27 February on BBC One at 20:30 GMT and iPlayer\n\nStanton International is an influential anti-abortion group in America, where it has set up five crisis pregnancy centres. It also has a centre in Belfast called Stanton Healthcare. Its website says it is a safe place where \"women are empowered to make their best choice\".\n\nBefore we went undercover, we spoke to Ashleigh, 30, who contacted the centre after discovering she was pregnant in 2021.\n\nThe mother-of-five said she had wanted an abortion and that the centre had told her over the phone she could get one on-site. When she arrived for her appointment, she said she was told she needed an ultrasound scan. It revealed she was pregnant with twins.\n\n\"They said, 'you have to look, these are your babies' and when I finally turned to look, I saw two wee babies on the screen,\" she said. \"I wiped my own jelly off and left the room... That was enough for me.\"\n\nAshleigh went ahead with an abortion and said her experience at Stanton Healthcare had left her traumatised.\n\nDr Lord has criticised the use of ultra-sound scans at crisis pregnancy advice centres. He said: \"Scans are a tool, they can be useful in some circumstances, but they can actually be quite intrusive in others.\"\n\nThe use of scans, he said, can cause guilt for pregnant women considering abortion and therefore be manipulative. Stanton Healthcare will only see women who provide a positive pregnancy test at the centre.\n\nClaire, who was 10 weeks into a planned pregnancy, agreed to secretly film for Panorama.\n\nDuring the consultation, she was told by an adviser about \"post-abortive syndrome,\" described as a severe anxiety that \"erodes your mental health\" for six months to six years. The adviser also outlined what the centre described as the side effects of the abortion pill, saying it contained \"a whopping dose of female hormone\".\n\n\"Within 48 hours your baby will die of hunger and thirst. It will be starved to death,\" she said.\n\nClaire was also told that the centre provided aftercare and financial help to women who went ahead with their pregnancies.\n\nAs she left, she was given leaflets containing graphic images of aborted foetuses and information which suggested she could get breast cancer if she had a termination.\n\nDr Lord said the findings were \"extremely troubling\".\n\n\"There is no increased risk of serious mental illness, infertility, or breast cancer after an abortion,\" he said. \"These centres are set up to target women who are struggling with their decision, and then give them false advice to try to sway them away from an abortion.\"\n\n\"They risk causing significant harm and damage to those especially-vulnerable patients.\"\n\nMs Holmes said the claims made by the centre were biased and judgemental. \"Counselling is about being able to explore what you're feeling in a safe place with no judgements, but any woman who went into a session like this would come out deeply traumatised.\"\n\nDanielle Versluys, Stanton International's chief operating officer, told Panorama she was not prepared to discuss \"post-abortive syndrome\". But she added: \"Within our clinics, women are advised that having an abortion could lead to lifelong grief, sorrow, regret and it can impact them negatively.\"\n\nDefending Stanton's use of ultrasound scans, she said, \"The truth should not be hidden from women... And so to provide a medical scan... is absolutely acceptable and called for and necessary for a woman to make an informed choice.\"\n\nAsked about their leaflets, Mrs Versluys said: \"I don't believe it's inappropriate to show a woman what the actual outcome of an abortion is. We are committed to providing women with the truth and with the resources that they need to make the best possible decisions for them and their baby.\"\n\nThe Charity Commission in Northern Ireland told Panorama it is already looking into Stanton Healthcare. The Charity Commission in England said it is assessing information provided by the programme.\n\nYou can watch Panorama: Crisis Pregnancy Centres Uncovered on 27 February on BBC One at 20:30 GMT and iPlayer\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A new law increasing the legal age of marriage to 18 has come into force in England and Wales.\n\nPreviously people could get married at 16 or 17 if they had parental consent and there was no law against ceremonies for younger children which were not registered with local councils.\n\nThe new legislation also covers non-legally binding ceremonies.\n\nThe government said the changes would help protect vulnerable children from being forced into marriage.\n\nPreviously forced marriage was only an offence if coercion, such as threats, was used.\n\nBut under the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act, it is now illegal to arrange for children to marry under any circumstances, whether or not force is used.\n\nThose found guilty of the offence face up to seven years in prison.\n\nThe changes do not apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the minimum age for marriage will remain 16. In Northern Ireland parental consent is required for those under 18 but not in Scotland.\n\nMinisters in Northern Ireland have previously said they plan to increase the minimum age of marriage to 18 but with the devolved government not currently functioning legislation cannot be brought forward.\n\nCampaigner Payzee Mahmod is a survivor of child marriage and her sister Banaz was murdered in a so-called honour killing after leaving her husband, who she was forced to marry at the age of 17.\n\nShe said seeing the new law come into force in England and Wales was \"probably one of the most important days of my life\".\n\n\"It's very emotional for me because I know truly, in great detail, the harms of child marriage,\" she told BBC News.\n\n\"I've personally been through it, I've seen my sister go through it. And I've seen the devastating impacts that it can have for so many women and girls.\n\n\"When they try to leave child marriages, the ultimate penalty is death and this is exactly what happened in my sister's case.\"\n\nPayzee said the changes would mean \"the onus is no longer on the child to have to speak up against their parents or their community when they are faced with child marriage\".\n\nPayzee has campaigned to make all child marriages illegal\n\nIn 2021 the government's Forced Marriage Unit provided support in 118 cases involving victims who were under 18.\n\nHowever, campaigners believe official figures do not reflect the true scale of the problem as other victims may not have been able to reach out for support.\n\nThe charity Karma Nirvana, which supports victims of forced marriage, hopes the new law will help increase identification and reporting of child marriage.\n\nDirector Natasha Rattu said it was \"a huge leap forward to tackling this usually hidden abuse and will provide a greater degree of protection to those at risk\".\n\nJustice Secretary Dominic Raab said: \"Those who act to manipulate children into marrying under-age will now rightly face the full force of the law.\"\n\nHowever, Mihai Bica, from the Roma Support Group, said he was concerned about how the changes would be communicated to communities and those enforcing the new law.\n\nHe explained that in Roma communities the word \"married\" could be used to describe a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship and \"cultural misunderstanding\" might result in \"serious implications for families who should not be subject to this law\".\n\nMr Bica called for training of staff so they were not \"influenced by the existing stereotypes\" when assessing Roma families.\n\nThe changes, which had cross-party support, were introduced through a bill brought to Parliament by Conservative MP Pauline Latham.", "The health safety watchdog has said that doctors, ambulance dispatchers and other NHS staff in England have faced \"significant distress\" and harm over the past year as a result of long delays in urgent and emergency care.\n\nThe Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), which monitors safety in the health service in England, said many staff it interviewed for a national investigation \"cried or displayed other extreme emotions\" when asked about their working environment.\n\n\"The bad sides [of my job] give me nightmares, flashbacks and fear, but they can also make me hyperactive, sleepless and sometimes not care about the danger I put myself in,\" one paramedic told the BBC.\n\nSarah, not her real name, has worked in the ambulance service for more than a decade, but describes the last 12 months as the most difficult she can remember.\n\n\"Over the winter I have witnessed and helped with cardiac arrests in the corridors of hospitals and in the back of ambulances,\" she said.\n\n\"I spent four hours with an end-of-life patient. There was no hospice or district nurse available, so I had to make the choice to give them meds for a peaceful, expected death and prepare the family.\n\n\"I felt ashamed that I could not stay till the end, but I had to move on to the next job as I had done all I could.\"\n\nThe HSIB found NHS staff were reporting increased levels of stress, worry and exhaustion because they were not always able to help the sickest patients.\n\nFor an interim study, it spoke to doctors, nurses, and other emergency workers, as well as taking evidence from the NHS and other national organisations.\n\nIt had to change the way it carried out the investigation after hearing the \"emotionally charged feelings\" of people working in the system.\n\nIn interviews and focus groups, staff working in A&E described making \"challenging decisions\" about which patients in queuing ambulances to take into the hospital building for treatment.\n\nStaff working on wards talked about the impact of being unable to discharge patients into social or community care \"resulting in further medical intervention and an extended stay in hospital\".\n\nAn ambulance crew outside The Royal London Hospital\n\nEmergency call handlers described answering repeated 999 calls from the same sick patients waiting for an ambulance.\n\nThose dispatchers told the investigation that it was common to worry \"how many people are we going to kill today?\", because they were not always able to send out ambulances quickly enough.\n\n\"One call that really stuck with me was a man ringing for his wife who had fallen over 50 hours ago,\" one 999 call handler told the BBC.\n\nThe handler wanted to remain anonymous as he did not have permission from his employer to talk to the media.\n\n\"They'd been waiting so long that he had decided to move her around the house by dragging her on a rug, so when she eventually wet herself, she would be on a tile floor instead of the living room floor,\" he continued.\n\n\"I've had people breaking down to me, crying on the phone, begging me to send an ambulance, and I just have to tell them it will most likely be several more hours, at least.\"\n\nHe described the amount of abuse received by his team as \"phenomenal\" over the winter, including death threats and being \"called every name under the sun\".\n\n\"I've seen colleagues try to calm someone down and apologise for the wait time only to be hit with a wall of abuse. I've seen colleagues cry after finishing these calls,\" he said.\n• None 24.9%Of all staff absence is due to anxiety, stress, depression or other psychiatric illness\n\nThe HSIB said its investigation found evidence of \"strong links\" between the wellbeing of NHS staff and patient safety.\n\nIt said anxiety, stress and depression, and other forms of psychiatric illness were consistently the most reported reason for staff sickness in the health service.\n\nThe latest figures for September 2022 show that category alone accounted for almost 500,000 full-time days lost in a single month and about 25% of all unplanned absence.\n\n\"We heard words like 'demoralising', 'powerless', 'hurt', 'relentless' during our interviews with staff,\" said the HSIB's national investigator Neil Alexander.\n\n\"If staff are unwell, they are unable to be at work. That means other staff have to cover for them, which again increases the pressure on the system so teams are not able to function as efficiently and safely as they could do.\"\n\nStaff also told investigators about how the pressure was affecting them outside work, with many struggling to interact normally with friends and family. Some who lived alone reported feelings of isolation and despair after difficult days.\n\nThe watchdog said it heard reports of \"significant waiting lists\" for employee assistance schemes, occupational health, and other support services.\n\nDr Salwa Malik, an A&E consultant, says all doctors could do at some points over the winter was \"firefight,\" given the pressure on the system.\n\nDr Salwa Malik, 38, an A&E consultant and vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: \"I would say we give exemplary care and we do keep our patients safe. But there does come a point when the pressures are so bad, that you can't guarantee it, and that's the scary bit.\n\n\"If you're on edge for 10 or 12 hours a day then, at the end of the shift, you can kind of crumble... and you can't always switch off,\" she added.\n\n\"I've had nights where you go over the scenarios in your head and it can be very difficult to sleep, then you wake in the middle of the night and look for any distraction to not think about it.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for NHS England said there was \"no doubt\" that NHS staff have faced \"significant challenges\" this winter with record demand for urgent and emergency care.\n\n\"The safety of both patients and staff is vital, and the NHS takes staff health and wellbeing incredibly seriously with a range of support including dedicated helplines, wellbeing apps and coaching, as well as the option of flexible working,\" she said in a statement.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said it made an extra £750m available in England to speed up discharges from hospital and free up beds over the winter.\n\n\"We've published an urgent and emergency care recovery plan to further reduce pressure on hospitals by scaling up community teams, expanding virtual wards, and getting 800 new ambulances on to the roads, and funding for staffing to go alongside that,\" said a spokesman.\n\nYou can follow Jim on Twitter.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Canada will ban video app TikTok from all government-issued devices starting on Tuesday.\n\nThe decision follows a review by Canada's chief information officer, and the app \"presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security\", a government spokesperson said in a statement.\n\nA TikTok spokesperson said the company was disappointed by the decision.\n\nIt comes just days after the European Commission announced a similar ban.\n\nPrime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was enough concern about security around the app to require the change.\n\n\"This may the first step, this may be the only step we need to take,\" he said on Monday at a press conference near Toronto.\n\nTikTok has been criticised for its use of personal information and ties to the Chinese government.\n\nThe short-form video app is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance Ltd.\n\nUS federal employees were banned from using TikTok late last year, and on Monday the White House gave government agencies 30 days to scrub the app from their systems.\n\nA number of American universities have banned the app from being used on their networks. Broader public bans have been implemented in India and several other Asian countries.\n\nThe company insists that Chinese government officials don't have access to user data and that a Chinese version of the app is separate from the one used in the rest of the world. But last year, the company admitted some staff in China can access the data of European users.\n\nThe ban for European Commission employees is set to come into force on 15 March.\n\nCanadian privacy regulators are also investigating TikTok over concerns about user data, in particular whether the company obtains \"valid and meaningful\" consent from users when collecting personal information.\n\nAbout a quarter of Canadian adults use the app, according to a recent survey by researchers at the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University.\n\nIn a statement, Mona Fortier, the president of Canada's Treasury Board, said the government \"is committed to keeping government information secure\".\n\nThe app will be removed from government-issued phones this week and other devices and blocked from downloads in the future.\n\n\"On a mobile device, TikTok's data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone,\" Ms Fortier said. \"While the risks of using this application are clear, we have no evidence at this point that government information has been compromised.\"\n\nThe Treasury Board, which oversees the operations of the federal government, includes the country's chief information officer.\n\nIn a statement, a company spokesperson said the ban on government-issued devices happened \"without citing any specific security concerns about TikTok or contacting us to discuss any concern prior to making this decision\".\n\n\"We are always available to meet with our government officials to discuss how we protect the privacy and security of Canadians, but singling out TikTok in this way does nothing to achieve that shared goal,\" the spokesperson said.\n\n\"All it does is prevent officials from reaching the public on a platform loved by millions of Canadians.\"", "Each ballot paper is being carefully checked\n\nEarly results have started to arrive from Nigeria's tightest election since the end of military rule in 1999.\n\nOfficial results from the south-western Ekiti state show a clear victory for ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu in one of his strongholds.\n\nFurther results will not be formally announced until 10:00 GMT.\n\nFollowing widespread delays and attacks on some polling stations on Saturday, voting was postponed until Sunday in parts of the country.\n\nVoting continued through the night in some areas.\n\nTurnout appears to be high, especially among young people who make up about a third of the 87 million eligible voters.\n\nThis makes it the biggest democratic exercise in Africa.\n\nThe election has seen an unprecedented challenge to the two-party system that has dominated Nigeria for 24 years.\n\nPeter Obi from the previously little known Labour Party, Mr Tinubu from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are all seen as potential winners. There are 15 other presidential candidates.\n\nA candidate needs to have the most votes and 25% of ballots cast in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states to be declared the winner.\n\nOtherwise, there will be a run-off within 21 days - a first in Nigeria's history.\n\nSaturday's voting was marred by long delays at polling stations, as well as scattered reports of ballot-box snatching and attacks by armed men, especially in southern areas, where Mr Obi has his support base.\n\nDr Nkem Okoli was just about to vote in the Lekki district of the biggest city Lagos when masked men attacked the polling station.\n\n\"There was pandemonium. There were bottles flying everywhere,\" she told the BBC. \"They broke [the ballot box]. They stole the phones of the officials. Now we can't vote.\"\n\nIn some areas, voting did not begin until around 18:00 local time - three-and-a-half hours after polls were due to close.\n\nFirst-time voter Susan Ekpoh told the BBC that she spent 13 hours at her polling station in the capital, Abuja, only leaving at midnight.\n\nShe said when it got dark, election officials said they needed light to see what they were doing, so she and others used their car headlights to illuminate proceedings.\n\nThe southern Bayelsa state was among those areas where voting was delayed until Sunday - it is not clear how many parts of the country saw voting postponed.\n\nHarrison Rosaline hopes the elections will deliver a better future for her two-week old baby\n\nHarrison Rosaline said she waited for five hours to vote on Saturday in Bayelsa's capital, Yenagoa, without seeing any election officials. But she returned, with her two-week old baby, and is delighted to have finally cast her ballot.\n\n\"I was motivated because I want a better Nigeria. I want this country to be good for everybody, including my baby,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThere is tension in parts of Rivers and Lagos states, where some political parties have asked their members to go to the centres where votes are being collated, to prevent them being manipulated.\n\nThere have also been complaints over the use of the recently introduced electronic voting system, with many voters accusing electoral officials of refusing to upload the results at the polling units as they are supposed to.\n\nHowever, in those areas where voting went smoothly, results are being posted outside individual polling stations.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The mood at Nigeria's polls in 60 seconds\n\nThe results from tens of thousands of polling stations around the country are being added up. An official from the electoral body in each of Nigeria's 36 states will then travel to the capital, Abuja, where the results will be announced state-by-state.\n\nFinal results are not expected before Monday at the earliest, and possibly not until Wednesday.\n\nAt a press briefing on Saturday, electoral chief Mahmood Yakubu apologised for the delays in voting.\n\nIn the north-eastern state of Borno, Mr Yakubu said that militant Islamists had opened fire on electoral officers from a mountain top in the Gwoza area, injuring a number of officials.\n\nWhoever wins will have to deal with a crumbling economy, high youth unemployment, and widespread insecurity which saw 10,000 killed last year.\n\nVoters also cast their ballots for 109 federal senators and 360 members of the house of representatives.\n\nMr Obi, 61, enjoys fervent support among some sections of Nigeria's youth, especially in the largely Christian south.\n\nAlthough he was in the PDP before then, he is seen as a relatively fresh face. The wealthy businessman served as governor of the south-eastern Anambra State from 2006 to 2014. His backers, known as the \"OBIdients\", say he is the only candidate with integrity, but his critics argue that a vote for him is wasted because one of the two traditional parties is more likely to win.\n\nThe PDP's Mr Abubakar, 76, is the only major candidate from the country's mainly Muslim north. He has run for the presidency five times before - all of which he has lost. He has been dogged by accusations of corruption and cronyism, which he denies.\n\nMost of his career has been spent in the corridors of power, having worked as a top civil servant, vice-president and a prominent businessman.\n\nMost people consider the election a referendum on the APC, which has overseen a period of economic hardship and worsening insecurity.\n\nIts candidate, Mr Tinubu, 70, is credited with building Lagos during his two terms as governor until 2007.\n\nHe is known as a political godfather in the south-west region, where he wields huge influence, but like Mr Abubakar, has also been dogged by allegations of corruption over the years and poor health, both of which he denies.\n\nAdditional reporting by BBC teams around the country.", "Sir Keir Starmer has said he is not \"talking down\" Britain when warning that Poland is on course to overtake the UK within a decade in terms of the size of its economy per person.\n\nThe Labour leader was launching details of his party's \"mission\" to make the UK the fastest growing G7 economy.\n\nHe was speaking to business leaders and economists in the City of London.\n\nLabour's analysis said Bulgaria and Romania could also overtake the UK if current trends continued until 2040.\n\nAsked in a BBC interview if he was talking down the British economy, Sir Keir said: \"No, I think what's talking down Britain is having absolutely no plan, burning through three prime ministers and four chancellors in one year.\n\n\"My main concern has been that we've got fantastic potential and talent and skills and innovation in Britain but we haven't got the growth that we need. We need a plan for growth, a strategy for growth.\"\n\nMonday's announcement from Labour reveals a little bit more about the opposition's economic priorities. It will measure its G7 chart-topping growth mission on a per capita basis.\n\nLabour explicitly says a \"bad Brexit deal\" is exacerbating the nation's economic challenges, calling for a \"reset\" to relations with Europe.\n\nIt canvases for ideas on both a closer relationship with Europe and the UK response to the US and Europe pouring investment into green and high tech businesses.\n\nAsked to flesh out what Labour's \"reset\" in relations with the EU would mean in practice, Sir Kier reiterated that his party would not be rejoining the European Single Market or Customs Union, but did say he wanted to pursue \"every opportunity\" for trade deals with countries across the world.\n\nHe said Monday's Northern Ireland protocol deal would open the door to stronger post-Brexit relations with Europe, and that was one of the reasons he would lend Labour's votes to the PM to support the deal.\n\n\"I do think we need to reset that relationship with the EU and want to see the UK and EU have a better relationship than we've got now. And I do think that progress on the Protocol is a first step\".\n\nLabour announced last week that if elected, it would pursue five \"missions\": the first is for the UK to achieve the \"highest sustained growth\" in the G7.\n\nThe other missions - broad themes on what Labour wants to achieve in power - include turning the UK into a \"clean energy superpower\", improving the NHS, reforming the justice system and raising education standards.\n\nThe party has promised to provide more specific policy proposals later in the year.\n\n\"We've got to find the courage to take on vested interests,\" Sir Keir said in his speech earlier on Monday.\n\n\"So, if you think it's not government's role to shape markets, that we're only here to serve them; that a labour market which locks in low pay and productivity is something beyond reform; or that the planning system should favour the already wealthy, not the new houses, wind farms and laboratories we need to create more wealth… then that's not going to work for us,\" he said.\n\nIn the first indication of how the mission on the economy would be measured, Labour said it would look at growth in output per person and compare that to other countries.\n\nLabour said the Tories had put the country on a \"path of decline\" and if recent growth trends continued, people in the UK would be worse off than Poland's population by 2030.\n\nIt said UK GDP per capita grew at an average annual rate of 0.5% in real terms between 2010 and 2021, while Poland's grew 3.6%, (based on World Bank data).\n\nIf those trends continued, by 2030 people in the UK would each be £500 ($600) poorer than Poland's population, Labour said, and by 2040 would have fallen behind Hungary and Romania.\n\nIt also plans to look at living standards via the measure of disposable income for the median UK household, with the ambition to make progress towards eliminating the gap between the median British family and those in France and Germany by the end of the parliament.\n\nHowever Sir Keir also suggested he should be judged on whether people \"feel better off\" at the end of a Labour term in government.\n\nLabour has been wooing the business community, suggesting it would provide long-term, stable government in contrast to last autumn's rapid change of Conservative prime ministers, and the disruption on the financial markets.\n\nHowever, Sir Keir has previously said he supports the increase in corporation tax - from 19% to 25% - that is coming in April, arguing that businesses are more concerned about stability than taxes.\n\nHe has also previously promised sweeping constitutional reform, which he said would unleash potential in the nations and regions of the UK, and has said he would \"make Brexit work\".\n\nTesco chairman John Allan said: \"Growth can best be achieved by a partnership between government and business. Now we need to work together to create a detailed plan so that if Labour form the next government, they can hit the ground running on day one.\"\n• None Starmer unveils Labour's five missions for the UK", "Vladimir Putin has been at Russia's helm for more than 20 years\n\nI keep thinking back to something I heard on Russian state TV three years ago.\n\nAt the time Russians were being urged to support changes to the constitution that would enable Vladimir Putin to stay in power for another 16 years.\n\nTo persuade the public, the news anchor portrayed President Putin as a sea captain steering the good ship Russia through stormy waters of global unrest.\n\n\"Russia is an oasis of stability, a safe harbour,\" he continued. \"If it wasn't for Putin what would have become of us?\"\n\nSo much for an oasis of stability and safe harbour. On 24 February 2022, the Kremlin captain set sail in a storm of his own making. And headed straight for the iceberg.\n\nVladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has brought death and destruction to Russia's neighbour. It has resulted in huge military casualties for his own country: some estimates put the number of dead Russian soldiers in the tens of thousands.\n\nHundreds of thousands of Russian citizens have been drafted into the army and Russian prisoners (including convicted killers) have been recruited to fight in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the war has impacted energy and food prices around the world and continues to threaten European and global security.\n\nSo why did Russia's president set a course for war and territorial conquest?\n\nMr Putin attended a military ceremony on Thursday to mark Defender of the Fatherland Day\n\n\"On the horizon were the Russian presidential elections of 2024,\" points out political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann.\n\n\"Two years before that vote [the Kremlin] wanted some victorious event. In 2022 they would achieve their objectives. In 2023 they would instil in the minds of Russians how fortunate they were to have such a captain steering the ship, not just through troubled waters, but bringing them to new and richer shores. Then in 2024 people would vote. Bingo. What could go wrong?\"\n\nPlenty, if your plans are based on misassumptions and miscalculations.\n\nThe Kremlin had expected its \"special military operation\" to be lightning fast. Within weeks, it thought, Ukraine would be back in Russia's orbit. President Putin had seriously underestimated Ukraine's capacity to resist and fight back, as well as the determination of Western nations to support Kyiv.\n\nRussia's leader has yet to acknowledge, though, that he made a mistake by invading Ukraine. Mr Putin's way is to push on, to escalate, to raise the stakes.\n\nWhich brings me on to two key questions: how does Vladimir Putin view the situation one year on and what will be his next move in Ukraine?\n\nThis week he gave us some clues.\n\nHis state-of-the-nation address was packed with anti-Western bile. He continues to blame America and Nato for the war in Ukraine, and to portray Russia as an innocent party. His decision to suspend participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and America, New Start, shows that President Putin has no intention of pulling back from Ukraine or ending his standoff with the West.\n\nThe following day, at a Moscow football stadium, Mr Putin shared the stage with Russian soldiers back from the front line. At what was a highly choreographed pro-Kremlin rally, President Putin told the crowd that \"there are battles going on right now on [Russia's] historical frontiers\" and praised Russia's \"courageous warriors\".\n\nConclusion: don't expect any Kremlin U-turns. This Russian president is not for turning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\n\"If he faces no resistance, he will go as far as can,\" believes Andrei Illarionov, President Putin's former economic adviser. \"There is no other way to stop him other than military resistance.\"\n\nBut what about talks over tanks? Is negotiating peace with Mr Putin possible?\n\n\"It's possible to sit down with anyone,\" Andrei Illarionov continues, \"but we have an historic record of sitting down with Putin and making agreements with him.\n\n\"Putin violated all the documents. The agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the bilateral treaty between Russia and Ukraine, the treaty on the internationally recognised border of Russia and Ukraine, the UN charter, the Helsinki Act of 1975, the Budapest Memorandum. And so on. There is no document he would not violate.\"\n\nWhen it comes to breaking agreements, the Russian authorities have a long list of their own grudges to level at the West. Topping that list is Moscow's assertion that the West broke a promise it made in the 1990s not to enlarge the Nato alliance eastwards.\n\nAnd yet in his early years in office, Vladimir Putin appeared not to view Nato as a threat. In 2000 he even did not exclude Russia one day becoming a member of the Alliance. Two years later, asked to comment on Ukraine's stated intention of joining Nato, President Putin replied: \"Ukraine is a sovereign state and is entitled to choose itself how to ensure its own security…\" He insisted the issue would not cloud relations between Moscow and Kyiv.\n\nOn Tuesday the Russian president delivered his annual state-of-the-nation address\n\nPutin circa 2023 is a very different character. Seething with resentment at the \"collective West\", he styles himself as leader of a besieged fortress, repelling the alleged attempts of Russia's enemies to destroy his country. From his speeches and comments - and his references to imperial Russian rulers like Peter the Great and Catherine the Great - Mr Putin appears to believe he is destined to recreate the Russian empire in some shape or form.\n\nBut at what cost to Russia? President Putin once earned himself a reputation for bringing stability to his country. That has disappeared amid rising military casualties, mobilisation and economic sanctions. Several hundred thousand Russians have left the country since the start of the war, many of them young, skilled and educated: a brain drain that will hurt Russia's economy even more.\n\nAs a result of the war, suddenly, there are a lot of groups around with guns, including private military companies, like Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner group and regional battalions. Relations with the regular armed forces are far from harmonious. The conflict between Russia's Ministry of Defence and Wagner is an example of public infighting within the elites.\n\n\"Civil war is likely to cover Russia for the next decade,\" believes Konstantin Remchukov, owner and editor of Moscow-based newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. \"There are too many interest groups who understand that in these conditions there's a chance to redistribute wealth.\"\n\n\"The real chance to avoid civil war will be if the right person comes to power immediately after Putin. A person who has authority over the elites and the resoluteness to isolate those eager to exploit the situation.\"\n\n\"Are the Russian elites discussing who the right man or woman is?\" I ask Konstantin.\n\n\"Quietly. With the lights off. They do discuss this. They will have their voice.\"\n\n\"And does Putin know these discussions are happening?\"\n\n\"He knows. I think he knows everything.\"\n\nThis week the speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament declared: \"As long as there's Putin, there's Russia.\"\n\nIt was a statement of loyalty, but not of fact. Russia will survive - it has managed to for centuries. Vladimir Putin's fate, however, is linked irrevocably now to the outcome of the war in Ukraine.", "Ursula von der Leyen and Rishi Sunak will be meeting in the UK on Monday\n\n\"The jigsaw pieces are well known. They've been on the table for a while,\" a key EU figure recently told me. \"It's a case now of both of us being brave enough to hold hands and jump.\"\n\nRishi Sunak and the European Commission President are both described by their teams as preferring not to sign a deal, rather than go for (another) one they believe is doomed to fail.\n\nBrussels describes Rishi Sunak as a pragmatist. Yes, a Brexiteer but also a practical politician, solutions-focussed, rather than an ideologue.\n\nEU diplomats compare him favourably to his predecessors Liz Truss, who they say \"didn't dare touch the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland\" (you might question if she had the time in her short premiership?), and Boris Johnson, who EU leaders widely believe signed the agreement \"in bad faith\".\n\nThey insist he knew the protocol deal involved checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although he denied that fact in public.\n\nBut why would Mr Sunak attempt to solve this thorny and contentious post-Brexit issue with so much at stake - not least the politics and stability of Northern Ireland as well as of his own Conservative Party.\n\nHe already has plenty of other problems on his plate: strikes, a difficult upcoming budget, local elections in May with the Conservatives trailing in national polls.\n\nBut the EU understood the prime minister had a number of clear reasons to go for a revised Northern Ireland deal: both economic and political.\n\nFirst and foremost, Mr Sunak hopes for improved relations with the US and the EU.\n\nThe Biden administration made it clear that previous UK government talk of unilaterally overriding the current Northern Ireland Agreement would not be \"conducive\" to a trade deal between the UK and US.\n\nAdditionally, this April sees the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Peace Agreement.\n\nThe prime minister is keen for President Biden to come. But first he needs to revise the protocol sufficiently to persuade the Democratic Unionist Party to join and therefore restore the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.\n\nSunnier relations with the UK's biggest trade partner, the EU, is also advantageous for Mr Sunak.\n\nImportantly, if this revised deal falls through, he would be forced to continue with a Bill to unilaterally override key parts of the protocol which could lead to a costly trade war with Brussels - something the prime minister very much hopes to avoid.\n\nA revised agreement and improved bilateral trust could ease future deals with the EU - on the UK joining the attractive Horizon research programme for example, as well as on forging a post-Brexit deal on financial services and making it easier for UK musicians to travel throughout the EU.\n\nIt would also improve relations with France, just ahead of a big Franco-UK summit where combatting people-smuggler boats across the Channel will be a big topic of conversation.\n\nEU-UK relations are already much improved since the fractious days of initial Brexit negotiations.\n\nRussia's invasion of Ukraine reminded both sides of the values and priorities they share. They've worked closely on sanctions against Russia as well as on a country-by-country basis inside Nato.\n\nThere's much hope in the EU that rows over the Northern Ireland Protocol can now become a thing of the past.\n\nThe EU says it accepts the risk to its single market of reduced customs checks as a price worth paying.\n\nSo the ball has been in the UK's court for a while.\n\nThe challenge: how to package and present a deal in order to make it workable and acceptable to the key \"stakeholders\" - public and political in the UK.\n\nUrsula von der Leyen travelling to the UK on Monday is seen as the last piece in the presentation puzzle, but back in Brussels EU diplomats mutter that they're not counting their chickens.\n\nAs one EU figure put it to me: \"We know negotiations with us [the EU] are only part of a UK prime minister's journey. Brexit caused deep internal divisions in the UK. We have tried to negotiate a revised Northern Ireland deal. Now we watch and wait.\"", "Two rival groups clashed outside Hampden Park ahead of the cup final\n\nPolice have launched an investigation into a mass disturbance outside Hampden ahead of the League Cup final.\n\nOfficers confirmed the alarm was raised at about 09:00 on Sunday, six hours before the match between Rangers and Celtic was due to kick-off.\n\nA Police Scotland spokeswoman said a \"large group\" was involved and inquiries were ongoing.\n\nSome Rangers fans had been given access to the grounds by the stadium operators to set up a pre-match display.\n\nNo arrests were made at the time. After the match four people were arrested for disorder related offences and assault but police said the incidents were quickly resolved.\n\nPolice Scotland said it would continue to investigate the earlier disturbance, and urged the clubs to do likewise.\n\nChief Superintendent Mark Sutherland said: \"Prior to today's match supporters of both clubs had been granted pre-arranged access to Hampden Park by the stadium operators to set up displays, with Celtic on Saturday, 25 February and Rangers on the morning of Sunday, 26 February.\n\n\"A stewarding and policing plan was in place to support this arrangement. At around 8.50am on Sunday, 26 February, 2023, during this pre-arranged attendance, a disturbance took place outside the stadium involving supporters from both clubs.\"\n\nA number of videos of the disorder were posted on social media.\n\nOne, filmed from a tenement flat window, showed dozens of individuals walking along Somerville Drive on Glasgow's south side.\n\nA handful of police officers were present but they were unable to prevent a brief fight breaking out with a rival group.\n\nDuring the incident one man is seen being knocked to the ground while another throws a traffic cone nearby.\n\nSome of those involved were wearing blue hats while others were wearing green hats, but the vast majority were dressed in black.\n\nA separate clip, filmed at ground level, shows a group of men shouting as they run along the perimeter of the stadium.\n\nThe footage stops as police officers arrive on a side street facing the national stadium.\n\nCeltic later won the match 2-1, lifting the first trophy of the season.\n\nCORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said the incident was a pre-arranged clash between rival supporters of the Glasgow clubs. Police have confirmed that this was incorrect. We apologise for this error in our reporting.", "Lionel Messi: Argentina forward wins Best Fifa men's player of the year award Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nLionel Messi was presented the award by Fifa president Gianni Infantino Argentina and Paris St-Germain forward Lionel Messi has been named men's player of the year at the 2022 Best Fifa Awards. The 35-year-old beat French forwards Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema to the prize. Messi captained Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar, and scored 27 goals in 49 games for club and country in 2021-22. Barcelona's Alexia Putellas was named women's player of the year. Messi, who won the award for a second time, said: \"It's amazing. It's been a tremendous year and it's an honour for me to be here and win this award. Without my team-mates I wouldn't be here. \"I achieved the dream I had been hoping for for so long. Very few people can achieve that and I have been lucky to do so.\" At the ceremony in Paris, Lionel Scaloni,who led Argentina to their third World Cup title, was named men's coach of the year. Scaloni beat Pep Guardiola - who guided Manchester City to a sixth Premier League title - and Real Madrid's Champions League-winning boss Carlo Ancelotti to the honour. England manager Sarina Wiegman was named women's coach of the year after leading the Lionesses to European Championship glory on home soil last year, the team's first major trophy. Aston Villa and Argentina's Emiliano Martinez was recognised as the best men's goalkeeper, while England's Mary Earps won the women's award. Martinez, 30, helped his country win the World Cup, saving four penalties along the way including in the shootout victory against France in the final. Collecting his award, Martinez said: \"They always ask me who my idols are or who I watched when I was a kid… watching my mum clean buildings for eight or nine hours and watching my dad work. They are my idols.\" Earps, who plays for Manchester United in the Women's Super League, started all six of England's games at Euro 2022 as they won the competition. She said: \"For anyone who has been in a dark place, just know there is light at the end of the tunnel, so keep going. You can achieve anything that you set your mind to.\"\n• None How Martinez became world's best goalkeeper Amputee footballer Marcin Oleksy, of Polish side Warta Poznan, won the Fifa Puskas award for the best goal of the year. He sent a stunning overhead volley against Stal Rzeszow flying into the back of the net with the help of his crutches. Recipient of the fair play award was Luka Lochoshvili, who held the tongue of his opponent, Georg Teigl, to save his life after the midfielder had fallen unconscious.\n• None The reality star Charlotte Crosby as you’ve never seen her before...", "Twitter has laid off at least 200 staff in another round of cuts, according to reports in the New York Times.\n\nIt said the tech giant had cut 10% of its current workforce, which it estimated at 2,000 people.\n\nThis is the latest round of job losses at Twitter since chief executive Elon Musk sacked about 50% of its 7,500 employees when he took over in October.\n\nAs staff learned of their fate, Mr Musk tweeted: \"Hope you have a good Sunday. First day of the rest of your life.\"\n\nEsther Crawford, chief executive of Twitter Payments, who oversaw the Twitter Blue verification subscription model, said she was \"deeply proud of my team\" in a tweet after being among those released.\n\nAnd senior product manager Martijn de Kuijper, who founded newsletter tool Revue which Twitter acquired in 2021, said he found out he had lost his job after being locked out of his work emails.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Martijn This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIt's been a while since my phone blew up on a Sunday because of news about Twitter - not because there hasn't been any, but because we've all got used to it.\n\nMore divisive user-experience changes to the platform, more provocative tweets from its owner Elon Musk... we are familiar with that drill. But nobody was expecting Esther Crawford, who had established herself as an influential figure in so-called Twitter 2.0, to be laid off.\n\nIn November, she shared a picture of herself lying down inside a sleeping bag and wearing an eye mask on the floor at Twitter HQ. She has tirelessly cheerleaded the firm's path under Mr Musk. Some thought the product manager might even become the company's next chief executive. Mr Musk said weeks ago that he would stand aside in the role as soon as he found a replacement.\n\nIt demonstrates once again this new brutal environment in which even the most loyal are unprotected. It will be familiar to many in the commercial sector and it's increasingly the way big tech is going as budgets start to bite.\n\nEsther herself tweeted that it was \"a mistake\" to think that her \"optimism and hard work\" had been a bad decision. \"I'm deeply proud of the team for building through so much noise and chaos,\" she wrote.\n\nShe probably wouldn't have called it \"noise and chaos\" this time last week.\n\nThe Twitter cuts are the latest in a long line of lay-offs in the tech industry over the past few months.\n\nAmazon, Microsoft and Google-owned Alphabet announced tens of thousands of lay-offs between them, but the cuts across the industry are wide-reaching.\n\nAt the end of January, more than 10,000 jobs were lost in eight days across six large tech companies including Spotify, Intel and IBM.\n\nThe Twitter cuts come a month after Reuters reported the firm had made its first interest payment on a bank loan used by Mr Musk to finance the purchase.\n\nHe paid $44bn (£37bn) to take control, with $13bn - a third of the total amount - covered by loans from banks including Morgan Stanley and Barclays.\n\nThese loans are leveraged against Twitter - in other words, the tech company itself is responsible for the loan repayments, not Mr Musk.\n\nReuters reported Twitter paid about $300m to the banks in January.\n\nMeanwhile, there are further indications that the tech company is struggling with financing.\n\nIt is being sued by the Crown Estate in the UK over alleged unpaid rent for its London headquarters, and faces a similar lawsuit in the US over unpaid rent at its San Francisco HQ.\n\nAnd a lawyer representing more than 100 former employees sacked by Twitter told the BBC in February the number of staff launching legal action against the company \"goes up daily\".\n\nMr Musk told this month's World Government Summit in Dubai: \"I think I need to stabilise the organisation and just make sure it's in a financially healthy place.\n\n\"I'm guessing probably towards the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company, because I think it should be in a stable position around the end of this year.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Spectacular skies as northern lights fill the sky over the UK\n\nIn a very rare display, the northern lights were seen as far south as Kent and Cornwall on Sunday night.\n\nAcross more northern areas of the UK, the display was one of the best seen in a very long time by BBC Weather Watchers.\n\nAn aurora is formed by a solar flare erupting on the Sun, sending charged particles towards Earth which interact with our atmosphere.\n\nMore displays are expected in the coming nights.\n\nVibrant green colours of the aurora filling the whole sky in the Shetland Islands\n\nThe green lights were projected onto south side of Lough Neagh in County Armagh, Northern Ireland\n\nBright green and deep red colours filled the sky in the Scottish Highlands\n\nA kaleidoscope of colours was cast over the Brecon Beacons in south Wales\n\nIn the UK, we can often see the northern lights in Scotland, but they are rarely spotted in southern England.\n\nOn Sunday, there were sightings there as well as Northern Ireland, south Wales and Norfolk.\n\nThe lights are rarely seen in Kent, southern England\n\nOver the last few days, a strong solar flare on the Sun's surface was directed towards Earth with charged particles reaching our atmosphere on Sunday night.\n\nThe charged particles interact with oxygen and nitrogen which then emit green and red colours over our poles.\n\nIf it's a strong solar flare, the charged particles can travel further away from the poles into middle latitudes such as southern England.\n\nThere may be another opportunity to see the northern lights on Monday night where skies are clear.\n\nBBC WEATHER WATCHER / SHIRLEY YOU CANT BE CIRRUS One BBC weather watcher captured the strong pink and purple hues covering the Norfolk sky on Sunday night\n\nPhotographer Gary Pearson, who watched the display from Brancaster Staithe in Norfolk on Sunday, said: \"We had a fantastic showing from the northern lights last night.\n\n\"The aurora was clearly visible to the naked eye, though it was the long exposure taken by the camera that picked up the extremely vivid colours.\"\n\nPhotographer Gary Pearson captured the rare lights cast over Brancaster Staithe in Norfolk\n\nIn the heart of Teesdale, County Durham, revellers witnessed a blast of green and red light at Grassholme Observatory.\n\nAt Grassholme Observatory, County Durham, green and red lights filled the sky\n\nIn Stirling, Scotland, the aurora was in full view\n\nThe Sun goes through an 11-year solar cycle measured in terms of how active its magnetic field is. As this magnetic field changes, so does the amount of activity on the Sun's surface.\n\nThe last solar minimum was in 2020, so activity on the Sun has been increasing since then and it is currently the most active since 2014.\n\nSolar maximum is expected in 2025, more frequent displays of the aurora are likely in the coming years.\n\nMore yellow tones were seen in the aurora in Argyll and Bute, Scotland\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "King Charles has met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for tea at Windsor Castle following the unveiling of a new Northern Ireland Brexit deal.\n\nBuckingham Palace said the meeting had been arranged on the advice of the government.\n\nThe pair were pictured shaking hands shortly after the EU head held a joint press conference with Rishi Sunak.\n\nBut there were warnings against drawing the monarch into a political dispute.\n\nConservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Brexiteer and former cabinet minister, said it was \"constitutionally unwise to involve the King in a matter of immediate political controversy\".\n\nSammy Wilson, chief whip of the Democratic Unionist Party, said the meeting would risk \"dragging the King into a hugely controversial political issue\".\n\nBut the prime minister's official spokesman likened the meeting with Ms von der Leyen to the King's other recent meetings with visiting international dignitaries such as Polish President Andrzej Duda or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.\n\n\"We don't get into what discussions we have or not had with the palace. But it is standard that the government provides advice to the palace on things like visits and meetings,\" said the Number 10 spokesman.\n\nHowever, the No 10 spokesman said the prime minister \"firmly believes it's for the King to make those decisions\".\n\nA Buckingham Palace source also indicated that the meeting, held in one of the castle's ornate drawing rooms after the deal was announced, followed government advice.\n\n\"The King is pleased to meet any world leader if they are visiting Britain and it is the government's advice that he should do so,\" said a palace spokesman.\n\nPhotographs captured the smiles and handshakes of the meeting in the White Drawing Room.\n\nUrsula von der Leyen with PM Rishi Sunak in Windsor on Monday\n\nThe EU sought to distance the Windsor meeting from political negotiations, saying the meeting between the King and the European Commission president was \"separate\" and \"not part\" of the talks over the Northern Ireland protocol.\n\nBuckingham Palace sources emphasised that this was a regular meeting between the King and a visiting international leader and would build on other previous meetings between the King and Ms von der Leyen.\n\nThe King, as head of state, hosts a steady stream of visiting international figures and overseas representatives.\n\nThe Windsor Castle meeting, with tea, smiles, handshakes and photographs, was described in terms of a wider agenda by both the palace and the EU chief.\n\nMs von der Leyen said it had been an honour and a pleasure to meet the King.\n\n\"We discussed the joint challenges the EU and UK face as historic partners and our joint duties: Unwavering support for Ukraine and fighting global climate change,\" she said on Twitter.", "Full details of the Windsor Framework have now been published\n\nBusinesses groups in Northern Ireland have expressed hope over the announcement of a new deal on post-Brexit trade.\n\nStephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing NI, said the deal had gone much further than many would have expected.\n\nFull details of the Windsor Framework have now been published.\n\nMost business groups welcomed the progress but said they wanted to study the full details.\n\nThe NI Business Brexit Working Group said the deal was an important step \"in securing the stability and certainty\".\n\nThe group, a collaboration of about 14 industry bodies, asked the EU and UK to continue with a \"constructive, solutions-focused approach\" as businesses adjusted to the new arrangements.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra, Mr Kelly said he had been in a conference call with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris following the announcement, during which he sounded \"very pleased\".\n\n\"There has been a huge amount of engagement with business over the last few years,\" he said,\n\n\"They've listened to those conversations, they've studied in depth and probably stretched themselves to a point that they probably thought was never going to be visible to each other.\"\n\nMr Kelly added that there might still be \"worries and disappointments\" but they could be resolved through further talks with the UK government.\n\nRoger Pollen from the Federation of Small Businesses said operators and traders had been clear about their concerns since the protocol was implemented two years ago.\n\nHe said he hoped the new deal would resolve ongoing problems within the industry and at Stormont.\n\n\"What we want is the international uncertainty that the protocol's operation has brought is resolved and also the local uncertainty that we've had at Stormont is resolved so we can stand on our own two feet and trade our way back into a better decision,\" he said.\n\nRetail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts said the deal represented progress but details needed to be studied and his group needed to consult its members.\n\n\"Ongoing engagement between the business community and the EU and UK Government will be critical as the implementation process of this deal begins,\" he added.\n\nHe called for the Stormont assembly and executive to be restored.\n\nLondonderry Chamber of Commerce president Selina Horshi described the deal as positive news.\n\n\"This has been a turbulent period for businesses, and clarity and certainty are welcome,\" she added.\n\n\"We are hopeful that this new agreement will further smooth trade for local businesses, iron out any of the problems for traders, and bolster our unique market position which guarantees this part of the world access to the European and British markets\n\nThe head of the UK's biggest business group congratulated both sides for resolving the deadlock.\n\nTony Danker, director-general of the the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) called the deal as a breakthrough and said it would help people in Northern Ireland stop feeling as though life \"has been on hold for the past couple of years\".\n\n\"Business stands ready to work with all stakeholders moving forward. Work to understand and successfully implement new arrangements should start immediately,\" he added.", "Yeoh told the audience she knew she was \"up against titans\" in the leading actress category\n\nEverything Everywhere All At Once has cemented its status as the Oscars frontrunner after several big wins at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards.\n\nThe multiverse adventure won best film cast at the ceremony, while several of its stars were individually recognised.\n\n\"This is not just for me, it's for every little girl who looks like me,\" Yeoh said in her emotional acceptance speech.\n\nHer co-star Ke Huy Quan became the first Asian winner of best supporting actor, while there was a shock win for his co-star Jamie Lee Curtis in the supporting actress category.\n\nEverything Everywhere All At Once follows a laundrette owner - played by Yeoh - who must tap into different versions of herself from the multiverse in order to save the world.\n\nThe sci-fi adventure's victory gives it significant momentum ahead of the Oscars on 12 March, and indicates it is the clear frontrunner to win best picture. Its four SAG awards are the most ever won by single film.\n\nThere was only one winner in SAG's film acting categories who was not from Everything Everywhere All At Once - Brendan Fraser was named best actor for his performance in The Whale.\n\nVeteran actor James Hong, 94, said the film has proved Asian stars can achieve box office success\n\nThe Whale's Brendan Fraser (pictured with partner Jeanne Morre) was the only film acting winner not from Everything Everywhere All At Once\n\nIn her speech, Yeoh told the audience - which was largely made up of fellow actors - that \"we're here because we love what we do, we will never stop doing what we do\".\n\n\"Thank you for giving me a seat at the table, because so many of us need this, we want to be seen, we want to be heard, and tonight you have shown us that it is possible,\" she said.\n\nThe prize for best film cast is seen as the top honour at the SAG Awards in the absence of a best picture category. Winners at the annual ceremony, held in Los Angeles, are voted for by other actors.\n\nVeteran actor James Hong, 94, who plays Yeoh's father in Everything Everywhere, gave a comical acceptance speech, in which he vowed to return to the ceremony when he was 100 years old.\n\n\"I got my first SAG card 70 years ago. Back in those days... producers said that Asians were not good enough and they are not box office - but look at us now,\" he said to cheers from the audience.\n\nThe film's SAG honour was the second major accolade it achieved this weekend. On Saturday, it won the top prize at the Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards, another valuable indicator of Academy Awards success.\n\nJamie Lee Curtis made light of the recent \"nepo baby\" debate in her acceptance speech\n\nIn her own acceptance speech, Curtis said: \"I love acting, I love the job we get to do, I love being a part of a crew, part of a cast, I love what we do with each other, it's such a beautiful job... what a dream.\"\n\nCurtis, who is the daughter of two actors, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, also made light of the recent \"nepo baby\" online debate about stars who arguably had an advantage in their careers because they have famous parents.\n\n\"I know you look at me and think 'well, nepo baby, that's why she's there', and I get it,\" Curtis said. \"But the truth of the matter is, I'm 64 years old and this is just amazing.\" The actress had also referred to herself as a \"nepo baby\" earlier in the ceremony.\n\nHer victory, together with that of Kerry Condon at last week's Baftas, casts significant doubt over the supporting actress category ahead of the Oscars. Wakanda Forever's Angela Bassett had previously been considered the most likely winner.\n\nCurtis's co-star Ke Huy Quan scored a historic victory as he was named best supporting actor, becoming the first Asian actor to win the prize.\n\n\"When I heard that, I quickly realised that this moment no longer belongs to just me. It also belongs to everyone who has asked for change,\" Quan said as he collected his trophy. \"This is a really emotional moment for me.\"\n\nKe Huy Quan became the first Asian to win best supporting actor\n\nQuan rose to fame as a child star in films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but he took a break from acting later in his career until returning with Everything Everywhere All At Once.\n\n\"When I stepped away from acting, it's because there were so few opportunities,\" he said. \"And yet here we are tonight, the landscape looks so different now than before. Thank you to everyone who contributed to these changes.\"\n\nElsewhere, Fraser was named best actor for his performance in The Whale, beating Austin Butler, the young actor who has triumphed at several other precursor ceremonies for his performance as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's biopic.\n\n\"I will treasure this but never more than what I used to keep in my wallet, which was my SAG card, that I earned in 1991,\" Fraser recalled, becoming visibly emotional. \"It made me feel like I belonged. If you told that guy back then, that I'd be standing here right now, I would not have believed you.\"\n\nHe described the role of Charlie, the morbidly obese professor he portrays in The Whale, as \"the role of my life\".\n\nFraser's win continues a hugely successful comeback for the actor, who was a box office star at the turn of the millennium with films such as The Mummy and George of the Jungle.\n\nBut the 54-year-old then spent several years out of the spotlight, taking on smaller roles as he struggled to recapture his earlier success, until he was cast as the lead in Darren Aronofsky's film.\n\n\"I just want you to know, all the actors out there who have gone through that or are going through that, I know how you feel, but believe me, if you just stay in there and put one foot in front of the other, you'll get to where you need to go,\" Fraser said.\n\nThe White Lotus won best drama series, as well as best drama series actress for Jennifer Coolidge (pictured)\n\nIn the TV categories, acting winners included Jessica Chastain (for George & Tammy), Jason Bateman (Ozark), Sam Elliott (1883) and Jean Smart (Hacks).\n\nThe top two TV prizes - best drama series and best comedy series - were won by wealth satire The White Lotus and school-based sitcom Abbott Elementary respectively.\n\nThe White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge, who won best actress in a drama series, used her acceptance speech to recount the story of when her usually rule-abiding father let her skip school to attend the Charlie Chaplin film festival.\n\n\"He got me out of my first grade class to do it,\" she said, \"and seeing Charlie Chaplin for the first time and having that experience, my love of film, my love of actors, all of that came from my first grade.\"\n\nAndrew Garfield presented the lifetime achievement award to Sally Field, who told the crowd: \"In all of these almost 60 years there is not a day that I don't feel quietly thrilled to call myself an actor.\"\n\nFamous faces including Robbie Coltrane, Ray Liotta, James Caan, Dame Olivia Newton John, Irene Cara, Annie Wersching and Dame Angela Lansbury also featured in the show's In Memoriam segment.\n\nThe SAG Awards and the Bafta Film Awards are both seen as Oscar indicators - but this year, none of the major winners overlapped.\n\nLast week's Baftas were instead dominated by The Banshees of Inisherin and All Quiet On The Western Front, while Everything Everywhere took only one of the 10 awards it was nominated for.\n\nIt leaves the awards race wide open ahead of the Oscars, with no actor this year having won their category across the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, SAG Awards and Baftas.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: How to survive the red carpet - and spitting celebrities", "The DUP will want to look beyond the headlines and study the legal text which will accompany the NI Protocol deal\n\nThe moment of truth is fast approaching for the DUP.\n\nThe final pieces of a deal between the UK and EU are falling into place - even down to the title, with The Windsor Agreement being floated as an option.\n\nOnce published - most likely on Monday - the spotlight will fall on Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his party.\n\nBut don't expect a quick response, that is not the DUP way. The party will reserve judgement on any deal.\n\nThey will want to look beyond the headlines and study the legal text which will accompany the deal.\n\nThat will be the acid test - does it meet the party's key demands?\n\nThough open to interpretation in parts, their demands deal with removing trade barriers across the Irish Sea and \"restoring Northern Ireland sovereign place in the UK\".\n\nFixing the \"democratic deficit\" will also be key for the DUP.\n\nExpect to see a beefed up role for the assembly when it comes to deciding what EU legislation will apply in Northern Ireland.\n\nBut will it amount to more of a say in the decision making process, stopping short of a veto which the EU insist it will not allow.\n\nThat will be key and may require some constructive ambiguity to allow both the DUP and EU to sell the deal.\n\nCrucially the new legal text which will \"overlay\" the previous legislation will allow the DUP to claim the protocol has been replaced, though the EU will argue the protocol remains intact with its original legal text unchanged.\n\nRishi Sunak could make another visit to Northern Ireland to try and shore up DUP support for a deal\n\nBefore passing verdict on the deal, the DUP will consult those businesses struggling under the burden of the protocol - the same businesses Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been trying to box off before publishing his deal.\n\nIf it works for businesses on the frontline then it adds more pressure on the DUP to say yes.\n\nBut the very fact the government is poised to publish the deal signals some level of DUP support.\n\nTo run the risk of a quick DUP rejection would have been reckless.\n\nDon't rule out another last dash by the prime minister to Northern Ireland to shore up their support.", "The ex-husband and former in-laws of Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi have appeared in court after being charged in connection with her murder.\n\nThe accused include her ex-husband Alex Kwong, Kwong's brother Anthony and their father Kwong Kau.\n\nKwong's mother, 63, has been charged with obstructing the case. They were all denied bail on Monday.\n\nThe 28-year-old was reported missing on Tuesday - the grisly details of her murder have shocked Hong Kong.\n\nThis story contains details some readers may find distressing.\n\nChoi's head was found in a three-storey house in the rural Tai Po district on Sunday, days after her other body parts were found in the same location - roughly 27km (17 miles) from where she was last seen in Kowloon City on Tuesday.\n\nA meat slicer and an electric saw were also found at the scene.\n\nHong Kong police told media they believe Choi and her former in-laws had many financial disputes involving \"huge sums\".\n\nAlex Kwong was arrested on Saturday while trying to leave the city by speedboat, police said. His parents and elder brother were detained a day earlier.\n\nPolice also arrested a fifth suspect on Sunday who was connected to Choi's father-in-law.\n\nChoi had two children with Alex Kwong, and two children with Chris Tam - her partner since 2016.\n\nShe had recently appeared on the cover of L'Officiel Monaco - a fashion and luxury lifestyle magazine - and had been a well-known socialite in Hong Kong with more than 100,000 followers online.", "Rishi Sunak said today's agreement on new post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland marks a \"new chapter\" in the UK's relationship with the EU.\n\nThe deal will preserve the \"delicate balance\" in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that protects the \"aspirations and identity\" of all people in Northern Ireland, the prime minister said in a press conference.\n\nThe PM and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met in Windsor to finalise the agreement, which follows months of negotiations.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Time's up! Betty Boothroyd's farewell to the Commons\n\nThe first female Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd has died aged 93.\n\nShe served as Speaker from 1992 to 2000, before going on to become a baroness in the House of Lords from 2001.\n\nThe current Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle described her as \"an inspirational woman\" who was known for her \"no-nonsense style\".\n\nShe was the Labour MP for West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000.\n\n\"To be the first woman Speaker was truly groundbreaking and Betty certainly broke that glass ceiling with panache,\" Sir Lindsay said.\n\n\"Betty was one of a kind. A sharp, witty and formidable woman - and I will miss her.\"\n\nThe flags in Parliament are being flown at half mast and the House of Commons held a one minute silence before business began on Monday.\n\nMPs will get the chance to pay formal tributes on Tuesday.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said Baroness Boothroyd was a \"remarkable woman\" praising her \"passion, wit and sense of fairness\".\n\nFormer prime ministers have also been paying tribute.\n\nSir Tony Blair said she was \"big-hearted and kind\" and Sir John Major described her as \"easy to like and easier still to admire\".\n\nTheresa May said she had earned \"the respect and admiration\" of all MPs during her time as Speaker.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer described her as a \"dedicated and devoted public servant who will be dearly missed\".\n\nBetty Boothroyd was born on 8 October 1929 in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, the only daughter of mill workers.\n\nGrowing up in a political environment - her father was a trade unionist - she described herself as coming \"out of the womb into the Labour movement\".\n\nHowever, she didn't immediately go into politics, becoming a dancer with the Tiller Girl troupe.\n\nIt took Betty Boothroyd five attempts to win a seat in Parliament\n\nShe then took a number of office jobs before getting involved in politics, working for the Labour MP Barbara Castle and on the campaign to elect John F. Kennedy as US President.\n\nIn May 1973, after several attempts, she entered Parliament, securing the seat of West Bromwich, later renamed West Bromwich West.\n\nAfter nearly two decades in Parliament she was elected by her fellow MPs to the position of Speaker of the House of Commons - a job which involves presiding over proceedings in the chamber.\n\nShe stepped down from the position in 2000, but continued to be active in politics - calling for a statue in central London to commemorate the part women played in World War Two.\n\nShe was also passionately involved in the campaign to keep the UK in the EU.\n\nAlastair Campbell, who was also involved in the campaign, said she was a \"total one off\".\n\n\"One of the kindest, wisest, most loving and loveable women you could ever wish to know.\"\n\nClare Short - a Labour minister from 1997 to 2003 - told BBC 5 Live that Baroness Boothroyd \"suited being Speaker perfectly, her personality shone through, she had a natural authority.\n\n\"She was the one who dropped the wig [traditionally worn by Commons Speakers] because she had her own lovely thick grey curling hair.\"", "Saharat Sawangjaeng went under the knife several times and changed his name to dodge investigators\n\nA Thai drug dealer underwent several facial plastic surgeries to look like \"a handsome Korean man\" and evade the law, local authorities have said.\n\nSaharat Sawangjaeng, who adopted the alias Seong Jimin, was caught last week at a condominium in Bangkok.\n\nPolice, who had been on the hunt for the 25-year-old for three months, said \"none of his original face was left\".\n\nThey tracked him down by tracing the distribution of ecstasy to other sellers and buyers in Bangkok.\n\nWitnesses described him as a \"handsome Korean man\" to police. He had also changed his name to a Korean one. In a video of the arrest provided by the police, Mr Saharat said he wanted to move to South Korea: \"I want to start a new life. I am bored of Thailand\".\n\nMr Saharat has been charged with the illegal import of narcotics. He admitted to ordering MDMA - also known as ecstasy - over the dark web using cryptocurrencies, the police said last week.\n\nSaharat Sawangjaeng was arrested at a condominium in Bangkok\n\nHe had in previous years been arrested on at least three occasions. One time he was detained on an assault charge, and the police found 290 ecstasy pills and 2kg (4.4lb) of narcotics in liquid form in his possession.\n\nBut he managed to escape detention and at one point, underwent extensive surgical procedures to dodge investigators.\n\nThai Police major-general Theeradej Thammasutee described him as \"one of the main causes of Bangkok's MDMA epidemic\", The Straits Times reported.\n\n\"He is a drug lord importing MDMA from Europe at just 25 years old. We believe there are more suspects in foreign countries. We will continue our investigation,\" Mr Thammasutee said.\n\nWhile Mr Saharat said in the video that he mostly imported drugs from the Netherlands, he added that he did not know the identity of the people he dealt with as part of the operation.", "Before Sunak's statement in the Commons, we heard reaction to the deal from Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party - and we've also been hearing from the other parties represented in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont.\n\nAlliance Party: Deputy leader Stephen Farry welcomes the deal but says the Stormont brake could add \"a certain amount of instability in Stormont\".\n\nUlster Unionist Party: Leader Doug Beattie says his party will study the deal and is not simply going to give cover to other parties.\n\nSocial Democratic and Labour Party: Colum Eastwood, leader of the nationalist party, says it is a positive day and the deal brings \"an enormous opportunity to create jobs, to trade into two markets that nobody else has\".\n\nTraditional Unionist Voice: Leader Jim Allister criticises the Windsor Framework, saying \"effectively the protocol stays\" and he believes the Stormont brake is a veto for nationalist parties at Stormont.\n\nPeople Before Profit: Assembly member Gerry Carroll says the deal must not \"further enshrine communal divisions\" at Stormont and his party opposes \"any further protocol concessions to the DUP\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAn Israeli American has been shot and killed in the occupied West Bank as retaliatory unrest intensifies.\n\nElan Ganeles, 26, was killed in an attack on vehicles on a highway near the city of Jericho.\n\nThe shooting happened after Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages in the West Bank on Sunday night, with dozens of cars and houses burned.\n\nThat attack came after two settlers, from a nearby village, were shot dead by a Palestinian on Sunday.\n\nGaneles was taken by paramedics to a hospital in Jerusalem, but was later pronounced dead.\n\nUS Ambassador Tom Nides tweeted: \"Sadly, I can confirm that a US citizen was killed in one of the terror attacks in the West Bank tonight. I pray for his family.\"\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces said attackers opened fire on Israeli vehicles on three occasions, and later set their own vehicles on fire.\n\nThere was an exchange of fire with police before the attackers fled, the IDF tweeted.\n\nThere was no immediate claim of responsibility by any Palestinian groups.\n\nIslamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip but is less prominent in the West Bank, said the attack was a natural response to Israeli attacks.\n\n\"The crimes conducted by the occupation and the herds of settlers will not be met but with stabbing, shooting and car ramming,\" a spokesman said in a statement.\n\nThe violence came after Israeli and Palestinian officials had pledged to de-escalate tensions at a summit in Jordan.\n\nVideos posted hours after the summit ended on Sunday showed a large crowd of Israeli settlers entering the village of Hawara, about 4 miles (6km) south of Nablus, lighting fires and throwing stones.\n\nThe Palestinian health ministry said 37-year-old Sameh Aqtash died after being shot in the stomach during an attack by settlers in Zaatara on Sunday night.\n\nThis part of the West Bank falls under full Israeli control, and Palestinians criticised Israeli security forces for failing to protect them.\n\nPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he held the Israeli government fully responsible for what he called \"the terrorist acts carried out by Israeli settlers, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces\".\n\nIsrael's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appealed for calm and urged settlers to allow the Israeli military and security forces to focus on finding the gunman who killed the two Israelis.\n\n\"I ask that when blood is boiling and the spirit is hot, don't take the law into your hands,\" he said in a video statement.\n\nSettlers had called for a march to Hawara in order to \"seek revenge\" for the deadly attack on Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, who lived in the settlement of Har Bracha, which is 1.2 miles south of Nablus.\n\nThe brothers were driving through Hawara when a Palestinian man rammed their car and then shot them both several times.\n\nNo Palestinian militant group has so far claimed they were behind the attack, but the gunman was reportedly wearing a shirt bearing the insignia of the Nablus-based Lions' Den.\n\nMembers of the group were the targets of an Israeli raid in Nablus last Wednesday in which 11 Palestinians, including several civilians, were killed - the deadliest such operation in the West Bank since 2005.\n\nIsraeli forces have been carrying out waves of search, arrest and intelligence-gathering raids in Nablus and the nearby city of Jenin, saying they are trying to stem the spate of deadly attacks against Israelis by Palestinians.\n\nSince the start of this year, more than 60 Palestinians - militants and civilians - have been killed by Israeli forces. On the Israeli side, 14 people have been killed in attacks - all civilians, except for a paramilitary police officer.\n\nMore than 600,000 Jews live in 140 settlements built since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.\n\nMost of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.", "Ukraine has managed to hold Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine despite fierce Russian attempts to seize it\n\nBeneath his green helmet, dark shadows ringed his eyes. He had been on his feet all night fighting. Like many on Ukraine's eastern front, he is both battle-hardened and war-weary.\n\n\"It's difficult. People don't get enough sleep. They are standing for 20 hours. The fight goes on around the clock. I can't say more, it's secret. But, we can't go back.\"\n\nHis unit, from the Ukraine's 35th Brigade, is part of the defence of Vuhledar. The name means gift of coal, and this prosperous mining town was once home to 15,000 people. But now it's a wasteland - one of many on Ukraine's 1,300 kilometre (807 mile) front line.\n\nBlackened apartment blocks tower over deserted streets. A church has been reduced to a shell - its roof peeled off and windows shattered. A cross still stands at the front, punctured by shrapnel. In the playground, there are bullet holes in the slide. Vuhledar's children are long gone.\n\nThe town sits on high ground in the heavily contested Donbas region in the east. From here Ukraine can target rail lines used by the Russians for resupply. It needs to hold this bastion. Moscow needs to take it. Some of the fiercest fighting of recent months has been here.\n\n\"The front line is one kilometre away,\" said the commander, having to repeat himself over the rattle of heavy machine-gun fire, this time outgoing.\n\n\"They are pushing, and we lack armour. We are waiting for the Lend-Lease [the US programme that provides military equipment] and we will advance.\" That's a familiar refrain on front lines here as Ukraine awaits Western battle tanks promised by its allies.\n\nThe commander, codenamed Beast, says Ukraine's forces are waiting for Western weapons before advancing\n\nFor now, the defenders of Vuhledar use what they have got.\n\nA few troops dart into position, to target the enemy. They lob mortars - and obscenities - then make a quick getaway, to avoid being targeted themselves.\n\nWe move forward carefully to within 500 metres of the front line. The Russians have no line of sight. We are shielded by buildings. But suddenly there's a warning shout. We have to take cover at a wall. The troops have heard something overhead, possibly a Russian drone. That's our cue to pull back.\n\nThe Russians may have eyes in the sky here - and superior firepower - but critics back home are questioning their vision.\n\nA hapless Russian attempt to take the town earlier this month ended in heavy losses and humiliation. A column of tanks and armoured vehicles headed straight for Ukrainian positions - through minefields - in full view on a flat plain. Ukraine stopped them in their tracks, much as it stopped an armoured column approaching Kyiv last year. If the Russians learned anything from that, it didn't show in Vuhledar.\n\nAbout 300 souls remain in this broken town without heat or light - frozen in place by age, clinging to their memories. Solace comes in the form of Oleh Tkachenko, a jovial evangelical pastor in combat gear, who brings aid here twice a week.\n\nPastor Oleh (right) gives out food and hugs on aid trips to Vuhledar\n\nHe arrives in the early morning, before the shelling reaches its peak. Soon his armoured van attracts a queue of men and women bundled up in winter coats and hats. \"Hang on,\" he says, as hands reach out for freshly baked bread. \"It's one loaf for each person.\"\n\nValentina, who is 73, quietly waits her turn. She's a slight figure, bent low over a walking stick, with a head torch around her neck. She tells us she has nowhere else to go.\n\n\"We are frightened, of course,\" she says. \"But what can we do? We live with it. You can't say 'Don't shoot!' They have their job. We have our lives.\"\n\nShe recalls life before the invasion. \"The town was quiet, calm, and clean. People worked and had money. What can I say? It was a good town.\" Her voice cracks and she falls silent.\n\nValentina is one of just 300 residents remaining in the embattled town\n\nAt the van Pastor Oleh dispenses some advice, and a quick hug before hurrying people away. Crowds are a target.\n\n\"There's always shelling,\" he says. \"We try not to gather a lot of people. We park carefully, in the safest places, near the entrance to a building where people can take shelter. We help because it's a matter of life or death. The risk is huge but so is the reward - saving people's lives.\"\n\nHe's pained by the fate of Vuhledar, which was his home for three years. \"I think it's completely obvious that Russia hates Ukraine,\" he says. \"It hates our cities and our people, and it is destroying everything it hates. No matter what Russia says, its action scream louder than its words.\"\n\nThe story of Vuhledar is replicated in many parts of the eastern front. Ukraine is resisting, straining every sinew. The Russians are not winning but they aren't giving up either.\n\nThere is a cold hard truth on the front lines here. One year after his invasion, President Putin stills holds almost a fifth of this vast country.\n\nBoth sides have signalled that major offensives are coming. The coming months will be critical.", "Eyes on Orban as EU decides on support for Ukraine , published at 12:42 14 December Eyes on Orban as EU decides on support for Ukraine", "Police investigating the attempted murder of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell have been given more time to question a 43-year-old man.\n\nA court in Belfast has granted an extension until 22:00 GMT on Tuesday 28 February.\n\nThe senior police officer was shot outside a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, on Wednesday.\n\nSix men remain in custody in connection with the attack. The youngest is 22 and the oldest is aged 71.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell had just finished coaching under-15s at football when he was shot multiple times in front of his young son. He remains critically ill in hospital.\n\nPolicing representative body the Police Federation for Northern Ireland said he had suffered life-changing injuries.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland's main line of inquiry is that dissident republican group the New IRA was responsible for shooting the 48-year-old in the car park of the Youth Sport Omagh site.\n\nDissident republicans oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal and continue to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.", "The stories \"hint at the world Sir Terry would go on to create\", Penguin said\n\nA collection of 20 recently rediscovered short stories by late fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett is to be published later this year.\n\nSir Terry wrote the stories for a regional newspaper under the pseudonym Patrick Kearns in the 1970s and 80s.\n\nThey had not previously been attributed to him, but have now been collected after a search by \"a few dedicated fans\", publishers Penguin said.\n\nSir Terry, known for the best-selling Discworld series, died in 2015.\n\nThe Quest for the Keys, one of the longer stories in the new collection, had been framed for 40 years on the wall of Pratchett fan Chris Lawrence.\n\nHe got in touch with the Pratchett estate about it, resulting in the others being found by fellow fans Pat and Jan Harkin after they raked through decades' worth of old newspapers.\n\nMr Lawrence said: \"The Quest for the Keys resonated with me as a 15-year-old, which is why I made the effort to collect each part.\n\n\"I treasured and kept them safe for over 35 years. Having survived numerous house moves, little did I know of their importance. Following contact with [Pratchett's publisher] Colin Smythe, I realised just how significant they were.\"\n\nSmythe said: \"For all the years I was Terry's publisher and then agent he never ever gave me any help in finding his shorter writings - but as he wrote in his dedication to me in Dragons at Crumbling Castle, there were stories he had carefully hidden away.\n\n\"Just how true these words were, I had no idea.\"\n\nDuring his lifetime, Sir Terry wrote 70 books and had sales of more than over 100 million copies in 43 languages, over 44 years of writing.\n\nAlthough the rediscovered stories do not take place in the Discworld setting, they \"hint at the world Sir Terry would go on to create\", Penguin said.\n\n\"Readers can expect to meet characters ranging from cavemen to gnomes, wizards to ghosts, and read about time travel tourism, the haunting of Council offices, and a visitor from another planet,\" the publisher added.\n\nThe stories will be published on 5 October under the title A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories.\n\nOther unpublished Pratchett works will not see the light of day, however. In 2017, a hard drive containing up to 10 incomplete novels was crushed by a steamroller, in accordance with the novelist's wishes.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nScots have spoken of their delight after being treated to a \"magical\" Northern Lights display.\n\nMany shared spectacular images on social media showing the Aurora Borealis lighting up the sky with green, pink and yellow colours.\n\nPeople in northern, western and eastern Scotland said they rushed to find the best vantage points for the unusual sight.\n\nThe Met Office has said that they are \"likely\" to be seen again on Monday night.\n\nBBC weather watcher Mountains of Scotland took this picture in Portsoy, Aberdeenshire\n\nClaire Allison took this picture on Ayr beach\n\nSee Yeen Tan spotted the Northern Lights above Edinburgh\n\nCatherine McPhee saw the Northern Lights on Skye.\n\nShe told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland (GMS): \"There was a sudden green and yellow glow so I hopped in the car and headed home because I knew it would be nice and dark.\n\n\"There was no better way to describe it than purely magical. It was something out of a fairy tale last night for everyone.\n\n\"There were just lots of green and yellow dancing across the sky and then the further north west I went it started getting those pink and red hues.\"\n\n\"My eldest daughter Ella and I headed up a hill to see them above Inverness. The Northern Lights were amazing last night,\" he said.\n\nCat Craig caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights on the road from Glendaruel, Argyll and Bute\n\nBBC Weather Watcher Bluecat captured this view of the spectacle over Dunfermline\n\nThis was the scene on Islay, in the Inner Hebrides\n\nReporter Steven McKenzie and his daughter Ella raced to the top of a local hill above Inverness to get the best view\n\nEmma Wotherspoon saw the lights show above Gairloch in the north-west Highlands.\n\nShe told GMS: \"I've been out quite a lot since I arrived in Gairloch seven or eight years ago. This was the best, most spectacular show we have ever seen.\"\n\nThe geography teacher, who has been photographing the Northern Lights since 2015, observed an unusual deep pink colour on Sunday night.\n\n\"You would normally only see that in the much more northern latitudes,\" she told GMS. \"They are the kind of photos you get from the north of Norway and from Iceland as well.\n\n\"It was also much more overhead, rather than looking to the horizon, which is really unusual in Scotland and definitely the first time we've seen that here.\"\n\nEmma Wotherspoon was among those who snapped pictures of the Aurora Borealis\n\nChemistry teacher Adrian Allan first saw the lights outside his home, near Dornoch in Sutherland. \"I saw a big green arc like a rainbow across the sky,\" he told GMS.\n\nMr Allan then headed to Loch Fleet for a better view. \"When I got there, I saw the big arc and then eventually you see dancing aurora with various greens and reds and various little patterns and rays appearing across the sky,\" he said.\n\n\"It's one of the brightest I've seen.\"\n\nHe was not the only one taking in the spectacle at Loch Fleet.\n\n\"There were other people with tripods there, that you could tell were going to get similar pictures at the same time, a police van with just two police looking at the aurora, enjoying the sight.\"\n\nGreen and pink colours were seen in the skies above Islay\n\nThe Northern Lights were also spotted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nA Met Office spokesperson said the rare sightings of the aurora borealis further south in the UK on Sunday night were due to the \"strength\" of a geomagnetic storm and the \"strip of cloudless skies\" in southern regions.", "Last updated on .From the section Boxing\n\nTommy Fury beat Jake Paul by split decision in arguably the most anticipated contest between two novices in boxing history.\n\nFury, 23, was the busier fighter, landing more accurate punches and demonstrating his boxing fundamentals.\n\nThe former Love Island star, brother of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, was knocked down by YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul in the eighth round.\n\nOne judge scored it 75-74 to Paul, with the other two scoring it 76-73 to Fury.\n\n\"For the past two years this is all that has consumed my life,\" an emotional Fury, who has now won all nine of his professional bouts, said on BT Sport.\n\n\"Everybody thought I was running scared but tonight I made my own legacy.\"\n\nAfter dedicating the fight to his new-born baby daughter Bambi, Fury added: \"This is my first main event, I am going to get bigger and better and if he wants a rematch, bring it on.\"\n\nPaul - who lost for the first time in his seventh professional fight - said: \"All respect to Tommy, he won. Don't judge me by my wins, judge me by my losses.\n\n\"I don't know if I agree with the judges, it is what it is but that is the boxing world.\"\n• None 'Fury vs Paul: Sport or circus?' Listen to Voice of the UK on BBC Sounds\n\nSeveral stars from the world of sport and entertainment were in attendance and many more were following the eight-round bout from home.\n\nBoxing legend Mike Tyson and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo were among those present in the open-top Diriyah Arena in Riyadh.\n\nPopstar Drake shared a screenshot of his $400,000 (£335,000) bet on a Paul KO win, while Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin tweeted: \"There's no better way to celebrate your half birthday than to watch Jake Paul get punched in the head repeatedly.\"\n\nThe main event was given the full big-fight treatment, with legendary Master of Ceremonies Michael Buffer introducing both fighters.\n\nFury, dressed in white with the name of his new-born daughter etched across his robe, walked first to the ring along with trainer and dad John Fury and brother Tyson.\n\nBut with Fury waiting patiently, 'The Problem Child' Paul was still pacing up and down in his dressing room as the mind games continued. When Paul did make his entrance, a chorus of boos echoed around the venue.\n\nUnusually, the fight took place on a Sunday night and while both Paul and Fury boast a huge social media following among younger fans, the first bell did not ring until 22:30 GMT (01:30 local time) - almost an hour later than scheduled.\n\nThe fight was the latest lucrative sporting event to take place in Saudi Arabia.\n\nThe Kingdom has spent billions to bring elite sport to its country but critics, such as human rights organisation Amnesty International, have accused Saudi Arabia of trying to 'sportswash' away the country's \"abysmal\" human rights record.\n\nHow did the fight play out?\n\nAfter all the hype and expectation, it was a scrappy opening minute of the fight. Fury landed a couple of solid jabs and ended the round with the first meaningful punch, a left hook.\n\nFury settled well into the second, rocking Paul's head back with a sharp jab - and even showboated by twirling his hand then landing a flush punch.\n\nWith Paul eyeing up the single power shots, he glanced Fury's forehead with an overhand right but missed wildly on other occasions.\n\nPaul started to use his jab and found success in the third. Then, somewhat bizarrely, Paul's brother Logan was interviewed ringside and with everyone in the arena able to hear, he insulted Fury and his family.\n\nThe fight had already divided opinion in the boxing world and this between-round episode will likely have further cemented the thoughts of traditionalists who feel it is making a mockery of the sport.\n\nThe comments seemed to spur Fury on as he connected with a short right hand and followed it with a flurry of punches from range in the fourth, although Paul ended the round well, landing cleaner blows.\n\nPaul had the best of the fifth round but was deducted a point for a punch to the back of the head. Fury landed terrific uppercuts in the sixth, but then he was also deducted a point for holding. Neither fighter was warned by the referee beforehand.\n\nThe fighters were visibly tired in the seventh, the first time in Fury's career he had gone that deep into a fight. But it was the Briton who edged the round through his work-rate.\n\nIn a frantic final round, with both boxers looking to land the telling blow, Fury hit the deck from a Paul jab. He looked more startled than hurt and insisted to the referee it was a slip.\n\n'It was my destiny'\n\nThe WBC had said the winner will now get a top-40 ranking with the sanctioning body which, in theory, could pave the way for a future world-title shot.\n\nIt was a move that irked many hardcore boxing fans, who feel there are more deserving fighters who should be given a ranking.\n\nIn his short career so far, Paul has boldly - and to the annoyance of those fans - called out the best boxing has to offer.\n\nHe has mentioned the likes of Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, one of the top pound-for-pound stars, and, more recently, former British world champion Carl Froch.\n\nBut he has suffered a loss in his first fight against an opponent with a boxing background. He had previously faced YouTuber AnEson Gib, ex-NBA basketball player Nate Robinson and MMA fighters Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva.\n\n\"I have won in every single way already in life,\" he said. \"I have made it further than I ever thought. I'll take it on the chin but we can run it back.\"\n\nPrior to the fight, Fury was told by his dad and brother he would be disowned if he lost.\n\n\"All the way through, I had a dream and a vision that I would win this fight but now everyone can stand up and take note,\" the winner said.\n\n\"I had pressure on my shoulders and I came through. This to me is a world-title fight - it was my destiny.\"\n\nIt was entertaining, the hype lived up to itself, and it was actually sport.\n\nIt wasn't a masterpiece, but there was a lot of heart and guts. What we ask for in boxing is that the two men or women in the ring give us everything they've got and these two did. It wasn't a great boxing match, but it was a great event.\n\nIf Jake Paul can reach 200m people with one tweet and get it retweeted 10m times in about five minutes no matter what time he sends the tweet, then if millions and millions of new eyeballs are watching the sport, they're not all going to disappear when the boxing finishes.\n\nSo how is 250,000 potentially new fans going to hurt any sport, whether it's tiddly winks or boxing? It has to be positive.\n• None A raw documentary goes inside the high-stakes world of parole hearings\n• None Are eco laundry products better for the environment? Greg Foot investigates how such claims come out in the wash...", "UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen have announced a new deal, aimed at fixing post-Brexit problems in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe full details of their agreement have been published.\n\nHere is what we know about the agreement, named the Windsor Framework:", "Shortages of some fruit and vegetables will last for three to four weeks, a former environment secretary has said.\n\nGeorge Eustice also insisted there was \"nothing much\" the government could have done to prevent empty shelves in supermarkets.\n\nThe government and industry have blamed bad weather in Spain and North Africa for the squeeze.\n\nBut chef and restaurateur Thomasina Miers warned the food system was \"completely broken\".\n\nMajor UK supermarkets have been placing limits on fruit and vegetable sales after shortages, and consumers have faced empty shelves in some shops.\n\nThere are shortages of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, salad bags, broccoli and cauliflowers.\n\nProducers have warned that shortages could last until May, with the situation being made worse by UK growers delaying planting crops because of high energy costs.\n\nBut speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Mr Eustice said he expected the problems to last around \"three-to-four-weeks\".\n\nHe blamed a \"cocktail of weather events\" for the problems, and added that food prices were always closely linked to energy prices, which spiked due to the war in Ukraine.\n\nHe also said there was \"not much different the government could have done in recent months\" and \"there's nothing they can do immediately\" to avoid the problems affecting supply chains.\n\nMr Eustice said supermarkets have to \"work to get it right\" to ensure the disruption to supplies of some vegetables are restored.\n\nHe did acknowledge that action was needed \"longer term\".\n\n\"We should be committing to onshore production, so glasshouse production of cucumbers and tomatoes, we should be trying to build that here,\" he said.\n\nBut Ms Miers, who runs the Wahaca chain of restaurants, called for an overhaul of the government's approach to food.\n\nDescribing the UK's food system as \"completely broken\", she said: \"There's a time bomb we are sitting on\".\n\nShe warned: \"If we think cucumbers and tomatoes are bad, we are looking at way worse in the next decade.\"\n\nMs Miers called for more investment in regenerative farming, and using technology to support farmers to move to more sustainable methods of food production.\n\nBut Mr Eustice defended the government's record, saying: \"We've now got nearly half of farmers in what we call Countryside Stewardship doing exactly the sort of regenerative agriculture that Thomasina talks about.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has hailed his deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland as a \"decisive breakthrough\".\n\nMany Conservative MPs, including those who supported Brexit, gave their backing to the agreement.\n\nAnd the DUP, whose support will be key to restoring power-sharing in Northern Ireland, said there had been \"significant progress\".\n\nBut the party warned that \"key issues of concern\" remain.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Sunak was in Belfast as part of efforts to sell his Brexit deal, detailing to businesses and politicians how he believes it will ease the flow of trade between Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland.\n\nDUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party would now study the legal text, before reaching a decision on whether to support the deal.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"Progress has been made, we continue to have some concerns. We will examine the legal text... and come to a decision.\n\n\"We are reasonable people, but we want to ensure that what the prime minister has said is matched by what is actually in the agreement itself.\"\n\nThe party has boycotted the devolved government until its concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol are resolved and some Tory MPs have said they will only support an agreement if it has the backing of the DUP.\n\nSinn Féin, which is the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, welcomed the deal, although it said it still needed to examine the details.\n\nThe party's vice-president, Michelle O'Neill, repeated her call for the DUP to return to devolved government, adding: \"We always said that with pragmatism, solutions could be found.\"\n\nAfter months of negotiation and speculation surrounding a possible deal, it was finally unveiled during a day of carefully choreographed events.\n\nWord began to emerge from inside government at around 14:00 GMT that a deal on an issue which has vexed four prime ministers had finally been done.\n\nThe PM confirmed the breakthrough soon after during a joint press conference in Windsor with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.\n\nThere was a notable warmth between the PM and Mrs von der Leyen as they outlined their agreement on Monday, with the EU chief referring to the prime minister as \"dear Rishi\" and hailing a \"new chapter\" of a \"stronger EU-UK relationship\".\n\nShe went on to have tea with King Charles at Windsor Castle. The pair were pictured smiling and chatting, but there was concern from some MPs that the meeting would draw the monarch into a contentious political issue.\n\nAs Mr Sunak travelled back to London to address the Commons, the details of the long-awaited deal were landing well with some MPs who might have been expected to cause the PM political problems.\n\nNorthern Ireland Office Minister and arch-Brexiteer Steve Baker said Mr Sunak had \"pulled a blinder\".\n\nHe had been considering resigning \"as late as yesterday\", he revealed, but added that the agreement \"should be good enough for any reasonable unionists\".\n\nDuring a Commons debate, former Prime Minister Theresa May urged MPs to back the deal - but two other former leaders, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, did not attend.\n\nNumber 10 will be pleased by the response from the US, where outstanding issues over the arrangements in Northern Ireland have been seen as an obstacle in any potential trade talks between London and Washington.\n\nUS President Joe Biden said the deal was \"an essential step to ensuring that the hard-earned peace and progress of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement is preserved and strengthened\".\n\nThe agreement, named the Windsor Framework, changes the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was signed by Mr Johnson and came into force in 2021.\n\nThe protocol aimed to ensure free movement of goods across the Irish land border by conducting checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain instead.\n\nBut under the treaty, Northern Ireland had to keep following some EU rules.\n\nUrsula von der Leyen met King Charles at Windsor Castle after the deal was announced\n\nMr Sunak said the new deal \"delivers smooth-flowing trade within the whole United Kingdom, protects Northern Ireland's place in our union and safeguards sovereignty for the people of Northern Ireland\".\n\nBut there is no guarantee that it will result in the return of a power-sharing devolved government for Northern Ireland. In a statement, the DUP said \"significant progress has been secured across a number of areas\" but concerns remain.\n\n\"There can be no disguising the fact that in some sectors of our economy EU law remains applicable in Northern Ireland,\" it said.\n\nThe party said it would now study the deal and seek \"further clarification, reworking or change as required\".\n\nThe nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, and the Alliance Party, which is neither nationalist nor unionist, welcomed the deal, although both said they had concerns about the Stormont brake clause.\n\nBut the Traditional Unionist Voice Party said the agreement was \"much spin, not a lot of substance\" and meant the protocol \"effectively stays\".\n\nThe Ulster Unionist Party said it would study the detail but would not give cover to other parties.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. DUP says it will take its time to examine deal\n\nSeveral Brexit-supporting MPs have responded positively to the agreement.\n\nFormer Brexit Secretary David Davis said the prime minister had \"pulled off a formidable negotiating success\" and \"secured the best possible deal\".\n\nFormer Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said there had been \"huge progress\", adding: \"It all now depends on whether the communities in NI feel it's the right solution.\"\n\nHowever, other Tory MPs were more cautious, with prominent Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash saying \"the devil as ever lies in the detail\".\n\nDUP MP Ian Paisley said the deal had \"fallen short\" in a number of key areas, including the continued role of the European Court of Justice as the final arbiter in disputes over EU rules.\n\n\"My gut instinct is it doesn't cut the mustard,\" he told BBC Newsnight.\n\nMr Sunak said Parliament would get a vote on the agreement at the \"appropriate time\" but that MPs needed a chance to consider the detail.\n\nLabour has said it will support a deal but the government will be reluctant to rely on opposition votes.\n\nLeader Sir Keir Starmer said the deal was not \"perfect\" but \"now that it has been agreed we all have an obligation to make it work\".\n\nMr Sunak also confirmed the government was dropping the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which was introduced under Mr Johnson when he was prime minister and would have given the UK the power to unilaterally scrap parts of the old deal.\n\nHe said the bill was now no longer needed and the original legal justification for it had \"fallen away\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Forbes spoke about the recycling scheme during a visit to a brewery in Aviemore\n\nSNP leadership hopeful Kate Forbes has warned the proposed bottle return scheme could cause \"economic carnage\".\n\nSpeaking at a brewery in Aviemore, Ms Forbes said the recycling initiative was not ready to be implemented as planned in August and should be halted.\n\nThe finance secretary also promised a reset of the relationship between business and government.\n\nAll three SNP leadership contenders have now proposed pausing or changing the deposit return scheme (DRS).\n\nHumza Yousaf has called for a year's grace period for small firms - a move which Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater has said she is \"actively considering\" - while the third contender, Ash Regan, says the scheme should be redesigned or scrapped.\n\nThe DRS is designed to boost recycling via a 20p deposit on single-use drinks bottles and cans.\n\nCritics say it will raise costs for businesses while putting more pressure on consumers.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack has also hinted that the UK government might not grant an opt out from the UK Internal Market Act, which would be a severe blow to the project.\n\nProducers are required to register for the scheme by Tuesday evening, ahead of a go live date of 16 August, and if they fail to sign up they risk being banned from selling their products in Scotland.\n\nMs Forbes said the DRS was \"well intentioned\", but said significant concerns had emerged about the roll-out.\n\nShe warned businesses were \"fearing the economic carnage it will cause if the timetable continues as planned right now\".\n\nThe finance secretary insisted firms support the scheme and want it to work.\n\n\"But right now, they do not have the information and the confidence in an overly complex scheme,\" she said.\n\nMs Forbes added: \"What businesses need is a bit of breathing space.\n\n\"They have gone through Covid, Brexit, the cost of living, their energy bills have gone up exponentially and the government should be giving them a bit of space rather than putting additional complex bureaucratic requirements on them.\"\n\nThe three SNP leadership contenders are Ash Regan, Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf\n\nMr Yousaf, who won the support of MPs Ian Blackford and Mhairi Black over the weekend, has said he would exclude small businesses for the first year of the return deposit scheme if elected first minister.\n\n\"It's not the craft breweries or the craft gin makers causing the issue, it's the big producers that we should be targeting,\" he told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.\n\nMs Regan told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland that DRS should be halted, redesigned and perhaps even scrapped altogether.\n\n\"Businesses in Scotland are really struggling right now and this is absolutely not the right time to be piling more things on to them, something in fact which could cause some of them to go out of business,\" she said.\n\n\"We need to pause this scheme. We either need to get rid of it if it is possible to be changed by co-designing it with the people that are going to be using it, the businesses themselves, then possibly it could go ahead.\"\n\nVoting for the next SNP leader opens on 13 March, with the winner set to be announced on 27 March.\n\nMeanwhile, in the House of Lords, Labour peer Lord Foulkes of Cumnock urged the UK government to use Section 35 of the Scotland Act to stop the scheme being brought forward.\n\nHe said it would cause \"total chaos\" and needed to happen at a UK-wide level.\n\nUK environment minister Lord Benyon also stressed the need for a UK approach.\n\nHe told peers that the Scottish government plan would have huge costs and result in \"booze cruises\" where \"people can go south of the border to get drink at 50% less cost\".\n\nHowever, Green Party peer Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle defended the scheme, saying it would deliver on the \"polluter pays\" principle.\n\nShe added: \"If the government steps in at this very late stage, if Westminster stops Scotland delivering what it has a right to do under devolved law, that will be a collapse in business confidence and we will never see a bottle deposit scheme across these islands.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Teddy bears rain down on football pitch for earthquake victims\n\nPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan has asked people in a heavily quake-hit area of Turkey for understanding over rescue delays, amid mounting anger at the government's response.\n\nOn a visit to Adiyaman, Mr Erdogan said the tremors and bad weather meant \"we could not work as we would have liked\". \"For this, I ask forgiveness,\" he said.\n\nMore than 50,000 people are known to have been killed in Turkey and Syria after huge earthquakes on 6 February.\n\nIt killed at least one person and injured more than 100 people in Malatya province, north of Adiyaman. Search and rescue teams were trying to find several people believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings.\n\nThere have been four new earthquakes and 45 aftershocks of magnitudes 5-6 since the two massive quakes on 6 February, according to Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).\n\nAFAD chief Orhan Tatar described it as \"very extraordinary activity\".\n\nThe World Bank says the 6 February quakes caused about $34bn (£28bn) of direct damage in Turkey, but the cost of reconstruction could be about twice that figure. Meanwhile World Bank official Anna Bjerde said the situation in Syria was \"really catastrophic\".\n\nMr Erdogan - who is seeking re-election as president in polls to be held by June - has been touring some of the worst-hit areas. His visit to Adiyaman came after strong criticism of the emergency response there from local people.\n\n\"I did not see anyone until 2:00 pm on the second day of the earthquake,\" Adiyaman resident Mehmet Yildirim told AFP earlier this month.\n\n\"No government, no state, no police, no soldiers. Shame on you! You left us on our own.\"\n\nThe disaster left 1.5 million people homeless and many thousands of people remain without shelter or sanitation. There are shortages of tents for survivors.\n\nAdiyaman was badly hit by the 6 February earthquakes\n\nDiscontent has spread around the country, with football fans singing \"government resign\" at matches this weekend.\n\nFans of Besiktas in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul threw thousands of soft toys onto the pitch, to be distributed to children affected by the earthquake.\n\nMeanwhile riot police detained protesters at a demonstration in Istanbul.\n\nMore than 160,000 buildings containing 520,000 apartments collapsed or were badly damaged on 6 February.\n\nThe government says hundreds of people are under investigation and nearly 200 people - including construction contractors and property owners - have already been arrested.\n\nExperts had warned for years that endemic corruption and government policies meant many new buildings were unsafe.\n\nIn Adiyaman, Mr Erdogan vowed to build more than 500,000 new homes along with infrastructure, medical centres and parks.\n\nTurkey is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections by June. Mr Erdogan is seeking another term as president after 20 years in power.", "Footage seen by the BBC showed police cars apparently involved in a pursuit\n\nTwo police cars have been involved in a crash that damaged a row of buildings in Bradford.\n\nKeighley Road at Frizinghall remains closed after the collision, which happened on Monday morning, West Yorkshire Police said.\n\nPictures show extensive damage to the ground and first floors of a building in a parade of shops.\n\nPolice said the road had been shut in both directions while the buildings were made safe.\n\nWhen asked if anybody had been injured, a police spokesperson described the incident as a \"damage-only collision\".\n\nTwo police cars were involved in the crash on Keighley Road\n\nThe road will remain closed while the damaged building is made safe\n\nNeighbours told the BBC they had been awoken in the early hours by the sound of a \"loud bang\".\n\nAbrar Asif, who runs the nearby Creative Cutz barber shop, was told he could not enter his business following the crash, saying: \"I don't have any idea when [I will be able to] go back to work.\"\n\nBarber Abrar Asif said it had been an \"unusual\" start to the day\n\nLocal businessman Hasnain Abbas said he was \"shocked\" by the incident, but pleased that no-one was seriously hurt.\n\nOthers said there was a problem with drivers speeding in the area.\n\nFootage seen by the BBC showed police cars apparently involved in a pursuit.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police is yet to provide further information regarding the circumstances of the crash, or give an estimate as to when the road might reopen.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The number of new cars made in the UK has sunk to its lowest level for 66 years as firms warn the country is not doing enough to attract manufacturers.\n\nThe 10% drop is the worst performance since 1956, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.\n\nA struggle to get parts due to Covid and a semiconductor shortage have hit the industry worldwide, but the UK has also been hit by factory closures.\n\nCar firms warn the UK has not got a strategy to attract manufacturers.\n\nIn response, the government said it was \"determined\" to ensure the country remains a top global location for car manufacturing.\n\nIn total, the UK produced 775,014 cars last year, down from 1.3 million before the pandemic, with production having fallen every year since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016.\n\nManufacturers hope the car industry will start to accelerate again, but say getting to pre-pandemic levels would require major investment and new car makers to come to the UK.\n\nThey warn that the UK is lagging behind, particularly on offering state aid to manufacturers.\n\nIn the US, the government is planning to offer billions in subsidies to car makers who create electric vehicle supply chains in America.\n\nMike Hawes, chief executive of industry body the SMMT, warns this will \"hoover up\" a lot of international investment, hitting the UK industry further.\n\nThe European Union is considering retaliating by either relaxing state aid rules or by extending Covid recovery or green technology-boosting programmes.\n\nOne of the benefits of Brexit was meant to be escaping from the straitjacket of EU state aid rules which limited the amount of support governments could give to favoured industries.\n\nMr Hawes conceded the UK could be in the unenviable position of offering less support to crucial industries than before it left the EU.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Today programme, he said the UK needed \"something that demonstrates that the UK is open for business and open for these investments\".\n\nThe production figures were also affected by the closure of Honda's factory in Swindon in July 2021 and the fact that Vauxhall Astras have not been made at Ellesmere Port since April 2022.\n\nMr Hawes said the numbers reflected how \"tough\" 2022 was for UK car manufacturing, although the country had still made more electric vehicles than ever before, with almost a third now fully-electric or hybrid.\n\nHe warned the global car industry had already begun investing in electric vehicles and batteries and the UK only had \"a few years\" to act.\n\n\"We need to be on the front foot making sure we have a range of measures that attract investment,\" Mr Hawes said.\n\nHe called for a strategy to accelerate battery production and the shift to electric vehicles, adding that the UK was well placed to succeed given its skilled workforce and engineering expertise.\n\nUK car production was further set back by the collapse of battery start-up Britishvolt last week\n\nUK car production was further set back by the collapse of battery start-up Britishvolt last week.\n\nThe firm had planned to build a giant factory to make electric car batteries in Cambois, near Blyth in Northumberland, but the project ran out of money.\n\nThe UK currently only has one Chinese-owned battery plant next to the Nissan factory in Sunderland, while 35 plants are planned or already under construction in the EU.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"We are determined to ensure the UK remains one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing.\n\n\"Our success is evidenced by the £1bn investment in Sunderland in 2021, and we are building on this through a major investment programme to electrify our supply chain and create jobs.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV shows the car used by John Caldwell gunmen fitted with false plates\n\nPolice have released CCTV footage of the car used by the gunmen who shot a top police officer in Northern Ireland.\n\nDissident republican group the New IRA has admitted it shot Det Ch Insp John Caldwell in Omagh on Wednesday.\n\nA blue Ford Fiesta had been bought two weeks prior to the attack and stored in Belfast, where its plates were changed.\n\nPolice said a £20,000 award had been offered for information. Det Ch Insp Caldwell remains in a critical but stable condition.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has described the senior detective as a \"man of extraordinary courage\".\n\nAt a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday, he said their thoughts were with the Caldwell family after the \"abhorrent\" shooting.\n\nSix people remain in police custody for questioning: The youngest is 22 and the oldest is aged 71.\n\nTwo gunmen shot 10 bullets at Det Ch Insp Caldwell in a busy sports complex car park at 20:00 GMT last Wednesday.\n\nThe 48-year-old was loading footballs into his car with his son having coached a training session for the Beragh Swifts football team at Youth Sport Omagh when the gunmen approached.\n\nChildren ran in terror when the shots rang out: At least two other vehicles were struck by bullets.\n\nA typed statement from the New IRA appeared on a wall in Derry\n\nGiving an update on Monday, Det Ch Supt Eamonn Corrigan confirmed at least 10 shots were fired.\n\nThe attack showed the callous disregard the gunmen had for the children and adults at the scene, he added.\n\nThe car - registration number MGZ 6242 - was purchased in Ballyclare on Wednesday 8 February and was seen travelling towards Belfast on the M2 that night.\n\nFitted with false plates, FRZ 8414, it was next noted leaving Belfast at about 21:30 on Tuesday 21 February - the night before the attack - and travelled along the M1 in the direction of Coalisland and Omagh.\n\nIt was later found burnt out at Racolpa Road, outside Omagh.\n\nThe New IRA claimed responsibility in a typed statement that was taped to a wall beside shops in the Creggan estate on Sunday night.\n\nA forensic team was at the scene on Monday morning and removed it for further examination.\n\nDissident republicans oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal and continue to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe New IRA's admission was not unexpected, given what the police had already stated, but the manner in which it did it was unusual.\n\nIt normally issues claims of responsibility for attacks to the Irish News newspaper.\n\nAlso it did so on this occasion while suspects are in police custody.\n\nThat is viewed as the group feeling emboldened by the attack on Det Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nIt also appears to want to use the statement to attempt to heighten security concerns among officers.\n\nThe attack marks an escalation in New IRA activity - something the Police Service of Northern Ireland had been concerned about.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said police were aware of the claim of responsibility.\n\n\"We are currently reviewing its contents as part of the overall investigation,\" he said.\n\n\"On Friday we confirmed that we were treating the attempted murder of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell as terrorist-related and our primary line of enquiry was the New IRA.\"\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell is one of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's best known detectives, often fronting press conferences on major inquiries during his 26-year career.\n\nOn Saturday, more than 1,000 people took part in a rally in Omagh to show support for Det Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nPeople also gathered in the village of Beragh for a solidarity walk.\n\nMeanwhile police say a security alert that was ongoing from Saturday in Beragh's Dervaghroy Road has now ended.\n\nThey said a number of airsoft guns, which are replica guns which fire plastic pellets, were recovered and all roads have since reopened.", "Scott Adams's comic strip, Dilbert, is known for its satirical office humour\n\nElon Musk accused US media of racism on Sunday as he waded into the debate over racist comments made by Dilbert cartoon creator Scott Adams on YouTube last week.\n\nTwitter's CEO tweeted media that used to be racist against non-whites is now \"racist against whites & Asians\".\n\nIn the video, Mr Adams, who is white, said black Americans were part of a \"hate group\" and white people should \"get the hell away\" from them.\n\nSeveral US outlets dropped the cartoon over the weekend in response.\n\nIn the same tweet, Mr Musk continued to allege that \"elite colleges & high schools in America\" are also racist.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elon Musk This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDilbert has been a mainstay of the funny pages of America's newspapers since 1989. It features a put-upon office worker and a talking dog, who together take aim at the fads of corporate culture.\n\nDilbert's distributor is also severing ties with Mr Adams, the company announced on Twitter. While Andrews McMeel Universal values free speech, the company said, they ''will never support any commentary rooted in discrimination or hate\".\n\nA new Dilbert book to be published in September was also dropped,The Wall Street Journal reported. Portfolio, one of Penguin Random House's imprints, says it will not publish Mr Adams' upcoming book, \"Reframe Your Brain\".\n\nMr Adams says his career is destroyed and most of his income will be gone by next week after The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and other publications dropped the popular cartoon.\n\nAmong media outlets to drop the Dilbert cartoon strip are the USA Today network, which operates dozens of of newspapers across the US.\n\nMr Adams writes and illustrates the comic. His comments, widely viewed as encouraging segregation, were made in response to a survey conducted by the firm Rasmussen Reports. Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the phrase: \"It's OK to be white.\"\n\nThe phrase is believed to have emerged in 2017 as a trolling campaign and has since been used by white supremacists.\n\nAccording to the poll, 53% of black respondents agreed with the statement, but 26% disagreed and others were not sure.\n\nMr Adams called those who disagreed with the phrase part of a \"hate group\".\n\n\"I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people,\" Mr Adams said, \"because there is no fixing this.\"\n\nDarrin Bell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning black cartoonist, described Mr Adams as a disgrace, but not unique. \"His racism is not even unique among cartoonists,\" he said in The New York Times.\n\nThere has been an influx of hate speech on Twitter since Mr Musk's takeover of the social platform in October, The Center for Countering Digital Hate and Anti-Defamation League reports.\n\nCorrection 13th April 2023: This article originally stated that Elon Musk defended Scott Adams and has been amended to make clear that Mr Musk's comment was in fact about the media, in direct response to a tweet criticising media coverage of what Scott Adams said.", "Steven McKenzie and his daughter Ella raced to the top of a local hill above Inverness to get the best view Image caption: Steven McKenzie and his daughter Ella raced to the top of a local hill above Inverness to get the best view\n\nBBC Scotland reporter Steven McKenzie hurried to find the best vantage point during last night's dazzling display.\n\n\"My eldest daughter Ella and I headed up a hill to see them above Inverness. The northern lights were amazing last night,\" he said.\n\nAnd it seems he wasn't the only one. Here's hoping the sky shines as bright for tonight's stargazers!\n\nBBC Weather Watcher Bluecat captured this view of the spectacle over Dunfermline Image caption: BBC Weather Watcher Bluecat captured this view of the spectacle over Dunfermline\n\nVibrant green colours of the aurora filled the whole sky in the Shetland Islands Image caption: Vibrant green colours of the aurora filled the whole sky in the Shetland Islands\n\nA kaleidoscope of colours was cast over the Brecon Beacons in south Wales Image caption: A kaleidoscope of colours was cast over the Brecon Beacons in south Wales\n\nThe lights are rarely seen in Kent, southern England Image caption: The lights are rarely seen in Kent, southern England", "Chariots of Fire director Hugh Hudson has died aged 86 following a short illness.\n\nHis family said in a statement the \"beloved husband and father\", died at Charing Cross Hospital in London on Friday.\n\nHe is survived by his wife Maryam, his son Thomas and his first wife Sue.\n\nActor Nigel Havers, who starred in the 1981 film about the story of two British runners in the 1920s, said he was \"beyond devastated\" by his death.\n\nHe added: \"Chariots of Fire was one of the greatest experiences of my professional life, and, like so many others, I owe much of what followed to him. I shall miss him greatly.\"\n\nThe film was nominated for a total of seven Oscars, including a best director nod for Hudson, and won four - best picture, original score, writing and costume design in 1982.\n\nAccording to the British Film Institute (BFI), it became \"one of the decade's most controversial British films\" due to its perception as a \"radical indictment of establishment snobbery\".\n\nIt is ranked at number 19 on the BFI's Top 100 British Films.\n\nBorn in 1936 in London, Hudson went to boarding school before going on to study at Eton College but he was said to resent his association with the famous school.\n\nAfter leaving Eton, he entered national service in the Dragoon Guards, and remained in the Army reserve of Officers until being discharged in 1960.\n\nHis move to the creative industry came later in the '60s, working in a London-based advertising firm before going into documentaries and television commercials.\n\nHis work brought him to the attention of producer David Puttnam, who would later go on to produce Chariots Of Fire.\n\nNews of Hudson's death comes less than nine months after the death of the film's composer, Vangelis.\n\nThe Greek electronic composer, who took home the Oscar in 1982 for the score to Chariots of Fire, died in May in a French hospital.\n\nHudson is survived by his wife, former James Bond actress Maryam D'Abo who starred in The Living Daylights.", "The RMT union has rejected the rail industry's latest offers, dampening any hopes the lengthy dispute was close to its end.\n\nNetwork Rail and the train companies' group had called the proposals their \"best and final\".\n\nRMT boss Mick Lynch branded the offers \"dreadful\", while the transport secretary called the move \"a kick in the teeth for passengers\".\n\nThe industry and government say members should be given a vote.\n\nThe rejection was made by the national executive committee. Twenty officials and representatives sit on the body but the RMT said the decision was made following a wide-ranging consultation with every level of the union involved in the national rail dispute.\n\nMr Lynch said the offers did not meet members' expectations \"on pay, job security or working conditions\".\n\nThe RMT said it would now seek further meetings with Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) - which represents train operating companies - to try to work towards a settlement.\n\nBut it will start preparing to re-ballot its members when the existing strike mandate runs out in late May.\n\nIt is a significant moment in the ongoing national rail dispute - not just because the RMT has rejected what were billed as final offers from the employers, but because the union is now talking explicitly about seeking an \"unconditional\" pay deal.\n\nThe government and industry have said all along that a pay increase would have to be funded by \"reforms\".\n\nThere had been movement in the dispute in recent months and on all sides the tone had become less antagonistic. But it is clearly not as close to a resolution as some onlookers had hoped.\n\nThe RDG said on Friday that passengers and \"many hard-working RMT members will be deeply dismayed that the union leadership has opted to reject our fair proposals without putting out a vote to their full membership in a democratic referendum\".\n\nIt said it had made \"substantial changes\" to its offer after recent negotiations, including a minimum 9% pay increase over two years which rail workers \"will now miss out on, without even having had an opportunity to have their say\".\n\n\"We removed driver-only operation and gave an improved job security offer,\" the group said, adding: \"The railway's financial crisis is not going away.\"\n\n\"The RMT leadership must now accept the urgent need to make the railway fit for the future for both our people, and the communities the railway serves,\" it said.\n\nLast month, the RDG put forward a list of changes to working practices which it said could fund a 5% pay rise for 2022 and a further 4% this year.\n\nSeparately Network Rail, whose employees include maintenance and signalling staff, offered a package including a 5% pay increase last year and 4% for 2023, plus other benefits such as discounted travel for family. Members rejected this in December.\n\nNetwork Rail recently put forward a slightly updated offer, but kept the pay element the same.\n\nThe RMT said it was seeking \"an unconditional pay offer, a job security agreement and no detrimental changes being imposed on members terms, conditions and working practices\".\n\nThe transport secretary echoed the rail industry's position that RMT members should be given a vote on the deals on the table.\n\nMark Harper said workers are \"being blocked from having a say on their own future\" and that a decision had been made for them behind closed doors.\n\nPlanned changes to how maintenance teams at Network Rail work are a particular point of contention for the RMT.\n\nThe union said it viewed proposed plans as \"unsafe\" and unworkable. Network Rail has always insisted safety would not be compromised.\n\nMr Lynch said: \"We have carried out an in-depth consultation of our 40,000 members and the message we have received, loud and clear, is to reject these dreadful offers.\n\n\"Our members cannot accept the ripping up of their terms and conditions or to have safety standards on the railway put into jeopardy under the guise of so-called modernisation.\n\n\"If our union did accept these offers, we would see a severe reduction in scheduled maintenance tasks, making the railways less safe, the closure of all ticket offices, and thousands of jobs stripped out of the industry when the railways need more investment, not less.\"\n\nNetwork Rail's chief negotiator Tim Shoveller claimed employees want to accept the offer and said the RMT \"is condemning its members to continuing a fruitless, pointless and costly dispute for everyone involved\".\n\n\"Our rank-and-file employees are telling us they want to take the current improved offer that's on the table and to end this dispute but the RMT leadership refuses to listen and instead takes soundings from the echo chamber of its most active members,\" he said.\n\nThis is separate to the train drivers' dispute. The drivers' main union, Aslef, says it hopes to have more talks next week.\n\nA smaller union, the TSSA, said on Friday that thousands of its members would be given a vote on the offers from the train companies.", "Russian participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics \"cannot be covered up with pretend neutrality or a white flag\", Ukraine president Volodymr Zelensky says.\n\nZelensky was speaking at a summit of 36 nations on Friday to discuss Russian and Belarusian athletes' participation in next year's Games.\n\nThe summit was chaired by UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer.\n\nA collective statement is expected to be agreed in the coming days.\n\nThe summit was called after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it was \"exploring a pathway\" for athletes from the two nations to compete as neutrals.\n\nThat move has been criticised amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking via live video link, Zelensky told the delegation: \"While Russia kills and terrorises, representatives of the terrorist state have no place at sports and Olympic competitions.\n\n\"And it cannot be covered up with some pretended neutrality or a white flag, because Russia is now a country that stains everything with blood - even the white flag.\n\n\"It must be recognised. And this must be recognised, in particular, at the level of the International Olympic Committee.\"\n\nRussian sports minister Oleg Matytsin said calls to ban their athletes from the Olympics were unacceptable.\n\nIn his opening address, Zelensky told the delegation - which included ministers and senior representatives from countries including France, Germany, Poland, the United States and Canada - that 228 Ukrainian athletes and coaches had died since Russia's invasion in February 2022.\n\nHe called for the Olympic movement to be \"safeguarded\", noting that \"many Russian athletes are associated with the sports clubs of the Russian army and security state agencies\".\n\n\"If the Olympic sports were killings and missile strikes, then you know which national team would occupy the first place,\" he said.\n\nHe later added: \"If, God forbid, the Olympic principles are destroyed and Russian athletes are allowed to participate in any competitions or the Olympic Games, it's just a matter of time before the terrorist state forces them to play along with the war propaganda.\"\n\nIn January, the IOC suggested Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete under neutral flags in Paris, saying \"no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport\".\n\nUkraine's sports minister Vadym Guttsait has said the country could boycott the Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete.\n\nA large number of other nations have already voiced their opposition to the potential inclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes.\n\n\"Now we see an undisguised desire to destroy the unity of international sports and the international Olympic movement, to make sport a means of pressure to resolve political issues,\" Russian minister Matytsin told state news agency Tass.\n\n\"This is a direct interference of ministers in the activities of independent international sports organisations, an attempt to dictate the conditions for the participation of athletes in international competitions, which is absolutely unacceptable.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the IOC urged Ukraine to drop threats of boycotting the Games in Paris.\n\nIn a letter to Guttsait, which has been seen by the BBC, IOC president Thomas Bach said comments from Ukrainian officials suggesting allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes would promote the war are \"defamatory\".\n\n\"Russia has destroyed Ukrainian sporting infrastructure and stopped opportunities for Ukrainian athletes,\" Frazer told the summit.\n\n\"There is danger here that the world wishes to move on and back to business as usual. However, the situation in Ukraine has not changed since the IOC's initial decision last February on banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from competition.\n\n\"As long as Putin continues his war, Russia and Belarus must not be allowed to compete on the world stage or be represented at the Olympics.\"", "Opponents of President Erdogan say the heavy loss of life is down to politics\n\nTurkey's most devastating earthquake since 1939 has raised big questions about whether such a large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and whether President Erdogan's government could have done more to save lives.\n\nWith elections on the horizon, his future is on the line after 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity have gone unheeded.\n\nRecep Tayyip Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but he appeared to blame fate on a visit to one disaster zone: \"Such things have always happened. It's part of destiny's plan.\"\n\nTurkey lies on two fault lines and has earthquake building codes dating back more than 80 years. But last Monday's double earthquake was far more intense than anything seen since 1939. The first quake registered magnitude 7.8 at 04:17, followed by another of 7.5 dozens of miles away.\n\nIt required a massive rescue operation spread across 10 of Turkey's 81 provinces.\n\nBut it took time for the response to build and some villages could not be reached for days. More than 30,000 people from the professional and voluntary sector eventually arrived, along with teams from many other countries.\n\nMore than 6,000 buildings collapsed and workers from Turkey's Afad disaster authority were themselves caught up in the earthquakes.\n\nThose initial hours were critical but roads were damaged and search and rescue teams struggled to get through until day two or day three.\n\nTurkey has more experience of earthquakes than almost any other country but the founder of the main volunteer rescue group believes this time, politics got in the way.\n\nAfter the last major earthquake in August 1999, it was the armed forces who led the operation but the Erdogan government has sought to curb their power in Turkish society.\n\nVolunteers from the Akut foundation have joined the government's main disaster agency in searching for survivors\n\n\"All over the world, the most organised and logistically powerful organisations are the armed forces; they have enormous means in their hands,\" said the head of Akut foundation, Nasuh Mahruki. \"So you have to use this in a disaster.\"\n\nInstead, Turkey's civil disaster authority now has the role, with a staff of 10-15,000, helped by non-government groups such as Akut, which has 3,000 volunteers.\n\nThe potential rescue effort was now far bigger than in 1999, Mr Mahruki said, but with the military left out of the planning it had to wait for an order from the government: \"This created a delay in the start of rescue and search operations.\"\n\nPresident Erdogan has accepted that search efforts were not as fast as the government wanted, despite Turkey having the \"largest search and rescue team in the world right now\".\n\nFor years, Turks have been warned of the potential of a big earthquake but few expected it to be along the East Anatolian fault, which stretches across south-eastern Turkey, because most of the larger tremors have hit the fault in the north.\n\nWhen a quake in January 2020 hit Elazig, north-east of Monday's disaster zone, geological engineer Prof Naci Gorur of Istanbul Technical University realised the risk. He even predicted a later quake north of Adiyaman and the city of Kahramanmaras.\n\n\"I warned the local governments, governors, and the central government. I said: 'Please take action to make your cities ready for an earthquake.' As we cannot stop them, we have to diminish the damage created by them.\"\n\nOne of Turkey's foremost earthquake engineering specialists, Prof Mustafa Erdik, believes the dramatic loss of life was down to building codes not being followed, and he blames ignorance and ineptitude in the building industry.\n\n\"We allow for damage but not this type of damage - with floors being piled on top of each other like pancakes,\" he told the BBC. \"That should have been prevented and that creates the kind of casualties we have seen.\"\n\nAn international rescue team looks at the concrete floors of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras\n\nUnder Turkish regulations updated in 2018, high-quality concrete has to be reinforced with ribbed, steel bars. Vertical columns and horizontal beams have to be able to absorb the impact of tremors.\n\n\"There should be adhesion between the concrete and steel bars and there should also be adequate transfer reinforcement in the columns,\" explained Prof Erdik.\n\nHad all the regulations been followed, the columns would have survived intact and the damage would have been confined to the beams, he believes. Instead the columns gave way and the floors collapsed on top of each other, causing heavy casualties.\n\nThe justice minister has said anyone found to have been negligent or at fault will be brought to justice.\n\nCritics such as opposition CHP party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu argue after 20 years in power President Erdogan's government has not \"prepared the country for the earthquakes\".\n\nOne big question is what happened to the large sums collected through two \"earthquake solidarity taxes\" created after the 1999 quake. The funds were meant to make buildings resistant to earthquakes.\n\nOne of the taxes, paid to this day by mobile phone operators and radio and TV, has brought some 88bn lira (£3.8bn; $4.6bn) into state coffers. It was even hiked to 10% two years ago. But the government has never fully explained where the money has been spent.\n\nUrban planners have complained that rules have not been observed in earthquake zones and highlight a 2018 government amnesty that meant violations of the building code could be swept away with a fine, and left some six million buildings unchanged.\n\nThe fines brought in billions of Turkish lira in taxes and fees. But when a residential building in Istanbul collapsed in 2019, killing 21 people, the head of the chamber of civil engineers said the amnesty would turn Turkish cities into graveyards.\n\nMore than 100,000 applications were made for an amnesty in the 10 cities currently affected, according to Pelin Pinar Giritlioglu of Istanbul University, who says there was a high intensity of illegal construction in the area.\n\n\"The amnesty played an important role in the collapse of the buildings in the latest earthquake,\" she told the BBC.\n\nCities in 10 provinces with a population of more than 13 million were affected by Monday's quakes\n\n\"We cannot go anywhere by blaming each other and we should seek solutions,\" says Prof Erdik, who believes the problem goes beyond politics and lies in a system that allows engineers to go straight into practice after university with little experience.\n\nProf Gorur calls for the creation of \"earthquake-resistant urban settlements\" but for that there will have to be a shift in thinking, nowhere more so than in Turkey's most populous city.\n\n\"We have been warning about a possible Istanbul earthquake for 23 years. So the policymakers of Istanbul should come together and make policies to make people, the infrastructure, the buildings and the neighbourhoods resistant to an earthquake.\"\n\nPresident Erdogan has called for unity and solidarity, denouncing critics of the disaster response as dishonourable.\n\n\"I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest,\" he told reporters in Hatay, near the earthquake's epicentre.\n\nMany of the towns and cities in the affected areas are run by his ruling party, the AKP.\n\nBut after 20 years in power, first as prime minister and then as an increasingly authoritarian, elected president, he leads a highly polarised country.\n\n\"We have come to this point because of his politics,\" said Mr Kilicdaroglu.\n\nCampaigning for elections expected in May has not yet begun but he leads one of six opposition parties poised to announce a unified candidate in a bid to bring down the president.\n\nMr Erdogan's hopes of unifying the country ahead of those elections are likely to fall on deaf ears.\n\nHe has become increasingly intolerant of criticism and many of his opponents are in jail or have fled abroad. When an attempted coup against the president ended in bloodshed in 2016, he reacted by arresting tens of thousands of Turks and sacking civil servants.\n\nThe economy has been in freefall with a 57% inflation rate leading to a sky-high cost of living.\n\nAmong the government's first actions in response to the earthquake was temporarily blocking Twitter, which was being used in Turkey to help rescuers locate survivors. The government said it was being used to spread disinformation and police detained a political scientist for posting criticism of the emergency response.\n\nTurkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who spent a year in jail in pre-trial detention, wrote from exile in Germany that the aftermath of the 1999 Turkish earthquake helped propel Mr Erdogan to power.\n\nThis latest disaster would play a part in the next vote too, he said, but it was not yet clear how.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThree people have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder following clashes outside a Merseyside hotel providing refuge for asylum seekers.\n\nA police van was set on fire after a rally against refugees and a counter-protest by pro-migrant groups took place near the Suites Hotel, Knowsley.\n\nPolice said missiles were thrown at officers but there were no injuries.\n\nProtesters and counter protesters gathered at the hotel in the Ribblers Lane area at 18:30 GMT, they added.\n\nThe Suites had been previously named as accommodation where asylum seekers are being housed.\n\nA couple of hours into the action, the \"initially peaceful\" protest grew violent, Merseyside Police said, leading to additional officers being called to the area.\n\nA police van was burnt out in the clash\n\nKnowsley MP Sir George Howarth called for calm, saying: \"I have referred an alleged incident posted on social media, which has triggered a demonstration outside the Suites Hotel, to Merseyside Police and Knowsley Council.\n\n\"Until the police have investigated the matter, it is too soon to jump to conclusions, and the effort on the part of some to inflame the situation is emphatically wrong.\"\n\nSir George added: \"Those demonstrating against refugees at this protest tonight do not represent this community.\"\n\nThe BBC is yet to establish the nature of the protest.\n\nWitnesses described the scene as \"terrifying\"\n\nClare Moseley, founder of refugee charity Care4Calais, told the BBC she had been part of a counter-protest in solidarity with migrants.\n\nShe said she was \"deeply shocked and shaken\" to see \"hundreds\" of protesters, who she described as \"far-right\", angry at migrants in the hotel.\n\nThe protesters had broken through police lines to surround the hotel at around 20:15 GMT, Ms Moseley added, describing the scene as \"like a war zone\".\n\nShe said: \"The far-right people were very organised and very violent.\n\n\"All you could hear was fighting in every direction. Fireworks going off, banging, rocks flying, smashing glass, and you could hear people shouting.\n\n\"The police van went right up in flames and exploded, then [the protesters] broke through again and started fighting with the police.\"\n\nShe added that counter protesters had been \"barricaded in a car park\".\n\n\"We were stuck there for ages, whilst the police were fighting in different areas.\n\n\"I was really frightened for us, I was really frightened for the people in the hotel. These are people who have come from war zones. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be for them.\"\n\nThe three people who were arrested have been taken to police stations for questioning.\n\nA man who was staying at the hotel when the protests broke out said people were \"crying and suffering\" during the violence.\n\nThe man from East Africa, who had been accommodated at Suites Hotel for the past seven months and did not want to be named, told PA news: \"It was burning and everybody in the world was praying.\n\n\"We come from different lifestyles so it doesn't surprise me to see a vehicle burning.\"\n\nHe added that despite Friday night's events, \"people have been welcoming here\".\n\nAhmed, who did not want to give his second name, said he had been staying at the hotel for a month after travelling from Egypt, where he was a teacher.\n\nThe 34-year-old said others staying in the hotel included doctors and engineers, adding: \"I was afraid. We came to the UK for safety.\"\n\nKnowsley Council said it had been given less than 48 hours' notice in January 2022 of the Home Office's intention to temporarily accommodate asylum seekers at the hotel.\n\nIt is understood the government appointed private company Serco to manage the hotel site and provide support to asylum seekers there.\n\nKnowsley Council said it was \"not involved in that contract\" and was not being paid to accommodate asylum seekers, but said it was committed to supporting people fleeing persecution.\n\nThe government has been accommodating asylum seekers in Knowsley since 2016, the council said.\n\nThe BBC has contacted the Home Office for a response.\n\nPolice said they were initially facilitating peaceful protests before they turned violent\n\nChief Constable of Merseyside Police Serena Kennedy said there would be \"an increased police presence\" over the weekend.\n\nShe tweeted: \"We will be continuing in our identification of those mindless individuals who were responsible for the offences this evening.\"\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Paul White said the incident was \"completely unacceptable\" and put \"those present, our officers and the wider community in danger\".\n\n\"For officers and police vehicles to be damaged in the course of their duty protecting the public is disgraceful,\" he said.\n\nThe husk of a police van lies burnt to the metal outside the gates of the Suites Hotel.\n\nFrom a window, a man staying at the hotel peers down at the debris below. Bottles, paving stones, rocks and sticks litter the roads, the aftermath of the violence.\n\nPolice allow me through to see what happened but only when they've taken three young men they've just arrested into the back of a waiting police van which then drives off.\n\nOn the road, a piece of paper flutters by. \"This is our city\" it says, hinting at the issues which may be involved in this protest.\n\nPolice are continuing to review evidence of the incident, and are asking the public to contact them directly with any information, rather than posting it on social media.\n\nA number of road closures have been in place on the East Lancs Road and police urged motorists to avoid the area.\n\nMerseyside's police commissioner Emily Spurrell, who oversees Merseyside Police and is appointed through a public vote, called the incident \"deeply shocking\" and added \"there is absolutely no excuses for this\".\n\nAnd shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called the behaviour of protesters \"shameful and appalling\".\n\nMark Davies, of the Refugee Council, said those who had participated had brought \"shame on this country's long and proud record\" of helping those in need.\n\n\"These are appalling scenes and our thoughts are with those staying at the hotel. This must be terrifying for them.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nAre you in the area? If it is safe to do so email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harry Styles thanks his former One Direction bandmates\n\nHarry Styles has won all four Brit Awards he was nominated for, including best album, artist and pop/R&B act.\n\nThe show opened with his huge hit As It Was, which won song of the year.\n\n\"I'm aware of my privilege up here tonight,\" he said, naming women who missed out on artist of the year, including Mabel, Florence Welch, Charli XCX, Rina Sawayama and Becky Hill.\n\nBeyonce won international awards for best artist and song of the year, while Wet Leg won best group and new artist.\n\nWet Leg's singer, Rhian Teasdale, said: \"This is so scary because being on the telly can be such a boys' club thing\" and thanked all the women who worked on their debut album, saying: \"I want to shout them out.\"\n\nShe also referenced Alex Turner's Arctic Monkeys Brits acceptance speech from 2014, saying: \"That rock and roll - it just won't go away. It might hibernate from time to time and sink back into the swamp.\"\n\nBoth bands share the same record label, Domino.\n\nThis year's nominations saw no women up for best artist, following last year's decision by organisers to scrap their best male and best female awards in favour of gender-neutral prizes.\n\nWomen who were eligible but missed out included those named by Styles in his speech.\n\nFlo, the only black British winner, won the rising star award, but did not get to perform on the night as has been the case in previous years - instead having their prize announced before the show.\n\nStyles also thanked his Mum for \"signing me up for X Factor without telling me\", along with his fellow One Direction members Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Zayn Malik.\n\nShania Twain, who performed on stage at Coachella last year with Styles, gave him his Brit for song of the year.\n\nEarlier, she told the BBC's Mark Savage that the singer's popularity stems from him being \"incredibly authentic, and people sense that\".\n\n\"He's nice, he's likeable, he's kind, he's a gentleman,\" she said. \"Obviously he's super-talented - he has everything you want as a fan to follow and appreciate and respect.\"\n\nThis is Harry's House and we're all just living in it.\n\nBut while his success might seem preordained, it's easy to forget that reality show contestants and former boyband members are usually consigned to the great pop dumper, never to be seen again.\n\nWhen Harry Styles first went solo, his music was eclipsed by his bandmates - Zayn Malik and Liam Payne, in particular, scored hits that were bigger and stickier in those early, post-One Direction days.\n\nHe started to find his way on his second album, Fine Line, delving into the 70s rock sounds of his childhood: Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Paul McCartney. He added some utopian philosophy of his own (Treat People With Kindness) and scored his first million-seller with the joyous and infectious Watermelon Sugar.\n\nHis third album updates that sound, adding 80s synths, and an easy-going intimacy. The scat singing and synth horns on Music For A Sushi Restaurant capture his quirky charisma; while Boyfriends' critique of toxic masculinity is the song every girl wants Harry to sing to them while he paints their toenails.\n\nUnusually for a big pop album, Styles' voice is mellow and restrained instead of belting out the hooks, Adele-style. That makes it less immediate than you might expect - but it grows beautifully, like dough in a proving oven.\n\nIt ended the year as the UK's best-selling album, shifting almost half-a-million copies. With numbers like that, the commercially-minded Brit Awards were never going to turn their back on Styles.\n\nBeyonce sent video messages for her wins as she was unable to attend, saying: \"Thank you so much for loving Break my Soul - the only intention for this song was to dance.\"\n\nThe singer, who made history at last week's Grammys where she won her 32nd award, thanked her fans and referenced her recent album and upcoming tour, saying: \"The renaissance begins.\"\n\nStyles also won three awards at the Grammys, including album of the year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Lizzo brings down the house at the Brit Awards 2023\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Wet Leg are all smiles as they collect their Brit Awards\n\nThe show ran fairly smoothly, although host Mo Gilligan wrongly introduced Lewis Capaldi as \"Sam Capaldi\", who performed Forget Me.\n\nGilligan joked afterwards: \"I have to apologise, it just goes to show how strong the drinks are.\"\n\nAt another point, the presenter said \"technical difficulties\" meant they had to play a recording of Adele singing I Drink Wine at last year's ceremony.\n\nRapper Aitch won best hip-hop/rap/grime artist, and said: \"Not to get all cliched, but not many people where I'm from, especially my side of Manchester, get the opportunity to stand up here and receive such an amazing gift or award.\"\n\nHe added that he performs \"to set examples and to make people know it's possible no matter where you're from\", adding \"Respect. 0161 in the building,\" a reference to Manchester's dialling code.\n\nRapper Aitch said he wants to set an example with his success\n\nBecky Hill won best dance act for the second year in a row, after performing her first US tour last year, and said it was \"such an honour\" to be nominated alongside stars including \"amazing Eliza Rose and the incredible Raye\".\n\n\"I think Beyonce said it best in her Grammy speech. We all have the queer community to thank for the best genre on earth,\" she added.\n\nThe 1975 won best alternative rock act - their fourth Brit Award - and lead singer Matty Healy said: \"This is one that has been voted for by the fans so that means a lot.\"\n\nBecky Hill said her win was helping her get over her \"imposter syndrome\"\n\nBest international group went to Irish rockers Fontaines DC, whose guitarist Carlos O'Connell said: \"My heart is full... I'm happy to be [here] to celebrate that.\"\n\nProducer and French DJ David Guetta had already been announced as producer of the year, but he was presented with his award by Norman Cook, also know as Fatboy Slim.\n\n\"To have longevity in what we do is a miracle,\" he said. \"Let's have a party!\"", "Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew and Anthony Daniels on the set of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back\n\nStar Wars memorabilia left in an attic by Chewbacca star Peter Mayhew and set for auction is to be returned to his widow after she issued a public plea.\n\nScripts and call sheets from the films were due to be sold after a couple who found them in their loft 25 years later passed them to auctioneers.\n\nHis widow, Angie, pleaded to halt the sale, saying leaving the items was one of her husband's \"biggest regrets\".\n\nAuctioneer Angus Ashworth said he was \"happy\" to return the items.\n\nWriting on the Peter Mayhew Foundation's Twitter account, Mrs Mayhew said she had previously lived in the property with her husband, who was 7ft 3in (2.2m), but when they moved out his \"movement challenges\" made it \"impossible\" for him to get into the attic to collect the items.\n\nShe said it was \"one of Peter's and my biggest regrets that we had to leave these items behind\" and described it as \"heart-breaking\" to see them go up for sale.\n\nPeter Mayhew, left, and Harrison Ford pictured at the European Premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015\n\nMr Ashworth, based in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, explained: \"I was approached by a lovely older couple who were clearing their attic a quarter of a century after moving into their property.\n\n\"The contents of the attic included a bag of Star Wars memorabilia, which I thought might be of some interest to Star Wars fans.\n\n\"This wasn't unusual, film memorabilia comes up for auction all the time and there was some subsequent press interest.\n\n\"The first I knew that the Peter Mayhew Foundation wanted to acquire it was following a tweet which garnered a lot of misinformed responses.\"\n\nThe scripts had been collecting dust in an attic for decades\n\nMr Ashworth said: \"Nobody had approached us to discuss it and had they done so I would of course have talked to the vendors.\n\n\"The monetary value of the lot is fairly modest, but knowing how much it means to the foundation, and given that it had been in the attic for over 24 years, the vendors are quite happy to donate it to the foundation to have permanently within their personal collection, not for profit, so that fans can access it in perpetuity.\n\n\"I can only apologise to all of the Star Wars fans who had already shown great interest in owning a bit of film history.\"\n\nBorn in Barnes, London, Mr Mayhew played Wookiee warrior Chewbacca in Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).\n\nDespite health issues arising from his height, that at one time required him to use a wheelchair, he returned for the sequels Revenge Of The Sith (2005) and The Force Awakens (2015) before handing the role to Finnish actor Joonas Suotamo.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The artist says she has always been drawn to Wales' derelict buildings\n\nFor the past three years Christina Dembinska has been breathing new life into forgotten buildings with her handmade stained glass window installations.\n\nThe history behind lonely, abandoned structures fuels her passion for giving them a second chance and wowing passers-by.\n\nChristina, 63, started the guerrilla art project while studying for an MA in Glass in 2020, before turning her focus to where best to display her masterpieces.\n\n''I loved making stained glass windows, but where was I going to put them?\" she said.\n\n''And then I had this idea of fitting them into derelict buildings. I was really curious about the history behind them.''\n\nChristina Dembinska says her artwork captures her curiosity about derelict buildings she comes across\n\nChristina, who lives and works in London, has always been captivated by Wales. Her grandmother was originally from Monmouth and her grandfather from Holyhead on Anglesey.\n\n\"As soon as I arrive and I see the hills, something happens,'' she said.\n\n''In Wales there are a lot of derelict structures, and I am drawn to wondering who lived there and what went on there.''\n\nThe first of her installations were fitted in two old farm buildings on the border of the Hafod Estate in Ceredigion.\n\nChristina hopes her work will bring attention to forgotten properties across the country\n\nShe hopes her work can go some way to helping preserve historical buildings.\n\n''It's only a small thing, a stained glass window. But maybe having it there somehow sparks it back into life,'' she said.\n\n''It's such a beautiful medium. As soon as the light comes through, it just sings.''\n\n''By bringing attention to the building, it could spark someone's curiosity and maybe they will then look into the history of that site.''\n\nResearch is important to her creative process, wanting to ensure the window is relevant to its location.\n\n''I often put song lyrics or words into them. I can engrave things into the glass that is related to the community or that tells a story of the building.''\n\nChristina's choice to install her art in remote locations means her work goes unnoticed by many people\n\nMost of her glass artwork is placed in remote locations and in structures varying from crumbling quarries to deserted farm buildings.\n\nIt means some of her art could go unnoticed by most, but Christina believes that's part of the magic.\n\n''I like hearing that someone has come across one of the windows by chance. The more remote they are you do start to wonder whether anybody will see them'' she said.\n\n''But I think, interestingly, people do. You don't realise how many people are wandering around in remote places.''\n\nSome of the windows have been damaged or destroyed after being installed\n\nSadly, as was the case with her installation at Dinorwic Quarry, near Llanberis, Gwynedd, some of her pieces do end up broken or destroyed.\n\n''The first time it happened I was a bit upset,'' she said. ''But then I thought, actually, when it's there you can't protect it anymore. It's almost become part of the project.\n\n''There is something about the fragility of it. The glass is like the building, both can be broken.''\n\nChristina's work has helped her form relationships with people from local communities\n\nHowever, the majority of her work has been received positively.\n\nIn some cases she has even formed connections with people from the local communities.\n\n''Once, I wrote a letter to a man who owned one of the buildings I'd put a window into. He actually wrote back and shared the history of it with me.\n\n''He'd inherited the place from his grandfather, who was a miner, and they used to farm the land together.\n\n''He couldn't come and see it any more because he's elderly and it was on top of a very steep hill, but it brought back all these memories for him.\n\n''A lot of things have happened like that which have been really lovely, a consequence of the art.''\n\nSome of Christina's installations have since been broken or destroyed\n\nOne of her larger installations was at the ruins of a chapel, built in the 1870s, in a slate valley near Machynlleth, Powys.\n\nAfter coming across the building, she wandered over to one of the few neighbouring houses.\n\nThe couple who lived there, Sarah Samson and Steve Watkins, told her about the work they had done clearing the chapel for its 150th anniversary and their hopes of restoring it.\n\nThey helped Christina fit the windows, eager to bring it back into the community.\n\nSarah said: ''There is so much heritage in Wales. It needs everybody to look at it and ask what are we going to do with it that is relevant?'\n\n''Work like Christina's says somebody cares, somebody wants this place to be noticed.''\n\nSince the clearing of the chapel, the people of the valley now come together once a year to celebrate Christmas there.\n\nSarah Samson and Steve Watkins at the chapel near Machynlleth\n\nDr Mark Baker is an architectural historian from Conwy who has also founded the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust, which in 2018 bought the Grade I-listed Gwrych Castle, near Abergele, Conwy.\n\n''It was a desire, on my part, to give something back to my community by trying to restore somewhere,'' he said.\n\n''We've had I'm a Celebrity at the castle now and it's been featured all over the world. All of this brings people to north Wales and the local area.''\n\nHe said Welsh government involvement should go further to preserve historical buildings.\n\n''There's a whole raft of properties that are at risk and I think there should be a review of how these are protected.\n\n''In Wales, the system doesn't always work because lots of the local authorities push culture and conservation down the agenda due to funding.\n\n''So, historic buildings and their preservation are often the first things that get cut.''\n\nFor Christina, art is more than just something pretty to look at\n\nThe Welsh government said it recognises the \"positive action communities can take to protect and preserve what matters to them\".\n\n''This activity is supported by Cadw through its capital grant programme and the grant aid it gives to organisations, such as the Architectural Heritage Fund.\"\n\nChristina believes art is one way communities can help save historical structures in Wales.\n\n''I think one of the functions of art is to make you think or draw attention to something and look at things in a different way.\n\n''That can be enough to spark your curiosity and think about these buildings.''", "Former Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery has denied suggestions that his tax affairs may not have been in order.\n\nHe told the BBC he had never been investigated by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and had never paid a tax penalty.\n\nThe MP for Wansbeck added that he \"does not owe a single penny\" in tax.\n\nThe tax expert and campaigner Dan Neidle believes there are questions to answer over payments Mr Lavery received from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and whether the correct tax had been paid.\n\nThe i newspaper has published a series of questions which they have sent to Mr Lavery - who was chairman of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership - about payments dating back to more than a decade ago.\n\nMr Lavery had received redundancy or termination payments from the NUM when he became a Labour MP in 2010.\n\nThe union maintained that his post as general secretary of Northumberland NUM was deleted when he became an MP and therefore he was entitled to redundancy or termination payments, in line with his contracts of employment.\n\nHe received £30,600 in 2010 and a further £30,000 in 2011.\n\nWhen the trade union watchdog, the Certification Officer, looked into the issue in 2017, they said: \"Both the union and Mr Lavery were given the opportunity to provide documentary evidence to show a process or decision by which Mr Lavery was made redundant. Neither was able to do so and stated that no such documentary evidence existed.\"\n\nHowever, the officer decided not to pursue the matter further.\n\nThe i, and Mr Neidle, who helped to uncover details about the tax affairs of Nadhim Zahawi which led to him being sacked as Conservative Party chairman, have now questioned whether the payments genuinely were redundancy payments.\n\nThe paper suggested that if no redundancy process was undertaken then the entire payment from his union should have been declared to HMRC as income.\n\nIt asked whether Mr Lavery had done this and if he had paid tax on the sum.\n\nMr Lavery declined to answer the i's question directly but told the paper no additional payments had been requested by HMRC and no penalties had been applied.\n\nIt is understood that HMRC did seek to clarify in 2017 whether the payments constituted redundancy and has subsequently not taken any action.\n\nMr Lavery, now a backbench MP, told the BBC he believes that personal tax affairs should remain confidential, but he insists that he has never been under investigation by HMRC and that he \"does not owe a single penny\" in tax.\n\nHe added that it would be \"preposterous\" to draw any parallel between his tax affairs and those of Mr Zahawi.\n\nMr Neidle, a Labour party member, said: \"When there are undocumented payments... it is reasonable to ask whether the correct tax has been paid on the payments.\"\n\nA Labour spokesman said it was up to Mr Lavery himself to respond to any questions about his tax affairs.", "The 10-day-old baby was taken to an ambulance after being saved from a collapsed building\n\nA new-born baby and his mother have been rescued from rubble in Turkey, around 90 hours after the first of Monday's deadly earthquakes.\n\nThe 10-day-old boy, named Yagiz, was retrieved from a ruined structure in the southern Hatay province.\n\nFootage showed the child being carefully taken out overnight - a sight described by local media as miraculous.\n\nHopes of finding many more survivors are diminishing, amid freezing-cold weather four days after the disaster.\n\nHowever, search and rescue efforts continue in both Turkey and neighbouring Syria - which was struck by the quakes as well.\n\nNew-born Yagiz was pictured wrapped in a thermal blanket being carried to an ambulance to receive treatment.\n\nHis mother was brought out on a stretcher. There were no further updates immediately available over the health of both.\n\nIstanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu - whose teams were reportedly involved in the rescue - tweeted about the rescue, saying it happened in the town of Samandag.\n\nFootage obtained by the Reuters news agency also showed a man being retrieved from the ruins, though it was not known if he had any connection to the other two.\n\nMore than 21,000 people have died - most of them in Turkey - after Monday morning's initial 7.8-magnitude tremor and the hundreds of aftershocks that followed.\n\nThere have also been fears of a secondary catastrophe, as many people have been made homeless and are lacking shelter, water, fuel and electricity.\n\nTurkish President Recap Tayyip Erdogan has described it as the \"disaster of the century\".\n\nOpposition figures have accused Mr Erdogan of failing to prepare for the earthquake and have questioned how estimated 88bn lira ($4.6bn; £3.8bn) raised from an \"earthquake tax\" was spent. The levy - first imposed in the wake of a massive quake in 1999 that killed more than 17,000 people - was meant to have been spent on disaster prevention and the development of emergency services.\n\nKemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey's main opposition party said on Wednesday that Mr Erdogan's government \"has not prepared for an earthquake for 20 years\".\n\nDespite the devastation, stories of remarkable escapes or heroic rescues have been emerging over the past days.\n\nThousands of people have offered to adopt a baby girl who was born under a collapsed building in north-west Syria.\n\nWhen she was rescued, baby Aya - meaning miracle in Arabic - was still connected by her umbilical cord to her mother, who died along with other family members.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Air Force plane over Alaska after US strikes 'object'\n\nUS President Joe Biden ordered a fighter jet to shoot down an unidentified \"high-altitude object\" off Alaska on Friday, the White House says.\n\nSpokesman John Kirby said the unmanned object was \"the size of a small car\" and posed a \"reasonable threat\" to civilian aviation.\n\nThe object's purpose and origin was unclear, Mr Kirby said.\n\nIt comes a week after the American military destroyed a Chinese balloon over US territorial waters.\n\nSpeaking at the White House on Friday, Mr Kirby said the debris field of the object shot down on Friday was \"much, much smaller\" than the balloon shot down last Saturday off the coast of South Carolina.\n\nHe said that the object was flying at 40,000ft (12,000m) over the northern coast of Alaska.\n\nIt had already flown across Alaska at a speed of 20 to 40mph (64km/h) and was out over the sea travelling towards the North Pole, when it was shot down.\n\nCommercial airlines can fly as high as 45,000ft.\n\nHelicopters and transport aircraft have been deployed to collect debris from the frozen waters of the Beaufort Sea.\n\n\"We do not know who owns it, whether it's state owned or corporate owned or privately owned,\" Mr Kirby said.\n\nThe object was first spotted on Thursday night, though officials did not specify a time.\n\nHe said two fighter jets had approached the object and assessed there was nobody on board, and this information was available to Mr Biden when he made his decision.\n\n\"We're going to remain vigilant about our airspace,\" Mr Kirby asserted. \"The president takes his obligations to protect our national security interests as paramount.\"\n\nAccording to ABC News, the object seemed to have no propulsion.\n\nIt seemed to be floating, \"cylindrical and silver-ish grey\", reports the network's chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz, citing an unnamed US official.\n\nPentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the object was \"not similar in size or shape\" to last week's Chinese balloon.\n\nHe confirmed that an F-22 jet had shot down the object with a sidewinder missile at 13:45 EST (18:45 GMT) on Friday.\n\nThe Pentagon said an F-22, seen here in an archive photograph, shot down the object on Friday afternoon local time\n\nThe warplane was scrambled from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.\n\nGen Ryder said a significant amount of debris had been recovered so far. It was being loaded on to vessels and taken to \"labs for subsequent analysis\", he added.\n\nOfficials said they had not yet determined whether the object was involved in surveillance, and Mr Kirby corrected a reporter who referred to it as a balloon.\n\nHe did not specify where exactly the object was shot down, but the Federal Aviation Administration said it had closed about 10 sq miles of US airspace airspace above Deadhorse, northern Alaska, before the F-22 fired.\n\nThe site is about 130 miles from the border of Canada, whose Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter he had been briefed on the \"object that violated American airspace\" and \"supported the decision to take action\".\n\nNo other objects of a threatening nature have been identified above the US at this time, according to the White House.\n\nMr Kirby said the object did not appear to have the manoeuvrable capability of the Chinese balloon and seemed to be \"virtually at the whim of the wind\".\n\nHours after the US shot down the balloon last Saturday, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Chinese counterpart via their special crisis line.\n\nBut Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe declined to pick up, according to the Pentagon.\n\nChinese officials on Friday accused the US of \"political manipulation and hype\".\n\nIn an interview on Thursday, President Biden defended his handling of the Chinese balloon, maintaining that it was not \"a major breach\".\n\nLate on Friday, five Chinese companies and one research institute were added to the US government's trade blacklist. Organisations were placed on the list for their alleged support of Chinese military aerospace programmes - including airships and balloons - the US Commerce Department announced.", "The official logo for King Charles III's coronation, to feature in street parties, social media and souvenirs, has been revealed by Buckingham Palace.\n\nIt has been created by Sir Jony Ive, known for his innovative designs of Apple gadgets, including the iPhone.\n\nThis is a more traditional image, with flowers forming the shape of the St Edward's crown used in the coronation.\n\nThe floral design highlights the \"optimism of spring\" and reflects the King's love of nature, says Sir Jony.\n\n\"The design was inspired by King Charles's love of the planet, nature, and his deep concern for the natural world,\" said the former Apple design guru, who is more usually associated with sleek tech designs of equipment such as iMacs and iPods.\n\nThe logo, to be used for events over the coronation long weekend in May, features a rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock - emblems from across the United Kingdom.\n\nIt's in contrast to the very stark design of the new King Charles stamps revealed this week, which has no crown or decoration.\n\nThe logo, also available in a Welsh-language version, is the latest detail to be revealed from the planned celebrations to mark the coronation, which will be held at Westminster Abbey on 6 May.\n\nThe day will include a carriage procession and traditional appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony, although it is still not known who will be attending - with no confirmation yet whether the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be there.\n\nOn Sunday 7 May there will be a music concert and light show at Windsor Castle, and this week a public ballot opened for the 10,000 free tickets on offer for the event.\n\nThere will be an extra bank holiday on Monday 8 May, with events highlighting the work of volunteers.", "Unrest in southern Turkey has disrupted rescue efforts in some places following Monday's deadly earthquake, three rescue groups have said.\n\nThe death toll in Turkey and Syria from the quake has surpassed 28,000, and hope of finding many more survivors is fading despite some miraculous rescues.\n\nGerman rescuers and the Austrian army paused search operations on Saturday, citing clashes between unnamed groups.\n\nSecurity is expected to worsen as food supplies dwindle, one rescuer said.\n\nTurkey's president said he would use emergency powers to punish anyone breaking the law.\n\nAn Austrian army spokesperson said early on Saturday that clashes between unidentified groups in the Hatay province had left dozens of personnel from the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit seeking shelter in a base camp with other international organisations.\n\n\"There is increasing aggression between factions in Turkey,\" Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Kugelweis said in a statement. \"The chances of saving a life bears no reasonable relation to the safety risk.\"\n\nHours after Austria paused its rescue efforts, the country's ministry of defence said that the Turkish army had stepped in to offer protection, allowing the rescue operations to resume.\n\nThe German branch of the search and rescue group ISAR and Germany's Federal Agency for Technical Relief (TSW) also suspended operations, citing security concerns.\n\n\"There are more and more reports of clashes between different factions, shots have also been fired,\" said ISAR spokesperson Stefan Heine.\n\nSteven Bayer, operations manager of Isar, said he expected security to worsen as food, water, and hope become more scarce.\n\n\"We are watching the security situation very closely as it develops,\" he said.\n\nGerman rescue teams said they would resume work as soon as Turkish authorities deem the situation safe, Reuters news agency reported.\n\nThe Vice President of Turkey, Fuat Oktay announced on Saturday the death toll in Turkey has risen to 24,617.\n\nWhile Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan hasn't commented on the reported unrest in Hatay, he did reiterate on Saturday that the government would take action against those involved in crimes in the region.\n\n\"We've declared a state of emergency,\" Mr Erdogan said during a visit to the disaster zone today. \"It means that, from now on, the people who are involved in looting or kidnapping should know that the state's firm hand is on their backs.\"\n\nState media reported on Saturday that 48 people had been arrested for looting, according to AFP. Turkish state media reported several guns were seized, along with cash, jewellery and bank cards.\n\nA 26-year-old man searching for a work colleague in a collapsed building in Antakya told Reuters: \"People were smashing the windows and fences of shops and cars.\"\n\nTurkish police have also reportedly detained 12 people over collapsed buildings in the provinces of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa. They included contractors, according to the DHA news agency.\n\nThere are also expected to be more arrests after Mr Oktay told reporters late Saturday that prosecutors issued 113 arrest warrants over the buildings.\n\nAt least 6,000 buildings collapsed in Turkey, raising questions about if the large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government could have done more to save lives.\n\nWith elections looming, the president's future is on the line after spending 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity going unheeded.\n\nMr Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but he appeared to blame fate on a visit to one disaster zone: \"Such things have always happened. It's part of destiny's plan.\"\n\nAmong those rescued on Saturday were a family of five pulled from the rubble in Turkey's Gaziantep province.\n\nAP news agency reported the parents, two daughters and son were brought to safety after five days under their collapsed home, to cries of \"God is great\".\n\nThe same outlet reported that a seven-year-old girl was pulled from the debris in the province of Hatay after almost 132 hours under the rubble.\n\nThe BBC has also published footage of the remarkable rescue of two sisters in Antakya, southern Turkey, from Wednesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rescuers use specialist cameras to free Irem And Merve from the rubble of their building in Antakya\n\nThe quake was described as the \"worst event in 100 years in this region\" by the United Nations aid chief, who was in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras on Saturday.\n\n\"I think it's the worst natural disaster that I've ever seen and it's also the most extraordinary international response,\" Martin Griffiths told the BBC's Lyse Doucet in Turkey.\n\n\"We have more than a hundred countries who have sent people here so there's been incredible response but there's a need for it,\" he added.\n\nMr Griffiths has called for regional politics to be put aside in the face of the disaster - and there are some signs that this is happening.\n\nThe border crossing between long-feuding Armenia and Turkey reopened on Saturday for the first time in 35 years to allow aid through.\n\nAnd there are reports that the Syrian government has agreed to let UN aid into areas controlled by opposition groups, with whom they have been engaged in a bitter civil war since 2011.\n\nThe death toll in Syria from the earthquake now stands at more than 3,500, according to AFP - but new figures have not been publishes since Friday.\n\nThere has been criticism that the international effort to send aid to Syria has not been fast enough.\n\nIsmail al Abdullah of the Syrian Civil Defence Force, or White Helmets, which operates in rebel-held areas, told the BBC's Quentin Sommerville that the organisation had stopped searching for survivors.\n\nThe international community has \"blood on its hands,\" he said. \"We needed rescue equipment that never came.\"\n\nSivanka Dhanapala, the Syria representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told AlJazeera that as many 5.3 million Syrians may be homeless following the quake.\n\n\"That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The suspected Chinese spy balloon spotted over the city of Billings in the state of Montana\n\nNews of an alleged Chinese spy balloon floating over the US has left many wondering why Beijing would want to use a relatively unsophisticated tool for its surveillance of the US mainland.\n\nChina has said the balloon, spotted over the state of Montana, is merely a \"civilian airship\" which deviated from its planned route, but the US suspects it is a \"high-altitude surveillance\" device.\n\nWhatever the capabilities of this particular balloon, the US has taken the threat seriously enough to postpone Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China, which was due to take place on 5 and 6 February.\n\nBalloons are one of the oldest forms of surveillance technology. The Japanese military used them to launch incendiary bombs in the US during World War Two. They were also widely used by the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.\n\nMore recently, the US has reportedly been considering adding high-altitude inflatables into the Pentagon's surveillance network. Modern balloons typically hover between 24km-37km above the earth's surface (80,000ft-120,000ft).\n\n\"Beijing is probably trying to signal to Washington: 'While we want to improve ties, we are also ever ready for sustained competition, using any means necessary,' without severely inflaming tensions,\" independent air-power analyst He Yuan Ming told the BBC.\n\n\"And what better tool for this than a seemingly innocuous balloon?\"\n\nThe balloon's anticipated flight path near certain missile bases suggests it is unlikely it has drifted off course, He Yuan Ming said.\n\nThe US Department of Defence on Thursday said the balloon is \"significantly above where civilian air traffic is active\".\n\nBut China expert Benjamin Ho said Beijing had more sophisticated surveillance technology at its disposal.\n\n\"They have other means to spy out American infrastructure, or whatever information they wanted to obtain. The balloon was to send a signal to the Americans, and also to see how the Americans would react,\" explained Dr Ho - coordinator of the China programme at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.\n\nIt may even be the case that China wanted the US to detect the balloon.\n\n\"It's possible that being spotted was the whole point. China might be using the balloon to demonstrate that it has a sophisticated technological capability to penetrate US airspace without risking a serious escalation. In this regard, a balloon is a pretty ideal choice,\" said Arthur Holland Michel from the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.\n\nNevertheless, the experts point out that balloons can be fitted with modern technology like spy cameras and radar sensors, and there are some advantages to using balloons for surveillance - chief of which is that it is less expensive and easier to deploy than drones or satellites.\n\nThe balloon's slower speed also allows it to loiter over and monitor the target area for longer periods. A satellite's movement, on the other hand, is restricted to its orbital pass.", "Raheem's mother Shantal said her son had been bullied \"from the get-go\"\n\nPolice have dropped an investigation into an alleged assault in which an 11-year-old boy lost a finger.\n\nRaheem Bailey, a pupil at Abertillery Learning Community in Blaenau Gwent, claimed he caught his finger climbing a fence trying to escape bullies.\n\nGwent Police said it took such reports \"extremely seriously\" but the nine-month investigation has concluded no-one else was involved in the injury.\n\nThe force said it had met Raheem's family to inform them of the outcome.\n\nRaheem's mother Shantal Bailey said her son was attacked on 17 May by a group of children who kicked him when he was on the floor.\n\nRaheem underwent surgery following the incident but doctors had to amputate the finger.\n\nGwent Police described the investigation as \"complex\" and said: \"Officers have interviewed several people under caution and viewed CCTV footage from the school.\n\n\"Our investigation found that Raheem left the school premises of his own accord, and no other persons were involved in him sustaining the injury to his hand.\n\n\"After undertaking a detailed and thorough investigation we will not be taking any further action.\"\n\nRaheem said he had been subjected to continued abuse at school\n\nBoxer Anthony Joshua and footballer Jadon Sancho were among those to send messages of support to Raheem.\n\nMs Bailey set up a fundraising campaign following the incident which has received over £100,000 in donations. She is looking into having a prosthetic fitted.\n\nGwent Police added: \"We have worked closely with the school leadership team and the local authority and have appreciated their co-operation though this complex investigation.\n\n\"We all remain committed to keeping children safe.\"\n\nBlaenau Gwent council said its thoughts were with Raheem and his family and that it was commissioning an independent review to identify any lessons to improve the response to future incidents.\n\n\"First and foremost, a young person has suffered a life-changing injury, and our thoughts remain with the learner and his family,\" a council statement read.\n\n\"This has been an extremely difficult time for all involved. The incident unfortunately led to widespread commentary on social media and in the press, including by some high profile stakeholders.\n\n\"The press and social media coverage fuelled unhelpful speculation during an ongoing police investigation when the school and the council were unable to comment.\"", "Mick Lynch told the Today programme there was 'a universal rejection' of the revised pay offer\n\nRail workers will be balloted \"soon\" on whether to stage fresh strikes later in the year, the RMT union's general secretary Mick Lynch has said.\n\nMr Lynch told the BBC the union wanted to \"keep talking\" about pay, but felt the government was \"trying to make an example out of the railways\".\n\nOn Friday, the union rejected what was described as a \"best and final\" offer from the body representing rail firms.\n\nThe government and Network Rail have condemned the decision.\n\nMr Lynch branded the offers \"dreadful\", while Transport Secretary Mark Harper called the union's decision \"a kick in the teeth for passengers\".\n\nThe long-running dispute over pay, job cuts and changes to working conditions has led rail workers from a number of unions to strike over numerous days since the summer.\n\nNo further strikes are currently planned by the RMT - Britain's largest rail workers' union - but it has a mandate to call further strikes up until May.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Lynch said a new ballot process would be sought so there was an overlapping \"continuous mandate\" for industrial action.\n\nHe went on: \"We did put it [the pay offer] to our members. There was a universal rejection of what's on the table.\"\n\nHe said staff \"feel under attack\", and some had not had a pay rise for the last four years.\n\nBut he added the RMT \"want to keep talking\" to the rail companies, despite fears ministers were trying to make an example out of the rail dispute.\n\n\"Ministers have told me that face to face - Mark Harper and (transport minister) Huw Merriman - that they can't offer us anything fresh because it would set a precedent for nurses and other public sector workers, and they want to hold this line.\"\n\nNetwork Rail and the Rail Delivery Group, which represent train companies, have offered striking workers a pay deal worth 9% over two years.\n\nBut unions have said that any pay offer should reflect the rising cost of living - as inflation sits above 10%.\n\nMr Lynch described the offer as \"very puny\", saying it did not meet members' expectations \"on pay, job security or working conditions\".\n\nThe RMT said it would now seek further meetings with Network Rail and the RDG to try to work towards a settlement.\n\nThe latest pay offer did not go to a vote of the full RMT membership.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper said: \"It is now clear that no realistic offer is ever going to be good enough for the RMT leadership.\"\n\nAnd Tim Shoveller, Network Rail chief negotiator, said the RMT was \"condemning its members to a further round of fruitless, pointless and costly strikes\".\n\n\"We have made multiple concessions, compromises and offers, while the RMT has shifted on nothing. It's time for a second referendum on our new, revised offer and time to end this and work together to rebuild our railway.\"\n\nMr Lynch said pay offers without conditions attached had been made in Wales and Scotland - where there is no Department for Transport oversight - and that \"something more along those lines\" would be more acceptable.\n\nMeanwhile, negotiations are ongoing for other rail workers.\n\nThe drivers' main union, Aslef, says it hopes to have more talks next week.\n\nAnd a smaller union, the TSSA, said on Friday that thousands of its members would be given a vote on the offers from the train companies.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Nicola Bulley's partner '100% convinced' her body's not in the river\n\nThe partner of missing Nicola Bulley is \"100 per cent convinced\" she did not fall in the river, as detectives say they are keeping an open mind about what happened.\n\nThe 45-year-old vanished two weeks ago on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire.\n\nPaul Ansell told Channel 5 the family was going through \"unprecedented hell\".\n\nLancashire Police said Ms Bulley \"may have\" gone into the river but it was examining all \"potential scenarios\".\n\nDivers have searched the River Wyre and surrounding countryside, but no trace of Ms Bulley has been found.\n\nFocus of the police search on Thursday switched from St Michael's to around 10 miles downstream where the river empties into the sea at Morecambe Bay, with police patrol boats and rescue boats spotted on the river and in the bay.\n\nNicola Bulley, 45, was last seen two weeks ago on a riverside dog walk\n\nReferencing the search Mr Ansell said: \"Extensive searching, you know, as you're probably aware, has gone on in that river.\n\n\"The fact that the divers and underwater rescue team and all that were in that river on the day, and thankfully found absolutely nothing, in the part where you would have to presume is her last known location.\"\n\nHe said: \"Personally, I am 100 per cent convinced it's not the river, that's my opinion\".\n\nLancashire Police earlier ruled out third-party involvement and said detectives were treating the case as a missing person inquiry, but added they were \"fully open\" to new information about her disappearance.\n\nIn an update on Friday, a force representative said: \"Throughout this investigation we have been keeping an open mind about what might have happened to Nicola, and we continue to look at all the potential scenarios to eliminate them.\n\n\"We are reviewing our decisions regularly.\n\n\"Based on all the work we have done up to now our belief remains that Nicola may have fallen into the river for some reason, but we are continuing to investigate all possible leads, and this involves viewing CCTV, Dashcam footage and speaking to people who are providing us with information.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: What does the search for Nicola Bulley look like now?\n\nSpeaking on the Channel 5 programme, Vanished: Where is Nicola Bulley?, Mr Ansell added: \"Nikki would never give up on us ever. She wouldn't give up on anybody. And we're not gonna ever give up on her like, we're going to find her.\n\n\"There has to be a way to find out what happened, there has to be. You cannot, you cannot walk your dog down a river and just vanish into thin air.\n\n\"Something happened that day, something.\"\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river on 27 January.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nPolice also addressed concerns over a red van that had been reported to them.\n\nThe force said: \"We would like to stress that while this has been reported to us and we are making efforts to identify the owner at this time there is nothing to suggest this was anything other than one of many hundreds of vehicles in the area that morning.\"\n\nEarlier, one of Ms Bulley's friends said the continuing search without any answers was \"almost like torture.\n\nEmma White had joined others in St Michael's on Wyre holding placards by the main road to jog people's memories.\n\n\"We just need Nikki home for her two beautiful girls who want their mummy,\" she said.\n\nThe search has been extended to Morecambe Bay\n\nResidents have had to bring in private security following an increase in people coming to the village.\n\nIt comes after Lancashire Police issued two dispersal notices on Thursday to break up groups, including amateur investigators and people filming police activity around the area where Ms Bulley disappeared.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Raheem said he caught his finger on a fence he was climbing to escape bullies\n\nThe mother of a boy who lost a finger allegedly fleeing racist bullies has criticised police for their handling of the investigation.\n\nRaheem Bailey claimed he caught his finger in a fence escaping bullies at his former school in Blaenau Gwent.\n\nShantal Bailey said the force's suggestion no one else was involved was a \"complete insult\" and she would complain to the police watchdog.\n\nGwent Police said it took all reports like this \"extremely seriously\".\n\nRaheem underwent surgery following the incident on 17 May 2022 but doctors had to amputate his finger.\n\nHe was 11 years old at the time and a pupil at Abertillery Learning Community in Blaenau Gwent.\n\nIn a statement, Ms Bailey said: \"I am overwhelmingly disappointed by the police's decision to take no further action in Raheem's case.\n\n\"Although the police had indicated to me that this was the likely outcome, I feel that their statement makes it clear that they have taken at face value all other versions of events other than Raheem's.\n\n\"Yet he is the victim in this and has been left with a life-changing injury.\n\n\"My son is still traumatised by what happened to him and has a permanent physical reminder of the torment he suffered that day.\n\n\"The events of that day followed a sustained campaign of bullying at the school over the preceding months and a previous experience that had taught him that reporting to a teacher would not make a difference.\n\n\"To state that no others were involved in what happened to Raheem is a complete insult and the police's point about him leaving the school of his own accord is irrelevant.\"\n\nShe added that there had been no dispute he left of his own accord, but he did so \"in a state of sheer panic and despair, which left him feeling as if he had no option other than to leave the school ground by any means necessary\".\n\nShe added: \"It is the altercation that caused him to flee the school in terror, and how he was allowed to do so unchecked and unchallenged by any responsible adult, that needs to be addressed.\"\n\nRaheem's family is considering taking civil legal action against the school, for \"negligence\" due to ongoing bullying and lack of supervision on the day of the incident.\n\nBlaenau Gwent council said it is launching an inquiry into the incident and has been contacted for a response.\n\nWhile she welcomed the inquiry, she said she was \"disgusted\" the school had not informed her directly and she only learned about it in the press.\n\nThe family's solicitor, Frances Swaine from law firm Leigh Day, added: \"We echo our client's disappointment, not only with the conclusion arrived at by the police but by the way they have chosen to communicate this, which seems to lay any blame with Raheem and exonerate all others.\n\n\"The altercation that led to him leaving school should be re-examined.\n\n\"Raheem had been reporting the bullying he had suffered for months but he felt that nothing was done by the school to help him.\n\n\"We will be supporting Shantal in making a complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding the police's handling of this incident and we are also investigating a civil legal claim against Abertillery Learning Community for negligence.\"\n\nOn Friday Gwent Police said: \"Officers have interviewed several people under caution and viewed CCTV footage from the school.\n\n\"Our investigation found that Raheem left the school premises of his own accord, and no other persons were involved in him sustaining the injury to his hand.\n\n\"After undertaking a detailed and thorough investigation we will not be taking any further action.\"\n\nRaheem's mother Shantal said her son had been bullied \"from the get-go\"\n\nBlaenau Gwent council said on Friday its thoughts were with Raheem and his family and it was commissioning an independent review to identify any lessons to improve the response to future incidents.\n\nIt' added: \"First and foremost, a young person has suffered a life-changing injury, and our thoughts remain with the learner and his family,\" a council statement read.\n\n\"This has been an extremely difficult time for all involved. The incident unfortunately led to widespread commentary on social media and in the press, including by some high profile stakeholders.\n\n\"The press and social media coverage fuelled unhelpful speculation during an ongoing police investigation when the school and the council were unable to comment.\"\n\nMs Bailey set up a fundraising campaign following the incident which has received over £100,000 in donations. She aims to have a prosthetic fitted for Raheem.", "A man stacks up sandbags to protect a warehouse before the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle in Auckland, New Zealand\n\nThousands of people in New Zealand have been left without power as parts of the country endure the start of a severe storm.\n\nGabrielle buffeted Australia's Norfolk Island overnight and has begun to lash the northernmost region of New Zealand.\n\nForecasters have issued \"red\" heavy wind and rain warnings for Auckland and Northland with 200mm of rain and winds of up to 130kph (80mph) expected.\n\nEvacuation centres have been set up and residents have been preparing.\n\nThey have been told to ensure they have enough supplies to last three days in case they are trapped at home.\n\nThe storm - which has been downgraded from a cyclone - comes weeks after torrential rain inundated the city of Auckland., which remains under a state of emergency.\n\nTens of thousands of sandbags have been distributed there due to concerns the sodden ground and weakened infrastructure have made homes more vulnerable to flooding.\n\nParts of New Zealand's North Island are still recovering from recent record flooding\n\nAir New Zealand, the national carrier, has cancelled several domestic flights ahead of the storm's arrival.\n\nOn Norfolk Island, which covers just over 34 sq km (13 sq miles) in the Pacific Ocean between New Caledonia and New Zealand, authorities said they were clearing debris and trees from roads and restoring power knocked out in the storm.\n\n\"There is still considerable clean up to be undertaken and it may take a while for services such as power to be restored,\" Emergency Management Norfolk Island said.\n\nNew Zealand's MetService has warned winds could still be strong enough to damage trees and power lines and that enough rain could fall to cause further flooding and landslides in the coming days.\n\nPrime Minister Chris Hipkins said: \"Our main message to people across the country is to please take the severe weather warning seriously and to make sure you're prepared.\n\n\"Make sure you've got your grab-and-go kits, make sure you know where you need to go in the event you need to evacuate your homes.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Royal Oak This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Coromandel Peninsula and the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne region, which were also affected by the recent torrential rain, have been placed under the most serious weather alert.\n\nResidents in flood-prone areas have been told to prepare to evacuate.\n\n\"There's a degree of nervousness and anxiety around this coming event,\" the Thames-Coromandel district's mayor, Len Salt, told the Stuff news website.\n\n\"Coromandel people are pretty resilient, but the fact we've been in this mode dealing with storm events from the beginning of January...people are tired.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "So it was a good night really - a great night in fact if you're Harry Styles or Wet Leg.\n\nBut not everything went quite to plan. The cars malfunctioned during Sam Smith's performance and they had to reset, causing the producers to have to fill for time and then rush through the remaining awards.\n\nThe person on the bleep button at ITV had a busy night too, thanks to some epic swearing from Wet Leg and Harry Styles' songwriting partner Kid Harpoon.\n\nThen there was This Country star Daisy May Cooper, there to present an award, who made an unrepeatable joke about the Sugababes.\n\nWhat do you expect on a night when even the host, Mo Gilligan was doing shots on stage with Harry Styles?\n\nAre the Brits becoming wild again? Maybe, by accident or design.", "The hoax object was found at Celtic Court (left) - the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium can be seen on the right\n\nSecretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris had to leave a football match at at stadium in Londonderry on Friday night due to a security alert caused by an elaborate hoax.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris was attending a Derry City match along with Irish President Michael D Higgins and about 4,000 fans.\n\nA suspicious object was found at Celtic Court near the stadium at about 20:30 GMT.\n\nThe Northern Ireland secretary left about 20 minutes before the game ended.\n\nLater, an announcement was made over the public address system at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium that there was an \"ongoing incident\" near the ground, with the Lone Moor Road outside the stadium closed from the Brandywell roundabout.\n\nFans were asked to go another direction when leaving the stadium.\n\nThe match was otherwise unaffected, with Derry City beating Shamrock Rovers 2-0 to win the President's Cup.\n\nIn a statement overnight, police said army bomb experts had declared the object a hoax.\n\nThe match was unaffected by the alert, with Derry City beating Shamrock Rovers 2-0\n\n\"I want to thank the local community, in particular those who were directly affected, for their cooperation and assistance as we worked to keep people safe,\" said PSNI Supt William Calderwood.\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood, who also attended the match, said it was a good thing the secretary of state visited the Brandywell and that it was a \"very good evening enjoyed by thousands of fans\".\n\n\"Shockingly people think that's a good time to do these kinds of things, to basically attack their own people.\n\n\"They've got no support at all in their community and they won't stop the people of Derry enjoying a game of football, or anything else.\"\n\nSinn Féin assembly member Pádraig Delargy said: \"No-one wants to see this type of disruption, especially on a cold winter night.\"\n\nDUP assembly member Gary Middleton condemned those responsible for the alert and said there was \"no place in our society for those who seek to use violence, threat, or intimidation\".\n\nA Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said: \"We do not comment on security matters.\"", "John Tory stepped down on Friday after three successive terms as Toronto's mayor\n\nThe mayor of Canadian city Toronto has resigned unexpectedly after admitting to a relationship with a former staff member.\n\nJohn Tory's announcement came shortly after the Toronto Star newspaper reported he had an affair with the 31-year-old woman - whom he did not name.\n\nHe said the affair started during the Covid-19 pandemic and was \"ended mutually by consent this year\".\n\nThe 68-year-old called the relationship \"a serious error in judgement.\"\n\nIn a statement Mr Tory said: \"I am deeply sorry, and I apologise unreservedly to the people of Toronto, and to all of those hurt by my actions.\n\n\"Most of all, I apologise to my wife, Barb and to my family who I've let down more than anyone else,\" he added.\n\nMr Tory said he would work with city employees and deputy mayor Jennifer McKelvie to ensure an orderly transition to a new administration.\n\nHe added: \"I deeply regret having to step away from a job that I love in a city that I love even more.\n\n\"I believe, in my heart, it is best to fully commit myself to the work that is required to repair these most important (family) relationships as well.\"\n\nHe took office in December 2014 having beaten Doug Ford and Olivia Chow in the election.\n\nMr Tory was re-elected in 2018 and clinched a third term in office four years later.\n\nA by-election at a later date will be held to determine an elected successor to Mr Tory.", "Vapes should be kept out of sight of children in shops and the legal minimum age of 18 should be marked clearly on each product, say councils in England.\n\nToo many children are being illegally sold vapes with fruity flavours and colourful packaging, they say.\n\nDoctors have warned of the potential long-term effects of vaping on the lungs, and are calling for tighter rules on packaging and advertising.\n\nVapes should only be used by smokers who want to give up tobacco.\n\nIn the UK, only those aged 18 and over can buy vapes or e-cigarettes.\n\nBut vaping is growing in popularity among teenagers, who often use disposable single-use products like Elf and Geek bars.\n\nThey come in a variety of flavours and colours, are marketed on social media and can be bought in many High Street shops, such as newsagents or mobile phone outlets. They cost about £5.\n\nThe Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England, is calling for vaping products to be subject to the same rules as cigarettes - sold in plain packaging and kept out of reach and sight of children behind shop counters.\n\nVapes or e-cigarettes are safer than cigarettes because they do not contain harmful tobacco, or produce dangerous tar or carbon monoxide from tobacco smoke.\n\nHowever, they usually contain the addictive substance nicotine and, if the devices used are illegal, they can also contain potentially dangerous levels of that and other ingredients. Health experts say vaping is not risk-free.\n\nSingle-use or disposable vapes come in all sorts of colours and flavours\n\nYoung people who vape regularly have reported getting nosebleeds, headaches and sore throats. Others say they feel like they are addicted.\n\n\"It is not right that stores are able to prominently display vaping paraphernalia for all to see, such as in a shop window, often in bright, colourful packaging that can appeal to children,\" said councillor David Fothergill, chairman of the LGA's Community Wellbeing Board.\n\nHe also said it was \"deeply worrying\" that more and more children who had never smoked are starting to vape.\n\nHealth charity Ash, which has been providing resources for schools, parents and teachers on how to stop children vaping, says the government should introduce a tax on single-use disposable vapes in the Budget in March.\n\n\"In one simple step this would reduce both child vaping and the vast quantities of single-use vapes being thrown into landfill,\" says chief executive Deborah Arnott.\n\nThe charity also suggests product names resembling sweets or featuring cartoon characters should be banned, and anyone who looks under 25 should be asked for ID in shops.\n\nA lorry full of thousands of illegal vaping products seized by Trading Standards in the north-east of England\n\nTrading Standards recently said that one in three businesses has been found to break the law over under-age sales of vaping products, and it wants to see them face tougher penalties.\n\nIt is also regularly seizing lorry loads of counterfeit and illegal vapes from shops across the country, as well as at Channel ports.\n\nSome 8.6% of 11 to 18-year-olds in England are vaping, latest figures show, up from 4% in 2021. Among adults, it is about 7%.\n\nMore than half of all current young vapers use disposable vaping products, compared with just 7.8% two years ago.\n\nThe Scottish government says it will consider a potential ban on disposable vapes as part of a plan to reduce their impact on public health and the environment.\n\nIn October, the Irish government launched a consultation on banning \"wasteful\" disposable vape products, citing concerns over littering.\n\nA spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care in England said tough regulations on advertising vaping products to children, nicotine strength, labelling and safety were already in place.\n\nThey added: \"We are carefully considering the recommendations from the Khan review: making smoking obsolete, including what more can be done to protect children from vaping.\"\n\nThe UK Vaping Industry Association said the solution is to enforce existing laws on retailers rather than focus on packaging.\n\nIt says it is developing detailed proposals for the government to consider - \"including substantial on the spot fines and nationwide retail licensing and test purchasing schemes\".\n\nIt also maintains that disposable vapes are not just being used by young people - they are also sought after by older adults too.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A police van was set on fire outside a hotel housing asylum seekers\n\nFifteen people, including a 13-year-old boy, have been arrested after violent clashes outside a Merseyside hotel accommodating asylum seekers.\n\nA police officer and two members of the public suffered minor injuries during the disorder in Knowsley on Friday.\n\nA police van was set alight and missiles including lit fireworks were thrown at officers.\n\nThirteen males and two women, aged between 13 and 54, have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder.\n\nA peaceful protest and counter protest had been taking place outside the Suites Hotel when police said a group of people arrived who were \"only interested in causing trouble\".\n\nChief Constable Serena Kennedy said: \"They turned up armed with hammers and fireworks to cause as much trouble as they could and their actions could have resulted in members of the public and police officers being seriously injured, or worse.\"\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman said she condemned the \"appalling disorder\".\n\n\"The alleged behaviour of some asylum seekers is never an excuse for violence and intimidation,\" she said in a tweet, also thanking Merseyside Police officers for \"keeping everyone safe\".\n\nA spokeswoman for the Home Office said the violence was \"totally unacceptable\".\n\n\"We are working closely with Merseyside Police and partners on the ground to ensure the safety of those in our care and the wider community,\" they added.\n\nA dispersal order has been put in place for the area for 48 hours.\n\nA police van was set on fire in the riot\n\nSir George Howarth MP, Labour MP for Knowsley, said \"an alleged incident posted on social media\" had triggered the demonstration.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called the incident \"shameful and appalling\", while also claiming Ms Braverman was \"wrong to dismiss far right threats for political reasons\".\n\nShe added: \"Instead she should be championing vigilance against all kinds of extremism.\"\n\nPolice confirmed they had been investigating reports that \"a man made inappropriate advances toward a teenage girl\" in Kirkby on Monday.\n\nNo victim had been initially identified and a man in his 20s was arrested on Thursday in another part of the country on suspicion of a public order offence, Chief Constable Kennedy said.\n\nHe was released with no further action following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).\n\nThe investigation was \"ongoing\" and Chief Constable Kennedy appealed for anyone with information to contact the police.\n\n\"Social media speculation, misinformation and rumour can actually damage the outcome of investigations and cause unnecessary fear and consequent behaviour, so I would continue to ask people to be mindful of the damage that such actions can cause.\"\n\nWitnesses described the violence as \"terrifying\"\n\nOn the night of the violence, Sir George told the BBC: \"The people of Knowsley are not bigots and are welcoming to people escaping from some of the most dangerous places in the world in search of a place of safety.\n\n\"Those demonstrating against refugees at this protest tonight do not represent this community.\"\n\nAhmed, who did not want to give his second name, said he saw the protest from a window in the hotel, where he has been staying for a month as a political asylum seeker.\n\nThe 34-year-old said he had been a teacher in Egypt and others staying in the hotel included doctors and engineers, adding: \"People are afraid.\n\n\"We respect this country. We come here to search [for] freedom… but I'm shocked this happened.\"\n\nHe said he thought the violent actions only represented a minority, adding \"in any country, some people are good, some people are not good\".\n\nAlan Marsden, who lives locally, said he attended the protest after seeing the allegations \"on TikTok and online\" but left when it became clear it was no longer peaceful.\n\nThe 59-year-old said: \"It was bad. Kids with masks and balaclavas on turned up. There were 300 or 400 people here.\n\n\"It was mostly women and children until all the hooligans turned up.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Ahmed said he and others staying at the hotel were afraid\n\nClare Moseley, founder of refugee charity Care4Calais, said the scene was \"like a war zone\".\n\nShe said she was among 100 to 120 people from pro-migrant groups who went to the scene in reaction to the protest to show support for the asylum seekers.\n\nShe added that counter protesters had been \"barricaded in a car park\".\n\n\"I was really frightened for us, I was really frightened for the people in the hotel,\" she said.\n\n\"All you could hear was fighting in every direction. Fireworks going off, banging, locks flying, smashing glass, and you could hear people shouting.\n\n\"The police van went right up in flames and exploded, then [the protesters] broke through again and started fighting with the police.\"\n\nThe protesters were \"very organised and very violent\", Ms Mosley added.\n\nExtra police officers will be on patrol in the area following the riot\n\nCh Con Kennedy said: \"There is no excuse for the violence that was carried out last night and we will arrest anyone who fails to heed this advice.\"\n\nExtra police officers will be on patrol in the area while a dispersal order has been implemented until Monday afternoon.\n\nKnowsley Council previously said it had been given less than 48 hours' notice in January 2022 of the Home Office's intention to temporarily accommodate asylum seekers at the hotel.\n\nIt is understood the government appointed private company Serco to manage the hotel site and provide support to asylum seekers there.\n\nKnowsley Council said it was \"not involved in that contract\" and was not being paid to accommodate asylum seekers, but said it was committed to supporting people fleeing persecution.\n\nThe government has been accommodating asylum seekers in Knowsley since 2016, the council said.\n\nCorrection 16 March 2023: This article was amended to remove an out of date annual cost of the asylum system which could be confusing to readers. We also updated information about the daily cost of hotels.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Opponents of President Erdogan say the heavy loss of life is down to politics Image caption: Opponents of President Erdogan say the heavy loss of life is down to politics\n\nTurkey's most devastating earthquake since 1939 has raised big questions about whether such a large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and whether President Erdogan's government could have done more to save lives.\n\nWith elections on the horizon, his future is on the line after 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity have gone unheeded.\n\nBut it took time for the response to build and some villages could not be reached for days. More than 30,000 people from the professional and voluntary sector eventually arrived, along with teams from many other countries.\n\nMore than 6,000 buildings collapsed and workers from Turkey's Afad disaster authority were themselves caught up in the earthquakes.\n\nThose initial hours were critical but roads were damaged and search and rescue teams struggled to get through until day two or day three.\n\nTurkey has more experience of earthquakes than almost any other country but the founder of the main volunteer rescue group believes this time, politics got in the way.\n\nPresident Erdogan has accepted that search efforts were not as fast as the government wanted, despite Turkey having the \"largest search and rescue team in the world right now\".", "Stars on this year's red carpet opted for a mix of unusual silhouettes, bare baby bumps, sparkles, ruffles, metallics and pearls.\n\nThere was something for everyone's fashion tastes this year - plus plenty more besides.\n\nSome stars opted for traditional red-carpet looks, while others wore unconventional outfits, guaranteed to attract attention.\n\nDouble nominee Sam Smith (pictured above) went for the latter, and looked like they might float away in this eye-catching black, plastic ensemble - we hope they were okay when they tried to sit down.\n\nUS singer and rapper Ashnikko's eye-catching outfit merged with her body like a second layer of highly unusual skin, topped off with her trademark blue hair.\n\nThe often colourful Harry Styles, who won the night with four awards, wore a flared black jacket and trousers, with an enormous matching corsage on his neck.\n\nLizzo, who performed live at the show, looked as Good as Hell in a fabulous gold, full-length ruffle, framing her dark metallic dress.\n\nEliza Rose, who was up for song of the year, was resplendent in head-to-toe Vivienne Westwood, including the late designer's trademark orb and pearl necklace.\n\nWet Leg, the Brits' most-nominated band, wore belts, lace and ruffles, combined with earthy-toned suits and shirts, and some pretty comfy-looking shoes.\n\nNova Twins, who were up for best group, wore stunning dresses framed by hoop petticoats and adorned with safety pins and tartan, adding a splash of colour to the red carpet.\n\nIf you have a beautiful baby bump, why not show it off? The singer Jessie J's bright red ruffles and lace outfit highlighted hers.\n\nThe singer Kamille, swathed in green, silky fabric, also made her baby bump the focus of her striking outfit, cradling it in matching gloves.\n\nSinger MNEK opted for full coverage in a lot of pink, with customised sparkling eye-makeup and nails, and a matching clutch bag.\n\nFlo, winners of the rising star award, opted for dresses made from the same burgundy material shaped into figure-hugging gowns, each with its own individual twist of style.\n\nThe singer Lewis Capaldi carried a huge, imaginary Brit Award as he walked down the red carpet.\n\nS Club 7 fans would have been delighted to see Jo O'Meara, Rachel Stevens and Tina Barrett lined up together, all in traditional full-length gowns.\n\nMeanwhile the Sugababes' Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy joined forces - it was a mix of sharp suits for Keisha and Siobhan, and a black dress for Mutya, showcasing her body art.\n\nRuPaul's Drag Race judge Michelle Visage, one of the red carpet livestream hosts, dazzled in a patriotic Union flag-inspired outfit.\n\nClara Amfo, co-hosting live from the red carpet for ITV2, was looking fierce in some very high heels and a classy black gown with a long train.\n\nMaya Jama, also a red carpet host, wore black, with gold jewellery, adding a splash of glitter on the front of her fitted dress that tied in with her matching earrings and shoes.", "Two NHS nurses have died in a car crash while on holiday together in the US.\n\nIt was reported they died in a crash involving a Jeep and a bus near the Grand Canyon, Arizona, on 3 February.\n\nThe hospital said the two friends were \"much-loved\" by their colleagues and that staff had been left \"shocked and saddened\" by news of their deaths.\n\nThe nurses had moved from Portugal to work at University Hospital Southampton\n\nGail Byrne, the trust's chief nursing officer, said Ms Brandão and Ms Moreira had \"bright careers ahead of them\" after joining the hospital seven and five years ago respectively.\n\n\"The friends were well-known for their kindness, empathy and enthusiasm,\" said Ms Byrne.\n\n\"Both were passionate about nursing and providing the very best care for our patients.\n\n\"Outside of work they shared a love for new experiences, adventure and living life to the fullest.\"\n\nShe said the pair would be \"sorely missed\" and and that the hospital was sending its \"love and condolences\" to their families.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "One of Ukraine's closest allies has cast doubt on whether it would be able to supply President Volodymyr Zelenksy with the fighter jets he says are needed to win the war with Russia.\n\nPoland's President, Andrzej Duda - speaking exclusively to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg - said sending F-16 aircraft would be a \"very serious decision\" that was \"not easy to take\".\n\nPoland has been one of Ukraine's most vocal supporters since Russia invaded.\n\nLast month, it was one of several countries to pledge to send more tanks, ammunition and equipment to the front line.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Poland's President, Andrzej Duda: \"This (sending jets) requires a decision by the allies\"\n\nPresident Duda's comments come despite him and President Zelensky having spoken this week - at the end of the Ukrainian leader's surprise headline-grabbing European tour. In London, President Zelensky used his speech in Parliament to call for the means to help fight Russia in the air:\n\n\"I appeal to you and the world with the simple, and yet most important words - combat aircraft for Ukraine, wings for freedom.\"\n\nUkraine's leader repeated that call in Paris and Brussels, in a rare departure from his country, under the tightest of security. He made headlines right around the world.\n\nIn Warsaw, President Duda told me sending F-16 jets would pose a \"serious problem\" because, with fewer than 50 of the aircraft in the Polish air force, \"we have not enough… and we would need many more of them.\"\n\nHe also stressed that combat aircraft, like the F-16s, have a \"very serious need for maintenance\" so it's \"not enough just to send a few planes\".\n\nWith Poland being a Nato member, said Mr Duda, any decision to provide fighter jets had to be a \"joint decision\" - rather than one for any single country to take.\n\nThere are also nerves about whether providing planes would pull Nato directly into the conflict - and even into war against Russia itself. At the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, Duda said sending jets would \"open a military interference in the Ukrainian conflict\". But - in direct response to Ukraine's request for planes this week - the Polish leader's comments are significant.\n\nAs Ukraine's neighbour, President Duda has been one of the most ardent supporters of President Zelensky and has contributed vast amounts of military aid, becoming the main supplier of heavy weaponry - including infantry fighting vehicles and artillery, drones and ammunition.\n\nDuda was also at the forefront of pushing other allies to promise to provide tanks in recent weeks.\n\nPresident Zelensky (l) met Mr Duda in Poland on Friday at the end of his surprise European tour\n\nAfter notable reluctance from Germany, and a fraught debate across Europe about the risks of escalating the conflict, Leopard tanks will arrive in Ukraine, along with Challengers from the UK and Abrams from the US.\n\nPoland has also provided homes to millions of Ukrainian refugees.\n\nPresident Duda is adamant that \"weaponry has to be delivered to Ukraine all the time… it needs armaments.\" But it is clear he doesn't think sending combat aircraft in large numbers is likely from Poland or any other ally, at least in the short term.\n\nThe UK also made it clear pretty rapidly that sending planes to Ukraine was not realistic in the immediate future.\n\nYes, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said \"nothing was off the table\" while he savoured his photo opportunity with President Zelensky in front of a tank this week - jeans tucked into unlaced boots, tieless, alongside the Ukrainian leader in his familiar army sweatshirt and combat trousers.\n\nBut before too long, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was making plain that would mean training for pilots and other support first. No UK jets will take off for Ukraine any time soon.\n\nAll week, British politicians have been falling over themselves to associate with the biggest political celebrity in the world right now, President Zelenksy, sharing their blurry phone snaps of his historic Westminster Hall speech and giving interviews about how moving it was to be there.\n\nIn Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron greeted him like a film star in front of the Elysee Palace. EU leaders then frantically tweeted pictures of their own \"grip and grin\" moments with the Ukrainian leader later.\n\nThere is staunch support for President Zelensky without doubt. It's not just shown in flowery language and promises of commitment but, as President Duda explains, with guns, tanks and drones, plus support for refugees, rather than selfies with MPs. Western allies emphasise how countries have come together in a way that will have disappointed and frustrated Vladimir Putin.\n\nLeaders, like Poland's president, underline the threat they feel to their own countries. Talking to him in Warsaw about the conflict is a world away from conversations in Westminster, with the Russian border at Kaliningrad only about 200 miles away.\n\nThe dilemma over jets is another example of the fraught calculations our leaders face. What is practically possible in terms of supporting Ukraine? And what is politically and diplomatically viable, without provoking a wider war?\n\nPoland and other countries' firm backing does not mean the West, or even Ukraine's closest allies, will or can say \"yes\" to his every request. One senior diplomatic source suggests President Zelensky is, of course, well aware of this.\n\nHis headline-grabbing journey this week was not just about the jets, and it doesn't look like it will soon result in \"wings for freedom\". But - as we approach the anniversary of Russia's invasion - his European tour's careful choreography, and powerful imagery will have reminded not just Western politicians but also their publics, of what is at stake.", "The Russian women arrive in Argentina heavily pregnant, the country's national migration agency said\n\nMore than 5,000 pregnant Russian women have entered Argentina in recent months, including 33 on a single flight on Thursday, officials say.\n\nThe latest arrivals were all in the final weeks of pregnancy, according to the national migration agency.\n\nIt is believed the women want to make sure their babies are born in Argentina to obtain Argentine citizenship.\n\nThe number of arrivals has increased recently, which local media suggests is a result of the war in Ukraine.\n\nOf the 33 women who arrived in the Argentine capital on one flight on Thursday, three were detained because of \"problems with their documentation\", joining three more who arrived the previous day, migration agency head Florencia Carignano told La Nacion.\n\nThe Russian women had initially claimed they were visiting Argentina as tourists, she said.\n\n\"In these cases it was detected that they did not come here to engage in tourism activities. They acknowledged it themselves.\"\n\nShe said the Russian women wanted their children to have Argentine citizenship because it gave more freedom than a Russian passport.\n\n\"The problem is that they come to Argentina, sign up their children as Argentinean and leave. Our passport is very secure across the world. It allows [passport-holders] to enter 171 countries visa-free,\" Ms Carignano said.\n\nHaving an Argentine child also speeds up the citizenship process for parents. As it stands, Russians can travel visa-free to only 87 countries.\n\nTravel to many Western countries has become more difficult for Russians since their country invaded Ukraine last February.\n\nLast September, the visa facilitation agreement between the EU and Russia was suspended, resulting in the need for additional documentation, increased processing times and more restrictive rules for the issuing of visas.\n\nA number of countries have also suspended tourist visas for Russians, including all EU member states that border Russia.\n\nA lawyer for the three women who were detained on Thursday said that they are being \"falsely imprisoned\", as they are being held on suspicion of being \"false tourists\". This is a term \"which does not exist in our legislation,\" Christian Rubilar said.\n\n\"These women who didn't commit a crime, who didn't break any migratory law, are being illegally deprived of their freedom,\" he added.\n\nThe women have since been released.\n\nLa Nacion attributed the dramatic uptick in arrivals of Russian citizens to the war in Ukraine, saying that \"besides fleeing war and their country's health service, [Russian women] are attracted by their [right of] visa-free entry to Argentina, as well as by the high-quality medicine and variety of hospitals\".\n\n\"Birth tourism\" by Russian citizens to Argentina appears to be a lucrative and well-established practice.\n\nA Russian-language website seen by the BBC offers various packages for expecting mothers who wish to give birth in Argentina. The website advertises services such as personalised birth plans, airport pick-ups, Spanish lessons and discounts on the cost of stays in \"the best hospitals in the Argentinian capital\".\n\nThe packages range from \"economy class\", starting at $5,000 (£4,144), to \"first class\", starting at $15,000 (£12,433).\n\nThe website says its founder has been facilitating birth tourism and offering migration support since 2015, and the company says it is \"100% Argentinian\".\n\nOn Saturday, La Nacion reported that Argentine police had been carrying out raids as part of an investigation into a \"million-dollar business and illicit network\" that allegedly provided pregnant Russian women and their partners with fake documents issued in record time to allow them to settle in Argentina.\n\nPolice said the gang charged up to $35,000 (£29,011) for the service.\n\nNo arrests were made, but police were said to have seized laptops and tablets, as well as immigration papers and significant quantities of cash.\n• None Separated by the virus (and 8,000 miles) from their newborn", "This six-month-old girl - whose face is badly bruised - in known only as \"anonymous\" by her tag\n\nThe wounded children in Adana City Hospital are too young to know how much they've lost.\n\nI watched doctors in the intensive care unit bottle-feed an injured six-month-old girl whose parents can't be found.\n\nThere are hundreds more cases of unidentified children whose parents are dead or untraceable.\n\nThe earthquake broke their homes and now it has taken away their names.\n\nDr Nursah Keskin grips the hand of the baby girl in intensive care - known only by the tag on her bed: \"Anonymous\".\n\nShe has multiple fractures, a black eye and her face is badly bruised; but she turns and smiles at us.\n\n\"We know where she was found and how she got here. But we're trying to find an address. The search is continuing,\" says Dr Keskin, a paediatrician and deputy director at the hospital.\n\nThis little girl - believed to be aged five or six - has a head trauma and multiple fractures\n\nMany of these cases are children rescued from collapsed buildings in other regions. They were brought to Adana because the hospital is still standing.\n\nMany other medical centres in the disaster zone have fallen or are damaged. Adana became a rescue hub.\n\nIn one transfer, newborn babies were rushed here from a maternity ward in a badly-hit hospital in the city of Iskenderun.\n\nTurkish health officials say across the country's disaster zone there are currently more than 260 wounded children who they have not been able to identify.\n\nThat figure may rise significantly as more areas are reached and the scale of homelessness fully emerges.\n\nDr Ilknur Banlicesur, a paediatric surgeon, says many children cannot talk because of the shock\n\nI follow Dr Keskin through the packed corridors. Earthquake survivors lie on trolleys, others are wrapped in blankets on mattresses in an emergency area. We head towards the surgery ward, also filled with injured children.\n\nWe meet a girl the doctors say is five or six years old. She's sleeping and hooked up to intravenous drips. The staff say she has a head trauma and multiple fractures.\n\nI ask if she has been able to tell them her name.\n\n\"No, it's only eye-contact and gestures,\" says Dr Ilknur Banlicesur, a paediatric surgeon.\n\n\"Because of the shock, these children cannot really talk. They know their names. Once they're stabilised a couple of days later we can [try to] talk,\" she explains.\n\nHealth officials have been trying to match unidentified children to addresses. But often the addresses are nothing more than ruins. In at least 100 cases, nameless children have already been taken into care.\n\nTurkish social media has been filled with posts showing missing children, giving details of which floor they lived on in collapsed buildings, expressing hope they may have been rescued and taken to hospital.\n\nSurviving relatives and health ministry officials have been travelling between medical centres trying to find them.\n\nIn the Adana hospital, the wounded keep coming. They are shocked and exhausted.\n\nEveryone here is a survivor, patients and medics alike.\n\nDr Keskin lost relatives to the earthquake and sheltered in the hospital with her children as aftershocks struck.\n\nI ask her how she is coping.\n\n\"I'm good, I'm trying to be good, because [the children] really need us.\n\n\"But I say thank God, I still have my children. I can't think of a bigger pain for a mother than losing her child.\"\n\nNext to us, young patients in wards wait for their parents to come back.\n\nSome have been reunited. But the rest remain the earthquake's anonymous children.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nNewcastle extended their unbeaten run to a club record-equalling 17 league games but were forced to settle for a point on Eddie Howe's return to Bournemouth.\n\nHaving spent more than 10 years as Bournemouth manager across two spells, Howe was back at the Vitality Stadium with his Newcastle side pushing for a Champions League spot and his old club stuck in the bottom three.\n\nHowever, it was Bournemouth who went in front after half an hour when Dango Ouattara flicked on a corner and Marcos Senesi was left unmarked at the far post to stab home.\n\nMiguel Almiron equalised for the Magpies in first-half stoppage time, firing into the bottom corner after Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto had kept out Sean Longstaff's shot following good work down the left by Allan Saint-Maximin.\n• None Go straight to all the best Bournemouth content\n\nAnthony Gordon missed a glorious opportunity to put Newcastle in front in the 70th minute and although the visitors pressed for a winner late on, it was Bournemouth who came closest to taking all three points when Dominic Solanke's flick was cleared off the line by Kieran Trippier in the last minute of the 90.\n\nNewcastle stay fourth after a fifth draw in six Premier League games, while Bournemouth move to within a point of safety but stay 19th.\n\nNewcastle miss opportunity to strengthen grip on top four\n\nIt shows how far Newcastle have come under Howe that there will be frustration following a result that keeps gives them a two-point cushion in fourth.\n\nBut while they are still far exceeding pre-season expectations, they now hold themselves to a higher standard and, up against a side battling relegation, they failed to meet it.\n\nBruno Guimaraes was serving the second game of a three-match ban and was sorely missed in the midfield, particularly during an uncharacteristically sloppy first-half showing.\n\nThere was an improvement in the second half but save for Gordon's gilt-edged chance when Neto spilled Saint-Maximin's shot and smothered Longstaff's follow-up, Newcastle chances were at a premium.\n\nIt is a third straight draw and fifth in six games, and while a point at Arsenal can be seen as a point gained, draws with Leeds, Crystal Palace, West Ham and Bournemouth fall closer to the two points dropped category.\n\nFor all that a top-four finish this season would appear to show Newcastle are ahead of schedule under Howe, in a season in which Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham are all under-performing to differing extents, a better chance may be a long time coming.\n\nNewcastle are still ahead of the chasing pack, and with the Carabao Cup final to come as well there is every reason for optimism and enthusiasm at St James' Park, but they will hope this run of draws does not result in a feeling of 'what might have been' come the end of the season.\n\nBournemouth centimetres away from three precious points\n\nEvery point is important when you're in a relegation scrap and taking one off a side competing at the top of the table might even be considered a bonus.\n\nBournemouth have every reason to be satisfied with their performance against Newcastle but they came ever so close to a memorable win.\n\nNewcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope's poor pass out from the back put Sven Botman in trouble, Hamed Traore nipped in and his low cross was flicked goalwards by Solanke.\n\nPope was beaten but Trippier got back on the goalline to hack the ball clear.\n\nIt would be exaggerating to say Bournemouth deserved to win but the way Gary O'Neil's side stood up to Newcastle should give them confidence for the matches to come.\n\nSenesi's goal - his first for Bournemouth - came after a good spell from the home side, they forced some of Newcastle's untidiness and could have been further ahead had the decision making and execution been better in a number of promising situations.\n\nDefensively, they were solid for much of the game and, after conceding late in recent games with Nottingham Forest and Brighton, the manner in which they kept Newcastle at arm's length in the closing stages was a big step forward.\n• None Offside, Newcastle United. Dan Burn tries a through ball, but Elliot Anderson is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Jack Stephens.\n• None Joelinton (Newcastle United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Joelinton (Newcastle United) left footed shot from the left side of the box is too high. Assisted by Anthony Gordon.\n• None Attempt blocked. Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth) right footed shot from very close range is blocked. Assisted by Hamed Traorè with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Hamed Traorè (Bournemouth) right footed shot from outside the box is too high from a direct free kick.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Substitution, Newcastle United. Elliot Anderson replaces Allan Saint-Maximin because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "The protocol was agreed by the UK and EU in 2019 to ensure free movement of trade across the Irish land border after Brexit\n\nNorthern Ireland Protocol talks are in their end stages, according to two sources with knowledge of negotiations.\n\nOne suggested a legal text is now being looked at where the final, binding details are nailed down.\n\nHowever, it is also cautioned there are still things to square off to ensure an agreement is sellable - to EU member states as well as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Tory MPs.\n\nDowning Street continues to insist that there remains lots of work to do.\n\nThe protocol was agreed by the UK and EU in 2019 to ensure free movement of trade across the Irish land border after Brexit.\n\nHowever, it means there are new checks and controls on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.\n\nThe protocol is opposed by unionists in Northern Ireland, most notably the largest unionist party, the DUP, which is preventing a government from being formed in Northern Ireland as a protest.\n\nThe language surrounding the talks has become increasingly positive, with striking words from the EU on Friday.\n\nThe European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, who has led EU negotiations, said the talks had been \"hard work\" but that it was \"time well invested\".\n\nIt followed a video call between him, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.\n\nOften there are stock phrases that Mr Šefčovič has used after such calls, but that is not one of them.\n\nMaroš Šefčovič said the talks had been \"hard work\" but that it was \"time well invested\"\n\nOne source repeated claims that a framework deal has been on Rishi Sunak's desk for some time but that the prime minister was waiting for the right moment to move forward.\n\nAll sides are highly aware that a compromise may prove hard to sell to the DUP or the Conservatives' Brexit hard-line European Research Group (ERG), and there are still big question marks over what a potential agreement might look like.\n\nThe two sides are believed to have settled on red and green lanes as a method of reducing checks on goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland.\n\nIt has been reported that will govern animal health and food safety as well as customs formalities.\n\nOn governance, Britain had previously backed down on its demand to remove the European Court of Justice as the final arbiter of the treaty but had still sought options for a more 'arms-length' arrangement.\n\nEU officials have always been extremely clear that the court must have the final say on single-market issues, but there is debate over whether its role could be softened.\n\nInterestingly, there has been no suggestion that negotiators are rewriting the original treaty - instead, it appears they are seeking to add to or clarify it.\n\nBritain had originally said that the problems with the treaty were \"baked in\" to the text and therefore it needed a fundamental revision.\n\nIf the text is not being significantly rewritten, it is possible that any deal could just be ratified through the protocol's Joint Committee rather than requiring votes in London and Brussels.\n\nThe foreign secretary, Mr Cleverly, said on Friday that any agreement must address the \"full range of challenges\".\n\nThat suggests he is against signing up to an agreement that deals comprehensively with some issues - such as customs checks - but leaves open others, such as governance.\n\nJames Cleverly said on Friday that any agreement must address the \"full range of challenges\"\n\nOne source suggested that while some solutions on the table were durable, others might need longer-term engagement.\n\nSome UK officials have suggested it would be \"risky\" to take that kind of incremental approach because the EU might not want to come back for further talks, once its main concerns are addressed.\n\nEU officials have also hinted that there had been much more thorough progress in some areas than others but expressed reluctance at the idea of having to keep revisiting any deal in future.\n\nThe comprehensiveness of the agreement, therefore, may be an ongoing point of tension.\n\nEuropean diplomats have long warned that the negotiations are a \"high-wire\" act - a sentiment recently echoed publicly by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.\n\n\"You know the principle that everything is only negotiated at the very end - when you know what the result is and you give a final signature,\" she said.", "Teachers are to stage a half-day strike in Northern Ireland on 21 February\n\nA fourth teaching union is to join a widespread half-day strike in Northern Ireland on 21 February.\n\nThe National Education Union (NEU) has notified education management bodies its members will join the strike.\n\nTeachers in three other unions - the NASUWT, INTO and UTU - had already decided to walk out from midnight to 12:00 GMT.\n\nAbout 66% of NEU members who voted in a formal ballot, which closed on Friday, have decided to join the strike.\n\nThe union has now notified the Department of Education (DE) and the teaching employers, including the Education Authority (EA), of its intention to strike.\n\nThe action by the four unions is due to continuing stalemate over a pay deal.\n\nA letter to principals from the Education Authority's chief executive Sara Long, representing the management bodies and employers, said schools should expect \"significant disruption\".\n\nBut the management bodies have previously advised principals only to close schools as \"a last resort\".\n\nIn a message to NEU members in Northern Ireland, the union's regional secretary Mark Langhammer said they had a \"decisive mandate\" to strike.\n\n\"What angered our teachers is the long-term under-funding of schools, and our children, and of course our teachers,\" he said.\n\nThe union's vice-president in Northern Ireland, Edel McInerney, said the decision to strike was \"ultimately a sad day\".\n\n\"NEU are slow to anger, moderate and reflective,\" she said.\n\n\"The toxic equilibrium of increased job intensity and decreased job satisfaction has taken its toll.\n\n\"This is an absolute last resort for our members.\n\n\"The responsibility for any disruption to schools lies squarely with the employing authorities and the Department of Education.\"\n\nThe action by the four unions is due to continuing stalemate over a pay deal\n\nThe NAHT union, which represents many Northern Ireland school leaders, had previously decided not to join the 21 February strike.\n\nIt said it supported the action taken by other unions but wanted to give some more time for the pay dispute to be settled.\n\nThere has been no resolution to the dispute since unions rejected a two-year pay offer as \"inadequate\" in February 2022.\n\nThe unions have since asked for a \"cost-of-living\" pay increase of 6% for 2021-22 and a rise of inflation plus 2% for 2022-23.\n\nInflation is currently running at over 10%.\n\nMeanwhile, a teachers' strike planned in Wales for next Tuesday has been called off after a new Welsh government pay offer.\n\nTeachers in Wales have been offered an extra 1.5% on this year's 5% pay award, as well as a 1.5% one-off payment.", "Several food parcels were claimed by students in just 30 minutes before Christmas\n\nA foodbank for university students has been launched after concerns some are struggling with rising costs.\n\nSwansea University Students' Union (SU) said it supported students to set up the service after concerns some could not afford to eat.\n\nAn SU officer said about 70 food parcels were claimed within 30 minutes it opening before Christmas.\n\nThe Welsh government said it provided the \"most generous student support in the UK\".\n\nA senior lecturer at the university said the cost of living crisis was affecting students' mental health.\n\n\"We've got some students taking on two or three jobs in order to support themselves,\" said Esyllt Rosser, president of the SU.\n\n\"Lots of students are feeling really stressed and very concerned.\"\n\nStudent union officers say many students often work a number of jobs to get by\n\nIn response, Ms Rosser and her team at the SU helped student volunteers set up a weekly foodbank at the university's Singleton Campus.\n\nThe parcels, which are funded by the university, contain staple ingredients such as rice and pasta.\n\n\"We've got a lot of people here having to make really tough decisions,\" added Gwern Dafis, SU societies and services officer.\n\nHe said that when the union held a one-off foodbank before Christmas, about 70 boxes were claimed within half an hour.\n\nMs Rosser added: \"Each time we've held a foodbank we've been completely cleared out in terms of stock.\"\n\nElen says she worries about how much money she has left after paying rent\n\nFor Elen, worrying about paying bills can have a \"massive impact on your mental health\".\n\n\"As students we have to worry about how much money we have, we have to consider how often we can go out and about socialising - which is very beneficial to us.\"\n\nThe third-year student called the foodbank idea \"fantastic\" because it will give struggling students \"something we can lean on\".\n\nThe National Union of Students (NUS) described the situation as \"heartbreaking\" but not surprising.\n\n\"Students should be thriving, not just surviving, but too many are drowning under spiralling rental costs, energy bills and food prices,\" a spokesman said.\n\nA recent survey by NUS Cymru suggested 96% of students were cutting back on their spending, with almost a third left with just £50 a month to live off after rent and bills were paid.\n\n\"We're seeing a real uptick in mental health problems,\" said Simon Williams, a senior lecturer at Swansea University who is studying the effect of the cost of living crisis on mental health.\n\nBasic essentials like pasta and rice are available at the food bank\n\nHe added: \"Financially insecure students are more than five times as likely to feel as though their mental health has worsened.\"\n\nMs Rosser and and Mr Dafis, from the SU, agreed, saying they had seen a big increase in the number of students reaching out for emotional support.\n\nThe Welsh government said it had recently increased student maintenance support by 9.4% for the next academic year.\n\nA spokesman said: \"All universities in Wales have hardship funds in place to help all students in financial difficulty, and have put extra cost of living support in place, which includes: crisis grants, free or low-cost food, free period products and free access to sports and activities. Anyone who's struggling financially should contact their student union or student support services.\n\n\"We also recently provided additional funding of £2.3m to help address the impacts on students of rising costs, providing mental health and well-being support.\"\n\nNUS Cymru welcomed the rise in maintenance grants, but said it would not go \"into their pockets this academic year\".", "Kiernan Forbes was reportedly killed while on his way to a nightclub for a performance\n\nOne of South Africa's leading rappers, popularly known as AKA, has been shot dead outside a restaurant in the coastal city of Durban.\n\nKiernan Forbes was killed along with his close friend, the chef and entrepreneur Tebello 'Tibz' Motsoane.\n\nThe pair are thought to have been on their way to a nightclub for a performance as part of Forbes' birthday celebrations when they were shot.\n\nThe motive of the killing is being investigated.\n\nPolice spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda has told the BBC that the rapper and his friend were walking to their car when they were approached by two armed men who shot them at close range.\n\nThe assailants then fled the scene on foot.\n\nPolice have said they don't want to speculate on whether the murders were a result of a hit but said that possibility cannot be ruled out.\n\nForbes began his musical career as part of the rap group Entity before he launched his solo career, winning several awards in South Africa for his music.\n\nHe was also celebrated internationally, with several nominations for a Black Entertainment Television (BET) Award in the US and an MTV Europe Music Award.\n\nHours before his death, the 35-year-old posted on social media about his upcoming album, Mass Country, which is set for release later this month.\n\nForbes' parents have paid tribute to him in a statement posted on one of his social media accounts.\n\n\"To us, Kiernan Jarryd Forbes was a son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend, most importantly father to his beloved daughter Kairo,\" they wrote.\n\n\"To many, he was AKA, Supa Mega, Bhova and the many other names of affection his legion of fans called him by. Our son was loved and gave love in return.\"\n\nMotsoane, who was also AKA's former manager, has been described on social media as \"a true gentleman\".\n\nSouth Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world and shootings are not uncommon.\n\nThe charity Gun Free South Africa, which works to reduce gun violence in the country, estimates that 30 people are murdered in the country with guns daily.", "Ryanair will operate 26 weekly flights from Cardiff airport, including a new route a to Belfast\n\nRyanair has launched a new route and announced an increase in overall flights from Cardiff Airport.\n\nThis summer the budget airline will operate 26 weekly flights from the airport - a 63% increase from last year - including a new route to Belfast.\n\nIt comes after rival airline Wizz Air pulled out of the airport last month citing \"high operational costs\".\n\nCardiff Airport boss Spencer Birns said he was \"grateful\" for Ryanair's \"commitment\" to the airport.\n\nEach week Ryanair will operate 14 flights to and from Dublin and four flights each on its Malaga, Belfast and Faro routes.\n\nLast month David Bryon, former head of another airline, BMI Baby, said the airport was in the wrong place and claimed no one in their \"right mind\" would invest in it.\n\n\"There just isn't the volume [of passengers]. Not only is Cardiff Airport on the coast, which limits its catchment, it's on the wrong side of Cardiff,\" he said at the time.\n\nThe airport has been owned by the Welsh government since its £52m purchase in 2013, however it was valued in 2021 at just £15m.\n\nMr Birns, who was appointed CEO of the airport in 2021, previously said the Covid pandemic had \"wiped it out\" and that it could take four years to fully recover.\n\nPassenger numbers have fallen from 1.6 million before the pandemic in 2019 to 812,000 in the year to November 2022.\n\nA spokeswoman for Ryanair said: \"We look forward to welcoming hundreds of thousands of customers onboard our flights to/from Cardiff this summer.\"\n\nMr Birns added: \"We are grateful for Ryanair's commitment to working with us to grow more flight choice from Cardiff and we look forward to developing further options for our customers with the airline.\n\n\"Ryanair continues to recognise that people living in Wales want to fly to and from their local airport and this increase in choice is a good step for building on future opportunities with the airline in Wales.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOne October night, a week before she was due to face trial for criticising Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova took her young daughter and fled for the border.\n\nShe was wearing an electronic bracelet, and was meant to be under house arrest.\n\n\"My lawyer said 'flee, flee - they're going to put you in prison',\" she said at a press conference in Paris on Friday.\n\nShe left Moscow at the start of one weekend last year, when she judged that police would be less active, and changed vehicle seven times before approaching the border on foot.\n\n\"Our [last] vehicle got stuck in the mud,\" she told me, \"and we had no mobile phone coverage - we tried to find our way by the stars. It was a very dangerous and stressful escape.\"\n\nThey wandered for hours near the border, she said, hiding from border patrols, before successfully making it across.\n\nPart of that success is down to the organisation Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders). Its director, Christophe Deloire, explained how they helped her escape.\n\n\"I wrote my first text message to Marina the day after she went on TV with that sign,\" he told me. \"I sent her a message saying: Do you need help? We are here for you.\"\n\nLast September, Ms Ovsyannikova sent a message to the organisation through an intermediary, asking for their help to leave.\n\n\"We said, OK,\" explained Mr Deloire. \"[But] she's in Moscow under house arrest, her neighbours and family are Putinists - they could call the police and say she left - and she had an electronic bracelet. So there were many reasons [why] it was an incredibly difficult thing to escape. But she made it.\"\n\nNow settled in Paris, Ms Ovsyannikova, 44, says she is still \"of course, afraid for her life\", but believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is risking his leadership over the war in Ukraine.\n\n\"The elite understands everything perfectly,\" she explained.\n\n\"The people are living in this bubble of propaganda, but the ruling elite - those who have lost their planes, their yachts, their finances - they understand everything. As soon as a Ukrainian victory gets closer, I believe, the ruling establishment will present Putin with a big bill.\"\n\nMany Ukrainian journalists and Russian dissidents have expressed mistrust of Marina Ovsyannikova\n\nMs Ovsyannikova grabbed headlines around the world last March, when she burst into a live news broadcast at the state-run Channel One TV station where she worked at the time, with a sign reading \"no war, stop the war; don't believe the propaganda; they're lying to you here\".\n\nShe said she was \"immediately isolated by the FSB [Russia's security service]\", and her bosses interrogated.\n\nAs she collected her belongings from the office, she told me that \"I saw in my co-workers' eyes a totally compassionate expression.\n\n\"They were looking at me with wild eyes, they were saying goodbye. They thought they would never see me again.\"\n\nMs Ovsyannikova left Russia for Germany soon afterwards, but returned later that year - to fight for custody of her children, she says.\n\nFurther protests, including a demonstration near the Kremlin in July, saw her facing charges under a new Russian law, banning \"deliberately false information\" about Russia's armed forces.\n\nThe law made it illegal to call the war an \"invasion,\" with Russian state-controlled news organisations instead told to describe it as a \"special military operation\".\n\nDespite being targeted by the Russian regime, many Ukrainian journalists and Russian dissidents have expressed mistrust of Ms Ovsyannikova, pointing to her earlier career as a mouthpiece for the Russian state.\n\nHer visit to Ukraine last summer to cover the war for Germany's Die Welt newspaper outraged many Ukrainians, who demanded her immediate sacking.", "Eylem Yildiz, left, travelled with Emine Onder-Nizan, on the right, to a funeral. Emine's daughter Busra is in the centre\n\nA grieving family who flew from the UK for a funeral found themselves in the middle of a disaster after getting caught up in the Turkey earthquake.\n\nEylem Yildiz travelled to Besni for Wednesday's ceremony from Swindon, Wiltshire, with three relatives after her father died on Tuesday, 31 January.\n\nDaughter Busra Yildiz, from Cardiff, stayed to look after her sisters.\n\nOn Saturday, Welsh firefighters in Turkey pulled survivors from the rubble, five days after the disaster.\n\nWhen two earthquakes struck on Monday, the apartment block where Busra's mum, aunt, uncle and one-year-old were staying was reduced to rubble.\n\nBusra's boyfriend Sam Thomas said: \"They were all grieving for their lost grandfather, then this happened.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by South Wales Fire and Rescue Service\n\nEylem has yet to be found, while Busra's grandmother, Saadet Onder, and three other family members from Turkey are also missing.\n\nHer aunt Emine Onder-Nizan, uncle Engin and cousin Mete - who all travelled from the UK - have been found.\n\nThe death toll from the disaster has exceeded 24,000.\n\nHowever rescuers, including firefighters from South Wales and Mid and West Wales fire services, are still finding survivors buried in the rubble - five days since the earthquake struck.\n\nThe carnage unfolded when a 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep and was followed by multiple aftershocks.\n\nOne, almost as large as the first, measured 7.5 magnitude.\n\nBusra, who was born in Besni and brought up in Swindon, travelled on Monday to Turkey to help.\n\nThe magnitude of the earthquake was classified as \"major\" on the official magnitude scale\n\nMr Thomas, from Bridgend, said: \"On Tuesday there were signs of life, they think they heard their grandmother because there were noises coming from the building.\n\n\"They were able to speak to the aunt on Wednesday. Then everything went quiet.\"\n\nThe 24-year-old said signs of life had been detected with heat-sensitive cameras.\n\nA lack of machinery meant people were digging through rubble by hand. He called the situation \"complete carnage\".\n\nMr Thomas, a web designer, said: \"It's just heartbreaking to know they can hear people in there.\n\n\"This week Busra has seen childhood friends and family being pulled out dead.\n\n\"She has seen dead children. I cannot imagine what she is feeling like.\"\n\nSam Thomas describes his girlfriend Busra as \"so brave\"\n\nThe UK's Disasters Emergency Committee said £1.7m had been raised in Wales and £52.8m at UK level in just two days for Turkey and Syria.\n\nBusra, 24, has been sleeping in a \"fabricated pod\". Her boyfriend said: \"She is so strong, I don't know how she does it.\"\n\nHe said: \"I am praying they are all alive and hoping they will all come out.\n\n\"I really want my loved ones out of that building.\n\n\"I believe in my heart of hearts they are going to be found and they are going to be OK.\n\n\"They are all religious people and strong women. It is breaking my heart they are being put through this.\"\n\nWelsh firefighters are part of a UK contingent of international rescuers in Turkey\n\nBrazil and Switzerland have called for the UN Security Council to meet next week to discuss its response to the situation in Syria, which was also affected.\n\nMr Thomas said he was feeling \"pretty horrendous\" and he is being supported by friends and family.\n\n\"This has been the worst five days of my life, it feels like one big day,\" he said.\n\n\"It's not my blood family and I can't imagine what it would be like to have my mum trapped there in a building.\"\n\nPhil Irving: \"When we are successful in making a difference... it gives the team a real boost\"\n\nWelsh firefighters are part of a UK contingent of international rescuers and they include Cardiff Central Station crew manager Emma Atcherley, firefighter Luke Davison from Malpas Station, and firefighter Robert Buckley from Ely Station.\n\nDeployed from Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service are Steve Davies, head of response southern division, and Haverfordwest Station watch manager Phil Irving.\n\nThey helped extract two people after managing to access a building to find a woman trapped on a stairwell, before later rescuing a man who was also brought out alive after having his legs trapped by debris.\n\nSpeaking from Hatay, in southern Turkey, Mr Irving explained how the rescue began on Friday afternoon and continued overnight, with the pair \"entombed\" in a building collapse.\n\n\"When we are successful in making a difference...it gives the team a real boost,\" he said.\n\nBaris Cakmak paid tribute to people in north Wales for making donations to help aid efforts\n\nBaris Cakmak, who owns a barber shop in Wrexham, had been in Istanbul when the earthquake struck.\n\nHe paid tribute to people in north Wales for making donations to help aid efforts.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that people had called him and dropped off clothes at his shop which he hoped to be able to deliver, along with food and money.\n\n\"Thank you so much,\" he said.\n\nSurvivors have been found in collapsed buildings in Antakya by rescuers including Welsh firefighters", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rescuers use specialist cameras to free Irem And Merve from the rubble of their building in Antakya\n\n\"Merve! Irem! Merve! Irem,\" rescue worker Mustafa Ozturk is shouting. Everyone around us has been ordered to be silent. The team are looking for two sisters who other survivors say are trapped alive under piles of rubble.\n\nWith sensitive devices they listen for any response. Everyone is frozen in anticipation.\n\nAnd then, a breakthrough. \"Irem, my dear, I am close to you, you hear me, yes?\" Mustafa says.\n\nThose of us watching can't hear it, but it is clear now that she is responding. A small group of the girls' friends wait silently with us.\n\n\"You are superb! Now you stay calm and answer me. Ah ok, that's Merve. Merve dear, just answer my questions,\" he says.\n\nMerve, 24, and her sister Irem, 19, were trapped under the rubble of their five-storey apartment block in Antakya, southern Turkey, which was flattened by the earthquake. It had been two days, but for them those days felt like weeks.\n\n\"It's Wednesday. No! You weren't trapped for 14 days. Give us five minutes. You will be out.\"\n\nMustafa knows it will take hours, but tells us: \"If they lose their hope they might not survive.\"\n\nRescuers can hear Merve and Irem who have been trapped for days under the rubble of their apartment block\n\nMerve and Irem start to joke and laugh together. I can see a big smile on Mustafa's face: \"If they had space they would probably dance,\" he says.\n\nBy the rescuers' calculations it is 2m (6.6 ft) to reach the sisters but Hasan Binay, the rescue team's commander, says digging a tunnel into the concrete is a very delicate operation. One wrong move could lead to a catastrophe.\n\nA bulldozer is called to very slightly lift and hold the thick concrete to stop the building collapsing when they start digging.\n\n\"Girls, soon we will give you blankets.\" Mustafa tells the sisters. \"Ah no, you don't worry about us. We are not tired or cold.\"\n\nMustafa says Merve is worried about the rescuers' situation. It is 20:30 local time and it is very cold. This area has had one of the coldest winters that people can remember.\n\nThe rescuers start furiously digging and throwing the rubble away with their bare hands.\n\nBut after a couple of hours we feel the ground suddenly shaking under our feet. It is a strong aftershock. Operations must stop and we leave the devastated building.\n\n\"There is a brutal reality here. The safety of our team comes first,\" Hasan says.\n\nAfter 30 minutes, Mustafa and three other rescuers go back to where they were digging.\n\n\"Don't be scared. Believe me we won't leave you here. I will bring you out and you will take us for a good lunch,\" Mustafa shouts. The girls thought they had been left to die.\n\nMerve after being brought out the rubble asked: \"Am I really alive?\"\n\nIt is midnight now and the digging has resumed. The team have hardly slept for days. We have gathered around a small fire next to the building.\n\nEvery so often there is a shout: \"sessizlik\", meaning silence. The light goes off, total darkness now. They have made a small hole in the concrete to see if the girls can see the light coming from Mustafa's torch.\n\n\"Merve! Irem! Do you see the light? OK! Perfect! Now I am sending a small camera down. Once you see it tell me and I will tell you what to do.\"\n\nIt is a moment of elation for everyone. Hasan joins his team to see the girls on the small screen connected to their night vision camera. They can see both Irem and Merve.\n\n\"You are so beautiful. Don't move too much. Irem pull the camera so we can see Merve better.\"\n\nOn the screen, we see that Irem is smiling. Luckily there is enough space for them between the concrete trapping them.\n\nRelief floods everyone's faces. The girls look well and at least Irem has room to pull herself out if they make the hole bigger.\n\nBut almost immediately the team look concerned. Merve has told them that she has started to feel cold and there is something heavy on her feet.\n\nThe medics were worried: \"Do Merve's feet have gangrene? Or is this the first symptom of hypothermia?\"\n\nIt is around 05:00 now. The tunnel is big enough for the slimmest team member to crawl down. The rescuer was able to reach and hold Irem's hand for a few moments.\n\n\"Our mother's body has started to stink and we can't breathe properly,\" Irem tells the rescuers. The girls have been lying next to their dead mother for days.\n\nRescuers used a camera to see the women under the rubble\n\nIt is shocking. How awful that there can be moments in life when you would not want your mother next to you, we reflected.\n\nHasan asks one of Merve's friends - still waiting, stressed and silent - to show them the picture she has of the girls. They are trying to estimate the width they need to make the hole. The two girls are smiling, in party dresses, celebrating a wedding.\n\n\"Perfect! We can bring them out.\" The medical team gets ready with thermal blankets and stretchers. Everyone is excited. It is 06:30 and Irem comes first. She is laughing and crying at the same time.\n\n\"God bless you. Please bring Merve out too. Please,\" she begs the rescuers. \"Merve will follow. I promise,\" Hasan tells her.\n\nBut bringing Merve out takes another tense 30 minutes. They need to free her feet from under the concrete without doing her harm. The operation is successful.\n\nOnce Merve is out, everyone starts clapping and cheering. I hear Merve screaming in pain but then asking: \"Am I really alive?\"\n\nThe friends who have been here all night start shouting in tears. \"Merve! Irem! We are here. Don't be scared.\" The sisters were loaded into ambulances and transferred to a field hospital.\n\nAfter this joyful moment comes a chilling one. The rescuers ask everyone to be silent again. This is the last call.\n\n\"If anyone hears me, respond. If you can't respond, try to touch the ground.\"\n\nHasan repeats, imploringly, from different angles. Then sadly, with red spray he signs on the concrete, writing codes so other rescue teams will not search the building.\n\n\"Rescuing a human being is a beautiful feeling, but we wish there were no deaths.\" I can see the sadness in his face.\n\n\"Will you eat lunch with Merve and Irem?\" I ask. He smiles: \"I hope one day we can. But the most important thing is that they are alive and in good hands now.\"", "A Finn Russell-inspired Scotland earned a record victory against Wales to continue a stunning start to their Six Nations with two wins from two.\n\nTwo Russell penalties and a converted George Turner try saw Gregor Townsend's side race into a 13-0 lead, before Wales hit back through Ken Owens.\n\nKyle Steyn crossed twice in the second half before Blair Kinghorn's superb score and Matt Fagerson's late try.\n\nIt ended their Warren Gatland hoodoo and will have fans daring to dream.\n\nFor Wales, it was a second defeat in a row after slumping to a 34-10 loss to Ireland.\n• None 'Scotland can beat any team', says captain Ritchie\n\nWales had their chances to score in the opening half, but failed to take advantage of all their possession and territory. How they suffered for it. This wasn't just an end to Gatland's dominance over Scotland that stretches back 11 Tests, it was an utter deconstruction, principally in a second half where Scotland attacked in devastating wave after devastating wave.\n\nThey took a while to find their ruthlessness, but once they hit their stride, guided by the mesmeric Russell, they stormed away to win and are now two wins from two for the first time in the history of the Six Nations. France to come in Paris in a fortnight. Scotland will believe that anything is possible right now.\n\nThey had a 6-0 lead early on through two Russell penalties, but for much of the opening 40 it was Wales who were in control. Behind on the scoreboard, but on top in pretty much every other sense.\n\nThey were undone by their own lack of accuracy and by Scotland's desperate scrambling. They had a lineout five metres from the home line but the towering Richie Gray pinched it. They had a scrum five metres out but their backline came up offside and the chance went.\n\nDan Biggar had a shot at goal. A long way out, for sure, but how many times has he nailed such kicks? He missed. They had another attacking lineout after Russell's restart went out on the full, but when they looked menacing, Jamie Ritchie pilfered it on the floor. Then, of course, Wales conceded. All those promising moments, but it was Scotland who landed the first heavy blow.\n\nIt was Turner who drove powerfully through the Wales cover off a lineout maul, a thumping finish from a hooker growing every week in stature. Russell's conversion made it 13-0, but there was drama to come directly after.\n\nScotland messed up at the restart, Wales attacked and Turner came steaming in a little high on George North. He got binned and in his absence, Owens piled over from close range for a score that Wales clearly deserved.\n\nThe half didn't end without another bout of painful Welsh profligacy when Rio Dyer spilled it on the left wing with the Scottish line at his mercy. They had 70% territory in that opening half and had done most of the attacking, but trailed by six at the break.\n\nThey were to pay for their wastefulness because Scotland came out with a different mindset. They survived the remaining minutes of the Turner yellow and then went after their visitors. Kinghorn, who had come on early after a Stuart Hogg head injury assessment, came into it. Duhan van der Merwe, hushed to this point, started to fire up his engines.\n\nTurner came within a whisker of scoring his second, but Scotland didn't have to wait for long.\n\nPiling pressure on, and forcing penalties, they put Wales where they didn't want to be. When the next chance came, Russell's half-break through the gap and his sumptuous offload close to the right wing put Steyn in. A glorious moment from the fly-half, who then walloped over the conversion from the touchline.\n\nThey turned the screw from there. More pressure and a yellow card for Liam Williams for persistent offending. They could have taken a simple three points, but gambled, went for touch on the left, then Russell cross-kicked expertly to the right and Steyn caught and scored. Suddenly, from being a close affair it was an 18-point game.\n\nScotland continued to unload, the beautiful execution we saw from them last week now laying waste again. Kinghorn got the bonus point try that had its beginnings in a huge forwards maul before Russell cross-kicked again with gorgeous accuracy. Van der Merwe claimed it and fed Kinghorn, who ran away to score. Thirty points now. A rout.\n\nAnd there was more. Russell, utterly unplayable by now, pulled all the strings once more, flinging a precise pass over the heads of the retreating defence to the mighty Fagerson to touch down in the corner. Thirty-five points. Better than the wildest dream of the most ardent Scottish fan.\n\nWe wondered if Scotland could handle the pressure of finally backing up one win with another. We pondered if they were actually the real deal or not. The answer came, in the most emphatic style.\n\n'Maturity about Scotland' - what they said\n\nFormer Scotland captain John Barclay on BBC One: \"There was a maturity and a clear change of tactic second half and the ability to implement that. They kicked it long, put pressure on Wales. Same as last week, their ability to execute under pressure was brilliant.\n\nThat allows players like Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe grow in the game. The most pleasing thing was their ability to get into the sheds at half-time and grab that game by the scruff off the neck.\"\n\nFormer Wales fly-half Jonathan Davies on BBC One: \"The effort was there and the youngsters stood up. They're the future for Wales.\n\n\"My problem is the lack of creativity behind and that's been a problem for a number of years.\n\n\"Today they were one-dimensional, not accurate and slightly clueless if we're being honest. That is what Wales must work on now.\"", "The US believes that flying objects shot down over North American airspace on Friday and Saturday were balloons, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.\n\nMr Schumer made his comments before the US shot down another flying object on Sunday.\n\nWhile he didn't say specifically that the objects from Friday and Saturday were Chinese, Mr Schumer told ABC on Sunday that Beijing was likely using a \"crew of balloons\" that had \"probably been all over the world\".\n\nWashington has been on high alert since its military destroyed a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month.\n\nResponding to queries about Mr Schumer's remarks, a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense said the two objects he was referring to \"did not closely resemble\" the original balloon and were much smaller, Reuters reported.\n\nFour objects have been shot down over North America in the past week.\n\nThe latest was shot down on Sunday over Lake Huron near the Canadian border. It was downed by Air Force and National Guard pilots on Sunday, Michigan Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin said.\n\nOn Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that a different object was shot down over the Yukon in north-west Canada.\n\nBoth Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled to track the object, which Mr Trudeau said had \"violated Canadian airspace\". It was taken out by a US F-22 fighter jet.\n\nMr Trudeau said recovery teams were on the ground trying to find the object and that there was still \"much to know\".\n\nThe day before, on Friday, the American military shot down an object the size of a small car off Alaska.\n\nIt happened just under a week after the US destroyed a Chinese balloon over the Atlantic, on 4 February.\n\nMr Schumer, who said he had been briefed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, implied that suspected surveillance balloons had been in operation for years and that Congress should examine why it took so long for the US to find out about them.\n\n\"The bottom line is, until a few months ago we didn't know of these balloons - our intelligence and our military didn't know,\" he said.\n\nAsked whether China would have to shut down any surveillance programme using balloons, Mr Schumer said Beijing had been \"humiliated\".\n\n\"I think the Chinese were caught lying, and it's a real step back for them… they look really bad,\" he said.\n\n\"They're not just doing the United States, this is a crew of balloons... they've probably been all over the world,\" he added.\n\nChina has yet to respond to Mr Schumer's comments but has denied the first suspected surveillance balloon - which first entered US airspace on 28 January - was used for spying purposes, saying it was a weather device gone astray.\n\nReferring to the efforts to take out the Saturday's object over Canada, the White House said in a statement that the object had been tracked and monitored for 24 hours.\n\n\"Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorised it to be taken down,\" it said.\n\n\"The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin.\"\n\nGiving more details on the mission to take down the object, the US Department of Defense confirmed two F-22 jets took off from a military base in Anchorage, Alaska and the object was shot down with an AIM 9X missile.\n\nMeanwhile, continuing efforts to find and recover Friday's object near the Alaskan town of Deadhorse are being hampered by poor weather.\n\nThe US military said in a statement that \"Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight, are a factor in this operation, and personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety\".\n\nLast weekend, defence officials told US media that debris from the first Chinese balloon landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.\n\nThe US said the balloon - shown in the video below - was part of a fleet of surveillance balloons that had flown over five continents.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe balloon incident has strained US-China relations, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelling a planned trip to Beijing.\n\nChinese officials have accused the US of \"political manipulation and hype\".\n\nIn an interview on Thursday, President Biden defended his handling of the situation, maintaining that the balloon was not \"a major breach\".", "A plan to close a rural Catholic primary school in County Tyrone has been called \"incomprehensible and illogical\" by its board of governors.\n\nThe Bishop of Clogher is also opposing the plan from the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) to close St Mary's Primary in Fivemiletown.\n\nPupil numbers at St Mary's have risen in recent years and the school is not in financial deficit.\n\nBut the CCMS has said that with only 42 children the school is not sustainable.\n\nThrough the Education Authority (EA), CCMS has formally proposed closing the school in August 2023.\n\nIn a statement to BBC News NI, CCMS encouraged \"all interested parties to engage with the statutory consultation process currently under way\".\n\nBut St Mary's governors have said they are \"determined to see Catholic education persist in Fivemiletown\".\n\n\"For a Catholic body to deny the propagation of the Catholic faith, and the opportunity for Catholics to receive a Catholic education within their own area, is incomprehensible and illogical,\" the governors said in a detailed submission opposing the closure.\n\nMairaid Kelly, whose daughter Mary-Kate attends the school, says the school is sustainable\n\nAccording to documents published by the EA the Catholic Bishop of Clogher, Bishop Larry Duffy, also disagreed with the closure proposal.\n\nThe head and governors of the local controlled primary Fivemiletown PS - where pupils are mainly Protestant - have also objected to the plan to close St Mary's.\n\nThe two schools participate in shared education classes and activities, including a joint carol service.\n\nIf the closure goes ahead the nearest Catholic primary school for pupils in Fivemiletown will be in Brookeborough, almost six miles away.\n\nSt Mary's Primary has been open in Fivemiletown since 1969 and was originally built to house 87 pupils.\n\nPupil numbers fell to 27 in 2019 but have since increased to 42 in 2022.\n\nThat is below the sustainability threshold of 105 pupils for a rural primary recommended by the Department of Education (DE).\n\nIn the documents published by the EA, CCMS said \"the current challenging circumstances do not provide for a sustainable school\".\n\nCCMS also pointed out that pupils from a number of year groups are taught together in \"composite classes\" in the school.\n\nBut Mairaid Kelly - who is a governor at St Mary's and whose daughter Mary-Kate is in Primary One - told BBC News NI that there was cross-community support for keeping St Mary's open.\n\n\"We've been really heartened by the amount of support we've received from right across our whole community, including elected representatives - from the DUP to Sinn Féin to SDLP and a whole range of independents,\" she said.\n\nMairaid Kelly says the school is all they have in terms of a hub for the Catholic community\n\n\"If the decision went through that they would close St Mary's our children would be bussed in various different directions to various different schools considerable distances away.\n\n\"We are a small school, we don't pretend otherwise.\n\n\"But we are a strong vibrant, sustainable school living within our means with rising enrolment.\"\n\nMs Kelly also told BBC News NI it would be \"devastating\" for the Catholic community in Fivemiletown if the school closed.\n\n\"The school is really all we have in terms of a hub for the Catholic community,\" she said.\n\n\"None of the local schools can actually take all of our children en masse so they'll just be splintered in lots and lots of different directions.\"\n\nMs Kelly also said she expected increased need for school places in the area as there were plans to build more houses in Fivemiletown over the coming years.\n\n\"If anything the demand for our school is going to increase over the next five to 10 years, not ebb away,\" she said.\n\nIn an initial EA consultation on closing St Mary's, 96 out of 98 respondents disagreed with the plan - including Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Mid Ulster District Council and Bishop Duffy.\n\nA further two-month statutory consultation on the closure plan is now being carried out by the EA.\n\nThe CCMS said: \"Any decision on the proposal will be made by the education minister/permanent secretary following the completion of the consultation process.\"", "Police use of cameras made by Chinese firms should be at least as concerning a security issue as alleged Chinese spy balloons, a watchdog head has said.\n\nForces were using kit despite acknowledging \"security and ethical concerns\" about suppliers, UK Camera Commissioner Prof Fraser Sampson said.\n\nHe made the comments after a survey revealed the use of foreign surveillance equipment by the police.\n\nIt comes amid heightened focus on the use of Chinese tech in the UK.\n\n\"There has been a lot in the news in recent days about how concerned we should be about Chinese spy balloons 60,000ft up in the sky,\" said Prof Sampson.\n\n\"I do not understand why we are not at least as concerned about the Chinese cameras 6ft above our head in the street and elsewhere.\"\n\nLast year UK government departments were told to stop installing surveillance cameras made by Chinese firms on \"sensitive sites\", because of security concerns.\n\nThe policy followed fears that firms could be required by Chinese law to co-operate with Beijing's security services.\n\nAlicia Kearns, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the BBC the government should go further and remove all surveillance equipment made by firms backed by the Chinese government.\n\nIn the survey, sent out last June, the Office of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner asked all 43 police forces in England and Wales, as well as the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the British Transport Police (BTP), the National Crime Agency, and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) about their use of surveillance technology.\n\nThirty-six forces responded, along with the BTP, CNC and MoD.\n\nFrom the replies received, the survey found large amounts of equipment is being used about which there have been security or ethical concerns.\n\nThe National Police Chiefs' Council told the BBC that safeguards are in place to allow the effective use of new technologies.\n\nIt added: \"Following government guidance where governmental departments have been instructed to cease the deployment of such equipment around sensitive sites, UK policing will conduct necessary reviews to ensure national security standards are met.\"\n\nMPs have also raised questions about the human rights records of two of the camera manufacturers cited by police in the survey, in particular concerns about reported links to alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs - a mostly Muslim ethnic minority - in China.\n\nIn July 2021, the Foreign Affairs Committee issued a report which said: \"Equipment manufactured by companies such as Hikvision and Dahua should not be permitted to operate within the UK.\"\n\nA year later, 67 MPs and Lords joined a call for a ban on the firms.\n\nDahua has previously said that it follows \"all applicable local, national and international laws, regulations and conventions\" and has stated that it \"has not and never will develop solutions targeting any specific ethnic group\".\n\nHikvision told BBC News that: \"It is categorically false to represent Hikvision as a threat to national security. No respected technical institution or assessment has come to this conclusion.\"\n\nIt also said that as a manufacturer, Hikvision does not store end-users' video data, and therefore cannot transmit data from end-users to third parties.\n\nThe firm said it took all reports regarding human rights very seriously.\n\n\"As a market leader, Hikvision is committed to upholding the highest standards and respect for human rights.\"\n\nIt also noted that it sold products to via distributors, and did not have contact with end-users.\n\nThe company said it welcomed any review of camera use by UK police.\n\nCity of London Police, Gloucestershire Police, Greater Manchester Police, Gwent Police, Merseyside Police, National Crime Agency (NCA), South Yorkshire Police and Thames Valley Police did not respond to the survey, which Prof Sampson called \"disappointing\".\n\nThe Home Office told the BBC that the security of public institutions and systems was of vital importance.\n\n\"The National Cyber Security Centre has produced new guidance to help the police, and other organisations, assess and gain confidence in their supply chain cyber-security,\" it said.\n\n\"We are committed to promoting the ethical development and deployment of technology in the UK and overseas. We are aware of a number of Chinese technology companies linked to violations taking place in Xinjiang and are monitoring the situation closely.\"", "Chagossians were evicted from the Islands to make way for a US airbase on the British territory\n\nThe UK is committing crimes against humanity after removing people from the Chagos Islands, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, a rights group said.\n\nHuman Rights Watch called for Britain to pay reparations to Chagossians and allow them to return to the islands, from which more than 1,000 people were forced to leave in the 1960s and 1970s.\n\nThe group accused the UK of \"committing an appalling colonial crime\".\n\nThe Foreign Office said it rejected this characterisation.\n\nAfter a military base leased to the United States was established in 1966 on Diego Garcia, the largest of the 60 small islands of the Chagos Archipelago, the indigenous inhabitants were evicted from their homes. Chagossians have fought for their return ever since.\n\nOn Wednesday, Human Rights Watch - an international group investigating abuses across the world - published a report calling for the UK and US to provide reparations to Chagossian people.\n\nThe group identified three \"crimes against humanity\", including continued force displacement of Chagossian people, prevention of their return home and persecution of them on the grounds of race and ethnicity.\n\nIts senior legal adviser Clive Baldwin said: \"The UK is today committing an appalling colonial crime, treating all Chagossians as a people without rights.\n\n\"The UK and the US, who together expelled the Chagossians from their homes, should provide full reparations for the harm they have caused.\"\n\nCrimes against humanity are acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, according to the 1998 Rome Statute which established the International Criminal Court.\n\nHuman Rights Watch also recommended King Charles issue a full and unreserved apology for crimes committed against by Chagossians by the UK.\n\nA Foreign Office spokesperson said: \"We respect the work Human Rights Watch does around the world, but we categorically reject this characterisation of events.\n\n\"The UK has made clear its deep regret about the manner in which Chagossians were removed from BIOT [British Indian Ocean Territory] in the late 1960s and early 1970s.\n\n\"We remain committed to supporting Chagossians including through a significant support package and our new British citizenship route for Chagossians launched last November.\"\n\nThe US government said it was \"aware of the report from Human Rights Watch concerning the treatment of Chagossians in the 1960s and 1970s\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"The United States remains steadfast in its respect for and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals around the world and acknowledges the challenges faced by Chagossian communities. The manner in which Chagossians were removed is regrettable.\n\n\"And we welcome the advocacy of Human Rights Watch to promote respect for human rights globally.\"\n\nThe Human Rights Watch report comes as Britain is facing growing international condemnation for holding on to what it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory, with the International Court of Justice - the United Nation's highest court - ruling that the continuing British occupation of the archipelago is illegal.\n\nThe UN General Assembly has also voted, overwhelmingly, in favour of the islands being returned to Mauritius.\n\nMauritius claims it was forced to give up the islands in 1965 in exchange for independence, which it gained in 1968. Britain had already entered into secret talks with the US to lease Diego Garcia to Washington as a military base.\n\nThe Foreign Office insists the base helps people in Britain and around the world stay safe by helping to combat threats like terrorism and piracy.\n\nBut with all but a handful of nations backing Mauritius's claim, in November the UK agreed to open negotiations with the nation over the future of the Chagos Islands.\n\nMauritius insists the US can continue to keep its base on Diego Garcia, and that it will commit to resettling \"any individuals of Chagossian origin\" on their home islands.\n\nMost of the population of the Chagos Islands was sent to Mauritius, 1,000 miles to the south, without compensation. Some moved to the Seychelles and to Britain, where many now live Crawley, West Sussex.", "The family of Ricky Reel believe he was murdered in a racially motivated attack\n\nThe death of a student whose body was found in the River Thames 25 years ago is to be re-investigated by detectives.\n\nRicky Reel, 20, was found dead a week after he went missing on 15 October 1997 while on a night out in Kingston upon Thames in south-west London.\n\nOn the night he went missing, two white youths had attacked Mr Reel and his friends, a group of young Asian men.\n\nThe Met Police said the inquiry would be looked at with \"fresh eyes\" to \"explore every possible avenue\".\n\nAs his friends fought the two attackers off, Mr Reel disappeared.\n\nAn open verdict was recorded at the Brunel University student's inquest in 1999.\n\nHis mother Sukhdev Reel told BBC London the pain \"is very raw and still the same as it was 25 years ago\".\n\n\"People say time eases the pain, but for us it hasn't and in fact it is growing more every day.\"\n\nThe family say they need to be able to feel they have justice for Ricky\n\nOn Tuesday the Met Police said its major inquiries specialist casework team was re-examining the case, looking at certain lines of inquiry from the original investigation.\n\n\"These lines of inquiry are being followed up with fresh eyes and the benefit of modern technology... in the hope of providing answers to Ricky's family,\" a force spokesman said.\n\nMr Reel's family have spent years campaigning for answers, including his mother who believes he was the victim of a racist attack.\n\nMrs Reel alleged the police spied on her because of her race, after she was told in 2014 that officers had gathered intelligence on her when she campaigned for answers about her son's death.\n\nPolice said there was no evidence officers had targeted family members associated with the campaign, or the campaign itself.\n\nMrs Reel said she hoped under that, under the new leadership of Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Police could \"finally approach this case with an open mind and make every effort to obtain justice for my son\".\n\nShe added: \"When dealing with racism and injustice, the litmus test is always in their actions and not in promises.\n\nThe MP for Hayes and Harlington, John McDonnell, said: \"This will be a test for the Met on whether there is evidence of real change in its attitude and behaviour towards the Asian community and wider society.\n\n\"Our hope is that this time around no stone will be left unturned in the search for truth and justice for Ricky Reel,\" he added.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol could be sealed early next week, after more than a year of negotiations.\n\nMultiple sources report a \"flurry of activity\" around the talks between the UK and the European Union.\n\nThe post-Brexit trading arrangement has been a source of tension since it came into force at the start of 2021.\n\nIt aims to ensure free movement of trade across the Irish land border by conducting checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain instead.\n\nHowever, unionist parties oppose the protocol and argue that placing an effective border across the Irish Sea undermines Northern Ireland's place within the UK.\n\nThe largest of these, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is preventing a government from being formed in Northern Ireland in protest over the protocol.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to meet EU leaders this weekend at the Munich Security Conference, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is also due to attend.\n\nIt is thought the pair could discuss the negotiations on the sidelines, before the EU and the UK unveil an agreement.\n\nThat could come in the early part of next week, possibly Tuesday.\n\nNegotiating teams have also been in touch with Northern Ireland business groups in recent days.\n\nNo 10 continues to insist that a deal has not been done.\n\nSpeculation has been building for weeks that a compromise between the EU and UK was close.\n\nThere are claims, dismissed by Downing Street, that an outline agreement has been on Mr Sunak's desk for some time.\n\nNegotiators are said to have settled on a \"red and green lane\" system, whereby goods from Great Britain destined to remain in Northern Ireland undergo fewer checks.\n\nA key question for the DUP and Northern Ireland businesses will be to what extent checks and paperwork are eliminated.\n\nThe DUP has set out seven tests for the protocol, which it says must be met for it to end its boycott of devolved government in Northern Ireland.\n\nNorthern Ireland business groups say there must be a \"lasting, inclusive settlement\" that removes unnecessary red tape and has better mechanisms for managing divergence between EU and UK rules.\n\nEU sources insist they have stuck to one of their \"red lines\" - that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will continue to have oversight of single market issues.\n\nThe UK has previously floated the idea of an \"arms length\" arrangement for the ECJ and there will likely be efforts to downplay the court's future role.\n\nThis could prove a major sticking point for some Conservative MPs who say \"full sovereignty\" cannot be restored if any part of the UK is still subject to EU law.\n\n\"I sense that the PM isn't really sure that what he has is good enough,\" said one senior Conservative Brexit supporter.\n\n\"But he now seems locked into this talks process from a position of weakness.\"\n\nThe EU has welcomed Mr Sunak's approach with officials saying the mood markedly improved after he took office - but there is scepticism about whether an agreement will finally be reached.\n\n\"It's not the first time we're in spitting distance of a deal,\" said one EU diplomat. \"Let's hope Sunak can finally shake off the minority within his party that keeps the country hostage over Brexit.\"\n\nTalks to try and resolve issues with the treaty have now spanned three prime ministers and have been happening, on and off, since the autumn of 2021.\n\nLondon had sought a fundamental rewrite of the treaty while Brussels insisted flexibilities could be found within the existing text.\n\nDiscussions repeatedly stalled and the government launched legislation last year which would allow ministers to unilaterally scrap parts of the protocol.\n\nIn response the European Commission triggered legal action but those proceedings - as well as the UK legislation - have since been put on ice.\n\nBoth would likely be dropped if they can get an agreement over the line.", "Poppy Read-Pitt, 20, said her drink was spiked in Nottingham in 2020\n\nA student who suspects she was a victim of spiking has said the low conviction rate is shocking but not surprising.\n\nFigures obtained by the BBC suggest that while there were nearly 5,000 reports of spiking-related incidents to forces in 2021/22, there were just 40 convictions in four years.\n\nPoppy Read-Pitt, 20, said her drink was spiked in Nottingham in 2020 and that little had changed since then.\n\nThe government has said it will not create a specific offence for spiking.\n\nAbi Crook said spiking should be recognised as a specific offence\n\nMs Read-Pitt, who is in the third year of an English literature degree at the University of Nottingham, said: \"The very least we can do is make it a specific crime.\n\n\"That shows the authorities they can begin to look at it as something that is real, legitimate and serious.\n\n\"It feels like it happens just as much now as it did last year and as it did when I was a fresher.\n\n\"Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed.\"\n\nPoppy (left) says she has no recollection of much of the night when she suspects the spiking took place\n\nMs Read-Pitt suspects her drink was spiked during a night out in Nottingham.\n\nShe said: \"I don't remember anything past 21:00 GMT, which was about 40 minutes into us being at the venue.\n\n\"There's just nothing, completely black, and then I wake up at 09:00 the next morning in my clothes, in my bed and I have absolutely no memory of how I got there, what happened or just anything at all really.\n\n\"I was completely immobile. I wasn't just drunk and stumbling. I don't know how to describe it… completely lifeless.\"\n\nFigures for England and Wales from the National Police Chiefs Council suggest that between September 2021 and 2022 there were 4,924 reports of spiking-related incidents in one year.\n\nHowever, the Ministry of Justice said that according to its latest figures for both countries, which date from November 2017 to November 2021, there were just 40 convictions.\n\nDawn Dines, from Stamp Out Spiking, backed the students\n\nMs Read-Pitt was supported in her calls by another student at the university.\n\nAbi Crook, 20, a third year geography student, said she had also been spiked on a night out in the city.\n\nShe said: \"By not having its own crime or specifically fitting into a category, it just makes it so much easier for the police and other authorities to discount it.\"\n\nThe students were backed by the campaign group Stamp Out Spiking.\n\nFounder Dawn Dines said: \"Police forces are making efforts to report incidents more fully but whilst spiking is not a separate prosecutable offence, it makes it impossible to prove the true scale, and impact of this crime.\"\n\nThe government has said a new law is unnecessary.\n\nIn January, Home Office minister Sarah Dines said there were already several offences which covered spiking incidents and the government had not found \"any gap in the law\".\n\nHome Office minister Sarah Dines said a new law was unnecessary\n\nThe Home Affairs committee had previously argued a specific offence would have several benefits, including increased reporting of incidents, facilitating police work by improving data and \"sending a clear message to perpetrators that this is a serious crime\".\n\nLabour MP Diana Johnson, committee chair, said: \"Reporting is low, and prosecution rates are very rare indeed.\"\n\nThe Home Office said: \"We have concluded that there are already several offences which cover incidents of spiking, and we have not found any gap in the law that a new spiking offence would fill.\n\n\"We have therefore concluded that a new offence is not required and will not be bringing in new legislation.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n• None No need for specific spiking law, government says\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The doomed LauncherOne rocket ahead of its launch\n\nThe first ever satellite mission from the UK failed to launch last month because a rocket fuel filter had become dislodged, Virgin Orbit says.\n\nA rocket engine overheated in turn, leading to the loss of the rocket and satellites it was carrying.\n\nVirgin Orbit sent up a jumbo jet carrying the rocket from Cornwall on 9 January. The aircraft returned safely.\n\nCEO Dan Hart said the company would \"proceed cautiously towards the launch\" of its next rocket.\n\n\"The data is indicating that, from the beginning of the second stage first burn, a fuel filter within the fuel feedline had been dislodged from its normal position,\" Virgin Orbit tweeted.\n\n\"Additional data shows that the fuel pump that is downstream of the filter operated at a degraded efficiency level, resulting in the Newton 4 engine being starved for fuel. Performing in this anomalous manner resulted in the engine operating at a significantly higher than rated engine temperature.\n\n\"The early thrust termination ended the mission, and the second stage and its payloads fell back to Earth, landing in the approved safety corridor in the Atlantic Ocean.\"\n\nAt the time, Virgin Orbit said its LauncherOne rocket - launched from the Boeing 747 aircraft Cosmic Girl - had reached space but had fallen short of reaching its target orbit.\n\nThe mission had been billed as a milestone for UK space, marking the birth of a home-grown launch industry. The ambition is to turn the country into a global player - from manufacturing satellites to building rockets and creating new spaceports.\n\nThe launch attracted an enthusiastic crowd, with more than 2,000 spectators and VIPs gathering at Cornwall Newquay Airport to watch.\n\nMr Hart said: \"Intense disappointment gets quickly channelled into the motivation to dig into the cause, to understand all contributing elements and to thereby get back to flight with a better system and a wiser team.\"\n\nHe added that the investigation into the rocket failure was ongoing.\n\nVirgin Orbit is headquartered in Long Beach, California, but was founded by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The jumbo, called Cosmic Girl, and its rocket left Newquay just after 22:00 GMT", "Maria Ponomarenko addressed the court before she was sentenced\n\nRussian journalist Maria Ponomarenko has been jailed for six years for posting on social media about a deadly attack by Russian warplanes on a theatre in Ukraine.\n\nThe court in Barnaul in Siberia found her guilty of spreading \"fake news\", under laws introduced aimed at stifling dissent about the invasion of Ukraine.\n\nShe was also barred from activities as a journalist for five years.\n\nHundreds of civilians died when the Mariupol theatre was bombed last March.\n\nPonomarenko was detained last April, weeks after the bombing, for posting that Russian warplanes had carried out the attack even though the Russian defence ministry had denied it.\n\nShe is one of a growing number of Russian dissidents jailed for criticising the war in Ukraine.\n\nSome 1,200 civilians were seeking shelter inside the theatre when it was bombed by Russian fighter jets. Ukrainian authorities believe 300 people were killed but an Associated Press investigation said the number was closer to 600. Many of the bodies were found in the basement.\n\nAmnesty International said it was a war crime carried out by Russian forces and the international monitoring group OSCE said it had not received any indication to back up Russian allegations that a Ukrainian battalion had blown up the theatre.\n\nProsecutors said Maria Ponomarenko had committed a criminal offence brought in within days of the invasion of spreading \"knowingly false information\" about the Russian armed forces.\n\nResidents had written the Russian word for \"children\" outside the theatre in an attempt to stop Russian airstrikes\n\nAddressing the court ahead of her sentence she stressed that under Russia's constitution she had done nothing wrong: \"Had I committed a real crime then it would be possible to ask for leniency, but again, due to my moral and ethical qualities, I would not do this.\"\n\nDeclaring herself a patriotic, opposition pacifist, she ended her address by saying: \"No totalitarian regime has ever been as strong as before its collapse.\"\n\nThe journalist and activist, who has two young children, has suffered mental health problems in jail, according to her lawyer, and last year compared her conditions in pre-trial detention to torture.\n\nLast summer, Moscow councillor Alexei Gorinov was jailed for seven years after he was filmed speaking out against Russia's war in Ukraine in a city council meeting. Earlier this week a UN working group called for his release, concluding that his detention was arbitrary and contravened the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\n\nIn December one of Russia's most prominent opposition figures, Ilya Yashin, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years for spreading \"fake news\" about the military after he went on YouTube to condemn the killing of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians by Russian occupying forces in Bucha, near Kyiv.", "Mr Tuniyaz (left), seen in this file picture from 2019, is the governor of Xinjiang province\n\nA Chinese Communist Party official accused of overseeing human rights abuses has cancelled a visit to the UK.\n\nMPs urged the government to block Erkin Tuniyaz from travelling to London.\n\nThe senior figure is governor of China's north-western Xinjiang province.\n\nIn 2021, MPs approved a non-binding Commons motion which declared Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang were \"suffering crimes against humanity and genocide\".\n\nA Foreign Office spokesperson said they understood Mr Tuniyaz had pulled out of the trip.\n\nThe government insists it did not invite him and that he would not have been granted an audience with a minister.\n\n\"The UK government will continue to use all opportunities to take action against China's unacceptable human rights abuses in Xinjiang,\" a Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement.\n\nChina has been accused of systematic human rights abuses against the Muslim minority, where hundreds of thousands have been detained in camps.\n\nThe United Nations has accused China of \"serious human rights violations\" and possible crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.", "The eastern Donetsk region in Ukraine is being targeted by heavy Russian bombardments\n\nA British man has died in Ukraine, the Foreign Office has confirmed.\n\nThe man's identity has not yet been confirmed but British officials are in contact with local Ukrainian authorities.\n\nHe is one of eight British men known to have died in Ukraine since the Russian invasion started last year. Many volunteer fighters and aid workers have travelled to the country from the UK.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was supporting the man's family.\n\nThe UK government has not disclosed any more information about the circumstances surrounding his death.\n\nA Foreign Office spokesperson said: \"We are supporting the family of a British national who died in Ukraine, and are in contact with the local authorities\".\n\nThe Foreign Office advises against all travel to Ukraine, amid the ongoing invasion, saying there is a \"real risk to life\".\n\nAny British nationals still in Ukraine should leave immediately if it is safe to do so, it said.\n\nIt comes less than a month after British nationals Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw were confirmed dead in eastern Ukraine.\n\nTheir families said the pair were attempting to rescue an elderly woman when their cars were hit by a shell at Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region.\n\nA national one-minute silence will take place in the UK to mark the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, the government said.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to lead the tribute to the \"bravery and resilience\" of the Ukrainian people at 11:00 GMT on 24 February.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Sunak said: \"Russia's unjustifiable attack brought war and destruction to our continent once again, and it has forced millions from their homes and devastated families across Ukraine and Russia.\n\n\"I am incredibly proud of the UK's response, and throughout this past year, the UK public have shown their true generosity of spirit and their enduring belief in freedom.\"\n\nScott Sibley, from Lincolnshire, died after being struck by mortar fire in Ukraine in April.\n\nWhile Craig Mackintosh, from Thetford, Norfolk was killed while volunteering as a medic in August.\n\nBritish aid worker Paul Urey, who was captured by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine, died in detention last July.\n\nAlmost one year on since the start of the conflict, what questions do you have about the war in Ukraine?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.\n• None Bakhmut: 'Little by little, the Russians are winning'", "Prices for olive oil, sugar and low-fat milk have surged with food costs continuing to fuel inflation in the UK.\n\nFood inflation is at a 45-year high, with a supermarket boss warning that grocery prices will remain elevated this year.\n\nOverall UK price inflation fell for the third month in a row to 10.1% in the year to January from 10.5% in December.\n\nThe biggest factors in the rate slowing were decreases in fuel prices and the cost of dining out.\n\nTo calculate inflation, which measures the increase in the price of something over time, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) keeps track of the prices of hundreds of everyday items.\n\nIf it falls, it does not mean the prices of goods are going down, it just means prices are rising more slowly.\n\nMany analysts believe inflation will continue to fall, although it is still currently five times the Bank of England's target of 2%.\n\nGrocery prices are one of the main drivers fuelling overall inflation, and were up 16.7% on the year to January.\n\nOlive oil, sugar and low-fat milk prices have all increased by more than 40% in that time.\n\nMatt Hood, managing director of Co-op Food, which has more than 2,500 UK stores, said prices continued to rise in January as costs for grocers did, making it \"incredibly tough\".\n\n\"Inflation is the thing that keeps us up at night,\" he told the BBC's Today programme.\n\n\"Believe it or not we as retailers are trying our hardest not to flow it all through to our customers.\"\n\nBoth food and energy bills have been rising following Russia's invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago, with supplies of both commodities being disrupted.\n\nBut in the case of olive oil, prices have been higher in recent months largely due to summer heatwaves hitting crops in Spain, a huge exporter of the product.\n\nKyle Holland, oils analyst at data firm Mintec, said production in Spain was down to 720,000 metric tonnes, from the usual 1.5 million.\n\n\"When there is not enough rain, [olive trees] cannot produce any olives. A lot of trees have not produced enough. It's a very steep decline,\" he said.\n\nInflation rose steeply last year. Before that, the last time it was over 10% was in February 1982.\n\nAnd wages are not keeping up.\n\nPay, excluding bonuses, increased at an annual pace of 6.7% between October and December 2022. And when adjusted for inflation, regular pay fell by 2.5%.\n\nKelly Hill, a hairdressing apprentice in Stafford, moved back in with her parents to save money to buy her own home.\n\nThe 31-year-old said bills and the price of everything had gone up, and her mum and dad were feeling the pinch too.\n\n\"When they've gone food shopping they've noticed how much prices have just absolutely gone right through the roof.\"\n\nShe said her mum used to shop at Tesco but has been getting some things from Aldi.\n\n\"So as a family we're looking at what we can cut back on food wise.\"\n\nGrant Fitzner, chief economist for the ONS, said there were signs costs facing businesses were \"rising more slowly\", but warned \"business prices remain high overall\".\n\nHe said air and coach travel prices had dropped back after December's \"steep rise\".\n\n\"Petrol prices continue to fall and there was a dip in restaurant, cafe and takeaway prices,\" he added.\n\nBut the falls in those prices were offset by rising prices of alcohol and tobacco.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt also warned the \"fight is far from over\" on rising prices and said it was why the government \"must stick to the plan to halve inflation this year, reduce debt and grow the economy\".\n\nAlthough the government has pledged to halve inflation, many economists have predicted it will happen naturally, as the cost of energy falls.\n\nShadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said families would feel no better off following 13 years of Conservative government and repeated Labour's call for higher taxes on oil and gas companies to ease bills when energy prices go up in April.\n\nThe biggest factor driving down inflation is petrol - now only 2p a litre more than it cost before Russia invaded Ukraine.\n\nIt's because inflation compares prices last month with a year before that the rate of inflation is almost certain to slow further in the coming months.\n\nFuel prices were already rising this time last year, but it was the war that blasted the price of petrol and wholesale gas into the stratosphere.\n\nTwo months from now we'll be comparing prices in March 2023 with March 2022, after the fuel price had jumped, and therefore the difference - the rate of inflation - will be smaller. That will happen regardless of what the government or the Bank of England does.\n\nCrucially, the Bank of England's big anxiety, that global inflationary pressure is becoming embedded domestically, will have been soothed. That undermines the argument for raising interest rates faster.\n\nSamuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the fall in inflation gave the Bank of England the flexibility to keep its interest rate at 4%, rather than increase it again.\n\nThe Bank raised rates for the tenth time in a row at the start of the month in a bid to curb rising prices.\n\nRaising interest rates is seen as a way to control inflation by making it more expensive to borrow money and thus encouraging people to borrow less and spend less, and save more.\n\nBut it is a balancing act as the Bank does not want to slow the economy too much with predictions that the UK could enter a recession - a period of economic decline - this year.", "Nicola Sturgeon is resigning as SNP leader and first minister of Scotland\n\nThree candidates have put themselves forward to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland.\n\nKate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf are competing to become the next SNP leader.\n\nWhat do we know about them and the contest so far?\n\nThe finance secretary has had a meteoric rise through the ranks of government. She was dropped into the job following the surprise resignation of Derek Mackay and was left to deliver the 2020 Scottish Budget with just a few hours' notice.\n\nHer steady performance since then has belied her relatively young age (32) and short parliamentary career.\n\nShe was first elected to the seat of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch in 2016, but has been talked about as a future leadership contender for some time.\n\nAnnouncing her campaign, she said the nation and the Yes movement were at \"a crossroads\" and that she had \"the vision, experience and competence to inspire voters\".\n\nAs finance secretary she has pushed for a \"reset\" of the public sector in the wake of the Covid pandemic, having set out plans which would have seen the workforce cut.\n\nMs Forbes is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, which follows a strict interpretation of the Bible, and has described how she has often had to \"tiptoe around\" her faith.\n\nShe has been on maternity leave since last summer, meaning she has not participated in some key debates within the SNP about gender reform and independence strategy.\n\nOn day one of her campaign, she said she would not have voted for the gender reform bill.\n\nMs Forbes also said she believed that having a child outside of marriage was \"wrong\" according to her religious beliefs.\n\nAnd she sparked a storm after saying she would not have voted for gay marriage legislation, as a matter of conscience, had she been in parliament at the time.\n\nA number of prominent supporters withdrew their endorsements and Deputy First Minister John Swinney questioned whether her stance on gay marriage made her \"appropriate\" to be SNP leader.\n\nIn reply, a spokesman for Ms Forbes said people would wonder why Mr Swinney believes a woman holding Christian views should be disqualified from holding high office.\n\nMs Forbes then took to social media in a bid to reset her campaign.\n\nShe said she had never intended to cause \"hurt\", and that she would \"defend to the hilt the right of everybody in Scotland, particularly minorities, to live and to live without fear or harassment in a pluralistic and tolerant society\".\n\nAnd she added: \"It is possible to be a person of faith, and to defend others' rights to have no faith or a different faith.\"\n\nThe former community safety minister is best known for quitting her government post in protest over gender reform legislation.\n\nBut the 48-year-old has also gained some prominent supporters in the legal industry thanks to her engagement with them during the Covid pandemic.\n\nMs Regan, who has been MSP for Edinburgh Eastern since 2016, says she would ditch the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.\n\nAnd she has called for an independence convention to \"create a new vision of an independent Scotland\".\n\nShe has also thrown her support behind the idea of using a future election as a \"de facto referendum\", saying that pro-independence parties winning over 50% of the vote would be \"a clear instruction that Scotland wishes to be an independent nation\".\n\nThis is a harder position on independence campaigning than either of the other candidates, who favour a more cautious approach, and Ms Regan may be targeting the hearts of party members impatient for action on the constitutional question.\n\nThe MSP has also called for members who quit the SNP over the gender reform row to be allowed back in to vote in the leadership contest - an idea laughed off as \"preposterous\" by the deputy first minister.\n\nMs Regan has also indicated support for the North Sea oil and gas industry and pledged to speed up the dualling of the A9 and A96.\n\nAt the launch of her campaign, Ms Regan said the SNP had \"effectively dismantled the Yes campaign\".\n\nShe said: \"In recent years, the wider Yes movement has become marginalised in the fight for independence. If elected, I intend to change that.\"\n\nShe also said it was a \"conflict of interest\" for Ms Sturgeon's husband - SNP chief executive Peter Murrell - to be running the contest to select her replacement.\n\nThe health secretary is part of a newer generation of SNP figures, having become a Glasgow MSP in 2011.\n\nHe is also the most experienced of the three candidates, having held a number of senior posts in government, including as transport minister, Europe minister and justice secretary.\n\nAt the launch of his campaign, the 37-year-old said he wanted to \"reenergise the campaign for independence\".\n\nHe said he had the experience to take on the job of first minister, but would have a \"a different approach\" to Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nShe had faced calls to sack Mr Yousaf over his running of the NHS in Scotland this winter, as waiting times hit record highs and doctors issued safety warnings.\n\nBut he has pointed to the pay offer made to NHS staff, which he says is likely to avoid strike action for the next financial year.\n\nHe has pitched himself as a candidate who would continue the work of Ms Sturgeon's administration and maintain the SNP's partnership arrangement with the Greens.\n\nHe is also the only candidate who has pledged to pursue legal action to defend Holyrood's gender reforms, which were blocked by the UK government. This is seen as a red line in terms of the Greens continuing support for the government.\n\nMr Yousaf says politics has grown too divisive, and that he has \"the skills to reach across the divide and bring people together\" across Scotland.\n\nOn independence, he says he wants to talk about policy rather than process, and to \"grow our movement from the grassroots upwards\".\n\nMr Yousaf, who is Muslim, missed the 2014 equal marriages vote at Holyrood as he was at a meeting, but supported the passage of the bill during its earlier stages in the parliament.\n\nOne former SNP minister, Alex Neil, told the Herald newspaper on Friday that Mr Yousaf had contrived to \"skip\" the vote by arranging this meeting 19 days in advance, and that it could have been rescheduled.\n\nMr Yousaf has vigorously denied such suggestions, and said the episode was being used by opponents to undermine his campaign.\n\nProminent supporters: Neil Gray, international development minister; Maree Todd, public health minister; Michael Matheson, net zero, energy and transport secretary; Kevin Stewart, mental wellbeing and social care minister.", "We've been speaking to an active bunch of older voters at the John Wright sports centre in East Kilbride near Glasgow to get their views on what the next first minister's priorities should be.\n\nIsobel Walters, who had a liver transplant five years after a diabetes diagnosis, says the focus must be the NHS.\n\nQuote Message: They need to train more people - nurses, doctors, surgeons. Give them a decent wage because the work they do is amazing. The care I’ve had is exceptional. But I have a lot friends who have had to go privately for scans and things. It’s not fair that they’ve had to pay for it.\" They need to train more people - nurses, doctors, surgeons. Give them a decent wage because the work they do is amazing. The care I’ve had is exceptional. But I have a lot friends who have had to go privately for scans and things. It’s not fair that they’ve had to pay for it.\"\n\nLinda Dempsey agrees the NHS is a top priority and reckons Scottish independence \"should be put on the back burner\".\n\nQuote Message: Money needs to be spent on a lot more than independence - children’s schooling is a disgrace.\" Money needs to be spent on a lot more than independence - children’s schooling is a disgrace.\"\n\nBut Philip Patterson disagrees and believes the need for independence is greater than ever.\n\nQuote Message: Until that happens we’re not going to be able to do anything with the NHS or education as the purse strings are still with Westminster. Until that happens we’re not going to be able to do anything with the NHS or education as the purse strings are still with Westminster.\n\nThe struggles of the NHS is a recurring theme - with Larry Dempsey calling for the next first minister to approve urgent investment.\n\nQuote Message: Get the economy on track and sort out the NHS and social care. It’s really deteriorated over the last few years and needs money to get it back on its feet.\" Get the economy on track and sort out the NHS and social care. It’s really deteriorated over the last few years and needs money to get it back on its feet.\"", "More than 130 migrants have already died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Europe (file picture)\n\nAt least 73 migrants are missing and presumed dead after their boat sank off the Libyan coast, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM).\n\nOnly seven people survived Tuesday's shipwreck but are in \"extremely dire conditions\" in hospital.\n\nSo far 11 bodies have been recovered by the Libyan Red Crescent and police.\n\nThe boat was heading to Europe on a route the IOM has called \"the world's deadliest migratory sea crossing\".\n\nMore than 130 people have already died this year making the dangerous journey over the Mediterranean Sea.\n\nThe IOM added that more than 1,450 deaths were recorded by its Missing Migrants Project last year.\n\n\"This situation is intolerable,\" said Safa Msehli, a spokesperson for the group.\n\nMs Msehli said more efforts were needed to \"increase search and rescue capacity, establish clear and safe disembarkation mechanisms as well as safe and regular pathways to migration to reduce dangerous journeys\".", "Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nNicola Bulley was considered a high-risk missing person from the start of the investigation into her disappearance, police have said.\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nDet Supt Rebecca Smith said she was listed as high risk because of a \"number of specific vulnerabilities\".\n\nBut she added this was \"normal in a missing person investigation with the information we were in possession of\".\n\nAccording to the College of Policing, the category is applied when the risk of a person coming to serious harm is assessed as very likely.\n\nDet Supt Rebecca Smith said there had been \"persistent myths\" about the case\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters - aged six and nine - at school.\n\nLancashire Police first told the public of their \"main working hypothesis\" on 3 February, that the mortgage adviser had gone into the river during a \"10-minute window\" between 09:10 GMT and 09:20 that day.\n\nDetectives have extended the search to the sea, saying finding her there \"becomes more of a possibility\".\n\nMs Bulley's family and friends have tied yellow ribbons to a bridge near to where she vanished\n\nHeart-shaped paper notes with messages of hope have also been fastened to the bridge\n\nIn a press conference earlier, Det Supt Smith, who is the lead investigator in the case, confirmed there was still no evidence of a criminal aspect or third-party involvement.\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has previously said he was \"100% convinced\" she did not fall into the water.\n\nBut Det Supt Smith said their main theory was still that Ms Bulley had \"unfortunately gone in the river\".\n\nHowever, she said she could not be \"100% certain of that at the minute\" as it was a \"live investigation\" and there was \"always information coming in\".\n\nShe said other hypotheses remained in place and were \"reviewed regularly\" by detectives.\n\nThe search for Ms Bulley continues in St Michael's on Wyre\n\n\"We are in the 20th day, we have had a thorough, dedicated, meticulous investigation and there is not one single piece of information that's come to note that would suggest that Nicola has left those fields,\" she said.\n\nShe added Ms Bulley was graded as high risk \"following the information that was provided to the police by her partner Paul and based on a number of specific vulnerabilities that we were made aware of\".\n\nShe declined to give further details, pointing to the family's \"pain and distress\", and called for \"respect\".\n\nNearly 40 detectives have since sifted through hundreds of hours of CCTV, dashcam footage and tip-offs from the public.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson says there is no evidence of third party involvement\n\nDet Supt Smith said the force had also been \"inundated with false information, accusations and rumours which is distracting\".\n\nShe said in her 29 years of police service she had not seen \"anything like it\" and described \"persistent myths\" about the case.\n\n\"The derelict house which is across the other side of the river has been searched three times, with the permission of the owner, and Nicola is not in there,\" she said.\n\nShe added reports of a red van in the area on the morning of Ms Bulley's disappearance were not being treated as suspicious.\n\nThe detective also confirmed that a glove found near to where Ms Bulley disappeared does not belong to her.\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on a bench by the River Wyre\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson defended his force's investigation into the case of the missing mother-of-two.\n\nHe said the force had decided to share more details in the press conference \"than would normally be the case\" to counter some of \"the ill-informed speculation and conjecture\".\n\n\"It has been a distraction that is potentially damaging to the investigation, the community of St Michael's and most importantly Nicola's family,\" he said.\n\nOn Tuesday the Lancashire force said it had arrested two people after malicious messages were sent to a number of parish councillors about the case.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Brianna's family have paid tribute to the \"much loved\" schoolgirl\n\nCandlelit vigils have been held for 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, who was stabbed to death in a park.\n\nThe schoolgirl was found lying wounded on a path in Linear Park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nShe was a transgender girl and detectives are considering whether her death was a hate crime, as they try to establish a motive for the attack.\n\nThe vigils, organised by members of the transgender community, were held in Liverpool and Bristol.\n\nCrowds gathered outside St George's Hall in Liverpool on Tuesday night\n\nIn the coming days, further vigils are due to be held in cities across the UK\n\nPeople gathered together at College Green in Bristol city centre on Tuesday evening while at the same time a vigil took place at St George's Hall in Liverpool.\n\nIn the coming days, vigils are due to be held in cities around the UK including Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds.\n\nTwo teenagers have been arrested over Brianna's death\n\nAdditional events are planned in Aberdeen, Reading, Plymouth, Brighton, Belfast, London and York.\n\nBrianna's family have paid tribute to their \"much loved daughter, granddaughter, and baby sister\", and said her death had left a \"massive hole\".\n\nPlacards were also displayed at the vigil in Liverpool saying \"rest in love\"\n\nDonations on a crowdfunding page set up for Brianna's family, which said the schoolgirl was \"looking forward to taking her exams this year\", have reached nearly £80,000.\n\nPolice said a post-mortem examination was planned and searches were continuing for the weapon used.\n\nOfficers have also been granted a 30-hour extension to question a boy and girl, both aged 15, who have been arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nAdditional events are planned across the UK\n\nPeople gathered together at College Green in Bristol city centre on Tuesday evening\n\nTributes have also been paid to Brianna on social media and in particular TikTok, where she had a huge following.\n\nOne message described her as a \"sweet angel\" and a \"beautiful girl\".\n\nBrianna was stabbed to death in a park in Cheshire on Saturday\n\nPeople embraced at the vigil at College Green in Bristol\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rust actor and producer Alec Baldwin is facing fresh charges over the death of Halyna Hutchins\n\nFilming on the Western movie Rust is to resume this spring, according to US reports, with producer Alec Baldwin remaining in the the starring role.\n\nIt comes after Baldwin was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter over the fatal on-set shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.\n\nA mix of new and old crewmembers will work on the film, with Bianca Cline filling in for the late Ms Hutchins.\n\nHer widower Matthew has also approved a documentary about her, producers said.\n\nThe documentary, made \"at [executive producer, Mr] Hutchins' behest and with his blessing and support\" will explore Ms Hutchins' life and \"final work, including the completion of the film\", they noted.\n\nBaldwin had been rehearsing a scene for Rust when the shooting, which led to the 42-year-old Ukrainian's death, occurred at a ranch near Sante Fe, New Mexico in October 2021.\n\nThe movie was expected to resume filming in January, after the Hollywood star reached a settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Mr Hutchins.\n\nBut then fresh charges of involuntary manslaughter were brought against him, and the film's armourer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, by the Santa Fe District Attorney's office last month.\n\nLawyers for both denied any wrongdoing and said they intended to fight them in court.\n\nBaldwin's lawyer, Luke Nikas, called the decision to charge the actor \"a terrible miscarriage of justice\".\n\n\"Mr Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun - or anywhere on the movie set,\" Mr Nikas said. \"He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.\"\n\nRust Movie productions, which Baldwin is part of, said on Tuesday that the scene which was being rehearsed when Ms Hutchins was shot has now been rewritten, and that the \"any use of working weapons and any form of ammunition\" had now been barred from the set.\n\nThe company added Ms Cline, whose credits include Marcel the Shell With Shoes On and American Horror Story, will now \"complete Halyna's vision for the film\" and also donate her salary to charity.\n\n\"Though bittersweet, I am grateful that a brilliant and dedicated new production team joining former cast and crew are committed to completing what Halyna and I started,\" said director Joel Souza, who was also injured in the shooting.\n\nCinematographer Halyna Hutchins was regarded as a rising talent in the film industry\n\n\"My every effort on this film will be devoted to honouring Halyna's legacy and making her proud. It is a privilege to see this through on her behalf.\"\n\nSafety officers Gary Jensen and Paul Jordan from Tenet Production Safety will join the production, as will production designer Christine Brandt.\n\nThe first of the two charges brought against Baldwin by the Santa Fe District Attorney's office last month will require proof of underlying negligence on his behalf.\n\nThe second charge requires proof that there was more than simple negligence involved, due to a firearm enhancement, which, if proved, could see the star serve five years in prison.\n\nHowever, last week Baldwin's lawyers argued the second charge was \"unlawful\" because such enhancement had only been enacted after the incident occurred.\n\nEarlier this month, Ms Hutchins' family - her mother Olga Solovey, father Anatolii Androsovych and sister Svetlana Zemko - filed a new civil lawsuit against the actor and the production company seeking damages for alleged battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and loss of consortium.\n\nBaldwin has not yet publicly responded to that lawsuit, but he has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the on-set shooting.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Sturgeon 'wrestling' with decision to resign for weeks\n\nNicola Sturgeon is the most experienced political leader in the UK.\n\nWhen she became first minister of Scotland, the prime minister and the man who hopes to be the next prime minister weren't even MPs.\n\nMs Sturgeon replaced Alex Salmond in 2014. Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer were first elected to the Commons in 2015.\n\nIn an era of what has often felt like near permanent political revolution, the churning in and then churning out of leader-after-leader, there has been what has felt, in contrast, like a near permanent leader of the Scottish government.\n\nShould we be surprised she's going? Privately, talk of her departure has not been dismissed out of hand for some time.\n\nBut many thought it might come after the next general election. Not out of the blue like this.\n\nSo, how should the leadership of Ms Sturgeon be assessed?\n\nShe was the beneficiary of defeat.\n\nNot just any defeat, but the defeat in 2014 of the defining thrust of her political instinct, the desire for Scottish independence.\n\nThe rejection of this in the referendum of almost a decade ago is what led to her predecessor Mr Salmond's departure and a turbo charging of the Scottish National Party's political fortunes.\n\nFor while 45% of the vote equals losing in a referendum, a figure anywhere near that in a conventional election equals overwhelming success.\n\nAnd so from defeat came dominance - the SNP holding the vast majority of the Scottish parliamentary seats at Westminster, and the SNP remaining in government in Scotland beyond the point that political gravity usually catches up with any party.\n\nRemember, the party first went into government at Holyrood in 2007.\n\nAnd the SNP remains, for now at least, the overwhelmingly dominant force in Scottish politics.\n\nBut here's a striking contrast: this politician who was a beneficiary of defeat was also a failure in victory.\n\nWinning elections, one way or another, again and again, didn't bring about independence, or even another referendum.\n\nThe SNP argue this is a democratic outrage.\n\nBut the truth is, whether you believe it amounts to that or not, delivering on that defining mission was slipping further and further away.\n\nMeanwhile, as Labour surged in the UK-wide opinion polls, that calling card to a chunk of the Scottish electorate - you end up with Tory governments you haven't voted for - began to look like it might expire at the next general election.\n\nAnd meanwhile, political problems stacked up: the NHS and schools, the thunderously angry row about trans rights upon which the first minister seemed increasingly lacking in the sure-footedness so many associate with her.\n\nThen there are the ongoing questions about the first minister's husband giving the SNP a £100,000 loan. Peter Murrell is also the chief executive of the party.\n\nThere are those who privately think the scrutiny of this still to come would have proved deeply uncomfortable for a serving first minister.\n\nSo, what next? First, there'll be some space for Ms Sturgeon's reflections on public life - politics can be \"brutal\", she says.\n\nIt reminded me of Tony Blair's remarks as he prepared to leave office 16 years ago when he \"talked of the media as a 'feral beast\".\n\nIn that, there are reflections for all of us involved in public discourse.\n\nOf course, there are critics of the first minister who will say her very desire for independence having lost a referendum on it was divisive, others that to deny another one is exactly that too.\n\nThe SNP must now find, and quickly, a replacement.\n\nIt is far from obvious who that will be.\n\nWhat does feel clearer is that Ms Sturgeon's political opponents are relieved she is going - and that is a compliment to her.\n\nMany who want to see the union preserved have longed for this day for some time, convinced her replacement won't be anywhere near as effective.\n\nFor now, a huge figure in Scottish politics and a big figure on the UK political stage prepares to depart, and Scotland prepares for new political leadership.", "Nine days after Turkey's earthquake disaster, three women and two children have been found alive.\n\nForty-two-year-old Melike Imamoglu and 74-year-old Cemile Kekec were pulled from the rubble by rescuers in the Turkish town of Kahramanmaras.\n\nTheir rescue came as workers turned their attention to cleaning up cities devastated by February's earthquakes.\n\nMillions of people across Syria and Turkey are living in makeshift camps and require humanitarian aid.\n\nVideo of the rescue posted to social media by the Mayor of Darica, Muzaffer Biyik, showed workers applauding and embracing one another as Ms Kekec was loaded into the ambulance.\n\nLocal media reported that when they found the 42-year-old survivor, Ms Imamoglu, they told her she was \"awesome\".\n\nIn Antakya- another Turkish city badly affected by the earthquakes - local media reported that a mother and her two children were pulled alive from the rubble.\n\nTen days on from the disaster, it is becoming harder to find quake survivors. The combined death toll has now passed 41,000.\n\nForeign rescue workers who arrived in Turkey shortly after the quakes are beginning to pack up and return home, while locals are shifting their focus to cleaning up the debris.\n\nSurvivors must now begin to rebuild their lives. The Turkish government has encouraged people to return to their homes if possible, after authorities have declared they are safe.\n\nBut many have lost their homes and are living in makeshift camps. In Kahramanmaras, where the women were rescued, more than 1,000 survivors camped in a local stadium.\n\nIn Syria, relief efforts have been hampered by the civil war that has divided the country.\n\nThe UN did not provide aid to Syria for days, saying logistical issues were to blame.\n\nWhen aid did arrive following the opening of a second border crossing through Turkey, rescuers said they did not supply any of the heavy machinery required to remove rubble.\n\n\"It has never happened before, that there was an earthquake somewhere and the international community and the UN don't help,\" said Raed Saleh, who is leading the White Helmets rescue force in opposition-held areas.", "Banksy artwork in Margate has had a piece returned\n\nA Banksy artwork in Margate that was dismantled by the local council has had a piece returned.\n\nThe mural shows a 1950s housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth, apparently shutting a man in a freezer.\n\nThe artwork - called \"Valentine's day mascara\" - had incorporated a broken freezer, a broken garden chair, a blue crate and an empty beer bottle, which were all removed.\n\nHowever, the freezer has since been returned.\n\nThanet District Council previously said the freezer would return \"once it has been made safe\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Wednesday afternoon, a council spokesman said the freezer was made safe and returned to its original position.\n\n\"The council has a duty to ensure the ongoing safety of the public; it was necessary to carry out works to the freezer for health and safety reasons,\" he said.\n\n\"Banksy raises the important issue of domestic abuse in this artwork. We are in touch with the owner of the property to understand their intentions around the preservation of the piece and to secure the best possible outcome for the local community and victims of domestic abuse.\"\n\nBanksy published a picture of the work on his Instagram page on Valentine's Day morning, and many of the comments suggest he is referencing fighting violence against women.\n\nThe artist also posted pictures showing a close-up of the woman's smiling, but seemingly battered, face.\n\nThe mural appears to show a woman with a missing tooth and a swollen eye\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that she is resigning as Scotland's first minister, saying there was much more \"intensity\", and \"brutality\", to the life of a politician, than there was in previous years.\n\nThese are some of the recent moments from her political career where she didn't hold back her thoughts on the government, Jeremy Clarkson and possible controversial haircuts.", "Shoppers will pay a 20p deposit for a drink in metal cans and plastic or glass bottles\n\nA group of MSPs have told the first minister it would be \"reckless\" to introduce a recycling scheme as planned in August.\n\nThe cross-party group, which includes SNP MSPs, has written to Nicola Sturgeon amid \"extensive and wide ranging concerns\" about the project.\n\nThe Deposit Return Scheme is designed to boost recycling via a 20p deposit on single-use drinks bottles and cans.\n\nIndustry critics fear it will disrupt trade, raise prices and reduce choice.\n\nUnder the current proposals, the 20p deposit will be refunded to shoppers when they take empty cans and bottles back for recycling.\n\nIt is being set up to increase recycling and reduce the amount of cans and bottles dumped as rubbish.\n\nThe letter was signed by former Scottish rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing and veteran SNP MSP Christine Grahame.\n\nThe group also includes Conservative MSPs Maurice Golden and Brian Whittle, Labour's Claire Baker and Paul O'Kane and Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur.\n\nThey said a Scottish government review published in December \"identified that the scheme cannot be made to work as planned in August\".\n\nTheir letter said that given the \"number and gravity of the defects identified by both that review and by industry, that it would be reckless for the Scottish government to proceed with the scheme's introduction in August this year\".\n\nThe group urged Ms Sturgeon to \"instruct an urgent and entirely independent review of how best to improve recycling in Scotland\" for the three materials covered by the DRS - PET plastic, glass bottles and metal cans.\n\nHundreds of leading figures from businesses in the food, drinks and hospitality sectors have already sent an open letter to circular economy minister Lorna Slater, calling for the initiative to be paused so that changes can be made.\n\nBut Ms Slater told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland on Tuesday: \"It is all systems go for Scotland's deposit return scheme.\"\n\nShe added: \"Our scheme is very similar to successful schemes around the world that do, as you say, increase recycling but also do that really important piece to reduce litter on our streets.\n\n\"We have all seen cans and bottles and broken glass. We've got to do something about it and the deposit return scheme is our answer to that.\"\n\nThe first minister has been urged to reconsider the plans\n\nProducers have until 28 February to register for the scheme ahead of its launch on 16 August.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack said ministers should consider waiting for a unified approach with the rest of the UK.\n\nHowever, the rest of the UK is not scheduled to bring in deposit return until October 2025.\n\nCircularity Scotland, who will run the scheme, said firms producing drinks that meet the guidelines were \"legally required to take part in the scheme\".\n\nThis includes all drinks for sale in Scotland in plastic, glass or metal containers between 50ml and three litres in size.\n\nThe seven MSPs behind the letter said about 600 small and medium-size businesses have expressed fears about scheme, adding that the rules and costs could force many to close.\n\nThey also warned Ms Sturgeon that drinks firms could withdraw from the Scottish market.\n\nThe MSPs shared the concerns that some businesses may have to increase prices beyond the 20p deposit \"because the handling fees set do not cover their costs\".\n\nThis could affect the poorest in society, the letter warned.\n\nThe group also said the scheme's environmental aims could backfire, requiring \"possibly millions of extra van or lorry journeys to operate the proposed new collection system\".\n\nA Scottish government spokesman said: \"Scotland's deposit return scheme will go live on 16 August this year and will make producers responsible for recycling the bottles and cans they put on the market.\n\n\"Similar schemes are common in other European countries and have been shown to be very effective in improving recycling rates, tackling littering and addressing public concerns about the impact of plastic and other waste on our environment.\"\n\nHe added: \"We understand that this is a big change, especially for smaller businesses, and Scottish ministers continue to work with affected businesses to address outstanding concerns and ensure the scheme launches successfully.\"", "Jeremy Corbyn will not be a Labour candidate at the next general election, party leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.\n\nMr Corbyn was suspended from being a Labour MP and sits as an independent because of a row over antisemitism.\n\nThe former Labour leader had hoped to be readmitted so he could stand for re-election as a Labour candidate.\n\nBut Sir Keir said the party had changed under his leadership and \"we are not going back\", adding that if others did not back him they could leave.\n\nMr Corbyn has previously declined to comment on speculation he might stand against Labour as an independent candidate in his Islington North constituency. He did not comment as he left his house and he was not expected to respond on Wednesday.\n\nBut former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, one of his longstanding allies, said he had \"no intention of standing as an independent\", having been a member of the Labour Party since he was 16.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC before Sir Keir made his remarks, Mr Corbyn said his suspension from the parliamentary party had been a \"pretty poor way of treating people... There has been no process, there has been no discussion, there has been no appeal.\"\n\nMomentum, the left-wing campaign group set up to support him when he was Labour leader, said: \"It should be for Labour members in Islington North to decide their candidate - that is their democratic right.\n\n\"This Party does not belong to one man alone - it belongs to its members and trade unions.\"\n\nAsked by reporters if he could \"categorically\" rule out his predecessor as leader representing the party at the next election, Sir Keir replied: \"Let me be very clear about that: Jeremy Corbyn will not stand for Labour at the next general election, as a Labour party candidate.\n\n\"What I said about the party changing, I meant, and we are not going back, and that is why Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe was speaking as Britain's equalities watchdog said Labour had improved how it handled antisemitism complaints.\n\nIn 2020, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found Labour, under Mr Corbyn, had been responsible for unlawful harassment and discrimination.\n\nBut a new report by the watchdog said it was now satisfied enough changes had been made.\n\nOnly three years ago, Jeremy Corbyn was still the leader of the Labour Party, albeit after a bruising defeat in the 2019 general election.\n\nNow his successor has said categorically that Mr Corbyn won't even be able to stand as a Labour candidate next time round - a mark, Sir Keir says, of how much the party has changed under his leadership.\n\nA big question now is whether Mr Corbyn will stand as an independent in the constituency he's held for decades.\n\nIf he does, Momentum, the movement which has long supported him, hasn't said whether or not it would back him.\n\nThe organisation has already labelled Sir Keir's decision undemocratic, but if it were to support Mr Corbyn as an independent it would risk a showdown with the Labour leader.\n\nSpeaking in east London, Sir Keir said this was \"an important moment in the history of the Labour Party\" but \"not one for celebration\". He stressed it was \"not the end of the road\" and promised \"zero tolerance of antisemitism, of racism, of discrimination of any kind\".\n\nHe added it was an opportunity to \"apologise once again. To all those who were hurt, to all those who were let down, to all those driven out of our party, who no longer felt it was their home, who suffered the most appalling abuse.\n\n\"Antisemitism is an evil and any political party that cultivates it does not deserve power.\"\n\nLabour was \"unrecognisable from 2019 and it will never go back… if you don't like that, if you don't like the changes we have made, I say the door is open and you can leave\", Sir Keir said.\n\nIn a statement, Momentum said: \"We... will not allow ourselves to be driven out of the Party. What we've witnessed today is an attempt to dishearten and demoralise us.\n\n\"The door might be open - but we're not leaving.\"\n\nMr Corbyn was suspended as a Labour MP by Sir Keir for saying, in his response to the 2020 EHRC report, that the scale of antisemitism within Labour had been\"dramatically overstated\" by his opponents and much of the media.\n\nHe also said antisemitism was \"absolutely abhorrent\" and \"one antisemite is one too many\" in the party.\n\nHe was readmitted to the wider party after saying concerns about antisemitism had been neither \"exaggerated nor overstated\", but he remains barred from representing Labour in Parliament.\n\nIn December, Sir Keir said he could not \"see the circumstances\" under which Mr Corbyn would stand for Labour at the next election - but this was the first time he had ruled out his predecessor returning to the parliamentary party.\n\nMr Corbyn led Labour to defeat in the 2017 and 2019 general elections but remains a popular figure with many on the left of the party. From 2016, Sir Keir was a key member of his shadow cabinet, speaking for the party on Brexit.\n\nLabour was forced to reform its practices after the highly critical EHRC report, published in October 2020, ruled the party was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.\n\nThe EHRC launched its inquiry in May 2019, during Mr Corbyn's tenure, after receiving a number of complaints about antisemitism within the party.\n\nIt found Labour had breached the Equality Act by failing to provide adequate training for staff dealing with allegations, and because of \"political interference\" from Mr Corbyn's office in the handling of those complaints.\n\nLabour was ordered to draw up a plan to improve its complaints process, which it did in December 2020.\n\nThis committed the party to setting up an independent process to handle complaints, putting together a handbook for staff handling complaints, and improving training.\n\nEHRC chief executive Marcial Boo said the watchdog was now \"content with the actions taken\" by the party and had wound up a two-year monitoring process at the end of January.\n\nSir Keir was introduced on Wednesday by the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl.\n\nShe said the idea of sharing a platform with a Labour leader \"not too long ago... simply would be an impossibility\".\n\n\"At the next election I believe all British Jews will once again be free to vote according to their political persuasion rather than out of fear,\" she added.\n\nBut she warned that there were still \"issues with antisemitism particularly within the grassroots\" of the Labour Party.", "Brianna Ghey was found injured in Linear Park in Culcheth and died at the scene\n\nA boy and girl, both aged 15, have appeared in court charged with murdering 16-year-old Brianna Ghey who was stabbed to death in a village park.\n\nThe transgender schoolgirl was found lying wounded on a path in Linear Park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nHer family said she was a \"much-loved\" daughter, granddaughter, and sister.\n\nOn Wednesday evening hundreds of people attended candlelit vigils in cities including Dublin, Belfast, Manchester, Lancaster and Leeds for Brianna.\n\nThe charged girl, from Warrington, and the boy, from Leigh, appeared at Chester Magistrates' Court and were remanded into youth detention.\n\nThey are due to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday.\n\nThe pair, who appeared separately and spoke only to confirm their names, addresses and ages, were not required to enter pleas to the charge.\n\nBoth were supported by their parents in court, and were flanked by one dock officer throughout the hearing.\n\nCheshire Police initially said there was no evidence Brianna's killing was hate related but on Tuesday detectives said all lines of inquiry were \"being explored\", including hate crime.\n\nOfficers, who had been given extra time to question the two teenagers, later charged them with murder.\n\nPeople attended a candlelit vigil at the Spire in O'Connell Street, Dublin, on Wednesday\n\nPeople paid their respects to Brianna in Lancaster\n\nOn Wednesday evening hundreds of people attended candlelit vigils in many cities.\n\nIn one vigil held outside the Department for Education in central London, mourners took part in a minute's silence.\n\nHundreds of people gathered, holding trans pride flags and placards, and flowers and a sign saying \"RIP Brianna\" were left at the door of the building.\n\nVigils, organised by members of the transgender community, were also held for Brianna on Tuesday in Liverpool and Bristol.\n\nCrowds gathered outside St George's Hall in Liverpool on Tuesday night\n\nPeople held posters at the vigils saying \"rest in power\" in tribute to Brianna\n\nBrianna's family, who are from Birchwood in Warrington, described her as \"beautiful, witty and hilarious\".\n\nThey said she was \"strong, fearless and one of a kind\" with a \"larger-than-life character\".\n\n\"The loss of her young life has left a massive hole in our family,\" they added.\n\nMembers of the public found Brianna with stab wounds and called emergency services just after 15:00 GMT on Saturday, Cheshire Police said.\n\nDetectives earlier said a post-mortem examination was taking place to establish the cause of death.\n\nExtra police patrols have been sent to the area, which is a well-known dog-walking spot.\n\nFriends have left flowers and other tributes at the entrance of the park. One read: \"Fly high our pink angel\".\n\nTributes have also been paid to Brianna on social media and in particular Tik Tok, where she had a huge following.\n\nFlowers have been left in Linear Park in Culcheth in memory of the teenager\n\nPeople from the transgender community have described her social media content as a great support, with one online friend saying she \"stuck up for me, and listened to my rants when I needed it the most\".\n\nAnother tweeted that \"she was always so sweet to me\" and one message described her as a \"sweet angel\" and a \"beautiful girl\".\n\n\"I knew of her through Tik Tok... utterly lost for words... my heart aches for her,\" another added.\n\nAs one of the teenagers appeared in court, her mother looked on, visibly upset. A reminder that it's children who are involved in this case, which is provoking strong emotions outside court too.\n\nBrianna had a large following on social media and the police are having to remind users not to discuss the case or identify the defendants.\n\nThe LGBTQ+ community is organising vigils across the UK and a fundraising page set up to support Brianna's family has raised more than £90,000.\n\nThe family at the centre of this are devastated, but what's clear from this case is that complete strangers are devastated, too.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nTwo people have been arrested after malicious messages were sent to a number of parish councillors over missing Nicola Bulley.\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January after a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nA man, aged 49, from Manchester was arrested on suspicion of malicious communications offences, Lancashire Police said.\n\nA woman, 20, of Oldham has also been held on suspicion of the same offence.\n\nThe force said the man has since been bailed until 12 May while the woman remains in custody, adding inquiries were \"ongoing\".\n\nWyre Council removed the contact details of Inskip with Sowerby Parish councillors after several received \"vile\" telephone calls over the weekend in relation to Ms Bulley's case.\n\nMounted police have been searching for the missing dog walker\n\nLeader of the council Michael Vincent described the messages as \"vile\" and said it would \"not tolerate\" abuse of elected members.\n\n\"It is a shame we have had to take this step at such a difficult time and appropriate steps are being taken to ensure that residents are still able to contact their elected representatives,\" he said.\n\nEarlier the mother of missing Claudia Lawrence said Ms Bulley's disappearance brought back \"painful\" memories.\n\nJoan Lawrence's 35-year-old daughter has not been seen since she failed to arrive for work at the University of York in March 2009.\n\nThe force is working on one hypothesis the mortgage adviser could have fallen into the river during her walk after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school that morning.\n\nMs Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10 GMT.\n\nAbout 25 minutes later her phone, still connected to a Teams call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has said he was \"100% convinced\" she did not fall into the water.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lancashire Police have concluded their latest press conference on Nicola Bulley's disappearance.\n\nThey acknowledged criticism of the police investigation but said they wanted to give greater detail into what officers have been doing in the 19 days since she vanished. Here's what we learned.\n\nHigh-risk: Det Supt Becky Smith, the senior investigating officer, said Bulley was graded as \"high-risk\" based on a number of specific \"individual vulnerabilities\" police were told about by her partner Paul Ansell. Smith refused to give further details out of respect for Bulley's family.\n\nThe glove: Addressing a report in the Sun, Smith said a glove had been recovered but it was not relevant to the investigation. She said social media sleuths had distracted the investigation and been hurtful for Bulley's family.\n\nRiver hypothesis: Smith said her working hypothesis remains that the likelihood is Bulley went into the River Wyre. But she stressed she can't be certain that is what happened as the investigation's live and there's new information coming in.\n\nCriminal aspect: Police stressed there has been no information to suggest a third-party was involved or that Bulley left the field where her phone was found on a bench.\n\nDerelict house: Smith confirmed a derelict house near the river had been searched three times and Bulley was not there.\n\nBulley's dog: Asked if it was significant that Bulley's dog was running between the bench and the gate - not the bench and the water's edge - police said they couldn't speak to the dog and all they could say is that he was running back and forth in the area where Bulley's possessions were found.\n\nSocial media activity: Smith said police are doing \"further work\" on Bulley's social media accounts. This might mean Bulley will show up as online on those accounts, but police have full control of Bulley's phone and it will be them, not anyone else, using the accounts.", "The leader of Scotland's biggest teachers' union has described the latest pay offer as \"tiny baby steps\" in the right direction.\n\nEIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said union officials would discuss the details of the proposal later.\n\nThe government said it had found £156m to fund a two-year deal.\n\nThe new offer involves a 6% pay rise in the current year and a further 5.5% in the new financial year, which starts in April.\n\nIt is hoped the proposal, made by local government body Cosla, will lead to strikes being called off - but Ms Bradley said no decision had been made on whether to suspend the action.\n\nThe EIS, which represents the bulk of unionised teachers, has been demanding a 10% rise this year.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, Ms Bradley said the EIS and other teaching unions had been \"somewhat frustrated at the digging in of heels of the Scottish government and Cosla around teacher pay.\n\n\"I think what has been put through the media and subsequently put onto the table for negotiation later this week amounts to a tiny baby step in the right direction rather than a significant improvement.\n\n\"Our salaries committee will be considering the terms of this offer later on this morning.\"\n\nShe added that it was \"very very unfortunate\" that the BBC appeared to know the details of the offer before they were put \"properly through the negotiating channels\".\n\nThe next national strike is due to be held on 28 February and 1 March.\n\nBefore then, the EIS is also planning to target action in a number of areas, including the Glasgow constituency of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Dunfermline constituency of Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville.\n\nMs Somerville told Good Morning Scotland that if the offer was accepted, many teachers would receive an overall increase of more than £5,000 over two years.\n\nShe said: \"When we are in a dispute like this every side of the dispute has to compromise and we have had to make difficult decisions in government to try and find more money on this.\n\n\"That does come with consequences because the money is already allocated.\n\n\"But I hope that this does show our real determination to find a way through this, to find a compromise to put together what I think is a very exceptionally good and fair deal.\"\n\nShe said it was an 11.5% increase in April, and an \"accumulative increase\" of more than 30% since 2018.\n\nThe Scottish government has previously said it had no more money and would have to raid other budgets to pay for an increased offer.\n\nTheir £156m for teachers is part of a pot of about £300m which would also enable councils to offer their other staff a 5.5% pay rise in 2023/24.\n\nThe previous pay offer, made in November, was worth between 5% and 6.85% for most staff.", "More than 200 flights were cancelled at Frankfurt airport after construction work damaged broadband cables and caused check-in and boarding problems for German airline Lufthansa.\n\nBut the airline said all of its systems were now back up.\n\nEarlier on Wednesday, thousands of passengers were stranded as their flights were cancelled or delayed across the world.\n\nThe airline expect flights at Frankfurt to return to normal on Thursday.\n\nThe company said engineering works on a railway line mistakenly cut a bundle of cables in Frankfurt on Tuesday.\n\nIt has asked customers flying on domestic flights to book train tickets and said customers could ask for a refund on its website.\n\n\"We are working on a solution swiftly,\" Lufthansa tweeted.\n\nMore than a hundred flights have also been delayed, according to data from flight tracking website FlightAware.\n\nSome travellers on social media claimed the German airline switched to using pen and paper to organise boarding and was not able to digitally process baggage.\n\nOne customer tweeted that Frankfurt airport staff were only assisting individuals that were manually checked in.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Remo Giuliani This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOthers said they were confused about how to get their refunds and had not received any support from the company.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Elisa Bellotti This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"Lufthansa asks affected passengers to check the status of their flight on the company's app or website before arriving at the airport. Passengers with domestic flights can switch to Deutsche Bahn until Sunday,\" the airline said in a statement.\n\n\"We regret the inconvenience this will cause our passengers,\" a spokesperson from the company added.\n\nAir traffic controllers have diverted flights from Germany's busiest airport Frankfurt, but the problem has affected services worldwide.\n\nLufthansa and Germany's national train operator blamed the fault on a drill which cut through a Deutsche Telekom fibre optic cable bundle.\n\nThis meant passenger check-in and boarding systems at Lufthansa seized up on Wednesday and prompted German air traffic control to suspend incoming flights.\n\nHowever, these have since resumed, with some 40 landings per hour at Frankfurt airport since midday on Wednesday which Germany's DFS air traffic controllers said is nearly normal traffic.\n\nDeutsche Telekom said in a statement: \"Two cables have already been repaired overnight by our technical team and many customers are already back online.\"\n\nSeparately, German airport workers are due to go on strike on Friday in a dispute about pay.\n\nLast month, domestic flights were grounded across the US after a contractor deleted files on a crucial computer server used by pilots.\n\nMore than 11,000 flights were delayed and at least 1,300 were cancelled on 11 January after the Notice to Air Missions (Notam) system went offline.", "A British man killed in Ukraine has been named by family and friends as Jonathan Shenkin, from Glasgow.\n\nA family tribute on social media said Mr Shenkin, 45, \"died as a hero in an act of bravery as a paramedic\".\n\nHe is one of eight British men known to have died in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began last year. Many volunteer fighters and aid workers have travelled to the country from the UK.\n\nThe Foreign Office said it was supporting the man's family.\n\nIn a post on Facebook, Mr Shenkin's family said he died in Ukraine in December.\n\n\"On enlisting in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he made the ultimate sacrifice to defend values we all believe in,\" they added.\n\n\"He is survived by his son and daughter, to whom he was devoted.\"\n\nHis family said he spent much of his life helping others.\n\nMr Shenkin was born and raised in Glasgow and had lived in London and Malta before joining the Israeli army.\n\nHe ran his own security business and worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, Somalia, Angola, Philippines and South Korea.\n\nThe eastern Donetsk region in Ukraine is being targeted by heavy Russian bombardments\n\nThe Foreign Office advises against all travel to Ukraine amid the ongoing invasion, saying there is a \"real risk to life\".\n\nAny British nationals still in Ukraine should leave immediately if it is safe to do so, it said.\n\nIn January, British nationals Chris Parry and Andrew Bagshaw died in eastern Ukraine.\n\nTheir families said the pair were attempting to rescue an elderly woman when their cars were hit by a shell at Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region.\n\nSimon Lingard, from Great Harwood, Lancashire, died last November while fighting in Ukraine and former British soldier Jordan Gatley died in June in the battle for the eastern city of Severodonetsk.\n\nScott Sibley, from Lincolnshire, died after being struck by mortar fire in Ukraine in April.\n\nCraig Mackintosh, from Thetford, Norfolk was killed while volunteering as a medic in August.\n\nBritish aid worker Paul Urey, who was captured by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine, died in detention last July.", "Linda Davis, known as Lou, died six days after she was hit by the scooter rider\n\nA 14-year-old boy has admitted causing the death of a woman while riding a privately-owned electric scooter.\n\nThe teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, hit Linda Davis on the pavement in Southwell Road East, Rainworth, Nottinghamshire, on 2 June.\n\nThe 71-year-old grandmother died six days later in hospital.\n\nAt Nottingham Magistrates' Court, he pleaded guilty to causing death by driving a vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence.\n\nThe teenager, from Nottinghamshire, also admitted causing death by driving a vehicle while uninsured and is due to be sentenced on 8 March.\n\nDistrict Judge Leo Pyle granted bail until his next court appearance, with a condition to co-operate with the authorities prior to the hearing.\n\nAddressing the defendant, he said: \"By placing you on bail, it is vital that you keep out of trouble with the police and do not be tempted to use any of these machines.\n\n\"I leave all sentencing options available to myself. I am not tying my hands as to how I will deal with you.\"\n\nNottingham is one of several cities trialling e-scooters\n\nIt is illegal to use privately-owned e-scooters on pavements, footpaths, cycle tracks and cycle lanes on roads.\n\nTo be used on public roads they must conform to requirements, including being insured, taxed, and used with relevant safety equipment.\n\nHowever, the Department for Transport's website states \"it is likely that they [riders] will find it very difficult to comply with all of these requirements\", meaning their use on public roads would effectively be a criminal offence.\n\nThey can be used on private land, with the land-owner's permission.\n\nAbout 1,300 e-scooters have been made available for hire in Nottingham where a government-approved trial is taking place.\n\nThese are legal on public roads in some areas of the city.\n\nRiders must be aged at least 18 and hold at least a provisional driving licence.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "King Charles heard from Syrians who had lost family in the earthquake\n\nKing Charles has heard emotional pleas for urgent help from families who have lost relatives in the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.\n\nThe King spoke to a Syrian man who had lost his mother, father and other family in this \"catastrophe\".\n\n\"Seven days my family were under the rubble and no rescue teams reached them,\" said Salah Al-Asmar.\n\nThe King was hearing first-hand stories from the Syrian community in an event at Trafalgar Square in London.\n\nA temporary \"Syria House\" has been opened in the square, providing a focus for the earthquake relief efforts of the Syrian community in the UK, many already displaced by the country's civil war.\n\nSalah Al-Asmar told King Charles about the urgent need for help in places hit by the earthquake\n\nMr Al-Asmar, who works with the White Helmets emergency relief group, was originally from Syria, but his family had been living across the border in Turkey when they were lost in the earthquake.\n\n\"I couldn't sleep for seven days, before I heard, unfortunately, all of them had died,\" said Mr Al-Asmar, who had been comforted by the King.\n\n\"We need more help,\" he told the King, calling for a more rapid response from the international community, when thousands of lives had been lost and \"thousands of houses have been totally destroyed\".\n\nThe King asked if enough assistance was arriving, but he was told of delays - and he called over a Foreign Office aide to speak to the Syrian family.\n\nMr Al-Asmar said the impact of the earthquake was even worse than Syria's war.\n\n\"We faced airstrikes, we faced forced displacement, we faced clashes, but we didn't face such a catastrophe,\" he said.\n\n\"There is a need for hospitals, doctors... food support, schools.\"\n\nAnd Syrians in the UK who were asylum seekers were struggling to be able to travel back to find their relatives, said Mr Al-Asmar.\n\nThe King heard from other grieving families and was shown pictures and films of the damage caused by the earthquake and was given a traditional offering of Syrian coffee and dates.\n\nMayor of London Sadiq Khan was also on the visit to the Syria House in Trafalgar Square, which will be used to draw attention to the scale of the humanitarian disaster.\n\nEarlier in the day, the King had met volunteers from the UK's Turkish community who had also been organising help for people caught up in the earthquake.\n\nThe King, who had personally donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee fund, had said he was \"deeply sorry\" about the earthquake.\n\nBuckingham Palace said the King had wanted to meet these community groups involved in relief efforts.\n\n\"He has been kept abreast of developments and is determined to help not just with financial support but to help with as much practical support as possible and raise awareness as to what is going on in both nations,\" said a palace source.", "Teachers in England and Wales walked out on 1 February\n\nTeachers in England \"will not back down\" over pay, the National Education Union (NEU) says, after talks with the government did not lead to a new offer.\n\nMore than half of schools in England closed or partially closed when teachers in England and Wales went on strike on 1 February.\n\nMore NEU strikes are planned for this month and next.\n\nThe Department for Education said the talks earlier were \"constructive\".\n\nA spokesman said they discussed \"a range of issues\", including workload and teacher recruitment and retention.\n\nEducation Secretary Gillian Keegan asked officials to hold \"further detailed talks with unions\" and \"committed to more talks ahead of planned strike action,\" the spokesman added.\n\nAfter the meeting, Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said there was \"nothing... we could work with to justify suspending the next day of regional strikes\" on 28 February.\n\n\"While there was a more positive tone at today's talks and more meetings will be set up as a result, the outcome was still disappointing,\" he said.\n\n\"Gillian Keegan and the government need to be aware that teachers will not back down on this.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: What do the teachers' strikes in England mean for parents?\n\nTeachers in Wales have rejected an improved pay offer from the Welsh government, and will return to striking on 2 March.\n\nIndustrial action had been planned for 14 February, but was postponed after ministers offered an additional 1.5% rise on staff salary and a one-off 1.5% payment. The offer was put to NEU members over the weekend, but they turned it down.\n\nThe Scottish government has also put forward a new offer - a 6% pay rise in the current year and a further 5.5% in the new financial year, which starts in April.\n\nEIS, Scotland's biggest teaching union, said no decision had been made on whether to suspend action.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, warned that without an improved offer in England, its own members - and those of other unions - could conclude \"that industrial action is the only option left\".\n\n\"There is a limit to how many times we can come out of a meeting with the education secretary without progress being made,\" he said.\n\nDr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT union, said unions were \"still some way off from hearing what specific proposals the government is willing to put on the table\".\n\n\"Given developments in Wales and Scotland in the last week the education secretary has some catching up to do,\" he added.\n\nIf you're a teacher in England, how have you been affected by the issues raised here? You can share your experience by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The head teacher of Epsom College, who was killed by her husband, has been remembered as \"full of optimism\" by her family.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, was found dead along with her seven-year-old daughter, Lettie, and husband on 5 February.\n\nGeorge Pattison is believed to have shot the pair before killing himself.\n\nIn a statement released by Surrey Police, Mrs Pattison and Lettie's family said the pair were \"inseparable\".\n\n\"We take comfort in that they will remain so,\" they said.\n\n\"Seven-year-old Lettie was Emma's pride and joy: an adorable, vibrant little girl with a compelling curiosity, a heart-melting smile and an intellect beyond her years.\n\n\"Emma had a warm, welcoming smile and sparkling, blue eyes, full of optimism. Over the last eleven days, we've noticed the sky has been bright blue, with at times a warm glow of pink.\"\n\nThe family also thanked Surrey Police, Epsom College, Croydon High School and Danes Hill School for their \"invaluable support\" following \"this horrendous tragedy\".\n\nSurrey Police had made contact with Mr Pattison on 2 February after he recently updated a firearms licence in order to change his address following their move from Caterham, Surrey.\n\nThe 39-year-old chartered accountant's legally-owned gun was later discovered at their home on the school grounds, where the family was found dead.\n\nThe Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) reviewed Surrey Police's interaction over the firearms licence after a mandatory referral by the force.\n\nIn a letter to parents seen by the BBC, Epsom College board of governors chair Dr Alastair Wells said all firearms are stored in their \"high security\" college armoury, with access \"highly restricted and fully documented\".\n\nHe added: \"I can tell you that no firearms are stored in residential properties on college grounds.\"\n\nDr Wells said all required safeguarding and background checks were carried out in the recruitment of Mrs Pattison.\n\nA review concluded that the college went \"one step further\" by conducting an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for Mr Pattison, Mr Wells said.\n\nThe causes of death will not be confirmed until post-mortem examinations have been completed.\n\nPolice said an investigation was being carried out to establish the full chronology and circumstances of the incident.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Michaela Curran, 35, was fatally injured in Downpatrick on Tuesday afternoon\n\nTwo pedestrians and a motorcyclist have died as a result of separate incidents on Northern Ireland's roads on Tuesday.\n\nMichaela Curran, 35, died after she was hit by a vehicle in Downpatrick, County Down, at Bishops Brae at about 14:30 GMT.\n\nPolice said her husband and three children had been left devastated by her death.\n\nA man in his 40s also died after he was struck by a vehicle on the Randalstown Road in Antrim, just after 22:00.\n\nPolice said a man in his 70s died after his motorcycle was involved in a collision on the Bann Road in Ballymoney.\n\nThis incident happened at about 18:25, officers added.\n\nAll roads which were closed as a result of the police response to the incidents have since reopened.", "Nala (l) and Teddi both have the genetic disorder MLD - but Nala is too old to be treated\n\nA toddler with a rare inherited condition has become the first child to be treated by the NHS with a new life-saving gene therapy.\n\nTeddi Shaw was diagnosed in time because her older sister Nala showed symptoms - but it was too late to treat Nala, who is now terminally ill.\n\nBoth girls have MLD, which severely damages the brain and nervous system.\n\nThe one-off treatment, called Libmeldy, costs £2.875m and is the most expensive medicine ever approved for the NHS.\n\nThe BBC was given exclusive access to follow Teddi's treatment over several months and spoke to other families affected by MLD.\n\nImagine having two daughters with a devastating genetic condition - but only one can be saved.\n\nThree-year-old Nala - and Teddi, who is 19 months old - both have MLD, metachromatic leukodystrophy.\n\nChildren with this fatal genetic disease are born apparently healthy, but MLD gradually attacks the brain and body.\n\nBefore Nala became ill, she was a completely normal toddler.\n\n\"She was always singing, dancing and spinning around everywhere, always laughing - just a cheeky little girl,\" says her dad, Jake.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 19-month-old Teddi is the first child to be treated on the NHS with the new gene therapy\n\nBut just over a year ago, Nala's walking gradually became uneven and she started falling over more often. She was also showing signs of a tremor.\n\nHer parents Ally, 32, and Jake, 29, became increasingly concerned. Ally was convinced Nala had a brain tumour.\n\nInitially, doctors reassured them nothing was wrong. But then, in April last year, Jake and Ally took Nala to A&E where she had an MRI scan. Forty-five minutes later they had a likely diagnosis.\n\n\"When the doctor said 'It's not a brain tumour,' I was doing cartwheels almost, so excited,\" Ally says.\n\nBut her relief evaporated when the doctor mentioned metachromatic leukodystrophy - which they had never heard of before. When she left the room, Jake Googled the term. \"I could tell by his face it wasn't good news,\" says Ally.\n\nMLD is caused by a faulty gene which means children affected cannot produce an important enzyme called ARSA - a protein that helps the body's metabolism work.\n\nAs a result, fatty chemicals called sulfatides build up. These gradually destroy the protective layer around cells in the brain and nervous system, leading to a devastating deterioration. Children lose the ability to walk, talk or eat - and eventually to see or hear.\n\nBecause both Ally and Jake are carriers of the faulty gene, they were told Nala's younger sister Teddi had a one-in-four chance of also having MLD.\n\n\"I thought to myself, it can't happen again, we can't be that unlucky,\" says Jake. \"When we found out, it was just heart-breaking.\"\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer(UK Only)\n\nBut for 10-month-old Teddi, there was hope. The disease had not yet affected her and so she became the first patient treated on the NHS with Libmeldy, which must be given before the disease has caused irreparable damage.\n\nNala's MLD was identified too late for her to be treated. She is already unable to walk or talk, and has to be tube-fed.\n\n\"When they told us there was treatment available for Teddi it was kind of a bitter pill to swallow because Nala can't be helped,\" says Ally.\n\nShe says they are sad and \"extremely grateful\" at the same time.\n\n\"I've always said Nala saved Teddi's life. And that's how I wanted to think about it,\" says Jake.\n\nLibmeldy involves altering a patient's own cells to correct the faulty gene. In June 2022, Teddi was hooked up to a machine at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital where blood was removed and filtered, so a single bag of stem cells could be collected. The process looks similar to dialysis.\n\nThe cells were then sent to Milan, where scientists used a harmless virus to insert a working version of Teddi's faulty gene - the one which should produce her missing enzyme - back into the stem cells. The gene-corrected stem cells were then sent to Manchester to be infused back into Teddi.\n\nTeddi and her mum Ally moved into hospital in Manchester for the duration of the treatment. Ally, formerly a senior staff member in a children's home, has put work on hold. Meanwhile dad Jake, a carpenter, stayed home in Northumberland to look after Nala.\n\nBefore she could be given the replacement cells, Teddi had to have chemotherapy to kill off the remaining faulty stem cells in her bone marrow.\n\nIn August, we were back in Manchester to watch Teddi receive Libmeldy.\n\nIn her hospital room, Teddi, then 14 months old, had chosen that day to attempt her first tentative steps. Mum Ally said her younger daughter was taking it all in her stride.\n\n\"She's doing absolutely fine, considering what she's been through,\" Ally told us. \"She's still just her mischievous normal little self.\"\n\nThe infusion of Libmeldy took less than an hour. Over the following days the gene-altered cells migrated to Teddi's bone marrow and began producing the enzyme she had been missing since birth.\n\nWhat is remarkable is that this is a one-off treatment, with the hope that it provides a permanent fix for MLD.\n\nFrom BBC Sounds, listen to 5 Minutes On: Nala and Teddi - two sisters, one bittersweet story\n\nLibmeldy was developed by a British company, Orchard Therapeutics. Its CEO and co-founder, Bobby Gaspar, spent many years as a consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital, while carrying out research into potential therapies.\n\n\"Bringing a new medicine to the world that can potentially cure these devastating diseases is incredibly rewarding,\" he says, adding that it was \"a very long journey to develop a medicine like this\".\n\nLibmeldy took nearly 20 years to develop, with the first human trials taking place in 2010. It got EU approval in December 2020 and is now available through the NHS.\n\nDoctors who specialise in treating MLD say Libmeldy is a game-changer.\n\n\"This truly is a breakthrough,\" says Prof Simon Jones, one of the consultants involved in Teddi's treatment.\n\n\"We have had almost nothing to offer families with this condition for decades. Instead of many years of terrible neurodegenerative disease, we have the potential for a full life, lived healthily.\"\n\nNow that there is a treatment, it has become even more important to pick up the disease in time.\n\nTeddi's parents, along with other MLD families and the doctors who treat them, are campaigning to have it screened for at birth. In the UK, babies are given a heel-prick blood test which screens for nine genetic conditions, such as cystic fibrosis - but it does not currently include MLD.\n\n\"We are letting our children down by not screening for these devastating conditions because they are so preventable if you can identify them at birth,\" says Dr Gaspar.\n\nThe Shaw family - Nala, Jake, Teddi and Ally - at home in Northumberland\n\nIt is too early to tell, but the signs are good. Several children from the UK were involved in clinical trials of Libmeldy in Milan, before it became a licensed treatment.\n\nJoe Elson, who is 12, had his gene therapy in Italy in 2014. Nine years on, he is completely healthy and doing well at school. Watching Joe fly his kite on a beach in Kent, it is hard to imagine that he was born with a devastating disease. It appears that Libmeldy has provided a permanent fix for his MLD.\n\n\"It's given him his life back. He makes the most of every moment,\" says his mum, Nicola.\n\nJoe Elson had gene therapy for MLD in 2014\n\nJoe's MLD was only picked up when his older sister Connie was diagnosed. She died last summer. Nicola told us 13-year-old Connie had lost the ability to walk, talk, eat and hold her head up. She had also lost her vision and hearing, and the ability to smile.\n\n\"It's the most horrific, wicked condition that steals these children away,\" she says.\n\nIt's expected that only about seven or eight children a year in the UK will be eligible for Libmeldy. That is because MLD is rare and usually not diagnosed early enough.\n\nThe health assessment body NICE says Libmeldy is one of the most clinically effective medicines it has ever appraised. And, although it has a list price of £2.875m, NHS England has negotiated a confidential discount.\n\nOne reason why the price tag is so high is to cover the costs of developing and producing the drug. The price paid by the NHS for this one-off treatment has to be set against the cost of treating children with MLD as they gradually become completely dependent, tube-fed and lose all their senses. And then, there is the suffering endured by patients and their families.\n\nThe NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard describes Libmeldy as a revolutionary treatment offering \"a huge moment of hope\" for parents and children affected by MLD.\n\n\"It means that children like Teddi can do the things that all children should be able to, like going to school and playing with friends,\" she says.\n\nBack home in Northumberland, Teddi is going from strength to strength.\n\nBut seeing her together with her older sister Nala brings home the harsh reality facing Jake and Ally. It is \"an absolute blessing\", says Jake, that Teddi has received Libmeldy, but \"absolutely heartbreaking\" to watch Nala's rapid decline.\n\n\"Her body is basically kind of gradually shutting down and she will lose most of her senses. So it will come to a point where there's nothing left for her to lose,\" Jake says.\n\n\"You feel like you're grieving from the very start because your child is disappearing almost in front of your eyes,\" says Ally.\n\nThe Shaws know that if Nala had been diagnosed earlier she might have been treated, rather than facing a terminal illness.\n\nNala now has to be tube-fed\n\nJake, who plays guitar, has recorded a song for his daughter entitled \"Lay You Down Easy\", which he hopes will raise awareness of the disease, with any money raised going to the MLD Support Association.\n\nAlthough MLD is not currently screened for at birth in the UK, small pilot studies to screen newborns have begun in five countries - including Germany, where testing has identified the first patient with the condition.\n\nLater this year, Genomics England will start a pilot project offering whole genome sequencing to 100,000 newborns. This will screen for about 200 treatable conditions, and may include MLD.\n\nCould other rare diseases be treated this way?\n\nThe simple answer is yes. Royal Manchester Children's Hospital is trialling two other gene therapies for rare disorders, Sanfilippo and Hunter syndromes.\n\nThe director of the Paediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Programme, Prof Rob Wynn, says many of his young transplant patients have genetic diseases, and he thinks the approach of correcting the conditions using gene-modified stem cells will be \"transformative\".\n\nNala's parents say it would be a fitting testament to her if newborn screening for MLD became the norm.\n\n\"I would like to think that if another child was born with MLD, it could be picked up quick enough for them to be saved,\" says Ally.", "Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned Sir Keir Starmer's decision to bar him from standing for the party at the next general election, calling it a \"flagrant attack\" on democracy.\n\nMr Corbyn said it was up to local party members to choose their candidate, not Labour leaders.\n\nThe Islington North MP, who sits as an independent, was suspended as a Labour MP in 2020 in a row over antisemitism.\n\nSir Keir said Labour had changed, and people who did not like it could leave.\n\nIn a statement posted on Twitter, Mr Corbyn said: \"Keir Starmer's statement about my future is a flagrant attack on the democratic rights of Islington North Labour Party members. It is up to them - not party leaders - to decide who their candidate should be.\n\n\"Any attempt to block my candidacy is a denial of due process, and should be opposed by anybody who believes in the value of democracy.\"\n\nHe described Sir Keir's move as \"a divisive distraction from our overriding goal: to defeat the Conservative Party at the next general election\".\n\nThe BBC understands that Mr Corbyn is still likely to seek the Labour Party nomination in Islington North, forcing party bosses to formally block him from being a Labour candidate.\n\nMr Corbyn has previously declined to comment on speculation he might stand against Labour as an independent candidate and his latest statement did not address this issue.\n\nBut former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, one of his longest-standing allies, said he had \"no intention of standing as an independent\", having been a member of the Labour Party since he was 16.\n\nEarlier Sir Keir had confirmed for the first time that his predecessor as party leader would not be allowed to represent Labour at the next election, saying the party had changed and \"we are not going back\".\n\nHe was speaking at a news conference in east London, after Britain's equalities watchdog said Labour had improved how it handled antisemitism complaints.\n\nIn 2020, the Equality and Human Rights Commission found Labour, under Mr Corbyn, had been responsible for unlawful harassment and discrimination.\n\nBut a new report by the watchdog said it was now satisfied sufficient changes had been made.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSir Keir said this was \"an important moment in the history of the Labour Party\" but \"not one for celebration\". He stressed it was \"not the end of the road\" and promised \"zero tolerance of antisemitism, of racism, of discrimination of any kind\".\n\nLabour was \"unrecognisable from 2019 and it will never go back… if you don't like that, if you don't like the changes we have made, I say the door is open and you can leave\", he added.\n\nMomentum, the left-wing campaign group set up to support Mr Corbyn when he was Labour leader, has also called for local members in Islington North to be allowed to decide their candidate.\n\nThe group said in a statement: \"We... will not allow ourselves to be driven out of the party. What we've witnessed today is an attempt to dishearten and demoralise us.\n\n\"The door might be open - but we're not leaving.\"\n\nMr Corbyn was suspended as a Labour MP by Sir Keir for saying, in his response to the 2020 EHRC report, that the scale of antisemitism within Labour had been\"dramatically overstated\" by his opponents and much of the media.\n\nHe also said antisemitism was \"absolutely abhorrent\" and \"one antisemite is one too many\" in the party.\n\nHe was readmitted to the wider party after saying concerns about antisemitism had been neither \"exaggerated nor overstated\", but he remains barred from representing Labour in Parliament.\n\nYvette Cooper said \"the party has moved on\" since Mr Corbyn's leadership, and it could \"never go back there\".\n\nThe shadow home secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she believed Labour could beat Mr Corbyn if he stood as an independent candidate in the general election.\n\nShe said: \"The party has moved on from the awful stain of anti-Semitism we had. Keir has made very clear that a lot has changed since 2019, and that's a result of his leadership.\"\n\nMr Corbyn led Labour to defeat in the 2017 and 2019 general elections but remains a popular figure with many on the left of the party. From 2016, Sir Keir was a key member of his shadow cabinet, speaking for the party on Brexit.", "The low-cost airline's flights have been grounded since it went into administration on 28 January\n\nAdministrators have been unable to find a buyer for troubled airline Flybe, despite last-ditch talks.\n\nThe budget operator had seen flights grounded since falling into bankruptcy for the second time in three years at the end of last month.\n\nThere had been speculation Lufthansa and Air France-KLM were in talks with administrators to take over the firm.\n\nHowever, Birmingham-based Flybe said discussions had ended without a new deal being agreed.\n\nIt said it would start winding-down the business, with administrators adding a further 25 employees would be made redundant immediately.\n\nThey are on top of the 277 of Flybe's 321 staff members whose redundancies were previously confirmed by joint administrators Interpath Advisory.\n\n\"Over the past two and a half weeks, we've held intensive discussions with a number of operators with a view to rescuing the airline and preserving the value in its assets,\" David Pike, managing director at Interpath said.\n\n\"However, it is with regret that discussions have now been brought to a close without a deal being agreed.\"\n\nDespite interest from a number of credible parties, administrators said challenging circumstances, complexities and high costs associated with the company's operating platform meant a suitable buyer could not be found.\n\n\"We'd like to thank a number of stakeholders, including the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the company's lessors, who gave us the time and support we needed to ensure we were able to explore every available avenue to rescue the business,\" they added.\n\nAdministrators said they would continue to provide support to all employees affected, adding they were grateful to organisations across the aviation industry which had offered to support them in finding new roles.\n\nFlybe was first pushed into administration in March 2020 with the loss of 2,400 jobs as the Covid-19 pandemic destroyed large parts of the travel sector.\n\nIts business and assets were purchased in April 2021 by Thyme Opco, linked to US hedge fund Cyrus Capital.\n\nFlights resumed 12 months later, with the airline based at Birmingham Airport.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Nus Ghani made the accusations in January last year\n\nRishi Sunak's ethics adviser has taken over an investigation into claims by a Tory MP that she was sacked as a minister for being Muslim.\n\nNus Ghani said a party manager told her \"Muslimness was raised as an issue\".\n\nLabour has said it is \"disgraceful\" that an investigation into her allegations launched last January has yet to be completed.\n\nThe probe was delayed following the resignation of then-PM Boris Johnson's ethics adviser Lord Geidt.\n\nHe left in June and was not replaced until December when Mr Sunak appointed Laurie Magnus, who will now carry on the inquiry.\n\nLabour party chair Anneliese Dodds has been pushing for the investigation to be completed, saying the delay \"tells you everything you need to know about the Conservatives' commitment to tackling Islamophobia\".\n\nAsked about the inquiry, Head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission Marcial Boo said he would be following up on it with Sir Laurie.\n\nMs Ghani first made her accusation in the Sunday Times in January 2022.\n\nWhen appointed to a post at the Department for Transport in 2018, she became the first female Muslim minister to speak in the Commons.\n\nAfter losing that job in a mini-reshuffle of Boris Johnson's government in February 2020 she asked Conservative Party whips for an explanation.\n\n\"I was told that at the reshuffle meeting in Downing Street that 'Muslimness' was raised as an 'issue',\" she said.\n\nShe added that she was told: \"My 'Muslim women minister' status was making colleagues uncomfortable and that there were concerns 'that I wasn't loyal to the party as I didn't do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations'.\"\n\nThe Wealden MP told the paper she had dropped the matter after being told that if she \"persisted\" she \"would be ostracised and her career and reputation would be destroyed\".\n\n\"I raised it several more times through official party channels.... I was extremely careful to follow procedure, and when the procedure ran out of road I had no choice but to get on with my career.\"\n\nIn a later statement she said: \"Not a day has gone by without thinking about what I was told and wondering why I was in politics... those that have not had their identity and faith questioned cannot fully appreciate what it does to you.\"\n\nMark Spencer, who at the time was chief whip, identified himself as the person Ms Ghani was referring to, saying he did not want others in the whip's office to be \"drawn into this matter\".\n\nHe added that the accusations were \"completely false and I consider them to be defamatory\".\n\nThe Sherwood MP went on to say it was \"disappointing\" that at the time Ms Ghani had declined to refer the matter for a formal Conservative Party investigation.\n\nFollowing the accusation, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked the Cabinet Office to conduct an inquiry to \"establish the facts about what happened\".\n\nSince then, Ms Ghani has been brought back into government as a business minister, while Mr Spencer has moved from the whip's office to the environment department.\n\nA year on from the inquiry being launched, the BBC has been told that Sir Laurie was taking it over.\n\nEHRC chief executive Marcial Boo said he was in regular contact with the author of a 2021 report into Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.\n\nWhen Ms Ghani made her allegations, the EHRC said it would \"consider any findings\" from the government's inquiry, adding: \"If we are not satisfied with progress, we will not rule out the use of our legal powers.\"\n\nThe BBC has contacted Ms Ghani and Mr Spencer for a comment.", "The work has appeared on a wall in Margate\n\nA Banksy artwork that appeared in Margate has been dismantled by the local council hours after the elusive artist claimed the piece as his.\n\nThe mural shows a 1950s housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth, apparently shutting a man in a freezer.\n\nThe piece - called \"Valentine's day mascara\" by Banksy - had also incorporated a broken freezer and other items, which were all later removed.\n\nThe freezer will return \"once it has been made safe\", the council said.\n\nA statement from Thanet District Council added: \"A fridge freezer which is believed to have been part of the installation has been removed by council operatives on the grounds of safety as it was on public land.\"\n\nBanksy published a picture of the work on his Instagram page on Valentine's Day morning, and many of the comments suggest he is referencing fighting violence against women.\n\nThe artist also posted pictures showing a close-up of the woman's smiling, but seemingly battered face.\n\nThe artwork also featured a variety of rubbish on the ground, including a broken white garden chair, a blue crate and an empty beer bottle.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe resident of the property where the painting was created, who asked not to be named, said the freezer and other items had been removed \"very quickly\" and put into a truck at midday on Tuesday.\n\nDiscussing how she felt about the removal, the tenant said: \"I'm absolutely upset because it's not really nice. It was part of the art, they should be very happy because Margate could get bigger attention, positive attention.\n\n\"Why did they move those parts? It's just silly.\"\n\nReferring to the council, she added: \"Earlier, no-one was interested if the rubbish was on the street. I mean, they were, but not that quickly.\n\n\"Even if you report something to them about taking the rubbish, they are acting one or two weeks later, not immediately.\"\n\nMany local Margate residents commented on the removal of the freezer on social media, with some accusing the council of spoiling the artwork.\n\nAmong them was Richard Llewellyn, who said: \"The alley, a public footpath that leads almost to where the Banksy art piece is, has been like this for weeks and weeks. It's shocking what is in the pile.\n\n\"Yet the council can arrive as quick as anything to remove part of the artwork 200 metres away. Someone's priorities a little wrong me thinks.\"\n\nAnother comment said: \"Probably been there for months....only became a health and safety issue once it became a piece of art.\"\n\nThe council said the fridge freezer \"is now in storage and will be returned once it has been made safe to the public\".\n\nThe statement added: \"We will be contacting the owner of the property to discuss the options to preserve the artwork for the district.\"\n\nBanksy has previously created artwork for Valentines Day, including a piece which appeared three years ago in Bristol, the reputed home city of the artist.\n\nThe mural appears to show a woman with a missing tooth and a swollen eye\n\nIn December, Banksy created 50 screenprints which are to be sold to raise funds for a charity supporting the people of Ukraine.\n\nThe anonymous graffiti artist previously confirmed he had spent time in Ukraine after posting a video of an artist spray-painting designs in the war-torn country and speaking to locals.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "A Grammy award-winning a cappella group has said a Christian college in Florida abruptly cancelled a performance over the sexuality of some of its members.\n\nThe King's Singers, founded in Cambridge, UK, said it was given just two hours' notice of Pensacola Christian College's (PCC) decision to axe the gig last Saturday.\n\n\"The college cannot knowingly give an implied or direct endorsement of anything that violates Holy Scripture, the foundation for our sincerely held beliefs,\" the school said in a statement.\n\n\"PCC cancelled a concert with The King's Singers upon learning that one of the artists openly maintained a lifestyle that contradicts Scripture.\"\n\nIn a statement posted on social media on Monday, The King's Singers said the incident was the first time a performance had been cancelled at short notice in its 55-year history.\n\n\"It has become clear to us, from a flood of correspondence from students and members of the public, that these concerns related to the sexuality of members of our group,\" the British group said.\n\n\"Our belief is that music can build a common language that allows people with different views and perspectives to come together,\" it said.\n\nThe group also said it had previously performed at the college without issue and it was aware of the school's fundamentalist Christian background.\n\n\"We look forward to seeing our friends in northern Florida again soon, in a context where we're celebrated for who we are, as well as for the music we make.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The King's Singers This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The King's Singers\n\nThe college's statement said the group \"were given full remuneration\" despite the show not going ahead.\n\nIt declined to provide further information when asked about the reasons for its decision.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Pensacola Christian College This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPensacola Christian College is a Christian school of about 4,000 students based in north-west Florida.\n\nThe school \"educates students based on biblical values\", according to its website.\n\n\"Pensacola Christian College maintains a Christian-traditional philosophy of education in contrast to humanistic, progressive systems of education.\n\n\"This philosophy is based on the word of God and is rooted in objective reality and absolutes, as opposed to relativism.\"\n\nOne section of the school's website said \"the Scripture forbids any form of sexual immorality including adultery, fornication, homosexuality\".\n\nThe King's Singers, which won Best Classical Crossover Album at the 2009 Grammys, confirmed it plans to continue a North America tour this week with performances in Canada.", "US actress Raquel Welch, often credited with paving the way for modern day action heroines in Hollywood films, has died at the age of 82.\n\nThe star passed away peacefully on Wednesday morning after a brief illness, her manager said.\n\nWelch became an international sex symbol in the 1960s, widely remembered for playing a bikini-clad cavewoman in the 1966 film One Million Years B.C.\n\nShe also won a Golden Globe for her role in 1974's The Three Musketeers.\n\nBorn Jo-Raquel Tejada in 1940, Welch grew up in California, where she won teen beauty pageants and later became a local weather forecaster.\n\nDuring a brief stint in Dallas, Texas, the divorced mother-of-two modelled for the Neiman Marcus clothing store and worked as a cocktail waitress.\n\nHer big break came in 1964 soon after she moved back to California, when she scored cameos in A House Is Not A Home, and Roustabout, a musical starring Elvis Presley.\n\nShe shot to prominence two years later, with her back-to-back roles in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage and the fantasy movie One Million Years B.C.\n\nWelch only had a few lines in the latter, but promotional stills of her wearing a skimpy two-piece deerskin bikini turned her into a leading pin-up girl of the era.\n\nDespite her public image, however, she long expressed discomfort with the representation of her body, once saying she \"was not brought up to be a sex symbol, nor is it in my nature to be one\".\n\n\"The fact that I became one is probably the loveliest, most glamorous and fortunate misunderstanding,\" she added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: What a Hollywood studio asked Raquel Welch to change her name to\n\nWelch went on to address her image in her memoir, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, in which she opened up about her childhood, her early career woes as a single mother in Hollywood, and why she would never lie about her age.\n\nIn a career spanning over five decades, Welch appeared in more than 30 movies and 50 television shows.\n\nIt included playing the love interest of Frank Sinatra's character in 1968's Lady in Cement; the titular transgender heroine in 1970's Myra Breckenridge; and a Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1987 TV drama Right to Die.\n\nLater in life, she also released her own signature line of wigs, a jewellery and skincare collection, and a Mac Cosmetics makeup line.\n\nActress Reese Witherspoon was among those paying tribute, writing on Twitter that she \"loved\" working with Welch on Legally Blonde.\n\n\"She was elegant, professional and glamorous beyond belief,\" said Witherspoon. \"Simply stunning.\"\n\nActress and producer Viola Davis posted a clip of her singing \"I'm a Woman\" with Cher in 1975, writing: \"You were ageless to me...iconic\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Miss Piggy This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn 1978 she sang the same song with the famous puppet Miss Piggy, earning a tribute on Wednesday from the beloved comedy programme.\n\n'We'll never forget our remarkable friend Raquel Welch, one of our favorite guests on The Muppet Show,\" the Disney series tweeted.\n\nActor Paul Feig said he enjoyed working with her on TV series Sabrina the Teenage Witch.\n\n\"Kind, funny and a true superstar whom I was pretty much in love with for most of my childhood,\" he wrote, adding: \"We've lost a true icon.\"\n\nShe leaves behind a son, Damon Welch, and daughter Latanne \"Tahnee\" Welch, who is also an actress.\n• None When Hollywood star Raquel Welch came to Yorkshire", "Council leaders have agreed on a new pay offer for teachers, with extra cash from the Scottish government.\n\nThe government says it has found £156m to fund a two-year deal.\n\nThe new offer involves a 6% pay rise in the current year and a further 5.5% in the new financial year, which starts in April.\n\nThe largest teaching union, the EIS, has been striking for a 10% rise this year.\n\nEmployers - represented by the local government body Cosla - have presented their offer as an 11.5% rise over two years.\n\nThe government said it would mean an overall increase of more than £5,000 over two years for the 70% of classroom teachers who are at the top of their main grade pay scale.\n\nIt is not clear if this package would be enough to end the dispute, with a series of further strikes - including some targeting the constituencies of senior ministers - already scheduled.\n\nThe Scottish government has previously said it had no more money and would have to raid other budgets to pay for an increased offer.\n\nTheir £156m for teachers is part of a pot of around £300m which would also enable councils to offer their other staff a 5.5% pay rise in 2023/24.\n\nThe previous pay offer, made in November, was worth between 5% and 6.85% for most staff.\n\nTeachers are next due to strike on 28 February and 1 March\n\nEIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said the union was still awaiting written notification of a revised offer.\n\nShe said: \"It is unacceptable that details of a revised offer have been shared with the media before the offer has been made to teaching unions.\n\n\"Once we eventually receive the offer, it will then be for the EIS salaries committee to discuss the terms of that offer and to adopt a position in relation to it.\"\n\nEducation Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the offer \"would see teacher pay increase by almost 30% since January 2018\".\n\nMs Somerville said she had written to the unions asking them to suspend planned industrial action while their members consider the new offer.\n\nShe said: \"While union demands for an in-year 10% increase are unaffordable within the Scottish government's fixed budget, we have looked for compromise and we have arrived at a deal that is fair, affordable, and sustainable for everyone involved.\n\n\"The Scottish government is supporting this new offer with additional funding of £156m.\n\n\"This is on top of the £50m that we have already provided to local authorities in support of an enhanced pay offer for teachers.\n\n\"The offer is being made at a time of extraordinary financial pressure on the Scottish government budget.\"\n\nTeachers unions are likely to respond formally to the new pay offer on Wednesday.\n\nThey will decide whether to put it to their members and whether to call off the next strikes.\n\nBut the offer seems to fall well below the aspirations of the unions.\n\nThey wanted a 10% rise backdated to April covering the 2022/23 financial year.\n\nThe new headline offer for this period is 6%.\n\nThe pay offer covering the 2023/24 financial year is a distinct issue for them.\n\nThe Scottish government and councils say they have compromised and hope unions will too.\n\nBut will unions be prepared to accept an offer which is still well below the one they have been campaigning for?\n\nCosla's resources spokesperson, councillor Katie Hagmann, said: \"Given the funding assurances received from the Scottish government, leaders have agreed to submit a revised offer to the trade unions tonight.\n\n\"Cosla leaders are clear that it is in all of our interests, not least those of children, young people and families, to conclude the teachers' pay negotiations as quickly as we can to bring back stability and certainty in our schools.\n\n\"We are determined to provide a fair and affordable pay offer to all our employees, including teachers.\n\n\"In that regard, following today's meeting leaders agreed to mandate me to take a refreshed offer to the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) and we hope that this is acceptable to them.\"\n\nThe next national strike action is due to be held on 28 February and 1 March.\n\nThe EIS is also planning strikes in a number of areas, including the Glasgow constituency of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Dunfermline constituency of Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville.\n\nThe EIS salaries committee and executive committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss a response to the offer and the potential implications for upcoming strike action in schools.\n\nThe ongoing dispute centres on the pay rise which teachers were due to receive in April last year.\n\nThe most recent offer was made before the first strike by the EIS union in November.\n\nNearly all pupils in Scotland have lost three or four days' worth of education since then.", "Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nMissing mother Nicola Bulley had \"significant issues\" with alcohol brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause, police have said.\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre.\n\nOfficers said Ms Bulley had been considered a high-risk missing person from the start of the investigation.\n\nLancashire Police said it was called to a concern for welfare report at her home last month.\n\nHealth professionals also attended on 10 January, the force said, adding no arrests were made but it was being investigated.\n\nThe search for Ms Bulley continues in St Michael's on Wyre\n\nA police spokesman said it was clear after speaking to Ms Bulley's family she had \"in the past suffered with some significant issues with alcohol which were brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause\".\n\n\"These struggles had resurfaced over recent months [and] this caused some real challenges for [her partner] Paul and the family,\" the spokesman added.\n\nThe force said it had taken the \"unusual step\" to go into this level of detail as it was \"important to clarify what we meant when we talked about vulnerabilities to avoid any further speculation or misinterpretation\".\n\n\"We have explained to Nicola's family why we have released this further information and we would ask that their privacy is respected at this difficult time.\"\n\nMs Bulley's family and friends have tied yellow ribbons to a bridge near to where she vanished\n\nThe police have been criticised by some on social media for disclosing such personal information about a victim.\n\nZoe Billingham, formerly a lead inspector for the police watchdog HMICFRS, tweeted that she was \"deeply troubled\" by its release at this stage.\n\n\"I have to wonder if some in Lancashire Police are placing the protection of their reputation above their focus on finding Nicola,\" she added.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters - aged six and nine - at school.\n\nLancashire Police first told the public of their \"main working hypothesis\" on 3 February, that the mortgage adviser had gone into the river during a \"10-minute window\" between 09:10 GMT and 09:20 that day.\n\nDetectives have since extended the search to the sea, saying finding her there \"becomes more of a possibility\".\n\nIn a press conference earlier, Det Supt Smith, who is the lead investigator in the case, confirmed there was still no evidence of a criminal aspect or third-party involvement.\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has previously said he was 100% convinced she did not fall into the water.\n\nBut Det Supt Smith said their main theory was still that Ms Bulley had \"unfortunately gone in the river\".\n\nHowever, she said she could not be \"100% certain of that at the minute\" as it was a \"live investigation\" and there was \"always information coming in\".\n\nShe said other hypotheses remained in place and were \"reviewed regularly\".\n\nNearly 40 detectives have since sifted through hundreds of hours of CCTV, dashcam footage and tip-offs from the public.\n\nMounted police have been searching for the missing dog walker\n\nDet Supt Rebecca Smith said there had been \"persistent myths\" about the case\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on a bench by the River Wyre\n\nDet Supt Smith said the force had also been \"inundated with false information, accusations and rumours which is distracting\".\n\nShe said in her 29 years of police service she had not seen \"anything like it\" and described \"persistent myths\" about the case.\n\n\"The derelict house which is across the other side of the river has been searched three times, with the permission of the owner, and Nicola is not in there,\" she said.\n\nShe added reports of a red van in the area on the morning of Ms Bulley's disappearance were not being treated as suspicious.\n\nThe detective also confirmed a glove found near where she disappeared did not belong to Ms Bulley.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson defended his force's investigation into the case of the missing mother.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson says there is no evidence of third party involvement\n\nHe said the force had decided to share more details \"than would normally be the case\" to counter some of \"the ill-informed speculation and conjecture\".\n\n\"It has been a distraction that is potentially damaging to the investigation, the community of St Michael's and most importantly Nicola's family,\" he said.\n\nOn Tuesday the Lancashire force said it had arrested two people after malicious messages were sent to a number of parish councillors about the case.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this piece, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The body of Sarah Everard was found hidden in woodland\n\nMet Police officer Wayne Couzens has been sentenced to a whole-life term for the murder of Sarah Everard, in a case that sparked national outrage and calls for more action to tackle violence against women.\n\nCouzens admitted the kidnap, rape and murder of the 33-year-old marketing executive when he appeared in court several months ago.\n\nBut it was only during his sentencing that the full details of his crimes emerged.\n\nMs Everard was walking home from a friend's house in Clapham, south London, at about 21:30 BST on 3 March when she was abducted.\n\nCouzens' choice of victim was random, but the attack was planned.\n\nIn his sentencing remarks, Lord Justice Fulford said there had been \"significant planning and premeditation\" by Couzens.\n\nThe police officer had \"long planned to carry out a violent sexual assault on a yet-to-be-selected victim\" who he intended to coerce into his custody, noted the judge.\n\nCouzens spent at least a month travelling to London from Deal, Kent, where he lived, to research how best to carry out his crimes.\n\nSeveral days before the attack, he booked a hire car, which he would use for the abduction, as well as a roll of self-adhesive film advertised as a carpet protector on Amazon.\n\nAfter finishing a 12-hour shift at the US embassy that morning, Couzens, a parliamentary and diplomatic protection officer, went out \"hunting\" for a lone, young woman to kidnap and rape, the prosecution said.\n\nCCTV footage played in court showed Couzens and Ms Everard beside a vehicle on Poynders Road in Clapham\n\nThe court heard how Couzens used the knowledge he had gained from working on Covid patrols in January and his Metropolitan Police-issue warrant card to trick his victim under the guise of a fake arrest for breaching coronavirus guidelines.\n\nThe 48-year-old, who had been a police officer since 2002, handcuffed her before bundling her into the car and driving away.\n\nThe abduction was witnessed by a couple travelling past in a car - but they believed they had seen an undercover police officer carrying out a legitimate arrest, so did not intervene.\n\nThe whole kidnapping took less than five minutes.\n\nCouzens then drove to Dover in Kent, where he transferred Ms Everard to his own car, before travelling to a remote rural area nearby.\n\nIt was there that he raped and murdered his victim - strangling her with his police belt.\n\nBy 02:31 Couzens had left the scene and was spotted at a service station buying drinks.\n\nHe visited the site where Ms Everard's body was dumped twice, leaving just before dawn.\n\nThe next day, as the search for her escalated, Couzens bought petrol, which he used to burn her body inside a fridge.\n\nHe also purchased two green rubble bags, which he used to dump the remains in a pond near an area of woodland he owned in Hoads Wood, Ashford.\n\nA week after she disappeared, Ms Everard's body was found in a woodland stream, just metres from land owned by Couzens.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A CCTV timeline shows key evidence used to arrest and prosecute Wayne Couzens\n\nMeanwhile, Couzens returned to normal life, carrying out mundane activities like calling a vet about his dog.\n\nDays later, he even took his wife and two children on a family trip to the woods where he had burnt his victim's body.\n\nHowever, on the 8 March, the day he was due to return to work, he reported in sick.\n\nThe following day he was arrested at his home in Deal.\n\nIn a brief police interview, he told a false story about being threatened by an Eastern European gang, claiming they had demanded he deliver \"another girl\" after he had underpaid a prostitute a few weeks before. He then claimed he kidnapped Ms Everard, drove out of London and handed her over to three men in a van in a layby in Kent, while she was alive and uninjured.\n\nBut after Ms Everard's body was discovered in a pond just 130 metres from land owned by Couzens, he was charged.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In video from a police interview at his home on 9 March, Couzens denies knowing Sarah Everard\n\nCouzens has since been sacked by the Met, but the force is still facing questions over whether chances were missed to prevent his predatory behaviour.\n\nAfter Ms Everard's murder, the police watchdog announced it was probing alleged failures by the Met to investigate two indecent exposure incidents linked to Couzens in February.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct is also investigating alleged failures by Kent Police to investigate a flashing incident linked to Couzens in 2015.\n\nCouzens transferred to the Met in 2018, from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, where he had worked since 2011.\n\nTwo years later he began working for the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command as an authorised firearms officer at diplomatic premises around central London.\n\nIn July, appearing by video link from Belmarsh high security jail, Couzens pleaded guilty to murder at the Old Bailey.\n\nOn Wednesday he appeared in court again - this time in person - for a two-day sentencing hearing.\n\nThere, he faced Ms Everard's mother, father and sister, who described to the court the torment of losing their loved one in such horrendous circumstances.\n\nHer father, Jeremy, demanded that Couzens looked at him as he told the murderer he could never forgive him for taking away his daughter.\n\nHer mother, Susan, said she was \"tormented\" at the thought of what her \"precious little girl\" had endured.\n\n\"I go through the sequence of events. I wonder when she realised she was in mortal danger,\" she told the court.\n\n\"Burning her body was the final insult. It meant we could never again see her sweet face and never say goodbye.\n\n\"Our lives will never be the same. We should be a family of five, but now we are four. Her death leaves a yawning chasm in our lives that cannot be filled.\"", "Nicola Sturgeon will be remembered as one of the most impressive politicians of her generation, delivering a string of landslide election victories for the SNP.\n\nBut the first minister entered politics for one thing above all others and, in the end, she failed to deliver it.\n\nAs she pointed out herself in her resignation speech, she has been campaigning for Scottish independence since she was a teenager in Ayrshire in the 1980s.\n\nMs Sturgeon once told me that it was Margaret Thatcher, Conservative prime minister throughout that turbulent decade, who had pushed her into politics.\n\nThe picture the Scottish National Party leader painted of the nation of her youth was bleak, a world of dying industry and fading spirit.\n\nMrs Thatcher, she said, had created a sense of \"hopelessness\" by presiding over the decline of coal, steel and shipbuilding.\n\n\"You had the prospect of leaving school and maybe never getting a job,\" said Ms Sturgeon.\n\nBack then it was not the pro-independence SNP which dominated Scottish politics but Labour.\n\nThe party had built a power base which helped propel Tony Blair and Gordon Brown into Downing Street in 1997, delivering devolution of powers to Cardiff and Edinburgh.\n\nWhen the new Scottish Parliament opened in 1999, the idea that the SNP would be in charge within a decade would have been dismissed by many as absurd.\n\nBut under Alex Salmond, with Ms Sturgeon at his side every step of the way, the nationalists not only won power as a minority government in 2007 but went even further four years later, securing a majority at Holyrood which led to a referendum on independence.\n\nAlex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon won the SNP leadership contest in 2004\n\nIn September 2014, Scotland voted to remain in the union by 55% to 45%. When, within hours, Mr Salmond resigned there was no doubt about the identity of his successor and no doubt that she represented continuity in the party.\n\nAt the time Ms Sturgeon was fulsome in her praise, describing Mr Salmond as her \"friend, mentor and colleague,\" and adding, \"Quite simply, I would not have been able to do what I have in politics without his constant advice, guidance and support through all these years.\"\n\nThat relationship would break down in spectacular fashion once Mr Salmond was charged with sexual assault and harassment. He was acquitted of all the charges at the High Court in Edinburgh.\n\nThe trial was bruising for all involved. There were revelations about late night drinking with female staff members in the bedroom of the first minister's official residence, Bute House. His own lawyer accepted that Mr Salmond could have been a better man.\n\nBut the episode also had a political effect, with Mr Salmond ultimately creating a rival party, Alba. Although his outfit did not break through with the electorate, it was at times a thorn in the side of his successor.\n\nIn the early days of her leadership, though, it had seemed Ms Sturgeon could walk on water. The popularity of the first woman to hold the job of first minister was at times extraordinary.\n\nNicola Sturgeon with some of the 56 SNP MPs elected to Westminster in 2015\n\nIn the UK general election of 2015 the SNP swept almost all before it, securing 56 of the 59 Scottish seats at Westminster.\n\nMs Sturgeon embarked on a tour of giant venues, feted by adoring fans.\n\nMany working class voters in Labour's old post-industrial heartlands had switched allegiance to the SNP.\n\nThe party's membership soared but this was a challenge as well as a blessing. Many of the new members were impatient — demanding another crack at independence immediately.\n\nMs Sturgeon did not regard that as realistic, preferring instead to focus on proving that her SNP could govern effectively while gradually building towards a sustained, clear majority in favour of independence.\n\nScotland voted to remain in the European Union by 62% to 38% but was forced to leave anyway because the UK as a whole had opted to quit the trading bloc.\n\nFor Ms Sturgeon, enduring years of Tory government which Scotland had voted against was bad enough, but this was worse.\n\nBrexit, she said was a \"material change\" which merited a second referendum on independence.\n\nAnd yet she was ultimately unable to deliver that vote. Ms Sturgeon may have seen off four Tory prime ministers but the fifth, Rishi Sunak, will be able to say that he saw off the threat she posed to the union.\n\nSo why is she going now, with her core business unfinished?\n\nThere is quite a long list of possible reasons.\n\nGoverning is hard. Nicola Sturgeon has failed to keep her promise of closing the educational attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils although she is keen to stress her record on ensuring that more deprived students can go to university.\n\nIn common with other parts of the UK the NHS is in dire straits but devolution means this is Ms Sturgeon's responsibility north of the border.\n\nThere are also problems with issues as wide ranging as ferry services and social care.\n\nAnd there were questions at her resignation news conference about a police inquiry into the SNP's finances.\n\nBut perhaps we have been too quick to forget the impact of Covid.\n\nDuring the pandemic the first minister was widely praised for the calmness and consistency of her public messaging, in contrast, said many of her supporters, with the behaviour of UK prime minister Boris Johnson.\n\nThere has been much debate about the impact our leaders had on society during that public health emergency but understandably much less discussion about the impact it had on our leaders.\n\nMaybe the pandemic took a greater toll on Ms Sturgeon than was apparent at the time? She certainly mentions it often, and did so again in her resignation speech.\n\nShe also talked about the \"brutality\" of life as a 21st Century politician because of the \"nature and form of modern political discourse\".\n\nThis, along with the relentless scrutiny faced by politicians, \"takes its toll, on you and on those around you\", she added.\n\nAnd then, of course, there is gender, the issue that has dominated politics in Scotland this year.\n\nThe first minister was adamant that removing medical, legal and administrative hurdles to make it easier for someone to change sex on their birth certificate was morally the right thing to do.\n\nBut her dismissal of critics who said this would endanger women in female-only spaces enraged not just some of her opponents but also some members of her own party, including some in her government.\n\nThe Gender Recognition Reform bill, supported by Labour, was approved by Holyrood by a big majority but blocked by Downing Street from becoming law.\n\nThen came an outcry about the initial decision to send a convicted double rapist, Isla Bryson, to Cornton Vale women's prison near Stirling.\n\nMs Sturgeon stumbled in her response, struggling to articulate whether she believed Bryson was genuinely transgender or was simply claiming to be a woman to ensure an easier time in jail.\n\nThe outgoing first minister insists gender was not the underlying, or even the proximate, cause of her resignation.\n\nEven so, it is a headache for her successor. The SNP leader had promised to seek a judicial review of the unprecedented decision by the UK government to use Section 35 of the Scotland Act, which established devolution, to block the bill from receiving royal assent.\n\nNow a new SNP leader will have to decide whether to continue or abandon that fight.\n\nHe or she may also have to re-examine and possibly even refresh both the strategic vision for Scottish independence and the practical tactics needed to deliver it.\n\nMs Sturgeon will go down in history as a politician who kept the flame of independence burning after it was rejected at the ballot box.\n\nHow she is judged by history will depend on whether her tenure was a waypoint on the road to a new Scottish state or a diversion leading to a constitutional dead end.", "French fashion brand Louis Vuitton has named Grammy-winning producer, rapper, singer and songwriter Pharrell Williams as its new menswear creative director.\n\nThe label described Williams as \"a visionary whose creative universes expand from music to art, and to fashion\".\n\nHe is also the co-founder of the streetwear brand Billionaire Boys Club.\n\nThe Louis Vuitton role was previously held by high-profile designer Virgil Abloh, who died in 2021.\n\nWilliams' first collection for the label will be shown at the Men's Fashion Week in Paris in June.\n\n\"I am glad to welcome Pharrell back home, after our collaborations in 2004 and 2008 for Louis Vuitton, as our new Men's Creative Director,\" Louis Vuitton chairman and chief executive Pietro Beccari said in a statement.\n\n\"His creative vision beyond fashion will undoubtedly lead Louis Vuitton towards a new and very exciting chapter,\" Mr Beccari added.\n\nLouis Vuitton is one of the world's leading international fashion houses. It is part of the luxury goods group LVMH, which is owned by the world's richest person Bernard Arnault.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Louis Vuitton This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWilliams has won 13 Grammy Awards and was a judge on the popular television talent competition The Voice.\n\nHe received an Oscar nomination for the song Happy which was part of the soundtrack of the animated film Despicable Me 2.\n\nHe has collaborated with sportswear giant Adidas and luxury brands Moncler and Chanel, and worked with Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs to design eyewear for the label.\n\nWilliams was criticised last year when he attended a fashion show wearing a pair of diamond-studded Tiffany sunglasses.\n\nSocial media users highlighted similarities between the design and a pair of spectacles dating from India's Mughal era.\n\nWilliams' predecessor at Louis Vuitton, Virgil Abloh was the founder of the Off-White fashion brand.\n\nKnown for fusing elements of streetwear with high fashion designs, he died from cancer at the age of 41 in November 2021.\n\nHis posthumous final menswear show was built around an elaborate \"Dreamhouse\" concept with angels, breakdancing models and a disregard for gender in the designs.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A look back at Nicola Sturgeon's life in politics\n\nNicola Sturgeon has announced that she will step down as Scotland's first minister after more than eight years.\n\nShe has resigned without achieving the one overriding ambition which first sparked her interest in politics as a teenager - Scottish independence.\n\nMs Sturgeon was born in Irvine in 1970, a \"working class girl from Ayrshire\".\n\nShe was already an SNP stalwart in her teens, campaigning for the party in the 1987 general election.\n\nIt was Margaret Thatcher who inspired her to enter politics, she said, claiming to hate everything the Tory politician stood for.\n\nShe insisted the argument for independence was purely political and economic - and had never really been about identity.\n\nHer own grandmother was from the north of England.\n\nBy 1992, at the age of 21, she was selected as a candidate herself, standing in the Glasgow Shettleston constituency where she was beaten by Labour by 15,000 votes.\n\nHer ambition was undiminished and she went on to stand in a series of council and Westminster contests.\n\nAt the same time, she graduated in law from the University of Glasgow, and worked for two years as a solicitor in the city.\n\nHer political career fully took off with the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, where Ms Sturgeon won a Glasgow seat on the regional list ballot.\n\nThe SNP became the main opposition to the Labour-Lib Dem coalition running the new parliament, and Ms Sturgeon took up a series of shadow briefs - first on education, and later on health.\n\nWhen John Swinney resigned as SNP leader in 2004, she pitched herself into a leadership contest against Roseanna Cunningham. But the race changed when Alex Salmond decided to return and throw his hat into the ring.\n\nThe two politicians sealed a pact which saw Ms Sturgeon run as Mr Salmond's deputy - and effectively his representative in the Scottish Parliament, given he was an MP and not an MSP at the time.\n\nIt also meant she became deputy first minister when the SNP took power in 2007, as well as the important post of health secretary.\n\nShe won the constituency of Glasgow Govan at that election, a seat she has comfortably held ever since.\n\nIn 2010, she was married to Peter Murrell - the SNP's chief executive.\n\nThe couple never had children but Ms Sturgeon later revealed the painful experience of suffering a miscarriage when she was 40, shortly before the 2011 Scottish parliamentary election campaign.\n\n\"Sometimes... having a baby just doesn't happen - no matter how much we might want it to,\" she said.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she talked about it because she hoped it might challenge some of the assumptions and judgements that are still made about women - especially in politics - who don't have children.\n\nMs Sturgeon became the deputy first minister when Alex Salmond was elected in 2007\n\nMs Sturgeon also played a crucial role during the 2014 independence referendum campaign, when she often took the lead as the \"Yes minister\".\n\nIt was the failure of that campaign which led to her ascending to the very top of Scottish politics, with Mr Salmond stepping down in the wake of Scots voting No to independence by 55% to 45%.\n\nThis time, Ms Sturgeon was the only candidate in the leadership race - and she swept to power in rock star style, embarking on a stadium tour to announce herself as Scotland's first female first minister.\n\nMomentum was behind the SNP, and the party delivered a historic landslide in the 2015 general election, winning 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland.\n\nMs Sturgeon followed that with another Holyrood win in 2016 - albeit short of the unprecedented majority the party had won under Mr Salmond in 2011. She won again in 2021.\n\nIn between those wins, she guided Scotland through the Covid pandemic, hosting daily briefings from the government's St Andrew's House headquarters.\n\nDuring her years in power, Ms Sturgeon has driven through a host of policies, from a doubling of Scotland's free childcare allowance to the introduction of the baby box.\n\nHowever others fell short - notably her promise to close the attainment gap between school pupils from better off and more deprived backgrounds, something she once famously made her number one priority.\n\nIn recent weeks she had been locked in a damaging row about gender reforms, with a dispute over transgender rapist Isla Bryson being initially housed in a women's prison.\n\nThe Scottish government had passed a bill to make it easier for people to change gender, and Ms Sturgeon had voiced an intention to go to court to defend that legislation from the UK government's move to block it.\n\nThe toddler Nicola Sturgeon would in her teenage years enter the political arena\n\nHowever, her biggest disappointment as first minister was her failure to progress the issue which brought her into politics in the first place.\n\nMs Sturgeon pushed for a referendum on Scottish independence on several occasions - most notably in the wake of the Brexit vote in 2016 - but each time she ran into a wall of opposition from the UK government.\n\nWhile she had to deal with five prime ministers - in David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak - none of them were willing to sign up to a second constitutional contest. Something she considered to be a democratic outrage.\n\nAn attempt to force the issue through the Supreme Court also foundered late last year, and Ms Sturgeon was planning a special SNP conference in March to decide what the next move would be.\n\nThat is part of the reason why her sudden resignation is such a surprise - without Ms Sturgeon, who will set the direction of the independence movement at such a pivotal movement?\n\nThe departure of a figure who has been at the very top of Scottish politics for so long leaves a lot of unanswered questions hanging.", "Fast food chain McDonald's is putting the price of five of its menu items up as cost of living pressures continue to squeeze struggling households.\n\nIt said higher food and energy costs mean it will put up its prices from Wednesday.\n\nLast summer the fast food giant put up the price of a cheeseburger for the first time in more than 14 years.\n\nSoaring inflation around the world hasn't dented McDonald's sales, which grew last year by more than 10%.\n\nMcDonald's said it was committed to \"affordable prices\".\n\n\"However, like many businesses, the impact of the increase in food and energy costs continues to affect our company and our franchisees.\"\n\nMcDonald's said that franchisees set their own pricing, and the following prices are a guide:\n\nMcDonald's added that it was trialling meal deals at 120 outlets in the South East of England called \"Saver Meals\" - for example, a cheeseburger, a side order and a drink will cost £3.99.\n\nIt said the meal bundles were being trialled \"to understand if this could be an additional way to offer value to our customers\".\n\nEmily Brooks, an apprentice at Francesco Group hair salon and academy in Stafford, said she had noticed food prices were \"shockingly high\".\n\n\"Everyone likes McDonald's,\" she said. \"You could usually get like a meal for under £5, some are over £6 now. It's not really affordable for young people.\"\n\nPrices in general have been rising rapidly around the world as food, fuel and energy costs soar.\n\nRussia's war in Ukraine pushed energy prices higher, although crude oil and gas prices have been falling since last summer.\n\nThe pace of inflation in the UK was 10.1% in the year to January, down from 10.5% in December, and food price inflation is at a 45-year high.\n\nSo an item that cost a pound last January would be more than 10p more expensive this January, across the board.\n\nWages are not rising as fast as prices, putting household budgets under pressure.\n\nFirms have responded to rising costs by increasing prices.\n\nBoth Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which dominate the global soft drinks market, pushed through multiple price rises in 2022.\n\nCoca-Cola put up prices by 11% around the world, while Pepsi's prices rose 14%.\n\nOn Tuesday Coca-Cola said it would raise the price of its fizzy drinks again this year.\n\nMcDonald's too has raised prices before today.\n\nLast summer, it put up the price of cheeseburgers, along with items including breakfast meals, large coffees, McNugget share boxes and upgrades from medium to large meals.\n\nIn 2022 its sales grew 10.9% after price rises and as more people came to its outlets.", "North-western Syria has been virtually cut off from aid deliveries\n\nThe first UN aid convoy has entered through a reopened border crossing into rebel-held north-western Syria, devastated by last week's earthquake.\n\nThe UN said 11 lorries crossed from Turkey at Bab al-Salameh on Tuesday.\n\nMany Syrians are angry over the lack of aid for the war-torn nation especially to rebel areas, after last week's quakes in which more than 41,000 are known to have died in Turkey and Syria.\n\nThe UN and Syria's government on Monday agreed to use two more crossings.\n\nThe other one is at al-Rai, also on the Turkish border. The UN said the crossings would initially be open for three months.\n\nTwo powerful earthquakes struck the south-eastern regions of neighbouring Turkey on 6 February early in the morning, when many people were asleep.\n\nHopes of finding any more survivors are fading.\n\nCountries with friendly relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, began flying supplies to government-controlled areas of Syria soon after the tremor.\n\nBut the opposition-controlled north-west - where some 4.1 million people were relying on humanitarian assistance to survive even before the disaster - received no aid deliveries from the UN via Turkey until Thursday.\n\nThe UN blamed damage to roads leading to the Bab al-Hawa crossing, which until now was the the only land route the UN Security Council has authorised it to use.\n\nOn Tuesday, the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bassam al-Sabbagh, told the BBC's Radio 4's World Tonight programme that there would be be no discrimination over who was getting relief aid.\n\nAnd he blamed the delay in opening more aid routes on what he called the \"terrorist opposition\" which controls the north-west.\n\nIn a separate development, an orphaned Syrian baby born under the rubble of her collapsed home after last week's earthquake has been moved to a \"safe location\" by a health authority.\n\nBaby Aya's mother, father and all four siblings died in the earthquake\n\nThe Afrin Health Directorate took the precautionary measure to protect the girl, Aya, from possible kidnapping and adoption fraud, a source told the BBC.\n\nOn Monday, there was a violent incident at the hospital in the opposition-held region where she was being treated. A male nurse, accompanied by two armed men, allegedly beat the manager.\n\nThe head of the health directorate, Dr Ahmad Hajj Hassan, denied claims on social media that it was a foiled attempt to kidnap Aya.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: The BBC was given special access to the Icefin expedition\n\nAntarctic glaciers may be more sensitive to changes in sea temperature than was thought, new research shows.\n\nThe British Antarctic Survey and the US Antarctic programme put sensors and an underwater robot beneath the vast Thwaites glacier to study melting.\n\nThe size of Britain, Thwaites is one of the world's fastest changing glaciers.\n\nIts susceptibility to climate change is a major concern to scientists because if it melted completely, it would raise global sea levels by half a metre.\n\nThe new research suggests that even low amounts of melting can potentially push a glacier further along the path toward eventual disappearance.\n\nThe joint survey at Thwaites is part of one of the largest investigations ever undertaken anywhere on the White Continent.\n\nSince the late 1990s, the glacier has seen a 14km retreat of its \"grounding line\" - that's the point where the ice flowing off the land and along the seabed floats up to form a huge platform.\n\nIn some places that grounding line is retreating now by over a kilometre a year, and because of the landward-sloping shape of the seabed, this process will likely accelerate.\n\nThe grounding line has retreated 14km since the late 1990s\n\nDuring the new research, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists dropped sensors through boreholes in the ice to the water below.\n\nWhile warmer water circulates under the shelf, they found less melting than expected under those higher temperatures; a layer of fresh water was insulating against further losses.\n\nBut, worryingly, they also discovered with the help of computer modelling that the volume of melting was not the most critical factor in a glacier's retreat.\n\n\"It's good that the melt rate is low but what matters is how the melt rate changes,\" explained BAS oceanographer Dr Pete Davis. \"To push an ice shelf out of equilibrium, we need to increase the melt rate. So even if the melt rate increases just a small amount, it can still drive rapid retreat.\"\n\nThe observations showing less melting than expected were taken from parts of the underside of the glacier that were flat and relatively uniform.\n\nBut images the underwater robot Icefin gathered for the US Antarctic programme as part of the same joint survey showed that things were often far more complex.\n\n\"What we could see is that instead of this kind of flat ice that we had all pictured, there were all kinds of staircases and cracks in the ice that weren't really expected,\" said Cornell University-based researcher Britney Schmidt, who guided Icefin under Thwaites using a video monitor and a games console controller.\n\nDr Schmidt drove the robot from the surface using a games controller and a video feed\n\nTo get the torpedo-shaped Icefin under Thwaites, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) opened a narrow hole through 600m of ice with a hot-water drill. The tethered sub was then winched down to begin its exploration.\n\nDr Schmidt's team conducted five separate dives, taking the robot right up to the glacier's grounding line.\n\nIcefin's onboard sensors indicated that it is in these particular locations that the bottom of Thwaites is being eroded by the influx of warm water coming from the wider ocean.\n\n\"Basically, the warm water is getting into the weak spots and making them even weaker,\" said Dr Schmidt. \"What this allows us to do now is to put this kind of information into our predictive models to understand how the ice shelf is going to break down, and when.\"\n\nMelting occurs where there are fissures or sharp steps in the shape of the ice\n\nThe lessons learned at Thwaites almost certainly apply to all the other glaciers in the region that are also in retreat, Dr Davis added.\n\nTwo scholarly papers describing the work are published this week in the scientific journal Nature. One focuses on Icefin, the other on the borehole profilers.\n\nThwaites Glacier is an enormous expanse of ice that is many hundreds of metres thick\n\nOne of the contributing authors on the Icefin paper is Prof David Vaughan, the former director of science at BAS, whose death was announced by the polar agency last week.\n\nOver 35-plus years, Prof Vaughan had built a formidable reputation as one of the world's leading glaciologists.\n\nHe championed the UK-US Thwaites project and was its co-lead until stepping back because of illness.\n\nHis journey to see the research described in Wednesday's two papers was his final expedition south.\n\nProf Helen Fricker, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, is in Antarctica currently. She said: \"David was a brilliant, thoughtful and engaging scientist who was a role model for so many. He was a leader in the field, making important geophysical insights about the Antarctic ice sheet and how it is changing.\n\n\"He led with dignity, grace, humour and compassion, and was actively supportive of young scientists, especially minorities. Antarctic science has lost a true hero and he will be deeply missed.\"\n\nProf Vaughan spent 36 years at BAS, becoming its director of science", "The war in Ukraine will “likely” continue into at least next year, according to a UK defence and security think tank.\n\nAs the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion approaches, Professor Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), says the West needs to support a counter-offensive from Ukraine in the coming months.\n\nThis is to ensure that Kyiv is “well placed to fight a long war, because the chances of this war finishing this year are pretty slim”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier.\n\nNeither Ukraine nor Russia have an advantage over the other at the moment, he says. He adds that reports that Western intelligence shows Russia is massing aircraft within striking distance of Ukraine are a concern, but not an emergency.\n\nLooking at Russian gains, he says: “It doesn't look anything like the large-scale capture of Ukrainian territory which we saw in the initial phases of the invasion, not least because Ukrainians are now mobilised and prepared and fighting very hard for their own territory.\"\n\n“It's also the case that Russia is losing a lot of people and a lot of equipment and there is a real question about how far they can sustain an offensive for a long period.”", "Paris Davis was one of the first black officers in the US Army's Special Forces, known as the Green Berets\n\nOne of the first black officers in the US Army's Special Forces will receive recognition for his service in the Vietnam War with the Medal of Honor - after almost 60 years.\n\nCol Paris Davis, who is now retired, disobeyed orders and rescued his troops who were wounded in an attack in 1965.\n\nHis nomination for the highest combat award was lost by the military during the height of the civil rights era.\n\nPresident Joe Biden phoned the 83-year-old to deliver the good news.\n\n\"The call today from President Biden prompted a wave of memories of the men and women I served with in Vietnam - from the members of 5th Special Forces Group and other U.S. military units to the doctors and nurses who cared for our wounded,\" Col Davis said in a statement released by him and his family.\n\n\"I am so very grateful for my family and friends within the military and elsewhere who kept alive the story of A-team, A-321 at Camp Bong Son,\" the statement continued.\n\n\"I think often of those fateful 19 hours on June 18, 1965 and what our team did to make sure we left no man behind on that battlefield.\"\n\nThe then Army captain disobeyed his commands to leave a battle, but later said he could not leave men behind.\n\nThough he was hit by gunfire and a grenade, Col Davis went back to a rice paddy for two seriously injured men - Billy Waugh and Robert Brown.\n\nCBS News, the BBC's US partner, reported that Col Davis recalled telling his commanding officer: \"Sir, I'm just not going to leave. I still have an American out there.\"\n\nMr Waugh went on to recommend Col Davis for the medal, as did his commander, Billy Cole.\n\nBut then the paperwork mysteriously vanished - twice.\n\nMilitary historian Doug Sterner said it was extremely odd and rare for nomination paperwork of this kind to be lost.\n\nOver the years, comrades and volunteers advocated on Col Davis' behalf to receive the honour.\n\n\"I thought that maybe this was just one of those racist things that shouldn't have happened, but did happen and when [the paperwork] got lost a second time I was convinced,\" Col Davis told CBS News in an interview.\n\nHe said racism was something he had experienced during his 23 years in the Army.\n\nIn January 2021, former acting US defence secretary Christopher Miller ordered a review of Col Davis' case.\n\nIn an opinion piece in USA Today, Mr Miller said \"bureaucracy has a way of perpetuating injustice\".\n\n\"Awarding Davis the Medal of Honor now might not untangle much military bureaucracy,\" he wrote. \"But it would address an injustice.\"\n\nMore than 58,000 US military personnel are known to have died during the Vietnam War, according to the US National Archives.\n\nThe White House has not yet confirmed a date for Col Davis' medal ceremony.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n• None Medal of Honor for first black soldier since Vietnam", "Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said the country has to start \"investing in defence properly\" as he defended the UK military's readiness for war.\n\nHe said the army had been \"hollowed out\" over 30 years and the Ukraine war had \"exposed our vulnerabilities\".\n\nMr Wallace said he wanted a bigger budget, amid reports he is asking for a £10bn rise.\n\nUK and European officials have raised concerns over the state of the British armed forces.\n\nMalcolm Chalmers, a British defence expert who advises MPs on national security, told the BBC the UK military \"would run out of ammunition in days if we faced a war, such as the ones the Ukrainians are facing right now\".\n\nWhen asked his reaction to those concerns, Mr Wallace said the UK government was going to spend £34bn on modernising the army.\n\nThe defence secretary said the UK military was \"not any less ready than others\", but added: \"We just need to make sure we get back to spending on our defence properly.\"\n\nMr Wallace spoke to the BBC from Brussels, where he is meeting Nato defence ministers for a summit at which Ukraine will top the agenda.\n\nCalls for increased spending on defence have been growing ahead of an expected spring offensive by Russia in Ukraine, and warnings about the threat from China after a suspected spy balloon was shot down over the US.\n\nWhen asked if he was requesting £10bn more in the upcoming budget, Mr Wallace said the Ministry of Defence - like all other departments - had been affected by rising costs.\n\nBut he said he would \"make the case to the Treasury that I will need some money to insulate myself\".\n\nDespite inflation and military budget cuts in the past, the UK has been one of the biggest supplier of arms to Ukraine in its war against President Vladimir Putin's invading forces.\n\nThe UK is set to become the first nation to start training Ukrainian pilots on Nato-standard aircraft, but the government has indicated that lending jets to Kyiv is a long-term prospect.\n\nAt the end of this year, the UK will be taking over the leadership of Nato's Response Force (NRF) from Germany.\n\nMr Wallace rubbished reports about Nato chiefs asking Germany to stay in charge of the organisation's rapid-reaction force.\n\nThe defence secretary said: \"I mean, to be honest, the simple reality is Nato leadership did not approach anybody. We are taking over the NRF as scheduled and it's interesting that story is based on a source on a German website I've never heard of.\"\n\nDowning Street has confirmed that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will travel to Munich this weekend, joining fellow world leaders for a conference on international security.\n\nLast year's conference, held just before Russia invaded Ukraine, was dominated by concerns over the prospect of conflict in the region.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nManchester City returned to the top of the Premier League for the first time since November as they leapfrogged leaders Arsenal with a vital victory at Emirates Stadium.\n\nThe reigning champions turned on the power in the second half in the biggest game of the domestic season as Arsenal paid a heavy price for individual errors.\n\nTakehiro Tomiyasu's poor backpass allowed Kevin de Bruyne to loft a finish over Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale after 24 minutes but Arsenal deservedly drew level three minutes before half-time, Bukayo Saka scoring from the spot after City goalkeeper Ederson fouled Eddie Nketiah.\n\nCity, lacking spark in the opening phase, improved after the break and had a penalty of their own ruled out for offside against Erling Haaland before they showed a ruthless streak to punish Arsenal.\n\nGabriel lost possession to allow Bernardo Silva and Haaland to set up Jack Grealish for a deflected finish after 72 minutes before they ended Arsenal's hopes with 10 minutes left.\n\nInevitably, Haaland was the scorer from De Bruyne's pass to put City top on goal difference having played one game more than Arsenal.\n• None Arteta has 'more belief' Arsenal can win title\n• None 'This may be night momentum shifted in title race'\n\nCity have returned to the top of the Premier League by striking a devastating blow on the long-time leaders.\n\nCity, by their own standards, have not quite hit the heights this season but they now find themselves looking down on Arsenal once more, albeit the Gunners have a game in hand.\n\nEven here, City lacked their usual fluency in the first 45 minutes and Arsenal arguably deserved more than being on level terms at the interval.\n\nAnd yet, once they moved through the gears in the second half City carried enough threat to put Arsenal away and return to the position they have occupied so often in recent years.\n\nCity gratefully accepted the gifts Arsenal offered and once Grealish restored their lead - a touch off the luckless Tomiyasu sending his shot past Ramsdale - this game was done.\n\nHaaland's goal emphasised City's supremacy and they closed out the win with ease, the celebrations at the final whistle reflecting the significance of the result.\n• None Go straight to all the best Arsenal content\n\nThis defeat will be a bitter blow to Arsenal, coming as it did in front of their own supporters.\n\nIt continued a recent stumble in which they have lost at City in the FA Cup and at Everton in the league, drawn controversially against Brentford on Saturday and now another damaging defeat here.\n\nArsenal and manager Mikel Arteta must not get too down on themselves, although the scale of the setback here cannot be underestimated in the context of the title race.\n\nThe Gunners were excellent in the first 45 minutes but Tomiyasu's poor back pass and Gabriel's concession of possession were the sort of mistakes you simply cannot make against this class of opponent.\n\nArsenal must regroup and realise they are still right at the heart of the Premier League title pursuit - but no-one can escape the damage done by this result.\n• None Attempt missed. Eddie Nketiah (Arsenal) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Bukayo Saka with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ben White (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Martin Ødegaard.\n• None Attempt blocked. Martin Ødegaard (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Leandro Trossard.\n• None Goal! Arsenal 1, Manchester City 3. Erling Haaland (Manchester City) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne.\n• None Substitution, Manchester City. Phil Foden replaces Jack Grealish because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "A woman who faked a medical degree certificate to work as a psychiatrist for more than two decades committed a \"wicked deception\", a judge has said.\n\nZholia Alemi worked across the UK after claiming to have qualified at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Manchester Crown Court was told.\n\nAlemi, of Plumbe Street, Burnley, had denied 20 offences including forgery but was found guilty by a jury.\n\nJudge Hilary Manley said she faces a jail term \"of some substantial length\".\n\nShe will be sentenced at the court on 28 February after being convicted of 13 counts of fraud, three of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, two of forgery and two of using a false instrument.\n\nThe court heard Alemi had earned up to £1.3m in wages from the NHS after she sent the forged certificate to the General Medical Council (GMC) to register to practise in 1995.\n\nShe was also accused of sending a forged letter of verification, which the court heard had verify spelt as \"varify\" and referred to \"six years medical trainee with satisfactory grade\".\n\nChristopher Stables, prosecuting, said Alemi was believed to be 60, but had given three different dates of birth on documents.\n\nUniversity records showed Alemi, who was born in Iran, was stopped from re-enrolling at the university in New Zealand after failing exams.\n\nShe had claimed she had moved to New Zealand after she and her family were tortured.\n\nThe court was also told Alemi, who previously lived in High Harrington, Cumbria, had been jailed for five years after being convicted of three fraud offences in 2018 in relation to the forging of the will of an 84-year-old, which would have seen her inherit the woman's Keswick bungalow and £300,000.\n\nAddressing her, Judge Manley said there was \"only one possible sentence and that will be a sentence of immediate custody of some substantial length\".\n\nShe said she had committed a \"deliberate and wicked deception\" against a number of health authorities, which had involved her working with \"potentially very vulnerable people over a long period of time\".\n\nShe added that Alemi's offending was \"very grave\", but she also wanted to know \"how it was this defendant was able to practise as long as she was, in so many positions\".\n\nFollowing Alemi's 2018 conviction, the GMC apologised for its \"inadequate\" checks in the 1990s and began an urgent check of about 3,000 foreign doctors working in the UK.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Sturgeon 'wrestling' with decision to resign for weeks\n\nThe search for a new First Minister of Scotland has begun after Nicola Sturgeon's surprise decision to stand down.\n\nThe SNP leader made the announcement on Wednesday after more than eight years in the job.\n\nShe plans to remain in office until her successor is elected.\n\nThe SNP's national executive committee will meet on Thursday evening to draw up a timetable for a leadership race.\n\nWith no obvious successor, the party's first leadership contest in nearly 20 years could see a debate on future direction and strategy.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney is among the figures being tipped as a potential replacement\n\nMs Sturgeon made her announcement at a hastily convened news conference at her official Edinburgh residence, Bute House, but insisted it was a decision she had been weighing up for some time.\n\nShe said that in order to serve well, a politician needed to accept when it was time to make way for someone else.\n\n\"In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it's right for me, for my party and my country,\" she said.\n\nMs Sturgeon said her departure was not in response to the \"latest period of pressure\", which has included controversies over gender recognition reforms, trans prisoners and the strategy on independence.\n\nShe emphasised the huge pressures and sacrifices that came with serving in high office, adding: \"I am a human being as well as a politician.\"\n\nShe intends to remain an MSP until at least the next Holyrood election.\n\nThe party's ruling body will now also have to decide on whether to go ahead with a special conference due to take place in March to discuss Ms Sturgeon's strategy of using the next general election as a de facto independence referendum.\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who ruled himself out of the leadership contest, has called for the conference to be paused until a new leader is elected.\n\nIn her resignation speech, Ms Sturgeon said her party had an \"array of talent\" who could replace her as first minister.\n\nThe SNP's constitution says a candidate for party leader needs to have the backing of 100 members from at least 20 different SNP branches, with nominations already open.\n\nIf there is more than one candidate, a vote of party members will choose the new leader.\n\nMichael Russell, the party's president, said he expected the process to be \"shortened\" and that it would be a \"contested election\".\n\nHe told Radio 4's PM: \"I think that will be good for the SNP, to have different points of view contesting in a respectful way.\n\n\"I think we will decide that pretty soon and have a clear timetable that will take us forward.\"\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said there was now a belief in Scotland that a UK Labour government was possible for the first time since the party lost power in 2010, although he acknowledged that \"significant gains\" would be needed at the next election.\n\n\"For 12 years I don't think people in Scotland have believed that a Labour UK government was possible - I think that is changing now,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives disagreed, with party leader Douglas Ross telling the BBC that his party were the \"clear challengers to the SNP in multiple seats across Scotland\".\n\nMr Ross also accused Ms Sturgeon of having presided over \"a decade of division and decay in Scotland\".\n\nMore than 100 unionists gathered in central Glasgow on Wednesday evening to celebrate Ms Sturgeon's resignation.\n\nUnionists appeared to dance a conga as they gathered in central Glasgow to celebrate Ms Sturgeon's resignation\n\nMs Sturgeon rose to power unopposed after the independence referendum in 2014, taking over from Alex Salmond who decided to resign following the vote to remain part of the UK.\n\nShe is the longest-serving first minister and the first woman to hold the position. She has worked as an MSP since the Scottish parliament was opened in 1999.\n\nOriginally from Irvine in North Ayrshire, she has campaigned for the SNP since she was a teenager.\n\nIn her resignation announcement she said she intended to remain active in politics, championing causes including Scottish independence and improving the life chances of children who have grown up in care.\n\nPreviously she has suggested she might consider becoming a foster parent. There has also been speculation that she might continue to play a role on the world stage with an organisation such as the United Nations.\n\nIn an era of what has often felt like near permanent political revolution, the churning in and then churning out of leader-after-leader, there has been what has felt, in contrast, like a near permanent leader of the Scottish government. But no more.\n\nThe SNP must now find, and quickly, a replacement. It is far from obvious who that will be.\n\nWhat does feel clearer is that Ms Sturgeon's political opponents are relieved she is going - and that is a compliment to her. Many who want to see the union preserved have longed for this day for some time, convinced her replacement will not be anywhere near as effective. Let us see.\n\nFor now, a huge figure in Scottish politics and a big figure on the UK political stage prepares to depart, and Scotland prepares for new political leadership.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People in Govanhill react to the news of Nicola Sturgeon's resignation", "The FBI is examining wreckage from the first balloon shot down\n\nThe White House has said there is no indication three flying objects blasted out of the sky over the weekend by the US military are linked to alleged Chinese spying.\n\nThe objects may be \"tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign\", spokesman John Kirby said.\n\nUS and Canadian officials have not yet located or recovered any wreckage from the three downed aircraft.\n\nBeijing earlier accused the US of \"a trigger-happy overreaction\".\n\nChina has denied one of its balloons, which was destroyed by a US fighter jet earlier this month off South Carolina, was being used for espionage, saying it was merely a weather-monitoring airship that had blown off course.\n\nAt Tuesday's daily news conference, Mr Kirby said it will be difficult to determine the purpose or origin of the three other objects that were destroyed over Alaska, Canada and Michigan until the debris is found and analysed.\n\n\"We haven't seen any indication or anything that points specifically to the idea that these three objects were part of the PRC's [People's Republic of China] spying programme,\" the White House National Security Council told reporters, \"or that they were definitively involved in external intelligence collection efforts\".\n\nA \"leading explanation\" being considered by US intelligence, he added, was that \"these could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign\".\n\nBut he noted that no company, organisation or government had yet laid claim to the objects.\n\nIn the most recent strike - over Lake Huron - the first Sidewinder missile fired by a US F-16 warplane missed its target, the top US general has confirmed.\n\n\"First shot missed. Second shot hit,\" said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley during a visit to Brussels on Tuesday.\n\n\"We go to great lengths to make sure that the airspace is clear and the backdrop is clear up to the max effective range of the missile. And in this case, the missiles land, or the missile landed, harmlessly in the water of Lake Huron.\"\n\nA spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meanwhile, criticised the American response.\n\n\"Many in the US have been asking, 'what good can such costly action possibly bring to the US and its taxpayers?'\" said Wang Wenbin on Tuesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nSensors from the alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down over the US on 4 February were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, and are being analysed by the FBI.\n\nSearch crews found \"significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified\" off the coast of South Carolina, said US Northern Command.\n\nThe Chinese balloon was being tracked by US intelligence since its lift-off from a base on Hainan Island on the south coast of China earlier this month, US media report.\n\nShortly after take-off the balloon drifted towards the US islands of Guam and Hawaii before moving north towards Alaska, American officials told CBS News, the BBC's partner.\n\nThe unnamed officials say that its path indicates that it could have been blown off course by weather, but that it was back under the Chinese control again by the time it reached the continental US.\n\nThe entire US Senate received a classified briefing on Tuesday about the matter from military leaders.\n\nSenate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber would launch an inquiry into why the aircraft were not detected earlier.\n\n\"It's a good question,\" Mr Schumer told reporters. \"We need to answer it.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Romania scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday to investigate an aerial object entering European airspace.\n\nBut the country's defence ministry said the pilots were unable to locate it and abandoned the mission after half an hour.\n\nNavy divers helped recover the balloon from the Atlantic Ocean\n\nWhat are your questions for our experts on the US balloons story?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed an event will go ahead in spring 2023\n\nThe SNP will hold a special conference in March to decide \"the way forward to secure independence\", the party has announced.\n\nThe event is billed as an opportunity to set out a \"clear pathway\" on Scotland's constitutional future.\n\nIt follows a UK Supreme Court ruling that Holyrood does not have the power to stage another referendum.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the SNP will fight the next general election as a de facto referendum.\n\nConfirming next year's conference, she tweeted: \"The SNP Special Conference to discuss and decide the way forward to secure independence following UK Supreme Court decision will take place in Edinburgh on 19 March.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nicola Sturgeon This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSNP business convener Kirsten Oswald announced that the event would be held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.\n\nShe said: \"The SNP's Democracy Scotland Conference in March will set out a clear pathway to Scotland being able to express their view on our nation's constitutional future.\n\n\"The Supreme Court verdict has galvanised the Yes movement right across Scotland. More and more people recognise independence not just as desirable but necessary.\"\n\nShe cited the five most recent polls on independence, all of which have recorded majority support for Yes once undecided voters are removed.\n\n\"This surge in support will be terrifying the Westminster establishment,\" Ms Oswald said. \"People know that to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, escape Brexit, invest in the NHS and pay public sector workers a fair wage the Scottish Parliament needs the full powers of independence.\n\n\"The more that [Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak and [Labour leader Sir Keir] Starmer tell us we have no right to decide our own future, the more people in Scotland will stand up and demand that basic democratic right.\"\n\nThe UK government has consistently refused to countenance the prospect of another vote on independence, or a de facto referendum.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"People in Scotland want both their governments to be concentrating on the issues that matter most to them - like growing our economy, getting people the help they need with their energy bills and supporting our NHS.\n\n\"As the prime minister has been clear, we will continue to work constructively with the Scottish government to tackle our shared challenges.\"\n\nHe said: \"The timing will jar with Scots worried about their household finances.\n\n\"The nationalists are tired after 15 years in power and are merely looking for the next constitutional lily pad to hop on to.\"\n\nScottish Labour's constitution spokeswoman Sarah Boyack said: \"The SNP are desperately scrambling for relevance because they know only Labour can kick the Tories out of government and deliver the change we need.\"\n\nNicola Sturgeon first mooted the idea of trying to turn the next election into a substitute referendum on independence back in June.\n\nAt that time, she said if indyref2 was blocked, the SNP would \"fight the UK general election on this single question: should Scotland be an independent country?\"\n\nIn a BBC interview, she made clear a majority of votes would need to be secured for her to claim a mandate.\n\nThat still left lots of questions. Would there need to be a majority for the SNP or for independence-supporting parties collectively? If they won, would they seek to negotiate independence, the means to hold a referendum or something else?\n\nThere is further debate in the \"yes\" movement about whether the next Westminster or Holyrood election would be the best test.\n\nI'm told the special conference will debate and choose between options on the way forward, none of which are likely to persuade UK supporting parties to accept an election result as a verdict on independence.", "The NEU had postponed a strike on February 14 but will now go out on 2 March\n\nTeachers have rejected a Welsh government pay offer and are set to go on strike next month.\n\nThe National Education Union postponed Tuesday's strike but will now walk out on 2 March following a meeting between officials.\n\nMinisters had offered an extra 1.5% pay rise, plus 1.5% as a one-off payment.\n\nTeachers in the NEU and the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) previously rejected this year's pay rise of 5%.\n\nHad they accepted the new offer, that would have meant a 6.5% pay rise with an additional one-off 1.5% this year.\n\nTwo further strikes are planned for 15 and 16 March.\n\nThe union's joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: \"In good faith the union postponed the day of action scheduled for 14 February, whilst we conveyed full details of (education minister) Jeremy Miles' offer and sought feedback from members in Wales.\n\n\"They have emphatically informed us that the offer of an additional 1.5% added to teachers' pay, plus an additional 1.5% lump sum is simply not good enough.\"\n\nMr Courtney insisted it failed to address the cost of living crisis, inflation, or the \"damage\" to pay since 2010.\n\n\"We have a clear mandate for strike action that is now rescheduled for 2 March in schools across Wales,\" he said.\n\nDavid Evans said NEU Cymru was committed to seeking a resolution to the dispute.\n\nThe NEU's Wales secretary, David Evans, said NEU Cymru was committed to seeking a resolution to the dispute.\n\nHe said it would meet Welsh government education minister, Jeremy Miles, as often as necessary.\n\n\"Whilst we acknowledge that the Welsh government has made offers that include seeking to address workload and reopening negotiations for 2023/24, those offers still fall short of our members expectations and needs,\" he said.\n\nThe Welsh government said it appreciated teachers' work but that it was operating under \"challenging financial constraints\".\n\nIt believed its pay offer was \"strong\".\n\n\"We are keen to continue to have discussions with partners,\" a spokesman said.\n\nCadija Balde said she would not be able to work during the strike\n\nOutside Baden Powell Primary, in Tremorfa, Cardiff, parents said they backed teachers.\n\nCadija Balde said: \"For me as a mum I support them, but as a mum it will affect me with the kids being off school as I want to go to work.\n\n\"If my son cannot go to school, I cannot work.\"\n\nShe said: \"They work hard enough and everything they've done throughout Covid, I can't thank them enough, so the least they can do is offer them a pay rise.\"\n\nJenny Ashton said teachers should get fair pay\n\nJenny Ashton said: \"I back them. If you see how much work they do, they are bringing up our kids, we're not the only ones doing it.\n\n\"So I think they should get fair pay.\"\n\nLaura Boyd said: \"They are struggling with the current crisis and financial needs, and even though they work long hours, and get the holidays they do, they still need a pay rise to try and pay their own bills and support their own families.\"", "Joe and Connie Elson: Around four babies are born with the disorder in England every year\n\nThe NHS has struck a confidential deal for what's thought to be the most expensive drug ever developed.\n\nThe gene therapy Libmeldy is used to treat an extremely rare condition, MLD, which causes severe damage to a child's nervous system and organs.\n\nAround five babies are born with the disorder in England every year.\n\nThe one-off treatment has a list price of £2.8 million but can be offered on the NHS after the health service negotiated a confidential discount.\n\nNHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: \"This revolutionary drug is a life-saver for the babies and young children who suffer from this devastating hereditary disorder and will spare their families untold heartache and grief.\"\n\nNicola Elson's daughter, Connie, first displayed symptoms of the condition as a toddler - tripping up and losing her concentration more easily.\n\n\"It was not long after that, that we got the diagnosis of MLD,\" she said. \"It was completely out of the blue, there was nothing like this in my family or my husband's family.\"\n\nNicola, from Cumbria, was told there was a one-in-four chance any child she had with her husband would be affected. She had Connie's younger brother Joe tested and was told he was also carrying the defective gene.\n\n\"It's the most unimaginable situation you can ever think of being in,\" said Nicola. \"For too long, doctors were saying, we're sorry but there is no hope and there's nothing we can do.\"\n\nMLD, or Metachromatic Leukodystrophy, is an extremely rare hereditary disorder caused by a crucial enzyme deficiency. Over time the nerves in the brain and other parts of the body stop working properly.\n\nIt can develop in babies and toddlers younger than 30 months and lead to loss of sight, speech and hearing, as well as difficulty moving and seizures. Average life expectancy is between just five and eight years old.\n\nBoth of Nicola's children were referred onto an early clinical trial in Italy for a new experimental treatment. By then Connie's condition had deteriorated and she was not well enough to be given the drug - which needs to be taken at a very early stage after symptoms develop.\n\nThat treatment, now called Libmeldy, works by replacing the faulty gene that causes the disorder.\n\nOn 5 December 2014 - on what his family now call his re-birthday - Joe had an operation to remove stem cells from his bone marrow. They were treated and re-injected back into his body as part of the clinical trial.\n\nJoe Elson at 11 years old, seven years after experimental gene therapy\n\nSeven years later, his mum says he is a typical 11-year-old boy now helping to look after his older sister.\n\n\"If you were a stranger on the street, you wouldn't know Joe even had this condition,\" says Nicola. \"He swims, he is in mainstream school, and he plays far too many computer games for my liking.\"\n\nThe long-term prognosis for children given the drug is still unknown, and Joe will need to be monitored for years to come, but both doctors and families are hopeful it could offer a permanent cure for the condition.\n\nLibmeldy is a so-called orphan drug - a pharmaceutical agent developed to treat a medical condition which, because it is so rare, may not be profitable to produce without some form of government assistance.\n\nLast year, it was reviewed and rejected by the drug price watchdog for England. In draft guidance, the National Institute for Health Care Excellence (NICE) said it was too expensive and yet to be proven in the long term.\n\nCosting £2.8 million at its list price, the watchdog said it was the most expensive single treatment it has ever evaluated.\n\nBut following discussions, specialist drugmaker Orchard Therapeutics increased a confidential discount to the price the NHS actually pays. It has now been recommended for children with no symptoms or who can still walk independently.\n\nIt will be delivered by a specialist service through the Centre for Genomic Medicine at Saint Mary's hospital in Manchester, one of five European sites that will administer the treatment.\n\nProfessor Simon Jones, a consultant at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, described the announcement as a \"major deal\".\n\n\"These kinds of therapies are going to be expensive, they are going to be hard to deliver and only a few centres are going to be able to do that,\" he said.\n\n\"There are probably quite a few different disorders which can be treated with this approach, but Libmeldy is the first to really break ground.\"\n\nThe drug has been recommended for use by Nice in England only at this stage. Patients from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would need their national health systems to fund the treatment in Manchester.\n\nYou can follow Jim on twitter.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA white supremacist who shot dead 10 black people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket last year has been sentenced to life in prison in a dramatic court hearing.\n\nPayton Gendron, 19, pleaded guilty to 25 counts, including first-degree murder and terrorism motivated by hate.\n\nAhead of the sentencing on Wednesday, a family member rushed towards the killer and was restrained by security.\n\nBarbara Massey, whose sister Katherine was killed, said to the gunman: \"You are going to come to our city and decide you don't like black people. Man, you don't know a damn thing about black people. We're human.\"\n\nMs Massey's statement was interrupted by her own son lunging toward the gunman. She told reporters outside court \"he saw me emotional and I'm his mom\".\n\n\"We're close,\" she said. \"You hurt one of us, you hurt us all.\"\n\nZaire Goodman, who was injured, suffers from survivor's guilt, his mother told the courtroom.\n\n\"He is dealing with the pain that I as a mother cannot bear,\" Zeneta Everhart said.\n\n\"On that day this terrorist made the choice that the value of a black human meant nothing to him… whatever the sentence is that [the gunman] receives, it will never be enough.\"\n\nHe said: \"I forgive you, but I forgive you not for your sake, but for mine and for this black community.\"\n\nAll of the 10 people killed were black. Three others were wounded.\n\nWayne Jones, the son of a victim, Celestine Chaney, addressed the killer: \"You've been brainwashed. You don't even know black people that much to hate them. You learned this on the internet.\n\n\"I hope you find it in your heart to apologise to these people, man. You did wrong for no reason.\"\n\nThe killer wept as Tamika Harper shared memories of her murdered aunt, Geraldine Talley.\n\nMs Harper told him: \"Do I hate you? No. Do I want you to die? No. I want you to stay alive. I want you to think about this every day of your life.\"\n\nInvestigators said the gunman researched the racial makeup of Buffalo, which was 200 miles (320km) away from his house in Conklin, New York, before his attack.\n\nWearing bullet-resistant armour, he live-streamed the 14 May attack at Tops Friendly Market after writing online how he had been inspired by other racially motivated shootings.\n\nBut speaking to the court on Wednesday he warned against copycat shootings.\n\nThe gunman, who is not eligible for parole, said: \"I shot and killed people because they were black. Looking back now, I can't believe I actually did it.\n\n\"I believed what I read online and acted out of hate. I know I can't take it back, but I wish I could, and I don't want anyone to be inspired by me and what I did.\"\n\nAs she delivered her decision, Judge Susan Eagan said: \"There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances.\"\n\nNew York state no longer allows the death penalty, but prosecutors at the federal level may seek it over hate and domestic terror charges to which the gunman has pleaded not guilty.", "Duangphet Phromthep, one of the 12 boys who was rescued from a Thai cave in 2018, has died in the UK.\n\nThe 17-year-old was found unconscious in his dorm in Leicestershire on Sunday and taken to hospital, where he died on Tuesday, the BBC has been told.\n\nHe had been enrolled in a football academy in the UK since late last year.\n\nHe was captain of the Thai boys' football team, which was trapped deep inside a cave for over two weeks while exploring in Chiang Rai province.\n\nHis grinning face, caught by the torch light of a diver after the boys were found in the cave, was one of the most memorable images from the rescue.\n\nIt is not known how the teenager died, but Leicestershire Police said his death is not being treated as suspicious. Reports in Thailand said he suffered a head injury.\n\nPhromthep was driven by ambulance to Kettering General Hospital on Sunday afternoon, a spokesperson for East Midlands Ambulance Service said. An air ambulance was also sent to the scene.\n\nIn August last year, his team mates rejoiced when Phromthep, who they call Dom, announced on Instagram that he had won a scholarship to join the Brooke House College Football Academy in Market Harborough.\n\n\"Today my dream has come true,\" he wrote.\n\nJust six months on, they are mourning the loss of their friend.\n\nDuangpetch \"Dom\" Promthep (right) filmed by rescuers in the cave\n\nNews of his death emerged after his mother informed the Wat Doi Wao temple in his hometown in Chiang Rai, which the team frequented.\n\nThe temple expressed condolences on Facebook - \"May Dom's soul rest in peace,\" said the post, which was accompanied by pictures of the football team with monks.\n\nSoon, messages began pouring in from his team mates.\n\n\"You told me to wait and see you play for the national team, I always believe that you would do it,\" wrote Prachak Sutham, one of the boys who was rescued with Phromthep in 2018.\n\n\"When we met the last time before you left for England, I even jokingly told you that when you come back, I would have to ask for your autograph.\n\n\"Sleep well, my dear friend. We will always have 13 of us together.\"\n\nAnother of the boys, Titan Chanin Viboonrungruang, wrote: \"Brother, you told me that we would be achieving our football dream... if the next world is real, I want us to play football together again, my brother Dom.\"\n\nPrincipal of Brooke House College, Ian Smith, said they were \"deeply saddened and shaken\" by the death.\n\n\"We unite in grief with all of Dom's family, friends, former teammates and those involved in all parts of his life, as well as everyone affected in any way by this loss in Thailand and throughout the college's global family,\" he said.\n\nDave Thomas, deputy head of mission at the British embassy in Thailand, on Wednesday reposted this picture from August, when the UK scholarship was announced\n\nIn a tweet, British Ambassador to Thailand Mark Gooding passed on \"his condolences to all his friends and family.\"\n\nPhromthep studied in Vachiralai Bee School in Chiang Mai before he went to the UK. A diehard football fan, he had been a member of a youth team in Chiang Mai.\n\nHis Instagram account is filled with posts on the sport, often accompanied with the hashtag #footballismylife.\n\nOne of his last posts in January shows a sketch of his \"dream team's football kit\" - jersey, shorts, socks and shoes with blue and pink stripes.\n\nAfter football practice on 23 June 2018, the Wild Boars (Moo Pa in Thai) football team - of which Phromthep was captain - raced to the Tham Luang cave on their bicycles. It was one of the team's favourite haunts.\n\nBut a sudden storm caused the narrow passageways in the cave system to flood, trapping the boys and their coach inside.\n\nThey spent nine days in darkness and without food - while a desperate search effort involving some 10,000 people went on - before they were found by divers.\n\nPhromthep turned 13 while he was trapped in the cave. His teammates were aged between 11 and 16 at the time, while their coach Ekkaphon Kanthawong was 25.\n\nThe boys used rocks to dig holes to escape, while their coach taught them meditation techniques to help them stay calm and use as little air as possible.\n\nDivers sent them food and letters from their family even as they planned the rescue. They were eventually brought out after being sedated with the drug ketamine.\n\nThe rescue made headlines around the world, and various films and books were later made to retell the extraordinary story, including a six-episode miniseries that Netflix released last year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Duangpetch Promthep reunites with friends and family after the 2018 Thai cave rescue", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Sturgeon 'wrestling' with decision to resign for weeks\n\nNicola Sturgeon has announced she is resigning as Scotland's first minister after more than eight years in the role.\n\nThe Scottish National Party leader said she knew \"in my head and in my heart\" this was the right time to step down.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she would remain in office until her successor was elected.\n\nShe is the longest-serving first minister and the first woman to hold the position.\n\nMs Sturgeon insisted her resignation was not in response to the \"latest period of pressure\", which has included controversies over gender reforms, trans prisoners and the strategy on independence.\n\nShe acknowledged there had been \"choppy waters\", but said her decision had come from \"a deeper and longer-term assessment\".\n\n\"Since the very first moment in the job, I have believed that part of serving well would be to know, almost instinctively, when the time is right to make way for someone else,\" she said.\n\n\"And when that time came, to have the courage to do so, even if many across the country, and in my party, might feel it too soon.\n\n\"In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it is right for me, for my party and for the country.\n\n\"And so today I am announcing my intention to step down as first minister and leader of my party.\"\n\nThe first minister said she had been struggling with conflicting emotions since around the turn of the year.\n\n\"I get up in the morning and I tell myself, and usually I convince myself, that I've got what it takes to keep going and keep going and keep going,\" she said.\n\n\"But then I realise that that's maybe not as true.\"\n\nShe said there were two questions - whether carrying on was right for her, and whether it was right for country, her party and the cause of independence.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the answer to both questions was no.\n\n\"We are at a critical moment,\" she said. \"The blocking of a referendum as the accepted, constitutional route to independence is a democratic outrage.\n\n\"But it puts the onus on us to decide how Scottish democracy will be protected and to ensure that the will of the Scottish people prevails.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People in Govanhill react to the news of Nicola Sturgeon's resignation\n\nShe said that support for independence needed to be \"solidified\" and to grow further.\n\n\"To achieve that we need to reach across the divide in Scottish politics, and my judgement now is that this needs a new leader,\" she said.\n\nNominations to elect her successor have now opened. Names to have been suggested as potential candidates include John Swinney, Kate Forbes and Angus Robertson.\n\nThe SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn told the BBC he would not be standing.\n\nThis is a bombshell which will send shockwaves through Scottish politics.\n\nThat's not just because Nicola Sturgeon has been a key figure for so long - an MSP since the Scottish parliament was opened in 1999, and its longest-serving first minister.\n\nIt's also because her government stands at a pivotal moment in the pursuit of the SNP's founding goal, of Scottish independence. The party is holding a special conference next month to decide how it should move the issue on, in light of the UK government's refusal to engage with plans for a referendum.\n\nAnd frankly, with no clear successors waiting in the wings, if Ms Sturgeon isn't running the independence campaign, it's not clear who will be placed to call the shots.\n\nThe first minister had come under significant pressure in recent weeks over her government's gender reforms.\n\nBut she has been so dominant in Scottish politics for so long that this still feels like it has come completely out of the blue.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she was \"not leaving politics\" and would continue to fight for Scottish independence.\n\nShe added that the intensity and \"brutality\" of life as a politician had taken its toll on her, and those around her.\n\nThe first minister said leading the country through the Covid pandemic had been \"by far the toughest thing I've done\" and that she had only recently started to comprehend its physical and mental impact.\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the first minister had led Scotland through some of the most \"challenging times\" in recent history.\n\nHe said: \"It is right that today we pay tribute to those achievements, particularly during the pandemic.\n\n\"Regardless of our differences, she is an able politician who has stood at the forefront of Scottish politics for more than 20 years.\"\n\nNicola Sturgeon in Bute House after the press conference\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak paid tribute to Ms Sturgeon \"for her long-standing public service\".\n\nHe said they \"didn't agree on everything\" but had successfully worked together on freeports.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross MSP said: \"Whatever our differences, it is right we recognise that political leadership is always demanding and takes its toll on a person and their family.\"\n\nBut he added that Ms Sturgeon had \"presided over a decade of division and decay in Scotland\".\n\nFormer first minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond, who now leads the Alba party, said he felt for Ms Sturgeon personally - but that there was no obvious successor and no clear strategy for independence.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said he was \"very sorry\" at the first minister's decision but \"completely understands\" her reasons.\n\n\"It's obviously been a shock to all of us, a shock to the SNP family and shock to the country as well,\" he said.\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said Ms Sturgeon had been an \"outstanding political leader\".\n\n\"She has taken support for independence to record levels and won every national election, by margins other parties could only wish for,\" he said.\n\nOne of the reasons that Nicola Sturgeon has announced her intention to resign, rather than quitting straight away, is that her formal resignation starts an official timetable at Holyrood.\n\nAs soon as her resignation letter is sent to the King, the Scottish Parliament has 28 days to elect a replacement first minister - or face another election.\n\nMs Sturgeon will remain in post until her party chooses her successor as SNP leader.\n\nThe SNP's rule book states that candidates must have at least 100 nominations from party members from at least 20 local branches. The vote is run by postal ballot, on a one-person one-vote basis.\n\nThe timetable for that process is still to be agreed. But with a special conference to decide on whether to use an election as a de facto independence referendum due next month, time is tight.\n\nSome in the party have suggested the conference should be delayed until a new leader is in place.\n\nMs Sturgeon has been a member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, and became the deputy leader of the SNP in 2004.\n\nShe has been first minister since November 2014, when she took over from Alex Salmond after the defeat in the independence referendum.\n\nMs Sturgeon has led the SNP to a series of election victories at UK, Scottish and local level.\n\nLast year the UK Supreme Court ruled that Holyrood did not have the power to stage another independence referendum - a move which has been blocked by the UK government.\n\nMs Sturgeon wants the SNP to fight the next general election as a de facto referendum, but there has been some opposition to the plan within the SNP.\n\nIn addition, recent months have seen controversies over gender reforms, which have been blocked by the UK government; a teachers' strike; and rows over the management of transgender prisoners.", "Adverts that suggested Huel meal replacement shakes could save people money on their food bills have been banned for being misleading.\n\nAs the cost of living crisis hit, one Facebook ad claimed that \"Huel helps keep money in your pockets\".\n\nBut Huel did not show its products were cheaper than traditional food, the Advertising Standards Authority said.\n\nThe firm, which has pulled the ads, said it took its advertising responsibilities seriously.\n\nHuel was founded by entrepreneurs Julian Hearn and James Collier who named it by combining \"human\" and \"fuel\".\n\nIt claims when mixed with water its powders provide \"complete nutrition\", are a healthy alternative to traditional meals and can \"help you lose, gain, or maintain weight\".\n\nThe company runs paid social media partnerships with fitness influencers and encourages its customers to call themselves \"Hueligans\".\n\nIn December it announced investment by actor Idris Elba, presenter Jonathan Ross and social media influencer Grace Beverley, founder of fitness brands Tala and Shreddy.\n\nA Huel advert which ran on Facebook in August and September 2022 claimed that Huel \"helps keep money in your pockets\", adding that a month's worth cost less than £50.\n\nA second advert on the firm's website also claimed that Huel could help \"save money on food\".\n\n\"The ads were seen at a time of worsening financial crisis, during which increasing energy and food costs, as well as rising inflation, were having a significant impact on people in the UK,\" the ASA said.\n\nThe watchdog ruled that Huel didn't make it clear enough that the £50 claim was based on having one meal replacement per day.\n\nTo get the recommended amount of calories for a day, an average woman would have to eat five Huel portions, the ASA added.\n\nThat would cost about £350 a month, while an average man would need to eat more.\n\nSeparately, Huel claimed to be a \"healthy option\" without backing that up, the watchdog said.\n\nHuel said it did not believe the ads were misleading, and \"regretted any confusion that may have been perceived by their ads\".\n\nIt added that the £50 claim was made on the basis of having 34 Huel meals per month, at a cost of £1.51 per meal. This was mentioned in text at the bottom of the ad, albeit in a way the ASA found unclear.\n\nThe firm said it had never claimed Huel shakes should replace all of a person's meals.\n\nSeparately, the Electrical Safety First charity has made complaints to the ASA about adverts for heating products its claims are dangerous.\n\nThe ads were trying to attract customers squeezed by cost-of-living pressures by saying the heaters could help save on energy bills.\n\nBut Electrical Safety First found heaters branded Keilini, HeatPal and InstaHeat \"posed a serious risk of electric shock, with mains plugs not meeting the necessary UK safety standards\".\n\nIt said on two of the heaters the plug pins snapped easily, and the Keilini-branded heater did not have a UK plug at all, but instead an EU mains plug with an adaptor.\n\nIt said this was unsuitable due to a lack of fuse, creating a fire risk.\n\nLesley Rudd, chief executive of the charity, said it was \"callous that these sellers are pushing dangerous products they know are going to be sought after by hard-up households during an energy crisis\".\n\nThe firms were contacted by the BBC for comment.\n\nThere is also a firm that runs an \"Instaheat UK\" website which sells patio heaters. This firm said it was unconnected to the portable heaters branded \"Instaheat\".", "Silvio Berlusconi is a senator, having been re-elected last year\n\nItalian former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been acquitted of bribing witnesses to lie about his notorious \"bunga-bunga\" parties.\n\nThe billionaire media tycoon, 86, was accused of paying young showgirls and others to give false testimony about the allegedly raunchy parties.\n\nThe other 28 defendants were also acquitted - among them Moroccan dancer Karima El Mahroug, known as Ruby, who figured in an earlier Berlusconi case.\n\nIn the Ruby case, the right-wing senator won an appeal against his conviction for paying for sex with an underage prostitute. Ruby and he both denied having had sex and she denied having ever been a prostitute.\n\nIn his various court cases, he has denied wrongdoing, accusing prosecutors of pursuing a political vendetta against him. He insisted the parties - described by some as \"orgies\" - were actually elegant dinners.\n\nThe only Berlusconi trial that ended in a conviction was his sentencing for tax fraud in 2013. Given his age, Italian justice treated him leniently - he did a year of community service at a care home near Milan.\n\nKarima El Mahroug, or \"Ruby\", leaving court after her acquittal\n\nBerlusconi was prime minister three times between 1994 and 2011. He was accused of giving witnesses millions of euros in hush money in the \"bunga-bunga\" trial, but said the money was given as compensation for reputational damage to people linked to the notorious parties.\n\nHe was temporarily barred from political office over his conviction for tax fraud, but won a seat in the Senate in 2022 elections.\n\nHis Forza Italia party plays a key role in Italy's ruling right-wing coalition, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She hailed his acquittal as \"excellent news that puts an end to a long legal case that also had important repercussions on Italian political and institutional life\".\n\nAs Italian leader, Berlusconi forged a close friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And this week, Berlusconi made controversial comments about the war in Ukraine which were condemned by Kyiv.\n\nOn Sunday, Berlusconi said he would \"never\" have met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, as Ms Meloni did last Thursday in Brussels on the sidelines of an EU summit.\n\nBerlusconi said that if President Zelensky had stopped attacking the two Russian-backed regions of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, the war would not have happened. \"So I judge very, very negatively the behaviour of this gentleman,\" he said.\n\nMs Meloni reaffirmed Italian support for Mr Zelensky after Berlusconi's remarks. And Zelensky aide Mykhailo Podolyak denounced Berlusconi as \"a VIP agitator who is acting in the interests of Russian propaganda\". \"He is bartering away Italy's reputation for his friendship with Putin,\" he said.", "The energy watchdog has said suppliers' suspension of forced prepayment meter installations will last for the next six weeks.\n\nIt was revealed earlier this month that debt agents for British Gas had broken into vulnerable people's homes to force-fit meters.\n\nOfgem subsequently halted the practice and has now said the suspension will last until the end of March.\n\nThe regulator said all domestic suppliers had agreed to do so.\n\nIn a letter to suppliers on Wednesday, Ofgem said it would consult on how firms should use prepayment meters and whether rules need to be changed.\n\nRemote transfers to prepayment meters must also be halted for six weeks.\n\nNext week, on 21 February, it will publish an update on the scope and timelines of its Market Compliance Review on prepayment meter warrant installations and remote mode switching.\n\nEnergy firms suspended forced meter installations after it was revealed that British Gas agents had broken into vulnerable people's homes to fit meters.\n\nAfter the story was published by The Times, Chris O'Shea, the boss of Centrica which owns British Gas, told the BBC: \"It is completely unacceptable.\"\n\nOfgem said: \"The energy crisis is no excuse for unacceptable behaviour towards any customer, particularly those in vulnerable circumstances.\"\n\nIt asked suppliers to suspend installations and review the use of court warrants to enter the homes of customers in arrears.\n\nBritish Gas said it would suspend forcefully installing prepayment meters until at least after the winter. Wednesday's letter makes it clear that the suspension will last until spring.\n\nThe letter reveals that Ofgem requested suppliers to halt forced installations during a meeting last week.\n\nIt made clear that: \"For the avoidance of doubt, this includes ceasing installation by warrant, ceasing the remote mode switch of smart meters to pre-payment without explicit agreement from the customer, and ceasing new applications to court for installation warrants - unless theft is suspected.\"\n\nOfgem said some suppliers had warned that unrecoverable debts could climb if prepayment meters couldn't be fitted.\n\nThat would increase their costs, suppliers said, which could in turn lead to larger bills for other customers.\n\nThe regulator said it was examining closely how customer debts affect suppliers' costs and was working to \"determine what action we need to take\".\n\nThere are more than four million UK households on prepayment meters. The current rules state:\n\nThey could be changed after Ofgem's consultation, which will include talking to energy suppliers, consumer groups and charities to consider the rules and guidance on the use of pre-payment meters, not just during \"the current exceptional circumstances\" but in future, too.\n\nBritish Gas owner Centrica is set to announce its annual results on Thursday. It is expected to post record profits of around £3bn, more than three times the £948m profit Centrica made in 2021.\n\nThat was before gas prices soared on the back of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it could provoke fresh accusations of profiteering by energy firms.\n\nChief executive Chris O'Shea is in line for a potential £1.6m bonus, which would be paid out on top of his £795,000 salary.\n\nBritish Gas is the UK's largest energy company supplying around 10 million homes.\n\nRival supplier EDF, owned by the French government, will publish its 2022 profit figures on Friday. It supplies energy to around five million British homes.\n\nHave you been forced to have a prepayment meter installed? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A serving Metropolitan Police officer who was a victim of serial rapist David Carrick has written to the Attorney General saying she does not believe his jail sentence needs to be increased.\n\nCarrick, a Met officer for 20 years, will serve at least 30 years.\n\nThe Attorney General's Office is reviewing the sentence after complaints it is too lenient.\n\nThe officer, known as \"Michelle\", says the jail term \"sits right\" compared with other cases.\n\n\"I think it would be unfair to increase it,\" said Michelle, who, as a rape victim, cannot be named for legal reasons.\n\n\"Even the prosecution said there's no way a whole life order should be served.\n\n\"Given his age, I think the 30 years sits right, because, he can't even ask for parole until he's nearly 80 years old.\"\n\nLast week the Attorney General's Office (AGO) said it had received \"multiple requests\" to review Carrick's sentence under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.\n\nThese requests can come from victims, their families, and members of the public. The AGO has until next month to decide whether the sentence should be examined by the Court of Appeal.\n\nMichelle was raped by Carrick after becoming friendly with him while on secondment away from her regular base in 2004.\n\nShe says the attack affected the whole of the rest of her life, making her wary of forming close relationships with men.\n\n\"I didn't have the family life that I wanted,\" she told BBC News.\n\nCarrick committed sexual offences against a dozen women over two decades\n\nDuring her career Michelle has worked as a police officer inside jails and while she agrees Carrick needs to pay for his crimes, she also knows that as an ex-police officer, he will face a particularly tough time in jail.\n\n\"He does need that dim light at the end of a very long tunnel to manage his mental health,\" she said.\n\n\"He is going to have it harder than other prisoners.\"\n\nMichelle was among the women Carrick attacked who were in court to see him sentenced last week and says the sentence passed by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb was not \"by any means lenient\".\n\nWith time already spent in custody, Carrick was told by the judge he must serve 30 years in prison before he could be considered for release.\n\n\"I think at 80 years old, having served that amount of time, he shouldn't pose a risk to the public when he comes out... if he comes out,\" said Michelle.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Aya's mother, father, four siblings and an aunt were killed in the disaster\n\nAn orphaned Syrian baby born under the rubble of her collapsed home after last week's earthquake has been moved to a \"safe location\" by a health authority.\n\nThe Afrin Health Directorate took the precautionary measure to protect the girl, Aya, from possible kidnapping and adoption fraud, a source told the BBC.\n\nOn Monday, there was a violent incident at the hospital in the opposition-held region where she was being treated.\n\nA male nurse, accompanied by two armed men, allegedly beat the manager.\n\nThe head of the health directorate, Dr Ahmad Hajj Hassan, denied claims on social media that it was a foiled attempt to kidnap Aya.\n\n\"The kidnap allegations were a misunderstanding. This was a wholly internal hospital-related issue and had no connection whatsoever with the baby,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThousands of people offered to adopt the baby last week, after her story was widely reported by local and international media.\n\nHowever, the health directorate is determined to prioritise her welfare and act cautiously with the adoption process, according to the source.\n\nAya's mother went into labour soon after their family home in the town of Jindayris was destroyed by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Turkey on 6 February.\n\nShe died after giving birth to Aya, who was still connected by her umbilical cord when she was found by rescuers.\n\nDramatic footage shared on social media showed a man carrying the baby, covered in dust, after she was pulled from debris.\n\nAya's father, four siblings and an aunt were also killed in the disaster.\n\nKhalil al-Suwadi, a distant relative who was there when she was pulled to safety, brought the baby to the hospital in Afrin.\n\nThe paediatrician looking after her, Dr Hani Marouf, told the BBC last Thursday that Aya had arrived in \"a bad state\". \"She had bumps, bruises, she was cold and barely breathing,\" he added.\n\nShe responded to treatment and by the next day her condition had stabilised.\n\nThe hospital's manager, Khalid Attiah, said his wife was breastfeeding Aya alongside their own four-month daughter and that they would care for her until she was adopted.\n\nJindaryis, about 8km (5 miles) from the Turkish border, was one of the worst-hit towns in Syria. Some 200 buildings there have completely collapsed.\n\nThe White Helmets, whose volunteer first responders have been leading the search and rescue effort in opposition-held areas, say 517 bodies have been pulled from the rubble there.\n\nThe deaths represent almost a quarter of the total reported by the White Helmets and opposition authorities across the region, where 90% of the 4.6 million population needed humanitarian assistance even before the disaster.", "Wayne Couzens, who will never be freed from prison, is due to be sentenced next month for indecent exposure\n\nTwo police officers face misconduct cases over the handling of indecent exposure reports against Wayne Couzens, the former Met Police officer who murdered Sarah Everard.\n\nOn Monday, Couzens admitted three offences, including exposing himself at a drive-through four days before he abducted Ms Everard on 3 March 2021.\n\nA Met officer, who quit in 2022, has a case to answer for gross misconduct.\n\nAnd a sergeant from the Kent force will face a misconduct meeting.\n\nCouzens, 50, is serving a whole-life sentence for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Ms Everard, whom he snatched from the street while she was walking home in south London.\n\nThe guilty pleas made on Monday related to three incidents in Kent - two offences at a fast-food restaurant in February 2021, and another at woodland in Deal in November 2020.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) carried out two investigations and has released the findings following the conclusion of the criminal case.\n\nThe first, which has resulted in a Met police constable facing gross misconduct allegations, looked into whether procedures like CCTV gathering, vehicle checks and collecting evidence were carried out properly.\n\nInvestigators were interested in a week-long period starting on 3 March 2021, the day the officer first visited the restaurant to carry out inquiries, and ending when the operation was taken over by another team.\n\nBy the time Ms Everard was kidnapped, the Met's indecent exposure investigation had not uncovered Couzens' occupation.\n\nHe was arrested on 9 March on suspicion of abduction and was charged with murder shortly after.\n\nIndecent exposure leads to sentences ranging from a fine through to two years in jail.\n\nHad Wayne Couzens been convicted for any of the incidents (the earliest allegation dates back to 2015) he would probably have been imprisoned because his role as a serving police officer would have been an aggravating factor.\n\nHe would have been thrown out of the uniform before he could abuse his position and powers to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard.\n\nEven if he had only been identified for the 2021 exposures, that would have been enough to suspend him in the immediate period before he killed.\n\nThe IOPC's investigation was limited to allegations of individual failures, but a separate inquiry set up by the Home Office will consider what three police forces knew - or could have known - and when.\n\nThe awful truth now appears to be that Couzens was following a path of escalating sexual violence. And that is why these offences are so important in establishing whether Couzens could have been stopped.\n\nThe officer accused of misconduct resigned and left the organisation in 2022, the Met said in response to the IOPC. The independent hearing will go ahead \"as soon as possible\", despite the officer no longer being employed by the force.\n\nBBC News asked the Met, IOPC and Home Office whether the officer was currently employed by another police force but none would provide further information.\n\nThe conduct of another Met officer was also looked into by the IOPC, but it was found they had no case to answer.\n\nThe sergeant in Kent is alleged to have breached professional standards in relation to a June 2015 incident in Dover. A man reportedly exposed himself to a pedestrian in a vehicle \"identified as belonging to Couzens\", the IOPC said.\n\nThis incident is not one which Couzens pleaded guilty to this week but the IOPC investigation into how that matter was handled began in May 2021.\n\nIt found no evidence to suggest Couzens was identified as a police officer or that he was spoken to by police.\n\nThe IOPC said the sergeant has a \"case to answer for misconduct for alleged failures in following all reasonable lines of inquiry before the case was closed\".\n\nAssistant chief constable of Kent Police Tracey Harman said the force referred itself to the watchdog over the 2015 indecent exposure allegation.\n\nShe confirmed no arrests were made as part of the investigation at the time.\n\nOn both 14 and 27 February 2021, Couzens exposed his genitals to staff at the drive-through restaurant and is said to have looked straight at the workers while sitting in his car as he paid for his food.\n\nThe second offence happened four days before he used his position to trick Ms Everard into his car.\n\nThe IOPC said it was now up to the Metropolitan and Kent police forces to organise disciplinary proceedings and consider the evidence to decide whether the allegations against the officers are proven or not.\n\nCouzens is due to be sentenced for the indecent exposure offences on 6 March.\n\nThree remaining counts Couzens faced will not be pursued by the prosecution and will be left on file, the Old Bailey heard on Monday.\n\nAn independent inquiry led by Dame Elisha Angiolini is looking at Sarah Everard's murder and will consider the exposure incidents as part of an analysis of whether any opportunities to prevent it were missed.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Foiled again - a Cadbury Creme Egg thief is convicted in court\n\nA man who stole 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs, causing a police panic about Easter, has been convicted in court.\n\nJoby Pool was surrounded by a mountain of the foil-wrapped chocolate when police caught up with him at the weekend.\n\nRecognising he was foiled too, he surrendered to officers with his hands up, prosecutors said.\n\nHe is due to be sentenced in Crown Court next month.\n\nPool, 32, used a stolen lorry with false plates to snatch a trailer containing the eggs from an industrial unit in Telford on Saturday, Kidderminster Magistrates' Court heard.\n\nThe BBC reported on Monday how the vehicle was stopped on the M42 motorway, leading West Mercia Police to say its officers - hunting someone \"presumably purporting to be the Easter bunny\" - had \"saved Easter\".\n\nThe defendant was caught transporting 200,000 of these chocolate treats\n\nAt court on Tuesday, Pool, from Dewsbury Road, Tingley, near Leeds, pleaded guilty to criminal damage and theft.\n\nProsecutor Owen Beale said the offence was not \"spur of the moment\", and there had been \"significant planning\".\n\nPolice said Pool had used a metal grinder to get through the gates of the industrial unit from where he stole the eggs and other varieties of chocolate.\n\nHis plan fell apart when he reached the northbound M42 where police pounced.\n\nMr Beale said: \"He gave up at junction 11 and walked towards the police with his hands up - he was arrested and the load was recovered.\"\n\nThe haul was said to be worth more than £31,000 - about £9,000 less than Monday's police estimate.\n\nMagistrates were told Pool had previous convictions in 2019 for similar offences including theft, handling stolen goods and driving while disqualified.\n\nHe has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Shrewsbury Crown Court on 14 March for sentencing.\n\nJohn McMillan, solicitor for the defendant, said his self-employed client knew a substantial sentence was likely.\n\nHe added: \"There has been no interference with the food products that were taken - they will be in a condition that they can go back on the shelves.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "David Ballantyne Smith claims he was not paid and was motivated by an employment grievance\n\nA Russian spy at the British embassy in Berlin was caught by a sting operation, the OId Bailey has heard.\n\nBriton David Ballantyne Smith, 58, was working as a security guard when he passed secret information to Russian authorities.\n\nThe court heard how two fake Russian operatives working undercover helped lead to his arrest in August 2021.\n\nProsecutors claim Smith held strong anti-UK views and was paid for information.\n\nSmith pleaded guilty to eight charges last year and has returned to court for legal argument about his motivation.\n\nHe claims he was not paid and was motivated by an employment grievance while suffering mental health issues.\n\nThe Old Bailey heard how one undercover operative posed as a \"walk-in\" Russian informant called \"Dmitry\" when he was escorted into the British embassy by Smith on 5 August 2021.\n\nAfterwards, Smith was seen on CCTV recording the earlier footage of Dmitry.\n\n\"The prosecution allege he... knows the potential significance of the Dmitry incident because he has taken the recordings with a view to passing that material on,\" Alison Morgan KC told the court.\n\nA second undercover operative met him in the street and claimed to be a Russian intelligence officer called \"Irina\".\n\n\"Irina was deployed to play the role of the GRU [Russian spy agency] officer and to see whether someone - Dmitry - was providing information to the UK that could be damaging to Russia,\" said Ms Morgan.\n\nSmith was recorded covertly and appeared cautious, telling Irina he needed to speak to \"someone\" first.\n\nThe undercover sting was prompted by a letter Smith sent in November 2020 to a military staff member at the Russian Embassy in Berlin.\n\nProsecutors say Smith received money in exchange for information and favoured Russia and its leadership.\n\nSmith said he only intended to \"inconvenience and embarrass\" the embassy\n\nThey say there were unaccounted-for funds, including 800 euro (£700) in cash found at his home in Potsdam.\n\nSmith has denied leaking secrets to Russia for money and claimed he only intended to \"inconvenience and embarrass\" the embassy, where he had worked since 2016.\n\nProsecutors say his deliberate engagement with Russian authorities by providing them with confidential and sensitive information showed intent to harm British interests.\n\nItems seized from his flat included travel documents and sheets of blank embassy headed paper.\n\nPhotographs taken at that address showed a Russian Federation flag, a Soviet military hat, a Communist toy Lada car and a Russian cuddly toy Rottweiler dog wearing a military hat.\n\nA cartoon seized from his work locker showed Russian President Vladimir Putin in military attire holding the head of former German chancellor Angela Merkel.\n\nSmith, who is originally from Scotland, was extradited on 6 April last year and then arrested at Heathrow for offences under the Official Secrets Act.\n\nLast November, Smith pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Official Secrets Act by committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state.\n\nSmith is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.", "Shortages of some fruit and vegetables could last for up to a month, the environment secretary has said.\n\nTherese Coffey's comment came after Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Tesco placed limits on items such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.\n\nSpeaking in the Commons, Ms Coffey told MPs she anticipated \"the situation will last about another two to four weeks\".\n\nMinisters were talking to retailers about how to avoid such problems in the future, she added.\n\nShops and suppliers say the shortages have been caused largely by bad weather in southern Europe and Africa.\n\nResponding to an urgent question in the House of Commons, Ms Coffey said: \"We anticipate the situation will last about another two to four weeks.\n\n\"It is important that we try and make sure that we get alternative sourcing options.\"\n\nShe said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had already been in discussion with retailers.\n\n\"It is why there will be further discussions led by ministers as well, so that we can try and get over this and try and avoid similar situations in the future.\"\n\nShadow environment secretary Jim McMahon said: \"There is genuine public concern about the availability of food and as the secretary responsible for our food security - and let's bear in mind food security is national security - this is absolutely mission critical.\"\n\nMs Coffey added: \"I wish to reiterate UK food security does remain resilient.\"\n\nIn the House of Commons session Conservative politician Selaine Saxby said supermarkets were still importing too many products.\n\nShe said people \"should be eating more seasonally and supporting our own British farms\" which would mean \"many of these problems would be avoided\".\n\nMs Coffey said it was \"important to make sure that we cherish the specialisms that we have in this country - a lot of people would be eating turnips right now rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce and tomatoes and similar\".\n\nBut, she added: \"I'm conscious that consumers want year round choice and that is what our supermarkets, food producers and growers around the world try to satisfy.\"\n\nAt present, Tesco customers can buy up to three tomatoes, three peppers and three cucumbers in one visit.\n\nAsda has the same restrictions on those products, but has gone further, also putting limits on lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries. They are also restricted to three purchases of each on one visit.\n\nAldi has imposed a limit of three per customer on sales of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes.\n\nIn Morrisons, shoppers are restricted to two tomatoes, two cucumbers, two lettuces and two peppers.\n\nOf the remaining supermarkets, the Co-op told the BBC on Thursday there were \"no plans to introduce limits on fruit and veg\".\n\nSimilarly M&S said it had \"no plans to introduce limits\".\n\nSainsbury's said it currently had \"no purchase limits in place\". Likewise Lidl and Waitrose have not brought in any limits.\n\nExtreme weather in a number of growing regions in southern Europe and North Africa has been cited as the key reason for the shortages.\n\nIn addition, producers in the UK and Northern Europe have been badly hit by high energy costs - because crops are grown in heated greenhouses over the winter. Fertiliser costs have also risen.\n\nHowever, importers, wholesalers and retailers have played down the idea that Brexit is a factor.\n\nThat is partly because the full impact of the Brexit changes have yet to be felt when it comes to fresh produce entering the country from the EU. Customs declarations are required, but border controls are not due to be implemented until 1 January 2024.\n\nAlso a significant proportion of the UK's fresh produce comes from Morocco, which is outside the EU. It is subject to border checks, and that has not changed.\n\nBut the view from elsewhere in Europe is more nuanced.\n\nKsenija Simovic is a senior policy adviser at Copa-Cogeca, a group which represents farmers and farming co-operatives in the EU.\n\nShe says: \"It doesn't help that the UK is out of the EU and Single Market, but I don't think this is the primary reason the UK is having shortages.\"\n\nIn her view, businesses within Europe do benefit both from being closer to where products are grown, and from simpler, better-coordinated supply chains.\n\nUltimately, she thinks, if there is a shortage of supply then the produce that is available is simply more likely to remain within the Single Market.\n\nIn addition, according to some industry experts, the shortages are more evident in the UK than in the EU because European retailers use more flexible contracts, and so can pay more if they need to .\n\nMs Coffey said: \"Our [UK] supermarkets often have a fixed price contract, whereas in other countries there can often be a trend to have a variable price contract.\"\n\nEarlier in the Commons, during an exchange about food banks, Labour MP Rachael Maskell said high demand meant food banks in York were \"running out, eking out food supplies\".\n\nShe asked what the government was doing to \"ensure that no-one goes without\"?\n\nMs Coffey said: \"We do know that one of the best ways to boost their incomes is not only to get into work if they're not in work already, but potentially to work some more hours, to get upskilled, to get a higher income.\"", "Ms Begum was 15 when she joined the self-styled Islamic State group in 2015\n\nShamima Begum has lost her challenge over the decision to deprive her of British citizenship despite a \"credible\" case she was trafficked.\n\nMr Justice Jay told the semi-secret court dealing with her case that her appeal had been fully dismissed.\n\nThe ruling means the 23-year-old remains barred from returning to the UK and stuck in a camp in northern Syria.\n\nHer legal team said the case was \"nowhere near over\" and the decision will be challenged.\n\nMs Begum was 15 years old when she travelled to join the self-styled Islamic State group in 2015.\n\nShe went on to have three children, all of whom have died, after marrying a fighter with the group.\n\nIn 2019, the then home secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of her British citizenship, preventing her coming home, and leaving her detained as an IS supporter in a camp.\n\nThe Special Immigration Appeals Commission has ruled that decision, taken after ministers received national security advice about Ms Begum's threat to the UK, had been lawful - even though her lawyers had presented strong arguments she was a victim.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"I'm ashamed of myself\" - Shamima Begum (speaking in June 2022)\n\nListen to The Shamima Begum Story investigative podcast on BBC Sounds and watch the film on BBC iPlayer.\n\nDuring the appeal hearing last November, Ms Begum's lawyers argued the decision had been unlawful because the home secretary had failed to consider whether she had been a victim of child trafficking - in effect arguing she had been groomed and tricked into joining the fighters, along with school friends Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase in February 2015.\n\nMs Sultana was reportedly killed in a bombing raid in 2016, but the fate of Amira Abase is unknown.\n\nAs all UK consular services are suspended in Syria, it is extremely difficult for the government to confirm the whereabouts of the British nationals.\n\nThat was the first time judges had to consider whether the state's obligations to combat trafficking and abuse of children should have any influence over national security decisions.\n\nMr Justice Jay revealed the complexity of the case had caused the panel of three \"great concern and difficulty\".\n\n\"The commission concluded that there was a credible suspicion that Ms Begum had been trafficked to Syria,\" he said in his summary.\n\n\"The motive for bringing her to Syria was sexual exploitation to which, as a child, she could not give a valid consent.\n\n\"The commission also concluded that there were arguable breaches of duty on the part of various state bodies in permitting Ms Begum to leave the country as she did and eventually cross the border from Turkey into Syria.\"\n\nBut despite those concerns, the judge said even if Ms Begum had been trafficked, that did not trump the home secretary's legal duty to make a national security decision to strip her of her British nationality.\n\n\"There is some merit in the argument that those advising the secretary of state see this as a black and white issue, when many would say that there are shades of grey,\" said the judge in his summary.\n\nBut despite those questions over how the case had been handled, the commission concluded the home secretary had still acted within his powers - even if there could have been a different outcome.\n\n\"If asked to evaluate all the circumstances of Ms Begum's case, reasonable people with knowledge of all the relevant evidence will differ, in particular in relation to the issue of the extent to which her travel to Syria was voluntary and the weight to be given to that factor in the context of all others,\" said the judge.\n\n\"Likewise, reasonable people will differ as to the threat she posed in February 2019 to the national security of the United Kingdom, and as to how that threat should be balanced against all countervailing considerations.\n\n\"However, under our constitutional settlement these sensitive issues are for the secretary of state to evaluate and not for the commission.\"\n\nThis isn't the first time a legal challenge by Ms Begum's lawyers has failed. In February 2020 the same commission rejected her team's argument that she had been made \"de facto stateless\" when her citizenship was removed.\n\nIt agreed with the Home Office's position that since she was technically entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship, it wasn't legally obliged to allow her to keep her UK rights.\n\nIn February 2021, the Supreme Court said she could not return to the UK to fight her case on security grounds.\n\nUnlike the UK, other western countries like France, Germany and Australia have allowed an increasing number of former IS supporters back.\n\nAll US citizens who travelled to Syria to join the self-styled Islamic State group have been allowed to return to the country, barrister Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the BBC.\n\nHe said the pace of repatriations \"seems to be increasing\", with Germany allowing 100 citizens back, France allowing more than 100, and Sweden also allowing citizens to return in double figures.\n\nHe told BBC News: \"Little by little, countries are beginning to change their posture from [a] strategic distance to try and manage their return.\n\n\"There is a bit of a risk that the UK could become a bit of an outlier.\"\n\nIn a statement, Ms Begum's lawyers Gareth Pierce and Daniel Furner called on Suella Braverman, the current home secretary, to look at the case again \"in light of the commission's troubling findings\".\n\nThey said the decision removes protections for British child trafficking victims in cases where national security is involved and leaves their client \"in unlawful, arbitrary and indefinite detention without trial in a Syrian camp\".\n\nHer legal team said \"every possible avenue to challenge this decision will be urgently pursued\" without providing further details of any potential appeal.\n\nA spokesman for the Home Office said it was \"pleased\" with the outcome, adding: \"The government's priority remains maintaining the safety and security of the UK and we will robustly defend any decision made in doing so.\"\n\nMr Javid also welcomed the ruling. Ministers must have the \"power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it\", he said.\n\nHuman rights groups and campaigners have criticised the ruling and the government's position, maintaining that Ms Begum was a child exploitation victim.\n\nSteve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK's refugee and migrant rights director, said: \"The home secretary shouldn't be in the business of exiling British citizens.\"\n\nConservative MP David Davis, who has repeatedly challenged the government on civil liberties issues, described the situation as a \"shameful abdication of responsibility and must be remedied\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe UN General Assembly in New York has overwhelmingly backed a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago.\n\nIt called for the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine and a halt to fighting.\n\nThe motion was backed by 141 nations with 32 abstaining and seven - including Russia - voting against.\n\nIn Vienna, a large number of delegates walked out during a Russian address at a parliamentary session of a European security body.\n\nThe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) walkout and the UN vote came a day before the first anniversary of the invasion.\n\nThe UN vote called for peace as soon as possible.\n\nThe resolution reaffirmed support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, rejecting any Russian claims to the parts of the country it occupies. In September, MPs in Moscow voted to illegally annex four regions of Ukraine.\n\nThe UN also demanded \"that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders\" and called for a cessation of hostilities.\n\nThe measure is not legally binding but holds political weight.\n\nWhile the resolution was passed overwhelmingly by the majority of nations, there were some notable abstentions.\n\nChina, India, Iran and South Africa were among the 32 countries to abstain in the vote.\n\nThe seven countries who voted against were Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Mali, Nicaragua and Syria.\n\nUkrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the vote \"made it clear that Russia must end its illegal aggression. Ukraine's territorial integrity must be restored\".\n\n\"One year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion global support for Ukraine remains strong,\" he tweeted.\n\nEarlier at the OSCE in Vienna, the decision to give visas to the Russian delegation caused anger.\n\nUkraine and Lithuania boycotted the session entirely over Austria's decision to invite officials from Moscow, despite some being under EU sanctions.\n\nThe Austrian government said it was obliged to do so under international law because the OSCE has its headquarters there.\n\nLatvian MP Rihards Kols described the Russian presence as the \"elephant in the room\", adding it was a \"disgrace\" that they were allowed to take part.\n\nA large number of delegates then staged a walkout during the Russian address.\n\nThe Russian delegate, Vladimir Dzhabarov, derided delegates for walking out, repeating false claims that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a battle against nationalists and Nazis who Moscow claims are leading the Kyiv government.\n\nThe OSCE was founded in 1975 to improve relations between the Western and Eastern blocs. Its current members include members of Nato and allies of Russia.\n\nPresident Vladimir Putin sent up to 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine on 24 February 2022 in the biggest European invasion since the end of World War Two.\n\nThe devastating war that ensued has left at least 7,199 civilians dead and thousands of others injured, according to a UN estimate, with the real number likely to be much higher.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Police stood outside the BBC offices in Delhi while income tax officials conducted their search\n\nThe BBC will not be put off from reporting without fear or favour, its director general Tim Davie has said in an email to staff in India.\n\nIt follows searches at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai by tax officials.\n\nMr Davie thanked staff for their courage and said nothing was more important than reporting impartially.\n\nThe BBC, which is co-operating with the investigation, recently aired a documentary critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.\n\nIndia's government called it \"hostile propaganda\" and attempted to block it being aired domestically.\n\nMr Davie said the BBC would help staff do their jobs effectively and safely.\n\n\"Nothing is more important than our ability to report without fear or favour,\" he said in the email.\n\n\"Our duty to our audiences around the world is to pursue the facts through independent and impartial journalism, and to produce and distribute the very best creative content. We won't be put off from that task.\n\nTim Davie told BBC staff in India it is his job to help them do their work safely\n\n\"I'd like to be clear: the BBC does not have an agenda - we are driven by purpose. And our first public purpose is to provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.\"\n\nTax officials spent three days carrying out what they called a \"survey\" at the BBC offices.\n\nIndia's Central Board of Direct Taxes said it had found \"discrepancies and inconsistencies\" as well as evidence indicating \"that tax has not been paid on certain remittances which have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group\".\n\nEarlier this week opposition MPs in the UK described the raids as \"intimidation\" and deeply worrying.\n\nA Foreign Office minister would not comment on the allegations by India's income tax department but said \"we continue to follow the matter closely\".", "Distressed fish were found in the river following the spill\n\nThieves have caused a diesel spill while trying to steal 70,000 litres of fuel from a depot.\n\nThey laid a pipe from Oil4Wales' depot in Nantycaws, Carmarthenshire, to a layby on the A48 late on Friday night.\n\nBut the pipe leaked in the field they laid it through, resulting in the spill into the Nant Pibwr early on Saturday.\n\nDyfed-Powys Police is investigating and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) said diversion ditches and a boom were in place to try and contain the spill.\n\nIt is not yet known how much fuel has leaked into the river.\n\nThe same tributary of the River Tywi was hit by a kerosene spill in 2016.\n\n\"Distressed\" fish have since been seen in the river as officials examine the extent of the impact, NRW said.\n\n\"We were made aware of oil pollution in the Nant Pibwr on Saturday and sent officers to investigate the incident,\" said manager Andrea Winterton.\n\n\"Officers and specialist contractors are in attendance and are implementing a mitigation plan that includes downstream boom placement and interceptor ditches.\"\n\nPolice said the thieves struck between 22:30 GMT on Friday and 00:30 on Saturday.", "Kate Forbes said she would have voted against equal marriage laws.\n\nKate Forbes has hit back at Scotland's deputy first minister, who questioned whether her stance on gay marriage made her \"appropriate\" to be SNP leader.\n\nMs Forbes, a member of the Free Church of Scotland, said John Swinney was saying a woman with \"Christian views\" was not suitable to be first minister.\n\nMr Swinney said he profoundly disagreed with Ms Forbes, despite his own \"deep religious faith\".\n\nThe leadership candidate said she would have voted against equal marriage laws.\n\nBut Mr Swinney, who has been standing in as Scotland's finance secretary while Ms Forbes was on maternity leave, said her views were nothing to do with religion.\n\nResponding to his remarks, a spokesman for Ms Forbes said: \"The prime minister is a Hindu, the mayor of London is a Muslim.\n\n\"So many will wonder why the deputy first minister believes a woman holding Christian views should be disqualified from holding high office in Scotland.\"\n\nMr Swinney stopped short of calling for Ms Forbes to quit the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nA campaign source told the BBC that Ms Forbes intended to \"fight on\".\n\nSeveral key backers withdrew their support after she made clear would not have voted for gay marriage if she had been an MSP in 2014.\n\nMr Swinney has been standing in as finance secretary while Ms Forbes was on maternity leave\n\nEarlier, Mr Swinney told BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that Ms Forbes' views had \"absolutely nothing\" to do with faith.\n\nHe said: \"I'm a man of deep Christian faith but I do not hold the same views.\n\n\"Kate is perfectly entitled to express her views, but party members are equally entitled to decide if someone who holds those views would be an appropriate individual to be SNP leader and first minister.\"\n\nMr Swinney pointed out that several churches - including the Church of Scotland - conduct gay marriages.\n\nScottish Greens MSP Ross Greer, a member of the Church of Scotland, also told BBC Scotland that his party would not support a first minister who could not \"unequivocally back LGBTQ rights\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme: \"The objections to Kate's comments are not because she believes in God, it is because she said she would have voted against equal marriage.\n\n\"I think it is fine if you hold a personal faith, where it becomes relevant in politics is if your faith is influencing how you vote.\"\n\nHe added: \"The Greens have been very clear, what we want from any candidate for first minister is an absolute commitment to LGBTQ equality.\"\n\nMs Forbes has said that people should not be excluded from political office because they are a member of a particular faith.\n\nRoss Greer said his party could not support a first minister who did not back LGBTQ rights\n\nMs Forbes took time out of the spotlight on Wednesday following controversy over a series of interviews earlier this week.\n\nIt is understood she has brought in a media adviser as part of her effort to reshape her campaign.\n\nThe Free Church of Scotland has said it was composed of people \"from all political persuasions, some of whom will not share Kate's politics, particularly over an independent Scotland\".\n\nIt said it was concerned at the level of \"anti-Christian intolerance which has been displayed on social media, and by some political and media commentators\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"It is lamentable that Kate's honest adherence to simple traditional values would, for some, disqualify her from contributing to the public good of Scotland.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon: \"Whoever is first minister the views that they have on all sorts of issues matter.\"\n\nMs Forbes' rivals to replace Ms Sturgeon are Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and the former community safety minister, Ash Regan, who has announced plans to formally launch her campaign on Friday.\n\nBoth Mr Yousaf and Ms Regan have said they back gay marriage - although Mr Yousaf was absent when the final vote on legalising it was held in 2014 despite supporting it at an earlier stage.\n\nMs Regan has called for an end to \"mudslinging\" in the contest, adding: \"We've all got to remember that we're all going to be working together at the end of this.\"\n\nNicola Sturgeon has not endorsed any of the three candidates, but said the views of the next first minister mattered because people want someone to will stand up for their rights.\n\nShe denied that the party is tearing itself apart in the contest to replace her and said the majority of people in Scotland wanted it to be a socially progressive country.\n\nNominations for the SNP leadership race close on Friday and the winner will be announced on Monday 27 March.", "Kyle Sambrook had headed to the Highlands to walk and wild camp\n\nA major search is underway for a hillwalker who failed to return from a planned trip in Glencoe with his dog.\n\nKyle Sambrook, from West Yorkshire, arrived in the Highlands on Saturday and had intended to walk and wild camp, accompanied by his beagle called Bane.\n\nPolice Scotland said Mr Sambrook had planned to ascend the 3,353ft (1,022m) mountain Buachaille Etive Mòr.\n\nGlencoe, Lochaber, Oban and RAF mountain rescue team volunteers have been making searches.\n\nMr Sambrook's black Peugeot 208 car was found in the Three Sisters car park in Glencoe.\n\nThere was a sighting of Kyle and his dog in the Lost Valley area of Glencoe around noon on Sunday.\n\nPolice said Mr Sambrook had intended to climb Buachaille Etive Mòr\n\nPolice, who have appealed for sightings, described Mr Sambrook as white, 5ft 8ins, of medium build, with ash blond short hair, ginger/blond stubble, blue eyes, and has a West Yorkshire accent.\n\nSergeant Shaun Knox said: \"Kyle was suitably clothed for walking and we believe he had a tent and other equipment with him.\n\n\"He may have changed his original plan to climb Buchaille Etive Mor and it is important that we find him to make sure he is safe and well.\"\n\nHe was believed to be wearing khaki and black Merrell hiking boots, khaki and black Revolution Race outdoor trousers, a dark and light blue hooded Peter Storm waterproof jacket, and a grey North Face beanie hat. He was carrying a grey and yellow Merrell backpack.\n\nHis dog is a medium-sized beagle, white with brown markings on its back.\n\nMr Sambrook had a green two-person tent for use on his trip.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The development of a new app designed to reduce online viewing of child sexual abuse material has received £1.8m of funding from the EU.\n\nIt will be tested with volunteers who have sought help because they are drawn to illegal images and want to ensure they cannot act on their desire.\n\nInstalled on devices such as phones, the app will identify and block harmful images and videos from being displayed.\n\nIt is hoped it can help combat \"growing demand\" for child abuse images.\n\nThe Protech project is a collaboration involving organisations from the EU and the UK.\n\nThe project's app - called Salus - is intended to work in real-time, using artificial intelligence to identify potential child sexual abuse material and stop users from seeing it. It will also use other more conventional techniques to block content.\n\nThe Internet Watch Foundation, an organisation which works to find, flag and remove child abuse material, will help to train the AI technology developed by UK company SafeToNet.\n\nTom Farrell of SafeToNet, who worked for 19 years in law enforcement, told the BBC the app was not intended to be a tool to report users to the police: \"People who are voluntarily looking to stop themselves seeing child sexual abuse material quite clearly wouldn't use such a solution if they believed that it was going to report them to law enforcement.\"\n\nVolunteers who download the app will be recruited via organisations working with individuals seeking help because they are drawn to online child abuse images.\n\nOne such organisation is British charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which operates a helpline for those who fear they may download illegal images and wish to stop. That includes a significant number of people who admit to being paedophiles, as well as individuals who have already been convicted or arrested for sexual offences.\n\nThe foundation's Donald Findlater said tools such as the new app could help individuals control their behaviour, adding: \"It is a practical aid to people who recognise a vulnerability in themselves\".\n\nMembers of the Protech project hope it could stem the \"growing demand for child sexual abuse material online\".\n\nA new high of 30,925 offences that involved the possession and sharing of indecent images of children were committed in the year 2021/2022, according to the NSPCC.\n\nLast year a report by the Police Foundation thinktank said that the volume of online child sexual abuse offences had \"simply overwhelmed the ability of law enforcement agencies, internationally, to respond\".\n\nProject members who spoke to the BBC suggested that policing alone was not going to stop people downloading images.\n\nSafeToNet's Tom Farrell argues that the UK has arrested more individuals for possession of child sexual abuse material than any other country in the world since 2014, and in the process has identified some very serious offenders.\n\nBut millions of people still view images: \"So arrest isn't going to be the solution. We think we can work on the prevention side and reduce the demand and reduce the accessibility.\"\n\nMany details of the operation of the app still need to be worked out. No AI is perfect and a balance will need to be struck between over-blocking, which would make legitimate use of a device difficult, and under-blocking, which fails to detect many abuse images.\n\nThe app will be tested in a pilot stage in five countries - Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Republic of Ireland and the UK with at least 180 users, over an 11-month period.\n\nIn a statement, Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat said the government welcomed \"this important step by SafeToNet\". Companies need to step up and invest in these sorts of projects \"to find ways of protecting children from online abuse\", he added.\n\nExperts not involved in the project think the idea has promise. Prof Belinda Winder of Nottingham Trent University said it was a welcome development that could support people who \"want to be helped to resist their unhealthy urges, and who would benefit from this safety net\".\n\nShe added that the devil would be in the detail, but said: \"It is a positive step in the right direction.\"", "NHS jobs targets under Scotland's Covid recovery plan are \"unlikely to be met\", Audit Scotland has warned.\n\nThe public spending watchdog urged ministers to be \"transparent\" about hospital backlogs and provide health boards with achievable targets.\n\nAnd it called for more support for patients stuck on long waiting lists.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said it would take years for the NHS to recover, but opposition MSPs described his record as \"shambolic\".\n\nThe Scottish government's plan was designed to change how services are delivered and reduce the backlog of patients from the pandemic, when some health boards postponed non-urgent procedures.\n\nIt detailed ambitious recruitment targets, including hiring 800 new GPs by 2027.\n\nBut Audit Scotland said that aim was \"not on track\" and posed a risk to the recovery of primary hospital care.\n\nIts report also found that the GP workforce increased by just 113 between 2017 and 2022.\n\nIt said aims to recruit 1,000 additional mental health staff were \"at risk\" due to cuts of £65m from primary care and £35m from mental health services.\n\nStephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, said the government's NHS recovery plan did not contain \"detailed actions\" that would allow progress to be accurately measured.\n\nHe said this included \"robust modelling\" to understand demand and capacity.\n\nMr Boyle said the treatment backlog continued to increase in the 18 months since the plan was published.\n\n\"NHS staff remain under severe pressure and the Scottish government is facing tough choices,\" he said.\n\n\"Money is tight but investment is needed in recovery. That means ministers have to prioritise which NHS aims can realistically be delivered. And they need to be more transparent about the progress they're making.\"\n\nThe Auditor General also urged ministers to clearly explain to the public what those NHS pressures meant for the level of service they can expect, including waiting times which soared over the winter.\n\nWaiting times at emergency departments across Scotland reached record levels this winter\n\nThe annual report on the state of Scotland's health service said the care backlog continued to increase, with more people added to waiting lists than were being removed, while operations sat at 25% below pre-pandemic levels.\n\nIt also found health boards needed to make more than £620m of savings to break even in 2022/23.\n\nOnly three - NHS Forth Valley, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles - were predicted to balance the books in the new financial year.\n\nMeanwhile, it also highlighted delays to the network of National Treatment Centres (NTC), which were meant to provide an additional 40,000 procedures by the end of 2026.\n\nAudit Scotland said those targets were now less likely to be met.\n\nThe new treatment centre planned for St John's Hospital in Livingston was scheduled to open in 2025 but is now forecast to open in 2027\n\nBBC Scotland this week revealed the NTC in Livingston was originally projected to cost £70.9m but estimates now suggest the new facility will cost £184m.\n\nThe Audit Scotland report said the three NTCs that were due to open last year in NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley and NHS Highland were now expected to open this year.\n\nBut it added others were unlikely to open until late 2027 or early 2028.\n\nResponding to the report, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said it reaffirmed the \"challenges and successes\" of the Covid recovery.\n\nHe added: \"We have never hidden the scale of the task and recovery will not take weeks or months, but years.\n\n\"That recovery, outlined in our £1bn plan, is backed by record investment and has delivered real success, including the Covid-19 vaccination drive and a significant reduction in the number of two-year outpatients waits.\n\n\"We are determined to build on this and will report on progress annually, ensuring updates are as specific as practicable.\"\n\nHowever, opposition politicians condemned Mr Yousaf and criticised his decision to enter the SNP leadership race.\n\nWhat stands out in this report is how critical Audit Scotland is of the government's Covid recovery plan.\n\nWhen it was first published in 2021, health boards were not consulted, despite being challenged with clearing the backlog.\n\nThe report says it does not seem feasible to meet commitments to scale up planned operations by more than 10% above pre-Covid levels.\n\nHospitals are still having to push back on routine care to focus on urgent cases and a series of National Treatment Centres, a key part of creating more capacity, are running behind schedule.\n\nThe Auditor General says the government needs to start being honest with patients about how long they will have to wait.\n\nThe big problem with the recovery plan, says the watchdog, is that there is not enough robust data and modelling on demand and capacity.\n\nThat makes it hard to measure whether things are working or not and where more targeted efforts are needed.\n\nOf course, Scotland is not unique, and these pressures are being felt right across the world.\n\nDesigning a health service that is fit for the future is no easy task.\n\nBut alongside a growing number of frontline medical professionals, Stephen Boyle says that the government needs to bring the public into a frank and open conversation about what the NHS can realistically deliver.\n\nScottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the \"scathing report\" showed the scale of the challenge facing the service under Mr Yousaf.\n\nThe GP added: \"Not only is his flimsy NHS recovery plan inadequate, but there is trademark SNP lack of transparency about his strategy.\n\n\"That is leaving suffering patients and my burnt-out colleagues on the frontline in the dark about what progress - if any - is being made on reducing the huge treatment backlogs.\"\n\nLabour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said the report highlighted \"astronomical wait times and multiple missed targets\".\n\nShe added: \"This report lays bare the shambolic state of our NHS and the all-encompassing need to support the heroic frontline staff working day and night to keep it afloat.\n\n\"The thousands of Scots who have lost loved ones under Mr Yousaf's stewardship of the NHS will be offended that instead of stepping back from his current role, he is now searching for a promotion.\"\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: \"Today's report makes for a damning verdict of the failing NHS recovery plan and Humza Yousaf's time as health secretary.\n\n\"Record waiting times are getting worse and worse and every corner of the health service is in trouble, and now we learn that the staff needed to ease the pressure aren't going to arrive.\"\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN) welcomed the assessment of the staffing \"crisis\" in the NHS.\n\nRCN director Colin Poolman said: \"We need effective workforce planning that is based on population need, implementation of Scotland's safe staffing legislation and fair pay that truly reflects the safety critical role that nursing staff play.\"\n\nHe also called for a retention scheme to tackle the \"exodus of nursing staff\" from the profession to be made a priority for the government's new Nursing Taskforce.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nLegendary commentator John Motson was \"the voice of football\" who \"always got the mood and the occasion right\", says former England captain Gary Lineker.\n\nMotson, who had an illustrious 50-year career with the BBC, has died aged 77.\n\n\"Motty was a remarkable character and a remarkable commentator,\" Lineker, speaking to PM on BBC Radio 4, said.\n\nThe Match of the Day host added: \"He always pitched it right, he got the big goals right. It's a sad day for football.\"\n\nMotson commentated on Lineker's equaliser against West Germany in the World Cup semi-final in 1990 in Turin, Italy. England lost the match on penalties.\n\n\"I have heard it and seen it [Motson's commentary] hundreds and hundreds of times and he absolutely nails it,\" said Lineker.\n\n\"He was the voice of our sport for pretty much 50 years. He lived and breathed football.\n\n\"He was almost an anorak, if you like, and I think you have got to be that a little bit to be a commentator of his ilk.\n\n\"He covered Romania when all the players dyed their hair blonde [at the 1998 World Cup]. It was almost impossible to tell one footballer from another, but somehow he managed it.\"\n• None Obituary: Motty - the voice of football for 50 years\n\n'A legend whose record is without comparison'\n\nFootball Association president Prince William was among many that also paid tribute to Motson, who covered 10 World Cups, 10 European Championships and 29 FA Cup finals for BBC Sport before retiring from the organisation in 2018.\n\n\"Very sad to hear about the passing of John Motson - a legend whose voice was football,\" he said. \"My thoughts are with his family and friends.\"\n\nCommentator Clive Tyldesley, who worked alongside Motson at the BBC in the 1990s, said: \"I've lost a friend, first and foremost, but such was the reach of John Motson, such was the distinctive nature of his voice and his commentary style, that I think many thousands of people who never got to meet him will feel as if they have lost a friend too.\n\n\"What I can tell people is, if they felt that way about John, that was the real John. There was no front.\"\n\nMotson - known for his trademark sheepskin coats - made his breakthrough on Match of the Day during the famous FA Cup replay between Hereford and Newcastle in 1972.\n\nOriginally billed as a five-minute segment, Hereford's shock 2-1 win - featuring Ronnie Radford's famous 30-yard strike - saw the match promoted to the main game, with Motson capturing all the drama.\n\nFormer BBC commentator Barry Davies, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, said: \"John was excited by the game and everything about the game.\n\n\"Years later he said that if Radford's shot had come back off the crossbar he probably wouldn't have got the job that he got.\n\n\"We used to have a laugh about the sheepskin coat because I once said to him, 'I was wearing a sheepskin coat before you came along but you got a better deal than I did'.\n\n\"His record is without comparison. I don't think his record will ever be passed.\"\n\nEverton boss Sean Dyche also paid tribute to Motson at his pre-match news conference on Thursday before Saturday's game with Aston Villa.\n\n\"It's a sad loss,\" said Dyche. \"He was a legend.\n\n\"When you met him a few times, like I did, he was a top fella as well.\"", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nManchester United produced a memorable second-half comeback to reach the Europa League last 16 and knock out Barcelona in the process.\n\nBrazilian duo Fred and Antony, who came on as a half-time substitute, both drilled home low first-time shots in front of an ecstatic Stretford End.\n\nIt was a victory that looked so unlikely at half-time as Barcelona led thanks to Robert Lewandowski's 18th-minute penalty after Bruno Fernandes' needless foul on Alejandro Balde.\n\nBut Antony's arrival for struggling forward Wout Weghost changed the course of the tie as it injected more pace into United's attacks, which the La Liga leaders failed to deal with.\n\nErik ten Hag's side now move on to Wembley, where they will look to collect their first silverware since 2017 when they face Newcastle in the EFL Cup final.\n\nFor Barcelona, it was the first time they have been eliminated from European competition without reaching the last 16 since 1998-1999, which is not quite what president Joan Laporta had in mind when he pulled all those economic levers last year.\n\nIt was also Barcelona's first defeat since October and ended an 18-match unbeaten run.\n• None Manchester United v Barcelona as it happened, plus reaction and analysis\n\nAfter the match, Ten Hag said: \"It was a magnificent night. I think this is another step because when you can beat Barcelona - one of the best teams in this moment in Europe - your belief can be really strong because then I think you are able to beat anyone.\n\n\"I think we have great personalities... winning types.\n\n\"Everyone has a such a strong belief in this team and fight in this team and you can see it with the subs, they are bringing energy and quality and a different dynamic in games. All the subs, not only in this game, did brilliant.\"\n\nFred has had plenty of detractors since his £47m move to United from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2018.\n\nThe chances are if Christian Eriksen had not been ruled out until the end of April through injury, he wouldn't even have started this game.\n\nYet, as Ten Hag has admitted, anyone capable of playing regularly for Brazil has to be a good player and this was one of those occasions when he proved it.\n\nFred's goal was an excellent effort as he moved into space on the edge of the area, unseen by Barca's Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong, who United spent so long trying to sign in the summer.\n\nWhen De Jong did come across to pressure his opponent after Fernandes had played a superb through ball, he was too late to prevent Fred drilling home the equaliser.\n\nThe goal transformed the contest. Fred then used his energy to break down Barcelona counter attacks, make surging runs that unsettled the visitors and even did the simple passing right, which he quite often gets wrong.\n\nFred also followed up Alejandro Garnacho in having a shot blocked before a third effort from Antony brought their second goal and allowed United to join Arsenal in the last-16 draw.\n\nWhoever they get, the first leg will be at home on 9 March.\n\nTen Hag has praised Weghorst for his industry but at this level - a Champions League game in all but name - he looked what he is, an emergency signing brought in at relatively little expense to plug a gap created by Cristiano Ronaldo's unscheduled exit before someone more suitable comes in next summer.\n\nThe continued injury absence of Anthony Martial means Weghorst is having to play a more prominent role than Ten Hag envisaged and it weakens his team overall.\n\nIt was no surprise Antony replaced him at half-time, nor that the hosts' performance should improve so markedly as a result.\n\nThere were still some nervy moments, with De Gea producing a fine save to deny Jules Kounde after Jadon Sancho had failed to track the France defender and Raphael Varane booting Lewandowski's shot away from danger in injury time when it might have been rolling in.\n\nBut it was Ten Hag and his coaching staff celebrating at the final whistle.\n\nThe Dutchman has evidently transformed fortunes at a club that appeared to be going nowhere fast 12 months ago, although he knows it does need some silverware to really underline that they are on the right track.\n\nThe club placed a picture of Motson, who died on Thursday, on one of the tables in the area of the press box where the broadcast media sit, together with a candle in Motson's honour.\n• None Offside, Barcelona. Frenkie de Jong tries a through ball, but Robert Lewandowski is caught offside.\n• None Casemiro (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Delay in match because of an injury Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United).\n• None Sergio Busquets (Barcelona) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Delay in match because of an injury Marcus Rashford (Manchester United). Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of Manchester United is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything United - go straight to all the best content", "The number of pupils regularly missing school in England has not returned to pre-Covid pandemic levels, according to official statistics.\n\nA quarter (25.1%) of pupils were persistently absent last term, compared with 13.1% in the autumn term of 2019.\n\nThe government said the absence rate was driven by illness, with high levels of flu and other viruses circulating.\n\nIt said it was \"offering targeted help\" for children who were regularly off school.\n\nBut a union representing school leaders has said illnesses are only part of the picture.\n\nThe Association of School and College Leaders attributes many absences to high levels of pupil stress and anxiety, long waits for mental health treatment and \"disengagement\" with education as a result of the pandemic.\n\nMPs on the Education Select Committee have launched an inquiry into the issue.\n\nPupils count as persistently absent if they miss 10% or more of school sessions, which would amount to seven days in the autumn term.\n\nThe percentage of persistently absent pupils stayed at around 11% in the 2016 to 2018 autumn terms, and reached 13.1% in 2019.\n\nThe following year, persistently absent children came to include those who tested positive for Covid.\n\nThe government also started registering children who were \"not attending\" school because of public health guidelines, which included pupils who were out of school while waiting for the results of a Covid test.\n\nIn autumn 2020, the first year of the pandemic, 44.6% of pupils missed 10% of lessons or more. Of those, 13% were marked as absent, and 31.6% as not attending due to guidelines.\n\nIn the same term the following year, that overall figure fell to 32.2%. However, the breakdown flipped, with 23.5% of those marked as absent and 8.7% as not attending due to guidelines.\n\nThe government has scrapped the \"non attending\" category this academic year, and 25.1% of pupils were marked as absent in autumn 2022.\n\nAs a result, it says, the persistent absence rate was higher than in 2021 (when it was 23.5%), but more children were in school.\n\nThe Department for Education said it was working with schools, councils, and governing bodies to \"identify pupils who are at risk of becoming, or who are persistently absent and working together to support that child to return to regular and consistent education\".\n\nThe Education Select Committee recently said Covid was \"likely to have had a damaging affect on school attendance\".\n\nPupils experienced disruption to their education when schools closed during Covid lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.\n\nAt the end of last year, levels of flu, scarlet fever, Strep A and Covid were high.\n\nThe committee was also looking at why disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) were more likely to miss school than their peers.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the evidence from school leaders shows \"pupil attendance continues to be very challenging for a number of reasons\".\n\n\"Illness is a factor due to Covid and seasonal viruses, but on top of that there are high levels of pupil stress and anxiety, which are not helped by very long waits for specialist mental health services, and disengagement among pupils who have never quite recovered the habit of regular attendance following the pandemic.\n\n\"Schools do their best to encourage good attendance, but they need more support from local authority attendance services which have been reduced because of government cuts.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ynys Enlli is the first site in Europe to be awarded International Dark Sky Sanctuary certification\n\nAn island in north Wales has been officially recognised for having one of the best night skies in the world.\n\nYnys Enlli (Bardsey Island), off the Llŷn Peninsula, has become the first site in Europe to be awarded International Dark Sky Sanctuary certification.\n\nIt joins 16 other sites worldwide recognised as the most remote and dark places on earth.\n\nThe trust which owns the island said it was a \"huge achievement\".\n\nWales already has several Dark Sky places and reserves, but areas designated as sanctuaries are much rarer and have stricter criteria in terms of the quality of the night sky.\n\nThe island's trustees hope that the new status will raise the island's profile as well as establishing Wales as a \"dark sky nation\".\n\nSian Stacey, chair of the island's trust, said the award was the culmination of several years of hard work.\n\n\"There's no doubt that achieving this prestigious status for Ynys Enlli will raise the profile of the island as a unique place in Wales and amongst the best in the world to appreciate the night sky,\" she said.\n\nSian Stacey said the award will raise the profile of Ynys Enlli\n\n\"We hope it will also go a long way in securing the long-term sustainability of the island.\"\n\nYnys Enlli is located two miles off the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula, and its location and geographical features make it one of the darkest places in the UK.\n\nThe mountain on the island serves as an effective barrier, limiting light from the mainland. The closest major light pollution comes from Dublin, which is over 70 miles [112.6 km] across the Irish Sea.\n\nKnown as the island of 20,000 saints due to the Celtic and Christian monasteries established there since the sixth Century, evidence suggests it was inhabited from as early as the Bronze age.\n\nToday, it is home to a small community who work the land and fish from the island. There are also 10 holiday cottages, with visitors allowed on the island between March and October.\n\nMari Huws took part in the island's certification process\n\nMari Huws, one of the island's wardens, took part in the certification process.\n\nShe said: \"Living here I am always in awe of the island's beauty - and the night sky is very much a part of that.\n\n\"Having secured the certification, we look forward to welcoming visitors here over the coming months and years and sharing with them our unique story.\n\n\"In a world that's increasingly being polluted, it's a privilege to be able to work towards protecting something that is pristine for future generations.\"\n\n\"I'm lucky that this is part of my job. Being able to wake up, put my dressing gown on, and go out onto the field under a blanket of stars\"\n\nThe new certification will be regularly reviewed by the International Dark Skies Association (IDA), and Ms Huws will have to take measurements when conditions are favourable and keep a record of them.\n\nA four-year programme using the latest technology was undertaken as part of the application to monitor the quality of the night sky on the island to show that it is sufficiently dark to qualify.\n\nThe IDA also required a lighting management plan and photographic evidence for the certification.\n\nMenna Jones, Enlli's development manager, believes that the status will attract investment to the island and the local area.\n\nMenna Jones said the eyes of the world will be on Ynys Enlli\n\n\"It's very important to us at Ynys Enlli that we work with the local community and of course what we'll be doing over the next 10 years is to invest in the built environment, in the heritage and we need to develop other projects which will enhance what's already there,\" she said.\n\n\"Because it's a small, remote community it's good that the eyes of everybody in Wales and the world will be on Ynys Enlli.\"\n\nYnys Enlli's new dark sky status comes as light pollution across the globe continues to rise.\n\nIn the last 12 years the night sky has brightened by 10% every year which, according to a recent global study, means that a child born in an area where 250 stars were visible would probably see fewer than 100 stars in the same location 18 years later.\n\nLight pollution is \"skyrocketing\" according to scientists.\n\nAnd all this artificial light has consequences beyond our view of the stars.\n\nStudies have shown its impact on our sleep - and consequently our health- and its disruptive impact on nocturnal wildlife. There is also evidence of underwater effects; artificial light in coastal cities exposes large areas of seafloor to potentially harmful levels of light.\n\nBut dark sky advocates say it doesn't need to be this way. Even in urban areas, more carefully directed lighting that doesn't shine up into space, and lights that are switched off when they're not needed, could help save energy and bring back the glow of a naturally dark night sky.", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell has been involved in high-profile investigations into dissident republican attacks\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell, who was shot in Omagh in County Tyrone, is one of the best-known detectives in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).\n\nHe has been the senior detective in many high-profile inquiries, including the 2011 murder of his colleague Ronan Kerr by dissident republicans.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell was shot multiple times after coaching young people at football on Wednesday night.\n\nHe was putting balls in the back of his car and was accompanied by his son.\n\nThe off-duty police officer had just finished coaching an under-15s football team from Beragh Swifts FC when the attack happened.\n\nRicky Lyons, chairman of the football club, said Det Ch Insp Caldwell was a good man who had played a central role in the club as a volunteer.\n\n\"He cares for the community, he gives back to the community and if that is in you it is in you,\" he said.\n\n\"No matter how busy life is if that's what you want to do that's what you will do and certainly that's what John has done for us.\"\n\nThe football club organised a walk in support of Det Ch Insp Caldwell on Saturday, following the shooting.\n\nThe route from Beragh Swifts FC to Beragh Red Knights GAA club was short but significant - Constable Kerr was a member of the GAA club when he was murdered in 2011.\n\nStephen Brown who attended the walk and knew the senior detective on a personal and a community level said he had touched many people's lives.\n\nBeragh Red Knights GAA club coach Celine Curran said the attack on Det Ch Insp Caldwell had affected the whole community in Beragh.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell, who has been a police officer for 26 years and who is from County Tyrone, often fronts press conferences in the course of major inquiries.\n\nHe had received a number of threats in the past, BBC News NI understands.\n\nHe was aware his investigations relating to dissident republican attacks - including the killing of Lyra McKee in 2019 - made him a high-profile target.\n\nIn January, he spoke to reporters after the killing of Shane Whitla, a 39-year-old father of four who was shot a number of times in the town of Lurgan in County Armagh.\n\nThree men have since been charged with murdering Mr Whitla.\n\nHe was also the initial lead detective investigating the killing of Natalie McNally in Lurgan.\n\nMs McNally, who was 32, was 15 weeks pregnant and was stabbed a number of times at her home on 18 December.\n\nOne man has been charged with the murder of Ms McNally.\n\nThe shooting happened at a sports complex in Omagh\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell was also involved in investigating the murder of Mark Lovell, 58, who was shot a number of times at close range in his car in Newry in County Down on 1 December.\n\nThere have been several attempts to kill PSNI officers in the past few years - most recently when a patrol vehicle was targeted in a roadside bomb attack in Strabane in November.\n\nThe last officer to be killed in the line of duty was Constable Kerr on 2 April 2011.\n\nIn 2021, on the 10th anniversary of his murder in a booby-trap car bomb in County Tyrone, Det Ch Insp Caldwell issued a fresh appeal for information,\n\n\"Despicably, people living in his own community planned and plotted to kill him simply because he was a police officer bravely going out every day to protect people and make communities safer places to live and work,\" he said.\n\n\"No-one deserves to be murdered because of how they earn their respectable living.\"\n\nPSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne said Det Ch Insp Caldwell was \"a father, husband and colleague, and a valued and active member of his local community\".\n\n\"John is held in the highest esteem within our organisation,\" he added.\n\n\"He is a credit to his family and to the police service.\"", "Canada's defence ministry said the military has stopped several surveillance attempts on Canadian territory since 2022\n\nCanada's military has said it recently discovered evidence of Chinese surveillance efforts in the Arctic.\n\nThe discovery, first reported by Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, has raised questions about China's activities in the far north.\n\nIt comes after a suspected Chinese spy balloon floated through US and Canadian airspace before it was shot down by the US military.\n\nChina has also been recently accused of interfering with Canadian elections.\n\nMonitoring buoys were discovered and retrieved last fall as part of Operation Limpid, an ongoing mission by the Canadian military tasked with identifying threats to the country's security by surveilling air, land and sea domains.\n\nA spokesperson for Canada's Department of National Defence, Daniel Le Bouthillier, said in a statement that the military \"is fully aware of recent efforts by China to conduct surveillance operations in Canadian airspace and maritime approaches\".\n\nMr Le Bouthillier added that China does this using \"dual-purpose technologies\", meaning devices that conduct surveillance both for research and military purposes.\n\nHe said the military has stopped attempts to surveil Canadian territory since 2022, but did not elaborate on their nature.\n\nChina has long displayed interest in the Arctic. It has sent high-level figures to the region 33 times in the last two decades, and participates in most major Arctic institutions.\n\nIt has also expanded its icebreaker fleet and sent naval vessels to the north, often for research expeditions.\n\nChina has long displayed interest in the Arctic. In 2021, it sent an icebreaker on a five-month research expedition across the region\n\nChina hopes to unlock a shorter trade route to Europe through the region as ice sheets melt due to climate change, and gain access to emerging resources.\n\nBut experts say that China's research interests in the region have also doubled as attempts to surveil military assets in the Arctic.\n\nTheir efforts are tied to a larger drive by several Arctic nations - namely the US, Canada, Finland, Russia, Norway and Sweden - to unlock untapped potential in the region.\n\n\"This is a part of the world that has not been mapped and understood to the same degree of detail as other latitudes,\" said Roberto Mazzolin, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and a former high-ranking official in the Canadian Armed Forces.\n\nMr Mazzolin said Canada has historically looked at the Arctic as a safe area with little potential for threat. But interest in the region by Russia, and more recently China, has changed that.\n\n\"[Canada is forced to] look at how we would posture our own security, our military defence, or our economic development activities to secure Canadian and American interests,\" he said.\n\nOn Wednesday, Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly told CNN that she views China as an increasingly disruptive power.\n\nMs Joly added that Canada is working closely with the US to protect North American airspace, as well as Canada's Arctic sovereignty.\n\nThe Canadian military's discovery of the Chinese buoys comes at the heels of revelations by Canadian intelligence that China had tried to interfere in Canada's last federal election in 2021.\n\nIn documents first reported on by the Globe and Mail, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service outlined China's efforts to re-elect Justin Trudeau's Liberals to a minority of government, and to ensure the defeat of Conservative politicians who are seen as unfriendly to China.\n\nIt did so through cash donations to preferred candidates, the spread of disinformation and using consulates and paid students to help certain Liberal candidates, according to reporting by the Globe.\n\nCanadian parliamentarians are in the midst of probing allegations that China interfered in Canada's 2019 federal election. On Tuesday, they expanded their scope to include the 2021 election as well.\n\nOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Trudeau called the suspected Chinese election interference \"an extraordinarily serious issue\", and said he supported a further probe into these reports.\n\nHe added the meddling efforts so far appear to have been unsuccessful, but still raise concern that foreign countries are trying to interfere with Canada's democratic processes.\n\n\"Foreign actors are trying to undermine people's confidence in democracy itself,\" Mr Trudeau said.\n\nChinese officials in Canada have denied these reports, saying they do not interfere in Canadian election or internal affairs\n\nEarlier this month, China's suspected surveillance efforts in North America dominated headlines after a Chinese balloon was discovered flying over North America.\n\nBoth the US and Canada said that the balloon was spying on sensitive military assets. China, however, has denied it was used for surveillance, instead saying it was a civilian weather balloon that had blown off course.", "Defence Secretary Ben Wallace meeting Ukrainian soldiers being trained at a British Army base in Dorset\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace has dismissed criticism from veterans' minister Johnny Mercer of his efforts to secure more armed forces funding.\n\nContrasting their responsibilities, he said Mr Mercer was a \"junior minister\" who \"doesn't have to run the budget\".\n\nMr Mercer has claimed it is \"not credible\" for Mr Wallace to say the UK military has been \"hollowed out\".\n\nHis wife, Felicity Cornelius-Mercer, accused the defence secretary of treating her husband with \"disdain\".\n\nBoth men are former army officers. Mr Wallace is a full cabinet member, while Mr Mercer is a lower-ranking minister, with a lower salary, who attends cabinet meetings when needed.\n\nThe veterans' affairs job is a position within the Cabinet Office, having previously been part of the Ministry of Defence.\n\nDuring a debate in the Commons last month, Mr Wallace said: \"We have been hollowed out and underfunded\".\n\nDays later, in what was widely seen as being a message directed at the chancellor ahead of the Budget, he told a news conference in Portsmouth a \"growing proportion\" of government spending would need to be devoted to keeping the country safe.\n\nThe defence secretary's comments came against a backdrop of UK efforts to help Ukraine repel invading Russian troops and rising global tensions with China.\n\nBut on Wednesday, Mr Mercer told LBC radio: \"Ben is engaged in a lobbying effort for his department, as you would expect him to be.\n\n\"The facts are that when I came into politics [he became an MP in 2015], defence spending was around £38bn per year - it is just shy of £50bn a year now.\n\n\"It is obviously not credible to say that the money has been taken out of defence.\"\n\nResponding on LBC on Thursday, Mr Wallace said: \"Johnny is a junior minister, and Johnny luckily doesn't have to run the budget.\n\n\"I have a defence budget that has to deal, like all the other budgets, with inflation, with changes to threat, and I have to just deal with that. And that's my job.\"\n\nAsked if Mr Mercer was being naive, Mr Wallace said: \"No, no, no. I just think, you know, his experience is not... he's not the secretary of state.\n\n\"I run a department of 224,000 people\", while \"he's got 12 people in the office.\"\n\nThis prompted Felicity Cornelius-Mercer to spring to her husband's defence, tweeting: \"Wow. The disdain from @BWallaceMP for @JohnnyMercerUK and his office for veterans affairs really is something else.\n\n\"You may start to realise why care for veterans is such a daily battle.\"\n\nDowning Street said both the Ministry of Defence and the Office for Veterans' Affairs did \"vitally important work to support the UK\".\n\nAsked which of the two ministers best expressed the government's view on defence spending. the prime minister's spokesman said: \"I think the defence secretary has made it clear on a number of occasions that defence spending turned a corner under this government due to the spending review in 2020.\n\n\"It provided an uplift of £24 billion over four years, and of course additional funding has also been provided for Ukraine.\"\n\nFuture defence spending was a \"live issue\" ahead of next month's Budget, the spokesman added.", "Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy were joined by Ukraine's ambassador to the UK for the minute's silence outside 10 Downing Street\n\nThe Ukrainian people have \"suffered unimaginably\", King Charles has said in a message marking the first anniversary of Russia's invasion.\n\nHe also praised their \"remarkable courage and resilience\" after thousands have been killed and injured.\n\nA minute's silence was held across the UK at 11:00 GMT.\n\nRishi Sunak later urged allies at a G7 meeting to provide Ukraine with long-term military and security assurances to \"send a strong message\" to Russia.\n\nUkrainian troops who are training in the UK joined the prime minister, his wife Akshata Murthy, and Kyiv's ambassador to Britain, Vadym Prystaiko, for the minute's silence observed outside No 10 Downing Street.\n\nThe Ukrainian national anthem was sung to mark the end of the silence.\n\nThe King visited a training site for Ukrainian military recruits in Wiltshire\n\nIn his message, the King said \"the people of Ukraine have suffered unimaginably from an unprovoked full-scale attack on their nation. They have shown truly remarkable courage and resilience in the face of such human tragedy\".\n\nHe said: \"The world has watched in horror at all the unnecessary suffering inflicted upon Ukrainians, many of whom I have had the great pleasure of meeting.\"\n\nThe King, who met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at Buckingham Palace this month, added: \"I can only hope the outpouring of solidarity from across the globe may bring not only practical aid, but also strength from the knowledge that, together, we stand united.\"\n\nAt a vigil on Thursday evening, a crowd listened to an emotional reading of the Ukrainian poem Take Only What Is Most Important by actress Dame Helen Mirren - who was visibly moved to tears. And Defence Secretary Ben Wallace paid tribute to Ukrainian soldiers as the \"bravest of the brave\".\n\nThe conflict, which began when Russia invaded on 24 February 2022, has seen at least 100,000 of each side's soldiers killed or injured, according to the US military.\n\nThousands of civilians have also died, with more than 13 million people made refugees or displaced within Ukraine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\nRita and her four children were among those who fled in the early stages of the conflict and are now living in the UK with her British partner, Andy.\n\nShe told BBC Two's Newsnight programme her heart was \"aching\" from seeing how parts of Ukraine had changed after 12 months of conflict.\n\n\"The country is in pain,\" she said. \"I know how my country is and how it can be, I know how beautiful it is. Now it's different [but] it can come back to that beautiful place.\"\n\nRita has been back to Ukraine since settling in the UK\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury called for peace between Russia and Ukraine as he reflected on the anniversary.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Thought of the Day segment, Justin Welby said: \"There must be a future with a just and stable peace - a free and secure Ukraine - and the beginning of a generation's long process of healing and reconciliation.\"\n\nThe British ambassador to Ukraine, Dame Melinda Simmons, has recalled how the outbreak of the war last February was \"such a traumatic time\".\n\nDame Melinda told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme her role became different and stopped being a job and became \"a life because war isn't just a five-day thing\".\n\nPeople gathered next to the St Volodymyr Statue in Holland Park, London to mark the day\n\nMeanwhile, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has announced fresh export bans on goods that could be used by the Russian military.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly said the UK has ramped up sanctions on more products, including aircraft parts, radio equipment and electronic components.\n\nBosses at Russia's two largest defence companies and four banks will also face sanctions.\n\nHowever, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine's allies still could do more.\n\nAt a press conference on Friday, he said that the wave of sanctions imposed by Western nations \"do not seem to have dented the Kremlin's ability or desire to wage war\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDuring a recent tour of Europe, President Zelensky increased his calls for Western nations to supply modern fighter jets.\n\nThe UK is to start training Ukrainian forces to fly Nato-standard aircraft. But like other Western nations, it has so far not supplied jets, but said it remains a long-term option.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK would be \"very happy\" to supply fighter jets to eastern European allies so they could release their Soviet-era planes to Ukraine. He said they were already being used by Kyiv and it would be a faster way of boosting Ukraine defences than suppling British Typhoon jets.\n\nRishi Sunak hosted Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky during his trip to London earlier this month\n\nDuring a virtual meeting of leaders from the G7 group of advanced economies, Mr Sunak said that an acceleration in support for Ukraine is \"what it will take to shift Putin's mindset\".\n\nHe made the argument for supplying Ukraine with \"longer-range weapons\" to disrupt Russia's ability to target Ukraine's infrastructure, something to which he committed the UK earlier this month.\n\nHe said: \"Instead of an incremental approach, we need to move faster on artillery, armour, and air defence.\"\n\nOther senior UK politicians have sent messages to Ukraine on the anniversary of the war:", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA metal sphere that washed up on a beach in Japan, perplexing locals and setting off widespread speculation, has been removed, according to local media.\n\nLocal officials in Hamamatsu said that it will be stored \"for a certain period of time\" then \"disposed of\".\n\nBut many have also questioned why Japanese officials have not come out and clearly said what it is.\n\nInterest in the object - dubbed \"Godzilla egg\", \"mooring buoy\" and \"from outer space\" - started earlier this week after a local alerted police upon noticing the unusual object on the shore.\n\nPolice, and even a bomb squad, were sent to check out the object.\n\nAuthorities cordoned off the area and conducted X-ray exams which did not reveal much more - other than confirming the object was safe.\n\n\"I think everyone in Hamamatsu City was worried and curious about what it was about, but I'm relieved that the work is over,\" a local official told Japanese media.\n\nMany also questioned on social media why Japanese officials have not explained what it is. Others have voiced embarrassment at the whole episode.\n\n\"I can't believe officials from a country surrounded by ocean don't recognise a ball buoy,\" read one tweet.\n\n\"OMG! It's a steel mooring buoy people. I'm embarrassed to be Japanese,\" said another.\n\nHamamatsu's local civil engineering office said it \"considers it to be a foreign-made buoy\".\n\nProf Mark Inall, an oceanographer at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, said he knew what it was \"instantly\".\n\n\"It's very recognisable,\" he told the BBC. \"We use (them) to keep instruments floating in the ocean.\"\n\nThey often wash up on the coast of Scotland, he added.\n\nWhile Professor Inall said he was surprised that the metal sphere was not identified more quickly, he acknowledged that the general public wouldn't necessarily have known what it was.\n\n\"It could be confused for a World War 2 mine ... but those would have spikes sticking out of them,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the objects can float in the ocean for decades, and can lose their markings and get rusty when they wash ashore.\n\nThe buoys can break free from their anchorage either in a violent storm or from being pulled by a big fishing vessel, Professor Inall said.\n\nThe Japanese authorities' response to the metal sphere was as curious as the object itself.\n\nThe mysterious ball washed up amid a heightened sense of nervousness here. Last week Japanese media was discussing the ramifications of North Korea's recent missile activity.\n\nOn Saturday an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) landed in Japan's territorial waters. On Monday, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan after the United States held joint exercises with East Asian allies.\n\nThere's also the issue of China's spy balloons. On Wednesday, Japanese and Chinese officials held security meetings in Tokyo for the first time in four years, where Japan expressed concern about the surveillance balloons.\n\nLast week the government here said at least three unidentified flying objects spotted over its territorial skies between 2019 and 2021 were \"strongly suspected\" to have been Chinese.\n\nBeijing denied allegations of espionage and urged Tokyo to stop following Washington's lead in exaggerating Chinese threats.\n\nGiven this tense undercurrent of geopolitical events and perceived threats from its neighbours, the flurry of speculation in Japan is understandable.\n\n\"Given the recent events ... I could understand there's an interest in an unidentified floating object,\" Professor Inall said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. George Gardiner lives alone in the precarious property in Luccombe\n\nAn 82-year-old man whose cliff-top house is collapsing into the sea has said he does not want to move.\n\nGeorge Gardiner lives alone in the precarious property in Luccombe on the Isle of Wight, but big cracks have appeared following a water leak.\n\nHe said: \"I do wonder what is going to happen to me in the end, but it's just one of those things isn't it?\"\n\nHis garden and driveway have fallen 5ft (1.52m) and Southern Water has offered him alternative accommodation.\n\nMr Gardiner has lived in the house, which overlooks the English Channel, for 22 years. It used to be a tea room that he ran with his late wife.\n\nGeorge Gardiner says the \"unbelievable\" damage was caused by a water leak\n\nThese days the former paramedic has a climb to get to his front door\n\nHe said he repeatedly tried to contact Southern Water following a leak in his garage about two years ago, but eventually a friend helped fix it.\n\nThen, late last year a water main burst, coinciding with significant new cracks in the house, and leading to a visit from the water company to fix the pipe.\n\nWhen his garden and driveway fell in 2022, Isle of Wight Council closed part of the coastal path outside the house that was bordered by deep cracks.\n\nBut Mr Gardiner, who once worked as an air ambulance paramedic, said he was attached to the house and was worried where he would end up next.\n\nHe said: \"At least this time of the year, everything is drying out a lot. I'm hoping to get a good Summer here at least… but who knows?\n\n\"I've got the fence to support me if I need to hang on... I manage. It'll be alright.\"\n\nThe council said landslips were \"not uncommon\" in the area\n\nSouthern Water said it had received a claim that a leaking pipe had \"allegedly caused subsidence\"\n\nKarl Love, an independent councillor on the island, said he was \"incredibly concerned\" for Mr Gardiner's safety.\n\nHe said it would not be long before the house slipped off the cliff and into the sea.\n\nSouthern Water said it had received a claim that a leaking pipe had \"allegedly caused subsidence to the property\".\n\nIt added: \"This matter is complex and has been referred to our insurers who are currently investigating liability.\n\n\"Without prejudice to ongoing liability investigations, an offer of alternative accommodation has been made to Mr Gardiner.\"\n\nThe island authority said landslips were \"not uncommon\" in the area.\n\n\"The council have erected temporary coastal path diversion signage and the situation will be monitored and reopening opportunities will be considered once the current damage has settled,\" it said.\n\nThe lawn of the house - seen here when it was still a tea room - is now gone\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sir Iain Livingstone will retire in the summer\n\nScotland's chief constable is to retire as the country's top police officer in the summer.\n\nSir Iain Livingstone, 56, took over the role in 2018 and has been a serving officer since 1992.\n\nHe has responsibility for 23,000 officers and staff in what is the UK's second largest police force.\n\nBut he had recently raised concerns around the financial pressures facing the service.\n\nHe was appointed as interim chief constable in 2017 before being given the job a year later, with his contract due to run until August 2025.\n\nSir Iain said: \"By my last day in service I will have been a police officer for 31 years and had the privilege of serving as chief constable for nearly six of those years.\n\n\"Police Scotland is an organisation with shared values and high levels of operational competence. The service improvements achieved in our ten years are unprecedented across the United Kingdom public sector, delivering effective policing for the public.\n\n\"We now have a full leadership team with the experience and capability to continue the progress made and can take confidence from the exceptional role Police Scotland played through Covid, COP26 and the events following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.\n\n\"The police officers and police staff of Police Scotland are outstanding. Leading them as chief constable to serve the people of Scotland has been the honour of my working life.\"\n\nSir Iain was knighted at a ceremony in January\n\nJustice Secretary Keith Brown paid tribute to Sir Iain's leadership \"through what history will show to be hugely significant events\".\n\nHe added: \"Sir Iain leaves the second largest force in the UK in great shape as it prepares to mark its tenth anniversary - and that is a fitting and lasting legacy to his life of service.\"\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack thanked the police chief for his years of service, particularly for delivering a \"safe and secure\" COP26 conference in Glasgow.\n\nScottish Conservative justice spokesman Jamie Greene said whoever replaces Sir Iain must be \"given the resources necessary by them to deliver the level of service our police officers want to offer and which the public expect.\"\n\nScottish Labour justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said she was personally disappointed that the police force was losing such a dedicated officer.\n\nThe announcement that Sir Iain was standing down came as he published a report warning that policing in Scotland is facing \"hard choices\" given the \"unprecedented\" financial pressures on the public sector.\n\nThe report that was submitted to the Scottish Police Authority said: \"Our capital funding remains significantly lower than that needed to progress improvements to our technology, buildings and vehicles\".\n\nLast year Sir Iain also claimed that policing was \"not one of the priorities\" of a government spending review, with the force already having to make £200m worth of savings every year.\n\nSir Iain joined the Lothian and Borders Police in 1992 and went on to lead major investigations and operations, including a murder investigation into a double shooting at the Marmion Bar in Edinburgh.\n\nHe graduated in law from the Universities of Aberdeen and Strathclyde and practised as a solicitor in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London before joining the police service.\n\nHe also graduated as a Fulbright scholar with a master's degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.\n\nIn 2015 he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in June 2022 for services to policing and the public.\n\nNeither of the first two chief constables in charge of Police Scotland retired from the job. Both resigned for very different reasons, fuelling a narrative of turmoil at the top of Scotland's national force.\n\nAssuming nothing untoward happens between now and the summer, Sir Iain Livingstone will leave having survived longer in the role than his predecessors combined.\n\nThe Chief Constable is not without his critics, but there's no denying he brought stability and calmed things after the force's rocky start.\n\nHe was in charge when the force had to police lockdown restrictions.\n\nThe Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow required the biggest security operation in the UK since the London Olympics, but there were very few arrests and the conference wasn't disrupted.\n\nWhen the Queen died at Balmoral, his force had to police a series of carefully choreographed public events in front of the eyes of the world. The operation was another success.\n\nThe chief has had to face the consequences of two incidents which took place before he took charge.\n\nSir Iain faced the ignominy of going to the High Court in Edinburgh to watch a judge fine the force £100,000 for failing to respond to a road crash which cost the lives of two people.\n\nHe walked past protestors to make a statement at the inquiry into the death of Sheku Bayoh in police custody. His pledge to create a police force that's anti-racist earned praise from the family's lawyer.\n\nThe force has also had to deal with allegations of misogyny and paid out £1m to a firearms officer after an employment tribunal ruled she had been the victim of discrimination.\n\nSir Iain managed to avoid falling out with the Scottish Government, publicly at least.\n\nIn recent months, he fought against its proposals for a flat cash budget settlement which would have necessitated severe cuts. In the end the force's budget was increased but not in line with record levels of inflation and major headaches lie ahead.\n\nSir Iain denies that's why he's going, saying he's dealt with constant financial pressure during all of his time in charge. That's undoubtedly true but it does look like his successor will face even tougher choices as the force tries to balance its books.\n\nIn many ways, the cop who planned to retire in 2017 but ended up in charge will be a hard act to follow.", "Harvey Weinstein during his New York trial in 2019\n\nEx-film mogul Harvey Weinstein begged for leniency in a Los Angeles court moments before he was given an additional 16 years in prison for rape.\n\nHe was convicted of attacking an actress in a hotel room during a film festival in the city in February 2013.\n\n\"Please don't sentence me to life in prison,\" the disgraced Hollywood star told the court. \"I don't deserve it.\"\n\nMore than 80 people have made rape and misconduct claims about Weinstein dating back as far as the late 1970s.\n\nThe 70-year-old is already serving a 23-year prison sentence for a separate conviction in New York.\n\nBefore Thursday's sentencing, Weinstein maintained he was innocent and the victim of a \"set-up\".\n\nOn 19 December, a Los Angeles jury convicted him of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault involving an actress.\n\nThe victim, known as Jane Doe 1 to protect her anonymity, spoke in court before the sentence was read.\n\nShe recounted the trauma she had endured for \"many years\" since the assault.\n\n\"Before that night I was a very happy and confident woman,\" she said.\n\n\"Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage.\"\n\nWeinstein, meanwhile, told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench he did not know the victim.\n\n\"I never raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1,\" he said.\n\nHe told the court there were \"so many things wrong\" with the case and too many \"loopholes\".\n\nWeinstein called his accuser an \"actress with the ability turn on her tears\".\n\nHis attorneys - who had sought a three-year sentence for Weinstein - asked the judge to take into account his deteriorating health, his children and his \"generous\" donations to charity.\n\nWeinstein sat in court looking away for most of the time and did not react when the sentence was read, which came after the judge rejected a motion by defence lawyers for a new trial.\n\nHe was acquitted during the same Los Angeles trial of sexual battery against another accuser.\n\nThe jury was unable to reach a verdict on three other sexual assault counts, including one involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. A mistrial was declared.\n\nHe is thought likely to appeal against the sentence.\n\nThe Oscar-winning movie producer had been facing up to 18 years in prison in the Los Angeles case.\n\nHe avoided a sentence of up to 24 years after a jury was unable to agree on whether Weinstein had planned the rape or whether the victim was \"particularly vulnerable\".\n\nIn 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault against a production assistant in 2006 and an aspiring actress in 2013. He has appealed.\n\nThe conviction was seen as a milestone in the #MeToo movement, which had shone a light on rampant sexual abuse and harassment in the film and television industry.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Weinstein's former employee says NDA was 'trauma inducing'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA large metal sphere that washed up on a shore in Japan has perplexed locals and set off a flurry of speculation.\n\nAuthorities can't say what it is yet - not even the police or bomb squad sent to investigate.\n\nBut what is known is that it's hollow - and not a threat. Many suspect it to be a type of buoy.\n\nThe find in coastal city Hamamatsu has been variously dubbed \"Godzilla egg\", \"mooring buoy\" and \"from outer space\" by fascinated locals.\n\nJapanese broadcaster NHK showed footage of two officials on Enshuhama Beach looking at the rusty, metal sphere that appeared about 1.5m (4.9ft) wide.\n\nIt had been found by a local who alerted police after noticing the unusual object on the shore.\n\nAuthorities cordoned off the area and conducted X-ray exams which did not reveal much more - other than confirming the object was safe.\n\nA runner on the beach told local media he was surprised by the commotion, as the ball had been there for some time. \"I tried to push it but it wouldn't budge,\" NHK reported him saying.\n\nLocal authorities have said the object will be removed soon.\n\nThis kind of find might not normally raise suspicion - but it comes amid general nervousness over unidentified objects since the US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month.\n\nJapan separately expressed concern to China on Wednesday about suspected surveillance balloons spotted over its skies at least three times since 2019 - an allegation it first made last week. Beijing denies claims of espionage.\n\nThe two countries' defence ministers met on Wednesday, in the first senior bilateral security dialogue in four years. Both sides agreed to work toward launching a communications hotline this spring.\n• None The China factor at the heart of Quad summit", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Dominic Raab says he won't rule out force being used to get convicts into court\n\nConvicted criminals could be forced to appear in court for sentencing, the justice secretary has told Zara Aleena's family.\n\nDominic Raab is examining whether judges should be able to impose longer terms on those who refuse to appear.\n\nMs Aleena's killer Jordan McSweeney refused to attend his sentencing, something her family described as \"a slap in the face\".\n\nMr Raab told the BBC convicts attending was the \"least the victims deserve\".\n\nThe plans were revealed during a meeting with Ms Aleena's aunt, Farah Naz.\n\nZara Aleena, 35, was attacked by Jordan McSweeney near her home in Ilford in June 2022\n\nAfter the meeting, Ms Naz told the BBC it had been \"a slap in the face\" that McSweeney had the right not to attend the hearing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Murderer not attending sentencing was a 'slap in the face'\n\n\"He needed to look at our faces and see how he hadn't just killed Zara, he had killed a whole family,\" she said.\n\nMs Aleena, 35, was killed in an attack near her home in Ilford, east London, in June last year.\n\nMcSweeney, who was jailed for 38 years for her murder, was condemned as \"spineless\" by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb for failing to appear in court.\n\nJordan McSweeney had only recently been released from prison when he murdered Ms Aleena\n\nConvicted criminals in other serious cases have also refused to appear.\n\nIt means they do not hear victim personal statements which are read out in court before sentencing.\n\nMr Raab is having discussions with officials about how to bring about the changes.\n\nHe added officials were looking at how the move could be enforced because \"you could be in a situation where you're physically having to manhandle somebody out of the cell\".\n\n\"I wouldn't rule that out, but fundamentally, if a perpetrator is not willing to come and face the judge... then I think we should be looking at increasing the sentence as an aggravating factor,\" he said.\n\nHe told the BBC making convicts appear at sentencing hearings was \"the very least the victims deserve and... a basic principle of British justice\".\n\nHe said he therefore wanted to \"make sure courts have the power to compel someone who's been convicted of a serious crime to come and face the sentence that they hand down\".\n\nPrimary school teacher Sabina Nessa was murdered in 2021 by Koci Selamaj\n\nThe family of Sabina Nessa, who was killed in a random attack in Kidbrooke, south-east London, in 2021, were also unable to face her murderer who refused to appear at his sentencing.\n\nHer sister, Jebina Islam, said it was \"outrageous\" that \"my sister's killer was able to decide whether or not to come to court\" and had \"refused to listen to our family impact via link\".\n\nShe has been campaigning to make convicts appear in court.\n\n\"Me and my family will never know why he murdered my sister and this will haunt us for the rest of our lives,\" she added.\n\n\"No one will understand the pain we are going through each day without our amazing bright Sabina and still not knowing why he killed her.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nLegendary commentator John Motson, who had an illustrious 50-year career with the BBC, has died aged 77.\n\nMotson covered 10 World Cups, 10 European Championships and 29 FA Cup finals for BBC Sport before retiring from the organisation in 2018.\n\nPopularly known as 'Motty', he had worked on Match of the Day since 1971.\n\n\"It is with great sadness we announce that John Motson OBE died peacefully in his sleep today,\" said a statement from Motson's family on Thursday.\n\nHe is survived by his wife Anne and son Frederick.\n• None Obituary: Motty - the voice of football for 50 years\n\n\"John Motson was the voice of a footballing generation - steering us through the twists and turns of FA Cup runs, the highs and lows of World Cups and, of course, Saturday nights on Match of the Day,\" said BBC director-general Tim Davie.\n\n\"Like all the greats behind the mic, John had the right words, at the right time, for all the big moments.\"\n\nDirector of BBC Sport Barbara Slater said: \"John Motson was a giant of broadcasting with a career spanning over 50 years and his distinctive voice has gone hand in glove with so many great footballing moments.\n\n\"For so many of us, John's voice will have provided a special memory and commentary line that still strongly resonates.\n\n\"He had an extraordinary passion for the game and his enthusiasm behind the microphone captured the experience and excitement felt by fans in the stands, all delivered with his unique style. Our condolences and thoughts are with his family.\"\n\nThe son of a Methodist minister, Motson had stints as a reporter on the Barnet Press and Sheffield Morning Telegraph newspapers at the start of his career.\n\nHe also worked as a freelancer for BBC Radio Sheffield before he joined the BBC on a full-time basis in 1968.\n\nAfter starting out as a sports reporter on Radio 2, he made his breakthrough on Match of the Day during the famous FA Cup replay between Hereford and Newcastle four years later.\n\nOriginally billed as a five-minute segment, Hereford's shock 2-1 win - featuring Ronnie Radford's famous 30-yard strike - saw the match promoted to the main game, with Motson capturing all the drama.\n\nFor most of the period from 1979 to 2008, Motson - known for his trademark sheepskin coats and encyclopaedic knowledge of the game - was the BBC's voice on major finals such as the FA Cup, European Championship and World Cup.\n\nThat run included his record-breaking sixth World Cup final in Berlin in 2006 and his 29th FA Cup final in 2008.\n\nHe also covered more than 200 England matches and commentated on almost 2,500 televised games.\n\nHis final game for Match of the Day was between Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion in 2018.\n\nMotson was invited on to the pitch after full-time and applauded by the fans before Palace manager Roy Hodgson presented him with a framed copy of the programme from his first and last matches at Selhurst Park and a crystal microphone.\n\nHe returned to work for a stint at Talksport and also provided voiceovers for some football computer games.\n\nMatch of the Day presenter Gary Lineker said he was \"deeply saddened\" by news of Motson's passing.\n\nHe added: \"A quite brilliant commentator and the voice of football in this country for generations. He'll be very much missed.\"\n\nMotson became an OBE in 2001 for services to sports broadcasting.\n\nHe was also honoured at the British Academy Film and Television Awards in 2018 for his \"outstanding contribution to sports broadcasting\".\n\n\"Desperately sad news. It's quite a shock for all of us who knew him,\" said BBC football correspondent John Murray.\n\n\"If you speak to a whole range of commentators of my generation and younger, he was certainly someone who everyone that came after him looked up to and, really, aspired to be him.\n\n\"He was 24-carat gold broadcasting royalty. He was synonymous with football for generations of football followers.\"\n\n'The standard-setter for us all' - tributes to Motson\n\nThe Football Association said: \"We are very sad to hear that John Motson has passed away. His iconic voice will always be synonymous with football.\"\n\nThe English Football League described Motson as \"a defining and legendary voice of English football\".\n\nIt awarded him the Contribution to League Football Award in 2018 in an annual honour given to an individual who has given a lifetime's service to the professional game on and off the pitch.\n\nThe Football Supporters' Association said: \"John was awarded a lifetime achievement award by supporters at our awards ceremony back in 2017 - John was a gent that night and it was a pleasure to have him along.\"\n\nCommentator Clive Tyldesley, who worked alongside Motson at the BBC in the 1990s, said: \"I've lost a friend, first and foremost, but such was the reach of John Motson, such was the distinctive nature of his voice and his commentary style, that I think many thousands of people who never got to meet him will feel as if they have lost a friend too.\n\n\"What I can tell people is, if they felt that way about John, that was the real John. There was no front.\"\n\n\"An absolute legend of the game. So many of us grew up listening to this man describe the action and goals on MOTD and cup finals. Sad loss,\" said former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher, who is a Sky Sports pundit.\n\nSky Sports commentator Martin Tyler told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"John was the standard-setter for us all. We basically all looked up to him - his diligence, his dedication, his knowledge. He was a very serious broadcaster but he was a real fun guy to be around.\n\n\"I went on a few football tours with him. We all had to stand up and speak and when Motty spoke we knew we were in for a good time - he had a great sense of humour.\"\n\nPremier League leaders Arsenal, who were one of a number of clubs across the country to pay tribute to Motson, said: \"One of the greatest commentators of his generation, he was synonymous with so many of the beautiful game's most incredible moments.\"\n\nCrystal Palace chairman Steve Parish said: \"A lovely man who came to many games with us long after he had 'retired'.\n\n\"He was one of the greats, his words perfectly punctuating so many incredible occasions.\"\n• None How can you tell if a trainer is fake? Hannah Fry goes in search of answers", "The number of asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their case in the UK has soared to record levels, with about 166,000 people in the backlog.\n\nAlmost 110,000 have been waiting for six months or more, according to Home Office data published on Thursday.\n\nThe new figures show about 89,000 people claimed asylum in the UK in 2022, the highest for 19 years.\n\nOn Wednesday the Home Office announced plans to streamline the system by scrapping interviews in some cases.\n\nThe move aims to reduce the asylum backlog which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to see largely eradicated by the end of this year.\n\nInstead of a face-to-face interview, some 12,000 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen will fill in a 10-page questionnaire in English.\n\nApplicants from these countries already have 95% of their asylum claims accepted, says the Home Office.\n\nOfficials say claimants will undergo a face-to-face interview if caseworkers are not satisfied with the information provided in the questionnaire.\n\nThere were higher numbers of asylum claims in some European countries than in the UK in 2022, statistics indicate. For example, there were nearly 218,000 claims in Germany, more than 137,000 in France and 116,000 in Spain.\n\nThe Home Office figures show in the UK overall, more than three quarters (75%) of asylum decisions made in 2022 were in favour of granting asylum, the highest in more than 30 years.\n\nHowever the actual number of decisions made in 2022 was 10% below the level before the pandemic.\n\nAnd the figures also suggest that while the number of asylum caseworkers has doubled since the pandemic, each worker is less productive. In early 2020, seven decisions were made by each worker each month, now it is four decisions a month.\n\nThe 166,000 backlog includes people waiting for the outcome of appeals as well as for initial decisions. This figure is a rise of 60% on last year and is more than 160,000 for the first time.\n\nOf those whose applications were refused, 2,192 people were returned - either forcibly or voluntarily - in the year to the end of September. This number is much lower than in previous years.\n\nIn 2010, 10,663 failed asylum seekers were returned, although Home Office officials say the way asylum returns data is collected has recently improved.\n\nWhen forcible returns are considered separately, the figure for last year was 489, compared with almost 6,800 in 2010.\n\nConservative party chairman Greg Hands said: \"We need to get to grips with the backlog... Absolutely we're committed to the safety and security of this country.\n\n\"There's still a very strong process in place. We're talking here about cases that would be granted, we're just going to do it more quickly in a more streamlined way whilst making sure that public safety is secure.\"\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"After 13 years of failure, today's figures underline the shocking mess the Conservatives have made of the asylum system.\"\n\nMs Cooper said Labour would \"take more decisions, secure new agreements with Europe, and crack down on the criminal gangs\".\n\n\"Rishi Sunak needs to stop posturing and start getting the basics right.\"", "Jenny with her father Hamish Dawson on her wedding day in 1980\n\n\"I can't bear that his blood is inside me,\" says Jenny Pearson about her father Hamish Dawson.\n\n\"If I could have some form of transfusion, I would do it.\"\n\nJenny knew her father was emotionally and physically abusive when she was a child in the 1970s. But it was just last summer she heard the details of the sexual abuse he carried out on pupils while he was a teacher at a top private school.\n\nFor most of her childhood Jenny lived with her parents in school boarding houses belonging to Edinburgh Academy, where her father worked.\n\nShe knew at the time his behaviour was odd but only recently found out the true horror of his actions.\n\nAmong his victims was the BBC radio presenter Nicky Campbell, who revealed the sexual abuse on his podcast Different last year.\n\nIt was the first time 61-year-old Campbell had spoken out about the abuse he suffered when he was a pupil at the school almost 50 years ago.\n\nHe named Hamish Dawson as the teacher with the \"wandering hands\" who had abused him and fellow students.\n\nThe memories of her traumatic childhood came flooding back as Jenny listened to Campbell recall how he was abused.\n\nShe immediately emailed asking for a chance to speak to him and other victims.\n\nNicky Campbell was a pupil at Edinburgh Academy in the 1970s\n\nHamish Dawson died in 2009 and his daughter Jenny was estranged from him for many years before that.\n\nOn the latest edition of the podcast, she tells Campbell her immediate reaction was anger that her father was dead and could not hear the testimony of his victims.\n\nShe tells Campbell she was not angry about what he said and to hear the truth come out was a huge vindication of the appalling abuse she suffered herself.\n\nIn their conversation, Campbell tells Jenny that when he was 12 or 13, her father would call out boys to the front of the class, put them over his knee and stroke their penis.\n\nSince Campbell first spoke of the abuse he witnessed and experienced at the private school, almost 100 other Edinburgh Academy victims have come forward - and it became clear Dawson's abuse went far beyond \"wandering hands\".\n\nOne of the survivors told Campbell that Dawson would abuse the boys in the dormitories, stripping his chosen victim in full view of his peers, tying them to the bed with school ties, before assaulting them.\n\nWithin hours of hearing the original broadcast, Jenny, who works as a therapist, got in touch with Campbell.\n\nShe says: \"I wanted to reach out because I believe in the truth and I can't bear secrets and collusion.\"\n\nJenny spent hours on the phone with men who had been abused by her father.\n\n\"I felt morally compelled to do something,\" she says.\n\nJenny says the conversations she had were extraordinary.\n\n\"It probably sounds bizarre to say - but they were wonderful,\" she says.\n\n\"We spoke the same language from different perspectives.\"\n\nJenny at her Sixth Form ball in 1975\n\nJenny, who is now 64, says the conversations with abuse survivors have reawakened memories from her own childhood, some of which were very graphic.\n\nHer family had moved into the Edinburgh Academy boarding houses when she was seven.\n\nShe spent seven years at the private school's Dundas House and another five at nearby Mackenzie House before leaving home at 18 and never returning.\n\nThe family living quarters were under the same roof as the dorms where the boarding pupils stayed.\n\nJenny says her father would go through the fire doors every evening and she would not see him again until the next day. She says that during her teenage years she hardly saw him at all.\n\nShe was always told \"he's with the boys\".\n\n\"I can say hand-on-heart, I didn't miss him,\" she says.\n\nHowever, Jenny says she did resent being left alone with her mother who suffered from mental illness and often behaved like a \"screaming banshee\".\n\n\"My parents were an abomination,\" she says.\n\nTeenage Jenny in the back garden of Mackenzie House\n\nWhen she lived in the boarding house, Jenny used to loathe the schoolboys who would leer and snigger when she went to the bathroom.\n\n\"I always felt so exposed and vulnerable,\" she says.\n\n\"I felt invaded, I felt violated, I felt belittled. I knew there was sexual stuff so it was scary and there was not a safe adult to go to.\"\n\nBut Jenny now feels the boys must have hated her and everything to do with the Dawsons because of her father's behaviour.\n\n\"I did not know that at the time,\" she says. \"I was just a wee girl.\"\n\nDuring the conversation, Campbell asks Jenny if it was a shock that her father was a sexual and physical abuser of children.\n\n\"I did not know the extent,\" she says. \"It did not come as a total shock.\n\n\"I always knew he used to wallop the boys because he used to walk about with the slipper he used. I now know he used other things.\"\n\nCampbell asks what it is like to say: \"My father was a paedophile\".\n\n\"It's appalling,\" she says. \"It's repulsive. It's shameful. It's disgusting.\n\n\"I have spent my whole professional life fighting for the rights of children and young people.\n\n\"I feel we are the antithesis of each other and I am glad about that.\"\n\nHamish Dawson suddenly quit Edinburgh Academy and took early retirement at the age of 56.\n\nJenny says this had never made any sense to her.\n\n\"I thought he would die there,\" she says. \"It felt like he was married to the academy.\"\n\nAccording to Nicky Campbell, the rumour at the time was that pornography was found in his briefcase and he was forced to leave.\n\nAfter leaving school, Jenny went to study abroad and saw as little as possible of her parents.\n\nIn response her father wrote her a letter in which he formally asked her never to contact them again.\n\nIn a statement, Edinburgh Academy said: \"Like any right-minded person we are appalled by the reports of historical abuse.\n\n\"Schools should be safe places for children and we encourage anyone who has been the victim of abuse to contact the police.\n\n\"We continue to work closely with authorities such as Police Scotland and the Scottish Child Abuse inquiry as they investigate what has happened.\n\n\"They are rightly leading on establishing the facts and what action might need to follow.\n\n\"We will respect that process by not commenting about their ongoing work.\n\n\"The wellbeing of children is at the heart of our school ethos today and we have robust measures in place to safeguard every student entrusted to our care.\"\n\nTo hear Jenny's story and the stories of other victims of the teachers of Edinburgh Academy listen to Nicky Campbell's Different podcast available on BBC Sounds.\n\nThe In Dark Corners podcast - which looks at abuse in Britain's most elite boarding schools - is available on BBC Sounds.\n\nIf you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, information and support is available via the BBC Action Line.", "The man convicted of killing rapper Nipsey Hussle has been sentenced to at least 60 years in prison.\n\nEric R. Holder, Jr. was found guilty of first-degree murder last July for killing Hussle - whose real name is Ermias Asghedom - outside Hussle's South Los Angeles clothing store in 2019.\n\nTwo bystanders were also hit and injured in the incident.\n\nSuperior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke announced Holder's 60 years to life sentence on Wednesday after hearing from one of Hussle's friends as well as reading a letter from Holder's father.\n\nHolder was found guilty of murder as well as two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter for the two bystanders injured in the shooting after a months-long trial.\n\nHe was not eligible for the death penalty and was widely expected to receive a life sentence.\n\nWearing orange jail attire, he did not react when his sentence was read out.\n\nHolder's attorney told ABC News he planned to appeal the verdict.\n\n\"It was always going to be tough given the high-profile circumstances surrounding the case,\" the attorney, Aaron Jansen, said.\n\nProsecutors said during the murder trial that the attack was premeditated, while Holder's defence team argued it was a heat-of-the-moment decision.\n\nHolder's defence attorney said he was provoked by a conversation he had with Hussle about rumours that he was cooperating with police.\n\nHussle was struck by gunfire at least 10 times, after which Holder kicked him in the head and fled the scene, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John McKinney told the court, according to the Associated Press.\n\nHussle grew up in South Los Angeles, where he was a member of the Rollin' 60s street gang as a teenager.\n\nHe opened the Marathon Clothing store as a way of investing in his community. Before his death, he had also reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department to discuss ways to help prevent gang violence in the neighbourhood.\n\nThe rapper won two posthumous Grammy awards for best rap performance and best rap/song collaboration in 2020. He was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\nHussle leaves two children. His murder has sparked an outpouring of support from fans across the country who have posted tributes to the rapper.", "The selfie has reportedly achieved \"legendary status\" within the Pentagon\n\nThe US Department of Defense has released an image taken by an airman as he flew over the Chinese balloon shot down earlier this month.\n\nThe selfie was taken from the cockpit of a U-2 spy plane as military leaders tracked the high-altitude balloon's progress over the continental US.\n\nBeijing has maintained that the balloon was a weather ship blown off course.\n\nBut Washington says the balloon was part of a sprawling Chinese intelligence collection programme.\n\nAs the balloon flew over US territory, at least two planes gathered information on its features and trajectory.\n\nA senior State Department official said earlier this month that fly-bys revealed it \"was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations\".\n\nOfficials first became aware of the balloon when it crossed into Alaskan airspace on 28 January.\n\nFighter jets belonging to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) - a joint operation between the US and Canada - identified the foreign object, but the military did not shoot it down at the time.\n\nOfficials explained they could not shoot the balloon down over land because its size and likely debris field posed a threat to civilians on the ground.\n\nOne defence official told US lawmakers earlier this month the balloon was as tall as the Statue of Liberty and had \"a jetliner-size payload\".\n\nThe BBC's Gordon Corera breaks down what we know about spy balloons\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nThe image released on Wednesday was taken the day before the balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February. The photo has reportedly \"gained legendary status\" inside the Pentagon.\n\nThe balloon was said to be hovering at 60,000 feet (18,200m) in the air.\n\nU-2 planes routinely fly at altitudes over 70,000 feet, according to the Air Force.\n\nThe single-seater reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft, nicknamed the Dragon Lady, were previously flown by the CIA. Pilots are required to wear full pressure suits similar to those worn by astronauts.\n\nRecovery efforts for the balloon's scattered remnants in the Atlantic Ocean ended last Friday.\n\nPieces of the debris, including its payload, have been recovered and are being studied, the Pentagon's deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Some 12,000 asylum seekers to the UK are to be considered for refugee status without face-to-face interviews.\n\nA 10-page Home Office questionnaire will decide the cases of people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen who applied before last July.\n\nThe move aims to reduce the asylum backlog which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to end this year.\n\nThe Home Office says this is not an asylum amnesty - but it will streamline the system for five nationalities.\n\nApplicants from these countries already have 95% of their asylum claims accepted, says the Home Office.\n\nThe usual security and criminal checks will still be conducted and biometrics taken, but, for the first time, there will be no face-to-face interviews, say officials.\n\nInstead, eligible asylum seekers must fill out a form and answer up to 40 questions.\n\nThe questionnaire must be completed in English and returned within 20 working days, or the Home Office may consider the asylum application has been withdrawn.\n\nHowever, officials say there will be a follow-up notification if no reply is received, and every application will be considered on its own merits.\n\nThe British Red Cross warned that the 20-day limit could have \"devastating\" impacts on people who need protection, may not speak English and are likely traumatised from fleeing persecution and war.\n\nHaving previously stressed the importance of in-person interviews, the Home Office is likely to face criticism that the fast-tracking has more to do with the prime minister's promise to cut the asylum backlog, than having rigorous checks for identifying individuals with no right to be in the UK.\n\nLast month, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a young man outside a Bournemouth takeaway.\n\nIt emerged that, before coming to the UK, Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai had been convicted of murder in Serbia and was a fugitive.\n\nThe Home Office says all individuals involved in the new process will be checked against criminal databases, and will be subject to security vetting.\n\nThe number of asylum seekers waiting for a decision on their case in the UK has soared to record levels - with around 166,000 people in the backlog.\n\nData published on Thursday show the number of asylum claims in the UK was almost 75,000 in 2022, the highest number for 19 years.\n\nAlmost 110,000 people have been waiting for longer than six months for a decision on their case.\n\nMore than three-quarters of asylum decisions made in 2022 were in favour of granting asylum - the highest number for more than 30 years.\n\nIn December, Mr Sunak pledged to halve the number of people who had been waiting longer than six months for an initial decision on their asylum application. More than 92,000 people have been identified in that group.\n\nBut Downing Street's determination to sort out the asylum backlog appears to mean making it simpler for thousands of migrants, some of whom will have arrived in small boats, to get permission to stay in the UK.\n\nThe policy may be uncomfortable for Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who portrays herself as tough on those who claim asylum having arrived by an irregular route.\n\nA record 45,756 people successfully reached the UK in small boats last year.\n\nIn an interview with GB News on Wednesday, Ms Braverman said: \"It's clear that we have an unsustainable situation in towns and cities around our country whereby, because of the overwhelming numbers of people arriving here illegally and our legal duties to accommodate them, we are now having to house them in hotels.\"\n\nThe Home Office intends to double the number of asylum caseworkers this year to help deal with record numbers waiting for a ruling on their request for sanctuary in the UK.\n\nThe Refugee Council and the British Red Cross have previously urged the government to introduce an accelerated process for asylum seekers from countries with high acceptance rates. Last year, they recommended 40,000 cases from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria, Sudan and Iran should be in this category.\n\nThe exclusion of Sudanese and Iranian asylum seekers from the list of people offered the Home Office's streamlined process is because the grant rates for those nationalities is slightly lower, although still about 80%.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Breakfast, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the asylum system was \"broken\".\n\nSir Keir said many of the people arriving in the UK were brought by \"criminal gangs who are making money out of human misery\", adding that Labour would establish a specialist unit within the National Crime Agency to deal with the issue.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: \"It's damning that the Home Office isn't doing this already, given Labour has been calling for the fast-tracking of cases - including for safe countries like Albania - for months and the UNHCR recommended it two years ago.\n\n\"Meanwhile, the asylum backlog has skyrocketed - up by 50% since Rishi Sunak promised to clear it.\"\n\nShe added a Labour government would get return agreements in place so unsuccessful asylum seekers could be safely returned and take stronger action against gangs responsible for dangerous small boat crossings.", "Tesco is the latest supermarket to introduce limits on sales of certain fruit and vegetables due to shortages of fresh produce.\n\nIt follows similar moves by Aldi, Asda and Morrisons, with other supermarkets also said to be facing problems after extreme weather hit harvests abroad.\n\nTesco is putting limits of three per customer on sales of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.\n\nHowever, Sainsbury's, Lidl, Waitrose and M&S have not announced any limits.\n\nPictures of empty shelves at various supermarkets have been circulating on social media in recent days.\n\nThe shortages are largely the result of extreme weather in Spain and north Africa, which has affected harvests, according to the UK government.\n\nA significant proportion of the fruit and vegetables consumed by the UK at this time of year come from those regions.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium, which represents supermarkets, says the shortages are expected to last \"a few weeks\" until the UK growing season gets under way and shops find alternative sources of produce.\n\nTesco, Britain's largest grocer, said it was introducing limits as a precautionary measure to ensure customers could get the produce they needed.\n\nIt said the limits applied both to loose fruit and vegetables and to produce sold in packs.\n\nCrop yields in southern Spain have been hit by unusually cold weather, while in Morocco they have been affected by floods. Storms there have also led to ferries being delayed or cancelled transporting goods.\n\nThe UK also gets some produce at this time of year from domestic growers and the Netherlands. But farmers in both countries have cut back on their use of greenhouses to grow winter crops due to higher electricity prices.\n\nIt follows a period of extreme weather in the UK that has also hit domestic crop yields.\n\nA spell of heatwaves in June 2022 led to the fourth warmest UK summer on record as temperatures broke 40C for the first time. And in December the country was hit by a series of sharp and prolonged frosts.\n\nTim O'Malley, managing director of Nationwide Produce, one of the UK's largest fresh food producers, said British carrots, parsnips, cabbages and cauliflower had been affected by the poor weather.\n\nHe said on Tuesday that there may be price rises as a result of the shortages in the coming weeks.\n\nIt comes as food prices are already rising at their fastest rate in 45 years, climbing 16.7% in the year to January.\n\nOlive oil is another product which has been hit by extreme weather, with summer heatwaves in Spain affecting yields. As a result prices in UK supermarkets have surged in recent months.\n\nRachael Flaszczak, who owns The Snug Coffee House in Atherton, near Manchester, said she's struggled to get eggs \"for a while now\", but over the past three weeks she has also found it difficult to source tomatoes, spinach and rocket.\n\n\"We go to the supermarket to try and get our stock for the next day and we just see empty, overturned crates,\" she said.\n\nSupermarkets have told her they are only getting a small amount of stock, which is being used up,\n\n\"There is nothing left when we try and get our stock at the end of the day for the following day,\" she said.\n\n\"It does affect business because we're having to travel around to get what we need and that's taking more time and we're spending more on fuel,\" she said.\n\nMs Flaszczak added: \"There's no shortages over there [in the EU] so it has to be something to do with Brexit.\"\n\nAnecdotal evidence suggests the UK has been bearing the brunt of the shortages.\n\nHowever, problems have also been reported in Ireland, and Tesco says stock levels there are affected.\n\nIndustry sources suggested the UK may be suffering because of lower domestic production and a more complex supply chain.\n\nHowever, they said Brexit was unlikely to be a factor.\n\nMr O'Malley put the problems partly down to the way the UK buys its fruit and veg.\n\n\"There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that the European continental retailers are probably getting a bigger share than the UK,\" he said.\n\nRetailers in the UK tend to buy fruit and veg on a longer-term model, paying a price for the year, whereas many European countries use shorter-term models, which buy on a \"month to month basis\", he said.\n\nThe main impact of new border rules for fruit and vegetable imports will not be known until January 2024.\n\nImports from Morocco, which is outside the EU, are already subject to border checks.\n\nThe government said it understood \"public concerns\" around the supply of fresh vegetables, but added the UK has a \"highly resilient food supply chain and is well equipped to deal with disruption\".\n\nAsked if Brexit was having an impact on the shortages, a government spokesperson said: \"We remain in close contact with suppliers, who are clear that current issues relating to the availability of certain fruits and vegetables were predominately caused by poor weather in Spain and North Africa where they are produced.\"\n\nAre you seeing food shortages or full shelves where you are? Is your business affected by these restrictions? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has suggested turnips could be a suitable alternative while other vegetables remain in short supply.\n\nSome supermarkets have limited sales of cucumbers and tomatoes, following shortages partly caused by extreme weather in Spain and north Africa.\n\nBut she added that people wanted \"a year-round choice\" and supermarkets were trying to meet that demand.\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey accused the minister of a \"let them eat turnips\" strategy - a reference to 18th Century French queen Marie Antoinette, who supposedly responded to a bread shortage by saying \"let them eat cake\".\n\nBut Downing Street insisted Ms Coffey had simply been \"setting out the importance of celebrating the produce that we grow here in the UK\".\n\n\"We don't believe it's for us to tell people what they should or shouldn't buy,\" the prime minister's spokesperson said.\n\nResponding to a question from a fellow Tory MP about eating seasonal products, Ms Coffey said: \"It's important to make sure that we cherish the specialisms that we have in this country.\n\n\"A lot of people would be eating turnips right now rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce and tomatoes and similar, but I'm conscious that consumers want a year-round choice and that is what our supermarkets, food producers and growers around the world try to satisfy.\"\n\nMs Coffey has also come under fire after appearing to suggest people struggling to afford food could work more hours or improve their skills to get a higher income.\n\nDuring the question session in the House of Commons, Labour's Rachael Maskell said food banks in her York constituency were running out of supplies and asked what the government was doing \"to ensure that no one goes without\".\n\nMs Coffey replied that inflation was \"really tough at the moment\" but noted the UK had \"one of the lowest proportions of incomes being spent on food\" in Europe.\n\nShe said people could also access the £842m Household Support Fund, before adding: \"We know that one of the best ways for people to boost their income is not only to get into work if they are not in work already, but to work more hours or get upskilled to get a higher income.\"\n\nSpeaking to reporters later, Ms Maskell said: \"It is shocking that the environment secretary shifted blame for food poverty onto people because they are on low wages and are poor, expecting them to work even more hours to put food on the table.\"\n\n\"It is time her government supported families in need, not making them work harder for a crust,\" she said.\n\nAnother Labour MP, Nadia Whittome, said the comments showed that the government was \"utterly out of touch with working class people\".\n\nFood inflation is at a 45-year high, with grocery prices 16.7% higher than last year.", "Only half the recommended number of medical staff were on duty at the O2 Brixton Academy on the night of a crush at the south-west London venue.\n\nIndustry guidelines suggest there should have been medical cover of at least 10 people, including a paramedic and a nurse.\n\nAfter two insiders approached the BBC, the medical cover provider confirmed only five people were working when the crush happened in December.\n\nNo paramedics or nurses were present.\n\nRebecca Ikumelo, 33, and security guard Gaby Hutchinson, 23, died in hospital following the crowd surge on 15 December 2022, at the concert by Afrobeats artist Asake.\n\nThe medical provider, Collingwood Services Ltd, said it was \"fully confident\" its team had \"responded speedily, efficiently and with best practice\".\n\nWe approached the venue operator, Academy Music Group (AMG), for comment. It said it was unable to respond to specific questions, citing the police investigation into what happened.\n\nTwo whistleblowers who regularly work for Collingwood Services Ltd at Brixton told BBC Radio 4's File on 4 programme that medical cover at the south London gig had been \"inadequate\".\n\nNeither of them was there when the crush happened, but one said he had spoken to colleagues who were.\n\nThe insiders told us that of the five people working for Collingwood at the venue, none had a paramedic qualification.\n\n\"[They] had two student paramedics, so they're basically unqualified,\" said one whistleblower. \"They have to be supervised by a paramedic, not by anybody of a lower grade. They didn't have appropriate supervision.\"\n\nTo become a paramedic, you need to pass an approved Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) course - which often means studying for three years to degree level.\n\nTwo of the three others working that night, say the insiders, were so-called \"FREC 3s\" - with a Level 3 certificate in First Response Emergency Care. They would normally have done a five-day course to learn skills for medical and trauma situations in pre-hospital settings.\n\nRebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson both died after the crush\n\nWe approached Collingwood Services Ltd who confirmed there had been five trained medical staff in attendance on site on the evening of 15 December. It said two of those had been first responders - which is a generic term which can cover a variety of competency levels.\n\nThe company also said there were two third-year student paramedics - working as lower grade emergency medical technicians (EMTs). The fifth person, said Collingwood, was also an EMT.\n\nEMT is also a generic term which can cover different levels of competency in both the NHS and private medical sector. It is not a regulated qualification.\n\nWe asked the company to further clarify what qualifications the five Brixton staff held, but it refused to say - stating merely that \"all staff present were qualified to carry out the scope of practice they were contracted to perform.\"\n\nIt also confirmed that \"no member of staff was contracted to provide paramedic level duties at the event.\"\n\nIn addition, Collingwood told us a further team of three trained medical staff arrived at the Academy by 23:00 and were in attendance until 02:30.\n\nPolice have previously said they were called by venue staff at about 21:30.\n\nLondon Ambulance Service says it was asked to attend at 22:06 - and that its staff treated 10 patients at the scene, eight of whom were transferred to hospital.\n\nIf you have any personal experience of the issues raised by this investigation, please email the File on 4 team at fileon4@bbc.co.uk\n\nFor a sold out, 5,000-strong audience gig at Brixton - such as the Asake show - industry-standard guidance suggests there should have been at least 10 people with medical training on duty.\n\nThat's double the number who were there when the crush happened.\n\nConcert organisers across the UK use several tools to work out appropriate staffing levels.\n\nThey are likely to look back to similar events to judge what staff might be needed. File on 4 has previously reported that the Asake concert had been classed as \"high risk\" by Academy operator AMG.\n\nOrganisers also refer to detailed documents drawn up by the events industry itself - notably the A-Guide, from the National Arenas Association, and the so-called Purple Guide.\n\nThe Purple Guide is based on guidance formerly published by the Health and Safety Executive - and while it was originally drawn up for outdoor live events, it is now also used as a benchmark for indoor ones too.\n\nThe guide says events with between 3,000 and 10,000 attendees should have:\n\nThe following should also be considered:\n\nThese latest claims about a lack of medical cover come just weeks after File on 4 reported that there might not have been enough security guards working on the night of the crush - and that some guards took bribes to let people into the gig without tickets.\n\nListen to File on 4: Catastrophe at the Academy on BBC Sounds\n\nBoth our whistleblowers said previous concerts at the Brixton Academy - before the Asake gig - also had not had enough Collingwood medical staff on duty.\n\n\"Very often they would just tell you the extra staff were running late,\" one told us, \"but they would never turn up.\"\n\nCollingwood also provides medical cover at another London venue run by AMG - the O2 Academy Islington.\n\nOne of the insiders sent us photos, taken since the Brixton crush, of out-of-date medical supplies which, he said, he had been expected to use at Islington.\n\n\"I feel ashamed to be working for this organisation,\" he said. \"If we had a Brixton-style incident at this venue [O2 Academy Islington] then I would not be able to operate effectively and people's lives would be at risk.\"\n\nThe whistleblowers told us they had both complained to Collingwood managers about inadequate staffing levels and training - and medical supplies being out of date.\n\nCollingwood Services Ltd did not comment on those allegations when approached by the BBC.\n\nIn its statement, the company said it had conducted its own internal investigation and was fully confident that its team had \"responded speedily, efficiently and with best practice\" on the night of the Brixton crush.\n\n\"We believe strongly that the swift action and skill of medical staff, emergency services and others who assisted... were instrumental in avoiding further serious injuries or loss of life,\" it said.\n\n\"We are in full support of the investigation into the causes of the events of 15 December and welcome any outcomes of the ensuing report which would stop similar tragedies happening in the future.\"", "Relationships between staff and students should be documented or banned, England's universities regulator has proposed.\n\nDraft plans from the Office for Students (OfS) centre on relationships where the staff member has responsibilities toward the student.\n\nThe plans form part of a consultation on tackling harassment and sexual misconduct, which runs until May.\n\nUniversities UK (UUK) said it would work with the OfS on the proposals.\n\nThe National Union of Students said students may be reluctant to report misconduct by staff out of fear that it could impact their grades.\n\nThe OfS, which regulates universities in England, said harassment and sexual misconduct were \"serious issues\" in English higher education.\n\nIt said standards for universities and colleges to follow on a voluntary basis, set out in 2021, had resulted in \"some improvements\".\n\nHowever, it concluded that practices varied across the sector, and reported incidents were not always followed up formally.\n\nThe regulator plans to introduce a new requirement for higher education providers focused on students and what it calls \"relevant\" staff members - that is, any staff member who has a professional responsibility for a student, such as teaching or assessing.\n\nIn its consultation, it is asking for views on two possible options:\n\nThe OfS said universities and colleges should take \"appropriate disciplinary action\" if a staff member does not comply in either case - including dismissal.\n\nThe regulator said it recognised that its proposals would \"limit\" the autonomy of students and staff, with OfS chief executive Susan Lapworth emphasising that most higher education staff behaved appropriately towards students.\n\nBut she added, \"there can be a power imbalance in personal relationships that could be exploited by unscrupulous staff to subject students to harassment or sexual misconduct\".\n\nSome universities, such as UCL and the University of Nottingham, already ban relationships between students and the staff who work professionally with them.\n\nOthers, such as the University of Westminster, offer \"bystander training\", which are recommended by UUK, and aim to help students identify problematic situations.\n\nOther plans in the OfS consultation include:\n\nThe NUS, which represents university and college students across the UK said four in 10 students have reported experiencing sexual misconduct while at university - but concluded \"the problem is likely [to be] more extensive\" .\n\nIt stated there was not enough support for students who reported misconduct from staff.\n\n\"Students who experience misconduct from staff members may be reluctant to report for fear of retribution that could impact their grades,\" it said, in statement - adding that a \"cultural shift\" involving more training was needed.\n\nUUK, which represents 140 universities in the UK, said its members took harassment and sexual misconduct \"extremely seriously and have been working hard to meet their obligations in this area\".\n\n\"However, we recognise that there is still work to be done,\" their statement said.\n\n\"We look forward to working with OfS, so that these proposals will further strengthen universities' own efforts to ensure student safety.\"\n\nThe OfS is asking anyone with an interest in higher education, or in harassment prevention and support, to share their thoughts in its consultation.\n\nA summary of the responses will be published later in 2023.\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Rachael Humphreys said a flare up of the disease leaves her in \"horrendous pain\"\n\nA mother with a \"debilitating\" rare disease has said psychological support for people with uncommon conditions is lacking.\n\nRachael Humphreys, 42, from Caerphilly, was diagnosed with Behçet's disease almost 20 years ago.\n\nShe said the syndrome caused \"horrendous pain\" and affects her eyes, skin and joints.\n\nThe Welsh government said addressing the mental health needs of patients with rare diseases was \"fundamental\".\n\nMs Humphreys said: \"When it flares up it's really aggressive and it absolutely knocks me off my feet.\n\n\"You do need a lot of input from specialists because it can affect so many different areas of your body.\"\n\nShe has seen many specialists in Wales, but said there was a gap in mental health support.\n\nShe takes medication to control her anxiety, but said she has never been offered counselling.\n\nRachael Humphreys described the symptoms of Behçet's disease as \"debilitating\"\n\n\"When you get diagnosed with a rare disease, or any kind of chronic health, you go through this grieving process,\" she said.\n\n\"Because you've lost your health, really, you've just been left to deal with a disease that's stampeded into your life.\n\n\"When you have a flare up that's, for me, when I go into really intense grief. Because you're in horrendous pain, but also because you're realising your body doesn't work properly.\"\n\nMs Humphreys said due to a \"lack of support\" she had set up her own group for people with Behçet's disease, which has about 50 members from Wales.\n\n\"In Wales, we don't have that specialist approach to Behçet's, we don't have that coordinated approach. It's about me having to try and signpost myself where they need to go\", she said.\n\nProf Iolo Doull, chairman of the Rare Diseases Implementation Group in Wales, said about 170,000 people in Wales were affected by rare diseases.\n\n\"I think we need to recognise that some diseases are so rare that perhaps maybe there are only 10 people in the whole of the UK with that\", he said.\n\n\"So if there are a number of patients in Wales, obviously we would aim [that care is] delivered as close to home with as much quality as possible. But sometimes we have to recognise that people will travel across the UK to single centres.\n\n\"It's important that within health boards, mental health support is equitably accessed by patients with rare diseases.\"\n\nProf Doull said Wales was leading the way within the field of rare disease, with improvements in access to medicines and a new clinic set up in Cardiff to speed up diagnoses for syndromes so rare they do not have a name.\n\nHowever, Disability Wales said its members often feel \"pushed off\" once they have a diagnosis.\n\n\"It can be a really hard thing to navigate when you're getting a mixture of support or across the border, just because the NHS in England and Wales are so different,\" said disability equality officer Alex Osborne.\n\n\"If people have to travel far for treatment or operations, that's one thing, but then they're coming home and being completely left to get on with it.\n\n\"We really want an increase in support for disabled people in general, but also more reactive support when people are getting new diagnosis as well.\"\n\nAlex Osborne called for more reactive support for people after receiving a diagnosis\n\nAneurin Bevan University Health Board said it was sorry to hear of Ms Humphreys' experiences.\n\n\"As participants in the Wales-focused action plan developed by the Rare Diseases Implementation Group, we are committed to playing our part in helping to improve the lives of people living with rare diseases,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"We would encourage Ms Humphreys to contact us directly so that we can discuss her concerns and provide her with any support she may need.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"While health boards provide mental health support locally, patients may need to travel longer distances to receive specialist treatment for rarer conditions, including mental health support.\n\n\"We continue to increase our investment in a range of mental health and wellbeing support with an additional £50m in 2022-23, rising to £90m in 2024-25.\"", "“I want to be with my people,” 23-year-old Angie from Uzhhorod, Ukraine, told me, standing alone, draped in a blue and yellow flag, in drizzly central London.\n\nA crowd of around 2,000 people, mainly Ukrainian refugees, convened here in Trafalgar Square to watch a vigil to mark the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of their country.\n\nAngie fled Ukraine for Berlin, Germany last year, but moved to London in November because she felt that some political groups in the country were siding with Putin’s “fascism”.\n\nAngie told me she feels safer in London, because of the UK’s strong support for Ukraine.\n\nThe event opened with a Ukrainian folk music performance, prompting a soft, heartfelt chorus from the audience.\n\nI watched as one woman’s eyes welled up, as she squeezed her son tighter to her chest.\n\nThe biggest act of the night was Antytila, a Ukrainian rock group that shot to fame last year after they collaborated with UK pop-singer Ed Sheeran on his song 2step.\n\nLead singer, Taras Topolia, who has served on the frontline as a medic, told me it was “highly emotional” performing for exiled Ukrainians in London, who have “started their lives from zero”.\n\nBut steeling his nerve, he turned to our camera.\n\n“Ukraine will win”, said Topolia, “It will get this victory, it’s only a matter of time.\"", "Strike action has targeted the constituency of Education Secertary Shirley-Anne Somerville\n\nScotland's largest teachers' union has defended its decision to stage three days of targeted strike action.\n\nThe Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) members have taken action at schools in the constituencies of politicians close to the pay dispute.\n\nThese include areas represented by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney.\n\nMr Swinney, whose own son is affected by the strike action, said it was \"inequitable and indefensible\".\n\nBut EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said the union, which rejected a new pay offer last week, had been \"left with no other option but to escalate action to intensify the pressure on key decision-makers\".\n\nOn Wednesday afternoon members of the NASUWT teaching union also confirmed they had turned the revised pay offer.\n\nEarlier Ms Bradley told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that the targeted action was designed to \"bring a swifter resolution to the dispute\".\n\nMs Bradley said the action was \"very much focused on the politicians\"and there was \"no intent to target more or less affluent areas\".\n\nShe added: \"It is very clear the targets for this swathe of action are decision-makers who continue to withhold the very modest resource that would bring forth a settlement to this dispute.\"\n\nDr Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, said while the latest pay proposals were a \"marginal improvement\" they still amounted to a real terms pay cut.\n\nHe added: \"The fact that the majority of our members have told us they reject this offer reflects the depth of anger amongst teachers who have endured cuts to their pay, despite rising levels of workload and deterioration in their working conditions.\n\n\"Our members expect a real pay rise which reflects the hugely important and challenging nature of teaching.\"\n\nMr Swinney said he was \"very sorry\" for the families and young people affected by the latest strike action.\n\n\"I think it is completely inequitable and indefensible,\" he said.\n\n\"I talk to lots of teachers and many of them can't understand why that offer has not been put to them.\"\n\nHe said that if they accepted the deal, there would be an 11.5% increase in their pay packets by the end of April.\n\n\"I think that requires reconsideration because teachers need to be given the chance to vote on that,\" Mr Swinney added.\n\n\"The government and local authorities have moved. We have put more money on the table and tried to resolve the issue.\n\n\"The fact it hasn't been put to members means it is difficult to hear any justification [for the action].\"\n\nTargeting schools in five areas echoes the long-running teachers' dispute of the mid 1980s, when there was additional action in the constituencies of some Conservative government ministers.\n\nBut there is a significant practical difference this time.\n\nIn the 1980s, the targeted schools were often, though not always, in relatively prosperous areas with few children who could be considered disadvantaged.\n\nBut some of the schools affected this time serve areas which are not affluent.\n\nIt should be stressed that it is not the intention of the union to target individual children or families - it is about putting pressure on politicians.\n\nBut inevitably the new tactic is something of a gamble.\n\nIs there a risk that targeting could prove counterproductive and alienate some parents? Or will it add to the pressure on senior politicians to improve the pay offer and lead to a resolution?\n\nThe latest offer included a 6% pay rise for the current year - backdated to April 2022 for teachers who earn up to £80,000 - and a further 5.5% in the new financial year.\n\nThe EIS is seeking a 10% pay increase, which ministers say is unaffordable.\n\nWhile the EIS and NASUWT have now turned down the offer the SSTA union said they would consider it.\n\nThe schools targeted in the latest action face 10 days of strikes over the next two months if the dispute is not settled.\n\nTwo days of national strike action are planned on 28 February and 1 March.\n\nThis will be followed by a further 20 days of regional rolling strikes across Scotland between 13 March and 21 April, with each school being hit twice.\n\nSchools in Nicola Sturgeon's constituency were also targeted\n\nThe targeted strikes are taking place between Wednesday and Friday this week in the constituencies of Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow Southside), John Swinney (Perthshire North), Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville (Dunfermline) and the East Dunbartonshire Council area of Scottish Greens education spokesperson Ross Greer's West Scotland region.\n\nA further three days of action from 7 March will target these constituencies and the ward of Dumfries and Galloway councillor Katie Hagmann, the resources spokesperson for council umbrella body Cosla.\n\nMs Somerville said she was focused on resolving the dispute and has written an open letter to pupils outlining the support available during industrial action.\n\nShe said the threat of further disruption in the run-up to exams was \"particularly concerning\".\n\nShe has written to local authorities asking them to consider how secondary schools can remain open for pupils preparing for exams, which is \"being reviewed by councils on a school by school basis.\"\n\nLeanne McGuire, chair of the Glasgow City Parents Group, said they could not support the latest targeted action as it was \"unfair\" to pupils and families in those areas.\n\n\"The area of Nicola Sturgeon's constituency (Glasgow Southside) contains certain high-deprivation areas,\" she told Good Morning Scotland.\n\n\"Those pupils are already at a disadvantage when it comes to education, and we just feel these additional six days put them at further disadvantage, compared to peers on the opposite side of the city.\"", "Palestinian youths threw stones and other objects at Israeli armoured troop carriers\n\nIsraeli troops have killed at least 11 Palestinians and wounded dozens more during a raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials say.\n\nExplosions and gunfire sounded as troops entered the old city of Nablus on Wednesday morning, sparking armed clashes with Palestinian gunmen.\n\nThe Israeli military said it killed three wanted militants holed up inside a house who refused to surrender.\n\nSeveral of those killed outside were civilians, including two elderly men.\n\nThe Palestinian health ministry said 72-year-old Adnan Saabe Baara was one of them. Video footage purportedly showed his body in a street next to bags of bread, in what is usually a busy market area.\n\nA 61-year-old man, Abdul Hadi Ashqar, and a 16-year-old boy, Mohammad Shaaban, were also shot dead, the ministry said.\n\nAnother elderly man, Anan Shawkat Annab, 66, who suffered from tear-gas inhalation, died in hospital on Wednesday evening.\n\nSix members of the Lions' Den and other militant groups were killed during the raid, the Lions' Den said in a Telegram post.\n\nThe number of dead is one more than that of an Israeli military raid last month in Jenin, which was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2005.\n\nWhat makes this raid even more significant is the huge numbers wounded, with the Palestinian health ministry saying more than 80 people have suffered bullet wounds. Five different hospitals in Nablus are currently treating them.\n\nSenior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh condemned what he described as a \"massacre\", while a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he held Israel's government responsible for \"this dangerous escalation, which is pushing the region toward tension and an explosion\".\n\nThe militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, warned that it was \"monitoring the escalating crimes conducted by the enemy against our people in the occupied West Bank and is running out of patience\".\n\nA large crowd of mourners gathered in Nablus on Wednesday afternoon for the funerals of those killed\n\nThe raid lasted four hours and took place in the middle of morning, when the narrow streets of the old city are often packed with families and people shopping.\n\nResident Khalil Shaheen described hearing an explosion, which woke him up.\n\n\"I looked out the window and saw special forces with dogs, and they were connecting wires, which I assume are for TNT [explosives], God knows,\" he said.\n\nThe Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it \"upgraded\" its operation after forces were shot at by Palestinian gunmen. Its troops fired shoulder-launched missiles at the building where the wanted militants were hiding, which caused it to partially collapse.\n\nIt said it acted when it did because it had real-time information - thought to be a geolocated Facebook post - on the location of one of the militants.\n\n\"We saw the threat and we had to go in and finish the work,\" IDF spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht said in a briefing to reporters.\n\nBut Palestinian videos posted on social media also show young men in the street, who appear unarmed, apparently being fired at while running away, with one falling to the ground as gunshots are heard. The IDF described the footage as \"problematic\" and said it was being reviewed.\n\nTwo of the militants in the encircled building were Muhammad Junaidi, a commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and another senior militant figure, Hussam Isleem.\n\nThe IDF said they and the third militant, Walid Dkhail, were suspected of carrying out previous shooting attacks, including one in the West Bank last October that killed an Israeli soldier, and of planning more attacks in the near future. Two other suspects were arrested in Nablus last week.\n\nDuring the raid, Isleem recorded a WhatsApp audio message that was shared on social media, saying: \"We're in trouble, but we won't surrender ourselves. We won't hand over our weapons. I'll die as a martyr. Keep carrying weapons after us.\"\n\nIsleem's house had been raided by Israeli forces earlier this month and his family interrogated. His father told Palestinian media afterwards that forces told him his son should hand himself in or he would be killed.\n\nBoth Isleem and Junaidi were active in the Lions' Den - a new militant group that emerged in Nablus over the last year amid a collapse in control by the official Palestinian Authority security forces.\n\nAs with a similar group in the nearby city of Jenin, the young gunmen used TikTok and Telegram to spread a message of armed resistance against the Israeli occupation to a new generation of Palestinians.\n\nIsrael has targeted parts of both cities in waves of search, arrest and intelligence-gathering raids, saying it is trying to stem the spate of deadly attacks against Israelis.\n\nSo far this year, more than 60 Palestinians - including militants and civilians - have been killed, while 11 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis.\n\nWednesday's deadly raid in Nablus is a further sign that recent attempts led by the US to ease tensions are failing.\n\nThis week, the Palestinian Authority abandoned its push for a vote at the UN Security Council on a resolution which would have censured Israel's new nationalist government over its plans to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank.\n\nAs part of an apparent understanding, Israel then said it would not announce new settlements in the coming months. According to sources quoted in the Israeli media, Israel was also to lower the intensity of its raids into Palestinian cities.", "The number of people who have never been married or in a civil partnership has continued to rise, official statistics show.\n\nData from the 2021 census for England and Wales show nearly four in 10 adults have never been married or been in a civil partnership, up from three in 10 at the start of the century.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS), which revealed the data, said it was \"fascinating\".\n\nThe proportion of adults who have never been married or in a civil partnership has risen steadily over recent decades.\n\nIn 2021, 37.9% of adults (18.4 million) had never been married or in a civil partnership.\n\nThis was up from 34.6% of adults (15.7 million) in 2011, 30.1% (12.5 million) in 2001 and 26.3% (10.5 million) in 1991.\n\nThe latest statistics also revealed the long-term increase in the proportion of adults who are divorced or who have had a civil partnership dissolved has slowed.\n\nIn 2021, the proportion of divorced adults was 9.1% (4.4 million), similar to the 9% (4.1 million) in 2011. In 2001, the proportion was 6.2% (2.5 million).\n\nWhen looking at ethnic groups - after taking age into account - the highest proportions of adults who never been married or civil partnered are within the black, black British, black Welsh, Caribbean or African and \"mixed and multiple\" ethnic groups.\n\nThe lowest proportions are in the Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh ethnic groups.\n\nMeanwhile same-sex married couples and those in same-sex civil partnerships - who make up 0.42% of the population (201,000) - are more likely to be younger, have no religion and have higher-level qualifications than adults in opposite-sex marriages.\n\nONS demography topic lead Steve Smallwood said the census \"gives us a fascinating picture of how society is changing\".", "John Caldwell, seen here in 2020, was shot multiple times\n\nIt's almost 25 years since the peace agreement which largely ended the Troubles was signed, but in Omagh today there are disturbing echoes of the past.\n\nIt seems that the more the details of this attack emerge, the more horrifying the picture is.\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell, a husband and father, had been coaching an under-15 football team and was shot because he was a detective.\n\nHe was putting footballs into his car with his son when two men approached him and opened fire.\n\nHe ran for his life, but was shot.\n\nHe fell down and the gunmen continued to fire at him.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said children ran in \"sheer terror\" as the attack unfolded.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell has a high profile in Northern Ireland and has led a number of investigations into organised crime and dissident republican paramilitaries.\n\nThe focus of the police investigation is the dissident republican group known as the New IRA, thought to be the largest and the most active of the armed groups that oppose the peace process in Northern Ireland.\n\nThose organisations mainly grew out of splinter groups from the Provisional IRA during the peace process which took shape in the 1990s.\n\nThe groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.\n\nTheir activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services, but groups like the New IRA continue to target members of the police service.\n\nAttacks, particularly attacks of this nature, are relatively rare and had been that way in recent years.\n\nBut the police have always been very clear that they still pose a threat to officers' lives and the events of last night demonstrate just how real that threatened.\n\nAn armed police officer on duty near the sports complex in Omagh where John Caldwell was shot\n\nSpeaking earlier, Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said all PSNI officers worked against a \"backdrop of substantial threats\".\n\nPolice officers in Northern continue to take take steps to protect their personal security.\n\nFor example it is relatively well known that it is commonplace for officers to check underneath their cars for bombs before driving.\n\nThe last police officer who was murdered in Northern Ireland was Constable Ronan Kerr and he was killed by a booby trap bomb underneath his car and that happened here in Omagh in 2011.", "An off-duty police officer who was shot multiple times in Omagh, County Tyrone, has suffered life-changing injuries, the chairman of Northern Ireland's Police Federation has said.\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell was shot by two gunmen after coaching children at football on Wednesday.\n\nPolice said he was with his son, putting balls in the boot of his car, when he was shot at about 20:00 GMT.\n\nHe remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.\n\nHe had surgery on the night of the shooting and it is understood the 48-year-old underwent further surgery on Thursday.\n\nThree men - aged 38, 45, and 47 - were arrested in Omagh and Coalisland, also in County Tyrone. They remain in custody.\n\nA fourth man, aged 22, was arrested in the Coalisland area in the early hours of Friday morning, police later said.\n\nLiam Kelly, the head of the federation, said Det Ch Insp Caldwell always wants to give back to society.\n\n\"He's been involved in coaching with children over a long period of time and this is how he's been rewarded by terrorists - it's an absolute disgrace,\" he added.\n\nPSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said the investigation was looking at links to violent dissident republicans, with a focus on the New IRA.\n\nBut he said police were keeping an open mind and will continue to work against those with \"callous disregard\" for the community.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'The one phone call you never want to get' - police chief\n\nPolitical leaders including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar have condemned the shooting.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, senior politicians Michelle O'Neill, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Naomi Long, Doug Beattie and Colum Eastwood issued a joint statement calling it a reprehensible attack by \"the enemies of our peace\".\n\nThey are expected to meet the PSNI's Chief Constable Simon Byrne on Friday to discuss the current threat level, Sinn Féin deputy leader Ms O'Neill said.\n\nChildren at the Killyclogher Road sports complex ran in \"sheer terror\" when the shots rang out, ACC McEwan told a press conference.\n\n\"John was finishing up coaching an under-15 football team. He was accompanied by his young son,\" he said.\n\n\"Two gunmen appeared, fired multiple shots and John ran a short distance and, as he fell to the ground, gunmen continued to fire shots at him.\"\n\nACC McEwan paid tribute to a member of the public who administered first aid to the injured officer.\n\n\"At this time there were many other children. Those children ran for cover in sheer terror.\"\n\nBBC News NI understands that Det Ch Insp John Caldwell got up after being shot multiple times and warned children away from the area.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne said PSNI officers were shocked and angered by the brazen attack, and it had sent a \"huge shockwave\" across the organisation.\n\n\"John knows that his colleagues will now be working tirelessly around the clock to support his recovery but also to bring the offenders who have tried to kill him to swift justice,\" the chief constable said.\n\nThe term \"dissident republicans\" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.\n\nDissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.\n\nThe groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.\n\nThey have continued to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in a single state but their activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services.\n\nThe New IRA is thought to be the largest and the most active of the armed groups that oppose the peace process in Northern Ireland.\n\nAttacks, particularly attacks of this nature, are relatively rare.\n\nThis car near a farmyard on the Racolpa Road outside Omagh is thought to have been used by the gunmen and was later burnt out\n\nNorthern Ireland officers work against \"a backdrop of substantial threat\" and the PSNI would do everything to support them, ACC McEwan added.\n\nPolice believe the gunmen made off in a small, dark car, which was found burnt out at Racolpa Road, outside Omagh.\n\nAn Garda Síochána (Irish police) said it had intensified patrolling in border counties.\n\nThe last gun attack on a PSNI officer was in January 2017. The PSNI officer was hit by automatic gunfire at a petrol station in north Belfast.\n\nForensics officers examine Det Ch Insp Caldwell's car at the sports complex where he was shot\n\nFifteen pupils from Omagh High School were at the sports complex at the time of the shooting, principal Christos Gaitatzis said.\n\nMr Gaitatzis said two pupils were beside Det Ch Insp Caldwell when he was shot and he was \"sickened to the stomach\" by the attack.\n\n\"Some pupils did not make it to school,\" he told the BBC's Talkback programme.\n\n\"It is very difficult as some of the children were next to the son of John and were helping him to get sports equipment out of the car. They saw everything.\"\n\nThe children had been left \"numb\" and it was very hard for them to comprehend what had happened, he added.\n\nBeragh Swifts FC was holding a training session at Youth Sport Omagh when the gun attack happened.\n\nIts chairman Ricky Lyons said that it was \"hard to put into words\" what the children had witnessed.\n\nHe said the children were being offered support and the Irish Football Association (IFA) had been in touch to offer counselling.\n\nHe said Det Ch Insp John Caldwell had been coaching at the centre for about 10 years.\n\n\"He was taking a kids training session - it's hard to compute that someone would try to attempt to kill John at that moment,\" he told BBC Evening Extra.\n\nIt is no surprise to learn the chief suspects in the attack are the New IRA.\n\nAfter years on the backfoot the organisation re-emerged with a bomb attack on a police patrol in Strabane last November.\n\nThe attack on John Caldwell is the most serious incident involving the targeting of an officer for many years.\n\nYou probably need to go back to 2011 and the murder of Ronan Kerr for anything comparable.\n\nLast night will be seen not only as an attack on a police officer but an officer who has been directly involved in investigating dissident republicans.\n\nAbout a year ago, on the advice of MI5, the security threat level was downgraded for the first time in over a decade.\n\nIn that context, the shock being felt within the PSNI today will likely be magnified.", "More than 40 people have been killed, and at least 40 others are still missing, after landslides hit coastal towns in Brazil's São Paulo state.\n\nHeavy rain caused flooding and landslides in towns along the coast, including Barro do Sahy, Juquehy and São Sebastião.\n\nFamily and friends have been joining the rescue operation to find those still buried in the mud.", "Paul Mescal pictured at the press night after party for A Streetcar Named Desire\n\nOscar nominee Paul Mescal has spoken of his anger after a fan groped him after asking for a photo outside the theatre where he was performing.\n\n\"As we posed for it, she put her hand on my ass,\" he told ES Magazine.\n\nThe Irish actor had been outside London's Almeida Theatre, where he was starring in A Streetcar Named Desire.\n\n\"I thought it was an accident, so I like [moved away]. But the hand followed. I remember tensing up and feeling just, like, fury.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Paul Mescal tells the BBC his Oscar nomination is giving his family a respite after difficult times\n\nAsked what he did next, Mescal replied: \"I turned to her and said, 'What're you doing? Take your hand off my ass'.\"\n\nHe told the newspaper that calling somebody out in front of the theatre was \"the last thing I want to do\", saying: \"It's uncomfortable for everyone involved.\n\n\"But it was really not OK. It was so gross, creepy.\"\n\nHe added that 97% of fame so far was \"really nice\" but the other 3% was \"somebody, like, grabbing your ass\".\n\nMescal has won rave reviews for playing Stanley in the Tennessee Williams play, which will transfer to the West End next month.\n\nHe is also up for best actor at this year's Oscars for his role in Aftersun, playing Calum, a man with mental health issues who is on holiday with his 11-year-old daughter.\n\nHe is up against Austin Butler for Elvis, Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin, Brendan Fraser for The Whale and Bill Nighy for Living, and was also a best actor nominee at the Baftas.\n\nSpeaking about the Oscars ceremony on 12 March, he said: \"'Look, I'm not going to win. So it's kind of low-stakes pressure, I can basically just sit back and enjoy it.\"", "The search for Nicola Bulley and investigation into her disappearance has drawn huge scrutiny\n\nPolice handling of the disappearance of Nicola Bulley is to be the subject of an independent review, Lancashire's police and crime commissioner has said.\n\nShe went missing on 27 January and was found dead in the River Wyre on Sunday.\n\nAndrew Snowden has commissioned the College of Policing to review the case including the force's release of personal information about Ms Bulley.\n\nLancashire Police had \"done their utmost\" but \"the narrative has been lost at times\", he said.\n\nThe force said it welcomed the review and was \"keen to take the opportunity to learn\".\n\nPolice were criticised for revealing the 45-year-old had been struggling with the menopause and alcohol issues.\n\nThe review will focus on the investigation and search, communication and public engagement, and the releasing of personal information.\n\nIt comes after the police watchdog confirmed it has launched an investigation into a police visit to Ms Bulley's home weeks before her disappearance.\n\nMr Snowden said: \"The public understandably feel that there remain questions about the handling of elements of the police investigation, how it was communicated and the decision to release personal information, which need to be answered and explained.\"\n\n\"Now that the investigation and search is concluded it is right we ask those questions around why that information was released and make sure that is properly reviewed,\" he said.\n\nHe said the case was \"completely unprecedented in the scale of social media and media interest\".\n\nAndrew Snowden has commissioned an independent review into the handling of the Nicola Bulley case\n\n\"Overall [Lancashire Police] have done their utmost in what has been a media frenzy at times to get across those key messages but I do think... those messages did not get through at critical times and control was lost over the narrative about why the police were making certain decisions,\" he said.\n\nHe said a full independent review would \"ensure lessons can be learned, not just for Lancashire, but for all forces\".\n\n\"This includes how such cases can be best investigated and communicated under such spotlight and scrutiny,\" he added.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct said it was investigating a visit to Ms Bulley's home on 10 January when officers were called to a \"concern for welfare report\" and health professionals also attended.\n\nLancashire Police said no arrests were made.\n\nThe Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has also said it has made initial inquiries with the force to understand \"the reasoning which led to the disclosure\" of Ms Bulley's personal information.\n\nIn a statement, an ICO spokeswoman said: \"We will assess the information provided to consider whether any further action is necessary.\"\n\nMeanwhile, broadcasting regulator Ofcom has said it is \"extremely concerned\" at complaints made by Ms Bulley's family over ITV and Sky News' conduct and said it had written to both \"to ask them to explain their actions\".\n\nPolicing's professional body will conduct a \"full independent review\" into Lancashire Constabulary's handling of the case, focusing on the investigation and search, communication and public engagement, and the releasing of personal information.\n\nThe police watchdog has launched an investigation after a welfare check was carried out at Ms Bulley's home 17 days before she went missing.\n\nThe independent body set up to uphold information rights has made initial inquiries with the force to understand release of personal information about Ms Bulley.\n\nBroadcasting regulator Ofcom has written to both ITV and Sky News contact after complaints were made by Ms Bulley's family over their conduct in the aftermath of the mortgage adviser's body being found.\n\nThe inquest will seek to determine when and how Ms Bulley died.\n\nThe inquest into Ms Bulley's death was earlier opened and adjourned.\n\nPreston Coroner's Court heard she was identified by her dental records.\n\nHer family chose not to attend \"for reasons I can quite understand\", senior coroner Dr James Adeley said.\n\nHe said a full inquest, which will ascertain when and how Ms Bulley died, was likely to be held in June.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her dog by the river after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school in St Michael's on Wyre.\n\nHer dog was found shortly afterwards along with her phone - still connected to a work conference call - on a bench by a steep riverbank.\n\nA major search operation was undertaken but it was more than three weeks before her body was found.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The shooting took place at Youth Sport on the Killyclogher Road in Omagh\n\nAn off-duty police officer is in a critical but stable condition after being shot at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone.\n\nThere are unconfirmed reports that he was hit several times on the Killyclogher Road at about 20:00 GMT.\n\nThe Police Federation for Northern Ireland said two gunmen were involved and he was shot while he coached young people playing football.\n\nRishi Sunak said he was \"appalled by the disgraceful shooting\".\n\n\"There is no place in our society for those who seek to harm public servants protecting communities,\" said the prime minister.\n\nPolice Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Simon Byrne said he was \"shocked and saddened\" by the events.\n\n\"We will relentlessly pursue those responsible,\" he tweeted.\n\nThe victim is being treated at Altnagelvin Area Hospital in Londonderry.\n\nPolice forensic officers are carrying out an examination of the grounds of the sports facility where the off-duty officer was shot.\n\nLocal politicians who arrived shortly after the gun attack say it was a chaotic scene as parents arrived to pick up children from training.\n\nForensics are at the scene at Youth Sport on Wednesday night\n\nThey say it was very busy this evening with a number of different sports groups using the facility.\n\nThe complex has been sealed off while police commence their investigation.\n\nA number of cars remain in the car park, within the police cordon, with the entire complex now a crime scene.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said it received a call about the shooting at Youth Sport Omagh at 20:00 GMT and sent a crew.\n\nPolice went to the scene of the shooting on Wednesday night\n\nSinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said it was an \"outrageous and shameful attack\" and added: \"I unreservedly condemn this reprehensible attempt to murder a police officer.\"\n\nDemocratic Unionist leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson condemned the \"cowards responsible for this\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Alan RodgersUH This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFormer justice minister and Alliance leader Naomi Long said her thoughts were with those affected by this \"evil act of cowardice\".\n\nSDLP leader Colum Eastwood, MP, said it was a \"chilling attack on an individual serving his community\".\n\nUlster Unionist assembly member Tom Elliott said it was a \"despicable and cowardly action\".\n\nThe Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, said that \"those responsible for such horror must be brought to justice\".\n\nTaoiseach (Irish PM) Leo Vardakar said he condemned the \"grotesque act of attempted murder\".\n\nThe Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, said he was \"shocked and appalled\" by the shooting.\n\nThis is probably the most serious attack on a police officer since the murder of Ronan Kerr in 2011.\n\nThat attack, like this, took place in Omagh.\n\nThe officer targeted is a detective of quite senior rank.\n\nHe has a public profile, having carried out media duties as the lead officer on several high-profile cases.\n\nThese cover both dissident republican violence and crime gang murders.\n\nThe police have said nothing officially about a potential motive for the shooting.\n\nBut among fellow officers, suspicion in the first instance has fallen on dissident groups.\n\nDespite a relative lull in activity in recent years, the New IRA in particular has continued to target police officers.\n\nThe Police Federation for Northern Ireland said it \"condemned this appalling and barbaric act of violence on an off-duty officer\".\n\n\"Our thoughts are with our colleague and his family. These gunmen offer nothing to society. Anyone with information should come forward.\"\n\nAn Garda Síochána (Irish police) said it had intensified patrolling in border counties.\n\nThe last gun attack on a PSNI officer was in January 2017. The PSNI officer was hit by an automatic gunfire at a petrol station in north Belfast.\n\nThe officer was hit at least twice in his right arm, and it is thought a bulletproof vest may have saved his life.", "Rihanna's Oscars performance comes on the heels of her solo, 13-minute set at the Super Bowl halftime show\n\nRihanna Navy rejoice: the Super Bowl halftime show will not be the last that we see of the Barbadian singer.\n\nThe music superstar is scheduled to perform Lift Me Up during the biggest night in Hollywood - the Oscars.\n\nThe song, created with Tems, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson, was featured on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.\n\nIt has been nominated for best original song, marking Rihanna's first Oscar nod.\n\nThe 95th Academy Awards ceremony will be broadcast on 12 March and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.\n\nEarlier this month, Rihanna dazzled Super Bowl viewers with a soaring, solo half-time show, in which she publicly revealed her second pregnancy with her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky.\n\nThe 13-minute performance was highly anticipated by Rihanna's fans, many of whom had not seen her perform since she graced the Grammys stage in 2018 to perform 'Wild Thoughts' with DJ Khaled.\n\nIn the last few years, Rihanna has taken a break from music to focus on her business ventures, like her Fenty Beauty make-up brand and her Savage X Fenty lingerie line.\n\nLift Me Up marks the first solo song Rihanna has recorded since her last album, ANTI, which was released in 2016.\n\nSpeaking about her return to music after a seven-year hiatus, Rihanna said she is at a point where she wants to explore creatively.\n\n\"I'm feeling open to exploring, discovering, creating things that are new, things that are different, things that are off, weird. Might not ever make sense to my fans … I want to have fun with music,\" Rihanna said ahead of her Super Bowl performance.\n\nWith a performance at the Oscars, Rihanna joins the likes of Beyonce and Lady Gaga, who both dazzled as musical guests on the Academy Award stage in recent years.\n\nHer song, Lift Me Up, will compete for the best original song title against Lady Gaga, who is up for her fourth-ever nomination for Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick.\n\nOther nominees for best original song include Diane Warren for Applause from the film Tell It Like a Woman; This Is A Life from Ryan Lott, Mitski and David Byrne from the film Everything Everywhere All At Once; and Naatu Naatu by M M Keeravaani and Chandrabose from the Indian action film RRR.\n\nRihanna is a nine-time Grammy Award winner. She has eight multi-platinum albums and 14 singles that have reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.", "Within a decade, around 39% of the time spent on housework and caring for loved ones could be automated, experts say.\n\nResearchers from the UK and Japan asked 65 artificial intelligence (AI) experts to predict the amount of automation in common household tasks in 10 years.\n\nExperts predicted grocery shopping was likely to see the most automation, while caring for the young or old was the least likely to be impacted by AI.\n\nThe research is published in the journal PLOS ONE.\n\nResearchers from the University of Oxford and Japan's Ochanomizu University wanted to know what impact robots might have on unpaid domestic work: \"If robots will take our jobs, will they at least also take out the trash for us?\", they asked.\n\nRobots \"for domestic household tasks\", such as robot vacuum cleaners \"have become the most widely produced and sold robots in the world\" the researchers observed.\n\nThe team asked 29 AI experts from the UK and 36 AI experts from Japan for their forecasts on robots in the home.\n\nResearchers found that male UK experts tended to be more optimistic about domestic automation compared with their female counterparts, a situation reversed in Japan.\n\nBut the tasks which experts thought automation could do varied: \"Only 28% of care work, including activities such as teaching your child, accompanying your child, or taking care of an older family member, is predicted to be automated\", said Dr Lulu Shi, postdoctoral researcher, Oxford Internet Institute,\n\nOn the other hand, technology was expected to cut 60% of the time we spend on grocery shopping, experts said.\n\nBut predictions that \"in the next ten years\" robots will free us from domestic chores have a long history and some scepticism may be warranted. In 1966, TV show Tomorrow's World reported on a household robot which could cook dinner, walk the dog, mind the baby, do the shopping, mix a cocktail and many other tasks.\n\nIf its creators were only given £1m the device could be working by 1976, ran the news story...\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by BBC Archive This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nEkaterina Hertog, associate professor in AI and Society at Oxford University and one of the study authors draws parallels with the optimism which has long surrounded self-driving cars: \"The promise of self-driving cars, being on the streets, replacing taxis, has been there, I think, for decades now - and yet, we haven't been able quite to make robots function well, or these self-driving cars navigate the unpredictable environment of our streets. Homes are similar in that sense\".\n\nDr Kate Devlin, reader in AI and Society at King's College, London - who was not involved in the study - suggests technology is more likely to help humans, rather than replace them: \"It's difficult and expensive to make a robot that can do multiple or general tasks. Instead, it's easier and more useful to create assistive technology that helps us rather than replaces us,\" she said.\n\nThe research suggests domestic automation could free up a lot of time spent on unpaid domestic work. In the UK, working age men do around half as much of this unpaid work as working age women, in Japan the men do less than a fifth.\n\nThe disproportionate burden of household work on women has a negative affect on women's earnings, savings and pensions, Prof Hertog argues. Increasing automation could therefore result in greater gender equality, the researchers say.\n\nHowever, technology can be expensive. If systems to assist with housework are only affordable to a subset of society \"that is going to lead to a rise of inequality in free time\" Prof Hertog said.\n\nAnd she said society needed to be alive to the issues raised by homes full of smart automation, \"where an equivalent of Alexa is able to listen in and sort of record what we're doing and report back\".\n\n\"I don't think that we as a society are prepared to manage that wholesale onslaught on privacy\".", "Five famous lines from iconic BBC football commentator John Motson, who has died aged 77.\n\nAvailable to UK users only.", "David Bowie is one of the best-selling musicians of all time\n\nDavid Bowie fans will get an unprecedented look into his life, work and legacy after the V&A museum acquired the star's extensive archive.\n\nThe collection includes more than 80,000 letters, lyrics, photos, stage designs, music awards and costumes.\n\nIt also features several instruments owned by the musician, including the Stylophone he played on his breakout 1969 single Space Oddity.\n\nThe archive will go on display in 2025 in a newly created east London venue.\n\nThe David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts, in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, will provide a \"sourcebook for the Bowies of tomorrow\", said Dr Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A.\n\nSketches by the singer will feature in the public archive\n\n\"It's an amazing gift,\" added Kate Bailey, a senior curator, who previously worked on the museum's groundbreaking 2013 David Bowie Is... exhibition.\n\n\"It traces the whole of Bowie's career. There are priceless items from his very early days in the in the '60s, right through to [2013 album] The Next Day and beyond.\n\n\"I found it fascinating - the personal insights, the handwritten lyrics, the dialogue with other creative practitioners in terms of how a song is written or how a song is recorded or how a video is treated.\n\n\"All of these things are incredibly rich and powerful.\"\n\nOther highlights include handwritten lyrics for songs including Fame, Heroes and Ashes to Ashes; Bowie's Ziggy Stardust costumes, designed by Freddie Burretti in 1972; and the union jack coat designed by Bowie and Alexander McQueen for the 1997 Earthling album cover.\n\nThe collection also features Brian Eno's EMS synthesizer, used on Bowie's 1977 albums Low and Heroes; and examples of his \"cut-up\" technique for lyric writing, which involved literally chopping up existing texts to generate new meanings from the rearranged pieces.\n\nHe used a cut-up technique, popularised by the US author William S Burroughs\n\nMs Bailey said the archive had been preserved with \"fantastic care\" and \"meticulous\" attention to detail.\n\n\"These objects, these documents, had importance to him and you get the sense that, because he was always moving on creatively, it was helpful to park and collect and store [everything] in order to move on to the next character or project.\"\n\nThe acquisition by the V&A, and the creation of the Bowie centre, was made possible by the David Bowie Estate and a £10m donation from the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Warner Music Group.\n\nA colourful quilted outfit worn by Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust era, in the early 1970s\n\nBorn in Brixton, London, Bowie became one of the most influential and innovative musicians of the 20th Century, evading categorisation as he explored endless musical avenues, and experimented with the power of imagery and persona.\n\nThe V&A established a relationship with the star in 2013, staging the blockbuster retrospective David Bowie Is... which was seen by more than 2 million people.\n\nThe star died just three years later, of liver cancer, days after releasing his final album Blackstar.\n\nIn a press release, a spokesperson for Bowie's estate said: \"With David's life's work becoming part of the UK's national collections, he takes his rightful place amongst many other cultural icons and artistic geniuses.\n\n\"The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performance - and the behind the scenes access that V&A East Storehouse offers- will mean David's work can be shared with the public in ways that haven't been possible before.\"\n\nProducer and guitarist Nile Rodgers, who collaborated with Bowie on the 1983 album Let's Dance, added: \"I believe everyone will agree with me when I say that... if only one artist could be in the V&A it should be David Bowie.\n\n\"He didn't just make art, he was art!\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nBlocking clubs from joining a breakaway European Super League will be among the powers held by English football's new independent regulator.\n\nThe plan for a regulator, recommended by a fan-led review last year, has been confirmed by the UK government.\n\nPreventing historic clubs going out of business is one of the aims, as well as giving fans greater input and a new owners' and directors' test.\n\nThe main purposes of the proposed new regulator will be:\n• None Stopping English clubs from joining closed-shop competitions, which are judged to harm the domestic game\n• None Preventing a repeat of financial failings seen at numerous clubs, notably the collapses of Bury and Macclesfield\n• None Introducing a more stringent owners' and directors' test to protect clubs and fans\n• None Giving fans power to stop owners changing a club's name, badge and traditional kit colours\n• None Ensuring a fair distribution of money filters down the English football pyramid from the Premier League\n\n\"The English game remains one of the UK's greatest cultural exports, with clubs and leagues around the world modelling themselves on its success,\" the government said before its white paper on football governance - a policy document which outlines the proposed legislation - is released on Thursday.\n\n\"That is why the government is today taking the necessary and targeted steps to ensure that continues for generations.\"\n• None Does English football need regulator? Listen to Voice of the UK on BBC Sounds\n\nThe Premier League was understood to be wary of a regulatory body when the proposals were announced in April last year.\n\nThe league says it is \"vital\" a regulator does not lead to any \"unintended consequences\" that could affect its global appeal and success.\n\nWhat will the regulator cover?\n\nSix English clubs - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - were among a dozen from across the continent that announced plans to form a European Super League in a shock move in April 2021.\n\nIt sparked a tumultuous few days in English and European football.\n\nFans quickly demonstrated their anger at the plan outside English clubs' stadiums - with similarly vitriolic protests taking place across Europe - forcing the Premier League clubs to back down and apologise.\n\nDespite the U-turn, the debate over the future of top-level European football has continued.\n\n\"The regulator will have the power to prevent English clubs from joining new competitions that do not meet a predetermined criteria, in consultation with the FA and fans,\" said the government.\n\n\"That criteria could include measures to stop clubs participating in closed-shop breakaway competitions which harm the domestic game, such as the European Super League.\"\n\nA new licensing system will require every club - from the Premier League to the National League - to prove it has a sustainable business model implemented by responsible custodians as part of an application process.\n\nIf clubs are not granted a license by the regulator, they will not be allowed to compete.\n\nAnother key power of the regulator will be ensuring fans have a greater say in their club's strategic decisions.\n\nMoves by owners which may prove controversial - for example, changing the name, badge and traditional kit colours, or moving stadium - will not be allowed to be made before consulting fans.\n\nIt will \"put fans back at the heart of how football is run\", says the government.\n\nThe test to determine the suitability of owners and directors of English clubs has long been under scrutiny.\n\nThe regulator will introduce an \"enhanced\" test which will operate alongside the current process implemented by the Premier League, Football League and Football Association.\n\nAccording to the government, it will lead to \"ensuring good custodians of clubs, stronger due diligence on sources of wealth and a requirement for robust financial planning\".\n\nThe suitability of Premier League's owners' and directors' test has been criticised in the past, most recently following the Saudi Arabian-backed takeover of Newcastle.\n\nAmnesty International urged the league to change the test to address human rights issues, with the Saudi state accused of human rights abuses.\n\nA bid for Manchester United by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, the chairman of one of Qatar's biggest banks, has also raised concerns among human rights and LGBTQ+ groups.\n\nRequirements that currently prohibit someone from becoming an owner or director of a Premier League club include criminal convictions, a ban by a sporting or professional body or breaches of key football regulations such as match-fixing.\n\nThe regulator will have backstop powers to impose a new financial settlement, which effectively means it can force the Premier League to share more money across the pyramid.\n\nEFL chairman Rick Parry wants a 25% share of pooled broadcast revenue with the Premier League, merit-based payments across all four divisions, and the abolition of 'parachute payments' to teams relegated from the top flight.\n\nBut the EFL has told its clubs it is \"not hopeful\" of securing the settlement it is looking for.\n\nWhile discussions between the bodies are ongoing, the new regulator will force arbitration if an agreement is not reached.\n\n\"The Premier League remains the envy of club competitions around the world and the government remains fully behind its continued success,\" said the government.\n\n\"But in order to secure the financial sustainability of clubs at all levels, a solution led by those running the leagues and their clubs is needed, and remains the government's preferred outcome.\n\n\"However, if the football authorities cannot reach an agreement the regulator would have targeted powers of last resort to intervene and facilitate an agreement as and when necessary.\"\n\nThe Premier League has said it gives away 15% of its revenue already and in 2020 also agreed a £250m rescue package to help ease the financial challenge faced by EFL clubs as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nParachute payments are solidarity payments made to help relegated sides adjust to lower revenues. Clubs receive 55% of the amount each Premier League side get as part of a share of broadcast revenue in the first year after relegation, followed by 45% in year two and 20% in year three.\n\nThe payments have been criticised for creating 'yo-yo' clubs and financial disparity between sides in the Championship.\n\nWhy was this move necessary?\n\nThe need for the introduction of a regulatory body in English football has divided opinion.\n\nBut its creation is seen as one of the most radical transformations of the game's governance since Sheffield FC was formed in 1857.\n\nLast year's fan-led review was chaired by former sports minister Tracey Crouch following a number of high-profile crises in the sport.\n\nThe government initially promised a fan-led review in its 2019 general election manifesto after Bury were expelled from League One following the collapse of a takeover bid.\n\nThe review was brought forward as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused matches to be held behind closed doors and affected revenue, along with the failed attempt to launch a 12-team European Super League in 2021.\n\nThe review's recommendations seek to address concerns over the financial disparity between the Premier League and the Championship, with clubs in the second tier breaching profitability and sustainability rules in attempts to gain promotion.\n\nWhat has the reaction been?\n\nUK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the \"bold new plans\" would put fans \"back at the heart of football\".\n\n\"Since its inception over 165 years ago, English football has been bringing people together, providing a source of pride for communities and inspiration to millions of fans across the country,\" he said.\n\n\"Yet despite the success of the sport both at home and abroad, we know that there are real challenges which threaten the stability of clubs both big and small.\n\n\"The new plans will protect the rich heritage and traditions of our much-loved clubs and safeguard the beautiful game for future generations.\"\n\nSports minister Stuart Andrew told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"There's a lot to celebrate about English football. It is hugely successful in many areas. But there is no doubt some serious problems do exist.\n\n\"The fan-led review spent a considerable amount of time getting evidence about the experiences many fans had with their individual clubs and it's clear some of them are not being managed well.\n\n\"We had hoped football would sort this problem out themselves, but frankly they haven't.\"\n\nLabour welcomed the move for a independent regulator but shadow culture, media and sport secretary Lucy Powell MP said the Conservative government should have published the white paper sooner.\n\n\"Fans are desperate for a say on the future of their clubs and the game. We can afford no further delay,\" she said.\n\n\"The government should urgently bring forward legislation, or take responsibility for any clubs that go under, spiral into decline or which are bought by unsuitable new owners, in the years they've wasted bringing the regulator.\"\n\nKevin Miles, chief executive of the Football Supporters' Association, said the group \"warmly welcomed\" the introduction of a regulator.\n\n\"The football governance white paper clearly addresses our key concerns around ownership, rogue competitions and sustainability,\" Miles said.\n\n\"We support any proposals that offer fans a greater voice in the running of their clubs.\"\n\nThe Premier League said it appreciated the government's \"commitment\" to protecting the league's success, but cautioned: \"It is vital regulation does not damage the game or its ability to attract investment and grow interest.\"\n\nA statement added that the league would work \"constructively\" with stakeholders to ensure the regulator \"does not lead to any unintended consequences that could affect the Premier League's position as the most-watched football league in the world\".\n\nCrystal Palace co-owner Steve Parish said there would be \"a lot of intense detail to work out\" from the proposals.\n\n\"It is unprecedented, we will be the only sporting industry to be regulated by the government,\" he told BBC Newsnight.\n\n\"Of course there is a lot of fantastic broad brushstrokes in the press release and the white paper, but the devil will be in the detail.\"\n\nThe English Football League said it supported the proposals around enhanced regulation.\n\n\"The EFL has been clear that the English game needs a fundamental financial reset in order make the game sustainable,\" a statement read.\n\n\"The white paper represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity that must be seized to address the systemic issues that football has been unable to sort itself over the last 30 years.\"\n\nFootball Association chief executive Mark Bullingham highlighted the recommendation to increase funding of the grassroots game as being an important part of football's long-term future.\n\n\"The white paper rightly focus on ensuring our game moves forward with well-run clubs operating on a more sustainable financial footing,\" Maheta Molango, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said.\n\n\"We will work to ensure that the important mechanisms and structures that exist to protect players' rights and conditions are properly understood and maintained as part of any future financial reforms in the game.\"\n\nAugust 2019: Bury were expelled from League One following the collapse of a takeover bid.\n\nDecember 2019: Conservatives promise a fan-led review in its 2019 general election manifesto in response to Bury's demise.\n\n2020-21 season: Covid-19 pandemic causes matches to be held behind closed doors, affecting revenue.\n\nApril 2021: A proposed European Super League, involving six Premier League clubs, collapses within days amid widespread condemnation from other clubs and players as well as governing bodies, politicians and fans.\n\nOctober 2021: Amnesty International urges changes to the Premier League owners' and directors' test \"to address human rights issues\" following the Saudi Arabian-backed takeover of Newcastle United.\n\nNovember 2021: An independent regulator is among 10 recommendations made by a fan-led review, chaired by former Sports Minister Tracey Crouch, on how to improve football governance.\n\nMarch 2022: Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is sanctioned by the UK government as part of its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with Abramovich selling the club to American businessman Todd Boehly in May.\n\nNovember 2022: Representatives of 29 clubs write to the government urging it to press on with plans for an independent football regulator.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "BBC News NI takes a look at significant events involving dissident republicans since March 2009.\n\nThe term \"dissident republicans\" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.\n\nDissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.\n\nThe groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.\n\nThey have continued to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in a single state but their activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services.\n\nA list containing the details of 10,000 police officers and civilian staff is in the hands of dissident republicans, police confirmed.\n\nThe information was contained in a spreadsheet mistakenly released as part of a PSNI response to a freedom of information request.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne said the data breach was on an industrial scale and included the surnames, initials and ranks of colleagues.\n\nHe said dissident republicans could use the information, part of which appeared in redacted form on a wall in west Belfast, to \"intimidate or target officers and staff\".\n\nYoung hooded men prepare to throw a petrol bomb at police vehicle in Londonderry.\n\nPolice described a petrol bomb attack on officers as \"senseless and reckless\".\n\nThe trouble followed an illegal republican parade in Londonderry and came on the eve of a visit by US President Joe Biden to Belfast.\n\nDCI John Caldwell was also released from hospital in April and in a later interview said children witnessed \"horrors that no child should ever have to\".\n\nThe terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland is increased from substantial to severe, meaning the risk of attack or attacks is now \"highly likely\" instead of \"likely\".\n\nThe move, based on an MI5 intelligence assessment, reverses a downgrade to the threat level in 2022, the first such downgrade in 12 years.\n\nA severe threat level is one step below critical, the highest level of threat.\n\nIt comes after the shooting of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell in February and a bomb attack on police officers in November 2022.\n\nSenior police officer Det Ch Insp John Caldwell was shot at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, on 22 February.\n\nHe was off duty and was putting footballs into the boot of his car after coaching young people when two gunmen approached him and shot him several times.\n\nPolice said the primary focus of their investigation was on violent dissident republicans, including the New IRA.\n\nThe New IRA later claimed responsibility in a typed statement which appeared in Londonderry on Sunday 26 February.\n\nAn attempted murder investigation was launched after a police patrol vehicle was damaged in a bomb attack in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 17 November.\n\nPolice said a strong line of inquiry was that the New IRA was behind the attack.\n\nFour men who were arrested were later released.\n\nA grey Ford Mondeo was hijacked by a number of men before being driven to a police station\n\nOn 20 November a delivery driver was held at gunpoint by a number of men and forced to abandon his car outside Waterside police station in Londonderry.\n\nA suspicious device, which was later described by police as an elaborate hoax, was placed in the vehicle.\n\nCh Supt Nigel Goddard described the attack as \"reckless\" and said detectives believed the New IRA were involved.\n\nOfficers were attacked with petrol bombs following an Easter parade linked to dissident republicans in Derry.\n\nThe police described the attack at the City Cemetery on 18 April as \"premeditated violence\".\n\nThe violence broke out following a parade that had been planned by the National Republican Commemoration Committee, which organises events on behalf of the anti-agreement republican party, Saoradh - a party police say is linked to the New IRA.\n\nA police officer was targeted in this attack in Dungiven\n\nA bomb was left near a police officer's car outside her home on 19 April in County Londonderry in what the police said was an attempt to kill her and her young daughter.\n\nThe explosive was attached to a container of flammable liquid next to her car in Dungiven.\n\nPolice said they linked the attempted murder to the New IRA.\n\nPolice provided this image of the bomb\n\nA bomb was found in the Creggan area of Derry after police searches in the area on 9 September.\n\nThe device was found in a parked car and was described by detectives as in \"an advanced state of readiness\" and was made safe by Army technical officers.\n\nIt contained commercial explosives which could have been triggered by a command wire.\n\nDuring the searches, police were attacked with stones and petrol bombs.\n\nPolice photos show the bomb just metres from the door of a house\n\nA mortar bomb was left near a police station in Church View, Strabane on 7 September.\n\nHomes were evacuated and Army technical officers made the device safe.\n\nPolice said the device had been an attempt to target police officers but that it could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the vicinity.\n\nA 33-year-old man was arrested under terrorism legislation but was released after questioning.\n\nA police officer at the scene of the bomb at Cavan Road, Fermanagh\n\nA bomb exploded near Wattlebridge in County Fermanagh, on 19 August.\n\nPolice said it was an attempt to lure officers to their deaths. Initially, a report received by police suggested a device had been left on the Wattlebridge Road.\n\nPolice believed a hoax device was used to lure police and soldiers into the area in order to catch them by surprise with a real bomb on the Cavan Road.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne later blamed the Continuity IRA for the attack.\n\nDissident republicans tried to murder police officers during an attack in Craigavon, County Armagh, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.\n\nA long bang was heard on the Tullygally Road and a \"viable device\" was later found.\n\nPolice said they believed the attack was set up to target officers responding to a call from the public.\n\nThe bomb was discovered at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast\n\nThe \"New IRA\" claimed responsibility for a bomb under a police officer's car at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast.\n\nThe Irish News said the group issued a statement to the newspaper using a recognised codeword.\n\nPolice said they believed \"violent dissident republicans\" were behind the attack.\n\nA journalist is shot dead while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry.\n\nPolice blame the killing of 29-year-old Lyra McKee on dissident republicans.\n\nThe previous week a horizontal mortar tube and command wire were found in Castlewellan, County Down.\n\nThe PSNI said the tube contained no explosive device and it was likely to be collected for use elsewhere\n\nThe device sent to Heathrow Airport caught fire when staff opened it\n\nFive small explosive packages were found at locations across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe letter bombs were sent in the post to Waterloo Station in London, buildings near Heathrow and London City airports and Glasgow University. A further device was found at a post depot in County Limerick.\n\nThe New IRA said it was behind the letter bombs, according to the Irish News.\n\nThe bomb exploded outside Bishop Street Courthouse in Derry\n\nA bomb placed inside a van explodes in the centre of Derry.\n\nThe blast happened on a Saturday night outside Bishop Street Courthouse.\n\nThe PSNI said the attack may have been carried out by the New IRA, adding that a pizza delivery man had a gun held to his head when his van was hijacked for the bombing.\n\nThe bullets and guns exploded after being left in a hot boiler house\n\nA stash of bullets and guns believed to belong to dissident republicans exploded after being left on top of a hot boiler at a house in west Belfast.\n\nResponding to reports of a house fire in Rodney Drive, police and firefighters discovered two AK-47s, two sawn-off shot guns, a high-powered rifle with a silencer and three pipe bombs.\n\nPolice blamed the New IRA and said the weapons were believed to have been used in previous attempts to murder police officers in Belfast in 2015 and 2017.\n\nThe weapons including two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube\n\nPolice said a \"significant amount of dangerous weapons\" were seized during a 12-day search operation in counties Armagh and Tyrone.\n\nThirteen searches took place on land and properties in Lurgan and Benburb from 29 April to 11 May.\n\nThe weapons included two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube.\n\nPolice believed the munitions belonged to two dissident republican paramilitary groups - Arm Na Poblachta. (Army of the Republic) and the Continuity IRA.\n\nPetrol bombs and stones were thrown at police vehicles during an illegal dissident republican parade in Derry on 2 April.\n\nAbout 200 people attended the Easter Rising 1916 commemoration parade in the Creggan estate.\n\nA neighbour said Raymond Johnston had been making pancakes for Pancake Tuesday when he was murdered\n\nDissident republicans may have been behind the murder of a man in west Belfast, police said.\n\nRaymond Johnston, 28, was shot dead in front of an 11-year-old girl and his partner at a house in Glenbawn Avenue on 13 February.\n\nPolice said the main line of inquiry was that Mr Johnson was murdered by dissidents.\n\nIn a statement, it said that \"at this time the environment is not conducive to armed conflict\".\n\nThe group said it would \"suspend all armed actions against the British state\" with immediate effect.\n\nIt was responsible for a number of high-profile attacks, including the attempted murder of police officer Peadar Heffron and a bomb attack at Palace barracks in Holywood.\n\nCharges suggested that Ciarán Maxwell first became involved in terrorism in 2011\n\nFormer Royal Marine Ciarán Maxwell pleaded guilty to offences related to dissident republican terrorism, including bomb-making and storing stolen weapons.\n\nThe County Antrim man had compiled a library of terrorism documents, including instructions on how to make explosives and tactics used by terrorist organisations.\n\nHe also had maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack, and a stash of explosives in purpose-built hides in England and Northern Ireland.\n\nHe was jailed for 18 years.\n\nThe bomb exploded as it was being examined by the Army\n\nA bomb exploded outside the home of a serving police officer in Derry on 22 February as Army experts tried to defuse it.\n\nThe device, which police described as more intricate than a pipe bomb, was reportedly discovered under a car in Culmore in the city.\n\nChildren were in the area at the time, police said.\n\nMeanwhile a gun attack on a 16-year-old boy in west Belfast on 16 February was \"child abuse,\" a senior police officer said.\n\nThe attack followed a similar one the previous night, when a man was shot in the legs close to a benefits office on the Falls Road.\n\nThe shooting happened at a petrol station on the Crumlin Road\n\nA police officer is injured in a gun attack at a garage on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast on 22 January.\n\nPolice said automatic gunfire was sprayed across the garage forecourt in a \"crazy\" attack.\n\nThe number of paramilitary-style shootings in west Belfast doubled in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to police figures.\n\nOn 15 January, police said a bomb discovered during a security operation in Poleglass, west Belfast, was \"designed to kill or seriously injure police officers\".\n\nA 45-year-old mechanic caught at a bomb-making factory on a farm was told he would spend 11 years behind bars.\n\nBarry Petticrew was arrested in October 2014 after undercover police surveillance on farm buildings near Kinawley, County Fermanagh.\n\nPolice found pipes, timer units, ammunition and high grade explosives in the buildings.\n\nExplosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered by Irish police\n\nOn 6 December, a 25-year-old dissident republican was jailed in Dublin for five years.\n\nDonal Ó Coisdealbha from Killester, north Dublin was arrested on explosive charges in the run-up to the visit of Prince Charles to Ireland in 2015.\n\nHe was arrested during a Garda (Irish police) operation when explosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered.\n\nFollowing the sentencing, police released a photo of the heavily bloodstained scene of the shooting\n\nA man who admitted taking part in a paramilitary shooting in Belfast was sentenced to five years in jail and a further five years on licence.\n\nPatrick Joseph O'Neill, of no fixed address, was one of three masked men who forced their way into the victim's home in Ardoyne in November 2010.\n\nThe man was shot several times in the legs and groin in front of his mother, who fought back with kitchen knives.\n\nThe dissident republican group Óglaigh na hÉireann claimed responsibility for the shooting shortly after it took place.\n\nJoe Reilly was shot dead in a house at Glenwood Court\n\nWest Belfast man Joe Reilly, 43, was shot dead in his Glenwood Court, Poleglass home on 20 October.\n\nIt is understood a second man who was in the house was tied up by the gang.\n\nThe shooting was the second in the small estate in less than a week - the other victim was shot in the leg.\n\nPolice later said they believed the the murder was carried out by a paramilitary organisation and there may have been a drugs link.\n\nDissident republicans formed a new political party called Saoradh - the Irish word for liberation.\n\nSeveral high-profile dissidents from both sides of the border were among about 150 people at its first conference in Newry.\n\nThe discovery of arms in a County Antrim forest on 17 May was one of the most significant in recent years, police said.\n\nA \"terrorist hide\" was uncovered at Capanagh Forest near Larne after two members of the public found suspicious objects in the woods on Saturday.\n\nSome of the items found included an armour-piercing improvised rocket and two anti-personnel mines.\n\nThe threat level from Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Great Britain was raised from moderate to substantial.\n\nTwo Claymore mines were among the arms found in Capanagh Forest\n\nA man died after being shot three times in the leg in an alleyway at Butler Place, north Belfast, on15 April.\n\nMichael McGibbon, 33, was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he later died.\n\nPolice said Mr McGibbon contacted them to say two masked men had arrived at his house on the evening of 14 April.\n\nThe men asked him to come out of the house but he refused and the men told him they would come back.\n\nThe shooting took place in an alleyway at Butler Place in north Belfast\n\nPolice said his killing carried the hallmarks of a paramilitary murder.\n\nAdrian Ismay was the 32nd prison staff member to be murdered in Northern Ireland because of his job\n\nA murder investigation was launched after the death of prison officer Adrian Ismay, 11 days after he was injured in a booby-trap bomb attack in east Belfast.\n\nThe device exploded under the 52-year-old officer's van as he drove over a speed ramp in Hillsborough Drive on 4 March.\n\nDays later, the New IRA said it carried out the attack.\n\nMr Ismay was thought to have been making a good recovery from his injuries, but was rushed back to hospital on 15 March, where he died.\n\nA post-mortem examination found his death was as a \"direct result of the injuries\" he sustained in the bomb.\n\nDissident republicans were dealt \"a significant blow\" by a weapons and explosives find in the Republic of Ireland, the gardaí (Irish police) said.\n\nThe weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, mortars, detonators and other bomb parts, were discovered in County Monaghan, close to the border with Rosslea in County Fermanagh, on 1 December.\n\nOn 15 December, a further arms find, described as a \"significant cache\" by Irish broadcaster RTÉ, was made in County Louth.\n\nA number of shots hit the passenger window of a police car in an attack in west Belfast\n\nA gun attack on police officers in west Belfast on 26 November, in which up to eight shots were fired, was treated as attempted murder.\n\nA number of shots struck the passenger side of a police car parked at Rossnareen Avenue.\n\nTwo officers who were in the car were not injured but were said to have been badly shaken.\n\nSupt Mark McEwan said that from September 2014 there had been 15 bomb incidents in the Derry City and Strabane District council area.\n\nThey included seven attacks on the police.\n\nOn 10 October, a bomb was found in the grounds of a Derry hotel ahead of a police recruitment event.\n\nThe police recruitment event was cancelled. Two other police recruitment events in Belfast and Omagh went ahead despite bomb alerts at the planned venues.\n\nOn 16 October police said a \"military-style hand grenade\" was thrown at a patrol in Belfast as officers responded to reports of anti-social behaviour.\n\nPolice say the device, which failed to explode, was thrown at officers near Pottingers Quay.\n\nDissident republicans were suspected of being responsible for the attack.\n\nPolice found a mortar bomb during an alert in Strabane\n\nPolice said a mortar bomb found in a graveyard in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 1 August was an attempt to kill officers.\n\nThe device was positioned where it could be used to attack passing PSNI patrols, police said.\n\nA bomb was found under a police officer's car in Eglinton, near Derry, on 18 June.\n\nPolice said the attack was a \"clear attempt to murder police officers\".\n\nPSNI district commander Mark McEwan said the wife of the officer was also a member of the PSNI.\n\nTwo bombs found close to an Army Reserve centre in Derry were left about 20m from nearby homes.\n\nThe devices were left at the perimeter fence of the Caw Camp Army base and were discovered at 11:00 BST on 4 May.\n\nAbout 15 homes in Caw Park and Rockport Park were evacuated during the security operation.\n\nPolice said a bomb left at Brompton Park in north Belfast was designed to kill officers\n\nA device found in north Belfast on 1 May was a substantial bomb targeting police officers, the PSNI said.\n\nA controlled explosion was carried out on the device at the Crumlin Road junction with Brompton Park.\n\nThe PSNI blamed dissident republicans for the bomb and said it could have caused \"carnage\".\n\nOn 28 April, a bomb exploded outside a probation office in Crawford Square, Derry.\n\nPolice said they were given an \"inadequate\" warning before the device went off.\n\nA bomb was found during a search of the Curryneiran estate in Derry\n\nA bomb is found was found during a security alert in the Curryneiran estate in Derry on 17 February.\n\nPolice said they believe the bomb was intended to kill officers and that those who had left it showed a \"callous disregard for the safety of the community and police officers\".\n\nMeanwhile at least 40 dissident republican prisoners were involved in an incident at Maghaberry Prison on 2 February.\n\nPrison management withdrew staff from the landings in Roe House housing dissidents.\n\nA protest, involving about 200 people, took place outside the prison in support of the republican prisoners.\n\nOn 8 January, the head of MI5 says most dissident republican attacks in Northern Ireland in 2014 were foiled.\n\nAndrew Parker said of more than 20 such attacks, most were unsuccessful and that up to four times that amount had been prevented.\n\nHe made the remarks during a speech in which he gave a stark warning of the dangers UK was facing from terrorism.\n\nHe said it was \"unrealistic to expect every attack plan to be stopped\".\n\nDissident republicans are believed to have used a home-made rocket launcher in an attack on a police Land Rover at Twaddell Avenue in north Belfast on 16 November .\n\nIt struck the Land Rover and caused some damage, but no-one was injured.\n\nPolice described the attack as a \"cold, calculated attempt to kill police officers\".\n\nMeanwhile gardaí described the seizure of guns and bomb-making material during searches in Dublin on 15 November as a \"major setback\" for dissident republicans.\n\nAn AK-47 rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and a number of semi-automatic pistols were found in searches in the Ballymun, East Wall and Cloughran areas of Dublin.\n\nThe Irish Army carried out a controlled explosion at one search location where bomb components were discovered.\n\nA device that hit a police vehicle in Derry on 2 November was understood to have been a mortar, fired by command wire.\n\nDissident republicans were responsible for the attack, police said.\n\nPolice foiled an attempted bomb attack in Strabane's Ballycolman estate on 23 October.\n\nOfficers were lured to Ballycolman estate on 23 October to investigate reports of a bomb thrown at a police patrol vehicle the previous night.\n\nThe alert was a hoax but then a real bomb, packed with nails, was discovered in the garden of a nearby house.\n\nDissident republicans claimed responsibility for a device that partially exploded outside an Orange hall in County Armagh on 29 September.\n\nIn a phone call to the Irish News, a group calling itself The Irish Volunteers admitted it placed the device at Carnagh Orange hall in Keady.\n\nOn 16 June, police investigating dissident republican activity said they recovered two suspected pipe bombs in County Tyrone.\n\nOn the night of 29 May, a masked man threw what police have described as a \"firebomb\" into the reception area of the Everglades Hotel, in the Prehen area of Derry.\n\nThe hotel was evacuated and the device exploded a short time later when Army bomb experts were working to make it safe.\n\nNo-one was injured in the explosion but the reception was extensively damaged.\n\nThe man who took the bomb into the hotel said he was from the IRA.\n\nA prominent dissident republican was shot dead in west Belfast on 18 April.\n\nTommy Crossan was shot a number of times at a fuel depot off the Springfield Road.\n\nMr Crossan, 43, was once a senior figure in the Continuity IRA.\n\nIt was believed he had been expelled from the group some years ago after falling out with other dissidents.\n\nPolice said a bomb found at a County Tyrone golf course had the capability to kill or cause serious injury.\n\nBomb disposal experts made the device safe after it was discovered at Strabane Golf Club on 31 March.\n\nA Belfast man with known dissident republican links died on 28 March a week after he was shot in a Dublin gun attack.\n\nDeclan Smith, 32, was shot in the face by a lone gunman as he dropped his child at a crèche on Holywell Avenue, Donaghmede.\n\nHe was wanted by police in Northern Ireland for questioning about the murder of two men in Belfast in 2007.\n\nOn the night of 14 March, dissidents use a command wire to fire a mortar at a police Land Rover on the Falls Road in west Belfast.\n\nThe device hit the Land Rover, but police said it caused minimal damage.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack.\n\nThe dissident group calling itself the New IRA said it carried out the attack and claimed the mortar used contained the military explosive Semtex and a commercial detonator.\n\nSeven letter bombs delivered to army careers offices in England bore \"the hallmarks of Northern Ireland-related terrorism\", Downing Street said.\n\nThe packages were sent to offices in Oxford, Slough, Kent, Brighton, Hampshire and Berkshire.\n\nOn 13 December, a bomb in a sports bag exploded in Belfast's busy Cathedral Quarter.\n\nAbout 1,000 people were affected by the alert, including people out for Christmas dinners, pub-goers and children out to watch Christmas pantos.\n\nA telephone warning was made to a newspaper, but police said the bomb exploded about 150 metres away as the area was being cleared.\n\nDissident republican group, Óglaigh na hÉireann, said it was were responsible.\n\nOn 5 December, two police vehicles were struck 10 times by gunfire from assault rifles while travelling along the Crumlin Road in north Belfast.\n\nA bomb, containing 60kgs (132lbs) of home-made explosives, partially exploded inside a car in Belfast city centre on 24 November.\n\nA masked gang hijacked the car, placed a bomb on board and ordered the driver to take it to a shopping centre.\n\nIt exploded as Army bomb experts prepared to examine the car left at the entrance to Victoria Square car park.\n\nOn 21 November, a bus driver was ordered to drive to a police station in Derry with a bomb on board.\n\nThe bus driver drove a short distance to Northland Road, got her passengers off the bus and called the police.\n\nA former police officer is the target of an under-car booby-trap bomb off the King's Road in east Belfast.\n\nThe man spotted the device when he checked under his vehicle at Kingsway Park, near Tullycarnet estate on 8 November.\n\nThe man was about to take his 12-year-old daughter to school.\n\nDissidents are blamed for a number of letter bomb attacks at the end of the month.\n\nA package addressed to the Northern Ireland secretary was made safe at Stormont Castle, two letter bombs addressed to senior police officers were intercepted at postal sorting offices, and a similar device was sent to the offices of the Public Prosecution Service in Derry.\n\nTwo police officers escaped injury after two pipe bombs are thrown at them in north Belfast.\n\nThe officers were responding to an emergency 999 call in Ballysillan in the early hours of 28 May.\n\nPolice were fired on in the Foxes Glen area of west Belfast\n\nThey had just got out of their vehicle on the Upper Crumlin Road when the devices were thrown. They took cover as the bombs exploded.\n\nPolice escaped injury after a bomb in a bin exploded on the Levin Road in Lurgan in County Armagh on 30 March.\n\nOfficers were investigating reports of an illegal parade when the device went off near a primary school.\n\nPetrol bombs were thrown at police during follow-up searches in the Kilwilkie area.\n\nPolice say a bomb meant to kill or injure officers on the outskirts of Belfast on 9 March may have been detonated by mobile telephone.\n\nOfficers were responding to a call on Duncrue pathway near the M5 motorway when the bomb partially exploded.\n\nOn 4 March, four live mortar bombs which police said were \"primed and ready to go\" were intercepted in a van in Derry.\n\nThe van had its roof cut back to allow the mortars to be fired. Police say they believed the target was a police station.\n\nIt is the first time dissidents had attempted this type of mortar attack.\n\nAn off-duty policeman found a bomb attached to the underside of his car on the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast.\n\nA bomb was found under a police officer's car in east Belfast\n\nThe officer found the device during a routine check of his family car on 30 December, as he prepared to take his wife and two children out to lunch.\n\nAn Irish newspaper reported that a paramilitary plot to murder a British soldier as he returned to the Republic of Ireland on home leave had been foiled by Irish police.\n\nThe Irish Independent said the Continuity IRA planned to shoot the soldier when he returned to County Limerick for his Christmas holidays.\n\nOn the first day of the month, a prison officer was shot and killed on the M1 in County Armagh as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison, Northern Ireland's high security jail.\n\nMr Black was shot as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison\n\nDavid Black, 52-year-old father of two, was the first prison officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland in almost 20 years.\n\nOn 12 November, a paramilitary group calling itself \"the IRA\" claimed responsibility for the murder.\n\nThe following day, a bomb was found close to a primary school in west Belfast.\n\nPolice said the device \"could have been an under-car booby trap designed to kill and maim\".\n\nSecurity forces were the target of two bombs left in Derry on 20 September.\n\nA pipe bomb and booby trap bomb on a timer were both made safe by the Army.\n\nThe pipe bomb was left in a holdall at Derry City Council's office grounds and the booby trap attached to a bicycle chained to railings on a walkway at the back of the offices.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for leaving the bombs.\n\nOn 26 July, some dissident republican paramilitary groups issued a statement saying they were to come together under the banner of \"the IRA\".\n\nThe Guardian newspaper said the Real IRA had been joined by Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) and a coalition of independent armed republican groups and individuals.\n\nA gunman fired towards police lines from within a crowd gathered at Brompton Park in Ardoyne on 12 July.\n\nRepublican Action Against Drugs said it was behind a bomb attack on a police vehicle in Derry on 2 June.\n\nThe front of the jeep was badly damaged in what is understood to have been a pipe bomb attack in Creggan. The police described the attack as attempted murder.\n\nA pipe bomb was left under a car belonging to the elderly parents of a police officer in Derry on 15 April.\n\nA number of homes were evacuated while Army bomb experts dealt with the device at Drumleck Drive in Shantallow.\n\nA 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line in Newry\n\nA fully primed 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line near Newry on 26 April and made safe the following day.\n\nA senior police officer said those who left it had a \"destructive, murderous intent\".\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Alastair Finlay said it was as \"big a device as we have seen for a long time\".\n\nOn 30 March two men were convicted of murdering police officer Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon in March 2009.\n\nTwo men were convicted of murdering Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon\n\nThe 48-year-old officer was shot dead after he and colleagues responded to a 999 call.\n\nConvicted of the murder were Brendan McConville, 40, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon, and John Paul Wootton, 20, of Collindale, Lurgan.\n\nDerry man Andrew Allen was shot dead in Buncrana, County Donegal, on 9 February.\n\nThe 24-year-old father of two was shot at a house in Links View Park, Lisfannon.\n\nRepublican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) later admitted it murdered Mr Allen who had been forced to leave his home city the previous year.\n\nStrabane man Martin Kelly was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on 24 January for the murder of a man in County Donegal.\n\nAndrew Burns, 27, from Strabane, was shot twice in the back in February 2008 in a church car park.\n\nThe murder was linked to the dissident republican group, Oglaigh na hEireann. Kelly, from Barrack Steet, was also sentenced to eight years in prison for possession of a firearm.\n\nOn 20 January, Brian Shivers was convicted of the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene Barracks in March 2009.\n\nPolice in Derry believed dissident republicans were responsible for two bomb attacks on 19 January.\n\nThe bombs exploded at the tourist centre on Foyle Street and on Strand Road, close to the DHSS office, within 10 minutes of each other.\n\nHomes and businesses in the city were evacuated and no-one was injured.\n\nA bomb was left in the soldier's car in north Belfast\n\nA Scottish soldier found a bomb inside his car outside his girlfriend's house in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast.\n\nIt is understood the device contained a trip wire attached to the seat belt.\n\nPolice say if the bomb had gone off the soldier, and others in the vicinity, could have been killed. Dissidents admitted they carried out the attack.\n\nA bomb outside the City of Culture offices was blamed on dissidents\n\nA bomb exploded outside the City of Culture offices in Derry on 12 October.\n\nSecurity sources said the attack had all the hallmarks of dissident republicans, who damaged a door of the same building with a pipe bomb in January.\n\nThe Real IRA was blamed for two bomb attacks near Claudy, County Londonderry on 14 September.\n\nOne of the bombs exploded outside the family home of a Catholic police officer. No-one was in the house at the time.\n\nThe other device was made safe at the home of a retired doctor who works for the police.\n\nTwo masked men threw a holdall containing a bomb into a Santander bank branch in Derry's Diamond just after midday on Saturday 21 May.\n\nPolice cleared the area and the bomb exploded an hour later. No-one was injured.\n\nHowever, significant damage was caused inside the building.\n\nThe grenade was thrown at officers during a security alert\n\nA grenade was thrown at police officers during a security alert at Southway in Derry on 9 May.\n\nThe device, which was described as \"viable\", failed to explode.\n\nTwo children were talking to the officers when the grenade was thrown.\n\nThe mother of one of them said he could have been killed and whoever threw the grenade must have seen the children.\n\nThe Real IRA, threatened to kill more police officers and declared its opposition to Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to the Republic of Ireland.\n\nA statement was read out by a masked man at a rally organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in Derry on Easter Monday, 25 April.\n\nA 500lb bomb was left in a van at an underpass on the main Belfast to Dublin road in Newry.\n\nConstable Ronan Kerr was killed after a bomb exploded under his car outside his home in Omagh on 2 April.\n\nNo group claimed responsibility for the attack but dissident republicans were blamed.\n\nThe 25-year-old had joined the police in May 2010 and had been working in the community for five months.\n\nForensic experts at the scene of Derry courthouse bomb\n\nThe PSNI described a bomb left near Bishop Street Courthouse as a \"substantial viable device\".\n\nDistrict commander Stephen Martin said a beer keg, left in a stolen car, contained around 50kg of home-made explosives.\n\nA number of shots were fired at police officers at Glen Road in Derry on the night of 2 March.\n\nPolice said it was an attempt to kill.\n\nA policeman found an unexploded grenade outside his home in County Fermanagh.\n\nThe device was discovered at the property in Drumreer Road, Maguiresbridge, on 23 December.\n\nA grenade was found outside a police officer's home in County Fermanagh\n\nIn the Republic, three men from Northern Ireland were jailed for IRA membership on 15 December.\n\nGerard McGarrigle, 46, from Mount Carmel Heights in Strabane was sentenced to five years in prison.\n\nDesmond Donnelly, 58, from Drumall, Lisnarick, Fermanagh and Jim Murphy, 63, from Floraville in Enniskillen, were given three years and nine months.\n\nThey were arrested in Letterkenny in February after Irish police received a tip-off that dissident republicans were about to carry out a 'tiger' kidnapping\n\nA military hand grenade was used to attack police officers called to a robbery at Shaw's Road in west Belfast on 5 November.\n\nThree police officers were hurt and one of them suffered serious arm injuries when the grenade was thrown by a cyclist.\n\nThe dissident paramilitary group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) said it was responsible for the attack.\n\nThe Ulster Bank on Culmore Road was damaged in a car bomb attack in Derry\n\nA car bomb exploded close to the Ulster Bank, shops and a hotel on Derry's Culmore Road on 4 October.\n\nThe area had been cleared when the bomb exploded, but the blast was so strong that a police officer who was standing close to the cordon was knocked off his feet.\n\nLurgan man Paul McCaugherty was jailed for 20 years for a dissident republican gun smuggling plot that was uncovered after an MI5 sting operation.\n\nMcCaugherty was found guilty of attempting to import weapons and explosives.\n\nDermot Declan Gregory from Crossmaglen, was found guilty of making a Portuguese property available for the purpose of terrorism. He was sentenced to four years.\n\nThree children suffered minor injuries when a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan's North Street on 14 August.\n\nThe bomb went off at a junction where police would have been expected to put up a cordon around the school. The explosion injured the children after it blew a hole in a metal fence.\n\nThree children were hurt after a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan\n\nA booby trap partially exploded under the car of a former policeman in Cookstown, County Tyrone, on 10 August.\n\nThe man was unhurt in the attak.\n\nA bomb was found under the car of a Catholic policewoman in Kilkeel in County Down on 8 August.\n\nIt is believed the device fell off the car before being spotted by the officer.\n\nA booby-trap bomb was found in the driveway of a soldier's house in Bangor\n\nOn 4 August, booby trap bomb was found under a soldier's car in Bangor.\n\nIt then fell off and he discovered it as he was about to leave his home.\n\nA car that exploded outside a police station in Derry contained 200lb of homemade explosives.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack, which happened on 3 August, but several businesses were badly damaged in the blast.\n\nA bomb exploded between Belleeks and Cullyhanna in south Armagh, blowing a crater in the road and damaging a stone bridge on 10 July.\n\nPolice viewed it as an attempt to lure them into the area in order to carry out a follow-up ambush.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for organising two nights of sustained rioting in the Broadway and Bog Meadows areas of west Belfast on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July.\n\nLater rioting on 11, 12, 13 and 14 July in south and north Belfast, Lurgan and Derry is also believed to have involved dissidents.\n\nDissidents were believed to have organised riots in Belfast\n\nScores of police officers were injured during the violence, which featured gun attacks, petrol bombs and other missiles being thrown.\n\nShots were fired at Crossmaglen PSNI station on 2 July.\n\nDissident republicans said they were behind two similar attacks in December and January.\n\nA car bomb exploded outside Newtownhamilton Police Station in County Armagh, injuring two people.\n\nPeople also reported hearing gunshots before the blast.\n\nThere were five pipe bomb attacks on houses in the west of Northern Ireland in a week - two of them claimed by a group calling itself Republican Action Against Drugs.\n\nA car bomb was defused outside Newtownhamilton police station in south Armagh on Tuesday 13 April.\n\nA bomb in a hijacked taxi exploded outside Palace Barracks in Holywood, on Monday 12 April - the day policing and justice powers were transferred to Northern Ireland.\n\nThe barracks is home to MI5's headquarters in Northern Ireland.\n\nPolice said a car bomb left outside Crossmaglen on Easter Saturday night could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the area.\n\nThe bomb - made up of a number of flammable containers - was made safe by Army experts.\n\nKieran Doherty was murdered by the Real IRA\n\nThe naked and bound body of 31-year-old Kieran Doherty was found close to the Irish border near Derry on 24 February.\n\nThe Real IRA said it killed Mr Doherty who, it claimed, was one of its members.\n\nTwo days earlier a bomb damaged the gates of Newry courthouse in County Down.\n\nOfficers were evacuating the area when the bomb went off. Police said it was a miracle no-one was killed.\n\nA 33-year-old Catholic police officer was seriously injured in a dissident republican car bomb about a mile from his home in Randalstown in County Antrim.\n\nOn the last day of the month the Real IRA opened fire on a police station in County Armagh.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack in Bessbrook.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for leaving a car containing a 400lb (181kg) bomb outside the Policing Board's headquarters in Belfast.\n\nThe car, which had been driven through a barrier by two men who then ran off, burst into flames when the device partially exploded.\n\nOn the same night, shots were fired during an undercover police operation in the County Fermanagh village of Garrison, in what police described as an attempt to kill a trainee PSNI officer.\n\nOne of Northern Ireland's top judges moved out of his Belfast home over fears of a dissident republican threat against him.\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party politician Ian Paisley junior said police had warned him that dissident republicans were planning to murder him.\n\nMr Paisley, who was then a member of the Policing Board, said officers contacted him to inform him of the foiled attack.\n\nA police officer's partner was injured when a bomb exploded under her car in east Belfast.\n\nThe 38-year-old was reversing the vehicle out of the driveway of a house when the device exploded.\n\nIn the same month a bomb exploded inside a Territorial Army base in north Belfast.\n\nThe police confirmed that \"some blast damage\" had occurred inside the base off the Antrim Road and shrapnel from the overnight explosion was found in neighbouring streets.\n\nThe PSNI said a 600lb (272kg) bomb left near the Irish border in south Armagh was intended to kill its officers.\n\nThe bomb was defused by the Army near the village of Forkhill.\n\nDays later the Real IRA claimed responsibility for placing two explosive devices near the homes of a policeman's relatives in Derry.\n\nThe first device exploded outside his parents' home while a second device, which was found outside his sister's home, was taken away for examination by the Army.\n\nConor Murphy, then a Sinn Féin MP and minister in Northern Ireland's devolved administration, blamed dissident republicans for an arson attack on his home in south Armagh.\n\nDissident republicans were suspected of involvement in a petrol bomb attack on the Derry home of senior Sinn Féin member Mitchel McLaughlin.\n\nNorthern Ireland's then Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said dissident republicans had threatened to kill him.\n\nSappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey died in the attack\n\nTwo young soldiers were shot dead as they collected pizzas outside Massereene Barracks in County Antrim.\n\nSappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey were killed just hours before they were due to be deployed to Afghanistan.\n\nThe Real IRA was blamed for the attack.\n\nWithin 48 hours policeman Stephen Carroll was shot dead in Craigavon, County Armagh, becoming the first police officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1998.", "Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has faced criticism over her remarks about gay marriage\n\nKate Forbes says she feels \"greatly burdened\" that some of her comments during the SNP leadership contest have caused hurt.\n\nThe finance secretary has lost support from several SNP politicians after saying she would have voted against gay marriage had she been an MSP in 2014.\n\nMs Forbes has now taken to social media in a bid to reset her campaign.\n\nIt comes after she hit back at John Swinney, who questioned if her views would be appropriate for an SNP leader.\n\nMs Forbes, who is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, also said she believed that having a child outside of marriage was \"wrong\" according to her religious beliefs when she took part in a series of interviews on Monday and Tuesday.\n\nThere had been speculation over whether Ms Forbes would continue in the race after a series of MSPs withdrew their backing but she has made clear she intends to fight on.\n\nShe wrote in a statement on Facebook and Twitter on Thursday: \"I feel greatly burdened that some of my responses to questions in the media have caused hurt, which was never my intention as I sought to answer questions clearly.\n\n\"I will defend to the hilt the right of everybody in Scotland, particularly minorities, to live and to live without fear or harassment in a pluralistic and tolerant society.\n\n\"I will uphold the laws that have been won, as a servant of democracy, and seek to enhance the rights of everybody to live in a way which enables them to flourish.\n\n\"I firmly believe in the inherent dignity of each human being - that underpins all ethical and political decisions I make.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kate Forbes MSP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs Forbes also said that her Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituents had \"full knowledge\" of her religious views and were \"comfortable\" knowing she would serve \"faithfully and without prejudice\".\n\nShe added: \"It is possible to be a person of faith, and to defend others' rights to have no faith or a different faith.\"\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said on Wednesday that criticism of Ms Forbes over her views had nothing to do with her faith.\n\nMr Swinney, who has been standing in as finance secretary while Ms Forbes has been on maternity leave, said he \"profoundly disagreed\" with her views despite also having deep religious faith and questioned whether she would be an appropriate choice to lead the party and the country.\n\nMs Forbes' spokesperson subsequently claimed that Mr Swinney was essentially saying a woman with \"Christian views\" was not suitable to be first minister.\n\nKate Forbes has sought to relaunch her campaign after a damaging couple of days, but is perhaps still searching for the correct tone to strike.\n\nYesterday, she issued a statement with a scathing response to John Swinney's comments on her views of equal marriage.\n\nToday she has struck a much more conciliatory note, promising to listen to criticism.\n\nShe will surely aim to settle on a middle ground somewhere between being combative and contrite.\n\nSome had speculated that Ms Forbes might drop out of the race, but given the damage that would have done to her political career she may now feel she has nothing to lose by fighting on.\n\nThere are still weeks to go until voting even begins, and the finance secretary will hope to use that time to talk more about the economy and about independence.\n\nA bigger question might be what this means for the MSPs and fellow ministers who deserted her cause - having been well aware of her views for years.\n\nIf Ms Forbes completes a comeback and looks like winning, are they going to make a full 360 degree turn in the hope she might give them a government job?\n\nNominations for the SNP leadership close on Friday with Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and MSP Ash Regan, who resigned as a minister over the government's controversial gender recognition reforms, expected to be the only other candidates.\n\nThe new leader is due to be announced on 27 March after a vote by party members.\n\nMr Yousaf was targeted by opposition MSPs at First Minister's Questions, with Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross claiming he had been \"useless\" as health secretary and had \"made the crisis in Scotland's health service much worse\".\n\nMr Yousaf was targeted by the opposition MSPs at First Minister's Questions\n\nMr Ross launched his attack after a Freedom of Information request by his party showed a patient in NHS Borders waited 49 hours for treatment in A&E, while someone in Lanarkshire waited 54 hours and a patient in the NHS Ayrshire area had waited 60 hours.\n\nThe Scottish government's target for accident and emergency waiting times is four hours.\n\nThe Tory leader said: \"Humza Yousaf is the worst health secretary since devolution, but it looks like he is going to fail upwards. In any other line of work Humza Yousaf would have been sacked, not promoted.\"\n\nHe asked First Minister Nicola Sturgeon: \"Forget being SNP leader, why is he even still in government?\"\n\nMs Sturgeon said it was \"always unacceptable\" for a patient to wait too long for NHS treatment, adding the health service was facing \"significant challenges\".\n\nShe said: \"We are supporting our NHS with record funding, record staffing and the wider support it needs to address these challenges\" and said Scotland - unlike other parts of the UK - had avoided strike action by NHS workers\n\nMs Sturgeon stressed that it was for members of her party to \"elect a new leader of the SNP and effectively a new first minister for Scotland\", adding: \"Douglas Ross is sounding pretty scared of Humza Yousaf.\"\n\nAsh Regan will formally launch her leadership campaign on Friday\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also took aim at the health secretary, saying he had \"failed\" and his recent NHS recovery plan was \"more about spin than substance\".\n\nMr Sarwar asked: \"Does the first minister really believe that the man responsible for failing Scotland's NHS should be responsible for our country?\"\n\nMs Sturgeon stressed again the decision on who the new leader would be was \"one for my party\".\n\nBut she sought to defend the health secretary's record, saying: \"Since Humza Yousaf became health secretary - and this is what Anas Sarwar fails to mention - there have been, I think, three further waves of a global pandemic that have affected health services all across the UK, Europe and the world, that's not something that can just be ignored.\"\n\nFollowing the session at Holyrood, Mr Yousaf said: \"It's quite telling that my opponents want to attack me, want to discredit me quite personally and not focus on any of the other candidates. I think that tells you everything you need to know.\"\n\nMr Yousaf also praised Ms Forbes and did not rule out giving her cabinet position if he wins the contest despite seeking to set himself apart from her views on issues such as gay marriage and gender reform.\n\nHe said: \"I think Kate is extremely talented, extremely able, I think anybody would want to see her at the heart of Scottish politics. I think she's got a lot to give to Scottish public life, including in government.\"\n\nMs Regan, who will formally launch her campaign on Friday, has called for an end to \"mudslinging\" in the leadership contest.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUN head António Guterres has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an \"affront\" to the world's collective conscience at a meeting of the General Assembly nearly one year on.\n\nThe meeting was debating a motion backed by Ukraine and its allies demanding Russia pull out immediately and unconditionally.\n\nUkraine hopes that by supporting the motion countries will show solidarity.\n\nThe Kremlin has accused the West of wanting to defeat Russia at any cost.\n\nVasily Nebenzya, the Kremlin's ambassador to the UN, said the US and its allies were prepared to plunge the entire world into war.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin sent up to 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine on 24 February 2022 in the biggest European invasion since the end of World War Two.\n\nThe devastating war that ensued has left at least 7,199 civilians dead and thousands of others injured, according to a UN estimate, but that number is likely to be much higher.\n\nThe mayor of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, where mass executions are alleged to have taken place, estimated in April that 21,000 people had died there alone.\n\nRussia and Ukraine have each seen at least 100,000 of their soldiers killed or injured, according to the US military.\n\nMore than 13 million people were made refugees abroad or displaced inside Ukraine.\n\nMr Putin's claim that his operation was needed to \"demilitarise and denazify\" Ukraine, a country with historic ties to Russia, was dismissed by Ukraine and its allies as a ruse for an unprovoked attack.\n\n\"That invasion is an affront to our collective conscience,\" Mr Guterres told the General Assembly. \"It is a violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.\"\n\nThe possible consequences of a \"spiralling conflict\" were, he said, a \"clear and present danger\".\n\nMr Guterres said the war was \"fanning regional instability and fuelling global tensions and divisions, while diverting attention and resources from other crises and pressing global issues\".\n\nThere had, he said, been \"implicit threats to use nuclear weapons\".\n\n\"It is high time to step back from the brink,\" he said.\n\n\"Complacency will only deepen the crisis, while further eroding our shared principles proclaimed in the Charter. War is not the solution. War is the problem. People in Ukraine are suffering enormously. Ukrainians, Russians and people far beyond need peace.\"\n\nSixty countries have sponsored the resolution, which stresses \"the need to reach, as soon as possible, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in line with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.\"\n\nThe UN is likely to approve the resolution, which is not legally binding but carries political weight. However, it is unlikely that the vote will have much influence on Russia's actions in Ukraine.\n\nVoting will take place later on Thursday, the eve of the invasion's first anniversary.\n\nOver the past year, the General Assembly has voted on similar resolutions opposing Russia's invasion. In October 143 member states voted to condemn Moscow's illegal annexation of parts of Ukraine. Russia, Belarus, Syria, and North Korea opposed the motion, while India and China were among the 35 states that abstained.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Battle for the city of Bakhmut intensifies\n\nMr Guterres was speaking after Russia's President Vladimir Putin gave a speech blaming the West for the war.\n\nIn his address to the nation on Tuesday, Mr Putin also announced Russia's decision to suspend a key nuclear arms treaty after US President Joe Biden, fresh from a surprise visit to Kyiv, praised Western democracy for standing up to Russian aggression.\n\nMr Biden has called the decision to suspend the treaty, designed by the US and Russia in 2010 to prevent nuclear war, a big mistake.\n\nOn Wednesday, Mr Putin met China's top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, in Moscow and said co-operation with Beijing was \"very important to stabilise the international situation\". The visit marked an end to China's claim to neutrality regarding the war in Ukraine.\n\nA family collecting scrap metal this month outside ruined flats in Izyum, Ukraine", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Labour will give Britain its future back if it wins power, says Starmer\n\nSir Keir Starmer has outlined the five \"missions\" he will put at the centre of his party's offer to voters at the next election, in a speech in Manchester.\n\nHe vowed to make the UK the fastest-growing major economy by the end of a first Labour term in government.\n\nMaking the country a \"clean energy superpower\" and cutting health inequalities will be other key priorities if the party wins power.\n\nThe Labour leader claimed his plan would give Britain \"its future back\".\n\nThe speech was an attempt by Sir Keir to convince voters Labour are a viable alternative government.\n\nIt was light on policy details - these are promised later in the year.\n\nBut it was striking that the Labour leader spoke about a \"decade of renewal\", hinting that he was already looking to a second term in government.\n\nPressed about this by journalists, he said he wanted to be \"humble\" and not take victory for granted, but the problems he had identified could not be fixed within five years.\n\nLabour has a lead of around 20% over the Conservatives in opinion polls, suggesting the party is on course to win the general election which is likely to be held next year.\n\nThe five missions, which Sir Keir said would form \"the backbone of the Labour manifesto and the pillars of the next Labour government\", include:\n\nThe Labour leader's next speech, expected on Monday, will cover the economy and include what is described as a \"round table\" with some business leaders.\n\nHe confirmed he would back the hike in corporation tax - from 19% to 25% - coming in April, adding that businesses were more concerned about a lack of stability than the tax rise.\n\nCritics on the left of Sir Keir's own party and within the Conservatives point out how he has shifted a long way in just a few years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Starmer and Sunak have both outlined five priorities\n\nHe has junked a lot of left-wing policies that got him elected as Labour leader and is now embracing language it is possible to imagine Tony Blair using.\n\nStrategically, that may be sensible to try to woo former Conservative voters, but it leaves him vulnerable to people suggesting it is unclear what he really believes and stands for.\n\nAddressing his audience on Thursday morning, Sir Keir said his \"mission-driven government\" would \"restore our ambition, raise our sights above the quick fixes, the pandering to the noisy crowd, the short-termism that will only ever provide the sticking plaster\".\n\nHe argued that Britain was being held back by \"cynicism\" and \"short-term obsessions\".\n\n\"We lurch from crisis to crisis, always reacting, always behind the curve,\" he told supporters.\n\nIn a continuation of his bid to broaden the party's appeal to voters, Sir Keir said his approach to the economy would be neither \"state control\" nor \"pure free markets\".\n\n\"I'm not concerned about whether investment or expertise comes from the public or private sector - I just want to get the job done,\" he said.\n\nConservative Party chairman Greg Hands said the Labour leader would \"say anything if the politics of that moment suit him\".\n\n\"He lacks principles and has no new ideas - and that is how we know a Starmer Labour government would just revert to the same old Labour habits of spending too much, raising taxes, increasing debt and soft sentences.\"\n\nThe left-wing campaign group Momentum attacked Sir Keir for abandoning promises he made when running for Labour leader in 2020. including introducing common ownership of energy, water and rail.\n\n\"These policies are more vital and popular now than ever - yet today, his promises lie in tatters, ditched in favour of the reheated Third-Way Blairism typified by these latest, vapid 'missions',\" a spokesman said.\n\nSir Keir argued that \"the vast majority\" of Labour members supported him.\n\nIn a new year speech last month, Rishi Sunak set out his own five goals for his premiership, which, like those set out by Sir Keir, included growing the economy.\n\nHe also promised to halve inflation this year, ensure the UK's debt is falling, cut NHS waiting lists, and pass new laws to stop small boat crossings.\n\nSome economists think inflation might already have peaked and the Bank of England has predicted it will fall midway through this year, so the prime minister is likely to meet his inflation target.\n\nHowever, pledges on the NHS and small boat crossings may prove harder to achieve.", "The steel industry has raised concerns that more jobs could be cut before any government support for electricity bills kicks in.\n\nGareth Stace, director general of industry body UK Steel, said British Steel's decision to axe 260 jobs could be the start of a trend in the sector.\n\nThe government has set out plans to reduce electricity costs for energy-intensive industries from next year.\n\nElectricity costs have soared for firms which make steel, paper and chemicals.\n\nThe government has proposed changes it said would bring the energy costs of the UK's energy-intensive industries in line with those charged in other major economies.\n\nSome 300 firms - which employ 400,000 workers - that make steel, paper, chemicals and other metals stand to benefit from the changes, which would see them exempt form certain costs and taxes.\n\nBusiness and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said the support would mean those industries \"remain competitive on the world stage\".\n\nMaking steel requires a lot of energy, and with prices soaring in recent months, the costs of making it have gone up.\n\nSteel manufacturers in Britain, however, are paying about 60% more for electricity than their counterparts in other countries such as Germany, according to UK Steel, due to added levies and carbon costs.\n\nMr Stace welcomed the government's proposals and said they would go a \"long way to bridging the gap\" between what UK steelmakers pay compared to competitors in the EU.\n\nBut he said the time taken to implement them was \"particularly concerning\", with the plans set to be consulted on in the spring.\n\n\"We might see our electricity prices going down in just over a year's time - well, just over a year's time is a long time in steel,\" he told the BBC's Today programme.\n\nHe feared that without a \"competitive business environment\" for the UK steel sector, investment would dwindle and more announcements similar to British Steel's could follow.\n\nOn Wednesday, British Steel said it would shut its coking ovens in Scunthorpe and cut up to 260 jobs. The Chinese-owned firm cited \"unprecedented\" rises in energy costs as a reason.\n\nUnions said the move was a concerning indicator about the future of the UK steel industry.\n\nThe new proposals come after the government extended an Energy Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme for a further three years. The scheme provides businesses with relief for certain costs on electricity bills.\n• None Energy-intensive firms to get electricity bill help", "Dani Czernuszka will need to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life\n\nA rugby player who sued an opponent over a \"revenge\" tackle, that left her with a permanent spinal injury, has won a compensation case at the High Court.\n\nReading Sirens flanker Dani Czernuszka is now paraplegic and will need to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.\n\nThe defendant, Bracknell captain Natasha King, vowed to \"break her\" during the match in 2017, the court heard.\n\nMs Czernuszka's lawyers said she could expect a payout of about £10m.\n\nThe mother-of-two, then aged 28, was playing her first competitive game when she was injured on 8 October 2017.\n\nAs Reading began to dominate the match, Ms King urged her teammates to \"smash the number 7\", referring to Ms Czernuszka, the High Court heard.\n\nTowards the end, the defendant was winded and \"humiliated\" when she tried to tackle the claimant, the court was told.\n\nIn his ruling, Mr Justice Martin Spencer said Ms King had been \"looking for an opportunity to get her revenge on the claimant - the red mist had metaphorically descended\".\n\nMs King, the court heard, announced: \"That [swearword] number 7, I'm going to break her.\"\n\nThree minutes later, she executed a \"belly flop\" throwing her full 16-17 stone (102-108 kg) weight on to Ms Czernuszka, while pulling her legs, the court heard.\n\nThe judge referred to images of the \"reckless and dangerous\" tackle in his ruling\n\nMr Justice Spencer continued: \"The defendant simply gets up and walks away towards her own try line - she shows no concern for the claimant whatsoever.\n\n\"These actions are not those of a responsible rugby player. In my opinion, it was a reckless and dangerous act and fell below an acceptable standard of fair play.\"\n\nFollowing the judgement, Ms Czernuszka, said: \"I am grateful for today's ruling and to finally put to bed all of the untruths and fabrications surrounding what happened during the game that day.\n\n\"Learning to live with my life-changing injuries has been difficult and something I could not have done without the support of my family and close friends.\n\n\"Sport has always given me great pleasure in life, and I don't blame the game of rugby for what happened that day.\n\n\"Ultimately, I feel I was let down by improper and poor behaviour from the opposing player, coaching staff and the referee.\"\n\nHer solicitor Damian Horan said: \"This case is a timely reminder that a player's actions on the pitch never stay on the pitch and can have catastrophic consequences.\"\n\nMs King has 21 days to seek permission to appeal.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Murdaugh explains why he hired someone to shoot him\n\nAlex Murdaugh has described the day he hired a hit man to shoot him, so that his son, Buster, would be able to collect on his life insurance policy. \"I meant for him to shoot me so I'd be gone,\" Murdaugh said. \"I knew all this was coming to a head. I knew how humiliating this was going to be for my son. I had been through so much. At the time in the bad place that I was, it seemed like the better thing to do.\" The defence walked through 4 September 2021, the day that Alex Murdaugh frantically called 911 to say that he had been shot in the head while trying to change a tyre by the side of the road. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital where doctors found that he had been grazed by a bullet. But things began to unravel quickly from there. Reports began circulating that, hours before the shooting, Murdaugh was forced to resign from his family law firm after his colleagues confronted him over \"misapprorpriated funds\". He would later be charged with multiple felonies for stealing millions of dollars in legal settlements from his clients. In the days after he was shot, Alex admitted that he had hired a \"hit man\" to help him commit suicide so that his surviving son, Buster, could collect on his life insurance policy. He also checked himself in to \"rehab\" for opioid addiction. The prosecution has argued Alex killed his wife and son to cover up his financial misdeeds. They will likely bring up this incident during the cross-examination in an attempt to show that Alex resorted to desperate measures to hide that he had allegedly stolen money, and was comfortable lying to investigatosrs.", "Rio's hotly contested carnival parade has been won by the Imperatriz Leopoldinense samba school with its tribute to a Brazilian outlaw from the early 20th Century which many compare to Robin Hood.\n\nCaptain Virgulino Ferreira, better known as Lampião, is a controversial figure. Considered a folk hero by some, others say he was a mere bandit.\n\nMembers of the samba school donned leather hats similar to that worn by Lampião\n\nBorn at the end of the 19th Century, Lampião grew up in Brazil's rural northeast. After a dispute with a powerful landholder. his family fell on hard times and Lampião and some of his brothers joined a group of local outlaws.\n\nGangs of bandits like the one led by Lampião roamed the countryside of Brazil's northeast, looting and stealing.\n\nThey also demanded protection money from landowners in exchange for not targeting their properties.\n\nWhile they had the support of some locals who saw them as attacking the vast inequalities between the rich and the poor in this region of Brazil, they were hunted by those whom they terrorised.\n\nToy rifles were part of the props carried by the dancers\n\nSome of the floats were decorated with huge skulls and made to looks like scenes from hell, with dancers dressed as devils in a nod to the legend that Lampião ended up in hell after his life of crime.\n\nSome revellers donned glasses to imitate the bespectacled bandit.\n\nLampião wore glasses and many dancers copied his look\n\nWhile carnival costumes are often rich in sequins and bold colours, Imperatriz Leopoldinense's costumes featured the earthy tones of Brazil's northeast, the home of Lampião and his outlaws.\n\nOther samba schools competing for the title went for the brightly coloured feathers usually associated with carnival.\n\nUnidos de Vila Isabel samba school came third this year\n\nMany also featured exotic animals on their floats, such as this white tiger.\n\nParaiso do Tuiuti was in eighth place out of the 12 samba schools competing\n\nMany also praised Viradouro's drum queen Erika Januza and the boundless energy she brought to the parade.\n\nOther members of Vila Isabel took their inspiration from satyrs.\n\nSatyrs, half men half goat, danced their way through the Sambadrome", "TV reporter Dylan Lyons, 24, and a nine-year-old girl have been fatally shot near Orlando, Florida, close to the scene of a murder that took place hours earlier.\n\nA second reporter, Jesse Walden, and the girl's mother were shot and injured by the same gunman, who is also suspected of the other homicide.\n\nThe journalists were covering the killing of a woman when the teenage suspect returned, police say.\n\nIt is unclear if they were targeted.\n\nThe suspect was armed when he was arrested and was not co-operating with police, said investigators.\n\nThe other two victims in Wednesday's two attacks in Pine Hills, a suburb west of Orlando, have not yet been identified.\n\nIn a news conference, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said the journalists were \"in or near their vehicle\", which he said did not look like a TV station's official vehicle, when they were attacked at around 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT).\n\nHe said the Spectrum News 13 journalists had been reporting on a shooting that took place earlier in the day at around 11:00 local time, which saw a woman in her 20s fatally shot inside a car, when the suspect returned to the crime scene and opened fire.\n\nAfter attacking the journalists, the alleged gunman - Keith Moses, 19 - went into a nearby home and shot the girl and her mother, the sheriff said.\n\nThe mother was in hospital in a critical condition, he added.\n\nOther journalists nearby helped provide first aid to the victims, according to local reporters.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Orange County Sheriff's Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSpectrum 13 continued live coverage after the death of their reporter was announced.\n\nGreg Angel, a news presenter for the station, said the injured journalist had \"been able to speak with investigators and colleagues\".\n\nThe suspect, Mr Mina said, \"has a lengthy criminal history, to include gun charges, aggravated battery and assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and grand theft charges\".\n\nHe described him as an \"acquaintance\" of the woman shot in the morning, \"but as far as we know, he had no connection to the reporters and no connection to the mother and the nine-year-old\".\n\nAsked about the possibility that the gunman purposefully targeted the reporters, Mr Mina said \"it's something we'll be taking a look at\".\n\nHe added that it was also possible the suspect mistook the journalists for police.\n\nA reporter for Orlando TV station WESH 2 reported that she and her camera operator had left the crime scene only moments before the shooting.\n\n\"We got a gut feeling\" and decided to leave for their own safety, said Senait Gebregiorgis.\n\nCharter Communications, the company that owns the TV station, released a statement calling the attack \"a terrible tragedy for the Orlando community\".\n\n\"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our colleague and the other lives senselessly taken today,\" the company said.\n\nWhite House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted condolences, saying: \"Our hearts go out to the family of the journalist killed today and the crew member injured in Orange County, Florida, as well as the whole Spectrum News team.\"\n\nThere were 40 journalists killed in 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Only one of those killed was in the United States.\n• None The numbers behind the rise in US mass shootings", "Journalist Alan Rodgers, from the Ulster Herald, was at the scene of the shooting on Wednesday night.\n\nHe tells BBC Newsline that Youth Sport in Omagh is a popular place for a whole range of different sports, but that after the shooting everything was \"totally different\".\n\nHe met a crowd of worried parents, searching for their children in the main sports complex.\n\n“All the children were inside at the coffee area, they were being talked to by police, the parents were coming and they didn’t know what had happened,\" he says.\n\n“They were obviously distressed and they didn’t know whether their children were safe or what the story was.\"\n\n“There was an awful lot of trauma, there was an awful lot of worried parents, they were greeted with a scene that had scores of police cars.\n\n“They didn’t know where their children where, they didn’t know what was happening.\"\n\nHe says the children were coming out \"quite distressed\" and crying.\n\n“One little boy who was within earshot of me was talking about how many times the police officer was shot and the sound of the firecrackers - no child should have to go through that.”", "The street outside the Russian Embassy was turned blue and yellow on Thursday morning\n\nFour people have been arrested after protesters painted the road outside the Russian Embassy in London in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.\n\nLed By Donkeys covered a street in Kensington in yellow and blue paint ahead of the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine.\n\nThe group said it wanted to remind Russia's president of Ukraine's \"right to self-determination\".\n\nThe Met Police said three men and one woman remained in custody.\n\nLed By Donkeys, which began in 2018 as an anti-Brexit group, said it had poured 170 litres of yellow paint on the eastbound carriageway of Bayswater Road and a similar amount of blue paint on the westbound side, with passing traffic then spreading the colours along the road.\n\nExplaining the protest in a tweet, the group said: \"Tomorrow is the first anniversary of Putin's imperialist invasion of Ukraine, an independent state and a people with every right to self-determination.\n\n\"The existence of a massive Ukrainian flag outside his embassy in London will serve to remind him of that.\"\n\nThe protest was carried out by Led By Donkeys\n\nThe Met said officers had been called to the area at 08:45 GMT over reports of paint being thrown on the road.\n\nIt added the four people had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and obstructing the highway, and were all in custody.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Staff working at the European Commission have been ordered to remove the TikTok app from their phones and corporate devices.\n\nThe commission said it was implementing the measure to \"protect data and increase cybersecurity\".\n\nTikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has faced allegations that it harvests users' data and hands it to the Chinese government.\n\nTikTok insists it operates no differently from other social media.\n\nEU spokeswoman Sonya Gospodinova said the corporate management board of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, had made the decision for security reasons.\n\n\"The measure aims to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyberattacks against the corporate environment of the commission,\" she said.\n\nThe ban also means that European Commission staff cannot use TikTok on personal devices that have official apps installed.\n\nThe commission says it has around 32,000 permanent and contract employees.\n\nThey must remove the app as soon as possible and no later than 15 March.\n\nFor those who do not comply by the set deadline, the corporate apps - such as the commission email and Skype for Business - will no longer be available.\n\nTikTok said the commission's decision was based on mistaken ideas about its platform.\n\n\"We are disappointed with this decision, which we believe to be misguided and based on fundamental misconceptions,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nLast year, TikTok admitted some staff in China can access the data of European users.\n\nTikTok's parent company ByteDance has faced increasing Western scrutiny in recent months over fears about how much access Beijing has to user data.\n\nThe US government banned TikTok last year on federal government-issued devices due to national security concerns.\n\nThe US fears the Chinese government may leverage TikTok to access those devices and US user data.\n\nLast month, the Dutch government reportedly advised public officials to steer clear of the app over similar concerns.\n\nIn the UK, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, MP Alicia Kearns, recently urged users to delete the app in an interview with Sky News.\n\nTikTok has grown rapidly and was the first non Meta app to reach three billion downloads worldwide, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower Data.\n\nThe social media service's chief executive Shou Zi Chew was in Brussels in January for talks with EU officials during which they warned TikTok to ensure the safety of European users' data, adding that it had a long way to go to regain their trust.\n\nHe insisted the company was working on a \"robust\" system for processing Europeans' data in Europe, an EU spokesman said at the time.\n\nTikTok has also promised to hold US users' data in the United States to allay Washington's concerns.\n\nAn EU source told the BBC the Council of the European Union is also in the process of implementing measures similar to those taken by the Commission.\n\nBut the European Parliament said although it is taking note of the Commission's statement, TikTok is not part of the standard configuration for corporate devices.\n\n\"The Parliament is constantly monitoring cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyber-attacks against its corporate environment,\" the source said.\n\nCzech MEP Markéta Gregorová said she was \"very glad\" that the Commission had made this decision and criticised the \"hostility\" of the Chinese government.\n\n\"I also hope that this will open a general discussion about cybersecurity within our institutions and how much the individual levels differ across Commission, Parliament and Council,\" she said.", "Disgraced singer R. Kelly must spend an extra year in prison on top of a 30-year sentence he is already serving.\n\nKelly was jailed in June 2022 for three decades for sex trafficking and racketeering after a trial in New York.\n\nSeveral months later, he was convicted in a second federal trial in Chicago of enticing minors for sex and producing child sexual imagery.\n\nHe has now received a 20-year term for those crimes, but 19 will be served at the same time as the previous sentence.\n\nIf served in full, he will be behind bars until he is in his mid-80s.\n\nFederal prosecutors were seeking a 25-year sentence in the second case, higher than required under federal sentencing guidelines. They said Kelly's crimes were made worse by the fact that he filmed them, with some of the footage later becoming available online.\n\n\"Because Kelly is Kelly, more people have watched child pornography,\" they said in a memo. \"The effects of Kelly's conduct are wide-ranging, incalculable and irreversible.\"\n\nThe memo argued that Kelly has an \"insatiable\" desire to abuse children, and that a lengthy sentence was required to \"protect the community\" from further harm.\n\nKelly's defence attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, had asked the judge to allow Kelly to serve his latest sentence concurrently with the previous sentence, meaning he would have served them at the same time. She said a consecutive sentence would amount to a \"second life sentence\".\n\nShe also accused prosecutors of using an \"embellished\" narrative to \"inflame\" perceptions of the former R&B star.\n\nDuring the Chicago trial, the victim - known by the pseudonym \"Jane\" - testified that Kelly sexually abused her hundreds of times before she turned 18.\n\nThree videos of the abuse were shown to jurors during the trial. Four other women also accused Kelly abusing them as children.\n\nIn his previous trial in New York, jurors heard that Kelly trafficked women for sexual abuse across the US, with help from his managers and other members of his entourage.\n\nThe Grammy-winning singer - best-known for songs such as Ignition (Remix) and the hugely popular 1996 anthem I Believe I Can Fly - is among the highest-profile musicians accused of abuse in the wake of the #MeToo movement.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: R. Kelly survivor makes tearful statement outside New York court following his sentencing", "PSNI Det Ch Insp Caldwell was shot multiple times in front of his son\n\nAs the sun began to rise over the Killyclogher Road this morning, despite the heavy police presence, there was a marked silence and stillness in the area.\n\nBut just hours before on the same stretch of road, gun shots rang out through the car park of the Youth Sport centre.\n\nPSNI Det Ch Insp John Caldwell was shot a number of times in front of his son after coaching a football session for a group of teenagers.\n\nAs police continued to widen the cordon in the surrounding area, more cameras and press descended on the scene.\n\nPoliticians from across the political divide began to arrive at the scene of the shooting in Omagh\n\nPoliticians from across the political divide also began to arrive, with most interviews featuring a similar soundbite: \"We can't go back to days like this.\"\n\nJust a few miles down the road in Omagh town centre, the tone of people in the streets was sombre.\n\nSome people did not want to speak on the record or be identified, but all of them used words like \"disgusted\" and \"disgraceful\" to describe Wednesday night's shooting.\n\nTwo women I met hadn't heard the news, and the shock on their faces was palpable. One of them simply exclaimed: \"Why?\"\n\nMost of those who would go on the record pointed to the past and how they thought this part of the world had left such events behind.\n\nMary Garrity said the incident brings back hard memories for Omagh\n\nMary Garrity is from Trillick, a small village in County Tyrone, just 15 miles outside Omagh.\n\nShe was in Omagh town centre picking up her shopping, but says she is still shaken by last night's events.\n\n\"It's shocking, it's not what Omagh needs and it brings back hard memories for all the people of this town.\"\n\nShe added: \"I have young boys who play soccer and Gaelic football in the area and I was actually picking my son up at the same time this happened at another club in Fermanagh.\n\n\"To think I was only miles away doing a similar thing, it's just so wholly unbelievable.\n\n\"You can feel it in the town today, it's very tangible, just very upsetting for everyone.\"\n\nRay Wilson said he was disgusted by the events of last night\n\nRay and Geraldine Wilson both live in Omagh and said there could be no justification for such an attack.\n\n\"For his son to be there to witness that, I'm almost speechless,\" said Ray.\n\nGeraldine found it hard to put her feelings into words.\n\n\"It's a disgrace, we've had enough tragedy in this country down the years, especially Omagh, we don't need any more,\" she said.\n\nElaine Thompson said she knows Dt Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nElaine Thompson said she knows Dt Ch Insp Caldwell\n\n\"When I heard it on the news I was in complete shock, it's very hard to take in.\"\n\nShe said the fact that young people witnessed the shooting made it more difficult to comprehend.\n\n\"The fact that he was off duty and doing community sports with young people as well, it's hard to believe.\n\n\"I know a young fella who was at our church, he's about 12 or 13 years old, who was there at the sports club and he was very traumatised.\n\n\"It's just awful to think it's happening again and for young people to have to experience this as well.\"\n\nShe added: \"But they have shot fathers in front of their children before in this country, unfortunately it's not a new thing, but nobody wants to go back to that.\"\n\nGordan Buchanan said the entire town was in shock\n\nGordon Buchanan said the entire town was in shock.\n\n\"It's one of the most callous and cruel things I've ever heard.\n\n\"To shoot a man in front of his son and other children nearby... It's just horrible.\"\n\nHe added: \"I didn't know John Caldwell but I know who he is, clearly he's a competent police officer and to give up his time to coach young people, shows the calibre of the man.\n\n\"My heart just goes out to him and his family after such an evil act.\"\n\nOmagh's town centre is full of symbols that serve a reminder of how tragedy has marked the town in the past.\n\nFrom the garden to remember the victims of the Omagh bombing to the obelisk marking the spot where the bomb exploded.\n\nThis is not the first time an attack has been carried out on a PSNI officer in Omagh.\n\nIn 2011, 25-year-old police officer Ronan Kerr was murdered by a booby-trap car bomb in the town.\n\nThe attack was carried out by dissident republicans. No-one has been charged with the murder.\n\nLast night's shooting is yet another wound to add to the scars of the town's troubled past.", "Academy president Janet Yang said its response to the Will Smith slap was \"inadequate\"\n\nA \"crisis team\" will be introduced at this year's Oscars, to handle any real-time incidents as a response to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during the 2022 ceremony.\n\nAcademy chief executive Bill Kramer told Time magazine the new unit had \"run many scenarios\" in the hope they will be \"prepared for anything\".\n\n\"Because of last year, we've opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars,\" he said.\n\nThey are now quicker to react, he said.\n\nAcademy president Janet Yang previously said the response to Smith's altercation with Rock was not swift enough.\n\nSmith slapped the comedian after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's bald head, which she shaved following an alopecia diagnosis. After returning to his seat, the actor repeatedly shouted, \"Keep my wife's name out your [expletive] mouth\" at Rock.\n\nDespite the incident, he remained at the ceremony and later collected the best actor Oscar for his performance in King Richard.\n\nAlthough Smith later resigned from the Academy, it took several more days for the organisation to make a decision on his membership. He was ultimately banned from the Oscars gala and other Academy events for 10 years.\n\nKramer said the new team would be able to gather \"very quickly\" to issue a response on the night of the show itself.\n\n\"Let's hope something doesn't happen and we never have to use these [plans], but we already have frameworks in place that we can modify.\"\n\nAndrea Riseborough was a surprise nominee for best actress for her performance in To Leslie\n\nThe crisis team has already been deployed, following the surprise best actress nomination for British actress Andrea Riseborough last month.\n\nThe star's little-seen indie film To Leslie was an outsider in the Oscars race, but she secured a nomination after being championed by stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston and Edward Norton.\n\nQuestions were raised over whether their endorsements contravened the Oscars' rules on campaigning.\n\nThe Academy quickly responded that the issues did \"not rise to the level that the film's nomination should be rescinded\".\n\n\"You know, that happened on a Tuesday and, six days later, we were able to issue our formal statement from the board that really carved out a plan for us,\" Kramer told Time.\n\nBill Kramer: \"Because of last year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars\"\n\nAsked about the ability to respond to \"potential surprises\" at this year's ceremony, which will take place on 12 March, Kramer said having TV presenter Jimmy Kimmel as host was an asset.\n\n\"You want someone like Jimmy on stage who is used to dealing with live TV,\" he said. \"Things don't always go as planned, so you have a host in place who can really pivot and manage those moments.\"\n\nHe said he felt audiences \"feel very safe and engaged with his energy\".\n\nIn 2017, Kimmel steered the Oscars back on track after La La Land was mistakenly announced as the winner of best picture.\n\n\"It hit me that I was the only one wearing a microphone, and I should probably go up there to sort it out,\" said the chat show host in the aftermath of the incident.\n\nJimmy Kimmel was Oscars host when La La Land was mistakenly given the best film Oscar in 2017 instead of Moonlight\n\nLast year's awards were hosted by US comics Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall, and Amy Schumer.\n\n\"It's so important to have a host who knows how to handle live television and a live audience,\" Kramer added, saying he hoped it was \"the beginning of a lovely, long new relationship\" with Kimmel.\n\nKramer, aware of dwindling TV audience figures, added that this year's show would be \"much more immersive, much more nominee-focused, and much more focused on all of the disciplines of filmmaking\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAn Iranian couple in their 20s have been given jail sentences totalling 10 years after posting a video of themselves dancing in the street.\n\nThey were reportedly convicted for promoting corruption, prostitution and propaganda.\n\nThe video showed them dancing by Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Tower.\n\nAuthorities are handing heavy sentences to people seen to be involved in protests after the death of a woman who was detained by morality police.\n\nThe couple did not link their dance to the ongoing protests in Iran.\n\nA source has confirmed to BBC Monitoring that the couple's arrest came after they posted the video to their Instagram accounts, which have a combined following of nearly two million.\n\nAnti-government protests - labelled \"riots\" by Iran's regime - swept across the country after Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody in September last year. She was arrested in Tehran for allegedly violating the rule requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.\n\nAstiazh Haqiqi, 21, and her fiance Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, 22, are said to be convicted of \"promoting corruption and prostitution, colluding against national security, and propaganda against the establishment\".\n\nThe family home of Ms Haqiqi, who lists her profession as a fashion designer, was raided before the arrest.\n\nIt is unclear how long the sentence is for each of the separate convictions they are facing. They have each been sentenced to a total of 10 and a half years - a combined sentence for the charges.\n\nIf their verdicts are upheld, they will have to serve the longest one of those sentencing terms.\n\nAccording to reports, they were also handed a two-year ban on using social media and leaving the country.\n\nIran's protest movement that began in September has become one of the most serious challenges to the Iranian regime since it came to power in the 1979 revolution.\n\nTo quell the protests, the state has been handing out severe sentences to people involved in the unrest, including executing at least four protesters. earlier this month and in December.\n\nWhile Mahsa Amini's death was the catalyst for wider unrest in Iran, it has also been driven by long-standing discontent over poverty, unemployment, inequality, injustice and corruption.\n\nHundreds have been killed and thousands arrested during demonstrations over the circumstances of her death.", "Jellica Burke was two years old when she died\n\nWarning: This article contains graphic details which some readers may find upsetting\n\nA schoolgirl has told a murder trial that a toddler was killed during a game of hide-and-seek in a house in Dundee.\n\nAndrew Innes, 52, admits killing Bennylyn Burke and her two-year-old daughter Jellica but denies murder, claiming diminished responsibility.\n\nThe court was closed to the public while a video of the child's evidence was played to jurors.\n\nThe schoolgirl said she had taken part in the game of hide-and-seek with Jellica Burke and Innes in his house.\n\nShe said she had tried to look for Jellica in the bathroom, but Innes had closed the door, hitting her on the face.\n\n\"Andrew pretended that Jellica was hiding because he played hide and seek, but he actually killed Jellica,\" she said.\n\nDuring the interview, speaking about the deaths of Bennylyn and Jellica, the schoolgirl said: \"I tried to save them but I couldn't because I didn't know what was happening.\"\n\nShe also said that Innes had stopped her from leaving his property.\n\nBennylyn Burke's blood was found on the handle of a hammer in Innes' kitchen\n\nThe child added: \"Andrew put a rope on the door and attached it to the other door and I couldn't open it.\n\n\"Andrew would open it when he came back.\n\n\"I told him: 'I want to go with you' because that was my chance to get out.\"\n\nThe trial also heard from forensic scientist Barry Mitchell that blood from Bennylyn Burke was found on the handle of a hammer in Innes' kitchen.\n\nJurors heard that DNA from both Innes and Jellica Burke was found on a condom recovered from a bin in Innes' home.\n\nOn Wednesday afternoon, Det Con Paul Hardie told the court that Innes had been taken to Downfield Police Station in Dundee after being cautioned on 5 March 2021.\n\nThe police officer said he had asked Innes how long Bennylyn had been under the floor.\n\nHe replied: \"It was about Monday or Tuesday. It took me a while to get through the concrete.\"\n\nInnes was asked where Jellica was, and he replied: \"Under the floor with the mum, the child was screaming.\"\n\nDet Con Hardie said Innes became upset and started crying.\n\nInnes then said: \"There was a fight and I fought back and she's now dead.\n\n\"It wasn't premeditated - she came at me with a sushi knife.\n\nInnes denies murdering Bennylyn and Jellica, sexually assaulting Jellica and raping another child.\n\nHe also denies attempting to defeat the ends of justice.\n\nThe trial, before Lord Beckett at the High Court in Edinburgh, continues.", "The record collecting community are a pretty understanding bunch, according to David MacDonald.\n\nThe 60-year-old, who runs Blue Sky Vinyl, is lucky but he admits: \"Their patience will only go so far.\"\n\nWhy? Because Mr MacDonald, like many other small business owners, has been waiting for nearly a week to send out international orders via Royal Mail.\n\nAnd, as others have told the BBC, he has absolutely no idea when his shipments can resume.\n\nLast Wednesday, Royal Mail asked customers to stop sending letters and parcels overseas after criminals launched a ransomware attack on the company.\n\nIt has impacted a system used by Royal Mail to prepare mail for despatch abroad, and to track and trace overseas items.\n\nThe problem first emerged on Tuesday, 10 January. Customers were told of the problem the following day.\n\n\"As with all technical issues, we had to rule out a lot of things to ensure we only shared accurate information,\" said a spokesman for Royal Mail.\n\nThe company has assured customers that it is \"working around the clock\" to resolve the issue.\n\nBut Mr MacDonald says a \"disappointing\" lack of regular updates has left his business in stasis.\n\n\"There is no indication of when things will be fixed,\" he says. \"It could be a week, it could be a month, it could be six months.\n\n\"If it is going to be a month or six months then at least give us the opportunity as small businesses to make decisions that can overcome this hurdle.\"\n\nAround 45% of Blue Sky Vinyl's business comes from overseas including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and China.\n\nThere are even buyers in Ukraine though Mr MacDonald recently had to explain to a customer there why his order was delayed. \"He said he'll be patient and wait,\" says Mr MacDonald.\n\nRoyal Mail says it's sorry for the disruption and that it's currently exploring \"multiple workarounds\" to restore its systems.\n\nBut a week is a long time in business.\n\nFirms say that the delay to international shipments is compounding problems they have been facing since before Christmas when Royal Mail workers went on strike.\n\nMr MacDonald said: \"We are giving out refunds from parcels that haven't arrived that were posted in November and the refund compensation system for Royal Mail is running at a snail's pace.\"\n\nIt is \"a big problem on top of a big problem\", according to Andrew Bradley who runs Lello Living, a family business which makes prints, picture frames and homeware.\n\nEven before the ransomware attack on Royal Mail, Mr Bradley said some international customers had been waiting for more than a month for parcels.\n\n\"At the moment I am just trying to placate customers,\" he said. But as a small business, his hands are tied.\n\nOnce a parcel is sent \"we can't get it back\", he said, so the package is just sitting there.\n\nIt is expensive to send a replacement and doubly difficult for a firm such as Lello Living which produces personalised prints.\n\n\"We sell a lot on websites like Etsy and we are seeing one or two star reviews,\" he said.\n\n\"At the moment, the majority of people are understanding and patient but we are seeing that patience start to dissipate.\"\n\nSimon Thompson, chief executive of Royal Mail, is expected to face questions about how the company has responded to the attack when he appears before MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on Tuesday.\n\nIn the meantime, freelance illustrator Danielle English, aged 31, says that the delays caused by the ransomware attack have \"been quite a big blow\" financially.\n\nIllustrator Danielle English says she has been unable to fulfil international orders\n\nThe artist specialises in fantasy and sci-fi images and relies on her online shop, Kanizo, for half of her income.\n\n\"Just today I've had to refund a few orders that were made over the weekend that I now can't fulfil and I would say about 70% of those were international,\" she says.\n\nMs English said that she is trying her best to keep her customers up to date \"but obviously that is so limited\".\n\n\"I don't want to keep them waiting too long because I don't want them to think I'm not a legit business by not sending out their order, but there is only so much I can tell them really.\"\n\nOthers such as Karen Gilroy don't know whether to go ahead and book a courier service to send deliveries to countries such as the US or wait until Royal Mail can start shipping again.\n\nThe 62-year-old retired civil servant runs a sewing business, called KraftyKoriginal, and says it usually costs around £20 to send packages overseas with Royal Mail.\n\nShe could use a specialist parcel company but they are more expensive - a cost she is not comfortable passing onto her customers.\n\n\"I suppose I could ask them but it's not really their fault is it?\" she says. \"If I decide to send via courier I think it is for me to eat up the cost.\"\n\nAt the moment she is not sure what to do - book a courier in advance and risk losing money if Royal Mail services resume or wait and see?\n\n\"I'm sort of hanging on and hanging on thinking 'surely this week they'll sort it out' but who knows?\"", "One female firefighter (not pictured) reportedly said she was \"disgusted\" by the behaviour of some male colleagues\n\nA police force is investigating claims firefighters photographed women who had died in car accidents and shared the images on a WhatsApp group.\n\nIn the group, male firefighters at Dorset and Wiltshire Fire Service (DWFS) are alleged to have made degrading comments about the victims.\n\nA female firefighter told ITV News she had heard comments about the type of underwear women had worn in crashes.\n\nDWFS said it was \"shocked and appalled\" by the allegations.\n\nDorset Police said it would lead inquiries, after consulting Wiltshire Police.\n\nDorset and Wiltshire Fire Service said it was \"deeply concerned\" by the allegations\n\nIn the report, one whistleblower, speaking anonymously, told ITV News: \"I've seen people make comments about the type of underwear the women are wearing in the car crash.\"\n\nThe female firefighter added: \"Retrieving the body of someone dead should tear you apart, not make you want to take photos of it, just to joke about it later.\n\n\"Because that's someone's loved one, isn't it? That's someone's relative.\"\n\nSeveral female firefighters also told ITV News of persistent sexual harassment at their stations, including claims a male firefighter demanded sexual favours at the scene of a fire.\n\nIn a statement, DWFS said it was \"deeply concerned\" by the allegations and had commissioned an independent inquiry.\n\nChief Fire Officer Ben Ansell said: \"As part of this investigation, I will be providing all of our female staff with the opportunity to speak to an independent organisation.\n\n\"We would ask that any individuals affected provide us with further information to allow us to investigate these allegations.\"\n\nA Dorset Police spokesperson added: \"The limited details available in the news report are of a very concerning nature but will have understandably caused concern amongst the public and especially families of victims.\n\n\"We share that concern and will robustly investigate any information or evidence that is shared with us.\"\n\nThe force said it had requested details from ITV News but had not yet been provided with any information.\n\nThe allegations come after South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said in December that it had launched an independent review of allegations of sexual harassment.\n\nMeanwhile, in November, a report found London Fire Brigade to be \"institutionally misogynist and racist\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The girl who died has been named locally as four-year-old Alice Stones\n\nA dog attack that killed a four-year-old girl in Milton Keynes was a \"tragic isolated incident\" involving a family pet, police have confirmed.\n\nOfficers attended a house on Broadlands in Netherfield at 17:00 GMT on Tuesday after reports a dog had attacked a child in a back garden.\n\nThe victim has been named locally as Alice Stones, but she has not been formally identified.\n\nThames Valley Police said no arrests had been made.\n\nOfficers are also working to establish the breed of the dog, which was \"humanely destroyed\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA candlelit vigil was held for the four-year-old at Grand Union Vineyard Church near to the house on Wednesday evening.\n\nPrayers were said for the family and music was played over speakers, including Amazing Grace and Over The Rainbow.\n\nDonna Fuller, a councillor for Woughton Community Council, said the area had a \"tight-knit community, predominantly families\".\n\nShe said the vigil was to \"enable the community to come together and draw strength from each other\".\n\nSoft toys and flowers have been left at the scene in Broadlands\n\nThe councillor told gathered crowds: \"This family will need the time and space to allow them to process this tragic event and I hope that we can do that and help them in the future.\n\n\"I would ask that we support each other.\n\n\"There is a feeling of deep sadness that we will feel as a community so I ask you to be neighbourly and I ask you to be supportive and most of all I ask you to be kind.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Police confirm that the dog involved was a family pet\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday afternoon, Supt Marc Tarbit said: \"An investigation is currently under way to fully understand the circumstances, but we believe this was a tragic isolated incident and there is no threat to the wider community.\n\n\"Accordingly, no arrests have been made at this time.\n\n\"I can confirm that the dog was a family pet and it was put down by police at the scene yesterday evening.\"\n\nSupt Tarbit said there would be a stronger police presence locally over the coming days.\n\n\"This is clearly an incident that has shocked and upset people, and I urge residents to speak to officers with any questions or concerns they may have,\" he said.\n\n\"I'd also like to ask the community for their support in not speculating about this matter and offer reassurance that our detectives are working hard to progress the investigation.\"\n\nRishi Sunak expressed his condolences to the family during Prime Minister's Questions and thanked the emergency services for responding \"rapidly and professionally\".\n\nOfficers were called to the property in Netherfield, Milton Keynes, just after 17:00 GMT on Tuesday\n\nLocal residents have spoken of their shock at the news of the four-year-old's death.\n\nNeighbour Rita Matthews, 36, said she would see the youngster while walking her own daughter to school and described her as a \"happy little girl\".\n\n\"It's so sad we're not going to see the girl again and I pray all the best to her mum to get her strength back,\" she said.\n\nMr Morley said the church would be open all day to allow locals time for \"quiet reflection\".\n\n\"Our hearts are really for the family, but we realise a tragedy like this cuts to the heart of the community here in Netherfield,\" he said.\n\n\"It's just being available to people, if people need to talk, and to be around.\n\n\"The Netherfield community, and I've seen it over the years I've been here, whether it was the flood of 2018 or the stabbing of that young lad last year, always seems to draw together.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicola Bulley has been missing since she took her dog for a walk on Friday morning\n\nA \"key witness\" in the search for a woman who went missing while walking her dog has been found, police said.\n\nNicola Bulley, 45, was last seen walking next to the River Wyre off Garstang Road, in St Michael's on Wyre, at about 09:15 GMT on Friday.\n\nHer phone was found on a bench still connected to a work call, officers said.\n\nLancashire Police said the witness, who was walking a white fluffy dog in the area, was \"currently being spoken to\".\n\nThe man \"spoke to the woman in the area who found Nicola's dog near a bench in the field\", the force said in an earlier statement.\n\nFriends of Ms Bulley have joined the search for her with one, Emma White, describing the situation as \"a nightmare\".\n\nPolice, the fire service and mountain rescue teams are involved in the search. Ms Bulley's brown cocker spaniel Willow was found close to where she disappeared.\n\n\"Our ultimate priority is to find Nikki,\" said Ms White.\n\n\"We still have hope. We don't know what's happened, it was just a normal day in a normal life.\"\n\nOn Monday Ms Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, said it was \"perpetual hell\" for her family.\n\nThe dog, a springer spaniel named Willow, was found loose between the river and bench\n\nSpeaking from their Inskip home, he said: \"We are living through this but it doesn't feel real.\"\n\nMembers of the community have also joined the search for Ms Bulley, also known as Nikki, and a base has been set up in the village tennis club to co-ordinate volunteers.\n\n\"The community, friends, people from all walks of life have just pulled together and have done a fantastic job in offering support, which the family need right now,\" Ms White said.\n\n\"It's overwhelming. I must have got 100 messages a day from people I don't even know just offering us support.\"\n\nIn a message to her missing friend, she told BBC Radio Lancashire: \"We're missing you immensely and we've got two little girls who want to see their mummy. If you are out there Nik come on, come back, we need you, we love you lots.\"\n\nMs Bulley, who works as a mortgage adviser, is described as white, 5ft 3in (1.6m) tall, with light brown shoulder-length hair.\n\nShe speaks with an Essex accent and was last seen wearing a long black gilet jacket with a hood, black jeans and olive green ankle wellies.\n\nAs well as Inskip and St Michael's, Ms Bulley also has links to Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire Police said.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said the force was keeping \"a really open mind about what could have happened but we do believe that the likelihood is that Nicola has gone missing and this is not a crime inquiry\".\n\nShe urged \"anyone who may have been driving through the village of St Michael's last Friday morning... or who may have dashcam footage that could be of use to us, or people who may have been dog-walking in the area or on the tow path to come forward\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Joe Biden at his home in Delaware on 8 July, 2022.\n\nNo classified documents were found during an FBI search of President Joe Biden's home in Rehoboth, Delaware, his lawyer says.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Biden's attorney said Wednesday's search was \"planned\" with the president's \"full support\".\n\nThe nearly four-hour search of the property related to a wider probe into the handling of classified documents.\n\nThe FBI has not commented on the search. As it was consensual, no search warrant was sought.\n\nMr Biden's lawyer, Bob Bauer, said the search was carried out \"without advance public notice\" in the interests of \"operational security and integrity\".\n\nFollowing the search - which lasted from 08:30 to 12:00 local time - Mr Bauer said that \"no documents with classified markings were found\".\n\nSome \"materials and handwritten notes\" that appear to date to Mr Biden's time as vice-president between 2009-17 were taken for \"further review\", Mr Bauer added.\n\nThe search is the latest in a series carried out at various locations, after classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center - an office space - in Washington DC in November. This was not made public at the time.\n\nMore documents were discovered at another of Mr Biden's homes in Wilmington, Delaware, in searches conducted in December and January.\n\nThe precise number of classified records recovered remains unclear - although at least a dozen were found during the January searches alone.\n\nMr Biden has said his team did \"what they should have done\" by alerting officials immediately, and that they are \"co-operating fully and completely\" with the investigation.\n\nAfter the first of January's searches, Mr Biden told reporters the files were in a locked garage.\n\n\"It's not like they are sitting in the street,\" he said.\n\nThe latest search comes a day after special counsel Robert Hur officially began his duties overseeing the probe into the documents.\n\nPresident Donald Trump and former Vice-President Mike Pence have also been embroiled in controversy over the handling of classified documents.\n\nIn Mr Pence's case, a \"small number of documents bearing classified markings\" were found at his home in Carmel, Indiana, according to a letter sent to the National Archives by his lawyer. The documents were recovered by the FBI from a safe at the property on 19 January, with two boxes more delivered to the Archives on 23 January.\n\nAn August 2022 search of Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida uncovered dozens of boxes and about 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classified markings.\n\nThe search warrant came after attorneys representing Mr Trump had said all government records were returned. Mr Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he had declassified the documents taken with him.\n\nThe justice department search of Joe Biden's holiday home adds one more twist to a classified documents saga that has stretched on for nearly a month now and includes a special counsel overseeing the inquiry.\n\nThe FBI move could reveal how forthcoming and thorough the Biden team has been in reviewing the documents stored on his personal property. For the most part, the Biden lawyers have been conducting their own review of the president's personal residences without government investigators looking over their shoulders. While they found classified material at the president's Wilmington home, they have said that there were no such documents found at the president's beach house.\n\nAt the very least, the search will help quell some of the concerns expressed by Republicans that the government is holding Mr Biden to a lower level of scrutiny and suspicion than Donald Trump, who had his Mar-a-Lago estate searched by the FBI last August. When Mr Biden's lawyers first revealed they had found classified material at his home and personal office, the former president, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and other conservatives openly wondered why the current president wasn't targeted by government investigators as well.\n\nNow, however, Mr Biden's defenders are pointing out that multiple Biden properties have been searched, but there is no indication that the FBI has investigated Mr Trump's New Jersey and New York homes.", "Officials in Brussels have dismissed fresh claims of a compromise deal on the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) role in the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nIt said negotiators had agreed the ECJ could rule on issues related to Northern Ireland only if a case was referred by Northern Ireland's courts.\n\nTwo people close to the talks have either pushed back hard against the report or described it as loose-lipped \"kite-flying\" by someone in London.\n\nBoth the UK and EU told the BBC \"challenges\" remained on reaching an overall agreement.\n\nIt is understood significant gaps remain between the EU and UK positions but that talks are ongoing on potential solutions, including goods.\n\nA spokesperson for the UK government said it was currently engaged in \"intensive scoping talks\" with the EU to find solutions to what it described as problems with the protocol.\n\nA precise timeline on when a deal could be concluded is not clear, but one official said negotiators were in the proverbial \"tunnel\".\n\nThis is an expression used when talks are reaching a critical stage and become increasingly secretive as a deal is believed to be within reach.\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursual von der Leyen said talks between the EU and UK were very productive.\n\n\"The protocol as always in negotiations - you know the principle that everything is only negotiated at the very end - when you know what the result is and you give a final signature,\" she told the BBC in Brussels.\n\n\"So I'm very sorry but I cannot give partial elements because you never know whether in the very end how the package looks like.\"\n\nFood products are among products checked at Northern Ireland's ports\n\nLast month the BBC reported that both sides were edging towards a broad \"framework\" agreement - with the most progress having been made on customs.\n\nOngoing negotiations, which have intensified in recent weeks, have been described as \"bottom up\", meaning officials are being left to scope out ideas that can then be fed up the chain.\n\nIn January, Bloomberg reported that the UK had proposed \"supplementing\" the ECJ with an independent arbitration panel.\n\nBritain had originally demanded that the ECJ's oversight role be removed - but then later suggested it could accept a more arms-length arrangement.\n\nRegardless any compromise of that kind would also represent a significant UK concession, as well as an EU one.\n\n\"Our priority is protecting the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and preserving political stability in Northern Ireland and the UK internal market,\" the government spokesperson added.\n\n\"Any solution on the protocol must address the range of issues on the ground in Northern Ireland.\"\n\nThe NI Protocol keeps Northern Ireland inside the EU's single market for goods, meaning trade can flow across the land border without new paperwork or checks.\n\nHowever, it also means there are new checks and controls on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.\n\nThat has caused difficulties for some businesses and is opposed by unionists in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe biggest unionist party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), is preventing a government from being formed in Northern Ireland as a protest.\n\nA majority of members of the Northern Ireland Assembly elected in May 2022 are in favour of the protocol, in some form, remaining.\n\nSinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP have said improvements to the protocol are needed to ease its implementation.\n\nUnionist politicians want it replaced with new arrangements.\n\nMost politicians elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly want the protocol to remain\n\nThe UK and the EU agree that the protocol as it was originally agreed is too difficult in practice.\n\nSpeaking in the Dáil (Irish parliament) on Wednesday, Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar said it was important the ongoing talks between the UK and the EU take part on a confidential basis.\n\nHe said he welcomed the continuing positive engagement between the two sides.\n\nMr Varadkar added that he believed it was possible for them to find a joint solution but \"newspaper reports notwithstanding\" said he could confirm no deal had been done.\n\nHe said he believed recent EU proposals on customs have been very helpful.", "In August, Donald Trump was deposed for a lawsuit where he's accused of inflating property values. In a video released by the New York Attorney General's Office, the former president invoked the Fifth Amendment over and over again.", "Louise Kam was driving a black BMW 3 Series convertible on the day she went missing\n\nTwo men have been given life sentences for strangling a businesswoman after a £4.6m plan to \"plunder\" her property went wrong.\n\nLouise Kam, 71, disappeared in July 2021 and was later found dumped in a rubbish bin.\n\nKusai Al-Jundi, 25, of Harrow, London, and Romanian national Mohamed El-Abboud, 28, were convicted of murder on 19 January.\n\nBoth were sentenced to life with a minimum term of 35 years.\n\nThe plan was \"hatched\" by Al-Jundi who worked as a chef at a restaurant in Willesden, north-west London.\n\nHe had spent months befriending Ms Kam, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, and trying to deceive her into giving him control of two properties she owned in Willesden and East Barnet.\n\nHe also wanted her to sign over control of her finances to him.\n\nJudge Mark Lucraft said Al-Jundi had told Ms Kam \"lie after lie\" in a \"cynical deception\" to defraud her.\n\nKusai Al-Jundi killed Louise Kam in a complex plan to plunder her savings\n\nThe second defendant, El-Abboud, who worked as a delivery driver at the same restaurant, moved into one of her houses at Gallants Farm Road, East Barnet, and began to treat her property as his own, the court heard.\n\nMs Kam believed she had been offered millions of pounds for the properties by Al-Jundi and that she could use the money to pay off a mortgage and purchase a property for her children.\n\nJudge Lucraft said El-Abboud had posted videos on social media in which he had mocked the wealth of Ms Kam.\n\nAfter the pair were found guilty in January, Det Ch Insp Brian Howie, of the Met Police, said it was a \"despicable, callous crime\" driven by greed.\n\nThe judge told the court how Al-Jundi had been described as a \"Walter Mitty\" character who falsely claimed to be a \"person of means\" with the backing of a multi-millionaire girlfriend when he set about tricking Ms Kam out of her property.\n\nMohamed El Abboud from Romania was convicted of killing the business woman for her millions\n\nHaving resolved to murder her to get hold of her assets, he promised El-Abboud a share \"as a reward for killing her\", the judge said.\n\nHe told the pair: \"You did what you did out of greed.\"\n\nIn a victim impact statement, Ms Kam's son Gregory Kam said the family had been left in a state of \"disbelief\" at what had happened to his mother.\n\nHe said: \"I deeply regret I was not able to do enough at the time to prevent my mother from falling for the lies of his wolf in sheep's clothing.\n\n\"In addition to the initial shocking news of our mother's disappearance and subsequent news of her murder, I was not only shocked but further angered and sickened to discover defendant one [Al-Jundi] enlisted the help of an accomplice to trick, entrap, overpower and murder a pension-age woman in her own home under the guise of what was supposed to be a business deal.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Starmer: Is PM only person unaware of Raab allegations?\n\nRishi Sunak is under growing pressure to explain what he knew about bullying allegations against Dominic Raab when he appointed him deputy PM.\n\nThe prime minister's spokeswoman would only rule out him being aware of \"formal complaints\" when he gave his ally the job last year.\n\nThe PM is facing calls to suspend Mr Raab from his cabinet jobs while the allegations are investigated.\n\nMr Sunak clashed with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over the issue at PMQs.\n\nSir Keir accused Mr Sunak of being \"too weak\" to act and asked whether the PM was \"the only person completely unaware\" of the allegations.\n\nBut the prime minister insisted he acted decisively in appointing a senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC to investigate the allegations when he learned of \"formal complaints\".\n\nMr Raab, who sat next to Mr Sunak in Parliament, has denied bullying civil servants.\n\nEight formal complaints have been made against Mr Raab, who was appointed deputy prime minister and justice secretary last October.\n\nThe bullying complaints relate to Mr Raab's previous periods as justice secretary and foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, and his time as Brexit secretary under Theresa May.\n\nA serving minister has told the BBC the prime minister will find it hard to keep Mr Raab in his posts when the inquiry into his behaviour reports.\n\nThe minister said it was hard to ignore the number of people who had complained about the deputy PM's conduct.\n\nMr Sunak has previously said he will wait for the outcome of the inquiry before taking any action.\n\nDave Penman, a civil service union leader, has called for Mr Raab to be suspended during the investigation into the allegations.\n\n\"If that was any other employee… they would in all likelihood be suspended from their job,\" the FDA general secretary told the BBC.\n\nResponding to questions from reporters after PMQs, Mr Sunak's spokeswoman said the \"usual processes were followed\" when Mr Raab was appointed to his cabinet jobs.\n\n\"We were not aware of any formal complaints,\" the PM's spokeswoman added.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats have called for the prime minister's independent ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, to investigate what Mr Sunak knew and when, when he appointed his ministers.\n\nLast November, in an interview with BBC political editor Chris Mason at the G20 summit in Bali, the prime minister repeatedly declined to say whether he had informal warnings about Mr Raab's behaviour before bringing him back into government.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Sunak said then that he had not been aware of any formal complaints, adding: \"I've been very clear that I don't recognise the characterisation of Dominic's behaviour.\"\n\nMeanwhile, senior Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin backed Mr Sunak for not suspending Mr Raab while the investigation continued, saying he was \"entitled to due process whatever the hullabaloo\".\n\nSir Bernard told the BBC Mr Raab was a \"demanding person to work with\", but officials should be prepared to work in very challenging situations.\n\nAt least three senior civil servants who worked with Mr Raab have given evidence to the inquiry into his behaviour as witnesses.\n\nThe BBC has been told that one is Simon - now Lord McDonald - the former top civil servant at the Foreign Office.\n\nAntonia Romeo was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice in January 2021\n\nAnother, the BBC understands, is Philip Rycroft, who ran the Department for Exiting the European Union when Mr Raab was Brexit secretary.\n\nThe third, the BBC has been told, is the current permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Antonia Romeo.\n\nPermanent secretaries are the UK's most senior civil servants and run government departments.\n\nIt is understood Mr Raab has had an initial meeting with Mr Tolley, but not yet sat down with him for a substantial conversation about the allegations against him.\n\nLast week, the deputy prime minister told the BBC he was confident he had \"behaved professionally throughout\" but made \"no apologies for having high standards\".", "Shane Whitla, 39, was a father of four children\n\nA man who was shot dead in Lurgan is believed to have been the victim of a feud involving drugs debts, a court has heard.\n\nThe claim was made during a bail application by Joshua Cotter, one of three men charged with the murder of Shane Whitla.\n\nThe 39-year-old was shot a number of times in an alleyway on 12 January.\n\nAfter the shooting the father-of-four made his way to Lord Lurgan Park, where he collapsed and died.\n\nMr Cotter, 29, from Madrid Street in Belfast appeared by videolink at Omagh Magistrates Court.\n\nA defence solicitor said Mr Cotter \"strenuously and vociferously claims his innocence\".\n\nObjecting to bail, a detective constable said particles of cartridge discharge residue had been found on a balaclava, trousers and a hooded top seized from Mr Cotter's home.\n\nThe number of particles found would suggest the person wearing the clothing was present when a weapon was discharged.\n\n\"The history of this incident is a feud between an organised crime gang known as The Firm,\" the detective told the court.\n\n\"Threats were issued by a member of this gang to the victim the night before he was murdered.\n\n\"This is a feud involving drug debts,\" he added.\n\nThe detective said that police believed Mr Cotter was an active member of this gang.\n\nHowever, that claim was challenged by the defence solicitor who said there was no evidence to support that theory.\n\nHe said Mr Cotter was originally from Belfast and had only recently moved to Lurgan.\n\nDuring a police interview Mr Cotter said he had met his next-door neighbour, and co-accused, Jake O'Brien, 28, on the evening of the murder.\n\nLater that night he said Mr O'Brien, from Church Walk in Lurgan, had brought freshly washed clothing to his house and asked him to dry them for him.\n\nThe solicitor said the police had already established that other clothing belonging to Mr O'Brien had particles of cartridge discharge residue.\n\nThe district judge adjourned the bail application until 10 February to allow time for DNA evidence to establish whether the clothing had been worn by Mr Cotter.\n\nA third man 25-year-old Kevin Conway, from Deeny Drive in Lurgan, has also appeared in court accused of the murder.\n• None Two men appear in court over Shane Whitla murder", "Rupal Maru quit teaching in 2021 and now leads Bollywood dance classes at festivals in her new job as an Indian arts trainer.\n\nThe 32-year-old loves the \"vibrant\" dancing as it's something fun \"that everyone can get involved with\".\n\nIt is a world away from the “60-plus hour weeks” she worked during her six years as primary school teacher in Liverpool and London.\n\nMany teachers like Rupal are leaving the profession - and schools are struggling to recruit new teachers too.\n\nLast year only 59% of the target numbers started training to be secondary school teachers, down from 79% the previous year.\n\n“I do really miss teaching, but my quality of life is so much better now,” says Rupal.\n\n“As a teacher, I was either doing work or thinking about work seven days a week. It wasn’t healthy.\n\n“Now I’ve got the freedom to do what I want creatively and work towards my passions.”\n\nRupal also works as a public speaking trainer and runs her own business, but says she now has more free time to see friends and family.\n\n“I’m actually working less hours and earning more than I was as a teacher.”", "The \"silent strike\" has also been observed in Mae Sot, just over the border in Thailand\n\nPro-democracy activists in Myanmar are holding a \"silent strike\" to mark two years since a military coup that removed Aung San Suu Kyi from power.\n\nStreets in many cities fell quiet after protesters urged people to stay indoors and asked businesses to close.\n\nMeanwhile, the military administration in the country has extended a state of emergency for six months.\n\nThe UK, US, Canada and Australia have announced fresh sanctions against army-linked firms.\n\nLarge parts of Myanmar descended into chaos after the government's overthrow two years ago, displacing more than a million people.\n\nThe army had made allegations of widespread fraud in a vote held months earlier, in November 2020, which Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won with more than 80% of the vote.\n\nThe military's claims have been dismissed as baseless by the vast majority of the international community, and plans to hold new elections to cement junta rule have been dismissed as a \"sham\", including by the UN.\n\nProtests have also been taking place in neighbouring Thailand\n\nThinzar Shunlei Yi, a pro-democracy activist, said resistance against the military was continuing, particularly in rural areas.\n\n\"The main message of the silent strike is to honour the fallen heroes and heroines and to reclaim the public space as our own,\" she told the BBC, adding that the aim was to send a clear message that the military \"shall never rule us\".\n\nProtesters also gathered outside Myanmar's embassies in Thailand and Japan, chanting anti-military slogans and holding portraits of Ms Suu Kyi.\n\nA small pro-military demonstration took place in Yangon, where an estimated 200 supporters marched through the city centre escorted part of the way by soldiers, AFP news agency reported.\n\nTwo years after the coup, which catastrophically misread the public mood in Myanmar, the statistics tell their own, dismal story.\n\nMore than 2,900 people have been killed during the junta's crackdown on dissent, according to monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.\n\nOne-and-a-half million people have been displaced, 40,000 homes have been burned down, eight million children are no longer in school, and 15 million people are judged by the UN to be dangerously short of food.\n\nMuch of the country is caught up in a brutal civil war. Yet the military is still refusing to negotiate with its opponents, as it promised to do in a meeting with neighbouring countries shortly after the coup.\n\nInstead, it has plans for an election which would almost certainly exclude Ms Suu Kyi, who resoundingly won the last election, and much of her party, the NLD.\n\nThose loyal to her are calling on citizens to boycott any poll organised by the military, arguing it would be illegitimate and impractical. The UN says these would be \"sham elections\".\n\nThe military's acknowledgement this week that it had failed to normalise the situation may force it to postpone the election - originally scheduled for August this year - having now extended the state of emergency, prolonging the grim stalemate in which Myanmar is trapped.\n\nStreets have fallen quiet in Yangon, the country's largest city\n\nWestern nations used Wednesday's anniversary to coordinate new rounds of sanctions against the military and its supporters.\n\nThe UK targeted, among others, companies supplying aviation fuel to the military, which it said were \"enabling its barbaric air-raiding campaign in an attempt to maintain power\".\n\nBritish Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the sanctions were aimed at \"reducing the military's access to finance, fuel, arms and equipment\".\n\nAustralia announced its first sanctions against the military, aimed at 16 individuals \"responsible for egregious human rights abuses\", as well as two major military-controlled conglomerates, which dominate the country's economy.\n\nSanctions by the US targeted the military-approved election commission, which \"the regime has deployed to advance its plans for deeply flawed elections\".\n\nThe National Unity Government - a parallel administration that leads opposition to the military - welcomed the sanctions, calling them \"significant measures\" to tackle the conflict, particularly air strikes by the military.\n\nIt called on countries to place further \"aggressive, targeted sanctions\" on the military regime and those who supported and supplied it.\n\nAmnesty International's Montse Ferrer told the BBC that moves to stop the supply of aviation fuel to the Myanmar military were \"an important step\" but that more needed to be done.\n\n\"Other states should follow Canada's lead in suspending the direct and indirect supply, sale or transfer - including transit, trans-shipment and brokering - of aviation fuel to Myanmar,\" she said.", "A firefighter took a selfie immediately after the Grenfell Tower fire and used it on his Tinder online dating profile, a London Assembly meeting has heard.\n\nThe revelation was made during Wednesday's hearing, in which findings of a damning review into the fire service's culture were discussed.\n\nThe review's author Nasir Afzal told the meeting: \"Why did he feel entitled to do that?\"\n\nThe fire service said it apologised \"sincerely for his behaviour\".\n\nA total of 72 people were killed as a result of the Grenfell fire tragedy in 2017.\n\nMr Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, told the London Assembly Fire, Resilience and Emergency Planning Committee: \"In the immediate aftermath of Grenfell, after the fire had just been raging, a male firefighter had a selfie taken of himself outside the building, which he then used as his Tinder profile.\n\n\"He was quickly told to get rid of it. He was subsequently given I understand, words of warning,\" Mr Afzal said.\n\nAn independent review published in November 2022 found London Fire Brigade was institutionally misogynistic and racist\n\nHe added: \"The questions you have to ask yourself is: How did he feel entitled to do that?\n\n\"Why did he feel entitled to do that when 72 lives had been lost in the building, including 18 children, and he felt that what was more important was how he would look to other women on his social media site.\"\n\nA London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: \"In 2018, the brigade took disciplinary action against a member of staff who used an entirely inappropriate photograph on a dating profile.\n\n\"We understand how devastating this would be for the Grenfell community and apologise sincerely for his behaviour.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "At least three senior civil servants who worked with Dominic Raab have given evidence to the inquiry into his behaviour.\n\nThe BBC has been told one is Philip Rycroft, who ran the Department for Exiting the European Union when Mr Raab was Brexit Secretary.\n\nAnother, the BBC understands, is the current permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Antonia Romeo.\n\nMr Raab, the current justice secretary, has denied allegations of bullying.\n\nA third permanent secretary from a department in which Mr Raab served has also told the BBC they have been interviewed as a witness.\n\nPermanent secretaries are the UK's most senior civil servants who run government departments.\n\nMr Raab, who is also deputy prime minister, is facing multiple complaints from civil servants, who have worked with him in a range of government departments.\n\nAntonia Romeo was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice in January 2021\n\nSenior lawyer Adam Tolley KC was asked to launch an investigation in November and his interviews have been taking place in recent weeks.\n\nLabour, Liberal Democrats and the FDA union, which represents civil servant, have called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to suspend Mr Raab while he is under investigation.\n\nDave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"If that was any other employee, if that was a permanent secretary in the civil service, they would in all likelihood be suspended from their job while that investigation took place.\"\n\nBut Mr Sunak has said he will wait for the outcome of Mr Tolley's inquiry before taking any action.\n\nOn Monday, the BBC reported that at least one permanent secretary who worked with Mr Raab had given evidence to the inquiry.\n\nNow the BBC has learned two others have also provided evidence.\n\nIt is understood Mr Raab has had an initial meeting with Mr Tolley but has not yet sat down with him for a substantial conversation about the allegations against him.\n\nMr Tolley's report is not expected to be completed for several weeks.\n\nPrivately, many Conservative MPs, including ministers, fear the allegations could yet cost Mr Raab his job.\n\nOne minister told the BBC \"he should have gone ages ago\", describing the situation as a \"ticking timebomb\", adding that Mr Raab was \"totally unsuitable for high office\".\n\nSomeone else who worked with Mr Raab said his behaviour was \"arbitrary, pernickety\" and he was \"very hard on junior staff\" and \"extremely difficult to work with\".\n\nBut one former senior civil servant who worked with Mr Raab said: \"He was very professional to me.\"\n\nHe described Mr Raab as \"incredibly hard working\" and \"very demanding\".\n\n\"Being on the end of his expectations wouldn't be nice if you're not prepared for it. It's tough. There's perfectionism there,\" he added.\n\n\"He had a view how he wanted things done. He expected delivery but doesn't understand how to get it done.\"\n\nFormer Conservative cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was \"completely sensible\" for Mr Raab to remain in post while the investigation is ongoing.\n\nAsked about the allegations against the deputy prime minister, Mr Rees-Mogg told Sky News: \"I think we've got to be slightly careful about the bullying allegations.\n\n\"We mustn't be too snowflakey about it. People need to be able to say this job has not been done well enough and needs to be done better.\"\n\nMr Penman, accused Mr Rees-Mogg of \"trivialising bullying that we know has ruined lives and careers\".\n\nLabour said Mr Rees-Mogg was \"seeking to belittle the serious claims of bullying and intimidation\" made against Mr Raab and \"he should be ashamed of himself\".\n\nMr Raab was justice secretary and deputy prime minister in Boris Johnson's government.\n\nHe was sacked by Liz Truss, who briefly replaced Mr Johnson at No 10, but was reappointed to these roles by her successor Mr Sunak.\n\nMr Raab previously served in the cabinet as foreign secretary from 2020-21 and Brexit secretary in 2018.\n\nLast week, Mr Raab told the BBC: \"I'm confident I behaved professionally throughout, and of course the government takes a zero-tolerance approach to bullying.\"\n\nMr Raab added that he was \"always mindful of the way I behave\" but made \"no apologies for having high standards\".", "A witness said the ambulance had its blue lights on at the time of the collision\n\nAn ambulance overturned after it was involved in a collision with a bus in London on Tuesday evening.\n\nThe accident happened at the junction between Marylebone Road and Baker Street at about 23:00 GMT.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said there had been no arrests and no-one was injured in the crash.\n\nA witness told BBC London the ambulance had its blue lights on and London Ambulance Service (LAS) confirmed it had been responding to an emergency.\n\nAnother ambulance was dispatched to the original incident.\n\nAn LAS spokesperson said: \"We were called at 11:06 GMT on 31 January to reports of a road traffic collision involving an ambulance responding to an emergency call, and a London bus on Marylebone Road at the junction with Baker Street, NW1.\n\nThey said the service had \"sent multiple resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer, members of our hazardous area response team and London's air ambulance\".\n\n\"There were no injuries on the bus as a result of the collision. The ambulance crew involved were taken to hospital for further checks.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The TUC held a march in central London on Wednesday\n\nThe least surprising development this year has been a prolonged wave of strikes.\n\nThe government has been heading towards an industrial action iceberg for a year now, since inflation, the rate at which prices increase, started to rise sharply.\n\nIt is less than a year ago that Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, told me that workers should not make excessive pay demands. The remarks were met with consternation from unions and were also slapped down by Number 10.\n\nAt that time, Boris Johnson's administration was telling all to expect higher wages - although then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Treasury were deeply uneasy.\n\nSo, abstracting from a series of different disputes, some in different administrations, there is some value in looking at the bigger picture.\n\nThe unions say workers need and deserve double-digit rises to prevent an acute fall in living standards. And they say functioning public services need to staunch the flow of lost workers. The government says that will cost too much and will fuel wage inflation, and prolong high prices.\n\nBoth these positions can be broadly true at the same time. It then just becomes a negotiation over where to draw the line. This time last year the Treasury was pointing towards pay settlements around the same level as the Bank of England's inflation target of 2%. Some unions were pointing to 15%, as private sector unions able to reach strike ballot thresholds in certain shortage industries secured double-digit rises.\n\nIn recent weeks that gap has narrowed. The government had been offering roughly 3.5-4%. Most unions privately point to a reasonable settlement \"approaching\" the rate of inflation, so at about 10%.\n\nWhile a substantial gap remains, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out where a landing zone for broad settlements could be.\n\nSo what is preventing a compromise?\n\nTalking to figures in the government, in the unions, and those responsible for settling such disputes in the past, it is because both sides perceive the public will be on their side.\n\nThe government thinks that strikes such as the ones we've seen today will rapidly erode public support, as has been an observable pattern in the past. The unions are adamant that because of what they say is a well of post-pandemic goodwill and the fact that everyone is experiencing the cost of living crisis, that the public remains firmly behind them, especially in the NHS.\n\nIt doesn't matter who is right about this, (and one side is going to be wrong here) if both sides perceive this, it's a recipe for an impasse.\n\nThe other issue is there are very few actual real pay negotiations happening. Furthermore, the process in place - the independent pay review bodies for next year - appears to be breaking down.\n\nUnions are refusing to contribute evidence amid their concerns, and the key government departments are failing to hit deadlines for their evidence. What exactly is the point of pay review bodies without the key sides' evidence on pay packets due to be delivered to millions of workers in less than nine weeks' time?\n\nToday's strikes in particular raise a significant additional challenge. Schools strikes don't just affect the provision of a vital public service, they disproportionately hit the economy in general, by taking away parents from their workplaces. One top economist, Mohammed El-Erian, told the BBC on Tuesday that industrial action was one of the factors especially holding the UK economy back right now.\n\nIs there a way through? One veteran of previous disputes tells me that although Prime Minister Sunak has taken the temperature down from the high tensions with unions actively cultivated towards the end of the Johnson premiership, the strikes are being dealt with in a very piecemeal manner by a collection of different cabinet ministers.\n\nThe coalition adviser told me the government is trying to claim to be sat on the sidelines, not intervening with actual employers.\n\nBut its fundamental concern about affordability and the spread of inflation, means Downing Street needs to be fully in charge of the strategy, and set a path out of the industrial strife. Right now, it doesn't appear to be happening.", "Donald Trump offered Nikki Haley a position in his cabinet as UN ambassador after he won the White House\n\nNikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations and two-term governor of South Carolina, is reportedly poised to announce she is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.\n\nWith a campaign kick-off planned for 15 February in Charleston, South Carolina, the 51-year-old would become the second major Republican candidate for the presidency, after her former boss Donald Trump launched his bid in November.\n\nMs Haley would be the third Indian-American to seek a presidential nomination. She follows Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, whose bid in 2015 never gained significant traction, and current Vice-President Kamala Harris, who sought the 2020 nomination.\n\nDuring her time as South Carolina governor, Ms Haley developed a reputation as a business-friendly leader who focused on attracting major companies to the state. She gained national prominence for her response to the racially motivated mass shooting at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church in 2015, which included a successful push to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the state capitol in Columbia.\n\nAlthough she endorsed Florida Senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican presidential contest, Mr Trump offered her a position in his cabinet as UN ambassador after he won the White House. She served there for two years and, unlike many of Mr Trump's early appointees, never had a public falling out with the president.\n\nMs Haley did, however, criticise Mr Trump's behaviour up to and during the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. The day after the riot, she said in a speech that \"his actions since election day will be judged harshly by history\".\n\nLater that year, as speculation surrounding her political future swirled and Mr Trump regained his standing and influence within the party, Ms Haley said she would not run for president in 2024 if her former boss sought the nomination.\n\nShe backed away from that position in the past few months, however.\n\n\"When you're looking at a run for president, you look at two things,\" she said in a Fox News interview last week. \"You first look at does the current situation push for new leadership? The second questions is, am I that person that could be that new leader?\"\n\nMs Haley answered both questions with a yes. It suggests a possible campaign strategy that contrasts her relative youth with both Mr Trump and, if she were to win the nomination, Democrat Joe Biden.\n\nAccording to Mr Trump, Ms Haley called him recently to inform him of her interest in running. He said he told her she should do it and he would welcome the competition.\n\n\"I said, 'Look, you know, go by your heart if you want to run',\" he said.\n\nThe former president made those remarks shortly before a campaign appearance on Saturday in Ms Haley's home state, which is poised to become a key early battleground for the Republican nomination.\n\nMost early polls show Mr Trump with a comfortable lead in the state whose primary he won on his way to the presidency in 2016 - an indication of the uphill battle the former ambassador will have, even on what should be friendly ground.\n\nA recent survey by the polling firm Trafalgar Group that included current and likely candidates has Mr Trump in first place with 43% and Ms Haley in fourth at 12%.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: We asked Americans about Trump running again - they have mixed feelings.", "Cavill played Superman in films including Man Of Steel and Batman Vs Superman\n\nOne of the new bosses of DC Studios, James Gunn, has denied sacking Henry Cavill from his role as Superman.\n\nThe actor confirmed in December the \"sad news\" he had been dropped, just months after announcing his return.\n\nBut Gunn, who recently took over the superhero franchise alongside Peter Safran, said on Tuesday that they didn't fire Cavill, but rather simply did not hire him for further projects.\n\nHe made the comments while announcing a raft of new DC movies and TV shows.\n\n\"We didn't fire Henry,\" Gunn told journalists. \"Henry was never cast.\n\n\"For me, it's about, who do I want to cast as Superman, and who do the filmmakers we have want to cast? And for me, for this story, it isn't Henry.\"\n\nHe added: \"I like Henry, I think he's a great guy. I think he's getting [messed] around by a lot of people, including the former regime at this company. But this Superman is not Henry, for a number of reasons.\"\n\nJames Gunn (pictured at Comic Con 2022) has taken over DC Studios alongside Peter Safran\n\nCavill played Superman in films including Man Of Steel and Batman Vs Superman. Gunn and Safran took over DC Studios in October last year, just after Cavill had made a surprise appearance as the Man of Steel during the credits of the Dwayne Johnson film Black Adam.\n\nThe British star previously said there were no hard feelings though about the new DC co-chief executives opting to go in a new direction.\n\n\"After being told by the studio to announce my return back in October, prior to their hire, this news isn't the easiest, but that's life,\" Cavill said just before Christmas.\n\nWhile Cavill may not be in it, a brand new Superman movie, written by Gunn himself, will hit the big screen on 11 July 2025.\n\nSuperman: Legacy will mark \"the true beginning of the DCU\" Gunn said, focusing on its titular star balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing.\n\nIt is part of a fresh slate of new movie and TV titles set to be rolled out over the next decade, under the banner heading Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.\n\nThe aim is to connect characters and storylines from the DC Universe, in a more consistent way using the same actors, across its films, TV shows, games and animations, Gunn added in a video posted online.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAs well as Superman, the new era will include a new Batman story - based on the comic book series by Grant Morrison - titled The Brave And The Bold, which will tell the story of Batman and his son Damian Wayne, an assassin whose father tries to get in line.\n\nHowever, Robert Pattinson, star of Matt Reeves' 2022 film The Batman, will reportedly not be reprising the role.\n\nThe DC re-set will officially kick-off on 16 June this year with the release of The Flash movie, starring Ezra Miller.\n\nThe Justice League star is currently on probation, having pleaded guilty to unlawfully trespassing at a neighbour's house.\n\nDC boss James Gunn refused to rule out any future involvement for Ezra Miller, star of The Flash\n\nIn August, Miller, who uses they/them pronouns, began treatment for \"complex mental health issues\", and also issued a statement apologising to those the star had \"alarmed and upset\" with their recent behaviour.\n\nThe actor was involved in a string of high-profile incidents and controversies, including being arrested twice in Hawaii last year.\n\nWhen asked about Miller's potential future involvement, after the film, Gunn said: \"Let's see what happens.\"\n\n\"Listen, Ezra is fully committed to their recovery right now, and we talk to them,\" he continued. \"We're in constant contact, but when the time is right, we'll have the conversation with them and decide what's best for both them personally and also for us.\"\n\nHe also refused to condemn another star of the DC Universe, Zachary Levi - who features in the upcoming Shazam: Fury of the Gods - after he faced a social media backlash last week for strongly agreeing on Twitter that the Pfizer vaccine posed \"a danger to the world\".\n\nThe response, for many people online, positioned the actor as appearing to be anti-vaccine, a stance that Gunn does not personally agree with but suggested the actor is entitled to adopt.\n\n\"Just real simply: Actors and filmmakers that I work with are going to say things that I agree with and things that I don't agree with,\" said Gunn. \"And that's going to happen. I don't have a list of things that somebody should say because of what I think. And you know, I can't be changing my plans all the time because an actor says something that I don't agree with.\"\n\n\"By the same token, if somebody's doing something morally reprehensible then that's a different story,\" he continued. \"We have to take all that stuff into account. It's a balance. It's modern world and it's a different place.\"\n\nZachary Levi features in the upcoming Shazam! Fury of the Gods\n\nOther projects shared by Gunn included several animated and live action TV series, such as the Viola-Davis-starring Waller, based on a character previously seen in the Suicide Squad films.\n\n\"I've loved the DC characters since I was a child. They're incredibly important to me,\" said Gunn.\n\n\"I knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something very different.\"\n\nDirector Matt Reeves' take on Batman has been popular with fans\n\nSomeone taking hold of the DCU and interlinking it is long overdue for DC fans and if his body of work is anything to go by, James Gunn is certainly the right man for the job.\n\nSome things that are getting fans talking is a fresh take on Superman and who will take up the cape, the Amanda Waller series starring Viola Davis and an overhaul of Green Lantern which will explore John Stewart as well as Hal Jordan. Fans are also excited to see some lesser-known characters take the stage.\n\nBatman is always a topic DC fans get nervous about, we've seen Nolan knock it out of the park in previous years and Matt Reeves Batman has been a real hit with fans, who are just as excited for his 2025 follow up.\n\nThe announcement the DCU Batman would be much older and pair up with Damian Wayne was quite jarring to fans online, as he's not the fan favourite for Robin compared with the likes of Dick Grayson, Tim Drake and Jason Todd.\n\nNotable absences from the slate include any mention of things relating to Harley Quinn. Gotham City Sirens, which would include Quinn alongside Poison Ivy and Catwoman has been on and off the table for a while and, although it didn't perform as well at the box office, Birds of Prey has been one of DC's better offerings of recent years.\n\nIt's now a wait to see if any new projects or people will be added to the 10-year plan and any casting news, which will definitely get fans talking.", "Workers gathered at a rally at The Mound in Edinburgh to protest against the government's new legislation to limit strikes\n\nThousands of workers across Scotland are striking as part of a UK-wide day of industrial action.\n\nCivil servants, higher education staff and some rail workers have joined teachers in what has been described as the biggest day of co-ordinated strikes in decades.\n\nIt comes in response to UK government legislation which will seek to limit strike action.\n\nThe move would also allow employers to put in place minimum levels of service.\n\nAround 100,000 civil servants walked out across the UK for one day of action across most government departments, the PCS union said.\n\nThis included staff working at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, with their action leading to the Holyrood building being closed to visitors.\n\nSome MSPs also refused to attend parliamentary business during the strike, while courts and tribunals have also been disrupted.\n\nLynn Henderson, Scottish secretary of the PCS, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"These are ordinary workers who work in passport offices, government offices, museums, galleries, courts, prisons. They are asking for a cost-of-living pay increase.\"\n\nMs Henderson said the UK government had offered 2%, \"the lowest offer in the entire public sector\", which was \"just not affordable.\"\n\n\"There is a massive gap between 2% and 10%,\" she added.\n\nTeachers in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, also made their stance clear about the impasse on a pay deal\n\nHigher education workers also walked out as part of their ongoing dispute over pensions, pay and conditions.\n\nMembers of the University and College Union (UCU) at the majority of Scotland's universities also took part.\n\nSchool strikes continued in Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen as part of the 16-day rolling strike action by the EIS union.\n\nThe union says there have still been no constructive talks on pay, with the Scottish government maintaining that the demands of 10% are \"unaffordable\".\n\nEdward Aldred-Dow, a teacher at Harlaw Academy in Aberdeen, told BBC Scotland that union members were striking \"for the right reasons\".\n\n\"We've been overworked and underpaid for as long as I've been in the profession, which is 10-plus years now,\" he said. \"I'll be on strike every day until we get what we deserve.\"\n\nSome train company workers have also walked out, affecting a small number of services to Scotland.\n\nTrain drivers in Aslef and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are embroiled in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.\n\nLNER is running a limited service from Edinburgh south of the border, but no trains will run any further north than Edinburgh.\n\nAvanti West Coast has advised customers not to travel on Wednesday or Friday.\n\nHowever, ScotRail says services will not be affected on Wednesday.\n\nDavid Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, said: \"The dispute between the trade unions and other train operators does not involve any ScotRail staff, which means ScotRail services will operate as normal on Wednesday and Friday.\"\n\nWalkout Wednesday? A new winter of discontent? Whatever you call it, this is the biggest day of industrial action in decades.\n\nTrade unions may have fewer members than they did in their heyday, and legislation makes it harder for them to take co-ordinated action, but they can still pack a punch.\n\nAccording to official statistics, union membership peaked in 1979 at 13.2 million members but had fallen to 6.4 million by 2021 despite population growth over the period.\n\nSince 1995, the proportion of employees who are members of a union dropped from around a third to below a quarter.\n\nBut membership tends to be higher in the public sector which is where we have seen much of the impact, driven, say trade unionists, by the struggles of ordinary working people to feed their families and heat their homes.\n\nThe fact that inflation remains near a 40-year high is probably the most important factor behind the current industrial strife.\n\nAnd although pay has been rising at its fastest rate in more than 20 years, it is still failing to keep up with the rapidly rising cost of living.\n\nWednesday's national day of action, which includes around 50,000 workers across Scotland, will culminate in a Right To Strike rally organised by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC).\n\nIt will be addressed by SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and STUC general secretary Roz Foyer.\n\nRallies were also taking place in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee throughout the day.\n\nThe PCS and other unions held a rally in Edinburgh just after midday, with several hundred gathering at The Mound to hear speeches from union leaders.\n\nMembers of the EIS, PCS, UCU and Unison unions were among hundreds of people who gathered for an event on Buchanan Street in Glasgow.\n\nMs Foyer told Good Morning Scotland: \"The attacks we are seeing on trade union rights from the UK government are nothing short of despicable. It is a full-frontal attack on people's human rights.\n\n\"It's with a very heavy heart that we take strike action; there's no joy in this. But we do want to show that when it comes to it, workers can stand up, they can stand together and they can take action.\n\n\"Far from dismembering our movement, the UK government have empowered it. We'll make that abundantly clear to them at our national rally.\"\n\nStaff working at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh were among those taking action\n\nHarlaw Academy teacher Edward Aldred-Dow said if workers are prevented from being able to strike, \"it's just going to make things so much worse\".\n\n\"It's a pressure valve that's going to explode,\" he added. \"If you put that pressure on, who knows what's going to happen? There's going to be mass walk-outs.\n\n\"We're doing the thing which we can do which is to withdraw our labour and services to show the importance of what we do - as is everybody up and down the country.\"\n\nUK Business Secretary Grant Shapps has defended bringing forward the legislation to limit strike action.\n\nHe said: \"The first job of any government is to keep the public safe. Because whilst we absolutely believe in the ability to strike, we are duty-bound to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British people.\n\n\"I am introducing a Bill that will give government the power to ensure that vital public services will have to maintain a basic function, by delivering minimum safety levels ensuring that lives and livelihoods are not lost.\n\n\"We do not want to have to use this legislation unless we have to, but we must ensure the safety of the British public.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kim Johnson made her apology in the Commons\n\nLabour MP Kim Johnson has apologised for describing Israel's recently-formed coalition government as \"fascist\".\n\nThe Liverpool Riverside MP made the comment in Parliament, as she asked Rishi Sunak about \"human rights violations\" against Palestinians.\n\nShe apologised shortly afterwards, after being ordered to do so by party bosses.\n\nThe MP said she acknowledged using the term 'fascist' was \"particularly insensitive\" given Israel's history.\n\n\"While there are far-right elements in the government, I recognise that the use of the term in this context was wrong,\" she added.\n\nThe BBC has been told she was told to apologise by party whips for the remarks, described as \"unacceptable\" by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman.\n\nIsrael's new government, formed after elections in November, includes senior ministers from the ultranationalist far right.\n\nThere is domestic and international concern it will inflame the conflict with the Palestinians, damage the judiciary and restrict minority rights.\n\nBenjamin Netanyahu, who has returned as prime minister after his Likud party formed a coalition with ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies, has promised to pursue peace and safeguard civil rights.\n\nMs Johnson also apologised for saying, during her intervention during Prime Minister's Questions, that rights group Amnesty International had described Israel as an \"apartheid state\".\n\n\"Whilst I was quoting accurately Amnesty's description, I recognise this is insensitive and I'd like to withdraw it,\" she added.\n\nIn his initial response to Ms Johnson's question, Mr Sunak did not directly criticise her use of the word \"fascist,\" but said she had \"failed to mention the horrific attack on civilians inside Israel as well\".\n\n\"It's important in this matter to remain calm and urge all sides strive for peace, and that's very much what I will do as prime minister,\" he added.\n\nShe added that the comments were an \"insult\" to the legacy of Dame Louise Ellman, Ms Johnson's predecessor as Liverpool Riverside MP who temporarily quit Labour over the party's handling of antisemitism allegations under former leader Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nBefore Ms Johnson's apology, Sir Keir's spokesman told reporters that Labour wanted to have \"strong relations with the government of Israel\".\n\n\"Obviously there are always issues in any bilateral relationship where you have disagreements between countries, but fundamentally the relationship between Britain and Israel is one that we value.\"\n\n\"I don't think using the sort of language that was used in Prime Minister's Questions today is helpful in achieving that,\" the spokesman added.\n\nHowever, the spokesman's decision to denounce Ms Johnson's language was criticised by Momentum, the Corbyn-supporting left-wing pressure group.\n\nThe group accused Sir Keir of an \"outrageous abuse of power,\" and wanting to \"silence wholly legitimate criticism of the Israeli government\".\n\nMomentum is calling for the reinstatement of Mr Corbyn, whom Sir Keir suspended as a Labour MP in 2020 after a long running row about antisemitism.\n\nMr Corbyn was suspended for saying the scale of antisemitism within Labour had been \"dramatically overstated\" by opponents, in his reaction to a watchdog's report on how the party had handled allegations of anti-Jewish prejudice within the party.", "Michael Jackson's sister La Toya Jackson pictured with his nephew Jaafar Jackson in 2019\n\nMichael Jackson's 26-year-old nephew has confirmed he will portray the singer in a new big-screen biopic.\n\nJaafar Jackson's performance in the film, titled simply Michael, will mark his first major film role.\n\nAnnouncing the news on social media, the young actor said he was \"humbled and honoured\" to have been cast.\n\nJaafar is the second-youngest son of songwriter and Jackson 5 member Jermaine Jackson, Michael's older brother.\n\nMichael will become the latest in a string of big-screen musical biopics, following the release of movies which have charted the careers of Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley, Queen and Elton John.\n\nThe film is being made with the cooperation of the Michael Jackson estate. It is unclear whether or not it will reference allegations of child sexual abuse which were made against Jackson during his life and after his death.\n\nJackson always maintained his innocence, and was found not guilty of child molestation in 2005.\n\nMichael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, said: \"Jaafar embodies my son. It's so wonderful to see him carry on the Jackson legacy of entertainers and performers.\"\n\nMichael Jackson is one of the most successful solo artists of all time\n\nAntoine Fuqua, who helmed Training Day and Emancipation, Will Smith's recent film for Apple, will direct the biopic.\n\nMichael Jackson is one of the most well-known singers in music history, from shooting to fame with his family band the Jackson 5 to becoming one of the most successful artists of all time.\n\nHis most popular solo singles include Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, Beat It, Bad and Rock With You, while Thriller remains the best-selling album ever.\n\nFuqua said Michael \"explores the journey of the man who became the King of Pop\", while the film's studio, Lionsgate, said it would include \"his most iconic performances that led him to become the greatest entertainer of all time\".\n\nOne of the producers of the new film is Graham King, who also produced the Oscar-winning Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.\n\nKing said the team behind the film had searched widely for an actor to play Jackson, before ultimately settling on Jaafar.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by jaafarjackson This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I met Jaafar over two years ago and was blown away by the way he organically personifies the spirit and personality of Michael,\" King said.\n\n\"It was something so powerful that even after conducting a worldwide search, it was clear that he is the only person to take on this role.\"\n\nThe screenplay for Michael will be written by John Logan, who also wrote Gladiator, The Aviator and the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre.", "Just before she left for school on the afternoon of 16 September last year, nine year-old Zin Nwe Phyo was thrilled to be given a new pair of sandals by her uncle.\n\nShe made him a cup of coffee, put on the shoes and headed off to school, a 10-minute walk away in the village of Let Yet Kone in central Myanmar. Shortly afterwards, her uncle recalls, he saw two helicopters circling over the village. Suddenly they started shooting.\n\nZin Nwe Phyo and her classmates had just arrived at the school and were settling down with their teachers, when someone shouted that the aircraft were coming their way.\n\nThey began running for cover, terrified and crying out for help, as rockets and ammunition struck the school.\n\n\"We did not know what to do,\" said one teacher, who had been inside a classroom when the air strikes began. \"At first I did not hear the sound of the helicopter, I heard the bullets and bombs hitting the school grounds.\"\n\n\"Children inside the main school building were hit by the weapons and began running outside, trying to hide,\" said another teacher. With her class she managed to hide behind a big tamarind tree.\n\n\"They fired right through the school walls, hitting the children,\" said one eyewitness. \"Pieces flying out of the main building injured children in the next building. There were big holes blown out of the ground floor.\"\n\nBelongings on the floor of a classroom after the air strike\n\nTheir attackers were two Russian-made Mi-35 helicopter gunships, nicknamed \"flying tanks\" or \"crocodiles\" because of their sinister appearance and protective armour. They carry a formidable array of weapons, including powerful rapid-fire cannon, and pods that fire multiple rockets, which are devastating to people, vehicles and all but the strongest buildings.\n\nIn the two years since Myanmar's military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government, air strikes like this have become a new and deadly tactic in a civil war that is now a brutal stalemate across much of the country, conducted by an air force which has in recent years grown to about 70 aircraft, mostly Russian and Chinese-made.\n\nIt's hard to estimate how many have died in such air attacks because access to much of Myanmar is now impossible, making the conflict's true toll largely invisible to the outside world. The BBC spoke to eyewitnesses, villagers and families over a series of phone calls to find out how the attack on the school unfolded.\n\nThe firing continued for around 30 minutes, eyewitnesses said, tearing chunks out of the walls and roofs.\n\nThen soldiers, who had landed in two other helicopters nearby, marched in, some still shooting, and ordered the survivors to come out and squat on the ground. They were warned not to look up, or they would be killed. The soldiers began questioning them about the presence of any opposition forces in the village.\n\nInside the main school building three children lay dead. One was Zin Nwe Phyo. Another was seven-year-old Su Yati Hlaing - she and her older sister were being brought up by their grandmother. Their parents, like so many in this region, had moved to Thailand to seek work. Others were horribly injured, some missing limbs. Among them was Phone Tay Za, also seven years old, crying out in pain.\n\nThe soldiers used plastic bin liners to collect body parts. At least 12 wounded children and teachers were loaded on to two trucks commandeered by the military and driven away to the nearest hospital in the town of Ye-U. Two of the children later died. In the fields skirting the village, a teenage boy and six adults had been shot dead by the soldiers.\n\nThis is a country that has long been at war with itself. The Burmese armed forces have been fighting various insurgent groups since independence in 1948. But these conflicts were low-tech affairs, involving mainly ground troops in an endless tussle for territory in contested border regions. They were often little different from the trench warfare of a century ago.\n\nIt was in 2012 in Kachin state - just after the air force had obtained its first Mi-35 gunship - that the military first used aerial weapons extensively against insurgents. Air strikes were also used in some of the other internal conflicts which kept burning throughout Myanmar's 10-year democratic interlude, in Shan and Rakhine states.\n\nHowever, since the February 2021 coup, the army has suffered heavy casualties in road ambushes carried out by the hundreds of so-called People's Defence Forces, or PDFs - volunteer militias that were established after the junta crushed peaceful protests against the coup.\n\nSo it has relied on air support - bombing by aircraft suitable for ground attack; or air mobile operations like the one at Let Yet Kone, where gunships blast targets before soldiers arrive to kill or capture any opposition forces they find.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThere were at least 600 air attacks by the military between February 2021 and January 2023, according to a BBC analysis of data from the conflict-monitoring group Acled (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project).\n\nCasualties from these strikes are difficult to estimate. According to the clandestine National Unity Government or NUG, which leads opposition to the military regime, air attacks by the armed forces killed 155 civilians between October 2021 and September 2022.\n\nThe resistance groups are poorly armed, with no capacity to fight back against the air strikes. They have adapted consumer drones to launch their own air attacks, dropping small explosives on military vehicles and guard posts, but to limited effect.\n\nIt is not clear why Let Yet Kone was targeted by the army. It is a poor village of around 3,000 inhabitants, most of them rice or groundnut farmers, set in the scrubby brown landscape of central Myanmar's dry zone, where water is scarce outside of the monsoon season.\n\nIt is in a district called Depayin where resistance to the coup has been strong. Depayin has seen many armed clashes between the army and PDFs, although not, according to residents, in Let Yet Kone. At least 112 of the 268 attacks recorded by the NUG were in southern Sagaing, where Depayin is located.\n\nA spokesman for the military government said after the school attack that soldiers had gone to the village to check the reported presence of fighters from a PDF and from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and that they had come under fire from the school. This account is contradicted by every eyewitness who spoke to the BBC. The military has produced no evidence of insurgent activity at the school.\n\nThe school had been set up only three months earlier in the Buddhist monastery at the northern edge of the village. It taught around 240 pupils. Residents told the BBC that it is one of more than 100 schools in Depayin which are now being run by communities opposing military rule.\n\nTeachers and health workers were among the earliest supporters of the civil disobedience movement. In one of the first and most widely-supported acts of defiance against the coup, state workers vowed to withdraw all co-operation with the new military government. As a result a lot of schools and health centres are now being run by communities, not the government.\n\nPhone Tay Za's mother says she heard the shooting and explosions start about 30 minutes after she had seen her son off to school. But, like Zin Nwe Phyo's uncle, she assumed it could not be the target of the helicopter gunships.\n\n\"After the sound of the heavy guns firing died down I headed toward the school,\" she said. \"I saw children and adults squatting on the ground with their heads lowered. The soldiers were kicking those who turned their heads up.\"\n\nShe begged the soldiers to let her look for her son. They refused. \"You people care when your own get shot,\" one told her, \"but not when it happens to us.\"\n\nThen she heard Phone Tay Za calling out to her, and they let her go to him inside the ruined classroom.\n\n\"I found him in a pool of blood with eyes blinking slowly. He said, 'mom, just kill me please.' I told him he would be fine. 'You will not die'.\"\n\n\"I cried my heart out, shouting 'how dare you do this to my son'. The whole monastery compound was in absolute silence. When I shouted, it echoed through the buildings. A soldier yelled at me not to scream like that and told me to stay still where I was. So I sat there in the classroom for about 45 minutes with my child in my arms. I saw three children's dead bodies there. I did not know whose children they were. I could not look at their faces.\"\n\nPhone Tay Za died shortly afterwards. The soldiers refused to let his mother keep his body and took it away. The bodies of Zin Nwe Phyo and Su Yati Hlaing were also taken by the military, before their families could see them, and later secretly cremated.\n\nA thousand kilometres away in Thailand Su Yati Hlaing's parents were working their shifts in the electronic components factory when they heard that the military had attacked their village.\n\nSu Yati Hlaing's parents were working in Thailand in the hope of earning enough to give her a better life\n\n\"My wife and I were in agony. We could not concentrate on our work anymore,\" her father said.\n\n\"It was around 2:30 in the afternoon so we could not leave. We kept working, with heavy hearts. Colleagues asked us if we were ok. My wife could not hold her tears anymore and started crying. We decided to not do the usual overtime that day and asked our team leader to go back to our room.\"\n\nLater that evening they got a call from Su Yati Hlaing's grandmother telling them she had been killed.\n\nThe attack in Let Yet Kone drew international rebuke and horror, but the air strikes continued.\n\nOn 23 October air force jets bombed a concert in Kachin State commemorating the anniversary of the start of the KIA insurgency.\n\nSurvivors say three huge explosions ripped through the large crowd which had gathered for the event, killing 60 people, including senior KIA commanders and a popular Kachin singer. Many more are thought to have died in the following days after the army blocked the evacuation of those who had been seriously injured in the attack.\n\nPDFs or volunteer militias have inflicted heavy casualties on the Burmese forces\n\nAt the other end of the country the air force bombed a lead mine in southern Karen State, close to the border with Thailand, on 15 November, killing three miners and injuring eight others. The junta spokesman justified the attack on the grounds that the mining was illegal, and in an area controlled by the insurgent Karen National Union.\n\nAnd only last month, the air force bombed the main base of the insurgent Chin National Front, next to the border with India. It also launched air strikes which hit two churches in Karen State, killing five non-combatants.\n\nThis increased capacity for aerial warfare is being sustained by continued support from Russia and China after the coup, despite many other governments ostracising Myanmar's military regime.\n\nRussia, in particular, has stepped up to become its strongest foreign backer. Russian equipment, like the Mi-35 and the agile Yak-130 ground attack jets, are central to the air campaign against insurgents. China has recently supplied Myanmar with modern FTC-2000 trainers, aircraft which are also well-suited for a ground attack.\n\nThe high death toll in such attacks has drawn the attention of war crimes investigators. The Myanmar armed forces have often been accused of such crimes in the past - often abuses by ground troops, particularly against the Rohingyas in 2017. But the use of air power brings with it new types of atrocities.\n\nFor the survivors of Let Yet Kone, the nightmare did not end on 16 September.\n\nThey say many of the children and some of the adults are still traumatised by what they saw that day. The military has continued to target their village, attacking it again three more times, and burning down many of the houses.\n\nThis is a poor community. They do not have the resources to rebuild, and in any case they do not know when the soldiers will be back to burn them again.\n\n\"Children are everything for their parents,\" says one local militia leader. \"By killing our children, the military has crushed them mentally. And I must say they have succeeded. Even for me, I will need a lot of motivation to carry on the revolutionary fight now.\"\n\nSu Yati Hlaing's parents are still in Thailand, unable to return after their daughter's death. They cannot afford the cost of the journey, nor the risk of losing the factory jobs they had always hoped would give their little girl a better life.\n\n\"There were many things I had imagined,\" says her mother. \"I imagined that when I finally went back I would live happily with my daughters, I would cook for them, whatever they wanted. I had so many dreams. I wanted them to be wise and educated, as much as we, their parents, are uneducated. They were just about to begin their journey. My daughter did not even get our affection and warmth closely, because we were away so long. Now, she is gone for forever.\"\n\nThe BBC analysed attack data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled), which collects reports of incidents related to political violence and protests around the world. Aerial attacks have been defined as conflict events involving aircraft in specific locations either during an armed clash or as an independent strike. The data covers the period 1 February 2021 to 20 January 2023.", "Josh Maunder used a virus he created aged 12 to target the server hosting a boxing match between rapper KSI and YouTube star Logan Paul\n\nA teenager who made a computer virus to target a celebrity boxing match and hundreds of financial institutions has been given a suspended sentence.\n\nJosh Maunder, 19, targeted websites through a Distributed Denial of Service attack, which overloads a system with requests which are difficult to stop.\n\nTargets included Nationwide and the server hosting a boxing match between rapper KSI and YouTube star Logan Paul.\n\nThe Co Down teen was 15 when the crimes occurred between 2017 and 2018.\n\nHe used a program called stress.wtf, which he created when he was 12, Belfast Crown Court heard.\n\nMaunder, of Abbey Park in Bangor, pleaded guilty to 19 computer misuse offences.\n\nThe judge said that while there was no doubt Maunder was highly skilled, he described the attacks as \"malicious\" and \"unauthorised\", adding that he believed Maunder was motivated by \"online fame and kudos\" from other online hackers, gamers and YouTubers.\n\nHanding down the sentence to Maunder, the judge said he would \"have to bear in mind you were a child when the offences were committed\".\n\nA total sentence of 20 months, suspended for three years, was passed.\n\nLogan Paul and KSI during a boxing match at Manchester Arena\n\nPSNI Det Sgt McCarragher said Wednesday's sentencing was the result of a \"complex investigation into a vast range of cyber-attacks with a domestic and international dimension\".\n\nThe PSNI said Maunder had caused a substantial loss to a financial company, numerous police public information websites, a human rights group and also had involvement in organising an orchestrated cyber-attack on a pay-per-view celebrity boxing event.\n\n\"Further to this, he was in possession of malicious software and managed an online community of peers engaged in prolific computer misuse offences which was also successfully impacted by the investigation,\" said PSNI Det Sgt McCarragher.\n\n\"This should send a clear message to those involved in this type of crime that they will be vigorously pursued and brought before the courts to face the consequences of such activity.\"", "It already has a nickname: Walkout Wednesday. Hardly a term of endearment but a reflection of just how widespread the disruption will be.\n\nIn fact, it's probably going to have the greatest impact of any strike day so far, because thousands of schools will be closed with parents stuck at home reliving the joys of working from home whilst trying to help their offspring to learn something.\n\nSeveral unions have chosen to co-ordinate their action - so along with teachers - train drivers, university lecturers and civil servants are all going on strike.\n\nHalf a million people are expected to walk out. There will also be rallies, organised by the unions, to protest the government's plans to try and enforce a minimum service during strikes.\n\nSo how will all of this affect you?\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nWednesday's action by teachers in England and Wales in the National Education Union, which has around half a million members, will hit about 23,400 schools.\n\nBut some schools may not decide until the morning whether to close, fully or partially, as it depends on how many staff choose to join the strike.\n\nIf you haven't heard then the advice is to send your children in as normal, as parents \"have a legal duty to send their children to school unless they are unwell.\"\n\nSchools have been advised to open for vulnerable pupils, key workers' children and those taking exams.\n\nSome will open for certain classes only.\n\nChildren may be set work to do remotely - but striking teachers are not required to do so.\n\nIn addition, there is no automatic right for a parent affected by a lawful strike to claim compensation if they lose pay looking after a child.\n\nThe NEU, which is the largest British education union, has said a 5% government pay offer is the equivalent of a pay cut as the pace of price rises is running at more than 10%.\n\nIn Scotland, teachers who are members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) are continuing strikes over pay as part of a rolling wave of action. On Wednesday schools in Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen will be affected.\n\nTens of thousands of staff at 150 universities across the UK are also taking industrial action.\n\nTeaching staff, administrators, librarians and technicians are some some of the people who will be on strike over pay, working conditions and pension cuts.\n\nPrevious strikes in November had caused little disruption, with lectures rescheduled and coursework deadlines extended, employers said.\n\nIf you're taking the train on Wednesday, Network Rail says \"plan ahead and check your first and last train times\".\n\nAction by members of the Aslef train drivers' union and RMT unions means train companies across England are affected along with services to Scotland and Wales.\n\nThere will be no services at all on: Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; CrossCountry; East Midlands Railway; Gatwick Express; Great Northern; Heathrow Express; London Northwestern Railway; Northern; Southeastern; Southern; Thameslink, South Western Railway Island Line services; TransPennine Express; West Midlands Railway.\n\nGreater Anglia (including Stansted Express) and Great Western Railway are advising passengers not to use them, and LNER will run a reduced service.\n\nSouth Western says it intends to run a service on the strike days, but has warned there may be short notice delays and cancellations due to difficulty getting drivers and trains to where they need to be.\n\nAbout 100,000 civil servants from 124 government departments and other bodies are also on strike on Wednesday over pay and conditions.\n\nBorder Force operations will be affected, with possible delays for international arrivals at all UK air and maritime ports as well as at UK border controls in Calais, Dunkirk and Coquelles in northern France.\n\nTravellers planning to enter the UK may face longer waiting times at border control.\n\nSome driving tests may be affected, the DVSA said, adding that it had contacted affected candidates.\n\nOrganisations such as Ofsted, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and the Home Office will also have staff on strike.\n\nAbout 1,900 Abellio bus drivers in London are taking industrial action, mostly affecting routes in south and west London.\n\nThe latest strikes will go ahead on 1, 2, and 3 February in a dispute over pay, the Unite union said.\n\nSome local bus services to Heathrow will be disrupted.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The way electricity prices are set has pushed UK household bills up by £7.2bn over two years, analysis suggests.\n\nUnder existing rules, energy suppliers pay the highest price for wholesale electricity no matter how it is made.\n\nGas-fired power stations are the most expensive way to generate electricity, but only make about 40% of all electricity used by UK homes.\n\nThat means homes pay over the odds for power generated any other way, said the Carbon Tracker Initiative.\n\nIf an average price was used instead the UK's electricity bill could be much lower, the not-for-profit climate think tank said.\n\nThe Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (Beis) said it had \"already launched a major review\" of the electricity market \"to radically cut costs\" for consumers in the long term.\n\nThe price for wholesale electricity is set by a bidding process, with each generating company saying what it would be willing to accept to produce a unit of power.\n\nWhen it's windy and sunny enough to meet demand for electricity through renewables, the wholesale cost drops to close to zero, according to Beis.\n\nBut when it's not, the wholesale cost is set at the level that all providers will accept - which is the highest bid.\n\nIn the past, gas powered generation was among the cheapest ways of producing electricity.\n\nFor decades, wholesale gas was relatively cheap in the UK, and only started to soar in price in May 2021 as economies recovered from the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupted supplies.\n\nWholesale gas prices have fallen sharply since August 2022, but are still about three times the price of May 2021.\n\nCharging an average price for wholesale electricity would have made the bill in the two years from 2021-22 £7.2bn lower, the Carbon Tracker Initiative said.\n\nAccording to BBC calculations that's about £250 per household.\n\nDue to the current system, firms that make renewable energy have been paid much more for their power than it costs them to generate.\n\nFor this reason the government introduced a temporary 45% tax in January on what it calls \"extraordinary returns\" from low-carbon electricity generators in the UK.\n\nSimon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, which campaigns for warm homes, said \"injustice\" in the electricity pricing system was at a \"shocking scale\"\n\n\"It cannot be right that consumers have been prevented from benefiting from the reduced cost of generating electricity,\" he said.\n\nJonathan Sims, an energy analyst who wrote the CTI report, said the findings showed how the global gas market over the last two years had skewed British power prices.\n\nHe said these prices did not reflect the different technology the UK now uses to generate electricity.\n\nThe CTI's report takes into account the need for sources of power that can be fired up immediately such as gas-fired, or provide near constant output such as nuclear, whereas wind power for example is weather-dependent.\n\nThe analysis also suggested Europe's most gas power-dependent countries, the UK and Italy, had consistently paid the highest prices for electricity during the recent period of gas price volatility.\n\nThe business department said it was consulting on changes that \"would stop volatile gas prices setting the price of electricity produced by much cheaper renewables\".\n\nIt also said its windfall tax on renewables generators would \"help fund energy bill support for households and businesses\".\n• None Energy bills predicted to fall further this year", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Amelie's mother Michelle described her as a \"little social butterfly\" who loves being the centre of attention\n\nThe mother of a girl with Down's syndrome who was discriminated against by her former nursery school has said its apology will never be enough.\n\nMichelle and Alan Cummins, whose daughter Amelie attended Trinity Nursery School in Bangor, County Down, brought a case against the school.\n\nIt came after they were told Amelie, who is now five, would have to start 15 minutes later than other children.\n\nThe school settled the case and apologised to the Cummins family.\n\nTrinity Nursery School accepted it treated Amelie less favourably due to her special educational needs and acknowledged it failed to make reasonable adjustments for her.\n\nHowever, Mrs Cummins said its apology \"isn't enough and it will never be enough\".\n\n\"Two years is a long time to have to put us through this torment,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"It's not something that we'll get over lightly.\n\n\"We had to drive it forward, because it's not acceptable, and if we'd have done nothing about it we'd have been as bad as them.\"\n\nAlan and Michelle Cummins hope other families will take strength from their case\n\nAmelie has a statement of special educational needs, which provided for her to attend mainstream nursery school with 22.5 hours of classroom support each week.\n\nShe joined Trinity Nursery School in September 2020, but her family was told she had to start school 15 minutes later every day than all the other children in her class, even though she had a dedicated classroom assistant.\n\nAmelie's parents alleged the school also wanted Amelie to finish 15 minutes earlier but they refused to accept that.\n\nAmelie's parents removed her from the nursery school three months later.\n\n\"We refused - how much education must my daughter lose out on? It just wasn't acceptable and we raised it, so the environment became quite hostile,\" Mrs Cummins said.\n\n\"Starting nursery is supposed to be positive... it was far from it.\"\n\nThe family subsequently lodged a discrimination case against Trinity Nursing School with the support of the Equality Commission.\n\nMr and Mrs Cummins said the case was one of the worst experiences the family has ever gone through, with the two-year settlement process being \"quite stressful\".\n\nAmelie Cummins attended Trinity Nursery School for three months in 2020\n\n\"We knew in our hearts that it was the right thing to do and that we should stick with it because we don't want this to happen to any other child,\" Mr Cummins said.\n\n\"Our daughter has been discriminated against - so there was not a celebration of that occurrence, we wish it had never happened - however we do feel vindicated that we were right to seek the Equality Commission's help and to take the case,\" he added.\n\nThe family now hope others will take strength from their actions and pursue their own cases.\n\nMary Kitson, senior legal officer for the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, said it is unacceptable that any pupil be treated less favourably because of their disability.\n\n\"All children must be provided with opportunities to flourish at school, regardless of whether or not they have a disability,\" she said.\n\n\"We welcome, as part of the settlement terms, Trinity Nursery School's agreement to work with the commission in respect of its duties under the Disability Discrimination legislation and good practice in education.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Trinity Nursing School said: \"Whilst we cannot comment on individual pupils, as a school we will take on board all learning from the case and are firmly committed to the principle of equality of opportunity for all disabled pupils.\n\n\"We will also work with the Equality Commission in ensuring that all of our policies, practices and procedures conform in all respects with national equality legislation in relation to Disability Discrimination in education, as well as best practice.\"", "Osbourne's last UK gig was at the Commonwealth Games' closing ceremony last summer\n\nRock star Ozzy Osbourne says has announced his retirement from touring, saying he is too weak to perform.\n\nThe Black Sabbath frontman told fans he was still struggling to recover from a spine injury he sustained in 2019.\n\n\"Never would I have imagined my touring days would end this way,\" he said in a social media statement.\n\nThe star was injured in a fall four years ago, which aggravated injuries he suffered in a near-fatal quad bike accident in 2003.\n\n\"My singing voice is fine,\" said the 74-year-old. \"However, after three operations, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy sessions, and most recently groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) Treatment, my body is still physically weak.\"\n\nCybernics treatment involves the use of a $20,000 (£16,230) mechanical \"exoskeleton\" to help patients recover mobility.\n\nWith the statement, Osbourne cancelled all the upcoming dates on his Europe and UK farewell tour, which was due to commence in Finland this May.\n\nThe shows had already been postponed several times following his original accident and the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"I am honestly humbled by the way you've all patiently held onto your tickets for all this time,\" said the singer, \"but in all good conscience, I have now come to the realisation that I'm not physically capable... as I know I couldn't deal with the travel required.\"\n\nHe added that his team \"is currently coming up with ideas for where I will be able to perform without having to travel from city to city and country to country\".\n\nOsbourne has suffered a number of health problems in recent years, from Covid to Parkinson's Disease, which he was diagnosed with in 2003, but didn't announce publicly until 2020.\n\nSpeaking to The Guardian last year, he said the condition had left him with mobility problems.\n\n\"You think you're lifting your feet, but your foot doesn't move,\" he explained. \"I feel like I'm walking around in lead boots.\n\nOsbourne thanked his family, including daughter Kelly and wife Sharon, for their support\n\nLast year, he also underwent major surgery to remove and realign pins in his neck and back, which his wife Sharon Osbourne said \"would determine the rest of his life\".\n\nThe surgery was a success, but left the singer in \"agony\".\n\n\"It got so bad that at one point I thought: 'Oh God, please don't let me wake up tomorrow morning',\" he told The Guardian in the same interview.\n\nDespite that, the star appeared at last year's Commonwealth Games closing ceremony in his hometown of Birmingham, performing Iron Man and Paranoid.\n\nDuring that performance, he had a back brace placed behind him for support.\n\nIn his statement, Osbourne said retiring from touring was \"one of the hardest things I've ever had to share with my loyal fans\".\n\nHe went on to thank his family, his band, his crew and touring partners Judas Priest for their support.\n\nFinally, he thanked his fans \"for their endless dedication... and for giving me the life that I never ever dreamed I would have\".\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "A 22-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a police officer was stabbed in the neck.\n\nThe chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, Liam Kelly, says the officer is \"fortunate to be alive\".\n\nThe attack happened in south Belfast in the early hours of Wednesday.\n\nPolice said two officers were providing assistance to a vulnerable person at a property on the Ormeau Road, Belfast, when they were attacked at about 01:30 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThe officer who was stabbed was taken to hospital.\n\nA second officer suffered cuts to his face during the incident.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the incident could have led to a death\n\n\"It's sobering to think just how lucky we are not to have lost these officers,\" Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said.\n\n\"We are reflecting on that incident and are very clear that had the knife entered 1mm to each side [of their neck}, we think we could have been looking at a potential fatality\"\n\nHe added: \"We're supporting them, their families and colleagues ensuring they receive the appropriate care and welfare support.\"\n\nMr Kelly of the Police Federation said: \"This was a terrible incident that could have had a very different outcome.\n\n\"Both officers displayed remarkable professionalism when confronted by this knife-wielding individual who was clearly intent on causing great harm.\"\n\n45 police officers have been injured in recent days\n\nHe added that while they officers could have used firearms to protect themselves, they didn't, and that attacks of this nature justify the need for officers to be equipped with taser devices.\n\n\"We say again that tasers are effective, protective devices and should be issued as standard to our officers.\n\n\"They are infinitely preferable to a firearm and anyone who thinks otherwise should look at this incident and ask the obvious question.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Byrne This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe incident comes days after the PSNI's chief constable, Simon Byrne, said 43 police officers had been assaulted in 30 separate incidents in the past week.\n\nResponding to Mr Byrne's tweet, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the incidents were alarming and disappointing.\n\n\"My thoughts are with those injured and I commend all PSNI officers for the work they do on a daily basis to keep the people of Northern Ireland safe,\" he said.", "No strike talk from Labour leader - instead a focus on cabinet controversies\n\nEthics and Rishi Sunak’s leadership were the focus of Sir Keir Starmer’s attacks. Strikingly there was no strike talk from the Labour leader. Instead he sought to focus attention on how much Rishi Sunak did know, or should have known, before he appointed both Nadhim Zahawi and Dominic Raab to his cabinet. Labour is trying to build a narrative that Sunak is “weak” and ineffective. What was noticeable was that Sunak read his carefully worded responses - that he took action as soon as he was aware of “new information” - and that he then tried to turn the tables with political attacks on the Labour leader, for his links to Jeremy Corbyn and repeating criticism of Labour voiced by one of its MPs, Rosie Duffield. It was Sunak who raised the issue of strikes and Labour’s links to the unions. The Labour leader’s reply was that seeking to blame his party for strikes after 13 years of Conservative government was “rank pathetic”.", "The 30-year-old left his daughter asleep and alone, keeping an eye on her using an Alexa phone app\n\nA man has lost custody of his five-year-old child after using an Alexa to babysit her while he was in the pub.\n\nThe 30-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, left her asleep and watched her using an Alexa app.\n\nA court heard he left his daughter in his partner's home in Builth Wells, Powys, at 20:00 on 13 August 2022.\n\nHe was arrested after strangling his partner and admitted that attack and child neglect. He was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years.\n\nLlandrindod Wells Magistrates Court heard police were called when he attacked his partner after going out drinking, leaving his daughter by herself.\n\nWhen police arrived, he admitted leaving his daughter with an Alexa by her bed.\n\nRebecca Ross, prosecuting, said the child lived part-time with her mother and part-time with her father.\n\nShe said: \"They had been drinking vodka and gin with lemonade at home from around 8pm. The defendant's daughter was in the house but in bed.\n\n\"He wasn't going to go out but he was not chuffed when she said she was going out without him, so he went out as well.\"\n\nThe man \"went to a string of pubs\" in Builth Wells while his daughter was at home alone\n\nHe set up an Amazon Alexa camera to watch the child.\n\nThe court heard he was meant to be in charge of caring for his daughter but instead \"went to a string of pubs\" in the town.\n\nPolice were called after a neighbour heard screaming in the garden at about 02:00.\n\nPC Phillip Coombs arrived at 02:10 and said the arguing pair \"had to be separated\".\n\nThe court heard the defendant told officers he grabbed the victim by the throat, told her to shut up and that she needed to calm down.\n\nGareth Walters, defending, said his client would feel the consequences of losing his daughter for a long time.\n\n\"He felt he was keeping an eye on his daughter but he realises you can't do that remotely.\n\n\"There was some effort by him to keep an eye on her but he knows the standards fell below what is expected of a parent.\"", "Ukraine's defence minister has said Russia is preparing a major new offensive, and warned that it could begin as soon as 24 February.\n\nOleksii Reznikov said Moscow had amassed thousands of troops and could \"try something\" to mark the anniversary of the initial invasion last year.\n\nThe attack would also mark Russia's Defender of the Fatherland Day on 23 February, which celebrates the army.\n\nMeanwhile, three people have died in an attack on the city of Kramatorsk.\n\nEight others were wounded in the city in Donetsk region after a Russian missile struck a residential building, the provincial governor said.\n\nThe toll is expected to rise as rescuers comb through the wreckage.\n\n\"The only way to stop Russian terrorism is to defeat it,\" Mr Zelensky wrote on social media about the attack. \"By tanks. Fighter jets. Long-range missiles.\"\n\nUkraine has recently renewed calls for fighter jets to help protect itself from air attacks after Germany, the US and the UK agreed to send them tanks.\n\nAt least three people are thought to have been killed in a Russian rocket attack on the eastern city of Kramatorsk\n\nMr Reznikov said Moscow had mobilised some 500,000 troops for the potential offensive.\n\nIn September, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a general mobilisation of some 300,000 conscripted troops, which he said was necessary to ensure the country's \"territorial integrity\".\n\nBut Mr Reznikov suggested that the true figure recruited and deployed to Ukraine could be far higher.\n\n\"Officially they announced 300,000 but when we see the troops at the borders, according to our assessments it is much more,\" he told the French BFM network. The BBC cannot independently verify this figure.\n\nRussia has claimed recent gains in the eastern Donbas region and its forces say they are moving in on the front-line town of Bakhmut after a battle that has lasted months and led to heavy loss of life on both sides.\n\nLast month, Russian mercenaries and regular soldiers seized the nearby town of Soledar and on Wednesday a Russian-appointed official, Yan Gagin, said Bakhmut was \"operationally surrounded\".\n\nThe US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) recently said that Moscow could seek to \"undertake a decisive action\" and launch a \"big offensive\" in the east.\n\nMr Reznikov said Ukraine's commanders would seek to \"stabilise the front and prepare for a counter-offensive\" ahead of the rumoured Russian advance.\n\n\"I have faith that the year 2023 can be the year of military victory,\" he said, adding that Ukraine's forces \"cannot lose the initiative\" they have achieved in recent months.\n\nThe defence minister was in France to strike a deal to purchase additional MG-200 air defence radars, which he said would \"significantly increase the capacity of the armed forces to detect air targets, including winged and ballistic missiles, and drones of various types\".\n\nMr Reznikov's comments come as Ukrainian intelligence alleges that President Putin has ordered his forces to seize the Donbas before the end of spring.\n\nBut speaking on Monday, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that there were no indications that Mr Putin had limited his military goals to seizing eastern regions of Ukraine.\n\n\"That they are actively acquiring new weapons, more ammunition, ramping up their own production, but also acquiring more weapons from other authoritarian states like Iran and North Korea,\" Mr Stoltenberg said.\n\n\"And most of all, we have seen no sign that President Putin has changed his overall goal of this invasion - that is to control a neighbour, to control Ukraine. So as long as this is the case, we need to be prepared for the long haul.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said that intense fighting was continuing in the Donbas region, where Russian forces and Wagner Group mercenaries have been trying to take the town of Bakhmut.\n\nShe added that Moscow's troops were also trying to seize Lyman - the former Russian logistics hub that Ukrainian troops retook in October.\n\n\"Russian troops are actively trying to reach the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,\" she wrote on the Telegram messaging app. \"Our soldiers defend every centimetre of Ukrainian land,\" she said.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday night, Mr Zelensky warned that the situation on the front lines of the conflict was testing his forces.\n\n\"There is a certain increase in the occupiers' offensive actions at the front - in the east of our country, Mr Zelensky said. \"The situation is becoming even more severe.\"\n\nWhile the Wagner group has claimed it has been heavily involved in Russia's recent advances in the east, a former commander who fled to Norway has told Reuters that he witnessed the killing and mistreatment of Russian prisoners taken to Ukraine to fight for the group.\n\nAndrei Medvedev made an unverified claim that in the four months he was with Wagner, he saw two people who didn't want to fight being shot.\n\nAbout 80% of Wagner's personnel in Ukraine have been drawn from prisons, according to the US National Security Council.", "Teachers are taking part in 16 days of rolling strikes with a further 22 days of action announced for spring\n\nTeachers in Scotland have begun a third week of rolling strikes, with every local authority affected over the period.\n\nMembers of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) are striking in two local authorities per day from 16 January until 6 February.\n\nUnion leaders have warned there is no end in sight to the current pay dispute.\n\nTeachers want a 10% uplift, which ministers and councils have said is unaffordable.\n\nThe current 5% offer includes rises of up to 6.85% for the lowest-paid staff.\n\nThe EIS recently announced a further 22 days of extra strikes between 13 March and 21 April.\n\nIt will include two days of national strike action in all schools on 28 February and 1 March, followed by a rolling programme of strikes for 20 days between 13 March and 21 April.\n\nThis round of action will be more complicated, with different schools in each local authority hit over three days - primaries on the first day, all schools on the second and secondaries on the third.\n\nThe NASUWT and the SSTA unions will also be going on strike on 28 February and 1 March.\n\nEducation Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has said she remained committed to a \"fair and sustainable pay deal\".\n\nAny new offer would need to be agreed by all 32 council leaders but they are not due to meet until towards the end of January.\n\nMembers of the EIS union demonstrated outside Bute House in Edinburgh, the official residence of the first minister of Scotland\n\nStrikes recently closed almost every primary and secondary school in Scotland across two days.\n\nThe strikes also saw all four unions representing teachers and headteachers walk out together for the first time.\n\nMembers of the EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, the NASUWT, Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association (SSTA) and the Association of Headteachers and Deputes (AHDS) unions were involved.\n\nAre you a teacher planning to strike? Or a parent whose children's school is affected by strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Coastguard officers in Shetland were on strike during Wednesday's nationwide day of action\n\nThousands of workers in Scotland have joined the UK's biggest day of industrial action in a decade.\n\nThe strikes are the latest is a series of industrial disputes that have largely been sparked by pay rises failing to keep up with soaring inflation rates and the cost of living crisis.\n\nTrade unions are also angry at UK government plans to limit the right to strike of workers in some key sectors.\n\nHere is a list of who is on strike, and who could be joining them in the future.\n\nIn November, teachers in Scotland began their first national pay strike since the 1980s, with a day of action which closed almost all state primary and secondary schools.\n\nMembers of Scotland's largest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), walked out along with members of the Association of Head Teachers and Deputes Scotland (AHDS), which represents senior staff in primary schools.\n\nIn January, these two unions were joined by members of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association (SSTA) and the NASUWT for a day of action which closed most primary schools, followed by a day which closed most secondaries.\n\nSince then we have seen a programme of rolling strikes that his hit schools in two local authorities per day. Teachers in Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen were on the picket lines on Wednesday.\n\nTwo more Scotland-wide strikes involving all four unions are scheduled for 28 February and 1 March, followed by another three weeks of rolling strikes.\n\nTeachers want a 10% pay rise. Most are being offered a 5% increase although that rises to 6.85% for the lowest paid and drops below 5% for those on the highest salaries because the rise is capped at £3,000 for staff who earn more than £60,000 per annum.\n\nThe Scottish government claims that, under its offer, fully qualified teachers in Scotland would be paid more than £7,500 more than their counterparts in England.\n\nIn the 2021/22 school year, state school classroom teachers were paid an average of £38,982 in England; £39,009 in Wales; and £40,026 in Scotland. An equivalent figure for Northern Ireland was not available.\n\nNationwide industrial action has also hit Scottish universities. Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are going on strike on 18 days between February and March, starting on Wednesday 1 February.\n\nUCU members at seven Scottish universities - Abertay, Edinburgh Napier, Glasgow Caledonian, Glasgow School of Art, Queen Margaret, Robert Gordon and the University of the West of Scotland - are striking over pay and conditions.\n\nMembers at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban, which is part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, are taking action over pensions.\n\nMembers at eight Scottish universities - Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, St Andrews, Stirling and Strathclyde - are walking out over both issues.\n\nThe Scottish government's pay offer to NHS workers for 2022/23, which averaged 7.5%, was accepted by the Unison and Unite unions but rejected by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and the GMB union, which represents staff in the Scottish Ambulance Service as well as the NHS.\n\nAlthough RCN, RCM and GMB members voted for industrial action, their leaders agreed not to announce strike dates while negotiations took place.\n\nThe talks are now focused on 2023/24 pay although the Scottish government has reportedly agreed to backdate any agreed increase by three months to January 2023.\n\nAny strike action by nurses would pile further pressure on Health Secretary Humza Yousaf\n\nOn 13 January the two sides were said to be entering an \"intensive period of negotiations\" which, it was predicted, could take several weeks.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Humza Yousaf have been personally involved in the talks.\n\nRCN chief executive Pat Cullen said she had left Ms Sturgeon in no doubt that nurses \"will take strike action if the proposals being outlined do not deliver a significant improvement by the end of February.\"\n\nAll three unions still have mandates for industrial action. If they do strike it would be a blow for Ms Sturgeon but perhaps especially for Mr Yousaf, who is under intense political pressure over his handling of the wider NHS crisis.\n\nA long-running dispute over railway pay, job security and working conditions continues to affect cross-border services between Scotland and England.\n\nThe train drivers' union Aslef is striking on 1 February and again on 3 February along with the few hundred train drivers who are RMT members.\n\nAvanti West Coast, which runs most passenger services on the west coast main line between London and Glasgow, said no trains would operate on either day.\n\nOn the east coast main line, London North Eastern Railway (LNER) said it would run an extremely limited timetable with just five trains in each direction between London King's Cross and Edinburgh along with a handful of other services.\n\nNo Avanti West Coast trains ran between Glasgow and London on the strike days\n\nBoth the Caledonian Sleeper and ScotRail said their services would be unaffected by the action.\n\nStaff at ScotRail accepted an improved pay offer in November, averting separate planned strikes on their services.\n\nThe nationalised rail operator said a rise of 5% plus £750 equated to an increase of 7.5% for staff such as conductors and ticket examiners, and 8.5% for workers on the lowest pay.\n\nTens of thousands of civil servants belonging to the PCS union went on strike across the UK on 1 February.\n\nIn Scotland, more than 70 picket lines were listed on the PCS website with union members also holding a rally in Edinburgh city centre at noon.\n\nScottish Parliament staff were among the civil servants who joined the PCS strike\n\nAffected services in Scotland included - but were not limited to - courts, job centres, driving test centres, various Scottish and UK government departments and quangos, registrars, museums and galleries, the passport office, Ofgem, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Crown Estate, the Scottish Prison Service and the Scottish Parliament.\n\nFirefighters across the UK voted this week to strike for the first time in 20 years but no dates have yet been set. This would include firefighters in Scotland. Members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) rejected a 5% pay rise and are seeking \"a credible offer.\" The UK government says a strike would be \"disappointing and concerning.\"\n\nThe Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) was to hold a protest in Glasgow on 1 February over UK government legislation which would give its ministers the power to ensure minimum service levels during industrial action in certain critical sectors.\n\nThese would include hospitals, firefighting and the railways, and would curtail the right of some workers to strike.\n\nLabour and the SNP also oppose the new law, which Ms Sturgeon and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discussed over dinner in Inverness last month.\n\nInflation remains near a 40-year high which goes a long way towards explaining much of the current industrial strife.\n\nAlthough pay has been rising at its fastest rate in more than 20 years it is still failing to keep up with the rising cost of living.", "Jared O'Mara served as MP for Sheffield Hallam from June 2017 to November 2019\n\nA former MP's cocaine use was an \"open secret\" in the city in which he lived and worked, a court has been told.\n\nJared O'Mara, 41, who represented Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019, is accused of submitting fraudulent expenses claims totalling nearly £30,000.\n\nA co-defendant told Leeds Crown Court he took the drug at Mr O'Mara's flat up to three times, with the ex-MP joking about his drug use on social media.\n\nThe former MP, of Walker Close, Sheffield, was elected to Parliament for Labour in June 2017, but quit the party the following year and became an independent after he was suspended by the party over comments he'd posted online before becoming an MP.\n\nHe stood down in 2019, the same year it is alleged the fraud offences took place.\n\nCo-accused Gareth Arnold, 30, of School Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire, told the hearing on Wednesday he could \"count on one hand\" the occasions he personally had taken cocaine, with \"two or three\" of those at Mr O'Mara's flat.\n\nDuring cross-examination from Mr James Bourne-Arton, for the prosecution, Mr Arnold told the court he never saw Mr O'Mara take the illegal drug but saw bags of it in his bathroom during a social gathering.\n\n\"It was very much an open secret that he took cocaine in Sheffield,\" Mr Arnold said.\n\n\"You just had to look at his Twitter, he was making jokes about it.\"\n\nGareth Arnold and a third defendant are on trial alongside Jared O'Mara at Leeds Crown Court\n\nDiscussing a message previously read to court about Mr O'Mara being a \"few k in debt with a dealer\", Mr Arnold said: \"My assumption was he owed a drug dealer some money.\n\n\"At first [Mr O'Mara] said it was a gambling debt, but I've never heard of him gambling - I just put two and two together.\"\n\nHe later added: \"For the wage he was on I couldn't imagine anyone could do so much cocaine they couldn't afford it on an MP's wage.\"\n\nMr Bourne-Arton told the court Mr O'Mara had taken out £7,000 in cash during a single month, roughly double the amount coming in through his salary, and asked Mr Arnold what he thought the money was for.\n\n\"I would not be surprised if it was cocaine, alcohol and cigarettes,\" he replied.\n\nThe defendant told the court Mr O'Mara was drinking \"a bottle of vodka\" and smoked \"60 cigarettes\" on a daily basis at one stage.\n\nMr O'Mara is accused of making fraudulent claims to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) from a \"fictitious\" organisation called Confident About Autism South Yorkshire (CAASY).\n\nMr Arnold denied a claim by the prosecution that he and Mr O'Mara were \"submitting false claims to IPSA\" to purchase cocaine.\n\nOn Tuesday afternoon, Mr Arnold told court he contacted South Yorkshire Police in July 2019 after becoming concerned about the CAASY invoices Mr O'Mara had asked him to submit.\n\n\"I didn't want to end up in a situation where I'm stood in court,\" he told jurors.\n\nMr Arnold, who denies six charges of fraud, said that Mr O'Mara sacked most of his staff in April 2019 and he became an \"absentee MP\".\n\nThe co-defendant previously told the court Mr O'Mara had issues with communication and public speaking due to his autism, with Mr Arnold becoming his \"chief of staff\" after initially offering to help him with media and PR requests.\n\nMr O'Mara declined the opportunity to give evidence in his defence and has been attending the trial remotely via video link throughout.\n\nA third defendant, John Woodliff, 43, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen, denies one charge of fraud.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Dan Quirk, head of English at a secondary school, says teaching is \"all-consuming\"\n\nSchools in England and Wales will face disruption in the first of a series of teacher strikes over pay on Wednesday. As teachers weigh up the cost of striking, parents and businesses are grappling with the uncertainty caused by potential school closures.\n\nAt 7am every day Dan Quirk arrives at Whitcliffe Mount School, a large secondary school in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. He leaves at 6pm, just before the doors are locked.\n\nThe head of English worked in the private sector for almost a decade - mainly as an estate agent - before training as a teacher. He says despite his school generally managing workload well, the pressures he faces as a teacher are like no other job he's had.\n\n\"It's all-consuming,\" he tells me. \"You are a teacher 24 hours a day during term time.\"\n\nLike many teachers, it is the workload as much as pay that has tipped Dan over the edge to vote to go on strike with his union, the NEU, on several dates in the coming weeks.\n\nDan's classroom is lined with various hats and costumed mannequins - including a suit of armour and the chainmail of a medieval knight - to help bring characters the pupils are studying to life.\n\nHe tells me teachers don't feel valued for the \"blood, sweat and tears\" they put into helping young people achieve.\n\nDan, who's 39, says he makes \"a thousand mini-decisions\" responding to the 150 pupils he sees each day - from enforcing uniform and behaviour to spotting safeguarding issues.\n\nTeachers spend so much time sorting out these problems that work can easily spill into their home lives.\n\nLesson planning, marking and keeping up-to-date with his subject, mean Dan regularly has to work at weekends.\n\nDan often dresses up to make his English lessons engaging\n\nDan says he doesn't think he'd ever leave teaching - he's \"exhausted, but happier\" than he was in the private sector - but he fully understands why so many of his colleagues are leaving.\n\nWorkload is one of the reasons many schools are reporting difficulties with recruiting and keeping teachers. Last year only 59% of the target numbers started training to be secondary school teachers, down from 79% the previous year.\n\nThese numbers are a key reason that Dan is striking.\n\n\"It's not about a selfish demand for higher pay - it's about what will happen if we don't have that improvement to recruitment numbers, to retention numbers,\" he says. \"We are losing teachers faster than we're recruiting them, and that can't continue.\"\n\nStriking teachers are demanding a pay rise that is above inflation and is funded by the government, rather than coming from schools' existing budgets.\n\nExperienced teachers like Dan have seen their pay fall by 13% since 2010 in real terms, according to independent economists.\n\nDan is near the bottom end of the pay scale for the most experienced teachers, which starts at just over £40,000. That can be topped up with payments of between £3,000 and £8,000 for teachers who take on extra responsibility - such as being a head of subject or year.\n\nIt is only the pay for those starting teaching which is likely to keep up with inflation, as it will rise to £30,000 in the next school year.\n\nAs with strikes by nurses, train drivers and postal workers, teachers going on strike has a huge knock-on impact.\n\nOn a small industrial estate near Heckmondwike, 29-year-old Danyelle Hughes says uncertainty about school closures is the greatest challenge the strikes pose to her small cleaning business.\n\nMany schools won't know exactly how many teachers are striking until the day itself - so head teachers might not be able to decide until Wednesday morning whether or not to keep the school open.\n\nDanyelle makes her business work around school hours, so that she and her colleagues don't have to pay extra childcare costs for their children.\n\n\"If the schools do shut, we won't have any childcare and won't be able to work,\" she says. \"It's not exactly a job we can do from home, or drag our children round to people's homes.\"\n\nIn the sofa corner of the small office at Diamond D's Cleaning, there is a bookshelf with children's games where Danyelle says her own children, 10-year-old Oliver and eight-year-old Millie, might have to spend their day.\n\nDanyelle doesn't want to cancel jobs, because she worries clients will think her service is unreliable - but her workers might need to use annual leave or take an unpaid day off if their children's schools close. Self-employed workers may just pay for childcare to allow them to work.\n\n\"The way the world is at the moment, and the price of everything going up, it is quite worrying for them,\" Danyelle says.\n\nWhile Danyelle sympathises with teachers facing rising costs, she also feels her children have \"already missed enough\" education as a result of the disruption caused to schools during the pandemic.\n\nAt a time when so many are struggling financially, Dan says it's \"definitely a risk\" that teachers could lose public support by going on strike.\n\nBut he says that is outweighed by \"the risk of not taking action\" to address the shortage of quality teachers, which could lead to a generation of children \"left behind without the education that they need\".\n\nHe says joining the picket line as his pupils walk past him - assuming the school can stay open - will be a tough moment.\n\n\"Knowing you're not there for them will be difficult,\" he says. \"The last time that we took industrial action... we were greeted with quite a lot of support. If that's not the case, then I can imagine [teachers] will become even more despondent.\"\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? Get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAlec Baldwin was on the phone during firearms training for a movie where he fatally shot a cinematographer on set, prosecutors said, as they charged him with involuntary manslaughter.\n\nSanta Fe's District Attorney's Office accused the actor of \"many instances of extremely reckless acts\".\n\nHalyna Hutchins died on the set of Rust in New Mexico after Mr Baldwin allegedly fired a prop gun.\n\nThe film's armourer has also been charged with involuntary manslaughter.\n\nThe documents released on Tuesday detailing the charges - first announced on 19 January - portray a chaotic set with a reckless approach to gun safety.\n\nMr Baldwin was \"distracted\" talking to family members on his mobile phone during training on how to operate the prop gun, Robert Shilling, a special investigator for the district attorney's office, wrote in a statement of probable cause filed with the manslaughter charges.\n\nIf Mr Baldwin had performed mandatory safety checks with armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and not pointed the gun at Hutchins, the \"tragedy would not have occurred\", Mr Shilling argued.\n\n\"This reckless deviation from known standards and practice and protocol directly caused the fatal shooting,\" he said.\n\n\"Baldwin knew the first rule of gun safety is never point a gun at someone you don't intend on shooting,\" Mr Shilling added.\n\nThe charging document outlines at least a dozen \"acts or omissions of recklessness\" leading up to the shooting, including:\n\nLawyers for Mr Baldwin and Ms Gutierrez-Reed have said they intend to fight the charges in court.\n\nIf found guilty, Mr Baldwin and Ms Gutierrez-Reed could face up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 (£4,050) fine. They will be tried by a jury, according to prosecutors.\n\nMs Hutchins died in hospital after she was shot in the chest by a prop gun allegedly fired by Mr Baldwin during a rehearsal at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe.\n\nHalyna Hutchins was killed on the set of the film Rust, after Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun during rehearsal\n\nMr Baldwin has previously denied responsibility for the shooting. He argued in media interviews that he did not pull the trigger on the gun and that it had just \"gone off\", prosecutors alleged.\n\nBut photos and videos from the Rust shooting depict Mr Baldwin practising drawing and firing the weapon with his finger inside the trigger guard and on the trigger multiple times, prosecutors said.\n\nIn addition, officials with the FBI found the gun could not be fired without pulling the trigger, according to a report the agency sent to the Santa Fe County Sherriff's Office.\n\nThe 30 Rock actor has filed a lawsuit against Ms Gutierrez-Reed and other people involved with the film, alleging they failed to check the gun carefully.\n\nMs Gutierrez-Reed has said she had checked that the rounds she loaded in the prop gun were dummies before it was handed to the film's assistant director Dave Halls, who then handed it to Mr Baldwin and told him it was an unloaded gun.\n\nAn initial investigation into the incident found there was \"a degree of neglect\", and producers were fined more than $136,000 by the New Mexico Environment Department for failing to enforce safety protocols.\n\nMr Halls has entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanour charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon, prosecutors said. He will spend six months serving probation.\n\nA lawyer for Ms Gutierrez-Reed said she \"will fight these charges\" and blamed Mr Halls for not letting her know that a real gun was to be used in the moment when the fatal shooting occurred.\n\n\"Hannah asked Halls if they could use a plastic gun for the rehearsal scene and he said no, wanting a 'real gun',\" her lawyer, Todd Bullion, said in a statement.\n\n\"Hannah asked to be called back into the church if Baldwin was going to use the gun at all and Halls failed to do that.\"\n\nA representative for Mr Baldwin declined to comment to the BBC on Tuesday.", "The child died at the scene of the attack in the back garden of a house in Netherfield\n\nA four-year-old girl has died in a dog attack in Milton Keynes, police said.\n\nOfficers attended a house on Broadlands in Netherfield on Tuesday evening after it was reported a dog had attacked a child in the back garden.\n\nThames Valley Police confirmed the girl died at the scene and the animal had been \"humanely destroyed\".\n\nA spokesman for the force described the attack, which happened at about 17:00 GMT, as a \"tragic incident\". No arrests have been made.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his condolences to the family during Prime Minister's Questions and thanked the emergency services for responding \"rapidly and professionally\".\n\nNeighbour Rita Matthews, 36, said she would see the girl while walking her own daughter to school.\n\n\"I know the girl. It's so sad to hear that news,\" she said.\n\n\"She was always holding her mummy's hand on the way back.\n\nA woman and child lay flowers outside the property where a four-year-old died on Tuesday\n\nNeighbour Rita Matthews described the child as a \"happy little girl\"\n\n\"It's so sad we're not going to see the girl again and I pray all the best to her mum to get her strength back.\"\n\nMother-of-four Ms Matthews described the youngster as a \"happy little girl, very happy\".\n\n\"She would say, 'Bye, auntie', and I would say, 'Bye, little girl',\" she said. \"You know kids, playing around.\"\n\nAnother neighbour told BBC Three Counties that the girl who died was friends with his four-year-old son.\n\n\"I was in tears when I saw the news. I was shocked to hear the little one was a victim,\" he said.\n\n\"I didn't tell my boy what's going on. I didn't want him to get upset hearing that news.\n\n\"It's close to my door. It's very sad.\"\n\nChris Morley, senior pastor at the nearby Grand Union Vineyard church, said it would be open all day to allow locals time for \"quiet reflection\".\n\n\"Our hearts are really for the family, but we realise a tragedy like this cuts to the heart of the community here in Netherfield,\" he said.\n\n\"It's just being available to people, if people need to talk, and to be around.\n\n\"The Netherfield community, and I've seen it over the years I've been here, whether it was the flood of 2018 or the stabbing of that young lad last year, always seems to draw together.\n\n\"It's a very strong community, the way people respond to crises.\"\n\nA vigil would take place at 19:00 GMT, he said.\n\nOutside the house on the Netherfield estate, tributes for the little girl continue to be placed. There are cards, flowers and even small toys on the ground next to the police cordon outside the end terrace.\n\nThe street feels reasonably quiet, but just down the road there are children playing basketball at a local park - a stark contrast to what's happening at the address in Broadlands.\n\nOfficers in forensic suits have been at the property and the police presence will remain for some time while investigations continue.\n\nPeople who were nearby last night said there was a big emergency response with armed police officers.\n\nMany people who have left flowers here today didn't know the family, but told us they were so saddened that they felt compelled to come.\n\nOfficers from Thames Valley Police remain at the scene on Wednesday\n\nDonna Fuller, a ward councillor for Woughton Community Council, said the area has a \"tight-knit community, predominantly families\".\n\nShe added that there was \"such a sense of shock\" and it was an \"awful situation\".\n\nThe vigil would \"enable the community to come together and draw strength from each other\", she said.\n\n\"It will send a strong message to the family that we are thinking of them.\"\n\nPolice confirmed the child died at the scene of the attack on Tuesday\n\nSupt Matt Bullivant, of Thames Valley Police, said on Tuesday: \"I understand how much of an impact this will have on the community and on the wider public, and people can expect to see a large police presence in the area.\n\n\"Anyone with concerns should feel free to approach our officers and ask questions, but I urge people not to speculate about the circumstances, especially on social media platforms.\"\n\nThe force said no-one else was hurt in the incident and that the child's family was being supported by officers.\n\nThames Valley Police has urged anyone with information to call 101, quoting reference number 20230131-1546, or to call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.\n\nA sign on the door of the Grand Union Vineyard church, which will remain open for locals\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Court of Appeal increased Paterson's prison sentence to 20 years\n\nA further 1,500 patients of convicted breast surgeon Ian Paterson are to be recalled and their treatment investigated.\n\nSpire Healthcare, which runs private hospitals, said patients were being contacted after a trawl of IT systems.\n\nPaterson was jailed for 20 years in 2017 for 17 counts of wounding people with intent.\n\nThe healthcare provider said it remained committed to tracking down all \"outstanding patients\".\n\nThe former surgeon, originally from Bangor, County Down, subjected hundreds of patients to needless and damaging surgery over 14 years.\n\nA 2020 independent inquiry ruled \"a culture of avoidance and denial\" left him free to perform botched operations in NHS and private hospitals in Birmingham and Solihull.\n\nThe inquiry recommended all 11,000 patients Paterson treated should be recalled for review.\n\nIn a statement, Spire said it had already contacted 5,500 patients over the past two years to check their care had been reviewed.\n\nPaterson worked at Spire Parkway Hospital in Solihull from 1997 to 2011\n\nFurther checks of \"legacy IT systems\" had identified a further 1,500 patients seen by the surgeon between 1993 and the early 2000s, the statement added.\n\n\"These patients will now be contacted by Spire Healthcare and, where appropriate, offered a review of the treatment they received by Paterson over 20 years ago and support,\" the firm said.\n\nDr Cathy Cale, Spire's group medical director, apologised for the \"significant distress and harm\" suffered by patients.\n\n\"Over the past couple of years, we've been absolutely committed to identifying, tracking down and contacting all living patients of Ian Paterson, regardless of when they were treated,\" she said.\n\n\"We accepted the recommendations of the independent inquiry into Paterson in 2020 and are fully committed to implementing them.\"\n\nDebbie Douglas was instrumental in getting the independent inquiry into disgraced surgeon Ian Paterson established\n\nCampaigner Debbie Douglas underwent \"needless\" surgery at the hands of the disgraced surgeon that left her in \"horrendous\" pain.\n\nShe later learned the cancer she had was not serious enough to warrant a mastectomy or the seven-month course of chemotherapy she endured.\n\nThe mum-of-three said: \"We're talking about people here, we're not talking about parts on a piece of equipment.\n\n\"For them to have a gaping hole in their database and not interrogate their systems is absolutely appalling.\n\n\"All of the scars that I've got were unnecessary, I would have had a small incision and I didn't need chemotherapy.\n\n\"It makes me really angry to think that my life has been taken over by this campaign when it should have wound down.\"\n\nLinda Millband, head of clinical negligence at Thompsons Solicitors, which has represented hundreds of Paterson's clients, said patients would be \"shocked and worried\" at being contacted.\n\n\"The fact that 1,500 patients could have been missed off both previous recalls shows how extensively Spire enabled Paterson to practise,\" she said.\n\n\"For patients who have suffered from his negligence and for those who have lost loved ones, this recall will bring back bitter memories.\n\n\"You would have thought that after two recalls Spire would not have left any stone unturned, yet they missed at least 1,500 people due to a computer glitch. It begs the question - 'what next'?\"\n\nBetween 1997 and 2011, Paterson is known to have treated thousands of patients at Spire Parkway hospital and Spire Little Aston hospital in the West Midlands.\n\nHe also worked at NHS hospitals run by the former Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.\n\nSpire said anyone concerned about treatment from Paterson should call a dedicated helpline number.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Just before she left for school on the afternoon of 16 September last year, nine year-old Zin Nwe Phyo was thrilled to be given a new pair of sandals by her uncle.\n\nShe made him a cup of coffee, put on the shoes and headed off to school, a 10-minute walk away in the village of Let Yet Kone in central Myanmar. Shortly afterwards, her uncle recalls, he saw two helicopters circling over the village. Suddenly they started shooting.\n\nZin Nwe Phyo and her classmates had just arrived at the school and were settling down with their teachers, when someone shouted that the aircraft were coming their way.\n\nThey began running for cover, terrified and crying out for help, as rockets and ammunition struck the school.\n\n\"We did not know what to do,\" said one teacher, who had been inside a classroom when the air strikes began. \"At first I did not hear the sound of the helicopter, I heard the bullets and bombs hitting the school grounds.\"\n\n\"Children inside the main school building were hit by the weapons and began running outside, trying to hide,\" said another teacher. With her class she managed to hide behind a big tamarind tree.\n\n\"They fired right through the school walls, hitting the children,\" said one eyewitness. \"Pieces flying out of the main building injured children in the next building. There were big holes blown out of the ground floor.\"\n\nBelongings on the floor of a classroom after the air strike\n\nTheir attackers were two Russian-made Mi-35 helicopter gunships, nicknamed \"flying tanks\" or \"crocodiles\" because of their sinister appearance and protective armour. They carry a formidable array of weapons, including powerful rapid-fire cannon, and pods that fire multiple rockets, which are devastating to people, vehicles and all but the strongest buildings.\n\nIn the two years since Myanmar's military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government, air strikes like this have become a new and deadly tactic in a civil war that is now a brutal stalemate across much of the country, conducted by an air force which has in recent years grown to about 70 aircraft, mostly Russian and Chinese-made.\n\nIt's hard to estimate how many have died in such air attacks because access to much of Myanmar is now impossible, making the conflict's true toll largely invisible to the outside world. The BBC spoke to eyewitnesses, villagers and families over a series of phone calls to find out how the attack on the school unfolded.\n\nThe firing continued for around 30 minutes, eyewitnesses said, tearing chunks out of the walls and roofs.\n\nThen soldiers, who had landed in two other helicopters nearby, marched in, some still shooting, and ordered the survivors to come out and squat on the ground. They were warned not to look up, or they would be killed. The soldiers began questioning them about the presence of any opposition forces in the village.\n\nInside the main school building three children lay dead. One was Zin Nwe Phyo. Another was seven-year-old Su Yati Hlaing - she and her older sister were being brought up by their grandmother. Their parents, like so many in this region, had moved to Thailand to seek work. Others were horribly injured, some missing limbs. Among them was Phone Tay Za, also seven years old, crying out in pain.\n\nThe soldiers used plastic bin liners to collect body parts. At least 12 wounded children and teachers were loaded on to two trucks commandeered by the military and driven away to the nearest hospital in the town of Ye-U. Two of the children later died. In the fields skirting the village, a teenage boy and six adults had been shot dead by the soldiers.\n\nThis is a country that has long been at war with itself. The Burmese armed forces have been fighting various insurgent groups since independence in 1948. But these conflicts were low-tech affairs, involving mainly ground troops in an endless tussle for territory in contested border regions. They were often little different from the trench warfare of a century ago.\n\nIt was in 2012 in Kachin state - just after the air force had obtained its first Mi-35 gunship - that the military first used aerial weapons extensively against insurgents. Air strikes were also used in some of the other internal conflicts which kept burning throughout Myanmar's 10-year democratic interlude, in Shan and Rakhine states.\n\nHowever, since the February 2021 coup, the army has suffered heavy casualties in road ambushes carried out by the hundreds of so-called People's Defence Forces, or PDFs - volunteer militias that were established after the junta crushed peaceful protests against the coup.\n\nSo it has relied on air support - bombing by aircraft suitable for ground attack; or air mobile operations like the one at Let Yet Kone, where gunships blast targets before soldiers arrive to kill or capture any opposition forces they find.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThere were at least 600 air attacks by the military between February 2021 and January 2023, according to a BBC analysis of data from the conflict-monitoring group Acled (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project).\n\nCasualties from these strikes are difficult to estimate. According to the clandestine National Unity Government or NUG, which leads opposition to the military regime, air attacks by the armed forces killed 155 civilians between October 2021 and September 2022.\n\nThe resistance groups are poorly armed, with no capacity to fight back against the air strikes. They have adapted consumer drones to launch their own air attacks, dropping small explosives on military vehicles and guard posts, but to limited effect.\n\nIt is not clear why Let Yet Kone was targeted by the army. It is a poor village of around 3,000 inhabitants, most of them rice or groundnut farmers, set in the scrubby brown landscape of central Myanmar's dry zone, where water is scarce outside of the monsoon season.\n\nIt is in a district called Depayin where resistance to the coup has been strong. Depayin has seen many armed clashes between the army and PDFs, although not, according to residents, in Let Yet Kone. At least 112 of the 268 attacks recorded by the NUG were in southern Sagaing, where Depayin is located.\n\nA spokesman for the military government said after the school attack that soldiers had gone to the village to check the reported presence of fighters from a PDF and from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and that they had come under fire from the school. This account is contradicted by every eyewitness who spoke to the BBC. The military has produced no evidence of insurgent activity at the school.\n\nThe school had been set up only three months earlier in the Buddhist monastery at the northern edge of the village. It taught around 240 pupils. Residents told the BBC that it is one of more than 100 schools in Depayin which are now being run by communities opposing military rule.\n\nTeachers and health workers were among the earliest supporters of the civil disobedience movement. In one of the first and most widely-supported acts of defiance against the coup, state workers vowed to withdraw all co-operation with the new military government. As a result a lot of schools and health centres are now being run by communities, not the government.\n\nPhone Tay Za's mother says she heard the shooting and explosions start about 30 minutes after she had seen her son off to school. But, like Zin Nwe Phyo's uncle, she assumed it could not be the target of the helicopter gunships.\n\n\"After the sound of the heavy guns firing died down I headed toward the school,\" she said. \"I saw children and adults squatting on the ground with their heads lowered. The soldiers were kicking those who turned their heads up.\"\n\nShe begged the soldiers to let her look for her son. They refused. \"You people care when your own get shot,\" one told her, \"but not when it happens to us.\"\n\nThen she heard Phone Tay Za calling out to her, and they let her go to him inside the ruined classroom.\n\n\"I found him in a pool of blood with eyes blinking slowly. He said, 'mom, just kill me please.' I told him he would be fine. 'You will not die'.\"\n\n\"I cried my heart out, shouting 'how dare you do this to my son'. The whole monastery compound was in absolute silence. When I shouted, it echoed through the buildings. A soldier yelled at me not to scream like that and told me to stay still where I was. So I sat there in the classroom for about 45 minutes with my child in my arms. I saw three children's dead bodies there. I did not know whose children they were. I could not look at their faces.\"\n\nPhone Tay Za died shortly afterwards. The soldiers refused to let his mother keep his body and took it away. The bodies of Zin Nwe Phyo and Su Yati Hlaing were also taken by the military, before their families could see them, and later secretly cremated.\n\nA thousand kilometres away in Thailand Su Yati Hlaing's parents were working their shifts in the electronic components factory when they heard that the military had attacked their village.\n\nSu Yati Hlaing's parents were working in Thailand in the hope of earning enough to give her a better life\n\n\"My wife and I were in agony. We could not concentrate on our work anymore,\" her father said.\n\n\"It was around 2:30 in the afternoon so we could not leave. We kept working, with heavy hearts. Colleagues asked us if we were ok. My wife could not hold her tears anymore and started crying. We decided to not do the usual overtime that day and asked our team leader to go back to our room.\"\n\nLater that evening they got a call from Su Yati Hlaing's grandmother telling them she had been killed.\n\nThe attack in Let Yet Kone drew international rebuke and horror, but the air strikes continued.\n\nOn 23 October air force jets bombed a concert in Kachin State commemorating the anniversary of the start of the KIA insurgency.\n\nSurvivors say three huge explosions ripped through the large crowd which had gathered for the event, killing 60 people, including senior KIA commanders and a popular Kachin singer. Many more are thought to have died in the following days after the army blocked the evacuation of those who had been seriously injured in the attack.\n\nPDFs or volunteer militias have inflicted heavy casualties on the Burmese forces\n\nAt the other end of the country the air force bombed a lead mine in southern Karen State, close to the border with Thailand, on 15 November, killing three miners and injuring eight others. The junta spokesman justified the attack on the grounds that the mining was illegal, and in an area controlled by the insurgent Karen National Union.\n\nAnd only last month, the air force bombed the main base of the insurgent Chin National Front, next to the border with India. It also launched air strikes which hit two churches in Karen State, killing five non-combatants.\n\nThis increased capacity for aerial warfare is being sustained by continued support from Russia and China after the coup, despite many other governments ostracising Myanmar's military regime.\n\nRussia, in particular, has stepped up to become its strongest foreign backer. Russian equipment, like the Mi-35 and the agile Yak-130 ground attack jets, are central to the air campaign against insurgents. China has recently supplied Myanmar with modern FTC-2000 trainers, aircraft which are also well-suited for a ground attack.\n\nThe high death toll in such attacks has drawn the attention of war crimes investigators. The Myanmar armed forces have often been accused of such crimes in the past - often abuses by ground troops, particularly against the Rohingyas in 2017. But the use of air power brings with it new types of atrocities.\n\nFor the survivors of Let Yet Kone, the nightmare did not end on 16 September.\n\nThey say many of the children and some of the adults are still traumatised by what they saw that day. The military has continued to target their village, attacking it again three more times, and burning down many of the houses.\n\nThis is a poor community. They do not have the resources to rebuild, and in any case they do not know when the soldiers will be back to burn them again.\n\n\"Children are everything for their parents,\" says one local militia leader. \"By killing our children, the military has crushed them mentally. And I must say they have succeeded. Even for me, I will need a lot of motivation to carry on the revolutionary fight now.\"\n\nSu Yati Hlaing's parents are still in Thailand, unable to return after their daughter's death. They cannot afford the cost of the journey, nor the risk of losing the factory jobs they had always hoped would give their little girl a better life.\n\n\"There were many things I had imagined,\" says her mother. \"I imagined that when I finally went back I would live happily with my daughters, I would cook for them, whatever they wanted. I had so many dreams. I wanted them to be wise and educated, as much as we, their parents, are uneducated. They were just about to begin their journey. My daughter did not even get our affection and warmth closely, because we were away so long. Now, she is gone for forever.\"\n\nThe BBC analysed attack data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled), which collects reports of incidents related to political violence and protests around the world. Aerial attacks have been defined as conflict events involving aircraft in specific locations either during an armed clash or as an independent strike. The data covers the period 1 February 2021 to 20 January 2023.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe parents of a boy waiting for a heart transplant say they are willing to take legal action over delays to organ donation law in Northern Ireland.\n\nDáithí's Law, named after six-year-old Dáithí MacGabhann, will introduce an opt-out system which means people will automatically become donors unless they state otherwise.\n\nDue to come in in the spring, it has been held up by the Stormont stalemate.\n\nThe family has urged the NI secretary of state to intervene.\n\nDáithí's father Máirtín, who met Chris Heaton-Harris earlier on Wednesday, said he was \"very disappointed and very angry\" after the meeting.\n\n\"Dáithí's Law's passed, it's the secondary legislation, it's the box-ticking, it's the crossing the Ts and dotting the Is of Dáithí's Law's and what that legislation is,\" Dáithí's father said.\n\n\"Dáithí's Law deserves to have a go-live date in spring as planned and after the meeting today it looks like we're not getting that.\"\n\nMr MacGabhann told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra that he has been offered a meeting with Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to discuss the issue on Friday.\n\nStormont has been without a functioning government for 11 months as the DUP is blocking the formation over its opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nNorthern Ireland is the only part of the UK where an opt-out system is not yet in place.\n\n\"We don't have time to waste. We will explore other options,\" Mr MacGabhann said.\n\nDáithí's family have long campaigned for a change in the law.\n\nMr MacGabhann added: \"We were at the funeral of a young boy last week who died of the same condition as Dáithí - time is not on our side, we don't have the time.\n\n\"That is what the secretary of state basically said, that it will take too much time if it was to go through him.\"\n\nBBC News NI understands that Mr Heaton-Harris has written to party leaders saying he has asked officials to explore \"possible avenues\" to progress the issue, if the assembly fails to do so.\n\nThe delay in enacting the law relates to extra legislation, which must be passed by Stormont.\n\nIn a communication seen by BBC News NI, the Department of Health said that \"secondary legislation is required to clarify which organs and tissues are covered\" under the opt-out system.\n\nIt states that legislation has been \"prepared and is ready to be introduced\" in the assembly, but the ongoing political deadlock means that cannot happen yet.", "Gareth Thomas' ex-partner has said he does not regret taking legal action against the former rugby star.\n\nIan Baum accused Mr Thomas, 48, of \"deceptively\" transmitting HIV to him during their three-year relationship.\n\nThe former Wales and British and Irish Lions captain settled the case for £75,000 plus costs without admitting liability or guilt.\n\nMr Baum told BBC Wales: \"I didn't want to go through life with regrets and I wanted closure.\"\n\nDespite settling the case, Mr Thomas maintained the allegations were \"meritless.\"\n\nIn court papers filed last year, Mr Baum said he was HIV negative when the relationship began in 2013.\n\nHe alleged Mr Thomas hid his HIV status and only discovered the diagnosis when he found antiviral HIV medication.\n\n\"I went straight to a clinic and had a super duper quick blood test and within 10/15 minutes, it came back that I was positive,\" Mr Baum said.\n\n\"I was devastated. I hadn't even, at 52, Googled HIV or knew what it all meant. All these thoughts were going through your head. I was completely floored.\"\n\nIn a series of tweets, former international Thomas maintained his innocence.\n\nHe told his 298,000 followers: \"In personal injury cases like these the accuser has no financial risks even if they lose, but for me winning had huge financial implications.\n\n\"Paying £75,000 plus costs now is nothing compared to the many multiples of that sum I'd have to pay to successfully defend myself in court.\n\n\"For my own mental health and that of my family, the closure and acceptance from the other side is a hugely positive outcome.\"\n\nMr Baum said he had no regrets pursuing legal action: \"I used to hear my parents say 'I wish we'd done this' or 'I wish we'd done that'.\n\n\"I didn't want to go through life with any regrets. If if I didn't push this as far as I could push it, it would have been one of the biggest regrets of my life [and] I wouldn't have got my closure.\"\n\nGareth Thomas was his country's leading try-scorer in international rugby\n\nThomas was one of Wales' biggest sports stars during a 16-year rugby career that included spells at Bridgend, Cardiff and Toulouse.\n\nHe played 100 times for his country, including captaining Wales to the 2005 Grand Slam. He was also Wales' record try-scorer until he was surpassed by Shane Williams in 2008.\n\nMr Baum said he knew very little about the sportsman, widely known as Alfie, when they first met.\n\n\"I didn't know anything about his past, I just fell in love with the man and his sense of humour and him,\" he recalled.\n\n\"All we did was laugh and he was such a breath of fresh air.\"\n\nMr Thomas became the first openly gay professional rugby union player when he came out in 2009.\n\nHe switched to rugby league before retiring in 2011 and has since forged successful career as a pundit and commentator.\n\nIn 2019, he revealed he had HIV, saying he wanted to end the stigma around it - a decision was widely applauded with high profile supporters including Prince William.\n\nMr Baum, who now lives and works in south-west England said he bears no ill-will towards his former partner.\n\nAsked what he would do if he saw him in the street, he said: \"I would wish him and his family well. That's my closure. I can move on.\"", "A bus was set on fire during interface trouble in west Belfast in 2021\n\nYoung people participated in rioting in Belfast to clear drug debts to paramilitary groups, MPs have heard.\n\n\"From what I've heard from young people, they can get up to £80 of drug debt cleared,\" Megan Phair, from The Stop Attacks Forum, said.\n\nShe was giving evidence to the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee which is examining paramilitary activity.\n\nMs Phair referenced trouble at Lanark Way in west Belfast in April 2021.\n\nPolice officers were attacked, petrol bombs thrown and a bus burnt during the rioting, which was on a scale police had not been seen in years.\n\n\"That is the first time we have heard that,\" the committee's chairman Simon Hoare said in response to Ms Phair's evidence.\n\n\"It is shocking that is the tactics they [paramilitaries] are using,\" Ms Phair added.\n\n\"These young people are terrified. They don't have £50 or £100 but they can go out and riot.\n\n\"They are victims of exploitation and coercion.\"\n\nThe lobby group is made up of youth workers and clergy, amongst others, and campaigns against paramilitary shootings, beatings and intimidation.\n\nThe victims' commissioner, Ian Jeffers, is also giving evidence to the committee and is expected to say the presence of paramilitary groups represents the \"most potent threat to the wellbeing of victims and survivors of the Troubles\".\n\n\"We're 25 years after the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and we don't yet have a clear road map for reconciliation,\" he told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.\n\n\"We need not just political leadership, but community leadership.\n\n\"We've got to work out how we encourage that. When we do that we create an environment where the paramilitaries can leave the stage.\"", "The comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) as seen through a telescope\n\nA newly discovered comet will make its closest approach to our planet on Wednesday.\n\nAstronomers say the object's journey toward us took around 50,000 years.\n\nPhotographs captured by astronomers show a distinct green hue around the body of the comet.\n\nBut those expecting a brilliant streak of emerald in the sky will be disappointed. Its brightness is right at the threshold of what is visible to the naked eye.\n\n\"You might have seen these reports saying we're going to get this bright green object lighting up the sky,\" says Dr Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society.\n\n\"Sadly, that's not going to be anything like the case.\"\n\nHowever, away from light pollution and below dark skies, you might be able to see a smudge in the sky - if you know what you're looking for.\n\nWould-be stargazers have a better chance of spotting it using binoculars, in which it will appear as a faint white blur.\n\n\"Even a small pair of binoculars will help you find it,\" says Massey.\n\nComets are mostly composed of ice and dust. As they approach the Sun, the ice is vaporised and the dust shaken off to create the signature long tail.\n\n\"If you're lucky, you'll see a hint of the tail coming off it, so it'll look more like a classic comet,\" says Massey.\n\nAstronomers discovered the comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) last March at the Palomar Observatory in California.\n\nIt has been visible to those in the Northern Hemisphere through binoculars for the past few weeks.\n\nBut it will make its closest approach to Earth at around 41 million km (26 million miles) away this Wednesday.\n\nThe object originates in the Oort cloud, a collection of icy bodies at the edge of the Solar System.\n\nTo find it, Massey suggests first searching for the pole star, which is always in the same place in the sky.\n\nYou can identify the pole star by looking directly north and locating a star that hangs distinctly by itself.\n\nYou can then use free planetarium software online to determine where the comet will be moving in relation to the pole star on the night you're looking at it.\n\nThe best time to view it will be in the early hours of Thursday morning when the Moon has set.\n\nAt that time the comet should appear just to the right of the pole star.\n\nA green appearance for comets is not uncommon and is usually the result of breakdown of a reactive molecule called dicarbon - two carbon atoms joined together by a double bond.\n\nSuch colour is better picked up by digital cameras, which are more sensitive to colour.\n\nThe comet will not match the spectacle of the 2020 Comet NEOWISE - the brightest comet visible from the Northern Hemisphere since 1997.\n\nBut the Planetary Society said \"an opportunity to see it will only come once in a lifetime\".", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nThe British transfer record was smashed on deadline day as an unprecedented January transfer window ended with Premier League clubs having spent £2.8bn during the 2022-23 season.\n\nChelsea's 121m euro (£107m) deal for Benfica's Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez took the total expenditure by top-flight clubs in January to a record-breaking £815m.\n\nMore than £275m was spent on deadline day alone before the window closed for English clubs at 23:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nThe deadline day outlay was an increase of 83% on the previous January record of £150m, set in 2018.\n\nAnd, while an all-time high season expenditure across both the summer and winter windows was guaranteed after a record of £1.9bn was set in September, the final total is double the previous record of £1.4bn in 2017.\n\nThe 2018 winter record spend of £430m by Premier League clubs had also already been smashed prior to Tuesday's deadline day, with the eventual total in 2023 an increase of 90% on that - and almost triple the previous January window (£295m), according to financial services firm Deloitte.\n\nThe Premier League's financial dominance in Europe increased to the highest proportion ever reported, as the spending by English top-flight clubs accounted for 79% of the total across Europe's 'big five' football leagues, where January spending fell by 35% from 2022 to €255m (£225m).\n\nIndeed, Chelsea spent more in January - around £288m - than the combined total of all clubs in the Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1.\n\nAmong English Football League clubs, spending rose to £25m, up from £20m in the previous winter window.\n\nHowever just 3% of Premier League clubs' total outlay (£25m) was spent on acquiring players from the EFL, with a record 85% spent on talent playing outside the UK.\n\nTim Bridge, lead partner in Deloitte's Sports Business Group, said: \"The record spending by Premier League clubs this season is beyond anything that we've seen before.\n\n\"Premier League clubs have outspent those within the rest of Europe's 'big five' leagues by almost four to one in this transfer window, allowing them to hold on to their key players, while attracting top-talent from overseas.\n\n\"However, while there is a clear need to invest in squad size and quality to retain a competitive edge, there will always be a fine balance to strike between prioritising success on-pitch and maintaining financial sustainability.\n\n\"The decline in spending across the English football system is likely to be of growing concern for members of the EFL and could further fuel the debate around distributing finances more evenly across the pyramid.\"\n\nWhat deals were done on deadline day?\n\nChelsea's late capture of Fernandez was the headline deal on deadline day as the Blues smashed the British transfer record - previously the £100m Manchester City paid for Jack Grealish in 2021 - to land the 22-year-old World Cup winner.\n\nElsewhere, Tottenham announced the signing of full-back Pedro Porro from Sporting Lisbon on loan until the end of the season, with an obligation to buy for 45m euros (£40m) - while defenders Matt Doherty (permanent) and Djed Spence (loan) were allowed to leave.\n\nPremier League leaders Arsenal strengthened with the £12m acquisition of Italy midfielder Jorginho from Chelsea, while fourth-placed Manchester United completed the loan signing of Austrian midfielder Marcel Sabitzer from Bayern Munich.\n\nSouthampton ended the window with a late flurry of activity, completing a club record £22m deal for Ghana winger Kamaldeen Sulemana as well as signing Nigeria striker Paul Onuachu.\n• None All the Premier League and EFL January transfer window deals\n• None Visit your Premier League club's page for all the latest news, analysis and fan views - and get news notifications\n\nBournemouth signed Ukraine centre-back Illia Zabarnyi for a reported £24m and Ivory Coast midfielder Hamed Traore on an initial loan before a £20m summer move.\n\nFellow promoted side Nottingham Forest were also busy, completing deals for Atletico Madrid's Brazilian defender Felipe and Newcastle midfielder Jonjo Shelvey for undisclosed fees, while Paris St-Germain goalkeeper Keylor Navas arrived on loan.\n\nLeicester City signed defender Harry Souttar from Stoke City in a deal which could rise to £20m with add-ons, and Crystal Palace signed France youth international Naouirou Ahamada from Stuttgart for 11m euros (£9.7m).\n\nA surprise high-profile Premier League departure saw Manchester City full-back Joao Cancelo join Bayern Munich on loan for the rest of the season, with a 70m euro (£61.5m) option to join permanently in the summer.\n\nWhat were the biggest transfers of the January window?\n\nChelsea's deal for Fernandez was a fitting end to another astonishing window. Amid another remarkable spending spree, the Blues agreed a £89m deal with Shakhtar Donetsk for 22-year-old Ukraine forward Mykhailo Mudryk earlier in January.\n\nIn addition to their deadline day signing of Jorginho, Arsenal signed Belgium striker Leandro Trossard from Brighton for £21m plus add-ons, along with Jakub Kiwior from Serie A side Spezia for 20m euros (£17.6m).\n\nElsewhere, Liverpool agreed a deal worth 40-50m euros (£35.4m-£44.3m) to sign Netherlands forward Cody Gakpo, 23, from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven.\n\nAnd Newcastle United's signing of 21-year-old Anthony Gordon from Everton could eventually be worth £45m.\n• None Deadline day on social: Chelsea spending big and Cancelo shown the exit\n• None Quiz: Name the Premier League's previous 25 most expensive January signings\n\nThere was big money spent among the league's current bottom-half sides too, with Leeds United signing French forward Georginio Rutter, 20, from Hoffenheim for a club record 40m euros (£36m).\n\nBournemouth also recruited Burkina Faso winger Dango Ouattara from Lorient for around £20m and Leicester paid £17m for defender Victor Kristiansen\n\nFollowing the £15m sale of Danny Ings to West Ham, Aston Villa signed teenage Colombia striker Jhon Duran from Chicago Fire for £18m.\n\nIt has been an extraordinary couple of transfer windows for Chelsea since the club's £4.25bn sale to a consortium led by American investor Todd Boehly last May.\n\nAnd it looked that way even before an eye-watering amount was finally agreed with Benfica for Fernandez late into deadline day.\n\nIt is the latest bold statement of intent in the still early days of Chelsea's new era under Boehly, which has seen more than £550m spent on new signings.\n\nTheir spending in January alone exceeded £300m on eight new players, with Mudryk, Malo Gusto (£30.7m), Benoit Badiashile (£35m), Noni Madueke (£30.7m), Andrey Santos (£18m) and David Datro Fofana (£8m-£10m) all also added on permanent deals.\n\nMeanwhile, talented 23-year-old Portugal forward Joao Felix moved to Stamford Bridge on loan from Atletico Madrid at a cost of 11 million euros (£9.7m).\n\nThat came after a summer that saw them spend a Premier League record £270m - the second-highest summer spend by any club in the world after Real Madrid (£292m) in 2019.\n\nIn total, Chelsea accounted for 37% of the total amount spent by Premier League clubs in January.\n\n'European Super League has arrived - it is in England'\n\n[Chelsea's spending] is impressive, isn't it. Something that says the European Super League has arrived...and it's based in England. This is where managers want to be and where players want to be.\n\nWhat has happened with the Mykhailo Mudryk case, where Chelsea have doubled the wages Arsenal were offering, that kind of thing can only happen in England.\n\nThere is no turning back. La Liga is making a big effort to maximise the potential of the competition, but it is still miles away from the Premier League.\n\nIt's something people have to accept and adapt to. If the fact that every time you bring through a player with a little bit of quality he goes to the Premier League, keep at it.\n\nThere is a limited number of players you can sign, despite what Chelsea are doing, so, yes, the other European leagues need to sell themselves in a different way.\n\nThe January deals that never were\n\nDespite all the money spent, not everyone got what they wanted.\n\nMorocco forward Hakim Ziyech's proposed deadline day move from Chelsea to PSG appeared to collapse as the player waited in Paris because the documentation to complete the transfer was not submitted in time.\n\nArsenal had a £60m bid rejected by Brighton in their pursuit of midfielder Moises Caicedo, despite the midfielder confirming his desire to leave the club in an open letter on his Instagram. That came after the Gunners were beaten to the signing of Mudryk by Chelsea.\n• None Have Arsenal done enough in January to win the Premier League?\n\nEngland midfielder Conor Gallagher decided to stay at Stamford Bridge despite interest from Premier League strugglers Everton.\n\nIndeed, despite appointing former Burnley boss Sean Dyche as the club's new manager on Monday, the 19th-placed Toffees did not do any business on deadline day.\n\nBut, after all the excitement, who do you think was the best big-money signing of the 2022-23 January transfer window? Have your say below.\n\nOops you can't see this activity! To enjoy Newsround at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Omagh was bombed by the Real IRA in 1998\n\nA decision on whether to order a public inquiry into the Omagh bombing is expected to be made on Thursday.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is due to to make a statement in the House of Commons.\n\nIt follows long-running legal action brought by a relative of one of the 29 people who died after the bomb exploded in the County Tyrone town on 15 August 1998.\n\nThe bombing was the biggest single atrocity in the Troubles.\n\nBereaved families have been campaigning for an inquiry for more than a decade.\n\nIn July 2021, the High Court found there should be an investigation on both sides of the border into whether intelligence information could have prevented the Real IRA attack.\n\nPolice and forensic officers sift through the debris of the Omagh explosion\n\nThe judge, Mr Justice Horner, said on the basis of evidence he heard it is plausible the bombing could have been stopped.\n\nHe said any investigation should look specifically at whether a more pro-active campaign of disruption had the prospect of thwarting the attack.\n\nHe did not state the investigation needed to be in the form of a public inquiry.\n\nThe bombing was carried out by the Real IRA just months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed\n\nMr Heaton-Harris had pledged to announce the government's response to the judgment early this year.\n\nThe secretary of state travelled to Omagh in December to meet some of the bereaved families and visit the site of the bombing and a nearby memorial garden.\n\nIn recent weeks the Northern Ireland Office has insisted it has been continuing to work on \"next steps\" following Mr Justice Horner's judgement.\n\nIt is understood bereaved relatives have been advised that Mr Heaton-Harris is set make his announcement in the House of Commons.\n\nMichael Gallagher, who lost his son Aiden in the bombing and who brought the legal action, said following the 2021 ruling: \"The only mechanism that can bring about truth and justice is a full public inquiry.\"\n\nWhile having no jurisdiction to order the Irish government to act on the matter, Mr Justice Horner urged authorities there to establish their own probe in light of his findings.\n\nSpeaking to Irish national broadcaster RTÉ on Thursday morning, Irish Justice Minister Simon Harris said the Irish government in Dublin would wait to see the detail of the secretary of state's announcement before considering what action was required.\n\nHe said Mr Heaton-Harris and Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin had spoken by phone on Wednesday night but that he was not personally aware of what the secretary of state was going to say in the Commons.\n\nPressed on the Belfast High Court recommendation that investigations should be carried out by both governments, not just the British government, the minister said: \"The crucial test from my perspective as minister for justice will be what additional support or additionality can we add to that inquiry.\"", "Tom Brady retires 'for good' after 23 seasons in NFL Last updated on .From the section American Football\n\nLegendary quarterback and record seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady says he is retiring \"for good\" after 23 seasons in the NFL. Brady, 45, first announced his retirement on this day last year but reversed his decision six weeks later, claiming he had \"unfinished business\". He won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021. Brady's final season ended in the Bucs' 31-14 play-off defeat last month.\n• None How did Brady become the GOAT? \"I'm retiring - for good,\" he said in an emotional video posted on social media. \"I know the process was a pretty big deal last time, so when I woke up this morning I figured I'd just press record and let you guys know first. \"It won't be long-winded. You only get one super-emotional retirement essay and I used mine up last year. \"Thank you so much to every single one of you for supporting me - my family, my friends, my team-mates, my competitors. I could go on forever - there's too many. \"Thank you for allowing me to live my absolute dream. I wouldn't change a thing. Love you all.\" After being selected by the Patriots with the 199th pick of the 2000 draft, Brady led the franchise to six Super Bowl titles. \"I am so proud of Tommy,\" said Patriots owner Robert Kraft. \"No player in NFL history has done it as well for as long as Tom Brady. \"He is the fiercest competitor I have ever known and the ultimate champion. He led the Patriots to two decades of unprecedented dominance. He is truly the greatest of all time.\" \"He entered the NFL with little to no fanfare and leaves as the most successful player in league history. His relentless pursuit of excellence drove him on a daily basis.\" Brady left the Patriots for the Bucs in 2020 and helped them win the title in his first season, being named the game's Most Valuable Player (MVP) for a fifth time. After returning to the game last March, Brady - a three-time NFL season MVP - posted the first losing record of his career in a difficult year on and off the field. Away from the sport, Brady and his wife of 13 years Gisele Bundchen announced their divorce in October after months of rumours. Brady - heralded as American football's GOAT (greatest of all time) - led his team to the play-offs in 20 of his 21 seasons as a starter. He is the NFL's all-time regular-season leader in pass attempts (12,050), completions (7,753), passing yards (89,214) and touchdown passes (649), as well as being the league's leader in all four categories in the post-season. In 2015 Brady was given a four-game suspension for allegedly colluding to deflate balls during a play-off game, but the ban was overturned after a United States judge ruled it had \"legal deficiencies\", allowing him to play the entire 2015-16 season. It was reinstated for the start of 2016 and he missed the first four games of the campaign. The 2022-23 season was expected to be Brady's last, at least with the Bucs - he had been linked with the Las Vegas Raiders, Tennessee Titans, San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins. Last March Brady agreed a 10-year contract worth a reported $375m (£300m) to become Fox Sports' lead NFL analyst once he retired. Last year there were leaks and denials about whether Tom Brady would retire, then confirmation and a U-turn just 40 days later. This time around Brady made his intentions crystal clear in a raw, humble message direct from the man himself, rather than via a marketing team. It was a dignified departure befitting a player who must now be recognised as the NFL's greatest of all-time. After Tampa Bay's exit from the play-offs, there had been some speculation about what Brady would do next and he was linked with several other NFL teams. But this announcement comes before the rumour mill could go into overdrive, sparing suitors from making a futile attempt to sign him and giving them time to pursue other targets. It also comes before the media circus of Super Bowl week kicks off on Monday so won't take the spotlight away from this year's title contenders. However, Brady is set to join Fox Sports, which has the television rights to Super Bowl 57, so many are now wondering if he will have a role to play during their coverage a week on Sunday.\n• None Get American Football alerts in the BBC Sport app\n• None Celebrate him with a mix of his greatest tunes and chats\n• None Steve Coogan chats to Nihal Arthanayake about British humour and cancel culture", "An unprecedented transfer window closed with a record £815m January spend and Chelsea's British record £107m signing of Enzo Fernandez.\n\nAt the other end of the scale, struggling Everton spent nothing despite being rooted in the relegation zone - only increased the sense of uncertainty around Goodison Park.\n\nIt was the traditional transfer deadline day full of intrigue and late deals - so what were the big questions to take away?\n\nChelsea's fans were left with mixed feelings of euphoria and disbelief as new owner Todd Boehly continued his astonishing high-spending assault on the markets throughout January.\n\nBoehly made his mark after succeeding Roman Abramovich with a £270m outlay in the summer, a record for a British club, then eclipsed it in January by spending £288m to take the total new incomings to 17 new players.\n\nLong contracts have been handed out as Chelsea work around Financial Fair Play so there is no doubt there is an element of gamble to the process and added pressure on these deals to be successful within this high-risk strategy.\n\nThe spending will also bring added pressure for manager Graham Potter, who will surely be expected to get pretty much instant results in the wake of such cash support, even with reassurances from above that he is part of a long-term plan.\n\nThe number of arrivals is certainly at odds with the careful manner in which Potter built at Brighton but he is living in a different world at Stamford Bridge. If he did not know that before, he does now.\n\nChelsea have certainly brought some thrilling attacking talent to west London with 22-year-old Argentina World Cup winner Fernandez, along with £88m Mykhailo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk and Joao Felix on loan from Atletico Madrid.\n\nThey currently lie 10th in the Premier League, 10 points off the top four, but a place in next season's Champions League must be essential after this eye-watering January.\n\nIt will not be dull but there will now be huge pressure of Potter, the players and owner Boehly to bring success.\n• None Analysis: How can Chelsea keep spending?\n• None Enzo Fernandez: What are Chelsea getting in Benfica and Argentina star?\n\nHave Arsenal done enough?\n\nArsenal are in their strongest Premier League title position for years, five points clear of Manchester City with a game in hand. There was no shortage of ambition to try and strengthen but the really big deal just eluded them.\n\nMudryk seemed destined for Arsenal to join Ukraine team-mate Oleksandr Zinchenko until Chelsea trumped them. Brighton then simply refused to lift the \"Not For Sale\" sign on midfield man Moises Caicedo despite a £70m offer and the player's clear design to join The Gunners.\n\nManager Mikel Arteta still appeared to do sound business in paying Brighton £21m for Leandro Trossard while experience and trophy-winning pedigree came with Jorginho at £12m from Chelsea. He can be a starter as well as security against any injury to the vital presence of Thomas Partey.\n\nArsenal may not have got exactly who they wanted but there is plenty of room for optimism.\n• None Read more: Have Arsenal done enough in the January transfer window?\n\nBournemouth's new owner Bill Foley and those now in charge at Southampton recognised their perils at the foot of the Premier League and backed managers with hard cash.\n\nWhether it works remains to be seen, but neither club could be accused of holding back on transfer deadline day to give respective bosses Gary O'Neil and Nathan Jones a crack at staying up.\n\nSaints, currently bottom, beat Everton to the signing of Rennes' exciting 20-year-old Ghana forward Kamaldeen Sulemana in a club record £22m deal and added giant Nigerian striker Paul Onuachu from Genk.\n\nJones has seen signs of improvement recently but wants Southampton to play in a more positive, aggressive manner and hopes the pair will achieve his aim.\n\nThe Cherries were busy in many areas, ending up signing Ukraine defender Illia Zabarnyi from Dynamo Kyiv for a reported £24m while Ivory Coast midfielder Hamed Traore, 22, joined from Sassuolo on loan on deadline day. A five-year deal will be completed in the summer.\n\nHe was their sixth January signing, joining £10m Antoine Semenyo, winger Dango Ouattarra - a £20m arrival from Lorient - along with keeper Darren Randolph and Uruguay full-back Matias Vina, who joined on loan from Roma.\n\nIf the strategy of Bournemouth and Southampton fails, it will not be down to a lack of ambition.\n\nLiverpool struck first in the January transfer window with the £45m signing of Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven but the rest of the window was quiet, especially given the obvious need for midfield reinforcements and their struggles in the Premier League. They currently lie ninth in the league and suffered an FA Cup fourth round exit at Brighton.\n\nManager Jurgen Klopp has struggled with loss of form and injuries in that key midfield area but his and Liverpool's past history - and perhaps the fact the summer loan move for Artur Melo was wrecked by injury - suggests their refusal to move means they have sights firmly fixed on one main target.\n\nThe main conclusion to reach is that Liverpool are determined to throw all they have at trying to sign Borussia Dortmund's brilliant England teenager Jude Bellingham in the summer.\n\nThe risk in this approach is that Liverpool will be a lot less appealing if they are not in the Champions League. They are also likely to be fighting for his services against Real Madrid and Manchester City - and presumably Chelsea.\n\nNewcastle United's big January buy Anthony Gordon got a taste of the current euphoria on Tyneside as the £45m signing from Everton watched Eddie Howe's side reach their first Wembley showpiece since the 1999 FA Cup Final by beating Southampton in the EFL Cup.\n\nGordon was the one marquee acquisition by Newcastle this month. The big indicator of their progress was that Howe and the club's Saudi Arabian owners felt no need to go too big in the markets. There is also no guarantee the 21-year-old will just walk into a thriving team.\n\nHowe will now hope he has enough at his disposal to continue an unlikely push for a place in next season's Champions League, with Newcastle currently third after only one loss in 20 games. They also have that EFL Cup Final against either Manchester United or Nottingham Forest on 26 February.\n\nThere was some surprise that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was willing to let defender Joao Cancelo go on loan to Bayern Munich ahead of a £61.5m summer move given his significance in their recent successes.\n\nGuardiola, however, feels confident in his defensive resources given the form of Nathan Ake and the emergence of the outstanding teenager Rico Lewis. Cancelo had already started to fall from favour somewhat, the 28-year-old having only started three games since the World Cup.\n• None Head to our transfers page for all the latest done deals\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Ninety-seven Liverpool fans died as a result of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster\n\nPolice forces have apologised for \"profound failings\" which have \"continued to blight\" relatives of victims of the Hillsborough disaster.\n\nOn behalf of all 43 forces, police chiefs have promised \"cultural change\".\n\nThey admitted \"policing got it badly wrong\" in the aftermath of the fatal stadium crush and said a range of key lessons had been learned.\n\nNinety-seven Liverpool supporters died as a result of the April 1989 disaster at Sheffield's Hillsborough ground.\n\nThe National Police Chiefs Council and the College of Policing published a joint response to a report published in 2017, which consulted the families.\n\nIt is the first reply from a major public body to the report, published by former Bishop of Liverpool James Jones.\n\nIn his 117-page report, he said: \"The experience of the Hillsborough families demonstrates the need for a substantial change in the culture of public bodies.\"\n\nBishop Jones said \"a change in attitude\" was needed to ensure the \"pain and suffering\" of the families - who spent decades fighting for justice - was not repeated.\n\nHe also called for a charter for bereaved families, the right to publicly-funded legal representation and a \"duty of candour\" for police officers, amid a series of other recommendations.\n\nIn response, Chief Constable Andy Marsh, the College of Policing's chief executive officer, said: \"For what happened, as a senior policing leader, I profoundly apologise. Policing got it badly wrong.\"\n\nThe National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and College of Policing said the code of ethics used by forces would be reviewed, with a duty of candour becoming a key theme.\n\nBosses admitted \"policing got it badly wrong\" in the aftermath of the 1989 stadium disaster\n\nBishop Jones had said the response of South Yorkshire Police to criticism over Hillsborough showed \"institutional defensiveness\" and recommended training for senior officers to ensure an \"open and transparent approach\" to inquiries.\n\nA first inquest verdict of accidental death, which the families campaigned against for more than 20 years, was quashed in December 2012.\n\nIn 2016 a new inquest jury found the victims had been unlawfully killed due to gross negligence manslaughter by the police match commander Ch Supt David Duckenfield.\n\nAnd, last year, the South Yorkshire and West Midlands police forces agreed to pay damages to more than 600 people over a cover-up which followed the disaster.\n\nAt the time, South Yorkshire's Acting Chief Constable Lauren Poultney said the force acknowledged that \"serious errors and mistakes were made\" by its officers \"both on 15 April 1989 and during the subsequent investigations\".\n\nSolicitors acting for the families said they hoped the settlement would \"put an end to any fresh attempts to rewrite the record and wrongly claim that there was no cover-up\".\n\nBishop Jones's report also said the first inquests failed to accurately establish how the supporters came about their deaths, and families were unable to successfully challenge their \"flawed basis\" because their legal representation was inadequate.\n\nBishop James Jones said \"a change in attitude\" was needed to ensure the \"pain and suffering\" of the families was not repeated\n\nCh Con Marsh, who is from Liverpool, said: \"What we're talking about is cultural change and cultural change takes a long time, but my goodness we have started.\"\n\nHe said new police recruits would study the report into the experiences of the Hillsborough families. New guidance for family liaison officers will be issued, while guidance on disaster victim identification has also been revised.\n\nThere have previously been calls for a Hillsborough Law, which would help victims of future disasters and atrocities.\n\nMerseyside Police Commissioner Emily Spurrell said she supported calls for the legislation, to \"rebalance the scales of justice and ensure these principles are enshrined throughout our system\".\n\nHowever, NPCC chairman Martin Hewitt said legislation was a matter for Parliament.\n\nHe said: \"What we have really focused on is doing that which is really within our power.\n\n\"The issue of candour is very clear within the charter for bereaved families and it will be incorporated explicitly in the review of the code of ethics.\"\n\nCh Con Marsh added: \"We have been robust as possible and it's for Parliament to make any legislation that they feel is necessary.\"\n\nMr Hewitt said the response to the 2017 report had not been published earlier due to legal processes and added it was important to ensure a full response was made.\n\nBut he said he \"absolutely accepted that every week or month that has gone by has added to the pain of the families and not being able the whole process to conclusion\".\n\nMargaret Aspinall has campaigned for justice along with other bereaved families\n\nAmong those who died at Hillsborough was 18-year-old James Aspinall.\n\nHis mother Margaret, who campaigned for justice for the victims, said she was disappointed the response had taken so long to come.\n\nShe said: \"I remember writing to someone in government to say 'I hope this report doesn't get put on a shelf gathering dust for years like other things in the past have done'.\n\n\"We are now into 2023. How long does it take to read a report to come out with your findings of what you think should happen?\"\n\nA spokeswoman for the Hillsborough Law Now campaign said the group was \"extremely disappointed\" with the police response.\n\nWhile welcoming the apology, she said it made \"no reference to a change in legislation which would put an immediate stop to families battling against the state\".\n\nAn actual law would mean \"the culture of denial that we have seen in other inquiries, such as infected blood and Grenfell, would be minimised\".\n\nPete Weatherby KC, who represents many of the Hillsborough families, said \"everyone knows\" a Hillsborough Law would be a \"game changer\".\n\nHe added it was \"tiresome to watch another report which says the right things but achieves very little\".\n\nThe government is yet to respond to the report but Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the timing had been impacted by the need to avoid the risk of prejudice during any criminal proceedings.\n\nShe added: \"The government remains absolutely committed to responding to the bishop's report as soon as practicable and our focus now is on engaging in a meaningful way with the bereaved families of the Hillsborough disaster prior to publishing the government's over-arching response.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Tyre Nichols' family spoke at the funeral alongside Reverend Al Sharpton and high-profile attorney Ben Crump\n\nFamily, friends and civil rights leaders gathered in Memphis on Wednesday to mourn the death of 29-year-old father Tyre Nichols.\n\nMr Nichols died three days after he was beaten by police following a traffic stop.\n\nFive officers were charged last week over his death.\n\nRelatives as well as national figures, including Vice-President Kamala Harris and actor Spike Lee, came to Tennessee to pay their respects.\n\nDuring the three-hour ceremony that featured gospel songs and African drumming, those who knew Mr Nichols spoke of a kind and caring father who enjoyed skateboarding and photography, while many called for police reforms.\n\nRev. Dr J. Lawrence Turner, a pastor at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, began the service by mourning a \"son, father, brother, friend, human being gone too soon and denied his rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness\".\n\nSeveral other prominent leaders also gave speeches, including Vice-President Harris, who told Mr Nichols' family the country was mourning with them.\n\n\"Mothers around the world, when their babies are born, pray to God when they hold that child that that body and that life will be safe,\" she said. \"Yet we have a mother and a father who mourn the life of a young man who should be here today.\"\n\nShe called Mr Nichols' death \"an act of violence at the hands and the feet of people who have been charged with keeping them safe\", and called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.\n\nGraphic bodycam footage of Mr Nichols' encounter with police released last week showed him being brutally punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and hit by police officers.\n\nMr Nichols was black, as are the police officers now charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and oppression.\n\nNone have not entered a plea, but lawyers for two of the men earlier said they would contest the charges.\n\nCivil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton delivered a eulogy at the funeral in Memphis\n\nThe families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of whom died as a result of police violence, were also in attendance.\n\nMr Nichols' siblings remembered their brother as someone who touched many lives, including older sister Keyana Dixon, who said through tears that her younger brother was \"robbed of his life, his passions and his talents, but not his light\".\n\nMr Nichols' other sister recited a poem titled \"I'm just trying to go home\", a reference to what Mr Nichols' told police officers in bodycam footage.\n\n\"I've skated across barriers designed to hold me back. I'm just trying to go home, where the love is loud and the smiles are warm, like the sunsets that come for me in the coldest of my storms,\" she said.\n\nCivil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton noted Mr Nichols was murdered in the same city as Dr Martin Luther King Jr 55 years before. There's \"nothing more insulting and offensive\" than police officers beating their \"brother\" to death, he said.\n\n\"If that man had been white you wouldn't have beat him like that that night,\" he said, pledging to never let Mr Nichols' \"memory die\".\n\nMr Nichols' family attorney Ben Crump said police failed to see Mr Nichols as a human being\n\nBen Crump, the high-profile attorney representing Mr Nichols' family, said police failed to see him as a human being. He said the world needed to secure \"equal justice\" for Mr Nichols.\n\nHe and other civil rights activists have argued police culture is to blame for Mr Nichols' death.\n\nThey have said Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis' swift response in charging the five police officers should be a\"blueprint\" for justice going forward.\n\nMs Davis has said the treatment of Mr Nichols \"defied humanity\".\n\nTyre Nichols casket was displayed next to a drawing at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church\n\nMr Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, who spoke briefly during the service, also urged lawmakers to pass the George Floyd policing act because \"there should be no other child that's suffered\" the way her son and many others have, she said.\n\nThe youngest of four children, Mr Nichols grew up in Sacramento, California before moving to Memphis in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic to be closer to his mother. He was a father to a four-year-old boy, and worked at FedEx with his stepfather Rodney Wells.\n\nA photo slideshow played during the funeral displayed Mr Nichols' many life passions, including capturing sunsets on camera and spending time with his son.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Three women tell BBC News NI about their experiences with non-fatal strangulation\n\nPerpetrators of non-fatal strangulation are not facing the full force of the law as the offence has still to come into effect, campaigners have said.\n\nNon-fatal strangulation became a standalone offence in Northern Ireland in 2022.\n\nCampaigners said the delay was at least, in part, because of the lack of devolved government.\n\nThe Department of Justice said it was working towards the commencement of the new offence by summer 2023.\n\nIt said significant preparatory work was needed before new offences came into operation.\n\nStrangulation is the second most common method of female murder in the UK, after a knife or sharp instrument.\n\nNon-fatal strangulation is seen as a red flag for escalating violence in intimate partner relationships and a possible indicator for future risk of murder or attempted murder.\n\nIt became a standalone offence in Northern Ireland under the Justice, Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims Act 2022.\n\nIt has not yet come in to force, meaning perpetrators cannot be charged or tried in court.\n\nThey are currently being charged with other offences.\n\nA similar law was passed in England and Wales in June 2022 and is currently being used in Northern Ireland.\n\nThree women spoke to BBC News NI anonymously about their experiences of non-fatal strangulation and reveal the sentences handed down to the perpetrators.\n\n\"There was a rage, a darkness in his eyes, he charged towards me with his hands out, wrapped them round my neck and pinned me against the wall,\" one woman said.\n\n\"I remember thinking - I hope he doesn't know that he has to keep strangling me even after I pass out if he wants to kill me.\n\n\"He got community service and a suspended sentence.\"\n\nThe second survivor said: \"I was pretending to be asleep. He straddled me and put both hands around my throat. All I could hear were the squeals of my kids.\n\n\"Then I heard him asking me if I was ready to die, telling me I'd forced him to do this.\n\n\"He was sentenced to probation... he attacked his next partner after that.\"\n\nThe third woman said she was lying in bed when she \"suddenly could feel an enormous crushing around my neck\".\n\n\"My eyeballs were bulging, it felt like I was drowning. I lay perfectly still, it was like a primitive instinct, like an injured bird.\n\n\"There was no bruising, he got a 12-month suspended sentence.\"\n\nWomen's Aid Northern Ireland said the delay was at least in part down to the lack of a sitting Stormont assembly.\n\nSonya McMullan, Women's Aid Regional Services Manager, said: \"We're really angry. As an organisation we have campaigned for over 40 years for women, children and young people.\n\n\"We hoped it would be early this year but it hasn't gone live as yet. There is a lot of preparation that we need to do including training for first-line responders, not just the legal profession.\n\n\"It would be really good to have a functioning assembly to have a budget, resources for this. It sits over several Stormont departments.\"\n\nDr Catherine White, the Medical Director at the Institute for Addressing Strangulation, successfully campaigned for the change in the law in England and Wales.\n\n\"One of the reasons we were keen to have a stand-alone law was that too often strangulation was being treated the same as a slap, punch or kick and yet in term of the danger of it - it's very different,\" she told Good Morning Ulster.\n\n\"The neck is very vulnerable - there's the airway and on either side of the airway are blood vessels so any significant pressure can stop blood returning from the brain and lead to a stroke,\" she said.\n\nShe added her research showed more than a third of victims thought they were about to die.\n\n\"In terms of psychological terror this is extreme,\" she said.\n\nPolice are currently working on training to help officers.\n\nDet Supt Lindsay Fisher said they would be focusing on how to recognise and understand this type of violence when speaking to victims.\n\n\"Officers will be thinking about asking what happened, did you lose consciousness, did you lose bowel or bladder control?\n\n\"There's lots of different things to focus on, but a key thing is also the amount of pressure that has to be applied to the neck for certain things to happen.\n\n\"Police will understand, for instance, the force of pulling a trigger and what that level of injury, that force could present in a victim.\n\n\"The fact this is a new offence on its own highlights the gravity of it.\"\n\nDistrict Judge Barney McElholm has described this type of attack as the perpetrator's \"weapon of choice\".\n\n\"I would say strangulation cases are definitely on the increase, it's a tactic that's used by abusers more and more. In a lot of cases there is no mark left and it's a way of controlling and instilling fear in the victim.\"\n\nOn the current legislation he said \"charges are very rarely levelled in strangulation cases\".\n\n\"At the moment we're reduced to prosecuting them as common assault, maximum sentence six months, and then can only be dealt with in the magistrates' court.\n\n\"That's a very poor situation. I would like to see those cases go to the crown court, which has much higher sentencing powers.\"\n\nThe Department of Justice said: \"There is significant preparatory work needed before new offences come into operation, which may include technical changes, secondary legislation and training of frontline staff.\n\n\"Key partners and stakeholders are involved in the process through a working group dedicated to the non-fatal strangulation offence and a wider implementation group, and have been updated on the timeline and the preparatory work required.\"\n\nIf you are affected by domestic abuse, there is a range of support services available via the BBC's Action Line page.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"You know I'm innocent\" - Andrew Tate yells to reporters\n\nThe controversial influencer Andrew Tate will remain in custody for at least another month after an appeal against his detention was rejected.\n\nMr Tate, 36, and his brother Tristan were arrested last month on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group.\n\nLast month a judge extended their detention until 27 February - a decision upheld by the Bucharest Court of Appeal on Wednesday.\n\nAt the time the judge explained his decision, describing \"the capacity… of the defendants to exercise permanent psychological control over the victims, including by resorting to constant acts of violence\".\n\nPolice have not yet laid any charges against the brothers, who moved to Romania five years ago.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Lawyer says there's 'no proof' to detain Tate brothers\n\nEarlier, handcuffed to his brother Tristan, he shouted to waiting reporters that he was innocent as he arrived for the hearing.\n\nTina Glandian, a new US legal advisor hired by the Tate brothers to help in the appeal, argued their detention without charge for more than 30 days was a violation of international human rights law.\n\nMs Glandian has experience in representing high-profile figures such as Mike Tyson and Chris Brown, and specialises in international human rights.\n\nSpeaking to reporters before the appeal was rejected, she alleged that \"outside pressures\" had impacted the case, but declined to explain what those pressures might be.\n\n\"So far the system has failed,\" she said.\n\nThere is speculation that her appointment could bring a new approach to the Tates' legal team, as they try to secure the brothers' release from preventative custody.\n\nThe brothers - who have both US and UK citizenship - have also employed a communications specialist to respond to media interest in the case.\n\nMr Tate rose to fame in 2016 when he was removed from British TV show Big Brother over a video which appeared to show him attacking a woman.\n\nHe went on to gain notoriety online, with Twitter banning him for saying women should \"bear responsibility\" for being sexually assaulted - although he has since been reinstated.\n\nDespite social media bans he gained popularity, particularly among young men, by promoting an ultra-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle.\n\nHe regularly appeared in videos with a fleet of expensive sports cars, on private jets, and enjoying expensive holidays.\n\n30 December 2022 - Court rules Tate brothers will stay in detention for 30 days\n\n1 February 2023 - Appeal against extension is rejected by judges", "HSBC has become the latest big company to announce a shift to more casual uniforms for 4,000 branch staff.\n\nThe new range includes jumpsuits and \"menopause-friendly\" garments for women, ethnic-wear, including tunics and hijabs, and chinos and jeans.\n\nLast month, British Airways unveiled its first new uniform for 20 years, including a jumpsuit for female ground staff and cabin crew.\n\nHSBC is to close 114 more UK branches from April, with about 100 jobs going.\n\nThe bank said the uniform re-design mirrored the \"more casual new look of the banks' branches\".\n\nHSBC UK's director of distribution, Jackie Uhi, said the days of \"bowler-hatted bankers and intimidating bank branches with rows of screens\" was over.\n\n\"The modern day banker is still smart and professional but much more casual and approachable,\" she said.\n\n\"Our branch colleagues are the public face of the bank, so what they wear does not only need to reflect the brand, it needs to look good, be practical, comfortable and hard-wearing, while taking into account specific human needs like those who are pregnant or going through the menopause.\"\n\nThe bank said the fit, style and material of the new outfits had been designed to provide \"maximum comfort\" when people were experiencing menopause symptoms.\n\nIt comes after Virgin Atlantic announced last year that it was taking a \"fluid approach\" to uniforms which allowed staff to choose their clothing \"no matter their gender\". The airline will allow male pilots and crew to wear skirts and female colleagues to choose trousers.\n\nMeanwhile BA plans to roll out its revamped uniforms, designed by Ozwald Boateng, for 30,000 staff this spring.\n\nInitially its jumpsuit will be for female ground staff but is set to be made available to cabin crew after further trials. The new BA uniform also includes a tunic and hijab option.\n\nHSBC's said its new uniforms, which took two years to develop, were its \"most sustainable\" yet. They are made from recycled polyester, dissolving plastic, ocean recovered plastic and sustainable cotton.\n\nThe unveiling comes months before HSBC begins another round of bank branch closures in the UK, shutting 114 sites. It will leave the lender with 327 outlets.\n\nThe bank has previously said banking remotely was becoming the norm for \"the vast majority of us\" and the number of people using banks was at an \"all-time low\".\n\nIt has said it would try to redeploy affected staff, but about 100 would still lose their jobs.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nForecasters say the coldest wind chill ever has been recorded in the continental US as an Arctic cold snap freezes a swathe of North America.\n\nThe National Weather Service (NWS) said the icy gusts on Mount Washington in New Hampshire on Friday produced a wind chill of -108F (-78C).\n\nNearly 100 million people across the north-eastern US and Canada are shivering in the frigid blast.\n\nAuthorities warned frostbite could strike in less than 10 minutes.\n\nResidents from Manitoba to Maine are being urged to limit their time outdoors until Saturday in the \"once-in-a-generation\" cold snap.\n\nThe NWS said the actual temperature on the summit of Mount Washington dropped to a low of -47F as of Saturday morning- the coldest ever recorded there by the Mount Washington Observatory.\n\nThe combined effect of wind and cold is also expected to bring some of the lowest wind chill temperatures since the 1980s in the New England state of Maine, as well as in Quebec and parts of eastern Canada.\n\nPower companies were expecting historic levels of energy consumption into Saturday morning during the coldest period.\n\nBoston is under a cold emergency. Public schools have been closed in the city, as well as in nearby Worcester and in Buffalo, New York.\n\nNew York City - which could see wind chills as low as -10F (-23C) - has enacted an emergency designation that allows the homeless to go to any shelter to seek warmth.\n\nNor were the Midwestern states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio spared by the freezing temperatures.\n\nParts of Canada were expecting temperatures as low as -58F. An extreme cold advisory issued by Environment Canada on Friday morning blanketed the Maritimes, most of Quebec and all of Ontario, spilling into Manitoba.\n\nIn Toronto, the wind chill plunged the temperature to -29C (-20F) on Friday.\n\nForecasters predict temperatures will rebound by the end of the weekend.\n\nThe drop in temperatures is attributed to a powerful Arctic front that stretches from the Canadian maritime provinces to the core of the US.\n\nThe brutal winter weather follows this week's deadly ice storm in parts of Texas, where temperatures have begun to climb above freezing, and ice was expected to melt on Friday.\n\nAt least 11 people have died in the bad weather in the US south since Monday. There were eight fatalities in Texas, two in Oklahoma and one in Arkansas.\n\nMore than 250,000 people were still without power as of Friday night in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and New York, according to poweroutage.us.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "House prices in the UK fell for the fifth month in a row in January, according to Nationwide Building Society.\n\nThe price of the average property last month was £258,297, down by 0.6% on December.\n\nAnnual house price growth slowed to 1.1%, down from 2.8% in December.\n\nThe country's biggest building society said it would be \"hard for the market to regain much momentum in the near term.\"\n\nRobert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide, said \"economic headwinds are set to remain strong\", as rising prices continue eating into household budgets.\n\nHe added that the affordability of mortgages would \"remain challenging\" in the short term due to higher interest rates, while saving for a deposit was \"proving a struggle for many given the rising cost of living\".\n\nOn Tuesday, the Bank of England reported lenders had approved fewer mortgages than expected in December, about 35,000 compared with more than 46,000 in November.\n\nThat is the lowest number since January 2009, excluding the pandemic lockdowns.\n\nNationwide said the decline in approvals followed a big slowdown in mortgage applications following the government's mini-budget in September.\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. How much could my mortgage go up by? How much are you borrowing? If you have an existing mortgage enter the outstanding balance left to pay. If not, enter the total you are looking to borrow. How long will you take to pay it back? If you have an existing mortgage enter the total number of years remaining. If not, enter the total number of years you are looking to borrow over. What is your current... For those with a mortgage enter the rate for your current fixed term. For those without a mortgage enter an interest rate from another source, such as a bank's mortgage rate calculator. At this rate, your payments could change by… The information you provided on your monthly payments would not be sufficient to pay off your mortgage within the number of years given.\n\nHowever, it said there were signs mortgage rates were slowly starting to improve.\n\n\"Longer-term interest rates have started to edge down and should we see that continue, that should feed into lower mortgage prices and provide some easing in the affordability pressures,\" its senior economist Andrew Harvey told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nMortgage rates rose throughout last year as the Bank of England put up interest rates to tackle the soaring cost of living.\n\nBut they spiked above 6% - their highest level for 14 years - after Liz Truss's mini-budget sparked panic on financial markets.\n\nSince then markets have calmed and mortgage rates have fallen back somewhat, but they remain much higher than a year ago.\n\nGabriella Dickens, a senior UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: \"Nationwide's data show that house prices are continuing to buckle under the pressure of elevated mortgage rates, squeezed real incomes and weak consumers' confidence.\"\n\nAnd while annual house prices are still rising, albeit more slowly than before, Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, said the UK housing market was \"headed for an annual fall in prices as mortgage rates remain notably higher than 12 months ago\".\n\n\"We expect prices to decline 10% over the next two years as budgets get recalculated.\"\n\nNationwide's latest figures suggest mortgages are less affordable in all regions compared with 2021, with the cost of servicing the typical mortgage as a share of take-home pay at or above the long-run average.\n\nLondon and the south of England face the biggest \"affordability pressures\", with Scotland and the North remaining the most affordable regions, but mortgage payments there as a share of take-home pay are still at their highest level for more than a decade.\n\nCaution abounds in the housing market at present.\n\nSellers may price down if they really need to secure a purchase. Would-be buyers, aware of predictions of further house price falls, may be delaying any decision to make a move.\n\nFirst-time buyers who would usually welcome dropping prices are having to contend with mortgage rates higher than they might have expected. The cost of living could also be hampering their ability to save for a deposit.\n\nBut - as the Nationwide acknowledges - the UK housing market is made up of often very different regions and neighbourhoods. Individual circumstances and local dynamics can be just as important as the wider economic picture.", "Andrea Riseborough was a surprise nominee for best actress for her performance in To Leslie\n\nOscars organisers have decided British actress Andrea Riseborough can keep her nomination, but said tactics used in her film's campaign \"caused concern\".\n\nRiseborough was an outsider for a nomination but was championed by stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston and Edward Norton.\n\nThe Oscars Academy has now reviewed whether the campaign broke its rules.\n\nIt concluded that the issues did \"not rise to the level that the film's nomination should be rescinded\".\n\nAcademy chief executive Bill Kramer added: \"However, we did discover social media and outreach campaigning tactics that caused concern. These tactics are being addressed with the responsible parties directly.\"\n\nThe Academy has not named those \"responsible parties\". Riseborough has not been accused of wrongdoing.\n\nShe was nominated last week for best actress for To Leslie, a low-budget film in which she plays an alcoholic mother from Texas who tries to make ends meet after squandering her lottery winnings.\n\nShe was not previously on the awards season radar but enjoyed a late surge of support from high-profile fans who voiced their admiration on social media and in some cases hosted screenings.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by gwynethpaltrow This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe question of whether the campaign broke Academy guidelines is believed to have come down to a few specific posts that not only championed Riseborough but also made reference to her competitors - which is forbidden.\n\nOne since-deleted Instagram post that has been under the spotlight was published by the official To Leslie account.\n\nIt quoted Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times, who wrote: \"As much as I admired [Cate] Blanchett's work in Tár, my favourite performance by a woman this year was delivered by the chameleonlike Andrea Riseborough.\"\n\nWhile there was no wrongdoing on the critic's part for expressing his opinion, it's possible that the To Leslie campaign could have got in trouble for choosing a quote that contrasted Riseborough with Blanchett.\n\nThe Wallsend-born actress has been the talk of Hollywood\n\nSimilarly, actress Frances Fisher, who has appeared in Titanic and Gone In 60 Seconds, lobbied for Riseborough while implying Blanchett, Michelle Yeoh, Danielle Deadwyler and Viola Davis did not need more support because they were already \"a lock for their outstanding work\".\n\nBlanchett and Yeoh did end up being nominated for best actress, along with Ana de Armas and Michelle Williams. But Deadwyler and Davis - who are both black - missed out.\n\nChinonye Chukwu, who wrote and directed Deadwyler's film Till, later accused Hollywood and wider society of \"unabashed misogyny towards Black women\".\n\nTuesday's statement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added: \"The purpose of the Academy's campaign regulations is to ensure a fair and ethical awards process - these are core values of the Academy.\n\n\"Given this review, it is apparent that components of the regulations must be clarified to help create a better framework for respectful, inclusive, and unbiased campaigning.\n\n\"These changes will be made after this awards cycle and will be shared with our membership. The Academy strives to create an environment where votes are based solely on the artistic and technical merits of the eligible films and achievements.\"\n\nRiseborough is one of two British stars to be nominated for this year's Oscars, along with Bill Nighy. The winners will be announced in Hollywood on 12 March.", "Czech President-elect Petr Pavel was chair of the Nato military committee from 2015-2018\n\nCzech President-elect Petr Pavel has told the BBC that Ukraine should be allowed to join Nato \"as soon as the war is over\".\n\nMr Pavel, a retired Nato general, said Ukraine would be \"morally and practically ready\" to join the Western alliance once the conflict had ended.\n\nIn his first broadcast interview with the international media since his election, Gen Pavel gave a robust defence of Western military support to Kyiv, saying there should be \"almost no limits\" to what countries should send.\n\nSpeaking from the renaissance Hrzansky Palace, a few hundred metres from Prague Castle, he said for him sending Western fighter planes such as F-16s was \"not taboo\", but he was unsure they could be delivered in a timeframe that could prove useful to Kyiv.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has ruled out sending F-16s this week, although France's Emmanuel Macron has said nothing is excluded.\n\n\"I am proud of my country being one of the first to provide Ukraine with significant military help,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe Czech Republic was the first Western country to send tanks and infantry fighting vehicles - Soviet-designed T72s and BMP1s - to Kyiv, part of a series of deliveries of heavy weapons that reportedly began as early as March 2022.\n\nAlmost a year on, after much agonising and soul-searching, countries including the UK, the United States and Germany have begun answering Kyiv's repeated calls to send modern, Western-made tanks such as Leopard 2s, Challenger 2s and M1 Abrams.\n\n\"Probably very few people could imagine that Western countries would be willing to provide Ukraine with modern main battle tanks or long-range artillery or anti-aircraft systems,\" he went on.\n\nNow, he said, it was reality.\n\n\"But at the same time we see it's still not enough\" to counter Russia's significant resources of men and materiel, he added.\n\nHe acknowledged Kyiv's disappointment at the speed of deliveries, especially Western tanks, which were explicitly designed to punch holes - literally and figuratively - through Soviet armoured formations.\n\nWestern nations have finally agreed to provide modern tanks to Ukraine, which is currently relying on Soviet-era models\n\nUkraine has asked for 300 such tanks and says the West has so far promised to send at least 120. But Gen Pavel said he hoped that would speed up - especially if Russia launches its anticipated spring offensive.\n\nThe president-elect brushed aside the view - long held in some European capitals, especially Berlin - that such deliveries could be seen as \"escalation\".\n\nRussia has warned that increased supplies of Western weapons will lead to Nato countries increasingly becoming directly involved in the conflict.\n\n\"We have no alternative,\" he said. \"If we leave Ukraine without assistance, they would most probably lose this war. And if they lose - we all lose.\"\n\nPresident-elect Pavel also said that he and other European leaders had a duty to explain to their sceptical - and in many cases frightened populations - of the sense in helping Ukraine.\n\n\"Our cities are not being destroyed by Russian artillery and missiles. But our future could be destroyed if we don't support Ukraine to a successful end to this conflict.\"\n\nAnd he also dismissed claims - among them from the man who stood against him this weekend, former Prime Minister Andrej Babis - that he was closing the door to diplomacy.\n\n\"Once there is even the slightest chance of peace talks, let's support it. But there are no signs of it from the Russian side,\" said Mr Pavel, who was often portrayed as a warmonger during the campaign.\n\n\"What needs to be said is this: the end of war is entirely in Russian hands. It would take only one decision from President Putin to withdraw his forces from Ukraine and the war is over.\"\n\nAnd once it was over, he told the BBC, he could see a clear place for Ukraine in Nato.\n\n\"The Ukrainian military will be probably the most experienced military in Europe. Ukraine deserves to be part of a community of democratic countries.\"\n\n\"I believe they really deserve it.\"", "Vikings sailing from Scandinavia to England brought horses, dogs and perhaps even pigs with them, according to analysis of bone remains.\n\nInvading Vikings were previously thought to have largely stolen animals from villages in Britain.\n\nThe findings also provide evidence Viking leaders had a close relationship with animals and travelled with them, the lead scientist says.\n\nThe 9th Century bones were found in burial mounds in Heath Wood, Derbys.\n\nCremated animal and human remains had been found buried together, suggesting the creatures had special meaning and been burned on the same funeral pyre as humans, doctoral researcher Tessi Löffelmann, from Durham University and Vrije Universiteit Brussels, told BBC News.\n\nFragments of cremated horse bones were found in Heath Wood\n\n\"They were treated more like companion animals rather than just for economic purposes,\" she said.\n\n\"I find it really touching and it suggests we underestimate just how important animals were to Vikings.\"\n\nThe horses and dogs would have travelled on Viking longboats across the North Sea, a journey that could take several weeks.\n\n\"Horses back then were smaller than horses are now, which could have made the journey a little bit more accommodating, but it was still probably wet and uncomfortable,\" Ms Löffelmann said.\n\nProf Julian Richards, from the University of York, who co-directed the excavations, said: \"The Bayeux Tapestry depicts Norman cavalry disembarking horses from their fleet but this is the first scientific demonstration that Viking warriors were transporting horses to England 200 years earlier.\"\n\nThe scientists also found a pig bone in Heath Wood, the only large Scandinavian cremation site in Britain, but this may have been a token or part of a game brought from Scandinavia, rather than a live animal.\n\nThey discovered the animals had come from Scandinavia by analysing the strontium in their bones.\n\nThis element occurs naturally in rocks, soil and water, before making its way into plants - and, when these are eaten, bones and teeth.\n\nArchaeologist Cat Jarman, who has worked at Heath Wood but was not involved in the research, said using this technique on cremated bone was \"really exciting\" because many Viking burials used cremation.\n\n\"It has opened up a whole new avenue of evidence,\" she said.\n\nThe findings are published in scientific journal Plos One.", "British Steel is considering 800 job cuts centred on its Scunthorpe plant, the BBC understands.\n\nThe company has started to develop the plans, though the paperwork required before a consultation on redundancies has not yet been submitted.\n\nIt come as a representative of British Steel's Chinese owner Jingye described discussions over a £300m government support package as \"unsatisfactory\", according to a source.\n\nThe company employs around 4,500 workers in the UK.\n\nThe BBC understands the plans include the possible closure of the coking ovens at the firm's Scunthorpe site, putting 300 jobs at risk.\n\nHundreds more posts would be reassessed, potentially resulting in around 800 job losses in total.\n\nBritish Steel has been struggling with soaring energy prices, raising fears it will have to shut parts of its operations.\n\nLast month the Chancellor was \"poised\" to approve the £300m support package for the struggling steelmaker to support decarbonisation efforts, contingent on job guarantees and investment from Jingye.\n\nThe proposal to cut 800 jobs at the company could potentially have put that government support package in question.\n\nOn Wednesday, a Jingye representative said discussions over the package for decarbonisation were \"unsatisfactory\" in a meeting with senior union officials, a source said.\n\nAccording to the source, a representative of the company said, via a translator: \"The money promised is for investment, which is the same money that was promised to steel producers a long time ago.\n\n\"The investment does nothing to address the obstacles currently causing high costs which are energy, carbon costs, labour and low domestic demand.\"\n\nThe representative also said: \"High production costs are also meaning that British Steel is unable to be competitive in the international market.\"\n\nThe government said the steel industry played a \"vital role\" in the UK economy and said it was \"committed to securing a sustainable and competitive future for the UK steel sector\".\n\n\"The Business Secretary considers the success of the steel sector a priority and continues to work closely with industry to achieve this,\" a spokesperson added.\n\nThe Community Union, which represents steelworkers, expressed its concern at the planned cuts.\n\nNational officer Alun Davies said: \"This move would represent a betrayal of [British Steel's] loyal workforce and their commitments to invest in the business.\n\n\"Steelworkers played their part to protect our steel industry and are being failed by both the government and British Steel who are abdicating their responsibilities to the workforce and our country.\"\n\nThree years ago British Steel was bought out of insolvency by Jingye, which became its third owner in four years.\n\nBut the Chinese steel-making giant has recently been pushing for UK taxpayer funding, which it says it needs to keep the firm running.\n\nMaking steel is very expensive, especially with energy prices at current levels.", "Natalie McNally was expecting a baby boy when she was killed in December\n\nA 32-year-old man has been re-arrested on suspicion of Natalie McNally's murder.\n\nHe was previously arrested on 19 December before being released.\n\nThe man has been taken to Musgrave Serious Crime Suite where he is currently being questioned by detectives.\n\nMs McNally, who was 32, was 15 weeks pregnant when she was stabbed on 18 December at her home in Silverwood Green in Lurgan.", "A Tudor gold pendant was discovered by metal detectorists in Warwickshire\n\nA Tudor gold pendant linked with Henry VIII is one of thousands of treasures discovered by metal detectorists unveiled at the British Museum.\n\nThe heart-shaped pendant and chain, found in Warwickshire, features Tudor roses and a pomegranate bush.\n\nThe reverse shows 'H' and 'K' letters, thought to reference Henry VIII and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon.\n\nThe museum said over 45,000 archaeological finds and more than 1,000 treasures were recorded in 2021.\n\nThe ornate object, unearthed by Charlie Clarke whilst metal detecting in Warwickshire, is decorated with enamelled motifs and inscriptions and includes a gold chain made up of 75 links.\n\nThe double-headed white and red rose on the front of the pendant was a symbol used by the Tudors from 1486, whilst the pomegranate was the badge of Katherine of Aragon.\n\nThe reverse of the pendant shows the letters 'H' and 'K', thought to reference Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon\n\nThe 16th Century pendant was one of a number of objects outlined in the museum's Treasure Annual Report and Portable Antiques Scheme (PAS) Annual Report which highlights archaeological contributions from members of the public.\n\nThe museum also highlighted a silver strap-end, designed to finish a flat strip of fabric or leather, found in Hampshire by a metal detectorist.\n\nThe medieval object, which dates back to the 14th Century, is decorated with animals and was thought to belong to a merchant.\n\nA medieval silver strap-end which dates back to the 14th Century was also found in Hampshire\n\nThe PAS database holds information on over one million items which have been unearthed across the country.\n\nIn 2021, the county that discovered the most historic finds was Gloucestershire, which reported 8,113 items, and Suffolk and Lincolnshire which both reported more than 4,000 discoveries.\n\nThe most amount of treasure had been reported in Norfolk and Kent.\n\nUnder the Treasure Act 1996, any finders have a legal obligation to report all finds of potential treasure to local authorities.\n\nHartwig Fischer, director of The British Museum, said it was \"fantastic\" that so many finds had been recorded and acquired by museums for public benefit.\n\n\"The British Museum is proud of its role running the Portable Antiquities Scheme and overseeing the administration of the Treasure Act 1996 in England.\n\n\"It is fantastic that in 2021 so many finds have been recorded,\" he said.\n\nDuncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: \"This beautiful pendant is a thrilling discovery giving us a tangible connection to Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon and enriches our understanding of the Royal Court at the time.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab should be suspended while he is investigated over bullying allegations, a civil service union leader has said.\n\nFDA general secretary Dave Penman told the BBC: \"If that was any other employee… they would in all likelihood be suspended from their job.\"\n\nHe said suspension - also backed by Labour and the Liberal Democrats - would help protect current employees.\n\nMr Raab, who is also justice secretary, has denied bullying civil servants.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he will wait for the outcome of the inquiry, being carried out by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC, before taking any action.\n\nEducation Secretary Gillian Keegan rejected calls for Mr Raab to step aside now, saying a \"fair process\" should be followed.\n\nShe told Sky News: \"When you get the facts you discuss and take the action. I think it is only fair when somebody accuses somebody of something you go through that... I think that is the right thing to do.\n\n\"Then the prime minister and Dominic will obviously discuss that and make the right decision based on that.\"\n\nMr Penman told Radio 4's Today programme the investigation involved \"dozens\" of civil servants and eight complaints covering three government departments.\n\nThe complaints relate to Mr Raab's previous periods as justice secretary and foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, and his time as Brexit secretary under Theresa May.\n\nMr Penman also criticised former cabinet minister Jacob Rees Mogg for saying people should not be \"snowflakey\" about bullying claims.\n\nThe comments were \"outrageous\" and \"belittled\" the process, said the FDA leader. He accused Mr Rees-Mogg of \"trivialising bullying that we know has ruined lives and careers\".\n\nThe Liberal Democrats have called on Mr Sunak to publish the advice given to him by the Cabinet Office about the allegations, and to give evidence to the inquiry.\n\nDeputy leader Daisy Cooper said: \"It's time for the prime minister to come out of hiding and face the music. The public deserves to know the truth about what he knew and when.\"\n\nAt least three senior civil servants who worked with Dominic Raab have given evidence to the inquiry into his behaviour as witnesses.\n\nAntonia Romeo was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice in January 2021\n\nThe BBC has been told one is Philip Rycroft, who ran the Department for Exiting the European Union when Mr Raab was Brexit secretary.\n\nAnother, the BBC understands, is the current permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Antonia Romeo.\n\nA third permanent secretary from a department in which Mr Raab served has also told the BBC they have been interviewed as a witness.\n\nPermanent secretaries are the UK's most senior civil servants and run government departments.\n\nIt is understood Mr Raab has had an initial meeting with Mr Tolley, but has not yet sat down with him for a substantial conversation about the allegations against him.\n\nLast week, the deputy prime minister told the BBC: \"I'm confident I behaved professionally throughout, and of course the government takes a zero-tolerance approach to bullying.\"\n\nMr Raab added that he was \"always mindful of the way I behave\", but made \"no apologies for having high standards\".\n\nMr Tolley's report is not expected to be completed for several weeks.\n\nPrivately, many Conservative MPs, including ministers, have told the BBC they fear the allegations could yet cost Mr Raab his job.\n\nOne minister told the BBC \"he should have gone ages ago\", describing the situation as a \"ticking timebomb\" and adding that Mr Raab was \"totally unsuitable for high office\".\n\nSomeone else who worked with Mr Raab said his behaviour was \"arbitrary, pernickety\", and he was \"very hard on junior staff\" and \"extremely difficult to work with\".\n\nBut one former senior civil servant who worked with Mr Raab said: \"He was very professional to me.\"\n\nHe described Mr Raab as \"incredibly hard working\" and \"very demanding\".\n\n\"Being on the end of his expectations wouldn't be nice if you're not prepared for it. It's tough. There's perfectionism there,\" he added.\n\n\"He had a view how he wanted things done. He expected delivery but doesn't understand how to get it done.\"\n\nFormer Conservative cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was \"completely sensible\" for Mr Raab to remain in post while the investigation was continuing.\n\nAsked about the bullying claims, Mr Rees-Mogg told Sky News: \"I think we've got to be slightly careful about the bullying allegations.\n\n\"We mustn't be too snowflakey about it. People need to be able to say this job has not been done well enough and needs to be done better.\"\n\nMr Raab was justice secretary and deputy prime minister when Boris Johnson was succeeded by Liz Truss.\n\nShe sacked him, but he was reappointed to those roles when Mr Sunak entered Downing Street in October.\n\nMr Raab previously served in the cabinet as foreign secretary from 2020-21 and Brexit secretary in 2018.", "Beyoncé last toured as a solo artist in 2016, and staged a joint tour with her husband Jay-Z in 2018\n\nBeyoncé has announced a 43-date world tour in support of her critically-acclaimed Renaissance album, including five nights in the UK.\n\nThe shows will kick off in Sweden on 10 May, before landing at Cardiff's Principality stadium a week later.\n\nFurther UK dates will take place in Edinburgh on 20 May, Sunderland on 23 May and London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 29 and 30 May.\n\nTicket demand is expected to be huge for her first solo tour since 2016.\n\nA series of pre-sales for the star's UK shows will begin at 10:00 GMT on Thursday, before tickets then go on general sale on Tuesday.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by beyonce This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn North America, fans are being asked to register for Ticketmaster's Verified Fan process - which the company says will filter out touts - before ticket pre-sales open on Monday.\n\nThose who have registered will be entered into a \"lottery-style process\" if demand outstrips the number of available tickets.\n\nPoliticians in the US, who are already investigating Ticketmaster over the fumbled sale of Taylor Swift's Eras tour, will be keeping an eagle eye on how the systems cope with Beyoncé's concerts.\n\nLast week, Beyoncé performed her first headlining concert in four years at the opening of a luxury hotel in Dubai, but did not play any of her new material.\n\nShe was reportedly paid $24m (£19.4m) for the one-off show, but faced criticism for performing in a country where homosexuality and gender reassignment are outlawed.\n\nCritics said that contradicted the message of her latest album, which explicitly celebrates black and queer dance culture.\n\nBeyoncé conceived the album as \"a place to dream and to find escape\" during the pandemic, layering her songs with multiple samples and references to club music, from Nile Rodgers' Studio 54 disco grooves and Grace Jones' imperious soul, to less-celebrated movements like bounce and dancehall.\n\nExclaim magazine called it \"the sound of a once-in-a-generation superstar performing at her peak\", while the Guardian described it as \"a breath-taking, maximalist tour de force\".\n\nUnusually, Beyoncé has avoided making music videos for the album, meaning the Renaissance tour will be fans' first chance to see her visual interpretation of tracks like Break My Soul, Alien Superstar and Cuff It.\n\nThe former Destiny's Child star may reveal further details at this weekend's Grammys, where she is up for nine awards, including album of the year.\n\nThe singer previously hinted at plans for a world tour in October, when she raffled tickets to a show during the fifth annual Wearable Art Gala.\n\nImages shared from the auction suggested the \"unique\" prize, valued at $20,000 (£16,200), included first-class plane tickets, a three-night hotel stay, two concert tickets and a guided backstage tour from Beyoncé's mother.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Authorities in Western Australia say they have found a tiny radioactive capsule which went missing last month.\n\nEmergency services had \"literally found the needle in the haystack\", they said.\n\nA huge search was triggered when the object was lost while being transported along a 1,400km (870 mile) route across the state.\n\nAuthorities released a close-up picture of the pea-sized capsule - which could cause serious harm if handled - on the ground among tiny pebbles.\n\nA serial number enabled them to verify they had found the right capsule, which is 6mm (0.24 inches) in diameter and 8mm long.\n\nIt contains a small quantity of Caesium-137, which could cause skin damage, burns or radiation sickness.\n\nMining giant Rio Tinto apologised for losing the device, which is used as a density gauge in the mining industry.\n\nA 20m \"hot zone\" has now been established around the capsule and it will be placed into a lead container.\n\nIt will be stored at a secure location in the town of Newman overnight before being transported to a secure facility in the city of Perth on Thursday.\n\nAnnouncing their find, the state emergency services paid tribute to \"inter-agency teamwork in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds\".\n\nThe capsule was found when a vehicle equipped with specialist equipment, which was travelling at 70 km/h (43 mph), detected radiation, officials said.\n\nPortable detection equipment was then used to locate the capsule, which was found about 2m (7ft) from the side of the road.\n\nThe pea-sized device became the object of a huge search along the 1,400km (870 mile) route\n\nThe device is part of a density gauge, which was being used at Rio Tinto's Gudai-Darri mine in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia.\n\n\"The simple fact is the device should never have been lost,\" said the head of the company's iron ore division, Simon Trott. He thanked the authorities for the \"pretty incredible recovery\" of the capsule.\n\nRio Tinto would be happy to reimburse the cost of the search if requested by the government, Mr Trott added.\n\nAustralian authorities have promised a review of existing laws on the matter.\n\nPrime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference in Perth that the current fine for failing to safely handle radioactive substances is \"ridiculously low\". It currently stands at A$1,000 ($700, £575) and A$50 ($35, £30) for every day that the offence continues.\n\nExposure to trace quantities of the metal is like \"receiving 10 X-rays in an hour, just to put it in context, and... the amount of natural radiation we would receive in a year, just by walking around,\" said Western Australia's chief health officer Andrew Robertson earlier this week.\n\nIt was thought that the capsule may have gone missing up to two weeks ago.\n\nThe search area for the lost capsule was huge. It is roughly equivalent to the distance by road from John O'Groats in northern Scotland to Land's End in south-west England, or from Washington DC to Orlando, Florida.\n\nThe state's desert is remote and one of the least populated places in the country. Only one in five of Western Australia's population lives outside of Perth, the state's capital.\n\nThe gauge was being transported by a subcontracted company, which picked it up from the mine site on 12 January to move it to a storage facility in the north-east suburbs of Perth.\n\nWhen it was unpacked for inspection on 25 January the gauge was found broken apart and the radioactive capsule was gone. One of four mounting bolts and screws were also missing.\n\nAuthorities said vibrations during transit may have caused the bolts to become loose, allowing the capsule to fall through gaps in the casing and truck.\n\nThis incident came as Rio Tinto tries to repair its reputation in Australia.\n\nIn 2020, Rio Tinto blasted the 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia to expand an iron ore mine, sparking a major outcry that led to several of the company's top bosses standing down.\n\nAnd last year, a parliamentary inquiry found sexual harassment was rife at Australia's mining firms, after an internal review at Rio Tinto found more than 20 women had reported actual or attempted rape or sexual assault over five years.", "Kaylea Titford was found to be morbidly obese, jurors were told\n\nA father admitted he is \"as much to blame\" for the death of his daughter as her mother, a trial has heard.\n\nThe body of 16-year-old Kaylea Louise Titford was found on soiled sheets in October 2020, and police described an \"unbearable\" rotting smell in living conditions \"unfit for any animal\".\n\nHer father Alun Titford, 45, from Newtown, Powys, denies manslaughter by gross negligence at Mold Crown Court.\n\nAt the start of his defence, Mr Titford told the court he would bathe and feed Kaylea, who had spina bifida, when she was a young child but had stepped back when she reached puberty because he \"didn't feel comfortable\".\n\nHe said his partner Sarah Lloyd-Jones carried out all of Kaylea's care and he did not have any concerns about this.\n\nFollowing his arrest, he had been asked by police whose fault it was Kaylea had got into such a state, and replied: \"Mine and Sarah's.\"\n\nIn an exchange with prosecutor Caroline Rees, he said he still agreed with his response, and he had a duty as much as Kaylea's mum.\n\n\"And you chose through laziness to do nothing?\" she asked.\n\n\"You're as much to blame for Kaylea's death as Sarah Lloyd-Jones is?\" asked Ms Rees.\n\nMr Titford was then asked about messages between him and his partner in which she complained of not having any help.\n\nLloyd-Jones had got a job as a carer from 2018, and was looking after things at home in between her appointments.\n\nMr Titford told the court he had worked long hours for a removal firm for many years but accepted he could have been a better father having done \"nothing\" to help care for his disabled child.\n\n\"I got lazy, tired after work,\" he said.\n\nAlun Titford admitted he was \"lazy\" and \"did nothing\" to care for his disabled child\n\nContinuing her cross-examination, Ms Rees turned to police photographs of the house after the Kaylea's death.\n\n\"Because you're lazy, you left your disabled daughter lying in filth did you?\" she asked.\n\nWhen asked what he had done to help his daughter with her toileting and maintain her dignity, he told her: \"Nothing, I'm lazy. I didn't care.\"\n\nMs Rees also compared photographs of Kaylea's room with other, much tidier rooms in the house.\n\nShe asked why Kaylea was treated differently.\n\nShe highlighted cleaning materials in a cupboard asking why Mr Titford had not used them.\n\nHe repeated that he was \"lazy\" despite understanding Kaylea's health was at serious risk.\n\n\"At serious risk of death?\" Ms Rees pressed. \"No,\" was Mr Titford's response.\n\nMr Titford said Kaylea was able to transfer herself from bed to her wheelchair, which she used to get to the kitchen and wet room.\n\nWhen asked by his barrister David Elias if he could have done more to help Kaylea, he replied: \"Yeah. I could just have done more.\"\n\nHe was also asked whether he was the best father he could have been to any of his six children, and said: \"No. I'm just not very good.\"", "Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell says the bank wants to see how the rate rises are affecting the economy\n\nThe US central bank has raised interest rates again as it continues its fight to stabilise prices in the world's largest economy.\n\nThe Federal Reserve said it was raising its key rate by 0.25 percentage points.\n\nThat marks the smallest increase since last March, after a series of aggressive rate hikes last year.\n\nBut officials warned that they did not think they were finished raising rates, despite signs that price increases in the US are slowing.\n\nThe bank's moves are closely watched around the world as the US drives a global shift after years of low interest rates that followed the financial crisis.\n\nThe Bank of England and European Central Bank are expected to announce their own rate increases on Thursday.\n\nThe rate rise announced by the Fed on Wednesday was expected. It increases the bank's benchmark rate to a range of 4.5%-4.75% - the highest since 2007.\n\nBy pushing up borrowing costs, the Fed is trying to cool the economy and ease the pressures pushing up prices.\n\nBut officials risk triggering a painful recession, in which the economy slows so sharply that it prompts mass job cuts.\n\nPressure has mounted on the bank to slow, or stop, its rate hike campaign, as the higher borrowing costs hurt sectors such as housing and the US economy slows sharply.\n\nThose voices have grown louder amid recent data showing inflation in the US dropping to 6.5% last month.\n\nMany investors have been betting that the bank will raise rates only once more after this meeting.\n\nBut Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said bank officials remained worried by data suggesting that the costs of many services - such as health care - are increasing far faster than the 2% pace considered healthy.\n\nHe said the bank would rather raise rates too high than declare victory over the problem prematurely.\n\n\"The job is not fully done,\" he said. \"While recent developments are encouraging we will need substantially more evidence to be confident that inflation is on a sustained downward path.\"\n\nIn the statement announcing its decision, Fed officials said they continued to believe \"ongoing\" increases would be appropriate.\n\nProjections released in December showed they thought the bank's benchmark rate could stand above 5% at the end of 2023.\n\nMr Powell declined to say whether officials had changed their views, noting that there was a lot of \"uncertainty\" about the outlook.\n\nStocks rose during and after the news conference, with the S&P 500 ending up more than 1%.\n\nThe market gains could be a sign that investors are gaining confidence that the central bank will be able to stabilise prices without a recession, said Jay Bryson, economist at Wells Fargo.\n\nBut Ronald Temple, chief market strategist at Lazard, said if investors get too optimistic that the rate rises are over, it may make the Fed's job harder.\n\n\"Taken together with today's report indicating near record level job openings, I believe markets remain too dovish regarding how high rates will go and how long they will stay there,\" he said.\n\n\"The more markets resist the Fed, the tighter conditions will have to be to tame inflation.\"\n• None Does easing US inflation point the way for the world?", "As a featured artist, Raye has three Brit Award nominations for best single. Now she's ready for her solo moment.\n\nRaye has one of the most triumphant 'told-you-so' stories of recent chart history.\n\nSigned to Polydor Records as a teenager, she spent years on pop's periphery, writing songs for Beyoncé and Little Mix, and lending her vocals to top 10 hits by David Guetta and Jax Jones.\n\nBut her solo material never scaled those heights and, in 2021, she told fans her label was refusing to release her debut album.\n\nDozens of potential hits were \"sat in folders collecting dust\", she said, while others were being given away to bigger stars \"because I am still awaiting confirmation that I am good enough\".\n\n\"I'm done,\" she concluded, \"being a polite pop star.\"\n\nSadly, her story is not unique. The music industry is littered with stories of artists (usually female ones) who've been sidelined by their label, from Muna to Nina Nesbitt and even Missy Elliot, whose first album, with the R&B band Sista, remains unreleased.\n\nBut Raye (whose real name is Rachel Keen) got the last laugh.\n\nAfter her Instagram post went viral, the singer extricated herself from Polydor and struck out as an independent artist. Within 18 months, she had the biggest-selling single in the UK.\n\nCalled Escapism, it's a beast of a song: A hard-hitting account of abusing drink, drugs and meaningless sex to get over a break-up. Gritty and unglamorous, it's exactly the sort of thing a major label would recoil from releasing.\n\nWhen it went to number one in January, it vindicated every belief Raye ever had about her music.\n\n\"It's just brilliant when you get to prove people wrong,\" she tells the BBC, barely holding back tears, on the afternoon her chart victory is announced.\n\n\"It just shows that you should back yourself, no matter what people tell you.\"\n\nThe singer is releasing her music independently\n\nEscapism has now sold half a million copies in the UK, priming fans for her long-awaited debut album, My 21st Century Blues, which finally arrives this Friday.\n\nA celebration of artistic freedom, it hops nimbly between big band ballads (Oscar Winning Tears) and stripped-back blues (Mary Jane) without sacrificing Raye's strident pop personality.\n\nSeveral of the songs pre-date her escape from major label purgatory, but nothing remains in its original form.\n\n\"All of them have entirely new vocals and we combed through the songs, chipping away at lyrics and playing a bit of Tetris with how I expressed the stories,\" says the singer.\n\nThematically, her goal was to explore the highs and lows of her last decade. And if you've been paying attention you'll already know: They're mostly lows.\n\nBlack Mascara is a real-life account of having her drink spiked \"by someone I really trusted\". On Body Dysmorphia, she sings about being so unhappy with her appearance that she wanted \"to cut pieces off\" her face. Hard Out Here is a scathing takedown of music industry misogyny.\n\n\"All the white men CEOs... get your pink chubby hands off my mouth,\" Raye spits over a rock-hard hip-hop beat.\n\nDid those lyrics upset her former bosses?\n\n\"Yeah, they did. They did. And I was sure they would,\" she says. But she was compelled to tell her side of the story, no matter how uncomfortable it made people.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by RayeVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nSimilarly, the harrowing Ice Cream Man describes her sexual assault at the hands of an A-list record producer.\n\nIt's been part of her live set for several years - but the recorded version adds new lyrics, exposing a pattern of male predatory behaviour that's followed her throughout her life.\n\n\"I was seven, was 21, was 17 and was 11,\" she sings. \"If I was ruthless they'd be in a penitentiary.\"\n\n\"Sadly, since I wrote, it, there's been other stories to add,\" she says.\n\nShe finds the song \"ridiculously challenging\" to play \"because it opens all of those details back up and I'm not 100% over it\", but she wanted to share her experiences, to provide an outlet for fellow victims.\n\n\"When it happened to me, I didn't tell anyone. I didn't know what to do with it.\n\n\"So I hope the song finds its way to whoever needs it, so they can confront those feelings and cry it out, you know?\"\n\nThe danger of suppressing those emotions is something Raye is all too familiar with.\n\n\"When you keep things in like that, they eat away at you from the inside,\" she says.\n\n\"And for me, sadly, substance abuse was entangled with numbing the trauma that I had experienced.\n\n\"I got pretty deep in and it got really dangerous at one point.\"\n\nThe extent of her dependency came as a shock, as she'd always been wary of drug use.\n\nIn fact, the song that initially got her recognised, HotBox, was about her first encounter with marijuana at a school friend's house.\n\n\"Someone started rolling a massive joint and I was like, 'Oh my God: Drugs!'\" she told the BBC in 2017.\n\n\"I was just 14 and I said 'no thanks' but I became stoned anyway because the room became a big cloud,\" she said. \"I felt really scared.\"\n\nBut as her career floundered and her self-esteem took a pounding, things got dark.\n\n\"It was around the height of my dance-pop [hits],\" she recalls. \"I was having to go out there and be this happy pop character when, in reality, I was processing this unaddressed trauma and coping with an immense amount of pressure.\n\n\"Sprinkle a bit of heartbreak on there and it's a recipe for disaster.\n\n\"I was just lost. It was a really sad time.\"\n\nThe singer sings about abusing alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and the painkiller Codeine but says she is now clean and sober\n\nThese days, she's sober again - something the 25-year-old attributes to rediscovering her Christian faith.\n\nShe'd grown up attending a church in Croydon, where her father was the musical director and her mother sang in the choir. Nowadays, she has a more private relationship with religion, hosting Sunday hymn services at home with her friends. But the process has been crucial to her wellbeing.\n\n\"There's a world in which if I didn't find faith again, I might not even be here,\" the singer says.\n\n\"There's a lot of demons trying to claw at you and drag you to somewhere you don't belong, so I'm really grateful I have this faith. It's honestly pulled me out of a really dark place.\"\n\nSo while 21st Century Blues exposes Raye's most wretched days, it also thrums with a newfound sense of purpose.\n\n\"I'll bounce back, I'll bounce back,\" she asserts on Hard Out Here. \"No weapon formed against me shall ever prosper.\"\n\n\"It's so easy to take the ugly parts and let them impact you negatively, but no,\" she explains.\n\n\"I took a step back to remember why, when I was 10 years old, I told my dad in the school playground, 'This is what I want to do with my life'.\n\n\"It's not been straightforward since then. It's been a serious push. But when you love what you do this much, there's just no alternative.\n\n\"And now I've started, nothing is stopping me. I'm staring out at an empty horizon and I'm like, which way do I want to go?'\"\n\nFor Raye, this is only the beginning.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of these issues, you can visit the BBC's Action Line.", "Teachers marched to the town hall in Leamington Spa\n\nMore than half of schools in England either restricted attendance or closed during teacher strikes on Wednesday, government data suggested.\n\nTeachers in England and Wales were among thousands of workers taking action during what was said to be the biggest strike day for a decade.\n\nMost were taking action over pay not keeping pace with inflation.\n\nDepartment for Education estimates on school closures released on the day were based on attendance data from 77% (16,400) of state-funded primary and secondary schools in England.\n\nThe department said this data showed:\n\nEducation Secretary Gillian Keegan said she was grateful to head teachers for how they had worked to keep schools open.\n\n\"Conversations with unions are ongoing and I will be continuing discussions around pay, workload, recruitment and retention, and more.\"\n\nBut Ms Keegan admitted being surprised to learn that teachers were not legally bound to let their bosses know whether they planned to turn up to class during industrial action.\n\nShe said it was \"unreasonable\" for teachers to fail to announce their intentions to walk out.\n\nThe law could reportedly be changed to force teachers to inform head teachers if they plan to strike.\n\nThe Daily Mail, quoting a government source, said ministers could choose to \"act\" and change the law in a bid to give schools time to put contingency plans in place on strike days.\n\nSchools Minister Nick Gibb said the government was taking negotiations \"very seriously\" and wanted a \"well-rewarded profession\".\n\nNational Education Union joint general-secretaries, Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, said: \"One day's disruption through strike action is dwarfed by the long-term damage caused by government policy on education funding, on workload, and on pay.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEven in schools that were fully open children may have experienced disruption as some staff members may have been absent.\n\nIn Wales, striking teachers were joined by support staff, while members of the National Association of Head Teachers took action short of a strike.\n\nTeachers were also striking in two parts of Scotland - Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen - as part of rolling industrial action.\n\nMost state school teachers in England and Wales had a 5% pay rise in 2022. Unions say this amounts to a pay cut because inflation is over 10%. In Scotland, teachers rejected a 5% increase.\n\nPrimary school teacher Justine Valentine went on strike for the first time, taking part in a rally in Leamington Spa.\n\n\"I felt it was my only option,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm really really sorry for the children in my class, I would rather be with them.\"\n\nMaria Richardson was in school with children in Liverpool\n\nMaria Richardson, head teacher of Our Lady Queen of Peace primary school in Liverpool, sent three classes home because there were not enough staff to teach them.\n\n\"We'll ensure that the children do catch up,\" she said. \"Those children will be given extra tuition.\"\n\nA secondary-school teacher in Cambridgeshire, who asked not to be named, said she understood why her colleagues were striking but she could not afford to lose the pay.\n\n\"Morally, it just doesn't sit right with me,\" she said.\n\n\"The kids have suffered so much through Covid and I just feel like striking and them missing another four days of school is not going to help anybody. They're already so far behind.\"\n\nWednesday was the first of seven national and regional NEU strike dates.\n\nSchools in England will see four days of strike action, three national days and one affecting their region.\n\nTeachers have already been on a national strike in Scotland and action is continuing on a rolling basis. Most teachers in Northern Ireland will walk out for half a day on 21 February.\n\nOther groups of workers to strike on Wednesday included:\n\nFurther strikes by ambulance workers in several English regions and by staff at the Environment Agency were also announced on Wednesday.\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC News journalist. You can also make contact in the following ways:\n\nIf you cannot see the form, visit the mobile version of the BBC News website to submit your question or comment or email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location.", "Tia and other Year 12 students will be taking mock exams in the school hall on Wednesday, when teachers are going on strike\n\nIn the Sixth Form study room, Tia is twizzling a pink fluffy pen around in her hand. She is nervous about her mock IT exam next week.\n\n\"This is my one practice, and then I've got the real one,\" she says.\n\nOn Wednesday, she will be among the only pupils attending Wales High School in Rotherham, which is due to close because of a staff walk-out over pay.\n\nThe decision to close has been \"horrible\", says head teacher Pepe DiIasio. Only Year 12s taking mock exams, vulnerable pupils, and the children of critical workers will be expected in.\n\n\"Students have missed an awful lot of time in the last three years, and we don't want them to miss any more,\" he says.\n\nPepe DiIasio says he has heard the strikes described as \"10 years in the making\" because of teachers' pay and conditions\n\nPepe's office, a short walk and a few flights of stairs from the study room, is the HQ of this hub of 1,900 pupils. He has been busy preparing for Wednesday - sending letters to parents, making sure those who have children on free school meals get funds for lunches, and allocating laptops to children who need them for online learning.\n\nSome parents have criticised school closures on social media, arguing that families are fined if they keep their children out of school - but Pepe hasn't had any complaints like that.\n\nPlanning ahead is tricky because members of the National Education Union (NEU), which is co-ordinating the strike in England and Wales, don't have to tell their heads whether they will take part.\n\nAs the former president of the Association of School and College Leaders, Pepe is well aware of this. However, about 30 members of staff have told him that they won't be at work, and he estimates the total number could be more than 50.\n\n\"One of the gifts of Covid is that we're fully prepared for this sort of situation, and what we can do is move into a remote curriculum virtually straight away,\" he says.\n\nTeachers on strike also don't have to set work to cover strike days. Here, it is up to senior leaders like assistant head teacher Hannah Feerick to prepare work for pupils to do at home.\n\n\"They'll just follow their timetable as they would do on a normal Wednesday,\" she says. \"So if they have Maths first thing, then they'll do the Maths work for the first hour.\"\n\nThe school library will serve as a temporary classroom for pupils who are coming in - but Hannah won't know how many this will be until the morning itself.\n\nHannah Feerick will be supervising pupils in the school library.\n\nShe hopes lessons can be learnt for further NEU strikes in February and March.\n\n\"Hopefully if we get something that works for everybody, then we can just pick that up and reapply it.\"\n\nDownstairs in the science technician rooms, the chorus of \"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now\" is blasting out from a radio tucked behind a row of plants. This part of the school is a retreat for Jo Smethurst, the science resource manager, who spends much of her day marching between labs and checking the step count on her leopard-print smart watch.\n\nJo is not a member of teaching staff and won't be on strike, but she may not be able to work because of her own childcare issues. She says it has been \"stressful\" checking every morning for an email from her son's primary school about whether or not it will be closing.\n\n\"I'm trying to look around to see if I can get grandparents so I can get some childcare for that day. Or I will have to have the day off, or his dad will have to have the day off,\" she says - which could hit their income, as he is self-employed.\n\nManaging the science technicians is among Jo Smethurst's jobs at Wales High School.\n\nDespite her childcare jigsaw, she is broadly in agreement with the teaching staff going on strike, because of the rising cost of living.\n\n\"Fuel, gas, electricity - everything's going up,\" she says. \"We want our wages to go up and teachers want their wages to go up.\"\n\nAround the corner from Pepe's office, with a green pen in hand, Ross Napier is rattling through a pile of Year 13 Economics essays.\n\nRoss represents NEU members in the school, and plans to strike on Wednesday. He left industry in the mid-1990s to teach because it was an \"attractive profession\", he says - but that has changed because of the \"erosion of pay\".\n\nHis partner is also a teacher, and they lived \"happily on one-and-a-half salaries\" for 12 years, while she worked reduced hours after having children. Then she went back full-time.\n\n\"We're worse off now in real terms than we were when my partner was working part-time,\" he says.\n\nRoss Napier will be taking part in an NEU rally in Sheffield\n\nRoss DJs at the weekends - house music, mostly - to help pay their bills and mortgage.\n\n\"The extra income allows me to stay in teaching when so many leave,\" he says. \"I love the job.\"\n\nRoss says he hasn't picked up on much chatter about the strikes among his non-NEU colleagues because \"most teachers don't really have the time to go into the staff room\". Last summer he had to give up a role as head of house, because he didn't have the time during the working week.\n\nMost of his students will be taking exams this year, so for him, striking is a \"massive decision to make\", but he adds: \"One day of strike isn't nearly as big an impact as the last 12 years of cuts.\"\n\nSchools Minister Nick Gibb has told the BBC that the government is concerned about agreeing pay rises in line with inflation, which he said would mean embedding inflation into the economy.\n\nThe Department for Education, which has been in talks with teaching unions over pay, has advised that schools remain open for \"as many pupils as possible\" - and the picture will vary across schools in England and Wales. Strikes have already been taking place in Scotland, and teachers will walk out for half a day in Northern Ireland on 21 February.\n\nBack in the study room, Year 12 student Oliver says he is happy that his geography mock is going ahead on Wednesday.\n\nTia and Oliver, both 16, were in Year 9 during the first Covid lockdown\n\n\"I've prepared and revised,\" he says. \"If I'm expecting an exam next week, and it's the week after, it's another week that I've got to revise.\"\n\nBut for his brother, who is in Year 10, the strike day will mean a day back to learning at home - reminding him of learning during Covid.\n\n\"The further disruption is a bit worrying,\" says Tia. \"At the same time, I feel like I need to support my teachers, because they are doing it for a good reason.\"\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? Get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The Tom Jones classic, Delilah, has long be popular with fans but is also controversial due to its lyrics\n\nChoirs performing at international rugby matches at the Principality Stadium have been banned from singing the Tom Jones classic, Delilah.\n\nThe stadium said it would no longer be performed by choirs after removing it from half-time playlists in 2015.\n\nThe song has caused controversy, with lyrics depicting the murder of a woman by her jealous partner.\n\nA stadium spokesman said it was \"respectfully aware that it is problematic\".\n\nIt has, however, long been popular with supporters of the national team and Jones has previously performed the song ahead of an international match.\n\nWithout referencing the decision, Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit wrote on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon: \"All the things they need to do and they do that first...\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Louis Rees-Zammit ⚡️ This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA Principality Stadium spokesman said: \"Delilah will not feature on the playlist for choirs for rugby internationals at Principality Stadium.\n\n\"Guest choirs have also more recently been requested not to feature the song during their pre-match performances and throughout games.\n\n\"The WRU condemns domestic violence of any kind.\n\n\"We have previously sought advice from subject matter experts on the issue of censoring the song and we are respectfully aware that it is problematic and upsetting to some supporters because of its subject matter.\"\n\nBut the Welsh Conservative shadow sport minister Tom Giffard called the decision \"wrongheaded\".\n\n\"One that amounts to simple virtue signalling, designed to ease the pressure the WRU are currently under,\" he said. \"Calls to ban the song span at least the last decade, yet the WRU have chosen now to act.\n\nMr Giffard said people want \"institutional change, improved working practices and a better complaints process for the WRU\".\n\n\"Instead they are choosing to ban a much loved Tom Jones song. This action will solve nothing.\"", "Protesters outside the UK government building in central Cardiff\n\nWales and the rest of the UK have seen waves of strikes, but Wednesday will be a particularly big day for disruption.\n\nSchools, colleges, trains and government services will all be hit.\n\nUnions were urged to take action on 1 February to coincide with the Trade Union Congress's \"protect the right to strike\" day, in protest against plans aimed at enforcing minimum service levels for some sectors during strikes.\n\nHere is a roundup of what is happening where and how it might affect you.\n\nA picket line was set up in support of teachers at Llanishen High School in Cardiff during the first day of teacher strikes\n\nThousands of pupils have been told to stay home on Wednesday, with many schools closing and some classes in those that stay open not happening.\n\nIt is due to action by the National Education Union (NEU) across state schools in Wales and England, the first of four planned strike days over pay by teachers and support staff.\n\nThe extent of the action will vary depending on how many NEU members are in your child's school and how many of them are striking - councils have urged people to check their websites for the latest information.\n\nTeachers want an above-inflation rise of about 12%, which Welsh ministers say they cannot afford.\n\nNon-striking staff could be asked to provide those online lessons to pupils at home, which might not be live and could be accessed by pupils in their own time.\n\nAlso on Wednesday, the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) begins industrial action short of a strike, which includes only doing some tasks in core hours and refusing to cover striking staff.\n\n\"Enough is enough\" read a sign outside Cardiff University during the first strike day by UCU members\n\nTens of thousands of staff in the Universities and College Union (UCU), including lecturers administrators, librarians and technicians are taking part in the first of 18 days of action in February and March.\n\nStaff are striking at 62 universities, including Bangor, Cardiff, Swansea and University of Wales Trinity St David, over pay and working conditions as well as pensions.\n\nAt 83 institutions, including Cardiff Metropolitan University, the University of South Wales and Wrexham Glyndwr University, staff are walking out over pay and working conditions only.\n\nUniversities UK, representing 140 institutions, said some coursework deadlines had been extended and teaching rescheduled.\n\nThe union is asking for a salary rise worth either the RPI measure of inflation or 12% - whichever is higher - and also wants to end the use of zero hours and temporary contracts and tackle \"excessive workloads\" resulting in hours of \"unpaid work\".\n\nThe UCU said it was offered a pay deal worth between 4% and 5% in January.\n\nThe union wants changes to pensions that increased contributions and reduced future benefits to be reversed, saying losses will be \"in the hundreds of thousands of pounds\" for those beginning their careers.\n\nThe UCEA has warned any pay increase puts jobs at risk, and a pay award in August gave the lowest paid staff an increase of up to 9%, with a 3% rise for all others.\n\nUniversities UK said that without the changes in pension benefits employees would have had to pay much more in contributions.\n\nTye Holloway in Swansea says she sees both sides of the argument over striking rail workers\n\nDrivers who are members of the Aslef union at 15 rail companies, including Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway and CrossCountry, are striking on Wednesday and Friday.\n\nDrivers were offered a 4% pay rise for two years in a row, but this was based on several changes to working practices.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train companies, said it was disappointing its \"fair and affordable offer\" was not put to the union's members.\n\nThe Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which also represents a few hundred train drivers, confirmed its members at 14 companies would also strike on the same dates in February.\n\nThe RDG expects just under a third of services to run but with \"wide variations\" across the network.\n\nIt says services may also be disrupted on the evenings before the strikes and the mornings after, because many trains will not be in the right depots\n\nTravellers who have already bought tickets for cancelled, delayed or rescheduled services are entitled to a refund or change of ticket.\n\nThey can also use the ticket up to 7 February if their train was affected by either the 1 or 3 February strikes.\n\nTrain traveller Tye Holloway, 14, in Swansea, said she could see both sides of the issue.\n\n\"It's fair enough if they're not getting paid enough, it makes sense that they're striking because they deserve better wages for what they're doing but it's also quite frustrating not being able to get places that I want to go, when I need to,\" she said.\n\n\"I understand that for other people who need to get trains to get to work and things taking buses takes like hours, buses take so long. So trying to get a bus to places where you could get a train in 15 minutes, it'll take like two to three hours and that's really going to affect a lot of people.\"\n\nA picket line in support of action for PCS union members in Cardiff\n\nAbout 100,000 civil servants in the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) are also striking.\n\nGeneral secretary Mark Serwotka said it meant public services \"from benefits to driving tests, from passports to driving licences, from ports to airports\" would be affected.\n\nThe Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in Swansea, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), National Library of Wales, Natural Resources Wales, the Land Registry and the Senedd will all be affected.\n\nPCS has been calling for a 10% pay rise, improved pensions, more job security and no cuts to redundancy terms.\n\nThe DVSA said driving and motorcycle tests would be hit, but theory tests and MOTs for cars, vans and motorcycles are expected to carry on as usual.\n\nThe DVLA said its online services and contact centre would operate as normal.\n\nIn Cardiff Bay, Welsh Parliament business due to take place on Wednesday has been rescheduled, with the full meeting in the Senedd chamber in the afternoon cancelled.\n\nThe Senedd building will be open for visitors as usual, but the Pierhead will be closed.", "The company's headquarters is located on Hillington Road in Glasgow\n\nSome Arnold Clark customers have been told their personal information may have been stolen in a cyber attack.\n\nThe car retailer, which sells more than 300,000 cars per year, said data that may have been stolen included bank details and ID documents.\n\nCustomers were emailed on Tuesday about the UK-wide hack which happened on 23 December.\n\nThe firm said they shut down their entire computer network in the early hours of Christmas Eve.\n\nThe ID documents retained by the firm are normally copies of passports and driver's licences.\n\nNames, dates of birth, vehicle details, contact details and National Insurance numbers could also have been targeted.\n\nArnold Clark, which has its headquarters in Glasgow, has almost 200 dealerships across Scotland and England.\n\nIt has not said how many customers have been contacted.\n\nThose affected have been offered a two-year subscription to an identity fraud checking service because the hack puts them at a higher risk of being victims of the crime.\n\nA letter to customers from chief executive Eddie Hawthorne and chief operating office Russell Borrie said investigations were continuing.\n\n\"Upon advice from our cyber security team, we understand that some personal data has been extracted by the hackers who carried out the cyber attack,\" it said.\n\n\"We take the protection of your personal data extremely seriously, and we want to assure you that we are doing everything we can to minimise any risk to you from this incident.\"\n\nArnold Clark has begun rebuilding its computer infrastructure to create a \"segregated environment\", which prevents hackers who successfully breach one part of the network from being able to access other parts of the company's systems.\n\nPaul Graham, a customer from Clydebank, told BBC Scotland he was angry that he was not told about the data breach for more than a month.\n\n\"I just find it outrageous,\" he said. \"No one mentioned when I went into the dealership last week.\"\n\nHe complained that there was no way to speak directly to Arnold Clark about the cyber attack, and that the dedicated helpline set up for affected customers was being managed by credit protection company Experian.\n\nMr Graham added: \"I think it is absolutely dreadful, especially when you think 'what have they got?' It could be enough to take over my whole identity - it's frightening.\"\n\nOther customers have contacted the company via social media, complaining of a potential General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) breach.\n\nUnder GDPR legislation, which allows a maximum fine of £17.5m, companies \"must inform affected individuals without undue delay\".\n\nA statement from Arnold Clark said: \"While we were initially advised that all our data was secure, unfortunately, in the course of our investigation, it has become clear that during this incident, the attackers were able to steal copies of some data that we hold.\"\n\nIt added: \"During this incident we have been in constant communication with the regulatory authorities and have sought useful guidance from the police, and we will continue to do so to help other companies learn from our experience and be better prepared for possible situations such as this.\"\n\nThe company was set up by the late Sir Arnold Clark, who opened his first showroom in Glasgow's Park Road in 1954.\n\nHe was knighted in 2004 and confirmed as Britain's first billionaire car dealer in the Sunday Times Rich List in 2016, before his death in 2017.\n\nThe company now has 193 dealerships and is thought to be Europe's largest independent family-run car company.", "Last updated on .From the section Chelsea\n\nThe deal eclipses the £100m Manchester City paid for Jack Grealish in 2021. Fernandez, who only joined Benfica for a reported £10m in August, was named young player of the tournament during Argentina's World Cup triumph in Qatar. The 22-year-old's arrival takes Chelsea's January spending to £289m, according to transfer website Transfermarkt. He has signed an eight-and-a-half year contract at Stamford Bridge.\n• None How can Chelsea keep spending? The deal follows an outlay of £270m in the summer - a record for a British club in the summer window - taking their total spend under new American owner Todd Boehly to more than £550m on 17 new players. It is the joint-sixth most expensive signing of all-time, equalling the 120m euros Barcelona paid for France forward Antoine Griezmann in 2019. Fernandez, signed by Benfica from Argentine side River Plate, has scored four goals in 29 appearances for the Primeira Liga side. Benfica confirmed on Tuesday night that River Plate will earn 25% of the transfer fee, around 30m euros. He scored once during the World Cup, netting Argentina's second goal in their 2-0 group-stage win over Mexico. \"The spending now from Chelsea is a staggering, eye watering amount of money,\" said BBC Radio 5 Live senior football reporter Ian Dennis. \"What an excellent bit of business from Benfica, who held their nerve because Chelsea have pursued him throughout the whole window. Bit of brinkmanship and they've got their rewards.\" European football expert Guillem Balague added: \"He didn't start the World Cup but he was absolutely crucial to Argentina winning it. It is down to his reading of the game. \"You look at what he did during the World Cup and you think 'really? Is that 121m euros?' but the answer is no - you didn't see the full picture. He is much more than that. \"He can play in any place in the midfield. He can be a holding midfielder, on the right, on the left, the stats show he increases the quality on the move, he gives the last pass and the one before last - and he's been scoring as well. \"It's not easy to find that kind of player that when the game goes into a really high intensity he still displays good football.\" Earlier in January, Benfica accused Chelsea of trying to unsettle the midfielder, with the Portuguese side's manager Roger Schmidt declaring their pursuit \"closed\". Chelsea have signed Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, David Datro Fofana, Andrey Santos, Benoit Badiashile and Malo Gusto on permanent deals in January. They have also brought in Joao Felix on loan from Atletico Madrid. However, under Uefa rules, Chelsea will only be allowed to register three of their January signings to their Champions League squad, regardless of age, with the club set to face Borussia Dortmund in the last 16 first leg on 15 February. The Blues are 10th in the Premier League, 10 points adrift of the competition's Champions League places after 20 matches. The club was bought for £4.25bn by a consortium led by American investor Todd Boehly last May, after previous owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned over his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin.\n• None Head to our transfers page for all the latest done deals\n• None Visit our Chelsea page for all the latest Blues news, analysis and fan views\n• None You can now get Chelsea news notifications in the BBC Sport app - find out more Transfer Deadline Day: Chelsea signings could be difficult for Graham Potter\n• None Our coverage of Chelsea is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Chelsea - go straight to all the best content", "Ministers want to make the UK a crypto hub\n\nThe government has published proposals for crypto-asset regulation it hopes will \"manage\" the risks of the \"turbulent industry\".\n\nThe sector has had a calamitous year, with assets collapsing in value by an estimated 75% from their peak of about $3 trillion in November 2021.\n\nMinisters estimate up to 10% of UK adults now own some form of crypto.\n\nThey plan to use existing regulations for the industry, rather than creating a bespoke regime.\n\nThe Treasury says that will allow crypto to benefit from the \"confidence, credibility and regulatory clarity\" of the existing system for financial services, as set out in the UK's Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).\n\nIt wants to create a level playing field between traditional and emerging financial services, where the principle is \"same risk, same regulatory outcome\".\n\nBut it also acknowledges some crypto businesses may simply choose to continue operating in offshore jurisdictions that \"do not impose equivalent market-abuse rules\".\n\nThe Treasury says its proposals - which it's now consulting on - will:\n\nMinisters say the measures will \"mitigate the most significant risks\" of crypto technologies, while \"harnessing their advantages\".\n\nEconomic Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith said the government remained \"steadfast in our commitment to grow the economy and enable technological change and innovation - and this includes crypto-asset technology\".\n\n\"But we must also protect consumers who are embracing this new technology - ensuring robust, transparent and fair standards,\" he added.\n\nEven when the crypto market was booming, in 2021, calls for regulation were loud.\n\nAfter the chaos of 2022, the calls for order are now deafening.\n\nHundreds of billions of pounds were wiped from the crypto landscape and companies and people went bankrupt thanks to scandal after scandal.\n\nThe UK's plan to finally put concrete proposals in place will be welcomed by consumer investors hit in their pockets.\n\nBut I expect the consultation to be fiery, with many different groups wading into the debate about how to tame the wild beast of Bitcoin and other digital coins.\n\nPart of the original appeal of cryptocurrency was its independence of traditional financial networks.\n\nMoves to allow establishment control will infuriate a core group of true believers.\n\nBut with the right form of regulation, others will argue, the industry could truly blossom.\n\nLast year, Rishi Sunak, then Chancellor, said he wanted to make the UK \"a global hub for crypto-asset technology\".\n\nBut since then, the industry worldwide has been buffeted by a series of crises - most recently, the collapse of the FTX exchange, which prosecutors have described as \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\".\n\nThe so-called crypto winter has raised questions about whether the industry can ever be effectively regulated.\n\nConservative MP Harriett Baldwin, who chairs the Treasury Committee, told BBC News it had heard evidence of \"truly Wild West behaviour\" but also recognised there was \"valuable technological innovation happening that could benefit the UK economy\".\n\n\"We are paying close attention to these plans and to the regulators' plans, because we would not want our constituents to think cryptocurrencies are any less risky if they are regulated,\" she said.\n\nJason Guthrie, European head of digital assets at the financial firm, Wisdom Tree, said the sector had a bright future. The \"devil would be in the detail\", he told BBC News, but he \"absolutely welcomed\" regulators looking at cryptocurrency - and the right regulation would be in the interests of the industry as well as customers.\n\n\"Having a solid a regulatory framework, having enforcement capabilities, is really important for consumer confidence,\" Mr Guthrie said.\n\n\"The sooner we have details around concrete proposals, the easier it is to plan for and build towards.\"\n\nJeremy Barnett, a barrister and honorary professor of algorithmic regulation, at University College London, said the UK had much to gain, as entrepreneurs were currently choosing to set up elsewhere.\n\n\"If you don't have a proper regime, you drive people off shore,\" he said.\n\n\"I want to see people who have cryptocurrency services and products encouraged to open for business in the UK.\n\n\"We should be in this space - but it does need to be regulated and policed.\"\n\nThe government's consultation on its proposals will close on 30 April, with any responses then considered by ministers.\n\nOnce any legislation is put to Parliament, it will be the job of the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, to draw up the detailed rules the sector will have to follow.", "Inspectors were told that crews often responded to calls \"without the medicines they needed\"\n\nAmbulance crews in the North East frequently responded to emergencies without access to life-saving drugs, a damning inspection report has found.\n\nThe study of North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NEAS) concluded patients were potentially put at risk by the poor management of medicines.\n\nThe Care Quality Commission (CQC) found a deterioration of services and rated NEAS's urgent care as \"inadequate\".\n\nIn response, NEAS said it had faced a year of \"unprecedented pressures\".\n\nThe damaging assessment follows the launch of a full independent NHS review into numerous \"tragic failings\" involving patients.\n\nAnnouncing the review, the then health secretary Sajid Javid said he was \"deeply concerned\" about claims NEAS had covered up mistakes.\n\nWhistleblowers have told Newsnight multiple deaths were not investigated properly because information was not always provided to coroners and families.\n\nThe trust has now been issued with a warning notice following the unannounced CQC inspection in September.\n\nInspectors focussed on the trust's emergency care, its emergency operations centre (EOC), the NHS 111 service and its leadership.\n\nThe CQC's ratings illustrate a comprehensive decline in standards since its previous inspection in 2018:\n\nAmbulance crews frequently operated without enough \"standard\" medicines such as morphine and seizure medication, inspectors said.\n\nIn addition, there were discrepancies in the number of medicines and mislabelled bags of medicines found in ambulances, while \"numerous incidents\" were reported of missing medicines that were unaccounted for.\n\nIn recent months, North East Ambulance Service - which serves nearly three million people - has faced allegations of covering up mistakes.\n\nSome of the CQC report's findings resonate with what we've been told by whistleblowers - from incidents not being investigated properly to staff not always being treated with respect.\n\nThere is no doubt the trust is under immense pressure - and now all eyes turn to the independent review from former NHS chief Dame Marianne Griffiths.\n\nIt was initiated after concerns were raised in the media about information not being shared, and will focus on the deaths of five people.\n\nIt's expected to be published this month, and isn't likely to make easy reading for the families.\n\nA damning report from her would be a double-whammy for a trust in trouble, desperately trying to move on from what it sees as a \"historical issue\".\n\nIn a statement, it told Newsnight it recognises there is more to do and its processes which delayed the timely disclosure of reports and documents to coroners have been fully revised.\n\nYou can watch more on the story on Newsnight on BBC Two on Wednesday at 22:30 GMT and on BBC iPlayer.\n\nSarah Dransfield, CQC's deputy director of operations in the north, said: \"When we inspected NEAS NHS Foundation Trust we found a deterioration in the services being provided, especially in urgent and emergency care where this had potential for people to be placed at risk of harm.\n\n\"It was particularly concerning that staff didn't always have access to critical medicines needed to treat patients and some crews didn't have time to complete vehicle medicine checks, resulting in treatment delays.\"\n\nIn a staff survey held as part of the inspection, workers said they felt under pressure and did not feel supported or valued.\n\nSome said they felt uneasy about raising concerns for fear of blame or reprisal.\n\nThe report was also critical of the trust's leadership, highlighting a lack of effective systems to seek and act on feedback from workers.\n\n\"We were concerned the trust was not always thoroughly investigating incidents and may have made decisions based on limited information, reducing the ability to identify learning and prevent reoccurrence,\" Ms Dransfield said.\n\nNEAS's 111 service did not have enough staff in post to provide care at the right times, the report said\n\nAt the EOC, inspectors found inadequate numbers of call handlers to manage the volume of 111 non-emergency calls.\n\nFrom July 2021 to June 2022, the average ring time was fifty times longer than the national target - 1,007 seconds against a target of 20 seconds - although that fell to 115 seconds in August.\n\nThe review also found 38% of calls were abandoned, way above the national target of 3%.\n\nSince then a recruitment drive has increased staffing levels.\n\nThe CQC did conclude that staff acted in a \"respectful and considerate way\" with patients and collaborated well to prioritise and provide care in the most critical cases.\n\n\"We know they have taken our concerns seriously and have put in measures to address our findings,\" Ms Dransfield said.\n\nResponding to the report, Helen Ray, NEAS chief executive, said: \"Over the last 12 months the ambulance service and the NHS as a whole has faced unprecedented pressures.\n\n\"Providing the best possible care to all our patients remains our top priority. We are all committed to making improvements until we and the CQC are confident that the concerns raised have been fully addressed.\"\n\nShe said \"swift action\" had been taken and the NEAS would \"ensure effective systems\" are in place for patient safety, but acknowledged there was still \"more to do\".\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The firm behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT is trialling a subscription service in the US.\n\nFor $20 (£16) per month, subscribers will get access to the platform even at peak times when it can be hard to log onto, and also \"priority access\" to new features, chatbot creator OpenAI said.\n\nIt plans to extend the trial more widely but initially it will only be offered to those on a waiting list.\n\nThe free version will still be available, the firm said.\n\nIn a blog post, OpenAI said it hoped the subscription would support free access. It currently costs the firm a small amount of money every time the chatbot is used.\n\nChatGPT provides convincingly human responses to questions using information from the internet, but it is not connected live - it uses data from the internet as it was in 2021.\n\nWithin a few days of its launch, OpenAI boss Sam Altman tweeted that it had already been used more than one million times, however, the firm has not released any further data since then.\n\nThe chatbot has captured people's imagination by being able to mimic a wide range of writing styles, from journalist and doctor, to rock star and student essay writer.\n\nThe musician Nick Cave described its songwriting attempts in his style as \"a grotesque mockery\".\n\nAs well as being used for fun, people are asking ChatGPT to write website and marketing copy, find food recipes and write or check program code.\n\nThere are fears that pupils are already using it to do their homework, and some cyber security experts have warned that it could be manipulated into writing malicious software known as malware.\n\nOn Tuesday, OpenAI launched a tool which it claims can detect whether text was written by human or artificial intelligence.\n\nSome experts believe that decent chatbots are the future of search engines - where AI searches the internet for one correct answer to a search query rather than serving up pages of links.\n\nBut ChatGPT currently does not attribute information or offer any comment about its accuracy, and there are many examples of it presenting misinformation as fact.\n\nIt is also restricted to the contents of the internet as they were in 2021. The version that's been released is version three, and the company has said the next generation is currently being built.\n\nChatGPT is known as a language learning model and many other firms are developing them. Google's is called Lamda, and was so convincing that Blake Lemoine, one of the engineers who worked on it, was convinced it was sentient.\n\nMr Lemoine was fired, and Google has always denied the claim. It has not released Lamda to the public.\n\nYou can follow Zoe Kleinman on Twitter @zsk.", "Twelve-year-old Alfie was left \"traumatised\" after the alleged attack, said his mother Sue\n\nA 12-year-old boy has been left with facial injuries after allegedly being attacked while in a park with friends.\n\nAlfie was left \"traumatised\" after the incident near Cwmgors Rugby Cub, Neath Port Talbot, his mother Sue said.\n\nShe said Alfie was with friends at the rugby club on Sunday afternoon before heading to nearby Parc y Werin, where the attack is alleged to have happened.\n\nSouth Wales Police said a 36-year-old man and 16-year-old boy had been arrested.\n\nSue claims her son returned home with bruising and blood covering the right side of his face.\n\nShe said he had taken blows above and below his eye, to his cheek, lip and chin, but was in shock so was unable to tell how long the ordeal lasted.\n\nAlfie spent six hours at Morriston Hospital in Swansea where he had a head scan which showed no damage beyond heavy facial bruising, Sue added.\n\nHe was also referred to a Singleton Hospital eye specialist who did not identify a major injury but has scheduled another appointment for next week.\n\nThe attack is alleged to have occurred at around 17:30 GMT in Parc y Werin, next to Cwmgors Rugby Club\n\nHowever, in addition to the physical scars, Sue said the biggest impact had been psychological.\n\n\"He's living in fear and scared to go outside. The hospital has referred him for counselling and escalated it because of his age.\"\n\nSouth Wales Police said a 36-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and a 16-year-old boy had been arrested on suspicion of wounding with intent.\n\nInsp Lindsey Sweeney said: \"This apparently unprovoked attack has left a 12-year-old boy in a state of shock.\n\n\"Inquiries are ongoing. However, we believe that there may well have been people in the area at the time of the incident who may have witnessed what happened.\"", "Households in England face fines of up to £300 and even criminal records if they flout new log burner rules.\n\nA tightening of emissions regulations has reduced the amount of smoke new stoves can emit per hour from 5g to 3g.\n\nIt applies to homes in \"smoke control areas\" which cover most of England's towns and cities. Anyone found to be breaking the new measures could be issued with an on-the-spot fine.\n\nThe rules are part of the government's new 25-year environmental plan.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said the new measures were part of his government's drive to leave \"the environment in a better state than we found it\".\n\nIn recent years, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has cracked down on log burners and coal fires as, according to the government, they are the largest source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) - small particles of air pollution which find their way into the body's lungs and blood.\n\nAround 1.5m homes use wood for fuel across the UK. Domestic combustion accounts for 27% of the UK's PM2.5 emissions, the majority of which comes from burning wood and coal in open fires and stoves.\n\nBy comparison, 26% comes from the burning of fuel - either to drive vehicles or machinery - on industrial sites.\n\nAs well as reducing the amount of PM2.5 wood burners are allowed to emit, Defra said it will enable local authorities to \"better enforce\" smoke control areas.\n\nThey will be allowed to issue fines of up to £300 on household whose chimneys are emitting too much smoke, and even pursuing a criminal case if they do not comply.\n\nUnder the 25-year plan, the government said it was tightening the rules rather than implementing a complete ban on burning fuels as some households use them to provide heating and for cooking.\n\nBut avoiding a ban are barbeques, fire pits or bonfires, as doing so would be \"disproportionate\", the government said.\n\nIn a bid to try and cut particulate matter, last year the government banned the purchase of house coal and wet wood in England, two of the most polluting fuels, and urged the public to move to \"cleaner alternatives\".\n\nAs is already the case, householders can be fined up to £1,000 if they are found to be burning unauthorised fuels. A list of authorised fuels in each of the four nations of the UK can be found on the government's website.\n\nClient Earth, an NGO which has won pollution cases against the government, hit out at the 25-year plan, writing on Twitter that it was full of \"vague commitments\" and that environmental laws which are already in place are at risk due to Brexit.\n\nThis article was updated on 16 February to include the most recent figures from the government.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Tyre Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, spoke through tears at her son's funeral Image caption: Tyre Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, spoke through tears at her son's funeral\n\nThe funeral of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, who died last month after being beaten by police, ended earlier with poignant speeches from his family. If you missed it, here's a rundown of what happened.\n\nMourners gathered... to celebrate Nichols' life at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, including US Vice-President Kamala Harris and other families of black Americans killed by police - including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.\n\nBad weather... caused the service to be delayed by a couple of hours and meant a number of mourners couldn't reach the church at all.\n\nThe eulogy... was given by civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton, who condemned the five black officers charged with Nichols' murder for \"beating a brother to death\" after the work, as he described it, that civil rights leaders like Dr Martin Luther King Jr did to get black people \"through doors\" and into positions of authority. \"How dare you,\" he said of them.\n\nVice-President Harris... gave a speech in which she said Nichols died \"at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping [people] safe\". She also called for Congress to push through the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.\n\nThe call for justice... was performed by Ben Crump, the Nichols family's lawyer, who said his plea was \"for justice, for Nichols the human being\". He questioned why the police had failed to see Nichols as just that – a human.\n\nThe Nichols family... gave emotional speeches, including his tearful mother, who echoed Harris' endorsement of the George Floyd policing bill. \"We need to get that bill passed because the next child who dies,\" she said, \"their blood will be on their hands.\"", "University workers are among those going on strike on 1 February\n\nMass strike action on Wednesday will cause \"significant disruption\", Downing Street has said.\n\nTeachers, university workers, civil servants, train and bus drivers are all due to walkout during the day.\n\nAround 500,000 workers are due to take part, making it the biggest strike in more than a decade, according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC).\n\nTalks between teaching unions and the Department for Education (DfE) ended without progress on Monday.\n\nThe National Education Union (NEU) said Education Secretary Gillian Keegan had \"squandered an opportunity\" to avoid Wednesday's strike action.\n\nIt expects about 23,000 schools to be affected in the first of its seven planned walkouts by teacher members in England and Wales.\n\nThe DfE has offered a 5% pay rise to most teachers for the current school year, but the NEU wants a fully funded above-inflation increase for teachers.\n\nSome schools have announced they will close but others are still deciding - meaning many parents are waiting to hear whether they will need to make childcare arrangements.\n\nBut Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the government expected the \"majority\" of schools in England to be open \"in some capacity\".\n\nTeachers join a wave of public sector workers striking over pay and conditions.\n\nMembers of seven unions will be on strike on 1 February.\n\nLecturers, librarians, and other university workers belonging to the UCU union will join the walkouts.\n\nSo will train drivers belonging to Aslef, affecting services in England, Scotland and Wales.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nPassengers have been warned there will be huge disruption to services across 14 rail networks, with some operators unable to run any trains.\n\nCustomers are encouraged to check their route before travelling.\n\nTeachers belonging to the Educational Institute of Scotland will strike on Wednesday in the Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen city areas.\n\nRail workers from Aslef union will be among those striking on 1 February\n\nAbout 100,000 civil servants in 124 government departments are among those taking part in a dispute over pay and conditions, including workers at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.\n\nMark Mclean, 42, a civil servant at the DWP in Newcastle, is going on strike and said losing a day's wage was \"very hard\" but described the decision to walk out as \"massive\".\n\n\"Everything's going up and the developed country that we are, I think we shouldn't have to cut many corners just to put the gas and electric on,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm a single parent, and my daughter lives with me full-time. She's got a life she's accustomed to and like any child you don't want them to suffer when it comes to getting better wages.\n\n\"So it is hard to cut corners like that but if needs must, you have to.\"\n\nSome bus drivers employed by Abellio in London are also taking action, with the Unite union calling for a pay rise for members to reflect the cost of living.\n\nThe action comes as the TUC says the average public sector worker is more than £200 a month worse off compared with a decade ago.\n\nThe union will hand in a petition to Downing Street on Wednesday in protest at the government's proposed \"anti-strike\" legislation.\n\nThe new law would set minimum service levels that striking industries would have to meet before taking action.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said: \"We know that there will be significant disruption, given the scale of the strike action that is taking place tomorrow, and that will be very difficult for the public trying to go about their daily lives.\n\n\"We are upfront that this will disrupt people's lives and that's why we think negotiations rather than picket lines are the right approach.\"\n\nThe spokesman also said the announcement of an ambulance workers' strike on 10 February was \"deeply concerning\".\n\n\"We are putting in place significant mitigations, which have previously helped reduce some of the impact of these strikes,\" he said, urging unions to reconsider.\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? Get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The Supreme Court ruling is the latest development in the long-running dispute\n\nThe owners of four luxury flats overlooked by the Tate Modern in London have won a privacy bid over the use of the gallery's viewing platform.\n\nThe Neo Bankside residents took legal action over the \"hundreds of thousands of visitors\" looking into their homes.\n\nIn February 2020, the Court of Appeal dismissed their claim, saying they should \"lower their solar blinds\".\n\nBut the Supreme Court overturned the decision on Wednesday following a hearing in December 2021.\n\nThe five residents had applied for an injunction requiring the gallery to prevent members of the public observing their flats by \"cordoning off\" parts of the platform or \"erecting screening\".\n\nThe Supreme Court heard the residents' flats are approximately 112ft (34m) away from the Tate Modern.\n\nOther flats in the four-block development are on sale for between £750,000 and £2.5m, according to current listings on Rightmove.\n\nThe residents, who had bought their flats in 2013 and 2014, lost their case at the High Court and Court of Appeal so took it to the UK's highest court.\n\nThe flat owners said they had no privacy when their blinds were open\n\nPassing his judgement, Lord Leggatt said the viewing gallery, which is currently closed, left the residents feeling like they were \"being on display in a zoo\".\n\nHe added it was \"not difficult to imagine how oppressive living in such circumstances would feel for any ordinary person\".\n\nThe court drew a distinction between the impact of the Tate's viewing deck and an hypothetical block of flats that could have been built on the same site, which would be classed as \"normal\" usage.\n\n\"In such circumstances the fact that the occupants of these new flats could see straight into the claimants' living accommodation might have caused the claimants annoyance,\" said Lord Leggatt.\n\nThe flats on the 18th and 19th floors of the building are at around the same height as the viewing gallery\n\nBut if the occupants of the new flats were \"showing as much consideration for their neighbours as they could reasonably expect\" they could not have complained.\n\n\"It would be required by the rule of give and take, live and let live,\" he added.\n\nNevertheless, the court ruled that creating the viewing platform was not a \"normal\" use of the museum's land and therefore there was a right to complain.\n\n\"Inviting members of the public to look out from a viewing gallery is manifestly a very particular and exceptional use of land,\" the judge said.\n\nThis momentous win for the owners of the multimillion-pound glass-box flats has already triggered a huge debate among London's construction lawyers as to where it will lead.\n\nWhile the facts of the dispute relate to modern architecture, the law partly dates back to the 14th Century.\n\nThe Supreme Court notes that back in 1341, John Le Leche, a London fishmonger, unlawfully erected a \"watch-tower\" from which he could peep on his neighbours.\n\nThat ancient case shows that peering into someone's home can cause a legally intolerable nuisance, even in a densely populated city.\n\nThe key question, as Lord Leggatt explains in this case, is what is ordinary and normal use of the Tate's land.\n\nAnd the majority of the court said the Tate viewing deck had created a \"very particular and exceptional situation\" that crossed the line because of its impact.\n\nSo rather like the 14th Century fishmonger's long-forgotten watch tower, the constant viewing of the flats was not a necessary or ordinary use of the Tate's land - and therefore must, somehow, stop.\n\nThe platform opened in 2016 and provides a panorama of London as well as a direct view into the glass-fronted flats.\n\nThe flat owners said it created a \"relentless\" invasion of their privacy and applied for an injunction the following year.\n\nThe court case has been running ever since with the Supreme Court ruling by a margin of three-to-two in the flat owners' favour.\n\nThe case will now be returned to the High Court to determine a solution for the flat owners.\n\nThe viewing platform opened in 2016 and provides 360 degree views of London\n\nNatasha Rees, a partner at Forsters LLP who represented the residents, said her clients were \"pleased and relieved\" with the ruling.\n\nShe added they would work with the Tate to \"find a practical solution which protects all of their interests\".\n\nA Tate spokesperson said as the case has been referred back to the High Court it \"cannot comment further\".\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nManchester United eased through their EFL Cup semi-final second leg with Nottingham Forest to book a 1999 Wembley rematch with Newcastle.\n\nSecond-half goals from Anthony Martial and Fred ensured victory on the night for Erik ten Hag's side, even though a place in the final was virtually secure anyway thanks to their 3-0 first-leg triumph at the City Ground.\n\nMartial marked his return from a four-match injury absence by driving home his sixth goal of the season, after a pass intended for Marcus Rashford deflected back to the French striker 17 minutes from time.\n\nWithin 180 seconds, United had another when Bruno Fernandes picked out Rashford with a brilliant curling cross-field pass, which the England man turned into the path of Fred, who nudged the ball into an empty net from barely a yard out with his knee.\n\nNew signing Marcel Sabitzer watched from an executive box as United put themselves within one victory of their first trophy since 2017.\n\nThere was also a return to action for Jadon Sancho, who had not featured since October after Ten Hag put the England winger on an individual training programme in an effort to recover his form amid physical and mental issues.\n• None 'It's about winning it' for Man Utd as Sancho returns\n• None All of the best Man Utd content in one place\n\nWhile their barren run does not compare with that of Newcastle, United know that if they fail to win a trophy this season it will be the club's longest spell without silverware since the nine years after their European Cup triumph in 1968.\n\nManager Ten Hag made reference to the demands placed upon him in his programme notes, saying: \"This club must always aim to be chasing honours.\"\n\nFor the next three months at least, they will do so without Christian Eriksen, whose ankle injury has robbed United of arguably their most creative force.\n\nThe returns of Martial and Sancho are therefore well-timed.\n\nTen Hag views Martial as his optimum number nine, whose fluidity and movement is capable of causing problems for any defence.\n\nSancho's talent for direct running is well known, even if it has not been seen that much since he returned to England from Borussia Dortmund in 2021.\n\nUnited beat Newcastle in the FA Cup final 24 years ago in the second leg of their historic treble.\n\nThey will be acutely aware their task this time around will not be made any easier by the fact they must entertain Barcelona in the Europa League three days before the EFL Cup final on 26 February.\n\nAlthough there was never any likelihood of Forest rescuing the situation, their sizeable away following had a good evening out, even if their optimistic pre-match song \"We're gonna win 4-0\" was wide of the mark.\n\nJesse Lingard's hopes of appearing against his former club disappeared when he was injured in the warm-up.\n\nHis replacement, Emmanuel Dennis, might have put Forest ahead just before half-time with a shot that could have crept in had it not struck Sam Surridge, who tried - and failed - to get out of the way.\n\nDanilo brought an acrobatic save out of Tom Heaton before the end, with Surridge putting the rebound over with the goal at his mercy.\n\nWith Brazilian defender Felipe, midfielder Jonjo Shelvey and three-time Champions League winner Keylor Navas emerging on deadline day from the revolving door that is Forest's recruitment department, boss Steve Cooper has more change to manage over the final 18 games of a first top-flight campaign in more than two decades in which the number-one target is survival.\n\nHowever, the Welshman has done an excellent job so far and, despite the disappointment of a second defeat to the same opposition in the space of a week, can take comfort from the knowledge his side were competitive for long spells in both games.\n\nDuring the first-half, VAR Michael Salisbury was asked to check a potential red-card offence between United winger Alejandro Garnacho and Forest forward Brennan Johnson, who had clashed not far away from the visitors' technical area.\n\nIt was quickly ruled there was nothing in the incident to warrant a dismissal.\n\nReferee Peter Bankes did make a point of speaking to Johnson, although no action was taken.\n\nCooper gave a very blunt response when he was asked about the reason for Johnson's angry reaction: \"I don't want to make a comment on that.\"\n• None Man Utd news and fan views all in one place\n• None Attempt missed. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right misses to the left. Assisted by Anthony Martial.\n• None Attempt missed. Sam Surridge (Nottingham Forest) right footed shot from the right side of the box is too high following a fast break.\n• None Attempt saved. Danilo (Nottingham Forest) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top right corner.\n• None Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Manchester United 2, Nottingham Forest 0. Fred (Manchester United) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Marcus Rashford.\n• None Attempt blocked. Gustavo Scarpa (Nottingham Forest) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Danilo.\n• None Goal! Manchester United 1, Nottingham Forest 0. Anthony Martial (Manchester United) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Marcus Rashford following a fast break.\n• None Attempt missed. Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right following a fast break. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "For many of us coffee offers a much needed boost, but we may be getting much more - or less - caffeine than we bargained for at popular High Street coffee shops.\n\nConsumer group Which? compared the caffeine in drinks at five big chains and says it found \"huge differences\".\n\nA medium cappuccino at Costa Coffee for example has 325mg of caffeine - five times more than Starbucks'.\n\nMeanwhile Pret was found to have the strongest espresso and filter coffee.\n\nWhich? said consumers should be alert to caffeine levels.\n\n\"Our research shows you may be consuming significantly more, or less, caffeine than you bargained for,\" said its nutritionist Shefalee Loth.\n\n\"Most of the time this shouldn't be an issue but if you drink a lot of coffee or need to limit your caffeine intake you might want to consider what you're ordering and where from.\"\n\nSimon, 64, told the BBC he normally preferred small, independent coffee shops but did sometimes go to Costa and Pret.\n\n\"I'm not really strongly affected by caffeine, I can drink coffee in the evening and it doesn't really affect me that much,\" he said.\n\nGurpreetpal Bahtoye, 37, from Wolverhampton told the BBC he travelled \"that extra bit just go to Costa because I like the way they make their lattes\".\n\n\"I was a bit surprised by this survey - by the extent of the variation of caffeine content. I had a latte once from McDonalds that gave me this huge caffeine kick…and then I crashed. I had to take a nap afterwards,\" he said.\n\nCaffeine is a natural stimulant that can make you more alert. However, some people are sensitive to it or need to avoid it for health reasons, such as being pregnant.\n\nWhich? compared the caffeine levels in drinks like cappuccino and espresso at Caffè Nero, Costa, Greggs, Pret a Manger and Starbucks.\n\nThe consumer group did not include the likes of McDonald's or Tesco which also sell a lot of coffee, telling the BBC it only included retailers happy to share caffeine content information with it.\n\nIt said it found big differences between chains. For example, Costa's medium cappuccino was strongest, with caffeine equivalent to four cups of tea, while Starbucks' contained the least at 66mg - less than a single cup of tea.\n\nMost people do not need to worry about how much coffee they consume.\n\nOn balance coffee - and the hundreds of compounds it contains - seem to come with health benefits and three to four cups a day (adding up to 300-400 mg of caffeine) is fine for most people.\n\nBut the NHS recommends pregnant women should consume no more than 200mg of caffeine per day, which would rule out a Costa cappuccino (325mg).\n\nThe NHS says drinking too much caffeine can lead to smaller babies, who could have health problems later, as well as potentially increasing the risk of miscarriage.\n\nAnd if caffeine is contributing to insomnia or giving you heart palpitations then you may want to cut down.\n\nOne factor that can impact caffeine content of drinks is the type of coffee bean. Of the two main types used, Arabica beans contain around half the caffeine of Robusta beans, and there are also variations in taste between the two.\n\nCosta Coffee said the amount of caffeine in its drinks varied depending on size of a drink and the type of coffee used.\n\n\"We would encourage customers to be aware of the caffeine content in their favourite Costa coffee to ensure it is right for their dietary requirements or lifestyle choice,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\nPret declined to comment, while the BBC has contacted Caffè Nero, Greggs and Starbucks for comment.", "DC Thomson publishes magazines and newspapers including the P&J and The Courier\n\nThree hundred employees at DC Thomson will be made redundant, the Dundee-based publisher has confirmed.\n\nThe firm said on Wednesday that it had to \"reshape its portfolio\" to plug a £10m gap.\n\nAs well as shedding almost 19% of its workforce, it will close a number of Dundee-based publications including teen magazine Shout.\n\nAbout half of the job losses will come from the closure of titles acquired from Colchester-based Aceville in 2018.\n\nA spokesperson for DC Thomson, which employs about 1,600 people across the UK, said it was a \"difficult decision\".\n\n\"A huge amount of work goes into the creation of our titles and despite being loved, some titles and brands are finding it harder to be profitable,\" they added.\n\n\"We are resetting DC Thomson's media business to focus on high growth, and sustainable growth.\"\n\nThe firm confirmed the closure of magazines including Living, Platinum, Evergreen, Shout, Animals & You and Animal Planet, which are all produced in Dundee.\n\n\"All our flagship brands remain integral to our future,\" they said.\n\nDC Thomson also publishes newspapers including The Press and Journal, The Sunday Post and The Courier.\n\nStaff were told their jobs were at risk in a series of meetings on Wednesday before the number of redundancies was confirmed on Thursday morning.\n\nThey have been told that news titles will not close but it is understood that jobs are at risk among journalists, photographers, senior management and editors.\n\nThe editor-in-chief of the Press & Journal and Evening Express in Aberdeen, Frank O'Donnell, has been told his job is \"at risk\".\n\nSources within DC Thomson described the atmosphere within the newsroom as \"grim\".\n\nA spokesperson for the firm said: \"As part of the transformation, we are reviewing changes to the structure of our newsrooms to respond to economic pressures and better serve our local communities.\n\n\"Roles and responsibilities at all levels within the team are being reviewed. It would be inappropriate to comment on individual people at this time.\n\n\"The Scottish communities, particularly in the north and north east, are core to DC Thomson and we have a number of thriving businesses in the region.\"\n\nSenior editors are believed to have been angered by the handling of staff redundancies, having not been consulted on plans to axe jobs.\n\nNick McGowan-Lowe, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) organiser for Scotland said: \"These are brutal cuts, and we will robustly defend the jobs of our members.\n\n\"Our members are furious both with how the company has handled these redundancies and because they are seeking to make £10m cuts across the business after paying out £24m in dividends to shareholders last year.\n\n\"The jobs of hard-working journalists should not be sacrificed to pay the price of extravagant shareholder profits.\"\n\nDC Thomson also produces magazines and comics including The People's Friend, Beano, and Puzzler.\n\nIt employs people across offices across Scotland, including in Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness, Moray and Glasgow, alongside operations in Colchester and London.\n\nThe news of the redundancies came as staff at two other Scottish newspapers faced job cuts.\n\nThe Times and The Sunday Times Scotland workers have been told about proposals to combine the newspapers into one seven-day operation.\n\nIt is not yet known how many positions this will affect.\n\nAll print publishers are struggling with the impact of changed reading habits and commuting patterns as well as big increases in their costs. DC Thomson is no exception.\n\nAs a news publisher, the family firm used to be known for its deep conservatism. But in the era of the internet, it has adapted and grown more of a reputation as a canny operator.\n\nIt continued to invest in its flagship titles while other Scottish newspapers cut costs and floundered. It shifted carefully to online publishing, limiting damage to print sales without giving too much away for free. And it used its deep pockets to diversify, into radio and genealogy, while sitting on a large investment fund.\n\nPart of the successful formula is that executives and journalists stayed close to their customers. But insiders are questioning now whether the top team understands that customer base, or if they are following a familiar route of cost-cutting. The cuts announcement seems to have been dumped on editors, who would usually expect to be consulted.\n\nThe magazine sector has seen circulation fall away fast. The 40 print titles closing at DC Thomson, most of them at its Colchester office, cover hobbies, crafts, lifestyle and the trade press. DC Thomson understands magazines come and go, sometimes lasting for quite short periods. The Beano goes on, but a lot more are disappearing than are being set up.", "The family have been sentenced to prison terms of up to three years\n\nA mother and her three sons swindled their friends out of more than £300,000 in a property scam, a court has heard.\n\nAudrey Osborne, 66, Clayton Moore, 48, Ian Moore, 46, and Gary Moore, 44, told their friends they were investing in a five-home property development in Neath, but it never materialised.\n\nThe family also over estimated their income to obtain mortgages totalling £2.5m between 2005 and 2009.\n\nThey have been sentenced to prison terms up to three years in length.\n\nJudge Richard Twomlow said that the four's predictions for the return on the investments were \"founded on some sort of fantasy\".\n\nNine people who invested between £20,000 and £104,000 in the failed \"Dreamscape Homes\" property development knew and trusted the family, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard.\n\nThey received share certificates, but no return on their money as the land was never developed. Some investors re-mortgaged their homes to provide the money.\n\nOn Thursday the court heard that some had suffered significant financial hardship as a result.\n\nJudge Twomlow told the four \"the investors trusted you implicitly\" but \"all investors lost all their money\" and some had consequently been \"burdened by debt for years\".\n\nAudrey Osborne and her sons sent emails to investor to try to reassure them\n\nThe judge said he accepted the mortgage broking company and property development company had been \"initially genuine projects\" but that when the firms began \"sinking\", more money was sought which went into personal accounts to try and keep the businesses afloat.\n\nThe family sent emails to the investors to try and reassure them when problems started.\n\nThe judge said they \"seemed to border on the delusional\", adding that the family's motivation was \"greed followed by self-preservation\".\n\nIan Moore, of Main Road, Cilfrew, Neath Port Talbot, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison, while the other three, of Forest Hill, Aberdulais, Neath Port Talbot, will each serve a three-year jail term.\n\nA later hearing will consider whether a proceeds of crime order should be imposed to recover fraudulently obtained money.", "Dmitry Pleshevskiy known as Iseldor online is one of the men accused of being a cyber-criminal\n\nSeven Russian men have been sanctioned by the UK and US for having links to recent ransomware attacks.\n\nThe UK's Foreign Office, along with US authorities, has released pictures of the men, frozen their assets and imposed travel restrictions.\n\nUS authorities have accused them of being members of loosely defined Russian-based hacking network Trickbot.\n\nRansomware strains Conti and Ryuk extorted at least £27m in ransoms from 149 British victims.\n\n\"This is a hugely significant moment for the UK and our collaborative efforts with the US to disrupt international cyber-criminals,\" said National Crime Agency director general Graeme Biggar.\n\n\"The sanctions are the first of their kind for the UK and signal the continuing campaign targeting those responsible for some of the most sophisticated and damaging ransomware that has impacted the UK and our allies,\" he said.\n\nMikhail Iskritskiy also known as (aka) Tropa and Valery Sedletski aka Strix are on the new cyber sanctions list\n\nThe National Cyber Security Centre, a part of GCHQ, has assessed that key group members are \"highly likely\" to have strong links to the Russian Intelligence Services from which they are sometimes directed.\n\nNo evidence was supplied to support this allegation.\n\nThe UK government categorises ransomware as a tier one national security threat with recent victims including UK schools, local authorities and firms.\n\nThe individuals sanctioned are: Vitaliy Kovalev, Valery Sedletski, Valentin Karyagin, Maksim Mikhailov, Dmitry Pleshevskiy, Mikhail Iskritskiy and Ivan Vakhromeyev.\n\nAny arrests are impossible unless the accused leave the country.\n\nThe group behind the Conti strain has targeted hospitals, schools, businesses and local authorities, including the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. It extorted $180m (£148m) in ransomware in 2021 alone, according to research from Chainalysis.\n\nIreland's Health Service Executive was targeted by Conti ransomware actors during the Covid pandemic, leading to disruption to blood tests, X-rays, CT scans, radiotherapy and chemotherapy appointments over 10 days.\n\nAnother recent ransomware attack included Harrogate-based transportation and cold storage firm Reed Boardall, whose IT systems were under attack for nearly a week in 2021.\n\nAlthough Conti disbanded in 2022, its members are thought to have continued their attacks under different guises.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Businesses are being held to ransom by callous Ryuk cyber-criminals\n\nRussia has for years denied that it is harbouring ransomware hackers, but cyber-security experts say there is compelling evidence that many of the criminal groups are co-ordinated from the country.\n\nMany of the gangs operate on Russian-language forums, there are fewer attacks on Russian organisations, and the frequency of hacks dips during Russian public holidays.\n\nThe latest sanctions follow multinational efforts to disrupt ransomware crews, most recently by sabotaging the Hive ransomware crew and taking them offline.\n\nPreviously the US and UK worked together on sanctions issued against alleged members of cyber-crime group Evil Corp in 2020. Authorities allege that some of the men in the latest sanctions could have formerly worked for the group.\n\nIn 2021 the BBC went to Russia to try to track down the group and was told by a family member that the sanctions had made them fear for their safety.\n• None Evil Corp: Searching for the world's most wanted hackers", "A driver who rammed a bus into a busy daycare in Quebec, killing two children, has been charged with first-degree murder.\n\nSix children were injured in the incident - including some who became trapped under the vehicle - in Laval, near Montreal, on Wednesday morning.\n\nPolice believe the suspect, Pierre Ny St-Amand, deliberately drove the bus into the daycare during the morning drop-off.\n\nBut they said a motive was unclear.\n\nThe 51-year-old, who had been employed as a bus driver by the local public transit system for 10 years, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm.\n\nWhile about a dozen others were injured, including the six children, police said they did not expect any more fatalities. The child victims were reported to be of preschool age.\n\nOne eyewitness, Hamdi Ben Chaabane, told CBC News that the driver exited the bus after the crash, took off his clothes and began acting erratically.\n\n\"It was a nightmare. It's horrible. He didn't stop yelling. He wasn't saying words,\" he said.\n\nIn a brief court appearance via video link, the suspect refused to speak during a hearing and was ordered by a judge to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.\n\nHe appeared from a bed at a hospital in Montreal.\n\nThe daycare is located on a quiet cul-de-sac in Laval and the crash happened at about 08:30 (13:30 GMT). Police had cordoned off the area by Wednesday afternoon.\n\nA crisis centre was set up nearby to help parents and families.\n\nBy Wednesday evening, a makeshift memorial to the victims began to grow, as neighbours left stuffed animals and flowers in the snow.\n\n\"When you leave your children at the daycare for the day, you know that they're in good hands,\" Quebec's Families Minister Suzanne Roy told reporters. \"When an event like that can happen, it shakes us and shatters us.\"\n\nPrime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is from Montreal, said his thoughts were \"with families in Laval who are living incredibly difficult moments. We hope that everyone will be OK\".", "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's tour of Europe, for all its photo opportunities, gratitude and applause, is a reminder that the war leaves the UK and Ukraine's allies wrestling with profound questions.\n\nIt is a conflict without immediate, obvious end.\n\nTo how many requests from Ukraine can the answer be yes?\n\nAnd with what consequences?\n\nTo stand in Westminster Hall, with hundreds of others, was to see British politics come together.\n\nWitnessing its invited speakers, first hand, is one of the greatest privileges of this job because people are invited to address the Hall at moments of huge import.\n\nLast year, the King shortly after the death of Queen Elizabeth.\n\nSome years ago - and before my time here - the Pope, Nelson Mandela and Charles de Gaulle.\n\nAnd now Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.\n\nThis was a cross-party audience poised to applaud at any moment a leader who has become the face and voice of his country, and recognised in much of the world.\n\nA defender of his nation and a defender of democracy.\n\nBut can the UK, should the UK, provide what he wants?\n\nThis was not just a lofty exposition of a speaker's worldview.\n\nIt was a leader at war with a specific request.\n\nPresident Zelensky has regularly presented an ambitious list of requests to Ukraine's allies, many of which have often been met, even if not as quickly as he might have hoped.\n\nAnd so to his latest: warplanes for his country's pilots to fly.\n\nAn observation and demand that amounted to \"thanks for your help but we need lots more\" was wrapped in the arresting rhetoric of a former actor, both comfortable on the public stage and savvy at the stagecraft of performance.\n\nPresenting a fighter pilot's helmet to the Speaker of the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, he pointed to the writing upon it: \"We have freedom, give us wings to protect it.\"\n\nThis was a whole lot more than Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is promising and is not easy to achieve.\n\nAnd not only is President Zelensky asking for it, so is Boris Johnson, the prime minister-before-last who visited Kiev just last month.\n\nSo what should we read into the current prime minister's promise later that \"nothing is off the table\"?\n\nIn broad terms, we can read it literally.\n\nThe UK feels it has a strategic, diplomatic and moral obligation to remain steadfast in its support for Ukraine.\n\nBut Mr Sunak did not give a specific commitment to provide British planes.\n\nThere are several reasons for this.\n\nSecondly, fighter jets require complex engineering support to function properly in a warzone.\n\nAnd thirdly, they would be vulnerable to Russian air defence systems, stationed within Russia - the targeting of which would risk a huge escalation in the war.\n\nFor all these reasons Lord Robertson, the former secretary general of Nato, told the BBC there were \"huge problems\" with the idea, at least in the short term.\n\nBut he did suggest that sending a dozen or so Challenger tanks, the first of which the prime minister told us will be on the battlefield under Ukrainian command next month, is not enough.\n\nThat, he said, is because \"they are defending our front line\" - the continent's front line, and the front line of our values.\n\nThose words and this trip from President Zelensky are a reminder that the challenges and questions posed by this ongoing war to the UK and its European neighbours are likely to last for a long time to come.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. President Zelensky: On behalf of Ukrainians, thank you Britain", "BBC Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman paused his live broadcast as rescue teams in Adana, Turkey, called for quiet.\n\nThe search for survivors across southern Turkey and northern Syria continues after Monday's devastating earthquake that killed thousands of people.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. President Zelensky: On behalf of Ukrainians, thank you Britain\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said \"nothing is off the table\" after Volodymyr Zelensky urged the UK to supply Ukraine with fighter jets.\n\nUkraine's president, who was visiting the UK for the first time since Russia's invasion, expressed gratitude for the equipment received so far.\n\nBut he warned that supplies were \"running out\" and that this could result in \"stagnation\" in the conflict.\n\nThe UK is to start training Ukrainian forces to fly Nato-standard jets.\n\nDowning Street said Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is investigating what aircraft the UK could potentially offer, but emphasised this was \"a long-term solution\" and that training pilots could take years.\n\nPresident Zelensky's surprise visit to the UK began with meetings in Downing Street, after which he addressed a huge crowd of MPs and peers in the historic setting of Westminster Hall.\n\n\"Freedom will win - we know Russia will lose,\" he told the audience, adding the UK was with his country on a march to \"the most important victory of our lifetime\".\n\nThanking the UK for its \"grit\", he said the country, through its support of Ukraine, had not compromised the \"spirit and ideals of these great islands\".\n\nHe also singled out Boris Johnson for praise, saying the former prime minister had united others \"when it seemed impossible\".\n\nDuring his speech, which was met with applause throughout, the Ukrainian leader presented House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle with the helmet of a Ukrainian pilot.\n\nThe writing on the helmet reads: \"We have freedom, give us wings to protect it.\"\n\nReflecting on his last visit to the UK, in 2020, he recalled thanking his hosts \"for delicious English tea\".\n\n\"I will be leaving Parliament today, thanking you all in advance for powerful English planes.\"\n\nMr Johnson echoed his calls in a statement saying: \"It is time to give the Ukrainians the extra equipment they need to defeat Putin and to restore peace to Ukraine. That means longer range missiles and artillery, it means more tanks, it means planes.\"\n\nThe day started with a commitment from the UK to help train Ukrainian pilots.\n\nBut following an impassioned plea by Zelensky for fighter jets themselves, that pledge gradually shifted.\n\nThe PM has now ordered the defence secretary to examine ways that the UK can provide Ukraine with fighter jets.\n\nThe RAF has a limited number of aircraft it could theoretically provide Ukraine - including about 20 older Typhoon jets.\n\nHowever, there is a danger Britain is writing cheques it will struggle to cash.\n\nThe RAF is already facing a backlog in the training of its own fast jet pilots, maintenance and upkeep of older aircraft is also more difficult.\n\nEven the prime minister has admitted that if Britain does supply fast jets, it will be for the longer term not the near future\n\nAs the first anniversary of Russia's invasion approaches, Western countries have been considering how to bolster support for Ukraine, with the country braced for a renewed Russian offensive later this month.\n\nThe expansion of the UK's training programme signals a shift, after the UK said it was \"not practical\" for it to send its aircraft to Ukraine.\n\nEarlier this year, the UK also announced it would send 14 battle tanks to Ukraine. President Zelensky praised Mr Sunak for taking this \"powerful defensive step\".\n\nPresident Zelensky was applauded throughout his speech by an audience which included Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Keir Starmer, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and the Lib Dem's Ed Davey\n\nIn his address to Parliament, he also urged the UK and the West to continue imposing sanctions \"until Russia is deprived of any possibility to finance the war\".\n\n\"Anyone who invests in terror must be held accountable, anyone who invests in violence must compensate those who have suffered from terror.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, the UK announced a fresh round of sanctions targeting Russia.\n\nThe latest sanctions target IT companies, as well as manufacturers of military equipment such as drones and helicopter parts.\n\nAfter speaking to Parliament, President Zelensky met King Charles at Buckingham Palace.\n\nOn Wednesday afternoon he joined the prime minister on a visit to Dorset where Ukrainian troops are training to use Challenger 2 tanks.\n\nThe two men signed the London Declaration - a statement affirming the UK-Ukraine partnership - before holding a joint press conference.\n\nHe has now arrived in Paris, where he is meeting French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.\n\nOn Thursday he will meet EU leaders and is expected to continue his push for further military assistance as well as Ukraine's aspirations to join the EU.\n\nAhead of their meeting, President Zelensky said he wanted to convey to King Charles Ukraine's gratitude for his support\n\n\"He's the real deal. You don't get many leaders quite like that in the world.\"\n\nLabour's Stephen Doughty - like many crowded into Westminster Hall - was left with a sense of awe by President Zelensky's speech.\n\nOne or two were overcome with emotion, brushing away a tear as they listened to his impassioned words, delivered entirely in English.\n\nFor Mr Doughty, a member of the all-party Ukraine group, who has visited the country recently, it was Mr Zelensky's \"V for victory\" sign at the end of his speech that was the most powerful moment.\n\nThe president had made a reference to Sir Winston Churchill, as he often does when addressing a British audience.\n\nBut it was the fact Mr Zelensky was bathed in sunlight streaming through stained glass windows that are a memorial to those lost in two world wars that will stay with the Labour MP.\n\n\"The symbolism of that is incalculable,\" he said.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Newscast after the speech, Sir Lindsay described the atmosphere in Westminster Hall during President Zelensky's speech as \"very, very moving\".\n\n\"You could hear a pin drop,\" he said, adding \"there were lots of tears… I was speaking to a senior member of Parliament who said: 'I just couldn't stop crying.'\"\n\nHe also said he was planning to display the pilot's helmet in the Speaker's House in Parliament or in his Chorley constituency.", "A study of orcas in the North Pacific has revealed that mothers make a \"lifelong sacrifice\" for their sons.\n\nRearing a son significantly reduced a female killer whale's chance of reproducing in the future.\n\nThe energy they need to feed sons appears to compromise their health, leaving them less able to reproduce and raise other young.\n\n\"Mothers sacrifice their own food and their own energy,\" said Prof Darren Croft from the University of Exeter.\n\nOrcas remain closely bonded to their families throughout their lives. But while young female offspring become independent in adulthood, males depend on their mothers - even demanding a share of the food that their matriarchs catch.\n\nProf Croft described it as a \"new insight into the complex social lives and family lives of these amazing animals\".\n\nThe decades-long study, published in the journal Current Biology, is part of an ongoing mission to understand killer whale family life.\n\nIt was made possible by the Center for Whale Research (CWR), which has followed the lives of a population of killer whales, known as the Southern Residents, for more than 40 years.\n\nMothers and sons will 'hang out' well into a male's adulthood\n\nSince 1976, the CWR has produced a complete census of the Southern Resident population, which enabled biologists to carry out multi-generation studies like this one - disentangling critical social behaviour and family bonds that directly impact the animals' survival.\n\nFor this research, scientists examined the lives of 40 female orcas between 1982 and 2021, and discovered that for each living son, a mother's annual likelihood of rearing another calf to one year old was cut by half.\n\n\"Our previous research has shown that sons have a higher chance of survival if their mother is around,\" said Dr Michael Weiss from the University of Exeter and Center for Whale Research.\n\n\"We wanted to find out if this help comes at a price and answer is yes. Killer whale mothers pay a high cost in terms of their future reproduction to keep their sons alive.\"\n\nThe ongoing study of this threatened killer whale population, that lives in the coastal waters between Vancouver and Seattle, was started by Dr Ken Balcomb. Initially, he wanted to examine the threats to their survival.\n\nThe ensuing work went on to reveal insights into killer whale life that could only have come to light through decades of study. Biologists have worked with the CWR to reveal, for example, the vital role of killer whale grandmothers and why, like humans, females of this species cease reproduction part way through their lives.\n\nFrom their years of studying killer whale interactions, scientists already knew that mothers and sons \"hung out\" together well into the male's adulthood.\n\n\"They'll even feed their sons salmon they catch,\" explained Prof Croft, whereas adult female offspring will hunt independently.\n\nThis could, the researchers think, be a kind of evolutionary \"bet-hedging\", driven by the fact that the biggest, oldest males go on to father many offspring.\n\n\"If a mother can get their son to become that big male in the population, then he's the one that will sire [much of the next generation],\" explained Prof Croft.\n\nIt may seem paradoxical that such powerful, intelligent animals remain dependent on their mothers through their lives, but it appears that males simply don't have to become independent, because their mother remains by their side.\n\n\"If my mother cooked my dinner for me every night, perhaps I just wouldn't learn to cook my own dinner,\" joked Prof Croft.\n\n\"But, indirectly, it does seem to be in a mother's interest.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The killer whales struggling to feed themselves\n\nThere are currently just 73 of these killer whales left, so the scientists say they need to understand anything that could help inform decisions about how to protect these marine mammals.\n\n\"These southern resident killer whales are balancing on a knife-edge and at risk of extinction,\" said Prof Croft. \"So anything that reduces females' reproduction is a concern for this population.\"\n\nThe Southern Residents were the subject of award-winning BBC Radio 4 documentary, The Whale Menopause", "Archie's mother, Hollie Dance, says she has been subjected to \"vile\" online abuse\n\nArchie Battersbee died accidentally following a \"prank or experiment\" that went wrong, a coroner concluded.\n\nArchie, 12, was found unconscious at the family home in Southend-on-Sea on 7 April.\n\nHe died four months later in August, following his parents' legal battle with the NHS hospital treating him in London.\n\nThe coroner said there was no evidence he was doing an online challenge at the time, as his mother first believed.\n\nHollie Dance had asked Essex Police to look at her son Archie's phone for any evidence he may have been taking part in a challenge.\n\nNo images or videos of Archie taking part in online challenges were found, a detective told the inquest.\n\nSenior Coroner for Essex, Lincoln Brookes, said he could not \"rule out the possibility\" that was what happened and nor could police, but he said a decision had to be made based on the evidence.\n\nHis medical cause of death was recorded as an unsurvivable catastrophic hypoxic ischemic brain injury.\n\nMr Brookes said Archie \"hadn't intended to harm himself but had done so inadvertently during a prank or experiment that went wrong\".\n\nHe added that it \"probably went wrong very quickly and very badly\".\n\nHe said he had considered a conclusion of suicide, but ruled this out.\n\nWhile Archie had expressed periods of low mood in the preceding 12 months there was no evidence of it at the time of his death, the coroner said.\n\n\"He was full of energy, he was very physical, he was at times very bored,\" said Mr Brookes.\n\n\"He liked to trick, he liked sometimes to carry out acts, or some might describe them as stunts, that would alarm people,\" he said.\n\nArchie's mother Hollie Dance said she believed the coroner's conclusion was correct\n\nSpeaking outside court Ms Dance said she felt the outcome \"was correct\".\n\nShe said the family now wanted time \"to grieve\" but that she would continue to tackle online bullying.\n\nArchie Battersbee was sent a voice note four days before he died telling him his mum had wanted to abort him\n\nMs Dance had said previously that she and members of her family had been subjected to abusive messages from \"online trolls\".\n\n\"The whole idea of raising awareness from day one, even when we weren't 100% sure what Archie had done, was to raise awareness to other parents to prevent something happening again,\" she said.\n\n\"I think we have done that, despite the fact we've been trolled so heavily, it's been worth it.\n\n\"I do think we have saved children's lives.\"\n\nShe said she wanted her son to be remembered as a \"fun-loving, very energetic\" child.\n\nHollie Dance said \"I do think we have saved children's lives\"\n\nThe inquest in Chelmsford heard that Archie received a voice note days before he was found unconscious which told him his mother had wanted to have an abortion.\n\nDet Sgt Tiffany Gore told the inquest officers found a voice note from 3 April in which a young male voice said: \"Oi Archie, do you know why you're angry?\n\n\"Because your mum wanted you to be an abortion.\"\n\nShe said that a second audio note on the same date said: \"You and your mum are the ones sat there all night using.\"\n\nAnother \"heated exchange\" was found dated 15 February 2022 with \"a number of voice notes\" in a second young male voice, she said.\n\nMr Brookes said it could be characterised as a \"heated exchange of bravado\" where threats were exchanged.\n\nVideos and images on Archie's phone showed the youngster taking part in martial arts and \"showed a happy little boy enjoying his hobbies\", the officer said.\n\nThe inquest heard that although Archie had TikTok on his phone, the police had not been able to say for certain he had never seen any online challenges or something containing suicidal thoughts.\n\nHowever, they did establish there had been no internet searches related to online challenges.\n\nArchie's siblings said they could not imagine he would ever intentionally harm himself\n\nThomas Summers, Archie's older brother, described him as a \"joker\".\n\nHe said he had spoken to him hours before he was found unconscious and Archie had told him he was looking to buy a new coat.\n\n\"I do not believe Archie would have intentionally harmed himself in any way when just a few hours before he was looking to buy a coat,\" said his brother.\n\nHe added that Archie was concentrating on his first MMA fight, which was a few weeks away.\n\nArchie's older sister Lauren Summers said she could not recall \"any signs or indications of Archie being in a low mood or displaying unusual behaviour\".\n\nMatthew Badcock, the head teacher at Archie's former primary school, said: \"Although Archie was challenging, he was lovely with it and rarely disrespectful.\"\n\nHe described times when Archie \"would go to the top of the stairwell and was hanging over the top and staff had to pull him back\".\n\nHe said that when he heard of the incident he \"never for one second believed\" Archie was trying to harm himself.\n\n\"My gut reaction was he was doing something athletic or mucking about and it had gone wrong,\" said Mr Badcock.\n\nArchie's parents Paul Battersbee and Hollie Dance spent months in a legal battle with the hospital trust treating him\n\nArchie was on life support at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, and his parents, Paul Battersbee and Hollie Dance, opposed plans to end his life support treatment, but lost a legal battle in the courts.\n\nDr Malik Ramadhan, the medical director of the hospital, but not one of Archie's treating clinicians, was asked to give an overview of Archie's time there.\n\nHe said that when Archie arrived from Southend Hospital there were \"signs of neurological damage\".\n\n\"An initial electrical test of his brain showed there was no activity,\" he said.\n\n\"It was repeated with music being played and his mother with him to see if there was any response and there was no response to any outside stimulation.\"\n\nHe said that the hospital formed the view that it was \"not a survivable injury\".\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "On Wednesday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise trip to the UK to speak in Westminster Hall and meet King Charles at Buckingham Palace.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak shared a warm embrace with Mr Zelensky when he arrived at Stansted Airport (above).\n\nThe two leaders waved outside Downing Street, before heading inside.\n\nMr Sunak then went to the Commons for the weekly Prime Minster's Questions.\n\nIn his opening words, he said he was \"delighted\" that Mr Zelensky was visiting the UK.\n\nHe said it was \"testament to the unbreakable friendship\" between the UK and Ukraine.\n\nLater on, Mr Zelensky met Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Speaker of the House of Lords, Lord McFall (above and below).\n\nMr Zelensky signed the guestbook at Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster.\n\nHe also met Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party.\n\nMr Zelensky arrived on stage in Westminster Hall and was met with rapturous applause.\n\nSir Lindsay introduced Mr Zelensky and reflected on an afternoon tea the pair shared in October 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"Little did we know our relationship would grow in such turbulent times,\" Sir Lindsay said.\n\nHe spoke about the first speech, made virtually, by Mr Zelensky to the Commons last March, describing the atmosphere as \"electrifying\".\n\nHe said Parliament was \"honoured you put yourself at risk to address us\" in person on Wednesday.\n\nMr Zelensky then spoke in English and said he was there to represent Ukrainian warriors, \"on behalf of our war heroes who are in the trenches protecting Ukraine against enemy missiles\".\n\nMr Zelensky thanked the UK for providing equipment to his soldiers and training for those on the front line, and said the UK has been standing with Kyiv \"since day one\".\n\nThe leader then presented Sir Lindsay with a Ukrainian fighter pilot's helmet.\n\nThe pilot it belonged to is \"one of the most successful aces, and he's one of our kings\", Mr Zelensky said.\n\nThe writing on the helmet reads \"we have freedom, give us wings to protect it\".\n\nThe president then travelled to Buckingham Palace to meet King Charles.\n\nThe two men were pictured standing together as the King held an audience with the Ukrainian president - the first time they had met in person.\n\nMr Sunak and Mr Zelensky then flew together in a helicopter to Dorset for the next stop on the UK visit.\n\nThey were pictured laughing at something on the PM's phone as they prepared to take off.\n\nThey landed at Lulworth Camp, a military base in Dorset, flanked by their teams and military figures.\n\nThe Ukrainian president met soldiers who are being trained in the UK on how to operate Challenger 2 tanks.\n\nHe took time to present medals to some of the troops who will soon be sent to the front line.\n\nMr Sunak and Mr Zelensky gave a joint press conference in front of a tank, the same model the UK is donating to the Ukrainian war effort.\n\nThe PM said \"nothing is off the table\" when asked about providing fighter jets to Ukraine.\n\nSending warplanes was \"part of the conversation\", he told reporters, hours after Number 10 said the defence secretary has been asked to investigate what jets the UK could potentially give.", "Nicola Bulley has been missing since 27 January\n\nThe search for Nicola Bulley has been extended after a specialist diving team said it had completed its work.\n\nPeter Faulding, from Specialist Group International, said his team were pulling out as the mother-of-two was \"categorically not\" in the area of river where police believe she fell in.\n\nMs Bulley, 45, was last seen walking her dog by the river in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire 12 days ago.\n\nThe search has now been extended as far as Knott End and Morecambe Bay.\n\nMr Faulding, who was called in by the family to help with the search, said: \"We've done very thorough searches all the way down to the weir. Police divers have dived it three times, extremely thoroughly.\n\n\"That area is completely negative - there is no sign of Nicola in that area. The main focus will be the police investigation down the river, which leads out to the estuary.\"\n\nThe search has focused on a section of the River Wyre\n\nHe added: \"If Nicola was in that river I would have found her - I guarantee you that - and she's not in that section of the river.\"\n\nMr Faulding told the media on Wednesday that he felt his team had \"done all they can\".\n\nHe said he could not understand why Nicola was not found on the first day she went missing, adding: \"Wherever she is I hope closure comes soon.\"\n\nNicola Bulley's partner was pictured at the scene earlier\n\nPolice said they still believed Ms Bulley fell in the river, but remained \"fully open-minded to any information that may indicate where Nicola is or what happened to her\".\n\nOfficers are currently following about 500 lines of inquiry and seeking some 700 motorists seen in the area on 27 January.\n\nDetectives have also analysed data from her Fitbit smart watch, they said.\n\nOn Wednesday, Ms Bulley's partner Paul Ansell visited the spot where police believe she fell into the river.\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river on 27 January.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jared O'Mara served as MP for Sheffield Hallam from June 2017 to November 2019\n\nAn ex-MP who tried to claim £52,000 of taxpayers' money to help fund a cocaine habit has been jailed for four years.\n\nJared O'Mara sent fake invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the body which regulates MPs' business costs and pay.\n\nHe was thousands of pounds in debt to a drug dealer, his trial heard.\n\nO'Mara, who quit the Labour party about a year after being elected as Sheffield Hallam MP, was convicted of six counts of fraud.\n\nGareth Arnold, who submitted invoices to IPSA on behalf of O'Mara, was given a 15-month jail term suspended for two years.\n\nThe court heard fake invoices worth £24,000 were rejected by IPSA and a false £28,000 contract of employment submitted by O'Mara meant the total value of the fraud was £52,000.\n\nO'Mara was elected to Parliament for Labour in June 2017, unseating former deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.\n\nHe quit the party the following year and became an independent after he was suspended by the party over comments he had posted online before becoming an MP.\n\nThe 41-year-old stood down in 2019, the same year the fraud offences took place.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Listen to the moment Gareth Arnold calls police about O'Mara's expense claims\n\nThrough his barrister, O'Mara apologised to the 70,000 voters in the South Yorkshire constituency for failing to resign in October 2017, the month he was suspended by Labour.\n\nHowever, Judge Tom Bayliss KC called the apology \"entirely disingenuous\" and said the fraud was \"cynical, deliberate and dishonest\".\n\n\"You must have realised early on that you were wholly unsuited to the role, but you carried on regardless, you brazened it out; drawing a salary, but doing little or no parliamentary work,\" he told O'Mara.\n\n\"You are not here because of that and I do not aggravate your position because of it. It is irrelevant to these proceedings. That is a matter between you and those who elected you.\n\n\"You are here because you abused your position to commit fraud and you have shown not the slightest degree of remorse in respect of that.\"\n\nThe court previously heard O'Mara made claims totalling £19,400 to IPSA for services he said had been provided by a \"fictitious\" organisation called Confident About Autism South Yorkshire.\n\nProsecutors said the former politician had used the postcode of a McDonald's restaurant in the city as the company's business address and the firm's name had no online search engine results.\n\nHe was also found guilty of trying to claim £4,650 for services he said his 30-year-old \"chief of staff\" Arnold, of School Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire, had provided to him.\n\nHe also submitted a false contract of employment for a friend, pretending he worked as a constituency support officer on a salary of £28,000.\n\nJared O'Mara and Gareth Arnold were convicted after a 12-day trial at Leeds Crown Court\n\nAll the invoices were rejected by IPSA due to a lack of detail about the work carried out, the jury was told.\n\nThe jury heard O'Mara, who is autistic and has cerebral palsy, was experiencing mental health issues at the time of the offences, but the judge concluded he was \"able to exercise appropriate judgement and make rational choices\".\n\nProsecutor James Bourne-Arton told the sentencing hearing the fraud was not a victimless crime as it \"undermines public trust and confidence\" in MPs.\n\nJudge Bayliss, sentencing O'Mara, of Walker Close, Sheffield, told him the fraud was designed to get him out of \"significant financial difficulties\".\n\nHe continued: \"Those difficulties were caused by a hedonistic and self indulgent lifestyle, fuelled by the consumption of large amounts of vodka and cocaine.\"\n\nFollowing the hearing, Labour said it had made changes to the way candidates were chosen.\n\n\"Thanks to Keir's leadership, the Labour party has put in place robust due diligence processes so that candidates are of the highest calibre,\" a party spokesperson said.\n\n\"Keir believes that the public have a right to know that everyone we put forward at election time is of a high standard. This case shows why Keir was right to demand that change.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "More than 22,000 people are now known to have died in Monday's earthquakes in Turkey and Syria - though the UN warns the disaster's full extent is still unclear.\n\nRescuers are still searching rubble for survivors, but hopes are fading more than four days since the first quake.\n\nTens of thousands of people have spent a freezing fourth night in makeshift shelters, after losing their homes.\n\nTurkey's president called the quake \"the disaster of the century\".\n\nA major international relief effort is gathering pace. On Thursday the World Bank pledged $1.78bn (£1.38bn) in aid to Turkey including immediate finance for rebuilding basic infrastructure and to support those affected by the earthquakes.\n\nAnother donation came from the US, which pledged a package of $85m to both countries.\n\nMeanwhile, the efforts of 100,000 or more rescue personnel on the ground are being hampered by logistical hurdles including vehicle shortages and devastated roads.\n\nUN chief Antonio Guterres warned the full extent of the catastrophe was still \"unfolding before our eyes\", especially in Syria where a long-running civil war has devastated the country.\n\nOn Thursday, the first UN humanitarian aid crossed the border into north-western Syria through Idlib's Bab al-Hawa crossing.\n\nThe crossing is the only way UN aid can reach the region without travelling through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.\n\nMr Guterres promised more help was on its way and he urged the UN Security Council to allow supplies to be delivered through more than one border crossing.\n\n\"This is the moment of unity, it's not a moment to politicise or to divide but it is obvious that we need massive support,\" he said.\n\nMunira Mohammad, a mother of four who fled Aleppo in Syria after the quake, told Reuters on Thursday that her family was in desperate need of heating and more supplies, saying: \"Last night we couldn't sleep because it was so cold. It is very bad.\"\n\nThe White Helmets rescue group said the only UN convoy that reached the region did not contain specialised equipment to free people trapped beneath the rubble.\n\nOfficials said on Friday that 18,342 people had died in Turkey, surpassing the more than 17,000 killed when a similar quake hit northwest Turkey in 1999.\n\nAn earlier update from Syria had put the toll there at 3,377.\n\nLater on Friday, the confirmed death toll surpassed 22,000.\n\nThe tremor ranks among the most deadly natural disasters of the century - surpassing others such as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.\n\nResat Gozlu, a survivor in south-eastern Turkey who is now living on the floor of a sports complex with his family, said rescue workers did not arrive until three days after the quake.\n\nHe said many remain trapped under the rubble and others died of hypothermia.\n\n\"If this continues there could be serious health issues and illness,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) earlier warned a second humanitarian disaster will strike unless survivors can get access to shelter, food, water and medicine \"very fast\".\n\nThe WHO's Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, told the BBC the organisation's staff in Turkey's Gaziantep were sleeping in cars because \"there's still hundreds and hundreds of aftershocks\".\n\nDr Kluge said communities in Syria depended on water reservoirs, which were the first to fall. He said the reservoirs need to be replaced or the country faces cholera outbreaks - which he said was an issue before the earthquake.\n\nSatellite imagery shows a fault line in Turkey after the earthquake", "Those affected by the earthquake in opposition-held Syria have had to rely on local organisations for aid\n\nThe first convoy of UN aid for opposition-held north-west Syria since Monday's devastating earthquake has crossed into the region from Turkey.\n\nThe UN said six lorries carrying shelter and relief supplies had gone through Idlib's Bab al-Hawa crossing.\n\nThe shipment had been due before the disaster, which caused damage to roads and temporarily halted deliveries.\n\nLocal rescuers expressed disappointment at the failure to send the specialist equipment they need to save lives.\n\n\"The UN aid... is the regular and periodic assistance that has been occurring since before the earthquake,\" tweeted the White Helmets, an organisation whose volunteer first responders operate in the region.\n\n\"It is not special aid and equipment for the search and rescue teams, and the recovery of those trapped under the rubble.\"\n\nThe UN migration agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the lorries were carrying blankets, mattresses, tents and shelter material, as well as basic relief items and solar lamps, to cover the needs of at least 5,000 people.\n\n\"We are working very closely with authorities to support in any way we can and hope that aid will quickly reach those most impacted,\" said its director general, António Vitorino.\n\nUN Secretary General António Guterres said: \"More help is on the way, but much more is needed.\"\n\nThe White Helmets have reported at least 1,970 deaths since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey in the early hours of Monday.\n\nThey have warned that the figure is likely to rise significantly because hundreds of families are still trapped beneath 418 destroyed and more than 1,300 partially destroyed buildings.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Thursday morning, as the window to find survivors narrowed, the White Helmets said the lack of heavy machinery was significantly hampering their work and appealed to the international community for help.\n\nHarsh winter weather conditions have also complicated the operation, while major power outages have resulted in fuel shortages at hospitals overwhelmed by the 2,950 injured survivors.\n\n\"The situation is very bad. And there is no aid,\" Ibrahim Khalil Menkaween told Reuters news agency in the town of Jindayris.\n\nThe 56-year-old, who lost seven members of his family including his wife, was waiting next to the remains of his home with a body bag to give to rescuers.\n\n\"I'm holding this bag for when they bring out my brother, and my brother's young son, and both of their wives,\" he explained.\n\nEven before the earthquake struck, 4.1 million people - most of them women and children - were relying on humanitarian assistance to survive in the opposition-held north-west, which is controlled by a jihadist alliance and Turkish-backed rebel factions opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.\n\nLast year, about 600 lorries carrying aid crossed from Turkey each month via Bab al-Hawa, the only border crossing that the UN is authorised to use. All other deliveries are meant to go via Damascus, although in the past the government has facilitated only a small amount of so-called \"cross-line\" aid.\n\nThe UN special envoy for Syria said on Thursday that earthquake-affected regions of the country had received \"nowhere near enough\" lifesaving aid and warned that assistance must not be \"politicised\".\n\n\"We need it urgently through the fastest, most direct and most effective routes. They need more of absolutely everything,\" Geir Pedersen told reporters in Geneva.\n\nHe was speaking after a meeting of the UN's humanitarian task force for Syria, which includes Russia and Iran, whose forces have backed the Syrian government in the country's 12-year civil war, as well as Turkey, the United States and the European Union, which support the opposition.\n\nThe UN top aid official in Syria, El-Mostafa Benlamlih, has said the country is experiencing a \"crisis on top of a crisis\", with 10.9 million people affected by earthquake nationwide.\n\nAid from countries including Iran, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Egypt, India and Venezuela has already reached government-controlled areas, where the health ministry says at least 1,260 people have been killed.\n\nThe government has suggested that lifting US and EU economic sanctions would help to speed up its emergency response. However, the EU has said the sanctions do not prohibit the export of food, medicines or medical equipment.", "The Turkish president met people affected by the earthquakes on Wednesday\n\nTurkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended his government's response to two catastrophic earthquakes, saying it was impossible to prepare for the scale of the disaster.\n\nAt least 15,000 people are confirmed dead in Turkey and northern Syria.\n\nCritics claimed the emergency services' response was too slow and the government was poorly prepared.\n\nMr Erdogan accepted the government had encountered some problems, but said the situation was now \"under control\".\n\n\"If there is one person responsible for this, it is Erdogan,\" he said.\n\nThe president rejected the accusation and said unity was required in the aftermath of the disaster, \"In a period like this, I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest,\" he told reporters in Hatay.\n\nThousands of survivors have been spending a third night in freezing conditions, with hope fading for many trapped under the rubble.\n\nA World Health Organization official has warned there could be significant injuries caused by freezing temperatures among survivors of the quakes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Syria earthquake: Crowds chant ‘God is great’ as family pulled alive from rubble\n\n\"We've got a lot of people who have survived now out in the open, in worsening and horrific conditions,\" said WHO earthquake response incident manager Robert Holden on Wednesday.\n\n\"We are in real danger of seeing a secondary disaster which may cause harm to more people than the initial disaster if we don't move with the same pace and intensity as we are doing on the search and rescue.\"\n\nIn nearby Syria, relief efforts have been complicated by years of conflict that has destroyed the nation's infrastructure.\n\nThe Bab al-Hawa crossing between Turkey and Syria has been closed since the earthquake as the roads were badly damaged.\n\nWhile a senior UN official said the road may soon be accessible, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed the country was working to open two more border gates to help get aid into the country.\n\n\"There are some difficulties in terms of Turkey's and the international community's aid [reaching Syria]. For this reason, efforts are being made to open two more border gates,\" he said.\n\nThe EU has confirmed it will send €3.5m (£3.1m) in aid to Syria following a government request for assistance, but said the aid must be delivered to both government- and rebel-controlled areas.\n\nMore than 1,500 people have died in Idlib province alone and an adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said sanctions were stopping Syria from receiving the aid it needed.\n\n\"We don't have enough bulldozers, we do not have enough cranes, we do not have enough oil due to European and American sanctions,\" Bouthaina Shabban said.", "Andrew Miller was taken into the court covered by a blanket.\n\nA 53-year-old man has appeared in court charged with abduction in connection with the disappearance of a young girl in the Borders.\n\nAndrew Miller made no plea when he appeared in private at Selkirk Sheriff Court.\n\nMr Miller - also known locally as Amy George - was also charged with threatening and abusive behaviour.\n\nHe was taken into the court covered by a blanket and remanded in custody to appear again within eight days.\n\nPolice arrested Mr Miller on Tuesday then charged him in the early hours of Wednesday morning.", "Burt Bacharach pictured at the Glastonbury Festival in 2015\n\nOne of pop music's greatest composers, Burt Bacharach, has died aged 94.\n\nHe wrote enduring hits like I Say A Little Prayer, Walk On By and What The World Needs Now Is Love.\n\nAlong with lyricist Hal David, he also wrote numerous movie themes including What's New Pussycat?, Alfie and The Look Of Love - a major hit for Dusty Springfield.\n\nAnother collaborator, Dionne Warwick, said the songwriter's death was like \"losing a family member\".\n\nBacharach died on Wednesday at home in Los Angeles of natural causes, his publicist Tina Brausam said.\n\nKnown for his airborne melodies and sumptuous orchestral arrangements, Bacharach was one of the most important songwriters of the 20th Century.\n\nOver his career, he scored more than 50 chart hits in the US and UK, with artists including Warwick, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Costello all recording his songs.\n\nBacharach won six Grammy Awards and was nominated 21 times\n\nBacharach won three Oscars, two Golden Globes and six competitive Grammy Awards, and was hailed as music's \"greatest living composer\" when he accepted the Grammy lifetime achievement honour in 2008.\n\nIn her tribute, Warwick said: \"These words I've been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner.\n\n\"On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run-ins but always found a way to let each other know our family like roots were the most important part of our relationship.\"\n\nOther music stars shared their thoughts about Bacharach. The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson said he was \"a hero of mine and very influential on my work\", adding: \"He was a giant in the music business. His songs will live forever,\" he added.\n\nFormer Oasis star Noel Gallagher posted: \"RIP Maestro. It was a pleasure to have known you.\"\n\nOscar-winning songwriter Diane Warren said the field had \"lost its Beethoven\", while film and TV composer David Arnold agreed he was \"one of the greatest songwriters of all time\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Diane Warren This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by DavidGArnold This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Kinks guitarist Dave Davies said Bacharach was \"probably one of the most influential songwriters of our time\" and \"a great inspiration\".\n\nCharlatans frontman Tim Burgess said Bacharach left \"one of the greatest songwriting legacies in the history of ever\", adding: \"Farewell Burt Bacharach, you were a king.\"\n\nBacharach's music touched multiple genres, from cool jazz and rhythm and blues, to bossa nova and traditional pop - but they shared one thing in common: you could recognise them within a couple of notes.\n\nIt was a style inspired by his tutor, French jazz musician Darius Milhaud.\n\n\"His observation was: Never be ashamed of something that's melodic, one could whistle,\" Bacharach recalled. \"That was a valuable lesson I learned from him. Never forgot that one. Never be afraid of something that you can whistle.\"\n\nBorn in Missouri, Bacharach grew up in New York City, where he first studied cello, drums and piano as a child.\n\nEnraptured by jazz and be-bop, he would often sneak out to watch sets by his heroes Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and began playing in jazz bands of his own in the 1940s.\n\nAfter graduating from school, he studied music theory and composition. Even when his education was interrupted by a spell in the military, he toured army bases as a uniformed concert pianist.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Composer Burt Bacharach at his piano in 1964\n\nAfter returning home, he toured with Marlene Dietrich, becoming her personal conductor - but said his early success was all down to luck.\n\n\"I wasn't chasing it. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was caught in the drift of things,\" he later reflected. \"I'm not a person who will walk over people, kill people, step on people to get to the next place where they want to be. Things just happened for me. I was very fortunate.\"\n\nBacharach with Dionne Warwick in the studio in 1964\n\nIn the 1950s, he was hired to work in New York's Brill Building, an epicentre of the music industry, and started writing country-rock smashes like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Only Love Can Break A Heart for Gene Pitney.\n\nHe scored his first UK number one in 1957 with Michael Holliday's sweet-but-charming The Story of My Life - a song that was originally recorded by Marty Robbins in the US.\n\nThat song also happened to be his first collaboration with Hal David, with whom he forged one of the most successful songwriting partnerships of the '60s.\n\nTheir sophisticated, debonair pop was often at odds with the more raucous sounds of rock 'n' roll, but the hits kept coming - especially when they teamed up with Dionne Warwick.\n\nOver a period of 10 years, the trio enjoyed 39 consecutive US hits, including such memorable songs as Walk On By, Don't Make Me Over, I'll Never Fall In Love Again and Promises, Promises.\n\nBacharach and lyricist Hal David won Oscars in 1969 for their music for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid\n\nWarwick later sued Bacharach after he and David stopped working together, leaving her without new material to record.\n\nIt was a \"very costly and unfortunate\" dispute, Bacharach told the Guardian in 2019, adding: \"I stupidly handled it wrong.\"\n\nHe and Warwick reconciled for the 1985 charity single That's What Friends Are For, which raised $1.5m for the American Foundation for Aids Research (AmFar) - and also featured vocals from Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight.\n\nOutside of that partnership, Bacharach and David won a Grammy and an Oscar in 1969 for Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, performed by BJ Thomas and featured in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.\n\nBacharach's music for the film also won the Oscar for best original score.\n\nPictured on stage in London with Adele in 2008\n\nAlthough his hits tailed off in later years, Bacharach remained a popular figure, collaborating with Adele, Sheryl Crow and Dr Dre, among others.\n\nOasis guitarist Noel Gallagher was a huge admirer, and once admitted to lifting the chords for Half The World Away from Bacharach's This Guy's In Love With You.\n\n\"It sounds exactly the same. I'm surprised he's not sued me yet.\"\n\nBacharach made a memorable appearance in the second Austin Powers film, performing I'll Never Fall in Love Again on an open top bus with Elvis Costello.\n\nIn 2016, he also wrote the score for John Asher's indie drama Po, saying he identified with the story, which explores the impact of autism on children.\n\nBacharach received the 2012 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from US President Barack Obama\n\nBacharach's daughter Nikki had died of suicide in 2007, at the age of 40, after a lifelong struggle with Asperger's syndrome.\n\nThe musician was married four times, to Paula Stewart in 1953, actress Angie Dickinson in 1958, his frequent musical collaborator Carole Bayer Sager in 1982, and finally Jane Hansen in 1993.\n\nHe is survived by Hansen and their children Oliver and Raleigh, as well as son Cristopher from his marriage to Bayer Sager.", "Monday's double earthquake in Turkey and Syria caused devastation across the region, killing thousands and destroying buildings and neighbourhoods in dozens on cities.\n\nIn Kahramanmaras, which was near the epicentre of both quakes, aerial photographs reveal the extent of the damage caused in just one of those neighbourhoods.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nBBC analysis using a mixture of satellite images, photos and drone footage from before and after the earthquake shows how much of the area around the city's 12 Subat stadium has been flattened in the disaster.\n\nThe satellite image taken after the earthquakes is dominated by the tent city that has been set up in the stadium - usually the home of Kahramanmarasspor football club - but now filled with more than 200 tents, each capable of sheltering a family or even two.\n\nThe large Gazi middle school near the stadium is still standing but looks badly damaged - two neighbouring residential tower blocks, next to the school, were completely collapsed.\n\nOn a normal Monday, some 2,000 students would have been attending lessons at Gazi middle school.\n\nBut schools across the country were closed until 13 February after the first quake struck before dawn on Monday.\n\n​​It is as you round the corner of Kuddusi Baba Boulevard and into the usually busy shopping street of Azerbaijan Boulevard that the full scale of destruction begins to unfold.\n\nBefore Monday the street was full of shops and cafes, many with several storeys of apartments above them, but all that is left now is rubble.\n\nAnd looking back towards the stadium over the ruined the apartment blocks you can see the private Sular hospital - damaged but still standing - although the four-star Sahra hotel next door was among the flattened buildings.\n\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the tent city in the stadium on Wednesday where he met survivors and defended the state's response amid criticism it had been too slow.\n\nHe acknowledged there had been \"issues at airports and on the roads\" but insisted the situation was improving, adding: \"We have mobilised all our resources. The state is doing its job.\"\n\nIt's not known how many have died in the city but on Tuesday evening officials said more than 1,200 people had died in the province - the death toll nationally has more than trebled to almost 13,000 since that last province-by-province update.\n\nTurkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) says it has sent more than 140,000 tents and 1.2m blankets to the 10 provinces worst hit by the disaster.\n\nAn estimated 2,000 people could be sheltering in the 12 Subat stadium but tens of thousands more have been left homeless across Turkey and neighbouring Syria.", "The wreckage of MH17 was painstakingly reassembled in the Netherlands and later inspected as part of the trial\n\nThere are strong indications that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to supply the missile that downed flight MH17 in 2014, international investigators say.\n\nThe passenger aircraft was hit by a Russian-made missile over Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people.\n\nProsecutors said there was evidence that Mr Putin decided to provide heavy weaponry to Moscow-backed separatists.\n\nThere is no suggestion that Mr Putin ordered the aircraft be shot down.\n\nThe conclusions of the Joint Investigation Team - made up of investigators from five countries - follow a Dutch court ruling from last year which found two Russians and a Ukrainian guilty of murder in absentia.\n\nMoscow - which has denied all involvement in the downing of the plane - dismissed those verdicts as \"scandalous\" and politically motivated.\n\nThe international team, charged with looking into those responsible for launching the missile, said on Wednesday it had exhausted all leads and could not continue with any more criminal proceedings.\n\nThe Boeing 777 was flying from the Dutch capital to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile in July 2014 during a conflict between pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region of Ukraine.\n\nOf the 298 passengers and crew, 196 were Dutch while many of the other passengers came from Malaysia, Australia, the UK, Belgium and other countries.\n\nThe Joint Investigation Team cited the Dutch court which last year ruled that Moscow had \"overall control\" over the Donetsk People's Republic, which controlled the area in July 2014.\n\nIt described recorded telephone conversations where Russian officials said the decision to provide military support \"rests with the President\".\n\n\"There is concrete information that the separatists' request was presented to the president, and that this request was granted,\" it said.\n\nBut it added it was not known whether the request \"explicitly mentions\" the system used to shoot down MH17.\n\n\"Although we speak of strong indications, the high bar of complete and conclusive evidence is not reached,\" investigators said.\n\n\"Furthermore, the President enjoys immunity in his position as Head of State.\"\n\nThe Joint Investigation Team (JIT) is made up of members from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine - the countries worst affected by the shooting down of MH17.\n\nThe team wanted to prove the identities of the missile's crew members, and who was in the chain of command, but admitted that was not possible for now.\n\nUkraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said: \"We will seek to employ all the existing international legal mechanisms to bring [Mr Putin] to justice\" over MH17.\n\nPiet Ploeg lost his brother, his brother's wife, and nephew on MH17. He said he was glad prosecutors had laid out their evidence for Mr Putin's involvement.\n\n\"All the news we heard about Putin and his personal involvement in the downing on MH17 - facilitating with heavy weapons, the fact he decided personally to hand over heavy arms … we always thought he did, but now we heard he did,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"He can't be prosecuted for it because he's a head of state, but the world knows.\"\n\nDutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was \"now clear\" Vladimir Putin was involved in the tragedy.\n\nThis fitted the pattern of a man and country \"only concerned with trying to slow things down, spread falsehoods, injustice and of course a terrible form of aggression since the war in Ukraine\", he said.\n\nMr Rutte added he was bitterly disappointed there was not enough evidence to warrant further prosecutions, but insisted that did not mean the criminal justice process was over.\n\nIn January, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed it would hear a separate Dutch case against Russia over the downing of MH17.", "An endangered mouse roughly the weight of three pennies has grabbed the title for longest-living mouse in human care.\n\nAt nine years and 209 days old, the Pacific pocket mouse named Pat pocketed the Guinness World Record on Wednesday, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance announced.\n\nHe was born on 14 July 2013 as part of the zoo's conservation breeding and reintroduction programme.\n\nPat was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records in a ceremony on Wednesday.\n\n\"This recognition is so special for our team, and is significant for the species,\" said Debra Shier, associate director of Recovery Ecology at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. \"It's indicative of the dedication and incredible care we as an organisation provide for each species, from the largest to the very smallest.\"\n\nOnly three small populations of Pacific pocket mice remain, according to the alliance.\n\nNative to coastal scrublands, dunes and riverbanks near California's Pacific ocean, the pocket mouse's range once stretched from Los Angeles to the US-Mexico border. But due to human encroachment and habitat degradation, their numbers plummeted after 1932. They were thought to be extinct for decades, but in 1994 a small population was discovered in southern California.\n\nIn 2012, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance launched a conservation breeding programme to help save the species from extinction.\n\nA record 31 litters of pocket mice, for a total of 117 pups, were produced by the alliance team in 2022.\n\nThe Pacific pocket mouse is the smallest mouse species in North America. Its tiny name, however, is not derived from its tiny stature but because of the cheek pouches the animal uses to carry food and nesting materials.\n\nThough small, they play a big role in maintaining their ecosystems by dispersing the seeds of native plants and encouraging plant growth through their digging activities.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The \"dancing\" mice were spotted on a platform at London's Notting Hill Gate station on Monday night", "Press regulator Ipso has launched an investigation into Jeremy Clarkson's column about the Duchess of Sussex.\n\nThe watchdog received more than 25,000 complaints about the article published in the Sun Newspaper in December.\n\nIpso is taking forward complaints from two groups, The Fawcett Society and The Wilde Foundation, which said they were affected by breaches in accuracy, harassment and discrimination.\n\nClarkson wrote that he \"hated [Meghan] on a cellular level\" in the column.\n\nThe piece became the Independent Press Standards Organisation's most complained-about article and the organisation has begun an investigation after examining the complaints it received.\n\nThe Fawcett Society is a gender equality charity while The Wilde Foundation is a charity that helps victims and survivors of abuse.\n\nClarkson, the former Top Gear presenter, co-hosts the Amazon Prime series The Grand Tour and a documentary series Clarkson's Farm. He took over hosting the ITV gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2018.\n\nIn the column, Clarkson wrote that he was \"dreaming of the day when [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while crowds chant, 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her\".\n\nClarkson's comments were widely criticised and his daughter, Emily, said: \"I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.\"\n\nClarkson, 62, later apologised and released a statement before Christmas saying he was \"horrified\" after \"causing so much hurt\".\n\nHe posted a message to social media, describing a reference he made to a scene in Game of Thrones as \"clumsy\".\n\nThe Sun also apologised, saying it regretted publishing the column and was \"sincerely sorry\".\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex criticised the Sun's apology as \"nothing more than a PR stunt\".\n\nA spokesperson for the couple accused the Sun of profiting off and exploiting \"hate, violence and misogyny\".\n\n\"A true apology would be a shift in their coverage and ethical standards for all,\" they said.\n\nClarkson said he emailed Harry and Meghan on Christmas Day to say his language had been \"disgraceful\" and he was \"profoundly sorry\".\n\nA spokesperson for Harry and Meghan said at the time that the article was not an isolated incident for Clarkson.\n\nIpso said it will make public the outcome of the investigation when it is concluded.", "Emma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday\n\nThe head teacher of Epsom College, who was killed by her husband, was reported to police in 2016 for allegedly hitting him.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, was found dead alongside her seven-year-old daughter Lettie and husband in the early hours of Sunday.\n\nGeorge Pattison is believed to have shot the pair before killing himself.\n\nSeven years earlier, the BBC understands he reported an alleged domestic assault to Surrey Police.\n\nMrs Pattison was questioned by officers, but no further action was taken against her.\n\nAlthough Mr Pattison's gun licence had been recently updated, and officers made contact with him about that, the force said neither he nor his wife were subject to an ongoing investigation.\n\nSince the shooting, tributes have poured in for Mrs Pattison, who became the first female head of the private Epsom College only five months ago, after six years as head teacher of Croydon High School in south London.\n\nOne former colleague at Croydon, Cheryl Giovannoni, described her as \"adored\" and a \"real inspiration\".\n\nMrs Pattison is understood to have called a relative some time late on Saturday evening, but by the time the family member arrived, all three of them were dead.\n\nPolice said an investigation was being carried out to establish the full chronology and circumstances of the incident.\n\nThey confirmed a firearm, licensed and registered to 39-year-old chartered accountant Mr Pattison, had been found at the scene and had been recovered by officers.\n\nHowever, the causes of death will not be confirmed until post-mortem examinations have been completed later this week.\n\nSurrey Police said it had made a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over its recent contact with Mr Pattison.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Joann Randles was awarded first place in the portrait category press photographer of the year competition\n\nA press photographer in Wales who took up the profession two years ago says she is \"overwhelmed\" after winning a prestigious award.\n\nJoann Randles, 34, from Swansea took first prize in the portrait category of the British Press Photographers' Association's (BPPA) photographer of the year competition.\n\nThe former film and television producer saw all her work dry up during the first Covid lockdown and started to experiment taking pictures.\n\n\"It became increasingly difficult to express myself creatively,\" she remembered. \"I started taking pictures, mainly of Gower [wild] ponies.\"\n\nJoann got her start taking pictures of a the Cefn Bryn ponies, a wild herd on Gower\n\nAfter honing her skills on horses, Joann said her interest turned to capturing people.\n\nHer first break came after a photoshoot with the Rother Bobbers, a group of women who swim in Langland Bay.\n\nOne of her snaps of the women won a Daily Express photo award in 2021.\n\nJoann's first photography award was for this picture of cold water swimmers in Swansea\n\n\"It ended being exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was just surreal,\" she said.\n\n\"I was able to transpose my skills from TV and put them into photography, because really it is all about telling stories,\" she said. \"It's just with photography the story in a single frame.\"\n\nJoann's winning entry included \"Brilliantly British\", a cold water swimmer in Swansea dressed up for jubilee celebrations\n\nJoann got her press card in 2021 and started working as a freelancer for a photo agency.\n\nLike most journalists, she said, her \"brain is working 99% of the time coming up with ideas\".\n\nAnother photograph in her award winning collection was of Elvis tribute artist, Darren 'Graceland' Jones, 50, from Pontypool\n\nIt also means dropping everything when a storm rolls through Wales or a big story breaks.\n\nBut her passion is portraiture.\n\n\"It's really important to get the backstory... the personalities and anything you can add to the photo about who they are as a person,\" she said.\n\nThe portfolio of six portraits that won top honours at this year's BPPA competition includes a snap of Darren 'Graceland' Jones, a well-known Elvis tribute artist from Pontypool.\n\n\"I wanted to photograph him in his home environment away from spotlight,\" she said. \"He's still in the spotlight but in his living room.\"\n\nAnother of Randles' pictures shows Olha Boyko wearing a traditional Ukrainian embroidered dress as her family celebrate Ukraine Independence Day\n\nOn winning a top award after just two years in the business Joann said: \"It's been overwhelming.\n\n\"I'm really proud, but I never expected to receive the recognition I've had so rapidly.\"\n\nJoann captured Carmarthen coracle fisherman Alex Hughes about to launch on the River Towy\n\n\"Working alone you are not seeing what you are doing,\" she said, explaining that her confidence has grown with her peers appreciating her work.\n\nHer goal is to do more UK-wide and international work in the next two years.\n\nThis portrait of a traditional Welsh folk dancer was taken near Ammanford, Carmarthenshire\n\nFor aspiring photographers, her advice is to \"just pick up a camera\" but she warns there is a \"phenomenal\" amount of hard work to do.\n\n\"Don't expect them to come to you, you have to get yourself out there.\"\n\nThis portrait is of the Ukrainian refugee and ballerina, Kateryna Andrushyna, 12, demonstrating her skills\n\nAll images are subject to copyright.\n• None The BPPA’s Press Photographer of the Year 2022 Results – The BPPA The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment Helen Hewett is held over her attempt to hire a hitman\n\nA woman who tried to hire a hitman to kill a former work colleague after a fling has been found guilty of soliciting murder.\n\nHelen Hewlett, 44, of King's Lynn in Norfolk, paid £17,000 as a deposit to a website used for recruiting contract killers, her trial heard.\n\nShe was arrested after police linked her to payments made to the site.\n\nThe court heard her target was a 50-year-old colleague with whom she had become infatuated after a brief affair.\n\nNorfolk Police issued this screengrab of the message placed on the website used by Helen Hewlett\n\nThe jury was told Hewlett had placed an order on the dark web stating \"need someone killed in Norfolk\", adding it was \"vital it looks like an accident\".\n\nHewlett and Paul Belton met when they worked at the Linda McCartney Frozen Food factory in Fakenham and had a kiss in his car.\n\nHelen Hewlett used the dark web to try to hire a killer to take out a man she had become obsessed with\n\nDuring the trial, Mr Belton said Hewlett had \"become obsessed with him\" and over a period of two years until August 2022 she bombarded him with emails and texts, urging him to meet her.\n\nThese included sexual images and videos of herself.\n\nHewlett became obsessed with a work colleague after they had a kiss in the Linda McCartney car park where they both worked\n\nWhen Mr Belton left to work at the nearby Kinnerton chocolate factory, Hewlett managed to secure a job there too.\n\nWhile at Kinnerton, the court heard Hewlett filed two complaints against Mr Belton to his employers, accusing him of harassment, homophobia and racial abuse.\n\nThe firm told him there was no case to answer, and he was advised to go to the police.\n\nAsked by prosecutor, Marti Blair, why he eventually went to the police, Mr Belton said: \"I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted to be left alone.\"\n\nHewlett followed her victim to the Kinnerton factory, securing a job there, after he joined the firm\n\nThe court heard the police visited Hewlett and she stopped trying to make contact with Mr Belton for a few days, but she resumed emailing soon afterwards saying she was \"sorry\".\n\nPrior to posting the request on the website, Hewlett placed money into an escrow third-party account.\n\nIn her attempt to find a killer, she gave Mr Belton's home and work address and other personal details, the court heard.\n\nHewlett took out a number of loans to pay for the hitman but investigators were unable to say if the cash went to a potential hitman, or if the online killers market site was a scam.\n\nDet Insp Paul Morton said it had been a complex case\n\nFollowing the verdict, Det Insp Paul Morton said: \"This has been a very complex and technical trial with a huge amount of information to consider.\n\n\"This is a rare type of offence and it just shows the dark web is still not a safe place for criminals to hide.\"\n\nThe defendant was cleared of stalking, involving fear or violence to cause serious alarm or distress, but she was found guilty of a lesser charge of stalking, without serious alarm or distress, between January 2021 and August 2022.\n\nHewlett is expected to be sentenced in April.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None Woman accused of trying to hire hitman after fling\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Keira says she often uses the money from her own pocket to buy the essentials she needs for class\n\nYoung people could be priced out of education because financial help has been frozen for nearly 20 years, it has been claimed.\n\nEducation Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is available to 16 to 18-year-olds living in Wales who remain in further education after school-leaving age.\n\nKeira said her £30 EMA was the same amount that was awarded to students in 2004.\n\nThe Welsh government said it offered learners a range of funding support.\n\nA Plaid Cymru Member of the Senedd wants the weekly £30 grant increased to £55 due to the rising cost of living.\n\nStudents qualify for EMA if their household annual income is below £23,077, or £20,817 if there is only one young person in their household.\n\nKeira, 16, an art student from Bethesda, Gwynedd, is one of 17,000 college and sixth form students in Wales who qualify.\n\nBut she said the money did not always cover her bus travel and art supplies.\n\nShe added that her brother, who's now 31, also received the same sum when he was studying but the economic situation was different.\n\n\"He got on OK because prices weren't the same then, [but] now prices are so expensive. You'll be using big chunks of your money just to get places,\" she said.\n\n\"It's really hard to keep to that budget.\"\n\nCollege students Rosie and Carys say more people should be able to claim the allowance because it gives financial independence\n\nRosie,17 and Carys, 16, are studying childcare in college in south Wales and both use the allowance to pay for their phone bills, transport and essentials.\n\n\"If I didn't have EMA I don't know what I'd do. I'd probably rely on family and feel terrible about it as they pay heavy bills,\" Rosie said.\n\n\"I feel like when it was 2004, living costs weren't as high as they are now, [so] we could use a bit of a raise to help.\"\n\nCarys said: \"Not everybody is made of money, not everybody has got money. I think it [the increase] would help everyone as costs are going up and they can be more independent.\"\n\nDirector of independent think-tank, the Bevan Foundation, Dr Victoria Winckler, said she was \"absolutely shocked\" when she discovered how the allowance value had \"eroded\" over time.\n\nShe said: \"We've heard about students who are leaving college, because they can't afford to stay. They need to contribute to their household's finances and £30 a week just doesn't cut it.\n\n\"We're also hearing about students who are taking on those extra jobs, working evenings and weekends, and their studies are suffering.\n\n\"I think to restore it to its historic value is a big ask in the current climate, but the Welsh government should at the very least start, from this year, raising it by inflation.\n\n\"A 10% uplift on last year and then a commitment to an uplift going forwards, would at least stop things getting worse.\"\n\nDr Victoria Winckler, director of the Bevan Foundation, says she is \"shocked\" by the lack of increase in allowance\n\nShe said that this would mean £3 a week extra for students, adding: \"To some of us that might sound not much, we might be spending that on a fancy coffee on the way to work. But for a young learner, it's a lunch that they can buy, it's their bus fare home a couple of days, and it puts and end to this decline in value that we have seen.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru MS for South Wales West, Luke Fletcher, said he was supported by EMA when he was at school and wants it increased by £25, in line with inflation.\n\nHe said: \"EMA is a very important tool for us here in Wales to make sure that kids from low income households are able to stay in education.\n\n\"The payment has stayed at £30 since 2004... [and] when we look at inflation it needs to be a lot higher than it is now. It's simply at the moment not doing the job that it was designed to do.\"\n\nThe issue was also raised in the Senedd on Tuesday by Swansea East MS Mike Hedges, who called for the Welsh government to raise the allowance.\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"Unlike in England, where it was scrapped, Wales has continued to protect the EMA programme.\n\n\"Alongside the payment we provide support for transport costs, and the Financial Contingency Fund, which can help eligible learners in a further education college in Wales who are facing financial difficulties.\"\n\nIt also urged students to ask their colleges about what support is available.", "You're going to hear the term \"spring offensive\" a lot in the coming weeks of the war in Ukraine.\n\nIn a traditional military sense, it's when armies look to generate momentum after using the poor winter conditions to replenish.\n\nIt is true that the fighting has become more static during typically cold conditions.\n\nHowever, all signs seem to be pointing towards an upcoming Russian push.\n\nMoscow has mobilised hundreds of thousands more men, as well as increased its production of weapons and ammunition.\n\nKyiv is expecting to see major attacks from the east and south as soon as 24 February, which would mark a year since the full-scale invasion.\n\nSo, if Russia does launch another offensive, what will it try to take?\n\nBakhmut has been virtually flattened during months of heavy fighting\n\nIt's the eastern city which has been grabbing the headlines because of the endless conflicting claims over who controls it.\n\nFor now, Kyiv isn't hinting at a tactical retreat. It claims the Russians are suffering about 500 casualties per day as they stage relentless attacks. Ukraine reckons its own losses are not as high.\n\nRegular Russian forces appear to have replaced mercenaries from the Wagner Group as they continue to surround the city. For now, Ukrainian troops are continuing to hold it.\n\nIf or when the city falls, invading forces are expected to push towards the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. It could allow Moscow to capture the entire eastern Donetsk region, one of its official goals.\n\nBut that would involve capturing more than 4,000 square miles (10,360 sq km). In a period where Russia has been making minimal, costly gains, the Ukrainians would have to be seriously overpowered, or taken by surprise.\n\nVuhledar is now a ghost town as almost all residents have fled the town\n\nAfter trying and failing last November, Russian forces have started launching attacks on the small town of Vuhledar, also in the Donetsk region.\n\nIt sits on the south-eastern curve of the current battlefield and is significant for Moscow for two reasons.\n\nFirstly, it's close to the only rail line linking the annexed Crimean peninsula and Russian-controlled territories in the east. It's from Vuhledar that Ukrainian forces have been firing artillery at Russian supply trains.\n\nVuhledar is like Bakhmut in that for the Russians it carries more symbolic than military significance. Ukraine is convinced Moscow is going to chase its two main goals as quickly as possible.\n\nAlongside capturing the whole of Donbas (Luhansk and Donetsk regions), Russian President Vladimir Putin is thought to be looking to widen the land corridor he has seized between Crimea and Russia.\n\nThe capture of Vuhledar would certainly go towards those - but it would be more valuable to the Kremlin in a propaganda sense. Military milestones help the Kremlin to justify its \"special military operation\" back in Russia, as well as appease critics.\n\nThey also could provide President Putin with a political way out, if he can keep hold of what he seizes.\n\nZaporizhzhia - which has been regularly shelled by Russia - is seen as a gateway to the south of Ukraine\n\nAway from the eastern front, the conflict line south of the city Zaporizhzhia is another direction Kyiv is worried about.\n\nThe concern is that Russian forces could push north towards the towns of Orikhiv and Pokrovsk (the latter is in Donetsk region).\n\nIf this were to happen, it would push back the firing positions of longer-range Ukrainian missiles which can strike deep into the land corridor Russia controls further south.\n\nGiven that American HIMARS have been able to travel up to 80km (50 miles), and are about to go up to 120km, the occupied cities of Melitopol and Tokmak are comfortably within Ukraine's range.\n\nMoscow is also wary of a Ukrainian advance here too towards Melitopol. Kyiv has talked about the importance of the city before, saying its liberation would allow Ukraine to cut off Russian supply routes to Crimea.\n\nHowever, Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, has also admitted his troops don't have the numbers of equipment for such an attack.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDespite being less than 25 miles from the border with Russia, Ukraine's second largest city in the north-east has never fallen into Moscow's control.\n\nLike so many areas, it has been mostly torn apart from Russia's attempts to snatch it from Kyiv's control. Kharkiv's population has endured almost constant missile strikes and resulting blackouts throughout this winter.\n\nAuthorities say while there hasn't been an increase in nearby enemy forces, Russians have been shelling civilian areas more frequently.\n\nSome officers in the local military have said they \"wouldn't be surprised\" if the Russians launched another attack, especially with the frozen ground.\n\nWhile there is no guarantee Russia could take a city it has failed to penetrate over the past year, its capture would bring a significant strategic advantage.\n\nInvading forces could seal the city off from Kyiv, which could prevent Ukrainian troops currently south of Kharkiv from retreating to the capital.\n\nEarly in the full-scale invasion Russian troops got within several kilometres of Kyiv, but were driven back by Ukrainian troops\n\nUkraine's capital is still Russia's ultimate prize. However, this isn't 2022.\n\nLast year, joint military exercises between Belarus and Russia turned into an advance on Kyiv when Moscow used its ally as a launchpad for its invasion.\n\nAt the start of this year there were fears of history repeating itself when both countries announced drills once more - this time in the form of \"defensive\" air force exercises north of Ukraine.\n\nBelarus denied it had plans to join the invasion. Moscow rejected claims it had tried to force it.\n\nNow, both the West and Ukraine seem to agree on there being no intelligence suggesting the capital could be under the threat it faced last year. Plus, Russia used its best-trained forces during its first attempt, when its goal was to topple the Ukrainian government.\n\n\"We do not see formed assault groups capable of reaching Kyiv,\" said Ukraine's outgoing Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov.\n\n\"Besides, it is impossible to capture Kyiv in principle. It is a large city with four million people, ready to defend themselves.\"\n\nIf Russia indeed launches a large-scale offensive and gains momentum, Mr Reznikov's successor could give a different assessment.", "Wednesday lunchtime normally sees British MPs shouting at each other across the Commons chamber, at Prime Minister's Questions.\n\nBut normal hostilities were suspended this week for the surprise visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and what turned out to be a remarkable Parliamentary occasion.\n\nAfter a sober and subdued PMQs, which saw Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak presenting a united front in their determination to help Ukraine defeat Vladimir Putin, MPs headed to Westminster Hall for Mr Zelensky's big speech.\n\nThe 900-year-old medieval hall was bathed in sunlight from its vast stained glass windows, as MPs, peers, members of the clergy, reporters and assorted dignitaries assembled in an atmosphere of hushed anticipation.\n\nThe Ukrainian president was greeted with warm applause, as he walked through the crowd dressed in his trademark khaki shirt and combat trousers, to take seat on the platform, as the more formally attired Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle made the introductions.\n\nIt was not the first time President Zelensky has delivered a speech to British MPs. In March last year, 13 days after the invasion of Ukraine, he addressed a packed Commons chamber via a screen.\n\nOn that occasion his words were translated. This time he spoke in English, which made his 20 minute address all the more powerful and direct. One or two in the crowd could be seen wiping away a tear.\n\nHis speech was full of praise and gratitude for Britain's support, with special mentions for \"Boris\", the former PM who was watching intently, and \"Rishi\", who had earlier played host to him in Downing Street. It also had much to say about defeating \"evil\" and building a world free from war.\n\nBoris Johnson was singled out for gratitude in Mr Zelensky's speech\n\nBut the Ukrainian president was there to deliver one simple message - his country needs modern fighter jets.\n\nHe chose to do this with a piece of political theatre and a reference to the visit to Buckingham Palace that was next on his itinerary.\n\n\"The King is an air force pilot and in Ukraine today, every air force pilot is a king,\" he said, before asking an aide to hand him a helmet that belonged to a \"real Ukrainian pilot\".\n\nAs he presented the helmet to Sir Lindsay, he read out the inscription on it: \"We have freedom, give us wings to protect it\".\n\nThe gesture was greeted with loud applause.\n\n\"We have freedom, give us wings to protect it\" - words on a pilot's helmet presented to Sir Lindsay Hoyle\n\nSir Lindsay had earlier introduced Mr Zelensky with an anecdote about their first meeting, in October 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when they had shared \"much laughter over an English afternoon tea\".\n\nAs he concluded his speech, Mr Zelensky said: \"Two years ago, I thanked you for delicious English tea... I will be leaving the Parliament today thanking all of you in advance for powerful English planes.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn his way out, the Ukrainian president shared a handshake with Mr Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and a few other MPs, including Mr Johnson.\n\nIf his aim had been to stiffen the resolve of his allies in Britain, then it succeeded, judging by the reaction of MPs afterwards.\n\n\"He sent a very important message to the world that we cannot allow combat fatigue to set in,\" said Conservative MP Alex Shelbrooke, leader of the UK delegation to the Nato Parliamentary assembly.\n\nLabour's Stephen Doughty, a member of the all-party Ukraine group, who has recently visited the country, was among those left with a sense of awe.\n\n\"He's the real deal. You don't get many leaders quite like that in the world.\"\n\nIt was Mr Zelensky's Churchillian \"V for victory\" sign at the end of his speech - as the Ukrainian national anthem played in the background - that was the most powerful moment for the Labour MP.\n\nParticularly, the MP said, as the stained glass windows that bathed the whole occasion in light are a memorial to the staff and members of both houses of Parliament who died in the Second World War.\n\n\"The symbolism of that is incalculable.\"\n\nForeign leaders have addressed both Houses in Westminster Hall before.\n\nCharles De Gaulle, the wartime leader of the free French, was the first in 1960. Since then the historic venue has played host to Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama, among others.\n\nVolodymyr Zelensky was the first leader of a country at war to be given the honour - and his speech will live long in the memory of those that were there.", "Opponents of President Erdogan say the heavy loss of life is down to politics Image caption: Opponents of President Erdogan say the heavy loss of life is down to politics\n\nTurkey's most devastating earthquake since 1939 has raised big questions about whether such a large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and whether President Erdogan's government could have done more to save lives.\n\nWith elections on the horizon, his future is on the line after 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity have gone unheeded.\n\nBut it took time for the response to build and some villages could not be reached for days. More than 30,000 people from the professional and voluntary sector eventually arrived, along with teams from many other countries.\n\nMore than 6,000 buildings collapsed and workers from Turkey's Afad disaster authority were themselves caught up in the earthquakes.\n\nThose initial hours were critical but roads were damaged and search and rescue teams struggled to get through until day two or day three.\n\nTurkey has more experience of earthquakes than almost any other country but the founder of the main volunteer rescue group believes this time, politics got in the way.\n\nPresident Erdogan has accepted that search efforts were not as fast as the government wanted, despite Turkey having the \"largest search and rescue team in the world right now\".", "Thousands of people have offered to adopt the baby girl who was born under the rubble of a collapsed building in north-west Syria, following Monday's earthquake.\n\nWhen she was rescued, baby Aya - meaning miracle in Arabic - was still connected to her mother by her umbilical cord.\n\nHer mother, father and all four of her siblings died after the quake hit the town of Jindayris.\n\n\"She arrived on Monday in such a bad state, she had bumps, bruises, she was cold and barely breathing,\" said Hani Marouf, the paediatrician looking after her.\n\nShe is now in a stable condition.\n\nVideos of Aya's rescue went viral on social media. Footage showed a man sprinting from the collapsed debris of a building, holding a baby covered in dust.\n\nKhalil al-Suwadi, a distant relative, who was there when she was pulled to safety, brought the newborn to Dr Marouf in the Syrian city of Afrin.\n\nThousands of people on social media have now asked for details to adopt her. One report said her great uncle would adopt her.\n\n\"I would like to adopt her and give her a decent life,\" said one person.\n\nA Kuwaiti TV anchor said, \"I'm ready to take care of and adopt this child... if legal procedures allow me to.\"\n\nThe hospital manager, Khalid Attiah, says he has received dozens of calls from people all over the world wanting to adopt baby Aya.\n\nDr Attiah, who has a daughter just four months older than her, said, \"I won't allow anyone to adopt her now. Until her distant family return, I'm treating her like one of my own.\"\n\nFor now, his wife is breastfeeding her alongside their own daughter.\n\nIn Aya's home town of Jindayris, people have been searching through collapsed buildings for loved ones.\n\nA journalist there, Mohammed al-Adnan told the BBC, \"The situation is a disaster. There are so many people under the rubble. There are still people we haven't got out yet.\"\n\nHe estimated that 90% of the town had been destroyed and most of the help so far had come from local people.\n\nRescuers from the White Helmets organisation, who are all too familiar with pulling people out of the rubble for over a decade during Syria's civil war, have been helping in Jindayris.\n\n\"The rescuers can end up being victims too because of how unstable the building is,\" said Mohammed al-Kamel.\n\n\"We just pulled three bodies out of this rubble and we think there is a family in there that is still alive - we will keep on working,\" he said.\n\nIn Syria, more than 3,000 deaths have been reported following the earthquake.\n\nThis figure doesn't include those who have died in opposition-held areas of the country.", "An independent report has found sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying at the TSSA transport union.\n\nThe inquiry led by a Labour peer and lawyer said union bosses had \"enabled\" poor behaviour through \"wilful blindness, power hoarding and poor practices\".\n\nIt said current interim general secretary Frank Ward and other senior leaders should leave their roles.\n\nThe TSSA said it recognised that action was required to \"address failings\".\n\n\"The report makes difficult reading and highlights serious issues that the union needs to face up to and tackle,\" it said in a statement.\n\n\"It is clear from this report that our union has not followed the values we aspire to for our members,\" it added.\n\nThe Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) represents thousands of railway, ferry, and bus staff and is affiliated to the Labour Party.\n\nIts membership includes control centre and ticket office staff, as well as engineers and workers in various support roles.\n\nThe union commissioned the report last September following allegations of sexual harassment against the then general secretary Manuel Cortes. The BBC has approached him for comment.\n\nThe Guardian has reported that Mr Cortes denied any wrongdoing and apologised for any hurt caused by his behaviour.\n\nLabour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, who conducted the probe, was tasked with investigating behaviour across the union, and how it deals with complaints.\n\nMr Cortes retired in October, and was replaced by Mr Ward on an interim basis. The BBC has asked the TSSA whether Mr Ward will be standing down in the wake of Baroness Kennedy's report.\n\nIn her report, she said she had taken evidence from over 50 people and uncovered a \"series of appalling incidents\" within the organisation.\n\nThese included incidents of inappropriate and sexual touching, sexual assault, coercive behaviour and the humiliation of staff, she said.\n\nShe said she had received submissions about the union's leadership involving \"violent, sexualised language\", belittling women for their appearance, and non-consensual touching.\n\nThose giving evidence described the culture within the union as \"toxic\", \"sexist\", \"vindictive\" and \"misogynistic\", she wrote.\n\n\"I also heard evidence of failings in due process, natural justice and governance,\" she added.\n\n\"Beyond specific instances, I have found a culture that is stuck, it seems, in a morass of staff upset and grievance - on matters relating not just to sexual harassment and assault - but also to the bullying, silencing and marginalising of staff.\"\n\nThe TSSA said it would \"take time to thoroughly understand the report and its recommendations,\" and would implement an action plan in response.\n\nThe Trades Union Congress, an umbrella body for unions, said Baroness Kennedy's report \"must lead to genuine culture change\". Its general secretary Paul Nowak said he had asked for a meeting with the TSSA to \"discuss next steps\".", "Dave the sniffer dog helped a UK team that arrived in the southern Turkish city of Antakya\n\nAntakya felt forsaken. People here had been complaining for days - pleading, in fact, for more help in finding the thousands missing and trapped in the collapsed buildings throughout their city.\n\nHelp from the Turkish government was slow to come, and they wondered: where was all the international aid?\n\nBy late in the third day of aftermath, things had changed. Roads in and out of the southern Turkish city were gridlocked with heavy equipment, ambulances and pickup trucks bringing help - albeit at a snail's pace - to those who had long lost the luxury of patience.\n\nVolunteers who dug for their relatives by hand were now joined by the professionals.\n\n\"Can you please stand back,\" an English voice commanded from one roadside ruin halfway down Ataturk Street. The Brits had arrived.\n\nSome 77 men and women from the UK International Search and Rescue got here on Wednesday afternoon - firefighters, medics and a sniffer dog named Dave.\n\nPhil Irving is usually in charge of a fire station in west Wales. He's responsible for the team's safety and was frankly a little surprised to find himself so close to the border with Syria.\n\nBut he's a veteran of disasters and has been with the International Search and Rescue for 17 years.\n\n\"I went to Haiti in 2010 and this is comparable to the devastation I've witnessed, particularly in this location where it doesn't seem to be that international teams have arrived.\"\n\nThey were only supposed to be surveying buildings, not carrying out rescues yet, when word came - or perhaps Dave the sniffer dog's nose twitched (no one was really very clear) - of a sixty-year-old woman trapped under four floors of apartment block.\n\nA London firefighter, Sarah Mimnagh, spoke to the woman as the rest of the team chipped and hacked at the collapsed building around her - creating a tunnel to bring her out.\n\n\"She smiled at us when she saw us,\" Sarah said. \"It's my first foreign deployment,\" she added, looking really pleased.\n\n\"We're extremely pleased, really emotional when things go well,\" said Jim Chasten, team leader from the Kent Fire and Rescue Service.\n\n\"[It's] a really good outcome. I've already lost track of time, but it's still light, so we couldn't have been here that long.\" In fact, they'd only been on the ground for five hours.\n\nThe rescued woman's name is Salva. She's sixty-years-old and survived three-and-a-half days without food or water. She cried in pain as she was brought out while her son-in-law, Ali Ekenel, cried tears of joy.\n\n\"She's the most important person in the world to my wife,\" he said.\n\nThe men and women from UK International Service and Rescue took a round of applause from the waiting crowd and moved on, looking for more survivors.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nElon Musk's SpaceX company has performed a key test on its huge new rocket system, Starship.\n\nEngineers conducted what's called a \"static fire\", simultaneously igniting 31 out of 33 of the engines at the base of the vehicle's lower-segment.\n\nThe firing lasted only a few seconds, with everything clamped in place to prevent any movement.\n\nStarship will become the most powerful operational rocket system in history when it makes its maiden flight.\n\nThis could occur in the coming weeks, assuming SpaceX is satisfied with the outcome of Thursday's test.\n\nThe static fire took place at SpaceX's R&D facility in Boca Chica on the Texas/Mexico border.\n\nOn Twitter Elon Musk said that the team had turned off one engine before the test and that another engine stopped itself, leaving 31 engines firing overall.\n\nBut, he added, it was \"still enough engines to reach orbit\".\n\nEven though this was not the full contingent of engines, it was still notable for the number of engines working in concert. The closest parallel is probably the N1 rocket that the Soviets developed in the late 1960s to take cosmonauts to the Moon.\n\nIt had 30 engines arranged in two rings. But the N1 failed on all four of its flights and was eventually cancelled.\n\nThe SpaceX Super Heavy booster, with all 33 modern power units, should produce roughly 70% more thrust off the launch pad than the N1. Even the US space agency Nasa's new mega-rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), which flew for the first time back in November, is dwarfed by the capability being built into Starship.\n\nMr Musk has high hopes for the vehicle. The entrepreneur wants to use it to send satellites and people into Earth orbit and beyond.\n\nNasa has already contracted SpaceX to develop a version that can play a role in its Artemis programme, to once again land astronauts on the Moon.\n\nMr Musk himself is focused on Mars. He's long held the ambition to get to the Red Planet, to establish settlements and, as he puts it, to make humans \"a multi-planet species\". He's also talked about point-to-point travel, taking passengers from one side of our world to the other in rapid time.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A drone looks down on the static fire\n\nIf Starship can be made to work it will be a game-changer, not just because of the mass it will be able to lift into space.\n\nThe concept is designed to be fully reusable, with both parts - the Super Heavy booster and the ship on top - coming back to Earth to fly, time and time again.\n\nThis means it could operate much like an airliner. The long-term cost savings compared with conventional, one-time-use rockets would be immense.\n\nSpaceX will now review its data to understand why it couldn't fire all 33 engines on this occasion. It will also inspect the launch pad to see what, if any, damage occurred during the short firing. Previous, smaller-scale engine tests had fractured the concrete under the launch mount, requiring repairs.\n\nMr Musk has talked about an orbital attempt of the full Starship system in late February or March.\n\nThe ship, or upper-stage of the rocket, was removed for Thursday's test in case there was a catastrophic failure of the booster.\n\nStarship development takes place at Boca Chica on the Gulf coast of Texas\n\nLooking up at the 33 engines under the Super Heavy booster", "There has been no trace of Nicola Bulley since 27 January\n\nThe search for missing mum Nicola Bulley has shifted from the river near to where she vanished \"further downstream\" and out towards the sea.\n\nMs Bulley, 45, was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire on 27 January.\n\nPolice search teams were spotted where the River Wyre empties into the Irish Sea at Morecambe Bay near Knott End.\n\nMeanwhile, officers said they had stopped people filming on social media at houses near where she disappeared.\n\nLancashire Police said it had issued two dispersal notices, warned others about anti-social behaviour in the area, and officers were looking into \"grossly offensive\" comments made online.\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then gone on her usual dog walk alongside the river on 27 January.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nPolice search teams have extended the search downstream into the estuary and out to the coast\n\nDespite a major search, including divers, drones and a police helicopter, there has been no trace of Ms Bulley since she was last seen at 09:10 GMT.\n\nPolice believe she fell in the river, but detectives said they remain \"fully open-minded\" to any information that indicates where she is or what happened to her.\n\nThe River Wyre is about 32 miles (52km) long and the search has now been extended to Morecambe Bay and about 10 miles (16km) downstream to Knott End.\n\nA dinghy with two officers on board could be seen downstream where the River Wyre meets the Irish Sea at Morecambe Bay.\n\nAn orange rescue boat was also spotted appearing to do sweeps at the river off Knott End-on-Sea, at the mouth of the bay.\n\nPolice search teams were spotted searching the waters of the estuary\n\nThe force said the search had moved \"further downstream into the area of the river which becomes tidal and then out towards the sea\".\n\nA specialist diving team, Specialist Group International (SGI), earlier assisted police in the search of the river at the request of Ms Bulley's family.\n\nThe firm's founder Peter Faulding said his team was pulling out because he believed Ms Bulley was \"categorically not\" in the area of river where police believe she fell in.\n\nTwo dispersal notices, which remain in place for 48 hours, were issued in St Michael's on Wyre at about 20:40 GMT on Wednesday.\n\n\"We will not tolerate criminality, including trespass and criminal damage,\" a force representative said.\n\nDivers have searched the River Wyre and the search area has now been extended\n\nOn Tuesday, Supt Sally Riley had warned about some people speculating online.\n\nThe force said it was looking into a number of \"grossly offensive\" comments made on social media and it would \"not hesitate to take action where appropriate\".\n\nMs Bulley's friend Emma White said conspiracy theories being spread online were hindering the search.\n\nMs Bulley's friend Emma White says police are doing \"tremendous\" work\n\nShe told BBC Radio Lancashire an abandoned house across the river from the spot where Ms Bulley's mobile phone was found had been \"searched inside and out\" and she urged people to stay away.\n\n\"Please, please, please don't be going into the village... and knocking on people's doors or doing Youtube or TikTok [videos],\" she said.\n\nMs White said three police vans had responded to 999 calls on Wednesday due to this behaviour, \"which is not only taking the efforts away from looking for Nicola but also the community\".\n\n\"We are begging please do not take the matter into your own hands,\" she said.\n\n\"The police are doing tremendous work so we need to leave it to them.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. US military official: 'We think before we shoot'\n\nA suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that the US shot down this week was able to collect communications signals, a US official has said.\n\nIt was equipped with multiple antennas capable of \"intelligence collection operations\", a senior State Department official said in a background briefing.\n\nOn Thursday, US lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution condemning China for the balloon.\n\nChina has denied the balloon was used for spying purposes.\n\nIt has said the balloon was a weather device blown astray.\n\nThe US, however, believes the balloon is part of a wider fleet of surveillance balloons that has spanned five continents.\n\nHouse of Representatives lawmakers called the balloon a \"brazen violation of United States sovereignty\" as the body voted 419 to 0 on Thursday morning to condemn its use.\n\nIts appearance in US airspace has provoked a diplomatic crisis and led US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a trip to China - the first such high level US-China meeting there in years. The US military used a fighter jet to shoot the balloon down over the Atlantic Ocean over the weekend.\n\nChina on Thursday said it was not aware of any wider fleet of surveillance balloons. The claim is \"probably part of the information and public opinion warfare the US has waged on China\", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.\n\nChina also took aim at US President Joe Biden after he said during a PBS interview that Chinese leader Xi Jinping was facing \"enormous problems\". Those remarks were \"highly irresponsible and violate basic diplomatic protocols\", Ms Ning said.\n\nThe senior State Department official said on Thursday that high resolution images revealed the balloon - which was about 200 ft (60 metres) tall - had large solar panels capable of operating \"multiple active intelligence collection sensors\" as well as antennas that were able to collect and geo-locate communications.\n\nThe US is considering taking action against groups linked to the Chinese government that were involved in the balloon's flight, the official said.\n\nThe latest US government information suggests that the craft indeed was some type of surveillance balloon, experts told the BBC.\n\n\"The types of antennas are meant for surveillance technology and this is not something you would expect for any type of scientific mission,\" said Gregory Falco, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University's Department of Civil and Systems Engineering.\n\nIt's still not possible to glean exactly what type of data China might have been trying to gather on the balloon mission, experts said, but it may have intercepted radio, cell phone and other communications from the military bases it flew over, said Matt Kroenig, the senior director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council.\n\nThe balloon's large solar panels - as well as the fact that it was able to hover over US airspace for long periods of time - is concerning, Dr Falco said.\n\n\"They have a high-powered system that can do a lot of data relay,\" said Dr Falco. \"I don't know exactly what they were collecting, but all the mechanics are there for getting a lot of data back to their satellites.\"\n\nThe US may have taken countermeasures to prevent China from gathering data, including jamming equipment, Dr Kroenig said.\n\nThe FBI said that its lab is helping process debris that has been collected, which has so far included parts of the balloon canopy, wires and electronic components collected from the surface of the sea.\n\nMost of the balloon's \"payload\" - which would likely include surveillance gear and other items of interest to investigators - remains underwater off the South Carolina coast. Officials warn that processing the wreckage could take a long time, which could be prolonged by poor weather conditions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUS intelligence, military and foreign policy officials began briefing members of Congress on Thursday about the balloon.\n\nThe hearings come amid mounting criticism of the Biden administration's handling of the incident from his political opponents.\n\nOn Wednesday, an open letter from Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Roger Wicker said they lack \"a clear understanding\" of the government's response to the balloon.\n\nSpeaking to senators, US Army Lieutenant General Douglas Sims said that \"the risk of Chinese intelligence collection was low to moderate\" as the balloon flew over the US.\n\nThe potential of harming civilians on the ground if it was shot down over land, conversely, was \"moderate to significant\".\n\nOfficials also defended the timing of the balloon's destruction, saying that doing so over rough terrain in Alaska or the cold waters of the Northern Pacific would have made recovery efforts difficult and dangerous.\n\nAt a Wednesday news conference, Defence Department spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder confirmed that the US believed similar balloons had operated over North and South America, South East Asia, East Asia and Europe.", "The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, warned the Church's parliament not to give in to the \"fear of a slippery slope\" when debating plans to bless same-sex couples\n\nThe Church of England has backed proposals to allow prayers of blessing for same sex couples.\n\nIts position on gay marriage will not change and same-sex couples will still be unable to marry in church.\n\nThe plans, set out by bishops last month, have been criticised from those who think they go too far and those who think they don't go far enough.\n\nBut the motion was passed in all three of synod's 'houses'.\n\nPriests will have the option to bless gay couples but can opt out. The first blessings could be in the summer.\n\nThe Archbishop of York, the Most Revd Stephen Cottrell, said the Church was in a \"in a better place today\" as a result of the vote.\n\n\"I'm really pleased that we now will be able to bless same-sex couples who are faithfully living in a civil marriage or a civil partnership, in church,\" he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. \"But at the same time, I'm glad that we believe there is a way forward to hold together in the Church those who in good conscience will not be able to offer such services. It won't be easy but we are committed to it.\"\n\nThe move will not change the Church's teaching marriage is between a man and woman only\n\nIn a joint statement with the Archbishop of Canterbury, they acknowledged \"deep differences\" remained.\n\nThe Church of England Evangelical Council said it was \"deeply saddened and profoundly grieved\" by the move.\n\n\"The Church of England now appears set on a course of action that rejects our historic and biblical understanding of sex and marriage,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"This seems to us to be a lose-lose position for everyone in the Church of England. Those who wanted more change will continue to ask and push for greater change. Those of us who have been trying to uphold the historic and biblical understanding of marriage and singleness say change has gone too far.\"\n\nIn more than eight hours of debate there were 18 votes on attempted amendments, both from conservatives and liberals.\n\nAn amendment to force a vote on changing the Church's teaching and allowing gay couples to marry in Church was rejected.\n\nThe only amendment that passed was from conservatives, reinforcing that the new prayers of blessing \"should not be contrary to or indicative of a departure from the doctrine of the Church of England\" which does not allow same-sex marriage.\n\nImmediately before the vote a minute of silence was observed followed by a prayer said by the Archbishop of Canterbury.\n\nMembers of the Church of England's General Synod gathered at Church House, in central London\n\nApproval of the motion allows same-sex couples to go to Anglican churches after a legal marriage ceremony for services including prayers of dedication, thanksgiving and God's blessing.\n\nThe motion had been brought by the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, and was the result of six years of work on questions of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage known as Living In Love And Faith.\n\nBBC religion editor Aleem Maqbool said: \"It may sound contradictory to vote to bless same-sex marriages, but still consider them as unions that defy Church of England doctrine but that after five years of consultation is the formula that's been settled on\".\n\nHe said Church leaders were celebrating the move as \"a watershed moment and a move forward towards acceptance of LGBTQ unions, but in a way that holds the institution together\".\n\nThis is not the type of marriage equality that, for example, the Episcopal Church in Scotland long approved - for now, gay couples will still not be able to have a Church of England marriage.\n\nThe final motion was passed across the synod's three 'houses'. The House of Bishops voted 36 in favour, four against with two abstentions. The House of Clergy voted 111 in favour, 85 against and 3 abstentions. The House of Laity voted 103 in favour, 92 against, and 5 abstentions.\n\nThe bishops will now finalise the wording of the new prayers and also issue new guidance on whether gay clergy must remain celibate before the synod meets again in July.", "A rapid test that can help preserve the hearing of newborn babies is set to be used by NHS hospitals.\n\nFor some babies, commonly used antibiotics can become toxic. The drugs damage sensory cells inside the ear leading to permanent hearing loss.\n\nThe test - which analyses babies' DNA - can quickly spot those who are vulnerable.\n\nIt means they can be given a different type of antibiotic and avoid having a lifetime of damaged hearing.\n\nGentamicin is the first-choice antibiotic if a newborn develops a serious bacterial infection. It is life-saving and safe for the majority of people.\n\nHowever, it has a rare side effect. About 1,250 babies in England and Wales are born with a subtle change in their genetic code that allows the antibiotic to bind more strongly to the hair cells in their ears, where it becomes toxic.\n\nThese tiny hairs help convert sounds into the electrical signals that are understood by the brain. If they are damaged, it results in hearing loss.\n\nThe side effect is well known, but until now there was no test that could get the results fast enough. It would be dangerous to delay treatment, and alternative antibiotics are not used as they have their own side effects and because of concerns about antibiotic resistance.\n\nThe new genedrive kit analyses a sample taken from inside the baby's cheek. Tests at two neonatal intensive care units in Manchester and Liverpool showed it could spot who was susceptible to hearing loss in 26 minutes, and using it did not delay treatment.\n\nThe National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) - which decides which drugs and technologies the NHS uses - has provisionally approved the test.\n\nMark Chapman, interim director of medical technology at NICE, said: \"Hearing loss has a substantial impact on the quality of the life of the baby and their family.\n\n\"Having this test available to NHS staff can avoid the risk of hearing loss in babies with the variant who need treatment with antibiotics.\"\n\nHe also said the costs of treating hearing loss was \"high\". Fitting a pair of cochlear implants - which use a microphone to convert sounds to an electrical signal - costs about £65,000.\n\nThe NICE recommendations apply directly to England and Wales, but are often adopted more widely.\n\nThe test will be made available as part of an early assessment to consider how well it works in a range of hospitals, and to see what impact it has on antibiotic use, before it gets final approval.\n\nSusan Daniels, chief executive of the National Deaf Children's Society, said: \"It's very encouraging that more evidence will be gathered on this important development.\n\n\"I hope this additional evidence will support the argument for the rollout of technology which could play a pivotal role in preventing deafness in a small number of babies in the future.\"\n• None Matching drugs to DNA is 'new era of medicine'", "Jared O'Mara served as MP for Sheffield Hallam from June 2017 to November 2019\n\nA former MP who submitted fake expense claims for £24,000 to fund his cocaine habit has been convicted of fraud.\n\nJared O'Mara, who represented Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019, was thousands of pounds in debt to a drug dealer, the trial at Leeds Crown Court was told.\n\nHe submitted fraudulent invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the body which regulates MPs' business costs and pay.\n\nO'Mara was found guilty at trial of six counts of fraud and cleared of two.\n\nThe court heard O'Mara, 41, made four claims to IPSA for a total of £19,400 for services he said had been provided by a \"fictitious\" organisation called Confident About Autism South Yorkshire.\n\nProsecutors said the former politician had used the postcode of a McDonald's restaurant in the city as the company's business address.\n\nHe was also found guilty of trying to claim £4,650 for services he said his \"chief of staff\" Gareth Arnold had provided to him.\n\nAll the invoices were rejected by IPSA due to a lack of detail about the work carried out, the jury was told.\n\nO'Mara was elected to Parliament for Labour in June 2017, unseating former deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, but quit the party the following year and became an independent after he was suspended by the party over comments he'd posted online before becoming an MP.\n\nCo-defendant Arnold, 30, was found guilty of three counts of fraud relating to the bogus autism organisation and not guilty of three other fraud charges.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Listen to the moment Gareth Arnold calls police about O'Mara's expense claims\n\nAfter the verdicts were returned, O'Mara, who had attended the entire 12-day trial remotely, was told he must attend the sentencing in person.\n\nJudge Tom Bayliss KC told him: \"I've permitted you until now to attend via videolink, I'm afraid that indulgence has now ceased.\"\n\nText and WhatsApp messages between O'Mara and Arnold were read out during the trial, including references to drug use and abandoning an expenses claim already rejected by IPSA four times.\n\n\"I think any more pushing will raise alarms,\" a message read out to court said.\n\nMeanwhile a message in April 2019 from Arnold to a friend said O'Mara was \"a few k in debt with a dealer\", with the friend replying: \"That's a very dangerous game that. He wants to be careful no bad lads come for him. He's on 80k a year.\"\n\nOne message in June 2019 saw Arnold writing he had \"just smashed loads of coke\" with \"local MP\".\n\nThird defendant John Woodliff was cleared of a charge of fraud\n\nAnother from Arnold to O'Mara said the then-MP had been intoxicated before appearing on BBC Look North, with the court told he had drunk a litre of vodka before the TV interview.\n\nArnold, the only defendant of the three who elected to give evidence during the trial, described his former employer's cocaine taking as an \"open secret\" in Sheffield, adding O'Mara had used \"five grams a day\" at one stage, along with a \"bottle of vodka\" and \"60 cigarettes\".\n\nAside from the headlines this case has provided, it has also raised important questions about the process of selecting candidates.\n\nLabour won't say anything on the record about his nomination, but I understand it was a mixture of a lax selection process and time pressures during a snap general election.\n\nO'Mara had been interviewed previously as a potential Labour candidate for the local council elections. He wasn't interviewed as part of the MP selection process.\n\nIn 2017 we were all given only seven weeks' notice of the general election.\n\nThese things, combined with the fact Labour thought they had no chance of kicking former deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg out of Sheffield Hallam, meant they quickly selected Jared O'Mara as their candidate.\n\nLabour sources have told me that the selection and vetting process have since improved.\n\nMark Kelly KC, representing O'Mara, told the court his client had autism, was born with cerebral palsy and was suffering from anxiety and depression at the time of the offences.\n\nHe asked jurors to consider whether O'Mara was acting \"dishonestly or incompetently\" in filing the expenses claims under examination.\n\nO'Mara was also found guilty of submitting a false contract of employment for a third defendant John Woodliff, \"pretending\" he worked as a constituency support officer.\n\nMr Woodliff, 46, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen, who faced one charge of fraud, was cleared of any wrongdoing.\n\nO'Mara, of Walker Close, Sheffield, and Arnold, of School Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire, are due to be sentenced on Thursday.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "MPs will receive a 2.9% pay increase from April, taking their salary from £84,144 to £86,584.\n\nThe Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which sets MPs' pay, said this was in line with the average public sector workers' rise in 2022/23.\n\nThe government's \"evolving approach to public sector pay\" had been a factor, Ipsa chairman Richard Lloyd said.\n\nRail workers, nurses, ambulance staff, civil servants and teachers have taken part in strikes over pay recently.\n\nHouseholds across the country have been struggling with cost-of-living pressures, including high energy prices and high inflation.\n\nFollowing the annual public sector pay review process, civil servants were awarded a 2% increase for 2022/23; nurses received 4%, teachers 5%, and doctors and dentists 4.5%.\n\nPrison officers got a minimum of 4%, and members of the armed forces 3.75%.\n\nPolice officers received a pay rise of at least £1.900. Police, prison officers and service personnel are all barred from taking strike action.\n\nMr Lloyd said: \"We have once again considered very carefully the extremely difficult economic circumstances, the government's evolving approach to public sector pay in the light of forecasted rates of inflation, and the principle that MPs' pay should be reflective of their responsibility in our democracy.\n\n\"Our aim is to ensure that pay is fair for MPs, regardless of their financial circumstances. Serving as an MP should not be the preserve of those wealthy enough to fund it themselves.\"\n\nIpsa was set up in 2009, largely as a response to the MPs' expenses scandal, in an attempt to make the expenses system more transparent and to reach independent decisions on MPs' salaries.", "President Zelensky spoke of Ukraine's \"European way of life\" throughout his speech\n\nUkraine's leader has called on EU leaders to provide fighter jets and arms for the war against Russia, on his second trip abroad since the war began.\n\n\"We have to enhance the dynamics of our co-operation, we have to do it faster than the aggressor,\" said Volodymyr Zelensky.\n\nHe was earlier given a standing ovation at the European Parliament in Brussels.\n\nSeveral EU leaders have already stressed that a decision on warplanes would be a collective move.\n\nSome are keen to avoid having the debate being played out in public, while there is also concern about escalation and playing into Russian narratives.\n\nThe Kremlin warned on Thursday that the line between direct and indirect Western involvement in the conflict was disappearing.\n\nMr Zelensky said that certain agreements had been made that were positive but not yet public, and presidential office adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak later told Ukrainian TV that long-range missiles and attack aircraft would be supplied this year, although it was up to negotiations.\n\nThe UK said no decision on providing jets in the long term had yet been made but it would provide training for Ukrainian pilots on the aircraft it already had.\n\nPoland's prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said his country could only act \"within the entire formation of Nato\", while Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the issue had to be discussed behind closed doors. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola called on EU states to consider Kyiv's request for jets quickly.\n\nIn his speech to the Parliament in Brussels, Mr Zelensky repeatedly linked Ukraine to a European way of life. Ukraine has applied to join the EU and is urging the bloc's leaders to throw its weight behind a swift course to accession, which usually takes many years.\n\n\"Ukraine is going to be a member of the European Union,\" he told MEPs. Together with Europe, he said Ukrainians were defending themselves against the \"biggest anti-European force of the modern world\". That theme was repeated at the later summit with EU leaders, where he stressed that Europe could not be free without a free Ukraine.\n\nThe Ukrainian leader had earlier travelled from Paris with France's Emmanuel Macron, where he had also held talks with Germany's Olaf Scholz. Before visiting Paris, he had been assured by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that nothing was off the table.\n\nUkraine's leader travelled with President Macron to Brussels ahead of the EU summit\n\nMr Zelensky said Germany and France had the potential to be \"game-changers\" in the war. The sooner Ukraine received heavy, long-range weapons and modern planes, \"the quicker this Russian aggression will end\", he explained.\n\nAlthough President Macron has previously signalled some openness to providing fighter jets, Mr Scholz has not.\n\nThe French leader vowed Ukraine could count on his support, with France \"determined to help Ukraine to victory and the re-establishment of its legitimate rights\". Chancellor Scholz added: \"The position is unchanged: Russia must not win this war.\"\n\nBecause of the 11-month long Russian invasion, Mr Zelensky rarely leaves his own country and a senior Ukrainian official said that the purpose of his trip was to obtain results.\n\nHe argues that fighter jets and long-range missiles are important in addition to the Leopard 2 tanks that Western nations have recently committed to supplying. While Mr Zelensky said he had discussed the issue of combat planes in Paris, he warned there was \"very little time\" to provide much-needed weaponry.\n\nThe Dutch prime minister said that many sensitive issues had to be discussed before a decision could be made on supplying fighter jets. \"The pros and cons - you have to make absolutely sure that you are not getting into an Article Five direct confrontation between Nato and Russia,\" Mr Rutte told the BBC.\n\nMoscow has repeatably warned the West against weapons deliveries since the war began, frequently threatening to retaliate against what it calls \"provocations\".\n\nAsked by reporters in Moscow about the growing debate over sending warplanes to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia saw it as evidence of the growing involvement of the UK, France and Germany in the conflict.\n\n\"We regret this and state that such actions of these countries lead to the escalation of tension around this conflict, prolong it and make it more painful and torturous for Ukraine,\" said Mr Peskov.\n\nChancellor Scholz agreed only recently to allow German Leopard tanks and has warned against getting involved in a \"public bidding war\" of weapons systems for Ukraine.\n\nMr Zelensky had earlier addressed a joint session of the UK Parliament in Westminster Hall, underlining his plea for fighter jets: \"Freedom will win - we know Russia will lose.\"\n\nDowning Street said UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was investigating what aircraft could potentially be offered, but emphasised this was \"a long-term solution\" and that training pilots could take years.", "Ukrainian forces are now defending the small city of Bakhmut on three fronts\n\nThe soil of Bakhmut is dusted with snow and soaked with blood. This small city in Eastern Ukraine is at the centre of an epic battle.\n\nFor more than six months Russian forces have tried to claim it. Ukrainian troops have resisted, giving rise to the popular slogan here \"Bakhmut holds.\"\n\nNow the Russians are attacking from three sides, with regular troops and fighters from the notorious Wagner mercenary group. The Russians have reached one of the main highways into the city, and are closing in on the outskirts.\n\nThere is house-to-house fighting in some areas on the outskirts, with \"hard battles for every home\" according to the Ukrainian military.\n\nIt feels like Bakhmut is on borrowed time. If so, Ilya and Oleksii intend to use every second of it.\n\nThe two Ukrainian National Guardsmen move swiftly and silently across open ground on the frontlines and then plunge into a trench.\n\nTheir camouflage backpacks contain weapons of war - a drone, a modified hand grenade, and a Velcro strap.\n\nThe German-made grenade had a tail fin attached, made with a 3D printer, to ensure it exploded on impact.\n\nIlya and Oleksii use drones armed with grenades to attack Russian troops a short distance away\n\nIlya - an IT guy turned intelligence officer - makes short work of velcroing the grenade to the drone. Then he launches it towards enemy forces nestled in their trenches, a kilometre and a half away.\n\n\"We know there are a lot of Russian soldiers there, walking, living, and sitting,\" said Oleksii, the drone pilot. \"And so, we just give them [a] gift.\"\n\n\"The aim is not to kill a lot of soldiers but to make them afraid of our sky, to make them watch out every second. It's psychological pressure.\"\n\nHe shows us a drone's eye view as he releases the grenade over a frozen expanse. We can see the impact on his screen but can't tell if they were casualties below.\n\nOleksii says the fighting in Bakhmut is tough, emotionally and physically: \"It's hard, but we are staying here, and we will protect Bakhmut and the area around it as much as we can.\"\n\nBut Ukraine is counting the cost and there's speculation it could withdraw to avoid further heavy losses.\n\nIn the Kremlin, a clock is ticking - counting down to the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of its neighbour, on 24 February 2022. President Putin wants a victory before then. Taking Bakhmut would give him one, and bring him closer to his aim of capturing all of the mineral rich Donbas region.\n\nTo reach Bakhmut you drive along winding back roads. The route we used for previous trips last September is now classed as \"suicidal\" because of constant Russian attacks.\n\nThe city is now a shell. The thud of incoming and outgoing fire echoes through empty streets. Missiles have punched holes through buildings. Power and water supplies are long gone, along with most of the pre-war population of about 70,000.\n\nBut some families have remained here, with their children, sheltering in the shadows.\n\nAnna, who is seven, is a bright spark in an airless dark basement. Tiny gold earrings glint in her ears, her blonde hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she's wearing a pink sweater. Her colourful drawings line the walls but it still feels like a prison cell.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Anna has befriended Pavlo Dyachenko from Ukraine's White Angels, who brings her a sleeping bag\n\nAnna lives with her mother Yulia, grandfather Valery, two cats and Mushka the dog. She proudly shows us her favourite soft toys, but her blue eyes stand out against her pale complexion.\n\n\"I sit in the cellar almost all day long,\" she tells me in a lilting voice. \"Outside I take Mushka for a walk, but she's afraid of these booms and constantly comes back. Only in the morning, when it is quiet at dawn, I can take her out.\"\n\nYulia sits in the gloom nearby, as Anna lists her friends who have already fled. \"I miss them all,\" she says. \"Arina might be in Poland, Masha in Western Ukraine. Diana went somewhere else. Everyone left.\"\n\nBut Yulia is staying put with her daughter. \"Of course, I am worried,\" she tells me. \"But I think it is more or less safe. At least we have everything here, everything is prepared. We think nowhere in Ukraine is safe and we have no means to go abroad.\"\n\nTheir basement shelter is well stocked with food and water, and they get regular deliveries from the White Angels, a unit of Ukrainian police who provide aid and carry out evacuations.\n\nThe team leader, Pavlo Dyachenko, lights up when he sees Anna. In the depths of war, they have forged a bond.\n\nHe has brought Anna a new sleeping bag to keep her warm, but he would rather be getting her and her family out of the line of fire.\n\n\"I don't understand why they are deciding to stay,\" he said. \"Bakhmut is under attack in the evening, in the morning, in the night. It's very dangerous with bombing and shelling all the time.\"\n\nAnna's colourful drawings line the walls of the basement\n\nMore thuds above ground amplify his point.\n\nThe shelling usually intensifies as midday approaches - part of the rhythm of warfare in Bakhmut. After exhausting overnight battles, troops on both sides sleep late into the mornings, before getting back to their guns.\n\nWe race out of the city and onwards through rolling hills that offer a commanding view of the area.\n\n\"These heights are more important for the Russians than Bakhmut itself,\" said a Ukrainian colleague. \"If they can bring their artillery here, they can target bigger cities like Kramatorsk and Slovyansk. \"\n\nBakhmut holds, for now, but for how much longer.", "UK wants to train Ukraine's pilots 'as quickly as humanly possible'\n\nThe UK wants to train Ukrainian pilots to use its aircraft \"as quickly as humanly possible\", Downing Street has said. A key aim of Zelensky's tour of European capitals has been to lobby for the supply of fighter jets, but doubts have been raised about how many Western nations could spare and how quickly Ukrainian pilots could be trained to use them. Discussing the issue with reporters, the prime minister's spokesman said: \"Obviously we can train them on aircraft the UK [has]. \"What we can also do at the same time is instruct trainees on tactics and procedures that all Nato nations use.\" Asked about how long the training could take, the spokesman said: \"What we are doing is exploring how quickly this can be done, particularly given some Ukrainian pilots may have years [of experience], albeit in Soviet-era jets that are very different to our own.\" He added that the UK was working with the Ukrainian military to \"adapt our training and get pilots up to full flying standard as quickly as humanly possible\".", "Netflix is introducing limits on password sharing in four more countries: Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain.\n\nCustomers in those countries are being asked to pay an extra fee if they want friends and family who don't live with them to share their subscription.\n\nThe move follows a crackdown on sharing passwords in South America, and will roll out in the UK by the end of March.\n\nNetflix estimates 100 million people around the world use shared accounts.\n\nThe hit to revenues from the shared accounts was affecting Netflix's ability to invest in new programming content, the firm said. It has said it is planning to extend the new approach to more countries in coming months.\n\n\"Over the last year, we've been exploring different approaches to address this issue in Latin America, and we're now ready to roll them out more broadly in the coming months, starting today in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain,\" it said in a blog post on Wednesday.\n\nUp until now it has been easy for subscribers to share their login and password with friends outside their home.\n\nBack in 2017 Netflix even appeared to be sanctioning the practice when it tweeted \"Love is sharing a password\".\n\nBut growing competition in the streaming market, and customers cutting back on subscriptions due to the rising cost of living, have prompted Netflix to focus on shoring up its revenues.\n\nThe firm said that allowing accounts to be used by several people within households had \"created confusion\" about when and how people could share.\n\nIt said members in Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Portugal would now be asked to set up a \"primary location\" for their account and manage who has access to it.\n\nMembers would still be able to watch Netflix when they travelled, both on personal devices and logging in in other places, for example in a hotel, it said.\n\nFor CAD$7.99 (£4.92) Canadian subscribers can add an extra member as a \"sub account\" the blog said.\n\nThe fee would be similar in New Zealand at NZ$7.99 (£4.17). There would be a price difference for sub accounts between Portugal at €3.99 (£3.54) and Spain at €5.99 (£5.32).\n\nNetflix chief operating officer Gregory Peters last month acknowledged that the changes would not be \"universally popular\" and warned investors to expect some cancellations.\n\nHe said the firm expected to eventually make up those losses.\n\nIn the first half of 2022, Netflix saw its subscriber numbers fall sharply. It cut hundreds of jobs and put up prices to cover rising costs.\n\nBut the company saw a bigger-than-expected rise in user numbers in the last three months of 2022, up 7.66 million, taking its total paid subscribers worldwide to nearly 231 million.\n\nIn November, it introduced a cheaper ad-supported option in 12 countries, including most of Europe, the UK and the US.", "The Home Office has warned of delays at Dover and other ports\n\nHalf-term holidaymakers are being warned of delays on the way back into the UK, during planned strike action by Border Force staff.\n\nThe PCS union expects 1,000 members at the ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Dover, and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel Terminal, to walk out between Friday 17 February and Monday 20 February.\n\nIt is part of their ongoing pay dispute.\n\nThe government said getting through passport control could take longer.\n\nUnder the \"juxtaposed controls\" system, UK officers check inbound passengers and freight in France and Belgium, before they begin their journey.\n\nThe military and civil servants will provide cover during the strike, although military personnel will not be sent over to France.\n\nThey will also help at other UK ports and airports, filling in for Border Force staff being moved to those locations directly affected.\n\nThe Home Office said people travelling into any UK port during the strike should be prepared for longer wait times at border control.\n\nThe PCS says its campaign of industrial action is over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security.\n\nSteve Dann, Border Force's chief operating officer, described the strike as \"disappointing\".\n\nHe said safety and border security was a priority, and the organisation was working with its French counterparts and the travel industry to \"meet critical demand and support the flow of passengers and goods through our border\".\n\nFebruary half-term is traditionally a busy time for travel, and this will be the first since the lifting of Covid travel restrictions last March.\n\nAbta, the trade association for travel businesses, said bookings had been ramping up over the last few months.\n\nBut it added that most half-term holidaymakers would travel by plane - for example, to places like the Canary Islands and mainland Spain.\n\nAnd it pointed out that previous strikes by Border Force staff at six UK airports over Christmas did not cause significant delays or disruption.\n\nMeanwhile, ferry services between Dover and Calais were suspended for most of Thursday due to separate strike action in France.", "Data for England is shown by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. Data for Wales and Scotland is shown by Health Board and in Northern Ireland by Health and Social Care Trust.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board and by Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland.\n\nComparative data is shown for a previous year where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Earlier data is not available for all measures, so comparisons between years are not always possible.\n\nA&E attendances include all emergency departments in that trust or health board, not just major A&E departments, for example, those who attend minor injury units.\n\nEach nation has different target times for some of the measures shown, therefore comparisons between them may not be possible.", "MP Janet Daby has asked for an investigation into procedures at the school\n\nMPs have demanded a school is investigated after a black pupil was injured in what police described as a serious racially aggravated assault.\n\nDistressing footage shared widely online showed the girl being punched, kicked and having her hair pulled.\n\nIt led to protests outside Thomas Knyvett College in Ashford by people concerned the school did not do enough to help her.\n\nHead teacher Richard Beeson said \"all necessary steps\" were being taken.\n\nThe attack spilled into the road where the victim was set upon by a group of children as bystanders looked on.\n\nAmong the high profile names putting the spotlight on the school was British rapper Dave, who tweeted to his 866,000 followers that action should be taken against any staff members who didn't protect the girl.\n\nMP Janet Daby said she lost sleep after watching the footage, which prompted a protest outside the school attended by dozens of people.\n\nThe Labour MP for Lewisham East is one of a number of MPs to have signed a letter to the home secretary condemning the attack and Surrey Police's description of it as \"a fight\" between girls.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Janet Daby MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the letter, the MPs said: \"Given that this attack is potentially racially motivated, the description of this incident by Surrey Police as a 'fight between a group of girls' wrongly misrepresents the seriousness of the incident and the impact such language may have on the black community.\n\n\"We therefore ask what discussions [the Home Office] has had with Surrey Police regarding this description and that this is corrected as a matter of urgency.\"\n\nSurrey Police said it was aware of the letter.\n\nA spokeswoman said the force's initial description of the attack was used because \"this is how it was reported into our call centre\".\n\n\"The next day once we had further, confirmed information regarding the circumstances and the events leading up to the attack, we updated our statement to reflect it was a serious, racially aggravated assault and this is how we have referred to it since,\" she said.\n\n\"We understand the importance this has in bringing confidence to the community, that we will treat incidents of this nature with the seriousness they deserve.\"\n\nSpeaking in parliament, Ms Daby asked that the Department for Education \"look into what practices are not and are taking place in that school regarding safeguarding, and also address the professional performance of the school teachers\".\n\nIn response, Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons, said: \"It is being investigated, and of course, those investigations are separate from government. Quite rightly so.\n\n\"I will write... to raise her concerns, to the secretary of state.\"\n\nIn a statement shared on Twitter, the school's head teacher, Richard Beeson, said: \"We can assure you that we are taking all necessary steps to ensure this isolated incident is dealt with and that student safety is our paramount concern.\"\n\nThe BBC has approached the school for comment.\n\nThe All-Party Parliamentary Group for Race Equality in Education tweeted: \"We believe there are still some very serious safeguarding questions for the school to answer.\"\n\nSurrey Police officers were called to the junction of Salcombe Road and Stanwell Road in Ashford at 14:30 GMT on Monday.\n\nOfficers earlier described the incident outside Thomas Knyvett College as \"distressing\" and asked people not to share videos of it on social media.\n\nA 39-year-old woman, a 16-year-old girl and two 11-year-old girls were arrested on suspicion of attempted racially aggravated grievous bodily harm.\n\nA 43-year-old man and the 39-year-old woman were also arrested on suspicion of child neglect and intentionally encouraging and assisting the commission of an indictable only offence.\n\nThe 16-year-old girl was also arrested on suspicion of malicious communications.\n\nSurrey Police said all those arrested have been released on bail until a date in March.\n\nCh Insp Dallas McDermott said: \"We know this will be concerning and upsetting for the victims, their friends and family, and for the wider community who are understandably shocked and outraged at the violence in this video.\n\n\"I want to make clear that the suspects being bailed does not mean justice won't be pursued further or achieved.\"\n\nA sixth suspect, a 15-year-old girl, is being urged to hand herself in.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Five arrested after schoolgirl hurt in attack\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The future King Charles on a big screen at the last major royal concert, for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, in 2022\n\nA ballot has opened for 10,000 free tickets for a star-studded concert at Windsor Castle to mark the King's coronation.\n\nThe televised show will be on 7 May, the day after King Charles is crowned at Westminster Abbey.\n\nThe BBC has promised the line-up will feature \"musical icons and contemporary stars\".\n\nThere are 5,000 pairs of tickets in the ballot, which opened at 07:00 GMT on Friday and will close on 28 February.\n\nEach applicant in the ballot will be able to nominate a guest.\n\nPeople must be 18 or over to apply for a ticket, with the guests required to be over 11.\n\nThe tickets would be allocated based on the geographical spread of the UK population, the BBC said, with those successful notified by late April.\n\nThe castle's east lawn would see \"a world-class orchestra play interpretations of musical favourites fronted by fantastic entertainers, alongside performers from the world of dance and the arts\", the BBC said.\n\nIt \"will also feature a selection of spoken-word sequences delivered by stars of stage and screen\", a statement added.\n\nThe evening event will last for two to three hours, with the full line-up to be confirmed later.\n\nMore tickets will be made available to a range of charities and the event will be broadcast on BBC TV, radio and online.\n\nBBC chief content officer Charlotte Moore said: \"The coronation concert on the BBC will bring the nation together to mark this momentous occasion and we are thrilled to be able to offer the public the opportunity to be part of the event at Windsor Castle through a national ballot, as well as providing audiences with exclusive coverage across TV and radio.\"\n\nHave you applied for tickets? Share your experiences haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "On Friday, ambulance workers are going on strike in five regions in England.\n\nUnison, which is organising the action, says that staff can leave the picket lines to respond to emergency calls.\n\nIt's been a difficult week for the NHS with strikes affecting not just the ambulance service but nurses and physiotherapists as well. NHS England says the industrial action has led to 137,000 non-urgent appointments being cancelled over the last few weeks.\n\nStaff at 150 universities in the UK are also on strike on Friday. This action is being organised by the University College Union and it says that 70,000 staff are taking part.\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nMembers of the Unison trade union - which represents nearly half of ambulance workers - are striking on Friday in five regions: London, Yorkshire, the South West, the North West and the North East.\n\nThe start times and lengths of the walkouts vary between ambulance services, but most will last for about 12 hours.\n\nThe action will involve all ambulance employees, including call centre and control room staff, not just emergency crews.\n\nAmbulances will still be sent to the most life-threatening calls - known as Category 1, which includes cardiac arrests. But it is up to each NHS trust in consultation with the union to decide which calls are responded to.\n\nMembers of the University and College Union will go on strike again on Friday at 150 universities, continuing its action that is taking place on 18 days during February and March.\n\nAcademic staff and those in other professional roles including administrators, librarians and technicians are taking part.\n\nThe strike is over a range of issues, including pay, conditions and pensions.\n\nStaff walked out on three days in November, although the Universities and College Employers Association said it caused little disruption.\n\nUniversities UK, which represents 140 institutions, said some universities extended coursework deadlines and rescheduled teaching.\n\nIf students feel the measures put in place are not good enough, they can complain using their university's complaints procedure.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Three bodies have been found as rescuers in Turkey search a collapsed hotel for a group of school volleyball players following Monday's earthquakes.\n\nThe bodies of two teachers and a student were recovered from the Isias Hotel in Adiyaman, said officials in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus.\n\nA group of 39 people - including boys' and girls' teams - are said to have been in the building when it came down.\n\nSearch efforts continue at the site, where players' families have gathered.\n\nThe quakes have killed thousands in southern Turkey and northern Syria.\n\nThe athletes had travelled to Adiyaman from Famagusta Turkish Maarif College, accompanied by teachers and parents.\n\nFour of the party are known to have survived after the seven-storey building fell down, having reportedly managed to escape from the rubble themselves.\n\nTurkish-Cypriot media quoted officials as saying that the lifeless bodies of two teachers were found on Wednesday - and that the death toll had risen to three after an eighth-grade student was discovered.\n\nThe number of casualties was confirmed by the BBC Turkish team.\n\nSome 170 people - including relatives and rescuers - have travelled to the wreckage from Turkish-controlled Northern Cyprus.\n\nAn education official from the island said they would remain there until the remaining students were found.\n\nOne mother at the scene questioned the construction of the buildings and asked if they had been adequately inspected.\n\nAnother woman said her niece, 12-year-old Nehir, had been staying with her in Adiyaman, but had gone to the hotel on the day of the earthquake to join up with friends.\n\nNehir, the youngest member of the girls' team, was still missing along with other children.\n\nMeanwhile, a teacher who survived the quakes said they had not slept since the tremors and that their own daughter remained trapped in the wreckage.\n\nMonday morning's initial 7.8-magnitude tremor struck near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.\n\nNumerous aftershocks were felt in both countries.\n\nNearly 16,000 people are known to have died in the two countries. The World Health Organization has warned that many more could lose their lives without shelter, water, fuel or electricity.\n\nAs freezing weather sets in, hopes are fading for the many still trapped under ruined buildings, more than 72 hours after disaster struck.", "Boris Johnson has registered an advance payment of nearly £2.5m for speaking events, in his latest declaration of outside earnings.\n\nIt brings the former prime minister's declared income since leaving office last September to almost £4.8m.\n\nHe has previously recorded nearly £1.8m in speaking fees since his departure.\n\nMr Johnson has also registered a further £13,500 in accommodation from JCB boss Lord Bamford and his wife Carole for January and February.\n\nIt brings the total value of accommodation he has registered from the couple for him and his family since leaving Downing Street to £74,000.\n\nThe nearly £2.5m advance in his latest declaration is from the New York-based Harry Walker speaking agency, for an unspecified number of speeches.\n\nIt comes on top of almost £1.8m he has registered since leaving office for nine speeches delivered in the US, India, Portugal, the UK and Singapore.\n\nAs well as a £510,000 advance for his political memoirs from publisher HarperCollins, he has also declared £1,943 since leaving No 10 in royalty payments for previously written books.\n\nUnder ministerial rules, former ministers are not allowed to take jobs that involve influencing government for two years after leaving their post.\n\nBut Mr Johnson's latest declarations are the latest demonstration of how much former leaders can earn shortly after leaving office through book deals and on the lucrative speaking circuit.\n\nThe £4.8m in earnings that Mr Johnson has declared since leaving No 10 just over five months ago is more than 50 times his yearly £84,144 MP salary.\n\nA company set up to support his activities as a former PM has also received £1m from crypto currency investor Christopher Harborne.\n\nMr Harborne has previously donated more than £15m to the Conservatives, the Brexit Party, and Reform UK.\n\nMr Johnson was forced to resign by his ministers last July after a series of controversies prompted a mass walk-out among his ministers.\n\nHe attempted a comeback after his successor, Liz Truss, quit within weeks of taking office last September.\n\nBut despite obtaining enough support from Tory MPs to run in the contest to replace her, he ultimately stood aside, clearing the way for Rishi Sunak to become prime minister in October.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nMarcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho combined to deny manager-less Leeds a rare Old Trafford victory as Manchester United came back from two goals down to snatch a point from a thrilling Roses match.\n\nThe hosts looked finished when Raphael Varane turned Crysencio Summerville's cutback into his own net to put Leeds two ahead after Wilfried Gnonto had given them a first-minute lead.\n\nBut Rashford halved the deficit when he headed home Diogo Dalot's inviting cross before Sancho, only just back to first-team duties after recovering from physical and mental issues, scored his first Premier League goal since September when he drove home from 10 yards after Luke Shaw's initial shot had been blocked.\n\nVarane brought an excellent save out of Illan Meslier as Manchester United hunted a goal to extend their 13-match winning streak on home soil.\n\nAnything less than a point would have been extremely harsh on Leeds, who sacked manager Jesse Marsch on Monday, and they also hit the post through Brenden Aaronson in between the home side's two goals.\n\nThe result moves them a point clear of the relegation zone and above West Ham into 16th, although after this superb contest, the Elland Road rematch in four days' time will be an occasion to relish.\n• None Reaction to the thrilling draw between Man Utd and Leeds\n• None Go straight to all the best Manchester United content\n\nThe general narrative around Elland Road in the wake of Marsch's dismissal has been that the Leeds' hierarchy would use a week that features two games against Manchester United to recruit a replacement before key clashes with relegation rivals Everton and Southampton later this month.\n\nLeeds had not won a league game at Old Trafford since 1981 and before kick-off many of their fans were speculating about what their margin of defeat would be, rather than whether they could get something from the game.\n\nThat assessment reckoned without a super motivated Leeds team, led by former England futsal head coach Michael Skubala and lethargic hosts, who began with a sloppiness seldom seen under Ten Hag since that woeful opening to his tenure that featured defeats to Brighton and Brentford.\n\nItalian teenager Gnonto took maximum advantage of the room afforded to him by a failure to track his first-minute surge to the edge of the area by burying his shot in the bottom corner.\n\nIf he was watching as Varane turned Summerville's cutback into his own net three minutes after the break, Marsch must have wondered why he could not have enjoyed the same slices of fortune.\n\nLeeds are not his responsibility now of course and Skubala's celebrations on the touchline were full of sheer delight, along with those of a coaching team that includes Chris Armas, who spent the second half of last term being derided for his contribution to Ralf Rangnick's Manchester United staff.\n\nFootball management is not so easy though and Skubala went through a full range of emotions as Manchester United fought back, appealing for every throw and free-kick, no matter how obviously it was that they were not his team's.\n\nHowever, with the backing of their noisy support, Leeds made it to the final whistle, lifting some of the pressure off the players and placing the focus back on sporting director Victor Orta, who returned from a trip to Madrid talking to potential managers to see for himself the battling spirit that remains in this group of players.\n\n\"I've been really busy just looking after this job for the last few days,\" said Skubala, adding he did not know whether he would be in charge at the weekend. \"That's up to other people to decide but it's a great opportunity for the players and the staff.\n\n\"If I'm called upon then I just want to help the club in the best way I can.\"\n\nLeeds' supporters paired Rashford and Sancho in a 'you let your country down' song.\n\nThe pair's careers have moved in different directions since that Euro 2020 penalty shootout loss to Italy.\n\nRashford has now scored 20 goals in all competitions - and 12 since the World Cup, when he excelled.\n\nSancho's likely omission from Gareth Southgate's squad for Qatar was put forward as one of the reasons why his early-season form deteriorated, bringing with it physical and mental issues it took a spell training on his own to overcome.\n\nThe former Borussia Dortmund winger's celebration as he ran away had an element of relief to it.\n\nAt a time when Manchester United are without the creativity of Christian Eriksen, the unpredictability of Antony and game management skills of Casemiro, Sancho's quality is something Ten Hag really needs right now.\n• None Attempt missed. Fred (Manchester United) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left.\n• None Attempt blocked. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Jadon Sancho.\n• None Attempt saved. Fred (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Marcus Rashford.\n• None Attempt blocked. Fred (Manchester United) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Jadon Sancho.\n• None Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Luke Shaw with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) left footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Jadon Sancho.\n• None Marcel Sabitzer (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Scotland's councils are facing a £700m funding gap as they prepare to set their budgets for the coming year.\n\nIndividual local authorities have shortfalls ranging from around £7m in the Scottish Borders to £120m at Glasgow City Council, according to research by the BBC.\n\nCouncils have been appealing to the Scottish government for more cash but ministers have said they have been given a fair settlement in challenging circumstances.\n\nWithout additional national funding, councils are considering major cuts to local jobs and services and increases in council tax to balance their books.\n\nThe BBC asked all 32 local authorities for more details of the options under consideration. All but Angus and Dumfries & Galloway replied.\n\nCouncils are large employers and cutting staff numbers - or \"headcount\" in the jargon - could significantly reduce costs.\n\nWestern Isles council - Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar - may not replace the only traffic warden on the islands who retired last year.\n\nWhile that may not be the most unpopular job cut, according to a leaked document from the council body, Cosla, it could be one of more than 7,000 in the next three years.\n\nThat figure included the anticipated loss of around 1,750 teachers with proposals for extensive job cuts in Glasgow making headlines.\n\nThe Scottish government has now stepped in to stop cuts to teaching posts.\n\nCosla has warned of significant cuts to services which support children and families\n\nThe SNP has a manifesto to increase teacher numbers and big cuts to the workforce could worsen relations with unions whose members are already striking over pay.\n\nIn a letter to council leaders, seen by the BBC, the education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has made clear she will claw back cash from local authorities that don't maintain teacher and pupil support staff numbers at current levels.\n\nCosla's leadership has said this \"means significant cuts will have to be made in other areas that support children, young people, families and our communities\".\n\nCaroline Haddock wants Midlothian Council to keep St Matthew's RC primary in Rosewell open\n\nMidlothian Council is considering the closure of St Matthew's RC primary school in Rosewell and potential cuts to music tuition.\n\nCaroline Haddock, who has two children at the school, said she was \"absolutely devastated\" at the possibility it could shut, arguing that it does not make sense because new housing is to be developed in the village.\n\n\"We've got capacity, we've got room - where are they going to put the children?\" she said. The council has stressed that no final decision has been taken.\n\nIn Clackmannanshire, councillors are considering reducing home to school transport and the amount of money spent on the delivery of less popular secondary school subjects.\n\nIn North Ayrshire, the Arran outdoor education centre could be shut to save cash.\n\nBeyond education, leisure services face cuts in many areas with Inverclyde Council looking at the closure of Greenock sports centre and Port Glasgow swimming pool.\n\nPamela Atkinson faces a 20 minute bus trip for a swim if her local pool closes\n\nLocal swimmer Gary Anderson said he would be \"very upset\" if the Port Glasgow facility shut and another pool user, Pamela Atkinson said it helped keep her fit and healthy.\n\nInverclyde Council is still considering a range of cost-saving options.\n\nThe library in West Calder is one of several that could be shut under savings plans being considered by West Lothian Council.\n\nIn West Dunbartonshire, the council is thinking about reducing the opening hours of its recycling centres.\n\nMany charities are worried about the loss of grant funding from local authorities with concerns being raised from Argyll and Bute to North Lanarkshire and Edinburgh.\n\nEast Renfrewshire Council is considering increasing the charge for picking up garden waste\n\nIntroducing or increasing charges for some services can help boost council funds.\n\nAberdeen City Council is putting up most parking charges, while West Dunbartonshire thinks it could generate an extra £325,000 through parking enforcement.\n\nIn East Ayrshire, they are looking at a 4% increase in the rent charged for temporary accommodation.\n\nMoray Council is proposing a 10% increase in the cost of burying the dead, with charges for the interment of local adults to rise from £949 to £1,044.\n\nIn East Renfrewshire, there is already a £40 charge, on top of council tax, for households that want garden waste removed. This could go up to £60.\n\nCouncil tax only generates about 13% of local government funding. Most of their cash comes from the Scottish government.\n\nThat means small council tax increases don't generate huge amounts of extra money compared to what councils say they need.\n\nBig increases are unlikely to be considered widely acceptable when many households are already struggling with cost of living pressures.\n\nAberdeenshire Council agreed to a 4% increase in council tax on Thursday, a decision which will see Band D bills go up by more than £50 a year.\n\nTypically, councils seem to be looking at increases of 3-5%.\n\nIn future, councils may have broader tax powers at their disposal including a local visitor levy, which is sometimes dubbed the \"tourist tax\".\n\nEast Renfrewshire Council trainee Aiden Haddock has been getting the number plate ready for sale\n\nSelling off buildings and other things councils own and consider they no longer need is another way they can raise money.\n\nEast Renfrewshire Council has decided to sell its distinctive civic number plate HS 0 to the highest bidder, with experts estimating it could be worth £150-250,000.\n\nFalkirk Council has agreed in principle to offload up to 133 properties that it describes as ageing and in need of repair.\n\nIt is willing to transfer these buildings to community organisations, rather than sell them, to save on maintenance costs.\n\nWhere asset transfers are not possible these buildings could be closed over the next few years.\n\nThere's particular concern about the future of Grangemouth stadium which describes itself as \"one of the premier training facilities in Scotland\".\n\nThe athlete Eilish McColgan, who first ran for Scotland at the venue, has said: \"It must be saved because it is so important for track and field in Scotland.\"\n\nFalkirk Council have carried out a consultation on their proposals to inform their decision making.\n\nThere are some other options available to councils.\n\nSome may choose to draw on their financial reserves - money typically kept aside for emergencies and other unforeseen challenges.\n\nOthers are planning to spread the cost of paying back PPP/PFI debts, for things like school buildings, over a longer period of time.\n\nSouth Ayrshire started \"reprofiling\" its debts in December 2022, Fife is looking to do the same and East Dunbartonshire said it was continuing to \"explore financial flexibilities\".\n\nCouncils have faced a long term squeeze on their finances and argue that they are underfunded by the Scottish government.\n\nMinisters accept that councils are under pressure but point out that they are receiving a cash uplift of more than half a billion pounds in 2023/24.\n\nCosla says most of that cash is ring-fenced for particular national priorities and gives councils little flexibility.\n\nIndependent analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found that when new and expanding responsibilities are taken into account \"grant funding for Scottish councils is set to fall by 0.8% in real terms this April\".\n\n\"Even if Scottish councils were to increase their council tax rates by 5% in April, their overall funding would still fall by about 0.3% in real terms,\" the institute said.\n\nAll Scotland's councils are obliged to set their budgets for 2023/24 in the coming weeks with many of them making their decisions on either 23 February or 1 March.", "NEU Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said the offer is still \"significantly below\" members' demands but he welcomed the Welsh government's \"willingness to engage in talks\"\n\nA teachers' strike planned in Wales for next Tuesday has been called off after a new Welsh government pay offer.\n\nThe National Education Union said it would consult members and postpone its planned strike on 14 February.\n\nTeachers have been offered an extra 1.5% on this year's 5% pay award, as well as a 1.5% one-off payment.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was also making a number of commitments to help reduce teachers' workloads in the short, medium and long-term.\n\nThe National Association of Headteachers also said it would ballot members on the deal while it continues to take action short of a strike.\n\nNEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said the offer was still \"significantly below\" members' demands but he welcomed the Welsh government's \"willingness to engage in talks\".\n\nHe said the union would consult with branches and workplace representatives to get the views of members.\n\nAction planned for Tuesday will be postponed until 2 March.\n\nEducation and Welsh Language Minister Jeremy Miles said: \"We welcome that NEU and NAHT have agreed to take the new pay offer to their members and representatives.\n\n\"Discussions over recent weeks have been productive, where we have made good progress on issues such as reducing staff workload and supporting wellbeing.\"\n\nJeremy Miles thanked those who participated in \"constructive negotiations\"\n\nTwo further strikes are planned for 15 and 16 March.\n\nHundreds of schools closed or were partially closed due to the first walkout on 1 February, keeping thousands of pupils at home.\n\nDavid Evans stressed the importance of workload for members\n\nSecretary of NEU Wales David Evans said workload remained \"a huge issue\" for members.\n\n\"There has also been an agreement to review the Independent Wales Pay Review Board's recommendations on pay for the 2023/24 academic year,\" he added.\n\n\"We look forward to providing detailed evidence of the effects of spiralling inflation and cost-of-living crisis to the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body (IWPRB).\"", "Strike action by firefighters has been put on hold while union members consider an increased pay offer.\n\nDuring talks on Tuesday, fire service employers put forward a revised offer, which includes a 7% pay rise backdated to July last year and another 5% from this July.\n\nThe Fire Brigades Union (FBU) will now ballot members on the deal.\n\nMore than 80% of members who voted in a ballot in December backed strike action.\n\nIf they had gone ahead, it would have been the first UK-wide fire strikes over pay since 2003.\n\nMatt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the new pay offer was \"testament to the power of collective action through the Fire Brigades Union\".\n\nHe said: \"We have achieved this increase because of the massive vote in favour of strike action by firefighters and control staff across the country, which made clear the strength of feeling among firefighters about cuts to their wages.\"\n\nSince 2010, union members have experienced a 12% drop in real-terms earnings, he said.\n\nMr Wrack said firefighters and control room staff would now \"make the decision on whether this pay offer is considered a real improvement\".\n\nHe said all discussions would be \"honest and sober\", but the new offer \"still amounts to a real-terms pay cut\".\n\nWhen the ballot result for industrial action was announced, the government said the threat of strikes would be \"disappointing and concerning for the public\".\n\nUnion members rejected a previous 5% pay offer in November, arguing it would equal a real-terms pay cut given the current high rate of inflation.\n\nCurrently, a trainee firefighter in London can earn a salary of £28,730, including London weighting. Once they are qualified, their salary can increase to £37,032.\n\nOutside London, trainee firefighters earn £24,191 rising to £32,244 after qualification.\n\nThere has been a wave of industrial action with strikes by hundreds of thousands of workers - including nurses, teachers, civil servants and railway workers.\n\nNurses who are members of the Royal College of Nursing walked out on Monday and Tuesday this week.\n\nMore strikes are still to come with physios and ambulance staff taking industrial action on Thursday and Friday.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe new deputy chairman of the Conservative Party has clashed with a radio presenter over accusations of dishonesty.\n\nMP Lee Anderson was asked by BBC radio presenter Verity Cowley about a video of him setting up a doorstep encounter during the 2019 election campaign.\n\nIn response, he asked the presenter 10 times if she had ever told a lie.\n\nThe BBC chose to play the full interview after the MP raised concerns over the editing process.\n\nMr Anderson was chosen by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to be the party's deputy chairman, a role which traditionally takes a lead in spreading election messages during campaigns.\n\nThe Ashfield MP made headlines last year for saying people needed to learn how to cook and budget \"properly\", rather than use food banks.\n\nHe argued there was \"not this massive use for food banks in this country\", and those who knew how to cook and budget could make meals for 30p a day.\n\nCowley, who presents the drive-time show on BBC Radio Nottingham, spoke to Mr Anderson during a pre-recorded interview on Wednesday.\n\nAfter speaking about his new position, the interview turned to previous comments he had made about food bank use.\n\nCowley was asked 10 times by the MP if she had ever told a lie\n\nMr Anderson said he would challenge the assumption anyone earning £30,000 to £35,000 needed to use a food bank.\n\nCowley said: \"Even though nurses, firefighters, people who've got jobs are saying 'I need to use this' you don't believe them?\"\n\n\"You bring them to me Verity, you get a fireman and a nurse in Ashfield and bring them to me and we'll do it on the show.\n\n\"I'd challenge you right now to find me a firefighter or a nurse in Ashfield that's using a food bank and I'll give you a year to find one.\n\n\"If you do find one, we'll work together with that person to find out why they need to use a food bank.\n\n\"Anyone earning over £32,500 in Ashfield using a [food] bank needs to come and see me but as yet, nobody has ever contacted me. They are the facts.\"\n\n\"They say I'm controversial but it's the media that stokes controversy by picking up on these sorts of stories,\" he added.\n\nMr Anderson was chosen to become the new deputy chairman of the Conservative Party by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak\n\nThe pre-recorded interview then moves on to the incident in the run-up to the 2019 general election.\n\nIn 2019, Mr Anderson, while out with journalist Michael Crick, takes a phone call on the campaign trail.\n\nThe MP returns to Crick to say the call related to a number of leaflets that had arrived at his house.\n\nBut a microphone picks up Mr Anderson telling a voter not to tell the film crew he is a friend when they knock on his door.\n\n\"There is a worry by some that you might be a bit dishonest,\" Cowley says.\n\n\"I'm talking about that video that you did where you asked a friend to pose as an anti-Labour swing voter.\"\n\nMr Anderson then asks Cowley if she has ever told a lie a number of times.\n\n\"I've never asked somebody to pretend to be something they're not just to further my campaign,\" Cowley adds.\n\nCowley then says humans tell false truths to protect people.\n\n\"We've established you're dishonest and you tell lies.\n\n\"Let's talk about that video because three weeks afterwards, I was voted in as the first-ever Conservative MP [in Ashfield], beating Labour by 8,000 votes.\n\n\"So that's what the people of Ashfield think and that's all that matters to me.\"\n\nElsewhere, The Spectator has published an interview with Mr Anderson in which he expresses support for reintroducing the death penalty arguing \"nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed\".\n\nHe says the death penalty could be acceptable in cases where the perpetrators are clearly identified.\n\nParliament suspended the death penalty in 1965, other than in Northern Ireland, before later abolishing it completely across the UK.\n\nThe Conservative Party said Mr Anderson's interview had been given before he was appointed to his new role, and his stance on the death penalty was not the view of the government.\n\nBut Labour accused Rishi Sunak of not being strong enough to stand up to what it called \"Lee Anderson's nonsense\".\n\nFellow Tory MP and minister for children Claire Coutinho has expressed her support for Mr Anderson.\n\nShe told LBC Radio she was \"a big fan\" but did not back his calls for the return of the death penalty.\n\n\"What I think people respond to when it comes to Lee is he does speak his mind,\" she said. \"And I think it's really important that we have people who have lots of different opinions.\n\n\"And that's one of the things I like about the Conservative Party frankly, because we are very good at living alongside each other even when we disagree.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNewly convicted or remanded transgender prison inmates will initially be placed in jails according to their sex at birth, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has confirmed.\n\nThe policy was confirmed in an urgent review which found a double rapist being placed in a women's jail did not put female prisoners at risk of harm.\n\nHowever, the SPS said it received \"conflicting\" details on Isla Bryson.\n\nIt also called for an urgent review of admission rules for some inmates.\n\nThe investigation was ordered by Justice Secretary Keith Brown in the wake of a public outcry after Bryson was initially housed in segregation at Cornton Vale prison in Stirling.\n\nIsla Bryson, a convicted rapist, was moved from Cornton Vale to a male wing at HMP Edinburgh\n\nBryson - who will be sentenced later this month for raping two women while she was known as a man called Adam Graham - was then moved to a male wing at HMP Edinburgh.\n\nIn an interview with BBC Scotland, Mr Brown initially said the rule applied only to transgender people convicted of violence against women.\n\nBut after an intervention from a member of his staff, the justice secretary clarified that all transgender prisoners will go into an assessment in a prison service facility which matches the sex of their birth.\n\nHe added: \"That will very often be a process which is undertaken in a segregated environment, before an assessment is made as to where the person goes.\n\n\"And if it turns out the person has that history [of violence against women or girls] then of course they will not be going to, if they are a trans woman, to the female estate.\"\n\nSPS chief executive Teresa Medhurst said in a letter to Mr Brown that was published alongside a summary of the Bryson case review that she had ordered an urgent review of all transgender women in Scottish prisons.\n\nShe said: \"Until these reviews are complete, any transgender person currently in custody and who has any history of violence against women - including sexual offences - will not be relocated from the male to the female estate.\n\n\"In addition, any newly convicted or remanded transgender prisoner will initially be placed in an establishment commensurate with their birth gender.\"\n\nUnder guidance drawn up in 2014, the prison service says \"accommodation provided must be the one that best suits the person in custody's needs and should reflect the gender in which the person in custody is currently living.\"\n\nHowever an updated SPS policy from last month stated that no newly convicted or remanded transgender prisoner with a history of violence against women would be housed in female prison facilities.\n\nThe latest change means that transgender women will now automatically go to a male prison regardless of whether or not they have previous convictions of violence against women. They will then be assessed before a decision is taken on where to place them longer-term.\n\nHowever, the review says that in \"exceptional circumstances\" a transgender person with a history of violence against women could potentially be relocated to or placed in a prison which does not match their sex at birth, with ministerial approval.\n\nA protest against transgender women being housed in female prisons was held outside the Scottish Parliament on Thursday\n\nThe SPS review made four key recommendations to the Scottish government.\n\nIt found the prison service received \"conflicting and limited information\" about Bryson beyond the immediate convictions and said a \"shared justice process\" for the admission of transgender people to prisons should be considered.\n\nThe SPS also called for an urgent review of admission rules and improved communications about transgender prisoners from other justice sector organisations.\n\nThe report concluded SPS policy was followed in Bryson's case and said an individualised approach to risk assessments should continue.\n\n\"It is recommended that this person centred, individualised approach, which seeks to balance the rights of the individual with the risks they pose to themselves and to others continues and is encouraged,\" the report said.\n\nKey findings and recommendations resulting from the review were published on Thursday, but Ms Medhurst said she believed it was \"not necessary\" to publish the full report due to the level of personal information it contains.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross urged the first minister to publish in full the review of the Bryson case at First Minister's Questions earlier on Thursday, with Ms Sturgeon pledging only to release the key findings.\n\nBryson was found guilty of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 in Clydebank and Glasgow before she changed gender.\n\nThe review into the handling of that case by the prison service was completed by the Scottish Prison Service last Friday, with a summary being made public on Thursday afternoon.\n\nThe SPS has also been conducting a Gender Identity and Gender Reassignment (GIGR) policy review since 2019 in response to concerns raised about welfare of people in its care.\n\nMr Brown confirmed the new policy on assessing transgender prisoners would remain in place pending the findings of the GIGR review.\n\nIn response to the Bryson report, he said: \"All recommendations from the review have been accepted by Ms Medhurst as chief executive and will be progressed by SPS in collaboration with others as needed.\n\n\"As confirmed in the letter, SPS will factor the learning identified from this review into its GIGR policy review, which is ongoing.\"\n\nAt the heart of this case are two awful crimes and two women who were raped.\n\nAt points in the frenzy surrounding Isla Bryson those facts have been drowned out and so it is worth pausing to reflect what this fiasco must be like for the victims.\n\nIt is also a case which is having an impact on other women who are survivors of sexual violence and on trans people who feel unfairly stigmatised by some of the coverage.\n\nThat having been said, the handling of the Isla Bryson case has also been a huge headache for the Scottish government.\n\nFirst Nicola Sturgeon stumbled when answering questions about what the case means for the principle of gender self-identification, which she has championed.\n\nThen the Scottish Government was forced to clarify a misleading news release and the Justice Secretary struggled to explain precisely what the SPS was doing.\n\nAll of this is producing criticism from the SNP's opponents as you would expect but it is also generating frustration for many supporters of independence, worried that the rolling rows are damaging their cause.\n• None The two sides of Scotland's gender law debate", "The Duchess was surprised to see former teacher Jim Embury, now a volunteer at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth\n\nThe Duchess of Cornwall had a surprise encounter with her former prep school teacher during a visit to the county.\n\nShe and the Duke of Cornwall were on their first official joint visit to the county since taking on their new roles.\n\nJim Embury, now a volunteer at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, was among the crowd gathering to greet them.\n\nThe Duchess said \"Oh my goodness!\" and hugged Mr Embury, before adding: \"I do recognise you.\"\n\nShe asked: \"Are you based here now? And you are volunteering here? Wow. That is such a small world.\n\n\"I'm trying to teach my daughter all the things you probably taught me.\"\n\nThe Duchess gave her former school teacher a hug during the couple's first official joint visit since taking on their new roles\n\nSpeaking after the meeting, Mr Embury said he taught Kate history in the mid-1990s.\n\nAsked what sort of pupil she was, he replied: \"I have to say fantastic.\n\n\"It was a great class and she was a great participant and a great kid. It was 25 years ago.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Duchess of Cornwall does the hokey cokey\n\nAlso in the crowd was a protester holding a blank sheet of paper, who shouted \"No more monarchy!\" at the couple.\n\nThe man, who did not want to give his name, was held back by police who he said \"were worried that people were going to get annoyed and attack\".\n\nSpeaking afterwards, he added: \"It is the 21st Century. We don't need a monarchy - it's ridiculous.\"\n\nAt the museum the royal couple met volunteers working on boats including the Kiwi, a 14ft sailing dinghy presented to the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh as a wedding present.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cornwall have had a number of engagements in Falmouth\n\nThey tried their hand at riveting on a Helford Delta Class boat dating back to the 1940s, made of mahogany and oak.\n\nWilliam said: \"It's probably safer if you show us - we don't want to be the ones who put a hole in it.\"\n\nAs they lined up to have a go, he told his wife: \"Make sure you do the right one; it's a bit like that Only Fools And Horses sketch with the chandeliers.\"\n\nThe couple met people supported by Young and Talented Cornwall, which provides financial support to young people in the county.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess played table tennis at the Dracaena Centre\n\nPoppy Luxton, 16, who is being funded through the scheme for her sailing, said: \"They were saying how their children go sailing on the dinghy... She was saying she really thinks sport and getting outdoors is great for children.\"\n\nWilliam and Kate discussed the benefits of music with Imogen Dowse, 18, a cellist and singer, who performed as the couple walked through the museum.\n\nMiss Dowse, a chorister at Truro Cathedral, said: \"We spoke about how music has life-changing benefits on mental health and educational development. They are trying to get their children into playing musical instruments... I recommended the cello.\"\n\nIn November, William made his first official visit to Cornwall since taking the title Duke of Cornwall.\n\nWilliam, who is still Duke of Cambridge, became the heir apparent, and the Prince of Wales, after the death of his grandmother and the accession of his father Charles to the throne.\n\nThe couple visited the Dracaena Centre, a community hub where people can access a wide range of support and services\n\nKate is now known as the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "Some Twitter users were unable to tweet on Wednesday after the website experienced technical problems.\n\nAccount holders received a message saying: \"You are over the daily limit for sending Tweets.\"\n\nThe outage-tracking website DownDetector reported the glitch at just before 22:00 GMT.\n\nElon Musk has slashed Twitter's workforce over the last few months since he acquired the platform last October for $44bn (£36.5bn).\n\nLast month the Tesla and SpaceX boss said Twitter had about 2,300 employees - down from around 8,000 when he took over.\n\nFor months experts have been warning that such deep cuts could cause technical issues, though it is not yet clear if the reduced headcount was to blame for Wednesday's outage.\n\nIt appears part of the outage was soon fixed, with many users reporting they could tweet.\n\nSome reported being notified by Twitter that they were over the 2,400-tweet-per-day limit, even if they had not posted on Wednesday.\n\nAccount holders had also reported problems with Twitter messages. Several users said they could not access TweetDeck - a dashboard that can be used with Twitter.\n\nIt's not yet clear how many people were affected.\n\n\"Twitter may not be working as expected for some of you. Sorry for the trouble. We're aware and working to get this fixed,\" Twitter said.\n\nIn recent weeks many users have complained of bugs while using Twitter - including some claiming they could increase the reach of tweets if they locked their accounts.\n\nTech news website The Information reported that Mr Musk had told Twitter employees to pause on new feature development \"in favour of maximising system stability and robustness, especially with the Super Bowl coming up\".\n\nTwitter also announced that users of its $8 a month subscription service in the US can now post longer tweets.\n\nTwitter Blue subscribers can now post up to 4,000 characters, far more than the 280-character limit imposed on non-paying users.\n\n\"But don't worry, Twitter is still Twitter,\" the company said in a lengthy tweet announcing the feature.\n\nMeanwhile, DownDetector also reported an outage at YouTube, which at its peak affected a reported 65,000 users.\n\nIn a tweet, YouTube - which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet - said it was investigating reports that the website's homepage \"is down for some of you\".\n\n\"We're looking into it... really sorry if you're experiencing this,\" they wrote.\n• None Number of staff suing Twitter 'goes up daily'", "The new deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, Lee Anderson, has said he would support the return of the death penalty.\n\nIn an interview with the Spectator before he was appointed to the role, he argued \"nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed\".\n\nThe PM said neither he nor the government shared Mr Anderson's stance.\n\nBut Labour accused Rishi Sunak of not being strong enough to stand up to what it called Mr Anderson's \"nonsense\".\n\nIn the interview, conducted a few days before he was made deputy chairman on Tuesday but published after his appointment, Mr Anderson was asked whether he would support the return of the death penalty.\n\nIn response, he said: \"Yes. Nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed.\"\n\nThe MP for Ashfield suggested heinous crimes - such as the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby by Islamist extremists in 2013 - where the perpetrators are clearly identifiable, should be punishable by the death penalty.\n\nHe told the magazine: \"You'll get the certain groups saying: 'You can never prove it.'\n\n\"Well, you can prove it if they have videoed it and are on camera - like the Lee Rigby killers. I mean: they should have gone, same week. I don't want to pay for these people.\"\n\nThe death penalty for murder in the UK was permanently abolished in 1965, while it ended for all crimes in 1998.\n\nThe UK is signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, which forbids the restoration of the death penalty.\n\nA recent YouGov survey suggested 30% of people believe the death penalty should be reintroduced in all cases of murder, with the figure rising to 52% in cases of multiple murder.\n\nProf Tim Bale, from Queen Mary University of London, said Mr Anderson was \"almost certainly speaking for the majority of Conservative members\".\n\nA survey of 1,191 members, carried out as part of his work on Tory Party membership after the 2019 general election, found 53% agreed that \"for some crimes, the death penalty is the most appropriate sentence\".\n\nAsked about Mr Anderson's support for bringing back the death penalty, Mr Sunak said: \"That's not my view, that's not the government's view.\n\n\"But we are united in the Conservative Party in wanting to be absolutely relentless in bearing down on crime.\"\n\nTory MP Michael Fabricant said he didn't want to see a return of the death penalty but \"from time to time it's worth debating\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme he thought it was \"actually quite healthy\" for Mr Anderson to have different views to the government on some issues.\n\nCommons Leader Penny Mordaunt was also among those to back Mr Anderson.\n\nShe told MPs he should be known as \"he stands up for me Lee\", rather than \"30p Lee\" - a nickname he gained after claiming people could make a meal from scratch for around 30p a day.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn his role, Mr Anderson will be responsible for preparing for May's local elections in England, alongside party chairman Greg Hands.\n\nThe outspoken MP has attracted controversy in the past for his views on a range of issues.\n\nLast year he made headlines for saying people needed to learn how to cook and budget, rather than use food banks.\n\nHe has also criticised the England football team for taking the knee in protest at racism.", "US ships and divers are still searching for debris from the balloon off the South Carolina coast\n\nThe US believes a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down over its territory is part of a wider fleet that has spanned five continents.\n\n\"The United States was not the only target of this broader programme,\" Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.\n\nHe added that the US had shared information gathered from the balloon debris with dozens of other countries.\n\nChina has denied the balloon was being used for spying purposes, and says it was a weather device blown astray.\n\nUS officials have described the balloon as being about 200 ft (60m) tall, with the payload portion comparable in size to regional airliners and weighing hundreds - or potentially thousands - of pounds.\n\nIts presence in US airspace set off a diplomatic crisis and prompted Secretary Blinken to immediately call off a trip to China - the first such high level US-China meeting there in years. It was later shot down by a US fighter jet off the eastern coast.\n\nCiting unnamed officials, the Washington Post reported that the US believes the suspected surveillance balloon project was being operated from China's coastal Hainan province and targeted countries including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.\n\nAt a Wednesday news conference, Defence Department spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder confirmed that the US believed similar balloons had operated over North and South America, South East Asia, East Asia and Europe.\n\n\"We've learned a lot about these balloons and how to track them,\" Gen Ryder said, adding that the US was now confident it had the ability to be \"on the look-out for these kinds of capabilities\".\n\nHe said while the objects were all used for surveillance missions, there were \"variations\" in terms of their size and capabilities.\n\nThe US believes that balloons have operated over US territory on at least four occasions, but Gen Ryder did not give further detail on these instances.\n\nWashington briefed 40 allied countries about the alleged espionage programme earlier this week, a senior Biden administration official confirmed to CBS News, the BBC's US partner.\n\nNaval and Coast Guard ships and divers are still searching for debris from the balloon. It is unclear what intelligence the US has so far gleaned from the remnants, although experts say that the debris could help officials better understand what the balloon was capable of and how it transmitted information.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Nadine Dorries hit out at \"MPs who drank the Kool-Aid and got rid of Boris Johnson\"\n\nFormer culture secretary Nadine Dorries has said she will not be standing as an MP at the next general election.\n\nMs Dorries, who has been Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005, said it had been \"such an honour\" to serve her constituents.\n\nSpeaking on her own TalkTV show, Ms Dorries hit out at \"MPs who drank the Kool-Aid and got rid of Boris Johnson\".\n\nMs Dorries said: \"Despite it being a job that I've loved for every year that I've done it, I'm now off.\"\n\nShe has been a critic of Rishi Sunak's government since he entered Number 10 and is writing a book about the political downfall of Mr Johnson\n\nShe described \"the lack of cohesion, the infighting and occasionally the sheer stupidity from those who think we could remove a sitting prime minister\".\n\nShe added: \"That they could do that and the public would let us get away with it. I'm afraid it's this behaviour that I now just have to remove myself from.\"\n\nParliament's anti-corruption watchdog found Ms Dorries broke the ministerial code by not consulting it before she took the TV job.\n\nMs Dorries blamed her party's ousting of Boris Johnson for her decision to stand down\n\nBorn Nadine Bargery in Liverpool in 1957 to a Protestant mother and an Irish immigrant Catholic father, Ms Dorries had an unconventional path to Parliament.\n\nAfter school, Ms Dorries trained as a nurse training at Warrington Hospital in the 1970s.\n\nShe came late to active politics, and until 1997 had considered joining Labour.\n\nBut By 2001 Ms Dorries had joined the Conservatives, unsuccessfully standing as the party's candidate for Hazel Grove in the 2001 general election.\n\nShe was then hired by Sir Oliver Letwin, then the shadow chancellor, to run his communications before successfully standing for Parliament in 2005.\n\nOnce in Parliament, Ms Dorries was a vocal critic of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne, once describing them as \"a pair of posh boys who don't know the price of a pint of milk\". Neither Mr Cameron nor successor Theresa May made her a minister.\n\nWhile one the backbenches Ms Dorries became a successful author of romantic historical novels drawing heavily on own life and childhood.\n\nShe hit the headlines in 2012 when she joined ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity, only to be suspended by her parliamentary party for six months.\n\nMs Dorries, a strong supporter of Leave in the Brexit referendum, became a close ally of Mr Johnson, supporting his 2019 leadership bid.\n\nWhen Mr Johnson entered Downing Street he made her a health minister before appointing her culture secretary in September 2021.\n\nShe was elected with a majority of more than 24,000 at the 2019 election.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Kim Errington gave birth to her daughter Elfi almost two years after she lost her son Teddy\n\nA woman whose son died after failings in a crisis-hit maternity unit has given birth to a girl.\n\nKim Errington, 39, gave birth to her daughter Elfi almost two years after she lost her son Teddy, when he was a day old.\n\nAn inquest heard there were \"undoubted failings\" by the healthcare professionals involved in Teddy's care.\n\nNottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust said it had \"learned lessons and implemented changes\" as a result.\n\nTeddy's death was recorded as \"unascertained\" in a narrative verdict by the coroner\n\nMs Errington and her partner Jason were among the parents who called for an independent review of the trust, led by midwife Donna Ockenden, which is currently ongoing.\n\nIt will examine how dozens of babies died or were injured at the trust's two hospitals, the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital, where Teddy was born.\n\nIn December 2020, the trust's maternity services were rated inadequate with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) finding \"several serious concerns\".\n\nMs Errington said Elfi, who was born in November, was \"gorgeous\".\n\n\"She's a beautiful, chilled, happy little baby,\" she said.\n\nElfi is described as \"beautiful, chilled\" and \"happy\" by her mum\n\nShe said she had been \"very anxious\" about the pregnancy but praised the care she had received at King's Mill, the hospital where she chose to have her second child, and is run by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust.\n\n\"Our care was amazing,\" she said.\n\n\"[It was] truly outstanding. There was not a single issue, not a stone left unturned.\n\n\"And I don't think it was because we were getting special treatment. People were obviously aware of our situation and took extra care.\"\n\nShe said Ms Ockenden's review meant she finally felt as if her experience of losing Teddy was being taken seriously.\n\nKim said she, her partner Jason and Elfi received amazing care at the King's Mill hospital, in Sutton-in-Ashfield\n\n\"We all felt such relief,\" she said, recalling her reaction at Ms Ockenden's appointment.\n\n\"Now the big bulk of work is still to do.\n\n\"The hospital [needs to put] those changes in place and that's when we will really know whether we are being listened to.\n\n\"We've been given the opportunity to meet the new chief executive, and I have taken him up on that offer and look forward to that meeting.\n\n\"But it's not a one-off; it's got to be a continued practise of listening and reacting, not lip service.\n\n\"Let's see if some real change happens and we'll see.\"\n\nAnthony May, chief executive at the trust, has told the BBC: \"We are committed to making the necessary and sustainable improvements to our maternity services and continue to engage fully and openly with Donna Ockenden and her team on their independent review.\n\n\"We are not waiting for the review to conclude before making changes and our staff have been working hard to make the necessary improvements now.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Women's Football\n\nSaudi Arabia's tourism authority potentially sponsoring the 2023 Women's World Cup is \"bizarre\", says United States forward Alex Morgan.\n\nEarlier this month co-hosts Australia and New Zealand asked Fifa to \"urgently clarify\" reports Visit Saudi is to be named as an official sponsor for the tournament, which starts in July.\n\nThe Gulf kingdom has been accused of human rights abuses.\n\n\"Morally, it just doesn't make sense,\" said two-time World Cup winner Morgan.\n\n\"It's bizarre that Fifa has looked to have a Visit Saudi sponsorship for the Women's World Cup when I, myself, Alex Morgan, would not even be supported and accepted in that country.\"\n\nSaudi Arabia has invested heavily in sporting events in recent years but has been accused of using events to 'sportswash' its reputation.\n\nWomen's rights campaigners have been imprisoned, despite some reform under crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, such as an end to the ban on women driving.\n\nWestern intelligence agencies claim the crown prince ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 - which he denies.\n• None Why is Saudi Arabia's involvement in sport controversial?\n\nThe US Soccer Federation (USSF) said it would voice its concern to world football's governing body over the sponsorship deal, which has yet to be formally announced.\n\n\"US Soccer strongly supports human rights and equity for all and believes in the power of our sport to have a positive impact,\" the USSF said in a statement to The Athletic on Wednesday.\n\n\"While we cannot control how other organisations manage sponsorship selections for the tournaments we compete in, we can voice our concerns and will continue to support our players.\"\n\nThe sponsorship deal is part of a new commercial partnership structure that Fifa set up to allow brands to specifically support the women's game.\n\nWhile the size of the deal has not been revealed, insiders claim it will provide a significant boost to the women's game, and the money generated will be reinvested back into football.\n\n\"What Saudi Arabia can do is put efforts into their women's team that was just formed only a couple of years ago and doesn't even have a current ranking, within the Fifa ranking system, because of the such few games that they've played.\n\n\"That would be my advice to them and I really hope that Fifa does the right thing.\"\n\nSaudi Arabia only sent women to the Olympics for the first time in 2012, but it has taken steps to develop women's football in recent years, with female fans allowed to attend matches for the first time in 2018.\n\nThe Saudi Arabian Football Federation has appointed two women to its board of directors and created a women's football department in 2019.\n\nIn 2020, a Women's Football League was launched, and last month Saudi Arabia hosted and won a four-nation women's football tournament in their bid to feature in the Fifa women's world rankings for the first time.\n\nThe Women's World Cup takes place from 20 July to 20 August in cities across Australia and New Zealand, and organisers believe a record two billion people could watch the tournament.\n• None Steve Coogan chats to Nihal Arthanayake about British humour and cancel culture\n• None The rise and fall of the jeweller-turned-criminal: Listen to Gangster: The Story of John Palmer", "Lutfi Erguven hopes for good news about his cousin while watching rescuers search through rubble\n\nOutside a small community centre in Enfield, north London, Lutfi Erguven is intently watching something on his phone.\n\nOn the small screen, rescuers can be seen digging through rubble. They're looking for people trapped in wreckage in Mr Erguven's home town in southern Turkey. A series of earthquakes hit southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday morning, killing more than 15,000 people - a death toll that is expected to rise.\n\nHe isn't watching a clip from a news bulletin, Mr Erguven tells BBC News - it's a Zoom call. Rescue teams are sharing their efforts in a video call so that Turkish people in the UK and elsewhere can join the search for their loved ones remotely. Mr Erguven has given them the name of his cousin. He hopes that they find him alive.\n\n\"They haven't found my cousin yet, but they've found other people,\" he says. \"That's good news for us as well.\"\n\nMr Erguven explains that he has travelled from his home in Edinburgh down to London to join others from his community in person. While there are Turkish communities across the UK, the vast majority live in north London. Mr Erguven is also Alevi, a minority religion that is prevalent in the worst-hit areas of southern Turkey.\n\nThe Zoom link, he says, has been shared in Turkish WhatsApp groups. Dozens of people have been joining in the hopes of finding out their loved ones are safe.\n\nIn normal times, the British Alevi Federation centre focuses on more light-hearted community activities, such as Turkish music classes and beginners' cycling courses for adult women. But now it has arranged an emergency relief trip, with a small group of people flying into the country before driving long-distance to badly affected areas. They're also transporting large containers full of blankets, heaters, and toiletries.\n\nAtescan Ates, a second-year law student, tells BBC News that, as soon as they heard about the disaster, he and other younger people immediately used social media to organise donations.\n\n\"A lot of us have a decent amount of followers on social media, so we started posting: 'These are the places you can go to to donate - if you can't go, contact us, and we'll come and pick donations up directly from your house',\" he says. \"We drove around London, from south to north, everywhere, on Monday and Tuesday.\"\n\nThey then worked through the night until about 01:00 on Wednesday, packing the donations up, ready to be transported to Turkey on Wednesday afternoon.\n\n\"It was a massive communal effort,\" Mr Ates says. \"Unfortunately, in the past few decades, there's been quite a lot of divide among the people of Turkey - whether it's the Turks, Kurds, Alevis or Sunnis. But you can see, when a disaster happens, everyone can put everything aside and come together. We may be different but our families, our neighbours - they're all under the same rubble.\"\n\nSilan Polat and Sevgi Akgoz are part of the group that's been sorting through donations. The trip, they say, is going to be a struggle for those going.\n\nSevgi Akgoz, left, and Silan Polat, right, are worried about family in Turkey\n\n\"Some of the villages are blocked off because the roads are damaged, so people from here are going to try and access those areas however they can,\" Ms Akgoz says. \"There's no electricity, so some people can't even contact us to let us know where they are or what they need.\"\n\nHer mum's cousin, she adds, is now homeless and \"trying to survive in their garage\" with their children in -3C temperatures. Others in their village are sleeping in their cars, or out on the street.\n\nMs Polat, whose dad is one of the people going to Turkey, adds: \"It's such a poor area. We go to our parents' and grandparents' villages, and people think 'oh there's technology, people have phones' - they don't, it's a different realm. They don't have access to anything, so they didn't have any pre-warning [about the earthquake]. They don't have news, they don't have electricity or computers.\"\n\nMany of the buildings that collapsed, she adds, were built recently - and were supposed to withstand earthquakes.\n\n\"This scale of disaster could have, and should have, been prevented,\" Ms Polat says.\n\nMs Akgoz says she's been heartened to see people come together - but also can't help but feel guilty.\n\nShe says: \"I feel ashamed to sit in my warm house. I feel ashamed to feel full. When I'm about to sleep, I feel ashamed to sleep because I know my family and my friends, my loved ones are there freezing in the cold.\"", "Hillview hospital will no longer be providing young women's mental health care\n\nA teenage girl who was left \"traumatised\" at a private mental hospital says she is relieved it will no longer be treating young women.\n\nThe former patient said she still has nightmares about her time at Hillview Hospital in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent.\n\nIn July, former operator Regis Healthcare denied all allegations and said it was one of the UK's most \"successful services\".\n\nThe Welsh government said it had spent an extra £50m on supporting services.\n\nHillview Hospital is an independent hospital registered to provide mental health services to women and girls aged between 13 and 18.\n\nThe teenager, who we cannot identify, was detained at the hospital under Section 3 of the Mental Health Act. At the time, Regis Healthcare were the hospital's operators.\n\nTwo BBC Wales investigations exposed excessive use of restraints and poor practice.\n\nNew operators Elysium Healthcare, which took over in September, said it now wanted to provide a new adult mental health service at the centre.\n\nThe teenager said she would be restrained by three to five members of staff without any attempts to calm her down first.\n\nIn one week, she was restrained 17 times and seven of those were for two hours or more.\n\nIn the latest inspection report, the eleventh since 2018, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) said the hospital was still a service of concern.\n\nElysium Healthcare said it had started the process of moving the current group of young patients out of the hospital so they can attend services closer to home and aim to complete the process by March.\n\nA teenager said she would be restrained by three to five members of staff without any attempts to calm her\n\nThe teenager said it is \"good news\" that it will no longer be a child and adolescent mental health unit.\n\n\"It's about time. I still have nightmares that I'm back there so I don't have closure,\" she said.\n\n\"It's good because no other young women will go through what I did, but the damage to me has already been done.\n\n\"I had trauma and it felt like they were 're-doing' the trauma I'd been through. They didn't listen to me, my voice was taken away from me.\n\n\"If I'd received help then my problems would have been fixed but I'm worse having been there - I picked up bad behaviours, like self-harming and getting an eating disorder.\"\n\nIn July, Regis Healthcare said it \"refuted\" all the allegations but was unable to comment on specific cases due to client confidentiality and being involved in a legal dispute.\n\nIt said it welcomed visits from HIW and NHS and recognised the importance of receiving guidance on areas it was doing \"really well\" in areas like rapport between staff and patients as well as training.\n\nIn a statement it said it is willing to take action when given constructive feedback and that an improvement plan which provided the inspectorate with \"sufficient assurance\" is being made to ensure patient safety.\n\nThe hospital had been commended and awarded the highest level of the quality standards rating system following a NHS Wales quality assurance audit, it added.\n\nCurrent owners Elysium Healthcare said: \"Hillview remains a much-needed mental health hospital for Wales and we will move to provide a new service for adults from Wales.\n\n\"The new provision will be agreed in consultation with NHS Wales and its key stakeholders. We have started these discussions and look forward to sharing plans and proposals in due course.\"\n\nSioned Williams MS said sorting out mental health services capacity is \"one of the most urgent issues\" in Wales\n\nPlaid Cymru MS Sioned Williams, a member of the Children, Young People and Education Committee, said that she was concerned about the lack of capacity in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) from early intervention onwards and said it was \"one of the most urgent issues we need to address in Wales\".\n\n\"We know that mental health problems among young women are increasing.\n\n\"There is an epidemic of mental health problems. We've heard evidence of this scarring people's lives. We need more steps aimed at early intervention and also we need to make sure this type of accommodation is available locally and that it is the right type of accommodation,\" she said.\n\nThe Welsh government said that protecting young people's mental health was an \"absolute priority\" and that it continued to work with partners to ensure there was a wide range of effective support.\n\n\"We continue to invest in a whole system approach to supporting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing.\n\n\"The Welsh Health Specialist Services Committee will publish a five to 10 year strategy setting out sustainable long term improvements to specialist mental health services in the coming months.\"\n\nChildren and young people's manager at Mind Cymru, Nia Evans, said: \"Young people need assurance that they have a fully supportive mental health system available to them whenever they need it, and no matter the issue.\"\n\n\"Whilst it may feel like the closure of this setting places issues of the quality of safe and effective care in the past, it catapults the long-standing concerns around inpatient provision and community settings for CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) patients for immediate attention.\"\n\nRocio says it's essential that children and young people can easily access specialist mental health support\n\nChildren's commissioner for Wales, Rocio Cifuentes said it was key children and young people could access the support they need without any delays. She added that specialist support should be given in \"safe, therapeutic environments\".\n\n\"In our latest annual report, we made formal recommendations to Welsh government on these two areas and in their response, the government accepted those recommendations in principle, highlighting monies allocated to develop regional provision across Wales and a new five-year strategy to improve specialist mental health services,\" Ms Cifuentes said.\n\n\"The new strategy, due out next month, needs to urgently address how gaps in provision will be solved.\"", "Mr Trump, who is running for president again, has regained access to platforms where he has millions of followers\n\nDonald Trump's Facebook and Instagram pages have been restored after being suspended for more than two years.\n\nMr Trump was banned from the social media platforms after the Capitol riots in 2021.\n\nThe platforms' parent company Meta said it had acted after the then-president praised people who were \"engaged in violence at the Capitol\".\n\nIf Mr Trump breaks the rules again, he may be removed again - for between one month and two years - Meta has said.\n\nPosts in which he baselessly challenges the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election remain up on both websites.\n\nSupporters have commented on the last of his posts with messages welcoming him back.\n\nMr Trump was initially suspended from the platforms indefinitely, but that was later revised to a two-year suspension after the platforms' Oversight Board criticised the open-ended penalty.\n\nAt the time, he described the move as \"an insult\" to the millions who voted for him in the 2020 presidential election.\n\nHis return was announced by Meta two weeks ago.\n\nNick Clegg, the company's president of global affairs, argued the public \"should be able to hear what their politicians are saying\".\n\nHe added that a review had found Mr Trump's accounts to no longer pose a serious risk to public safety.\n\nLast November, the former president announced he would be running for president again in 2024. He has 34m followers on Facebook and over 23m on Instagram.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Onlookers wait in silence - before a woman is carried alive from the rubble days after earthquake\n\nRescue workers called for silence at a fallen apartment building in the southern Turkish city of Iskenderun on Wednesday after hearing signs of life beneath the mounds of rubble.\n\nOnlookers including family, friends and neighbours of the building's residents stopped talking, while cranes and other machinery nearby were switched off.\n\nAfter minutes of silence, rescuers called out for an ambulance, confirming that a woman had been found alive.\n\nThe crowd broke into cheers and tears.\n\nOne woman, whose cousin and aunt lived in the building and are still missing, fell back onto a car bonnet and buried her face in her hands.\n\nOnlookers told the BBC it marked the first time a survivor had been found at the six-storey apartment block since Monday's earthquake reduced it to rubble.\n\nShortly before they were found, a body had been pulled from the debris just a few metres away.\n\nRescue workers and volunteers quickly formed a chain to carry the woman to a waiting ambulance.\n\nLocal residents said she was a single mother in her 50s who lived alone in the building. Her son stood by the ambulance and watched as she was carried down, they added.\n\nSeveral onlookers said it gave them renewed hope that their own missing loved ones would be found. One said she was hoping for a \"miracle\".\n\nRescue workers hugged as the woman was taken away - a rare moment of hope and happiness among so much devastation.\n\nRescue workers hugged each other after the woman was saved\n\nThe mood at the Iskenderun apartment block quickly became sombre again as rescuers resumed the slow work of searching the rubble, largely by hand.\n\nLocal doctor Mehmet Riyat told the BBC medical staff had been overwhelmed since Monday.\n\n\"We've had patients who have been crushed. We've seen lots of broken bones, broken necks, head injuries. And lots of deaths,\" he said.\n\n\"As doctors we have to do our jobs. But when the support teams take over, then we think about our own families.\"\n\nThere is destruction everywhere you turn in Iskenderun - many buildings have been destroyed, including a busy hospital.\n\nTurkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back on Wednesday at mounting anger over the state's response to the disaster. Critics have said emergency efforts have been too slow and that not enough was done to prepare the earthquake-prone region by his government.\n\nBut Mr Erdogan said: \"It's not possible to be prepared for a disaster this big.\"\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck early on Monday morning near the southern city of Gaziantep, which is close to the Syrian border. The death toll currently stands at more than 11,000 people across both countries.", "The Home Office has warned of delays at Dover and other ports including Calais\n\nCoach passengers returning to the UK are facing queues of more than six hours at border checkpoints in Calais.\n\nFerry operator P&O has advised passengers to use the toilet before arriving and to come prepared with refreshments.\n\nBorder Force staff in Calais, Dunkirk, Dover and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel terminal are on a four-day strike over pay.\n\nThe Home Office said it was working to minimise delays.\n\nThe BBC understands the queues include a high volume of coaches bringing pupils home from school half-term trips.\n\nTeachers and pupils from Surrey returning from a ski trip in Austria waited for six and a half hours to board a ferry back to the UK.\n\nA Twitter account for the school ski trip had tweeted that the journey was \"what can only be described as a nightmare of UK passport control\".\n\nQueues began forming on Saturday morning and P&O Ferries issued an update to passengers, asking them to plan for a wait by bringing snacks, drinks and entertainment.\n\nMembers of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) are on the second day of a four-day walkout.\n\nThe union said on Friday that they believed inexperienced staff were being brought in to cover for striking Border Force workers.\n\nPCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: \"Ministers say their priority is security - it obviously isn't.\n\n\"They say they have no money to give our hard-working members a fair pay rise, but then find money to pay non-striking workers a healthy bonus, to pay for their transport across the country and to pay for four nights' hotel accommodation.\n\n\"If ministers were serious about security, they would resolve this dispute immediately by putting money on the table to ensure fully-trained, experienced professionals are guarding our borders.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Tim Shires This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nP&O Ferries told customers that long wait times were \"due to the queues at border control who are also on strike\".\n\nBut the Home Office rejected claims strikes were having an impact on wait times.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"The queues at the Port of Calais today are not due to industrial action. Border Force operations there remain fluid with all booths open and no significant wait times.\n\n\"Border Force and port operators are working hard to ensure all travellers have a safe and secure journey, however we have been clear those entering the UK should expect disruption during strike action.\n\n\"We continue to work closely with port operators at a local and national level to minimise delays.\n\n\"Those travelling into the UK today should keep up-to-date with the latest advice from operators to check how the strike action will affect their journey\".\n\nHow have you been affected by queues at border checkpoints? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "In a speech to world leaders, Emmanuel Macron did not shy away from mentioning Russia-Ukraine peace talks as a final goal\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron has said he does not want to see Russia crushed by a defeat in Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking to French media, Mr Macron urged Western nations to increase military support for Kyiv and said he was prepared for a protracted war.\n\n\"I want Russia to be defeated in Ukraine, and I want Ukraine to be able to defend its position,\" he said.\n\nBut he hit out against those who he said wanted to extend the war to Russia itself in a bid to \"crush\" the nation.\n\nThe comments came as world leaders gathered at the Munich Security Conference, which saw promises to speed up the supply of weapons to Kyiv and impose tougher sanctions on Moscow.\n\n\"I do not think, as some people do, that we must aim for a total defeat of Russia, attacking Russia on its own soil,\" Mr Macron told the paper Le Journal du Dimanche.\n\n\"Those observers want to, above all else, crush Russia. That has never been the position of France and it will never be our position.\"\n\nAddressing the conference in Munich on Friday, Mr Macron insisted that now was not the time for dialogue with Moscow.\n\nBut he did not shy away from mentioning peace talks as a final goal.\n\nThe president suggested that Ukrainian military efforts, supported by allies, were the only way to \"bring Russia back to the table and build a lasting peace\".\n\nHe also dismissed the prospect of regime change in Russia, describing similar efforts around the world as a \"total failure\".\n\nDespite Mr Macron's comments, negotiations are a faraway prospect for Ukraine's leaders.\n\nOn Friday, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the decision to not invite Moscow to the Munich conference.\n\nRussian leaders should not be invited to the table as long as the \"terrorist state kills, as long as it uses bombs, missiles and tanks as an argument for international politics\", he said.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out immediate talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, insisting there was \"no trust\" between the parties. In an interview with the BBC earlier this week, he also dismissed the idea of giving up territory to strike a peace deal with Moscow.\n\nMr Macron has previously been criticised by some Nato allies for sending what they believe are mixed messages on Ukraine.\n\nLast June, he was condemned by Mr Kuleba for saying it was vital that Russia was not \"humiliated over its invasion\".\n\nMr Kuleba at the time responded that Russia - which was \"humiliating itself\" - needed to be put in its place.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nFirst Test, Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui (day-night, day four of five)\n\nEngland swiftly wrapped up an impressive 267-run victory over New Zealand on the fourth day of the first Test in Mount Maunganui.\n\nSeeking five more wickets to win, Ben Stokes' side needed less than a session to go 1-0 up in the two-Test series.\n\nThe New Zealand batting had been decimated by Stuart Broad on the third evening, the hosts reduced to 63-5 overnight in their chase of 394.\n\nSpinner Jack Leach had Michael Bracewell tamely caught in the third over on Sunday, before James Anderson ran through the tail to claim 4-18.\n\nScott Kuggeleijn and Tim Southee fell in successive balls and Neil Wagner slashed Anderson behind before some last-wicket resistance from Daryl Mitchell and Blair Tickner.\n\nAnderson switched ends and bowled Tickner, leaving New Zealand 126 all out and Mitchell stranded on 57 not out.\n\nIt gives England their first Test win in New Zealand for 15 years and a 10th win in 11 matches since Stokes took over as captain at the beginning of last summer.\n\nIn addition, it ends England's five-match losing streak in day-night Tests and is their first overseas win in a pink-ball match.\n\nThe second and final Test of the series, and England's last of the winter, is in Wellington, beginning on Friday (Thursday 22:00 GMT).\n• None 'Stokes' entertainers are just getting started'\n\nSuperlatives for England's stunning form - and the manner in which they have earned their wins - are starting to run thin.\n\nThe numbers are spectacular. Not since 2010, when a team led by Andrew Strauss was on the way to becoming number one in the world, have England won six Tests in a row.\n\nFor Stokes, this was his 10th victory in 12 Tests as captain, including the one he led in place of Joe Root in 2020.\n\nOnly Lindsay Hassett, who succeeded Don Bradman as Australia captain in 1949, can match Stokes' speed to 10 Test wins as captain. Michael Vaughan, who took 16 matches, was England's previous quickest to the mark.\n\nEngland say their focus is on enjoyment, entertainment and freedom, but they have also turned winning into a habit. They have secured a huge margin of victory at the Bay Oval despite not being at their best for parts of this match.\n\nIn retrospect, New Zealand made a mistake by choosing to field first at the toss, an error that condemned them to batting twice under lights in comparison to England's once.\n\nConversely, it can be said England shaped the game with their declaration at 325-9 after 58.2 overs on the first day - only one other team, Pakistan in 1974, have declared after fewer overs in the first innings of a Test.\n\nHarry Brook and Ben Duckett continued their impressive form with the bat - their strike-rates of 96.88 and 87.53 are the highest in the history of Test cricket among players who have scored at least 500 runs. Wicketkeeper Ben Foakes once again showed his dependability with a crucial half-century in the second innings.\n\nOllie Robinson demonstrated his credentials as a future leader of the England attack with 4-54 in New Zealand's first innings, while Broad's spell under lights on the third evening, in the mould of his trademark hot streaks, was thrilling theatre.\n\nEngland may opt to freshen up their attack in Wellington, when they will aim for a seventh successive win, a feat they have not achieved since 2004.\n\nWhile New Zealand's top order had the excuse of the difficult night-time conditions on day three, a sunny afternoon and a good pitch at the beginning of day four offered the opportunity for some defiance.\n\nInstead, they showed no stomach for the fight in the face of a ruthless and efficient display from England.\n\nMitchell, resuming on 13, and Bracewell, on 25, were the last recognised batting partnership, but Bracewell patted Leach to mid-wicket to depart without adding to his score and exposed the tail.\n\nAnderson trapped Kuggeleijn in front then had Southee fencing to first slip. Wagner at least survived 21 balls before he unfurled a wild drive and was pouched by Foakes.\n\nAt 91-9, New Zealand were in danger of being beaten inside the first hour, only for Tickner to join Mitchell in holding up England for 52 minutes.\n\nBroad returned, hunting a five-wicket haul, and Mitchell passed fifty, before Anderson replaced Leach and splattered Tickner's stumps.\n\n'Some of the most fun I have had' - reaction\n\nPlayer of the match, England batter Harry Brook: \"We all contributed extremely well, especially the bowlers on a fairly docile pitch in the first innings with the sun out.\n\n\"I stuck to my strengths and kept on trying to whack it. The way we have been playing over the last eight or nine months is about trying to put as much pressure on the bowler as we can and trying to hit them off where they are bowling.\n\n\"It is some of the most fun I have had. Every time I bat I'm really excited to go out and do whatever I want.\"\n\nNew Zealand captain Tim Southee: \"Disappointing but credit to England, strategically they played it pretty well.\n\n\"You look back in hindsight but we made the decision to bowl first thinking it was the right one. The way they batted put them in a position to declare that night.\n\n\"The decision was right if we could've bowled a little bit better on the first day.\"\n\nEngland captain Ben Stokes: \"Another great performance - we were very clinical with the bat and very clinical with the ball.\n\n\"The most pleasing thing was whatever New Zealand threw at us with the ball we managed to react. It was entertaining cricket. Even though we came away with the result, entertaining is what we want to do.\"\n\n\"It is tough for anyone when Jimmy and Broady have the new ball talking like they did.\"\n\n\"Brooky is just carrying on from his amazing series in Pakistan. He is a fantastic talent. He will go on to be a global superstar.\"", "A letter sent on behalf of Andrew Tate and his brother threatens to sue one of his accusers and her parents for $300m (£249m) if she does not retract her statements\n\nControversial influencer Andrew Tate has threatened legal action against at least one of the women making rape and human trafficking claims against him.\n\nLawyers for the woman in the US say a \"cease-and-desist\" letter was sent by a US law firm in December, on behalf of Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan.\n\nThe letter threatened to sue the woman and her parents for $300m (£249m) if she did not retract her statements.\n\nA lawyer for the Tates said they were pursuing valid claims for defamation.\n\nThe BBC has seen a redacted copy of the letter, apparently sent on behalf of the brothers.\n\n\"In April 2022,\" it reads, \"you falsely stated to a third party that our Client human trafficked you, abused you and held you against your will […] You have repeated false and defamatory statements to the police, the media, and another United States citizen about the Tate brothers.\"\n\nAndrew and Tristan Tate are currently being held in preventative custody in Romania, while police investigate allegations of trafficking and rape, which both men deny.\n\nBenjamin Bull - who works for the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation - says his client is a key witness in the Romanian investigation, and that the letter was designed to do \"one thing and one thing only\":\n\n\"[It] was intended to shut down the witness; stop the witness from bringing testimony forward in any proceedings,\" he said.\n\n\"They want these young ladies to climb into a hole and hide, never come forward [or] describe what they saw and what happened to them. It's clearly an effort to intimidate.\"\n\nAndrew and Tristan Tate are currently being held in preventative custody in Romania\n\nLawyers for the Tates have confirmed to the BBC that the cease-and-desist letter was sent in December, as a civil matter for defamation and slander in the US, but deny any intimidation.\n\nTina Glandian, one of their legal advisors, said there was nothing abnormal in them pursuing valid legal claims for defamation. \"The fact that [the Tates] are incarcerated right now is not a basis for them not to pursue their legal rights,\" she said.\n\nThe investigation into rape and trafficking allegations is believed to rest, at least partly, on the testimony of six women. No charges have yet been brought.\n\nThe Tates' legal team have also revealed that the brothers filed criminal complaints in Romania last April against two women, including the witness who received the cease-and-desist letter in December.\n\nMs Glandian said the criminal complaints in April were filed in response to allegations that two women were being held against their will by the Tate brothers.\n\n\"There was no evidence whatsoever of that,\" she said, \"which is why [the Tates] were not arrested in April. [At that time], they were nothing but victims of false allegations, and they had every right to file criminal complaints for having their homes raided [and] property seized.\"\n\nThe results of those criminal complaints are still pending, she says.\n\nOne of the Tates' legal advisers Tina Glandian said the brothers were pursuing \"their legal rights\"\n\nBenjamin Bull, who represents some of the witnesses in the current Tate investigation, says the impact of legal action on his clients has been upsetting and intimidating.\n\nBut Dani Pinter, part of the same legal team, says it is not just the threat of legal action that is intimidating, but the online harassment many of her clients receive for speaking out.\n\n\"Regular, high production value videos, meant to embarrass and harass them, are shared among Tate's followers,\" she told me.\n\n\"Making really salacious claims, attempting to slut shame them, saying they're liars. But included in that is their private information - where they work, who their family members are - with the clear intention to incite harassment. And it's working.\"\n\nThe two alleged victims she represents have been getting death threats, she says.\n\n\"They're scared to death. They're both in hiding. They feel they can't settle anywhere, because people are trying to find them.\"\n\nProsecutors have been careful to keep the names of the six women in their case strictly confidential. But some have had their full names published on social media.\n\nAnd the names of two witnesses even appeared in a statement to the BBC from the Tates' US communications team. The BBC is not naming them publicly.\n\nAndrew Tate and his brother have no access to their social media while in custody, but they've built a vast and loyal network of fans and supporters who are very active online.\n\nSome accounts appear to be fully-staffed operations, regularly releasing videos and documents designed to undermine the testimony of witnesses and other women making allegations against the Tates.\n\nEarlier this week, one of the most active accounts published the full name, social media handles and WhatsApp messages of one of the alleged victims in the investigation.\n\nThe BBC has approached the account for comment, but has not yet received a response.\n\nEven those who barely break the surface of this story can find themselves a target.\n\nDaria Gusa spoke to the BBC and others about receiving a private message from Andrew Tate's Instagram account when she was 16 years old. It followed the same pattern laid out by him in online speeches about how to win a woman's attention and gain influence over her.\n\nShe did not allege that he had committed any crime.\n\n\"I got a bunch of messages,\" she told me. \"Most were from people saying I was lying or calling me a slut.\"\n\nBut she also received \"10 to 15 threats\" online.\n\n\"I had a guy texting me, telling me 'I know you're studying at this university, the schedule is published online, I know where you are'\" Daria said.\n\nSeveral of her friends, who also appear to have had contact with him, have refused to speak out about their experiences, she says.\n\n\"It's not just the people who work for him,\" she explained. \"It's that there are basically millions of men out there who really idolise these people, and would do anything to protect them and their image, so I think it's completely justifiable that so many girls don't want to speak out.\"\n\nIt is not clear exactly who runs some of the most active accounts defending the Tates, or how much cooperation exists between them.\n\nBut the risks for women making public allegations against Andrew Tate can be high, and they can come from many directions.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mordaunt says Johnson's Brexit intervention not entirely unhelpful\n\nAn intervention by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson on post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland is not \"entirely unhelpful\", Commons leader Penny Mordaunt has said.\n\nHe has urged Rishi Sunak not to abandon legislation that would give the government powers to scrap parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nMs Mordaunt told the BBC the bill had helped persuade the EU to negotiate.\n\nShe also said any deal must work for all communities in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe protocol came into effect in 2021 and aims to ensure free movement of goods across the Irish land border by conducting checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain instead.\n\nHowever, unionist parties, who support Northern Ireland being part of the UK, oppose the protocol and argue that placing an effective border across the Irish Sea undermines Northern Ireland's place within the UK.\n\nNegotiations between the UK and the European Union to try to resolve issues with the protocol have been going on for more than a year but sources have suggested a deal could be sealed next week.\n\nThe momentum suggested a new agreement was very close but there is now unlikely to be anything concrete until the middle of the week at the earliest.\n\nOn Saturday, a source close to Mr Johnson said he believed it would be \"a great mistake\" to drop the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which many Conservatives see as an important bargaining chip for the UK to gain concessions from the EU.\n\nMs Mordaunt also suggested the bill had aided negotiations with the bloc.\n\nThere has been trepidation and a sense of inevitability about the former PM and Brexit cheerleader getting involved in the arguments around new arrangements for Northern Ireland - and Mr Sunak's team may not see his intervention in the same light as Ms Mordaunt.\n\nMs Mordaunt, who also campaigned to leave the EU during the 2016 referendum, told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: \"I think the prime minister would give credit to his predecessors for enabling us to get this far.\n\n\"We have the bill... and in part it is because of that that we are now able to have these negotiations and the EU is talking about things that previously it said it wouldn't talk about.\"\n\nShe added: \"It's a reminder to the EU the bar that they have to get over. But ultimately it's not really about what Boris Johnson or any members of the House of Commons think about a deal. It's what the people of Northern Ireland think about the deal.\"\n\nThe bill, which was first introduced by Boris Johnson, is currently paused in Parliament while the UK and EU try to hammer out a new agreement.\n\nThe BBC understands the EU will not move ahead with a deal unless there is a commitment by the UK to drop the Protocol Bill.\n\nA senior government official has said if issues with the protocol arrangements can be resolved then there will be no need for the bill to go further in Parliament.\n\nMany unionists oppose the protocol but a majority of Stormont politicians support it in some form\n\nFormer Northern Ireland Secretary and Labour peer Lord Mandelson told Sky News Mr Johnson was trying to \"wreck\" the protocol, which he agreed as part of the 2019 Brexit withdrawal agreement, to undermine the prime minister.\n\nFormer Conservative Chancellor George Osborne, who was a leading figure in the campaign to remain in the EU, also said Mr Johnson was \"causing trouble\" because he was \"interested in becoming prime minister again\".\n\n\"He wants to bring down Rishi Sunak and he will use any instrument to do it,\" he told Channel 4's The Andrew Neil Show.\n\nMeanwhile, Ms Mordaunt said any deal on the protocol had to work for all communities in Northern Ireland and pass the seven tests set out by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).\n\nThe DUP is preventing a government from being formed in Northern Ireland in protest over the protocol and says its tests must be met for it to end its boycott of Stormont.\n\nThere had been some whispers that there was a possibility of doing a deal, even without the support of the DUP, but Ms Mordaunt closed down that idea, saying: \"If this deal does not pass those tests, it won't work, it's as simple as that.\"\n\nShe added: \"What my colleagues might say and what they might do in a hypothetical vote, that is irrelevant unless it works for the whole of Northern Ireland.\"\n\nFollowing the latest round of talks on Saturday, Mr Sunak warned an agreement was \"by no means done\" and said there were still \"challenges to work through\".\n\nLabour has said it would support the government in a Commons vote on a protocol deal.\n\nHowever, the prime minister could still face a rebellion by Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers.", "The work appeared on a wall near Grosvenor Place, Margate, on Valentine's Day\n\nA piece by the artist Banksy that appeared in Margate, Kent, on Valentine's Day is to be moved to the town's Dreamland theme park.\n\nThe mural, called \"Valentine's Day Mascara\", shows a 1950s housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth, apparently shutting a man in a freezer.\n\nThe real-life freezer was removed and returned twice in the days following the mural's appearance.\n\nDreamland said it had now been asked to provide a permanent home for the piece.\n\nThe freezer, an integral part of the work, was removed by Thanet District Council on the day the work appeared painted on the side of a house, then returned later in the day after it had been made safe.\n\nIt was removed again by London-based Red Eight Galleries, which said it wanted to \"ensure the integrity\" of the mural.\n\nThe freezer was removed twice during the week, once by the council and once by the work's new owner\n\nEddie Kemsley, CEO of Dreamland Margate, said: \"The arrival of Banksy's latest artwork in Margate has caused a real stir. Everyone in the town is really excited that he has chosen Margate as the location for his latest work, and the fact that he is highlighting such an important issue only makes it more important.\n\n\"Imagine our surprise when we got a call asking if we would be able to host the artwork. We jumped at the chance to help ensure that the piece could remain accessible and within the community.\n\n\"All the details are still being worked out, but we will work closely with the team of qualified experts to find a suitable location, where the public can enjoy this brilliant new addition to the Margate art scene.\"\n\nDreamland's CEO Eddie Kemsley said she \"jumped at the chance\" to house the mural\n\nShe added: \"We understand the current owner of the artwork is keen to raise money to help the local charity, Oasis, which supports those that have been affected by domestic abuse.\n\n\"We will assist the owner of the artwork and Red Eight Gallery on the logistics of how, when and where the piece will be moved and when everything has been finalised, further details will be announced.\"\n\nDreamland said the initial deal was for it to display the mural for 12 months, but the park hoped for an extension.\n\nIt is aimed to have the mural in place by April.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "TV presenter Dickie Davies, who was the face of ITV sports coverage for more than two decades, has died aged 94.\n\nThe star presented the Saturday afternoon show World of Sport from the 1960s until it ended in 1985.\n\nThe show, a mix of live sport including racing, wrestling and football results, competed with the BBC's Grandstand.\n\nFormer ITV colleague Jim Rosenthal announced the death, saying Davies' family were \"so proud\" of his \"brilliant career on the telly\".\n\n\"Dickie was a wonderful friend and colleague. RIP DD,\" he added.\n\nFellow sports broadcaster Simon Thomas paid tribute to Davies, calling him an \"absolute giant\" in the industry.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Thomas This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOther tributes have flooded in from fellow sports broadcasters, including Sky Sports Jeff Stelling - who said he grew up watching Davies on World of Sport, adding he was \"one of my inspirations along with Des Lynam - a sports broadcasting legend\".\n\nThe BBC's Gabby Logan described him as \"one of the very best\", while Richard Keys said the death of a \"kind man and brilliant broadcaster\" represented an \"end of that era\".\n\nITV football presenter Mark Pougatch put it simply, writing on Twitter: \"Ach, Dickie Davies. The rest of us walk in the footsteps of giants. RIP.\"\n\nDavies, originally from Cheshire, began his TV career as an announcer on Southern Television in 1960, having previously spent seven years as a purser for the cruise company Cunard Line.\n\nHe moved to ITV's new show World of Sport and was initially an understudy to Eamonn Andrews before becoming the main host in 1968.\n\nEvery Saturday saw him at the helm of a five-hour TV marathon, anchoring the coverage of a wide variety of sports including many minority events not previously seen on TV screens.\n\nIt was an era long before sports broadcasting rights became the subject of billion pound battles between round-the-clock sports channels. Every May, Davies would lead ITV's all-day build-up to the FA Cup final, which at that time was one of the few football matches broadcast live during the course of the season.\n\nHe also worked on ITV's coverage of three Olympic Games.\n\nMemorable episodes of World of Sport include the 1977 Christmas Eve special, during which comedian Eric Morecambe performed a series of distracting skits as Davies presented the show. At one point, the pair played a game of snooker, with Morecambe using Davies' head to balance his cue.\n\nDavies' bushy moustache and dark bouffant hair with a trademark white streak at the front made him one of the most recognisable - and impersonated - ITV stars of the era.\n\nComedian Benny Hill impersonated Dickie Davies for a sketch on his own ITV show in 1979\n\nHis most unlikely claim to fame came when the indie band Half Man Half Biscuit paid their own tribute to him in the 1986 song Dickie Davies Eyes.\n\nHe also had an unlikely sideline during his early years on World of Sport, as he had invested some of his his TV earnings in a pub called the Globe in Andover, Hampshire - and was occasionally pictured working behind the bar on a Saturday evening, just hours after broadcasting to millions of people.\n\nAfter World of Sport ended in 1985, Davies stayed at ITV as a presenter for another four years but later switched to a new role as sports editor with Classic FM.\n\nHowever, a stroke in 1995 badly affected his speech and forced him off air as he slowly recovered.\n\nHe later returned intermittently to the screen for a number of specials, including ITV's 50-year World of Sport anniversary in 2005, as well as some shows for Sky Sports.\n\nOne of the most high-profile later roles was as co-host of Bobby Charlton's Football Scrapbook in 1995\n\nDavies was honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Royal Television Society in 2005", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nKyle Walker said Manchester City's performance was \"not acceptable\" after they missed the opportunity to return to the top of the Premier League with a draw against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Chris Wood's late goal cancelled out Bernardo Silva's rocket from 20 yards, with the visitors missing chances in abundance to put the game to bed. \"We've dropped two points here,\" said Walker. \"The chances we had in front of goal - we need to be better, [with] the calibre of players we've got up front we should be scoring them and putting them away.\" Erling Haaland volleyed against the crossbar and ballooned the rebound over the top after Aymeric Laporte's header was brilliantly saved by Forest keeper Keylor Navas. But Morgan Gibbs-White's fizzed cross was tapped in at the far post in the 84th minute for Wood's first Forest goal. \"I'm not blaming anyone,\" Walker told Match of the Day. \"If the strikers aren't getting the luck or hitting the target, us as a defensive unit need to hang on to the 1-0 victory and secure the three points. \"We know that's not acceptable. That's not me being downbeat but we've set such high standards over the last few years that it should be four or five nil, game done and we move onto the next game.\" Forest scored with their only attempt on target, having created four chances to City's 23 The draw extended Forest's unbeaten home run to eight games and meant City dropped to second after Arsenal returned to the top with a 4-2 comeback win against Aston Villa earlier on Saturday. \"The hard work we did on Wednesday [in the win against Arsenal], it hasn't gone to waste, but this is a blow because you put that good shift in and play a game that we're not used to with the low percent of possession, so to come here and drop two points is not ideal,\" Walker said. \"Hopefully there's a few twists and turns in our direction now and we can go and be up there or there abouts to go and win this Premier League.\"\n• None Football Daily: Sports Report: Another twist in the title race\n• None Go straight to all the best Nottingham Forest content After being limited to 37% possession against Arsenal in midweek, the lowest percentage of any Guardiola team in the top flight, City returned to some semblance of normality with a dominant 84% in the opening period on Saturday. Starting his first game after a spell on the sidelines with a foot injury, Phil Foden was a highlight for City, driving forward and making a nuisance of himself to a depleted Forest backline. Silva, playing again as a makeshift left-back, sent a decent effort from range whistling over the bar moments before receiving the ball on the edge of the area and firing a stunning left-footed shot into the roof of the net. The goal was reward for the visitors' continued pressure and they had ample opportunity to prevent the nervy finish, Foden's off-balance pass not quite reaching Haaland for a tap-in and Ilkay Gundogan narrowly misjudging Kyle Walker's cross. But City, for all their dominance, were made to rue their missed chances and were reduced to last-ditch attempts as they scrambled for a late winner. Kevin de Bruyne had seven attempts at goal but found his radar to be off target as City failed to capitalise on any momentum gathered from their victory over title rivals Arsenal on Wednesday. They have now dropped 15 away points this season, compared with 11 in total last term. \"It was a really good game,\" Guardiola told Match of the Day. \"We did everything, we played perfectly, had amazing chances, we were going to see the game out, we couldn't believe it, but this is football. You have to score. \"[It is] one of the best games we've played but we dropped two points.\" Man City best team in world - Cooper as Forest get point Forest will have considered themselves lucky to go into half-time trailing by only one goal having seen the majority of the first period played in their own half. They had won four of their past seven matches at home and showed mere glimpses of danger on the counter-attack as City committed bodies forward. Gibbs-White and Brennan Johnson had chances to break away, with the latter denied by Walker's block before bounding forward again but with no one in support to latch onto his squared ball. Forest were without centre-backs Scott McKenna and Willy Boly, who picked up injuries last time out, and Steve Cooper's side did not put together any meaningful periods of possession or chances. But, as City became frustrated, Forest were patient and ultimately efficient enough to take their opportunity when it finally came, their only shot on target all afternoon. \"It is definitely a positive result,\" said Cooper. \"For me, Manchester City are the best team in the world. They are fascinating to watch and study. There was no shame City had the ball as much as they did. \"We rode a bit of luck but we earned a bit of luck with the goal we scored. That was the plan - just to stay in the game and get one moment,\" he added. \"I owe a lot of gratitude to the players for sticking to the plan.\"\n• None Attempt blocked. Rúben Dias (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Nathan Aké with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jack Grealish (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Bernardo Silva.\n• None Goal! Nottingham Forest 1, Manchester City 1. Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Morgan Gibbs-White.Goal confirmed following VAR Review.\n• None Attempt missed. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Jack Grealish.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Substitution, Nottingham Forest. Chris Wood replaces Serge Aurier because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "The British Medical Association has accused the government of \"reckless\" behaviour ahead of the results of a strike ballot by junior doctors.\n\nThe BMA's Professor Philip Banfield said the prime minister and health secretary were refusing to enter meaningful negotiations with unions.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said it had met with the BMA and other unions to discuss pay.\n\nBMA members are expected to vote in favour of strike action.\n\nProfessor Banfield, the BMA's chair of council, said that Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Steve Barclay were \"standing on the precipice of an historic mistake\".\n\nHe accused the government of \"guaranteeing escalation\", adding that officials were \"reckless\" for thinking they could stay silent and wait it out.\n\nHe made his comments at a young doctors' conference on Sunday, telling attendees they deserved better and were not expensive for the expertise and skills they provided.\n\nAround 45,000 members of the BMA have been balloted on strike action, with the result of the vote expected on Monday.\n\nThe BMA has already warned it will stage a three-day strike if there is a vote in favour of strike action.\n\nLike recent strikes by nurses and ambulance crews, the dispute centres around pay.\n\nThe current pay agreement for junior doctors ends in March 2023 - and the government says increasing pay in line with inflation is unaffordable.\n\nProfessor Banfield also accused the government of \"letting patients down\", adding: \"All NHS staff are standing up for our patients in a system that seems to have forgotten that valuing staff and their well-being is directly linked to patient safety and better outcomes of care.\"\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"We hugely value the work of junior doctors and we have been clear that supporting and retaining the NHS workforce is one of our main priorities.\n\n\"As part of a multi-year deal we agreed with the BMA, junior doctors' pay has increased by a cumulative 8.2% since 2019/20. We also introduced a higher pay band for the most experienced staff and increased rates for night shifts.\n\n\"The Health and Social Care Secretary has met with the BMA and other medical unions to discuss pay, conditions and workload. He's been clear he wants to continue discussing how we can make the make the NHS a better place to work for all.\"", "M'Barki has denied being paid to run stories, but admits to skipping editorial checks\n\nThe suspension of a senior journalist at France's leading TV news channel has uncovered what appears to be a well-organised system of corruption and influence buying in the international media.\n\nIt was reported in January that 54-year-old Rachid M'Barki, a respected BFM veteran, had been summarily removed from his duties as overnight presenter pending an internal enquiry. The reason was a mystery.\n\nBut now an investigation by Le Monde newspaper in conjunction with the campaigning organisation Forbidden Stories has revealed more details.\n\nAccording to the investigation, M'Barki ran reports on a variety of subjects - luxury yachts in Monaco, a Sudanese opposition leader, allegations of corruption in Qatar - that had all one thing in common: they were planted by an Israel-based outfit specialising in 'news for hire'.\n\nM'Barki has denied being paid to run the stories, but he admits to bypassing BFM's editorial checks.\n\nHe says he was offered the reports by an intermediary and exercised his own professional judgment in selecting to use them.\n\nBut the investigators say they have evidence that the origin of the stories lies in the shadowy Team Jorge, an operation based in Tel Aviv and run by a former Israeli special forces officer whose real name is Tal Hanan.\n\nAccording to Le Monde and Forbidden Stories, Team Jorge is one of several players in a growing world of disinformation mercenaries - private sector experts in intelligence who for a price will use the internet to damage an enemy's reputation or influence an election.\n\nTo get access to Team Jorge, three journalists from the Forbidden Stories consortium posed as potential clients seeking to shape opinion in French-speaking Africa on behalf of a major multinational.\n\nAfter a lengthy negotiation, they finally arranged a face-to-face meeting and got what amounted to a sales pitch.\n\nHanan claimed to have intervened in more than 30 elections and to have access to email and social media accounts of prominent African figures.\n\nCentral to the Team Jorge offer was a platform called Advanced Impact Media Solutions (AIMS), which generates tens of thousands of fake identities with accounts on Facebook and Telegram. These accounts then spread the content of a campaign.\n\nThe investigators identified around 20 different international campaigns which they believed Team Jorge had organised.\n\nAmong the material being circulated on social media, they especially noticed two television news reports in French that purportedly ran on BFM.\n\nAfter checking with BFM's management, they had confirmation: the reports were shown late at night on the channel, but without the knowledge of the editorial team.\n\nAt that point, on January 11, M'Barki was called in and suspended.\n\nThe first of the reports was on the EU's Russia sanctions, and their impact on the luxury yacht business in Monaco.\n\nOne of the reports contained a number of false claims about the yacht industry in Monaco\n\nIt was claimed that 10,000 jobs were at risk and that the industry had appealed to Prince Albert to intervene on their behalf. None of that has been proved.\n\nThe second report, broadcast in mid-December, was about a leafleting campaign in Paris accusing a former state prosecutor in Qatar of corruption.\n\nWhen originally shown in the early hours of the morning, the reports would have gone almost unobserved.\n\nBut that changed when they were picked up by social media and Team Jorge's massed avatars. Suddenly they were viral.\n\nBy seemingly planting the reports onto mainstream French television, the organisers would have immeasurably boosted the credibility of what would otherwise have been unsubstantiated gossip.\n\nIt also would mean Team Jorge had evidence for future clients of its access to western media.\n\nM'Barki's late night show also ran items on a Sudanese general who was considering running for the presidency, and a trade show in the disputed territory of Western Sahara.\n\nIn this second piece, the name of the territory was replaced by the politically-charged term Moroccan Sahara.\n\nThe area has been the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Morocco and the indigenous Sahrawi people, led by the Polisario Front.\n\nThe people or organisations that ultimately commissioned the suspected campaigns remain a mystery, according to Le Monde and Forbidden Stories.\n\nSome may have been commissioned by governments, but most - like the yacht story - were probably ordered by private interests, the investigation concluded.\n\nA worrying sign, the investigators say, of the growing \"Uberisation\" of the fake news business.", "Last updated on .From the section Boxing\n\nLeigh Wood's reign as WBA featherweight champion is over after the Briton lost in devastating fashion to hard-hitting Mauricio Lara in Nottingham. The 34-year-old seemed to be in control of the fight and was landing with ease through rounds three to six, before Lara unleashed a sensational left hook in the seventh. Wood hit the canvas and bravely got back to his feet. But clearly hurt, his trainer Ben Davison threw in the towel. The defeat is Wood's third in a 29-fight career, while Mexican Lara has won his maiden world title. \"Congratulations to Mauricio Lara, he's great fighter,\" Wood told DAZN. \"I made a mistake and paid for it.\" Promoter Eddie Hearn said Wood - who was up on all three judges' scorecards at the time of the stoppage - now plans to activate his rematch clause. \"Firstly, well done to Leigh Wood for taking a fight like this - everyone knows how dangerous Mauricio Lara is,\" Hearn said. \"I thought Leigh was cruising that fight, won four rounds on the spin, but Mauricio Lara came with a left hook from the heavens.\" The loss is Wood's third in a 29-fight career A fight widely expected to be a shootout between arguably two of the biggest punchers of the division did not disappoint. The atmosphere and volume moved up a notch as Wood made his entrance, with almost every fan in the arena on their feet. Lara - dressed in red and wearing a sombrero - was unfazed. Wood channelled that support in the opening round to connect with a looping left and straight right, but was cut above the left eye after an accidental clash of heads. The champion started strongly in the second, connecting to Lara's body and following it up with an uppercut, but it seemed to spur Lara on and he launched a ferocious attack towards the end of the round. Relentless punching to the head and body had Wood - with blood dripping down the side of his face - wincing. But Wood recovered brilliantly to land a terrific straight right in the third, and followed it up with more single shots which pierced Lara's guard. The fight was delivering on all expectations. With Lara's unconventional style - punching from angles with a straight-on stance and leaving himself open - Leigh started to land more frequently in the fourth. Lara nodded and smiled after taking a body shot from Wood in the fifth - perhaps a sign he was hurt and which way this fight was heading. Wood got a real foothold in the sixth as a desperate Lara started to get more reckless and was missing wildly. Lara was going to be a danger at any time in the fight, however, and he stunned the East Midlands crowd with a fantastic short left hook to end Wood's night. With Wood unsteady on his legs, Davison saved his fighter from any more damage. With so much emphasis nowadays put on protecting an unbeaten record, Wood has bounced back from defeats before and should be applauded for taking on a feared puncher in Lara as a voluntary defence, when easier options were available. Although Wood is keen on the rematch, two-time world champion Josh Warrington was ringside and clashed with Lara post-fight. Warrington accused Lara of spitting at him and was held back by security from entering the ring. Lara later admitted spitting at his former foe. He told IFL TV: \"Of course I did. Because it's personal between me and him and that's the way it will always be.\" Warrington suffered a shock first career defeat by Lara in February 2021, before their rematch seven months later was declared a technical draw after an accidental head clash in the second round. \"Of course I would like that trilogy [with Josh Warrington],\" said Lara. \"I want as many belts as possible, but it's up to Eddie Hearn to make that decision.\" Wood himself was eyeing a lucrative all-British match-up against Warrington in a stadium fight at his beloved Nottingham Forest's City Ground. There is still a slight chance that fight could happen, with Leeds fighter Warrington also coming off a defeat having lost his IBF title to Luis Alberto Lopez in December.\n• None The Manchester-made star reveals all to Tony Bellew\n• None The rise and fall of the jeweller-turned-criminal: Listen to Gangster: The Story of John Palmer", "Mr Biden said he would \"make no apologies\" for shooting down the balloon\n\nAs the rift between the US and China over the balloon saga widens, so has the divide within the global community scrutinising their high-stakes dispute.\n\nThe latest testy exchange took place on Saturday, when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met China's top diplomat Wang Yi on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich, in the first high-level meeting since the row began.\n\nMr Blinken said they would not \"stand for any violation of our sovereignty\" and said \"this irresponsible act must never again occur\". Mr Wang, meanwhile, called the episode a \"political farce manufactured by the US\" and accused them of \"using all means to block and suppress China\".\n\nChina continues to deny that they sent a spy balloon, even as the US continues to disclose more details of the object to back up their allegation.\n\nBut beyond the dispute, the way both Beijing and Washington have responded to each other has come under close examination as the world grapples with the incident's implications for national security and geopolitical stability.\n\nThe net result, say observers, is that it has hardened positions - deepening distrust among those wary of China or the US - and made it significantly harder for Washington and Beijing to close the gap between them.\n\nFor some, the incident has heightened anxieties over the reach of Chinese espionage, as governments scramble to reassess what they know of China's surveillance capabilities. The US claims Chinese military balloons have crossed the airspace of more than 40 countries across five continents.\n\nThis week Japan - a key US ally - announced that after they had re-analysed past cases of unidentified flying objects, they \"strongly suspect\" that China had flown at least three spy balloons across their territory since 2019.\n\nA Financial Times report quoted unnamed Taiwanese officials saying the island - another US ally, and one that is claimed by China - had been spied on by dozens of Chinese military balloons.\n\nTaiwan's defence ministry later clarified it had only spotted Chinese weather balloons - on Friday it found the remnants of one such object - but also warned they would not hesitate to shoot down any suspected military objects in its airspace.\n\n\"For other states, they didn't know what to make of it previously, but now they do. So it shows a gap in understanding on the part of other states, and not surprisingly China has sought to exploit the gap,\" said Dr Ian Chong, a non-resident scholar at Carnegie China.\n\nFor those convinced of the US allegations, the incident has highlighted an underestimation of China's surveillance capability - and the lengths Beijing would go to prove it.\n\n\"It certainly indicates the People's Liberation Army feels they can justify absolutely any technology and any mission, that they can do anything to increase China's ability to project power, conduct surveillance, and hold the US at risk,\" said Mr Drew Thompson, a former US Department of Defense official and a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore.\n\nThis, said Mr Thompson, was done \"regardless of the consequences to China's reputation, its obligation and adherence to international law, and without considering the benefits of acting with restraint\".\n\nNoting there has been a lack of a concerted outcry and pushback from the global community, Mr Thompson said this demonstrated \"a fragility of international law\" and was a \"testament to China's ability to deter other countries from criticising them\", and could lead to a more unsafe world.\n\nBeijing undermined its own attempts to win trust and project the image of a responsible superpower with the way it has responded in the saga, according to some observers.\n\nChina has yet to divulge details backing up its claim that the balloon was a civilian meteorological airship, such as the name of the company that operated it. \"This lack of transparency has only created more questions, and has given those who are already sceptical a reason to be even more so,\" said Dr Chong.\n\nBeijing's subsequent claim that the US has in the past flown more than 10 spy balloons into China - which Washington has denied - was also \"confusing\", he added.\n\n\"Is China suggesting that floating lots of balloons over each other's territory has been an accepted practice?\" asked Dr Chong, who pointed out that if this were the case, it would contradict Beijing's long-held insistence on the respect for sovereignty.\n\nThe claim could be seen as a case of China deflecting and engaging in \"whataboutism\", said Mr Thompson, which is a way of responding to an accusation by proffering a counter-accusation.\n\nBut the way the US has reacted has also unnerved some, particularly those who side with China.\n\nThis week, US officials admitted that three other objects they shot out of the sky in North America were not likely foreign spy crafts. US President Joe Biden defended the decision as necessary to protect commercial air traffic, and also because at that time they \"could not rule out the surveillance risk of sensitive facilities\".\n\nVictor Gao, vice-president of Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization, called the shootings an \"overreaction\" that could be seen as the US \"acting increasingly hysterical\".\n\n\"China has been very professional and responsible, explaining the situation to the US and the whole world and asking for co-operation rather than confrontation. This is in contrast to the jingoism of the US - they should remember they are not shooting buffalo in the Wild West, they are shooting down an object that China owns,\" he said.\n\nOthers have praised the US' handling of the incident, with Australia's deputy PM Richard Marles calling the shootdown of the Chinese balloon \"a very measured way\" of responding to the incursion.\n\nHappier times: Mr Xi and Mr Biden greeted each other warmly at the G20 summit in Bali in November\n\nWith both sides doubling down, what is clear is that the balloon blow-up has made reconciliation even harder.\n\nFor the Chinese, the shootdown and Mr Biden's refusal to apologise has set a precedent, warned Mr Gao.\n\n\"They would need to be prepared for similar acts of retaliation against similar objects in Chinese space… Don't complain that China doesn't apologise, if such an unfortunate incident happens again,\" he said.\n\nHe pointed out that it may even push China to take a stronger stance against US planes and ships in airspace and waters which China considers as theirs, such as Taiwan.\n\nThe US Navy routinely conducts what it calls \"freedom of navigation\" exercises by sailing its military ships through the Taiwan Strait.\n\nBut there are signs of a willingness to engage. Mr Biden said he plans on calling Chinese president Xi Jinping soon to discuss the incident.\n\nBoth leaders face domestic pressure to not be seen as backing down. As the balloon saga drifts on, the question now is how much political capital both leaders would be willing to spend to deflate tensions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds", "The farm is in Aberhosan, a village near Machynlleth\n\nA farmer has died and his son has been seriously injured following a farm accident.\n\nIwan Evans died from his injuries while his son, Dafydd, was seriously injured at Cleiriau Isaf Farm, in Aberhosan, Powys, on Friday, according a friend.\n\nDafydd Evans, who is believed to be in his 40s, is being treated at the Royal Stoke University Hospital.\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive has confirmed it attended the farm and an investigation was continuing.\n\nDafydd Evans is a member of Machynlleth Male Voice Choir and had been due to take part in a concert at Dinas Mawddwy, Gwynedd, on Saturday, but it was cancelled as a mark of respect.\n\n\"This is an extremely sad situation, and the whole area is in shock,\" said Aled Griffiths, a fellow choir member and an agent for the National Farmers' Union.\n\nResidents from the close knit community are in shock, according to a family friend\n\nHe added: \"They are a very popular family.\n\n\"We cancelled the show as a mark of respect for Dafydd, but also out of respect for the family who are grieving after the loss of Iwan.\n\n\"Dafydd is a long time member of the choir. He never misses a practice and is extremely well liked.\"\n\nMr Griffiths said the agricultural industry could be dangerous and accidents happened.\n\nCouncillor Elwyn Vaughan said: \"It is a huge tragedy today to hear this news and of course in this agricultural community, a close-knit community, it is deeply felt throughout the area.\n\n\"Dafydd is a member of the community council, a member of the Machynlleth choir, and obviously well-known throughout the area and highly respected throughout the area.\n\n\"Of course we wish him well and hope for the best in the coming days.\"\n\nDyfed-Powys Police has been asked to comment on the incident in Aberhosan, which is near Machynlleth.", "Instagram and Facebook users will now be able to pay for a blue tick verification, parent company Meta has announced.\n\nMeta Verified will cost $11.99 (£9.96) a month on web, or $14.99 for iPhone users.\n\nIt will be available in Australia and New Zealand this week.\n\nMark Zuckerberg, Meta chief executive, said the move will improve security and authenticity on the social media apps.\n\nThe move comes after Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, implemented the premium Twitter Blue subscription in November 2022.\n\nMeta's paid subscription service is not yet available for businesses, but any individual can pay for verification.\n\nBadges - or \"blue ticks\"- have been used as verification tools for high-profile accounts to signify their authenticity.\n\nThe subscription would give paying users a blue badge, increased visibility of their posts, protection from impersonators and easier access to customer service, Meta said in a post on their website.\n\nThe company told the BBC the change would not affect previously verified accounts, but noted there would be an increase in visibility for some smaller users who become verified thanks to the paid feature.\n\nAllowing paying users access to a blue tick has previously caused trouble for other social media platforms.\n\nTwitter's pay-for verification feature was paused last November when people started impersonating big brands and celebrities by paying for the badge.\n\nMeta said Instagram and Facebook usernames will have to match a government supplied ID document to be granted verification, and users will have to have a profile picture that includes their face.\n\nOther websites like Reddit, YouTube and Discord similarly use subscription-based models.\n\nMeta has not yet specified when the feature will be rolled out to other countries, although Mr Zuckerberg said in a post it would be \"soon\".\n\nIn November, the company announced 11,000 job losses as a result of over-investment during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nAt the time, Mr Zuckerberg said he had predicted an increase in Meta's growth based on the rise it had over the pandemic, but that ultimately did not happen.\n\n\"Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration,\" he wrote, \"I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments.\"\n\nInstead he said \"macroeconomic downturn\" and \"increased competition\" caused revenue to be much lower than expected.\n\n\"I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,\" he said at the time.\n\nThey say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - and while many in the tech sector were quick to criticise Elon Musk for introducing a paid tier to the social network Twitter, it turns out his peers were watching closely.\n\nTimes are tough for Big Tech, but times are also tough for Big Tech's customers, of course - that's you and me. Elon Musk's experiment has proved that people are still prepared to pay for an enhanced experience.\n\nIt's often said of enormous free-to-use digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok that if you're not paying for the product, you are the product.\n\nThat means every drop of data those businesses gather about you is being used to sell you stuff in the form of ads. It's a multi-billion dollar idea and it has made a lot of firms very, very rich.\n\nBut people are waking up to it and voting with their feet.\n\nApple launched an optional feature which stops your online activity being tracked and guess what - it turns out if you ask people whether they mind companies watching what they do and where they go on the net, most of them choose to opt out. Meta, which owns Facebook, has complained bitterly about it.\n\nIs subscription the alternative, and if so, just how much are consumers prepared to pay? It seems first Musk and now Zuckerberg are determined to find out.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDefence spending is a top priority for the UK government as it vows to \"double down\" on its support for Ukraine, Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons said on Sunday.\n\nThe former defence secretary said the government must give Ukraine \"the tools to finish the job\", while also ensuring the UK has the resources to do that.\n\n\"We have always protected defence spending\", she insisted.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged the world to keep supporting Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Mordaunt said during this \"critical time\" in the war between Russia and Ukraine, defence spending must be protected.\n\nShe was challenged on how the government planned to both \"double down\" on its support of arms and training to Ukraine, whilst also dealing with budget cuts because of inflation.\n\nMs Mordaunt answered by saying the government has \"made commitments that we are going to increase defence spending\".\n\nBut she added that confirmation of any increases would not come until the announcement of the chancellor's Budget in March.\n\nMs Mordaunt pointed out that \"in recent history\" the government wanted to hike defence spending to as much as 3%.\n\nSpeaking about the UK's commitment to supporting Ukraine and how that tallies with the defence budget, she said: \"We now have to give Ukraine the tools to finish that job. We're going to be giving them more support than all of last year in just the next few months.\n\n\"We have to do that. And of course we're going to be ensuring we have the resources to do that.\"\n\nShe added that the current Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had the task of \"not just keeping everything going and obviously supporting Ukraine\" but also of modernising the armed forces.\n\n\"That means we've almost got to double run. We've got to rebuild these new technologies but also keep our current operations very strong\", she said.\n\nAsked whether the UK would send fighter jets to Ukraine - something Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been calling for - Ms Mordaunt said \"nothing is off the table\" when it came to which equipment the UK would supply to Ukraine.\n\nBut she added that while it had not been ruled out, considerations of what would be best for Ukraine in both the short term and the long term needed to be considered.\n\nEarlier this month, Mr Wallace said there would be no immediate transfer of equipment such as fighter jets to Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Mr Sunak said he would support any countries ready to send fighter jets to Ukraine now and emphasised that the UK government was already \"leading\" the training of Ukrainian fighter jet pilots.\n\nDespite inflation and military budget cuts in the past, the UK has been one of the biggest supplier of arms to Ukraine in its war against Russian President Vladimir Putin's invading forces.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Steve Davies has designed a surfboard using fungi to make it more biodegradable\n\nCould mushrooms be the green, plastic-free future of surfing?\n\nThat is certainly the view of 23-year-old board designer Steve Davies, from Porthcawl.\n\nUsing an innovative material made from the root-like structures of mushrooms, Mr Davies is developing his own plastic-free surfboard.\n\n\"It sounds a little bit crazy, but it's a way to get away from polystyrene, polyurethane and resin boards that can sit in landfill and not decompose for hundreds to thousands of years,\" he said.\n\n\"There's over 400,000 boards made every year,\" Mr Davies explained.\n\nMr Davies said his dream would be to make mushroom boards \"the new norm\"\n\nOf these, 80% are not sustainable.\n\n\"And even when it does break down, it can go into fish's ecosystem and bio-accumulate, so it ends up that humans will end up eating this polystyrene plastic\", he added.\n\nMushrooms growing on the first full size prototype\n\nThe former design student developed the concept as part of his final year project at Cardiff Metropolitan University, where he set out to find a solution to the sport's environmental impact.\n\nThis is when Mr Davies started looking into fungi.\n\nMycelium is a compound that is found in a wide range of fungi. It forms a root-like structure that has wide ranging benefits across natural ecosystems.\n\nIts properties have also been found to have significant potential for other man-made uses.\n\nMr Davies uses mycelium to act as a glue between a moulded, natural skeleton structure that he forms in a mould.\n\nIt is between the skeleton, made of materials like straw, that the mycelium roots grow to form a polystyrene-like material - one that is ideal for shaping a board.\n\nOf the thousands of surfboards made each year, 80% are not sustainable\n\nAlone, mushrooms would not be enough. Without a waterproof coating, the organic material would simply wash away - not ideal when you're paddling for a wave.\n\nTo find a solution that will both aid the ride and leave no impact on the ocean, Mr Davies has tested a range of organic sealants like bees wax and linseed oil.\n\n\"The properties of mycelium compared to a foam such as polyurethane can be the same\", he said.\n\n\"It will take a little bit of modification and the right species of mushroom to grow it but, eventually, I don't see any reason why mushroom boards couldn't be used in the top elite level of surfing, right down to beginner level.\"\n\nThe ecological impact of the sport is hugely important to the surfing community, who see the impacts of plastic pollution first hand.\n\nSteve Davies hopes mushroom boards can one day be used in elite level surfing\n\nIzzy Ross, from campaign group Surfers Against Sewage, believes projects like Steve's are just what the community wants.\n\n\"The industry is not doing enough at all. It's fantastic to see these small projects and the great minds behind them trying to tackle this and I think it's fantastic work, but the problem is more systemic than that,\" she said.\n\n\"A lot of surfers and water lovers can see the damage that individual effects can have. It is something that most of us, I think, have a huge interest in - they're just waiting for the innovations to happen.\"\n\nOf course, this innovation is of little significance if mushroom boards cannot be commercially produced.\n\nWhen competing against established, fast-paced production lines, is it really viable?\n\nSimilar materials have been trialled by other board designers in recent years but, so far, they are yet to replace the staple board-making, plastic-heavy materials.\n\nMr Davies believes with the right backing and set-up, these boards could be the answer.\n\n\"In the right conditions, we will grow a mycelium board in around 21 days,\" he said.\n\n\"The dream would be to make it the new norm. Connecting with nature would be the new design rules and a lot of things like that would be really cool.\"\n\nMr Davies added: \"We're using the sea, we should give back to the sea and it should be a circular model.\"", "The channel has been one of the main providers of news on the recent wave of anti-government protests in Iran\n\nIndependent TV network Iran International is suspending its operations in the UK because of threats against its London-based journalists.\n\nThe Persian-language TV channel said that the decision was due to a \"significant escalation in state-backed threats from Iran\".\n\n\"Threats had grown to the point that it was felt it was no longer possible to protect the channel's staff,\" it said.\n\nThe station will continue to operate from its offices in Washington DC.\n\nIn November, two British-Iranian journalists from the channel were warned by police of a possible risk to their lives. An armed police presence was stationed near the channel's studios in Chiswick, west London, and concrete barriers were placed outside the building.\n\nLondon's Metropolitan Police said 15 plots had been foiled since the start of 2022 to either kidnap or kill UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the Iranian regime.\n\n\"I cannot believe it has come to this,\" said the network's general manager, Mahmood Enayat.\n\n\"A foreign state has caused such a significant threat to the British public on British soil that we have to move,\" he said.\n\n\"Let's be clear, this is not just a threat to our TV station, but the British public at large.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How Iran state TV tries to control the story of the protests\n\nIran International has been one of the most prominent providers of news on the recent wave of anti-government protests in Iran.\n\nProtests swept across the country in September following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.\n\nIn October, the Iranian government announced sanctions against Iran International and BBC News Persian, accusing them of \"incitement of riots\" and \"support of terrorism\" over their coverage of the anti-government protests that have engulfed the country over the past two months.\n\nThe two UK-based channels are already banned from Iran, but a press freedom watchdog says they are among the main sources of news and information in a country where independent media and journalists are constantly persecuted.\n\nIn November, Iran's Intelligence Minister, Esmail Khatib, said Iran International had been identified by Tehran as a \"terrorist\" organisation, that all co-operation and links with it would be considered a threat against national security, and that its \"agents\" would be pursued, state news agency Irna reported.\n\nHe also accused the UK of spreading propaganda against Iran's clerical establishment and warned it would \"pay for its measures to create insecurity\".", "Searches will continue in Kahramanmaras, the epicentre of the quake\n\nTurkey has ended rescue efforts in all but two provinces, almost two weeks after a massive earthquake killed tens of thousands of people, the country's disaster agency said.\n\nSearches will continue in Kahramanmaras and Hatay, the agency's chief said.\n\nHowever, hopes of finding anyone else alive in the rubble are fading fast.\n\nMeanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Turkey and announced $100m (£83m) in humanitarian aid.\n\nThe epicentre of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on 6 February was in Kahramanmaras. More than 44,000 people are confirmed to have lost their lives in south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria.\n\nThe death toll is expected to climb, with about 345,000 apartments in Turkey known to have been destroyed and many people still missing. Neither Turkey nor Syria have said how many people are still unaccounted for.\n\n\"In many of our provinces, search and rescue efforts have been completed,\" the disaster agency's chief, Yunus Sezer, told reporters in Ankara.\n\nHe said search and rescue efforts were continuing at around 40 buildings in the two provinces, but he expected this number to fall by Sunday evening.\n\nRescue workers pulled at least three people from the rubble on Friday, more than 11 days after they were trapped when the earthquake hit.\n\nAntony Blinken, right, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu travel to one of the worst-hit areas\n\nMr Blinken has arrived in Turkey to show support, despite the trip being planned before the quake. It is his first trip to Turkey since he took office more than two years ago.\n\nThe new aid \"will be moving soon. Sadly, it's less about search and rescue but long-term recovery. This is going to be a long-term effort\", he told reporters.\n\nHe added that getting aid into Syria was \"very, very challenging\".\n\nHe will travel to Hatay to see humanitarian efforts before travelling to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday. The pair are expected to discuss issues including Turkey's refusal to ratify Sweden and Finland's Nato membership applications.", "Nicola Bulley was last seen during a riverside walk on 27 January\n\nRoads have been closed near to the area where missing mother Nicola Bulley disappeared three weeks ago.\n\nOfficers are at the scene in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire, where a police helicopter was also seen overhead and a tent has been put up.\n\nA huge search operation was mounted after Ms Bulley went missing during a riverside dog walk on 27 January.\n\nPolice said they believed the 45-year-old had gone into the river and that her disappearance was not suspicious.\n\nPolice divers were seen working by the River Wyre\n\nDet Supt Rebecca Smith, who is leading the investigation, has arrived at the scene outside the small village.\n\nIt is not known why the tent has been put up. There is a lot of police activity and journalists are being kept away from the area.\n\nDivers were seen going into the River Wyre on Sunday afternoon about a mile from the bench where Ms Bulley's phone was found.\n\nShe was last seen walking her springer spaniel after dropping off her two daughters, aged six and nine, at school.\n\nHer dog was found shortly after, along with the phone - still connected to a work conference call - by a steep riverbank.\n\nThe BBC has contacted Lancashire Police for a response.\n\nA police helicopter hovered near the river for about 20 minutes\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The shards are now in a box awaiting an insurance inspection\n\nNow and then, we are reminded as to why these signs are still needed in galleries around the world.\n\nArt lovers in Miami looked on in horror on Thursday night, when a collector accidentally knocked a $42,000 (£34,870) sculpture by US pop artist Jeff Koons to the ground.\n\nShe had tapped it with her finger, witnesses at the event said.\n\nThe statue - one of Koons' iconic Dog Balloons - smashed into tiny shards, and had to be swept into dustpans by gallery staff.\n\nThe accident happened during the exclusive VIP-only opening night of Art Wynwood, a contemporary art fair held annually in Miami, Florida.\n\nLocal artist Stephen Gamson told the Miami Herald he was admiring the sculpture, when an \"older woman\" tapped it, knocking it off its pedestal.\n\nAt first he wondered if it was part of a performance piece (Banksy, anyone?) but quickly realised it had been an accident.\n\n\"When this thing fell to the ground, it was like how a car accident draws a huge crowd on the highway,\" Mr Gamson told the paper.\n\nLuckily for the woman, the piece is covered by insurance, Bénédicte Caluch, an art advisor with Bel-Air Fine Art galleries which represents the sculpture, said.\n\n\"It was an event!\" Ms Caluch told the Miami Herald. \"Everybody came to see what happened.\"\n\nShe added that the woman who caused the damage, who has remained unnamed, was an art collector.\n\n\"Life just stopped for 15 minutes with everyone around,\" Cédric Boero, who also works for Bel-Air Fine Art galleries, told the New York Times.\n\nHe added that a colleague spoke to the woman, who said she was \"very very sorry\" and \"just wanted to disappear\".\n\nThe sculpture was part of a limited edition which has now shrunk from 799 to 798.\n\n\"That's a good thing for the collectors,\" Mr Boero told the Times, laughing.\n\nJeff Koons (left) speaks to a fan at an event in 2021, with one of his blue Balloon Dog statues in the background\n\nDespite being shattered into thousands of pieces, there is still interest in buying the destroyed sculpture.\n\nMr Gamson offered to buy it there and then because, as he said on his Instagram account, \"it has a really cool story\".\n\nJeff Koons, 68, has not made any comment on the incident.\n\nHis range of Balloon Dog sculptures are among the most iconic works of contemporary art, and have sold for tens of millions of dollars.\n\nSome are enormous - as high as 10ft (3m) - but this ill fated one was just a puppy, at 16 inches (40cm) tall.\n\nThey have graced galleries around the world, and were further iconised by Jay-Z in 2017 when the rapper worked directly with Koons to create a 40-foot inflatable Balloon Dog for a stage prop.\n\nIn 2019 Koons made history when his Rabbit sculpture sold at auction for $91.1m (£71m) - the highest sale price ever for a living artist.", "Plans for a third Menai crossing have been replaced by a review into how to improve congestion between Anglesey and the mainland\n\nThe Welsh government does not have cash for major road projects, according to a minister.\n\nLee Waters said it was a \"fantasy to suggest there's this pipeline of [road] schemes that can be afforded\".\n\nPlans for a third crossing between Anglesey and the mainland, estimated to cost £400m, have been shelved, along with other major road building schemes, amid environmental concerns.\n\n\"It's not happening any time soon,\" he said. \"We haven't got the money.\"\n\nMr Waters, the deputy climate change minister, told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement \"costs right across the board are going through the roof\".\n\nHe added: \"The cash isn't there so we have to prioritise.\"\n\nHe said road schemes with \"multi-modal corridors\" including public transport could be developed rather than building roads purely to accommodate more cars.\n\nIt was announced on Tuesday that of 59 road projects, 15 will go ahead, with the rest rejected or revised.\n\nPlans for a third Menai crossing have been replaced by a review into how to improve congestion and the resilience of the current bridges as well as getting people to use other ways to travel.\n\nAnd the controversial Red Route in Flintshire will not go ahead as planned.\n\nInstead, improvements will be made to the A494 at Aston Hill in Deeside.\n\n\"We will never be able to shift the resources to create a quality public transport system when we keep feeding a pipeline of ongoing, really expensive carbon intensive road projects,\" said Mr Waters.\n\nBut former Labour transport minister Ken Skates has said there should never be another review that \"ignores citizens\" and criticised his party's plans.\n\nBusiness owners on Anglesey have talked about the need for a third bridge linking the island to the mainland\n\nRhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru Member of the Senedd (MS) for Ynys Mon, said a third Menai crossing was a way of introducing all the elements important for the Welsh government, such as public transport and resilience, to Anglesey.\n\n\"We have just been without the Menai Suspension bridge for months, proving what I and others have been saying for years: it's a weak, weak crossing and that needs strengthening for the long term,\" he said.\n\nJames Evans, the Conservative MS for Brecon and Radnorshire, said: \"No-one is afraid of making difficult decisions because we have to reduce our emissions.\n\n\"This is the cart before the horse.\n\n\"If you are going to do a policy like this then you need to make sure you have a public transport infrastructure in place to implement.\"\n\nMr Waters told BBC Politics Wales that he had hoped to introduce a £1 flat rate for bus fares, costing the Welsh government £90m, but that was no longer possible \"in the short term\".\n\nHe also said financial support for the bus industry introduced since Covid could not continue but conceded that passenger numbers had not returned to pre-pandemic levels.\n\n\"We put £150m of taxpayers money to stop the bus companies from going bankrupt,\" Mr Waters added.\n\n\"At some point that has to be tapered away.\n\n\"Now the trouble is if the passenger levels have not returned post Covid to how they were, so many of the routes that we are keeping in place just don't have the customers, nor do we have the money to keep doing it,\" he told Sunday Supplement.", "Images of the demolition were posted on social media by an aide to Mariupol's Ukrainian mayor\n\nRussian authorities have started destroying the ruined theatre in Mariupol, according to an aide to the city's exiled Ukrainian mayor.\n\nPetro Andryushchenko accused the occupying authorities of seeking to cover up the murder of hundreds of civilians when the building was bombed by Russian warplanes in March.\n\nA screen was recently erected around the ruined theatre.\n\nVideo showed a bulldozer knocking down some of the rear of the building.\n\nMr Andryushchenko said the Russians were planning to leave the front of the theatre intact and destroy the rest of the structure, to build a new theatre \"on the bones of Mariupol's people\".\n\nA screen was erected around the ruins of the theatre last month, complete with images of Russian cultural figures.\n\nBefore Russia invaded Ukraine last February and laid siege to Mariupol, the theatre was a focal point of city life.\n\nThis year, Russia's proxy authority that runs the city and the occupied areas of the surrounding Donetsk region has promised the city's remaining population alternative entertainment - a revival of a 1960s Soviet cult musical, The Bremen Town Musicians.\n\nInstead of taking place at the bombed out theatre, it is being staged more than a kilometre away at the Pioneers' Palace.\n\nIt is all a far cry from the glitzy new year celebrations held in Mariupol a year ago.\n\nThis satellite picture from 30 November shows a screen erected around the theatre\n\nEarlier this month journalists from the Associated Press used satellite imagery to estimate that 10,300 new graves had been dug at a Mariupol cemetery.\n\nThe BBC reported in November that witnesses had seen Russian authorities removing bodies from the rubble of destroyed buildings and taking them away for burial. Ukrainian officials believe 25,000 people lost their lives in fighting in the city.\n\nIt took months for Russia to win the siege of Mariupol in May, when hundreds of Ukrainian fighters finally surrendered at the city's Azovstal steel plant.\n\nTwo months earlier, at around 10:00 on 16 March, Russian warplanes dropped two 500kg bombs on the city's theatre which detonated simultaneously, according to a report by Amnesty International, which condemned the attack as a clear war crime.\n\nCivilians had been using the building as a refuge from the siege and a large sign spelling \"children\" had been daubed in Russian in front of the theatre.\n\nSome 1,200 people were inside the building when the bombs struck. Ukrainian authorities believe 300 people were killed but an AP investigation said the number was closer to 600. Many of the bodies were found in the basement.", "Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds have had an ongoing \"feud\" for years\n\nHollywood superstar Hugh Jackman says many of Wrexham's rival teams offered him co-ownership when Ryan Reynolds bought the club.\n\nThe two celebrities have had a comedic feud for several years.\n\nIn an interview with Laura Kuenssberg on her Sunday programme, the Australian actor joked that \"to stick it to Ryan Reynolds\" he would score the winning goal against Wrexham.\n\nHe said he will try out for one of their rival teams.\n\n\"I will admit to you that when Ryan bought that team, I did get more than one offer from rivals of that team for £1 to come in as a co-owner and it did seriously tempt me,\" he said.\n\nThe Wolverine star, who appeared in Deadpool 3 with Reynolds, refused to reveal which teams made the offer.\n\nBut he did say: \"This whole thing of outsiders coming in and buying football teams, it feels a little, I don't know, easy.\n\n\"I have decided to go one step further, I am actually going to try out for the team.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hugh Jackman: I want to score against Wrexham\n\n\"So Delia Smith, Stephen Fry, I'm coming to try out.\"\n\nActor Stephen Fry is a lifelong Norwich City fan, while celebrity cook Delia Smith co-owns the club, know as the Canaries.\n\nRyan Reynolds is co-owner of Wrexham football club with Rob McElhenney\n\n\"I think if I really want to stick it to Ryan Reynolds, then if Wrexham get to play Norwich, because obviously there's a level here, I think it would be best if I was heading in the winner,\" he added.\n\nWhen asked if he would be a canary, he joked: \"It doesn't sound intimidating, but everybody knows it's everybody's second favourite team.\"", "Former US President Jimmy Carter will end medical treatment and enter hospice care at his Georgia home, his foundation announced on Saturday.\n\nThe Carter Center said Mr Carter had decided to \"spend his remaining time at home with his family,\" but did not say what had prompted the decision.\n\nMr Carter, 98, has suffered from recent health issues, including a melanoma that spread to his liver and brain.\n\nThe country's oldest living leader, he served one term in office from 1977-81.\n\nDuring his tenure as president Mr Carter faced a spate of foreign policy challenges and the Democrat was defeated in his re-election bid by Ronald Reagan.\n\n\"He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers,\" the Carter Center said in a statement on Saturday.\n\nTerminally ill patients may seek hospice care instead of going through further medical treatment. The priority is not to provide further treatment, but to provide comfort towards the end of a patient's life.\n\nMr Carter's grandson, Jason Carter, a former Georgia state senator, tweeted that he visited \"both of my grandparents yesterday.\"\n\n\"They are at peace and - as always - their home is full of love. Thank you all for your kind words,\" he said.\n\nIn 2021, Mr Carter and his wife Roslyn celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary. They have four children together.\n\nIn a tweet on Sunday, US President Joe Biden wrote that he and his wife, Jill Biden, were praying for their \"friends Jimmy and Rosalynn\".\n\n\"We admire you for the strength and humility you have shown in difficult times,\" Mr Biden wrote. \"May you continue your journey with grace and dignity, and God grant you peace.\"\n\nBorn in Georgia in 1924, Mr Carter entered politics in the 1960s when he was elected as state senator, before becoming the state's governor in 1971.\n\nFive years later he defeated the sitting Republican President Gerald Ford to become the 39th commander-in-chief.\n\nBut problems quickly mounted for Mr Carter as president.\n\nAt home, an oil crisis produced high inflation and unemployment, and he struggled to persuade Americans to accept the required austerity measures.\n\nThe high-point of the Carter years was the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978 in which Egypt formally recognised the state of Israel. He also signed a treaty returning control of the Panama Canal to Panama.\n\nBut in 1979 the last Shah of Iran was overthrown and 66 Americans were taken hostage in Tehran in the aftermath. Mr Carter cut off diplomatic relations with Iran in response and introduced a trade embargo.\n\nHowever, the public did not believe he was being tough enough and his popularity slumped as the US hostages were held for 444 days. His approval ratings took a further hit after an attempt to rescue the hostages failed and eight US military members were killed.\n\nIran then delayed the release of the hostages until after Ronald Reagan was sworn in.\n\nCarter defeated the sitting Republican President Gerald Ford to become the 39th president\n\nSince leaving the White House, Mr Carter has remained active, carrying out humanitarian work with his Carter Center.\n\nHe led a delegation that sought to persuade military leaders in Haiti to surrender power in 1994 and he brokered a ceasefire in Bosnia that helped pave the way for the future peace treaty there.\n\nHe went on to gain an international reputation for his work in promoting human rights, winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.\n\nWith Nelson Mandela, he founded The Elders, a group of global leaders who committed themselves to work on peace and human rights.\n\nHe also travelled extensively - well into his early 90s - and took part in annual trips to build homes with the Habitat for Humanity charity.\n\nBut the former president has also battled a host of health issues in recent years. In August 2015, Mr Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver.\n\nThe following year he announced that he needed no further treatment, as an experimental drug had eliminated any sign of cancer.\n\nHe has frequently expressed a striking calmness when dealing with his health challenges.\n\n\"I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes,\" he said in 2015. \"I've had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.\"\n\nMr Carter celebrated his most recent birthday in October in Plains, the tiny Georgia town where he and his wife were born between the First World War and the Great Depression, and where they returned when he left office.\n\nA host of senior US politicians - including Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock - offered their thoughts and prayers to Mr Carter's family as news broke on Saturday night.\n\n\"In this tender time of transitioning, God is surely walking with him,\" Senator Warnock tweeted. \"May he, Rosalynn & the entire Carter family be comforted with that peace and surrounded by our love & prayers.\"", "Not unhelpful for Boris Johnson - or at least sources close to him - to stick his oar in the Brexit debate.\n\nThat was the verdict of Penny Mordaunt - leader of the House of Commons, and Johnson's companion on the Vote Leave red bus.\n\nI’m not entirely sure that Rishi Sunak’s team will see it exactly the same way. There’s been trepidation, and an inevitability about the former PM and Brexit cheerleader getting involved in the arguments around new arrangements for Northern Ireland, after the protocol deal provoked such problems.\n\nAs the former chief whip Wendy Morton also on the show made clear this morning, Rishi Sunak faces a very tricky time indeed to get a new deal for Northern Ireland through the parliamentary party, even if he can agree something that has the backing of all parties in Belfast.\n\nMordaunt was careful to emphasise how an agreement simply couldn’t be done without the support and backing of the DUP in particular - the unionist party who are furious at how the existing protocol has created different rules for Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK.\n\nThere have been some whispers that there was a possibility of doing a deal, even without DUP support, but Mordaunt closed that idea down this morning.\n\nThere is a chance for Rishi Sunak to soothe the painful hangover from the Brexit talks in the next few days. But there’s no doubting there's a political headache in wait, even if the EU signs on the dotted line.", "Ke Huy Quan is the favourite to win an Oscar next month for his performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, but lost at the Baftas", "Nicola Bulley was last seen during a riverside walk on 27 January\n\nPolice searching for missing Nicola Bulley have found a body in the river.\n\nThe mother-of two disappeared during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire three weeks ago, sparking a major search operation.\n\nLancashire Police said they \"sadly recovered a body\" after they were called to the River Wyre near Rawcliffe Road at 11:35 GMT on Sunday.\n\nA statement said formal identification had not yet been carried out \"so we are unable to say\" if it was Ms Bulley.\n\nThe death was currently being treated as \"unexplained\", it added.\n\n\"Nicola's family have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times. We ask that their privacy is respected,\" Lancashire Police said.\n\nPolice divers were seen working by the River Wyre on Sunday\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman described the developments as \"heart-breaking and distressing\". She tweeted: \"My thoughts remain with Nicola's family at this extremely difficult time.\"\n\nMs Bulley, who worked as a mortgage adviser, was last seen walking her springer spaniel Willow after dropping off her two daughters, aged six and nine, at school on 27 January.\n\nHer dog was found shortly after, along with her phone - still connected to a work conference call - on a bench by a steep riverbank.\n\nPolice previously said they believed the 45-year-old had gone into the river and that her disappearance was not suspicious.\n\nThe body was found about a mile from where she was last seen in the small village of St Michael's on Wyre.\n\nThe search drew huge interest, with large numbers of people visiting and filming around the area.\n\nIt led to police issuing dispersal notices and warnings over anti-social behaviour.\n\nFollowing various theories spread on social media, her family said public focus had \"distracted from finding Nikki\".\n\nLancashire Police faced a backlash after disclosing Ms Bulley's struggles with the menopause and alcohol, which they said was \"to avoid any further speculation\".\n\nMs Bulley's family said they were aware that police were revealing the details, adding: \"Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her.\"\n\nA tent was put up by police near the river\n\nConcerns were expressed by the prime minister, the Commons leader and home secretary.\n\nLancashire Police said it would conduct an internal review into its investigation, led by its head of crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nThe UK's information commissioner John Edwards also said that \"given the high-profile nature of this case, we will be asking Lancashire Police to set out how they reached the decision to disclose this information\".\n\nThe local church had lit candles for Nicola since her disappearance in January\n\nThe fact that the body - yet to be formally identified as Nicola Bulley - was found less than a mile from where she disappeared raises a lot of questions. Specifically, why did it take three weeks?\n\nPeople will now be wondering whether the search was handled properly, which comes on top of a huge focus on the way Lancashire Police have conducted this investigation.\n\nSince Ms Bulley went missing, police have said she was in the river. They seemed very confident of that from the start, despite some of the family's concerns about their conviction.\n\nHow is it then, after all those extensive searches and police saying that was where she was, her body was potentially so close? It is worth remembering that this river is not enormous - it is a small stream in parts.\n\nAt the heart of this investigation comes the question of how police dealt with the disappearance of a woman - specifically the information they shared about her with the public and their ability to deal with the spotlight of attention that suddenly arrived in Lancashire.\n\nA security firm was hired by local residents following concerns about people, including social media influencers, visiting the village - some of whom were said to be peering through windows and trying to open doors.\n\nOne influencer was detained and fined after posting that he had been in \"people's back gardens at night-time with torches\".\n\nPeter Bleksley, a former Scotland Yard detective, told the BBC that the number of people going to the scene would have been \"catastrophic for the collection of evidence\".\n\nTwo people were also arrested after malicious messages were sent to parish councillors in relation to the case.\n\nMs Bulley's partner Paul Ansell visted the scene with investigators earlier in the month\n\nDal Babu, a former chief superintendent at the Metropolitan Police, said interest in the case was because people thought they were \"experts\".\n\nHe said officers did not usually \"release sensitive information about individuals but I think what's happened on this occasion is the unprecedented amount of speculation\".\n\nHe added that \"police really need to be having that conversation to look at what happens when you have an unprecedented interest on social media\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and former minister Ash Regan have announced they will stand to take over from Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and Scotland's first minister.\n\nThe pair, who revealed their plans to run in the Sunday Mail, are the first to declare their candidacy.\n\nJustice Secretary Keith Brown, Neil Gray, and Mairi McAllan have ruled themselves out.\n\nThe winner of the race is due to be announced on 27 March.\n\nFinance Secretary Kate Forbes is expected to announce her candidacy as early as Monday, according to BBC political editor Glenn Campbell.\n\nAngus Robertson, the constitution secretary, who is also tipped for the job, is said to be undecided.\n\nAnnouncing his leadership bid in the Scottish newspaper, Mr Yousaf says he had been through a \"rollercoaster of emotions\" since the longstanding first minister and SNP leader Ms Sturgeon announced her shock resignation on Wednesday, after eight years.\n\nHe says: \"You've got to put yourself forward if you think you're the best person for the job. And I do. This is the top job in the country, and it needs somebody who has experience.\"\n\nMr Yousaf, who first became an MSP in 2011, has been a prominent figure on the SNP frontbenches in every Scottish administration since and has been considered a strong leadership candidate for many years.\n\nBut the 37-year-old's time as justice minister saw him bogged down in controversy surrounding the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill - which faced backlash over its impact on freedom of expression.\n\nHe has also been criticised for his running of the NHS in Scotland, which experienced the hardest winter in its history in recent months.\n\nMs Sturgeon has faced repeated calls from opposition parties to sack Mr Yousaf, with waiting times at record highs and doctors warning that the country's hospitals are not safe for patients.\n\nOn Friday, Mr Yousaf pointed to the record pay offer he made to NHS staff, which he said was likely to avoid strike action for the next financial year.\n\nNicola Sturgeon announced her resignation at a press conference at Bute House on Wednesday\n\nFor her part, Ms Regan tells the Sunday Mail the SNP \"need to bring back unity, draw a line under certain things and move past them\", adding her belief that she is \"the person to do that\".\n\nThis statement is a reference to her views over the controversial the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, the SNP's proposed reforms to how people can change their legal gender in Scotland - which was subsequently blocked by the Westminster government.\n\nBefore it was approved by a majority in Holyrood, the SNP's former community safety minister had quit in protest over it and became an outspoken critic of the legislation.\n\nWriting in the Sunday Mail, Ms Regan says: \"The electorate expect the Scottish government to focus on things that are important to them.\n\n\"That means the NHS, which is still struggling to get back on its feet after the pandemic. People expect a first minister to concentrate on boosting the economy, creating jobs and helping them deal with the cost-of-living crisis.\"\n\nIn a later post on Twitter she outlined a plan to call for independence convention to be held to \"create a new vision of an independent Scotland\".\n\nAnd she backed proposals to use either a Westminster or Holyrood election as a de facto referendum on Scottish independence.\n\nAfter Ms Sturgeon's announcement, Ms Regan, 48, called for SNP members who left the party in the past year to be given a vote in the leadership race.\n\nBut this proposal was described as \"preposterous\" by Deputy First Minister John Swinney - who has already ruled himself out of the contest.\n\nAfter days of speculation and background briefings, two candidates to succeed Nicola Sturgeon have now declared.\n\nHumza Yousaf is seen as part of a new generation of SNP talent, albeit with a decade of ministerial experience.\n\nMany view him as something of a continuity candidate - one who in top office would advance much of the government's existing agenda.\n\nIf Humza Yousaf is a party establishment figure, Ash Regan is the opposite.\n\nAfter quitting her ministerial post over the Scottish government's gender reforms, her leadership pledge involves ditching the policy. A move that would surely mean the end of the SNP's cooperation deal with the Scottish Greens, such is their commitment to the Gender Recognition Reform Act.\n\nTheir contrasting approaches look set to make for an interesting contest. And that's before others join the race. Kate Forbes is expected to announce her candidacy imminently.\n\nMeanwhile Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson, with a wealth of leadership experience at Westminster, is said to be undecided.\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and high-profile MP Joanna Cherry have also said they will not run for the leadership.\n\nKate Forbes, the finance secretary, who is currently on maternity leave, has been seen as one of the favourites to replace Ms Sturgeon.\n\nIvan McKee, the minister for business, told BBC Scotland that he hoped the \"hugely talented\" Ms Forbes would put her name forward.\n\n\"In my mind she is head and shoulders ahead of all the other candidates,\" he said.\n\nHe said there was a broad range of support for Ms Forbes in the party and beyond.\n\nMr McKee added that he did not think her beliefs as a member of the Free Church of Scotland should prevent her from taking on the role.\n\n\"We're in a bad place if we are deciding that people can't stand for political office based on whatever faith they may hold,\" he said, adding that she was the only candidate whose religion or young family had been raised as an issue.\n\nNominations for the leadership contest will close at noon on Friday.\n\nA party conference scheduled for 19 March to discuss the SNP's strategy for winning Scottish independence has been postponed.", "A former police chief has said criticism of Lancashire Police's investigation over missing mother Nicola Bulley has been \"unfair\".\n\nThe force faced a backlash after saying the 45-year-old had been struggling with the menopause and alcohol before her disappearance in January.\n\nHer family said they knew beforehand that police were revealing the details.\n\nSir Peter Fahy, former chief at Greater Manchester Police, described the investigators as \"very diligent\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4 Today, he also criticised comments by some journalists about the dress and hairstyle of Det Supt Rebecca Smith, the lead detective in the case, at a police press conference on Wednesday, saying it had \"created huge anger\".\n\nThe investigation has drawn widespread interest since Ms Bulley disappeared during a riverside dog walk after dropping her two daughters at school in St Michael's on Wyre on 27 January.\n\nPolice said they believed she had gone into the river and that her disappearance was not suspicious. However, her family and friends urged people to \"keep an open mind\".\n\nThe case has attracted huge speculation about Ms Bulley's private life, which her friends described as \"incredibly hurtful\".\n\nAt a press conference on Wednesday, police said they had immediately categorised Ms Bulley as high-risk when she was reported missing due to \"specific vulnerabilities\".\n\nThey later issued information about Ms Bulley's struggles with the menopause and alcohol, saying they wanted \"to avoid any further speculation\".\n\nPoliticians - including the prime minister and home secretary - and privacy campaigners raised concerns about the police's release of private details in the public domain.\n\nLancashire Police said it would conduct an internal review into their investigation, led by its head of crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nSir Peter Fahy said comments about police investigators were \"unfair\"\n\nSir Peter said: \"It's disappointing that certain politicians have not perhaps tried to give this a more balanced view and say, yes there is a particular issue about providing personal information and that often happens in major investigations.\"\n\nHe said the release of information in investigations \"gets to the stage where it's not in the public interest\".\n\n\"Part of the difficulty for Lancashire Police is this is just one of the cases where we just do not know what's happened,\" he said.\n\n\"They have closed off a lot of possibilities through their work on mobile phone and the CCTV.\n\n\"A measure of whether a missing person's investigation has been carried out professionally is not really whether that person has been found because tragically there are many, many cases where the person is not located.\"\n\nHe said there was \"a huge feeling in policing that the way that Lancashire Police has been focused on has got to the stage of being unfair\".\n\nHe said media comments about the appearance of Det Supt Smith, who is leading the investigation, at Wednesday's press conference \"created huge anger, particularly among senior police officers, and a number of female chief constables came out yesterday absolutely to condemn that and say how unfair it was - so this is just not helpful\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The disappearance of Nicola Bulley has drawn huge scrutiny\n\nCommons Leader Penny Mordaunt has described the disclosure of private information about missing mother Nicola Bulley as \"sexist\" and \"shocking\".\n\nPolice were criticised for revealing the 45-year-old, missing since January 27, had been struggling with the menopause and alcohol issues.\n\nHer family said they knew police were revealing the details as they asked for a stop to \"appalling\" speculation.\n\nMs Mordaunt said the Lancashire force needed to face \"serious questions\".\n\nThe force released the details about Ms Bulley's health following a press conference on Wednesday, when they said they had immediately categorised her as high-risk after she was reported missing due to \"specific vulnerabilities\".\n\nThey revealed her struggles with the menopause and alcohol, saying they wanted \"to avoid any further speculation\".\n\nHer family later issued a statement, saying: \"Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her.\n\n\"This is appalling and needs to stop.\"\n\nHowever, Lancashire Police faced a backlash from politicians and privacy campaigners, with the prime minister and home secretary also raising concerns about Ms Bulley's personal details being released in the public domain.\n\nMs Mordaunt - a former women's minister - didn't hold back from criticising the actions of the force over its handling of the investigation into her disappearance.\n\nShe told my Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: \"I think that [police] clearly were motivated to try and explain why this case is a complex one.\n\n\"But I think there are serious questions to be asked about why they wanted to reveal particular information.\"\n\nShe said the revelation of health details \"really does grate with a lot of women and we have to put up with all kinds of sexist behaviour in all kinds of settings\", adding: \"And I think to have it play out in this kind of environment is why people are so upset.\"\n\nPenny Mordaunt said people were \"upset\" about the disclosure of Ms Bulley's health details\n\nLancashire Police said it would conduct an internal review into its investigation, led by its head of crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, also appearing on the programme, said she had received \"further information\" from the force after raising concerns about its disclosure of details.\n\n\"I am very worried about the nature of the social media speculation and frenzy that there has been around this case,\" she said.\n\nAsked whether there was a broader issue in how police view women and whether women could trust forces with \"deeply personal\" information, Ms Cooper said: \"There is a wider issue about the way in which the police has dealt with particularly violence against women and girls, and of course with standards around misogyny and around approaches towards violence and abuse within police forces themselves.\"\n\nRibbons have been tied to the riverside bench near where Ms Bulley disappeared\n\nSir Peter Fahy, former chief at Greater Manchester Police, said on Saturday there was \"a huge feeling in policing\" that the scrutiny of Lancashire Police was \"unfair\".\n\nHe said officers had made a \"huge degree of effort\" in tracing witnesses, CCTV footage and digital data, which \"closed off many potential theories\".\n\nHe added that it was \"disappointing that certain politicians have not perhaps tried to give this a more balanced view\".\n\nThe most acute anxieties in this case are, of course, around the importance of the investigation and finding Ms Bulley.\n\nBut the police's handling of the case has, for politicians and many members of the public, again raised concern over how sometimes women are unfairly treated by those meant to keep them safe.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "When Netflix's documentary, the Tinder Swindler, came out in February 2022, Simon Leviev's girlfriend stood by him. Now she says she felt she had no choice, because she was under his emotional control.\n\nA young blonde woman is sitting on the edge of a bed cradling her left foot with her left hand as she speaks into her phone. Some of her hair sticks to her face, which is wet from tears.\n\nYou see a cut on her heel. Her eyes are bloodshot and her face red, but her voice is clear as she gives the person on the other end of the phone line directions to the apartment. In front of her, an open and packed suitcase lies on the floor.\n\nWe are watching a video filmed on a phone from the night of 29 March 2022. The man filming the video raises his voice to say: \"It's bullshit! Nothing's happened to her!\"\n\nThe man is Simon Leviev, the convicted con artist and subject of the Netflix documentary, The Tinder Swindler. The woman is 23-year-old Israeli model Kate Konlin, who was then his girlfriend.\n\nLeviev sent the video to the BBC with other videos and documents about their relationship.\n\n\"She lies and she lies,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Of course he'd call me a liar,\" Kate Konlin tells the BBC.\n\n\"He's called every woman who has spoken out against him a liar. He doesn't want me to tell my story of emotional abuse.\"\n\n\"Kate, he's too perfect,\" she recalls them gushing, \"it's even a little scary.\"\n\nShimon Heyada Hayut (who legally changed his name to Simon Leviev), slipped into her Instagram DMs in 2020, and within weeks they were together.\n\n\"At first, our relationship was a love bomb,\" Ms Konlin tells the BBC. \"He was obsessed with me.\"\n\nLeviev accompanied her to modelling shoots and waited while she worked. He cleaned her home and sent her long and loving voicenotes.\n\nIt was intense but as a 23-year-old, it was what she thought love should be, she says.\n\nBut after a while, the fights started.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Konlin: 'This is not the classic Tinder Swindler story about losing money'\n\nMs Konlin says that when he criticised her appearance, clothes, her weight and her skin (she experiences bouts of acne), she began to lose confidence. She wasn't sure what he would say next.\n\n\"I felt I was walking on eggshells,\" she says.\n\nShe saw her friends less and less during the 18 months they were together, and when she did they said she was no longer the lively, colourful and sociable person they had once known.\n\n\"They said I was 'grey',\" she says, looking down at her hands.\n\nAfter a few months, Leviev began to ask for money, borrowing thousands of dollars at a time, up to a total, Ms Konlin says, of $150,000. She was already an international model who had been on the cover of Vogue Japan, Grazia Italy and Wallpaper magazine in the UK. She was financially secure and she says he knew it.\n\nMs Konlin has sent the BBC more than a dozen of Leviev's voicenotes. He often shouts, and asks for loans saying that his own money is tied up in investments.\n\nIn one, he shouts as he explains why he cannot pay her back: \"Kate, I'm a millionaire! And that's a fact. At the moment, I'm stuck. Understand? I'm stuck! Do you understand that in your screwed-up brain? That bird brain of yours. I'm stuck, Kate. I didn't steal from you. You gave it to me of your own free will. You lent it to me. I'm stuck, that's all.\"\n\nDespite his convictions, Simon Leviev has thousands of followers on social media\n\nThe Tinder Swindler, which became Netflix's most-watched documentary in 90 countries when it was released in February 2022, alleged that Simon Leviev had conned women he met on the Tinder dating app out of about $10m. He denies the allegations.\n\nMs Konlin says she watched it while sitting next to him on the sofa.\n\n\"I knew it was all true,\" she says.\n\nBut she says she felt obliged to accept his version of events. According to her, it was a controlling relationship, and it was easy for him to persuade her to defend him publicly, for example on US news show Inside Edition.\n\n\"He told me, 'If you stick up for me, people will believe me, because you are a woman.'\"\n\nAt the same time, her Instagram inbox filled with abuse sent by people who had seen shots of her at the end of the Tinder Swindler.\n\n\"People told me they wished that I would get cancer or be run over by a car, and that I deserved the worst of everything because I was in a relationship with him,\" Ms Konlin says.\n\nThe arguments between the couple intensified and on 29 March everything came to a head.\n\n\"I said, 'That's it, I'm leaving. I can't take it any more.' I started packing my stuff,\" she says.\n\nMs Konlin says the argument turned physical. She says he pushed her and she cut her foot on a step with a rough edge.\n\n\"I was bleeding. I felt dead. I wanted to kill myself,\" she says.\n\nThis brought the fight to a halt. It was then that Leviev filmed Ms Konlin as she called an ambulance, and shouted out that nothing had happened to her.\n\nAfter going to hospital, she filed a complaint against Leviev with the police.\n\nMs Konlin says her confidence was undermined by Leviev's criticisms\n\nWhen we asked Leviev to respond, he sent us nine emails within 45 minutes, and two more direct messages on the video-sharing app, Cameo, in the days that followed.\n\nThere were many screenshots of WhatsApp messages and a video which shows Ms Konlin shouting and grabbing him.\n\nLeviev says he has never physically harmed any woman.\n\nJaney Starling, a campaigner against domestic abuse, says the picture Ms Konlin paints of her relationship with Leviev follows a familiar pattern.\n\n\"Coercive control is something that happens on a daily basis and is very mundane. It's very small. It flies under the radar,\" she says.\n\n\"A lot of abusive men have never been physically violent to their partners… but they have been intensely controlling, intensely critical, belittling, and making threats.\n\n\"It's a bit of a red herring to look for physical violence as the ultimate determination of whether an abusive relationship is abusive.\"\n\nWe put to Leviev several allegations Ms Konlin made about his behaviour, including that he had coercively controlled her, and he said she was lying.\n\nDespite being a convicted con artist, Leviev has thousands of followers on social media. He continues to post videos of himself driving expensive cars, and spending time with beautiful women. In some videos people ask for photographs with him, as if he were a celebrity. He charges £82 ($100) for a personalised video message and £165 for a call.\n\n\"We are seeing a glamorisation of a hyper-masculine anti-woman mindset and lifestyle, and it is being peddled to the most susceptible, most impressionable people, especially young men in their pre-teen years,\" says Jessica Reaves, editorial director of the ADL's Center on Extremism.\n\n\"It's incredibly dangerous because what you're saying is, 'You can have this lifestyle too and also, by the way, part and parcel of this is dehumanising, or generally hating women'.\"\n\nWe asked Leviev if he accepted this description of his posts on social media and he didn't respond.\n\nToday, Ms Konlin laughs that she is perhaps one of the only models in the world who is happy to have gained weight - she says she was underweight from stress during her time with Leviev.\n\nAfter almost a year without offers of work following the release of The Tinder Swindler, her modelling career has taken off again. She now wants to tell young women what an unhappy and controlling relationship can look like from the inside.\n\n\"If a woman who is in the same situation sees what I experienced and how I got out, and that today I am stronger and more beautiful than when I was with him, she will hopefully see that she can also leave.\"\n\nIf you have been affected by issues in this story, you can find sources of support on the BBC Action Line", "Rhod Gilbert: \"I am feeling optimistic and weirdly feeling really happy and really positive\"\n\nComedian Rhod Gilbert said he is \"coming back\" to his former self after undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer.\n\nHe announced in July that he had stage four cancer and was being treated at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, where he has been a fundraising patron.\n\nThe 54-year-old from Carmarthen said his big recovery goal was leading a fundraising trek to Morocco in October.\n\nBut he admitted he was \"a little way off that at the moment\".\n\nIn a pre-recorded video message for Channel 4's The National Comedy Awards for Stand Up To Cancer, he explained how the cancer centre had been a \"big part\" of his life as a patron for 10 years.\n\n\"So imagine my surprise when I was diagnosed with cancer... because I thought I'd have lifelong immunity,\" he joked.\n\nHe said he was in Cuba on a fundraising trek when he noticed a lump in his neck.\n\nGilbert hopes to be able to join fundraisers trekking in the Atlas Mountains in October\n\n\"I had a sore throat and I couldn't speak and I couldn't breathe and I was postponing and cancelling tour shows and I had terrible spasms in my face and a lot of tightness in the muscles,\" he said.\n\n\"It turns out after a biopsy of this lump in my neck that I have something called head and neck cancer. Cancer of the head sounded pretty serious.\n\n\"So before I knew it, I was having surgery. I was in daily sessions of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.\"\n\nHe described his treatment as \"faultless\" and said he was \"coming back\" to his former self as his facial hair was growing back, his voice was back to normal and he was regaining weight.\n\nHis recovery goal was to lead the cancer centre's fundraising trek to Mount Toubkal, in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, the highest point in North Africa, in October, Gilbert added.\n\n\"I'm a little way off that at the moment, but I am feeling optimistic and weirdly feeling really happy and really positive,\" he said.\n\nIn December, Gilbert postponed a string of live shows after being told he needed additional surgery due to gallstones and recurring gallbladder infections that \"kick like a donkey\".", "Mehmet Severoğlu has been a tour guide in Antakya for 20 years\n\nWeaving around fallen slabs of concrete, we make our way deeper into the heart of Antakya, the capital of Turkey's Hatay Province. The city's roads are filled with diggers and rescue workers in hard hats, Turkish military and police.\n\nOur guide, Mehmet Severoğlu, has been a tour guide for 20 years since he retired as an electrical engineer. He has explained the history of Antakya to thousands of tourists, and this is his first time back into the city since the earthquake nearly two weeks ago.\n\n\"Antakya is a place where I find my soul,\" he tells us. \"It is a city with so many different ethnicities, different religions and they all live in tolerance here.\n\n\"It is multicultural, multilingual - tourists enjoy this area a lot. So did I.\"\n\nAntakya, known in Roman and medieval times as Antioch, is an ancient city. Founded in 300 BC, it was a regional capital for the Roman Empire. It was also one of the earliest centres of Christianity and important for both Judaism and Islam.\n\nBut the city is almost unrecognisable. We park next to the region's government office, where the building's clock has stopped at 04:34, which was the time just a few minutes after the earthquake hit on the morning of 6 February.\n\nWe walk past a pile of white stones and black steel ornate gates, the city's Protestant Church. Turning left, we pass a hotel, built when Antakya was under French mandate after World War One. Its stonework is smashed, ripped open to the elements.\n\n\"I cant recognise where I am,\" he says, trying to orientate himself. Almost all his usual points of reference have been destroyed. We try one street, then another, clambering over smashed terracotta roof tiles, splintered wood and bent metal supports.\n\nEach time we climb one pile, the next is even higher, until we can't get much further safely. Above us, the contents of homes bulge precariously - beds, chairs, bricks, door frames, bursting through walls and window frames. They're what remain of the lives that were lived here.\n\nMehmet does recognise one spot from his tours, covered in cement dust, its sign hanging.\n\n\"This store used to serve hummus for 150 years, the best hummus place in Antakya,\" he says. \"When we brought our groups to this place, they would welcome us with hot plates. Now I don't think it will ever be back.\"\n\nI ask him if he knows what happened to the people who ran the shop.\n\n\"Two have left [Antakya], but I have no idea about the rest.\" He pauses, his voice starting to choke. \"Very sad.\"\n\nWe find the remains of the Greek Orthodox Church by spotting its bell, which is now lying on its side at the top of a 3m-high (9ft 8in) pile of bricks. The bell tower it stood in is now dust. Using a drone, we can see the remains of its ornate arches, but the rest of the building is gone.\n\nThe church and bell tower before the quake\n\nThe church after the quake, its bell tower destroyed\n\nWe head to Antakya's synagogue: what would normally be a five-minute walk now requires a 10-minute drive around the few roads that have been cleared.\n\nThe doors are locked, but Mehmet tells us the small community were able to rescue their holy books and flee. He makes a phone call to one of his friends whose restaurant looks to be still standing. When his friend picks up, Mehmet is visibly relieved.\n\n\"I am glad to hear your voice,\" he says. \"I am afraid to call people because I don't know whether they are dead or alive.\"\n\nHis friend tells him that his family has survived, but that his business partner and their entire family were killed.\n\nAntakya's market is empty, except for a few shop owners trying to clear their stores. We see one man weeping outside a butcher's shop where his nephew worked.\n\n\"Our dear one has gone,\" he says. \"The world has ended for me.\"\n\nAn Antakya market before the earthquake\n\nOur final visit is to Habibi Neccar, one of the first mosques in the region of Hatay.\n\n\"This mosque's story is the same as Hatay's history,\" says Mehmet. \"So many civilisations have been and gone here.\n\n\"It is known that seven big earthquakes have been recorded through history here. It is not the first time that Hatay has been destroyed, but each time we have rebuilt. We will be reborn again.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rescuers use specialist cameras to free Irem And Merve from the rubble of their building in Antakya", "Half term in February. Kids bored at home. MPs away from Westminster. Not much is meant to happen, right?\n\nBlink and you would have missed it, but these quiet winter days, according to one government minister, witnessed a \"draw-the-line moment where a new chapter opens\".\n\nOne veteran political campaigner reckons we have just lived through the week \"that changes the next election\".\n\nWhy? Well, in the same few days, Nicola Sturgeon quit. Keir Starmer told Jeremy Corbyn in plain terms that he couldn't run again as a Labour MP. And a Conservative Prime Minister edged close to resolving the tangle over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the last vestige of the long-running arguments over Brexit.\n\nThe first minister's presence in UK politics, Jeremy Corbyn's shadow over Keir Starmer's leadership and the Conservatives' fraught conversations over Northern Ireland have been fixtures of our politics for years.\n\nThe combined effect of removing those three factors could be immense. But, as ever in politics, beware pundits making grand assertions - so let's take each issue in turn.\n\nJust a few weeks ago, Nicola Sturgeon told us she had \"plenty in the tank\". But after a huge controversy over gender rights that left the consummate professional struggling to get her words straight, that fuel ran dry.\n\nThe specific timing of her exit was a shock, but it has been clear for some time that the first minister felt she was edging towards the exit. That is why it was worth asking her how long she intended to serve when we sat down with her.\n\nHer departure matters hugely. Many in the SNP felt \"gutted\", as one of her colleagues wrote.\n\nBut there was glee at the news elsewhere. One minister told me they \"punched the air\" when they heard.\n\nFor all her unrivalled success in elections, Nicola Sturgeon had become someone who divided the public, too. Just as there was a group of well-wishers outside her official residence in Edinburgh as she left, there was a different group who held a celebratory conga in Glasgow's George Square.\n\nNow the political impact is being pored over. Labour sources are pointing already to polls that show them edging closer to the SNP. One insider calls it a \"massive game-changer\", which puts Labour closer to gaining a majority at the next general election.\n\nIt is not unreasonable to assume that without their formidable and seasoned leader, without a settled strategy on independence, the SNP will be an easier opponent.\n\nIt's also not daft for Conservatives to imagine that the SNP's push towards independence could be a lot easier to resist when its most formidable voice has left the stage. An independent Scotland without Nicola Sturgeon? Imagine Brexit without Boris Johnson - a very, very different campaign.\n\nAnd when it comes to managing relationships between Holyrood and Westminster, with a highly experienced and wily politician out of the way there is perhaps less chance of the UK government ending up in knots.\n\nBut wise heads on the unionist and SNP sides caution at jumping to dramatic conclusions. The SNP's dominance in Scottish politics is profound.\n\nThe Scottish public is more or less evenly split on the question of becoming an independent country one day and that has been the case for years. Labour right now has a measly one Scottish MP in Westminster.\n\nAnd while the SNP does not have an immediately obvious compelling successor with a massive presence, that is not to say that a real talent could not emerge. And don't forget, the Conservatives have for years played up Nicola Sturgeon as a political bogeywoman. That campaign trick could lose its power.\n\nOne minister told me: \"The threat of Sturgeon is what kept us unionists together.\" With her exit, how will they respond?\n\nThere's no question overall that her departure has shifted the dial. But a shadow cabinet minister carefully says \"it's an opportunity\" rather than an assumption that the seats will automatically turn red again - Scotland was once Labour's heartland, but that was a very, very long time ago.\n\nWhat has mattered, too, for the party's leadership this week was Keir Starmer making clear that Jeremy Corbyn will not stand again as a Labour MP. In a way, like Nicola Sturgeon's departure, this has been coming for a while, but the choosing of a moment is significant.\n\nFor Keir Starmer's team, it is another step on the road to show, with every sinew, that the party has changed since its calamitous defeat in 2019.\n\nIt has been a slow and painful process. There are very public tensions with the left wing of the party, not just because of Jeremy Corbyn's exclusion, but also because Keir Starmer has ditched some of the promises he made when he ran to be leader.\n\nBut as ever in politics, private fights inside political parties can be put to public use. Cynics might even suggest (surely not) sometimes they are picked on purpose.\n\nKeir Starmer obviously feels strongly and genuinely that ridding the Labour Party of antisemitism was vital, that it was a shameful episode in the party's history, and the public verdict that the party had changed was essential. (You can read more about the latest report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission here.) He also obviously feels that it is impossible for Jeremy Corbyn to represent Labour again.\n\nMr Starmer's decision closes down the possibility that Jeremy Corbyn could be back on the party's benches again. (That doesn't mean, however, that he and his supporters still won't try to make it happen).\n\nCrossing the former leader's name off the list can't make the issue completely disappear. One Labour insider said: \"Starmer is working hard on this because it is still a problem - the fact that he is talking about Corbyn and making it a priority shows it is still an issue.\"\n\nNonetheless, the decision this week is an important symbol, as Keir Starmer moves his party on.\n\nWhat about the prime minister's effort, then, to end a saga of many years and thousands of column inches? Is Rishi Sunak really on the verge of changing the landscape, too?\n\nThis weekend he is in what Number 10 believes could be the closing stages of tortuous negotiations with Brussels to make the Northern Ireland Protocol work - that's the special deal that was worked out as we left the EU to avoid having a hard border on the island of Ireland. To the horror of some unionists, it meant that Northern Ireland is treated differently to the rest of the UK. You can read more about this weekend's talks here.\n\nThere are the classic advance grumblings and warnings from the Brexiteer ranks of the Conservative Party, and the Northern Irish DUP, that if the deal isn't good enough, they won't back it, and ultimately the stalemate could just drag on.\n\nBut a deal seems much closer than it has at any previous point. With an agreement possible in the next couple of days, a vote has been pencilled in for Tuesday to approve the package. If it gets that far, Rishi Sunak just might be about to end an argument that plagued his party for years.\n\nIt's not that Tory backbenchers were ever particularly concerned about sending British sausages to Northern Ireland - it's that the row over the protocol became the totem for the bitter hangover of the Brexit years.\n\nDowning Street is unlikely to be able to push a deal through without a political rumpus, alongside janglings of nerves that Boris Johnson could pile in too.\n\nBut if the deal gets done, and the prime minister gets it through Parliament, a Tory source says it would \"show he's a serious guy who can get stuff done and he'll get credit for that\".\n\nOne loyal minister suggests it would be a major win if Mr Sunak can \"take on\" the right of his party - the \"difficult wing\", they call them.\n\nWith legislation on small boats expected in the next couple of weeks too, the hope in loyal Conservative quarters is that slowly, carefully, the party will re-earn the right to be heard.\n\nThis is politics, though. It's also entirely possible that Rishi Sunak is about to provoke an almighty row - with the DUP furious, some of his backbenches cross too and his authority under pressure.\n\nBut this is not 2019 anymore - the potency of attacks from the most ardent Brexiteers has faded, not least because some of them are in Rishi Sunak's government, and some of the others are spending a lot of time in TV studios.\n\nThere are then, three really important ways in which our politics has been shifting.\n\nThe ideas that Scotland will suddenly stop arguing about the constitution, Labour's factions will cease fighting or the Tories won't wind each other up about Europe any more are crackers.\n\nThe notion, too, that somehow the outcome of the next election has just been decided is daft.\n\nBut this is a moment of transition - the fixings of much of the last few years of politics have come loose.", "Dr John Pike was found after two nights on the open hillside above Loch Coruisk\n\nA 61-year-old hillwalker who went missing during Storm Otto has been found \"cold but alert\" after two nights on the mountains in Skye.\n\nDr John Pike, who had suffered a broken hip on Thursday, was found by mountain rescue teams on Saturday.\n\nSkye Mountain Rescue Team said there was \"huge relief\" when Dr Pike, from Bristol, was found near Loch Coruisk.\n\nHe had endured a storm that brought winds of 95mph [152km/hr], sub zero temperatures and snowfall.\n\nDr Pike was reported missing on Thursday having been last seen in Portree at about 08:30 that day.\n\nHis silver Toyota Prius car was found parked at Sligachan Hotel on Friday morning.\n\nMore than 50 rescuers were involved in the search, including mountain rescue teams from Kintail, RAF Lossiemouth, North Police, along with Search and Rescue Dog Association Southern Scotland, Coastguard teams and Mallaig Lifeboat.\n\nThey worked through Storm Otto on Friday, the first named storm to hit the UK since Franklin last February.\n\nDr Pike was missing in the Skye mountains for two nights\n\nA statement from Skye MRT published on Saturday said: \"Dr Pike, who had become immobilised after suffering a lower leg injury on Thursday, had endured two nights on the open hillside above Loch Coruisk.\n\n\"On Thursday night, a wind speed of 95mph was recorded nearby during Storm Otto.\n\n\"Last night temperatures plummeted, and there was fresh snow on the hills. So it was with huge relief that we found him cold, but alert around 10:30.\"\n\nThe statement added: \"We would like to wish Dr Pike a speedy recovery and thank everyone involved in the search and rescue.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police have cordoned off the area where a man was arrested outside Yorkshire Building Society\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman who died after a suspected knife attack in a park.\n\nThe woman, aged 74, was attacked in Ludwell Valley Park, in Wonford, Exeter, on Saturday, Devon and Cornwall Police said.\n\nOfficers were called at about 16:00 GMT and emergency services attended but the local woman died at the scene.\n\nA man in his 30s from the Exmouth area was arrested by armed police on Exeter High Street just after 21:30 GMT.\n\nPolice were called to Ludwell Valley Park on Saturday\n\nPolice said in a statement that they did not know the motive for the attack and they did not believe the suspect or woman knew each other.\n\nOfficers believe they may have located the knife thought to have been used in the attack.\n\nCh Supt Dan Evans said they were not looking for anyone else and the suspect remained in custody.\n\n\"I would like to reassure people that this is an isolated incident,\" he said.\n\n\"Whilst this type of incident is very rare, Wonford is a very close community and I know the death will be felt deeply by all who live in the area.\n\n\"My thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the victim at this tragic time.\"\n\nPolice have appealed for anyone with information to contact them.\n\nThe force has created a Major Incident Public Reporting page to allow people who may have information to send files such as doorbell, CCTV and dashcam footage.\n\nDet Sgt Darren Campbell from the Major Crime Team said: \"There are still large parts of the day that we need to account for, both pre and post the attack.\n\n\"We are asking for anyone who has CCTV, doorbell, phone footage or dashcam of the area that could be of interest to the investigative team, to please submit this via the MIPP.\n\n\"You can also report any information that you may have in relation to this murder, not solely footage.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: US Vice-President Kamala Harris says those involved in atrocities \"will be held to account\"\n\nThe US has \"formally determined\" that Russia had committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine, US Vice-President Kamala Harris has said.\n\nSpeaking at the Munich Security Conference, Ms Harris accused Russia of \"gruesome acts of murder, torture, rape and deportation\" since its invasion.\n\nMoscow's ambassador to the US rejected the claims and accused Ms Harris of trying to \"demonise Russia\".\n\nWorld leaders at the conference called for long-term support of Ukraine.\n\nUK PM Rishi Sunak said now was the time to \"double down\" on military support.\n\nThe prime minister argued that Western allies must start planning for the future security of Ukraine, as well as sending the weapons it needs to defend itself now.\n\nThe conference in Germany comes as the one-year anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches on 24 February.\n\nMs Harris told delegates that the perpetrators of alleged Russian crimes in Ukraine must be held to account.\n\n\"Their actions are an assault on our common values and our common humanity,\" she said.\n\nThe UN defines crimes against humanity as a \"widespread or systemic attack\" on a particular civilian population.\n\nMoscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians during its invasion.\n\nAnatoly Antonov, Russia's ambassador to the US, said the vice-president's claims were a cynical attempt to \"demonise Russia in the course of a hybrid war\".\n\nThey were a way of \"justifying Washington's own actions to fuel the Ukrainian crisis\", he added, referring to the US supply of arms to Kyiv.\n\nBut Ms Harris, a former prosecutor, was adamant that \"in the case of Russia's actions in Ukraine we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity\".\n\nShe cited \"barbaric and inhumane\" atrocities committed during the war in Ukraine, including the scores of bodies found in Bucha shortly after the invasion and the bombing of a theatre in Mariupol.\n\n\"Let us all agree: on behalf of all the victims, both known and unknown, justice must be served,\" Ms Harris said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCrimes against humanity are tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC).\n\nBut the ICC has no powers to arrest suspects and can only exercise jurisdiction within countries which signed up to the agreement that set up the court.\n\nRussia is not a signatory to that agreement, so it is unlikely to extradite any suspects.\n\nThe three-day gathering in Munich will provide a key test of Western support for Kyiv as both sides in the war prepare for spring offensives.\n\nUkraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Moscow had \"waged a genocidal war\" because it did not think Ukrainians \"deserve to exist as a sovereign nation\".\n\nTens of thousands have lost their lives and millions have been forced from their homes as part of Vladimir Putin's invasion.\n\nThis conference has largely been a gathering of American and European leaders. It's a chance for them to reaffirm their support for Ukraine and demonstrate their resolve.\n\nRishi Sunak called for a new Nato charter to guarantee Ukraine's long-term security. Kamala Harris formally accused Russia of committing crimes against humanity.\n\nBut in the margins, there have been voices of doubt.\n\nTake the prime minister of Namibia, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila. She opposed sending more arms to Ukraine and called for a peaceful resolution to the war. Her country, she said, had suffered recession, rising prices and disrupted supply chains.\n\nIt's opinions like that, widely held cross Africa, Asia and South America, that are concentrating transatlantic minds.\n\nThere is realisation among Western policymakers that almost one year after Russia's invasion, they need to remake the case for defending Ukraine.\n\nRussia was also on the agenda during a meeting on Saturday between the Antony Blinken and Wang Yi, the US and China's top foreign policy officials.\n\nDuring talks at the conference in Munich, Mr Blinken warned of consequences if China were to provide material support to Russia's invasion.\n\nMr Blinken is expected to suggest China is \"at least contemplating providing\" lethal assistance to Russia in an interview to be aired on Sunday morning on NBC News.", "The coronation music has been the personal choice of King Charles\n\nThe coronation service of King Charles will have 12 newly-commissioned pieces of music, including a composition by Andrew Lloyd Webber.\n\nThe King has personally chosen the music for the ceremony at Westminster Abbey on 6 May.\n\nLord Lloyd-Webber said he wanted his new coronation anthem to reflect a \"joyful occasion\".\n\nA gospel choir will sing and there will be Greek Orthodox music in memory of the King's father, Prince Philip.\n\nThe music will have a traditional tone with pieces from classical composers such as William Byrd, George Handel and Sir Edward Elgar.\n\nBut there has been a coronation theme of combining the modern with the ancient - and new music has been commissioned.\n\nThis includes a coronation march from Patrick Doyle, who has previously written a different kind of royal music, with the award-winning soundtrack for Sir Kenneth Branagh's movie version of Shakespeare's Henry V.\n\nIt still remains uncertain who will be invited to listen to the music in person - in particular, whether Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will be in the congregation.\n\nComposer Andrew Lloyd Webber took part in the Platinum Jubilee concert last year\n\nBeing crowned alongside the King will be Camilla, the Queen Consort, who earlier this week tested positive for Covid.\n\nHowever, suggesting she was recovering, the 75-year-old Queen Consort is scheduled to be back carrying out engagements next week.\n\nCamilla has avoided sensitivities about the crown she will be wearing, with the announcement last week that it would not include the Koh-i-Noor diamond, whose ownership has been disputed.\n\nThe new coronation music will include six pieces for orchestra, five choral works and a piece for the organ.\n\nLord Lloyd-Webber is writing an anthem based on the Biblical text of Psalm 98, that begins: \"O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things.\"\n\nThe composer and theatre owner, aged 74 like the King, has had a long career writing popular musicals, such as The Phantom of the Opera and Cats.\n\nLord Lloyd-Webber, who retired from the House of Lords in 2017, has campaigned to support music and the arts.\n\nThe Queen Consort is expected to be back carrying out engagements next week, after testing positive for Covid last week\n\nThe other composers chosen by the King to write new music are Iain Farrington, Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Paul Mealor, Tarik O'Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Shirley J. Thompson, Judith Weir, Roderick Williams and Debbie Wiseman.\n\nThere will be a \"coronation orchestra\" assembled and soloists will include Welsh opera singer Sir Bryn Terfel.\n\nPart of the service will be sung in Welsh and Sir John Eliot Gardiner will conduct a programme of choral music.\n\nAt the moment when the King is acclaimed, the Latin call \"Vivat\" will be sung by choristers from Westminster School, as it has been for previous coronations, including the late Queen in 1953.\n\nThe coronation service will be held at Westminster Abbey, which last September heard new music commissioned for her funeral.\n\nSome of that music had been commissioned from composers many years before, including Sir James MacMillan, who had been asked in 2011 to secretly write a piece of choral music.\n\nUnable to attend rehearsals, the first time the composer ever heard the piece sung was watching the historic funeral on television.\n\nAs well as music at King Charles' coronation, there will be a concert the following evening at Windsor Castle, which promises to include world-famous headline acts.\n\nWhat we know about the Coronation weekend so far:\n\nSunday 7 May: Concert and lightshow at Windsor Castle; Coronation Big Lunch street parties\n\nMonday 8 May: Extra bank holiday; Big Help Out encouraging people to get involved in local volunteering", "Mr Macron told French regional media that Russia's leader had \"isolated himself\"\n\nUkraine's foreign minister has hit out at French President Emmanuel Macron after he said it was vital that Russia was not humiliated over its invasion.\n\nMr Macron said it was crucial President Vladimir Putin had a way out of what he called a \"fundamental error\".\n\nBut Dmytro Kuleba said allies should \"better focus on how to put Russia in its place\" as it \"humiliates itself\".\n\nMr Macron has repeatedly spoken to Mr Putin by phone in an effort to broker a ceasefire and negotiations.\n\nThe French attempts to maintain a dialogue with the Kremlin leader contrast with the US and UK positions.\n\nForeign minister Kuleba said in a tweet that \"calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it\".\n\nKyiv says Russia must not get territorial concessions from Ukraine, as the Russian invasion has been condemned internationally as brutal aggression.\n\nEarlier, Mr Macron told French regional media that Russia's leader had \"isolated himself\".\n\n\"I think, and I told him, that he made a historic and fundamental error for his people, for himself and for history,\" he said.\n\n\"Isolating oneself is one thing, but being able to get out of it is a difficult path,\" he added.\n\nItaly's Prime Minister Mario Draghi has aligned himself with Mr Macron, suggesting Europe wants \"some credible negotiations\".\n\nThe eastern city of Severodonetsk remains the epicentre of fighting in Ukraine, with Ukrainian forces fiercely resisting Russian tanks, infantry and intense artillery barrages.\n\nCapturing the city would deliver the Luhansk region to Russian forces and their local separatist allies, who also control much of neighbouring Donetsk region.\n\nIn Soledar, not far from Severodonetsk, a woman sits in her wrecked apartment after a missile strike\n\nThe region's Ukrainian governor Serhiy Haidai said his forces had reclaimed about a fifth of Severodonetsk and could hold on.\n\n\"As soon as we have enough Western long-range weapons, we will push their artillery away from our positions. And then, believe me, the Russian infantry, they will just run,\" he said.\n\nThe US plans to give Kyiv's forces precision rocket systems, so that they can hit Russian positions from a longer range. The UK will also send them a number of large multiple-rocket batteries.\n\nFacing Severodonetsk across the Siverskyi Donets river lies Lysychansk. Both cities are strategically important for Russia: Severodonetsk has the giant Azot chemical plant, which produces nitrogen-based fertilisers, and Lysychansk has Ukraine's second biggest oil refinery.\n\nThe fighting has now left most of Severodonetsk in ruins, but thousands of civilians are still sheltering in basements there.\n\nGovernor Haidai said Russian forces were blowing up bridges on the river to prevent Ukraine bringing in military reinforcements and delivering aid to civilians.", "Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke at the event in support of refugees\n\nHundreds of people attended a rally in support of refugees following violence outside a Merseyside hotel housing asylum seekers a week ago.\n\nLiverpool mayor Joanne Anderson and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joined the event, saying they wanted to \"stand up for refugees\".\n\nA small group also gathered in the city centre to protest about local placements of asylum seekers.\n\nPolice struggled to keep both sides apart during confrontations.\n\nThe demonstrations took place after protests turned violent outside a hotel accommodating asylum seekers in Kirkby on 10 February.\n\nOne man was charged and 14 other people were arrested after a police officer and two members of the public were hurt when missiles including lit fireworks were thrown.\n\nA police van was set on fire after a protest turned violent in Kirkby\n\nThe initial protest had been triggered by an allegation that a man had made inappropriate advances to a local teenage girl.\n\nA man was arrested and released but is no longer living in Merseyside, police said.\n\nOfficers said the Knowsley protest and counter-demonstration had been \"peaceful\" before a group of people arrived who were \"only interested in causing trouble\".\n\nSome of the asylum seekers staying at the hotel said they were afraid after the violence.\n\nHowever, one woman told BBC North West Tonight that she attended the initial protest over concerns for youngsters' safety and did not believe it was racially-motivated.\n\nAnother small protest was held outside the hotel on Friday night despite a police dispersal order against anti-social behaviour.\n\nFollowing Saturday's rally in Liverpool, Mr Corbyn tweeted: \"We will not let the far-right divide us.\"\n\nOne speaker said Liverpool has been \"bringing in people from around the world for as long as we've been a city and we cannot forget our roots\", while another said the city's accent was a result of migration.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "New images have been released of actor Mackenzie Crook's missing sister-in-law who police say they are concerned for as she is \"very vulnerable\".\n\nLaurel Aldridge, 62, who was undergoing chemotherapy, left home in Walberton, near Arundel, on Tuesday morning and has not been seen since.\n\nNew images show her on the morning she disappeared wearing a turquoise fleece, maroon tartan scarf and brown hat.\n\nPirates of the Caribbean and The Office star Crook has joined the search party.\n\nMs Aldridge has been missing since 14 February\n\nHe has appealed for local people to check their properties and sheds.\n\nCrook, 51, originally from Dartford, Kent, told BBC Sussex on Friday he believed his sister-in-law - who has missed a chemotherapy session - was still in the Walberton area.\n\nMackenzie Crook is urging locals to check in their gardens, bins and garages\n\nPolice said Ms Aldridge also had a grey puffer jacket with her when she left home on Tuesday.\n\nShe is described as being about 5ft 4in tall with grey or blonde-highlighted hair and police said she sometimes wears glasses.\n\nMs Aldridge is also thought to have left the house with a grey puffer jacket\n\nDet Sgt Alan Fenn said: \"We would like to thank the public for the information which has been provided to us thus far. Our officers are pursuing multiple lines of enquiry and are determined to find Laurel.\n\n\"We would be grateful if residents in the Walberton and Slindon areas could check their outbuildings for any sightings of Laurel.\n\n\"Also, anyone who was in the Walberton area on Tuesday morning or has video footage of someone matching Laurel's description is asked to report it to us.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has a tough call to make on whether to support or reject a deal on the protocol\n\nNegotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol have been painful and protracted but at last we have reached the moment of truth.\n\nTo quote Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the \"big moment\" has arrived and the next decision by London and Brussels will have profound consequences.\n\nHe warned it could \"consign Northern Ireland to more division\" or clear a path \"towards healing and the restoration\" of the political institutions at Stormont.\n\nIt is also a big moment for the DUP leader.\n\nHis next decision could have equally profound consequences for the next generation.\n\nIt could set us on a path to reset power-sharing at Stormont or leave Northern Ireland drifting into the political wilderness with no route back to devolution.\n\nIf the past 48 hours have been crucial in preparing the ground for a breakthrough, the next 48 hours will be critical in sealing it.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak's late-night dash to Northern Ireland on Thursday injected some new momentum.\n\nIt was a visit cloaked in secrecy.\n\nThere was no advance warning to the media, something that is usually given ahead of prime ministerial visits.\n\nInstead the visit was rumbled by an eagle-eyed journalist who was using the leisure facilities in the Culloden Hotel.\n\nRishi Sunak made a quick exit from the Culloden early on Friday afternoon\n\nThe sudden heavy police presence was the first clue.\n\nThe appearance of Northern Ireland Office staff in the lobby then gave the game away.\n\nThe prime minister was on his way.\n\nThe Culloden in Cultra, County Down, has become the venue of choice for such visits due to its close proximity to Belfast City Airport.\n\nWithin half an hour of the BBC reporting the surprise visit, Downing Street confirmed it.\n\nBut the statement failed to mention the DUP welcoming party.\n\nIt arrived later, led by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, for a late-night negotiation with the prime minister and his officials.\n\nIt lasted until after 02:00 GMT on Friday.\n\nFeeling the need to provide some political cover and anticipating a political backlash, meetings were hastily organised with the other party leaders.\n\nThey were organised so quickly that emails were sent to the wrong addresses.\n\nSo as not to get in the way of the real negotiation the other party leaders were each allocated 15-minute slots with the prime minister.\n\nJust enough time for a handshake, a selfie and a quick positive progress report.\n\nMany unionists oppose the protocol but a majority of Stormont politicians support it in some form\n\nThen it was back to business and more discussions with the DUP.\n\nThe talks mostly involved Downing Street officials shuttling back and forth, exchanging views and then some more face-to-face time with Rishi Sunak.\n\nWhile the other party leaders were not shown any details of the UK-EU technical agreement, which has been sitting on the prime minister's desk for a fortnight, it is clear that some details were shared with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his team.\n\nAlthough the DUP leader insisted afterwards that he wasn't shown the text of a \"final deal\", he was shown enough text of a deal in progress to sustain hours of negotiation.\n\nThat allowed him to tell reporters afterwards that progress had been made on \"important issues\".\n\nHe was also able to point to legislation coming in both London and Brussels that may be useful in allowing the DUP to argue that the protocol as it previously existed had been ditched.\n\nLegislation will also allow the Tory Brexiteer MPs in the European Research Group to flex their muscles and make life uncomfortable for the prime minster.\n\nFurthermore if a deal is announced next week the DUP will be able to reserve judgement until it studies the text and small print of any planned legislation.\n\nThe very fact the DUP leader read from a prepared statement during his post-meeting press conference was telling.\n\nThat is not the Sir Jeffrey Donaldson way.\n\nIt was carefully crafted to get the right message and the right detail out.\n\nNot just to London and Brussels after a night of negotiation but also to the DUP base who, like the press pack, will have noted a change in tone from the party leader.\n\nThis was a more upbeat assessment, talking about progress being made while also laying down a challenge to Brussels to move even further.\n\nIt was the tightest of tightropes for the DUP leader.\n\nWill Ursula von der Leyen and the EU be open to further compromise?\n\nThe fact that the prime minister slipped away through a back door without facing the press was also telling.\n\nInstead he opted for the safer option of a tightly-managed interview in London without any challenge or scrutiny of his negotiation with the DUP.\n\nHis take on the DUP talks no doubt featured in his meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the fringes of a security summit in Munich on Saturday.\n\nArmed with the DUP's bottom line, he may have attempted to squeeze more concessions from the EU with the prize of getting Stormont back.\n\nBut sources in Brussels suggest there will be no return to the negotiating table.\n\nSir Jeffrey Donaldson is also expected to spend the weekend briefing his party on the Culloden talks.\n\nBoth London and Brussels will hope the DUP can make their seven tests fit the deal ahead of its potential announcement early next week.\n\nBut now may not be the time for the DUP to compromise, just months away from the council elections.\n\nOutright rejection of any deal will also carry risks for Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and the future of devolution in Northern Ireland.\n\nHe will have a big call to make when his big moment arrives.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UK PM Rishi Sunak: \"Now is the moment to double down on our military support (for Ukraine)\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has urged world leaders to send the most advanced weapons to Ukraine now in order to secure its long-term future.\n\nMr Sunak told the Munich Security Conference that allies must give the country \"advanced, Nato-standard capabilities\".\n\nHe said now was the time to \"double down\" on military support.\n\nThroughout the conference, Ukraine's allies have reiterated the case for defending the country.\n\nThe three-day gathering to discuss global security, taking place in Germany ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion, provided a key test of Western support for Kyiv as both sides in the war prepare for spring offensives.\n\nUkraine's allies tried to demonstrate their resolve and tried to convince the Russian government that they will not give up or give in, even if the cost in \"blood and treasure\" increases in coming months.\n\nMost of those who attended the conference - from heads of state and ministers to diplomats and spies - were from Europe or the US, including US Vice-President Kamala Harris and nearly 30 European heads of government. No Russian officials were invited.\n\nMr Sunak had said he wanted to \"make sure other countries follow our lead\" in providing battle tanks, and training soldiers and aviators on Nato-standard aircrafts.\n\nIn his speech in Germany, he said: \"Ukraine needs more artillery, armoured vehicles and air defences, so now is the time to double down on our military support.\n\n\"When Putin started this war, he gambled that our resolve would falter. Even now he is betting we will lose our nerve.\n\n\"But we proved him wrong then, and we will prove him wrong now.\"\n\nCalling for a new Nato charter to provide assurances of long-term support, Mr Sunak said allies \"must demonstrate that we'll remain by their side, willing and able to help them defend their country again and again\".\n\nHe went on to say that, as well as having a military strategy \"to gain a decisive advantage on the battlefield\", allies also needed \"to rebuild the international order on which our collective security depends\".\n\nMr Sunak said international law needed to be upheld in order to hold Russia to account. He also called for \"a new framework\" for Ukraine's long-term security, and said the international community's response had not been strong enough against Russia's aggression.\n\nBefore his speech, Mr Sunak met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and both agreed on the need to sustain \"the record level of international support for Ukraine\", a Downing Street spokeswoman said.\n\nMr Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also agreed on \"the importance of giving Ukraine the military momentum they need to secure victory against tyranny\" in a meeting on the conference sidelines, said No 10.\n\nThe unspoken question in Munich was what will happen if the participants meet this time next year and the war is still going on.\n\nOf particular concern was whether the political and economic costs of the war could prove too much to bear, as the Russian leadership assumes, or the western alliance will stand firm behind Ukraine.\n\nThe uncertainty around these issues is another reason why allies want to step up support now, to ensure Ukraine can see off any Russian offensive and launch a counter-attack on its own. President Volodymyr Zelensky is not the only one urging speed.\n\nLast week, the Ukrainian leader visited the UK, as well as Paris and Brussels, where he appealed for European leaders to supply his country with modern fighter jets.\n\nThe UK is to start training Ukrainian forces to fly Nato-standard jets and Mr Sunak has said \"nothing is off the table\".\n\nBut Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said there will be no immediate transfer of UK fighter jets to Ukraine.\n\nHe told the BBC it could take months to train pilots and the UK was instead focused on using alternative provision of air cover to Ukraine.\n\nSome Nato member countries are also worried that giving jets to Ukraine would be viewed as escalating the war, risking direct confrontation between the Western military alliance and Russia.\n\nSince Russia invaded on 24 February last year, the UK has spent £2.3bn on military assistance, making the country the second biggest donor behind the US. The government has said it plans to match this spending again this year.\n\nMilitary equipment provided by the UK so far includes tanks, air defence systems and artillery.\n\nHowever, Kyiv has become increasingly frustrated by the time Western weapons have taken to arrive. Deliveries of battle tanks - promised last month by countries including Germany, the US and the UK - are still thought to be weeks away from arriving on the battlefield.\n\nDuring Mr Sunak's meeting with Ms Von der Leyen, the pair also had what Downing Street described as a \"positive discussion\" about fixing issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nThey agreed there had been \"very good progress to find solutions\" but that \"intensive work in the coming days is still needed\" to get a deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements over the line, according to No 10.\n\nIt comes after sources suggested that a deal could be reached between the UK and the European Union as early as next week, after more than a year of negotiations.\n\nAlmost one year on since the start of the conflict, what questions do you have about the war in Ukraine?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "Syria's military says five people have died after what it alleged were Israeli missiles hit the capital Damascus and surrounding areas on Sunday.\n\nOfficials said a building was hit in the central Kafr Sousa neighbourhood, killing four civilians and one soldier.\n\nThe densely populated district is home to a large, heavily guarded security complex.\n\nIsrael's military declined to comment on the strike when approached by Reuters news agency.\n\nIsrael frequently attacks targets in Syria linked to Iran and Hezbollah militants but rarely acknowledges its actions. However, attacks on residential areas are rare.\n\nSunday's attack was the first since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the north-west of the country, as well as parts of neighbouring Turkey, 12 days ago.\n\nThe Kafr Sousa area is home to senior officials and security agencies, but also civilians living in residential buildings.\n\nThe strike - which hit at 00:22 local time (21:22 GMT) - caused damage to several homes in Damascus neighbourhoods and other nearby areas, Syrian officials said.\n\nThe country's defence ministry said the rockets were launched from the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau south-west of Damascus which was annexed by Israel in 1981.\n\nThe London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 15 people, including civilians.\n\n\"The strike on Sunday is the deadliest Israeli attack in the Syrian capital,\" said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the observatory.\n\nIt comes over a month after an Israeli strike hit Damascus's international airport, according to the Syrian army, killing four people including two soldiers.\n\nIsrael has previously acknowledged that it targets the bases of militant groups loyal to Iran.\n\nThe two countries are arch-foes and in recent years have been engaged in what has been described as a \"shadow war\" of unclaimed attacks on each other's assets, infrastructure and nationals.", "Strikes by health workers in England and Wales are set to intensify over the coming weeks. More NHS staff, at more trusts, are joining the dispute.\n\nOn Monday, ambulance workers are walking out of the ambulance trust in Wales and seven of the ten ambulance trusts in England.\n\nTwo unions are involved - Unite and the GMB. Members of Unite will then continue their ambulance strike in Wales on Tuesday and Wednesday.\n\nIn Scotland, where all health strikes are suspended, a new pay offer of 14% over two years is now on the table.\n\nThe strike by Border Force officials at Dover, Calais, Dunkirk and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel Terminal ended at 07:00 GMT this morning. Travellers are still being warned to expect disruption this morning due to the knock-on effects.\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nAmbulance staff in the Unite and GMB unions in Wales and several regions of England are striking on Monday.\n\nThe strike affects calls that are not life-threatening only and people are advised to call 999 in an emergency.\n\nAmbulances will still be sent to the most life-threatening calls - known as Category 1, which includes cardiac arrests.\n\nPatients that need time-critical treatment, such as kidney or cancer care, will also be transported.\n\nLess urgent calls - known as Category 2, which includes some strokes and major burns - might have to wait longer than usual for an ambulance.\n\nBorder Force staff ended their four-day strike at 07:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nThe strike only affected international inbound travel to the UK. The PCS union said 1,000 of its members had been expected to walk out at the ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Dover, and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel Terminal, over the four days.\n\nMilitary personnel and civil servants have been on standby to step in and carry out border checks.\n\nNevertheless, the government warned people should prepare their families for longer waiting times at border control.\n\nPeople were told to use e-gates where possible, and check with operators before travelling.\n\nOn Saturday, coach passengers returning to the UK faced queues of more than six hours at border checkpoints in Calais, although the Home Office rejected claims that the strikes had affected waiting times.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The US says China is considering supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia for the Ukraine war - a claim strongly denied by Beijing.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Chinese firms were already providing \"non-lethal support\" to Russia and new information suggested Beijing could provide \"lethal support\".\n\nSuch an escalation would mean \"serious consequences\" for China, he warned.\n\nBeijing said the claims were false and accused Washington of spreading lies.\n\n\"We do not accept the United States' finger-pointing on China-Russia relations, let alone coercion and pressure,\" China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference on Monday, when asked about the allegations.\n\nChina has also denied reports that Moscow has requested military equipment.\n\nChinese President Xi Jinping is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is yet to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine - but he has sought to remain neutral in the conflict and has called for peace.\n\nMr Blinken was speaking to CBS News after he met China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.\n\nHe said that during the meeting he expressed \"deep concerns\" about the \"possibility that China will provide lethal material support to Russia\".\n\n\"To date, we have seen Chinese companies... provide non-lethal support to Russia for use in Ukraine. The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they're considering providing lethal support,\" he said.\n\nHe did not elaborate on what information the US had received about China's potential plans. When pressed on what the US believed China might give to Russia, he said it would be primarily weapons as well as ammunition.\n\nThe US has sanctioned a Chinese company for allegedly providing satellite imagery of Ukraine to the mercenary Wagner Group, which supplies Russia with thousands of fighters.\n\nMr Blinken told CBS that \"of course, in China, there's really no distinction between private companies and the state\".\n\nIf China provided Russia with weapons, that would cause a \"serious problem for us and in our relationship\", he added.\n\nRelations between Washington and Beijing were already poor after the US shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon in early February. Both sides exchanged angry words, but equally both sides appeared embarrassed by the incident and seemed ready to move on.\n\nBut if China were to deliver weapons to help Russian forces in Ukraine, then US-Chinese relations would deteriorate much more severely.\n\nIt would be the most \"catastrophic\" thing that could happen to the relationship between the two giants, said top Republican senator Lindsay Graham.\n\n\"It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie,\" he told ABC News. \"Don't do this.\"\n\nMr Blinken's warning seems to be clearly designed to deter China from doing that.\n\nMr Blinken also said the US was worried about China helping Russia evade Western sanctions designed to cripple Russia's economy. China's trade with Russia has been growing, and it is one of the biggest markets for Russian oil, gas, and coal.\n\nNato members, including the US, are sending a variety of weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine, including tanks. They have stopped short of sending fighter jets, and Mr Blinken would not be drawn on whether the US would help other countries supply jets.\n\n\"We've been very clear that we shouldn't fixate or focus on any particular weapons system,\" he said.\n\nHe did, however, say that the West must ensure Ukraine had what it needed for a potential counter offensive against Russia \"in the months ahead\". Russia is currently trying to advance in eastern regions of Ukraine, where some of the fiercest fighting of the war has taken place.\n\nThe top US diplomat's remarks come ahead of a scheduled visit by Mr Wang to Moscow, as part of the Chinese foreign policy chief's tour of Europe.\n\nMr Wang said in Munich on Saturday that China had \"neither stood by idly nor thrown fuel on the fire\" for the Ukraine war, Reuters reported.\n\nChina would publish a document that laid out its position on settling the conflict, Mr Wang said. The document would state that the territorial integrity of all countries must be respected, he said.\n\n\"I suggest that everybody starts to think calmly, especially friends in Europe, about what kind of efforts we can make to stop this war,\" Mr Wang said.\n\nHe added that there were \"some forces that seemingly don't want negotiations to succeed, or for the war to end soon\", but did not say who he meant.\n\nThe Chinese President, Mr Xi, is scheduled to deliver a \"peace speech\" on the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Friday, 24 February, according to Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani.\n\nMr Tajani told Italian radio that Mr Xi's speech would call for peace without condemning Russia, Reuters reported.\n\nDuring their meeting, Mr Blinken and Mr Wang also exchanged strong words on the deepening row over an alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over the US.\n\nMr Blinken said during the meeting that the US would not \"stand for any violation of our sovereignty\" and said \"this irresponsible act must never again occur\".\n\nMr Blinken told CBS that other nations were concerned about what he called China's \"surveillance balloon program\" across five continents.\n\nMr Wang, meanwhile, called the episode a \"political farce manufactured by the US\" and accused them of \"using all means to block and suppress China\". China has denied sending a spy balloon.\n\nAnd on Sunday morning, Beijing warned that the US would \"bear all the consequences\" if it escalated the argument over the balloon. China would \"follow through to the end\" in the event \"the US insists on taking advantage of the issue\", it said in a foreign ministry statement reported by Reuters.\n\nThe full interview with CBS - the BBC's US broadcasting partner - is due to air on Sunday.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Insulation: 'My house feels like it's falling apart around me'\n\nFrustrated homeowners are still waiting for botched insulation to be removed one year after funding was announced.\n\nUp to 104 homes in Bridgend county were damaged by insulation installed as part of an energy efficiency scheme.\n\nBridgend council and the Welsh government later pledged to fund repairs after the poor standard of work caused damp and mould.\n\nFunding was announced in February 2022 but homeowners still do not know when work will start.\n\nIn a letter to residents of Caerau, Maesteg, the council apologised for the delay and said more information would be provided in April.\n\nSurveys will be carried out on the homes to find out how much work they will need, the letter added.\n\nRhiannon Goodall said the insulation had a \"devastating effect\" on her house\n\nRhiannon Goodall, who is waiting for repairs to her home, said the letter is the first official contact she has had from the council.\n\n\"It's ridiculous and really disappointing. I don't believe that it should have taken this long,\" she said.\n\n\"I don't think [the work] is going to happen until next year.\"\n\nIn December, the council's chief executive Mark Shepherd said he expected insulation to be removed in May.\n\nNew insulation might be installed in November, but he said the council needed expert advice on whether the work could happen in the winter.\n\nInsulation on 79 homes was installed with money from UK-wide schemes. Another 25 were part of the Welsh government's Arbed scheme.\n\nIn some cases, contractors that carried out work under the Arbed programme have since gone out of business.\n\nRegardless of how it was funded, the Welsh government is spending £2.65m and the council £850,000 to repair all the homes.\n\nRitchie Humphreys said residents have been treated without respect\n\nRetired miner Richie Humphreys, 79, described the delay as \"shambolic\".\n\nHe added: \"We've been treated disrespectfully. They told us last year that everything was in place.\"\n\nA Bridgend council spokesperson said specialist contractors will be appointed to \"remove the inadequate internal and external wall insulation from affected properties.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added: \"The wall space will be dried out, and new high-quality insulation will be installed to restore the energy efficient benefits that householders were originally offered.\"\n\nThe solid-wall insulation has also caused problems in other parts of the country.\n\nCaerphilly council and the Welsh government will spend more than £3m to fix 86 homes in Bryn Carno, Rhymney.\n\nLocal councillor Carl Cuss said \"great chunks\" of insulation had fallen off some houses.\n\n\"Some residents have seen damp coming into their properties because the external wall insulation wasn't installed properly,\" he said.\n\n\"Some of the materials weren't very suitable so water has gone into the cavity and caused a lot problems inside the properties.\"\n\nSome residents have paid for repairs\n\nPlaid Cymru MS Siân Gwenllian has also asked the Welsh government to help people in her Arfon constituency, which includes Bangor and Caernarfon in Gwynedd.\n\nShe said: \"It's very unfair for these people who have put their faith in a scheme to find their houses are now worse off than when they started.\"\n\nReferring to the homes in Caerau, the Welsh government said: \"We are providing £2.65m over the next three years to Bridgend County Borough Council which will be used to repair more than 100 homes in the Caerau area.\n\nThe spokesperson said that surveys on the homes in Ms Gwenllian's Arfon constituency suggest the insulation \"did not fail in the same way as it did at the south Wales sites\".\n\n\"Residents have received letters that explain the process to follow if they are unsatisfied with any products or services,\" they added.", "Turkish officials report more than 50 people killed, and the toll is rising as a wide area was hit.\n\nThe quake also rocked neighbouring Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dramatic social media footage from first quake hitting Turkey and Syria\n\nThe death toll from a strong earthquake in south-eastern Turkey, near Syria's border, could rise eight-fold, the World Health Organisation has warned.\n\nThe toll, which currently stands at more than 3,400 people, has increased rapidly since the first earthquake struck early on Monday morning.\n\nAbout 12 hours later, a second powerful tremor hit further north.\n\nRescuers have been combing through mountains of rubble in freezing and snowy conditions to find survivors.\n\nCountries around the world are sending support to help the rescue efforts, including specialist teams, sniffer dogs and equipment.\n\nThe US Geological Survey said the 7.8 magnitude tremor struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep.\n\nSeismologists said the first quake was one of the largest ever recorded in Turkey. Survivors said it took two minutes for the shaking to stop.\n\nThe second quake - triggered by the first - had a magnitude of 7.5, and its epicentre was in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.\n\nMany aftershocks are still being felt across the region.\n\nThe number of dead and injured from both Turkey and Syria has increased rapidly throughout Monday.\n\nThe WHO has warned that those numbers are likely to increase as much as eight times, as rescuers find more victims in the rubble.\n\n\"We always see the same thing with earthquakes, unfortunately, which is that the initial reports of the numbers of people who have died or who have been injured will increase quite significantly in the week that follows,\" the WHO's senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, told AFP.\n\nMs Smallwood added that the snowy conditions will leave many people without shelter, adding to the dangers.\n\nMany of the victims are in war-torn northern Syria, where millions of refugees live in camps on both sides of the border with Turkey. There have been dozens of fatalities reported in rebel-held areas.\n\nThousands of buildings across both the countries have collapsed, and several videos show the moment they fell, as onlookers ran for cover. Many buildings that were as large as 12 storeys high are now flattened, roads have been destroyed and there are huge mountains of rubble as far as the eye can see.\n\nAmong the buildings destroyed was Gaziantep Castle, an historic landmark that has stood for more than 2,000 years.\n\nThe BBC's Middle East correspondent Anna Foster, reporting from the Turkish city of Osmaniye, near the epicentre, described a devastating scene.\n\n\"It's absolutely pouring with rain which is hampering the rescue efforts. There is no power at all in the city tonight.\n\n\"We're still feeling regular after-shocks... and there are still concerns that there may be still more buildings to collapse,\" our correspondent said.\n\nTurkey's energy infrastructure has also been damaged, and videos have emerged showing large fires in southern Turkey. Social media users claimed they were caused by damage to gas pipelines.\n\nTurkey's energy minister Fatih Donmez confirmed there had been serious damage to the infrastructure, but did not mention the explosions.\n\nTurkey lies in one of the world's most active earthquake zones.\n\nIn 1999 a deadly quake killed more than 17,000 in the north-west. The country's worst earthquake disaster was in 1939 when 33,000 people died in Turkey's eastern Erzincan province.\n\nOne Kahramanmaras resident, Melisa Salman, said living in an earthquake zone meant she was used to \"being shaken\", but Monday's tremor was \"the first time we have ever experienced anything like that\".\n\n\"We thought it was the apocalypse,\" she said.\n\nIn Diyarbakir, north-east of Gaziantep, a search is now under way for people trapped in damaged buildings\n\nThe Turkish Red Crescent has called for citizens to make blood donations, and the organisation's president, Kerem Kınık, said on Twitter that additional blood and medical products were being sent to the affected region.\n\nFollowing an international appeal for help, Turkey's President Erdogan said 45 countries had offered support.\n\nUN Secretary General António Guterres has called for an international response to the crisis, saying that many of the families hit by the disaster were \"already in dire need of humanitarian aid in areas where access is a challenge\".\n\nThe European Union is sending search and rescue teams to Turkey, while rescuers from the Netherlands and Romania are already on their way. The UK has said it will send 76 specialists, equipment and rescue dogs.\n\nFrance, Germany, Israel, and the US have also pledged to help. Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered help to both Turkey and Syria, as has Iran.\n\nTurkey's interior minister, Suleymon Soylu, said 10 cities were affected by the initial quake including Hatay, Osmaniye, Adiyaman, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Adana, Diyarbakir and Kilis.\n\nSchool has been suspended in those cities for at least a week.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Diyarbakir, Turkey: 'People are still trapped under the rubble'\n\nA volunteer with the White Helmets rescue group, which operates in rebel-controlled areas of north-western Syria, fought back tears as he described the devastation in Sarmada, near the border with Turkey.\n\n\"Many buildings in different cities and villages in north-western Syria collapsed,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"Still now, many families are under the rubble. We are trying to save them but it's a very hard task for us.\n\n\"We need help. We need the international community to do something, to help us, to support us. North-western Syria is now a disaster area,\" he added.\n\nThe earthquake was powerful enough to be felt as far away as Cyprus, Lebanon and Israel.\n\nAre you in the affected region? If it is safe to do so email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "David Carrick held a gun to the head of one of his victims, the court heard\n\nA victim of serial rapist David Carrick has spoken of meeting \"evil\" when she was attacked by the Met Police officer who carried out a \"catalogue\" of sexual offences.\n\nCarrick used his role to intimidate women, threatening one with his baton and sending another a picture of his gun saying \"I am the boss\".\n\nHe is being sentenced for 49 offences against 12 women over two decades.\n\nCarrick would \"use his power and control\" to stop victims reporting him.\n\nOn the first day of a two-day sentencing hearing, Southwark Crown Court heard statements from Carrick's victims, including from one who said: \"He was a police officer - what wasn't to trust?\"\n\nAnother said Carrick \"drilled into\" her that he was an officer, and she was deterred from raising the alarm.\n\nHis crimes include dozens of rape and sexual offences spanning 2003 to 2020, mostly committed in Hertfordshire, where he lived.\n\nOpening the case, prosecutor Tom Little KC said 48-year-old Carrick told a woman he met in a London bar in 2003 \"he was the safest person that she could be with and that he was a police officer\" before taking her back to his nearby flat.\n\nMr Little told the court the victim \"froze\" when he put a black handgun to her head and said \"you are not going\", before repeatedly raping her.\n\nHe also put his hands around the victim's throat and \"said he was going to be the last thing she saw\".\n\nMr Little said the woman attended hospital with her injuries. After stating a police officer had raped her, a nurse said \"it might not go to court\" and that \"she might be better to try to put it behind her and move on\".\n\n\"As a result, [the victim] did not report the matter to the police at the time,\" said Mr Little.\n\nIn an impact statement read to the court, one victim said: \"That night I felt that I had encountered evil.\"\n\nAnother said she had not had a relationship since the attack by Carrick and that it had \"shaped my life\".\n\nA different woman spoke about changes in eating habits and \"poisoning myself\" through binge-drinking after encountering Carrick, adding that she had \"self-destructive thoughts\".\n\nDavid Carrick committed many of his crimes in Hertfordshire, where he lived\n\nCarrick was sacked by the Met a day after he pleaded guilty last month and the force's Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has apologised for failings and said opportunities to remove him from policing were missed.\n\nIt emerged he had come to the attention of police over nine incidents, including rape allegations, between 2000 and 2021.\n\nMr Little told the sentencing hearing: \"If the offending had to be accurately and fairly summarised - it was systematic, it was a catalogue of violent and brutal sexual offences perpetrated on multiple victims, whether he was in a controlling or coercive relationship with them or not, or even if it was just a single occasion.\n\n\"It did not matter who the victim was... the reality was, if he had the opportunity, he would rape them, sexually abuse or assault them and humiliate them.\"\n\nHe said: \"[Carrick] frequently relied on his charm to beguile and mislead the victims in the first place and would then use his power and control, in part because of what he did for a living, to stop them leaving or consider reporting him.\"\n\nCarrick falsely imprisoned two women, separately, in the under-stairs cupboard on different occasions\n\nAnother woman said Carrick hit her with a whip and would shut her in a small cupboard as punishment while \"whistling at her as if she was a dog\", the court heard.\n\nThe court was told Carrick sent a photograph of himself with a work-issue firearm to her, saying \"remember I am the boss\".\n\nA woman, who met Carrick on a dating website, described him as \"acting like a monster when he was in drink\", which was most of the time.\n\nThe court heard Carrick would call her his \"slave\" and when he asked her to clean his house naked she was \"scared\" because he was a police officer.\n\nMr Little said the offences warranted a life sentence with a minimum term, but fell short of meriting a whole-life order.\n\nThe court heard all of the crimes took place while Carrick, who lived in Stevenage, was a police officer, and that he had undertaken a course on domestic violence in 2005.\n\nIn mitigation, defence barrister, Alisdair Williamson KC, told the court Carrick \"accepts full responsibility for what he has done\".\n\nHe said \"something has profoundly damaged this man\", adding that the defendant \"cannot ask for mercy and does not\".\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the court she would sentence Carrick on Tuesday morning.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A state-backed digital pound is likely to be launched later this decade, according to the Treasury and the Bank of England.\n\nBoth institutions want to ensure the public has access to safe money that is easy to use in the digital age.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt said the central-bank digital currency (CBDC) could be a new \"trusted and accessible\" way to pay.\n\nBut it will not be built until at least 2025.\n\n\"We want to investigate what is possible first, whilst always making sure we protect financial stability,\" Mr Hunt said.\n\nThe Treasury and the Bank of England will formally start a consultation for the digital currency, on Tuesday.\n\nCryptocurrencies are not backed by a central bank and the value can shoot up and down rapidly.\n\nBut while it may use technology similar to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, the digital pound, issued by the Bank of England, would be less volatile. Ten digital pounds will always be worth the same as £10 in cash, the Treasury says.\n\nThough, as holidaymakers will know, the value of the pound does change relative to other currencies.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak asked the Bank of England to look into backing a currency, in 2021, as chancellor.\n\nAnd in October 2022, Mr Sunak's Financial Service Minister Andrew Griffith warned a lengthy delay could create problems for the economy.\n\nRight now, there is probably little need for a digital pound. People use their debit cards or phones, or even watches to fulfil the same function. It is a solution to a problem that does not yet exist.\n\nBut this is looking towards a near future that sounds like monetary science fiction. At its heart it is about data on what you spend, and what the entire population spends. It is a world where people might just choose to trust international private sector brands, in finance or in tech, more than the state. Think Amazon, or Facebook, or maybe Chinese-owned Alibaba or Tiktok having a version of sterling.\n\nCompanies that control the data on everything someone spends, when and where they spend it, will sit on a priceless asset. Unregulated digital currencies could offer those companies incentives to create walled gardens, fragmenting the pound system. It would make controlling the economy more difficult, because £1 might not be worth £1 everywhere.\n\nThis is where today's ideas come in. Neither the Bank of England nor government would have access to the data on transactions with a digital pound. But consumers could pick providers, not just banks, to hold their cash in digital wallets, with varying degrees of privacy. Some users might be comfortable with their wallet provider knowing all their transactions, if they received a discount for example. Others might want to stay as private as possible. The Treasury wants to encourage innovation.\n\nOther, bigger blocs, such as the USA and the Eurozone also want their digital dollars and digital euros to be international means of exchange. That is less of an overt aim here. The eye here is on maintaining UK monetary sovereignty against upheaval from the likes of Big Tech.\n\nIf given the go-ahead, there would then be significant investment to launch the currency.\n\nThere are likely to be initial restrictions on how much of the currency any individual or business could hold.\n\nBank of England governor Andrew Bailey said the digital pound would provide a new way to make payments, \"help businesses, maintain trust in money and better protect financial stability\".\n\nHe stressed the importance of the consultation being the \"foundation\" for what would be a \"profound\" decision for the way we use money in the future.\n\nWhat could a digital pound look like?\n\nCountries around the world, including the US, China and the Eurozone, are considering similar proposals.", "A man has been jailed for at least 36 years for murdering a mother and her two-year-old girl then burying their bodies under his kitchen floor.\n\nAndrew Innes, 52, stabbed and beat 25-year-old Bennylyn Burke to death with a hammer before strangling her daughter Jellica at his home in Dundee.\n\nHe had lured Bennylyn from Bristol to Dundee after targeting her through a dating website in February 2021.\n\nInnes was found guilty of their murders after a five-day trial.\n\nHe was jailed for life and will have to serve a minimum of 36 years before he can apply for parole.\n\nBennylyn and Jellica's family said they would be \"forever haunted\" by what they described as \"the worst cruelty we could ever imagine\".\n\nJudge Lord Beckett said the \"difficult and harrowing\" case was one of the worst crimes to have come before a Scottish court.\n\nInnes had admitted killing Bennylyn and Jellica but denied murder, claiming that he had diminished responsibility.\n\nHowever, Lord Beckett told the jury that there had been no evidence during the trial to show that Innes had been suffering from mental impairment at the time of the killings.\n\nAs a result, he instructed them to find Innes guilty of both murders.\n\nThe jury also found him guilty of sexually assaulting Jellica, raping another child, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.\n\nMembers of Bennylyn and Jellica's family wept in court as the jury delivered their verdict after two hours and 26 minutes of deliberations.\n\nThe trial at the High Court in Edinburgh heard that Innes met Bennylyn, who had moved to the UK from the Philippines in 2019, on a dating site in February 2021.\n\nHe drove Bennylyn and Jellica from their home in Bristol to Dundee on 18 February.\n\nThey were reported missing two weeks later.\n\nOn 5 March, police officers saw a car which had made a return trip from Dundee to Bristol during lockdown in the driveway of Innes' home in Troon Avenue.\n\nInnes claimed that he had driven Bennylyn and Jellica to Glasgow and had left them with another man.\n\nBut after repeated questioning he admitted killing Bennylyn and told officers she was buried under the kitchen floor.\n\nThe court heard that Bennylyn had been stabbed and repeatedly hit on the head with a hammer. Jellica died of asphyxiation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The moment Andrew Innes is arrested and led to a police van outside his home\n\nInnes then put their bodies in rubble bags and concealed them in concrete beneath the kitchen floor.\n\nGiving evidence, Innes said he had attacked Bennylyn with a hammer and a Samurai sword two days after she arrived in Dundee.\n\nHe claimed he had been \"apocalyptically angry\" because she resembled two women he felt had betrayed him, and blamed the attack on steroid-induced psychosis.\n\nHowever, forensic psychologist Dr Gordon Cowan then told the court he did not believe Innes was impaired at the time of the killings.\n\nHe met Innes several times and prepared a report for the Crown about his condition.\n\nThat report stated: \"There is no evidence to support a finding of diminished responsibility if he was to be found to have committed the offences.\"\n\nBennylyn's sister Shela Aquino (left) and father Benedicto Aquino (right) outside the court\n\nIn a statement, Bennylyn and Jellica's family said: \"A big part of our family has been torn from us. We shall never see Bennylyn and Jellica again.\"\n\nThey said Bennylyn was \"the hope and light of our family\".\n\n\"That light has been cruelly snuffed out,\" they added. \"Bennylyn had bright ideas and big dreams. She bravely left home to seek a better future in a country far away.\n\n\"Instead, she found the worst cruelty we could ever imagine at the hands of someone she trusted. We shall be forever haunted by what happened to her in this far off place such a long way from us.\"\n\nThe family said they would not have the chance to know \"our beloved Jellica\" or see her grow up.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"There is nothing that can restore Bennylyn and Jellica to us,\" they said.\n\n\"But the jury's guilty verdict for murder provides some comfort to our family and friends and brings justice for Bennylyn and Jellica.\"\n\nDet Ch Insp Graham Smith, the lead officer on the case, said the murders had \"shocked and appalled us all\".\n\nHe said: \"In almost 30 years of policing, the depravity shown by Andrew Innes was beyond anything I or my colleagues had witnessed before.\n\n\"His actions showed no regard for human life or the suffering and anguish he has brought to the loved ones.\"\n\nThere are occasions when a great deal is asked of juries. This was one of them.\n\nThe 15 men and women endured one of the most horrific cases to come before a Scottish court.\n\nThe full details of Andrew Innes' crimes are too monstrous to make public, but the jurors had to listen to it all.\n\nBy the time he spoke in his own defence, some of them couldn't bring themselves to look at him.\n\nAt one point they heard him casually state that a second girl in the house may well have died if the police had arrived 24 hours later.\n\nThe wave of revulsion that swept through the courtroom was palpable.\n\nThe jury's verdict was inevitable but they played their part in ensuring Innes will die behind bars.\n\nIn recognition of what was asked of them, they've been excused from jury service for the rest of their lives.\n\nYou can see more on this story on The Big Cases - Found Under the Floor on the BBC iPlayer.", "Pope Francis said those with \"homosexual tendencies\" should be welcomed by their churches\n\nPope Francis and the leaders of Protestant churches in England and Scotland have denounced the criminalisation of homosexuality.\n\nSpeaking to reporters after visiting South Sudan, the Pope said such laws were a sin and \"an injustice\".\n\nHe added people with \"homosexual tendencies\" are children of God and should be welcomed by their churches.\n\nHis comments were backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland.\n\nArchbishop Justin Welby and Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, travelled with the Pope to South Sudan where they jointly called for peace in the war-torn country.\n\nIt is the first time the leaders of the three traditions have come together for such a journey in 500 years.\n\nArchbishop Welby and Dr Greenshields praised the Pope's comments during a news conference with reporters on board the papal plane as they travelled from Juba to Rome.\n\n\"I entirely agree with every word he said there,\" said Archbishop Welby, noting that the Anglican church had its own internal divisions over gay rights.\n\nLast month the Church of England said it would refuse to allow same-sex couples to be married in its churches.\n\nExpressing his own support, Dr Greenshields referred to the Bible, saying: \"There is nowhere in the four Gospels that I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whoever he meets, and as Christians that is the only expression that we can give to any human being in any circumstance\".\n\nArchbishop Justin Welby (right) and the Rt Rev Iain Greenshields (left) expressed their support for the Pope's comments in a press conference\n\nDuring the news conference Pope Francis repeated his view that the Catholic Church cannot permit sacramental marriage of same-sex couples.\n\nBut he said he supported so-called civil union legislation, and stressed that laws banning homosexuality were \"a problem that cannot be ignored\".\n\nHe suggested that 50 countries criminalise LGBT people \"in one way or another\", and about 10 have laws carrying the death penalty.\n\nCurrently 66 UN member states criminalise consensual same-sex relations, according to ILGA World - the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.\n\n\"This is not right. Persons with homosexual tendencies are children of God,\" said the Pope.\n\n\"God loves them. God accompanies them... condemning a person like this is a sin.\"\n\nUnder current Catholic doctrine, gay relationships are referred to as \"deviant behaviour\" and Pope Francis has previously said he was \"worried\" about the \"serious matter\" of homosexuality in the clergy.\n\nBut some conservative Catholics have criticised him for making comments they say are ambiguous about sexual morality.\n\nIn 2013, soon after becoming Pope, he reaffirmed the Catholic Church's position that homosexual acts were sinful, but added that homosexual orientation was not.\n\nFive years later, during a visit to Ireland, Pope Francis stressed that parents could not disown their LGBT children and had to keep them in a loving family.", "A British woman who says she was in a relationship with controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate has told the BBC how he encouraged her to work for his webcam company, before becoming controlling and violent.\n\n\"It's very difficult because I don't feel like a victim - all of the choices I made were of my [own] free will. He didn't bundle me up into a bag, throw me in the back of a lorry and drive me there,\" says Sophie.\n\n\"But he knew what he was doing. At what point does the emotional or psychological manipulation turn into being forced to do something?\"\n\nAndrew Tate - and his brother Tristan - are in custody in Romania while police investigate allegations of rape and trafficking.\n\nProsecutors allege the pair recruited victims by seducing them and falsely claiming they wanted to have a relationship - which police have dubbed \"the lover-boy method\". Victims were then forced or manipulated into working in their adult entertainment chat rooms.\n\nSophie, not her real name, says this is exactly what happened to her. She is now helping prosecutors with their investigation.\n\nShe told BBC Radio 4 programme File on 4 that Tate approached her \"completely out of the blue\" on Facebook and was very charming.\n\n\"He was sort of luring me into believing that he was somebody that I could trust and someone that genuinely wanted to build a connection with me,\" she explains.\n\nShe says their exchanges were typical of people getting to know each other with no red flags. After talking to him online she agreed to travel to his home in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.\n\n\"I was at a stage of my life where everything felt a bit boring and a bit dull and this idea of an adventure just seemed attractive,\" she explains.\n\nAs their relationship developed, Sophie regularly visited Tate in Romania. He told her he wanted her to be his girlfriend, but soon began asking her to work for him.\n\n\"A couple of times he'd said to me, 'You should do it, you'd make a fortune, but you don't have to if you don't want to do it. I make enough money,'\" Sophie says.\n\n\"But he was always reminding me that the option was there and that progressed into, 'If you love me, you would do it. If you care about me, you would do it… we can make all this money'. And over time, just chipping away at me, eventually he led me to think, 'Maybe he's right, maybe I should be doing it'.\"\n\nSophie had worked in the adult entertainment industry before, so she was open to the suggestion. But she says she felt coerced and worried that if she refused, she might lose him.\n\nIn a now-deleted page on his website, Tate describes how he operated his webcam business - his account chimes with Sophie's in many ways.\n\nHe describes his job as, \"To meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her… get her to fall in love with me, to where she'd do anything I say.\" The video continues, \"And then get her on web-cam so we could become rich together.\"\n\nIn the decade he says he has been running his studio, he claims more than half of his employees were his girlfriends and none were in the adult entertainment industry before they met him. Sophie's account contradicts this.\n\nSophie says she earned around £800 for six hours' work, from which Tate would take 50%. Representatives of the industry in Romania told the BBC this was not unusual for webcam studios.\n\nOver time, Sophie says Tate's behaviour towards her worsened. She claims he became increasingly controlling, imposing cash fines if she went out without his permission, and that he became violent.\n\n\"There was some disagreement… he held me up against the wall and he slapped me really hard and followed it with 'you whore,'\" she says.\n\nShe added that rough sex turned into something she had not consented to.\n\n\"Most of the violence was sexual, that's obviously something that he's into. He likes to feel completely in control of the woman and feel like he could take their life away at any second. That is a big sexual turn on for him,\" she explains.\n\n\"I was so intent on just wanting to please him and just wanting him to be happy. But looking back on it, he used to strangle me, to the point where I passed out once and I think he panicked then because he knew he'd gone too far.\"\n\nThe BBC has seen messages and listened to voice recordings sent to Sophie from Tate that appear to support her claims of controlling behaviour.\n\nSophie says she eventually left the relationship after having a moment of clarity that \"constantly feeling inferior to him\" was not right.\n\n\"I realised I couldn't live like that anymore and that it wasn't normal. I just had to get away from it,\" she explains. \"I remember being at work and I was just so overwhelmed and I'd never felt a darkness like it.\"\n\nShe describes Tate as a \"very complex man\" who was quite different to the character he presented online - where he is known for his high-volume rants, often filmed while smoking a cigar or surrounded by his supercars.\n\n\"He's very manipulative, he totally lacks any kind of empathy. He is a narcissist, he's like that 100%,\" she says.\n\n\"I don't think he's emotionally capable of feeling love, for anyone or anything, even his family, even his brother - there's just nothing. In the space in our brains where we feel love and compassion and empathy… [in his] it's just a hole, there's nothing there.\"\n\nThe BBC put these allegations to Tate through his lawyer, but Mateea Petrescu, who handles media requests for the Tate brothers, said they would not comment on the claims.\n\nInvestigators in Romania have confirmed that six women have been identified as potential victims of trafficking. But last month, two of the women publicly denied any mistreatment by the Tate brothers, while other women have spoken positively to the BBC about their time spent with Tate.\n\nBut Sophie says some of these are women who Tate genuinely treated well, while others are still under his control.\n\n\"He's always one step ahead,\" she says. \"He will be mindful of the fact he needs as many glowing reviews as he does negative ones in order to defend himself.\n\n\"Equally, there are going to be girls that will be so infatuated and brainwashed by him that they are never going to say a bad word. There will also be some that are speaking out of fear because he's threatening.\"\n\nPolice have not yet filed any charges against the brothers, who have been in detention, along with two Romanian women, since 29 December. They have denied the allegations against them.\n\nSince this article was originally published, lawyers acting for Andrew Tate have said that he denies all the allegations made against him in the File on 4 programme.\n\nListen to File on 4 on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 on Tuesday 7 February or on BBC Sounds.", "Magistrates courts in England and Wales are to stop hearing and ruling on applications from energy firms to forcibly install prepayment meters with immediate effect.\n\nOne of the country's most senior judges said the cases must be halted in light of the growing concern.\n\nIt comes days after the BBC revealed that courts have been waving through applications to install these meters.\n\nRegulator Ofgem has asked all companies to suspend forcible installations.\n\nMonday's order from Lord Justice Edis, the judge who oversees the workings of all courts, now makes both a practical impossibility as it instructs each centre to stop listing the warrant applications until further notice.\n\nLord Justice Edis said all magistrates had to \"act proportionately and with regard to the human rights of the people affected, [in] particular any people with vulnerability\".\n\nA warrant officer, who has applied for prepayment meter warrants on behalf of energy companies for two decades, told BBC Newsnight he welcomes the decision but claims it has been a serious concern for years.\n\n\"Robert\", who is not being identified as he does not want his employer to know he has spoken to the media, says: \"In 2015, we would apply for a warrant in person at a local court with 20-30 applications.\n\n\"I would find cases where there were vulnerabilities and draw the magistrate's attention to that and they would then refuse the warrant. None of that exists anymore.\"\n\nRobert says bulk applications started being introduced followed by a new online and telephone system for magistrates from 2019.\n\n\"I have seen 200-300 applications submitted in one go, but I have colleagues who have emailed spreadsheets containing thousands of addresses which are then processed in around 15 minutes,\" he explains.\n\nLord Justice Edis said that while energy firms could still make a case for a warrant to be heard, they would have to first satisfy a court \"in detail as to the integrity of their procedures, in particular relating to the vulnerability of occupiers\".\n\nHe has not put a limit on how long the moratorium will last for, but said that its lifting would depend on investigations by Ofgem and the government.\n\nPeter Smith, director of policy at the fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, said magistrates' courts had been \"far too quick to rubber stamp batches of warrants, with little or no scrutiny.\"\n\n\"It provides some relief that magistrates are now aware of the significance of their actions and not blind to the terrible impacts to vulnerable people if they are forced onto prepayment meters against their will,\" he added.\n\nThis weekend, the leaking of advice from England and Wales' top magistrate to the BBC showed that courts were being told that challenges to energy companies mass claims for such warrants were \"irrational\" and questions previously asked were \"now disproportionate\".\n\nThe crux of the issue is that energy suppliers assurances \"under oath\" especially that none of the customers listed were vulnerable, were taken in good faith.\n\nBut charity campaigners contend that the energy companies' systems are not correctly identifying vulnerable customers, the elderly, those with very young children, and those with disabilities.\n\nWhile today's move should create some relief for some customers, it does not solve the fundamental problem.\n\nThe deployment of prepayment meters was meant to be an alternative to rarely used sanction of disconnection. If that is not an option, there are concerns that bills simply will not be paid at all. This may all end up eventually, back at the door of government.\n\nLast week, the Times newspaper found that debt agents for British Gas had broken into vulnerable people's homes to fit meters.\n\nChris O'Shea, chief executive of British Gas's parent company Centrica, said he was horrified at the findings, and the firm said it would suspend forcefully installing prepayment meters until at least after the winter.\n\nBusiness Secretary Grant Shapps said on Sunday that Ofgem had allowed itself to have \"the wool pulled over their eyes\" over prepayment meters being force-fitted, taking companies \"at face value\" instead of listening to customers.\n\nHe has given energy firms until Tuesday to report back on what action they will take, potentially including compensation, in response to complaints from any customers who have had prepayment meters wrongfully installed.\n\nIn the House of Commons, Energy Minister Graham Stuart said he had met with the boss of Ofgem and said the government expected \"strong and immediate action where suppliers fall short of their obligations\".\n\nBut Ed Miliband, shadow secretary of state for climate change, said the response was \"simply not good enough\", and accused the government of \"sitting on their hands and being far too slow to act\".\n\n\"Ofgem did reviews in September and November and highlighted the problem - where was the government? In early January Citizens Advice reported that three million people had been disconnected by the back door,\" he said.", "Drone images show the earthquake aftermath in the town of Sarmada in the countryside of the north western Syrian Idlib province in Syria.\n\nMembers of the Syrian civil defence, known as the White Helmets, are searching for casualties under the rubble.\n\nThe huge earthquake has caused devastation across southern Turkey and northern Syria. More than 1,200 people are known to have died, but that number is expected to rise.", "Two huge earthquakes and a series of aftershocks have hit Turkey, Syria and the surrounding region, killing more than 11,000 people and causing widespread destruction.\n\nThe first earthquake, which struck in the early hours of 6 February, was registered as 7.8, classified as \"major\" on the official magnitude scale. Its epicentre was near Gaziantep - a city of more than two million people.\n\nThe intensity of the tremors also brought down tower blocks and public buildings in northern Syria and the quake was felt as far away as Cyprus and Lebanon, both about 250 miles (400km) from the epicentre.\n\nIn Turkey, more than 8,500 people are confirmed to have died, with tens of thousands injured and thousands of buildings destroyed.\n\nThe first earthquake was followed by numerous aftershocks, including one quake which was almost as large as the first - registering as magnitude 7.5 - about nine hours later with its epicentre about 60 miles (100km) further north in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.\n\nThe second quake devastated the city of Kahramanmaras\n\nOn Tuesday, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a three month state of emergency in the south-east of the country, covering 10 cities affected.\n\nIn the Mediterranean port city of Iskenderun, in the province of Hatay, about 75 miles (120km) from Gaziantep, buildings and docks were reduced to rubble.\n\nA fire at the port of Iskenderun has also hampered aid efforts with many containers destroyed and those stuck in the port blocking supplies being brought in.\n\nThe historic Yeni Camii mosque, in Malatya, more than 100 miles (160km) from the epicentre, was extensively damaged. Its domes collapsed, leaving it exposed to the winter sky. The mosque was destroyed by a huge earthquake in 1894 and, after reconstruction, damaged by another quake in 1964.\n\nCollapsing buildings killed more than 2,500 people across Syria. In the city of Aleppo, the ancient citadel ravaged by a decade of war has been further damaged by the quake.\n\nIn the village of Besnaya-Bseineh, a large block of residential and commercial buildings was reduced to rubble.", "Sir Salman was forced into hiding for nearly 10 years after The Satanic Verses was published in 1988\n\nSir Salman Rushdie has spoken for the first time about being stabbed last year at an event in New York.\n\nIn an interview with The New Yorker, Sir Salman said he was \"lucky... my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude\".\n\nThe award-winning novelist was attacked on stage ahead of a speech in August and spent six weeks in hospital.\n\nHe subsequently lost vision in one eye. Sir Salman has long faced death threats for his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses.\n\nIn a wide-ranging interview with David Remnick, the novelist said: \"I've been better. But, considering what happened, I'm not so bad.\n\n\"The big injuries are healed, essentially. I have feeling in my thumb and index finger and in the bottom half of the palm. I'm doing a lot of hand therapy, and I'm told that I'm doing very well.\"\n\nBut he said it was difficult to type and to write due to a lack of feeling in some of his fingertips.\n\nVictory City is about a nine-year-old girl who has a divine encounter that will change the course of history\n\n\"I'm able to get up and walk around. When I say I'm fine, I mean, there are bits of my body that need constant check ups. It was a colossal attack.\"\n\nHe said he also has mental scars from the attack and that he is having to rethink his approach to security, having lived without it for more than two decades.\n\n\"There is such a thing as PTSD, you know,\" he said. \"I've found it very, very difficult to write. I sit down to write, and nothing happens. I write, but it's a combination of blankness and junk, stuff that I write and that I delete the next day. I'm not out of that forest yet, really.\"\n\nThe man suspected of stabbing Sir Salman, Hadi Matar, has been charged with attempted murder.\n\nSir Salman was forced into hiding for nearly 10 years after The Satanic Verses was published in 1988.\n\nMany Muslims reacted with fury to it, arguing that the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad insulted their faith.\n\nHe faced death threats and the then-Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa - or decree - calling for Sir Salman's assassination, placing a $3m (£2.5m) bounty on the author's head.\n\nThe fatwa remains active, and although Iran's government has distanced itself from Mr Khomeini's decree, a quasi-official Iranian religious foundation added a further $500,000 (£416,000) to the reward in 2012.\n\nRemnick asked Sir Salman if he thinks he should have been more on guard after moving to New York in 2000, having previously lived underground for several years.\n\n\"Well, I'm asking myself that question, and I don't know the answer to it,\" he said. \"I did have more than 20 years of life. So, is that a mistake? Also, I wrote a lot of books.\"\n\nRushdie's latest novel, Victory City was finished just before the attack and is being published later this week.\n\n\"I've always tried very hard not to adopt the role of a victim,\" he said. \"Then you're just sitting there saying, 'somebody stuck a knife in me! Poor me'... Which I do sometimes think!\"\n\n\"But what I don't think is: That's what I want people reading the book to think. I want them to be captured by the tale, to be carried away.\"\n\nFor all of us who have marvelled at his work since his Booker prize winning Midnight's Children revolutionised the British novel, it's good to hear Rushdie's voice, sounding as it ever did - witty, fiercely eloquent, thoughtful, and, crucially, uncowed.\n\nThis magnificent novelist has always wanted to be judged for his writing. The events of his life though have made that impossible.\n\nBut, as he publishes his 21st novel, Victory City, he clearly has no intention of allowing what's happened to destroy him as an artist, to silence him.\n\n\"I could write scared books\" in reaction, he muses, \"a book that shies away from things because you worry about how people will react to them\".\n\nRushdie claims there are a lot of books like that at the moment.\n\nBut not his. And in Victory City, a magical realist epic about a goddess who creates a city from seeds and lives to the age of 247, the writer has his eyes on the country of his birth - with a swipe at the current Indian government.\n\nThis book was finished before the attack.\n\nNow the attack may end up as a future novel from this master storyteller who believes the purpose of art is to bring joy.\n\nPerhaps it will be cathartic. \"Writing about the event gives me an artistic reason to think about it,\" he says.\n\nRushdie will make sense of it on his own terms - and bring us joy out of the barbarity.\n\nRushdie is aware Victory City will have to compete with his recent real-life drama.\n\n\"I'm hoping that to some degree it might change the subject. I've always thought that my books are more interesting than my life,\" he said. \"Unfortunately, the world appears to disagree.\"\n\nHe talks about how the book, set in 14th Century southern India, can be read as an allegory about the abuse of power and the curse of sectarianism.\n\nSir Salman is critical of the country's current prime minister, Narendra Modi.\n\nIndian prime minister Narendra Modi's ideology of strident Hindu nationalism, combined with promises of economic development, remains a big draw with voters\n\n\"The Modi government is very popular. It has huge support. And that makes it possible for them to get away with everything… to create this very autocratic state, which is unkind of minorities. Which is fantastically oppressive of journalists. Where people are very afraid.\n\n\"It's getting difficult to call it a democracy.\"\n\nYou can read the full interview in the New Yorker and listen to the accompanying podcast.", "Some 30 avalanches were reported on Saturday alone in western Austria\n\nTen people have been killed in several avalanches across the Austrian and Swiss Alps over the weekend.\n\nTourists from New Zealand, China and Germany were among the dead at a number of different ski resorts.\n\nAustrian authorities put in place a level four avalanche alert - the second highest - following intense snowfall and wind in the area.\n\nDespite the warnings, ski resorts in western Austria have been filling up due to school holidays in Vienna.\n\nAustrian police announced five deaths on Sunday, including that of a 59-year-old man who was using a snow plough in the western region of Tyrol.\n\nThey also recovered the bodies of a ski guide in Sankt Anton am Arlberg and a 62-year-old man who was cross-country skiing around the summit of Hohe Aifner.\n\nOn Saturday, a 17-year-old New Zealander, a 32-year-old Chinese national and a German man in his 50s - who were all said to be skiing off designated ski trails when avalanches hit - were also found dead.\n\nIn Switzerland, a 56-year-old woman and 52-year-old man were also killed by unstable snow in the south-east canton of Graubuenden on Saturday morning. Swiss police said a third member of their group managed to escape unharmed.\n\nAvalanches are common in both countries. According to Austria's APA news agency, 30 avalanches were reported in the Tyrol region on Saturday alone - 11 of these involving people.\n\nAustria's level four alert level means \"very large avalanches are likely\" - it advises inexperienced skiers to remain on open ski runs and trails and for experienced skiers to stay away from very steep terrain.", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nThe Premier League has charged Manchester City with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules following a four-year investigation.\n\nIt has referred the club to an independent commission over alleged rule breaches between 2009 and 2018.\n\nIt also accused City of not co-operating since the investigation started in December 2018.\n\nCity said they were \"surprised\" by the charges and are supported by a \"body of irrefutable evidence\".\n\nThe commission can impose punishments ranging from a fine and points deduction to expulsion from the Premier League.\n\n\"Manchester City is surprised by the issuing of these alleged breaches of the Premier League Rules, particularly given the extensive engagement and vast amount of detailed materials that the EPL has been provided with,\" the club said in a statement.\n\n\"The club welcomes the review of this matter by an independent commission, to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of its position.\n\n\"As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.\"\n\nLast season City won their sixth Premier League title since the 2008 takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group.\n\nWhat have City been charged with?\n\nIn a statement the Premier League said City breached rules requiring them to provide \"accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club's financial position\".\n\nThis information covered club revenue, which includes sponsorship income and operating costs.\n\nFurther alleged breaches relate to rules requiring full details of manager remuneration - from the 2009-10 to 2012-13 seasons, when Roberto Mancini was in charge - and player remuneration between 2010-11 and 2015-16.\n\nThe Premier League said City breached rules related to Uefa regulations, including Financial Fair Play (FFP), from 2013-14 to 2017-18, as well as Premier League rules on profitability and sustainability from 2015-16 to 2017-18.\n\nIn 2020 European football governing body Uefa ruled that City committed \"serious breaches\" of FFP regulations between 2012 and 2016.\n\nHowever, a two-year ban from European competitions was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) later that year.\n\nUefa began its investigation into City after German newspaper Der Spiegel published leaked documents in November 2018 alleging the club had inflated the value of a sponsorship deal.\n\nThe proceedings of the commission - chaired by Murray Rosen KC - will be confidential and heard in private.\n\nWhen the Premier League investigation began, City said the allegations were \"entirely false\" and that allegations in Der Spiegel came from \"illegal hacking and out of context publication of City emails\".\n\n'It will be expensive and will drag on' - analysis\n\nCity were not given advance warning of the Premier League statement. They were called at the same time the statement was published.\n\nThey also note the timing of the statement given the white paper on football governance is about to be published. It is felt that bringing this case is likely to be used by the Premier League as evidence of them being able to deal with governance issues itself.\n\nCity are confident in their position and that includes the charges that were time-barred in their Uefa case. The club are understood to have provided the relevant evidence around those charges to the Premier League some time ago.\n\nOn the basis it has taken the Premier League four years to get to this point, do not expect a resolution to this case any time soon.\n\nManchester City have always denied financial wrongdoing. They always said the detail published by Der Spiegel when it was passed information by Football Leaks was incomplete.\n\nWhen Uefa launched its case, City said they had no faith in that investigation and, when it went against them, they went straight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where they were cleared of what they regarded as the substantive allegations, even though some were timed out.\n\nThey will be armed with the very best lawyers, looking line by line at every element of the Premier League's case.\n\nThe charge sheet includes five years of allegations that City have not assisted with their inquiry - which is all of it.\n\nThe whole thing will be expensive and it will drag on.\n\nCity manager Pep Guardiola has always said he was assured by his employers that they have done nothing wrong. Others - La Liga president Javier Tebas is one of the loudest voices - argue vehemently the other way.\n\nShould City win, legally, they will be clear, even if the sniping will continue.\n\nShould they lose, all manner of punishments can be handed down. The Premier League's scope in that sense is completely open-ended and we are in uncharted territory.\n\nWe are now beginning a very long end game. City's reputation - and the reputation of those who own it - is on the line. The outcome, whenever it comes, will be fascinating.\n• Sept 2008: Abu Dhabi United Group agrees takeover of club. On same day Brazil forward Robinho joins from Real Madrid for a then club record £32.5m\n• May 2011: City beat Stoke to win FA Cup, their first major trophy since 1976\n• May 2012: Sergio Aguero scores dramatic stoppage-time winner as Man City win Premier League title on final day of 2011-12 season - their first league title since 1968\n• May 2013: Mancini sacked as manager and replaced by Manuel Pellegrini, who leads City to 2013-14 Premier League title\n• May 2018: City win Premier League with record number of points, wins and goals\n• May 2019: City become the first English team to win all four domestic trophies\n• May 2021: City reach their first Champions League final, where they lose against Chelsea\n• None Club record revenues of £613m and profits of £42m for 2021-22 season\n• None - a list of the world's richest clubs by revenue - for second year in a row ahead of Real Madrid\n• None Won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, six EFL Cups and three Community Shields, but yet to win Champions League\n• None Spent 2.38bn euros (£2.1bn) on new players since the takeover,\n• None Broke the British transfer record twice in £32.5m signing of Robinho in 2008 and £100m capture of Jack Grealish in 2021\n• None Our coverage of Manchester City is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything City - go straight to all the best content", "Unite general secretary Sharon Graham with workers on the Cardiff picket line on Monday morning\n\nMembers of the Unite union have begun striking in Wales, with talk of a deal described as \"wholly premature\".\n\nBut ambulance bosses have warned the service still faces \"significant pressure\" and have drafted in military personnel to drive ambulances.\n\nOther health unions are set to ballot on a new pay offer from the Welsh government. Unite has strikes planned for 20, 21 and 22 February.\n\nThe Welsh government said it would continue talks with Unite.\n\nWales' Health Minister Eluned Morgan said: \"Unite have absented themselves from that table by not suspending their action.\n\n\"And obviously we'll continue to talk to them, but it's a very, very different conversation, and I think it's really important that I make it clear that there is no more money.\"\n\nShe added that negotiations continue \"in detail\" with the other four unions which have postponed strike action, but there was \"a timeframe\" as the offer would use reserves from this financial year.\n\nGMB union ambulance members put their walkout on hold last Friday.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) have also suspended strike action.\n\nOn Friday, the RCN called off its strikes planned for 6 and 7 February, and said it would put the new deal to a vote of members in Wales in the coming days.\n\nRCM has called off strike action set for Tuesday and Friday this week.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) said the continuing strike action by Unite would have an impact asking the public to \"use our services wisely\".\n\n\"Members of the public should continue to support us by calling us only in a life-threatening emergency,\" it warned.\n\nSharon Graham at the Cardiff picket line on Monday\n\nShe also joined her members on the picket line at an ambulance station in Cardiff on Monday.\n\n\"We need to make sure that when the offer goes to the members, it's an offer they can accept. I know my members won't accept this offer,\" she told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Monday.\n\n\"Although they've given an extra 3%, over half of that is in a lump sum, and not on the actual long-term wages.\n\n\"All we're saying is, put some more of that that's in the lump sum onto the proper wages so that people have got it in their pay packets and they know that it's there forever.\n\n\"What we're trying to deal with here, yes is the pay, but also people leaving the service. People are not being retained because of the wages.\"\n\nMs Graham does not think the strength of Unite's position has been affected, despite other unions calling off their strikes.\n\n\"We're close, but we do need to move a little bit more on the wages, rather than just a one-off payment, which really in a sense is only for a moment in time and a sticking plaster,\" she said.\n\nParamedic Kevin Gamlin said there had been support, but also some abuse of striking workers\n\n\"Let's look at how we can save more money from the eye-watering agency bill with people on £60 an hour in some circumstances.\"\n\nSome striking staff said they had experienced abuse on the picket line, paramedic Kevin Gamlin said.\n\n\"We were just on the picket line and people were showing their support. A gentleman in a van pulled straight across the road shouting abuse,\" Mr Gamlin said, adding the man said they should be negotiating rather than picketing.\n\n\"It just feels quite intimidating. We're not just here for pay we're here for patients to have a better experience. In all fairness we've had quite a bit of support as well,\" he added.\n\nTwenty military personnel have been drafted in to support the service by driving ambulances.\n\nUnite members on the picket line in Cardiff on Monday morning\n\nZoe Codd, Unite's regional officer, said: \"Whilst talks are still ongoing we hope that we can come to an offer that would be accepted by members.\"\n\nThe Welsh government has offered eight health unions an extra 3% in the first year on top of the £1,400 already promised.\n\nThe additional increase would be backdated to April 2022, with 1.5% of that carried forward and consolidated for future years.\n\nZoe Codd hopes ministers can present an offer members are happy with\n\nThe Welsh government said on Sunday that talks were continuing: \"We are pleased by the initial reception to the enhanced pay offer made to health trade unions.\n\n\"We continue to engage with them on a number of non-pay commitments to enhance staff well-being,\" it said. \"We again thank those that have participated in the negotiations for their positive engagement and goodwill\".\n\nFinance Minister Rebecca Evans told BBC Politics Wales the extra cash to cover the pay offer to NHS staff meant the Welsh government would have \"more difficult choices\" to make in future years.\n\nShe said extra money for a pay settlement would come from £125m in its reserves in the first year.\n\nMs Evans said this was the maximum allowed to be withdrawn from reserves in a single year, but the Welsh NHS would then have to find £64m in savings annually to finance the deal.\n\nMs Graham said while senior representatives were not prepared to accept the new offer, \"we are nearly there, I feel\".\n\nDespite the suspension of NHS strike action by nurses, midwives and physiotherapists, health boards have warned patients not to expect an immediate return to normality.\n\nPeople are being asked to attend appointments only if they have been contacted, as arrangements could not be made at short notice.\n\nElsewhere in the UK, England is still facing the biggest week of strikes in NHS history, with nurses and ambulance staff continuing walkouts in many areas.\n\nUnions have accused the UK government of intransigence, with claims that ministers have refused to sit down for pay talks.", "Gaziantep Castle was built by the Romans in the 2nd and 3rd centuries before becoming a museum\n\nThe devastation wrought by Monday's deadly earthquake in south-eastern Turkey included the almost total destruction of a 2,000-year-old castle built during the Roman Empire.\n\nFootage obtained by the BBC showed severe damage at the hilltop Gaziantep Castle, in the centre of the city.\n\nIt was built in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries, before becoming a museum.\n\nTwo plus-7 magnitude quakes hit the region on Monday, killing more than 2,000 people in Turkey and Syria.\n\nA video obtained and verified by the BBC showed Gaziantep Castle in ruins, with many of its walls collapsed and broken into pieces on the streets below.\n\nSome of the fortifications in the \"east, south and south-east\" of the castle had been destroyed by the earthquake, Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu has been reported as saying, adding that \"debris was scattered on the road\".\n\nParts of the nearby Sirvani Mosque were also destroyed, reports said.\n\nThe castle was built by the Romans during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, then strengthened and expanded by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the 6th Century.\n\nIt also saw changes made during the reign of the Ayyubids in the 12th and 13th Centuries, as well as the Ottoman Empire, and played an important role during Turkey's war of independence of the early 20th Century.\n\nUntil recently it served as the Gaziantep Defence and Heroism Panoramic Museum.\n\nHours after the first earthquake, a second quake, with a magnitude of 7.5, hit the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province.\n\nSeismologists have said the first earthquake was one of the largest ever recorded in Turkey.\n\nHundreds of buildings have collapsed in both Turkey and Syria, with rescuers working to save people trapped beneath the rubble.\n\nShocking images show buildings that were four or five storeys high flattened, roads destroyed and mountains of rubble.", "A young child was pulled from the rubble in Azaz, after a devastating earthquake shook Syria and Turkey, leaving hundreds of people dead.\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the early hours of Monday while people were asleep and dozens of aftershocks have been felt in the hours since.", "An Australian firm has been named as the preferred bidder for Britishvolt, the UK battery start-up which collapsed last month.\n\nRecharge Industries, which is owned by New York fund Scale Facilitation Partners, has entered an agreement to buy Britishvolt's business and assets.\n\nBritishvolt was put into administration after running out of money.\n\nIt had planned to build a giant factory to make electric car batteries near Blyth, Northumberland.\n\nEY, the accountancy firm and administrator to Britishvolt which has been overseeing the sale, said: \"Completion of the acquisition is expected to occur within the next seven days.\"\n\nRecharge Industries is building a facility in Australia to produce batteries for electric vehicles.\n\nLittle detail has emerged on its plans for the Britishvolt business, which had hoped to build a £3.8bn factory as part a long-term strategy to boost the UK's manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries.\n\nIt had been hoped it would create 3,000 skilled jobs. Instead, more than 200 people lost their jobs when Britishvolt collapsed.\n\nIt was forced to delay the start of production at the plant a number of times, most recently blaming \"difficult external economic headwinds including rampant inflation and rising interest rates\".\n\nBuilding this battery plant is seen as absolutely vital to securing the future of UK car manufacturing. But the last time an ambitious start-up, with unproven technology led by people unheard of in the battery and car world, attempted this it ended up in the spectacular failure of Britishvolt, which collapsed into administration last month.\n\nWinning the bid to buy Britishvolt out of administration, Recharge Industries conceded they had paid a premium over the other bidders, but said that was indicative of their confidence in a project that would bring together Australian minerals, US battery know-how and a promising UK site.\n\nBut the people who decided who won are not required to care about any of that. The administrators EY have just one job - getting the most cash for the people owed money by the defunct Britishvolt.\n\nThe government insists that while it is \"monitoring the situation\", this is a matter between private businesses. But industry figures remain frustrated and disappointed that ministers don't feel the need to take a more muscular and strategic role in such a key development.\n\nToday's announcement begs more questions than it answers and should be seen as a beginning rather than the end of this process.\n\nDavid Collard, chief executive of Scale Facilitation and founder of Recharge Industries, said it \"can't wait to get started making a reality of our plans to build the UK's first gigafactory\".\n\nRecharge is building a battery-making factory in Geelong, Melbourne which, according to its website, will begin operating in 2024.\n\nRecharge reportedly beat a number of others to become the preferred bidder for Britishvolt.\n\nEY said it followed a process \"that involved the consideration of multiple approaches from interested parties and numerous offers received\".\n\nIndriatti van Hien, deputy fund manager at Janus Henderson Investments, told the BBC: \"The acquisition of Britishvolt will really give them a toe-hold in Europe.\n\n\"It is interesting really because there are a lot of British companies bidding for this asset too.\"\n\nBritishvolt's collapse was a blow to the government's \"levelling up\" agenda started by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nIt was hoped it would boost the economy in Blyth which was one of the main so-called \"red wall\" seats to change hands from Labour to the Conservatives in the 2019 General Election.\n\nThe government had committed £100m in funding for the project. That had helped the company to secure a further £1.7bn in funding from private investors.\n\nThe then Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said Britishvolt's factory and the jobs it would create was \"exactly what levelling up looks like\".", "It has been two months since the public launch of AI chatbot ChatGPT by the firm OpenAI - and it did not take long for people to start noticing what a game-changer this really is.\n\nWhether you have asked it to write you a song in the style of your favourite musician, sneaked in a homework question (500 words on the end of World War Two? no problem), tasked it to write copy for your company website, write a speech or even churn out specific program code, ChatGPT has proved that it can deliver - and in a convincing way.\n\nThere has been acres of reporting about its potential threat to a wide range of jobs, and indeed to our entire model of education if students can get their coursework done and university applications written instantly via ChatGPT or its rivals.\n\nThat said - this tech is still, comparatively, in its infancy. It is text only, restricted to content from the internet as it was in 2021, and does not update. It presents its answers as fact, when as we know the net is full of misinformation, some of it more dangerous than others.\n\nWe tried to get it to write an article for the BBC website, and the journalist who worked on it said it needed lots of prompting and revisions before there was something even close to being of a quality we might publish. In the end it still was not good enough, so we didn't.\n\nIn our trial article, ChatGPT admitted to inventing a quote.\n\nOur journalist said although it churned out copy quickly, the process itself became very time-consuming because he had to keep going back to it and specifically asking it to explain more about one thing, or focus less on another.\n\nBut the creators of ChatGPT have a far more lucrative goal in mind than simply taking my job. The bigger picture is the multi-billion dollar sector that is internet search. And that is why it has been dubbed the Google killer.\n\nGoogle's parent company Alphabet made $104bn (£86bn) in revenue in 2020 alone, just from search. Taking even a tiny fraction of that market would be a huge prize - and it is no coincidence that Microsoft, which owns the search engine Bing, has announced a multi-billion dollar partnership with OpenAI.\n\nThe internet is full of supposedly leaked pictures of a ChatGPT-powered Bing. Imagine going to a search engine, typing in your query and back comes one definitive answer, rather than pages and pages of links (and ads) to wade through?\n\nMy contacts at Microsoft are staying tight-lipped, but we do know it is due to announce some news this week.\n\nGoogle has just announced the launch of its own rival - an AI chatbot called Bard. It is understood to have brought the announcement forward following all the speculation about Microsoft and ChatGPT.\n\nBard is based on Google's language learning model Lamda, which is said to be so human-like in its responses that one engineer who worked on it said he believed it was sentient (he was fired, and Google has always denied the claim). The tech giant has also just announced a $300m investment in a firm called Anthropic, which is developing a rival to ChatGPT.\n\nMeta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, launched its own AI chatbot Blenderbot in the US last summer, and in China, the tech giant Baidu says an advanced version of its chatbot Ernie (also known as Wenxin Yiyan) will roll out in March 2023.\n\nAre we about to see a battle of the chatbots?\n\nChatGPT itself said, rather diplomatically, that \"it is not a matter of one being 'better' than the other\" when I asked it which was best.\n\n\"I do not have the capability or intention to harm any company, including Google,\" it added.\n\nBut with investment dollars pouring into AI chat, it may well be that ChatGPT has to toughen up on that particular viewpoint. Not that it has one, of course. Yet.\n\nYou can follow Zoe Kleinman on Twitter @zsk.", "Younger and lower-paid workers should be included in a scheme which sees people automatically enrolled into pension saving, a think tank says.\n\nCurrent rules require workers aged 22 and above to be enrolled, and receive a contribution from their employer, when they earn more than £10,000 a year.\n\nThe Social Market Foundation (SMF) says those from minority ethnic backgrounds disproportionately miss out.\n\nThe government says it is planning to make these changes, when affordable.\n\nAveek Bhattacharya, research director at the SMF, a centrist think tank, said: \"Sensible changes to pensions auto-enrolment rules would bring more ethnic minorities into pension saving, increasing their chances of enjoying the comfortable retirement that everyone deserves.\"\n\nIn a wide-ranging study, supported by the consumer group Which?, the SMF also called on the government to accelerate its plans to allow workers to be included from the age of 18.\n\nThat will reignite the debate over whether teenage workers would want some of their wages diverted into a workplace pension scheme, when their budget is squeezed by cost-of-living pressures.\n\nAll employers must offer a workplace pension scheme to their staff, and automatically enrol those who fit certain criteria.\n\nThey include people who are not already signed up to a workplace pension, earn at least £10,000 a year per job, and are aged between 22 and state pension age.\n\nWorkers can opt out if they do not want to save. Otherwise, 5% of their earnings above £6,240 a year, including tax relief, and a contribution from their employer worth 3% of earnings, is automatically saved into a pension pot which is invested.\n\nThe idea is to encourage saving for retirement from an earlier age, to top up the state pension in later life. It has been widely regarded a success since its introduction in 2012, with relatively few people opting out.\n\nThe SMF said that people from ethnic minorities were much less likely than white Britons to save into a workplace pension, suggesting that 25% did so, compared with a national average of 38%.\n\nThey were disproportionately likely to be younger and poorer, meaning they were missing out. The think tank also suggested there was heightened scepticism about financial services within these groups, with lower levels of awareness and trust, even among those earning bigger salaries.\n\n\"Part of the responsibility for addressing this situation should lie with government, but it is also incumbent on financial firms to do their bit as well,\" it said.\n\nAmong its recommendations were:\n\nWorkers can opt in to the pension saving scheme when they earn more than £6,240, but the SMF suggestion to cancel the earnings threshold follows similar calls from pension providers.\n\nAndrew Tully, technical director at Canada Life, said: \"The best ideas are often the simple ones and these recommendations are not only easy to deliver, but will reward many more people effectively saving for their retirements, increasing pension coverage irrespective of social or economic background.\n\n\"This will help many people who are multiple jobbers but where each individual job falls below the current £10,000 threshold, so won't enjoy the benefits of auto-enrolment. This includes many women.\"\n\nThe government said that it was planning to abolish the lower earnings limit, and cut the age for automatic enrolment from 22 to 18 by the mid-2020s.\n\n\"It is important that we make sure that these changes are made in a way and at a time that is affordable, balancing the needs of savers, employers and taxpayers,\" said Laura Trott, the Pensions Minister.\n\nShe said that automatic enrolment had \"transformed pension saving\", with more than 10.8 million workers enrolled into a workplace pension and an additional £33bn saved in real terms in 2021 compared with 2012.\n\nSeparately, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has called on the government to overhaul the tax treatment of pensions.\n\nThe leading economic research group argues that the current system gives overgenerous tax breaks to those with the biggest pensions and the biggest contributions from employers.", "The NHS is bracing for its biggest strike yet. For the first time in this dispute, ambulance workers and nurses will walk out together in England on Monday.\n\nThe impact will also be bigger than on previous strike days because more hospital trusts are involved.\n\nIt won't just affect emergency care - many non-urgent appointments and operations will be cancelled.\n\nIn Wales, the strike has been called off by the main ambulance union, the GMB, and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union while they consider a new pay offer from the Welsh government.\n\nBut the Unite union, which also represents ambulance workers in Wales, says its strike will go ahead.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nMembers of the RCN are walking out over pay on Monday 6 February and Tuesday 7 February.\n\nThe RCN has said this is the biggest action so far, with more than a third of hospital trusts in England affected.\n\nThe union has about 300,000 members - roughly two-thirds of NHS nurses.\n\nWelsh NHS staff have suspended strike action following an improved offer from ministers.\n\nThe RCN and GMB unions in Scotland have put strike action on hold to allow talks on a 2023 pay offer.\n\nPeople with a hospital appointment in England should still go, unless they have been told otherwise, according to NHS advice.\n\nPatients in hospital will be informed how their care will be affected on a ward-by-ward basis.\n\nIntensive and emergency care will still be provided, but routine check-ups and other operations may be affected.\n\nServices such as chemotherapy, kidney dialysis and intensive care will be staffed, but other care such as knee and hip replacements and hernia repair are likely to be affected.\n\nGP practices will run as normal, and people should go to scheduled appointments.\n\nAnyone who is seriously ill or injured should still call 999, or 111 for non-urgent care.\n\nThe nurses strikes on each day will last for 12 hours.\n\nAmbulance staff in England are striking over pay on Monday, with further strike dates announced.\n\nPeople should only call an ambulance if they are seriously ill or injured, and there is a risk to life.\n\nThe most life-threatening situations - such as cardiac arrest - will be sent an ambulance.\n\nConditions which are serious but not immediately life-threatening might not be immediately attended.\n\nCalls - such as a woman in late-stage labour - will not be prioritised.\n\nFor other healthcare needs, the NHS advises calling 111, or using 111 online.\n\nAmbulance strikes on 6, 17, 20, and 22 February, and 6 and 20 March will last for up to 26 hours.\n\nThe NHS said it was working with the armed forces \"to ensure ambulance services are supported\".\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Katie Glasgow makes videos and images on old digital cameras\n\nDigital cameras from the early 2000s are becoming must-have gadgets for many young people because of a burgeoning trend online.\n\nSearch traffic for old kit on online marketplaces like eBay and Etsy is on the rise.\n\nAnd in the past 12 months, videos with the hashtag #digitalcamera have amassed more than 220 million views on TikTok.\n\nAnalysts describe the trend as being linked to similar revivals of turn of the century fashion.\n\nScott Ewart, 32, who lives on the Isle of Arran, has clocked up more than five million likes on his TikTok account, using what is now considered retro kit.\n\nHe said: \"A lot of folk find them quite comforting. It reminds them of their childhood, it reminds them of simpler times.\n\nScott Ewart first got into using old cameras during lockdown\n\n\"I find it quite refreshing going back to something so simple. With older cameras you have to work with them a bit more, to get a good photo or to get the most out of them.\n\n\"Because with every smartphone you buy, you can't take a bad shot almost.\"\n\nScott started by digging out old cameras belonging to his parents, but has quickly expanded his collection to more than 30 pieces of kit.\n\nScott said he has to \"work with\" old digital cameras to get a good shot\n\nHe added: \"I get folk asking me, 'where do you edit these photos, are they edited?'. And I always say these are never edited and I want to show exactly how they've come out on every camera.\"\n\nEBay UK told the BBC the last three months of 2022 saw increases in people seeking the devices. This included a 13% rise in search traffic for \"vintage digital camera\", and a 52% rise for \"refurbished camera\".\n\nEtsy, which focuses on handmade and vintage items, has also seen a growing interest from shoppers in the last six months. It currently has more than 19,000 items linked to digital cameras listed online.\n\nKatie said the images open up a \"nostalgic world\" for younger people\n\nKatie Glasgow, 25, lives in Brooklyn, New York and calls herself \"the oldest possible Gen Z\". She has also been using her parents' old kit to make images and video.\n\n\"It looks like memories, because it's blurry and imperfect. It looks more like how we remember things,\" she said.\n\nFor younger people, who will have virtually no recollection of these cameras in their 2000s heyday, this opens up a kind of \"nostalgic world\", she said.\n\n\"These are the cameras my older sister took to prom or my brother had in college, or my young childhood memories were recorded on.\n\n\"With your phone you can take videos and pictures of literally everything. So your library is huge, versus with this you kind of have to decide, 'this is a moment I actually want to preserve'.\n\nPaul Greenwood, head of research and insight at the creative agency We Are Social, said it was a \"natural cycle\" where when people hit their 20s \"they become nostalgic for the cultural touchstones of their youth\".\n\nHe added: \"They want to feel comforted when in the real world they feel uncomfortable. And there's some reasons why people are feeling uncomfortable - like the existential dread you're seeing with Ukraine, the pandemic, wealth inequality.\n\n\"It's seen as more real and authentic. And that's why we're seeing this trend really play out, because the grainy kind of content you see is basically shorthand for authenticity and realness. That's what Gen Z are looking for.\"\n\nYou can watch this story on the BBC's technology programme Click, available on iPlayer.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Liz Truss' approach 'clearly' not right - Shapps\n\nLiz Truss's radical tax-cutting plan was \"clearly\" not the right approach, according to Grant Shapps, who briefly served in her short-lived government.\n\nIn a return to the political fray, Ms Truss wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that her economic agenda was never given a \"realistic chance\".\n\nBusiness Secretary Mr Shapps said he agreed with Ms Truss on wanting lower taxes - but inflation must fall first.\n\n\"You can't just go straight to those tax cuts,\" he said.\n\nIn her 4,000-word essay, Ms Truss stood by her plans to boost economic growth, arguing they were brought down by \"the left-wing economic establishment\".\n\nBut she acknowledged she was not \"blameless\" for the unravelling of the mini-budget.\n\nThey are the first public comments the former PM has made on her resignation in October of last year.\n\nMs Truss resigned after she and her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng introduced a £45bn package of tax cuts - including a cut to the top rate of income tax - which panicked the markets and alienated Tory MPs.\n\nMr Shapps was asked on BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show whether Ms Truss's approach had been the right one.\n\n\"Clearly it wasn't,\" he said.\n\nHe admitted that the UK's tax burden was currently \"very high\", and said he agreed with Ms Truss that Conservatives must be \"making the good arguments\" that a lower-tax economy can be successful in the long term.\n\nBut before the government cuts tax, it must first halve inflation, get \"growth into the economy\" and get debt \"under control\", he said.\n\nGrant Shapps was home secretary under Liz Truss for her final six days in office\n\nHe tried to avoid addressing Truss's criticism that the Conservative Party had failed, for years, to make the case for free-market economics with low taxes and low regulation.\n\nMr Shapps said he took the role of home secretary in the final days of Ms Truss's government out of a sense of \"national duty\", and that by that point \"we'd seen the impact on the markets\".\n\nHe replaced Suella Braverman, who resigned over two data breaches. Six weeks earlier, as Ms Truss entered Downing Street, she had fired Mr Shapps as transport secretary, a role he held under the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.\n\nMs Truss's brief time in power - 49 days - made her the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history.\n\nIn her essay, Ms Truss said that while her experience last autumn was \"bruising for me personally\", she believed that over the medium term her policies would have increased growth and therefore brought down debt.\n\nShe argued that the government was made a \"scapegoat\" for developments that had been brewing for some time.\n\n\"Frankly, we were also pushing water uphill. Large parts of the media and the wider public sphere had become unfamiliar with key arguments about tax and economic policy and over time sentiment had shifted leftward,\" she wrote.\n\nShe also said she had not appreciated the strength of the resistance she would face to her plans - including plans to abolish the 45p top rate of income tax.\n\n\"I assumed upon entering Downing Street that my mandate would be respected and accepted. How wrong I was.\"\n\nLiz Truss resigned as prime minister in October 2022 and officially stepped down after a week-long contest to find her successor\n\nMr Kwarteng dropped the 45p income tax proposals 10 days after they were announced, telling the BBC it was \"a massive distraction on what was a strong package\".\n\nLess than a fortnight later, Ms Truss sacked Mr Kwarteng, something she said she was \"deeply disturbed by\". She described Mr Kwarteng in her essay as \"an original thinker and a great advocate for Conservative ideas\" - but that it was clear the tax proposals could not survive.\n\nWith the benefit of hindsight, she would have acted differently during her premiership, she wrote - but she still backs her plans for growth.\n\nSir Jake Berry, who was Conservative party chairman under Ms Truss, said he agreed with her assessment of the problems facing the UK economy, but \"not necessarily the cure\".\n\nSpeaking on the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show, he added that Ms Truss had been wrong to say the Conservatives had failed to make the argument for lower taxes.\n\nMeanwhile, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said Ms Truss's policies \"made working people pay the price\".\n\n\"The Conservatives crashed the economy, sank the pound, put pensions in peril and made working people pay the price through higher mortgages for years to come.\n\n\"After 13 years of low growth, squeezed wages and higher taxes under the Tories, only Labour offers the leadership and ideas to fix our economy and to get it growing.\"\n\nWhile Ms Truss resigned as prime minister, she is still serving in parliament as the MP for South West Norfolk.", "The Beatles kick off the Coronation playlist, with the message Come Together\n\nThe Beatles, David Bowie, Tom Jones and the Spice Girls are included on an official government Coronation playlist, published on Spotify.\n\nThe Department for Culture, Media and Sport has chosen 27 tracks as a suggested street party soundtrack.\n\nPicked by the DCMS without any external input, the Coronation party selection initially featured 28 - but a Dizzee Rascal track quickly disappeared.\n\nThe grime artist was convicted last year of assaulting his former partner.\n\n\"A track featuring Dizzee Rascal was included in error - and as soon as this was identified, it was removed,\" a DCMS spokeswoman said.\n\nKing Charles III will be crowned on Saturday, 6 May, alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, who has been a longstanding campaigner against domestic violence.\n\nThe playlist published on Monday seems to nod more towards the golden oldies or, as the DCMS suggests, \"classics\".\n\nThe singalong choice begins with The Beatles and the message Come Together, followed by Boney M's Daddy Cool.\n\nEmeli Sande is among the official picks for a Coronation party\n\nA spokeswoman said the playlist had been selected to \"celebrate British and Commonwealth artists ahead of the upcoming Coronation\".\n\nThe selected songs appear on a new website with information about marking the Coronation.\n\nIt includes recipe ideas for parties, including Ken Hom's Coronation lamb and Nadiya Hussain's Coronation aubergine. Coronation chicken was invented for Queen Elizabeth's coronation, in 1953.\n\nDetails have begun to emerge about events planned for the Coronation long weekend.\n\nThis will include traditional sights such as the carriage procession and appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony.\n\nBut there will be no lighting of beacons, ending a tradition from previous jubilees and coronations.\n\nThe Coronation service, at Westminster Abbey, is expected to be more diverse and shorter than the previous three-hour ceremony, in 1953.\n\nOn 7 May, there will be a concert and lightshow at Windsor Castle and street parties during the day.\n\nThe extra bank holiday, on 8 May, will highlight local volunteering projects.", "You're going to hear the term \"spring offensive\" a lot in the coming weeks of the war in Ukraine.\n\nIn a traditional military sense, it's when armies look to generate momentum after using the poor winter conditions to replenish.\n\nIt is true that the fighting has become more static during typically cold conditions.\n\nHowever, all signs seem to be pointing towards an upcoming Russian push.\n\nMoscow has mobilised hundreds of thousands more men, as well as increased its production of weapons and ammunition.\n\nKyiv is expecting to see major attacks from the east and south as soon as 24 February, which would mark a year since the full-scale invasion.\n\nSo, if Russia does launch another offensive, what will it try to take?\n\nBakhmut has been virtually flattened during months of heavy fighting\n\nIt's the eastern city which has been grabbing the headlines because of the endless conflicting claims over who controls it.\n\nFor now, Kyiv isn't hinting at a tactical retreat. It claims the Russians are suffering about 500 casualties per day as they stage relentless attacks. Ukraine reckons its own losses are not as high.\n\nRegular Russian forces appear to have replaced mercenaries from the Wagner Group as they continue to surround the city. For now, Ukrainian troops are continuing to hold it.\n\nIf or when the city falls, invading forces are expected to push towards the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. It could allow Moscow to capture the entire eastern Donetsk region, one of its official goals.\n\nBut that would involve capturing more than 4,000 square miles (10,360 sq km). In a period where Russia has been making minimal, costly gains, the Ukrainians would have to be seriously overpowered, or taken by surprise.\n\nVuhledar is now a ghost town as almost all residents have fled the town\n\nAfter trying and failing last November, Russian forces have started launching attacks on the small town of Vuhledar, also in the Donetsk region.\n\nIt sits on the south-eastern curve of the current battlefield and is significant for Moscow for two reasons.\n\nFirstly, it's close to the only rail line linking the annexed Crimean peninsula and Russian-controlled territories in the east. It's from Vuhledar that Ukrainian forces have been firing artillery at Russian supply trains.\n\nVuhledar is like Bakhmut in that for the Russians it carries more symbolic than military significance. Ukraine is convinced Moscow is going to chase its two main goals as quickly as possible.\n\nAlongside capturing the whole of Donbas (Luhansk and Donetsk regions), Russian President Vladimir Putin is thought to be looking to widen the land corridor he has seized between Crimea and Russia.\n\nThe capture of Vuhledar would certainly go towards those - but it would be more valuable to the Kremlin in a propaganda sense. Military milestones help the Kremlin to justify its \"special military operation\" back in Russia, as well as appease critics.\n\nThey also could provide President Putin with a political way out, if he can keep hold of what he seizes.\n\nZaporizhzhia - which has been regularly shelled by Russia - is seen as a gateway to the south of Ukraine\n\nAway from the eastern front, the conflict line south of the city Zaporizhzhia is another direction Kyiv is worried about.\n\nThe concern is that Russian forces could push north towards the towns of Orikhiv and Pokrovsk (the latter is in Donetsk region).\n\nIf this were to happen, it would push back the firing positions of longer-range Ukrainian missiles which can strike deep into the land corridor Russia controls further south.\n\nGiven that American HIMARS have been able to travel up to 80km (50 miles), and are about to go up to 120km, the occupied cities of Melitopol and Tokmak are comfortably within Ukraine's range.\n\nMoscow is also wary of a Ukrainian advance here too towards Melitopol. Kyiv has talked about the importance of the city before, saying its liberation would allow Ukraine to cut off Russian supply routes to Crimea.\n\nHowever, Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, has also admitted his troops don't have the numbers of equipment for such an attack.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDespite being less than 25 miles from the border with Russia, Ukraine's second largest city in the north-east has never fallen into Moscow's control.\n\nLike so many areas, it has been mostly torn apart from Russia's attempts to snatch it from Kyiv's control. Kharkiv's population has endured almost constant missile strikes and resulting blackouts throughout this winter.\n\nAuthorities say while there hasn't been an increase in nearby enemy forces, Russians have been shelling civilian areas more frequently.\n\nSome officers in the local military have said they \"wouldn't be surprised\" if the Russians launched another attack, especially with the frozen ground.\n\nWhile there is no guarantee Russia could take a city it has failed to penetrate over the past year, its capture would bring a significant strategic advantage.\n\nInvading forces could seal the city off from Kyiv, which could prevent Ukrainian troops currently south of Kharkiv from retreating to the capital.\n\nEarly in the full-scale invasion Russian troops got within several kilometres of Kyiv, but were driven back by Ukrainian troops\n\nUkraine's capital is still Russia's ultimate prize. However, this isn't 2022.\n\nLast year, joint military exercises between Belarus and Russia turned into an advance on Kyiv when Moscow used its ally as a launchpad for its invasion.\n\nAt the start of this year there were fears of history repeating itself when both countries announced drills once more - this time in the form of \"defensive\" air force exercises north of Ukraine.\n\nBelarus denied it had plans to join the invasion. Moscow rejected claims it had tried to force it.\n\nNow, both the West and Ukraine seem to agree on there being no intelligence suggesting the capital could be under the threat it faced last year. Plus, Russia used its best-trained forces during its first attempt, when its goal was to topple the Ukrainian government.\n\n\"We do not see formed assault groups capable of reaching Kyiv,\" said Ukraine's outgoing Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov.\n\n\"Besides, it is impossible to capture Kyiv in principle. It is a large city with four million people, ready to defend themselves.\"\n\nIf Russia indeed launches a large-scale offensive and gains momentum, Mr Reznikov's successor could give a different assessment.", "The M&C store in Peterhead is one of the 170 which will be closing\n\nClothes retailer M&Co is to close all of its 170 stores this spring, with the loss of almost 2,000 jobs.\n\nThe Renfrewshire-based company, which used to be known as Mackays, is one of Scotland's best known clothing chains.\n\nIt appointed administrators for a second time at the end of last year, after previously collapsing in 2020.\n\nThe brand has been bought by AK Retail Holdings but the purchase did not include physical stores, meaning they will now close down at Easter.\n\nThe closures were announced in social media posts by branches across the UK.\n\nThe posts, on Facebook, began: \"Unfortunately we haven't received the news we would have hoped for during our administration period, and would like to share this news with you.\n\n\"As we haven't received any funded, deliverable offers that would result in the transfer of the company's stores or staff to a potential buyer, this means that all of our stores will close.\"\n\nMackays was established as a pawnbrokers in Paisley, Renfrewshire, in 1834.\n\nIt switched to selling clothes in 1953, led by brothers Len and Ian McGeoch, and re-branded as M&Co in 2005.\n\nIt previously went into administration in 2020, when it lost 47 stores and 380 staff, but assets were immediately bought back by the family that built it up.\n\nAK Retail Holdings, which has bought the brand, is the owner of plus size retailer Yours Clothing.\n\nM&Co had appeared to be one of the high street survivors, with an important, reassuring presence, familiar staff and typically older shoppers who don't want to travel into the city or shop online.\n\nIt had a clever strategy for where it located, away from the main and most expensive retail locations, finding a geographical niche.\n\nIt understood its customer base - typically an older, budget-conscious, female shopper who was less likely to shift to online shopping and went to M&Co not just for her own clothes, but also for her husband's and to get something for her grandchildren too.\n\nThe company bosses realised these were not going to be customers for ever. It needed to refresh, it found trading more difficult before Covid because they were importing lots of products from Europe and trading was difficult due to economic and political uncertainty.\n\nIt was going through that process of refreshing its range and brands when Covid really knocked it. The first year of Covid saw turnover down from £200m to below £50m.\n\nWhile footfall on the high street has recovered to some extent, it is not back to were it was, and those customers are the ones least likely to have come back. So it accelerated the decline in the M&Co demographic.\n\nM&Co had an important role in Islands towns such as Lerwick, Kirkwall and Stornoway, and on the mainland in places like Thurso, Fort William, Castle Douglas, Hawick, Banff, Buckie, Nairn and Montrose, county towns like Lanark and Ayr, central belt towns like Coatbridge, Wishaw, Bathgate and places on the edge of cities as well, including Broughty Ferry, Musselburgh, Newton Mearns and Kirkintilloch.\n\nSome of these have strength in independent shops but also tend to be places which are quite precarious for retail.\n\nEwan MacDonald-Russell, deputy head of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said the impending closure of M&Co was horrible news for employees and a blow to Scotland's high streets..\n\nHe added: \"This sad news reaffirms the need for government to think very carefully before heaping any additional burdens on Scotland's hard-pressed retail industry.\n\n\"It also underlines the need for the devolved administration to think again about the lack of any additional rates relief comparable to that which retailers, hospitality and leisure businesses in Wales and England are entitled to for the coming year.\"", "A man has died after falling from a mountain rockface after a piece of rock he was holding on to broke away.\n\nThree men were climbing the Gribin Ridge in Eryri, also known as Snowdonia, on Saturday, when the handhold collapsed.\n\nThe recovery attempt continued until Sunday lunchtime. However, the man did not survive his injuries.", "Investigators will be seeking clues on why a balloon of Chinese origin flew over US airspace last week when they recover the wreckage of the aircraft.\n\nThe balloon, which the Pentagon claims was spying on sensitive military sites, was shot down over US territorial waters on Saturday.\n\nDebris has been spread over a wide area off the South Carolina coast.\n\nChina insists it was a weather ship blown astray and has expressed \"strong dissatisfaction\" over its downing.\n\nUS Navy and Coast Guard ships and divers are working to recover as much debris from the balloon as possible, including whatever equipment was onboard.\n\nOn Monday, defence officials said debris had been found in an area that measures roughly 1,500m (4,920 ft) by 1,500m, although material is spread over a much larger area. Efforts to recover the balloon's equipment have been complicated by sea conditions and the possibility that the debris may include dangerous materials such as explosives or battery components.\n\nSo what do investigators hope to learn once the balloon's debris is recovered?\n\n\"We don't know exactly all the benefits that will derive. But we have learned technical things about this balloon and its surveillance capabilities,\" a top defence official told reporters on Saturday. \"And I suspect if we are successful in recovering aspects of the debris, we will learn even more.\"\n\nExperts who spoke to the BBC said the balloon's contents are key to uncovering its purpose and capabilities.\n\nIain Boyd, a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, said neither Beijing's nor Washington's official explanations quite make sense yet.\n\n\"There's doubt on both sides and that's partly what's so interesting about all of this,\" he said. \"I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle of all of this.\"\n\nMr Boyd said that, if rescue teams recover enough of the instrumentation, they will likely be able to know how much information it contained, what kind of information was being processed and if any processed data had been or was being sent back to China.\n\nSeeing the balloon up close - and finding out whether it had such features as propellers or communications equipment - will also help determine if it was being controlled remotely, he said.\n\nEven if the software is damaged or has been somehow wiped, Mr Boyd argued investigators will be able to evaluate things like the resolution and quality of surveillance images it may have taken.\n\n\"It would be very surprising if there's any technology on that platform that the US does not already have some equivalent form of, but it does give the potential to give the intelligence services here an understanding of the technological maturity that the Chinese have for these kinds of applications,\" he said.\n\nThe US will aim to find any sensors they can in the balloon wreckage to use that to uncover the purpose of the aircraft, said Gregory Falco, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University's Department of Civil and Systems Engineering.\n\nBut that won't be easy to do, he told the BBC, as the sensors - which detect different types of wavelengths - are typically small and may have been damaged after the US military shot the spy balloon. He said it's unclear from video footage of the incident how bad the damage is to the aircraft.\n\nChina, like the US, is a \"pretty smart adversary\", and also probably planned for the aircraft to self destruct or scramble data as a part of the spy espionage mission, Dr Falco said.\n\n\"Shooting this thing down was just a show of national pride more so than anything, because I'm not sure what we're gonna grab out of this,\" he said.\n\nBut information from the downed balloon could help US officials \"understand their adversary a little bit better\", he said.\n\nThe US could uncover how data captured by the aircraft was sent back to China, Dr Falco said. The country may have used a \"hybrid satellite network\", which use high-altitude platforms to relay data to the nearest orbital-friendly satellite. Once the satellite is in safe territory, it links to a ground station, or an antenna that functions as a control system, Dr Falco said.\n\nChina has \"a huge swathe of ground stations that are outside of China\", Dr Falco said. As long as the balloon was able to connect to a satellite, which would then link to a ground station, China would be \"all set with their data\" and could wipe the balloon, he said.", "The new paved approach was removed on Tuesday after it was heavily criticised online\n\nRenovation work around a historic bridge on St Andrews' Old Course has been removed following heavy criticism.\n\nThousands flock to the Swilcan Bridge every year for arguably the most famous photo opportunity in golf.\n\nSt Andrews Links Trust said a new round paved area was designed to prevent the approach area falling into disrepair.\n\nBut the trust announced it would be dug up and replaced with turf after the paving was widely condemned on social media.\n\nA trust statement said: \"We believe we are unable to create a look which is in keeping with its iconic setting and have taken the decision to remove it.\"\n\nThe move came after Fife Council confirmed it was investigating whether the trust should have applied for retrospective planning permission or listed building consents.\n\nJack Nicklaus takes the applause of the crowd during his final Open appearance at St Andrews in 2005\n\nCommentator Ken Brown was among the critics of the paving - he tweeted: \"The Swilcan Bridge now serving food. A table for Fore please.\"\n\nGolf fan Warren Allsworth reacted: \"No. Just no. That's like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa.\"\n\nAnd US-based Tron Carter said it resembled a \"DIY backyard patio\".\n\nMeanwhile, six-time major winner Sir Nick Faldo posed the question: \"If you've travelled halfway around the world for your bucket list round at St Andrews, would you rather leave with a bit of historic dirt on your shoes or a few cement mix scraps?\"\n\nWriting on Twitter UK Golf Guy observed: \"They appear to have built a garden patio next to the Swilcan Bridge!\"\n\nThe approach to the bridge will now be replaced with turf\n\nOthers mocked up the paving featuring everything from garden furniture to a hot tub.\n\nLegends of the game traditionally use the walk over the bridge, after teeing off on the 18th hole, to bid farewell to the Open Championship, which is played at the Old Course every five years.\n\nThose who have made the emotional walk up the final fairway include the late Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.\n\nTiger Woods crosses the bridge during his final round in the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews last July\n\nTiger Woods famously failed to pause on the bridge during last summer's Open in a sign he still hopes to compete at the Home of Golf before he retires.\n\nOn Sundays, when no golf is allowed on the hallowed course, queues of locals and visitors form at the bridge to pose for a picture with the landmark Royal & Ancient clubhouse in the background.\n\nThe St Andrews Links Trust, which manages the course, issued a statement on Sunday to address \"some concerns\" that have been raised regarding the work.\n\nIt also emphasised no work had taken place on the bridge itself.\n\nThe trust said previous solutions including the installation of artificial turf and replacement of natural turf did not prove successful in \"adequately protecting the area from the significant wear and tear\".\n\nA picture of the damage to the Swilcan Bridge approach taken in October last year\n\nBut its updated statement accepted the new option was not the long-term solution.\n\nIt added: \"We have also taken on feedback from many partners and stakeholders as well as the golfing public and we would like to thank everyone who has been in touch for their contribution to the issue.\n\n\"The widespread attention and commentary is indicative of the regard in which St Andrews is held around the world and we are conscious of our role in preserving this heritage while recognising its hallowed grounds have continued to evolve to meet demands for more than 600 years.\"\n\nThe trust said it would continue to work with partners, including the council, to \"explore alternative options for a permanent solution\".\n\nThe announcement came after Fife Council confirmed it was looking into the stone work around the bridge.\n\nAlastair Hamilton, planning service manager, said: \"We're aware of the works which have been undertaken and are investigating the situation.\n\n\"We will confirm whether there's a need for any retrospective planning or listed building consents in due course.\"", "Postal workers will no longer go on strike later this month after a legal challenge from Royal Mail, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) says.\n\nAbout 115,000 workers had planned to walk out from 12:30 GMT on 16 February, until 12:30 on 17 February in an ongoing row over pay and conditions.\n\nBut union bosses said late on Monday that they would not fight a legal challenge to the action.\n\nRoyal Mail said the cancelled strike would mean \"relief\" for customers.\n\nThe company said it legally challenged the industrial action on grounds to do with the reasons the strike had been called, citing what it described as a \"legal error\".\n\n\"We welcome the fact that the strike action has been called off,\" Royal Mail said. \"It will be a relief to our customers and we intend to use this time and space for further discussions to try to agree a deal.\"\n\nThe CWU said its legal team had advised that \"given the laws in this country are heavily weighted against working people\", there was a risk that losing in court against Royal Mail's challenge could impact a new strike ballot.\n\n\"The postal executive do not believe it is worth risking the status of the new ballot to defend a ballot mandate that expires on 17 February,\" it said.\n\nThe union said it would re-enter negotiations with Royal Mail later this week, but added \"the focus of the whole union must remain on winning\" the ballot to give it a fresh mandate.\n\nIf the talks failed the CWU would \"significantly step up the programme of strike action\", it said.\n\nRoyal Mail workers staged several strikes at the end of last year, in a move which cost the firm millions at one of the busiest times of the year for parcel deliveries.\n\nWorkers have been offered a pay deal which Royal Mail says is worth up to 9% over 18 months.\n\nBut, the CWU says its members want more due to inflation - the rate at which prices rise - near a 40-year high.\n\nThe union also objects to Royal Mail's proposed changes to working conditions, including the introduction of compulsory Sunday working.\n\nThe CWU said Royal Mail's legal challenge was \"the latest in a long list of deliberate, sustained and co-ordinated attacks\" on members.\n\nBut Royal Mail claimed the mistake was not the first it attributed to the CWU, arguing six days of rolling strike days in October last year were cancelled because of \"irregularities\".\n• None Royal Mail says strikes have cost it millions", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nMissing Nicola Bulley's partner has told how he is \"extremely distraught\" as a private diving team joined the search to find her.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire 10 days ago.\n\nPolice believe Ms Bulley may have fallen into the River Wyre.\n\nDivers are scouring the water and a search continues involving mountain rescue, sniffer dogs and helicopters, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nA team of divers from the private Specialist Group International (SGI) are now assisting with the search.\n\nThe firm's founder Peter Faulding said he had spoken to Ms Bulley's partner Paul Ansell earlier.\n\nThe forensics expert said: \"I mean, Paul's extremely distraught. I've just spoken to him just now where we're staying.\n\n\"And you know, my thoughts go out to the family and friends. It's a very difficult time.\n\n\"I'm used to dealing with, you know, families of drowning victims.\n\n\"It's a horrible thing to be going through not knowing where your loved one is.\"\n\nPeter Faulding, at the front of the boat, said his team needed three or four days to search\n\nHe continued: \"If Nicola is here, I'm happy we will find her. If she's in the river.\"\n\nHe said his specialist equipment, a high-tech sonar which will scan the riverbed, has a \"very high hit rate\".\n\n\"If we can't find her in the next three or four days in this river, if she's not here, then I'm confident that she's not in this stretch of river. I'd be very confident of that,\" he said.\n\n\"We are going to be working our hardest. We'll probably be working under darkness tonight for a while and that's my intention to help the family.\"\n\nDivers were seen loading sonar equipment on to a boat\n\nPolice said SGI's offer to assist in the search was \"taken up after speaking with Nicola's family\", adding: \"We continue to lead an extensive and far-reaching multi-agency search using a wide range of specialist equipment and resources.\"\n\nFamily friend Emma White told BBC Breakfast she hoped the specialist team would be able to bring \"answers\".\n\nShe said: \"Following the theory or hypothesis of the police that Nicola is in the river, we need some evidence to back that up either way.\"\n\nFamily friend Emma White said she hoped the latest search would bring answers\n\nMs White said the family have been disregarding speculation and have focused on the many \"acts of kindness\" people have shown.\n\nShe added: \"At the end of the day we have two little girls out there who have lost their mummy.\n\n\"Whatever people are saying or the speculation, our end goal is to bring Nikki back and bring mummy home.\"\n\nOn Sunday, the first images of the mother-of-two on the day she went missing were shared with the BBC by one of her friends.\n\nDoorbell footage shows her loading her car outside her home on 27 January before driving her two children to school and going for a riverside walk.\n\nNicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nShe is seen on CCTV wearing a long dark coat, leggings and ankle boots with her hair tied in a ponytail.\n\nMs Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10 GMT.\n\nShe had logged on to a work call beforehand.\n\nHer dog and phone - still connected to the Teams call - were found at a riverside bench about 25 minutes later.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said officers were \"as sure as we can be that Nicola has not left the area where she was last seen and that very sadly for some reason she has fallen into the water\".\n\nShe said there was no evidence of \"anything untoward\" happening to her or any third-party involvement.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Heather Gibbons says some speculation is \"incredibly, incredibly hurtful\"\n\nDetectives said they were open to new information and criticised the online abuse of people who had been helping their inquiry, declaring it \"totally unacceptable\".\n\nMs Bulley's disappearance has drawn a lot of attention on social media with thousands of people commenting on the ongoing search, many sending support to the family and wishing her home safely.\n\nBut some people have been speculating about what might have happened by discussing the family's finances and relationships.\n\nMs Bulley's friend Heather Gibbons said \"vile\" theories being shared online were hurtful.\n\nSearches have been carried out for Ms Bulley on the banks of the River Wyre since she went missing 10 days ago\n\nSupt Riley told The Sunday Times officers had found \"no evidence of a slip or fall\" near the bench where Nicola's mobile phone was found but said falling from a sheer riverbank may leave no trace.\n\nAnother of Ms Bulley's friends, Luke Sumner, said family and friends were \"clinging to any sort of hope\".\n\nHe added: \"If it is a case of her being in the river, then chances of survival are probably very slim. But we have no evidence to say that she has gone into the river.\"\n\nSpeaking in Parliament earlier, Blackpool North and Cleveleys MP Paul Maynard criticised people for turning up at the scene and \"hampering\" the investigation.\n\nTheir presence, and the ongoing speculation, was \"causing inordinate distress to Nicola's family\", he said.\n\nHome Office minister Chris Philp agreed, adding: \"If anyone has any information at all, however minor or innocuous it may seem to them, please do come forward and share it with the local police.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Student Alison Stunt says the college's approach is about experiencing nature, not just reading about it\n\nClimate disruptors of the future will be trained by a new degree course, a college has said.\n\nBlack Mountains College in Talgarth, Powys, has launched a BA in sustainable futures.\n\nIt teamed up with Cardiff Metropolitan University, the Brecon Beacons National Park and industry partners.\n\nThe college also claimed it was the world's first dedicated entirely to climate action, responding to \"the climate and ecological emergency\".\n\nThe course will be partly classroom based, but will include placements in industry and teaching outdoors on the college's farm campus.\n\nIt also incorporates the natural landscape, the senses and the arts - students are encouraged to immerse themselves in nature - feeling, listening, even tasting the world around them.The idea is to reinforce the knowledge they learn and forge a deep connection with the world around them.\n\nCEO Ben Rawlance said the college was founded on the ethos that climate change is not only a scientific problem, but \"a problem of human behaviour, of values, of systems, of politics and economics\".\n\nJodie Bond from Brecon Beacons National Park Authority said: \"The nature and climate emergencies are hugely important.\n\n\"We can't face these big challenges we have as a society on our own, we have to work together.\"\n\nJodie Bond has welcomed the \"natural\" partnership between Brecon Beacons national park and the new degree course\n\nMr Rawlance said the world of work was already changing, with corporations employing sustainability and climate officers, and this course was about \"giving students the tools to imagine a different future\".\n\n\"These young people are going to be highly valued by industry because they're going to have that holistic world view,\" he added.\n\n\"They're going to understand how change happens and be schooled in theories of organisational change.\"\n\nOne of the industry partners is consultancy firm Accenture, which employs 750,000 people worldwide.\n\nChief responsibility officer Peter Lacy said there was \"insatiable\" demand for expertise in the fields of sustainability and systems change.\n\n\"[Demand] is going to increase exponentially for the kind of disruptors that can bring new thinking, new solutions to problems.\"\n\nStudents will spend part of their course learning out in nature\n\nAlison Stunt is studying horticulture at the college and said the approach was not purely intellectual: \"It's not academic in that way, it's not learning from books.\n\n\"It's learning from being out there in nature and experiencing things with our whole bodies, rather than just reading about it and knowing it in an intellectual way.\"\n\nMr Rawlance admitted it was really difficult for people \"who were educated in these very strict degree programmes to get our heads around\" but was \"obvious to young people coming up now\".\n\n\"So, this is not only urgent and necessary but it's responding to the market. This is what the kids want.\"\n\nBlack Mountains College has received more than £500,000 in lottery funding and is in the process of securing £1.5m of social investment to fund the launch of the course.", "A plane drops water over the blaze at Iskenderun port on Tuesday Image caption: A plane drops water over the blaze at Iskenderun port on Tuesday\n\nA huge fire at one of Turkey's main container ports has been extinguished, the defence ministry has said.\n\nThe blaze at Iskenderun, on southern Turkey's Mediterranean coast, was caused by Monday's earthquakes.\n\nHundreds of shipping containers caught fire, sending an enormous plume of dense, black smoke into the sky.\n\nEmergency services initially found it difficult to access the fire because of quake damage and dislodged containers blocking the entrance.\n\nMilitary helicopters and planes were used to help bring the fire under control. It was initially extinguished on Tuesday but later reignited.\n\nThe local mayor confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the fire had been extinguished again and that efforts to cool the site were under way.\n\nAll operations were shut down at the port following the earthquake, with shipping firms forced to divert their vessels to other terminals in the region. There has been no word yet on when the port will reopen.", "Ukraine's defence minister says training on new Western weapons will start as early as Monday\n\nUkraine's outgoing defence minister has said the country is anticipating a new Russian offensive later this month.\n\nAt a news conference, Oleksiy Reznikov said not all Western weaponry will have arrived by then, but Ukraine had enough reserves to hold off Russian forces.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky said troops were fighting fiercely in Bakhmut, Vuhledar and Lyman.\n\nMr Reznikov's comments came hours before it was announced that he was to be replaced as defence minister.\n\nMilitary intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov will take his place, according to a Ukrainian politician from Mr Zelensky's party.\n\nThe shake-up comes amid a series of corruption scandals that has plagued the defence ministry.\n\nMr Reznikov has denied media reports that some defence officials are suspected of embezzling public funds for the procurement of food for the army.\n\nUkrainian lawmaker David Arakhamia announced the reshuffle on Sunday, saying that \"war dictates personnel policies\". Mr Reznikov, a familiar face in Ukraine's efforts to secure Western weapons, will now become minister for strategic industries.\n\nPresident Zelensky has already fired a number of senior officials as part of a broad anti-corruption drive across his government.\n\nAt an earlier news conference, Mr Reznikov said Russia did not have all of its resources ready to launch an offensive, but may do so anyway as a symbolic gesture, given the one-year anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion on 24 February.\n\nHe said Russia was expected to prioritise taking the whole of the eastern Donbas as well as launching offensives in the south of Ukraine.\n\nMr Reznikov lost his defence post just hours after he gave a news conference about the expected Russian offensive\n\nThe defence minister also confirmed that troops would start training on German-made Leopard tanks from Monday.\n\nMr Reznikov said Ukraine had secured new long-range missiles with a range of 90-mile (150km), but they will not be used against Russian territory - only against Russian units in occupied areas of Ukraine.\n\n\"I am sure that we will win this war,\" said Mr Reznikov, but he added that without the delivery of Western fighter jets, \"it will cost us more lives\".\n\nDespite the flow of Western weapons to Ukraine, Russia has made gains around the Bakhmut area in recent days, as Russia's army throws more and more soldiers into combat.\n\nRussia's paramilitary mercenary group Wagner have led much of the fighting in the area.\n\nIts head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said there are fierce battles for every street in some areas of the city, and Ukraine's armed forces were \"fighting to the last\".\n\nRussian forces have been attempting to seize control of Bakhmut for months - making it the longest battle since Russia invaded Ukraine almost a year ago.\n\nTaking the area is important to Russia as part of its aim to control the whole of the Donbas region.\n\nIt would also signify a turnaround in Russia's fortunes after it lost ground in Ukraine during recent months.\n\nSpeaking during his nightly address, President Zelensky said: \"Things are very difficult in Donetsk region - fierce battles.\" But, he added, \"we have no alternative to defending ourselves and winning\".\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut are getting increasingly isolated as the Russians continue to make small advances in its attempt to encircle the town.\n\nIt added that the two main roads into Bakhmut were likely being threatened by direct fire.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mum turns TV up to hide shelling from daughter", "A US Air Force F-22 shot down the balloon with an AIM-9 air-to-air missile, the Pentagon said\n\nUS Navy divers are working to recover the wreckage of the Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.\n\nAmerica's former top military officer said he expected it would happen relatively quickly so that experts could begin analysing its equipment.\n\nFighter jets brought the craft down over US territorial waters on Saturday and debris is spread over a wide area.\n\nThe US believes the balloon was monitoring sensitive military sites.\n\nIts discovery set off a diplomatic crisis, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately calling off this weekend's trip to China.\n\nThe Chinese authorities denied it was used for spying and insisted it was a weather ship blown astray.\n\nAdmiral Mike Mullen, former chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday he thought the Chinese military might have launched the balloon intentionally to disrupt Mr Blinken's trip to China. His visit would have been the first such high level US-China meeting there in years.\n\nAdm Mullen rejected China's suggestion it might have blown off course, saying it was manoeuvrable because \"it has propellers on it\".\n\n\"This was not an accident. This was deliberate. It was intelligence,\" he added.\n\nRepublican politicians. meanwhile, accused US President Joe Biden of a dereliction of duty for allowing the balloon to traverse the country unhindered.\n\nMarco Rubio, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, told CNN it was a \"brazen effort\" by China to embarrass the president ahead of his State of the Union address on Tuesday.\n\nBrenda Bethune, the mayor of Myrtle Beach which is near to where the object was shot down, said: \"I do have concerns about how the federal government can allow a foreign adversary to fly uninterrupted from Montana to our doorstep.\"\n\nShe said she hoped the government would explain how this happened and how they will prevent it from happening again.\n\nThe high-altitude balloon - thought to be the size of three buses - was shot out of the sky by a Sidewinder air-to-air missile fired from an F-22 jet fighter. It came down about six nautical miles off the US coast at 14:39 EST (19:39 GMT) on Saturday.\n\nUS TV networks broadcast the moment the missile struck, with the giant white object falling to the sea after a small explosion.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMartin Willis said he was visiting Myrtle Beach when he filmed the fighter jet shoot down the suspected surveillance balloon.\n\nHe told the BBC he couldn't believe what he was witnessing. \"It was really exciting. It felt very historic,\" he said.\n\nPolice have warned people in the area not to touch or move any debris they find. \"Tampering could interfere in [the] investigation,\" Horry County Police Department said.\n\nThe remnants of the object landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than officials expected - and is spread over seven miles (11km).\n\nExplaining the decision to shoot the balloon down, a US defence official said in a statement, that \"while we took all necessary steps to protect against the PRC [China] surveillance balloon's collection of sensitive information, the surveillance balloon's overflight of US territory was of intelligence value to us\".\n\nChina's foreign ministry expressed \"strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US's use of force to attack civilian unmanned aircraft\".\n\nIn a written statement, the Chinese government said it would \"resolutely safeguard\" the rights and interests of the company operating the balloon and that it reserved the right to \"make further responses if necessary\".\n\nMr Biden first approved the plan to bring down the balloon on Wednesday, but decided to wait until the object was over water so as not to put people on the ground at risk.\n\nThe US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly paused all civilian flights at three airports around the South Carolina coast and advised mariners to leave the area.\n\nRelations between China and the US have been strained by the incident, with the Pentagon calling it an \"unacceptable violation\" of its sovereignty.\n\nUS military officials on Friday said a second Chinese spy balloon had been spotted over Latin America. The same day, Colombia's Air Force said an identified object - believed to be a balloon - was detected on 3 February in the country's airspace at above 55,000ft.\n\nIt says it followed the object until it left the airspace, adding that it did not represent a threat to national security.\n\nChina has not commented publicly on the second balloon.", "An aerial view of collapsed buildings in the Turkish city of Hatay\n\nThe sheer scale of the devastation of the earthquake and its aftershocks can be seen in social media photos and videos posted by people in Turkey and Syria. Eyewitnesses have also been speaking about what happened. BBC News has been pulling together and verifying information.\n\nThe tremors of the main quake - which happened at 04:17 local time - were felt more than a hundred miles in each direction from the epicentre - across southern Turkey and in northern Syria.\n\nWitnesses described being shaken from their sleep and running to their cars for safety from the damaged buildings.\n\n\"I have never felt anything like it in the 40 years I've lived,\" said Erdem, living in the city of Gaziantep. \"We were shaken at least three times very strongly, like a baby in a crib.\"\n\nBBC News has been piecing together what happened as the tremors struck and reverberated across Turkey and Syria - using personal testimony and social media posts which we have verified.\n\nIn one verified tweet a camera pans across smoke-filled scenes of rubble and destruction in Iskenderun, southern Turkey.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Authentic voice This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBBC Turkish spoke to earthquake survivors from different cities - all of them said it was the first time they had experienced such severe and long-lasting tremors.\n\nHundreds of buildings are reported to have been destroyed in the Pazarcık district of Kahramanmaraş, to the north of the epicentre.\n\nFootage on Twitter shows an aerial view of the force of the quake in the city's palm tree-lined streets.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Zaid Ahmd  This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOne local resident Veysel Şervan told the BBC that many of his relatives were under the rubble.\n\n\"I barely got myself and my family out of the building. We were just coming out of the wreckage when we saw a person reach out through a small gap. The building collapsed on our friend who tried to save them. They have no chance of escape, it collapsed on them completely. We are in a very difficult situation.\"\n\nVideos have emerged showing large fires in southern Turkey, with people claiming the earthquake has caused gas pipelines to burst and burn out of control.\n\nThe BBC has verified one of the videos as being on the outskirts of the city of Hatay, around 170km from the earthquake epicentre.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Lenar This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA still from drone footage taken over Hatay shows numerous apartment buildings collapsed in one neighbourhood.\n\nThe tremors caused this hospital in the city to collapse at an angle.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Yusuf Belek This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGaziantep resident Russell Peagram, from Essex, described efforts to help elderly neighbours escape from apartment buildings in freezing temperatures.\n\n\"Neighbours got together, it was teamwork. If there was an old lady or an old man who'd come down and you had space in your car, everyone was just getting blankets and sharing them, whatever they could do.\"\n\nThe earthquake reduced the city's castle and the Shirvan Mosque to rubble. Gaziantep castle had been one of the country's best-preserved castles dating back to the Roman period.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 5 by Thomas van Linge This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAftershocks to the east and south of the initial epicentre - including a significant second quake - have been felt since.\n\nHere Turkish TV captured the moment the second earthquake struck in the city of Malatya.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 6 by OSINTdefender This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn Sanliurfa, an eyewitness captured the moment a building collapsed in the Bahçelievler neighbourhood.\n\nBBC journalists were able to confirm the location was in Sanilurfa - rather than, according to an earlier social media claim, Aleppo in Syria.\n\nWe used geolocation tools and checked individual thumbnails from the video to see when it was first posted.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 7 by Mahmut Karadağ This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhile in Gaziantep, this moment was captured on video - when it became clear that another building was about to collapse.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 8 by Aleph א This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAcross the border in northern Syria, the situation is just as desperate.\n\nOne resident in Azaz, a city in north-west Syria, told the media how frightening the situation had been.\n\n\"There are 12 families [trapped here] and no-one managed to get out.\"\n\nIn the city of Aleppo, a woman holding a small child, ran as buildings fell in quick succession.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 9 by MOHAMMED HASSAN This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhile in the village of Besnaya-Bseineh, near Harim, before and after images show homes have been flattened - and how the search is on for survivors.", "Bishop Climate Wiseman has been sentenced to one year in jail, suspended for two years\n\nA bishop who sold fake Covid protection kits to his church congregation in south London has been handed a one-year jail term, suspended for two years.\n\nBishop Climate Wiseman, of Kingdom Church, Camberwell, warned people they would \"drop dead\" if they did not buy the kits and was convicted of fraud.\n\nAt Inner London Crown Court, he was also ordered to do 160 hours of unpaid work and pay £60,072 in court costs.\n\nA BBC London investigation exposed his wrongdoing and was used as evidence.\n\nBishop Climate Wiseman pictured arriving at Inner London Crown Court on Monday\n\nThe kits, which he started selling during the first lockdown in 2020, were sold for £91 and consisted of red yarn and bottles of oil.\n\nWiseman claimed anyone who purchased the kits would be \"protected\" from the virus and would have no need for social distancing.\n\nEvidence against him during his trial included secret phone recordings and testimony from a BBC investigations team, who had received a confidential tip-off that the church was selling the kits as a cure for Covid.\n\nThe trial also heard from 10 witnesses from his congregation, including nurses, who believed they had been cured or prevented from getting Covid-19 after using the oil by steam inhalation or rubbing it on their skin.\n\nWiseman had denied fraud and two alternative counts under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations.\n\nHe was found guilty by a jury in December of the more serious offence of fraud between 23 March 2020 and 24 March 2021.\n\nAlso known as Dr Climate Wiseman and Climate Irungu, he and his Pentecostal church were investigated in 2016 for offering an oil for sale that was said to cure cancer, but no prosecution was brought after the product was withdrawn.\n\nSouthwark Council condemned Wiseman's \"despicable actions\", \"abuse of power\" and accused him of \"dangerous profiteering\".\n\nIn a statement, a spokesperson for the authority said: \"Wiseman has promised people false cures for many years now, saying his oils cure Covid, cancer, HIV and more, when they patently can't do anything of the sort.\n\n\"We are glad to see that this custodial sentence reflects the seriousness of Wiseman's crimes and hope that it gives pause to anyone who is considering peddling false cures.\"\n\nI remember feeling my heart racing as I went up to give my oath. I knew that I would be asked lots of questions about secret recording which, contrary to what many think or assume, is a highly complex process at the BBC. Such an investigation requires very high levels of evidence to even begin and a very high level of public interest to justify pursuing the story.\n\nDefence barrister Charles Burton seemed to suggest that this had been some kind of fishing \"exercise\", which had involved a level of deception by the BBC approaching the church- posing as migrant workers who had heard of the oil and were interested in it.\n\nI explained the BBC never secretly carried out such an investigation without strong reasons for doing so and needed evidence in advance that can only be tested with undercover recording. I told him that any deception carried out had to be proportionate to the seriousness of what was being looked at, and kept to a bare minimum.\n\nTo do the secret recording at all, the topic needed to be firmly in the public interest - something I felt very strongly about in this case.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Liz Truss beat Rishi Sunak in the first of last year's Conservative leadership contests, but now serves on the backbenches\n\nThere is always a risk for any prime minister that your predecessor ends up as a backseat driver.\n\nThe problem for Rishi Sunak is he has a minibus full of them behind him.\n\nThe final three are still in the House of Commons.\n\nThe latest to lurch their hands towards the minibus wheel - Liz Truss.\n\nWe have heard nothing from her in person since she left office.\n\nMs Truss spoke out for the first time this weekend since she was forced to resign as prime minister\n\nVia a treatise in the Sunday Telegraph and the best part of an hour's conversation with the Spectator - two organs broadly sympathetic to her instincts - a defiant argument that amounts to \"why I was right but I got the implementation wrong, and everyone else was against me\".\n\nAnd so, by implication, a critique of Mr Sunak, even though he wasn't mentioned at all in her article, and only fleetingly in her interview.\n\nAnd all this, incidentally, after Boris Johnson was interviewed on TalkTV by Sunak sceptic and fellow Conservative MP Nadine Dorries on Friday night.\n\nAnd before Sir John Major appears in front of MPs on Tuesday to talk about the Northern Ireland Protocol, one of the thorniest issues the prime minister faces.\n\nWhat should we take from Ms Truss's argument?\n\nThe key thing is she holds to the view that her diagnosis of the UK's problems, as she sees them, is a lack of growth, and the underlying reason for this is an insufficiently Conservative approach to managing the economy - not least cutting tax.\n\nWhatever you might think of that argument, it matters, because it illustrates in technicolour a discussion that burns away within the Conservative Party.\n\nSo, to Ms Truss in her own words in her Spectator interview.\n\nInteresting, for we've heard nothing from her since she left office, until now.\n\nThere are moments of considerable understatement.\n\nThings \"didn't work out\", she says.\n\nThere was \"system resistance\" she argues - the civil service and others, she claims, were sceptical about her approach.\n\nShe had, she acknowledges, \"insufficient political support\".\n\nAgain, an observation with a sprinkling of understatement.\n\nThere is at least some candour, too, about what she sees as her failings - \"the communication wasn't good enough\", and \"I didn't have good enough infrastructure\", a reference to the team assembled around her.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Liz Truss on whether or not she wants to be PM again\n\nShe wasn't questioned directly and bluntly on her tendency in both the Telegraph and the Spectator to blame plenty of other people while appearing to accept a limit to her personal responsibility.\n\nNor to apologise for causing a period of unprecedented political turmoil.\n\nShe accepts now that \"I simply did not know about\" what are called Liability Driven Investments - something at the core of the market turbulence that came along after her disastrous mini budget.\n\nThere is both an acknowledgement of ignorance but a delivery of blame - suggesting the Treasury or Bank of England should have warned her.\n\nBut her rival in the leadership race in the summer, the man who is now prime minister, had said over and over again her economic plans would be a disaster.\n\nIn an interview that was more intellectual than theatrical or particularly challenging, Liz Truss did, though, sketch out a fascinating argument about what she sees as the country's - and even the Conservative Party's - political instincts right now.\n\nThey are, she concludes, at odds with her own, and that helps explain why she failed.\n\nShe argues that, in the UK and elsewhere, there has been what she calls a \"drift\" towards \"more socially democratic policies: higher taxes, higher spending, bigger government, relatively low interest rates and cheap money. There's no doubt that those of us on the side of politics who believe in smaller government and free markets have not been winning the argument.\"\n\nIncluding, that is, to those in her own party.\n\nWhy might this be? The cuts since 2010? The massive government interventions during the pandemic? The state of public services?\n\nTaxes and government spending are at generationally high levels, with neither the Conservatives or Labour promising to radically reduce this any time soon.\n\nSo perhaps, in that observation of political reality right now, Ms Truss is right.\n\nBut - fairly or otherwise - has her stint as prime minister, as short as it was calamitous, buried her political philosophy in a box marked \"toxic, never reopen\"?\n\nPlenty of Conservatives think the blunt truth to that is yes, at least any time soon.\n\nOthers, who are more sympathetic, wonder if there are elements of her prospectus, around housebuilding and childcare for instance, where there may be hope of them being dug up and reincarnated.\n\nLabour, privately, are delighted various former occupiers of No 10 are now occupying the airwaves too.\n\nMeanwhile, the prime minister's official spokesman has said that Mr Sunak \"will always listen to views of former prime ministers\" and that it's \"healthy to have a diverse debate\".\n\nCan you hear the gritted teeth from where you are too?", "Emma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday\n\nThe head of private school Epsom College has been found dead along with her husband and seven-year-old daughter in a property on school grounds.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, her husband George, 39, and their daughter Lettie were found dead at 01:10 GMT on Sunday.\n\nOfficers from Surrey Police said they were confident there was \"no third-party involvement\".\n\nEpsom College said the community would be \"coming together\" to \"process the news, grieve and pay our respects\".\n\nDet Ch Insp Kimball Edey said: \"On behalf of Surrey Police, my team, and I, I first want to express my sincerest condolences to the friends and family of Emma, Lettie and George, as well as to the students and staff of Epsom College, for their tragic loss.\n\n\"I want to give my assurance that we will conduct a thorough investigation into what took place... and hope to be able to bring some peace in these traumatic circumstances. I would ask that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time.\"\n\nMs Pattison became Epsom's first female head only five months ago after six years as head teacher of Croydon High School in south London.\n\nHer husband George was a chartered accountant who was director of a management consultancy firm called Tanglewood 2016, according to Companies House.\n\nIn December, Ms Pattison told a podcast run by students that her move had been \"a really big change for my family\", adding: \"I've got a new job, my husband got a new job, which wasn't meant to happen, but did, and my daughter has started a new school.\"\n\nThe flag is currently flying at half mast in tribute to Ms Pattison\n\nPolice officers remain at the scene and security guards in hi-vis clothing have been spotted at school entrances.\n\nPupils in uniform could be seen walking just inside the main gate of the school, where the flag is flying at half mast.\n\nThe grounds, near Epsom Downs racecourse, are made up of school buildings and residential properties.\n\nThe school grounds and buildings cover an extensive area\n\nIn a tweet, the college said: \"We hope everyone will respect the privacy of Emma's family at this time and allow the college's pupils, staff and wider community the time and space necessary to come to terms with this loss.\"\n\nThe school also confirmed it would be in close contact with Surrey Police.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Epsom College This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe chair of the board of governors at Epsom called his late colleague \"a wonderful teacher, but most of all, a delightful person\".\n\n\"On behalf of everyone at Epsom College, I want to convey our utter shock and disbelief at this tragic news,\" Dr Alastair Wells said.\n\n\"Our immediate thoughts and condolences are with Emma's family, friends and loved ones, and to the many pupils and colleagues whose lives she enriched throughout her distinguished career.\"\n\nCroydon High School described Ms Pattison as \"hugely respected and much loved\".\n\n\"She was a warm, energetic, compassionate leader, dedicated teacher and generous, insightful colleague and friend,\" the school said.\n\nEmma Pattison became Epsom's first female head five months ago\n\nA parent whose daughter attends Croydon High School said the news was \"an utter shock and tragedy\".\n\nShe told BBC News: \"In her time as head teacher, she turned the school around, and she did so many things that enriched the children's lives.\n\n\"She was slight but very formidable, she knew all of the pupils by name. She was exactly what you would want from a head teacher.\"\n\nLocal MP Chris Grayling said: \"This is an appalling tragedy and my heart goes out to their family and friends and to everyone at Epsom College as well as at the little girl's school.\"\n\nPolice officers remain at the scene of what they said was a \"tragic incident\"\n\nSurrey's Police and Crime Commissioner, Lisa Townsend, offered her \"deepest sympathies\", describing the incident as \"awful\".\n\n\"These events will no doubt have a profound and lasting impact on both the staff and students at the college and the wider local community,\" she said.\n\nInsp Jon Vale, Epsom and Ewell's borough commander, said: \"We're aware that this tragic incident will have caused concern and upset in the local community.\n\n\"While this is believed to be an isolated incident, in the coming days our local officers will remain in the area to offer reassurance to students, parents, teachers and the local community.\n\n\"I would like to thank the school and the community for their understanding and patience while the investigation continues.\"\n\nSurrey Police added that the deaths had been reported to the coroner.\n\nBoarding students at the college pay more than £42,000 a year, and its alumni include Conservative MP Sir Michael Fallon, broadcaster Jeremy Vine and his brother, the comedian Tim Vine.\n\nThe school, which both boys and girls attend, was founded in 1855 and describes itself as being consistently among the UK's leading schools, based on exam results.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sarah Lancashire has bowed out as Happy Valley's no-nonsense Catherine Cawood\n\nThe climax of Happy Valley after three series has been described by TV critics as \"a sensational end to a truly great drama\" and \"a heart-stopping triumph\".\n\nThe final episode was watched by an average audience of 7.5 million, according to overnight ratings.\n\nReviewers and viewers alike praised the BBC drama as it reached its conclusion.\n\nThe Guardian's Lucy Mangan called the final episode \"brutal, tender, funny, compelling and heartbreaking to the last\" in her five-star write-up.\n\nIt was \"a finale of understated, heartbreaking brilliance\", agreed the Telegraph's Anita Singh.\n\n\"Not since Line of Duty has a drama finale been so eagerly awaited. Thankfully it didn't end like Line of Duty,\" Singh added, referring to the divisive conclusion of the other police drama's latest series.\n\n\"Instead, show creator Sally Wainwright delivered an ending that satisfied.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Take a look inside the real Happy Valley house\n\nThe scriptwriter did \"challenge our perspective\", Singh added, although she ultimately decided the finale \"was not the most gripping episode of this series\".\n\n\"For heart-stopping drama, Royce's escape from court was the high point,\" she continued. \"But it showed everything we loved about Catherine Cawood: Her toughness, her vulnerability, her sense of humour.\"\n\nSarah Lancashire has received acclaim for playing the no-nonsense Sgt Cawood, as has James Norton for his role as her nemesis, the criminal Tommy Lee Royce.\n\nThe pairing of Wainwright and Lancashire helped make the show great, Mangan wrote. \"Separately, they are brilliant. Together, they are invincible.\"\n\nFor the West Yorkshire-set show's swansong, Wainwright delivered \"neat but truthful resolutions to every part of the story,\" the critic added. \"It had redemption, justice, bitter laughs and fire in its blood.\"\n\n\"Tommy escapes by riding in the Tour De France as it comes through Hebden Bridge.\"\n\nThose were three of the entries in a predict-the-ending competition at the Shoulder of Mutton.\n\nThe pub, which is in the centre of Hebden Bridge and featured in briefly in the show (over Catherine Cawood's shoulder in series two, episode three), hosted a final night viewing party. No popcorn, but a huge plate of Yorkshire puddings arrived in time for Jake Bugg's theme.\n\n\"This is the most dramatic TV since JR was shot,\" said landlady Lesley Wood, harking back to the famous 1980 Dallas storyline.\n\nThroughout the episode there were gasps aplenty, I spied someone literally hiding behind a cushion, and the end credits were greeted with a round of applause.\n\nAnd crucially, no-one won the predict-the-ending competition. Or even came close.\n\nIn The Times, Carol Midgley declared that the last instalment was \"immaculately written and beautifully performed\" as well as \"exquisitely bleak and, surely, Bafta-winning\".\n\nAlthough she, too, gave it five stars, Midgley did say: \"It wasn't a perfect episode. Not enough time was given to tying up the loose ends of Faisal the dodgy pharmacist and Rob the violent PE teacher.\"\n\nBut she concluded: \"Thank you, Happy Valley. I doubt we'll see your unique brand of sorrow again.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sally Wainwright said it was difficult to predict how audiences would respond\n\nThe i newspaper's Rachael Sigee also handed out the full five stars for what she said was \"an utterly gut-wrenching episode\".\n\nShe added: \"Sally Wainwright's exceptional dialogue didn't let up for a second as she concluded a story that has spanned almost a decade.\"\n\nThe finale is expected to have attracted big ratings. The first episode of the third series has now been watched by more than 10.5 million people, including on live TV on New Year's Day and on iPlayer since.\n\nSunday's nail-biting ending also earned widespread praise from viewers on social media.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Fern Britton 💙 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jojo Moyes This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Piers Morgan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSyria's war-torn city of Aleppo is one of the places to have borne the brunt of the deadly earthquake, which also devastated parts of southern Turkey.\n\nMore than 1,600 people have been reported dead so far in northern Syria following the quake.\n\nEmergency rescue teams said many buildings were damaged or destroyed and that people were trapped under the rubble.\n\nThe region is home to millions of refugees displaced by the civil war.\n\nControl of northern Syria is divided between the government, Kurdish-led forces and other rebel groups. They remain embroiled in conflict.\n\nEven before the earthquake the situation in much of the region was critical, with freezing weather, crumbling infrastructure and a cholera outbreak causing misery for many of those who live there.\n\nMuch of Aleppo was destroyed in the civil war, which broke out in 2011 when a peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad turned into violence.\n\nWhile there have been efforts to rebuild the city - Syria's pre-war commercial hub - there is dilapidated infrastructure, plus destroyed buildings, and power outages are common.\n\nAccording to separate figures from the Syrian government and the White Helmets rescue group, which operates in rebel-controlled areas, more than 1,600 people have died in the region so far after the earthquake.\n\nA video published on social media, and verified by the BBC, showed a building in Aleppo crashing to the ground as onlookers rushed to safety.\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck at 04:17 local time (01:17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the Turkish city of Gaziantep. Twelve hours later, a second quake, which was nearly as large, struck 130km (80 miles) to the north.\n\nSome Aleppo residents told Reuters they have nowhere to go, either because their homes have been destroyed or because they are afraid of further quakes.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Syrian Civil Defence: \"We need the international community to do something\"\n\nA spokesperson for the White Helmets described north-western Syria as a \"disaster area\" and said families remained trapped under the rubble.\n\nOne man in the town of Jandairis told AFP news agency he had lost 12 members of his family in the earthquake. Another said some of his relatives were trapped under the rubble.\n\n\"We hear their voices, they're still alive, but there's no way to get them out,\" he said. \" There's no one to rescue them. There's no machinery.\"\n\nIn government-controlled areas, all of the country's emergency services have been made available, including the army and student volunteers. However, BBC Monitoring's Hesham Shawish, a Middle East specialist, says this is not enough to deal with the scale of the destruction.\n\nThe International Rescue Committee, a charity with more than 1,000 members of staff on the ground in opposition-held areas of Syria, said it was already dealing with the region's first cholera outbreak in a decade and preparing for approaching snowstorms when the quake hit.\n\nMark Kaye, the organisation's Middle East advocacy director, described the situation as a \"crisis within a crisis within a crisis\" and said vast swathes of the region were beyond contact because of damage to communication networks.\n\nIt may also take some time for international aid to arrive. North-western Syria has become one of the hardest places to reach, with only one small crossing on the Turkish border available to transport resources to opposition-held areas.\n\nThe Idlib region is among those that have been worst affected in Syria\n\nSome people in remote areas of Syria are said to have been displaced as many as 20 times due to the civil war.\n\nHundreds of thousands of civilians and fighters have been killed in the conflict and the resulting humanitarian crisis has been compounded in recent years by an unprecedented economic downturn.\n\nEntire neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure, including hospitals, across Syria were already in ruins as a result of the fighting before the earthquake struck.\n\nThe government has called for international assistance - appealing specifically to United Nations member states, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups.\n\nHowever, it has reportedly rejected claims that it has asked for Israel's aid. The two countries are still technically at war and don't currently have any diplomatic relations.\n\nDozens of other nations have promised help, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. The UN said it has teams on the ground that are assessing the situation and providing assistance.\n\nThe BBC's chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, has said that Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, may be forced to accept help from Western countries and neighbours he has often condemned for backing his enemies.\n\nRussia, which already has a military presence in Syria due to its involvement in the civil war on the government's side, has also pledged its support.\n\nAre you in the affected region? If it is safe to do so email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Police remain at the property in Huddersfield\n\nA woman has been arrested on suspicion of the attempted murder of three young children at a house in Huddersfield.\n\nA three-month-old baby boy, a two-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl were found with serious stab injuries at the property on Walpole Road, police said.\n\nThe girl and the baby are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries and the boy is described as in \"a serious but stable condition\", police said.\n\nA 34-year-old woman was found injured and is under arrest in hospital.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police said they were not seeking anyone else in connection with the investigation.\n\nDet Ch Insp Sam Freeman said: \"We continue to carry out extensive enquiries into this incident which resulted in three children suffering serious injuries this morning.\n\n\"Officers continue to support the family involved at what is clearly a dreadful time for them.\n\n\"I would like to remind residents that this case involves very young children and ask that their privacy is respected and members of the public avoid unhelpful speculation which can only increase distress for the family involved.\"\n\nPolice were called to Walpole Road at about 08:00 GMT\n\nOfficers were called to the property at 08:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nNeighbour Vincent Jones, 86, who has lived in the street for more than 40 years, said had been woken by the sound of ambulances.\n\n\"I saw the ambulance out there and they were taking a woman away. She was wrapped in blankets. There were loads of ambulances and police cars,\" he said.\n\nMr Jones said he did not know the family well.\n\n\"I saw them about, but not to have a conversation with. They would say hello and that's it,\" he said.\n\n\"I saw her running up and down with the two children and she had another one recently, about Christmas time.\"\n\nInvestigators left the property at about 15:00, but one officer remained at the door to the house.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police said \"reassurance patrols\" were taking place in the area.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Great Britain won a first four-man bobsleigh medal at the World Championships for 84 years with silver in St Moritz.\n\nPilot Brad Hall, Taylor Lawrence, Greg Cackett and Arran Gulliver finished joint second with Latvia.\n\nGermany's Olympic champion Francesco Friedrich claimed his fifth consecutive title in a time of four minutes 19.61 seconds, 0.69secs ahead.\n\n\"It's an incredible achievement,\" said Hall, 32, who was fifth in the two-man.\n\n\"It's been a hell of a long time since a four-man crew has won a World Championship medal. To be the ones who have bucked that trend is pretty special.\"\n\nFrederick McEvoy led Britain to their previous four-man medal, also a silver, in Cortina, Italy, in 1939.\n\nHall, whose previous best four-man finish at the World Championships was seventh in 2020, went into the final run trailing Germany by eight hundredths of a second.\n\nBut Friedrich, who won four-man and two-man gold at the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics, set a track record time of 1:04.73 as Germany took a comfortable gold.\n\nBritain's men last won a World Championship medal in any discipline in 1966, when Tony Nash and Robin Dixon took two-man bronze in Cortina.\n\nNicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke claimed gold in the women's event in Lake Placid in 2009.", "\"While there are some very good people doing very good work\" in the police, \"cases like this and abuses like this really expose the culture that exists\", Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women's Aid, tells BBC News.\n\nA \"prevailingly misogynistic and sexist\" culture within the Metropolitan Police means \"women have lost considerable trust\" in the force, she says.\n\nShe calls for \"action to be taken\" - \"real scrutiny around who's coming into the police, real scrutiny of the culture, training, we need for violence against women to be prioritised\", not just within the Met but \"all forces across the country\".\n\n\"The system is just not set up to support women who have experience sexual violence, any form of violence against women and girls or domestic abuse,\" she says.\n\nShe adds that having more female officers trained to deal with reports of violence and abuse \"to help survivors tell their stories\" would help.\n\nNazeer says more training is needed to bring about a \"culture shift\" as a priority for all forces across the country, who need to deal urgently with \"how they're positioning women and how seriously they're taking women. It needs to be absolutely prioritised when it comes to training\".", "The stars were out in force for the 65th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.\n\nHere's a look at the most memorable outfits worn on the red carpet before the ceremony.\n\nRoses are red, violets are blue, Lizzo won a Grammy and performed on stage too.\n\nThe US singer paid homage to a late, great compatriot while collecting her record of the year award.\n\n\"When we lost Prince I decided to dedicate my life to making positive music,\" she said onstage.\n\nTaylor Swift sparkled on arrival wearing a sequinned blue gown, while also showing off her midriff.\n\nThe star picked up four nominations ahead of this year's event, including song of the year for the expanded, re-recorded version of All Too Well, but missed out on the award once again.\n\nHarry Styles had his inkwork on display as he arrived in stylish patterned dungarees.\n\nThe northern Englishman took home the night's big prize for best album for Harry's House.\n\n\"This doesn't happen to people like me very often, and this is so nice,\" he said onstage.\n\nStyles graced the Grammys performance stage on Sunday night, as did R 'n' B icon Mary J Blige, who was also nominated for several big awards.\n\nSam Smith and their colour-coordinated entourage, including Unholy collaborator Kim Petras, turned heads ahead of the main ceremony - where they put on a firey musical display.\n\nRap stars Cardi B and Offset stepped out in their finest glad rags.\n\nBrandi Carlile was up for many of the night's biggest honours, including album and record of the year.\n\nCollecting an early award for best rock performance, the suited and booted singer-songwriter noted how she had succeeded by rejecting her mother's advice.\n\n\"Mom, I gotta thank you for telling me to stop singing so angry, because I obviously ignored that like I ignored everything you ever told me to do,\" she said with a smile.\n\n\"But I cut my hair, I learned how to scream, and I just won a Grammy for a rock and roll song that I wrote with all my heart.\"\n\nBebe Rexha was nominated for best dance/electronic recording for her David Guetta collaboration I'm Good (Blue). Despite that, she wore this pink, plunging gown on the red carpet.\n\nIt was all white on the night for Shaggy, who was nominated for best reggae album for Com Fly Wid Mi - a collection of Sting-produced Frank Sinatra covers.\n\nLeather-clad Doja Cat was nominated for a handful of awards including record of the year for Woman.\n\nSinger and songwriter Anitta said she was \"making history\" as the first Brazilian artist to be nominated for best new artist at the Grammys in nearly half a century.\n\nSpeaking to journalists on the red carpet, she said: \"My whole country is watching and Brazil is waiting for this. For me, the victory is to be here tonight, to be honest.\"\n\nElvis Costello's album The Boy Named If was nominated for best rock album and, like all self-respecting rock stars, he wore sunglasses indoors.\n\nMick Fleetwood's outfit was accessorised with a pair of dangling metallic balls - a nod to the cover of his band's classic album Rumours.\n\nHe was there to pay tribute to his late bandmate Christine McVie.\n\nFive-time Grammy winner Shania Twain's hair matched the red carpet at she arrived in a \"fun\" polka dot suit and towering hat by British-American fashion designer Harris Reed.\n\nTwain collected the award for best country album on behalf of winner Willie Nelson.\n\n\"I am here to represent country music and I am excited,\" she said beforehand.\n\n\"It feels like yesterday I was just a little kid in the basement listening to Cold Crush tapes and now here we are all these years later on, on the biggest stage in the world in hundreds of countries around the world, presenting hip-hop the way I think it should be seen by the masses,\" he reflected before the show.\n\nAdding: \"For a long time hip-hop has been served in a brown greasy paper bag but tonight we're going to serve it on a silver platter, so it feels good.\"\n\nPharrell Williams looked happy to be there, rocking up in a fur coat over the top of a matching red jacket and trousers combo.\n\nItalian Eurovision winners Maneskin looked sharp but missed out on the best new artist award, which ultimately went to Samara Joy.\n\nThe same can be said for DJ Khaled, who was nominated for song of the year for his track God Did, losing out to Bonnie Raitt.\n\nThough he did get to perform the track on stage alongside collaborators Jay-Z, John Legend and Lil Wayne.\n\nFollow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The quake, which hit Gaziantep early on Monday, was reported to be 10km deep (six miles).\n\nPeople are posting footage on social media of locals trapped under the rubble.\n\nTremors were felt as far away as Turkey's capital Ankara and in neighbouring countries.", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nThe first images of Nicola Bulley on the day she went missing while walking her dog have been shared with the BBC by one of her friends.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen walking next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nDoorbell footage shows her loading her car outside her home on 27 January before driving her two children to school and going for a riverside walk.\n\nPolice believe she may have fallen into the river.\n\nSpecialist divers have been scouring the River Wyre, while volunteers have joined the search along with mountain rescue, sniffer dogs, drones and police helicopters, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nMs Bulley's family and friends continue to appeal for information on the ninth day of the search.\n\nShe is seen on CCTV wearing a long dark coat, leggings and ankle boots with her hair tied in a ponytail.\n\nMs Bulley is seen in the doorbell camera footage loading her dog Willow into the car before setting off for her children's school drop off\n\nMs Bulley was last seen by another dog walker at about 09:10 GMT.\n\nShe had logged on to a work call beforehand.\n\nHer dog and phone - still connected to the Teams call - were found at a riverside bench about 25 minutes later.\n\nSupt Sally Riley, from Lancashire Police, said they were \"as sure as we can be that Nicola has not left the area where she was last seen and that very sadly for some reason she has fallen into the water\".\n\nShe said there was no evidence of \"anything untoward\" happening to her or any third-party involvement.\n\nMeanwhile, private underwater search and recovery company Specialist Group International (SGI) said it would join the police in its search operation on Monday.\n\nLancashire Police said SGI's offer to assist in the search was \"taken up after speaking with Nicola's family\", adding: \"We continue to lead an extensive and far reaching multi-agency search using a wide range of specialist equipment and resources.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Heather Gibbons says some speculation is \"incredibly, incredibly hurtful\"\n\nDetectives have said they were open to new information and criticised the online abuse of people who had been helping their inquiry, calling it \"totally unacceptable\".\n\nMs Bulley's disappearance has drawn a lot of attention on social media with thousands of people commenting on the ongoing search, many sending support to her family and wishing her home safely.\n\nBut some people have been speculating about what might have happened by discussing the family's finances and relationships.\n\nMs Bulley's friend Heather Gibbons told BBC North West Tonight \"vile\" theories being shared online were hurtful for Ms Bulley's family.\n\n\"I mean it's human nature - everyone's going to have their thoughts, their theories, everyone will be speculating,\" she said.\n\n\"But to see some of the vile speculation online - some of the theories that are incredibly, incredibly hurtful - I don't think people are realising that the family are sitting at home and are able to access and see all of that.\"\n\nShe said she was concerned that \"as [Ms Bulley's daughters] get older, they will be able to look back and they will be able to see everything that was said\".\n\nNicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nAnother friend, Tilly Ann, wrote on Facebook that \"inappropriate comments\" online had been causing \"hurt and distress\".\n\nShe urged everyone to show the family \"as much positivity as possible please\".\n\nThe search has been continuing for the ninth day by the River Wyre\n\nSupt Sally Riley, of Lancashire Police, told The Sunday Times that officers found \"no evidence of a slip or fall\" near the bench where Nicola's mobile phone was found but said falling from a sheer riverbank may leave no trace.\n\nAnother of Ms Bulley's friends, Luke Sumner, said family and friends were \"clinging to any sort of hope\", adding: \"If it is a case of her being in the river, then chances of survival are probably very slim. But we have no evidence to say that she has gone into the river.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Last updated on .From the section Tottenham\n\n'What a player' - How Spurs play to Kane's strengths Harry Kane says he has got \"plenty of goals to come\" after moving ahead of Jimmy Greaves to become Tottenham Hotspur's all-time top scorer. The England captain scored his 267th goal for Spurs in the 1-0 defeat of Manchester City. Kane, 29, now wants to surpass Alan Shearer's all-time Premier League record of 260 goals. \"Alan has set the record to beat. I'll see if I can beat it,\" said Kane, who is on 200 Premier League goals. \"I'm sure he'll (Shearer) be watching but I'm not sure if he'll be happy or not! I've got plenty of goals to come, I'm feeling good.\" Glenn Murray, a former Premier League striker with Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Brighton, told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"Strikers are greedy, he'll want more. The man in his sights will be a Mr Alan Shearer, I imagine.\" Greaves, who started his career at Chelsea, scored 266 goals in 379 games for Spurs between 1961 and 1970. Kane made his Spurs debut in 2011 and has played 416 times for the club. 'It's a dream come true' - Kane on goal record\n• None Listen to the latest The Far Post podcast Kane's finish in Sunday's game against City was typically well taken, fired in low after he had been set up by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the box. \"When you look at the names who have been here, to overtake Jimmy Greaves - one of the greatest to play the game - I'm extremely grateful,\" Kane told BBC Match of the Day. Kane is the third-highest scorer since the Premier League was formed in 1992 - after Shearer and Wayne Rooney, who scored 208 times. He has scored 17 league goals this season and 19 in total for Spurs - 11 more than the club's next highest scorer, Son Heung-min. Kane is also just one goal away from becoming the leading all-time goalscorer for England. He is tied on 53 with Rooney. Harry Kane's first Premier League goal was in a 5-1 Tottenham win against Sunderland on 7 April 2014 Kane was mobbed by his team-mates after the final whistle before the player addressed supporters in an interview on the pitch. A message of congratulations from the late Greaves' son Danny was also shown on the screens. Later in the Tottenham dressing room, with Kane still in his kit, he took a phone call from manager Antonio Conte, who missed the game after having surgery to remove his gallbladder. The Italian was heard saying \"you make me proud\" to Kane in a conversation on a mobile phone. 'Spurs should cash in on Kane' Despite his success in front of goal, Kane is yet to win a major trophy in his one-club career and was wanted by Manchester City in the summer of 2021. Jamie Carragher, a Champions League winner with Liverpool, does not believe a lack of winners' medals will play too much on Kane's mind. \"If he can go down as the best Spurs player of all time, the record Premier League goalscorer, record England scorer - do you think he'll miss a Carabao Cup medal?\" said the former centre-back said on Sky Sports. However, former Tottenham defender Ramon Vega believes the time could be right for Kane to move in order to win medals. \"He can actually walk away from Spurs now without any question and go to a potentially better platform where they can actually win medals,\" Vega told Sportsworld on the BBC World Service. \"If I was Daniel Levy (Spurs chairman) I think it's the best time now to sell him and really cash in and rebuild. Harry Kane is today, but we need to look for a future Harry Kane.\" Meanwhile, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola congratulated Kane for his \"incredible\" achievement. \"On behalf of Manchester City, I can say congratulations for this incredible milestone. He is an exceptional player,\" said Guardiola. Kane was set up superbly in front of goal by a driving run from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg His low finish was calmly taken, slotted in past Ederson Cue the celebrations, with full-back Emerson Royal the first to reach the forward The rest of the Spurs players soon joined Kane to share in the moment The scoreboard in the stadium marked the moment with a visualisation of his familiar celebration\n• None Our coverage of Tottenham Hotspur is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Spurs - go straight to all the best content", "The decision to shoot the balloon down triggered a diplomatic spat between the US and China\n\nA suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the US coast was about 200 ft (60m) tall and carrying an airliner-sized load, officials say.\n\nAt a briefing on Monday, a US defence official said the size and make-up of the object informed the decision not to shoot it down while it was over land.\n\n\"Picture large debris weighing hundreds if not thousands of pounds falling out of the sky,\" Gen Glen VanHerck said.\n\nThe US is still working to recover debris off the coast of South Carolina.\n\nRemnants of the object - which the US believes is a spy balloon but China says is a weather monitoring device blown astray - have been collected from a roughly 1,500m (4,920 ft) by 1,500m sized area, but it is thought debris is spread over a far larger site.\n\nMultiple fighter jets were involved in the operation to shoot it down, but only one US Air Force F-22 took the shot at 14:39 local time (19:39 GMT) on Saturday days after it first appeared over US territory. It sent debris hurtling down about six nautical miles off the US coast.\n\n\"They have recovered some remnants off the surface of the sea and weather conditions did not permit much undersea surveillance of the debris field,\" National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.\n\nHe said US personnel would \"in the coming days be able to get down there and take a better look at what's on the bottom of the ocean, but it's just started\".\n\nThere is no plan to give the remnants back to China, officials said, adding that the retrieved debris would be analysed by intelligence experts.\n\nA number of specialist ships have been deployed to the area, including an oceanographic survey ship that uses sonar and other means to map out a debris field, Gen VanHerck, who commands both the US military's Northern Command and joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Command, or Norad, said.\n\nHe added that while the balloon was several hundred feet tall, the payload - the portion which would have carried equipment - was about the same size as a regional airliner.\n\nGen VanHerck said the US was still working to determine whether the debris includes potentially dangerous materials, such as explosives or battery components.\n\nRepublican politicians have accused US President Joe Biden of a dereliction of duty for allowing the balloon to traverse the country unhindered.\n\nThe decision to shoot it down also triggered a diplomatic spat between the US and China, and prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a scheduled trip to Beijing that had been aimed at easing tensions.\n\nOn Monday, China accused the US of using \"indiscriminate force\" when it downed the balloon. It said it \"obviously overreacted and seriously violated the spirit of international law\".\n\nThe US believes the balloon was being used to monitor sensitive military sites.\n\nAdm Mike Mullen, former chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, rejected China's suggestion it might have blown off course, saying it was manoeuvrable because \"it has propellers on it\".\n\n\"This was not an accident. This was deliberate. It was intelligence,\" he added.\n\nA Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has confirmed that a second balloon - currently floating over Latin America - is also Chinese.", "The first balloon, which was spotted over the United States, before it was shot down off the South Carolina coast\n\nThe Chinese government has admitted a balloon spotted over Latin America on Friday is from China - but claimed it is intended for civilian use.\n\nForeign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the aircraft had deviated from its route, having been blown off course.\n\nA similar balloon was shot down in US airspace by military jets on Saturday amid allegations that it was being used for surveillance.\n\nChina has denied accusations of spying, saying it was monitoring the weather.\n\nThe incident has led to a diplomatic row between Washington and Beijing.\n\nOn Friday - before fighter jets brought down the balloon at the weekend - US military officials said a second Chinese balloon had been spotted over Latin America.\n\nOn Monday, China admitted an aircraft had \"accidentally entered Latin American and Caribbean airspace\".\n\nMs Mao told reporters the second balloon had \"deviated greatly\" from its intended route, citing the aircraft's \"limited manoeuvrability\" and the weather conditions.\n\n\"The unmanned airship in question that came from China is of a civilian nature and used for flight tests,\" she added.\n\n\"China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international law in order to inform and properly deal with all parties concerned, without posing any threat to any country.\"\n\nAt the weekend, Colombia's air force said an object with \"characteristics similar to those of a balloon\" had been detected on 3 February in the country's airspace at above 55,000ft.\n\nColombia said it had followed the object until it left the airspace, adding that it did not represent a threat to national security.\n\nMeanwhile, work by US Navy divers continues to recover the wreckage of the surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.\n\nUS President Joe Biden first approved the plan to bring down the balloon on Wednesday, but decided to wait until it was over water so as not to put people on the ground at risk.\n\nThe US believes the balloon was being used to monitor sensitive military sites.\n\nAdm Mike Mullen, former chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, rejected China's suggestion it might have blown off course, saying it was manoeuvrable because \"it has propellers on it\".\n\n\"This was not an accident. This was deliberate. It was intelligence,\" he added.\n\nRelations between China and the US have been strained by the incident, with the Pentagon calling it an \"unacceptable violation\" of its sovereignty. A planned trip by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China was cancelled as a result of the row.\n\nChina has lodged a formal complaint with the US embassy in Beijing over the incident.", "Last updated on .From the section Leeds United\n\nLeeds manager Jesse Marsch has been sacked after less than a year in charge.\n\nLeeds lost 1-0 at Nottingham Forest on Sunday, their seventh Premier League game without a win.\n\nThey are 17th in the table - above the relegation zone only on goal difference - and last won in the league on 5 November.\n\nLeeds finished 17th last season after American Marsch succeeded Marcelo Bielsa in February.\n\nA club statement read: \"We would like to thank Jesse and his backroom staff for their efforts and wish them well for the future.\n\n\"The process of appointing a new head coach is under way and we will continue to keep supporters up to date throughout the coming days.\"\n\nCoaches Rene Maric, Cameron Toshack and Pierre Barrieu have also been sacked.\n• None Who next for Leeds after Marsch departure?\n• None Don’t Go To Bed Just Yet podcast - reaction to Marsch sacking\n\nLeeds play Manchester United at Old Trafford on Wednesday and again at Elland Road on Sunday.\n\nCoaches Michael Skubala, Paco Gallardo and Chris Armas, who was appointed as Marsch's assistant just last week, will take charge of the team for Wednesday's match in Manchester.\n\nMarsch's side won only four of their 20 league matches this season, with six draws and 10 defeats.\n\nDefeat by Nottingham Forest in his final match in charge left him with a 25% win-rate after 32 Premier League games as Leeds boss.\n\nA former coach of RB Leipzig, New York Red Bulls and Red Bull Salzburg, he took over with Leeds 16th in the table.\n\nThey avoided relegation to the Championship thanks to a 2-1 win at Brentford on the final day of last season.\n\nThere have now been seven Premier League managerial departures this season, plus Graham Potter leaving Brighton for Chelsea. The most departures in a top flights season is 10 - in both 2017-18 and last season, 2021-22.\n\nMarsch unable to push on after securing top-flight safety\n\nLeeds have struggled again this season in the league, with their only top-flight success away from home this season coming at Anfield in October.\n\nThe win looked like it could be a catalyst for Marsch to build on and, after beating Bournemouth 4-3 at home a week later, Leeds moved up to 12th in the table.\n\nBut since then defeats by Tottenham, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Forest, plus draws with Newcastle, West Ham and Brentford, have left the club fearing relegation once again.\n\nWhile their league form has been disappointing, Leeds have progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup and will face either Fulham or Sunderland away at the end of the month.\n\nSpeaking after the Forest result, where his side had good chances in the first half to take the lead, Marsch said it was hard for him to accept the position the club finds itself in.\n\nHe added: \"We are struggling to turn performances into results. We have been in this place for a while. It's frustrating.\n\n\"I've got to find ways to change that feeling and find ways to help our team to get the results we think we deserved.\"\n\nMarsch unable to take Leeds to the next level - analysis\n\nIt was a case of when not if for the axe to fall on Marsch, although the swiftness of the reaction by the board to Sunday's defeat at Nottingham Forest was unexpected.\n\nThe away support is always an accurate barometer of where a fanbase sits with regards its head coach and at the City Ground the calls for his head were so vociferous it felt even Marsch's most ardent backers were not prepared to spare him.\n\nAfter a spectacularly successful spending spree in the January transfer market, including record signing Georginio Rutter, Max Wober and Weston McKennie, added to several significant incomings last summer the feeling is that Marsch was not capable of coaching an enviable squad to its potential.\n\nThe narrow Red Bull style he brought to Elland Road was a huge departure from the aesthetically pleasing one of his predecessor Marcelo Bielsa, and suffered constant criticism not least for an absence of consistent results as well as a confusing system.\n\nKeeping Leeds in the Premier League in dramatic fashion last season after a brutal 12-game scramble for survival was one thing. But since then two wins and 11 points after beating Chelsea in August is the worst record of any Premier League side.\n\nThat brutal fact means Leeds are in a relegation battle and majority owner Andrea Radrizzani and shareholders San Francisco 49ers Enterprises, who are expected to complete a takeover, have both invested heavily and have acted decisively to protect their and the club's best interests.\n\nThe Bielsa widows may still weep but there will be few tears at the news of Marsch's departure. A really decent man but who was unable to coach Leeds United to the next level. The question is, who will?\n• None Our coverage of Leeds United is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Leeds - go straight to all the best content", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A project reveals the weird and wonderful sounds of the polar regions.\n\nWhat do you hear when you think of the Arctic and Antarctic?\n\n\"Singing\" ice, a seal that sounds like it is in space, and a seismic airgun thundering like a bomb are some of the noises released by two marine acoustic labs.\n\nThe project introduces the public to 50 rarely heard sounds recorded underwater in the polar regions.\n\nIt highlights how noisy oceans are becoming due to increased human activity that also disrupts sea life.\n\n\"These sounds are fairly alien to most people,\" explains artist and researcher Dr Geraint Rhys Whittaker.\n\n\"We probably think we know what the poles sound like but often that is imagined,\" adds Dr Whittaker, who works at the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.\n\nThe underwater microphones were attached to floats with scientific instruments left in the Arctic and Antarctic for about two years.\n\nOne sound captured was calls from the least-researched Antarctic seal. Ross seals live in the open seas and on pack ice that is difficult to reach. The scientists recorded five calls from the creature of different frequencies.\n\nCrabeater seals, minke whales, narwhals and humpback whales were also recorded.\n\nIt can be hard to capture these sounds due to the inhospitable environment and the vast distances that animals travel in the regions.\n\n\"The difficulty is knowing where the mammals will be because they move and you can't rely on where they will be,\" explains Dr Whittaker.\n\nThe roaring collapse of ice shelves was also recorded, a process that is being accelerated in parts of the polar regions by rising temperatures linked to climate change.\n\nThe delicate sound of ice \"singing\" is included in the collection. It is caused by ice moving in water, or contracting as temperatures rise and fall, or when ice melts and refreezes.\n\nFew people read scientific research published by universities, Dr Whittaker suggests, and he hopes that listening to the sounds will make people stop and think about the polar oceans. Oceans occupy 71% of our planet's surface and are hugely important for preserving life on Earth but are severely impacted by climate change.\n\nTemperatures in the Arctic are rising four times faster than other parts of the world.\n\nThe microphones also picked up human-made noise in the oceans, caused by shipping and oil and gas exploration.\n\nNoise pollution from seismic blasting, used to explore the seabed, travels huge distances and scientists have found it negatively affects animal life.\n\nThe project reveals just how noisy the oceans are, suggests Dr Whittaker, who says he hopes it highlights the need for laws to reduce noise from shipping and dredging damaging marine life.\n\nWorking with the sound-art project Cities and Memory, the noises have also been turned into more than 100 compositions put together by musicians highlighting climate change.\n\n\"With Earth's poles warming faster than the global average, this collection of sounds aims to draw attention to a fascinating but rapidly changing environment, and encourages us to think about ways to preserve it for future generations,\" explains Stuart Fowkes, founder of Cities and Memory.\n\nDr Ilse van Opzeeland, from the Ocean Acoustics Group at Alfred Wegener Institute, hopes combining art and science will help raise awareness.\n\n\"A 'translation' through art breathes new life into our scientific data that goes beyond a traditional publication or policy paper by making it accessible to non-scientists,\" she said.\n\n\"We must make the greatest efforts to protect, conserve and restore our planet's endangered habitats. The interaction of art and science can help by creating awareness and brings attention to this.\"", "Google is launching an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered chatbot called Bard to rival ChatGPT.\n\nBard will be used by a group of testers before being rolled out to the public in the coming weeks, the firm said.\n\nBard is built on Google's existing large language model Lamda, which one engineer described as being so human-like in its responses that he believed it was sentient.\n\nThe tech giant also announced new AI tools for its current search engine.\n\nAI chatbots are designed to answer questions and find information. ChatGPT is the best-known example. They use what's on the internet as an enormous database of knowledge although there are concerns that this can also include offensive material and disinformation.\n\n\"Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world's knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models,\" wrote Google boss Sundar Pichai in a blog.\n\nMr Pichai stressed that he wanted Google's AI services to be \"bold and responsible\" but did not elaborate on how Bard would be prevented from sharing harmful or abusive content.\n\nThe platform will initially operate on a \"lightweight\" version of Lamda, requiring less power so that more people can use it at once, he said.\n\nGoogle's announcement follows wide speculation that Microsoft is about to bring the AI chatbot ChatGPT to its search engine Bing, following a multi-billion dollar investment in the firm behind it, OpenAI.\n\nChatGPT can answer questions and carry out requests in text form, based on information from the internet as it was in 2021. It can generate speeches, songs, marketing copy, news articles and student essays.\n\nIt is currently free for people to use, although it costs the firm a few pennies each time somebody does. OpenAI recently announced a subscription tier to complement free access.\n\nBut the ultimate aim of chatbots lies in internet search, experts believe - replacing pages of web links with one definitive answer.\n\nSundar Pichai said that people are using Google search to ask more nuanced questions than previously.\n\nWhereas, for example, a common question about the piano in the past may have been how many keys it has, now it is more likely to be whether it is more difficult to learn than the guitar - which does not have an immediate factual answer.\n\n\"AI can be helpful in these moments, synthesizing insights for questions where there's no one right answer,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Soon, you'll see AI-powered features in Search that distil complex information and multiple perspectives into easy-to-digest formats, so you can quickly understand the big picture and learn more from the web.\"\n\nYou can follow Zoe Kleinman on Twitter @zsk.", "Kitle Eikelberg says government aid is yet to reach the village where her relatives live\n\nA woman has told of her devastation after losing relatives following the earthquake in south-east Turkey.\n\nKitle Eikelberg is one of thousands among the UK's Turkish and Syrian communities in anguish as the quake's death toll rises above 5,000.\n\nMs Eikelberg told the BBC she was \"broken\" by the \"loss and destruction\" in her country.\n\nBritish search and rescue specialists sent by the UK government are due to set to fly to Turkey today.\n\nMs Eikelberg, from Richmond, London, said she had been told six distant relatives had died in Maksutusagi - the southern Turkish village she grew up in - during the earthquake, but her two elderly aunts and uncles managed to survive.\n\n\"Distant relatives died, but none of my closer relatives - they managed to escape,\" she said. \"All my close relatives are in the open or in their cars and no-one has come to the rescue in the villages.\n\n\"It is freezing temperatures, they have no power, no water, and their phone batteries are dying.\"\n\nThe mother of two described damaged houses - some collapsed - in the small village, which she visits every summer.\n\n\"People are scared to go in and out because of tremors and they are terrified to get near the houses,\" she said.\n\nMs Eikelberg, who has lived in the UK for 20 years, explained government aid had not reached the village which urgently needs shelter and food. But she claimed efforts by families to help the village had been hampered by damaged roads and authorities.\n\nShe said: \"People are outside in the snow and it is night time now. They need tents and generators\n\n\"They cannot wait. I can't do anything\n\n\"I am broken. It is a nightmare.\"\n\nThe earthquake has also had a profound effect on her daughter. \"We tried to keep her away from it, but she hears it on the radio. She's been crying, worried. Will she ever go back?\"\n\nCengiz Akarsu, from Country Durham in north east England, said his childhood friend remains missing following the quake and it would be a \"miracle\" if he was alive.\n\nHe said his friend lived in an area, seen in footage on the news, in which the \"whole street collapsed\".\n\n\"He's got two little kids,\" he told BBC Radio Newcastle. \"I called his brothers - they're on the way but unfortunately the roads going into the city they've been damaged, and then the bridge has collapsed on the roads so they can not pass through.\n\n\"We don't want to believe he died, but when I've spoken to people who live in that area they say its more than a miracle if they come out of that.\n\n\"It is really really bad.\"\n\nCengiz Akarsu's brother has lost his house in the disaster\n\nHe said his brother had survived when a wall collapsed on him.\n\n\"My family was alright but one of my brothers... his house was damaged heavily and the wall collapsed on him.\n\n\"He managed to get out of it.\n\n\"We are all grateful my family is fine, but the sad thing is we just know there are a lot of people underneath collapsed buildings - one of them is my childhood friend.\"\n\nThe 7.8 magnitude quake struck near the Turkish town of Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday while people were asleep, before a 7.5 magnitude tremor hit later in the day.\n\nRescuers are now racing to save people trapped beneath the rubble after thousands of buildings collapsed in both countries.\n\nAli Topaloglu, from the Nottingham Turkish Community, told the BBC his family had been directly affected.\n\nHe said: \"It's shocking. I can not find the words to describe the situation... it's devastating news. We lost some immediate family.\"\n\nThe chairman of the British Turkish Association said he had been \"inundated\" with calls from people worried about loved ones.\n\nAttila Ustun described it as a \"heartbreaking\" day for Turks everywhere and said there was \"a very large connection\" between the Turkish communities in east and north London and the area where the quake struck.\n\nHe continued: \"Some were born in those cities and towns that are now a disaster zone.\"\n\nMr Ustun said people from Turkish backgrounds had been reaching out after learning family members had died, including \"one gentleman in Bedfordshire who has lost three of his uncles in one property\".\n\nHe added: \"I've been inundated, I had one lady in London crying her eyes out and saying that half of her village is now rubble.\n\n\"People are ringing me asking what they can do to help.\"\n\nThe British Turkish Association is taking donations, particularly winter clothes, at different points across the UK.\n\nThe UK government is sending a team of 76 search and rescue specialists to Turkey to help search for survivors. They are due to fly out later.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly said the impact of the quakes was \"on a scale that we have not seen for quite some time\".\n\nDevelopment Minister Andrew Mitchell said the British team had been due to leave for Turkey on Monday night, but were delayed. On Tuesday morning he suggested they would leave \"imminently\", adding the first 72 hours were \"critical\".\n\nThe UK search and rescue teams have four search dogs, equipment including seismic listening devices, concrete cutting and breaking equipment, as well as a team of emergency medics to assess the situation on the ground.\n\nNo 10 said the government was looking at ways it could support humanitarian action in northwest Syria, and that its first approach would be to work through the United Nations (UN).\n\nThe Foreign Office also said in north-west Syria the White Helmets, humanitarian volunteers who received UK-funding, have mobilised their resources to respond.\n\nDavid Wightwick, CEO of medical aid charity UK-Med, said he and his team were heading to Turkey on Tuesday morning to assess where their help is most needed, before mobilising their register of hundreds of NHS medics.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: \"It's that decision where it's most needed which is the bit that takes up the first day or so.\n\n\"You can imagine in an area the size affected and with the numbers affected that's not necessarily an easy decision to make.\"\n\nCharities are also launching appeals, including The British Red Cross.\n\nIts chief executive, Mike Adamson, said it was \"shocking\" to see the scale of destruction caused by this earthquake with homes, hospitals and roads destroyed across the region.\n\n\"The priority right now is rescuing people from the rubble and Red Cross Red Crescent teams are on the ground in Syria and Turkey providing urgent support during these critical hours.\"", "Viola Davis accepted her prize as the Grammys kicked off in LA\n\nViola Davis has become the 18th person to achieve the EGOT - winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award - as the Grammy Awards kick off in Los Angeles.\n\nDavis completed her collection by winning best audio book for her autobiography Finding Me.\n\n\"I wrote this book to honour the six-year-old Viola,\" said the star. \"To honour her life, her joy, her trauma, everything.\"\n\nThe star won the best supporting actress Oscar in 2016 for Fences.\n\nHer Emmy Award recognised the TV drama How To Get Away With Murder, and she has two Tony Awards for her theatre work - featured actress in a play for King Hedley II (2001) and lead actress in a play for Fences (2010).\n\n\"I just EGOT!\" announced the star on stage at the Grammys, becoming visibly emotional as she thanked her family for being \"the best chapter in my book\".\n\nThe 17 other EGOT winners include Sir John Gielgud, Rita Moreno, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson.\n\nDavis picked up her prize at the Grammys \"premiere ceremony\", which mostly recognises technical and genre categories.\n\nThe four-hour show also saw rock legend Ozzy Osbourne pick up two awards, just days after he announced his retirement from touring.\n\nHis latest record, Patient Number Nine, was named best rock album, while the song Degradation Rules won best metal performance.\n\nBritish indie duo Wet Leg also received two awards - including best alternative album and best alternative song for their breakout single, Chaise Longue.\n\n\"This is so funny,\" said singer-guitarist Rhian Teasdale. \"What are we even doing here?\"\n\nMeanwhile composer and violinist Stephanie Economou received the first ever Grammy for best video game soundtrack, recognising her work on Assassin's Creed: Dawn Of Ragnarok.\n\nThe premiere ceremony was hosted by YouTube star Randy Rainbow, who went viral during the Trump administration for videos that mixed political commentary with musical theatre numbers.\n\nTaking to the stage at Los Angeles' Crypto,com Arena, he promised not to make cheap jokes about US Republican George Santos, who has admitted to making several false statements in his resume and biography.\n\n\"I will not even say his name,\" said Rainbow. \"Even though he is nominated for best pop vocal album.\"\n\nAdele and Beyoncé go head-to-head for best album, in a re-run of the 2017 ceremony\n\nThe main Grammys ceremony kicks off at Los Angeles' Crypto.com Arena on Sunday at 17:00 (local time) / Monday at 01:00 (GMT)\n\nComedian Trevor Noah is hosting for the third time, with performances due from Styles, Lizzo, Bad Bunny and Sam Smith.\n\nBut Noah has hinted that two pop megastars will also be gracing the stage.\n\n\"One of your favourite performers is a woman, and that woman is going to be performing at the Grammys,\" he said on the People's Every Day podcast this weekend.\n\n\"Then one of your other favourite performers is a man, and that man is going to be performing at the Grammys.\n\n\"And you're going, 'Oh, but that could be anyone.' But you know, it's not anyone, though, because you've been listening to their album the whole year and it's been huge.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Free HIV tests that can be done at home are being offered this week to people in England.\n\nIt is part of a government drive to improve diagnosis, which dropped off during the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe kit is small enough to fit through the letterbox and arrives in plain packaging through the post.\n\nIt gives a result within 15 minutes by testing a drop of blood from a finger prick. A \"reactive\" result means HIV is possible and a clinic check is needed.\n\nSupport and help is available to arrange this.\n\nIf the result is negative it means the test did not detect HIV. If you think you are at risk of HIV, however, you should test every three months because it can take a while for the virus to show in the blood.\n\nAbout 4,400 people in England are living with undiagnosed HIV, which comes with serious health risks.\n\nHIV medication can keep the virus at undetectable levels, meaning you cannot pass HIV on and your health is protected.\n\nMost people get the virus from someone who is unaware they have it, according to the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) charity which campaigns about and provides services relating to HIV and sexual health.\n\nHIV testing rates remain a fifth lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic - with heterosexual men in particular now testing far less than in 2019.\n\nTesting among gay and bisexual men has increased but rates of testing among women have fallen by 22% compared to 2019, while there has been a 41% drop for heterosexual men.\n\nStraight men and women are also far more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage.\n\nEastenders has a plotline where Zack discovers he has HIV\n\nTHT has been working with the BBC drama EastEnders to raise awareness of HIV among heterosexuals through a storyline where a lead character called Zack Hudson is diagnosed with the virus.\n\nTaku Mukiwa, head of health programmes at THT, said: \"Gay and bisexual men and black African people continue to be the most impacted by HIV in the UK, but anyone who's sexually active can be affected and should think about testing.\n\n\"As the EastEnders HIV storyline we've been advising on shows, the truth is it's always better to know your HIV status, whether positive or negative.\n\n\"If it's negative, you can make sure it stays that way.\n\n\"While, as Zack in EastEnders is learning, huge advances in HIV treatment mean you can live a long healthy life with the virus, have children who are HIV-negative and that HIV can't be passed on to anyone else.\"\n\nPeople can live with HIV for a long time without any symptoms. Testing is the only way to know your HIV status.\n\nUsing a condom during sex can prevent infections.\n\nDr Alison Brown, interim head of HIV surveillance at the UK Health Security Agency, said: \"HIV does not discriminate, no matter your gender or sexual orientation.\n\n\"Taking up a free and confidential HIV test regularly when having condom-less sex will ensure you're diagnosed early and started on effective treatment, helping to reduce transmission of HIV and the number of people with undiagnosed HIV.\"\n\nIt is recommended that anyone who is sexually active tests for HIV annually, and more regularly if you have a new or multiple partners.\n\nThe free testing initiative coincides with National HIV Testing Week and making progress towards the government's goal of ending new HIV cases by 2030.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. We are not in talks with government over pay - Unite boss\n\nThe leader of a union representing striking ambulance workers has called on Rishi Sunak to intervene in the NHS pay dispute.\n\nOn the eve of the biggest week of strikes in NHS history, Unite's Sharon Graham said: \"Where is Rishi Sunak, why is he not at the negotiating table?\"\n\nIt came after the head of a nurses' union urged the PM to offer a new deal to avert nursing strikes in England.\n\nThe government insists its £1,400 rise for NHS workers this year is fair.\n\nBut Unite and other health unions say the increase - an average rise of 4.8% - fails to reflect rising living costs, and needs to be increased.\n\nHealth Secretary Stephen Barclay says he has held \"constructive\" talks with unions over pay for the next financial year, starting in April.\n\nBut speaking on BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Graham said Unite \"are in no talks at any level whatsoever\" with the government about NHS pay, accusing ministers of an \"abdication of responsibility\".\n\nCalling on the prime minister to get personally involved in finding a solution, she said: \"Instead of doing sort of press conferences about other things, come to the table and negotiate - roll your sleeves up and negotiate on the pay in the NHS.\"\n\nHer call for Mr Sunak to intervene in the dispute over NHS pay in England follows a similar appeal from Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing.\n\nIn a letter to the prime minister on Saturday, Ms Cullen wrote: \"I am appealing directly to you for the first time: address this current impasse.\"\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nThe RCN and several other health unions in Wales have suspended planned action next week after the Labour-run Welsh government offered NHS workers an extra 3% on top of the £1,400 for this year.\n\nThe RCN, along with the GMB union and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), has also put strike action on hold in Scotland to allow further talks on the 2023 pay offer.\n\nIn her letter, Ms Cullen said the UK government was looking \"increasingly isolated\" by \"refusing to reopen\" talks over this year's pay deal in England.\n\nAmbulance workers represented by Unite are still set to strike in Wales next week, after the union decided against joining others in suspending action.\n\nBut Ms Graham told Laura Kuenssberg she would be meeting with the Welsh health minister later, in a bid to find a deal.\n\nShe added that the Welsh government needed to \"come back to the table\" with an improved offer - but added the situation in Wales and Scotland was in \"stark contrast\" to the impasse in England.\n\nSpeaking on the same programme, Business Secretary Grant Shapps defended the government's approach to pay in England, adding that the £1,400 rise had been suggested by the NHS pay review body.\n\nThe government says it wants the body, made up of eight advisers, to recommend a pay award for next year in April.\n\nHowever, the health department is yet to present its submission to the body - a key step in the process of drawing up a recommendation. The review body says it has evidence from the Treasury.\n\nHealth unions have said they won't formally submit evidence until the dispute over this year's pay is resolved, instead publishing a document setting out their argument for higher pay.\n\nMonday will see combined industrial action in England, as members from the Royal College of Nursing will walk out alongside call handlers, paramedics and other ambulance staff - who are members of either the GMB and Unite unions.\n\nThe strike will affect non-life threatening calls only and people are advised to use the 999 service in an emergency.\n\nTuesday will see members of the RCN union go on strike again. The union represents roughly two-thirds of NHS nurses.\n\nThey are taking industrial action over pay, but life-preserving treatment must be provided, and all nurses in intensive and emergency care are expected to work.\n\nNHS physiotherapists across England will go on strike on Thursday over pay and staffing, and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) says 4,200 members are involved.\n\nAnd on Friday, thousands of ambulance staff across five services in England - London, Yorkshire, South West, North East, and North West - are striking.\n\nHave you had a medical appointment or operation cancelled due to the strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Embattled Republican Congressman George Santos is facing an accusation of sexual misconduct from a former aide.\n\nDerek Myers, 30, also accused Mr Santos of an ethics violation for having him work as a volunteer.\n\nA job offer to Mr Myers was later rescinded, and Mr Santos told news outlet Semafor he was concerned by wiretapping charges faced by the aide during previous work as a journalist.\n\nThe accusations are the latest in a series of controversies for Mr Santos.\n\nThe BBC has reached out to the congressman's office for comment.\n\nOn Twitter on Friday, Mr Myers said he had filed a complaint to the Capitol police and wrote a letter to the House ethics committee, which can investigate violations of House rules, related to incidents he claims took place during his brief time working in Mr Santos's office.\n\nThe letter, which he posted online, details his allegations against Mr Santos. He said he was offered a job late last month in the Long Island congressman's office as his staff assistant.\n\nThe 34-year-old has faced growing calls to resign after he admitted fabricating parts of his resume and biography since his election in New York last year.\n\nHe is also facing multiple investigations over his campaign spending and financial reports. He has previously denied wrongdoing.\n\nAccording to Mr Myers, on 25 January, Mr Santos asked him if he had a profile on Grindr, a popular LGBT dating app. Mr Santos then allegedly informed him that he had a profile on Grindr, Mr Myers said.\n\nOn a separate occasion the same day, Mr Myers was alone with Mr Santos in the congressman's office sorting mail.\n\n\"He called me 'buddy' and insisted I sit next to him on the sofa,\" Mr Myers wrote. \"I proceeded to move forward with a discussion about the mail, but the congressman stopped me by placing his hand on my left leg, near my knee.\"\n\nMr Myers claimed the congressman then invited him to karaoke, which he declined, and proceeded to \"take his hand and move it down my leg into my inner-thigh\", where he \"touched\" his groin.\n\nNext, Mr Myers said Mr Santos told him that his husband was away for the night and invited him to come over.\n\n\"I quickly pushed the congressman's hand away and grabbed the mail from the table and proceeded to discuss the topic of constituent correspondence,\" Mr Myers wrote.\n\nMr Myers was working under the status of \"volunteer\" at the time of the incident, he said, something he told was necessary as he waited for his new-hire paperwork to process through the payroll department. This was something he said he later learned was against House rules.\n\nOn Monday, 30 January, Mr Myers said he was called into Mr Santos' office and asked about his background as a journalist, matters that Mr Myers said had already been discussed prior to receiving a job offer.\n\nLast year, he was charged with wiretapping while working as a journalist in Ohio after publishing audio of court testimony submitted by a courthouse source. The charges have been condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists.\n\nAccording to CBS, the BBC's US partner, Mr Myers said he pleaded not guilty to the charges and the case was automatically dismissed under Ohio's criminal rules of procedure after no indictment was brought within 60 days.\n\nMr Myers said his job offer in Mr Santos's office was rescinded on 1 February.\n\nLast week, Mr Santos told Semafor he expected a progressive news website to publish recordings between the two men, saying: \"He's violated the trust that we had in him\". On Friday, Talking Points Memo published parts of a conversation the two had.\n\nMr Myers said he has not received any response to the letter from the House Ethics Committee, and that the Capitol Police told him a report would be ready on Monday, CBS reported.\n\n\"These matters will hopefully be appropriately addressed by the police and the Ethics Committee, respectively in due time,\" Mr Myers said.", "A car buried by the roof of a house in Diyarbakir\n\nIt was 04:17 local time when Erdem, asleep at his home in Gaziantep, southern Turkey, was shaken from his sleep by one of Turkey's biggest-ever earthquakes.\n\n\"I have never felt anything like it in the 40 years I've lived,\" he said. \"We were shaken at least three times very strongly, like a baby in a crib.\"\n\nPeople went to their cars to escape the damaged buildings. \"I imagine not a single person in Gaziantep is in their homes now,\" Erdem said.\n\nIn the city's hospital, Gökce Bay was supposed to be recovering from a kidney transplant on Sunday.\n\nInstead, she was pulling a drip from her arm and helping fellow patients out of the building.\n\nShe said: \"I had a kidney operation only yesterday and now I am out in my flip-flops in the rain and my feet are soaking wet. Not only me, some very old patients are out without any jackets or shoes.\"\n\nMore than 130 miles (209km) west, in Adana, Nilüfer Aslan was convinced her and her family would die when the quake shook their fifth-floor apartment.\n\n\"I have never seen anything like this in my life. We swayed for close to one minute,\" she said.\n\n\"[I said to my family] 'There is an earthquake, at least let's die together in the same place'... It was the only thing that crossed my mind.\"\n\nWhen the quake paused, Aslan fled outside - \"I couldn't take anything with me, I'm standing outside in slippers\" - to find that four buildings surrounding her own had collapsed.\n\nIn Diyarbakir, 300 miles (482km) east, people rushed into the streets to help rescuers.\n\n\"There was screaming everywhere,\" one 30-year-old man told the Reuters news agency. \"I started pulling rocks away with my hands. We pulled out the injured with friends, but the screaming didn't stop. Then the [rescue] teams came.\"\n\nElsewhere in the city, Muhittin Orakci said seven members of their family were buried in the rubble.\n\n\"My sister and her three children are there,\" he told the AFP news agency. \"And also her husband, her father-in-law and her mother-in-law.\"\n\nIn Syria, a large number of buildings collapsed in Aleppo, around a two-hour drive from the epicentre. Health director Ziad Hage Taha said wounded people were \"arriving in waves\" following the disaster.\n\nÖzgül Konakçı, a 25-year-old who lives in Malatya, Turkey, said the aftershocks - and freezing weather - made things worse.\n\n\"It's very cold and it's snowing right now,\" she told BBC Turkish. \"Everyone is on the streets, people are confused about what to do. Just before our eyes, the windows of a building exploded due to aftershocks.\"\n\nAs a second earthquake occurred at 10:24 GMT, a camera operator for Turkish news channel A Haber could be seen running from a collapsing building in Malatya as screaming was heard in the background.\n\n\"As we were heading to the rubble to [film] search and rescue efforts, there were two consecutive aftershocks with a loud noise,\" reporter Yuksel Akalan said on air.\n\n\"The building you are seeing on my left was brought down to earth. There is a lot of dust. A local resident is coming and he is covered in dust. A mother is taking her children [away].\"\n\nOzgul Konacki, 25 and from Malatya, spoke while waiting outside with her family, having seen buildings around them collapse.\n\n\"Some people wanted to go back to their houses because it was too cold,\" she said. \"But then we felt strong aftershocks and they were out again.\"\n\nIsmail Al Abdullah - a rescuer from Syrian humanitarian group White Helmets - has been working in Sarmada, near the border with Turkey, rescuing survivors.\n\n\"Many buildings in different cities and villages in north-western Syria collapsed, destroyed by this earthquake,\" he said.\n\n\"We need help. We need the international community to do something, to help us, to support us. North-western Syria is now a disaster area. We need help from everyone to save our people.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "\"It was the first time I was able to see myself in my mother's eyes,\" said Timothy\n\nTimothy Welch was one of the thousands of babies who were given up for adoption from a mother and baby home in the 1960s.\n\nHe was only six weeks old when he was separated from his birth mother, June Mary Phelps, who was 18 at the time.\n\nHe described how he traced his family roots and met June in Monmouth, where she now lives.\n\nTimothy, 59, a teacher from London, grew up with his adoptive parents Bill and Eunicé.\n\n\"My adoptive parents always said to me 'you were special - you came to us in a different way'.\n\n\"They couldn't have their own children so they started the adoption process and when they were 36 they adopted me.\"\n\nTimothy described his life with his adoptive parents as \"really happy\", and never considered trying to find his birth mother until his adoptive parents died: Bill in 2018 and Eunicé in 2020.\n\nTimothy and his adoptive parents, Bill and Eunicé\n\n\"As an adoptive child you always think about researching your birth family, but whether or not you act on it is another matter,\" said Timothy.\n\n\"A lot of it goes back to identity as a person over the years. I wondered who I was, certain personality traits that were different from my adoptive family.\n\n\"When my adoptive parents died, it makes you feel differently about the world and yourself.\n\n\"A counsellor said to me that after people's adoptive parents die they often re-open the curiosity about their own heritage because we are all searching for connection.\n\n\"I think that's really what it was about for me. It gives you a permission to think - OK what now for myself?\"\n\n\"My adoptive father told me I said when I was a child: 'I hope my birth mother's ok, I think she's beautiful and I understand why she couldn't keep me'\"\n\nTimothy started his search for his birth mother in January 2022 after going through some old family photos.\n\n\"I found a photo of my birthplace - Yateley Haven, Hampshire\" he said.\n\n\"While looking I noticed there was a closed Facebook group for families mothers and children who were born there.\n\n\"I requested to join the group and the moderator Penny Green replied and asked me about my story.\n\n\"As an enthusiastic amateur historian, she was very interested and offered to help me trace my birth parents.\"\n\nPenny Green, an ex-charity worker from Bedfordshire, created the Facebook group for people who were born or have a link to The Haven, a mother and baby home run by the Baptist Church, after being born there herself.\n\nThe 62-year-old explained unmarried mums applied to go there to give birth and their babies were adopted - often forcibly.\n\n\"The theory was back then that they were doing all these unmarried mums a favour because it was not the done thing to be an unmarried mother,\" she said.\n\nAccording to the Yateley Society, The Haven was open from 1945 until 1970, and almost 1,800 babies were born there.\n\nPenny's own mum was 36 when she was sent there by her parents as she was single and pregnant.\n\nPenny Green was vital to Timothy finding his birth family\n\nHowever, unlike many younger mothers, she refused to give Penny up. According to Penny, her mother then changed her name, and told people she was married but the baby's father had been killed in a car crash.\n\nTimothy also believes his mother was a victim of forced adoption, due to the fact she was so young.\n\nHe said: \"June didn't really have a choice, particularly if she wanted to keep working. How would she support me without having a job?\"\n\nPenny said although some mothers at The Haven knew their children were going to be taken away, they didn't get told when or get to say goodbye.\n\n\"One mum made a toy for her baby to have when they were taken, but as she wasn't told when they were taken, she never got to give it to them,\" she said.\n\n\"Some of the mothers were so traumatised they had hidden away and were so scared of bringing up the past.\"\n\nFollowing Penny's advice, Timothy applied to the General Register Office for a copy of his original birth certificate which contained his birth mother's full name, date and place of birth.\n\nPenny then used the electoral roll on and internet searches to locate her.\n\nAfter Penny made the first contact on his behalf, Timothy found his mother's current husband, Michael Mortimer.\n\nTimothy gave Mr Mortimer his email, which he passed on to Timothy's brothers and they arranged a day to meet up in London.\n\n\"Through all this I have felt the support from my brothers which has been wonderful\"\n\n\"They are both wonderful men - kind, thoughtful and reflective,\" he said.\n\n\"I feel very fortunate to have met them at this stage of our lives and am going to enjoy getting to know them and their respective families very much.\n\n\"An extra bonus for me was meeting Chris's partner, Amanda, and Greg's partner, Gemma, and some of their children who are all lovely.\"\n\nAfter 58 years apart, on Saturday, 19 September 2022, Chris and Greg took Timothy to be reunited with his birth mother.\n\nHe said: \"It was the first time I was able to see myself in my mother's eyes.\n\n\"It was emotional but at the same time it felt natural.\n\n\"We spoke about a variety of things but the part I enjoyed the most was just looking at her and taking in the person that she is.\"\n\nTimothy explained that despite long-term health challenges, his mother has a good memory of him and can \"eat an Olympian under the table\".\n\n\"I have been able to start to tell them all about my gorgeous parents who brought me up - keeping them alive in my heart and life\"\n\nTimothy said since the meeting, he is now beginning to piece together details about his early life.\n\n\"My mother was 17 when she was pregnant and just 18 when she gave birth to me. She had another baby boy a year or so earlier when she was 16, who was put up for adoption and she has not seen since,\" he said.\n\n\"She was the youngest of three children - she had a sister Audrey who was 10 years older and a brother Bill who is eight years older. He is still alive.\n\n\"My father's name was Hedayat Mamagan Zardy, an Iranian Muslim. They had a fleeting romance and loved dancing on nights out in Oxford.\n\n\"Attempts to find my birth father and older brother are at very early stages.\"\n\nTimothy explained that June went on to marry in 1966 and had two more sons - his brothers, with whom he is now in contact.\n\nReflecting on his experience of finding his family, Timothy said: \"You have to remain open minded and strong within yourself.\n\n\"Now, I've got brothers so it is interesting to have this extra layer and it's exciting to me.\n\n\"I shall be visiting my mother and look forward to getting to know her as time goes on.\"", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while walking her dog near the River Wyre in Lancashire\n\nDetectives investigating the disappearance of Nicola Bulley are focusing their efforts on a river path as they continue the search.\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire 10 days ago.\n\nThe force said sightings show her movements from the school, where she dropped her two daughters off, along the river path and into the field.\n\nThey urged drivers or cyclists on Garstang Road to contact them.\n\nHer partner, Paul Ansell, said in a statement released by Lancashire Police: \"It's been 10 days now since Nicola went missing and I have two little girls who miss their mummy desperately and who need her back.\n\n\"This has been such a tough time for the girls especially but also for me and all of Nicola's family and friends, as well as the wider community and I want to thank them for their love and support.\"\n\nPaul Ansell thanked the wider community for their support\n\nIn an update the force said: \"We can say with confidence that by reviewing CCTV, Nicola has not left the field during the key times via Rowanwater, either through the site itself or via the piece of land at the side.\n\n\"Also, we can say that she did not return from the fields along Allotment Lane or via the path at the rear of the Grapes pub on to Garstang Road.\n\n\"Our inquiries now focus on the river path which leads from the fields back to Garstang Road - for that we need drivers and cyclists who travelled that way on the morning of 27 January to make contact.\"\n\nPolice believe Ms Bulley may have fallen into the River Wyre, but they \"remain open minded\" and are continuing to carry out a \"huge number\" of inquiries.\n\nThe force said officers have \"spoken to numerous witnesses, analysed Nicola's mobile phone and Fitbit and searched the derelict house on the other side of the river as well as any empty caravans in the vicinity\".\n\nNicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nDivers are scouring the water and the search continues involving mountain rescue, sniffer dogs and helicopters.\n\nA team of divers from the private Specialist Group International (SGI) have also been assisting with the search.\n\nThe firm's founder Peter Faulding said his team of experts and divers, based in Dorking, Surrey, worked with Lancashire Police and searched \"three or four miles\" of river until it got dark.\n\n\"It's a negative search, no signs of Nicola,\" he said.\n\nSpeaking on TalkTV on Monday night he said: \"This is the most baffling case I've ever worked on.\n\n\"After 24-25 years of doing this type of work and hundreds of cases, I am totally baffled.\"\n\nSearches of the River Wyre are continuing for the tenth day\n\nHis team will look through another stretch of river on Tuesday \"towards where Nicola went originally missing\", he added.\n\nMs Bulley had dropped her two daughters, aged six and nine, off at school and then went on her usual dog walk alongside the river.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call for her job as a mortgage adviser, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and the dog harness on the ground.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Beyonce won her first Grammy in 2001 as a member of Destiny's Child\n\nBeyoncé won a record-breaking 32nd Grammy Award, while Harry Styles won album of the year, at this year's ceremony in Los Angeles.\n\nBeyoncé made history as she won best dance/electronic album for her euphoric dance opus, Renaissance.\n\nIn doing so, she overtook Hungarian-British conductor George Solti, whose record of 31 Grammys had stood for more than 20 years.\n\n\"I'm trying not to be too emotional,\" said the star, accepting her prize.\n\n\"I'm trying to just receive this night.\"\n\nShe went on to thank her family, including her late uncle Jonny, who helped make her stage outfits before she became famous.\n\nBeyoncé has previously said his battle with HIV influenced her interest in dance music, and its historical ties to the LGBTQ community, on Renaissance.\n\nOverall, Beyoncé won four prizes at the ceremony - but missed some of the early presentations after getting stuck in gridlocked downtown Los Angeles.\n\n\"I'm surprised traffic could stop you,\" joked host Trevor Noah. \"I thought you travelled through space and time.\"\n\nBeyoncé's historic achievement was celebrated at her table - with Adele and Jay-Z among those toasting the singer\n\nDespite her success, Beyoncé was once again locked out of the coveted album of the year award.\n\nShe has now lost the prize four times, most notably in 2017 when her confessional masterpiece Lemonade was beaten by Adele's 25.\n\nAt the time, Adele used her acceptance speech to say Beyoncé was the more deserving winner (although she held on to the trophy).\n\nThis year, Harry Styles took the crown, with Grammy voters recognising the slick, radio-friendly pop of his third record Harry's House.\n\nIn his speech, the British star downplayed the importance of the prize.\n\n\"On nights like tonight, it's obviously so important for us to remember that there is no such thing as best in music,\" said the singer.\n\n\"I don't think any of us sit in the studio, making decisions based on what is going to get us one of these.\"\n\nHarry Styles also gave an energetic performance of his hit single As It Was\n\nHowever, he was visibly moved by the honour, adding: \"This doesn't happen to people like me very often, and this is so, so nice.\"\n\nEarlier in the night, the star also won best pop album - receiving his award with a kiss from Jennifer Lopez.\n\n\"This album from start to finish has been the greatest experience of my life,\" he said. \"From making it with two of my best friends to playing for people has been the greatest joy I could have asked for.\"\n\nBilled as \"music's biggest night\", the Grammys are the industry's most prestigious awards.\n\nSunday's show was attended by Adele, Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Shania Twain and Stevie Wonder, with performances from Lizzo, Steve Lacy and Brandi Carlile.\n\nBritish artists had a good night, with indie duo Wet Leg winning two prizes, including best alternative album; and Sam Smith receiving best pop duo/group performance for Unholy, a duet with Kim Petras.\n\nSmith's prize was their first Grammy since 2015, when they won four trophies, including best new artist.\n\nHowever, the singer let Petras take the microphone to mark another historical achievement.\n\n\"Sam graciously wanted me to accept this award because I'm the first transgender woman to win this award,\" said the German-born singer.\n\nShe went on to thank the late, transgender pop artist Sophie for \"kicking these doors open\", and Madonna \"for fighting for LGBTQ rights\", before dedicating the award to her mother.\n\n\"I grew up next to nowhere in Germany and my mother believed me, that I was a girl,\" she said, as Smith looked on with pride. \"I wouldn't be here without her and her support.\"\n\nThe duo later gave a sultry, BDSM-inspired performance of their ode to infidelity, introduced by Madonna.\n\n\"If they call you shocking, scandalous, troublesome, problematic, provocative, or dangerous you're definitely onto something,\" said the star.\n\nAdele also won best pop vocal performance for Easy On Me, dedicating the prize to her son Angelo.\n\nThe singer told the audience she had written the first verse \"in the shower when I was choosing to change my son's life\", by divorcing her then-husband, Simon Konecki.\n\nShe added: \"I love a piano ballad winning any kind of award because it's very old school and very brave.\"\n\nAdele has now won 16 Grammys across her career\n\nSinger-songwriter Bonnie Raitt was the surprise winner of song of the year - beating favourites Taylor Swift and Beyoncé with her sorrowful ballad Just Like That.\n\nVoters were undoubtedly moved by Raitt's tender lyrics, in which a woman mourning the death of her son finds comfort from the man who received his heart in a transplant.\n\n\"I'm so proud that you appreciate this one,\" said the 73-year-old, accepting her trophy.\n\nBad Bunny opened the show in an explosion of colour, replicating a Puerto Rican fiesta in the aisles of Los Angeles' Crypto.com arena.\n\nHis medley of El Apagón and Después De La Playa was enhanced with pyrotechnics, dozens of dancers and a troop of cabezudos, the \"bighead\" puppets that march down the streets of San Juan every January.\n\nHe later won the prize for best Música Urbana album, in recognition of Un Verano Sin Ti, which spent 13 weeks at number one in the US last year.\n\n\"I made this album with love and passion, and when you do things with love and passion, everything is easier,\" said the singer.\n\nOther performances came from Americana star Brandi Carlile and Lizzo, who gave a gospel-infused take on her current single, Special.\n\nShe later won record of the year for About Damn Time, and used her speech to honour Prince, who gave her an early break on his song Boytrouble.\n\n\"When we lost Prince, I decided to dedicate my life to making positive music.\" She also paid tribute to Beyoncé, calling her \"the artist of our lives\".\n\nPublic Enemy were among the acts marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop\n\nThe in memoriam section gave an emotional send-off to stars like Olivia Newton-John, Irene Cara, David Crosby and Jeff Beck.\n\nKacey Musgraves played a heartfelt version of Coal Miner's Daughter in tribute to the \"Queen of Country\" Loretta Lynn; while Fleetwood Mac star Christine McVie was honoured with a performance of her signature hit, Songbird, by Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and Mick Fleetwood.\n\nAnd Migos rapper Quavo played Without You - a song he wrote after the tragic death of his nephew and bandmate Takeoff last November.\n\nIn a more celebratory moment, the stage was taken over by more than two dozen rap icons, celebrating 50 years of hip-hop.\n\nTurntable pioneer Grandmaster Flash kicked off the set with Flash Was On The Beat, cueing up an almost 12-minute trawl through the genre's greatest hits.\n\nRun-DMC played Rock The Bells, Public Enemy delivered a verse of Yo, Bum Rush The Show, Missy Elliot swept in for Lose Control and Busta Rhymes gave a show-stopping performance of his high-velocity rap from Chris Brown's Look At Me Now.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "The family of a British woman killed in what they claim was a hit-and-run in Tenerife have begun legal action over a judge's decision to close the police investigation.\n\nMichelle Exton was on holiday in the Canary Islands when she was hit by a van on 11 December.\n\nThe 50-year-old, from Dronfield, died from her injuries four days later.\n\nLawyers at Irwin Mitchell said police launched a hunt to trace the driver but the case was closed after three weeks.\n\nMs Exton and her mother Ann, 75, were hit by a van which mounted the pavement near the resort of Golf del Sur at about 20:30.\n\nShe suffered catastrophic head injuries and died in hospital, while her mother sustained serious rib injuries.\n\nThe family has instructed lawyers to file court documents asking for a judge to re-open the case, Irwin Mitchell said.\n\nThree weeks after the crash a judge \"stayed\" the investigation, meaning the case was closed and police were effectively barred from investigating further.\n\nMs Exton's daughters, Jess (left) and Sophia, want the investigation into her death to be reopened\n\nMs Exton's daughter, Sophia, 23, said: \"We'd do anything to have mum back in our lives but we know that's not possible.\n\n\"Our focus now is on at least trying to honour her memory by getting the justice for mum that she deserves.\n\n\"We want the authorities to leave no stone unturned in trying to trace the driver.\"\n\nMs Exton's mother Ann (right) was injured in the crash\n\nIrwin Mitchell has called on the Spanish authorities to recommence the investigation.\n\nJames Riley, associate solicitor, appealed for any witnesses or anyone with information on the crash to get in touch.\n\n\"Michelle's loved ones are devastated by her death and how what was meant to be an enjoyable holiday ended in such tragedy,\" he said.\n\n\"The decision by the judge to stay the investigation has only added to their pain.\n\n\"Michelle's family believe that the decision was made before a thorough and proper investigation could be carried out and has denied them the chance to see the driver brought to justice.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A Kenyan convicted in a trial linked to the murder of a British man has been freed from prison, after a decade-long campaign to overturn his conviction.\n\nThe BBC revealed in 2022 that a senior Metropolitan police officer who assisted the Kenyan investigation \"omitted key forensic evidence\" in the trial of Ali Kololo.\n\nJude Tebbutt, the wife of the murdered man, says Ali Kololo is innocent.\n\nHis conviction is expected to be formally overturned in April.\n\nFollowing an appeal hearing at the Kenyan High Court on Monday, Ali Kololo has been freed on a bond of 100,000 shillings ($790; £659), ahead of the judgement.\n\nDavid Tebbutt and his wife Jude had been staying at a secluded resort on the Kenyan coast in 2011, when they came under attack. David was killed and Jude was held hostage in nearby Somalia for six months. She was only released after her adult son, Olly, negotiated a ransom deal.\n\nDavid and Jude Tebbutt spent a week on safari before arriving at Kiwayu Safari Village resort\n\nFather of two, Ali Kololo, was convicted of robbery with violence and sentenced to death at a trial in 2013. His death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.\n\nAli Kololo joined the appeal hearing at the Kenyan High Court in Malindi on Monday by video link from Mombasa's Shimo La Tewa maximum security prison, where he has been incarcerated for more than a decade.\n\n\"Ali has suffered in prison for 11 years, the victim of a terrible injustice, while David Tebbutt's killers remain free,\" his lawyer, Alfred Olaba says.\n\n\"The case against him was weak and riddled with inconsistencies from the start.\"\n\nIn June 2022, the BBC revealed that the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which had been investigating Det Ch Insp Neil Hibberd's role in the case since June 2018, had concluded that \"had the officer still been serving he would have had a case to answer for gross misconduct\".\n\nIf proven, gross misconduct could lead to dismissal of a serving officer - but Mr Hibberd retired in 2017.\n\nNeil Hibberd led a Scotland Yard counter-terrorism team sent to Kenya to help the investigation\n\nNeil Hibberd was a key prosecution witness and his evidence was cited by the magistrate as one of the deciding factors in Ali Kololo's conviction.\n\nMr Hibberd \"absolutely disagrees with the [IOPC] findings\", his lawyer told the BBC in 2022.\n\nBefore the appeal court hearing the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in Kenya confirmed his position that Ali Kololo should never have been convicted and sentenced to death, as the trial judge's findings were \"not based on the evidence on record\" and were \"based on hearsay testimony\".\n\nThe DPP said that testimony given by Det Ch Insp Neil Hibberd on the arrest and crucial shoe-print evidence that linked Ali Kololo to the scene of the crime was \"purely hearsay evidence\".\n\nDirector of justice charity Reprieve, Maya Foa, says there is an overwhelming feeling of relief that Ali Kololo has finally been released.\n\n\"Ali has waited years for this moment. Everyone at Reprieve who has worked on his case is overjoyed to see him released from prison and reunited with his family at long last.\n\n\"But we should not lose sight of everything that has been taken from him as the result of a deeply unfair trial. It is a tragedy that he has spent 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.\"", "Emergency crews were called to East India Harbour at about 15:30 on Friday\n\nA major search operation has been launched for two crew members of a tug after it overturned off Greenock in the west of Scotland.\n\nEmergency crews were called to East India Harbour at about 15:30 on Friday. Rescuers were seen climbing onto the overturned hull before it sank.\n\nHM Coastguard and a police helicopter and dive and marine unit continued searches until about 20:00.\n\nPolice Scotland said the operation would resume on Saturday morning.\n\nEyewitnesses told BBC Scotland they had seen the tug escorting the Hebridean Princess cruise ship into the harbour at about 15:30 when it was apparently pulled over.\n\nImages from the scene showed rescue teams in inflatables and a police boat surrounding the capsized tug while a helicopter hovered overhead.\n\nDaniel McBride said the tug had capsized \"pretty instantaneously\".\n\nHe added: \"At that point I contacted the coastguard and was asked to go and keep eyes, so I parked up and watched.\n\n\"Within 12 minutes the first coastguard vessel came. At that point the boat was still capsized with a hull visible in the water.\n\n\"I witnessed them bashing on the hull, I guess trying to see if there was any signs inside. Unfortunately then the boat went down a short time afterwards.\"\n\nHe said there were a number of boats in the area, as well as a helicopter, but he had not seen anyone being pulled out.\n\nPolice cordoned off the area around the harbour.\n\nA police cordon has been put in place around the harbour\n\nA Police Scotland spokesperson said: \"Officers, including Police Scotland's Dive and Marine Unit and Air Support Unit, have been carrying out searches in the area and these searches will resume on the morning of Saturday, 25 February.\n\n\"Enquiries are ongoing, assisted by partners, to establish the full circumstances.\"\n\nHM Coastguard said the vessel was believed to have two crew members on board.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Coastguard Rescue Teams from Helensburgh and Greenock, a lifeboat from Helensburgh RNLI and the Coastguard helicopter from Prestwick were sent to assist and searched the area.\n\n\"Multiple vessels on the Clyde in the vicinity of the incident also responded, including an MOD Police vessel.\n\n\"The Coastguard's involvement in the surface search was terminated at 20:00.\"", "Vernon Kay has filled in for the likes of Zoe Ball, Steve Wright, Rylan Clark and Dermot O'Leary on Radio 2\n\nVernon Kay will replace presenter Ken Bruce on his weekday mid-morning slot on Radio 2, the BBC has confirmed.\n\nBruce announced on air in January that he would be leaving the station after 31 years in the role.\n\n\"Vernon is a lovely bloke and I wish him all the best,\" Bruce told BBC News, adding that he \"wouldn't dare give anyone else tips about broadcasting\".\n\nKay, who is known for presenting ITV's All Star Family Fortunes, said taking over the show was \"a dream come true\".\n\n\"And what an honour to follow in the footsteps of the mighty Ken Bruce,\" he added in a statement. \"I'm absolutely over the moon to be handed the microphone.\"\n\nBruce, who has worked for the BBC for 46 years, announced on Twitter that he would be presenting his final show on 3 March.\n\nHe tweeted on Friday: \"I had intended fulfilling my contract until the end of March but the BBC has decided it wants me to leave earlier. Let's enjoy the week ahead!\"\n\nKay has previously had his own shows on Radio 1 and Radio X, and currently presents Radio 2's Dance Sounds of the 90s - with his \"Back to Bolton Cheesy Bangers\".\n\nThe 48-year-old, who is married to Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly, will start his new show in May.\n\nDJ Gary Davies will fill the gap between Bruce's departure and Kay's first show.\n\nThe mid-morning show, famous for its daily Popmaster quiz, is Britain's most listened to radio programme and currently has more than 8.5 million weekly listeners, according to data from industry body Rajar.\n\nBruce will take the Popmaster format with him when he moves to the rival commercial station, Greatest Hits Radio.\n\nHis departure comes shortly after Steve Wright left Radio 2, ending a 23-year stint as the station's afternoon host. Wright stressed he was not retiring, and would keep his Sunday morning show.\n\nOther popular presenters who have also left the station in the past year include Paul O'Grady and Vanessa Feltz.\n\nWright was replaced by Scott Mills, while O'Grady's slot is now hosted by Rob Beckett.\n\nWeather presenter Owain Wyn Evans took over from Feltz to host the early breakfast show from Cardiff.\n\nVernon Kay, pictured with Tess Daly, hosted a show on Radio 1 for eight years\n\nThe Bolton-born presenter began his career as a model, which led to him presenting links on Channel 4's teen-targeted T4 strand.\n\nMoving into radio, he hosted his own BBC Radio 1 show between 2004 and 2012, and went on to host the mid-morning show on Radio X between 2015 and 2017.\n\nThe bubbly TV and radio personality also helmed the ITV game show All Star Family Fortunes - a celebrity version of the long-running quiz show - from 2006 to 2015, as well as two series of Beat the Star from 2008 until 2009.\n\nIn 2010, he co-anchored another ITV game show, The Whole 19 Yards, alongside Caroline Flack. The same year, over in the US, the Brit fronted the six-part series Skating with the Stars.\n\nA fan of American Football since his youth, Kay, who has also played the sport, presented The American Football Show on Channel 4 in 2013. And since the start of the 2018-19 season, he has presented live Formula E coverage, too.\n\nAlongside Gabby Logan, he fronted the celebrity diving show Splash! from 2013-2014.\n\nAn occasional stand-in presenter on the One Show and This Morning, Kay also finished in third place on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2020.\n\nOver the years, he has featured on shows such as Shooting Stars, Bo' Selecta! and Would I Lie To You?, as well as the Masked Singer. His film cameos include Shaun of the Dead.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News in 2021, around the launch of his new ITV series Game of Talents, Kay said he felt \"shackled\" using an autocue and that it was more his style to prepare before shows and then \"have a laugh in the studio\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nBruce has been one of Radio 2's longest-serving hosts, joining the BBC in 1977 and taking his first regular Radio 2 slot in 1984.\n\nThe 72-year-old Scotsman, who has also presented the station's Eurovision coverage since 1988, said last month he had \"decided the time is right for me to move on from Radio 2\". Adding that he'd had \"a tremendously happy time\" but it was \"time for a change\".\n\nHis replacement, Kay, will be familiar voice to Radio 2 listeners, having previously filled in for the likes of Zoe Ball, Steve Wright, Rylan Clark and Dermot O'Leary.\n\nHelen Thomas, head of Radio 2 said the station was \"thrilled to welcome\" Kay on board permanently, describing him as \"a hugely talented, warm and witty host\", and one who has \"already proved himself to be a firm favourite with our listeners when he's presented many and varied shows across the station\".\n\nOther upcoming plans announced by the station on Friday include a Van Morrison Blues Show special, presented by Cerys Matthews; Tony Blackburn spinning soul specials at Easter; and the Jazz Show with Jamie Cullum celebrating the music of Nina Simone.\n\nElsewhere listeners will be treated to a Country Music Season, to mark the station's official link to the Country 2 Country Music Festival, while Jo Whiley will celebrate the 12 inch single in a new documentary.", "There is concern among some Conservative MPs that an EU deal could slip through their grasp\n\nRishi Sunak started the week in the green lane heading for a deal and ended up trapped in the red lane with no clear path out.\n\nThe prime minister thought he had his paperwork complete after months of delicate negotiation.\n\nAll he needed was clearance from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and his backbench Brexiteer MPs before signing off with the EU.\n\nBut, as his predecessors at Number 10 discovered, dealing with the DUP is challenging.\n\nThanks to those same predecessors, trust between DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and the Tory leadership has been slowly eroded.\n\nThat is why the party was not moved by the assurances offered by the prime minister in the House of Commons on Wednesday.\n\n\"We've heard the same warm words from the same dispatch box before, it counts for nothing,\" said one DUP MP.\n\nThat is why the DUP leader warned against \"tweaking\" the protocol and demanded the \"legally binding text\" be rewritten.\n\nSir Jeffrey Donaldson led a DUP delegation to meet the PM near Belfast on Monday\n\nUnless the DUP can read it in a bill, they can't sell it.\n\nWhile sidestepping that part of Sir Jeffrey's question, the prime minister hinted in another answer that legislative changes are in the mix.\n\nThat will be key for the DUP to be able say the old Northern Ireland Protocol is gone.\n\nBut any changes will come in the form of new legislation \"overlaying\" what has gone before both in London and Brussels.\n\nSo the EU will equally be able to say the original protocol text remains.\n\nNuances like that matter when it comes spinning and disguising compromises if we ever reach the point of a deal.\n\nJudging by the Westminster whispers this week that is far from clear.\n\nThere is real concern among some less vocal Tories that a deal which was within touching distance could slip through their grasp.\n\nSome of those non-European Research Group (ERG) MPs question why the Prime Minister is spending so much political capital on an issue which does not stir their voters at a time when other more pressing issues need attention.\n\nThe protocol does not appear in Mr Sunak's five key priorities and there is a budget looming within weeks.\n\n\"There are some on our back benches who are certifiable and Mr Sunak needs to stand up to them\" said one frustrated Tory.\n\nAfter briefing heavily that the deal was to be published this week, Team Sunak are now in crisis management.\n\nThe daily calls with European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic on the surface suggest Brussels is being squeezed for more concessions, but equally it could be for the optics ahead of a deal being agreed next week.\n\nMr Sunak has invested too much to walk away.\n\nHe cannot sit on a deal which provides much needed remedies for businesses struggling under the burden of the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nPlus, he is desperate to bank the gains he has secured.\n\nThat may include taking back control of state aid, VAT and other tax breaks in Northern Ireland which, under the protocol, fell to Brussels.\n\nThat was leaked this week and was not totally discounted by sources in Brussels.\n\nSuch leaks are useful in countering back bench and DUP pressure in the absence of publishing the deal.\n\nCould this be one of the important areas where Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told us real progress has been made?\n\nBut what the prime minister really needs is for the DUP to hold back on its verdict of any deal.\n\nThis would allow the government time to win over business leaders and other stake holders before the DUP passes judgement.\n\nBut if the government is to secure its goal of restoring the Stormont institutions then the DUP will have to be won over at some stage\n\nThe party is expecting the deal to be published early next week and it will likely flag concerns but reserve full judgement until it sees any accompanying legal text\n\nWith a council election looming in May, rejecting the deal is the easiest option for Sir Jeffrey.\n\nBut saying no is not a long term sustainable position and that is the calculation the government will be banking on", "Last updated on .From the section Wrexham\n\nWrexham owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are set to make their club debuts in a $1m tournament.\n\nThe Soccer Tournament, a 32-team, seven-a-side event, will be held in Cary, North Carolina between 1-4 June.\n\nWrexham have been invited to take part following the success of the Disney+ documentary Welcome to Wrexham.\n\nThe Hollywood pair are in the club's squad alongside player-coach David Jones and former players Shaun Pearson, Paul Rutherford and Mark Carrington.\n\nDeadpool actor Reynolds and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator McElhenney became owners of the Dragons in February 2021.\n\nThe Dragons confirmed this month they would compete for the $1m (£831,000) prize and, should they win, have pledged to spend half of the money on community projects.\n\n\"Wrexham AFC is more than just a first team,\" Shaun Harvey, advisor to the board at Wrexham, said previously.\n• None Hugh Jackman wants to score winner against Wrexham\n• None Actor Will Ferrell spotted having pint in Wrexham\n\n\"It represents the people of north Wales and this tournament will allow us to incorporate former players of the club like we have never been able to do before.\"\n\nReynolds and McElhenney's investment has turned the club into National League promotion contenders and enjoyed a shock FA Cup run when they came within minutes of knocking out Championship leaders Sheffield United.\n\nThe fly-on-the-wall Welcome To Wrexham documentary has given the club a global profile and participating in the United States is seen as an opportunity to continue that.", "UK health experts are sharing details of their Covid-style plans against bird flu, including modelling for the unlikely scenario that it could mutate and cause a pandemic in people.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says there is no evidence H5N1 virus is an imminent threat or can spread between people, despite some getting sick after contact with infected birds.\n\nBut there is no room for complacency.\n\nOne expert told the BBC \"we must prepare for the worst\" just in case.\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) is urging heightened vigilance from all countries, following the death of an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia from H5N1.\n\nThe girl's father has also tested positive, according to Cambodia's health minister.\n\nInvestigators are working to establish if infected birds were the cause, rather than a case of human-to-human transmission.\n\nHumans rarely get bird flu, but when they do it is usually from coming into direct contact with infected birds.\n\nSince late 2021, the world has been experiencing one of the worst global avian influenza outbreaks on record, with tens of millions of poultry culled and mass wild bird die-offs.\n\nAnd there have been a few infections in some mammals, including foxes and otters in the UK.\n\nDr Meera Chand, from the UKHSA, said all of the latest evidence suggested H5N1 could not currently spread easily to people.\n\n\"However, viruses constantly evolve, and we remain vigilant for any evidence of changing risk to the population, as well as working with partners to address gaps in the scientific evidence.\"\n\nIn preparation for a worst-case scenario of human-to-human spread, the UKHSA is modelling:\n\nWhen the Covid pandemic hit, there were no suitable vaccines available to fight that virus. But for bird flu, there are already several good candidates that might help.\n\nWHO-affiliated labs already hold two flu virus strains that are closely related to the circulating H5N1 virus, that manufacturers can use to develop new shots if needed, experts said at a meeting on Friday.\n\nProf Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London, is a member of Nervtag - the group that advises the British government on new and emerging threats from respiratory viruses.\n\nHe told the BBC that the fact that we are still in a Covid pandemic in no way lessened the possibility of another pandemic coming from elsewhere.\n\n\"We absolutely need to watch this one,\" he said.\n\n\"The good news at the moment is that there's no evidence of human-to-human spread.\n\n\"We need to prepare for the worst but obviously hope for the best, to use the old phrase.\"\n\nProf Sir Andrew Pollard, part of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine team, told the BBC that bird flu had \"pandemic potential\" as humans did not have immunity.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: \"In the human population at the moment there is no immunity against this strain of H5N1 because we never had an outbreak of that in humans.\n\n\"So there's just no immunity, and that's why it has pandemic potential... and why it's so important to be vigilant.\"\n\n\"Not another pandemic\" might well be the exasperated response of many to talk of the risks from bird flu.\n\nCovid fatigue is understandable but the H5N1 virus is a real concern to many scientists who monitor global disease threats.\n\nThankfully, the virus does not spread easily from birds to humans, requiring close contact. That would need to change if the threat of a human pandemic was to be realised, which would require the virus to mutate.\n\nSince 2003 the WHO has recorded 868 cases in humans, of which 457 were fatal, so the mortality rate is more than 50%.\n\nScientists want to see better surveillance, more investment in vaccines and antivirals - so that should the worst ever happen, the world will be better prepared than it was when Covid emerged.\n• None Bird flu 'spills over' to otters and foxes in UK\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Christie Harnett and Emily Moore both died while under the care of the trust\n\nA mental health trust is to be prosecuted after three patients died in its care.\n\nThe Care Quality Commission (CQC) is bringing charges against the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) NHS Trust.\n\nIt is thought they relate to the deaths of Christie Harnett, 17, Emily Moore, 18, and a third person.\n\nThe trust is said to have failed \"to provide safe care and treatment\" which exposed patients to \"significant risk of avoidable harm\".\n\nBoth young women had previously been treated at West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough, which was closed down by inspectors after significant concerns were raised in 2019.\n\nMiss Harnett, from Newton Aycliffe died at the hospital in 2019.\n\nMiss Moore, from Shildon, died after taking her own life at Lanchester Road Hospital in Durham in 2020. Both had complex mental health issues and took their own lives.\n\nIt is not known who the third person is.\n\nWest Lane was a mental health unit for children and adolescents\n\nLast year, independent reports commissioned by NHS England found including gaps in the \"care and service delivery\" across a number of agencies over the treatment provided to the two of them.\n\nIn June last year, the CQC, which regulates health and social care services in England, said it was prosecuting the trust over its failure to protect Miss Harnett.\n\nAt the time, it said the circumstances surrounding the death meant the CQC had looked \"at all the evidence to determine if it meets the threshold for the CQC to prosecute the provider\".\n\nAnd \"in this case it was concluded that it did meet the threshold and a prosecution was necessary and in the public interest\".\n\nOn Friday, the CQC confirmed it was now prosecuting the trust over the deaths of two more people.\n\nA spokesperson for the CQC refused to confirm the patients involved, but said all had been in the trust's care.\n\nHowever, the father of Miss Moore, David Moore, told the BBC that some of the alleged offences related to the care of his daughter.\n\nThe CQC said the trust \"breached\" the Health and Social Care Act, which relates to healthcare providers' responsibility to \"ensure people receive safe care and treatment\".\n\nIn response, a spokesperson for the trust said: \"We have fully cooperated with the Care Quality Commission's investigation and continue to work closely with them.\n\n\"We remain focused on delivering safe and kind care to our patients and have made significant progress in the last couple of years.\"\n\nThe first hearing is set to take place on 17 May at Teesside Magistrates' Court.\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe UN General Assembly in New York has overwhelmingly backed a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago.\n\nIt called for the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine and a halt to fighting.\n\nThe motion was backed by 141 nations with 32 abstaining and seven - including Russia - voting against.\n\nIn Vienna, a large number of delegates walked out during a Russian address at a parliamentary session of a European security body.\n\nThe Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) walkout and the UN vote came a day before the first anniversary of the invasion.\n\nThe UN vote called for peace as soon as possible.\n\nThe resolution reaffirmed support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, rejecting any Russian claims to the parts of the country it occupies. In September, MPs in Moscow voted to illegally annex four regions of Ukraine.\n\nThe UN also demanded \"that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders\" and called for a cessation of hostilities.\n\nThe measure is not legally binding but holds political weight.\n\nWhile the resolution was passed overwhelmingly by the majority of nations, there were some notable abstentions.\n\nChina, India, Iran and South Africa were among the 32 countries to abstain in the vote.\n\nThe seven countries who voted against were Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Mali, Nicaragua and Syria.\n\nUkrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the vote \"made it clear that Russia must end its illegal aggression. Ukraine's territorial integrity must be restored\".\n\n\"One year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion global support for Ukraine remains strong,\" he tweeted.\n\nEarlier at the OSCE in Vienna, the decision to give visas to the Russian delegation caused anger.\n\nUkraine and Lithuania boycotted the session entirely over Austria's decision to invite officials from Moscow, despite some being under EU sanctions.\n\nThe Austrian government said it was obliged to do so under international law because the OSCE has its headquarters there.\n\nLatvian MP Rihards Kols described the Russian presence as the \"elephant in the room\", adding it was a \"disgrace\" that they were allowed to take part.\n\nA large number of delegates then staged a walkout during the Russian address.\n\nThe Russian delegate, Vladimir Dzhabarov, derided delegates for walking out, repeating false claims that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a battle against nationalists and Nazis who Moscow claims are leading the Kyiv government.\n\nThe OSCE was founded in 1975 to improve relations between the Western and Eastern blocs. Its current members include members of Nato and allies of Russia.\n\nPresident Vladimir Putin sent up to 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine on 24 February 2022 in the biggest European invasion since the end of World War Two.\n\nThe devastating war that ensued has left at least 7,199 civilians dead and thousands of others injured, according to a UN estimate, with the real number likely to be much higher.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "A store of archaeological finds that cannot be placed in museums\n\nTroves of ancient artefacts unearthed during building and infrastructure works are gathering dust in warehouses as England's museums run out of space, the BBC has learned.\n\nArchaeologists say this is a missed opportunity for people to learn about their history and heritage.\n\nThe objects range from fine Roman metalwork to bronze age pottery.\n\nThey are discovered by archaeological contractors whom developers hire before clearing sites for construction.\n\nMany of our most important historical discoveries now come from such contractors, known as 'commercial archaeologists'.\n\nLondon's largest mosaic find in 50 years was unearthed during a regeneration project near the Shard in Southwark and archaeologists working on the route of the HS2 high-speed railway found a vast wealthy Roman trading settlement.\n\nBut Historic England says that museums could soon run out of room for such artefacts. A report commissioned by the public body and Arts Council England shows that unless they acquire more storage space, the amount of material coming out of the ground will soon be greater than the space available to store it.\n\n\"The clock is ticking - we have four or five years before we really do start seeing massive problems,\" said Barney Sloane, national specialist services director at Historic England.\n\n\"The potential of archaeological archives is really rich,\" he said. \"It would be a massive shame if we couldn't find a way of making sure they are protected for the future.\"\n\nWhile the management of archaeological finds differs between Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, all three countries have also reported similar problems with storage.\n\nMany museums have already stopped collecting archaeological archives. This means that they remain out of sight of the public, although many contractors provide access to researchers who want to study them.\n\nAmethyst beads for a necklace from the grave of a high status Saxon girl\n\n\"There's literally nowhere to put them,\" said Tom Booth, a researcher at the Crick Institute who works with museums to access samples for research. He added that a lack of dedicated archaeological curators, due to funding, added to the problem.\n\n\"If there's not an archaeological curator at a museum, they might not be as keen to take it on because they don't feel they could look after [the finds] properly,\" he said.\n\nFewer than half of museums in England now have an archaeological curator, according to the Society of Museum Archaeologists.\n\nAlready, at least a quarter of the excavations undertaken by archaeological contractors in England produce collections that never find their way to a museum, according to Historic England and Arts Council England.\n\nThe external store of commercial firm Albion Archaeology, where finds that can't be placed in museums are kept\n\nThat means contractors are left holding the bag when it comes to storing them, but are ill-equipped to show what they have found to the public, even though some do try to make objects available to local communities.\n\n\"We have a small visitor centre at our office where people can come and view some of the archival material,\" said Victoria Sands of The Colchester Archaeology Trust, a charity which also does contract work and discovered the site of a Roman circus. \"But obviously we're not a museum, it's not on permanent display or anything like that.\"\n\nHistoric England, along with Arts Council England and National Trust, are in early talks to advise government on the creation of a national archive that they say could solve the issue of storage for the next 100 years. It remains to be seen whether government will commit funding to that solution.\n\nHistoric England say they are concerned that if storage space runs out, councils may no longer be able to compel developers to excavate sites of archaeological interest, meaning a lot of history could be lost forever.\n\nOne novel solution to the storage problem has been to put finds back where they came - underground.\n\nThe interior of Deepstore, a former salt mine in Cheshire where Cambridgeshire County Council store finds made in the county\n\nCambridgeshire County Council has turned to Deepstore, an underground storage company located in a former salt mine in Cheshire, which gives them boundless space to keep their 20,000 boxes of historical artefacts, which they can recall as needed.\n\nA project called After the Plague run by the University of Cambridge has requested hundreds of boxes of human remains from their collection at Deepstore that came from burials at the Hospital of St. John in Cambridge.\n\nThat project used cutting-edge techniques to learn more about the consequences of the Black Death in Cambridge, including how epidemic diseases affect our evolution, and found the first direct archaeological evidence of the plague in Britain.\n\n\"That benefits medicine, it benefits genetics - it's not just about heritage,\" said Mr Sloane of Historic England.\n\nFinds from the stores can also be loaned out to museums for temporary exhibitions, like the current showing of goods from two graves at the burial site of a possible Saxon princess on display at Ely museum. That exhibition uses finds from the collection of Cambridgeshire County Council, including an ancient brooch and amethyst beads from a necklace.\n\nThe exhibition at Ely museum, showing some of the grave goods of two 7th century Saxon girls\n\n\"The whole point of storing this material is to tell stories about it and to show it to people and make them aware of their own history,\" said Sally Croft, archives manager for Cambridgeshire County Council. \"And you can only do that by putting it on display and allowing people to see it.\"", "The Making of Flying Scotsman is a new poem written by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage to mark 100 years since the famous locomotive entered service.\n\nThe steam engine was the UK's first to officially reach 100mph, and also the first-ever service to run non-stop from London to Edinburgh.", "The encrypted-messaging app Signal has said it would stop providing services in the UK if a new law undermined encryption.\n\nIf forced to weaken the privacy of its messaging system under the Online Safety Bill, the organisation \"would absolutely, 100% walk\" Signal president Meredith Whittaker told the BBC.\n\nThe government said its proposal was not \"a ban on end-to-end encryption\".\n\nThe bill, introduced by Boris Johnson, is currently going through Parliament.\n\nCritics say companies could be required by Ofcom to scan messages on encrypted apps for child sexual abuse material or terrorism content under the new law.\n\nThis has worried firms whose business is enabling private, secure communication.\n\nElement, a UK company whose customers include the Ministry of Defence, told the BBC the plan would cost it clients.\n\nPreviously, WhatsApp has told the BBC it would refuse to lower security for any government.\n\nThe government, and prominent child protection charities have long argued that encryption hinders efforts to combat online child abuse - which they say is a growing problem.\n\n\"It is important that technology companies make every effort to ensure that their platforms do not become a breeding ground for paedophiles,\" the Home Office said in a statement.\n\nIt added \"The Online Safety Bill does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption but makes clear that technological changes should not be implemented in a way that diminishes public safety - especially the safety of children online.\n\n\"It is not a choice between privacy or child safety - we can and we must have both.\"\n\nChild protection charity the NSPCC said in reaction to Signal's announcement: \"Tech companies should be required to disrupt the abuse that is occurring at record levels on their platforms, including in private messaging and end-to-end encrypted environments.\"\n\nBut the digital rights campaigners the Open Rights Group said it highlighted how the bill threatened to \"undermine our right to communicate securely and privately\".\n\nBut Ms Whittaker told the BBC it was \"magical thinking\" to believe we can have privacy \"but only for the good guys\".\n\nShe added: \"Encryption is either protecting everyone or it is broken for everyone.\"\n\nShe said the Online Safety Bill \"embodied\" a variant of this magical thinking.\n\nSignal has had over 100 million app downloads on the Google store alone.\n\nIt uses end-to-end encryption, a system where messages are scrambled so that even the company operating the service cannot read them.\n\nOperated by a Californian based not-for-profit organisation, the app's users include journalists, activists and politicians.\n\nWhatsApp also uses end-to-end encryption, as does Apple's iMessage system and optionally Facebook and Telegram.\n\nApple had proposed a system where messages sent from phones and other devices would be scanned for child abuse images before being encrypted but abandoned the plans following a backlash.\n\nCalled client-side scanning, some have said this is the approach that tech firms may end up having to use - but critics argue it effectively undermines the point of encryption.\n\nIt would in effect turn everyone's phone into a \"mass surveillance device that phones home to tech corporations and governments and private entities\", Ms Whittaker said.\n\nMs Whittaker said \"back doors\" to enable the scanning of private messages would be exploited by \"malignant state actors\" and \"create a way for criminals to access these systems\".\n\nAsked if the Online Safety Bill could jeopardise their ability to offer a service in the UK, she told the BBC: \"It could, and we would absolutely 100% walk rather than ever undermine the trust that people place in us to provide a truly private means of communication.\n\n\"We have never weakened our privacy promises, and we never would.\"\n\nMatthew Hodgson chief executive of Element, a British secure communications company, said the threat of mandated scanning alone would cost him clients.\n\nHe argued that customers would assume any secure communication product that came out of the UK would \"necessarily have to have backdoors in order to allow for illegal content to be scanned\".\n\nIt could also result in \"a very surreal situation\" where a government bill might undermine security guarantees given to customers at the MoD and other sensitive areas of government, he added.\n\nHe also said the firm might have to cease offering some services.\n\nMs Whittaker said: \"There's no-one who doesn't want to protect children,\" adding: \"Some of the stories that are invoked are harrowing.\"\n\nWhen asked how she would respond to arguments that encryption protects abusers, Ms Whittaker said she believed that most abuse took place in the family and in the community - where she argued the focus of efforts to stop it should be.\n\nShe pointed to a paper by Professor Ross Anderson, which argued for better funding of services working in child protection and warned that \"the idea that complex social problems are amenable to cheap technical solutions is the siren song of the software salesman\".\n• None WhatsApp: We won't lower security for any government", "Ukraine has managed to hold Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine despite fierce Russian attempts to seize it\n\nBeneath his green helmet, dark shadows ringed his eyes. He had been on his feet all night fighting. Like many on Ukraine's eastern front, he is both battle-hardened and war-weary.\n\n\"It's difficult. People don't get enough sleep. They are standing for 20 hours. The fight goes on around the clock. I can't say more, it's secret. But, we can't go back.\"\n\nHis unit, from the Ukraine's 35th Brigade, is part of the defence of Vuhledar. The name means gift of coal, and this prosperous mining town was once home to 15,000 people. But now it's a wasteland - one of many on Ukraine's 1,300 kilometre (807 mile) front line.\n\nBlackened apartment blocks tower over deserted streets. A church has been reduced to a shell - its roof peeled off and windows shattered. A cross still stands at the front, punctured by shrapnel. In the playground, there are bullet holes in the slide. Vuhledar's children are long gone.\n\nThe town sits on high ground in the heavily contested Donbas region in the east. From here Ukraine can target rail lines used by the Russians for resupply. It needs to hold this bastion. Moscow needs to take it. Some of the fiercest fighting of recent months has been here.\n\n\"The front line is one kilometre away,\" said the commander, having to repeat himself over the rattle of heavy machine-gun fire, this time outgoing.\n\n\"They are pushing, and we lack armour. We are waiting for the Lend-Lease [the US programme that provides military equipment] and we will advance.\" That's a familiar refrain on front lines here as Ukraine awaits Western battle tanks promised by its allies.\n\nThe commander, codenamed Beast, says Ukraine's forces are waiting for Western weapons before advancing\n\nFor now, the defenders of Vuhledar use what they have got.\n\nA few troops dart into position, to target the enemy. They lob mortars - and obscenities - then make a quick getaway, to avoid being targeted themselves.\n\nWe move forward carefully to within 500 metres of the front line. The Russians have no line of sight. We are shielded by buildings. But suddenly there's a warning shout. We have to take cover at a wall. The troops have heard something overhead, possibly a Russian drone. That's our cue to pull back.\n\nThe Russians may have eyes in the sky here - and superior firepower - but critics back home are questioning their vision.\n\nA hapless Russian attempt to take the town earlier this month ended in heavy losses and humiliation. A column of tanks and armoured vehicles headed straight for Ukrainian positions - through minefields - in full view on a flat plain. Ukraine stopped them in their tracks, much as it stopped an armoured column approaching Kyiv last year. If the Russians learned anything from that, it didn't show in Vuhledar.\n\nAbout 300 souls remain in this broken town without heat or light - frozen in place by age, clinging to their memories. Solace comes in the form of Oleh Tkachenko, a jovial evangelical pastor in combat gear, who brings aid here twice a week.\n\nPastor Oleh (right) gives out food and hugs on aid trips to Vuhledar\n\nHe arrives in the early morning, before the shelling reaches its peak. Soon his armoured van attracts a queue of men and women bundled up in winter coats and hats. \"Hang on,\" he says, as hands reach out for freshly baked bread. \"It's one loaf for each person.\"\n\nValentina, who is 73, quietly waits her turn. She's a slight figure, bent low over a walking stick, with a head torch around her neck. She tells us she has nowhere else to go.\n\n\"We are frightened, of course,\" she says. \"But what can we do? We live with it. You can't say 'Don't shoot!' They have their job. We have our lives.\"\n\nShe recalls life before the invasion. \"The town was quiet, calm, and clean. People worked and had money. What can I say? It was a good town.\" Her voice cracks and she falls silent.\n\nValentina is one of just 300 residents remaining in the embattled town\n\nAt the van Pastor Oleh dispenses some advice, and a quick hug before hurrying people away. Crowds are a target.\n\n\"There's always shelling,\" he says. \"We try not to gather a lot of people. We park carefully, in the safest places, near the entrance to a building where people can take shelter. We help because it's a matter of life or death. The risk is huge but so is the reward - saving people's lives.\"\n\nHe's pained by the fate of Vuhledar, which was his home for three years. \"I think it's completely obvious that Russia hates Ukraine,\" he says. \"It hates our cities and our people, and it is destroying everything it hates. No matter what Russia says, its action scream louder than its words.\"\n\nThe story of Vuhledar is replicated in many parts of the eastern front. Ukraine is resisting, straining every sinew. The Russians are not winning but they aren't giving up either.\n\nThere is a cold hard truth on the front lines here. One year after his invasion, President Putin stills holds almost a fifth of this vast country.\n\nBoth sides have signalled that major offensives are coming. The coming months will be critical.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nLegendary commentator John Motson was \"the voice of football\" who \"always got the mood and the occasion right\", says former England captain Gary Lineker.\n\nMotson, who had an illustrious 50-year career with the BBC, has died aged 77.\n\n\"Motty was a remarkable character and a remarkable commentator,\" Lineker, speaking to PM on BBC Radio 4, said.\n\nThe Match of the Day host added: \"He always pitched it right, he got the big goals right. It's a sad day for football.\"\n\nMotson commentated on Lineker's equaliser against West Germany in the World Cup semi-final in 1990 in Turin, Italy. England lost the match on penalties.\n\n\"I have heard it and seen it [Motson's commentary] hundreds and hundreds of times and he absolutely nails it,\" said Lineker.\n\n\"He was the voice of our sport for pretty much 50 years. He lived and breathed football.\n\n\"He was almost an anorak, if you like, and I think you have got to be that a little bit to be a commentator of his ilk.\n\n\"He covered Romania when all the players dyed their hair blonde [at the 1998 World Cup]. It was almost impossible to tell one footballer from another, but somehow he managed it.\"\n• None Obituary: Motty - the voice of football for 50 years\n\n'A legend whose record is without comparison'\n\nFootball Association president Prince William was among many that also paid tribute to Motson, who covered 10 World Cups, 10 European Championships and 29 FA Cup finals for BBC Sport before retiring from the organisation in 2018.\n\n\"Very sad to hear about the passing of John Motson - a legend whose voice was football,\" he said. \"My thoughts are with his family and friends.\"\n\nCommentator Clive Tyldesley, who worked alongside Motson at the BBC in the 1990s, said: \"I've lost a friend, first and foremost, but such was the reach of John Motson, such was the distinctive nature of his voice and his commentary style, that I think many thousands of people who never got to meet him will feel as if they have lost a friend too.\n\n\"What I can tell people is, if they felt that way about John, that was the real John. There was no front.\"\n\nMotson - known for his trademark sheepskin coats - made his breakthrough on Match of the Day during the famous FA Cup replay between Hereford and Newcastle in 1972.\n\nOriginally billed as a five-minute segment, Hereford's shock 2-1 win - featuring Ronnie Radford's famous 30-yard strike - saw the match promoted to the main game, with Motson capturing all the drama.\n\nFormer BBC commentator Barry Davies, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, said: \"John was excited by the game and everything about the game.\n\n\"Years later he said that if Radford's shot had come back off the crossbar he probably wouldn't have got the job that he got.\n\n\"We used to have a laugh about the sheepskin coat because I once said to him, 'I was wearing a sheepskin coat before you came along but you got a better deal than I did'.\n\n\"His record is without comparison. I don't think his record will ever be passed.\"\n\nEverton boss Sean Dyche also paid tribute to Motson at his pre-match news conference on Thursday before Saturday's game with Aston Villa.\n\n\"It's a sad loss,\" said Dyche. \"He was a legend.\n\n\"When you met him a few times, like I did, he was a top fella as well.\"", "As I enter Ukraine, the streets are dark.\n\nIt's taken a day to get here and it feels surreal to finally be standing in a country at war.\n\nTen hours earlier I boarded a plane from London to Kraków in Poland. From there, it's a three hour drive to the Ukraine border.\n\nI'm here with a team of journalists from Newsround to find out how children are doing, a year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nAs we start our journey towards the border, it begins to snow.\n\nCrossing into Ukraine is surprisingly straightforward. Our vehicle is parked up next to a white van painted with a Polish and Ukrainian flag. It's carrying clothes, bottles of water and other essential supplies.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ukraine: What is it like to report from the country?\n\nEvery vehicle is checked. I hand over my documents and we wait.\n\nLess than 15 minutes later, the engine is on and we're on the move. The tyres of our car move forward slowly onto Ukrainian soil.\n\nAfter months of planning, this is the moment I've been waiting for and my heart starts to beat faster.\n\nMinutes later, the car stops. I step outside to record a quick video on my phone. The air is cold and it's so quiet.\n\nI take a look around but there's not much to see in the dark.\n\nI meet up with 13-year-old Viola who had to escape her home in the middle of the night after her village was taken over by Russian soldiers\n\nWe continue the drive to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.\n\nThere are lots of houses set back from the main road. People are indoors, trying to stay warm - it's bitterly cold outside.\n\nThere are no lights on, instead I can see candles flicker in windows as we drive past a row of houses. There's a blackout, which means people in this part of the country are not getting electricity tonight.\n\nThe next morning, I'm up early and back in the car.\n\nThe journey to Kyiv, Ukraine's capital city is seven hours long.\n\nJust like the UK, there are petrol stations and fast food restaurants all along the motorway, but there's something different that I've never seen before.\n\nBuildings destroyed, apartment blocks badly damaged and warehouses burned to the ground.\n\nIt's all evidence of a war, something I have never seen with my own eyes.\n\nThis war - the biggest in Europe since World War Two - is now a year old. A year since Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his armies to invade Ukraine.\n\nLast year, 13-year-old Viola had to escape her home in the middle of the night after her village was taken over by Russian soldiers.\n\nViola looks through the wreckage where her home once stood\n\n\"We didn't even have time to look back at our house and we didn't know where we were going,\" she says.\n\nViola tells me how the Russian soldiers destroyed everything. \"One night, we felt a huge explosion, it lit up my bedroom, shaking the house and waking us up.\n\n\"We kept running through other people's gardens with the sound of bullets whistling near our feet.\"\n\nViola, her younger sister and mum managed to escape and were evacuated to a safer part of Ukraine.\n\nShe invited me to take a look at where her house once stood. There are no bricks, doors or windows. A twisted pile of metal, some old pots and pans and charred wood is all that's left.\n\nThe memories of what happened here are hard for Viola to relive, but like lots of the children I've met in Ukraine, she is determined to carry on with the things that make her happy, like playing the piano and spending time with her dog.\n\nWe kept running through other people's gardens with the sound of bullets whistling near our feet.\n\nLater that night, I return to our hotel in the centre of Kyiv. All the street lights are off so people carry torches to see where they're going. Huge churches with golden domes are now shrouded in darkness.\n\nMany families in Ukraine are living different lives now.\n\nI've come to meet 11-year-old Dimitri. His town was also occupied by Russian soldiers.\n\nWhen the fighting started, his family and their neighbours hid in garages on the edge of town, hoping they might be safer. They were wrong.\n\nWhen the Russian shelling began, a young boy and his father in the garage next door were killed.\n\nDimitri's apartment was also hit by a missile.\n\nThis is Dimitri, who is 11 years old. His apartment was hit by a missile\n\n\"I could never imagine that such a situation would happen,\" he tells me. \"I could never imagine that there would be a war and I could absolutely never imagine that my flat would be burned.\"\n\nDimitri's family had to find somewhere else to hide.\n\nThey made their way to a basement in a nearby pre-school building - where they stayed on and off for two months, sharing the space with 270 others. The conditions were difficult - food and clean water were limited.\n\nHe told me: \"We spent a lot of time in the basement - it was cold and gloomy, of course we could see many people, parents, kids worried about their loved ones, of course we would hear the blasts that made us even more scared.\"\n\nI followed Dimitri down the steps to see the basement for myself. It smells damp and it's very cold.\n\nThe community recently painted the walls in the basement to try to brighten up the place.\n\nDimitri tells me it looks so much better now. Last year, the basement had no electricity or internet.\n\nWe would hear the blasts that made us even more scared\n\nInside the basement, there are lots of rooms with small beds for children, toys to play with and bottles of water and food.\n\nThere are no windows, this is where people come when they hear air raid sirens.\n\nDimitri shows me the bed he slept in when he had to stay in the basement for weeks.\n\nHe said: \"I've changed a lot during these past 12 months. I started to understand how good it is to have a home.\"\n\nLots of children in Ukraine miss going to school.\n\nEither ongoing fighting or school buildings being destroyed means online lessons only, and for others, even that's impossible - there is no school of any sort.\n\nI catch up with children who have just returned to the classroom in the city of Zhytomyr.\n\nMy camera operator picks up his camera and starts to record the children listening to their teacher.\n\nI visit a school ... and experience my first air raid siren. The children stay calm as we move to safety in a basement\n\nSeconds later, the lesson is interrupted by a strange noise.\n\nIt's an air raid siren, a sound that's hard to describe and something I've never experienced before.\n\nThe loud warning rings out across the city and other parts of Ukraine to let the population know that an air raid is expected.\n\nWe begin to follow the children into the school basement where we stay for two hours.\n\nI ask one of the boys how he feels. \"I feel a bit scared and also a bit worried for my relatives and myself and for all my friends,\" he says.\n\nTeachers try to distract them from their worries - this is something they're used to now.\n\nI'm underground in my hotel's car park following more air raid sirens. Missiles hit buildings less than 10 miles away\n\nThe next morning, I'm woken up in my hotel room by the sound of another air raid siren. My phone goes off, messages from the team telling me to get down into the hotel's basement as quickly as possible.\n\nFor the next four hours, we stay underground. The hotel's car park has been turned into a shelter.\n\nOver the course of the morning, Russia send a fresh wave of missiles over Ukraine. One lands less than 10 miles from our hotel causing damage to buildings and killing civilians.\n\nThe war leaves little opportunity for children to have a normal childhood and do all the things they enjoy.\n\nI visited a group that has been set up to help them relax. It's a place they can talk, play and create. Problems are put to one side, for a few hours at least, with a little help from Bise, a very energetic dog.\n\nI visit an after-school centre where children can relax and chat\n\nSofia has been coming to these after-school groups and tells me: \"Children will remember this war forever, some of them will have to take counselling for a long time, solving their problems.\n\n\"I think it shouldn't have happened to the children.\"\n\nI leave Ukraine after more than a week travelling around, talking to children and I'm overwhelmed by their honesty and what they've endured.\n\nI've also seen communities come together. They are protecting each other.\n\nNobody knows what the long-term impact on children will be - and nobody knows when this war is going to end.\n\nBut what is clear is that the children I've met, despite everything, have hope and a determination to carry on.\n\nI leave Ukraine knowing that one day I will return.\n\nYou can watch the 30-minute documentary Ukraine: The Children's Story on the BBC iPlayer.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nManchester United produced a memorable second-half comeback to reach the Europa League last 16 and knock out Barcelona in the process.\n\nBrazilian duo Fred and Antony, who came on as a half-time substitute, both drilled home low first-time shots in front of an ecstatic Stretford End.\n\nIt was a victory that looked so unlikely at half-time as Barcelona led thanks to Robert Lewandowski's 18th-minute penalty after Bruno Fernandes' needless foul on Alejandro Balde.\n\nBut Antony's arrival for struggling forward Wout Weghost changed the course of the tie as it injected more pace into United's attacks, which the La Liga leaders failed to deal with.\n\nErik ten Hag's side now move on to Wembley, where they will look to collect their first silverware since 2017 when they face Newcastle in the EFL Cup final.\n\nFor Barcelona, it was the first time they have been eliminated from European competition without reaching the last 16 since 1998-1999, which is not quite what president Joan Laporta had in mind when he pulled all those economic levers last year.\n\nIt was also Barcelona's first defeat since October and ended an 18-match unbeaten run.\n• None Manchester United v Barcelona as it happened, plus reaction and analysis\n\nAfter the match, Ten Hag said: \"It was a magnificent night. I think this is another step because when you can beat Barcelona - one of the best teams in this moment in Europe - your belief can be really strong because then I think you are able to beat anyone.\n\n\"I think we have great personalities... winning types.\n\n\"Everyone has a such a strong belief in this team and fight in this team and you can see it with the subs, they are bringing energy and quality and a different dynamic in games. All the subs, not only in this game, did brilliant.\"\n\nFred has had plenty of detractors since his £47m move to United from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2018.\n\nThe chances are if Christian Eriksen had not been ruled out until the end of April through injury, he wouldn't even have started this game.\n\nYet, as Ten Hag has admitted, anyone capable of playing regularly for Brazil has to be a good player and this was one of those occasions when he proved it.\n\nFred's goal was an excellent effort as he moved into space on the edge of the area, unseen by Barca's Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong, who United spent so long trying to sign in the summer.\n\nWhen De Jong did come across to pressure his opponent after Fernandes had played a superb through ball, he was too late to prevent Fred drilling home the equaliser.\n\nThe goal transformed the contest. Fred then used his energy to break down Barcelona counter attacks, make surging runs that unsettled the visitors and even did the simple passing right, which he quite often gets wrong.\n\nFred also followed up Alejandro Garnacho in having a shot blocked before a third effort from Antony brought their second goal and allowed United to join Arsenal in the last-16 draw.\n\nWhoever they get, the first leg will be at home on 9 March.\n\nTen Hag has praised Weghorst for his industry but at this level - a Champions League game in all but name - he looked what he is, an emergency signing brought in at relatively little expense to plug a gap created by Cristiano Ronaldo's unscheduled exit before someone more suitable comes in next summer.\n\nThe continued injury absence of Anthony Martial means Weghorst is having to play a more prominent role than Ten Hag envisaged and it weakens his team overall.\n\nIt was no surprise Antony replaced him at half-time, nor that the hosts' performance should improve so markedly as a result.\n\nThere were still some nervy moments, with De Gea producing a fine save to deny Jules Kounde after Jadon Sancho had failed to track the France defender and Raphael Varane booting Lewandowski's shot away from danger in injury time when it might have been rolling in.\n\nBut it was Ten Hag and his coaching staff celebrating at the final whistle.\n\nThe Dutchman has evidently transformed fortunes at a club that appeared to be going nowhere fast 12 months ago, although he knows it does need some silverware to really underline that they are on the right track.\n\nThe club placed a picture of Motson, who died on Thursday, on one of the tables in the area of the press box where the broadcast media sit, together with a candle in Motson's honour.\n• None Offside, Barcelona. Frenkie de Jong tries a through ball, but Robert Lewandowski is caught offside.\n• None Casemiro (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Delay in match because of an injury Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United).\n• None Sergio Busquets (Barcelona) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Delay in match because of an injury Marcus Rashford (Manchester United). Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of Manchester United is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything United - go straight to all the best content", "The number of pupils regularly missing school in England has not returned to pre-Covid pandemic levels, according to official statistics.\n\nA quarter (25.1%) of pupils were persistently absent last term, compared with 13.1% in the autumn term of 2019.\n\nThe government said the absence rate was driven by illness, with high levels of flu and other viruses circulating.\n\nIt said it was \"offering targeted help\" for children who were regularly off school.\n\nBut a union representing school leaders has said illnesses are only part of the picture.\n\nThe Association of School and College Leaders attributes many absences to high levels of pupil stress and anxiety, long waits for mental health treatment and \"disengagement\" with education as a result of the pandemic.\n\nMPs on the Education Select Committee have launched an inquiry into the issue.\n\nPupils count as persistently absent if they miss 10% or more of school sessions, which would amount to seven days in the autumn term.\n\nThe percentage of persistently absent pupils stayed at around 11% in the 2016 to 2018 autumn terms, and reached 13.1% in 2019.\n\nThe following year, persistently absent children came to include those who tested positive for Covid.\n\nThe government also started registering children who were \"not attending\" school because of public health guidelines, which included pupils who were out of school while waiting for the results of a Covid test.\n\nIn autumn 2020, the first year of the pandemic, 44.6% of pupils missed 10% of lessons or more. Of those, 13% were marked as absent, and 31.6% as not attending due to guidelines.\n\nIn the same term the following year, that overall figure fell to 32.2%. However, the breakdown flipped, with 23.5% of those marked as absent and 8.7% as not attending due to guidelines.\n\nThe government has scrapped the \"non attending\" category this academic year, and 25.1% of pupils were marked as absent in autumn 2022.\n\nAs a result, it says, the persistent absence rate was higher than in 2021 (when it was 23.5%), but more children were in school.\n\nThe Department for Education said it was working with schools, councils, and governing bodies to \"identify pupils who are at risk of becoming, or who are persistently absent and working together to support that child to return to regular and consistent education\".\n\nThe Education Select Committee recently said Covid was \"likely to have had a damaging affect on school attendance\".\n\nPupils experienced disruption to their education when schools closed during Covid lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.\n\nAt the end of last year, levels of flu, scarlet fever, Strep A and Covid were high.\n\nThe committee was also looking at why disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) were more likely to miss school than their peers.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the evidence from school leaders shows \"pupil attendance continues to be very challenging for a number of reasons\".\n\n\"Illness is a factor due to Covid and seasonal viruses, but on top of that there are high levels of pupil stress and anxiety, which are not helped by very long waits for specialist mental health services, and disengagement among pupils who have never quite recovered the habit of regular attendance following the pandemic.\n\n\"Schools do their best to encourage good attendance, but they need more support from local authority attendance services which have been reduced because of government cuts.\"", "Canadian privacy protection regulators have launched an investigation into TikTok over its collection of users' data.\n\nThe video-sharing platform, owned by Chinese giant ByteDance, has come under scrutiny over concerns that it hands information to Beijing.\n\nCanada's move comes after European Commission staff were ordered to remove the app to \"protect\" the institution.\n\nCanada's Office of the Privacy Commissioner said it had launched the probe into TikTok alongside provincial privacy regulators from Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta.\n\nThe investigation was initiated \"in the wake of now-settled class-action lawsuits in the United States and Canada, as well as numerous media reports related to TikTok's collection, use and disclosure of personal information,\" a statement said.\n\nIt aims to establish \"whether the organisation's practices are in compliance with Canadian privacy legislation\".\n\nThe privacy regulators said lots of TikTok's users are younger, and there is a greater \"importance of protecting children's privacy\".\n\nThey will be examining whether the company is meeting its transparency obligations.\n\nA spokesperson for TikTok said the probe was an opportunity to \"set the record straight\" on how the company protects the privacy of Canadians.\n\nCanada joins governments from around the world which have been raising concerns over TikTok, because of fears that China could use the app to harvest users' data or advance its interests.\n\nLast month, the Dutch government reportedly advised public officials to steer clear of the app. A ban has already been introduced in the US for federal government employees.\n\nUK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is resisting calls to ban government officials from using TikTok amid renewed concerns from some Conservative MPs.\n\nAlicia Kearns, the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman, is leading the call for the UK government to follow the European Commission, the EU executive and the EU Council, and order staff to delete the app.\n\nTikTok has in the past said that data on its service cannot be accessed by Beijing.", "If you want to know what 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement has achieved have a look - and a listen - to five parties standing side-by-side condemning the brutal attack on Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell.\n\nWe cannot know what - if anything - was in the minds of the terrorists who gunned him down in Omagh on Wednesday night.\n\nBut if any part of it was to say the agreement has not worked it may just have had the opposite effect.\n\nSome context here. The people currently trying to organise events to mark the accord's 25th birthday do so in the knowledge that the prospect of the cake being iced may be fading.\n\nIn other words the big prize of restoring devolution at Stormont in time for the big day may be slipping from their grasp unless the gloom around a potential deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol lifts soonish.\n\nBut while there is no doubt politics - and the stop/start nature of Stormont - has been the big failure of the past 25 years, the attempted murder of John Caldwell has given our feuding politicians the opportunity to show they remain united against attempts to drag Northern Ireland back into violence.", "Det Ch Insp John Caldwell has been involved in a number of major investigations\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland has arrested a fifth man in connection with the shooting of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell.\n\nThe man, aged 43, was arrested in Stewartstown, County Tyrone, on Friday evening.\n\nTwo gunmen shot the 48-year-old several times in front of his young son at a sports complex in Omagh on Wednesday.\n\nInvestigators said their main line of enquiry into the attempted murder was dissident republican group the New IRA.\n\nDissident republicans oppose the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal and continue to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nFour men - aged 22, 38, 45, and 47 - arrested in the Omagh and Coalisland areas of Tyrone on Thursday and Friday - remain in custody.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell is critically ill after he was shot while putting footballs into his car after coaching young people at football.\n\nHe remains heavily sedated in hospital. His wife and son had been left seriously affected by his shooting, Chief Constable Simon Byrne said.\n\nMr Byrne provided an update alongside leaders from Northern Ireland's five main parties on Friday.\n\nPolitical leaders presented a united front with the chief constable, which Mr Byrne said was a significant show of solidarity that showed the \"sheer sense of outrage at this pointless and senseless attack\".\n\nThe chief constable met leaders from Sinn Féin, the DUP, Alliance, UUP and the SDLP\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell suffered life-changing injuries in the attack, according to the chairman of Northern Ireland's Police Federation, Liam Kelly.\n\nHe is one of the best-known detectives in the PSNI, often fronting press conferences on major inquiries during his 26-year career.\n\nHe had coached a Beragh Swifts training session at Youth Sport Omagh when the gunmen approached and shot him at about 20:00 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nChildren ran in terror when the shots rang out in the car park of the sports complex.\n\nTwo gunmen, who were dressed in dark clothing, carried out the attack and fled the scene of the shooting on foot, police said.\n\nAt least two other vehicles were struck by their volley of shots.\n\nThe attack appears to underscore the re-emergence on the New IRA after nearly four years of surface-level inactivity.\n\nIn 2019 the dissident republican grouping shot dead journalist Lyra McKee as she watched rioting unfold in Londonderry.\n\nWithin a year, its suspected leadership was rounded-up by the PSNI following a surveillance operation run by MI5 using an alleged agent.\n\nTen individuals are currently awaiting trial on almost 50 terrorism charges as a result of Operation Arbacia.\n\nIn the aftermath, the New IRA was viewed as being in complete disarray and last year, for the first time in more than a decade, the government announced the threat level in Northern Ireland was being lowered from severe to substantial.\n\nIt might not have sounded much, but it was a hugely symbolic moment.\n\nAttacks, or attempted attacks, dropped markedly: the years 2020-22 saw a virtual absence of activity.\n\nBut the New IRA was re-organising and in November it mounted a roadside bomb attack, using military grade explosives, on a police patrol car in Strabane.\n\nThe armour-plated vehicle did its job and two officers inside escaped injury.\n\nThe attack has now been followed up with the attempted murder, less than 20 miles away, of Det Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nPolice believe the gunmen then made off in a small, dark car, which was found burnt out at Racolpa Road, outside Omagh.\n\nThe Racolpa Road was closed between the Rushill Road and Crocknacor Road.\n\nThis car at a nearby farmyard on the Racolpa Road outside Omagh is thought to have been used by the gunmen\n\nBeragh Swifts chairman Ricky Lyons said the club was supporting the young players who witnessed the shooting.\n\n\"He was taking a kids' training session - it's hard to compute that someone would try to attempt to kill John at that moment,\" said Mr Lyons.\n\nIrish Football Association (IFA) President Conrad Kirkwood said he had received a message from Det Ch Insp Caldwell earlier this week about hosting a football seminar at his club.\n\n\"This is a guy who, despite having a busy day job, is absolutely invested in trying to make things better - it makes it even more tragic,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA recovery vehicle carrying two cars left the Youth Sport Omagh complex under police escort on Thursday night.\n\nOn Friday evening a police cordon put in place at the scene was lifted.\n\nA rally to condemn the attack will be held at Omagh's courthouse on Saturday morning.\n\nIt will take place close to where 29 people died after a bombing in the County Tyrone town on 15 August 1998 - the biggest single atrocity in the Troubles.\n\nA walk of solidarity will also take place at Beragh Swifts Football Club on Saturday, with attendees encouraged to wear the club's colours.\n\nPolice on the Racolpa Road in Omagh where what is believed to be a getaway car was found\n\nAn Garda Síochána (police in the Republic of Ireland) continue to work closely with the PSNI after the shooting, a spokesperson said.\n\nGardaí previously said it had intensified patrolling in border counties following the attack.\n\nIt added that it will provide the PSNI with assistance as required as the investigation continues.\n\nLast March, the the threat level posed by dissident republican terrorism in Northern Ireland was lowered from severe to substantial for the first time in 12 years.\n\nThe decision to lower the threat level was taken by the Security Service (MI5) after assessing a wide range of information, independently of ministers.\n\nSince 2010 it had been \"severe\", meaning attacks are highly likely. It is now \"substantial\", meaning attacks are likely.\n\nThe threat level is assessed over a period of time rather than in reaction to one event.\n\nDt Ch Insp Caldwell has been the senior detective in high-profile inquiries including:\n\nHe had received a number of threats in the past, BBC News NI understands, and was aware his investigations of dissident republican attacks made him a high-profile target.\n\nHe continued to carry out his activities as a football coach and whether that was a pattern that aided the targeting of him is of course a matter for the investigation.\n\nThe last gun attack on a PSNI officer was in January 2017.\n\nThe PSNI officer was hit by automatic gunfire at a petrol station in north Belfast.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn a murder trial that has gripped the US, the heir of a South Carolina legal dynasty has admitted to lying about his whereabouts on the night his wife and son were killed.\n\nBut Alex Murdaugh, 54, denied ever hurting Maggie or Paul Murdaugh, who were fatally shot at the family's secluded hunting estate in June 2021.\n\nThe former lawyer took the stand on Thursday in week five of the trial.\n\nMr Murdaugh faces 30 years to life in prison without parole if convicted.\n\nThe trial in Walterboro has rocked the southern corner of South Carolina, where the defendant's family has dominated the legal landscape for more than a century.\n\nProsecutors have argued that Mr Murdaugh killed Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22, in a desperate attempt to gain sympathy and conceal a decade of financial crimes.\n\nMr Murdaugh, who has admitted to stealing from clients and colleagues, is facing nearly 100 separate financial charges, with prosecutors alleging he stole about $8.8m (£7.3m).\n\nThe defence team has dismissed this theory at trial, saying Mr Murdaugh would never have \"butchered\" his family.\n\nIn court on Thursday, Mr Murdaugh wept as he recalled the night he found Maggie and Paul dead.\n\n\"I saw what y'all have seen pictures of,\" he told jurors, referring to graphic photos of the crime scene. \"So bad.\"\n\nAnd he addressed perhaps the most incriminating element of the prosecution's case: that he had lied about being with Maggie and Paul at the dog kennels on the family property shortly before they were killed.\n\nAlex Murdaugh is accused of murdering his wife, Maggie, and his youngest son Paul\n\nA mobile phone video taken at the kennels by Paul about five minutes before prosecutors say the killings took place, which featured both Alex Murdaugh and Maggie's voices in the background, contradicted the defendant's claims that he had been napping inside the family home.\n\n\"Once I lied,\" he said, \"I continued to lie.\" He blamed the earlier denials on paranoia from his years-long addiction to painkillers.\n\nThat addiction also featured prominently in his testimony. Mr Murdaugh told jurors a knee injury in college led to a deep dependence on oxycodone, one that he drained his bank account to sate.\n\n\"I'm not quite sure how I let myself get where I got,\" Mr Murdaugh said.\n\nHe also referred to one of the more bizarre elements of his saga: a hoax attempt on his life.\n\nHe called police in September 2021 - nearly three months after the murders of his wife and son - saying he had been shot in the head on the side of a rural road.\n\nBut he later admitted he had paid a distant cousin to shoot him, hoping his surviving son, Buster, could collect on his life insurance policy.\n\nThe jury also heard a recording of the 911 call Mr Murdaugh made after his wife and son were killed. In it, he is heard saying: \"I should have known.\"\n\nFamily and friends of Alex Murdaugh listen to his emotional testimony on Thursday\n\nMr Murdaugh explained his statement by saying his son Paul had been the subject of death threats on social media that the family did not take seriously.\n\n\"We disregarded it because it was so over the top,\" he said.\n\nThrough hours of questioning, Mr Murdaugh maintained a mostly contrite demeanour, even under cross-examination by lead prosecutor Creighton Waters.\n\nAn animated Mr Waters, who paced around the court during questioning, pushed Mr Murdaugh with increasing intensity on a litany of alleged financial crimes.\n\n\"I was wrong,\" Mr Murdaugh said, over and over again. \"I remember stealing from people, I remember lying to people and I remember misleading people.\"\n\nBut Mr Murdaugh rejected assertions by Mr Waters that he was concerned about his \"financial house of cards\" collapsing.\n\n\"You have charged me with the murder of my wife and son and I have sat here for all these weeks listening to all this financial stuff that I did wrong, that I'm embarrassed by,\" Mr Murdaugh said.\n\nBut he denied resorting to violence.", "Irina Filkina was killed by Russian troops in the town of Bucha Image caption: Irina Filkina was killed by Russian troops in the town of Bucha\n\nWhen the war began, 52-year-old Irina Filkina urged her daughter, Olha Shchyruk, to leave Ukraine.\n\n“She said that Russian troops might come to our house and rape me”, Olha remembers.\n\nOlha left for Poland, but her mother stayed in Bucha, the town near Kyiv, where dozens of civilians were killed. Irina assured her daughter that she would be safe.\n\nThe last time they spoke, Olha begged Irina not to cycle home.\n\nLater that day, when her calls went unanswered, Olha posted on Instagram that she’d lost her mum.\n\nA Ukrainian soldier got in touch to say that Irina had been shot by Russian troops, while riding her bike.\n\nA few days later, on her mother’s birthday, Olha said a prayer. “I said to God, if you’re still here with me, help me find her body.\"\n\nThe next day, someone sent her a video, showing Irina’s body, with her distinctive, manicured nails.\n\nQuote Message: I’d like people to remember her with love. The love represented by the heart on her fingernail.” I’d like people to remember her with love. The love represented by the heart on her fingernail.”", "Three days into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a huge 10-mile (15.5km) line of armoured vehicles was spotted by a satellite in the north of the country. The very same morning in Bucha, just outside Kyiv, 67-year-old Volodymyr Scherbynyn was standing outside his local supermarket when more than a hundred Russian military vehicles rolled into town. Both Volodymyr and the satellite were witnesses to a key part of President Vladimir Putin's plan for a quick and overwhelming victory. They were also witnesses to its failure.\n\nThe western media called it a convoy. In reality, it was a traffic jam and a major tactical blunder. Forty-eight hours after that first satellite photograph, on 28 February 2022, the line of vehicles had grown to a colossal 35 miles (56 km) long. The vehicles were stalled for weeks. Then finally they retreated, and seemingly disappeared overnight.\n\nWhat happened? Why did such a massive force fail to reach Kyiv?\n\nA BBC team spoke to dozens of witnesses; including military personnel, national and international intelligence services, civilians, veterans, and the territorial defence, all of whom came into contact with the convoy. It also gained access to Russian maps and documents that shed light on what the plan actually was, and why it went so spectacularly wrong.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Satellite images of the convoy captured last year © 2022 Maxar Technologies\n\nThe story starts on the first day of the war, in the north of Ukraine at its border with Belarus.\n\nStepping outside for his first cigarette of the day, 23-year-old Vladyslav from Ukraine's 80th Air Assault Brigade saw a flurry of bright lights in the night sky.\n\n\"I remember watching the lights emerge from the whole forest. At first I thought they were car headlights. But then I realised they were Grads [self-propelled multiple missile launchers]. They were firing at us.\"\n\nCamped deep within the forest of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Vladyslav's unit was on patrol when the first Russian vehicles crossed into Ukraine.\n\n\"The whole earth was shaking. Have you ever been in a tank? There's no other sound like it. It's a powerful thing.\"\n\nAs planned in the event of any attack, Vladyslav and the rest of the 80th brigade blew up the bridge connecting Chernobyl to the next big town, Ivankiv.\n\nThe Russians would be forced to waste time building a replacement pontoon bridge, giving Vladyslav and his unit time to pull back to Kyiv.\n\n\"At first I was surprised, why didn't we stop them there in Chernobyl? But we needed to learn about our enemy. So that's what we did.\"\n\nThis close to the Belarus border, the Ukrainians could not afford to open fire and risk starting another conflict. Their priority was to first understand Russia's battle plan, before sending their troops into the line of fire.\n\nWhat Vladyslav saw were the first vehicles of what would become the convoy.\n\nContrary to many media reports at the time, the 35 mile-long (56 km) column was in fact 10 separate Russian tactical battalion units, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.\n\nThe Russian army also attacked Ukraine in the east and south, but the mission for these 10 units was specific - enter Ukraine from Belarus, overthrow Ukraine's capital city and remove the government. In military terms: a decapitation attack.\n\nOne Russian document, seen by the BBC, shows a timetable for the plan. After the first battalion crossed into Ukraine at 04:00 am on 24 February, their orders were to advance straight to Kyiv arriving by 14:55.\n\nSeveral of the battalions were to advance to Hostomel, just north of Kyiv, to back up the troops who'd been airlifted in to secure the airport.\n\nThe rest were to head straight into the centre of Kyiv.\n\nLuibov Demydiv (R), a pensioner from Demydiv, points on the map to where she saw the convoy circling after a bridge was destroyed, stopping their advance\n\nThe assault heavily relied on two elements - secrecy and speed.\n\nAccording to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) (a UK-based security think tank) by keeping plans about an attack on the capital under wraps, Russian soldiers could outnumber the Ukrainian forces by 12 to one in the north of Kyiv.\n\nHowever, Putin's secrecy came at a cost. So successful was his deception, even most of his commanders did not receive their orders until 24 hours before the invasion.\n\nOn a tactical level, this left them vulnerable. They lacked food, fuel and maps. They were without proper communication tools. They had insufficient ammunition. They were even ill-prepared for the winter weather.\n\nKitted out with the wrong tyres and surrounded by snow, the Russians drove straight into a mud bath. Civilians close to Ivankiv describe Russian soldiers telling Ukrainian farmers to help pull their tanks out of the sludge.\n\nUnable to progress, the Russian vehicles needed to divert to paved roads in order to avoid soft ground, forcing thousands to group into a single column.\n\nBut with limited communication between the battalions, they almost immediately converged into one almighty traffic jam.\n\nAs one military expert on the ground put it: \"You don't ever travel into hostile territory in a long convoy. Ever.\"\n\nBased on witness testimony and intelligence from the Ukrainian military, we were able to map the ground the convoy covered in the time between the outbreak of war and the end of March. By avoiding travelling across fields, vehicles ended up on most of the main roads north of Kyiv.\n\nBy the time the column had grown as long as 35 miles (56 km) it included up to 1,000 tanks, 2,400 mechanised infantry vehicles and 10,000 personnel, as well as dozens of supply trucks carrying food, fuel, oil and ammunition.\n\nStalled north of Kyiv and running out of food and fuel, the Russians had also underestimated their adversary.\n\nFor three days Volodymyr Scherbynyn and his fellow volunteers, the majority of them pensioners, had been preparing for the arrival of the convoy in their hometown of Bucha.\n\nArmed with one machine gun between the 12 of them, they took down all the road signs, built checkpoints, and prepared hundreds of petrol bombs.\n\nUntil finally, on Sunday morning the Russian tanks rolled into town.\n\nMaksym (L) Volodymyr (C) and '\"the colonel\" (R) stand in front of their bombed out office for local volunteers\n\nFor nearly 30 minutes, Volodymyr and his grassroots unit battered the tanks with what little they had.\n\n\"We set two of the vehicles on fire and slowed down the whole convoy,\" says Volodymyr.\n\nBut then came the retaliation.\n\n\"When they saw us throwing bottles they opened fire,\" says 30-year-old Maksym Shkoropar. \"I was a barman. I didn't have any military training.\"\n\nBy the end of that half hour, every one of Volodymyr's party had been shot and evacuated to hospital.\n\nBut even from the sick bay, Volodymyr kept on fighting - receiving and cross-checking sightings of the convoy from civilians all over the Kyiv region and calling them in to the Ukrainian authorities.\n\nOn the other end of the line was 23-year-old local city councillor for Irpin, Roman Pohorily.\n\nLawyer and councillor by day, Roman searches for Russian posts on social media by night.\n\nHe tells the BBC he didn't sleep for three days.\n\n\"My colleague and I were manning the hotline at the council office, taking calls about the column, as well as saboteurs - people who were painting marks on the ground for the convoy to follow.\"\n\nA councillor by day, Roman is also an open source intelligence expert by night. Co-founder of the highly regarded website DeepState, he pools together social media and intelligence reports. He geolocates them, then reposts them on his website.\n\n\"On their way to Kyiv, the Russians were posting videos on social media. We reposted the videos to expose their movements. They were just showing off, but in doing so, they got busted.\"\n\nMost important during the assault on Kyiv, says Roman, was the sense of a united Ukraine.\n\n\"Everyone was doing something. I admit it was very hectic in those first few days. But there were veterans helping civilians. Everyone wanted to defend their city.\"\n\nIn towns and villages all across the region, hundreds of attacks took place against the convoy, from civilians armed with homemade weapons to mechanised infantry and artillery.\n\nIn stark contrast to the Ukrainians, the Russian forces repeatedly exposed their inability to make dynamic decisions on the ground.\n\n\"The Russians were all carrying large metal boxes marked 'secret',\" says Vladyslav from the 80th Brigade. \"We seized one during an ambush. We found their maps marked with their entire route. After that we knew their whole strategy.\"\n\nTheir navigation tools were also woefully out of date. In the year since the invasion, the BBC has continued to find maps left behind by Russian troops that date back to the 1960s and 70s. Whole towns exist now that were not on the maps that they were using to navigate. We also found semaphore flags, a vastly outdated way to communicate between units.\n\nOne successful tactic by the Ukrainian resistance was to blow up bridges and dams ahead of the convoy, thus forcing the Russians to reroute. Reliant on old maps and with limited communications back to their high command, the Russian units frequently became paralysed by indecision.\n\nSeveral satellite images show the Russian vehicles literally driving round and around in circles.\n\nUnder pressure from Ukrainian air strikes and artillery, the Russian convoy was finally brought to a standstill just outside of Kyiv's city boundary. For thousands of civilians living close to the stalled troops, the experience was horrendous.\n\n\"They robbed everything from everywhere. They emptied the shops,\" says Vladyslav. \"They also used civilians as human shields.\"\n\nWhat happened in many villages and towns to the north and west of Kyiv is still being investigated by numerous authorities, including the International Criminal Court.\n\nAfter four long weeks the Russians finally started to withdraw.\n\nTwo of the largest remaining battalions were defeated close to Hostomel airport. Another 370 tented army trucks, seemingly abandoned in Zdvizhivka village, were destroyed by artillery.\n\nThe Ukrainian military kept on pushing them back until 19 March, after which the Russians began to retreat from Kyiv Oblast.\n\nA graveyard of Russian vehicles from the convoy piled high in Hostomel\n\nRussia is continuing to push into the eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, and strike in the south, in the direction of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.\n\nDespite the speculation of a renewed attack on Kyiv, the majority of experts agree it would be unlikely as we have not seen a large-scale deployment of Russian troops to the Belarus border.\n\nBut still watching via reconnaissance drones close to the border, are the Ukrainian recruits.\n\n\"I'll always remember that night in Chernobyl,\" says Vladyslav. \"When I went out to smoke with my friend. But by the time I'd finished my cigarette the war had started.\n\n\"My friend and I have this dream, that we will go on shift, just like we did that day, and as we smoke another cigarette we will hear that the war has ended. And that we won.\"\n\nSpecial thanks to Slava Shramovych, Marcus Buckley, Michael Whelan, Alastair Thompson, Ben Allen and Tim Coey.", "A birthday party for Logan Roy in the second series was filmed in the V&A in Dundee\n\nThe creator of Emmy-award winning drama Succession says the upcoming fourth season will be its last.\n\nJesse Armstrong said in an interview with The New Yorker that he \"never thought this could go on forever\".\n\nThe final series of show - which follows Logan Roy, the owner of a media empire, and his family - begins next month.\n\nArmstrong said he and the show's other writers had been planning its end since 2021.\n\n\"I feel deeply conflicted. I quite enjoy this period when we're editing - where the whole season is there but we haven't put it out yet. I like the interregnum,\" said Armstrong, who also wrote Fresh Meat and Peep Show.\n\n\"And I also quite liked the period where me and my close collaborators knew that this was probably it, or this was it, but hadn't had to face up to it in the world.\"\n\nThe HBO series, which stars Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook, has won 13 Emmys, two Golden Globes and a Bafta.\n\nArmstrong said HBO, which confirmed the show was ending by retweeting The New Yorker article on Twitter, let him have full control of when the show would end.\n\n\"HBO has been generous and would probably have done more seasons, and they have been nice about saying, 'It's your decision',\" he said.\n\nArmstrong, who also wrote for The Thick of It and Veep, says he has not ruled out other shows about the Roy dynasty.\n\n\"I do think that this succession story that we were telling is complete,\" he said.\n\n\"This is the muscular season to exhaust all our reserves of interest, and I think there's some pain in all these characters that's really strong.\n\n\"But the feeling that there could be something else in an allied world, or allied characters, or some of the same characters - that's also strong in me.\"\n\nThe first episode of the final season airs on 27 March.", "Ceremonies are taking place to mark the anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.\n\nA year after the war began events were held in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other world cities.\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hands over a flag to a serviceman during a ceremony titled, 'February, Year, Invincibility' on Sofiivska Square in Kyiv.\n\n\"We endured. We were not defeated,\" Mr Zelensky says, vowing Ukraine will do everything to win, a year on from the invasion by Russian armed forces.\n\nA minute's silence was held across the UK at 11:00 GMT led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak outside Downing Street, alongside Ukrainian ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko, his wife Inna Prystaiko and members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.\n\nUkrainian community groups gather at Grey's Monument in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.\n\nUkrainian teenager, Alisa Bushuieva, who was forced to flee with her mother in February last year, played piano to the crowd following a minute's silence at Peter's Lane in Liverpool.\n\nChildren from St Mary's Ukrainian School lit some of the 52 candles - one for each week of the war - during an ecumenical prayer service at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London.\n\nBishop Kenneth Nowakowski conducted the service, which included a speech delivered by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.\n\nThe cathedral is decorated by 461 paper angels, one for each child that has died in the past year according to the official statistics.\n\nPeople take part in a national prayer for peace at St. Martin's Cathedral, the Dom Church in Utrecht, Netherlands.\n\nUkrainian military recruits gathered for prayers, blessings and a one-minute silence alongside British and Canadian troops, during a sunrise commemorative service in Kent, south-east England.\n\nProtesters held a rally, against Russia's aggression on Ukraine, in a rainy Tokyo.\n\nA candlelight vigil took place outside UN University in the city.\n\nPeople gather during a candlelight vigil to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia.\n\nUkrainians and their supporters in Sydney participate in the \"365 Days Strong\" rally and candlelight vigil at St Mary's Cathedral Square.\n\nThe sails of the Sydney Opera House were illuminated with the colours of the Ukrainian flag later in the day.", "Orchards are being dug up across the Garden of England as growing the fruit is no longer financially viable\n\nApple farmers in Kent are digging up their orchards in the face of stagnant returns on the fruit.\n\nFruit grower Richard Budd, from Marden, has removed 50 acres (20 hectares) of apple trees from his land.\n\nHe said the UK's food security was \"increasingly under threat\" as orchards disappear and future buyers will need foreign importers.\n\nThe industry is on a \"knife edge\", according to British Apples & Pears Limited (BAPL).\n\nApples are being left to rot in the fields while issues with shortages, which could last until May, affect supermarkets in the UK.\n\nInput prices - which include picking, energy, haulage and packaging - have risen 23%, while the amount supermarkets pay growers for their produce has increased 0.8% year-on-year, BAPL said.\n\nReuben Collingwood, from Tenterden, is a fourth generation farmer who said his fruit-growing business was facing huge financial losses.\n\nHe described the situation as \"pretty catastrophic\".\n\n\"We use a lot electricity for our cold storage to be able to provide food throughout the winter,\" he explained.\n\n\"That's gone up 300% on last year, labour's gone up 15% and it's due to go up again in April.\"\n\nFruit grower Richard Budd said farmers have a clear choice whether to stay and make a loss or pursue other avenues\n\nWithout change, growers envisage a future of imported apples and pears, and increasing food shortages.\n\nMr Budd said: \"When that fruit's gone, it won't come back. So we'll have to source it from either abroad or we will see empty supermarket shelves.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy were joined by Ukraine's ambassador to the UK for the minute's silence outside 10 Downing Street\n\nThe Ukrainian people have \"suffered unimaginably\", King Charles has said in a message marking the first anniversary of Russia's invasion.\n\nHe also praised their \"remarkable courage and resilience\" after thousands have been killed and injured.\n\nA minute's silence was held across the UK at 11:00 GMT.\n\nRishi Sunak later urged allies at a G7 meeting to provide Ukraine with long-term military and security assurances to \"send a strong message\" to Russia.\n\nUkrainian troops who are training in the UK joined the prime minister, his wife Akshata Murthy, and Kyiv's ambassador to Britain, Vadym Prystaiko, for the minute's silence observed outside No 10 Downing Street.\n\nThe Ukrainian national anthem was sung to mark the end of the silence.\n\nThe King visited a training site for Ukrainian military recruits in Wiltshire\n\nIn his message, the King said \"the people of Ukraine have suffered unimaginably from an unprovoked full-scale attack on their nation. They have shown truly remarkable courage and resilience in the face of such human tragedy\".\n\nHe said: \"The world has watched in horror at all the unnecessary suffering inflicted upon Ukrainians, many of whom I have had the great pleasure of meeting.\"\n\nThe King, who met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at Buckingham Palace this month, added: \"I can only hope the outpouring of solidarity from across the globe may bring not only practical aid, but also strength from the knowledge that, together, we stand united.\"\n\nAt a vigil on Thursday evening, a crowd listened to an emotional reading of the Ukrainian poem Take Only What Is Most Important by actress Dame Helen Mirren - who was visibly moved to tears. And Defence Secretary Ben Wallace paid tribute to Ukrainian soldiers as the \"bravest of the brave\".\n\nThe conflict, which began when Russia invaded on 24 February 2022, has seen at least 100,000 of each side's soldiers killed or injured, according to the US military.\n\nThousands of civilians have also died, with more than 13 million people made refugees or displaced within Ukraine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\nRita and her four children were among those who fled in the early stages of the conflict and are now living in the UK with her British partner, Andy.\n\nShe told BBC Two's Newsnight programme her heart was \"aching\" from seeing how parts of Ukraine had changed after 12 months of conflict.\n\n\"The country is in pain,\" she said. \"I know how my country is and how it can be, I know how beautiful it is. Now it's different [but] it can come back to that beautiful place.\"\n\nRita has been back to Ukraine since settling in the UK\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury called for peace between Russia and Ukraine as he reflected on the anniversary.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio 4's Thought of the Day segment, Justin Welby said: \"There must be a future with a just and stable peace - a free and secure Ukraine - and the beginning of a generation's long process of healing and reconciliation.\"\n\nThe British ambassador to Ukraine, Dame Melinda Simmons, has recalled how the outbreak of the war last February was \"such a traumatic time\".\n\nDame Melinda told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme her role became different and stopped being a job and became \"a life because war isn't just a five-day thing\".\n\nPeople gathered next to the St Volodymyr Statue in Holland Park, London to mark the day\n\nMeanwhile, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has announced fresh export bans on goods that could be used by the Russian military.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly said the UK has ramped up sanctions on more products, including aircraft parts, radio equipment and electronic components.\n\nBosses at Russia's two largest defence companies and four banks will also face sanctions.\n\nHowever, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine's allies still could do more.\n\nAt a press conference on Friday, he said that the wave of sanctions imposed by Western nations \"do not seem to have dented the Kremlin's ability or desire to wage war\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDuring a recent tour of Europe, President Zelensky increased his calls for Western nations to supply modern fighter jets.\n\nThe UK is to start training Ukrainian forces to fly Nato-standard aircraft. But like other Western nations, it has so far not supplied jets, but said it remains a long-term option.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK would be \"very happy\" to supply fighter jets to eastern European allies so they could release their Soviet-era planes to Ukraine. He said they were already being used by Kyiv and it would be a faster way of boosting Ukraine defences than suppling British Typhoon jets.\n\nRishi Sunak hosted Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky during his trip to London earlier this month\n\nDuring a virtual meeting of leaders from the G7 group of advanced economies, Mr Sunak said that an acceleration in support for Ukraine is \"what it will take to shift Putin's mindset\".\n\nHe made the argument for supplying Ukraine with \"longer-range weapons\" to disrupt Russia's ability to target Ukraine's infrastructure, something to which he committed the UK earlier this month.\n\nHe said: \"Instead of an incremental approach, we need to move faster on artillery, armour, and air defence.\"\n\nOther senior UK politicians have sent messages to Ukraine on the anniversary of the war:", "New Zealand vs England: Harry Brook hits sublime 184 to put tourists in control Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nJoe Root and Harry Brook put on 294 for the fourth wicket Second Test, Wellington, (day one of five) A quite magnificent 184 not out from the prolific Harry Brook put England in the ascendancy on day one of the second and final Test against New Zealand. With Joe Root also making his first century in eight Tests, England piled on 315-3 before rain arrived in Wellington. The tourists had been 21-3 after being asked to bat on a green pitch at the Basin Reserve - Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope all falling cheaply. But Brook batted with all the style, certainty and confidence of a man who now has four hundreds in his first six Tests. His 169-ball effort was laced with some sublime strokes and moved him to 807 Test runs in total, the most after nine innings for any player in history. Root, who survived a review for lbw from his first ball and then again on 31, was the perfect foil. Batting at a more modest tempo, the former captain ended unbeaten on 101. Between them, the Yorkshire pair have added an unbroken 294 for the fourth wicket and left England in the perfect position to push for their seventh-successive Test win and a series triumph that would be New Zealand's first home defeat in six years.\n• None Root & Brook hit centuries for England - as it happened\n• None TMS podcast: More runs and records for Brook & England In innings of contrasting styles, Root hit seven fours while Brook smashed 24 fours and five sixes This had all the ingredients of an intriguing challenge for England's ultra-aggressive batting line-up, and initially New Zealand looked set to exploit the emerald surface. With the returning Matt Henry bowling a beautiful opening spell, Crawley was drawn into a nick and Pope played across one to give a thick edge. Duckett poked a drive and was spectacularly caught one-handed by the diving Michael Bracewell at third slip off Tim Southee. Brook, though, countered by hitting three fours in a single Southee over and England never looked back. Whether batting conditions eased or England made them look easier, Brook and Root bullied a New Zealand attack that was a bowler light after the Black Caps chose to lengthen their batting by including Will Young. While Brook played some breathtaking, almost unbelievable shots, the biggest cheer from the huge contingent of England fans inside a sold-out Basin Reserve was for Root's hundred, completed in the rain just before the players left the field. The bad weather gave respite to the New Zealand attack, ending play after only 65 of the scheduled 90 overs had been bowled. Day two will begin 30 minutes early at 21:30 GMT on Friday. For as brilliant as Brook has been at the start of his Test career - this was his seventh score in excess of 50 - this was his best effort, not only for it being his highest score, but because of the conditions, match situation and his utter dominance of the home attack. Though Brook has beaten the previous best after nine innings - 798 runs by India's Vinod Kambli - he has a shot at an even more historic record: the fastest time to reach 1,000 runs is 12 innings, jointly held by England's Herbert Sutcliffe and West Indian Everton Weekes, two all-time greats. He moved up and down the gears. Nineteen from his first 11 balls, slowing to 63 from 81. At that point he hit successive sixes of Daryl Mitchell, whose fill-in medium pace was singled out for the harshest treatment. Brook scored all around the wicket. When New Zealand were full, he played sumptuous drives. When Neil Wagner tried to bounce him, Brook cleared the front leg and thwacked the ball away, baseball-style. He reached three figures from 107 balls by cutting the off-spin of Bracewell. In doing so, he equalled Sutcliffe in reaching a fourth Test hundred in his ninth innings, an England record. Brook then went from 100 to 150 in 38 balls and was flying towards what would have been England's second-fastest Test double-century when the rain arrived, walking off with a Test average that had just gone into three figures at a strike rate of 99. Root was on his longest run without a hundred in more than two years and admitted he was struggling to find the right tempo among England's team of dashers. He made a half-century in the second innings of the tourists' win in the first Test, a knock he said gave him a \"kick up the backside\" and looked back to his best at the Basin Reserve. Not bothering to keep up with Brook - an exercise that would have been futile - he played all of his trademark whips, clips and dabs. Batting out of his crease to nullify the movement of the ball, Root pinched singles with excellent running. His first 50 runs contained only two boundaries. As Root neared three figures, he pulled out a reverse-scoop, a shot that brought about his downfall in the first Test, but this time was executed perfectly to take four off Wagner. With the rain falling, Root clipped Wagner off his toes to go to his 29th Test hundred. The stand with Brook is England's second-highest in a Test against New Zealand, with the prospect of more to come on Saturday. England's Harry Brook, speaking to BT Sport: \"Both me and Joe were moving around quite a lot in the crease, just trying to put the bowlers off their lengths. \"There was a little bit in the pitch early on so we were just trying to negate that really. \"He's unbelievable to bat with, I've played plenty of games with him now and I enjoy every game. \"I think we were a perfect partnership there. He obviously struggled a little bit at the start and couldn't quite middle anything but then as he got into it later into his innings, he was the Joe Root everyone knows and loves.\"\n• None How can you tell if a trainer is fake? Hannah Fry goes in search of answers", "Riham Sheble said: \"I was forced to fight on so many fronts. It was exhausting.\"\n\nA university has agreed to pay £12,000 in damages to a student with advanced cancer, after it initially rejected an extension to her studies, a union says.\n\nInternational postgraduate film and television studies student, Riham Sheble, was receiving treatment for a rare and aggressive form of cancer.\n\nShe said the University of Warwick's decision not to grant her more time to study was \"utterly unjust\".\n\nThe university said it had got it wrong and worked to put it right.\n\nThe decision was reversed and the university wrote to Ms Sheble to offer its \"sincere apologies\".\n\nThe settlement was said to be in recognition of the distress caused by not allowing her to extend her course as a result of her health condition.\n\nMs Sheble, who is Egyptian, was diagnosed in February 2021 and asked for an extension to her studies in April 2022.\n\nShe said: \"These battles were imposed on me at a time when I was contending with death and at war with my own body.\n\n\"I was forced to fight on so many fronts. It was exhausting.\"\n\nThe university said it was \"sorry for the way the student was made to feel\"\n\nA campaign was started in June last year between URBC, Warwick University and College Union and Warwick students' union officers, who had collectively made representations on Ms Sheble's behalf.\n\nAn investigation was carried out into a complaint \"made by a student relating to how the university had processed a request\" to extend their period of registration, a spokesperson at Warwick said.\n\nThey added: \"That investigation found that we could have shown greater flexibility in this case. We accepted this conclusion and recognised we had got this wrong.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added it wrote to the Home Office on the student's behalf \"asking for her mother to be allowed to come into the UK to support her, which was successful\".\n\nThey said: \"We also felt it was the right thing to do to make a payment to the student rather than contest it through a potentially lengthy complaints process, given the unique circumstances involved in this case.\"\n\nWarwick UCU and the Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC) campaign both said Ms Sheble had \"won a significant victory for migrant students with disabilities in the UK\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Cucumber sales were limited to three per person in many supermarkets\n\nA shortage of some fruit and vegetables could last until May, according to producers in one of the UK's biggest growing regions.\n\nThe Lea Valley Growers Association said major UK growers were delaying planting some crops due to high energy costs.\n\nMajor UK supermarkets have been placing limits on fruit and vegetable sales after shortages.\n\nThe government and industry have blamed bad weather in Spain and North Africa for the squeeze.\n\nThe Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the UK's supply chain was \"highly resilient\" and \"well-equipped\" to deal with disruption.\n\nIt added ministers would be meeting supermarkets to discuss how they can return supplies to normal.\n\nThe Lea Valley Growers Association (LVGA) has about 80 members across an area that includes Greater London, Hertfordshire and Essex.\n\nGrowers there produce around three-quarters of the UK cucumber and pepper crops, and a lot of aubergines and tomatoes.\n\nThe association said that while weather conditions in Spain and Morocco are the main reason behind the current shortages, the situation is being made worse by UK producers delaying planting crops this season.\n\nThey have been put off by high energy costs for greenhouses, and low prices offered by supermarkets for their produce.\n\nEnvironment Secretary Therese Coffey said on Thursday that shortages could last for a month, but UK growers think it could be for longer.\n\n\"The majority of tomatoes, peppers and aubergines are not going to be around in big volumes until May, so it's going to be longer than a few weeks,\" said Lee Stiles, secretary of the LVGA.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents supermarkets, says that the UK imports about 95% of its tomatoes in winter.\n\nBut Mr Stiles said the association, which also imports produce, is only getting a quarter of the produce it has ordered from Spain and Morocco.\n\n\"Some Lea Valley pack houses have closed for a few days due to lack of deliveries, and others are losing workers as they could only offer three hours work a day instead of full shifts over the last few weeks.\"\n\n\"It's too late for UK growers to step in and try and make up some of the shortfall,\" he added.\n\n\"If we planted tomatoes, peppers and aubergines in December, we would be picking now.\n\n\"And if we planted cucumbers in the first week of January like we normally do, we'd be picking on Valentines Day as usual.\"\n\nMr Stiles said the prices set by supermarkets for UK produce mean it is hard for growers to make a living, particularly during a period of very high energy bills.\n\nMany producers are growing less or have delayed planting, and 10% of members have left the sector altogether, he said.\n\n\"It's a simple fact of economics between the growers and the supermarkets,\" he said.\n\n\"Half of our growers didn't grow last year, and half of our growers are not growing this year, and that's because they couldn't secure an increased price from the supermarkets to cover the increased cost of energy and fertiliser, and inputs that they needed in order to make a profit and make a living on the produce grown.\"\n\nAs Spanish and Moroccan produce starts increasing again, growers in those countries are more likely to sell to buyers closer to home, he added.\n\n\"You've got more fuel costs on a four-day trip to the UK and there are additional fees to get it through the border,\" he said, adding that international growers are more likely to get a higher price for their goods in other countries.\n\n\"They can simply get a better price in Europe for less hassle,\" he said. \"The UK is such a small market for Spanish and Moroccan produce. Who are they going to look after first?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC spoke to Tony Montalbano in October last year about the challenges he faced\n\nLVGA member Tony Montalbano runs his cucumber growing company, Green Acre Salads, from Roydon in Essex.\n\nTony reduced his crop this season and delayed planting because of the high cost of energy, and the prices offered by UK customers.\n\n\"I normally do three crops in a season starting in January, and then harvest around the middle of February. I've had to remove the first crop, and start with my second and third crop to try and save costs over the winter period,\" he said.\n\nThe prices growers get for produce in the UK compared with Europe are unsustainable, he added.\n\n\"A cucumber is selling for around 75p on the shelves here in the UK. In Europe, you're looking at £1.50. And it's cheaper to grow there.\n\n\"I looked at the prices I would get for my cucumbers and thought to myself, 'I can't see us making it this year'.\"\n\nThe BRC said retailers were working with farmers to ensure customers could access a wide range of fresh produce.\n\nBRC director of food and sustainability Andrew Opie said: \"Retailers have long established relationships with the farmers in the UK and beyond, and they understand they need to pay a sustainable price for these goods.\"\n\nA survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested that more people are struggling to find the food they want when they go shopping.\n\nThe ONS said that between 8 and 19 February, 25% of adults said they could not find a replacement when the food they needed was not available, up from 15% in a similar period a year ago.\n\nAre you seeing fruit and vegetable shortages? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Council workers on the lowest pay have been offered a rise of over 9%.\n\nAround 1.5 million people in a range of roles would get an increase of at least £1,925 from April under the deal.\n\nUnions representing groups like bin collectors, traffic wardens, social workers and school staff are now considering the offer.\n\nThe group representing 360 local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland said the \"full and final\" offer would cost £1bn.\n\nThe local authorities involved in the talks are represented by the National Employers, a group made up of 11 senior council members authorised to represent them. Scottish councils are not involved in the talks.\n\nThe lowest paid staff - on £20,411 a year - would see the biggest lift, of 9.42%, under the deal. This contributes to an overall increase of 22% since April 2021 when previous rises are taken into account.\n\nCouncil staff on higher pay would see a smaller rise of 3.88%.\n\nCouncillor Sian Goding, who chairs the local government negotiating group, acknowledged councils already dealing with squeezed budgets could struggle to fulfil the offer.\n\n\"The National Employers are acutely aware of the additional pressure this year's offer will place on already hard-pressed council finances, as it would need to be paid for from existing budgets,\" she said.\n\n\"However, they believe their offer is fair to employees, given the wider economic backdrop.\"\n\nTwo trade unions representing council staff said they would consider the offer before deciding whether to accept.\n\nThe GMB said it would discuss the offer further with National Employers but Unison struck a less positive tone.\n\nIts head of local government Mike Short said \"this offer falls short of the joint pay claim\" and said the union \"will now consider it and decide on next steps\".\n\nIt comes as several sectors are involved in ongoing pay disputes, with more industrial action expected to disrupt public services over the coming weeks.\n\nJunior doctors, rail staff, ambulance drivers and teachers are among the groups planning strikes.\n\nThe government has resisted pressure to offer larger pay rises, arguing it would fuel inflation and push prices higher.", "Sir Iain Livingstone will retire in the summer\n\nScotland's chief constable is to retire as the country's top police officer in the summer.\n\nSir Iain Livingstone, 56, took over the role in 2018 and has been a serving officer since 1992.\n\nHe has responsibility for 23,000 officers and staff in what is the UK's second largest police force.\n\nBut he had recently raised concerns around the financial pressures facing the service.\n\nHe was appointed as interim chief constable in 2017 before being given the job a year later, with his contract due to run until August 2025.\n\nSir Iain said: \"By my last day in service I will have been a police officer for 31 years and had the privilege of serving as chief constable for nearly six of those years.\n\n\"Police Scotland is an organisation with shared values and high levels of operational competence. The service improvements achieved in our ten years are unprecedented across the United Kingdom public sector, delivering effective policing for the public.\n\n\"We now have a full leadership team with the experience and capability to continue the progress made and can take confidence from the exceptional role Police Scotland played through Covid, COP26 and the events following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.\n\n\"The police officers and police staff of Police Scotland are outstanding. Leading them as chief constable to serve the people of Scotland has been the honour of my working life.\"\n\nSir Iain was knighted at a ceremony in January\n\nJustice Secretary Keith Brown paid tribute to Sir Iain's leadership \"through what history will show to be hugely significant events\".\n\nHe added: \"Sir Iain leaves the second largest force in the UK in great shape as it prepares to mark its tenth anniversary - and that is a fitting and lasting legacy to his life of service.\"\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack thanked the police chief for his years of service, particularly for delivering a \"safe and secure\" COP26 conference in Glasgow.\n\nScottish Conservative justice spokesman Jamie Greene said whoever replaces Sir Iain must be \"given the resources necessary by them to deliver the level of service our police officers want to offer and which the public expect.\"\n\nScottish Labour justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said she was personally disappointed that the police force was losing such a dedicated officer.\n\nThe announcement that Sir Iain was standing down came as he published a report warning that policing in Scotland is facing \"hard choices\" given the \"unprecedented\" financial pressures on the public sector.\n\nThe report that was submitted to the Scottish Police Authority said: \"Our capital funding remains significantly lower than that needed to progress improvements to our technology, buildings and vehicles\".\n\nLast year Sir Iain also claimed that policing was \"not one of the priorities\" of a government spending review, with the force already having to make £200m worth of savings every year.\n\nSir Iain joined the Lothian and Borders Police in 1992 and went on to lead major investigations and operations, including a murder investigation into a double shooting at the Marmion Bar in Edinburgh.\n\nHe graduated in law from the Universities of Aberdeen and Strathclyde and practised as a solicitor in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London before joining the police service.\n\nHe also graduated as a Fulbright scholar with a master's degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.\n\nIn 2015 he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in June 2022 for services to policing and the public.\n\nNeither of the first two chief constables in charge of Police Scotland retired from the job. Both resigned for very different reasons, fuelling a narrative of turmoil at the top of Scotland's national force.\n\nAssuming nothing untoward happens between now and the summer, Sir Iain Livingstone will leave having survived longer in the role than his predecessors combined.\n\nThe Chief Constable is not without his critics, but there's no denying he brought stability and calmed things after the force's rocky start.\n\nHe was in charge when the force had to police lockdown restrictions.\n\nThe Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow required the biggest security operation in the UK since the London Olympics, but there were very few arrests and the conference wasn't disrupted.\n\nWhen the Queen died at Balmoral, his force had to police a series of carefully choreographed public events in front of the eyes of the world. The operation was another success.\n\nThe chief has had to face the consequences of two incidents which took place before he took charge.\n\nSir Iain faced the ignominy of going to the High Court in Edinburgh to watch a judge fine the force £100,000 for failing to respond to a road crash which cost the lives of two people.\n\nHe walked past protestors to make a statement at the inquiry into the death of Sheku Bayoh in police custody. His pledge to create a police force that's anti-racist earned praise from the family's lawyer.\n\nThe force has also had to deal with allegations of misogyny and paid out £1m to a firearms officer after an employment tribunal ruled she had been the victim of discrimination.\n\nSir Iain managed to avoid falling out with the Scottish Government, publicly at least.\n\nIn recent months, he fought against its proposals for a flat cash budget settlement which would have necessitated severe cuts. In the end the force's budget was increased but not in line with record levels of inflation and major headaches lie ahead.\n\nSir Iain denies that's why he's going, saying he's dealt with constant financial pressure during all of his time in charge. That's undoubtedly true but it does look like his successor will face even tougher choices as the force tries to balance its books.\n\nIn many ways, the cop who planned to retire in 2017 but ended up in charge will be a hard act to follow.", "Harvey Weinstein during his New York trial in 2019\n\nEx-film mogul Harvey Weinstein begged for leniency in a Los Angeles court moments before he was given an additional 16 years in prison for rape.\n\nHe was convicted of attacking an actress in a hotel room during a film festival in the city in February 2013.\n\n\"Please don't sentence me to life in prison,\" the disgraced Hollywood star told the court. \"I don't deserve it.\"\n\nMore than 80 people have made rape and misconduct claims about Weinstein dating back as far as the late 1970s.\n\nThe 70-year-old is already serving a 23-year prison sentence for a separate conviction in New York.\n\nBefore Thursday's sentencing, Weinstein maintained he was innocent and the victim of a \"set-up\".\n\nOn 19 December, a Los Angeles jury convicted him of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault involving an actress.\n\nThe victim, known as Jane Doe 1 to protect her anonymity, spoke in court before the sentence was read.\n\nShe recounted the trauma she had endured for \"many years\" since the assault.\n\n\"Before that night I was a very happy and confident woman,\" she said.\n\n\"Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage.\"\n\nWeinstein, meanwhile, told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench he did not know the victim.\n\n\"I never raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1,\" he said.\n\nHe told the court there were \"so many things wrong\" with the case and too many \"loopholes\".\n\nWeinstein called his accuser an \"actress with the ability turn on her tears\".\n\nHis attorneys - who had sought a three-year sentence for Weinstein - asked the judge to take into account his deteriorating health, his children and his \"generous\" donations to charity.\n\nWeinstein sat in court looking away for most of the time and did not react when the sentence was read, which came after the judge rejected a motion by defence lawyers for a new trial.\n\nHe was acquitted during the same Los Angeles trial of sexual battery against another accuser.\n\nThe jury was unable to reach a verdict on three other sexual assault counts, including one involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. A mistrial was declared.\n\nHe is thought likely to appeal against the sentence.\n\nThe Oscar-winning movie producer had been facing up to 18 years in prison in the Los Angeles case.\n\nHe avoided a sentence of up to 24 years after a jury was unable to agree on whether Weinstein had planned the rape or whether the victim was \"particularly vulnerable\".\n\nIn 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault against a production assistant in 2006 and an aspiring actress in 2013. He has appealed.\n\nThe conviction was seen as a milestone in the #MeToo movement, which had shone a light on rampant sexual abuse and harassment in the film and television industry.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Weinstein's former employee says NDA was 'trauma inducing'", "Dame Helen Mirren teared up as she recited a poem at a London vigil to mark one year since the start of the war in Ukraine.\n\nThe Oscar-winning actress recited the English version of the poem Take Only What Is Most Important by Serhiy Zhadan, at the event in Trafalgar Square.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Dominic Raab says he won't rule out force being used to get convicts into court\n\nConvicted criminals could be forced to appear in court for sentencing, the justice secretary has told Zara Aleena's family.\n\nDominic Raab is examining whether judges should be able to impose longer terms on those who refuse to appear.\n\nMs Aleena's killer Jordan McSweeney refused to attend his sentencing, something her family described as \"a slap in the face\".\n\nMr Raab told the BBC convicts attending was the \"least the victims deserve\".\n\nThe plans were revealed during a meeting with Ms Aleena's aunt, Farah Naz.\n\nZara Aleena, 35, was attacked by Jordan McSweeney near her home in Ilford in June 2022\n\nAfter the meeting, Ms Naz told the BBC it had been \"a slap in the face\" that McSweeney had the right not to attend the hearing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Murderer not attending sentencing was a 'slap in the face'\n\n\"He needed to look at our faces and see how he hadn't just killed Zara, he had killed a whole family,\" she said.\n\nMs Aleena, 35, was killed in an attack near her home in Ilford, east London, in June last year.\n\nMcSweeney, who was jailed for 38 years for her murder, was condemned as \"spineless\" by Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb for failing to appear in court.\n\nJordan McSweeney had only recently been released from prison when he murdered Ms Aleena\n\nConvicted criminals in other serious cases have also refused to appear.\n\nIt means they do not hear victim personal statements which are read out in court before sentencing.\n\nMr Raab is having discussions with officials about how to bring about the changes.\n\nHe added officials were looking at how the move could be enforced because \"you could be in a situation where you're physically having to manhandle somebody out of the cell\".\n\n\"I wouldn't rule that out, but fundamentally, if a perpetrator is not willing to come and face the judge... then I think we should be looking at increasing the sentence as an aggravating factor,\" he said.\n\nHe told the BBC making convicts appear at sentencing hearings was \"the very least the victims deserve and... a basic principle of British justice\".\n\nHe said he therefore wanted to \"make sure courts have the power to compel someone who's been convicted of a serious crime to come and face the sentence that they hand down\".\n\nPrimary school teacher Sabina Nessa was murdered in 2021 by Koci Selamaj\n\nThe family of Sabina Nessa, who was killed in a random attack in Kidbrooke, south-east London, in 2021, were also unable to face her murderer who refused to appear at his sentencing.\n\nHer sister, Jebina Islam, said it was \"outrageous\" that \"my sister's killer was able to decide whether or not to come to court\" and had \"refused to listen to our family impact via link\".\n\nShe has been campaigning to make convicts appear in court.\n\n\"Me and my family will never know why he murdered my sister and this will haunt us for the rest of our lives,\" she added.\n\n\"No one will understand the pain we are going through each day without our amazing bright Sabina and still not knowing why he killed her.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Riley's dad Bob was in the Army for 22 years but has now left and is training to be a teacher\n\nWhen I was growing up, I had to say goodbye to my dad every week.\n\nHe once missed my birthday, because as a staff sergeant in the Royal Corps of Signals, the Army always had to come first.\n\nI'm 12 and as a BBC young reporter I wanted to highlight what life is like for children who have parents in the armed forces.\n\nI also wanted to ask whether service children have the right support to cope with the disruption that comes with army life.\n\nI go to school in Pembrokeshire but I was born in Germany in 2010 when my dad was stationed there.\n\nMy dad, Bob, spent 22 years in the Army, including two tours of Afghanistan. I have two younger sisters and a younger brother.\n\nMy mum, Sarah, often had to cope with us all on her own when dad was away.\n\nRiley missed his dad when he was away from home\n\nWhen I was younger, I was often left bewildered when dad went away, and later, I would notice that he had to miss our birthdays and other important events.\n\nDad left the Army in 2020, but the experiences I had growing up have stayed with me.\n\nAn organisation called SSCE Cymru (Supporting Service Children in Education) helped to put me in touch with other service children in Pembrokeshire.\n\nHaverfordwest High VC School is an impressive new school, which has about 1,500 pupils.\n\nMore than 50 of the pupils have links to the armed forces, either through parents who are active members of the armed forces or who are veterans.\n\nRiley interviewed pupils at Haverfordwest High after winning a BBC competition to be a young reporter\n\nI got to speak to some of the kids who attend a special club at the school which helps support them.\n\nGracie, 12, had two parents in the Army, but they have left. She was born in Gibraltar.\n\n\"It has been really hard when my dad's had to go away,\" she said.\n\n\"He's gone to Canada for six months before and he's missed my seventh birthday before, and we've had to move around a lot, so that's been really hard. To go to a different school and different countries a lot and try to make new friends.\n\n\"You wake up in the morning and you expect to see both your parents there but they're not, one is away. It's just sad because you sometimes wonder what's going on and are they OK. You're always wondering if they're OK.\"\n\nEmma's mum is in the Army and until she was nine, she had to go away every other week.\n\n\"I was in a constant cycle of saying goodbye,\" she said.\n\n\"By the time my mum was home for the weekend and I could see her again, she was tired and it was late at night by the time she came home.\n\n\"Now my mum works once a week in the Army, but it's still really weird because I don't know what day she's going to be home.\n\nCaden, 12, has to say goodbye to his dad every week from Sunday until Thursday evening.\n\n\"It's kind of upsetting when he goes, because you don't know what time he's going to be back, and you don't know if he's got back OK,\" he added.\n\nLeo's stepdad lives in camp, so he does not see him as often as he would like.\n\n\"I did miss him now and again, because I always used to go on his motorbike,\" he said.\n\n\"Now he's in camp, I can't really have those experiences anymore. I didn't really speak about that, when he went away, to anyone.\"\n\nSSCE Cymru's Jo Wolfe said forces children often needed more help with their school work\n\nSSCE Cymru estimates there are at least 2,000 children in 600 schools in Wales who either have parents in the armed forces or are veterans.\n\nThe organisation, which started in 2014, helps schools cater for the needs of children whose lives are disrupted by the uncertainty of armed forces life.\n\nJo Wolfe, who is the participation lead officer for the organisation, was a forces child herself and now her husband is in the Army.\n\n\"We reach out to the schools that have even one or two service children,\" she said.\n\n\"We have lots of pockets in Wales where there are higher numbers because there are lots of stations in Wales.\n\n\"We have lots of army children in Brecon, we have lots down here in Haverfordwest, because of the 14th Signal Regiment.\n\n\"We have lots of RAF children in the Valley (on Anglesey) and in the Vale of Glamorgan. We also have a navy community in Cardiff.\"\n\nShe said forces children often needed extra help with their school work.\n\n\"Schools apply for an MOD (Ministry of Defence) grant which is called an Education Support Fund,\" she said.\n\n\"From that, they can then filter down what individual need a child needs and if there are gaps in learning because of moving around so often. \"\n\nRiley wanted to find out more about what life was like for other forces children\n\nAt Haverfordwest High VC, there is a dedicated club for forces children, but it is clear everybody copes in their own way.\n\nCaden said he prefers discussing any worries he has with family members, while Leo enjoys making programmes with Haverfordwest High Radio as a way of coping with the absence of his stepdad.\n\nRiley's dad admits he did not realise the impact of his absences on his children\n\nEmma Richards, who is part of the service pupil liaison team at Haverfordwest High, said help was always available to the 52-plus armed forces at the school.\n\n\"I organise revision clubs, after school sessions, arrange transport home. I do notice in school, I can tell if something is going on, because I'm with the children daily.\n\n\"If dad's on the move, they've got the Lifeforce Google page, which they send me messages on.\"\n\nEmma said there were positive elements to being an armed forces child on occasions.\n\n\"We get to opportunities to go on other trips the rest of the school don't. It's nice knowing we can go to the club and do this stuff that we might have missed out on when we were little,\" she said.\n\nRiley's dad Bob left the Army as he missed family life\n\nBack home, I discussed my visit to the school with my dad. He admitted going away was really hard for him too, and ultimately, it influenced his decision to leave the Army after a successful 20-year career.\n\n\"As a soldier with children you've almost got to be a little selfish at times,\" he said.\n\n\"It's a sad thing to say, but when it came to your birthday, I had to not think about it, as it would have made me more sad than I was at the time.\n\n\"I probably didn't realise the impact it was having on you. When you entered this competition (to be a BBC young reporter), since then it has made me think about 'actually' could I have done more as a parent to try and help you'?\"\n\nHe told me that missing out on parts of our childhood was a major reason to leave the Army:\n\n\"I think I started realising it was having an impact on you and your brother and sisters. I wish the Army had done more to post me home, to be honest.\"\n\nDad is now training to be a primary school teacher and does not regret leaving the Army.\n\nWhen I asked the pupils of Haverfordwest High whether they would consider a career in the armed forces, Emma and Gracie said \"maybe\".\n\nCaden said his first choice would be to play international rugby. Leo said it was not something he wanted to do anymore.\n\nAs we tucked into our buffet at Haverfordwest High, I have to say, I agreed with Leo.\n\nHaving been separated from a loved one as a child, it's not something I would like to experience again as an adult. I have decided I will not be following my dad into the Army.", "Uliana discussing the war in Ukraine with her father Boris\n\nUliana is weeping as her brother's coffin is lowered into the ground.\n\nThe 37-year-old actress is attending the funeral of Vanya, a Russian soldier killed on the front line in Ukraine. \"They said he died a hero,\" says Uliana of 23-year-old Vanya. \"I thought, 'What does it mean, like a hero?' It's absurd. I don't want a dead hero for a brother.\"\n\nBut her father Boris, though also stricken with grief, is proud that his son Vanya died fighting for his country.\n\nHis view is that the conflict is a battle against \"a government that preaches fascism\". This claim echoes the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who says he is helping to de-Nazify Ukraine and that its government has carried out genocide - a claim for which there is no evidence.\n\n\"Before this happened with Vanya, we didn't discuss the war,\" says Uliana describing her relationship with her father. \"But after he died we had some awful fights about it.\"\n\nIn a new film for BBC Storyville, father and daughter debate the war - a conversation playing out within many families in Russia today.\n\nIt is hard to get an accurate picture of exactly how people in the country feel about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, given legislation which outlaws any comments deemed to discredit the military, or which refer to the military action as a war rather than a \"special military operation\".\n\nBut a survey published in November 2022 by an independent Russian research group suggests it is dividing generations - 75% of respondents aged 40 and over said they supported the war, compared with 62% of those aged 18-24.\n\nRussian filmmaker Anastasia Popova says this chimed with her own perception as she travelled round the country to shoot the documentary.\n\n\"I observed lots of different ruptures between families. Their children were mostly against the war, and their parents - the generation brought up during the Soviet Union, who watched [state-run] TV day and night - supported the war. I have the same rupture within my family,\" she adds, saying her father supports the military action.\n\nRelying on state TV for news means absorbing the official narrative of the Russian government day after day. Uliana, and others of her age group, are more likely to get their news from other outlets, such as YouTube and social media.\n\n\"'Sorry' can't come close to expressing the grief I feel inside,\" says Uliana.\n\nShe says the war has changed people.\n\n\"I watch people on the metro [in Moscow]. They read the news, then look away. They've stopped looking each other in the eye.\"\n\nPopova stresses that outside the big cities, support for the war is greater, regardless of the demographic. She says this became clear while she was filming Vanya's funeral in their home village of Arkhangelskoe, 60 miles [97km] outside Moscow.\n\nUliana speaks of this moment of recognition too.\n\n\"When I was watching those people, it came to me that they really believed the words that they were saying,\" she says, \"[which were] that Vanya died like a hero, a true patriot who defended his motherland.\n\n\"I know that something is wrong. Who are we supposed to be saving there? What are our boys dying for? I never imagined in my life that my brother would be brought to me in a zinc coffin.\"\n\nVanya was the youngest of four siblings, and the only son.\n\n\"He was a golden boy,\" Uliana says.\n\n\"He had a broad upbringing,\" Boris explains. \"Art school, music school, sport… I put everything I dreamed of into him.\"\n\nAfter leaving home, Vanya joined a literary institute in Moscow to study creative writing and also acted in experimental productions, including at the Bolshoi Theatre.\n\nBoris says this led to heartbreak for Vanya, who fell in love with a girl who didn't want to get married.\n\n\"This is the theatre world. With its own views of life. Its own ethical and moral criteria. In place of family values, they have open relationships between men and women,\" says Boris.\n\nVanya was heavily involved in the Moscow arts scene before joining the army\n\nUliana says Vanya seemed extremely happy in the theatre, but his father suggests that it provoked some kind of crisis in his son.\n\n\"He was not satisfied with their view of the world, that they are always negative about Russia; that Russians are nobody to them; that their ancestors, the whole history of Russia is full of nonsense. He understands that he's not like that. We talked about it. What should he do?\"\n\nSo, Boris says, he and Vanya agreed that he should join the military.\n\n\"For a life in the creative arts.. you need life experience,\" says Boris. \"Where can you find it? We decided he should follow in the footsteps of the great writers. That's the army.\"\n\nVanya joined the army as a conscript - and then, wanting more interesting challenges, took a military contract. He was a marine based in the city of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea when Russia launched its major assault on cities across Ukraine in February last year. He was told to call his family to say goodbye before being sent to the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.\n\n\"We talked for a long time, over an hour,\" says Uliana. \"He had tears in his eyes. I said: 'Vanya, show me what you have there.' He showed me a machine gun. Like he used to show me toys as a kid.\"\n\nBoris shows a clip of Vanya's video message to him. \"Our cause is just,\" Vanya is saying. \"Hello to everyone. I'll write when I get there. Hugs and kisses.\"\n\n\"Those were his last words,\" Boris says.\n\nDespite the huge risks, two Russian filmmakers have been filming the impact of the invasion of Ukraine in their country. Many thousands have fled. Those that have stayed have had to make a choice - oppose the war, support it, or stay silent.\n\nHe was killed near the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol on 15 March.\n\nHis death brought Uliana's and Boris's different views on the war into sharp focus.\n\nBoris tells Uliana that she is too young to remember what he refers to as the \"brotherhood\" of the Soviet Union republics. He argues that its fall \"broke the psyche of many generations to come, drumming into their heads that the Russians were their enemy\".\n\nHis language is reminiscent of President Putin, who has called the fall of the Soviet empire the \"greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] Century\". Ukraine declared independence shortly before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.\n\nThe Russian president also puts blame for the war at the doorstep of Nato and the West, which he argues is trying to weaken and ultimately destroy Russia. Boris follows this narrative too.\n\n\"In today's context, 'No to war' only means one thing,\" Boris tells Uliana. \"It means 'Death to the Russians'. This is a struggle for the Russian world, for the Russian soul, for our culture.\"\n\nIt is clearly not a view held by Uliana although she does, from time to time, waver.\n\nPopova captures a moment when Uliana is on holiday in Georgia - one of the few countries Russians can still visit because of sanctions - and she and her friends discuss the war over dinner. Uliana begins to question the facts.\n\n\"I want to believe that my brother did not die in vain. You want to justify the loss. It's so painful. You need to hold on to something,\" Uliana explains.\n\nA small shrine has been erected in Vanya's memory in the family home. It includes soil gathered from Mariupol where he died. At times father and daughter have stood before it together.\n\nUliana says that for all their differences she wants to maintain a relationship with her father.\n\n\"I can't go to war against my own father. I can't say 'I hate you because we disagree.' All I can say is 'Dad, I don't agree. That's all I can say.'\"", "One of the smaller unions involved in the rail dispute has voted to accept a settlement offer with train companies.\n\nThe Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) said its 3,000 members had accepted an offer including a two-year 9% pay deal.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents rail firms, called the move a \"positive breakthrough\".\n\nIn December, the TSSA had accepted Network Rail's offer to settle its dispute with that company.\n\nThe TSSA is smaller than both the RMT and Aslef unions, which are still in dispute with the rail companies over pay, job cuts and changes to terms and conditions.\n\nThe TSSA said the two-year pay deal would mean a 5% increase in 2022/2023 or a minimum or £1,750, whichever is the greater, and a further 4% the following year.\n\nIt also said it had secured commitments on job security and full consultation over any possible changes to terms and conditions. The deal is in exchange for staff accepting changes to working practices - including a new multi-skilled station role.\n\nThe agreement also means there will be no compulsory redundancies among certain grades of staff, including station-based workers and all on-board staff, until the end of 2024.\n\nThe TSSA has dropped ballots on further industrial action, although it said it continued to oppose the proposed closures of ticket offices.\n\nThere are 14 train companies involved in the agreement, including Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains Limited, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express.\n\nA spokesperson from the Department for Transport called the outcome \"positive news\", saying the offer was \"fair and reasonable\", and that it allowed the \"vital reforms\" needed to get railways \"back on a financially sustainable footing\".\n\nA spokesperson for the TSSA said its members could be \"rightly proud of their actions\" in the dispute.\n\n\"The incredible resolve we have seen from our members has resulted in a significantly improved pay deal over two years.\"\n\nRail unions have held a series of strikes since last summer in a dispute with Network Rail and the rail companies over pay and conditions.\n\nEarlier this month, the largest rail union - the RMT - rejected the industry's latest offers.\n\nNetwork Rail and the train companies' group had called the proposals their \"best and final\", but RMT boss Mick Lynch said they were \"dreadful\".\n\nMembers of the RMT union from 14 train operators are due to strike on 16, 18 and 30 March and 1 April, which marks the start of the Easter school holidays for many.\n\nAnd RMT members at Network Rail, responsible for tracks and bridges, have said they will walk out on 16 March and then refuse to work overtime.\n\nOn Thursday, the RDG called on the RMT to put the offer accepted by the TSSA to its members.\n\nIt said the breakthrough with the TSSA came after the RMT executive had rejected an \"equivalent offer\" last month and refused to put it to members in a vote.\n\nSteve Montgomery, chair of the RDG, said: \"We hope that the RMT leadership will take this opportunity to reconsider their rejection of our equivalent offer, call off their unnecessary and disruptive strikes and allow their members a referendum on their own deal.\"\n\nThe train drivers' union Aslef, is also still in dispute with the rail companies, but it has not confirmed any further strike dates.", "The three contenders are Ash Regan, Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf\n\nThree candidates will take part in the contest to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and first minister.\n\nMSPs Kate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf had all met the threshold for nominations by the noon deadline.\n\nThe ballot of SNP members, which will use a single transferrable vote system, opens on 13 March and the winner will be announced on 27 March.\n\nCandidates had been required to get 100 nominations from at least 20 local party branches.\n\nMs Regan formally launched her leadership campaign shortly before Friday's deadline.\n\nShe said it was a \"conflict of interest\" for Ms Sturgeon's husband - SNP chief executive Peter Murrell - to be running the contest to select her replacement.\n\nShe vowed to set up an Independence Commission on her first day in the job and said she would not challenge the UK government's decision to block the Gender Recognition Act.\n\nMs Regan, who resigned as community safety minister over Scottish government plans to make it easier for someone to change their legally-recognised sex, said the legislation was \"flawed and does not command public support\".\n\nThe first full week of the leadership contest has focused on the candidates' views on social issues, with Ms Forbes facing criticism from within her own party after saying she would not have voted in favour of gay marriage had she been in Holyrood in 2014.\n\nMs Regan launched her campaign in North Queensferry on Friday\n\nMs Forbes, a devout member of the Free Church of Scotland, also said she would not have voted for the Scottish government's gender reforms in December and that, according to her religious beliefs, having children outside marriage was \"wrong\".\n\nSeveral of Ms Forbes' backers have withdrawn their endorsements, with Deputy First Minister John Swinney questioning whether someone who holds her views would be an appropriate choice to lead the party and the country.\n\nMs Sturgeon said Scotland was a \"socially progressive country\" and people would expect the new first minister to \"stand up for their rights\".\n\nBut a poll published on Friday suggested Ms Forbes was the most popular candidate among SNP voters.\n\nThe survey of 1,001 people who voted for the party at the last Scottish Parliament election, carried out by communications agency The Big Partnership between Monday and Wednesday, found 28% favoured Ms Forbes as the next leader, against 20% for Mr Yousaf and 7% for Ms Regan. About a third were undecided.\n\nThe poll also suggested that the cost of living crisis was regarded as the most important issue, followed by the economy, the NHS and education. Only 5% said they thought that the new leader's faith or personal beliefs were important.\n\nJohn Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon have both questioned whether someone with Ms Forbes' beliefs would be an appropriate person to lead the SNP\n\nOn Thursday Ms Forbes attempted to reset her campaign, saying she felt \"greatly burdened\" that some of her comments had caused hurt, and pledging to \"defend to the hilt\" the rights of all people in Scotland to live without fear or harassment.\n\nAfter nominations closed, Mr Yousaf said independence was \"within touching distance\" and that \"experience and unity\" was needed to make that a reality.\n\nThe country's health secretary has picked up the most endorsements from SNP politicians, with senior MSPs such as Shirley-Anne Somerville, Jenny Gilruth, Maree Todd and Neil Gray among his supporters.\n\nMr Yousaf has faced criticism over the state of the NHS, particularly waiting times in Scotland's hospitals. Opposition parties have claimed he was the \"worst health secretary since devolution\" and that he should be sacked rather than promoted.\n\nMs Sturgeon defended Mr Yousaf's record at first minister's questions on Thursday, saying that the issues faced by the health service in Scotland were shared by other parts of the UK and pointing out that Scotland has avoided strike action by NHS staff.\n\nThe first minister also claimed the opposition parties were \"running scared\" of Mr Yousaf.\n\nAsh Regan launched her campaign in a room with a view. Behind the candidate, all three Forth bridges stretched out over the firth, looking splendid in the winter sunshine.\n\nInside, another gulf was on display - between the current first minister, a highly polished politician supported by party and government machinery - and an underdog pulling together a campaign on the hoof.\n\nMs Regan's supporters are furious about the truncated nature of this contest, which they say stifles debate about policy and strategy.\n\nThe rapid pace, they say, unfairly favours Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes who have higher profile roles in government and, in theory at least, better name recognition among party members.\n\nThey are under pressure too though: Mr Yousaf because his plan to fix the health service was criticised by an official report; Ms Forbes for saying she would have voted against gay marriage.\n\nStill, on the airwaves and in the newspapers, Mr Yousaf is often framed as the leading candidate, the establishment politician favoured by many parliamentarians.\n\nBut what if a parallel contest is under way, developing out of sight among SNP members, who will actually make the decision?\n\nThe first poll of party supporters comes with some caveats, and was taken before Ms Regan really got going - but the fact that it suggested a substantial lead for Ms Forbes may be a wake-up call.\n\nMr Yousaf, who is Muslim, missed the 2014 equal marriages vote at Holyrood as he was at a meeting, but supported the passage of the bill during its earlier stages in the parliament.\n\nOne former SNP minister, Alex Neil, told the Herald newspaper on Friday that Mr Yousaf had contrived to \"skip\" the vote by arranging this meeting 19 days in advance, and that it could have been rescheduled.\n\nMr Yousaf has vigorously denied such suggestions, and said the episode was being used by opponents to undermine his campaign.\n\nHe said the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the case of a Scottish citizen on death row with the Pakistan consulate.\n\nMs Regan, who quit as community safety minister over the government's gender recognition reforms, has said she supports gay marriage and has called for an end to \"mudslinging\" in the leadership contest.\n\nScottish Conservative Party chairman Craig Hoy said Scotland faced five weeks of \"an SNP civil war being played out in public\".\n\n\"Nicola Sturgeon's resignation released a pressure valve and the enormous SNP splits that had been bubbling around for so long have exploded out into the open,\" he said.\n\nScottish Labour's deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, said: \"While the Scottish people are crying out for fresh ideas and hope for the future, we are facing a battle for Bute House between the three stooges of the SNP.\"", "Huw Rowlands and Deian Thomas are bringing the traditional white and crumbly cheese back home to Caerphilly\n\nCaerphilly cheese is once again being made in its home town almost 30 years after it was forced to stop.\n\nProduction of the world-famous crumbly white cheese, the only type to originate in Wales, ended in Caerphilly in 1995.\n\nNow, Huw Rowlands, 26, and Deian Thomas, 39, are hoping to reignite the local cheese-making tradition.\n\nThey have been working for over three years to perfect the flat, round-shaped cheese.\n\nCaerphilly was originally produced from about 1830 by a number of farms in the area.\n\nCaerphilly was popular with local miners as it was a cheese that did not dry out when they were underground, and it was believed that it helped restore the miners' salt levels lost while working.\n\nMr Thomas admitted he and his partner were both novices when they started trying to make Caerphilly cheese\n\nMr Thomas and Mr Rowlands are hoping their new cheese company, Cwmni caws Caerffili (Caerphilly cheese company), will lead to \"the regeneration of the cheese\" in the area.\n\nThey said it would also give dairy farmers the opportunity to add value to their milk.\n\nMr Rowlands is a member of the Gelligaer Young Farmers Club and has a background in food production, but he admitted that learning to make Caerphilly cheese came with its challenges.\n\n\"Understanding the science behind it has been a challenge,\" Mr Rowlands said.\n\n\"I honestly thought to start that making cheese was a bit of milk and a bit of rennet.\n\n\"We've really had to work hard to get to where we are now and become cheesemakers and have the skills to produce cheese of the highest standard.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Wales News This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Thomas said: \"It's a lot more technical that people expect, especially with different pressing pressures and making sure it is maturing correctly.\n\n\"It has been a lot of work, with a lot of late nights.\"\n\nMr Rowlands said the venture is personal too, as his family have been a part of the local cheesemaking tradition for generations.\n\nHe said: \"My grandmother and great grandmother used to make cheese on their farm and do a quick turnaround when they had spare milk. We also used to have a milk round.\n\n\"This for me now is tying all the knots together and really is all about bringing Caerphilly cheese back home.\"", "Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has suggested turnips could be a suitable alternative while other vegetables remain in short supply.\n\nSome supermarkets have limited sales of cucumbers and tomatoes, following shortages partly caused by extreme weather in Spain and north Africa.\n\nBut she added that people wanted \"a year-round choice\" and supermarkets were trying to meet that demand.\n\nLib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey accused the minister of a \"let them eat turnips\" strategy - a reference to 18th Century French queen Marie Antoinette, who supposedly responded to a bread shortage by saying \"let them eat cake\".\n\nBut Downing Street insisted Ms Coffey had simply been \"setting out the importance of celebrating the produce that we grow here in the UK\".\n\n\"We don't believe it's for us to tell people what they should or shouldn't buy,\" the prime minister's spokesperson said.\n\nResponding to a question from a fellow Tory MP about eating seasonal products, Ms Coffey said: \"It's important to make sure that we cherish the specialisms that we have in this country.\n\n\"A lot of people would be eating turnips right now rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce and tomatoes and similar, but I'm conscious that consumers want a year-round choice and that is what our supermarkets, food producers and growers around the world try to satisfy.\"\n\nMs Coffey has also come under fire after appearing to suggest people struggling to afford food could work more hours or improve their skills to get a higher income.\n\nDuring the question session in the House of Commons, Labour's Rachael Maskell said food banks in her York constituency were running out of supplies and asked what the government was doing \"to ensure that no one goes without\".\n\nMs Coffey replied that inflation was \"really tough at the moment\" but noted the UK had \"one of the lowest proportions of incomes being spent on food\" in Europe.\n\nShe said people could also access the £842m Household Support Fund, before adding: \"We know that one of the best ways for people to boost their income is not only to get into work if they are not in work already, but to work more hours or get upskilled to get a higher income.\"\n\nSpeaking to reporters later, Ms Maskell said: \"It is shocking that the environment secretary shifted blame for food poverty onto people because they are on low wages and are poor, expecting them to work even more hours to put food on the table.\"\n\n\"It is time her government supported families in need, not making them work harder for a crust,\" she said.\n\nAnother Labour MP, Nadia Whittome, said the comments showed that the government was \"utterly out of touch with working class people\".\n\nFood inflation is at a 45-year high, with grocery prices 16.7% higher than last year.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Rod explains why he paid for scans to be carried out on patients at a mobile unit in Harlow\n\nSir Rod Stewart has paid for a day's worth of MRI scans for patients at his local NHS hospital in a bid to help cut waiting lists.\n\nThe singer, who lives in Essex, visited the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow as some scans were taking place.\n\nLast month he called a live phone-in on Sky News and offered to pay for people to have hospital scans, having just returned from having a scan himself.\n\nSir Rod said he wanted to \"prove I'm not all mouth and trousers\".\n\nThe 77-year-old's donation is covering a day of scans for patients, which were being carried out at private healthcare firm InHealth's mobile MRI scanning unit at the hospital site.\n\nSir Rod said he \"just wanted to help people\"\n\n\"I had just come from my scan in a private clinic near Harley Street,\" he said.\n\n\"I walked in and said 'I'm terribly sorry, I'm half an hour late'.\n\n\"They said 'don't worry, there's hardly anybody in here today'.\n\n\"There were eight people with hardly anything to do. Then I thought this is a terrible injustice, so here we are.\"\n\nWhile there, he posed for photographs with medical staff at the hospital\n\nThe singer said he did not want this gesture to be a one-off, and said: \"If this is a big success, which I think it will be, I'd like to do it in Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, and just keep it going, and hope some other people follow me.\n\n\"Because I want to prove I'm not all mouth and trousers and that's why I'm here to prove that I followed through with it.\"\n\nAlthough he said he did not wish to talk about politics, when pressed on the state of the NHS, he said: \"There must be enough money in the coffers to pay up for these nurses. Only two years ago we were clapping, and now...\n\n\"Bless them, they work so hard - salt of the earth.\"\n\n\"We've got to sort this out, really. We're in dire straits.\"\n\nHe said he felt he was in \"a privileged position - I've earned my money and I want to help people - it's as simple as that\".\n\nWhile the Department of Health and Social Care did not wish to comment specifically on Sir Rod's actions, in its blog from December, it set out its plans with NHS England to bring down waiting lists for non-urgent care, including planned operations.\n\nIt said up to £14.1bn was \"available over the next two years on top of record funding to tackle the backlog\" caused by the pandemic.\n\nIt said the aim was to eliminate waits of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025.\n\nThe blog said that by July 2022, no-one would have to wait longer than two years for elective [non-urgent] treatment, and the NHS aimed to eliminate waits of more than 18 months by April 2023.\n\nWhile at the Harlow hospital, Sir Rod met patient Omarie Ryan, 36, who had come from London for a knee scan.\n\nMr Ryan described the meeting as \"a dream come true\".\n\nThe hospital said it currently had just over 7,000 people on its waiting lists for scans (MRI, CT and non-obstetric ultrasound).\n\nThe average wait for a routine test was about eight weeks, while the national target was a wait of six weeks, it added.\n\nThe hospital's chief operating officer, Stephanie Lawton, said the day of scans funded by Sir Rod would help reduce their waiting list by about10%, or 20 or so patients.\n\n\"Rod's a local resident, we're his local hospital, we're really delighted to be working with him and his team for the benefit of patients and doing everything we can to reduce the waiting lists,\" she said.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "While imprisoned, Ahmed Rabbani built a name for himself as an accomplished artist\n\nTwo brothers from Pakistan who were held in the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay for nearly 20 years have been released without charge.\n\nAbdul and Mohammed Ahmed Rabbani were arrested in Pakistan in 2002.\n\nThe Pentagon said Abdul Rabbani operated an al-Qaeda safe house, while his brother organised travel and funds for the group's leaders.\n\nThe brothers alleged that they were tortured by CIA officers, before being transferred to Guantanamo.\n\nBoth have now been repatriated to Pakistan.\n\nThe Guantanamo camp, in Cuba, was established by then-President George W Bush in 2002 to house foreign terrorism suspects following the 9/11 terror attacks in New York. It is on a US Navy base.\n\nBut the camp has come to symbolise some of the excesses of the \"war on terror\" due to interrogation methods that critics say amount to torture, and detainees being held for long periods without trial.\n\nUS President Joe Biden says he hopes to close the facility, where 32 people are still being detained. At its peak in 2003 the facility held 680 prisoners at one time.\n\n\"The United States appreciates the willingness of the Government of Pakistan and other partners to support ongoing US efforts focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,\" the Pentagon said in a statement.\n\nThe brothers were captured by Pakistan's security services in the city of Karachi in September 2002. It took almost two years for them to be transferred to Guantanamo after originally being held at a CIA detention facility in Afghanistan.\n\nIn 2013, Ahmed Rabbani began a series of hunger strikes that lasted for seven years. He would survive on nutritional supplements, sometimes forcibly fed to him through a tube.\n\nClive Stafford Smith, a lawyer with the 3D Centre who has represented both men, told the BBC that he will attempt to sue over the brothers' detention, \"but their chance of compensation are slim. Neither will they get a simple apology\".\n\nBoth men were approved for release in 2021. It is unclear why they remained imprisoned.\n\nAhmed Rabbani's wife was pregnant at the time of his arrest and just five months later she gave birth to their son. He has never met his son.\n\n\"I have been talking with Ahmed's son Jawad who is 20 and had never met or touched his dad as his mother was pregnant when Ahmed was kidnapped. I have met Jawad several times, and I wish I would have been there for their first hug,\" Mr Stafford Smith said.\n\nDuring his time at Guantanamo, Ahmed Rabbani built a name for himself as an accomplished artist. He has an exhibition in Karachi planned in May, with 12 other Pakistani artists inspired by his work, Mr Stafford Smith added.\n\nMaya Foa, director of justice charity Reprieve, which provided legal representation to Ahmed Rabbani until last year, called his two decades of imprisonment a \"tragedy\" that \"exemplifies how far the USA strayed from its founding principles during the 'war on terror' era\".\n\n\"They robbed a family of a son, a husband and a father. That injustice can never be rectified. A full reckoning of the harms caused by the disastrous 'war on terror' can only begin when Guantanamo is closed for good,\" she said.", "US President Joe Biden has said that the first batch of Abrams tanks will arrive in Ukraine \"next week\".\n\nThe US is by far the largest contributor of arms to Ukraine.\n\nPoland, which was also a major donor, recently said it would stop supplying it with weapons.\n\nIt is in a dispute with Ukraine about its exports of grain, which Poland says are flooding its market.\n\nThe amount of military aid given to Ukraine is tracked by the Kiel Institute, but the data only accounts for donations up until the end of July.\n\nThe US announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $500 million.\n\nThe US has also confirmed it will provide cluster munitions, a controversial move which has caused unease among some Nato allies.\n\nUkraine has also received SCALP missiles from France - similar to the UK Storm Shadows missiles that were recently delivered.\n\nDozens of tanks have already been committed. Ukraine says they are urgently needed to defend its territory and to push out Russian troops.\n\nThe Leopard 2 is used by a number of European countries, and is considered to be easier to maintain and more fuel-efficient than most other Western tanks.\n\nDuring the first months following the invasion, Nato preferred member countries to supply Ukraine with older tanks - ones that had been used in the former Warsaw Pact.\n\nUkraine's armed forces know how to operate them, and how to maintain them, and had a lot spare parts for them.\n\nModern Western tanks are more complicated to operate and harder to maintain.\n\nRecent footage of a Ukrainian attack on Russian positions show that at least one Leopard tank and several Bradleys are already in use by Ukrainian forces.\n\nThe UK led the way in Nato by offering to provide the Challenger 2 - its main battle tank.\n\nThe Challenger 2 was built in the 1990s, but is significantly more advanced than other tanks available to Ukraine's armed forces.\n\nUkraine used Warsaw Pact designed T-72 tanks prior to the invasion, and since February 2022 has received more than 200 T-72s from Poland, the Czech Republic and a small number of other countries.\n\nAnnouncing the US decision to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, President Joe Biden described them as \"the most capable tanks in the world\".\n\nThe US and the UK are also providing depleted uranium rounds with the tanks they are donating, which are very effective at piercing armour.\n\nHowever, depleted uranium is slightly radioactive material and there are some concerns that the rounds could contaminate the soil.\n\nMilitary professionals point out that success on the battlefield requires a vast range of equipment, deployed in co-ordination, with the necessary logistical support in place.\n\nThe Stryker is one of the many armoured vehicles that have been donated to Ukraine. The US confirmed that 90 Strykers would be dispatched.\n\nAmong the other vehicles donated by the US were Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. They were used extensively by US forces in Iraq.\n\nIn December, the US also announced it was sending the Patriot missile system to Ukraine - and Germany and the Netherlands have followed suit.\n\nThis highly sophisticated system has a range of up to 60 miles (100km), depending on the type of missile used, and requires specialised training for Ukrainian soldiers, likely to be carried out at a US Army base in Germany.\n\nBut the system is expensive to operate - one Patriot missile costs about $3m.\n\nSince the start of the conflict, Ukraine has been using Soviet-era S-300 surface-to-air systems against Russian attacks.\n\nBefore the conflict began, Ukraine had about 250 S-300s and there have been efforts to replenish these with similar systems stockpiled in other former Soviet countries, with some coming from Slovakia.\n\nThe US has also provided Nasams (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) to Ukraine. The first Nasams arrived in Ukraine in November.\n\nIn addition, the UK has provided several air defence systems, including Starstreak, designed to bring down low-flying aircraft at short range.\n\nGermany has also provided air defence systems, including the IRIS-T air defence systems which can hit approaching missiles at an altitude of up to 20km.\n\nAmong the long-range rocket launchers sent to Ukraine by the US are the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or Himars. Several European countries have also sent similar systems.\n\nHimars are believed to have been central to Ukraine's success in pushing Russian forces back in the south, particularly in Kherson in November.\n\nHimars systems are much more accurate have a longer potential range than the Smerch system used on the Russian side.\n\nIn the months following the invasion and Russia's retreat from Kyiv, much of the war centred on the east of the country where supplies of artillery to Ukraine were in heavy demand.\n\nAustralia, Canada and the US were among the countries to send advanced M777 howitzers and ammunition to Ukraine.\n\nThe range of the M777 is similar to Russia's Giatsint-B howitzer, and much longer than Russia's D-30 towed gun.\n\nNato countries say they are planning to ramp up their supply of shells, because Ukraine has been using them much at a faster rate than they are being delivered.\n\nThey are asking their domestic manufacturers to increase production.\n\nThousands of Nlaw weapons, designed to destroy tanks with a single shot, have also been supplied to Ukraine.\n\nThe weapons are thought to have been particularly important in stopping the advance of Russian forces on Kyiv in the hours and days following the invasion.\n\nDrones have featured heavily in the conflict so far, with many used for surveillance, targeting and heavy lift operations.\n\nTurkey has sold Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to Ukraine, while the Turkish manufacturer of the system has donated drones to crowd-funding operations in support of Ukraine.\n\nAnalysts say the Bayraktar TB2s have been extremely effective, flying at about 25,000 feet (7,600m) before descending to attack Russian targets with laser-guided bombs.\n\nThe US had repeatedly rebuffed Ukraine's pleas for fighter jets, instead focusing on providing military support in other areas.\n\nBut in May, President Joe Biden announced the US would support providing advanced fighter jets - including US-made F-16s - to Ukraine and also back training Ukrainian pilots to fly them.\n\nThe US endorsement also allowed other nations to export their own F-16 jets, as the US legally has to approve the re-export of equipment purchased by allies.\n\nDenmark and the Netherlands have since confirmed that they will supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets. Denmark has committed to sending 19 aircraft whilst it is anticipated that the Netherlands will provide more.\n\nAn initial delivery of several Danish F-16s is expected for near the end of 2023.\n\nA wider joint coalition of countries, including the UK, have also agreed to help train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s. In addition to the US, the joint coalition will also help train Ukrainian ground crew to maintain the aircraft.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer. Graphics by Gerry Fletcher and Sana Dionysiou.", "John Caldwell, seen here in 2020, was shot multiple times\n\nIt's almost 25 years since the peace agreement which largely ended the Troubles was signed, but in Omagh today there are disturbing echoes of the past.\n\nIt seems that the more the details of this attack emerge, the more horrifying the picture is.\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell, a husband and father, had been coaching an under-15 football team and was shot because he was a detective.\n\nHe was putting footballs into his car with his son when two men approached him and opened fire.\n\nHe ran for his life, but was shot.\n\nHe fell down and the gunmen continued to fire at him.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said children ran in \"sheer terror\" as the attack unfolded.\n\nDet Ch Insp Caldwell has a high profile in Northern Ireland and has led a number of investigations into organised crime and dissident republican paramilitaries.\n\nThe focus of the police investigation is the dissident republican group known as the New IRA, thought to be the largest and the most active of the armed groups that oppose the peace process in Northern Ireland.\n\nThose organisations mainly grew out of splinter groups from the Provisional IRA during the peace process which took shape in the 1990s.\n\nThe groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.\n\nTheir activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services, but groups like the New IRA continue to target members of the police service.\n\nAttacks, particularly attacks of this nature, are relatively rare and had been that way in recent years.\n\nBut the police have always been very clear that they still pose a threat to officers' lives and the events of last night demonstrate just how real that threatened.\n\nAn armed police officer on duty near the sports complex in Omagh where John Caldwell was shot\n\nSpeaking earlier, Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said all PSNI officers worked against a \"backdrop of substantial threats\".\n\nPolice officers in Northern continue to take take steps to protect their personal security.\n\nFor example it is relatively well known that it is commonplace for officers to check underneath their cars for bombs before driving.\n\nThe last police officer who was murdered in Northern Ireland was Constable Ronan Kerr and he was killed by a booby trap bomb underneath his car and that happened here in Omagh in 2011.", "A rare blizzard warning is expected to deliver heavy snowfall to mountainous areas like Angeles National Forest near Claremont, California.\n\nParts of usually balmy southern California are under their first blizzard warning since 1989.\n\nThe winter storm that started rolling into the Golden State on Thursday will start to intensify on Friday.\n\nA massive storm has already brought major blizzards and temperatures far below freezing to much of the northern US.\n\nThe cold snap comes as parts of the US southeast basked in a record-breaking heat wave.\n\nCalifornia Highway Patrol near LA closed part of the state's longest interstate - Interstate 5 - due to unsafe roadways, forcing heavier traffic onto Highway 101.\n\nForecasters are predicting snowfall of up to an incredible 8ft (2.4m) in mountains to the north and east of Los Angeles by Saturday.\n\nThe mountains are expected to experience powerful winds of 60-75mph (96-120 km/h) while coastal areas may experience flooding.\n\nThe icy weather front stretches along the entire US West Coast, as well as the Canadian province of British Columbia.\n\nThe winter storm warning is in effect for the coastal Ventura County mountains and Los Angeles County mountains from early Friday through Saturday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.\n\nSnowfall of up to 5ft is also possible on the mountain peaks around the city of Santa Barbara.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe NWS said that the heavy snow will be accompanied by high winds and near-zero visibility and California residents are advised to stay home if they don't have to leave.\n\nA weak tornado touched down in southeast Los Angeles county on Thursday, toppling some trees.\n\nAnd the NWS has warned of waterspouts, or small tornadoes, touching down along the central coast.\n\nNearly 1,000 flight cancellations were reported across the US as of Friday morning.\n\n\"I have to be totally honest with you guys,\" one baffled California meteorologist told viewers this week. \"I've actually never seen a blizzard warning.\"\n\n\"Multiple rounds\" of snow are forecast to blanket the southern Sierra Nevada mountains in central and western parts of the state.\n\nThere will be \"dangerous avalanche conditions\" across the Sierra Nevada, according to the Sierra Avalanche Center.\n\nOn Thursday, schools in the state's far northwest closed due to the unusual weather.\n\n\"This is the first snow day we have had in the 31 years I have been with the district,\" Jeff Napier, an official with the Del Norte County Schools District, told the Los Angeles Times.\n\nLower elevation parts of southern California may also experience snow, in addition to rain, as the storm moves south over the weekend, forecasters say.\n\nThe snow elevation may drop as low as 1,500ft - about as high as the famed sign in the Hollywood hills.\n\nElsewhere in the US the cold snap has forced schools, businesses and some state legislatures to close.\n\nStorm clouds gather over the LA skyline, bringing unusual forecasts for the city\n\nPortland, Oregon, had nearly 11in (28cm) of snowfall by overnight into Thursday morning, the NWS reported, its second snowiest day ever recorded.\n\nThe storm led to the death in Michigan of a volunteer firefighter, who reportedly came into contact with a downed powerline.\n\nOfficials in Oregon are also investigating a suspected hypothermia death that they say may be related to the storm.\n\nHigh winds uprooted a massive redwood tree, which fell into a home in California's Bay Area, leaving a one-year-old child in critical condition in hospital.\n\nAcross five states, hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have been without power. More than 700,000 people in Michigan and 120,000 in California still do not have power as of early Friday morning.\n\nMeanwhile, temperatures in Washington DC hit 81F (27C) on Thursday, a February high not seen since 1874.\n\nMore storms are expected to roll through California early next week.\n\nHave you been affected by the winter storm? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "An off-duty police officer who was shot multiple times in Omagh, County Tyrone, has suffered life-changing injuries, the chairman of Northern Ireland's Police Federation has said.\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell was shot by two gunmen after coaching children at football on Wednesday.\n\nPolice said he was with his son, putting balls in the boot of his car, when he was shot at about 20:00 GMT.\n\nHe remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.\n\nHe had surgery on the night of the shooting and it is understood the 48-year-old underwent further surgery on Thursday.\n\nThree men - aged 38, 45, and 47 - were arrested in Omagh and Coalisland, also in County Tyrone. They remain in custody.\n\nA fourth man, aged 22, was arrested in the Coalisland area in the early hours of Friday morning, police later said.\n\nLiam Kelly, the head of the federation, said Det Ch Insp Caldwell always wants to give back to society.\n\n\"He's been involved in coaching with children over a long period of time and this is how he's been rewarded by terrorists - it's an absolute disgrace,\" he added.\n\nPSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said the investigation was looking at links to violent dissident republicans, with a focus on the New IRA.\n\nBut he said police were keeping an open mind and will continue to work against those with \"callous disregard\" for the community.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'The one phone call you never want to get' - police chief\n\nPolitical leaders including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar have condemned the shooting.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, senior politicians Michelle O'Neill, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Naomi Long, Doug Beattie and Colum Eastwood issued a joint statement calling it a reprehensible attack by \"the enemies of our peace\".\n\nThey are expected to meet the PSNI's Chief Constable Simon Byrne on Friday to discuss the current threat level, Sinn Féin deputy leader Ms O'Neill said.\n\nChildren at the Killyclogher Road sports complex ran in \"sheer terror\" when the shots rang out, ACC McEwan told a press conference.\n\n\"John was finishing up coaching an under-15 football team. He was accompanied by his young son,\" he said.\n\n\"Two gunmen appeared, fired multiple shots and John ran a short distance and, as he fell to the ground, gunmen continued to fire shots at him.\"\n\nACC McEwan paid tribute to a member of the public who administered first aid to the injured officer.\n\n\"At this time there were many other children. Those children ran for cover in sheer terror.\"\n\nBBC News NI understands that Det Ch Insp John Caldwell got up after being shot multiple times and warned children away from the area.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne said PSNI officers were shocked and angered by the brazen attack, and it had sent a \"huge shockwave\" across the organisation.\n\n\"John knows that his colleagues will now be working tirelessly around the clock to support his recovery but also to bring the offenders who have tried to kill him to swift justice,\" the chief constable said.\n\nThe term \"dissident republicans\" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.\n\nDissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.\n\nThe groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.\n\nThey have continued to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in a single state but their activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services.\n\nThe New IRA is thought to be the largest and the most active of the armed groups that oppose the peace process in Northern Ireland.\n\nAttacks, particularly attacks of this nature, are relatively rare.\n\nThis car near a farmyard on the Racolpa Road outside Omagh is thought to have been used by the gunmen and was later burnt out\n\nNorthern Ireland officers work against \"a backdrop of substantial threat\" and the PSNI would do everything to support them, ACC McEwan added.\n\nPolice believe the gunmen made off in a small, dark car, which was found burnt out at Racolpa Road, outside Omagh.\n\nAn Garda Síochána (Irish police) said it had intensified patrolling in border counties.\n\nThe last gun attack on a PSNI officer was in January 2017. The PSNI officer was hit by automatic gunfire at a petrol station in north Belfast.\n\nForensics officers examine Det Ch Insp Caldwell's car at the sports complex where he was shot\n\nFifteen pupils from Omagh High School were at the sports complex at the time of the shooting, principal Christos Gaitatzis said.\n\nMr Gaitatzis said two pupils were beside Det Ch Insp Caldwell when he was shot and he was \"sickened to the stomach\" by the attack.\n\n\"Some pupils did not make it to school,\" he told the BBC's Talkback programme.\n\n\"It is very difficult as some of the children were next to the son of John and were helping him to get sports equipment out of the car. They saw everything.\"\n\nThe children had been left \"numb\" and it was very hard for them to comprehend what had happened, he added.\n\nBeragh Swifts FC was holding a training session at Youth Sport Omagh when the gun attack happened.\n\nIts chairman Ricky Lyons said that it was \"hard to put into words\" what the children had witnessed.\n\nHe said the children were being offered support and the Irish Football Association (IFA) had been in touch to offer counselling.\n\nHe said Det Ch Insp John Caldwell had been coaching at the centre for about 10 years.\n\n\"He was taking a kids training session - it's hard to compute that someone would try to attempt to kill John at that moment,\" he told BBC Evening Extra.\n\nIt is no surprise to learn the chief suspects in the attack are the New IRA.\n\nAfter years on the backfoot the organisation re-emerged with a bomb attack on a police patrol in Strabane last November.\n\nThe attack on John Caldwell is the most serious incident involving the targeting of an officer for many years.\n\nYou probably need to go back to 2011 and the murder of Ronan Kerr for anything comparable.\n\nLast night will be seen not only as an attack on a police officer but an officer who has been directly involved in investigating dissident republicans.\n\nAbout a year ago, on the advice of MI5, the security threat level was downgraded for the first time in over a decade.\n\nIn that context, the shock being felt within the PSNI today will likely be magnified.", "Pupils have been left in tears over school skirt policy\n\nFemale pupils say they have been left \"humiliated\" over enforcement of a uniform policy at a Merseyside school.\n\nGirls have been made to enter Rainford High School in St Helens separately to boys and have had their skirt length inspected by male teachers, they claim.\n\nHundreds of pupils staged a protest against how rules, which have left some pupils in tears, have been imposed.\n\nThe school said \"the implementation of the uniform policy was carried about by staff, both male and female\".\n\nMore than 1,000 people have signed a petition against the policy with some calling it \"outdated\" and \"ridiculous\".\n\nTony, a parent who has complained about the treatment of his daughter, said: \"When pupils returned after half term, they lined girls up and examined their skirts and told them, 'Yours is suitable, yours is not'.\n\n\"It was humiliating. My daughter was so upset about it.\"\n\nThe protests come after a letter was sent to parents in October, in which the school stated it had seen a \"majority\" of female students wearing skirts \"significantly north of knee length\".\n\nRainford High School in St Helens has been criticised by parents\n\nTony added his daughter had been given a detention for taking part in the protest on Wednesday.\n\nHe said: \"I am so proud of my daughter for standing up for her beliefs, It's appalling how it's been handled.\"\n\nVideos shared on TikTok show what was described as a \"protest\" at the school, with large groups of pupils gathered in corridors and male pupils wearing skirts on top of their uniforms.\n\nThe letter to parents argued skirts need to meet standards so pupils concentrate on work \"without worrying that actions such as sitting down become overly precarious due to skirt length\".\n\nIt added that pupils who fail to meet the uniform guidelines will \"face challenges and potential sanctions\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Marie Rimmer MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nRainford sixth form student, Summer, who took part in the protest on Wednesday, said: \"It's annoying [the teachers] think we're protesting against the rule, [but] we're protesting how its being implemented - to have girls separated from boys. It's humiliating, and girls are leaving lessons crying.\n\n\"There is a minority that take it to the extreme and wear skirts too short. But they're branding everyone the same.\"\n\nHead teacher Ian Young said like many schools \"we have a clear uniform policy\".\n\n\"The implementation of the uniform policy was carried about by staff, both male and female,\" he said.\n\n\"Unfortunately, during the protests, a number of students breached the school's behaviour policy and this resulted in us implementing our discipline policy and taking the appropriate action in accordance with this.\n\n\"Daily school life requires a range of policies and implementing these policies enables our school to create a safe and productive environment, ensure the smooth running of the school and makes sure that a consistent approach is applied.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The price of pasta has nearly doubled in two years, new research for the BBC suggests.\n\nA standard 500g bag of pasta was 50p two years ago - now it's 95p.\n\nWe've been tracking the cost of a small basket of 15 everyday essentials. The total has gone up by £5.34 - from £15.79 in 2021 to £21.13 in 2023.\n\nOfficial figures suggest overall UK inflation may have peaked at 11.1% in October. But the rate of food price rises is still running at 16.7%.\n\nChanges in the average cost of 15 food items in January at Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury's were tracked by the retail research firm Assosia.\n\nThe items are a mix of everyday essentials, from oven chips and strawberry jam to pasta sauce and potatoes. They were chosen so we could compare some of the most popular items across the value and standard ranges.\n\nIf you look at our table below the cost of the standard basket is up by more than a third over the last two years.\n\nThe cheaper, value basket, hasn't risen as fast but the rate of increase is much closer to the standard basket over the last year.\n\nKay Staniland, director at Assosia, said the figures show the real price rises that shoppers are seeing each week.\n\n\"It's inflation on top of inflation at the moment,\" she said.\n\nPrices were already rising rapidly last January and that was before the war in Ukraine which then triggered a huge increase in the price of gas as well as disrupting supplies of grains, vegetable oils and fertiliser. That's when the cost of groceries really started to rocket.\n\nAccording to James Walton, chief economist at the IGD, a research charity in the food and consumer goods industry, it could hit 17-19% in the first half of this year, with the rate of increase starting to fall quickly after that.\n\nOr putting it another way, food prices will still be going up by the end of the year, but more slowly than before.\n\nFood production is incredibly energy intensive. But with wholesale gas prices falling sharply along with a drop in the price of global food commodities, like wheat, why are food prices in our supermarket shelves still rising?\n\nOne big reason is the lag between food producers being hit with higher costs and when their products end up in store, said Mr Walton, from the IGD.\n\n\"The food supply chain is extremely complicated. The products can change hands many times, before they come to us as the consumer. And so it takes a long time for the costs increases at the start of the supply chain to be passed down all of the steps until we actually encounter them in the store.\"\n\nThere are always prices hikes in January. Retailers try to hold back from increasing the costs of products till after the key Christmas trading period.\n\nAccording to Assosia, 10,000 products went up in price over the new year - but this is more than double the number that rose in price during the same period last year.\n\n\"I'm not surprised… everyone's got increased costs,\" said Ms Staniland.\n\nKitkat maker Nestle, for instance, recently announced it would raise prices again this year despite an 8.2% increase in 2022.\n\nFood shortages don't help. Bad weather has disrupted supplies of fresh fruit and veg which we rely on from overseas at this time of the year. And British growers have been planting fewer crops like tomatoes and cucumbers because of the huge heating costs for greenhouses. They've also struggled to find seasonal labour to pick them.\n\n\"They're just not planting enough stuff here because it's uneconomic,\" says Adam Leyland, Editor-in-Chief of The Grocer magazine.\n\n\"We'll have to import more from elsewhere. And that inevitably means inflation because the cost of doing that is higher.\"\n\nBritish growers say they need higher prices to survive.\n\nOverall, our food bills look set to get worse before they get better but according to Mr Walton there is light at the end of the tunnel. Assuming no nasty shocks, like a drought, he believes prices will fall at some point in the future, helped by the incredibly competitive nature of grocery retailing in the UK.\n\n\"Each of the different parties is watching the other very closely for some sign of negotiating advantage. If a supermarket thinks that the cost of production has come down, well of course they'll bring the supplier into their office and say 'we want our prices to come down as well'.\"\n\n\"The ferocious desire for a better deal is actually what is probably the shoppers best protection against price inflation, \" he said.\n\nBut there's little respite for shoppers right now.", "Eyes on Orban as EU decides on support for Ukraine , published at 12:42 14 December Eyes on Orban as EU decides on support for Ukraine", "Wang Yi struck a friendly pose for Hungarian media as he met Foreign and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto\n\nOver the past year, leaders in the West have tried to cajole China to help them end the Ukraine war. Now Beijing has given its firmest response yet - and it's not something many in the West would like.\n\nIn recent days, China has launched an assertive charm offensive, kicking off with top diplomat Wang Yi's tour of Europe, which culminated in a warm welcome by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.\n\nBeijing has released not one but two position papers - the first offering the Chinese solution to the war, and the other outlining a plan for world peace. These largely retread China's talking points from the past year, calling for respect for sovereignty (for Ukraine) and the protection of national security interests (for Russia), while opposing the use of unilateral sanctions (by the US).\n\nThe West may come away unimpressed - but convincing them was never likely the main goal for Beijing.\n\nFirstly, it clearly seeks to position itself as a global peacemaker. An obvious clue about who it's really trying to charm lies in one of its papers, where it mentions engaging South East Asia, Africa and South America - the so-called Global South.\n\nIn preaching an alternative vision to a US-led world order, it is wooing the rest of the globe, which is watching to see how the West handles the Ukraine crisis.\n\nBut another goal is to send a clear message to the US.\n\n\"There is an element of defiance,\" said Alexander Korolev, an expert in Sino-Russian ties at the University of New South Wales. \"It is signalling: 'If things get ugly between us, I have someone to go to. Russia is not alone, which means that I will not be alone when there is a confrontation… don't get comfortable in bullying me.'\"\n\nThe timing, say observers, is a giveaway. Relations between the US and China have hit a new low, exacerbated by the spy balloon saga. Some have also questioned why China - if its intention is to help end the war - is only just now making its big diplomatic push for Ukraine peace.\n\n\"China had ample opportunities to display leadership, it was invited early on to contribute to ending the war… If the goal was to truly display the image of a global leader, you don't have to sit on the fence for one year and try to perform a diplomatic dance,\" said Dr Korolev.\n\nThere was a third goal, and it could be seen in Mr Wang's itinerary.\n\nBy visiting France, Germany, Italy and Hungary, whose leaders China perceives as taking less of a hardline stance on Russia, Mr Wang may have been testing the waters to see if China could lure some of Europe into China's orbit.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\nBeijing sees a \"logical convergence of interests\" with these countries, said Zhang Xin, an international political economy expert with the East China Normal University in Shanghai. \"It believes the US has hegemonic power, and that a large part of the Transatlantic world could benefit from detaching from that system.\"\n\nBut whether China will succeed in that particular goal is questionable. Mr Wang's speech at the Munich Security Conference, where he criticised the US, did not play well in a roomful of America's staunchest allies and, according to diplomats, only spawned greater distrust of China's true motives.\n\nHis tour \"was a very overt push to say: 'We don't have problems with Europe, we have problems with the US, we can fix things with you Europeans and you need to understand that the US is leading you down a problematic road'\", said Andrew Small, a senior fellow specialising in Europe-China relations at the German Marshall Fund think tank.\n\n\"But I think in most places in Europe, this message doesn't have much traction.\"\n\nThe key question now is whether Beijing will live up to its word of making peace as it tightens its embrace of Russia.\n\nThe US has warned this week that China was considering supplying lethal weapons to Russia, and that Chinese firms had already been supplying non-lethal dual-use technology - items which could have both civilian and military uses, such as drones and semi-conductors.\n\nPublicly China has reacted with angry rhetoric. But behind closed doors, Mr Wang made it clear to top EU official Josep Borrell that it will not provide weapons to Russia.\n\nAccording to Mr Borrell, Mr Wang had also asked: \"Why do you show concern for me maybe providing arms to Russia when you are providing arms to Ukraine?\"\n\nIt is a revealing line, say observers, showing that Beijing still truly believes the West is to blame for fuelling the war.\n\n\"Sending weapons to any warring party is considered as further escalation - that is the position of the Chinese state so far,\" said Dr Zhang.\n\nThere is scepticism that Beijing would supply weapons to Moscow, given how it runs counter to Chinese interests.\n\nSuch a move would be seen by others as a clear escalation of the war, and would lead to sanctions and disruption of trade with the West - hugely damaging for China, as the EU and US are among its top trading partners.\n\nIt would also raise global tensions significantly and likely push US allies further into Washington's embrace, stymieing Beijing's plan to woo some of them away.\n\nWhat is more likely to happen, say observers, is that Beijing will continue or even step up indirect support to Russia, such as boosting economic trade - which has provided a financial lifeline to Moscow - and abstaining from sanctions on Russia.\n\nThey may even supply more dual-use technology through third party states such as Iran or North Korea, according to Dr Small, so that they can lend support \"as deniably as possible\".\n\nBut as the war drags on, the issue of giving lethal weapons will resurface, he warned.\n\n\"There hasn't been a question yet on what kind of significant things China could be asked to do, because previously Russia didn't need to resupply,\" said Dr Small. \"But they are hitting that juncture. How long is China willing to say to Russia it will not do it?\"\n\nDays before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin declared they had a \"friendship without limits\".\n\nA year on, China will have to answer the question of how far it would go for its special friend.", "Sir Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher's press chief in Downing Street, has died, his family have announced.\n\nKnown for his straight-talking approach, Sir Bernard served in No 10 throughout Mrs Thatcher's premiership from 1979 to 1990.\n\nThe former journalist, who was 90, died on Friday lunchtime after a short illness, surrounded by his family, a statement said.\n\nHis son John said: \"My family will miss him greatly.\n\n\"To the wider world he is known as Margaret Thatcher's chief press secretary, a formidable operator in the political and Whitehall jungles.\n\n\"But to me he was my dad - and a great dad at that. He was a fellow football fan and an adoring grandfather and great-grandfather.\"\n\nBorn in Halifax on 21 June 1932, Sir Bernard left school at 16, and made his name as a campaigning journalist for the Hebden Bridge Times and later the Yorkshire Post.\n\nHe wrote columns for the local Labour Party newspaper, labelling the Conservative governments of Edward Heath and Alec Douglas-Home enemies of the workers.\n\nIn 1965, he moved to London to become an industrial correspondent for The Guardian.\n\nAfter being passed over for promotion, Sir Bernard joined the civil service as a government press officer, positioning himself as a bitter enemy of \"spin\" and criticising those who practised the \"black art\".\n\nDuring Labour's years in power, he worked for left-wingers Barbara Castle and Tony Benn.\n\nIn May 1979, when the Conservatives swept to power, he was chosen to become chief press secretary for the new government.\n\nSome doubted the former Labour-supporting campaigner could work for a Tory leader. But like Lady Thatcher, Sir Bernard was an outsider.\n\nHe would handle the media for Mrs Thatcher throughout her premiership.\n\nFor a decade, he was her media champion, often clashing with journalists and sometimes her own cabinet ministers.\n\nHe was known for briefing against ministers who displeased their boss, famously labelling John Biffen a \"semi-detached member of the government\" after he criticised Thatcherism.\n\nWhen Mrs Thatcher was ultimately deposed, few thought Sir Bernard could work for anyone else.\n\nHe retired - with a knighthood - to a modest bungalow in Purley, south London, and returned to journalism alongside writing his memoir, Kill The Messenger.\n\nFree to speak his mind after leaving government, Sir Bernard sometimes sparked outrage.\n\nHe refused to retreat from his view that the 1989 Hillsborough disaster - which claimed the lives of 97 Liverpool supporters - had been caused by \"tanked-up yobs\".\n\nAnd in a 1996 letter replying to fan Graham Skinner - whose friend had died in the disaster - Sir Bernard said Liverpool should \"shut up about Hillsborough\".\n\nHe also accused Scottish nationalists of being \"fuelled\" by the \"smell of oil and money in oil\".\n\nHe was still filing regular columns to The Yorkshire Post and the Daily Express until weeks before his death.\n\nSir Bernard was married to Nancy Ingham, a former policewoman, for 60 years until she died in 2017.\n\nHe leaves a son, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild.", "Last year's show was hosted by Turin - Romanian act WRS is seen performing here\n\nThe Eurovision Song Contest, being held in Liverpool in May, will get £10m from the UK government, it has been announced.\n\nIt will be spent on operational costs like security and visas, as well as making sure the event \"showcases Ukrainian culture\".\n\nLocal authorities in Liverpool have already pledged £4m in funding.\n\nAbout 3,000 tickets to the song contest will also be made available for Ukrainians living in the UK.\n\nLiverpool is staging the event at its M&S Bank Arena on behalf of Ukraine, whose Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 show, as the war means it cannot take up hosting duties.\n\nIt will be the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the UK for 25 years.\n\nSam Ryder came second for the United Kingdom in 2022 after years of disappointing results\n\nThe tickets for Ukrainians living in the UK, across nine shows, allows \"compatriots here to enjoy the event and celebrate our country's rich culture and music\", said Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko.\n\nThere will be a £20 charge for each sale, with the cost subsidised by the DCMS for those on the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Ukraine Extension Scheme, who are eligible to apply for tickets.\n\nThe government funding is intended to \"support security, visa arrangements and other operational aspects of the contest\", the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said.\n\nThe money will also support Liverpool City Council as well as host broadcaster the BBC's partnerships with Ukrainian acts \"to ensure a collaborative show celebrating music and how it unites people\", it said in a statement. It is the first time the government has confirmed its financial contribution.\n\nLast year the Italian government did not directly pledge any money towards the annual event, the BBC has learned.\n\nInstead, the host city of Turin spent roughly £10m on the song contest - with officials claiming it made the money back \"seven times\" over through tourism.\n\nMore than 160 million people tuned in to see acts like Moldova's Zdob perform last year\n\nSome broadcasters are understood to have had reservations about competing in 2023 because of the additional costs of transporting equipment, due to the UK no longer being a member of the European Union.\n\nOne delegate from a competing broadcaster, who didn't want to be named, explained this year's contest in Liverpool \"will have an extra hassle\".\n\n\"Normally delegations have the choice to either create the props themselves and ship it to the host country, or build them in the host country,\" they told the BBC.\n\nThey claimed shipments to the UK could not be guaranteed to arrive on time as there are \"more forms\", adding they believed it was much easier in previous years, as props and other materials did not have to go through customs.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The rundown on the 2023 contest in 50 seconds\n\nUnusually, as part of the £10m UK government commitment, the BBC will receive some financial assistance, the DCMS confirmed - but neither it nor the BBC would confirm what this sum was.\n\nThe majority of the funding package will go, the government says, towards ensuring \"the inclusion of Ukrainian culture\", but it did not give further detail when asked.\n\nThe bulk of the overall cost of this year's Eurovision falls to the BBC, as host broadcaster, after it accepted the invitation when organisers ruled it could not be in Ukraine following Russia's invasion.\n\nIt is estimated the corporation will spend between £8m and £17m putting on the song contest - a significant jump from what it normally spends participating, at a time when it is reducing head count to save millions. The broadcaster is also closing channels and axing programmes. It says it's to prioritise digital content and \"grow the value we deliver to local audiences everywhere\".\n\nThe 37 broadcasters taking part in Eurovision all pay a fee to enter, which in recent years has totalled a combined sum of about £5m. The BBC does not make its contribution public.\n\nThis year's Eurovision takes place in May - the week after the King's coronation\n\nThe BBC said further details on general release tickets would be issued in due course.\n\nThere are two semi-finals ahead of the grand final - on 13 May - that fans will be able to pay to go to, as well as six preview shows.\n\nCulture Secretary Lucy Frazer said: \"We are honoured to be supporting the BBC and Liverpool in hosting it on their behalf, and are determined to make sure the Ukrainian people are at the heart of this event.\"\n\nLabour declined to comment on the funding announcement.\n\nAll the build-up, insights and analysis is explored each week on a new BBC podcast called Eurovisioncast.\n\nEurovisioncast is available on BBC Sounds, or search wherever you get your podcasts from.", "Rihanna's Oscars performance comes on the heels of her solo, 13-minute set at the Super Bowl halftime show\n\nRihanna Navy rejoice: the Super Bowl halftime show will not be the last that we see of the Barbadian singer.\n\nThe music superstar is scheduled to perform Lift Me Up during the biggest night in Hollywood - the Oscars.\n\nThe song, created with Tems, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson, was featured on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.\n\nIt has been nominated for best original song, marking Rihanna's first Oscar nod.\n\nThe 95th Academy Awards ceremony will be broadcast on 12 March and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.\n\nEarlier this month, Rihanna dazzled Super Bowl viewers with a soaring, solo half-time show, in which she publicly revealed her second pregnancy with her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky.\n\nThe 13-minute performance was highly anticipated by Rihanna's fans, many of whom had not seen her perform since she graced the Grammys stage in 2018 to perform 'Wild Thoughts' with DJ Khaled.\n\nIn the last few years, Rihanna has taken a break from music to focus on her business ventures, like her Fenty Beauty make-up brand and her Savage X Fenty lingerie line.\n\nLift Me Up marks the first solo song Rihanna has recorded since her last album, ANTI, which was released in 2016.\n\nSpeaking about her return to music after a seven-year hiatus, Rihanna said she is at a point where she wants to explore creatively.\n\n\"I'm feeling open to exploring, discovering, creating things that are new, things that are different, things that are off, weird. Might not ever make sense to my fans … I want to have fun with music,\" Rihanna said ahead of her Super Bowl performance.\n\nWith a performance at the Oscars, Rihanna joins the likes of Beyonce and Lady Gaga, who both dazzled as musical guests on the Academy Award stage in recent years.\n\nHer song, Lift Me Up, will compete for the best original song title against Lady Gaga, who is up for her fourth-ever nomination for Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick.\n\nOther nominees for best original song include Diane Warren for Applause from the film Tell It Like a Woman; This Is A Life from Ryan Lott, Mitski and David Byrne from the film Everything Everywhere All At Once; and Naatu Naatu by M M Keeravaani and Chandrabose from the Indian action film RRR.\n\nRihanna is a nine-time Grammy Award winner. She has eight multi-platinum albums and 14 singles that have reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.", "Junior doctors in England will strike on 13, 14 and 15 March, the British Medical Association has announced.\n\nThey want a pay increase to make up for 15 years of inflation.\n\nThe BMA says junior doctors have been left with no choice after the health secretary \"refused to attend\" a meeting to negotiate on pay.\n\nDowning Street said the strike action was \"disappointing\" and Steve Barclay had recently met the union to discuss what was fair and affordable.\n\nThe three-day strike, starting and finishing at 07:00, will see junior doctors walk out of both routine and emergency care. Junior doctors can withdraw from life-and-limb emergency care but their employer then has to find other staff to cover for them.\n\nThe term \"junior doctors\" covers everyone who has just graduated from medical school through to those with many years' experience on the front line.\n\nOverall, they account for more than 40% of the medical workforce.\n\nNearly 48,000 junior doctors working across hospitals and in the community were eligible to vote in a recent strike ballot, with more than 36,000 voting for action.\n\nThe BMA union says junior doctors are \"demoralised, angry and no longer willing to work for wages that have seen a real terms decline of over 26% in the past 15 years\".\n\nThey said this, together with \"the stress and exhaustion of working in an NHS crisis\" had brought them to this moment.\n\n\"We have not been told why we have not been offered intensive negotiations nor what we need to do for the government to begin negotiations with us.\n\n\"We are left with no option but to proceed with this action,\" the BMA junior doctors' committee said.\n\nMr Barclay said it was \"deeply disappointing\" that some union members had voted for strike action.\n\nMinisters say junior doctors' pay had increased by a cumulative 8.2% since 2019-20, and a higher pay band had been introduced for the most experienced staff and rates for night shifts increased.\n\nThe last time junior doctors went on strike was in 2016, over a new contract that had been introduced.\n\nDuring the 2016 strike, consultants stepped in but this meant a huge amount of pre-planned treatments such as knee and hip replacements had to be cancelled.\n\nHow will you be affected by the walkout? Are you a junior doctor planning to strike? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The planets could be seen in the sky just after sunset in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire\n\nStargazers across Wales were able to witness Venus, Jupiter and the Moon aligned in the night sky on Thursday.\n\nThe brightest planets in the night sky were visible during a spectacular celestial event known as a conjunction.\n\nAccording to the UK Space Agency, the two planets reach their apparent closest point at the start of March when they'll appear to form one point.\n\nTake a look at a selection of the best images as people across Wales looked to the skies.\n\nStunning clear skies and the planets in Blaenavon, Torfaen\n\nThe planets and Moon seen from Tonypandy, Rhondda Cynon Taf\n\nClear skies and views of Venus and Jupiter in Llithfaen, Gwynedd\n\nThe Moon shone bright for those in Penmon, Anglesey\n\nOne BBC Weather Watcher, Susy Storm, captured this close up shot of the Moon from Llithfaen, on the Llyn Peninsula, Gwynedd\n\nVenus and Jupiter were easily visible at dusk in Llandrindod Wells, Powys\n\nVenus and Jupiter were visible alongside the Moon above the trees in Llanaelhaearn, Gwynedd\n\nThe planets alongside the moon in Carnguwch, Gwynedd", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Take a look inside the secret cinema club that has been documenting Edinburgh life since the 1930s\n\nA basement flat on a residential street in Edinburgh's New Town has a secret which dates back almost 90 years - it is home to a hidden cinema.\n\nFor decades, people have been walking past the Georgian townhouse at 23 Fettes Row unaware of what was inside.\n\nIt has been home to a cinema since a group of amateur film enthusiasts founded the Waverley Cine Society in 1936.\n\nIn its heyday there was a waiting list to join the club - and after a major renovation in the 1970s, the Queen Mother was among its visitors.\n\nBut changes in technology have seen numbers dwindle since the 1980s and now the club is to open its doors to the public on Thursday in an attempt to attract new members.\n\nNow called the Edinburgh Cine and Video Society, its secretary, Stewart Emm, gave BBC Scotland a tour behind the scenes.\n\nHow the cinema looks today\n\nEntering the basement flat, we travel down a corridor past several dark rooms and old studio spaces before turning left past a kitchen.\n\nOn the right are old wooden doors that open into the 52-seat cinema, which is clad in embossed wallpaper from the 1930s.\n\nOn the left is a large room with film awards on the wall and through a tiny door on the far side is the projector room, up some narrow steps.\n\n\"Nobody knows we are here, so we are quite a secret cinema,\" says 76-year-old Mr Emm.\n\nThe New Town building was first converted to a cinema shortly after the society was founded in the 1930s.\n\nMr Emm says hardly anyone knows what goes on behind the ordinary looking front door in the residential Fettes Row\n\nThe idea was to show the amateur cine films made by club members at their regular meetings or at various summer outings.\n\nOver the years it built up a library of film footage that has formed a valuable archive of social history in the life of Edinburgh.\n\n\"Sometimes we would all get together to make a club comedy, fiction or travel documentary,\" Mr Emm says.\n\nThe club allowed members to learn film-making skills, including editing and show their finished films.\n\nThe ground floor of 23 Fettes Row, which was entered through the white door, was sold along with a sub-basement below\n\nWhen the society was first formed the club's premises spanned three floors, with a sub-basement being let out to pay for the mortgage.\n\nThe outbreak of World War Two inhibited the club's film-making activities but female members kept the society going, organising fundraising events to help with the mortgage payments.\n\nIt had a resurgence after the war. The club rooms were refurbished and regular meetings were held on Friday nights, with film-making groups at weekends.\n\nIn the 1950s, the old bus seats which were originally used in the cinema were replaced with stock from a local cinema that was closing.\n\nMr Emm says the club \"flourished\" in the 20 years after the war, reaching its maximum permitted membership of 150 - and there was also a waiting list.\n\nThe mortgage was finally paid off in 1959. Three of the five original investors were found but they declined repayment.\n\nMajor renovation works were carried out on the then 150-year-old building when it was designated a listed building in the early 1970s.\n\nThe late Queen Mother unveiling a plaque at the society in the 1970s\n\nFollowing those works, the Queen Mother - who was patron of the conservation committee - unveiled a plaque on the members-only cinema and had a tour of the club rooms.\n\n\"Like many earlier episodes in the society's history this was recorded on film,\" Mr Emm says.\n\nWith a reduced membership, and a need to fund the share of the building works, the ground floor and the sub-basement was sold off, with the club just keeping the basement in-between the two floors - where it created a smaller 52-seat cinema.\n\nThe members did all the work to move the cinema to the basement including joinery and painting work.\n\nThe floors were sold off to pay for roof repairs, leaving the society with just the basement. The cinema had previously been in a room above the basement.\n\nThen in the 1980s came videotape - which proved a threat to cine film.\n\nMany of the members resented and rejected this new format and expressed their feelings strongly.\n\nThey split into two groups with Thursday nights becoming video nights while Friday evenings were kept for the main club activities with cine film.\n\nMr Emm said they now needed new and younger members to join the society\n\nNow with a dwindling membership of only 14 - two of whom are in their 90s - the society is to open its doors next week in a bid to recruit new members.\n\nMr Emm said: \"The current members wouldn't like to be described as old, but they are too old now to keep it going.\n\n\"I think we need some younger members now.\n\n\"We have the knowledge and the technology but we are now lacking the creative element.\n\n\"We need a drama group that can make scripts and we need actors for our films.\"", "BBC News NI takes a look at significant events involving dissident republicans since March 2009.\n\nThe term \"dissident republicans\" describes a range of individuals who do not accept the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 peace deal which ended the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Provisional IRA - the main armed republican paramilitary group for most of the Troubles - declared a ceasefire in the run up to the agreement and officially ended its violent campaign in 2005.\n\nDissident republicanism is made up of various groups which broke away from the Provisional IRA in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, including the Continuity IRA and New IRA.\n\nThe groups are much smaller than the Provisional IRA, although they have access to high-calibre weapons and have used improvised explosive devices and mortars in attacks and attempted attacks.\n\nThey have continued to use violence to attempt to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland in a single state but their activities have been sporadic and often undermined by the security services.\n\nA list containing the details of 10,000 police officers and civilian staff is in the hands of dissident republicans, police confirmed.\n\nThe information was contained in a spreadsheet mistakenly released as part of a PSNI response to a freedom of information request.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne said the data breach was on an industrial scale and included the surnames, initials and ranks of colleagues.\n\nHe said dissident republicans could use the information, part of which appeared in redacted form on a wall in west Belfast, to \"intimidate or target officers and staff\".\n\nYoung hooded men prepare to throw a petrol bomb at police vehicle in Londonderry.\n\nPolice described a petrol bomb attack on officers as \"senseless and reckless\".\n\nThe trouble followed an illegal republican parade in Londonderry and came on the eve of a visit by US President Joe Biden to Belfast.\n\nDCI John Caldwell was also released from hospital in April and in a later interview said children witnessed \"horrors that no child should ever have to\".\n\nThe terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland is increased from substantial to severe, meaning the risk of attack or attacks is now \"highly likely\" instead of \"likely\".\n\nThe move, based on an MI5 intelligence assessment, reverses a downgrade to the threat level in 2022, the first such downgrade in 12 years.\n\nA severe threat level is one step below critical, the highest level of threat.\n\nIt comes after the shooting of Det Ch Insp John Caldwell in February and a bomb attack on police officers in November 2022.\n\nSenior police officer Det Ch Insp John Caldwell was shot at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, on 22 February.\n\nHe was off duty and was putting footballs into the boot of his car after coaching young people when two gunmen approached him and shot him several times.\n\nPolice said the primary focus of their investigation was on violent dissident republicans, including the New IRA.\n\nThe New IRA later claimed responsibility in a typed statement which appeared in Londonderry on Sunday 26 February.\n\nAn attempted murder investigation was launched after a police patrol vehicle was damaged in a bomb attack in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 17 November.\n\nPolice said a strong line of inquiry was that the New IRA was behind the attack.\n\nFour men who were arrested were later released.\n\nA grey Ford Mondeo was hijacked by a number of men before being driven to a police station\n\nOn 20 November a delivery driver was held at gunpoint by a number of men and forced to abandon his car outside Waterside police station in Londonderry.\n\nA suspicious device, which was later described by police as an elaborate hoax, was placed in the vehicle.\n\nCh Supt Nigel Goddard described the attack as \"reckless\" and said detectives believed the New IRA were involved.\n\nOfficers were attacked with petrol bombs following an Easter parade linked to dissident republicans in Derry.\n\nThe police described the attack at the City Cemetery on 18 April as \"premeditated violence\".\n\nThe violence broke out following a parade that had been planned by the National Republican Commemoration Committee, which organises events on behalf of the anti-agreement republican party, Saoradh - a party police say is linked to the New IRA.\n\nA police officer was targeted in this attack in Dungiven\n\nA bomb was left near a police officer's car outside her home on 19 April in County Londonderry in what the police said was an attempt to kill her and her young daughter.\n\nThe explosive was attached to a container of flammable liquid next to her car in Dungiven.\n\nPolice said they linked the attempted murder to the New IRA.\n\nPolice provided this image of the bomb\n\nA bomb was found in the Creggan area of Derry after police searches in the area on 9 September.\n\nThe device was found in a parked car and was described by detectives as in \"an advanced state of readiness\" and was made safe by Army technical officers.\n\nIt contained commercial explosives which could have been triggered by a command wire.\n\nDuring the searches, police were attacked with stones and petrol bombs.\n\nPolice photos show the bomb just metres from the door of a house\n\nA mortar bomb was left near a police station in Church View, Strabane on 7 September.\n\nHomes were evacuated and Army technical officers made the device safe.\n\nPolice said the device had been an attempt to target police officers but that it could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the vicinity.\n\nA 33-year-old man was arrested under terrorism legislation but was released after questioning.\n\nA police officer at the scene of the bomb at Cavan Road, Fermanagh\n\nA bomb exploded near Wattlebridge in County Fermanagh, on 19 August.\n\nPolice said it was an attempt to lure officers to their deaths. Initially, a report received by police suggested a device had been left on the Wattlebridge Road.\n\nPolice believed a hoax device was used to lure police and soldiers into the area in order to catch them by surprise with a real bomb on the Cavan Road.\n\nChief Constable Simon Byrne later blamed the Continuity IRA for the attack.\n\nDissident republicans tried to murder police officers during an attack in Craigavon, County Armagh, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.\n\nA long bang was heard on the Tullygally Road and a \"viable device\" was later found.\n\nPolice said they believed the attack was set up to target officers responding to a call from the public.\n\nThe bomb was discovered at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast\n\nThe \"New IRA\" claimed responsibility for a bomb under a police officer's car at Shandon Park Golf Club in east Belfast.\n\nThe Irish News said the group issued a statement to the newspaper using a recognised codeword.\n\nPolice said they believed \"violent dissident republicans\" were behind the attack.\n\nA journalist is shot dead while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry.\n\nPolice blame the killing of 29-year-old Lyra McKee on dissident republicans.\n\nThe previous week a horizontal mortar tube and command wire were found in Castlewellan, County Down.\n\nThe PSNI said the tube contained no explosive device and it was likely to be collected for use elsewhere\n\nThe device sent to Heathrow Airport caught fire when staff opened it\n\nFive small explosive packages were found at locations across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.\n\nThe letter bombs were sent in the post to Waterloo Station in London, buildings near Heathrow and London City airports and Glasgow University. A further device was found at a post depot in County Limerick.\n\nThe New IRA said it was behind the letter bombs, according to the Irish News.\n\nThe bomb exploded outside Bishop Street Courthouse in Derry\n\nA bomb placed inside a van explodes in the centre of Derry.\n\nThe blast happened on a Saturday night outside Bishop Street Courthouse.\n\nThe PSNI said the attack may have been carried out by the New IRA, adding that a pizza delivery man had a gun held to his head when his van was hijacked for the bombing.\n\nThe bullets and guns exploded after being left in a hot boiler house\n\nA stash of bullets and guns believed to belong to dissident republicans exploded after being left on top of a hot boiler at a house in west Belfast.\n\nResponding to reports of a house fire in Rodney Drive, police and firefighters discovered two AK-47s, two sawn-off shot guns, a high-powered rifle with a silencer and three pipe bombs.\n\nPolice blamed the New IRA and said the weapons were believed to have been used in previous attempts to murder police officers in Belfast in 2015 and 2017.\n\nThe weapons including two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube\n\nPolice said a \"significant amount of dangerous weapons\" were seized during a 12-day search operation in counties Armagh and Tyrone.\n\nThirteen searches took place on land and properties in Lurgan and Benburb from 29 April to 11 May.\n\nThe weapons included two shotguns, four handguns, explosives, ammunition and a suspected mortar tube.\n\nPolice believed the munitions belonged to two dissident republican paramilitary groups - Arm Na Poblachta. (Army of the Republic) and the Continuity IRA.\n\nPetrol bombs and stones were thrown at police vehicles during an illegal dissident republican parade in Derry on 2 April.\n\nAbout 200 people attended the Easter Rising 1916 commemoration parade in the Creggan estate.\n\nA neighbour said Raymond Johnston had been making pancakes for Pancake Tuesday when he was murdered\n\nDissident republicans may have been behind the murder of a man in west Belfast, police said.\n\nRaymond Johnston, 28, was shot dead in front of an 11-year-old girl and his partner at a house in Glenbawn Avenue on 13 February.\n\nPolice said the main line of inquiry was that Mr Johnson was murdered by dissidents.\n\nIn a statement, it said that \"at this time the environment is not conducive to armed conflict\".\n\nThe group said it would \"suspend all armed actions against the British state\" with immediate effect.\n\nIt was responsible for a number of high-profile attacks, including the attempted murder of police officer Peadar Heffron and a bomb attack at Palace barracks in Holywood.\n\nCharges suggested that Ciarán Maxwell first became involved in terrorism in 2011\n\nFormer Royal Marine Ciarán Maxwell pleaded guilty to offences related to dissident republican terrorism, including bomb-making and storing stolen weapons.\n\nThe County Antrim man had compiled a library of terrorism documents, including instructions on how to make explosives and tactics used by terrorist organisations.\n\nHe also had maps, plans and lists of potential targets for a terrorist attack, and a stash of explosives in purpose-built hides in England and Northern Ireland.\n\nHe was jailed for 18 years.\n\nThe bomb exploded as it was being examined by the Army\n\nA bomb exploded outside the home of a serving police officer in Derry on 22 February as Army experts tried to defuse it.\n\nThe device, which police described as more intricate than a pipe bomb, was reportedly discovered under a car in Culmore in the city.\n\nChildren were in the area at the time, police said.\n\nMeanwhile a gun attack on a 16-year-old boy in west Belfast on 16 February was \"child abuse,\" a senior police officer said.\n\nThe attack followed a similar one the previous night, when a man was shot in the legs close to a benefits office on the Falls Road.\n\nThe shooting happened at a petrol station on the Crumlin Road\n\nA police officer is injured in a gun attack at a garage on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast on 22 January.\n\nPolice said automatic gunfire was sprayed across the garage forecourt in a \"crazy\" attack.\n\nThe number of paramilitary-style shootings in west Belfast doubled in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to police figures.\n\nOn 15 January, police said a bomb discovered during a security operation in Poleglass, west Belfast, was \"designed to kill or seriously injure police officers\".\n\nA 45-year-old mechanic caught at a bomb-making factory on a farm was told he would spend 11 years behind bars.\n\nBarry Petticrew was arrested in October 2014 after undercover police surveillance on farm buildings near Kinawley, County Fermanagh.\n\nPolice found pipes, timer units, ammunition and high grade explosives in the buildings.\n\nExplosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered by Irish police\n\nOn 6 December, a 25-year-old dissident republican was jailed in Dublin for five years.\n\nDonal Ó Coisdealbha from Killester, north Dublin was arrested on explosive charges in the run-up to the visit of Prince Charles to Ireland in 2015.\n\nHe was arrested during a Garda (Irish police) operation when explosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex were discovered.\n\nFollowing the sentencing, police released a photo of the heavily bloodstained scene of the shooting\n\nA man who admitted taking part in a paramilitary shooting in Belfast was sentenced to five years in jail and a further five years on licence.\n\nPatrick Joseph O'Neill, of no fixed address, was one of three masked men who forced their way into the victim's home in Ardoyne in November 2010.\n\nThe man was shot several times in the legs and groin in front of his mother, who fought back with kitchen knives.\n\nThe dissident republican group Óglaigh na hÉireann claimed responsibility for the shooting shortly after it took place.\n\nJoe Reilly was shot dead in a house at Glenwood Court\n\nWest Belfast man Joe Reilly, 43, was shot dead in his Glenwood Court, Poleglass home on 20 October.\n\nIt is understood a second man who was in the house was tied up by the gang.\n\nThe shooting was the second in the small estate in less than a week - the other victim was shot in the leg.\n\nPolice later said they believed the the murder was carried out by a paramilitary organisation and there may have been a drugs link.\n\nDissident republicans formed a new political party called Saoradh - the Irish word for liberation.\n\nSeveral high-profile dissidents from both sides of the border were among about 150 people at its first conference in Newry.\n\nThe discovery of arms in a County Antrim forest on 17 May was one of the most significant in recent years, police said.\n\nA \"terrorist hide\" was uncovered at Capanagh Forest near Larne after two members of the public found suspicious objects in the woods on Saturday.\n\nSome of the items found included an armour-piercing improvised rocket and two anti-personnel mines.\n\nThe threat level from Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Great Britain was raised from moderate to substantial.\n\nTwo Claymore mines were among the arms found in Capanagh Forest\n\nA man died after being shot three times in the leg in an alleyway at Butler Place, north Belfast, on15 April.\n\nMichael McGibbon, 33, was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he later died.\n\nPolice said Mr McGibbon contacted them to say two masked men had arrived at his house on the evening of 14 April.\n\nThe men asked him to come out of the house but he refused and the men told him they would come back.\n\nThe shooting took place in an alleyway at Butler Place in north Belfast\n\nPolice said his killing carried the hallmarks of a paramilitary murder.\n\nAdrian Ismay was the 32nd prison staff member to be murdered in Northern Ireland because of his job\n\nA murder investigation was launched after the death of prison officer Adrian Ismay, 11 days after he was injured in a booby-trap bomb attack in east Belfast.\n\nThe device exploded under the 52-year-old officer's van as he drove over a speed ramp in Hillsborough Drive on 4 March.\n\nDays later, the New IRA said it carried out the attack.\n\nMr Ismay was thought to have been making a good recovery from his injuries, but was rushed back to hospital on 15 March, where he died.\n\nA post-mortem examination found his death was as a \"direct result of the injuries\" he sustained in the bomb.\n\nDissident republicans were dealt \"a significant blow\" by a weapons and explosives find in the Republic of Ireland, the gardaí (Irish police) said.\n\nThe weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, mortars, detonators and other bomb parts, were discovered in County Monaghan, close to the border with Rosslea in County Fermanagh, on 1 December.\n\nOn 15 December, a further arms find, described as a \"significant cache\" by Irish broadcaster RTÉ, was made in County Louth.\n\nA number of shots hit the passenger window of a police car in an attack in west Belfast\n\nA gun attack on police officers in west Belfast on 26 November, in which up to eight shots were fired, was treated as attempted murder.\n\nA number of shots struck the passenger side of a police car parked at Rossnareen Avenue.\n\nTwo officers who were in the car were not injured but were said to have been badly shaken.\n\nSupt Mark McEwan said that from September 2014 there had been 15 bomb incidents in the Derry City and Strabane District council area.\n\nThey included seven attacks on the police.\n\nOn 10 October, a bomb was found in the grounds of a Derry hotel ahead of a police recruitment event.\n\nThe police recruitment event was cancelled. Two other police recruitment events in Belfast and Omagh went ahead despite bomb alerts at the planned venues.\n\nOn 16 October police said a \"military-style hand grenade\" was thrown at a patrol in Belfast as officers responded to reports of anti-social behaviour.\n\nPolice say the device, which failed to explode, was thrown at officers near Pottingers Quay.\n\nDissident republicans were suspected of being responsible for the attack.\n\nPolice found a mortar bomb during an alert in Strabane\n\nPolice said a mortar bomb found in a graveyard in Strabane, County Tyrone, on 1 August was an attempt to kill officers.\n\nThe device was positioned where it could be used to attack passing PSNI patrols, police said.\n\nA bomb was found under a police officer's car in Eglinton, near Derry, on 18 June.\n\nPolice said the attack was a \"clear attempt to murder police officers\".\n\nPSNI district commander Mark McEwan said the wife of the officer was also a member of the PSNI.\n\nTwo bombs found close to an Army Reserve centre in Derry were left about 20m from nearby homes.\n\nThe devices were left at the perimeter fence of the Caw Camp Army base and were discovered at 11:00 BST on 4 May.\n\nAbout 15 homes in Caw Park and Rockport Park were evacuated during the security operation.\n\nPolice said a bomb left at Brompton Park in north Belfast was designed to kill officers\n\nA device found in north Belfast on 1 May was a substantial bomb targeting police officers, the PSNI said.\n\nA controlled explosion was carried out on the device at the Crumlin Road junction with Brompton Park.\n\nThe PSNI blamed dissident republicans for the bomb and said it could have caused \"carnage\".\n\nOn 28 April, a bomb exploded outside a probation office in Crawford Square, Derry.\n\nPolice said they were given an \"inadequate\" warning before the device went off.\n\nA bomb was found during a search of the Curryneiran estate in Derry\n\nA bomb is found was found during a security alert in the Curryneiran estate in Derry on 17 February.\n\nPolice said they believe the bomb was intended to kill officers and that those who had left it showed a \"callous disregard for the safety of the community and police officers\".\n\nMeanwhile at least 40 dissident republican prisoners were involved in an incident at Maghaberry Prison on 2 February.\n\nPrison management withdrew staff from the landings in Roe House housing dissidents.\n\nA protest, involving about 200 people, took place outside the prison in support of the republican prisoners.\n\nOn 8 January, the head of MI5 says most dissident republican attacks in Northern Ireland in 2014 were foiled.\n\nAndrew Parker said of more than 20 such attacks, most were unsuccessful and that up to four times that amount had been prevented.\n\nHe made the remarks during a speech in which he gave a stark warning of the dangers UK was facing from terrorism.\n\nHe said it was \"unrealistic to expect every attack plan to be stopped\".\n\nDissident republicans are believed to have used a home-made rocket launcher in an attack on a police Land Rover at Twaddell Avenue in north Belfast on 16 November .\n\nIt struck the Land Rover and caused some damage, but no-one was injured.\n\nPolice described the attack as a \"cold, calculated attempt to kill police officers\".\n\nMeanwhile gardaí described the seizure of guns and bomb-making material during searches in Dublin on 15 November as a \"major setback\" for dissident republicans.\n\nAn AK-47 rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and a number of semi-automatic pistols were found in searches in the Ballymun, East Wall and Cloughran areas of Dublin.\n\nThe Irish Army carried out a controlled explosion at one search location where bomb components were discovered.\n\nA device that hit a police vehicle in Derry on 2 November was understood to have been a mortar, fired by command wire.\n\nDissident republicans were responsible for the attack, police said.\n\nPolice foiled an attempted bomb attack in Strabane's Ballycolman estate on 23 October.\n\nOfficers were lured to Ballycolman estate on 23 October to investigate reports of a bomb thrown at a police patrol vehicle the previous night.\n\nThe alert was a hoax but then a real bomb, packed with nails, was discovered in the garden of a nearby house.\n\nDissident republicans claimed responsibility for a device that partially exploded outside an Orange hall in County Armagh on 29 September.\n\nIn a phone call to the Irish News, a group calling itself The Irish Volunteers admitted it placed the device at Carnagh Orange hall in Keady.\n\nOn 16 June, police investigating dissident republican activity said they recovered two suspected pipe bombs in County Tyrone.\n\nOn the night of 29 May, a masked man threw what police have described as a \"firebomb\" into the reception area of the Everglades Hotel, in the Prehen area of Derry.\n\nThe hotel was evacuated and the device exploded a short time later when Army bomb experts were working to make it safe.\n\nNo-one was injured in the explosion but the reception was extensively damaged.\n\nThe man who took the bomb into the hotel said he was from the IRA.\n\nA prominent dissident republican was shot dead in west Belfast on 18 April.\n\nTommy Crossan was shot a number of times at a fuel depot off the Springfield Road.\n\nMr Crossan, 43, was once a senior figure in the Continuity IRA.\n\nIt was believed he had been expelled from the group some years ago after falling out with other dissidents.\n\nPolice said a bomb found at a County Tyrone golf course had the capability to kill or cause serious injury.\n\nBomb disposal experts made the device safe after it was discovered at Strabane Golf Club on 31 March.\n\nA Belfast man with known dissident republican links died on 28 March a week after he was shot in a Dublin gun attack.\n\nDeclan Smith, 32, was shot in the face by a lone gunman as he dropped his child at a crèche on Holywell Avenue, Donaghmede.\n\nHe was wanted by police in Northern Ireland for questioning about the murder of two men in Belfast in 2007.\n\nOn the night of 14 March, dissidents use a command wire to fire a mortar at a police Land Rover on the Falls Road in west Belfast.\n\nThe device hit the Land Rover, but police said it caused minimal damage.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack.\n\nThe dissident group calling itself the New IRA said it carried out the attack and claimed the mortar used contained the military explosive Semtex and a commercial detonator.\n\nSeven letter bombs delivered to army careers offices in England bore \"the hallmarks of Northern Ireland-related terrorism\", Downing Street said.\n\nThe packages were sent to offices in Oxford, Slough, Kent, Brighton, Hampshire and Berkshire.\n\nOn 13 December, a bomb in a sports bag exploded in Belfast's busy Cathedral Quarter.\n\nAbout 1,000 people were affected by the alert, including people out for Christmas dinners, pub-goers and children out to watch Christmas pantos.\n\nA telephone warning was made to a newspaper, but police said the bomb exploded about 150 metres away as the area was being cleared.\n\nDissident republican group, Óglaigh na hÉireann, said it was were responsible.\n\nOn 5 December, two police vehicles were struck 10 times by gunfire from assault rifles while travelling along the Crumlin Road in north Belfast.\n\nA bomb, containing 60kgs (132lbs) of home-made explosives, partially exploded inside a car in Belfast city centre on 24 November.\n\nA masked gang hijacked the car, placed a bomb on board and ordered the driver to take it to a shopping centre.\n\nIt exploded as Army bomb experts prepared to examine the car left at the entrance to Victoria Square car park.\n\nOn 21 November, a bus driver was ordered to drive to a police station in Derry with a bomb on board.\n\nThe bus driver drove a short distance to Northland Road, got her passengers off the bus and called the police.\n\nA former police officer is the target of an under-car booby-trap bomb off the King's Road in east Belfast.\n\nThe man spotted the device when he checked under his vehicle at Kingsway Park, near Tullycarnet estate on 8 November.\n\nThe man was about to take his 12-year-old daughter to school.\n\nDissidents are blamed for a number of letter bomb attacks at the end of the month.\n\nA package addressed to the Northern Ireland secretary was made safe at Stormont Castle, two letter bombs addressed to senior police officers were intercepted at postal sorting offices, and a similar device was sent to the offices of the Public Prosecution Service in Derry.\n\nTwo police officers escaped injury after two pipe bombs are thrown at them in north Belfast.\n\nThe officers were responding to an emergency 999 call in Ballysillan in the early hours of 28 May.\n\nPolice were fired on in the Foxes Glen area of west Belfast\n\nThey had just got out of their vehicle on the Upper Crumlin Road when the devices were thrown. They took cover as the bombs exploded.\n\nPolice escaped injury after a bomb in a bin exploded on the Levin Road in Lurgan in County Armagh on 30 March.\n\nOfficers were investigating reports of an illegal parade when the device went off near a primary school.\n\nPetrol bombs were thrown at police during follow-up searches in the Kilwilkie area.\n\nPolice say a bomb meant to kill or injure officers on the outskirts of Belfast on 9 March may have been detonated by mobile telephone.\n\nOfficers were responding to a call on Duncrue pathway near the M5 motorway when the bomb partially exploded.\n\nOn 4 March, four live mortar bombs which police said were \"primed and ready to go\" were intercepted in a van in Derry.\n\nThe van had its roof cut back to allow the mortars to be fired. Police say they believed the target was a police station.\n\nIt is the first time dissidents had attempted this type of mortar attack.\n\nAn off-duty policeman found a bomb attached to the underside of his car on the Upper Newtownards Road in east Belfast.\n\nA bomb was found under a police officer's car in east Belfast\n\nThe officer found the device during a routine check of his family car on 30 December, as he prepared to take his wife and two children out to lunch.\n\nAn Irish newspaper reported that a paramilitary plot to murder a British soldier as he returned to the Republic of Ireland on home leave had been foiled by Irish police.\n\nThe Irish Independent said the Continuity IRA planned to shoot the soldier when he returned to County Limerick for his Christmas holidays.\n\nOn the first day of the month, a prison officer was shot and killed on the M1 in County Armagh as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison, Northern Ireland's high security jail.\n\nMr Black was shot as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison\n\nDavid Black, 52-year-old father of two, was the first prison officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland in almost 20 years.\n\nOn 12 November, a paramilitary group calling itself \"the IRA\" claimed responsibility for the murder.\n\nThe following day, a bomb was found close to a primary school in west Belfast.\n\nPolice said the device \"could have been an under-car booby trap designed to kill and maim\".\n\nSecurity forces were the target of two bombs left in Derry on 20 September.\n\nA pipe bomb and booby trap bomb on a timer were both made safe by the Army.\n\nThe pipe bomb was left in a holdall at Derry City Council's office grounds and the booby trap attached to a bicycle chained to railings on a walkway at the back of the offices.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for leaving the bombs.\n\nOn 26 July, some dissident republican paramilitary groups issued a statement saying they were to come together under the banner of \"the IRA\".\n\nThe Guardian newspaper said the Real IRA had been joined by Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) and a coalition of independent armed republican groups and individuals.\n\nA gunman fired towards police lines from within a crowd gathered at Brompton Park in Ardoyne on 12 July.\n\nRepublican Action Against Drugs said it was behind a bomb attack on a police vehicle in Derry on 2 June.\n\nThe front of the jeep was badly damaged in what is understood to have been a pipe bomb attack in Creggan. The police described the attack as attempted murder.\n\nA pipe bomb was left under a car belonging to the elderly parents of a police officer in Derry on 15 April.\n\nA number of homes were evacuated while Army bomb experts dealt with the device at Drumleck Drive in Shantallow.\n\nA 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line in Newry\n\nA fully primed 600lb bomb was found in a van on the Fathom Line near Newry on 26 April and made safe the following day.\n\nA senior police officer said those who left it had a \"destructive, murderous intent\".\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Alastair Finlay said it was as \"big a device as we have seen for a long time\".\n\nOn 30 March two men were convicted of murdering police officer Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon in March 2009.\n\nTwo men were convicted of murdering Constable Stephen Carroll in Craigavon\n\nThe 48-year-old officer was shot dead after he and colleagues responded to a 999 call.\n\nConvicted of the murder were Brendan McConville, 40, of Glenholme Avenue, Craigavon, and John Paul Wootton, 20, of Collindale, Lurgan.\n\nDerry man Andrew Allen was shot dead in Buncrana, County Donegal, on 9 February.\n\nThe 24-year-old father of two was shot at a house in Links View Park, Lisfannon.\n\nRepublican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) later admitted it murdered Mr Allen who had been forced to leave his home city the previous year.\n\nStrabane man Martin Kelly was jailed for life by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on 24 January for the murder of a man in County Donegal.\n\nAndrew Burns, 27, from Strabane, was shot twice in the back in February 2008 in a church car park.\n\nThe murder was linked to the dissident republican group, Oglaigh na hEireann. Kelly, from Barrack Steet, was also sentenced to eight years in prison for possession of a firearm.\n\nOn 20 January, Brian Shivers was convicted of the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene Barracks in March 2009.\n\nPolice in Derry believed dissident republicans were responsible for two bomb attacks on 19 January.\n\nThe bombs exploded at the tourist centre on Foyle Street and on Strand Road, close to the DHSS office, within 10 minutes of each other.\n\nHomes and businesses in the city were evacuated and no-one was injured.\n\nA bomb was left in the soldier's car in north Belfast\n\nA Scottish soldier found a bomb inside his car outside his girlfriend's house in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast.\n\nIt is understood the device contained a trip wire attached to the seat belt.\n\nPolice say if the bomb had gone off the soldier, and others in the vicinity, could have been killed. Dissidents admitted they carried out the attack.\n\nA bomb outside the City of Culture offices was blamed on dissidents\n\nA bomb exploded outside the City of Culture offices in Derry on 12 October.\n\nSecurity sources said the attack had all the hallmarks of dissident republicans, who damaged a door of the same building with a pipe bomb in January.\n\nThe Real IRA was blamed for two bomb attacks near Claudy, County Londonderry on 14 September.\n\nOne of the bombs exploded outside the family home of a Catholic police officer. No-one was in the house at the time.\n\nThe other device was made safe at the home of a retired doctor who works for the police.\n\nTwo masked men threw a holdall containing a bomb into a Santander bank branch in Derry's Diamond just after midday on Saturday 21 May.\n\nPolice cleared the area and the bomb exploded an hour later. No-one was injured.\n\nHowever, significant damage was caused inside the building.\n\nThe grenade was thrown at officers during a security alert\n\nA grenade was thrown at police officers during a security alert at Southway in Derry on 9 May.\n\nThe device, which was described as \"viable\", failed to explode.\n\nTwo children were talking to the officers when the grenade was thrown.\n\nThe mother of one of them said he could have been killed and whoever threw the grenade must have seen the children.\n\nThe Real IRA, threatened to kill more police officers and declared its opposition to Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to the Republic of Ireland.\n\nA statement was read out by a masked man at a rally organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in Derry on Easter Monday, 25 April.\n\nA 500lb bomb was left in a van at an underpass on the main Belfast to Dublin road in Newry.\n\nConstable Ronan Kerr was killed after a bomb exploded under his car outside his home in Omagh on 2 April.\n\nNo group claimed responsibility for the attack but dissident republicans were blamed.\n\nThe 25-year-old had joined the police in May 2010 and had been working in the community for five months.\n\nForensic experts at the scene of Derry courthouse bomb\n\nThe PSNI described a bomb left near Bishop Street Courthouse as a \"substantial viable device\".\n\nDistrict commander Stephen Martin said a beer keg, left in a stolen car, contained around 50kg of home-made explosives.\n\nA number of shots were fired at police officers at Glen Road in Derry on the night of 2 March.\n\nPolice said it was an attempt to kill.\n\nA policeman found an unexploded grenade outside his home in County Fermanagh.\n\nThe device was discovered at the property in Drumreer Road, Maguiresbridge, on 23 December.\n\nA grenade was found outside a police officer's home in County Fermanagh\n\nIn the Republic, three men from Northern Ireland were jailed for IRA membership on 15 December.\n\nGerard McGarrigle, 46, from Mount Carmel Heights in Strabane was sentenced to five years in prison.\n\nDesmond Donnelly, 58, from Drumall, Lisnarick, Fermanagh and Jim Murphy, 63, from Floraville in Enniskillen, were given three years and nine months.\n\nThey were arrested in Letterkenny in February after Irish police received a tip-off that dissident republicans were about to carry out a 'tiger' kidnapping\n\nA military hand grenade was used to attack police officers called to a robbery at Shaw's Road in west Belfast on 5 November.\n\nThree police officers were hurt and one of them suffered serious arm injuries when the grenade was thrown by a cyclist.\n\nThe dissident paramilitary group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) said it was responsible for the attack.\n\nThe Ulster Bank on Culmore Road was damaged in a car bomb attack in Derry\n\nA car bomb exploded close to the Ulster Bank, shops and a hotel on Derry's Culmore Road on 4 October.\n\nThe area had been cleared when the bomb exploded, but the blast was so strong that a police officer who was standing close to the cordon was knocked off his feet.\n\nLurgan man Paul McCaugherty was jailed for 20 years for a dissident republican gun smuggling plot that was uncovered after an MI5 sting operation.\n\nMcCaugherty was found guilty of attempting to import weapons and explosives.\n\nDermot Declan Gregory from Crossmaglen, was found guilty of making a Portuguese property available for the purpose of terrorism. He was sentenced to four years.\n\nThree children suffered minor injuries when a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan's North Street on 14 August.\n\nThe bomb went off at a junction where police would have been expected to put up a cordon around the school. The explosion injured the children after it blew a hole in a metal fence.\n\nThree children were hurt after a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan\n\nA booby trap partially exploded under the car of a former policeman in Cookstown, County Tyrone, on 10 August.\n\nThe man was unhurt in the attak.\n\nA bomb was found under the car of a Catholic policewoman in Kilkeel in County Down on 8 August.\n\nIt is believed the device fell off the car before being spotted by the officer.\n\nA booby-trap bomb was found in the driveway of a soldier's house in Bangor\n\nOn 4 August, booby trap bomb was found under a soldier's car in Bangor.\n\nIt then fell off and he discovered it as he was about to leave his home.\n\nA car that exploded outside a police station in Derry contained 200lb of homemade explosives.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack, which happened on 3 August, but several businesses were badly damaged in the blast.\n\nA bomb exploded between Belleeks and Cullyhanna in south Armagh, blowing a crater in the road and damaging a stone bridge on 10 July.\n\nPolice viewed it as an attempt to lure them into the area in order to carry out a follow-up ambush.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for organising two nights of sustained rioting in the Broadway and Bog Meadows areas of west Belfast on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July.\n\nLater rioting on 11, 12, 13 and 14 July in south and north Belfast, Lurgan and Derry is also believed to have involved dissidents.\n\nDissidents were believed to have organised riots in Belfast\n\nScores of police officers were injured during the violence, which featured gun attacks, petrol bombs and other missiles being thrown.\n\nShots were fired at Crossmaglen PSNI station on 2 July.\n\nDissident republicans said they were behind two similar attacks in December and January.\n\nA car bomb exploded outside Newtownhamilton Police Station in County Armagh, injuring two people.\n\nPeople also reported hearing gunshots before the blast.\n\nThere were five pipe bomb attacks on houses in the west of Northern Ireland in a week - two of them claimed by a group calling itself Republican Action Against Drugs.\n\nA car bomb was defused outside Newtownhamilton police station in south Armagh on Tuesday 13 April.\n\nA bomb in a hijacked taxi exploded outside Palace Barracks in Holywood, on Monday 12 April - the day policing and justice powers were transferred to Northern Ireland.\n\nThe barracks is home to MI5's headquarters in Northern Ireland.\n\nPolice said a car bomb left outside Crossmaglen on Easter Saturday night could have killed or seriously injured anyone in the area.\n\nThe bomb - made up of a number of flammable containers - was made safe by Army experts.\n\nKieran Doherty was murdered by the Real IRA\n\nThe naked and bound body of 31-year-old Kieran Doherty was found close to the Irish border near Derry on 24 February.\n\nThe Real IRA said it killed Mr Doherty who, it claimed, was one of its members.\n\nTwo days earlier a bomb damaged the gates of Newry courthouse in County Down.\n\nOfficers were evacuating the area when the bomb went off. Police said it was a miracle no-one was killed.\n\nA 33-year-old Catholic police officer was seriously injured in a dissident republican car bomb about a mile from his home in Randalstown in County Antrim.\n\nOn the last day of the month the Real IRA opened fire on a police station in County Armagh.\n\nNo-one was injured in the attack in Bessbrook.\n\nDissident republicans were blamed for leaving a car containing a 400lb (181kg) bomb outside the Policing Board's headquarters in Belfast.\n\nThe car, which had been driven through a barrier by two men who then ran off, burst into flames when the device partially exploded.\n\nOn the same night, shots were fired during an undercover police operation in the County Fermanagh village of Garrison, in what police described as an attempt to kill a trainee PSNI officer.\n\nOne of Northern Ireland's top judges moved out of his Belfast home over fears of a dissident republican threat against him.\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party politician Ian Paisley junior said police had warned him that dissident republicans were planning to murder him.\n\nMr Paisley, who was then a member of the Policing Board, said officers contacted him to inform him of the foiled attack.\n\nA police officer's partner was injured when a bomb exploded under her car in east Belfast.\n\nThe 38-year-old was reversing the vehicle out of the driveway of a house when the device exploded.\n\nIn the same month a bomb exploded inside a Territorial Army base in north Belfast.\n\nThe police confirmed that \"some blast damage\" had occurred inside the base off the Antrim Road and shrapnel from the overnight explosion was found in neighbouring streets.\n\nThe PSNI said a 600lb (272kg) bomb left near the Irish border in south Armagh was intended to kill its officers.\n\nThe bomb was defused by the Army near the village of Forkhill.\n\nDays later the Real IRA claimed responsibility for placing two explosive devices near the homes of a policeman's relatives in Derry.\n\nThe first device exploded outside his parents' home while a second device, which was found outside his sister's home, was taken away for examination by the Army.\n\nConor Murphy, then a Sinn Féin MP and minister in Northern Ireland's devolved administration, blamed dissident republicans for an arson attack on his home in south Armagh.\n\nDissident republicans were suspected of involvement in a petrol bomb attack on the Derry home of senior Sinn Féin member Mitchel McLaughlin.\n\nNorthern Ireland's then Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said dissident republicans had threatened to kill him.\n\nSappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey died in the attack\n\nTwo young soldiers were shot dead as they collected pizzas outside Massereene Barracks in County Antrim.\n\nSappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey were killed just hours before they were due to be deployed to Afghanistan.\n\nThe Real IRA was blamed for the attack.\n\nWithin 48 hours policeman Stephen Carroll was shot dead in Craigavon, County Armagh, becoming the first police officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland since 1998.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'My home will never be the same again'\n\nA year since Russia invaded Ukraine, life looks very different for the thousands of young Ukrainians who left their homes to seek safety in the UK.\n\nMany of those who travelled ended up in London, which already has a large Ukrainian community.\n\nTwelve months on, the war continues and they still don't know when they will be back.\n\n\"It's not my home, not my country, but I'm making a new life here,\" says 23-year-old Nikita Vikhorev.\n\nNikita Vikhorev, Yuliia Kuznetsova, Arina Koroletska, Oleksandra Shuliatieva and Andrii Barannik (l-r) all left their homes in Ukraine after Russia's invasion\n\n\"Sometimes I can't believe that I'm living in London, I can visit Westminster or I can go to Kings Cross and see the Platform 9 ¾,\" he smiles, referring to the fictional part of the railway station from the Harry Potter series.\n\nUnlike most Ukrainian men, Nikita was able to leave the country and avoid being conscripted due to the efforts of the London Performing Academy of Music (LPMAM).\n\nAfter war began the academy worked hard to bring over 50 Ukrainian music students to safety and offered bursaries, enabling them to continue their studies.\n\nMale students like Nikita and singer and guitarist Andrii Barannik were provided with legal letters by LPMAM requesting military exemption.\n\nWithout these, they would have been banned from leaving Ukraine and likely called up to fight on the front line.\n\nNikita is a talented violinist, originally from the city of Odessa\n\n\"My dad said to me you can go to the army or you can go to the UK,\" Andrii explains.\n\nThe 21-year-old's father is a soldier fighting in Ukraine and his mother and sister are still there too, in their hometown of Kharkiv, close to the border with Russia.\n\nHe says he decided to move to \"try to continue our culture\", but adds \"it was a hard decision\" to make.\n\n\"At night, I lie on my bed and think about young guys, they're fighting on the front,\" he says, covering his face with his hands at the thought.\n\nAndrii's family are back in Kharkiv, close to the border with Russia\n\nNikita also worries about what has happened to the people he knew back home. One of his friends who is fighting in Ukraine was taken prisoner in Mariupol last March.\n\n\"We don't know where he is, we have no information, he is a prisoner of Russians and I know absolutely nothing,\" he says.\n\nHow does he feel then, about being here in London instead of on the battlefield?\n\n\"I know I can't fight, so my violin is my weapon,\" he explains.\n\n\"My mission is to use my music to help people to care about Ukraine.\"\n\nNikita was able to continue his studies in London\n\nAnother refugee who is interested in spreading Ukrainian culture is 20-year-old Arina Koroletska.\n\nShe is currently living in temporary accommodation with her mother and sister, who she left Ukraine with.\n\nA singer, Arina is continuing her studies in music and has found opportunities to perform through a Ukrainian social club in Twickenham.\n\nThe club was first set up in Prosperity, a Ukrainian restaurant in the area, and has since expanded and moved into a local church hall where it hosts classes and activities for all ages.\n\nThe group meets every Friday afternoon and Arina leads the choir there, singing British and Ukrainian songs.\n\nArina (third from right) leads the choir at the social club set up for Ukrainian refugees in the Twickenham area\n\n\"I'm very happy here\", she says, \"we perform, we try to show English people our culture.\"\n\nSeventeen-year-old Oleksandra Shuliatieva also attends and takes part in traditional Ukrainian folk dance. She says it has helped her to make friends and find new opportunities.\n\n\"I want to be a dancer,\" she says. \"We do lots of performances, meet lots of people, try to give a good mood.\"\n\nOleksandra is from Horenka, a small village close to Kyiv. She's been told 70% of the buildings there have been destroyed.\n\n\"When I saw this, I felt horrible… This is my home and I don't want to leave it.\"\n\nOleksandra has made new friends in London, and has been pursuing her studies as well as finding a job\n\nShe has relatives in the military, and says she's \"so proud\" of her uncle and cousin who are \"protecting the country\".\n\nBut she misses her dad, who remained in Ukraine and she considers to be her \"best friend\".\n\nSpeaking about how things have changed since February 2022, she says she's staying positive and embracing her new life in the UK capital.\n\n\"I've found new friends, a job, a city that's not like my home, but it's OK to stay for now,\" she says.\n\nOleksandra is from Horenka, a village near Kyiv which has been heavily bombarded\n\nFor Yuliia Kuznetsova, settling into a new life in London has been \"not difficult, but different\".\n\nThe 25-year-old was living in Lviv with her husband and had a job she loved, when war broke out.\n\n\"Life as we knew it ended on 24 February, it's never going to be the same,\" she says.\n\nShe has been living with a sponsor since she arrived in the UK last April, and is planning to move into her own place.\n\n\"I do miss home, but at the same time I have to remember that the home I miss doesn't exist anymore,\" she adds.\n\nYuliia came to the UK on the Homes for Ukraine scheme\n\nWhen the war first broke out Yuliia says she didn't want to leave, despite the anxiety caused by constant air raid sirens and time spent in bomb shelters during the first month of the war.\n\nBut her family decided that one person should \"go abroad, to a safer place, and try to settle down\", to continue the family line.\n\nMeanwhile her mother remained in Ukraine, and her father and husband are fighting on the front line.\n\nDespite everything they've had to leave behind, this group are full of hopes for the future.\n\nThe musicians want to continue to share their culture, and alongside dancing, Oleksandra says she has dreams of starting a Ukrainian restaurant.\n\n\"If you do the restaurant I will come all the time and play the music,\" Andrii tells her, before adding: \"And eat a lot of borscht!\"\n\nWatch the full interview on BBC Three's The Catch Up.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUN head António Guterres has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an \"affront\" to the world's collective conscience at a meeting of the General Assembly nearly one year on.\n\nThe meeting was debating a motion backed by Ukraine and its allies demanding Russia pull out immediately and unconditionally.\n\nUkraine hopes that by supporting the motion countries will show solidarity.\n\nThe Kremlin has accused the West of wanting to defeat Russia at any cost.\n\nVasily Nebenzya, the Kremlin's ambassador to the UN, said the US and its allies were prepared to plunge the entire world into war.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin sent up to 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine on 24 February 2022 in the biggest European invasion since the end of World War Two.\n\nThe devastating war that ensued has left at least 7,199 civilians dead and thousands of others injured, according to a UN estimate, but that number is likely to be much higher.\n\nThe mayor of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, where mass executions are alleged to have taken place, estimated in April that 21,000 people had died there alone.\n\nRussia and Ukraine have each seen at least 100,000 of their soldiers killed or injured, according to the US military.\n\nMore than 13 million people were made refugees abroad or displaced inside Ukraine.\n\nMr Putin's claim that his operation was needed to \"demilitarise and denazify\" Ukraine, a country with historic ties to Russia, was dismissed by Ukraine and its allies as a ruse for an unprovoked attack.\n\n\"That invasion is an affront to our collective conscience,\" Mr Guterres told the General Assembly. \"It is a violation of the United Nations Charter and international law.\"\n\nThe possible consequences of a \"spiralling conflict\" were, he said, a \"clear and present danger\".\n\nMr Guterres said the war was \"fanning regional instability and fuelling global tensions and divisions, while diverting attention and resources from other crises and pressing global issues\".\n\nThere had, he said, been \"implicit threats to use nuclear weapons\".\n\n\"It is high time to step back from the brink,\" he said.\n\n\"Complacency will only deepen the crisis, while further eroding our shared principles proclaimed in the Charter. War is not the solution. War is the problem. People in Ukraine are suffering enormously. Ukrainians, Russians and people far beyond need peace.\"\n\nSixty countries have sponsored the resolution, which stresses \"the need to reach, as soon as possible, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in line with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.\"\n\nThe UN is likely to approve the resolution, which is not legally binding but carries political weight. However, it is unlikely that the vote will have much influence on Russia's actions in Ukraine.\n\nVoting will take place later on Thursday, the eve of the invasion's first anniversary.\n\nOver the past year, the General Assembly has voted on similar resolutions opposing Russia's invasion. In October 143 member states voted to condemn Moscow's illegal annexation of parts of Ukraine. Russia, Belarus, Syria, and North Korea opposed the motion, while India and China were among the 35 states that abstained.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Battle for the city of Bakhmut intensifies\n\nMr Guterres was speaking after Russia's President Vladimir Putin gave a speech blaming the West for the war.\n\nIn his address to the nation on Tuesday, Mr Putin also announced Russia's decision to suspend a key nuclear arms treaty after US President Joe Biden, fresh from a surprise visit to Kyiv, praised Western democracy for standing up to Russian aggression.\n\nMr Biden has called the decision to suspend the treaty, designed by the US and Russia in 2010 to prevent nuclear war, a big mistake.\n\nOn Wednesday, Mr Putin met China's top foreign policy official, Wang Yi, in Moscow and said co-operation with Beijing was \"very important to stabilise the international situation\". The visit marked an end to China's claim to neutrality regarding the war in Ukraine.\n\nA family collecting scrap metal this month outside ruined flats in Izyum, Ukraine", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Labour will give Britain its future back if it wins power, says Starmer\n\nSir Keir Starmer has outlined the five \"missions\" he will put at the centre of his party's offer to voters at the next election, in a speech in Manchester.\n\nHe vowed to make the UK the fastest-growing major economy by the end of a first Labour term in government.\n\nMaking the country a \"clean energy superpower\" and cutting health inequalities will be other key priorities if the party wins power.\n\nThe Labour leader claimed his plan would give Britain \"its future back\".\n\nThe speech was an attempt by Sir Keir to convince voters Labour are a viable alternative government.\n\nIt was light on policy details - these are promised later in the year.\n\nBut it was striking that the Labour leader spoke about a \"decade of renewal\", hinting that he was already looking to a second term in government.\n\nPressed about this by journalists, he said he wanted to be \"humble\" and not take victory for granted, but the problems he had identified could not be fixed within five years.\n\nLabour has a lead of around 20% over the Conservatives in opinion polls, suggesting the party is on course to win the general election which is likely to be held next year.\n\nThe five missions, which Sir Keir said would form \"the backbone of the Labour manifesto and the pillars of the next Labour government\", include:\n\nThe Labour leader's next speech, expected on Monday, will cover the economy and include what is described as a \"round table\" with some business leaders.\n\nHe confirmed he would back the hike in corporation tax - from 19% to 25% - coming in April, adding that businesses were more concerned about a lack of stability than the tax rise.\n\nCritics on the left of Sir Keir's own party and within the Conservatives point out how he has shifted a long way in just a few years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Starmer and Sunak have both outlined five priorities\n\nHe has junked a lot of left-wing policies that got him elected as Labour leader and is now embracing language it is possible to imagine Tony Blair using.\n\nStrategically, that may be sensible to try to woo former Conservative voters, but it leaves him vulnerable to people suggesting it is unclear what he really believes and stands for.\n\nAddressing his audience on Thursday morning, Sir Keir said his \"mission-driven government\" would \"restore our ambition, raise our sights above the quick fixes, the pandering to the noisy crowd, the short-termism that will only ever provide the sticking plaster\".\n\nHe argued that Britain was being held back by \"cynicism\" and \"short-term obsessions\".\n\n\"We lurch from crisis to crisis, always reacting, always behind the curve,\" he told supporters.\n\nIn a continuation of his bid to broaden the party's appeal to voters, Sir Keir said his approach to the economy would be neither \"state control\" nor \"pure free markets\".\n\n\"I'm not concerned about whether investment or expertise comes from the public or private sector - I just want to get the job done,\" he said.\n\nConservative Party chairman Greg Hands said the Labour leader would \"say anything if the politics of that moment suit him\".\n\n\"He lacks principles and has no new ideas - and that is how we know a Starmer Labour government would just revert to the same old Labour habits of spending too much, raising taxes, increasing debt and soft sentences.\"\n\nThe left-wing campaign group Momentum attacked Sir Keir for abandoning promises he made when running for Labour leader in 2020. including introducing common ownership of energy, water and rail.\n\n\"These policies are more vital and popular now than ever - yet today, his promises lie in tatters, ditched in favour of the reheated Third-Way Blairism typified by these latest, vapid 'missions',\" a spokesman said.\n\nSir Keir argued that \"the vast majority\" of Labour members supported him.\n\nIn a new year speech last month, Rishi Sunak set out his own five goals for his premiership, which, like those set out by Sir Keir, included growing the economy.\n\nHe also promised to halve inflation this year, ensure the UK's debt is falling, cut NHS waiting lists, and pass new laws to stop small boat crossings.\n\nSome economists think inflation might already have peaked and the Bank of England has predicted it will fall midway through this year, so the prime minister is likely to meet his inflation target.\n\nHowever, pledges on the NHS and small boat crossings may prove harder to achieve.", "Vladimir Putin has been at Russia's helm for more than 20 years\n\nI keep thinking back to something I heard on Russian state TV three years ago.\n\nAt the time Russians were being urged to support changes to the constitution that would enable Vladimir Putin to stay in power for another 16 years.\n\nTo persuade the public, the news anchor portrayed President Putin as a sea captain steering the good ship Russia through stormy waters of global unrest.\n\n\"Russia is an oasis of stability, a safe harbour,\" he continued. \"If it wasn't for Putin what would have become of us?\"\n\nSo much for an oasis of stability and safe harbour. On 24 February 2022, the Kremlin captain set sail in a storm of his own making. And headed straight for the iceberg.\n\nVladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has brought death and destruction to Russia's neighbour. It has resulted in huge military casualties for his own country: some estimates put the number of dead Russian soldiers in the tens of thousands.\n\nHundreds of thousands of Russian citizens have been drafted into the army and Russian prisoners (including convicted killers) have been recruited to fight in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the war has impacted energy and food prices around the world and continues to threaten European and global security.\n\nSo why did Russia's president set a course for war and territorial conquest?\n\nMr Putin attended a military ceremony on Thursday to mark Defender of the Fatherland Day\n\n\"On the horizon were the Russian presidential elections of 2024,\" points out political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann.\n\n\"Two years before that vote [the Kremlin] wanted some victorious event. In 2022 they would achieve their objectives. In 2023 they would instil in the minds of Russians how fortunate they were to have such a captain steering the ship, not just through troubled waters, but bringing them to new and richer shores. Then in 2024 people would vote. Bingo. What could go wrong?\"\n\nPlenty, if your plans are based on misassumptions and miscalculations.\n\nThe Kremlin had expected its \"special military operation\" to be lightning fast. Within weeks, it thought, Ukraine would be back in Russia's orbit. President Putin had seriously underestimated Ukraine's capacity to resist and fight back, as well as the determination of Western nations to support Kyiv.\n\nRussia's leader has yet to acknowledge, though, that he made a mistake by invading Ukraine. Mr Putin's way is to push on, to escalate, to raise the stakes.\n\nWhich brings me on to two key questions: how does Vladimir Putin view the situation one year on and what will be his next move in Ukraine?\n\nThis week he gave us some clues.\n\nHis state-of-the-nation address was packed with anti-Western bile. He continues to blame America and Nato for the war in Ukraine, and to portray Russia as an innocent party. His decision to suspend participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and America, New Start, shows that President Putin has no intention of pulling back from Ukraine or ending his standoff with the West.\n\nThe following day, at a Moscow football stadium, Mr Putin shared the stage with Russian soldiers back from the front line. At what was a highly choreographed pro-Kremlin rally, President Putin told the crowd that \"there are battles going on right now on [Russia's] historical frontiers\" and praised Russia's \"courageous warriors\".\n\nConclusion: don't expect any Kremlin U-turns. This Russian president is not for turning.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\n\"If he faces no resistance, he will go as far as can,\" believes Andrei Illarionov, President Putin's former economic adviser. \"There is no other way to stop him other than military resistance.\"\n\nBut what about talks over tanks? Is negotiating peace with Mr Putin possible?\n\n\"It's possible to sit down with anyone,\" Andrei Illarionov continues, \"but we have an historic record of sitting down with Putin and making agreements with him.\n\n\"Putin violated all the documents. The agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the bilateral treaty between Russia and Ukraine, the treaty on the internationally recognised border of Russia and Ukraine, the UN charter, the Helsinki Act of 1975, the Budapest Memorandum. And so on. There is no document he would not violate.\"\n\nWhen it comes to breaking agreements, the Russian authorities have a long list of their own grudges to level at the West. Topping that list is Moscow's assertion that the West broke a promise it made in the 1990s not to enlarge the Nato alliance eastwards.\n\nAnd yet in his early years in office, Vladimir Putin appeared not to view Nato as a threat. In 2000 he even did not exclude Russia one day becoming a member of the Alliance. Two years later, asked to comment on Ukraine's stated intention of joining Nato, President Putin replied: \"Ukraine is a sovereign state and is entitled to choose itself how to ensure its own security…\" He insisted the issue would not cloud relations between Moscow and Kyiv.\n\nOn Tuesday the Russian president delivered his annual state-of-the-nation address\n\nPutin circa 2023 is a very different character. Seething with resentment at the \"collective West\", he styles himself as leader of a besieged fortress, repelling the alleged attempts of Russia's enemies to destroy his country. From his speeches and comments - and his references to imperial Russian rulers like Peter the Great and Catherine the Great - Mr Putin appears to believe he is destined to recreate the Russian empire in some shape or form.\n\nBut at what cost to Russia? President Putin once earned himself a reputation for bringing stability to his country. That has disappeared amid rising military casualties, mobilisation and economic sanctions. Several hundred thousand Russians have left the country since the start of the war, many of them young, skilled and educated: a brain drain that will hurt Russia's economy even more.\n\nAs a result of the war, suddenly, there are a lot of groups around with guns, including private military companies, like Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner group and regional battalions. Relations with the regular armed forces are far from harmonious. The conflict between Russia's Ministry of Defence and Wagner is an example of public infighting within the elites.\n\n\"Civil war is likely to cover Russia for the next decade,\" believes Konstantin Remchukov, owner and editor of Moscow-based newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. \"There are too many interest groups who understand that in these conditions there's a chance to redistribute wealth.\"\n\n\"The real chance to avoid civil war will be if the right person comes to power immediately after Putin. A person who has authority over the elites and the resoluteness to isolate those eager to exploit the situation.\"\n\n\"Are the Russian elites discussing who the right man or woman is?\" I ask Konstantin.\n\n\"Quietly. With the lights off. They do discuss this. They will have their voice.\"\n\n\"And does Putin know these discussions are happening?\"\n\n\"He knows. I think he knows everything.\"\n\nThis week the speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament declared: \"As long as there's Putin, there's Russia.\"\n\nIt was a statement of loyalty, but not of fact. Russia will survive - it has managed to for centuries. Vladimir Putin's fate, however, is linked irrevocably now to the outcome of the war in Ukraine.", "Zelensky said victory \"will inevitably await us\"\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he plans to meet China's leader Xi Jinping to discuss Beijing's proposals on ending the war in Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking on the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion, he said the proposal signalled that China was involved in the search for peace.\n\n\"I really want to believe that China will not supply weapons to Russia,\" he said.\n\nChina's plan calls for peace talks and respect for national sovereignty.\n\nHowever, the 12-point document does not specifically say that Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine, and it also condemns the usage of \"unilateral sanctions\", in what is seen as a veiled criticism of Ukraine's allies in the West.\n\nThe Chinese authorities have so far not publicly responded to Mr Zelensky's call for a summit with Mr Xi.\n\nMeanwhile, Russia hailed the Chinese peace proposals. \"We share Beijing's views,\" the foreign ministry in Moscow said in a statement.\n\nEarlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Beijing was considering supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia - a claim strongly denied by Beijing. On Friday, American media again reported that the Chinese government was considering sending drones and artillery shells to Moscow.\n\nAsked about the Chinese plan, US President Joe Biden told ABC News on Friday: \"[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's applauding it, so how could it be any good?\n\n\"I've seen nothing in the plan that would indicate that there is something that would be beneficial to anyone other than Russia,\" he added.\n\nChina appears to be siding with Russia, though it would like to find a way of rescuing President Putin by arranging some kind of face-saving peace deal, says the BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson.\n\nThe Chinese proposals follow a visit by the country's top diplomat Wang Yi to Moscow, where he met President Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday.\n\nAfter the talks, Mr Wang was quoted by China's state-run Xinhua news agency as saying that Beijing was willing to \"deepen political trust\" and \"strengthen strategic coordination\" with Moscow.\n\nWestern officials gave the latest proposals a lukewarm reception. Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said Beijing \"doesn't have much credibility\" because it had \"not been able to condemn the illegal invasion of Ukraine\".\n\nPresident Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and Russian troops made significant advances during the first few days in Ukraine's north, east and south.\n\nBut the attack on the capital Kyiv was soon repulsed and the Ukrainian military was later able to retake large areas.\n\nThe conflict - the biggest in Europe since World War Two - has since become a grinding war of attrition.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\nAt a lengthy news conference in Kyiv on Friday, Mr Zelensky also said victory \"will inevitably await us\" if allies \"respect their promises and deadlines\".\n\nPoland said it had already delivered four German-made Leopard II tanks to Ukraine and was ready to deliver more. Germany has said it will provide 14 Leopard tanks, with Spain and Canada also sending tanks.\n\nThe US - by far the biggest provider of military aid to Ukraine - has pledged to send 31 of its M1 Abrams tanks and the UK is providing 14 Challenger 2 tanks.\n\nThe Ukrainian leader added that his country had failed to engage sufficiently with countries in Africa and Latin America after many nations in those continents abstained during a UN General Assembly vote on a resolution condemning Russia's invasion.\n\n\"We didn't work well for many years, we didn't pay attention, I think it's a big mistake,\" he said.\n\nAsked if he could name his worst moment of the war so far, Mr Zelensky said Bucha, a town outside Kyiv where Russian troops are accused of having killed civilians in the early part of the war. The small town had been under Russian control until Ukrainian troops fought back last April to reclaim it.\n\n\"What I saw. It was horrible,\" Mr Zelensky said, visibly moved.\n\nThe US marked a year since Russia invaded Ukraine by announcing a new range of sanctions against Russia and new aid for Ukraine.\n\nThe latest restrictions target more than 100 entities both within Russia and worldwide, including banks and suppliers of defence equipment. The US said it wanted to stop those helping Russia exploit loopholes to get sanctioned materials.\n\nThe White House's fresh round of aid for Ukraine is worth $12bn (£10bn), comprising $2bn from the Department of Defense including ammunition and drones and $10bn from the State Department including budgetary support to the Ukrainian government.\n\nA further $550m will be supplied to both Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova to strengthen their energy infrastructure.\n\nMoldova is Europe's poorest country and has been heavily impacted by the war. Its leaders have warned for several weeks that Russia is plotting to seize power.\n\nIt comes days after US President Joe Biden flew to Kyiv for a surprise visit and held talks with Mr Zelensky.\n\nOn Friday, the EU also approved its 10th round of sanctions against Russia, imposing restrictions on technology that has a civilian and military dual use.", "BBC tech editor Zoe Kleinman has a go at smartphone repair\n\nA firm that fixes smartphones is calling for an official device repair apprenticeship to be introduced.\n\nIn 2022 there were almost 72 million mobile phone connections in use in the UK.\n\nBut repair firm TMT First, which introduced its own apprenticeship after struggling to find staff, points out there is no industry training standard.\n\nBy contrast, there are 33 million cars on the road - and mechanics learning on nationally recognised apprenticeships\n\n\"There's lots of young techy people out there who perhaps have even tinkered around with phones at home themselves, and are really interested in how they can do this better, and maybe create a career out of it,\" Adam Whitehouse from TMT First said.\n\n\"If you think about the technology and all the devices in our homes today, those things need repairing. And when people are taught the correct way of doing that, these devices will last for longer.\"\n\nHe founded TMT First, based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, in 2006. He says 58 members of staff have come through his firm's training courses so far and the company now offers its own apprenticeship.\n\nDaliana Bianca completed her apprenticeship at TMT First after deciding to change career\n\nOne of them, Daliana Bianca, said people stop her in the street when she is out at lunchtime wearing the company logo on her clothes to ask for repair help.\n\nBut there are no search results under \"phone repair\" on the website for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, a government agency.\n\nThe institute's deputy director, Nikki Christie, told the BBC there had not been sufficient industry interest.\n\n\"We would welcome renewed interest in the development of an apprenticeship for this occupation, as it has the potential to be a great entry point into digital careers,\" she said.\n\nMr Whitehouse said his was one of a group of organisations that had submitted a proposal before the pandemic, but several of them were no longer in business.\n\nThe Department for Education said the government planned to make £2.7bn available by 2025 for businesses across all sectors to set up their own relevant schemes.\n\nMr Whitehouse's company, housed in a former British Gas call centre, receives around 10,000 smartphones every month from Samsung, with whom it has a contract, as well as other sources.\n\nHis premises consist of warehouse-sized rooms filled with large boxes full of broken devices and row after row of neat drawers containing spare parts of various sizes.\n\nPhones that cannot be fixed get shredded, so that the precious metals inside, including gold, can be retrieved and reused. TMT First has also pioneered a new way of fixing some handsets which reduces e-waste by saving the battery and outside frame.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAn experienced technician can carry out 15 to 20 repairs per shift, depending on what the damage is. Smashed screens are still the most common issue.\n\n\"We see devices come in that look like they've been run over by a car,\" said Mr Whitehouse.\n\n\"And when we go back and say 'how did this happen?', there are times when they actually have been run over by a car.\"\n\nThen it was my turn to have a go at the company's apprenticeship entrance test. I had to dismantle and then reassemble a smartphone after watching Tudor Ion, head of repairs, do it in front of me.\n\nIt takes a trained technician a few minutes - it took me 45.\n\nIt is not difficult but it is fiddly. There are 15 tiny screws underneath the casing, and a further three, equally tiny but a slightly different size, that attach the motherboard to the frame.\n\nPhone repair technicians can repair up to 20 devices in a day\n\nEverything has to be carefully disconnected and removed in the correct order without causing further damage. I also had to wear accessories to prevent electrostatic discharge - because a small amount of accidental static, like the shock you sometimes get from walking on carpet, can destroy the delicate electronics inside the device.\n\n\"You need some practical skills. But I think attitude is the most important because we can teach you how to repair devices. But you need to have the correct attitude,\" said Mr Ion.\n\nI think by this he means you have to not be tempted to throw the phone out of the window after doing battle with the world's smallest screws - but perhaps that's just me.\n\nThe rise of the right to repair movement in the US and Europe has seen campaigners pushing the tech sector to help people to fix their devices themselves.\n\nApple now does home loans of technical equipment and publishes long instruction manuals for those wishing to do it. But you end up with an invalid warranty if your repair fails.\n\nThere are many accounts online of people who found it more difficult than they expected - including me. But is it still a threat to businesses like TMT First?\n\n\"There are plenty of people that can repair cars. There's plenty of people that might want to tinker with their cars on the weekend. But there's also people who just want their car fixed,\" said Mr Whitehouse.\n\n\"There's definitely a place for [DIY repair]... but I don't think most people want to fix things themselves.\"\n\nYou can follow Zoe Kleinman on Twitter @zsk.", "Dani Czernuszka will need to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life\n\nA rugby player who sued an opponent over a \"revenge\" tackle, that left her with a permanent spinal injury, has won a compensation case at the High Court.\n\nReading Sirens flanker Dani Czernuszka is now paraplegic and will need to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.\n\nThe defendant, Bracknell captain Natasha King, vowed to \"break her\" during the match in 2017, the court heard.\n\nMs Czernuszka's lawyers said she could expect a payout of about £10m.\n\nThe mother-of-two, then aged 28, was playing her first competitive game when she was injured on 8 October 2017.\n\nAs Reading began to dominate the match, Ms King urged her teammates to \"smash the number 7\", referring to Ms Czernuszka, the High Court heard.\n\nTowards the end, the defendant was winded and \"humiliated\" when she tried to tackle the claimant, the court was told.\n\nIn his ruling, Mr Justice Martin Spencer said Ms King had been \"looking for an opportunity to get her revenge on the claimant - the red mist had metaphorically descended\".\n\nMs King, the court heard, announced: \"That [swearword] number 7, I'm going to break her.\"\n\nThree minutes later, she executed a \"belly flop\" throwing her full 16-17 stone (102-108 kg) weight on to Ms Czernuszka, while pulling her legs, the court heard.\n\nThe judge referred to images of the \"reckless and dangerous\" tackle in his ruling\n\nMr Justice Spencer continued: \"The defendant simply gets up and walks away towards her own try line - she shows no concern for the claimant whatsoever.\n\n\"These actions are not those of a responsible rugby player. In my opinion, it was a reckless and dangerous act and fell below an acceptable standard of fair play.\"\n\nFollowing the judgement, Ms Czernuszka, said: \"I am grateful for today's ruling and to finally put to bed all of the untruths and fabrications surrounding what happened during the game that day.\n\n\"Learning to live with my life-changing injuries has been difficult and something I could not have done without the support of my family and close friends.\n\n\"Sport has always given me great pleasure in life, and I don't blame the game of rugby for what happened that day.\n\n\"Ultimately, I feel I was let down by improper and poor behaviour from the opposing player, coaching staff and the referee.\"\n\nHer solicitor Damian Horan said: \"This case is a timely reminder that a player's actions on the pitch never stay on the pitch and can have catastrophic consequences.\"\n\nMs King has 21 days to seek permission to appeal.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Dmytro Kisilenko (left) and Maxsym Lutsyk admit they felt fear when they joined the war one year ago\n\nWar transforms individuals, as well as nations.\n\nWhen the Russian army loomed over Ukraine at the end of February 2022, two university students, Maxsym Lutsyk and Dmytro Kisilenko, decided that they could not sit idle when their country was threatened. Maxsym was 19, Dmytro was 18.\n\nI met them at a volunteer centre in central Kyiv on the day they signed up to fight. They took their big step into the unknown dressed to go to a festival, not to war. Dmytro had a yoga mat to sleep on.\n\nThe older volunteers, saying goodbye to wives and children, could barely raise a smile. Young men, not long out of school, not needing to shave much, were laughing and joking, full of bravado. I suspected they didn't feel as brave as they wanted to look.\n\nTwelve months later, I caught up with Dmytro and Maxsym in the cold winter sun back at the volunteer centre.\n\n\"Well, actually there was a lot of fear,\" Dmytro admitted. \"I'm not going to lie because I hadn't experienced anything like that before. There were a lot of pessimistic news and we were preparing for the worst. And it was mostly like a mixture of bravery… and in our guts we felt that not everything will be all right.\"\n\nMaxsym (left) and Dmytro (right) were students when they volunteered as recruits to fight for their country\n\nMaxsym agreed, and many Ukrainians to whom I've spoken had the same sort of thoughts.\n\n\"A year ago, we had a lot of fear in our hearts and even in our brains. We understood that it will be pretty dangerous to became soldiers, to try to fight with guns. But we also had courage and we had some stupid bravery, and it helped us to overcome our fear.\n\n\"We understood that it will be very bad for us to stay in some shelters, not act in the battle. And it will be bad for us if Russians would occupy Kyiv or other territories of Ukraine. They would kill us or put us in prison because of our political views.\"\n\nThey were not joining a winning army. The Americans and their allies were expecting a rapid Russian victory, followed by an insurgency that they were preparing to support.\n\nTheir attitudes changed rapidly after Ukraine had shown how well it could fight with old Soviet-era weapons and a sprinkling of modern ones that Nato had supplied.\n\nSince then, Nato, led by the United States, has steadily broken its self-imposed limits on what it will supply. Main battle tanks are the latest upgrade. Ukraine wants modern warplanes next.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: One year of war in Ukraine in 87 seconds\n\nDmytro sat in the cold sun outside the volunteer centre, marvelling at the change.\n\n\"The Russians have made their biggest mistake… Everyone knows their enemy now. And not only it's national unity, but it's international unity… And it's like someone told me two years ago that the United Kingdom, United States, all the European leaders will help us, and it's the world, Ukraine will be spoken in every television news, I wouldn't have imagined that.\"\n\nThe conflict forced the North Atlantic alliance to face up to the reality of a sharp and dangerous new division in Europe. The relationship with Moscow that had been under increasing strain for more than a decade snapped when President Putin ordered the invasion last February.\n\nWith Ukraine, its people and Europe propelled into a new and dangerous era, the continent has come full circle from the hopeful years that followed the end of the Cold War. In 1989, six months before the Berlin Wall was toppled, the first President George Bush laid out the dream of a \"Europe whole and free\". It does not feel like that on the front lines in Donbas.\n\nBut Kyiv today is a city transformed from the shuttered, apprehensive place it was in the first few weeks after the invasion. Snow swirled around the crowds that packed the platforms at the main railway station. Wind that felt as if it had come off the coldest part of the steppe cut into thousands of women and children, about to become refugees, who were pushing to get onto trains heading west, away from the Russians.\n\nBeing there felt like watching a re-run of old newsreels from the 20th Century's darkest times. Barriers were blocking roads, welders were making tank traps from steel girders, and thousands of bottles were being filled with petrol to make Molotov cocktails to throw at the Russian tanks everyone expected.\n\nAt the moment, the capital has a veneer of normality. Shops are open, people with money can go to restaurants, and there is a rush hour. Of course, it is not normal, because the country is at war, and by mid-evening the streets are quiet.\n\nMaxsym Lutsyk (left) and Dmytro Kisilenko (right) believe Russia has made its biggest mistake\n\nThe contrast between Kyiv and the battered front line towns in the war zones in the east and south is huge. Dmytro and Maxsym fought in the battle that forced a Russian retreat at the end of March. Since then, the pressure has mostly been off the capital, compared to the nightmarish months since the Russian focus turned to the Donbas and the approaches to the Crimean Peninsula in the south.\n\nMaxsym and Dmytro are volunteers, and as students they are allowed to claim an exemption from compulsory military service. Under pressure from his family, Dmytro decided after the Russian withdrawal from Kyiv to go back to university. Now he volunteers to help with supplies for Maxsym and his other former comrades.\n\n\"It was a really hard decision. But when all your battle buddies, or when all your comrades are going to the east, they continue, they are like away, and you just left this community, you feel a bit odd.\"\n\nHis decision does not seem to have affected their friendship. Maxsym stayed with their unit, and in the months since then has been in some of the heaviest fighting of the war, in the battles in Donbas. He looks noticeably older and is more assertive.\n\nI saw him in Bakhmut in the summer, as the Russians were starting to attack it. He had driven out of nearby Severodonetsk to get supplies for his unit. He went back that day, and not long before the town fell to the Russians, Maxsym was wounded.\n\nIn May last year, three months after volunteering, Maxsym met the BBC in Bakhmut\n\nIt was, he said, his worst moment of the war. His position was hit by a strike from Russian heavy artillery, a 203mm Pion. His commander, who received Ukraine's highest award for valour, was killed. Maxsym was knocked cold and had severe concussion. The Ukrainian forces, outnumbered and outgunned, had to retreat across a river.\n\n\"The Russians destroyed all the bridges, doing intelligence to find places where we are crossing the river and they shelled these places. So staying there for longer period of time was possible, but many guys died there. And if we stayed for a longer period, many more guys would have died in a few weeks.\"\n\nMaxsym believes that Russian soldiers arrived in Ukraine a year ago swallowing Kremlin propaganda that they would be welcomed as liberators and protectors of Russian speakers. The last year of fighting, he says, on battlegrounds like Severodonetsk and Bakhmut, has wiped out any Russian illusions about what it would take to beat Ukraine.\n\nThey understand, he said, that they don't have friends waiting for them. \"They know that they will enter Bakhmut city only when they will destroy it, when they will kill every Ukrainian soldier who is defending it… They understand that they are fighting for territories and for some political reasons of their government.\"\n\nUkrainian soldiers who have served in the east do not have illusions either about an easy victory. The Russians have taken huge casualties. But they are still fighting, have capable electronic warfare and air defence systems and kill and wound many Ukrainians. The Kremlin's appetite for a war of attrition has not slackened.\n\nRussian forces have spent months trying to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut\n\nDmytro and Maxsym see victory the same way as President Volodymyr Zelensky. Every piece of Ukraine needs to be recaptured. Nato has massively increased its support. But giving Ukraine decisive combat power carries too many risks, in American minds especially. A time may come when Ukraine's allies push for negotiations.\n\nDmytro was firm. \"Every inch of Ukrainian land which were recognized as Ukrainian in 1991 should be Ukrainian.\"\n\nPresident Vladimir Putin believes Ukraine belongs to Russia. Ironically, the war he started is building the Ukrainian nation.\n\n\"We have a joke,\" Maxsym said. \"Putin will be made a hero of Ukraine for the job he's done to unite Ukraine, to build our economy, to build our army, and to make the Ukrainian nation great.\"\n\nDmytro laughed. \"But yeah, the war is horrible, but it's like the price for our unity and our country.\"", "Journalist Alan Rodgers, from the Ulster Herald, was at the scene of the shooting on Wednesday night.\n\nHe tells BBC Newsline that Youth Sport in Omagh is a popular place for a whole range of different sports, but that after the shooting everything was \"totally different\".\n\nHe met a crowd of worried parents, searching for their children in the main sports complex.\n\n“All the children were inside at the coffee area, they were being talked to by police, the parents were coming and they didn’t know what had happened,\" he says.\n\n“They were obviously distressed and they didn’t know whether their children were safe or what the story was.\"\n\n“There was an awful lot of trauma, there was an awful lot of worried parents, they were greeted with a scene that had scores of police cars.\n\n“They didn’t know where their children where, they didn’t know what was happening.\"\n\nHe says the children were coming out \"quite distressed\" and crying.\n\n“One little boy who was within earshot of me was talking about how many times the police officer was shot and the sound of the firecrackers - no child should have to go through that.”", "A deal on post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland could be announced in the coming days, UK and EU sources have indicated to the BBC.\n\nIt comes after plans to sign off an agreement between the two sides earlier this week were delayed.\n\nDevelopments are said to be moving \"hour-by-hour\" - and a deal could still fail to materialise.\n\nDowning Street told reporters earlier that \"intensive discussions\" with the EU were ongoing.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has been trying to win support for changes to post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland, known as the protocol.\n\nDowning Street said on Friday evening that Mr Sunak had made \"good progress\" during the call, with a source saying it was \"positive\" and negotiations would continue with the leaders agreeing to \"discuss this further in coming days.\"\n\nIt is also understood Mr Sunak was meeting with a number of big food retailers.\n\nOne major supermarket has told the BBC that it was their understanding that a deal has been reached, but the prime minister wants the backing of retailers.\n\nMonday is being mooted as a possible moment for the prime minister to finally reveal his plans. However, similar expectations were building at exactly this time last week.\n\nIt had been hoped that Ms von der Leyen could head to London last Monday to seal an agreement, after more than a year of negotiations.\n\nBut it never happened, and there were nerves in EU circles about whether Mr Sunak could close a deal.\n\nMr Sunak has been facing pressure from his backbenchers over the future role of European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU's top court, in policing the application of EU laws in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe protocol, which was agreed under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and came into force in 2021, saw Northern Ireland continue to follow some EU laws to get round the need for checks at the UK's border with the Republic of Ireland.\n\nNorthern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which has set its own tests for its support, has also expressed reservations about the continuing role of the ECJ and EU law.\n\nA source from the DUP told the BBC they had not been involved in any talks with the prime minister on Friday and had no meetings scheduled over the weekend.\n\nMr Sunak has been trying to win them over to a deal, as the party is currently blocking the formation of devolved government in Northern Ireland.\n\nBoth the UK and EU have continued to insist that negotiations are ongoing, despite multiple sources suggesting that a broad deal has been on the table for weeks.\n\nEarlier, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the government would not sign off a deal until the DUP's concerns had been \"addressed\".\n\n\"The things they're concerned about, the things we're concerned about, are absolutely in alignment,\" he told Times Radio.\n\n\"So when, hopefully, we get those issues resolved then I would hope that the DUP would recognise that we've addressed their concerns.\"\n\nConservative MPs are under orders to be in the Commons on Monday - although Tory MPs have indicated the instructions, known as a three-line whip, are not unusual for the start of the week.\n\nThe protocol has proved highly unpopular among unionists in Northern Ireland, and soured relations between the UK and EU.\n\nTalks to secure changes demanded by British business groups and politicians have been happening, on and off, since the autumn of 2021.\n\nNegotiators are said to have settled on a \"red and green lane\" system to ease border checks on goods from Great Britain destined to remain in Northern Ireland.\n\nThis would allow reduced checks for firms signing up to a \"trusted trader\" scheme, with the UK in exchange giving the EU more access to its real-time trading data.\n\nEU sources have insisted the ECJ will continue to have oversight of EU rules in Northern Ireland, a red line among the 27-country organisation.\n\nBut it's thought the court's role will be softened, while officials have also been in talks about how to reshape rules on VAT and government subsidies for businesses.\n• None What can we expect from a deal on the NI Protocol?", "Planned changes to Roald Dahl's books include the word \"fat\" being removed in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\n\nRoald Dahl's books are to be printed in their original form, following criticism of the decision to amend novels including The BFG, making them more suitable for modern audiences.\n\nThe plan to remove references to things like characters' appearance and weight had sparked a fierce debate.\n\nWords including \"fat\" and \"ugly\" were removed after being reviewed by sensitivity readers, who check for potentially offensive content.\n\nPuffin will now sell the originals.\n\nFrancesca Dow, managing editor of Penguin, which owns Puffin, said: \"We've listened to the debate over the past week which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl's books, and the very real questions around how stories from another era can be kept relevant for each new generation.\"\n\nSir Salman Rushdie had called the edits \"censorship\", whilst His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman told BBC Radio 4 that Dahl's books \"should be allowed to fade away\", not changed if people judge them to be offensive.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said they should not be \"airbrushed\", while on Thursday, the Queen Consort told an audience of writers and publishers: \"Please remain true to your calling, unimpeded by those who may wish to curb the freedom of your expression or impose limits on your imagination. Enough said.\"\n\nDahl is pictured with young readers in 1988\n\nPenguin said their latest decision to keep producing the original versions was because \"we recognise the importance of keeping Dahl's classic texts in print\".\n\nPuffin said the release of The Roald Dahl Classic Collection, featuring original versions of his children's books, was in order to \"keep the texts in print\".\n\nFrancesca Dow added: \"At Puffin we have proudly published Roald Dahl's stories for more than 40 years in partnership with the Roald Dahl Story Company.\n\n\"Their mischievous spirit and his unique storytelling genius have delighted the imaginations of readers across many generations.\n\nUpdated changes to his books include \"fat\" being removed in reference to Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, whilst Mrs Twit in The Twits is no longer referred to as \"ugly and beastly\" but just \"beastly\".\n\nAlso in The Twits, \"a weird African language\" is no longer weird in the new updated versions.\n\nA first edition copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory alongside the film's original Golden Egg\n\nThe titles due to be published without any edits are:\n\nPenguin said they will be available before the end of the year.\n\nDahl, who died aged 74 in 1990, remains one of the UK's most popular children's authors, and Netflix bought the rights to his works in 2021.\n\nBut antisemitic comments made throughout his life led to Dahl being a highly problematic figure.\n\nIn 2020, his family apologised, saying they recognised the \"lasting and understandable hurt caused by Roald Dahl's antisemitic statements\".\n\nWhich version of Roald Dahl's books will you be reading to your children? Share your thoughts by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "PSNI Det Ch Insp Caldwell was shot multiple times in front of his son\n\nAs the sun began to rise over the Killyclogher Road this morning, despite the heavy police presence, there was a marked silence and stillness in the area.\n\nBut just hours before on the same stretch of road, gun shots rang out through the car park of the Youth Sport centre.\n\nPSNI Det Ch Insp John Caldwell was shot a number of times in front of his son after coaching a football session for a group of teenagers.\n\nAs police continued to widen the cordon in the surrounding area, more cameras and press descended on the scene.\n\nPoliticians from across the political divide began to arrive at the scene of the shooting in Omagh\n\nPoliticians from across the political divide also began to arrive, with most interviews featuring a similar soundbite: \"We can't go back to days like this.\"\n\nJust a few miles down the road in Omagh town centre, the tone of people in the streets was sombre.\n\nSome people did not want to speak on the record or be identified, but all of them used words like \"disgusted\" and \"disgraceful\" to describe Wednesday night's shooting.\n\nTwo women I met hadn't heard the news, and the shock on their faces was palpable. One of them simply exclaimed: \"Why?\"\n\nMost of those who would go on the record pointed to the past and how they thought this part of the world had left such events behind.\n\nMary Garrity said the incident brings back hard memories for Omagh\n\nMary Garrity is from Trillick, a small village in County Tyrone, just 15 miles outside Omagh.\n\nShe was in Omagh town centre picking up her shopping, but says she is still shaken by last night's events.\n\n\"It's shocking, it's not what Omagh needs and it brings back hard memories for all the people of this town.\"\n\nShe added: \"I have young boys who play soccer and Gaelic football in the area and I was actually picking my son up at the same time this happened at another club in Fermanagh.\n\n\"To think I was only miles away doing a similar thing, it's just so wholly unbelievable.\n\n\"You can feel it in the town today, it's very tangible, just very upsetting for everyone.\"\n\nRay Wilson said he was disgusted by the events of last night\n\nRay and Geraldine Wilson both live in Omagh and said there could be no justification for such an attack.\n\n\"For his son to be there to witness that, I'm almost speechless,\" said Ray.\n\nGeraldine found it hard to put her feelings into words.\n\n\"It's a disgrace, we've had enough tragedy in this country down the years, especially Omagh, we don't need any more,\" she said.\n\nElaine Thompson said she knows Dt Ch Insp Caldwell.\n\nElaine Thompson said she knows Dt Ch Insp Caldwell\n\n\"When I heard it on the news I was in complete shock, it's very hard to take in.\"\n\nShe said the fact that young people witnessed the shooting made it more difficult to comprehend.\n\n\"The fact that he was off duty and doing community sports with young people as well, it's hard to believe.\n\n\"I know a young fella who was at our church, he's about 12 or 13 years old, who was there at the sports club and he was very traumatised.\n\n\"It's just awful to think it's happening again and for young people to have to experience this as well.\"\n\nShe added: \"But they have shot fathers in front of their children before in this country, unfortunately it's not a new thing, but nobody wants to go back to that.\"\n\nGordan Buchanan said the entire town was in shock\n\nGordon Buchanan said the entire town was in shock.\n\n\"It's one of the most callous and cruel things I've ever heard.\n\n\"To shoot a man in front of his son and other children nearby... It's just horrible.\"\n\nHe added: \"I didn't know John Caldwell but I know who he is, clearly he's a competent police officer and to give up his time to coach young people, shows the calibre of the man.\n\n\"My heart just goes out to him and his family after such an evil act.\"\n\nOmagh's town centre is full of symbols that serve a reminder of how tragedy has marked the town in the past.\n\nFrom the garden to remember the victims of the Omagh bombing to the obelisk marking the spot where the bomb exploded.\n\nThis is not the first time an attack has been carried out on a PSNI officer in Omagh.\n\nIn 2011, 25-year-old police officer Ronan Kerr was murdered by a booby-trap car bomb in the town.\n\nThe attack was carried out by dissident republicans. No-one has been charged with the murder.\n\nLast night's shooting is yet another wound to add to the scars of the town's troubled past.", "Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed his nation's \"year of invincibility\", one year on from the start of the Russian invasion.\n\nIn a televised address, he said Ukraine would \"do everything to win this year\".", "Brianna Ghey was found injured in Linear Park in Culcheth and died at the scene\n\nPolice have launched a murder investigation following the death of a teenage girl in a park in Warrington.\n\nBrianna Ghey, 16, was found with multiple stab wounds on a path in Linear Park, Culcheth at about 15:15 GMT on Saturday and died at the scene.\n\nCheshire Police Det Ch Supt Mike Evans described it as \"a truly awful attack\".\n\nHe said police were especially keen to speak to two people seen in the park, described as a white man and woman, in their late teens or early 20s.\n\nHe said they both had dark curly hair, adding: \"The man was wearing a longish dark hooded coat and the woman had a distinctive red or purple black checked blanket-style coat and a long flowing skirt, dress or trousers.\"\n\nHe said the pair may hold vital information to assist the investigation and appealed for them to come forward.\n\n\"We are also keen to speak to anyone who was in the park from around 13:30 until 16:00 GMT yesterday or anyone who may have seen Brianna in the hours leading up to her death,\" he added.\n\nAnyone in the park between 13:30 and 16:00 GMT is asked to contact Cheshire Police\n\n\"Brianna was a 16-year-old, well-loved girl who met a tragic end yesterday,\" Det Ch Supt Evans said.\n\nPolice said a post-mortem examination was taking place to establish the cause of death and that officers were supporting Brianna's family, who are from Birchwood.\n\nDet Ch Supt Evans said searches were continuing to trace the murder weapon and establish a motive for the attack.\n\nInvestigators have cordoned off a section of the park where she was found by members of the public.\n\nAdditional officers are patrolling the area, which is a well-known dog walking spot.\n\n\"I would like to reassure the local community that we are working hard to find those responsible for Brianna's death and we have extra officers in and around Culcheth supporting the investigation,\" Det Ch Supt Evans said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Abu Ala' has buried his teenage daughter and son\n\nThe tents are so close to the border wall between Syria and Turkey, they are almost touching it.\n\nThose living here on the Syrian side may have been displaced by the country's more than decade-old civil war. But they could also be survivors of the earthquake. Catastrophes overlap in Syria.\n\nThe earthquake, untroubled by international borders, has brought havoc to both countries. But the international relief effort has been thwarted by checkpoints. In southern Turkey, thousands of rescue workers with heavy lifting gear, paramedics and sniffer dogs have jammed the streets, and are still working to find survivors. In this part of opposition-held north-west Syria, none of this is going on.\n\nI had just crossed the border from four days in the city of Antakya, Turkey, where the aid response is a cacophony - ambulance sirens blare all night long, dozens of earth movers roar and rip apart concrete 24 hours a day. Among the olive groves in the village of Bsania, in Syria's Idlib province, there's mostly silence.\n\nThe homes in this border area were newly built. Now more than 100 have gone, turned to aggregate and a ghostly white dust which gusts across the farmland. As I climb over the chalky remains of the village, I spot a gap in the ruin. Inside, a pink-tiled bathroom sits perfectly preserved.\n\nThe earthquake swallowed Abu Ala's home, and claimed the lives of two of his children.\n\nThe town of Bsania was a small but thriving community\n\n\"The bedroom is there, that's my house,\" he says, pointing to pile of rubble. \"My wife, daughter and I were sleeping here - Wala', the 15-year-old girl, was at the edge of the room towards the balcony. A bulldozer was able to find her, [so] I took her and buried her.\"\n\nIn the dark, he and his wife clung to olive trees as aftershocks rocked the hillside.\n\nThe Syrian Civil Defence Force - also known as the White Helmets - which operates in opposition-held areas, did what they could with pickaxes and crowbars. The rescuers, who receive funding from the British government, lack modern rescue equipment.\n\nAbu Ala' breaks down when he describes the search for his missing 13-year-old son, Ala'. \"We kept digging until evening the next day. May God give strength to those men. They went through hell to dig my boy up.\"\n\nHe buried the boy next to his sister.\n\nBsania wasn't much, but it was home. Rows of modern apartment buildings, with balconies facing out across the Syrian countryside into Turkey. Abu Ala' describes it as a thriving community. \"We had nice neighbours, nice people. [They] are dead now.\"\n\nA deeply religious man, he is now bereft. \"What am I going to do?\" he asks. \"There are no tents, no aid, nothing. We've received nothing but God's mercy until now. And I'm here left to roam the streets.\"\n\nAs we leave, he asks me if I have a tent. But we have nothing to give him.\n\nI meet up with the White Helmets, expecting to find them looking for survivors. But it is too late. Ismail al Abdullah, is weary from effort, and what he describes as the world's disregard for the Syrian people. He says the international community has blood on its hands.\n\n\"We stopped looking for survivors after more than 120 hours passed,\" he says. \"We tried our best to save our people, but we couldn't. No-one listened to us.\n\n\"From the first hour we called for urgent action, for urgent help. No-one responded. They were just saying, 'We are with you', nothing else. We said, we need equipment. No-one responded.\"\n\nIn the town of Harem, children have been removing rubble\n\nApart from a few Spanish doctors, no international aid teams have reached this part of Syria. It is an enclave of resistance from Bashar al-Assad's rule. Under Turkish protection, it is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group that was once affiliated to al-Qaeda. The group has cut those links, but almost all governments have no relations with them. For our entire time in Syria, armed men, who didn't want to be filmed, accompanied us and stood at a distance.\n\nMore than a decade into Syria's stalled civil war, the 1.7m people who live in this area continue to oppose President Assad's rule. They live in makeshift camps and newly built shelters. Most have been displaced more than once, so life here was already very hard before the earthquake.\n\nThe international help that reaches this part of Syria is tiny. Many of the earthquake victims were taken to the Bab al-Hawa hospital, which is supported by the Syrian American Medical Society. They treated 350 patients in the immediate aftermath, general surgeon Dr Farouk al Omar tells me, all with only one ultrasound.\n\nWhen I ask him about international aid, he shakes his head, and laughs. \"We cannot talk more about this topic. We spoke about that a lot. And nothing happened. Even in a normal situation, we don't have enough medical staff. And just imagine what it's like in this catastrophe after earthquake,\" he says.\n\nAt the end of the corridor, a tiny baby lies in an incubator. Mohammad Ghayyath Rajab's skull is bruised and bandaged, and his small chest rises and falls thanks to a respirator. Doctors can't be sure, but they think he's around three months old. Both of his parents were killed in the earthquake, and a neighbour found him crying alone in the dark in the rubble of his home.\n\nThe Syrian people have been forsaken many times, and tell me they have grown used to being disregarded. But still there is anger that more help is not forthcoming.\n\nIn the town of Harem, Fadel Ghadab lost his aunt and cousin.\n\n\"How is it possible that the UN has sent a mere 14 trucks worth of aid?\" he asks. \"We've received nothing here. People are in the streets.\"\n\nMore aid has made it into Syria, but not much and it is too little, too late.\n\nIn the absence of international rescue teams in Harem, children remove rubble. A man and two boys use a car-jack to prize apart the collapsed remains of a building, carefully salvaging animal feed onto a blanket. Life isn't cheaper in Syria, but it is more precarious.\n\nThe day is ending and I have to leave. I cross the border back into Turkey and soon get stuck in a traffic jam or ambulances, construction equipment - the gridlock of a national and international aid response.\n\nMy phone pings with a message from a Turkish rescuer telling me his team found a woman alive after 132 hours buried under her home. Behind me in Syria, as darkness falls, there is only silence.", "Opponents of President Erdogan say the heavy loss of life is down to politics\n\nTurkey's most devastating earthquake since 1939 has raised big questions about whether such a large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and whether President Erdogan's government could have done more to save lives.\n\nWith elections on the horizon, his future is on the line after 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity have gone unheeded.\n\nRecep Tayyip Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but he appeared to blame fate on a visit to one disaster zone: \"Such things have always happened. It's part of destiny's plan.\"\n\nTurkey lies on two fault lines and has earthquake building codes dating back more than 80 years. But last Monday's double earthquake was far more intense than anything seen since 1939. The first quake registered magnitude 7.8 at 04:17, followed by another of 7.5 dozens of miles away.\n\nIt required a massive rescue operation spread across 10 of Turkey's 81 provinces.\n\nBut it took time for the response to build and some villages could not be reached for days. More than 30,000 people from the professional and voluntary sector eventually arrived, along with teams from many other countries.\n\nMore than 6,000 buildings collapsed and workers from Turkey's Afad disaster authority were themselves caught up in the earthquakes.\n\nThose initial hours were critical but roads were damaged and search and rescue teams struggled to get through until day two or day three.\n\nTurkey has more experience of earthquakes than almost any other country but the founder of the main volunteer rescue group believes this time, politics got in the way.\n\nAfter the last major earthquake in August 1999, it was the armed forces who led the operation but the Erdogan government has sought to curb their power in Turkish society.\n\nVolunteers from the Akut foundation have joined the government's main disaster agency in searching for survivors\n\n\"All over the world, the most organised and logistically powerful organisations are the armed forces; they have enormous means in their hands,\" said the head of Akut foundation, Nasuh Mahruki. \"So you have to use this in a disaster.\"\n\nInstead, Turkey's civil disaster authority now has the role, with a staff of 10-15,000, helped by non-government groups such as Akut, which has 3,000 volunteers.\n\nThe potential rescue effort was now far bigger than in 1999, Mr Mahruki said, but with the military left out of the planning it had to wait for an order from the government: \"This created a delay in the start of rescue and search operations.\"\n\nPresident Erdogan has accepted that search efforts were not as fast as the government wanted, despite Turkey having the \"largest search and rescue team in the world right now\".\n\nFor years, Turks have been warned of the potential of a big earthquake but few expected it to be along the East Anatolian fault, which stretches across south-eastern Turkey, because most of the larger tremors have hit the fault in the north.\n\nWhen a quake in January 2020 hit Elazig, north-east of Monday's disaster zone, geological engineer Prof Naci Gorur of Istanbul Technical University realised the risk. He even predicted a later quake north of Adiyaman and the city of Kahramanmaras.\n\n\"I warned the local governments, governors, and the central government. I said: 'Please take action to make your cities ready for an earthquake.' As we cannot stop them, we have to diminish the damage created by them.\"\n\nOne of Turkey's foremost earthquake engineering specialists, Prof Mustafa Erdik, believes the dramatic loss of life was down to building codes not being followed, and he blames ignorance and ineptitude in the building industry.\n\n\"We allow for damage but not this type of damage - with floors being piled on top of each other like pancakes,\" he told the BBC. \"That should have been prevented and that creates the kind of casualties we have seen.\"\n\nAn international rescue team looks at the concrete floors of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras\n\nUnder Turkish regulations updated in 2018, high-quality concrete has to be reinforced with ribbed, steel bars. Vertical columns and horizontal beams have to be able to absorb the impact of tremors.\n\n\"There should be adhesion between the concrete and steel bars and there should also be adequate transfer reinforcement in the columns,\" explained Prof Erdik.\n\nHad all the regulations been followed, the columns would have survived intact and the damage would have been confined to the beams, he believes. Instead the columns gave way and the floors collapsed on top of each other, causing heavy casualties.\n\nThe justice minister has said anyone found to have been negligent or at fault will be brought to justice.\n\nCritics such as opposition CHP party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu argue after 20 years in power President Erdogan's government has not \"prepared the country for the earthquakes\".\n\nOne big question is what happened to the large sums collected through two \"earthquake solidarity taxes\" created after the 1999 quake. The funds were meant to make buildings resistant to earthquakes.\n\nOne of the taxes, paid to this day by mobile phone operators and radio and TV, has brought some 88bn lira (£3.8bn; $4.6bn) into state coffers. It was even hiked to 10% two years ago. But the government has never fully explained where the money has been spent.\n\nUrban planners have complained that rules have not been observed in earthquake zones and highlight a 2018 government amnesty that meant violations of the building code could be swept away with a fine, and left some six million buildings unchanged.\n\nThe fines brought in billions of Turkish lira in taxes and fees. But when a residential building in Istanbul collapsed in 2019, killing 21 people, the head of the chamber of civil engineers said the amnesty would turn Turkish cities into graveyards.\n\nMore than 100,000 applications were made for an amnesty in the 10 cities currently affected, according to Pelin Pinar Giritlioglu of Istanbul University, who says there was a high intensity of illegal construction in the area.\n\n\"The amnesty played an important role in the collapse of the buildings in the latest earthquake,\" she told the BBC.\n\nCities in 10 provinces with a population of more than 13 million were affected by Monday's quakes\n\n\"We cannot go anywhere by blaming each other and we should seek solutions,\" says Prof Erdik, who believes the problem goes beyond politics and lies in a system that allows engineers to go straight into practice after university with little experience.\n\nProf Gorur calls for the creation of \"earthquake-resistant urban settlements\" but for that there will have to be a shift in thinking, nowhere more so than in Turkey's most populous city.\n\n\"We have been warning about a possible Istanbul earthquake for 23 years. So the policymakers of Istanbul should come together and make policies to make people, the infrastructure, the buildings and the neighbourhoods resistant to an earthquake.\"\n\nPresident Erdogan has called for unity and solidarity, denouncing critics of the disaster response as dishonourable.\n\n\"I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest,\" he told reporters in Hatay, near the earthquake's epicentre.\n\nMany of the towns and cities in the affected areas are run by his ruling party, the AKP.\n\nBut after 20 years in power, first as prime minister and then as an increasingly authoritarian, elected president, he leads a highly polarised country.\n\n\"We have come to this point because of his politics,\" said Mr Kilicdaroglu.\n\nCampaigning for elections expected in May has not yet begun but he leads one of six opposition parties poised to announce a unified candidate in a bid to bring down the president.\n\nMr Erdogan's hopes of unifying the country ahead of those elections are likely to fall on deaf ears.\n\nHe has become increasingly intolerant of criticism and many of his opponents are in jail or have fled abroad. When an attempted coup against the president ended in bloodshed in 2016, he reacted by arresting tens of thousands of Turks and sacking civil servants.\n\nThe economy has been in freefall with a 57% inflation rate leading to a sky-high cost of living.\n\nAmong the government's first actions in response to the earthquake was temporarily blocking Twitter, which was being used in Turkey to help rescuers locate survivors. The government said it was being used to spread disinformation and police detained a political scientist for posting criticism of the emergency response.\n\nTurkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who spent a year in jail in pre-trial detention, wrote from exile in Germany that the aftermath of the 1999 Turkish earthquake helped propel Mr Erdogan to power.\n\nThis latest disaster would play a part in the next vote too, he said, but it was not yet clear how.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harry Styles thanks his former One Direction bandmates\n\nHarry Styles has won all four Brit Awards he was nominated for, including best album, artist and pop/R&B act.\n\nThe show opened with his huge hit As It Was, which won song of the year.\n\n\"I'm aware of my privilege up here tonight,\" he said, naming women who missed out on artist of the year, including Mabel, Florence Welch, Charli XCX, Rina Sawayama and Becky Hill.\n\nBeyonce won international awards for best artist and song of the year, while Wet Leg won best group and new artist.\n\nWet Leg's singer, Rhian Teasdale, said: \"This is so scary because being on the telly can be such a boys' club thing\" and thanked all the women who worked on their debut album, saying: \"I want to shout them out.\"\n\nShe also referenced Alex Turner's Arctic Monkeys Brits acceptance speech from 2014, saying: \"That rock and roll - it just won't go away. It might hibernate from time to time and sink back into the swamp.\"\n\nBoth bands share the same record label, Domino.\n\nThis year's nominations saw no women up for best artist, following last year's decision by organisers to scrap their best male and best female awards in favour of gender-neutral prizes.\n\nWomen who were eligible but missed out included those named by Styles in his speech.\n\nFlo, the only black British winner, won the rising star award, but did not get to perform on the night as has been the case in previous years - instead having their prize announced before the show.\n\nStyles also thanked his Mum for \"signing me up for X Factor without telling me\", along with his fellow One Direction members Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Zayn Malik.\n\nShania Twain, who performed on stage at Coachella last year with Styles, gave him his Brit for song of the year.\n\nEarlier, she told the BBC's Mark Savage that the singer's popularity stems from him being \"incredibly authentic, and people sense that\".\n\n\"He's nice, he's likeable, he's kind, he's a gentleman,\" she said. \"Obviously he's super-talented - he has everything you want as a fan to follow and appreciate and respect.\"\n\nThis is Harry's House and we're all just living in it.\n\nBut while his success might seem preordained, it's easy to forget that reality show contestants and former boyband members are usually consigned to the great pop dumper, never to be seen again.\n\nWhen Harry Styles first went solo, his music was eclipsed by his bandmates - Zayn Malik and Liam Payne, in particular, scored hits that were bigger and stickier in those early, post-One Direction days.\n\nHe started to find his way on his second album, Fine Line, delving into the 70s rock sounds of his childhood: Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Paul McCartney. He added some utopian philosophy of his own (Treat People With Kindness) and scored his first million-seller with the joyous and infectious Watermelon Sugar.\n\nHis third album updates that sound, adding 80s synths, and an easy-going intimacy. The scat singing and synth horns on Music For A Sushi Restaurant capture his quirky charisma; while Boyfriends' critique of toxic masculinity is the song every girl wants Harry to sing to them while he paints their toenails.\n\nUnusually for a big pop album, Styles' voice is mellow and restrained instead of belting out the hooks, Adele-style. That makes it less immediate than you might expect - but it grows beautifully, like dough in a proving oven.\n\nIt ended the year as the UK's best-selling album, shifting almost half-a-million copies. With numbers like that, the commercially-minded Brit Awards were never going to turn their back on Styles.\n\nBeyonce sent video messages for her wins as she was unable to attend, saying: \"Thank you so much for loving Break my Soul - the only intention for this song was to dance.\"\n\nThe singer, who made history at last week's Grammys where she won her 32nd award, thanked her fans and referenced her recent album and upcoming tour, saying: \"The renaissance begins.\"\n\nStyles also won three awards at the Grammys, including album of the year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Lizzo brings down the house at the Brit Awards 2023\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Wet Leg are all smiles as they collect their Brit Awards\n\nThe show ran fairly smoothly, although host Mo Gilligan wrongly introduced Lewis Capaldi as \"Sam Capaldi\", who performed Forget Me.\n\nGilligan joked afterwards: \"I have to apologise, it just goes to show how strong the drinks are.\"\n\nAt another point, the presenter said \"technical difficulties\" meant they had to play a recording of Adele singing I Drink Wine at last year's ceremony.\n\nRapper Aitch won best hip-hop/rap/grime artist, and said: \"Not to get all cliched, but not many people where I'm from, especially my side of Manchester, get the opportunity to stand up here and receive such an amazing gift or award.\"\n\nHe added that he performs \"to set examples and to make people know it's possible no matter where you're from\", adding \"Respect. 0161 in the building,\" a reference to Manchester's dialling code.\n\nRapper Aitch said he wants to set an example with his success\n\nBecky Hill won best dance act for the second year in a row, after performing her first US tour last year, and said it was \"such an honour\" to be nominated alongside stars including \"amazing Eliza Rose and the incredible Raye\".\n\n\"I think Beyonce said it best in her Grammy speech. We all have the queer community to thank for the best genre on earth,\" she added.\n\nThe 1975 won best alternative rock act - their fourth Brit Award - and lead singer Matty Healy said: \"This is one that has been voted for by the fans so that means a lot.\"\n\nBecky Hill said her win was helping her get over her \"imposter syndrome\"\n\nBest international group went to Irish rockers Fontaines DC, whose guitarist Carlos O'Connell said: \"My heart is full... I'm happy to be [here] to celebrate that.\"\n\nProducer and French DJ David Guetta had already been announced as producer of the year, but he was presented with his award by Norman Cook, also know as Fatboy Slim.\n\n\"To have longevity in what we do is a miracle,\" he said. \"Let's have a party!\"", "The protests happened outside the hotel in Knowsley on Friday\n\nA teenager has been charged with beating an emergency worker after disorder broke out near a hotel in Merseyside housing asylum seekers.\n\nJared Skeete, 19, of Irwell Close, Aigburth, Liverpool, has also been charged with violent disorder.\n\nMerseyside Police said he was arrested after disorder in Knowsley on Friday.\n\nA police officer and two members of the public were hurt as missiles including lit fireworks were thrown when protests turned violent.\n\nMr Skeete has been remanded in custody and will appear at Wirral Adult Remand Court on Monday.\n\nFourteen other people - 12 men and two women who are mainly from the Knowsley area - were arrested.\n\nThey have been conditionally bailed pending the outcome of police inquiries.\n\nA police van was set alight in the disorder\n\nForeign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell has condemned the violence and said the government was seeking to limit the \"excessive use\" of asylum hotels.\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show earlier, he said: \"We have a duty to welcome these people.\n\n\"Often they are caught in desperate jeopardy, but equally we have a duty to house them appropriately and to work with local people.\n\n\"The Home Office is trying very hard now to stop the excessive use of hotels and find different ways of placing them in appropriate places in the community and that is something the Home Office will achieve.\"\n\nHowever, Lisa Nandy, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities, said the government was providing \"no support whatsoever\".\n\n\"The government contracts big companies to provide what they call asylum support,\" she said.\n\n\"Instead these companies maximise the profit they make, they put people into some appalling accommodation without help or support - people who've been through hell and back before they even reached this country.\"\n\nAndrew Mitchell said the government planned to accomodate asylum seekers \"in appropriate places in the community\"\n\nSir George Howarth MP, Labour MP for Knowsley, said the protest was triggered by \"an alleged incident posted on social media\".\n\nPolice confirmed they had been investigating reports that \"a man made inappropriate advances toward a teenage girl\" in Kirkby on Monday.\n\nNo victim had been initially identified and a man in his 20s was arrested on Thursday in another part of the country on suspicion of a public order offence, Merseyside Police said.\n\nHe was released with no further action following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).\n\nThe investigation was \"ongoing\" and Chief Constable Serena Kennedy appealed for anyone with information to contact the police.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Mae Stephens is hoping for stardom after a song and video of hers reached 10 million views on TikTok\n\nA singer who worked in a supermarket is set for stardom after gaining more than 10 million views on TikTok.\n\nMae Stephens from Kettering, a regular on BBC Music Introducing in Northamptonshire in recent years, has just signed to EMI records.\n\nHer song, If We Ever Broke Up, was released on Friday after a snippet of it posted on New Year's Day went viral on the social media platform.\n\nThe song tells her ex-boyfriend's father how his son treated her.\n\n\"I've read a lot of comments from people saying that this song helped them through their break-up because it gave them that boss energy.\"\n\nShe said it was \"really surreal to have people sing lyrics to the song I have written\".\n\nThe singer-songwriter, who also works shifts in a local supermarket, has been writing since the age of 12.\n\nMae Stephens wrote her song about a break-up when she was 16\n\nShe said she used music to help her through the hardships of teenage life, and composed her songs on her grandmother's old piano.\n\n\"I used to be quite angry as a kid and I had a lot of pent-up tension, especially coming home from school,\" she said.\n\nShe was bullied at school for being the \"loud, quirky kid\", she added.\n\nWhen her classmates found the YouTube channel to which she uploaded her original songs and covers, every video she shared would prompt more hate and spitefulness to be sent her way.\n\nPushing through the negativity with the help of her music and her brother, she was \"determined to push forward and prove a lot of people wrong\".\n\n\"A lot of kids are probably going through stuff that's a lot worse than what I went through and it's not highlighted as much as it should be,\" she said.\n\n\"To watch kids go through that and not have someone to look up to is something I really hope I can help with.\n\n\"I want to be the champion of the underdogs - Mae's misfits.\"\n\nMae Stephens appeared on BBC Music Introducing in Northamptonshire on Saturday 11 February.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Huge waves and heavy rain as Cyclone Gabrielle lashes New Zealand\n\nResidents across the north of New Zealand are bracing for a rough night as Cyclone Gabrielle lashes the country with torrential rains and winds.\n\nAt least 46,000 homes have lost power in the storm, while hundreds of flights have been cancelled.\n\nA state of emergency has been declared in nine regions - affecting nearly a third of the 5.1 million population.\n\nThe storm was expected to peak on Monday night with the deluge to continue until Tuesday.\n\nIn New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, authorities earlier evacuated people from 50 homes around a 30m-high tower that was in danger of collapse, local media reported.\n\nDozens of evacuation centres have also been set up in the city.\n\nEmergency services have also reported people trapped by the rising waters - including a family stranded on a flooded highway. Authorities say they've received more than 100 calls for help since Sunday.\n\nCyclone Gabrielle is hitting New Zealand's north just weeks after Auckland and surrounding areas endured record rainfall and flooding which killed four people.\n\nNew Zealand's Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was among those stranded in the northern city on Monday after flights to the capital Wellington, and elsewhere, were cancelled.\n\n\"Extreme weather event has come on the back of extreme weather event,\" he said. \"Things are likely to get worse before they get better.\"\n\nEmergency management minister Kieran McAnulty said the government was considering declaring a national state of emergency for only the third time in the country's history.\n\nOnce an emergency is declared, local authorities have greater power to respond to dangerous situations including restricting travel and providing aid.\n\nNew Zealand's meteorological agency, Metservice, said Whangarei, a city north of Auckland, had received 100.5mm of rain in the past 12 hours.\n\nMr McAnulty had warned Monday would be a \"critical day\" due to the \"highly dangerous\" combination of high winds and heavy rain.\n\nWinds of up to 140km/h (87mph) battered the Northland region, while the Auckland Harbour Bridge had to be closed as it was rocked by gusts of 110km/h.\n\nFor homes left without power, the minister warned it could also take days to restore the power grid as the bad weather made it \"unsafe\" to work on the network.\n\nA man stacks up sandbags to protect a warehouse before the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle in Auckland, New Zealand\n\nWeather officials had earlier downgraded Gabrielle's intensity, but the Metservice in its latest update on Monday said it would still bring \"significant heavy rain and potentially damaging winds\".\n\nAlthough the cyclone has yet to make landfall, it has already toppled trees, damaged roads and downed power lines.\n\nMany schools and local government facilities across Auckland and the North Island have closed and people are being asked not to travel before Tuesday.\n\nMeanwhile some 10,000 international Air New Zealand customers were disrupted by the cancellation of 509 flights.\n\nNormal services are expected to resume Tuesday, with the national carrier adding 11 extra domestic flights to its schedule to help with recovery efforts.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. More flooding rains for New Zealand's North Island", "Unrest in southern Turkey has disrupted rescue efforts in some places following Monday's deadly earthquake, three rescue groups have said.\n\nThe death toll in Turkey and Syria from the quake has surpassed 28,000, and hope of finding many more survivors is fading despite some miraculous rescues.\n\nGerman rescuers and the Austrian army paused search operations on Saturday, citing clashes between unnamed groups.\n\nSecurity is expected to worsen as food supplies dwindle, one rescuer said.\n\nTurkey's president said he would use emergency powers to punish anyone breaking the law.\n\nAn Austrian army spokesperson said early on Saturday that clashes between unidentified groups in the Hatay province had left dozens of personnel from the Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit seeking shelter in a base camp with other international organisations.\n\n\"There is increasing aggression between factions in Turkey,\" Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Kugelweis said in a statement. \"The chances of saving a life bears no reasonable relation to the safety risk.\"\n\nHours after Austria paused its rescue efforts, the country's ministry of defence said that the Turkish army had stepped in to offer protection, allowing the rescue operations to resume.\n\nThe German branch of the search and rescue group ISAR and Germany's Federal Agency for Technical Relief (TSW) also suspended operations, citing security concerns.\n\n\"There are more and more reports of clashes between different factions, shots have also been fired,\" said ISAR spokesperson Stefan Heine.\n\nSteven Bayer, operations manager of Isar, said he expected security to worsen as food, water, and hope become more scarce.\n\n\"We are watching the security situation very closely as it develops,\" he said.\n\nGerman rescue teams said they would resume work as soon as Turkish authorities deem the situation safe, Reuters news agency reported.\n\nThe Vice President of Turkey, Fuat Oktay announced on Saturday the death toll in Turkey has risen to 24,617.\n\nWhile Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan hasn't commented on the reported unrest in Hatay, he did reiterate on Saturday that the government would take action against those involved in crimes in the region.\n\n\"We've declared a state of emergency,\" Mr Erdogan said during a visit to the disaster zone today. \"It means that, from now on, the people who are involved in looting or kidnapping should know that the state's firm hand is on their backs.\"\n\nState media reported on Saturday that 48 people had been arrested for looting, according to AFP. Turkish state media reported several guns were seized, along with cash, jewellery and bank cards.\n\nA 26-year-old man searching for a work colleague in a collapsed building in Antakya told Reuters: \"People were smashing the windows and fences of shops and cars.\"\n\nTurkish police have also reportedly detained 12 people over collapsed buildings in the provinces of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa. They included contractors, according to the DHA news agency.\n\nThere are also expected to be more arrests after Mr Oktay told reporters late Saturday that prosecutors issued 113 arrest warrants over the buildings.\n\nAt least 6,000 buildings collapsed in Turkey, raising questions about if the large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government could have done more to save lives.\n\nWith elections looming, the president's future is on the line after spending 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity going unheeded.\n\nMr Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but he appeared to blame fate on a visit to one disaster zone: \"Such things have always happened. It's part of destiny's plan.\"\n\nAmong those rescued on Saturday were a family of five pulled from the rubble in Turkey's Gaziantep province.\n\nAP news agency reported the parents, two daughters and son were brought to safety after five days under their collapsed home, to cries of \"God is great\".\n\nThe same outlet reported that a seven-year-old girl was pulled from the debris in the province of Hatay after almost 132 hours under the rubble.\n\nThe BBC has also published footage of the remarkable rescue of two sisters in Antakya, southern Turkey, from Wednesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rescuers use specialist cameras to free Irem And Merve from the rubble of their building in Antakya\n\nThe quake was described as the \"worst event in 100 years in this region\" by the United Nations aid chief, who was in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras on Saturday.\n\n\"I think it's the worst natural disaster that I've ever seen and it's also the most extraordinary international response,\" Martin Griffiths told the BBC's Lyse Doucet in Turkey.\n\n\"We have more than a hundred countries who have sent people here so there's been incredible response but there's a need for it,\" he added.\n\nMr Griffiths has called for regional politics to be put aside in the face of the disaster - and there are some signs that this is happening.\n\nThe border crossing between long-feuding Armenia and Turkey reopened on Saturday for the first time in 35 years to allow aid through.\n\nAnd there are reports that the Syrian government has agreed to let UN aid into areas controlled by opposition groups, with whom they have been engaged in a bitter civil war since 2011.\n\nThe death toll in Syria from the earthquake now stands at more than 3,500, according to AFP - but new figures have not been publishes since Friday.\n\nThere has been criticism that the international effort to send aid to Syria has not been fast enough.\n\nIsmail al Abdullah of the Syrian Civil Defence Force, or White Helmets, which operates in rebel-held areas, told the BBC's Quentin Sommerville that the organisation had stopped searching for survivors.\n\nThe international community has \"blood on its hands,\" he said. \"We needed rescue equipment that never came.\"\n\nSivanka Dhanapala, the Syria representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told AlJazeera that as many 5.3 million Syrians may be homeless following the quake.\n\n\"That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Raheem said he caught his finger on a fence he was climbing to escape bullies\n\nThe mother of a boy who lost a finger allegedly fleeing racist bullies has criticised police for their handling of the investigation.\n\nRaheem Bailey claimed he caught his finger in a fence escaping bullies at his former school in Blaenau Gwent.\n\nShantal Bailey said the force's suggestion no one else was involved was a \"complete insult\" and she would complain to the police watchdog.\n\nGwent Police said it took all reports like this \"extremely seriously\".\n\nRaheem underwent surgery following the incident on 17 May 2022 but doctors had to amputate his finger.\n\nHe was 11 years old at the time and a pupil at Abertillery Learning Community in Blaenau Gwent.\n\nIn a statement, Ms Bailey said: \"I am overwhelmingly disappointed by the police's decision to take no further action in Raheem's case.\n\n\"Although the police had indicated to me that this was the likely outcome, I feel that their statement makes it clear that they have taken at face value all other versions of events other than Raheem's.\n\n\"Yet he is the victim in this and has been left with a life-changing injury.\n\n\"My son is still traumatised by what happened to him and has a permanent physical reminder of the torment he suffered that day.\n\n\"The events of that day followed a sustained campaign of bullying at the school over the preceding months and a previous experience that had taught him that reporting to a teacher would not make a difference.\n\n\"To state that no others were involved in what happened to Raheem is a complete insult and the police's point about him leaving the school of his own accord is irrelevant.\"\n\nShe added that there had been no dispute he left of his own accord, but he did so \"in a state of sheer panic and despair, which left him feeling as if he had no option other than to leave the school ground by any means necessary\".\n\nShe added: \"It is the altercation that caused him to flee the school in terror, and how he was allowed to do so unchecked and unchallenged by any responsible adult, that needs to be addressed.\"\n\nRaheem's family is considering taking civil legal action against the school, for \"negligence\" due to ongoing bullying and lack of supervision on the day of the incident.\n\nBlaenau Gwent council said it is launching an inquiry into the incident and has been contacted for a response.\n\nWhile she welcomed the inquiry, she said she was \"disgusted\" the school had not informed her directly and she only learned about it in the press.\n\nThe family's solicitor, Frances Swaine from law firm Leigh Day, added: \"We echo our client's disappointment, not only with the conclusion arrived at by the police but by the way they have chosen to communicate this, which seems to lay any blame with Raheem and exonerate all others.\n\n\"The altercation that led to him leaving school should be re-examined.\n\n\"Raheem had been reporting the bullying he had suffered for months but he felt that nothing was done by the school to help him.\n\n\"We will be supporting Shantal in making a complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding the police's handling of this incident and we are also investigating a civil legal claim against Abertillery Learning Community for negligence.\"\n\nOn Friday Gwent Police said: \"Officers have interviewed several people under caution and viewed CCTV footage from the school.\n\n\"Our investigation found that Raheem left the school premises of his own accord, and no other persons were involved in him sustaining the injury to his hand.\n\n\"After undertaking a detailed and thorough investigation we will not be taking any further action.\"\n\nRaheem's mother Shantal said her son had been bullied \"from the get-go\"\n\nBlaenau Gwent council said on Friday its thoughts were with Raheem and his family and it was commissioning an independent review to identify any lessons to improve the response to future incidents.\n\nIt' added: \"First and foremost, a young person has suffered a life-changing injury, and our thoughts remain with the learner and his family,\" a council statement read.\n\n\"This has been an extremely difficult time for all involved. The incident unfortunately led to widespread commentary on social media and in the press, including by some high profile stakeholders.\n\n\"The press and social media coverage fuelled unhelpful speculation during an ongoing police investigation when the school and the council were unable to comment.\"\n\nMs Bailey set up a fundraising campaign following the incident which has received over £100,000 in donations. She aims to have a prosthetic fitted for Raheem.", "A man stacks up sandbags to protect a warehouse before the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle in Auckland, New Zealand\n\nThousands of people in New Zealand have been left without power as parts of the country endure the start of a severe storm.\n\nGabrielle buffeted Australia's Norfolk Island overnight and has begun to lash the northernmost region of New Zealand.\n\nForecasters have issued \"red\" heavy wind and rain warnings for Auckland and Northland with 200mm of rain and winds of up to 130kph (80mph) expected.\n\nEvacuation centres have been set up and residents have been preparing.\n\nThey have been told to ensure they have enough supplies to last three days in case they are trapped at home.\n\nThe storm - which has been downgraded from a cyclone - comes weeks after torrential rain inundated the city of Auckland., which remains under a state of emergency.\n\nTens of thousands of sandbags have been distributed there due to concerns the sodden ground and weakened infrastructure have made homes more vulnerable to flooding.\n\nParts of New Zealand's North Island are still recovering from recent record flooding\n\nAir New Zealand, the national carrier, has cancelled several domestic flights ahead of the storm's arrival.\n\nOn Norfolk Island, which covers just over 34 sq km (13 sq miles) in the Pacific Ocean between New Caledonia and New Zealand, authorities said they were clearing debris and trees from roads and restoring power knocked out in the storm.\n\n\"There is still considerable clean up to be undertaken and it may take a while for services such as power to be restored,\" Emergency Management Norfolk Island said.\n\nNew Zealand's MetService has warned winds could still be strong enough to damage trees and power lines and that enough rain could fall to cause further flooding and landslides in the coming days.\n\nPrime Minister Chris Hipkins said: \"Our main message to people across the country is to please take the severe weather warning seriously and to make sure you're prepared.\n\n\"Make sure you've got your grab-and-go kits, make sure you know where you need to go in the event you need to evacuate your homes.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Royal Oak This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Coromandel Peninsula and the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne region, which were also affected by the recent torrential rain, have been placed under the most serious weather alert.\n\nResidents in flood-prone areas have been told to prepare to evacuate.\n\n\"There's a degree of nervousness and anxiety around this coming event,\" the Thames-Coromandel district's mayor, Len Salt, told the Stuff news website.\n\n\"Coromandel people are pretty resilient, but the fact we've been in this mode dealing with storm events from the beginning of January...people are tired.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "\"Stay close to the wall. Move fast. Single file. Just a few at a time.\"\n\nThe staccato instructions come from the Ukrainian army escort taking us to a military position in battle-scarred Bakhmut, a city once famed for its sparkling wines.\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the eastern city \"our fortress\". Russian forces have spent the past six months trying to capture Bakhmut. Now they have intensified their onslaught - Ukraine believes - to tear it down ahead of the anniversary of the invasion.\n\nWe follow orders, darting down an icy rubble-strewn street, with a clear blue sky overhead - ideal for Russian drones.\n\nJust after we cross the road, two Russian shells come slamming down behind us on the other side. We turn around to see black smoke rising and keep on running.\n\nWas the shelling random or aimed at us? We can't be sure, but everything that moves in Bakhmut is a target - soldier or civilian.\n\nFor hours there is no let-up in the shelling, incoming and outgoing. A Russian fighter jet roars overhead. The nearest Russian troops are just two kilometres away.\n\nThere is street fighting in some areas, but Ukrainian forces still hold the city - despite sub-zero temperatures and dwindling ammunition.\n\n\"We have some shortages of ammunition of all kinds, especially artillery rounds,\" says Capt Mykhailo from the 93rd Mechanised Brigade, whose call sign is 'Polyglot'. \"We also need encrypted communication devices from our Western allies, and some armoured personnel carriers to move troops around. But we still manage. One of the main lessons of this war is how to fight with limited resources.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Capt Mykhailo says Ukrainian forces have to work with limited resources\n\nWe get an insight into the ammunition problems as Ukrainian troops target a Russian position with 60mm mortars. The first mortar round flies from the tube with a loud bang. The second round doesn't eject.\n\nThere's a hiss of smoke and a shout of \"misfire\" sending the mortar unit scrambling for cover. Troops tell us the ammunition is old stock, sent from abroad.\n\nThe battle for Bakhmut is a war within a war. Some of the fiercest fighting of the invasion has happened here. And now the Kremlin's forces are gaining ground, metre by metre, body by body. Wave after wave of mercenaries from the notorious Wagner group have been sent into battle here. There are reports of fields of Russian corpses.\n\nMoscow now has effective control of both main roads into the city, leaving just one back route left - a slender supply line.\n\n\"They have been trying to take the city since July,\" says Iryna, press officer of the 93rd Brigade. \"Little by little they are winning now. They have more resources, so if they play the long game they will win. I can't say how long it will take.\n\n\"Maybe they will run out of resources. I really hope so.\"\n\nWe move from carefully concealed firing positions to bunkers humming with generators and warmed by stoves. But troops take care to conceal any smoke which could give away their location - part of the housekeeping of war. Among those we meet there is calm determination to fight on.\n\n\"They are trying to encircle us so that we leave the city, but it's not working,\" says Ihor, a camouflage-clad commander, with a battle-hardened edge. \"The city is under control. Transport moves, despite constant artillery strikes. Of course, we have losses from our side, but we are holding on. We only have one option - to keep going to victory.\"\n\nWe only have one option - to keep going to victory\n\nThere is another option - to withdraw from Bakhmut before it's too late. But among the defenders on the ground there seems little appetite for that. \"If we have such an order from our HQ, OK, order is order,\" says Captain Myhailo. \"But what sense to hold all these months if you need to retreat from this city? No, we don't want to do this.\"\n\nHe recalls those who have given their lives for Bakhmut - \"a lot of good brave men who just love this country.\"\n\nAnd if the defenders of Bakhmut were to withdraw, it would pave the way for Russia to push towards bigger cities in eastern Ukraine like Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.\n\nMoscow has stepped up its attacks in other front-line areas in the Donbas region in the east, and in the south. Ukrainian officials say a new Russian offensive is already under way.\n\nThe Kremlin is on a clock, as it counts down to the anniversary on 24 February. \"They are mad about dates and so-called 'victory days',\" says Capt Mykhailo.\n\nBut the battle of attrition for Bakhmut could wear out the Russians, according to Viktor, a tall, lean Ukrainian commander who has captured Russian magazines on a shelf in his bunker.\n\n\"They don't defend now,\" he says, \"they just attack. They continue taking some metres, but we are trying to make sure they take as little of our land as possible. We are holding the enemy here and wearing them out.\"\n\nThere is still some life in Bakhmut if you know where to find it.\n\nA blast of heat and light hits you when you walk through the door of the \"invincibility hub\", past boxes of donated food supplies. It's a boxing club turned life-support system where local people can recharge their phones and themselves, with hot food and companionship.\n\nThere are still civilians living among the rubble of Bakhmut\n\nIt was crowded when we visited, with elderly women clustered around a stove, and two young boys sitting in the boxing ring, glued to a TV screen, and playing war games.\n\nAround 5,000 civilians remain in Bakhmut without running water or power - many are elderly and poor. \"Some are pro-Moscow. They are waiting for the Russians,\" a Ukrainian colleague mutters darkly.\n\nAll here are fighting their own battles says Tetiana, a 23-year-old psychologist who is at the hub watching over her young brother and sister. She's still in Bakhmut because her 86-year-old grandmother can't move and relies on her.\n\n\"Most people deal with it by praying to God,\" she says. \"Faith helps. Some forget that they are people. Some show aggression. They start behaving worse than animals.\"\n\nBack outside the battle for this broken city rages on, with a drum beat of shelling as we leave.\n\nAlmost one year on since the start of the conflict, what questions do you have about the war in Ukraine?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kat Watkins had to try 1,000 times to secure tickets by phone to watch Ed Sheeran in concert.\n\nKat Watkins is a woman who likes to live life to the full.\n\nShe's visiting South Africa in the spring, then it's France for the Rugby World Cup, where she hopes to see Wales in the final, having bought a ticket.\n\nKat also travels around the UK from her Swansea home to the theatre, museums, spas and concerts.\n\nBut as she is a wheelchair user, Kat can't get tickets by clicking a website link like most people - watching Ed Sheeran took 1,000 phone calls.\n\nBecause she needs a personal assistant to accompany her, Kat, like other disabled people, generally has to ring up ticket offices.\n\nThis means being restricted to office hours only - trickier if you work full-time - and having to get through phone systems.\n\nGetting tickets for disabled spaces can be an \"exhausting\" process, Kat says\n\nThis hasn't dampened her love of watching concerts, with Kat having seen Take That six times, as well as Westlife and JLS.\n\nWhile she praises Cardiff's Principality Stadium for offering accessible tickets for Ed Sheeran's mega-concerts without having to provide proof of disability, getting hold of them was another matter.\n\n\"I would ring, get 'beep, beep, beep', hang up - and it took 1,000 attempts,\" she said.\n\n\"And then when I got through to the wait, it was another 40 minutes. And luckily there were tickets left.\"\n\nKat did manage to get tickets to Tom Jones and Stereophonics quicker, but was again frustrated she could not simply book online.\n\nThe Principality Stadium said it currently dealt with tickets via the phone to understand customers' needs, but added it was planning on moving the purchase of accessibility tickets online.\n\nWheelchair and disabled facilities at venues are often good, but getting tickets can be the barrier\n\nWhen Kat visited the O2 arena in London to watch Take That's Mark Owen, she had to send her personal independence payment award through to prove her entitlement.\n\nThis is a common procedure, but requires people to do it repeatedly for different events.\n\nWales has made some progress in trying to ease the process, with the Arts Council of Wales establishing the Hynt scheme which offers people with disabilities a card showing their entitlement to carer tickets.\n\nThey only have to provide proof once when first applying.\n\nKat said it has removed a lot of the bureaucracy involved in getting tickets.\n\nHowever, even with the card, it doesn't automatically give people the opportunity to book online at many of the venues.\n\nAn exception is Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre - once a person registers the card, all they have to do is sign in online to be offered wheelchair or regular seats with a free companion ticket.\n\nAt the two biggest football clubs in Wales, Cardiff and Swansea, the contrast is marked.\n\nCardiff City's Disabled Supporters Association (DSA) has been in talks with the club for years about getting an online system in place, but fans needing a carer still have to ring or visit the ticket office.\n\nIn contrast, Swansea City decided in 2016 to develop its own bespoke ticketing system, with users registering their details and eligibility once to gain online ticket access.\n\nA club spokesman said after they have provided supporting documents to show their accessible needs, they are able to log into their account to get tickets.\n\nIn 2016, Swansea was the first Premier League club to provide the service and shared it with others.\n\nKieran Jones of Cardiff City's Disability Supporters Association said they had been asking for online booking capability for years\n\nAs an IT specialist, Kieran Jones from Cardiff City DSA finds it frustrating the club had not yet managed to set up a comprehensive online booking system, despite the fact people who need disabled spaces just for themselves can book online.\n\n\"The ticket office moved to a new system and they're still working with it,\" he said.\n\n\"It's the same system that Wales, the FAW [which uses Cardiff City Stadium for matches], have got so it will eventually allow people to book with a carer, but currently they haven't got that far.\"\n\nA Cardiff City spokesman said as a Premier League club in 2016, Swansea was in a different income bracket to Cardiff and had more potential to invest in ticketing.\n\nHowever, he added \"significant steps towards improvement\" have been made over the past couple of seasons.\n\nDisability Wales' Alexandra Osborne is a regular gig goer but has missed out on tickets because of having to ring up for them\n\nAlexandra Osborne from Disability Wales describes the ticketing situation at venues as a \"big issue, and has been long term\".\n\n\"An awful lot of our members, disabled people from across Wales, are saying that they missed out on another gig, or another concert, \" she said.\n\n\"You've always got to spend quite a long time looking it up before the tickets come out to make sure you don't end up missing out because you've called a number that last time is fine but this time is the wrong number.\"\n\nMs Osborne would like to see online and phone booking options available for disabled people.\n\nShe believes one single UK-wide access card, similar to Hynt but valid for all venues, would make a positive difference.\n\n\"It's a lot of work to apply for them all and then keep up, to make sure your passes haven't expired,\" she explained.\n\n\"If there was one pass so we could use it in any registered venue, I think it would just help with the awareness and people actually using them because it would be talked about a bit more.\"", "England earned a first win of Steve Borthwick's tenure with a pragmatic bonus-point win over Italy in the Six Nations at Twickenham.\n\nJack Willis marked his return to the side with an opening try before Ollie Chessum powered over for the second.\n\nJamie George added a third from close range but Italy hit back after the break through Marco Riccioni.\n\nA penalty try sealed the bonus and Henry Arundell scored a fifth, while Alessandro Fusco claimed a consolation.\n\nVictory for the hosts - their 30th win in 30 meetings with Italy - lifts them to third in the table, above defending champions France on points difference, while Italy drop down to fifth.\n\nBorthwick's men travel to Cardiff to face Wales in their next game on 25 February, after next weekend's break, as the Azzurri host world number one side Ireland earlier on the same day.\n• None Rugby Union Daily podcast: The weekend review with Barclay and Jiffy\n\nUnderwhelming England get the job done\n\nAfter a narrow opening round defeat by Scotland, the task for England was simple: beat perennial Six Nations underperformers Italy and build momentum at the beginning of the Borthwick era.\n\nThe overriding objective may have been achieved, but for 70 minutes this was far from a vintage England performance.\n\nCaptain Owen Farrell, moved from inside centre to fly-half, looked for territory but kicked possession away when the hosts had front-foot ball, and Henry Slade had a quiet game on his return to outside centre, but Ollie Lawrence carried and tackled hard in a new-look midfield.\n\nWillis was a notable performer, tirelessly hunting anything in a royal blue shirt before being rewarded for his defensive endeavour with the opening try.\n\nThe Toulouse back row was the beneficiary as England ran a line-out move off the training paddock and mauled their way over the line.\n\nEllis Genge showed deft hands to hand the second to Chessum after inviting contact close to the line and popping off the ball to his former Leicester Tigers team-mate to finish.\n\nThe line-out ladder has become synonymous with former lock Borthwick and his warm-up contribution with his pack, and the hard work seems to be paying off as George threw in the ball before joining the back of the maul and finishing off the third.\n\nA penalty try followed after the interval as Italy were penalised for their ill-discipline at the breakdown but one of the loudest cheers came when the exciting Arundell was introduced from the bench as Twickenham yearned for more free-flowing rugby.\n\nThe wing had few touches but he was on hand to capitalise as fellow replacement Alex Mitchell spotted a gap in the tiring Azzurri defence late and fed him to dart through and produce an acrobatic finish in the corner.\n\nItaly were so close to a huge upset against last year's Grand Slam winners France in their opening game but they ultimately failed to see it through.\n\nFacing England at Twickenham has previously been an altogether different tasks. The Azzurri had not beaten England in any of 29 attempts before Sunday but they played with a fluidity that their hosts lacked.\n\nThey had more possession (52%) and made 286 more metres than England as they looked to keep the ball alive.\n\nThe visitors did not trouble the scorers in the first 40 minutes, but Riccioni marked his first international start since November 2021 with a powerful surge as many of the spectators inside Twickenham were still to return to their seats at the start of the second half.\n\nAnge Capuozzo was a constant threat as he glided across the turf and spun his way out of trouble several times. A second try came through Fusco, who rode the tackle and dived over at full stretch to give the travelling fans a glimmer of hope.\n\nItaly's ill-discipline cost them as they conceded two first-half tries while Lorenzo Cannone was in the sin bin, but their attacking intent has to be commended as this young side - with an average age of 26 - continue to employ a fast-paced game.\n\nWhat they said\n\nFormer England scrum-half Danny Care on BBC Radio 5 Live: \"I think Steve Borthwick and the coaches will be happy. England went back to basics, they kicked well and attacked well, and were clinical when they got chances.\n\n\"One thing for certain is England are about to play better teams than today. Going to Wales, Wales have not played well at all this tournament and they will pitch up against England.\n\n\"But away to Ireland and home to France, that is where we will have an indication how good this England team is.\n\n\"Fair play to Italy they stuck on in there. I think they will beat someone in this tournament if everything comes together.\"", "Will Ferrell enjoyed a pint at The Turf in Wrexham ahead of Saturday's match\n\nHollywood actor Will Ferrell was spotted in Wrexham by football fans ahead of the club's match on Saturday.\n\nThe comedian known for films including Elf and Step Brothers, was enjoying a pint at The Turf before kick-off.\n\nHis surprise appearance was initially met with excitement and disbelief by pub-goers.\n\nWrexham AFC, co-owned by Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds and American actor Rob McElhenney, went on to win 3-1 against Wealdstone FC in the National League.\n\nJordan Griffiths, 30, said: \"Basically me and two mates have just been in The Turf having a pint as usual, and then some phones and chanting went up. We went to leave The Turf, and then another Wrexham fan said 'Come have a look, it's Will Ferrell'.\n\nFerrell and Reynolds starred alongside each other in Apple TV's Spirited\n\n\"We laughed and didn't believe it, walked over and it was the man himself. He was just having a pint before the game.\"\n\nWhen asked what it was like to see such a well-known name in his local, he added: \"To be honest, it's becoming normal now. [The] club's always had huge potential, but we just laugh about it now as it's been a crazy two years.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Wrexham AFC This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis week marked two years since the football club was taken over by the Hollywood duo.\n\nDeadpool actor Reynolds and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator McElhenney completed their takeover of the National League club for £2m in February 2021.\n\nSince then the club has reached the league play-offs and a FA Trophy Final at Wembley and their takeover has been charted by the Disney+ series Welcome to Wrexham.\n\nLast year, Ferrell and Reynolds starred alongside each other in Apple TV's Spirited.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A police van was set on fire outside a hotel housing asylum seekers\n\nFifteen people, including a 13-year-old boy, have been arrested after violent clashes outside a Merseyside hotel accommodating asylum seekers.\n\nA police officer and two members of the public suffered minor injuries during the disorder in Knowsley on Friday.\n\nA police van was set alight and missiles including lit fireworks were thrown at officers.\n\nThirteen males and two women, aged between 13 and 54, have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder.\n\nA peaceful protest and counter protest had been taking place outside the Suites Hotel when police said a group of people arrived who were \"only interested in causing trouble\".\n\nChief Constable Serena Kennedy said: \"They turned up armed with hammers and fireworks to cause as much trouble as they could and their actions could have resulted in members of the public and police officers being seriously injured, or worse.\"\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman said she condemned the \"appalling disorder\".\n\n\"The alleged behaviour of some asylum seekers is never an excuse for violence and intimidation,\" she said in a tweet, also thanking Merseyside Police officers for \"keeping everyone safe\".\n\nA spokeswoman for the Home Office said the violence was \"totally unacceptable\".\n\n\"We are working closely with Merseyside Police and partners on the ground to ensure the safety of those in our care and the wider community,\" they added.\n\nA dispersal order has been put in place for the area for 48 hours.\n\nA police van was set on fire in the riot\n\nSir George Howarth MP, Labour MP for Knowsley, said \"an alleged incident posted on social media\" had triggered the demonstration.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called the incident \"shameful and appalling\", while also claiming Ms Braverman was \"wrong to dismiss far right threats for political reasons\".\n\nShe added: \"Instead she should be championing vigilance against all kinds of extremism.\"\n\nPolice confirmed they had been investigating reports that \"a man made inappropriate advances toward a teenage girl\" in Kirkby on Monday.\n\nNo victim had been initially identified and a man in his 20s was arrested on Thursday in another part of the country on suspicion of a public order offence, Chief Constable Kennedy said.\n\nHe was released with no further action following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).\n\nThe investigation was \"ongoing\" and Chief Constable Kennedy appealed for anyone with information to contact the police.\n\n\"Social media speculation, misinformation and rumour can actually damage the outcome of investigations and cause unnecessary fear and consequent behaviour, so I would continue to ask people to be mindful of the damage that such actions can cause.\"\n\nWitnesses described the violence as \"terrifying\"\n\nOn the night of the violence, Sir George told the BBC: \"The people of Knowsley are not bigots and are welcoming to people escaping from some of the most dangerous places in the world in search of a place of safety.\n\n\"Those demonstrating against refugees at this protest tonight do not represent this community.\"\n\nAhmed, who did not want to give his second name, said he saw the protest from a window in the hotel, where he has been staying for a month as a political asylum seeker.\n\nThe 34-year-old said he had been a teacher in Egypt and others staying in the hotel included doctors and engineers, adding: \"People are afraid.\n\n\"We respect this country. We come here to search [for] freedom… but I'm shocked this happened.\"\n\nHe said he thought the violent actions only represented a minority, adding \"in any country, some people are good, some people are not good\".\n\nAlan Marsden, who lives locally, said he attended the protest after seeing the allegations \"on TikTok and online\" but left when it became clear it was no longer peaceful.\n\nThe 59-year-old said: \"It was bad. Kids with masks and balaclavas on turned up. There were 300 or 400 people here.\n\n\"It was mostly women and children until all the hooligans turned up.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Ahmed said he and others staying at the hotel were afraid\n\nClare Moseley, founder of refugee charity Care4Calais, said the scene was \"like a war zone\".\n\nShe said she was among 100 to 120 people from pro-migrant groups who went to the scene in reaction to the protest to show support for the asylum seekers.\n\nShe added that counter protesters had been \"barricaded in a car park\".\n\n\"I was really frightened for us, I was really frightened for the people in the hotel,\" she said.\n\n\"All you could hear was fighting in every direction. Fireworks going off, banging, locks flying, smashing glass, and you could hear people shouting.\n\n\"The police van went right up in flames and exploded, then [the protesters] broke through again and started fighting with the police.\"\n\nThe protesters were \"very organised and very violent\", Ms Mosley added.\n\nExtra police officers will be on patrol in the area following the riot\n\nCh Con Kennedy said: \"There is no excuse for the violence that was carried out last night and we will arrest anyone who fails to heed this advice.\"\n\nExtra police officers will be on patrol in the area while a dispersal order has been implemented until Monday afternoon.\n\nKnowsley Council previously said it had been given less than 48 hours' notice in January 2022 of the Home Office's intention to temporarily accommodate asylum seekers at the hotel.\n\nIt is understood the government appointed private company Serco to manage the hotel site and provide support to asylum seekers there.\n\nKnowsley Council said it was \"not involved in that contract\" and was not being paid to accommodate asylum seekers, but said it was committed to supporting people fleeing persecution.\n\nThe government has been accommodating asylum seekers in Knowsley since 2016, the council said.\n\nCorrection 16 March 2023: This article was amended to remove an out of date annual cost of the asylum system which could be confusing to readers. We also updated information about the daily cost of hotels.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Mr Sharp appeared before a committee of MPs on Tuesday\n\nBBC chairman Richard Sharp made \"significant errors of judgement\" in acting as a go-between on a loan for Boris Johnson while he was applying for the post, MPs have said.\n\nA cross-party committee said he had not given them the \"full facts\" two years ago when they were considering his suitability for the BBC role.\n\nHe should consider how this affected trust in him and the BBC, it said.\n\nMr Sharp apologised if MPs felt they had not had the details they needed.\n\nHis involvement in the then-Prime Minister Mr Johnson obtaining an £800,000 loan guarantee has come under scrutiny since the Sunday Times first reported the claims last month.\n\nBusinessman Sam Blyth, a distant cousin of Mr Johnson and Mr Sharp's friend, had reportedly raised the idea of acting as a loan guarantor for Mr Johnson in 2020.\n\nWhen he appeared before MPs on the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee this week, Mr Sharp said he did not help arrange this guarantee or give Mr Johnson financial advice.\n\nHe was named as the government's preferred candidate for the BBC chairmanship in January 2021 and at the time the DCMS Committee backed his appointment.\n\nThe government's choice is ultimately decided by the prime minister, on the advice of the culture secretary, who is in turn advised by a panel.\n\nIn its report published on Sunday, the DCMS Committee is highly critical of Mr Sharp's failure to mention any involvement he had in events surrounding the loan when they were considering his suitability for the job.\n\nThe report said his decisions to \"become involved in the facilitation of a loan to the then-prime minister while at the same time applying for a job that was in that same person's gift\" and failure to disclose this to the committee undermined confidence in the public appointments process.\n\nEarlier this week Mr Sharp had told the committee he had met Cabinet Secretary Simon Case in December 2020 to get permission to pass on Mr Blyth's details to him.\n\nHowever, at the same meeting he had told Mr Case that he had applied for the BBC job, and therefore agreed he would have \"no further participation\" in order to avoid any conflict of interest or perception of conflict given his application to the BBC.\n\nIn its highly critical report, MPs said Mr Sharp had recognised the need to be \"open and transparent\" by bringing it to the attention of the cabinet secretary, but \"failed to apply the same standards of openness and candour in his decision not to divulge this information during the interview process or to this committee during the pre-appointment hearing [for the BBC job]\".\n\n\"Mr Sharp's failure to disclose his actions to the panel and the committee, although he believed this to be completely proper, constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals applying for such public appointments,\" the report added.\n\nThe report concluded: \"Mr Sharp should consider the impact his omissions will have on trust in him, the BBC and the public appointments process.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Sharp said he did not facilitate an introduction between Mr Johnson and Mr Blyth and he was not involved in the arrangement of a loan between them.\n\n\"Mr Sharp appreciates that there was information that the committee felt that it should have been made aware of in his pre-appointment hearing. He regrets this and apologises.\n\n\"It was in seeking at the time to ensure that the rules were followed, and in the belief that this had been achieved, that Mr Sharp acted in good faith in the way he did.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added: \"Mr Sharp believed he had dealt with the issue by proactively briefing the cabinet secretary that he was applying for the role of BBC chair, and therefore beyond connecting Mr Blyth with Mr Case, he recused himself from the matter.\"\n\nThe DCMS Committee report was also critical of ministers who had defended the decision to endorse Mr Sharp in 2021 after the row over the loan broke, despite the fact they had not been told about the situation.\n\n\"The fact that ministers have cited this committee's original report on Mr Sharp's appointment as a defence of the process was followed, when we were not in full possession of all the facts that we should have had before us in order to come to our judgement, is highly unsatisfactory,\" the report said.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said Mr Sharp was made BBC chairman following two \"transparent and rigorous\" appointment processes, adding the appointment was made by his predecessor.\n\nAccording to the Sunday Times, a leaked memo from Mr Case allegedly warned Mr Johnson to \"no longer\" ask for financial advice from Mr Sharp.\n\nBut the MPs in this new report said there was an \"unresolved issue\" as to why the cabinet secretary had believed Mr Sharp had been giving financial advice to Mr Johnson and called on the Cabinet Office to \"clear up the confusion relating to the advice given to the prime minister immediately\", given that Mr Sharp had said this was not the case.\n\nActing Chair of the DCMS Committee Damian Green MP said: \"The public appointments process can only work effectively if everyone is open and transparent, yet Richard Sharp chose not to tell either the appointment panel or our committee about his involvement in the facilitation of a loan to Boris Johnson.\"\n\nA Cabinet Office spokesperson said: \"We do not comment on leaks.\"\n\nFor those of us following this story in detail, a fascinating element is the memo written by the Cabinet Office to Boris Johnson on 22 December 2020.\n\nMr Sharp is about to be announced as BBC chairman, a role appointed by the then-prime minister. So Boris Johnson is told he must \"no longer ask him advice about your personal financial matters\".\n\nMr Sharp says he never gave Mr Johnson advice about his finances. So why is the memo phrased in that way? The committee has called upon the Cabinet Office to clear up the confusion immediately.\n\nThe committee doesn't call for him to resign, but it does come close to suggesting Mr Sharp considers his position when it says he should consider the impact his actions have had on trust in him and the BBC.\n\nIt is not at all certain that, even if he had declared this potential conflict of interest, somebody else would have been chosen as BBC chairman.\n\nThe process, though, is under scrutiny and we now await the investigation by the public appointments watchdog.\n\nShadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said the BBC chairman's position was becoming \"increasingly untenable\" and it \"throws into serious doubt the impartiality and independence that is so fundamental to trust in the BBC.\"\n\nThe Liberal Democrats said Mr Johnson also needed to answer questions as part of an independent inquiry.\n\nThe watchdog that oversees how public appointments are made is also reviewing the process of how Mr Sharp was hired.\n\nWilliam Shawcross, the Commissioner for Public Appointments, recused himself from heading up that review last month after writing to the DCMS to say he had met Mr Sharp on \"previous occasions\".\n\nThe BBC is also conducting its own internal review over any potential conflicts of interest Mr Sharp may have in his role as BBC chairman.\n\nForeign Office minister Andrew Mitchell told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme it was important to wait for the watchdog's report.\n\n\"We need to be fair to all parties in this, including Richard Sharp,\" he said.\n\nMr Mitchell added: \"The BBC is not a silent part of all of this, the board of the BBC will need to consider what he's said and reach their own conclusions. I think the government will react appropriately to that.\"", "Stars on this year's red carpet opted for a mix of unusual silhouettes, bare baby bumps, sparkles, ruffles, metallics and pearls.\n\nThere was something for everyone's fashion tastes this year - plus plenty more besides.\n\nSome stars opted for traditional red-carpet looks, while others wore unconventional outfits, guaranteed to attract attention.\n\nDouble nominee Sam Smith (pictured above) went for the latter, and looked like they might float away in this eye-catching black, plastic ensemble - we hope they were okay when they tried to sit down.\n\nUS singer and rapper Ashnikko's eye-catching outfit merged with her body like a second layer of highly unusual skin, topped off with her trademark blue hair.\n\nThe often colourful Harry Styles, who won the night with four awards, wore a flared black jacket and trousers, with an enormous matching corsage on his neck.\n\nLizzo, who performed live at the show, looked as Good as Hell in a fabulous gold, full-length ruffle, framing her dark metallic dress.\n\nEliza Rose, who was up for song of the year, was resplendent in head-to-toe Vivienne Westwood, including the late designer's trademark orb and pearl necklace.\n\nWet Leg, the Brits' most-nominated band, wore belts, lace and ruffles, combined with earthy-toned suits and shirts, and some pretty comfy-looking shoes.\n\nNova Twins, who were up for best group, wore stunning dresses framed by hoop petticoats and adorned with safety pins and tartan, adding a splash of colour to the red carpet.\n\nIf you have a beautiful baby bump, why not show it off? The singer Jessie J's bright red ruffles and lace outfit highlighted hers.\n\nThe singer Kamille, swathed in green, silky fabric, also made her baby bump the focus of her striking outfit, cradling it in matching gloves.\n\nSinger MNEK opted for full coverage in a lot of pink, with customised sparkling eye-makeup and nails, and a matching clutch bag.\n\nFlo, winners of the rising star award, opted for dresses made from the same burgundy material shaped into figure-hugging gowns, each with its own individual twist of style.\n\nThe singer Lewis Capaldi carried a huge, imaginary Brit Award as he walked down the red carpet.\n\nS Club 7 fans would have been delighted to see Jo O'Meara, Rachel Stevens and Tina Barrett lined up together, all in traditional full-length gowns.\n\nMeanwhile the Sugababes' Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy joined forces - it was a mix of sharp suits for Keisha and Siobhan, and a black dress for Mutya, showcasing her body art.\n\nRuPaul's Drag Race judge Michelle Visage, one of the red carpet livestream hosts, dazzled in a patriotic Union flag-inspired outfit.\n\nClara Amfo, co-hosting live from the red carpet for ITV2, was looking fierce in some very high heels and a classy black gown with a long train.\n\nMaya Jama, also a red carpet host, wore black, with gold jewellery, adding a splash of glitter on the front of her fitted dress that tied in with her matching earrings and shoes.", "One of Ukraine's closest allies has cast doubt on whether it would be able to supply President Volodymyr Zelenksy with the fighter jets he says are needed to win the war with Russia.\n\nPoland's President, Andrzej Duda - speaking exclusively to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg - said sending F-16 aircraft would be a \"very serious decision\" that was \"not easy to take\".\n\nPoland has been one of Ukraine's most vocal supporters since Russia invaded.\n\nLast month, it was one of several countries to pledge to send more tanks, ammunition and equipment to the front line.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Poland's President, Andrzej Duda: \"This (sending jets) requires a decision by the allies\"\n\nPresident Duda's comments come despite him and President Zelensky having spoken this week - at the end of the Ukrainian leader's surprise headline-grabbing European tour. In London, President Zelensky used his speech in Parliament to call for the means to help fight Russia in the air:\n\n\"I appeal to you and the world with the simple, and yet most important words - combat aircraft for Ukraine, wings for freedom.\"\n\nUkraine's leader repeated that call in Paris and Brussels, in a rare departure from his country, under the tightest of security. He made headlines right around the world.\n\nIn Warsaw, President Duda told me sending F-16 jets would pose a \"serious problem\" because, with fewer than 50 of the aircraft in the Polish air force, \"we have not enough… and we would need many more of them.\"\n\nHe also stressed that combat aircraft, like the F-16s, have a \"very serious need for maintenance\" so it's \"not enough just to send a few planes\".\n\nWith Poland being a Nato member, said Mr Duda, any decision to provide fighter jets had to be a \"joint decision\" - rather than one for any single country to take.\n\nThere are also nerves about whether providing planes would pull Nato directly into the conflict - and even into war against Russia itself. At the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, Duda said sending jets would \"open a military interference in the Ukrainian conflict\". But - in direct response to Ukraine's request for planes this week - the Polish leader's comments are significant.\n\nAs Ukraine's neighbour, President Duda has been one of the most ardent supporters of President Zelensky and has contributed vast amounts of military aid, becoming the main supplier of heavy weaponry - including infantry fighting vehicles and artillery, drones and ammunition.\n\nDuda was also at the forefront of pushing other allies to promise to provide tanks in recent weeks.\n\nPresident Zelensky (l) met Mr Duda in Poland on Friday at the end of his surprise European tour\n\nAfter notable reluctance from Germany, and a fraught debate across Europe about the risks of escalating the conflict, Leopard tanks will arrive in Ukraine, along with Challengers from the UK and Abrams from the US.\n\nPoland has also provided homes to millions of Ukrainian refugees.\n\nPresident Duda is adamant that \"weaponry has to be delivered to Ukraine all the time… it needs armaments.\" But it is clear he doesn't think sending combat aircraft in large numbers is likely from Poland or any other ally, at least in the short term.\n\nThe UK also made it clear pretty rapidly that sending planes to Ukraine was not realistic in the immediate future.\n\nYes, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said \"nothing was off the table\" while he savoured his photo opportunity with President Zelensky in front of a tank this week - jeans tucked into unlaced boots, tieless, alongside the Ukrainian leader in his familiar army sweatshirt and combat trousers.\n\nBut before too long, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was making plain that would mean training for pilots and other support first. No UK jets will take off for Ukraine any time soon.\n\nAll week, British politicians have been falling over themselves to associate with the biggest political celebrity in the world right now, President Zelenksy, sharing their blurry phone snaps of his historic Westminster Hall speech and giving interviews about how moving it was to be there.\n\nIn Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron greeted him like a film star in front of the Elysee Palace. EU leaders then frantically tweeted pictures of their own \"grip and grin\" moments with the Ukrainian leader later.\n\nThere is staunch support for President Zelensky without doubt. It's not just shown in flowery language and promises of commitment but, as President Duda explains, with guns, tanks and drones, plus support for refugees, rather than selfies with MPs. Western allies emphasise how countries have come together in a way that will have disappointed and frustrated Vladimir Putin.\n\nLeaders, like Poland's president, underline the threat they feel to their own countries. Talking to him in Warsaw about the conflict is a world away from conversations in Westminster, with the Russian border at Kaliningrad only about 200 miles away.\n\nThe dilemma over jets is another example of the fraught calculations our leaders face. What is practically possible in terms of supporting Ukraine? And what is politically and diplomatically viable, without provoking a wider war?\n\nPoland and other countries' firm backing does not mean the West, or even Ukraine's closest allies, will or can say \"yes\" to his every request. One senior diplomatic source suggests President Zelensky is, of course, well aware of this.\n\nHis headline-grabbing journey this week was not just about the jets, and it doesn't look like it will soon result in \"wings for freedom\". But - as we approach the anniversary of Russia's invasion - his European tour's careful choreography, and powerful imagery will have reminded not just Western politicians but also their publics, of what is at stake.", "The Russian women arrive in Argentina heavily pregnant, the country's national migration agency said\n\nMore than 5,000 pregnant Russian women have entered Argentina in recent months, including 33 on a single flight on Thursday, officials say.\n\nThe latest arrivals were all in the final weeks of pregnancy, according to the national migration agency.\n\nIt is believed the women want to make sure their babies are born in Argentina to obtain Argentine citizenship.\n\nThe number of arrivals has increased recently, which local media suggests is a result of the war in Ukraine.\n\nOf the 33 women who arrived in the Argentine capital on one flight on Thursday, three were detained because of \"problems with their documentation\", joining three more who arrived the previous day, migration agency head Florencia Carignano told La Nacion.\n\nThe Russian women had initially claimed they were visiting Argentina as tourists, she said.\n\n\"In these cases it was detected that they did not come here to engage in tourism activities. They acknowledged it themselves.\"\n\nShe said the Russian women wanted their children to have Argentine citizenship because it gave more freedom than a Russian passport.\n\n\"The problem is that they come to Argentina, sign up their children as Argentinean and leave. Our passport is very secure across the world. It allows [passport-holders] to enter 171 countries visa-free,\" Ms Carignano said.\n\nHaving an Argentine child also speeds up the citizenship process for parents. As it stands, Russians can travel visa-free to only 87 countries.\n\nTravel to many Western countries has become more difficult for Russians since their country invaded Ukraine last February.\n\nLast September, the visa facilitation agreement between the EU and Russia was suspended, resulting in the need for additional documentation, increased processing times and more restrictive rules for the issuing of visas.\n\nA number of countries have also suspended tourist visas for Russians, including all EU member states that border Russia.\n\nA lawyer for the three women who were detained on Thursday said that they are being \"falsely imprisoned\", as they are being held on suspicion of being \"false tourists\". This is a term \"which does not exist in our legislation,\" Christian Rubilar said.\n\n\"These women who didn't commit a crime, who didn't break any migratory law, are being illegally deprived of their freedom,\" he added.\n\nThe women have since been released.\n\nLa Nacion attributed the dramatic uptick in arrivals of Russian citizens to the war in Ukraine, saying that \"besides fleeing war and their country's health service, [Russian women] are attracted by their [right of] visa-free entry to Argentina, as well as by the high-quality medicine and variety of hospitals\".\n\n\"Birth tourism\" by Russian citizens to Argentina appears to be a lucrative and well-established practice.\n\nA Russian-language website seen by the BBC offers various packages for expecting mothers who wish to give birth in Argentina. The website advertises services such as personalised birth plans, airport pick-ups, Spanish lessons and discounts on the cost of stays in \"the best hospitals in the Argentinian capital\".\n\nThe packages range from \"economy class\", starting at $5,000 (£4,144), to \"first class\", starting at $15,000 (£12,433).\n\nThe website says its founder has been facilitating birth tourism and offering migration support since 2015, and the company says it is \"100% Argentinian\".\n\nOn Saturday, La Nacion reported that Argentine police had been carrying out raids as part of an investigation into a \"million-dollar business and illicit network\" that allegedly provided pregnant Russian women and their partners with fake documents issued in record time to allow them to settle in Argentina.\n\nPolice said the gang charged up to $35,000 (£29,011) for the service.\n\nNo arrests were made, but police were said to have seized laptops and tablets, as well as immigration papers and significant quantities of cash.\n• None Separated by the virus (and 8,000 miles) from their newborn", "BBC correspondent Quentin Sommerville is in the rebel-held town of Harem in Idlib, Syria, where relief supplies are struggling to get through.\n\nMore than 24,000 people are now known to have died after Monday's earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria.", "Makeshift camps have popped up in the wreckage of collapsed buildings in the rebel-held town of Harem in Idlib, as rescuers continue to search for survivors.\n\nAid supplies have struggled to reach Syria after Monday's earthquake, which has killed more than 25,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria.", "Sky Brown has become Great Britain's first skateboarding world champion at the age of 14.\n\nBrown won gold in park skateboarding at the World Championships in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, with a best score of 90.83 from her three runs.\n\nThat put her more than four points ahead of Japan's Kokona Hiraki, with Olympic champion Sakura Yosozumi, also from Japan, taking bronze.\n\n\"Being on the podium with these guys again is so crazy,\" said Brown.\n\n\"It's just been really fun. I was trying to enjoy it as much as I could.\n\n\"Landing all three of my runs was an amazing feeling.\"\n\nBrown became Great Britain's youngest Olympic medal winner of all time when she won park bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Games.\n\nThe World Championships are the first park qualifying event for the Paris Olympics next year.\n\nSkateboarding was one of four new sports added to the Olympics in 2020, with skateboarding events held in both 'park' and 'street' categories of the sport.", "Fugitive and drugs boss Richard Wakeling was arrested on Friday as he went to collect his car at a garage in Thailand\n\nA drug gang boss who has been on the run for five years has been arrested in Thailand, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has said.\n\nRichard Wakeling, 55, of Brentwood, Essex, fled the country in January 2018 on the eve of his trial.\n\nHe was convicted in his absence of trying to import £8m of amphetamines in 2016 and jailed for 11 years in April 2018 at Chelmsford Crown Court.\n\nWakeling had been on the NCA's most wanted list.\n\nHe was arrested by Thai police on Friday at a Bangkok garage as he went to collect his car after repairs.\n\nThe NCA said he was found in possession of a passport in another identity.\n\nWakeling, who had been living in the beachside town of Hua Hin, remains in custody and extradition proceedings are under way.\n\nDavid Coyle, NCA regional manager for Thailand, said: \"The NCA has worked relentlessly to trace Wakeling and ensure he returns to the UK to serve his prison sentence.\"\n\nWakeling leaves his home for the last time in January 2018\n\nIn 2019 the NCA issued an appeal for help finding Wakeling and released CCTV footage of him before he fled.\n\nIt began its investigation into Wakeling's organised crime group after Border Force colleagues stopped a truck boarding a Channel Tunnel train on 9 April 2016.\n\nThe driver was transporting furniture from Italy but stopped at Ternat in Belgium where phone evidence showed he was directed to collect the drugs.\n\nThe entire importation was set up by Wakeling.\n\nHe was in contact with drug suppliers in the Netherlands and liaised with two other UK offenders to arrange the journey.\n\nOfficers believe the crime group had organised at least six other importations before the 2016 seizure.\n\nRichard Wakeling, who had strong family links to Thailand, will now be returned to the UK\n\nJacque Beer, NCA regional head of investigations, said: \"Wakeling's arrest was the culmination of the NCA conducting enquiries around the world to capture him.\n\n\"Wakeling had links to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Canada, Spain and Thailand.\n\n\"We pursued these connections and worked with partners from all those countries to help build the intelligence picture around him.\n\n\"We have been supported by the public who responded to the media and Crimewatch appeals to provide intelligence all of which has ultimately led to his capture.\"\n\nLorry drivers Lesley Muffett, 59, of Campbell Road, Witham, and Stuart Davidson, 65, of Chesham Drive, Basildon, as well as Darren Keane, 34, of Kiln Drive, Milton Keynes, were convicted of their involvement alongside the absent Wakeling after a 12-week trial.\n\nKeane was jailed for nine years, Davidson to eight years and Muffett for six years for conspiring to import drugs.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None Drugs gang kingpin still on the run\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nathan Jones: Southampton sack manager after just three months in charge Last updated on .From the section Southampton\n\nMatch of the Day 2: Who could replace Nathan Jones at Southampton? Southampton have sacked manager Nathan Jones after just 95 days in charge of the Premier League club. Former Luton Town boss Jones, 49, leaves with Saints bottom of the table after Saturday's loss to 10-men Wolves. The Welshman, who is Southampton's shortest-serving boss in the Premier League era, lost nine of 14 matches after taking the job on 10 November. That record included eight defeats in nine Premier League games and four successive home losses at St Mary's. He is the eighth Premier League manager to be sacked this season. First-team coaches Chris Cohen and Alan Sheehan have also left the club, while lead coach Ruben Selles will take charge of Saturday's Premier League match at Chelsea. Despite leading 1-0 with a man advantage on Saturday, Jones watched his side slump to a home defeat against fellow strugglers Wolves which was greeted with boos from the Saints fans at the full-time whistle. He walked straight down the tunnel, rather than applaud the home support, and said after the match he did not know if it would be his last game in charge. Southampton 1-2 Wolves: Jones' last BBC interview as Saints boss before sacking \"I have never done that in my life before,\" Jones said of his decision to immediately leave for the dressing room. \"In 390 games, I have never done that. But I am not sure if me going round clapping would have shown respect.\" Southampton supporters had chanted \"you're getting sacked in the morning\" and \"Nathan Jones, get out of our club\" after their previous league defeat at Brentford. Jones gave an emotional response to that 3-0 loss, saying he had \"let the players down\". \"I haven't really put my own stamp on it and I should have by now,\" Jones told the BBC's Match of the Day programme. \"I want to be brutally honest with this - I have let the players down.\" Premier League managers who did not last 100 days Jones succeeded Ralph Hasenhuttl in November on a three-and-a-half-year contract after leaving Championship side Luton. He lost four of his first five matches in charge, with the only victory in that run a 2-1 EFL Cup win over League One Lincoln. But three wins in the space of a week over Crystal Palace in the FA Cup, Manchester City in the EFL Cup and Everton in the Premier League, then suggested Jones might have turned their fortunes around, only for back to back league defeats to end his reign. Jones made his name during two successful spells with Luton, either side of an ill-fated 38 matches in charge of Stoke City. He initially took over at Kenilworth Road in 2016 with the Hatters struggling in League Two, guiding them to second in League One, before being tempted to make the step up to the Championship with Stoke in 2019. After winning just six of those 38 matches, Jones returned to a Luton side 23rd in the Championship, helping them stay up on the final day of the 2019-20 season. He then led them to last season's Championship play-offs, where they were beaten by Huddersfield Town in the semi-finals, and signed a new five-year deal with the Hatters last January.\n• None Visit our Southampton page for all the latest Saints news, analysis and fan views\n• None You can now get Southampton news notifications in the BBC Sport app - find out more\n• None Our coverage of Southampton is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything Saints - go straight to all the best content", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nNewcastle extended their unbeaten run to a club record-equalling 17 league games but were forced to settle for a point on Eddie Howe's return to Bournemouth.\n\nHaving spent more than 10 years as Bournemouth manager across two spells, Howe was back at the Vitality Stadium with his Newcastle side pushing for a Champions League spot and his old club stuck in the bottom three.\n\nHowever, it was Bournemouth who went in front after half an hour when Dango Ouattara flicked on a corner and Marcos Senesi was left unmarked at the far post to stab home.\n\nMiguel Almiron equalised for the Magpies in first-half stoppage time, firing into the bottom corner after Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto had kept out Sean Longstaff's shot following good work down the left by Allan Saint-Maximin.\n• None Go straight to all the best Bournemouth content\n\nAnthony Gordon missed a glorious opportunity to put Newcastle in front in the 70th minute and although the visitors pressed for a winner late on, it was Bournemouth who came closest to taking all three points when Dominic Solanke's flick was cleared off the line by Kieran Trippier in the last minute of the 90.\n\nNewcastle stay fourth after a fifth draw in six Premier League games, while Bournemouth move to within a point of safety but stay 19th.\n\nNewcastle miss opportunity to strengthen grip on top four\n\nIt shows how far Newcastle have come under Howe that there will be frustration following a result that keeps gives them a two-point cushion in fourth.\n\nBut while they are still far exceeding pre-season expectations, they now hold themselves to a higher standard and, up against a side battling relegation, they failed to meet it.\n\nBruno Guimaraes was serving the second game of a three-match ban and was sorely missed in the midfield, particularly during an uncharacteristically sloppy first-half showing.\n\nThere was an improvement in the second half but save for Gordon's gilt-edged chance when Neto spilled Saint-Maximin's shot and smothered Longstaff's follow-up, Newcastle chances were at a premium.\n\nIt is a third straight draw and fifth in six games, and while a point at Arsenal can be seen as a point gained, draws with Leeds, Crystal Palace, West Ham and Bournemouth fall closer to the two points dropped category.\n\nFor all that a top-four finish this season would appear to show Newcastle are ahead of schedule under Howe, in a season in which Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham are all under-performing to differing extents, a better chance may be a long time coming.\n\nNewcastle are still ahead of the chasing pack, and with the Carabao Cup final to come as well there is every reason for optimism and enthusiasm at St James' Park, but they will hope this run of draws does not result in a feeling of 'what might have been' come the end of the season.\n\nBournemouth centimetres away from three precious points\n\nEvery point is important when you're in a relegation scrap and taking one off a side competing at the top of the table might even be considered a bonus.\n\nBournemouth have every reason to be satisfied with their performance against Newcastle but they came ever so close to a memorable win.\n\nNewcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope's poor pass out from the back put Sven Botman in trouble, Hamed Traore nipped in and his low cross was flicked goalwards by Solanke.\n\nPope was beaten but Trippier got back on the goalline to hack the ball clear.\n\nIt would be exaggerating to say Bournemouth deserved to win but the way Gary O'Neil's side stood up to Newcastle should give them confidence for the matches to come.\n\nSenesi's goal - his first for Bournemouth - came after a good spell from the home side, they forced some of Newcastle's untidiness and could have been further ahead had the decision making and execution been better in a number of promising situations.\n\nDefensively, they were solid for much of the game and, after conceding late in recent games with Nottingham Forest and Brighton, the manner in which they kept Newcastle at arm's length in the closing stages was a big step forward.\n• None Offside, Newcastle United. Dan Burn tries a through ball, but Elliot Anderson is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Jack Stephens.\n• None Joelinton (Newcastle United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Joelinton (Newcastle United) left footed shot from the left side of the box is too high. Assisted by Anthony Gordon.\n• None Attempt blocked. Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth) right footed shot from very close range is blocked. Assisted by Hamed Traorè with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Hamed Traorè (Bournemouth) right footed shot from outside the box is too high from a direct free kick.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Substitution, Newcastle United. Elliot Anderson replaces Allan Saint-Maximin because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nHaaland set up Gundogan to score his third Premier League goal of the season Three first-half goals helped Manchester City see off Aston Villa in their first game since being accused of more than 100 rule breaches by the Premier League. Those allegations have made it a testing week off the pitch for the defending champions but they responded in impressive style with some vibrant early attacking play, and were able to survive a slightly nervy finish. It was not quite a vintage display by Pep Guardiola's side, who will go top of the table if they beat leaders Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, but they were much more like their old selves. The noisy atmosphere certainly helped. Guardiola had issued a defiant response to the charges before the game, and City's fans reacted in similar fashion at a vibrant Etihad Stadium, singing songs about their situation and in support of their manager, and also the club's owner Sheikh Mansour. Match of the Day 2: 'Man City seem to have remembered where they need to be' City's players appeared galvanised too, and made the perfect start when Rodri headed home Riyad Mahrez's corner, but they had to wait until just before the break to add to their lead. Calum Chambers' attempt to cut out a Kevin de Bruyne through-ball saw him head the ball beyond his on-rushing keeper Emi Martinez and, although Erling Haaland could not convert from a tight angle, he had the composure to look up and find Ilkay Gundogan for a tap-in. Mahrez made it 3-0 from the penalty spot soon afterwards, after Jacob Ramsey had clipped Jack Grealish inside the box. That should have been the end of Villa's hopes, but they were gifted a way back into the game just after the hour mark. Bernardo Silva's error allowed Ollie Watkins space to run through and he beat Ederson with a cool finish. City still had the cushion of a two-goal lead but continued to be sloppy when they played out from the back and were grateful to see a long-range effort from Philippe Coutinho deflected just over, while Jhon Duran hit the bar with a fierce volley in the dying seconds.\n• None Go straight to all the best Manchester City content Guardiola had promised beforehand that his team would ignore any off-field noise concerning the club's situation, but City's fans created plenty of that themselves. They showed they were able to smile at some of the possible punishments they face if found guilty, singing \"City going down with a billion in the bank\" as the team bus arrived, and the chants about their situation continued once the game started. There were banners too, including one with a rude gesture directed at the Premier League, with the accompanying message reading \"investigate this\". But the commotion certainly did not distract City's players - if anything they appeared more fired up than they have been in recent weeks, reflected in their fast start which proved enough to earn them the points. On paper a second successive defeat might indicate a backward step for Villa after their good start to the year, but Unai Emery's well-organised side eventually showed why their results have been much improved in 2023. For long periods before the break Villa sat back and looked to hit the home side on the break, but were let down by needless defensive mistakes - the worst of which cost them the second goal. They got greater rewards when they pressed higher up the pitch in the second half, bringing loud groans from the home fans whenever they won the ball back. The pace of Watkins was a constant threat, but the non-stop running of substitute Duran set the tone for Villa's efforts in the final minutes, and he was unlucky not to pull another goal back before the end.\n• None Offside, Aston Villa. John McGinn tries a through ball, but Douglas Luiz is caught offside.\n• None Jhon Durán (Aston Villa) hits the bar with a left footed shot from the centre of the box. Assisted by Ollie Watkins with a headed pass following a set piece situation.\n• None Julián Álvarez (Manchester City) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "A Ukrainian soldier walks in Bakhmut this week. Of the 50,000 people who lived in the city before the war, only 2,000 remain\n\nRussian soldiers are dying in greater numbers in Ukraine this month than at any time since the first week of the invasion, according to Ukrainian data.\n\nThe Ukrainian data shows 824 Russian soldiers dying per day in February.\n\nThe figures were highlighted by the UK's Ministry of Defence. The figures cannot be verified - but the UK says the trends are \"likely accurate\".\n\nThe increase comes as Ukrainian officials say that Russia has launched a \"big offensive\".\n\nHowever, the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine (NSDC), Oleksiy Danilov, also said Russia is experiencing \"big problems\" with the campaign.\n\n\"Our troops are repulsing [the offensive] very strongly,\" Mr Danilov said. \"The offensive they planned is already taking place, gradually, but it's not the offensive they imagined.\"\n\nLast week, Ukraine's outgoing defence minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, said they were anticipating a new Russian offensive around 24 February - the anniversary of the full-scale invasion.\n\nSome of the fiercest fighting has been around Bakhmut in the east of the country.\n\nOn Sunday, the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary force said the group had seized a settlement near the devastated city.\n\nYevgeny Prigozhin said on Telegram: \"Today, the settlement of Krasna Hora was taken by assault detachments of the Wagner PMC.\"\n\nMr Prigozhin also gave his group credit for the offensive on Bakhmut, downplaying the Russian army's role: \"Within a radius of 50 km, plus or minus, there are only Wagner PMC fighters,\" he wrote.\n\nThe statement hints at longstanding tensions between the Russian military and Wagner.\n\nWhen the town of Soledar was taken in January, Mr Prigozhin claimed his fighters were in full control there and boasted that only his troops took part - a claim the Russian defence ministry questioned.\n\nBakhmut's strategic importance has been questioned, but the prolonged fighting has turned it into a symbolic prize.\n\nAccording to the Ukrainian data, highlighted by the UK, 824 Russian losses a day is more than four times the rate reported in June and July, when around 172 Russian soldiers died each day.\n\nThe Ukrainian military claims 137,780 Russian military deaths since the full-scale invasion began.\n\nThe UK's MoD pointed out the recent increase could be due to \"a range of factors, including lack of trained personnel, coordination, and resources across the front\".\n\nUkraine \"also continues to suffer a high attrition rate\", the UK said.\n\nRussian forces have made little progress in Ukraine since their retreat from the major southern city of Kherson last November.\n\nLast month they captured the town of Soledar north of Bakhmut after an intense battle. Capturing Bakhmut could enable Russian forces to press on towards the bigger cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to Western countries to hurry sending heavy weaponry to Ukraine to help Ukraine repel Russia's expected offensive.\n\nThe US agreed last week to send long-range missiles that would enable Ukraine to double its attack range.\n\nBut President Zelensky wants the West to send fighter jets - saying during a visit to the UK Parliament this week that he was \"thanking you all in advance for powerful English planes\".", "A cave in Canada has been declared a globally significant location to preserve a rare amphipod.\n\nStygobromus canadensis is believed to have survived since before the glaciation of the surrounding landscape during the last ice age.", "The search for Nicola Bulley continues after she was last seen on a dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre\n\nYellow ribbons with messages of hope have been tied to a bridge near to where Nicola Bulley was last seen.\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January after a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nA footbridge over the River Wyre has been adorned with messages from friends and family including \"We need you home Nicola\" - and a large poster with her photograph was tied to the railings.\n\nPolice are continuing to search the water, heading towards Morecambe Bay.\n\nNicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nLancashire Police is continuing to work on one hypothesis that Ms Bulley could have fallen into the river during her walk after dropping her daughters, aged six and nine, at school that morning.\n\nThe search has been aided by specialists and divers from HM Coastguard, mountain rescue and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, with sniffer dogs, drones and police helicopters.\n\nHowever Ms Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has said he is \"100% convinced\" she did not fall into the water.\n\nHe said he wanted to keep \"all options open\" about her disappearance but his \"gut instinct\" told him she was not in the river.\n\nPolice said they were keeping an open mind as the search for the mortgage adviser from Inskip entered its 17th day.\n\nYellow ribbons have been tied to a footbridge near where Ms Bulley was last seen\n\nThe Lancashire force earlier ruled out third-party involvement but on Friday said it continued to \"look at all the potential scenarios to eliminate them\".\n\nOther messages tied at the spot near where she was last seen say Ms Bulley is loved and that people are \"praying for your safe return\".\n\nNo trace has yet been found of Ms Bulley.\n\nHer phone, still connected to a Teams call, was found on a bench on a steep riverbank overlooking the water, along with the dog lead and harness on the ground.\n\nOn Friday, officers announced they were extending their search downstream towards the sea at Morecambe Bay.\n\nThe search will involve combing inlets and marshland at the Wyre Estuary\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Kiernan Forbes was reportedly killed while on his way to a nightclub for a performance\n\nOne of South Africa's leading rappers, popularly known as AKA, has been shot dead outside a restaurant in the coastal city of Durban.\n\nKiernan Forbes was killed along with his close friend, the chef and entrepreneur Tebello 'Tibz' Motsoane.\n\nThe pair are thought to have been on their way to a nightclub for a performance as part of Forbes' birthday celebrations when they were shot.\n\nThe motive of the killing is being investigated.\n\nPolice spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda has told the BBC that the rapper and his friend were walking to their car when they were approached by two armed men who shot them at close range.\n\nThe assailants then fled the scene on foot.\n\nPolice have said they don't want to speculate on whether the murders were a result of a hit but said that possibility cannot be ruled out.\n\nForbes began his musical career as part of the rap group Entity before he launched his solo career, winning several awards in South Africa for his music.\n\nHe was also celebrated internationally, with several nominations for a Black Entertainment Television (BET) Award in the US and an MTV Europe Music Award.\n\nHours before his death, the 35-year-old posted on social media about his upcoming album, Mass Country, which is set for release later this month.\n\nForbes' parents have paid tribute to him in a statement posted on one of his social media accounts.\n\n\"To us, Kiernan Jarryd Forbes was a son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend, most importantly father to his beloved daughter Kairo,\" they wrote.\n\n\"To many, he was AKA, Supa Mega, Bhova and the many other names of affection his legion of fans called him by. Our son was loved and gave love in return.\"\n\nMotsoane, who was also AKA's former manager, has been described on social media as \"a true gentleman\".\n\nSouth Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world and shootings are not uncommon.\n\nThe charity Gun Free South Africa, which works to reduce gun violence in the country, estimates that 30 people are murdered in the country with guns daily.", "The BBC is conducting its own internal review over any potential conflicts Image caption: The BBC is conducting its own internal review over any potential conflicts\n\nThe verdict from the committee of MPs on the BBC chairman is clear. He messed up, and they feel he didn’t tell them the full story.\n\nThe report, carefully worded, does not say in black and white that he should quit. But it says he should \"consider the impact\" of what has happened, which is a diplomatic way of raising that point.\n\nA member of the committee though, John Nicholson from the SNP went a bit further this morning, spelling out that Richard Sharp’s position is \"extremely difficult\". The government, which is responsible for appointing the chair of the BBC, doesn’t seem to want to touch this with a barge pole.\n\nThe cabinet minister, Andrew Mitchell, claimed that it was up to the BBC to decide what to do next, and it was important to wait for another report into what went on. However embarrassing this all is for the BBC, which Richard Sharp has admitted and apologised for, it is not in the BBC’s power to do much about it, whatever Mitchell said this morning.\n\nChoosing and removing a chairman of the BBC is up to the government, not the organisation itself. That means while the BBC soaks up the embarrassment, it can’t change the situation for now.\n\nRichard Sharp, for his part, insists that he was acting in good faith, and clearly, for now, wants to stay in his position. But political angst around the nation’s biggest broadcaster is set to continue to swirl.\n\nSharp’s uber connections with the Conservatives, including the prime minister himself, when he got the job, were no secret. But the continued pressure over how he got his post, is awkward for him, the government, and the BBC itself.", "Staffordshire Police also issued an appeal in Romanian to find Georgian Constantin\n\nDetectives are hunting for a 42-year-old Romanian man wanted on suspicion of a murder in Stoke-on-Trent.\n\nIt follows the death of 40-year-old Valentina Cozma in a house fire on Campbell Road on Thursday afternoon.\n\nStaffordshire Police said it believed Georgian Constantin, had travelled to London from his home in Stoke-on-Trent. He also has links to Southampton.\n\nThe force has asked people not to approach him, but to call 999 immediately with his location.\n\nIt issued its appeal in Romanian as well as English and said Ms Cozma was also from Romania.\n\nDet Supt Nicki Addison said the police wanted to locate him \"as soon as possible\" and asked anyone with information about his movements to call the force.\n\nIt also wants to hear from anyone who was on Campbell Road, between the junctions of Corporation Street and Boothen Old Road, between 14:00 and 15:30GMT on Thursday.\n\nTrained officers were supporting Ms Cozma's family, the force said.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "BBC chairman Richard Sharp appeared before a committee of MPs on Tuesday\n\nPressure is growing on BBC chairman Richard Sharp after a critical report from MPs into his appointment.\n\nHe made \"significant errors of judgement\" acting as a go-between on a loan for Boris Johnson, while applying for the post, the committee said.\n\nThe SNP's John Nicolson, a committee member, told the BBC Mr Sharp's position was \"extremely difficult\".\n\nMr Sharp said he did not help arrange a guarantee on the loan or give Mr Johnson financial advice.\n\nWhen asked on Monday about Mr Sharp's position, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he would not \"speculate or pre-judge the outcome\" of an ongoing investigation by the independent office of public appointments.\n\n\"This relates to a process that happened before I was prime minister, obviously,\" the PM said on Monday.\n\n\"It is an independent process that is going to look at it and make sure that everything was followed correctly and all the rules and procedures were adhered to and obviously we will wait for that report.\"\n\nBBC News understands the BBC board is meeting on Monday. One source has told BBC News that there were no scheduled meetings planned this month.\n\nBBC News has contacted the other board members for comment.\n\nMr Sharp's involvement in the then-prime minister Mr Johnson obtaining an £800,000 loan guarantee has come under scrutiny since the Sunday Times first reported the claims last month.\n\nBusinessman Sam Blyth, a distant cousin of Mr Johnson and Mr Sharp's friend, had reportedly raised the idea of acting as a loan guarantor for Mr Johnson in 2020.\n\nMr Sharp was named as the government's preferred candidate for the BBC chairmanship in January 2021 and at the time the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee backed his appointment.\n\nThe government's choice is ultimately decided by the prime minister, on the advice of the culture secretary, who is in turn advised by a panel.\n\nThe chairman is in charge of upholding and protecting the BBC's independence and ensuring the BBC fulfils its mission to inform, educate and entertain, among other things.\n\nThis week Mr Sharp was recalled to appear before the committee and its report was published on Sunday.\n\nSpeaking to MPs he said he had introduced his friend Mr Blyth to the Cabinet Office.\n\nIn its report, the cross-party committee criticised Mr Sharp's failure to mention any involvement he had in events surrounding the loan when they were considering his suitability for the job two years ago.\n\nThe report said his decisions to \"become involved in the facilitation of a loan to the then-prime minister while at the same time applying for a job that was in that same person's gift\" and failure to disclose this to the committee undermined confidence in the public appointments process.\n\nThe MPs concluded: \"Mr Sharp should consider the impact his omissions will have on trust in him, the BBC and the public appointments process.\"\n\nThe report, carefully worded, does not say in black and white that he should quit. But it says he should \"consider the impact\" of what has happened, which is a diplomatic way of raising that point.\n\nOn Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, the SNP's Mr Nicolson went further than the report had, saying Mr Sharp's position was \"extremely difficult\" after he \"broke the rules\".\n\nHe said: \"He has lost the trust of the BBC staff, that's very clear.\n\n\"When you sign up for that job application you are asked if there's anything about your relationships with anybody that could cause embarrassment.\n\n\"This has clearly caused embarrassment.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Nicolson said Mr Sharp had not told MPs at the time of his appointment that he had facilitated an £800,000 loan for Mr Johnson \"who then gave him the job\".\n\n\"It's all a bit banana republic,\" he added.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme on Monday, deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said Mr Sharp had \"clearly brought the BBC into disrepute\" and had \"serious questions\" to answer.\n\n\"He has to look at that and think is that appropriate for him to stay on,\" she said.\n\n\"I do think it is questionable about his position because he has thrown doubt on the impartiality and the independence.\"\n\nCabinet minister Andrew Mitchell told the same programme it was up to the BBC to decide what to do over Mr Sharp's future. He also said it was important to wait for a review into his hiring by the watchdog that oversees public appointments.\n\nBut he was challenged on this during the programme as according to the BBC charter the chairman can only be removed from post by the government, not the BBC.\n\nThis week Mr Sharp told the committee he had met Cabinet Secretary Simon Case in December 2020 to get permission to pass on businessman Mr Blyth's details to him.\n\nHowever, at the same meeting he had told Mr Case that he had applied for the BBC job, and therefore agreed he would have \"no further participation\" in order to avoid any conflict of interest or perception of conflict given his application to the BBC.\n\nIn its report, the DCMS Committee said Mr Sharp had recognised the need to be \"open and transparent\" by bringing it to the attention of the cabinet secretary, but \"failed to apply the same standards of openness and candour in his decision not to divulge this information during the interview process or to this committee during the pre-appointment hearing [for the BBC job]\".\n\n\"Mr Sharp's failure to disclose his actions to the panel and the committee, although he believed this to be completely proper, constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals applying for such public appointments,\" the report added.\n\nA spokesperson for Mr Sharp said he did not facilitate an introduction between Mr Johnson and Mr Blyth and he was not involved in the arrangement of a loan between them.\n\n\"Mr Sharp appreciates that there was information that the committee felt that it should have been made aware of in his pre-appointment hearing. He regrets this and apologises.\n\n\"It was in seeking at the time to ensure that the rules were followed, and in the belief that this had been achieved, that Mr Sharp acted in good faith in the way he did.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added: \"Mr Sharp believed he had dealt with the issue by proactively briefing the cabinet secretary that he was applying for the role of BBC chair, and therefore beyond connecting Mr Blyth with Mr Case, he recused himself from the matter.\"\n\nThe DCMS Committee report was also critical of ministers who had defended the decision to endorse Mr Sharp in 2021 after the row over the loan broke, despite the fact they had not been told about the situation.\n\n\"The fact that ministers have cited this committee's original report on Mr Sharp's appointment as a defence of the process was followed, when we were not in full possession of all the facts that we should have had before us in order to come to our judgement, is highly unsatisfactory,\" the report said.\n\nAccording to the Sunday Times, a leaked memo from Mr Case allegedly warned Mr Johnson to \"no longer\" ask for financial advice from Mr Sharp.\n\nBut the MPs in this new report said there was an \"unresolved issue\" as to why the cabinet secretary had believed Mr Sharp had been giving financial advice to Mr Johnson and called on the Cabinet Office to \"clear up the confusion relating to the advice given to the prime minister immediately\", given that Mr Sharp had said this was not the case.\n\nA Cabinet Office spokesperson said: \"We do not comment on leaks.\"\n\nThe Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments is still looking into the appointment process of Richard Sharp.\n\nThe BBC is also conducting its own internal review over any potential conflicts of interest Mr Sharp may have in his role as BBC chairman.\n\nIt is not known when ether of these reviews will be concluded.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nThe US military is unsure what three flying objects it shot out of the skies over North America were - and how they were able to stay aloft.\n\nPresident Joe Biden ordered another object - the fourth in total this month - to be downed on Sunday.\n\nAs it was travelling at 20,000ft (6,100m), it could have interfered with commercial air traffic, the US said.\n\nA military commander said it could be a \"gaseous type of balloon\" or \"some type of a propulsion system\".\n\nHe added he could not rule out that the objects were extra-terrestrials.\n\nThe latest object - shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan near the Canadian border - has been described by defence officials as an unmanned \"octagonal structure\" with strings attached to it.\n\nIt was downed by a missile fired from an F-16 fighter jet at 14:42 local time (19:42 GMT).\n\nThe incident raises further questions about the spate of high-altitude objects that have been shot down over North America this month.\n\nUS Northern Command Commander General Glen VanHerck said that there was no indication of any threat.\n\n\"I'm not going to categorise them as balloons. We're calling them objects for a reason,\" he said.\n\n\"What we are seeing is very, very small objects that produce a very, very low radar cross-section,\" he added.\n\nSpeculation as to what the objects may be has intensified in recent days.\n\n\"I will let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,\" Gen VanHerck said when asked if it was possible the objects are aliens or extra-terrestrials.\n\n\"I haven't ruled out anything at this point.\"\n\nA suspected Chinese spy balloon was downed off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February after hovering for days over the US. Officials said it originated in China and had been used to monitor sensitive sites.\n\nChina denied the object was used for spying and said it was a weather monitoring device that had blown astray. The incident - and the angry exchanges in its aftermath - ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing.\n\nBut on Sunday, a defence official said the US had communicated with Beijing about the first object, after receiving no response for several days. It was not immediately clear what was discussed.\n\nSince that first incident, American fighter jets have shot down three further high-altitude objects in as many days.\n\nPresident Biden ordered an object to be shot down over northern Alaska on Friday, and on Saturday a similar object was shot down over the Yukon in north-western Canada.\n\nBoth the US and Canada are still working to recover the remnants, but the search in Alaska has been hampered by Arctic conditions.\n\n\"These objects did not closely resemble, and were much smaller than, the [4 February] balloon and we will not definitively characterise them until we can recover the debris,\" a White House National Security spokesperson said.\n\nChina's foreign ministry said on Monday the US has flown balloons into its airspace more than 10 times in the past year.\n\n\"It's not uncommon as well for the US to illegally enter the airspace of other countries,\" said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a press briefing.\n\nDetection of the most recent objects could be a result of widening the search from radars and sensors.\n\n\"We have been more closely scrutinising our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar,\" said Melissa Dalton, an assistant secretary of defence, said.\n\nAn official told the Washington Post it was like a car buyer unticking boxes on a website to broaden the parameters of what can be searched.\n\nBut he said it was unclear whether this was producing more hits - or if the new incursions are part of a more deliberate action.\n\n4 February: US military shoots down suspected surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina. It had drifted for days over the US, and officials said it came from China and had been monitoring sensitive sites\n\n10 February: US downs another object off northern Alaska which officials said lacked any system of propulsion or control\n\n11 February: An American fighter jet shoots down a \"high-altitude airborne object\" over Canada's Yukon territory, about 100 miles (160 km) from the US border. It was described as cylindrical and smaller than the first balloon\n\n12 February: US jets shoot down a fourth high-altitude object near Lake Huron \"out of an abundance of caution\"\n\nOne senior official told ABC News that the three most recent objects to be shot down were likely weather devices and not surveillance balloons.\n\nBut this was seemingly contradicted by the top Democrat in Congress, who earlier told the broadcaster that intelligence officials believed the objects were in fact surveillance balloons.\n\n\"They believe they were [balloons], yes,\" Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, adding that they were \"much smaller\" than the first one shot down off the South Carolina coast.\n\nDemocratic Senator Jon Tester, who represents Montana, told the BBC's US partner CBS: \"What's gone on the last two weeks or so... has been nothing short of craziness.\"\n\nRepublicans have repeatedly criticised the Biden administration for its handling of the first suspected spy balloon, saying it should have been shot down far sooner.\n\nOther countries are watching the response in the US closely, in case an object is discovered in their airspace.\n\nIn the UK, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his government would do \"whatever it takes\" to keep the country safe.\n\n\"We have something called the quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important,\" he added.", "Rescuers carry 12-year-old Cudie from the rubble of a collapsed building, in Hatay, southern Turkey, 147 hours after the quake\n\nRescuers have pulled a seven-month-old baby from the rubble of a building in Hatay, southern Turkey, 139 hours after Monday's deadly earthquake.\n\nElsewhere in Hatay, a 12-year-old girl, Cudie, was saved after being trapped for 147 hours.\n\nState media also reported a 13-year-old saved in Gaziantep on Sunday, with rescuers saying: \"You are a miracle.\"\n\nThe number of people confirmed to have died in Turkey and Syria has risen to more than 33,000.\n\nSyria has not reported an updated death toll since Friday, so the true number is likely higher.\n\nHopes are dwindling of finding many more survivors, and on the ground there is a sense that the rescue mission will soon end.\n\nThe Syrian Civil Defence Force, or White Helmets, which operates in in rebel-held areas of the country, has told the BBC that the group's search efforts are winding down.\n\nBut tens of thousands of rescuers continued their search overnight across affected areas in Turkey and Syria.\n\nThe seven-month-old baby, Hamza, was saved on Saturday, and footage from local authorities showed rescuers cheering and hugging one another.\n\nSeparate video from the Turkish health ministry showed a small girl in a neck brace looking around as she was carried on a stretcher in the same province later on Sunday morning.\n\nAnd footage showed a father and daughter being pulled from a building in Hatay. \"He wants two cups of good tea,\" one of the rescuers said.\n\nBut as the rescue operations wind down, the focus turns to recovery - and of reckoning with the situation.\n\nThousands of buildings collapsed during the earthquake, raising questions about whether the natural disaster's impact was made worse by human failings.\n\nTurkey's President Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but, during one visit to a disaster zone earlier in the week, appeared to blame fate.\n\n\"Such things have always happened,\" he said. \"It's part of destiny's plan.\"\n\nOfficials say they have issued 113 arrest warrants in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed, with 12 people taken into custody, including contractors.\n\nRescuers in Syria have criticised the international response to the disaster, with the UN's relief chief Martin Griffiths saying the world has \"failed the people in north-west Syria\".\n\n\"They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived,\" he said.\n\nIsmail al Abdullah, of the White Helmets, told the BBC's Quentin Sommerville that the international community has \"blood on its hands\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Turkey quake rescue effort saves mans life after five days under rubble", "The chief of the UN's aid agency has accused the international community of failing the people of north-west Syria\n\nThe UK is getting aid to Syria, development minister Andrew Mitchell has said, as he defended the government's response to the earthquakes which hit the country.\n\nThe tremor has added to the devastation caused by the civil war in Syria and local rescue groups have complained about the lack of international aid.\n\nMore than 28,000 people have now died in Turkey and Syria after the quakes.\n\nMr Mitchell told the BBC the UK had helped Syria from \"the beginning\".\n\nSpeaking on the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mr Mitchell said the UK's response included sending firefighters to Tukey and providing funding for major rescue operations in Syria.\n\nHowever, he did acknowledge that sending aid to Syria was \"much more difficult than Turkey, because it's ungoverned space there\".\n\nThere has been a delay in getting aid to Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged parts of the country that remain under the control of rebels battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is under Western sanctions.\n\nSome rebel-held areas in north-west Syria are already inhospitable and inaccessible after more than a decade of civil war.\n\nCurrently, the UN is only authorised to use one route to deliver aid into north-western Syria, over the Turkish border into the province of Idlib.\n\nIn his interview with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Mitchell was asked about the US's decision to announce a 180-day exemption to its sanctions on Syria for \"all transactions related to earthquake relief efforts\".\n\nWhen asked if the UK government would lift sanctions on Syria to speed up aid deliveries, Mr Mitchell said ministers would \"do everything we can to make sure aid gets through to people who are suffering\".\n\n\"Specifically here, where sanctions would hold us back in any way, we would seek to have them lifted,\" the minister said. \"But at the moment we are able to get what we want through. And that's the key thing.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe World Health Organization says about 26 million people across Syria and Turkey have been affected by the earthquake. In Syria alone, up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless.\n\nEarlier this week, the UK government said it was giving £8m of support to Syria and Turkey, sending items such as tents and blankets and a team of medics.\n\nThe government also said it would give £3m in extra funding to aid the White Helmets, a volunteer organisation that operates in parts of Syria and in Turkey.\n\nMeanwhile, a UK appeal to help earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria has raised more than £60m in its first three days, including a £5m government donation.\n\nOn Sunday, the chief of the United Nations aid agency, Martin Griffiths, said the international community had failed the people of north-west Syria.\n\n\"They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived,\" Mr Griffiths said on Twitter. \"My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can.\"\n\nHe made the comments from the border between Turkey and Syria, which has seen only a few convoys of aid enter the rebel-held territory since the disaster.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rescuers use specialist cameras to free Irem And Merve from the rubble of their building in Antakya\n\n\"Merve! Irem! Merve! Irem,\" rescue worker Mustafa Ozturk is shouting. Everyone around us has been ordered to be silent. The team are looking for two sisters who other survivors say are trapped alive under piles of rubble.\n\nWith sensitive devices they listen for any response. Everyone is frozen in anticipation.\n\nAnd then, a breakthrough. \"Irem, my dear, I am close to you, you hear me, yes?\" Mustafa says.\n\nThose of us watching can't hear it, but it is clear now that she is responding. A small group of the girls' friends wait silently with us.\n\n\"You are superb! Now you stay calm and answer me. Ah ok, that's Merve. Merve dear, just answer my questions,\" he says.\n\nMerve, 24, and her sister Irem, 19, were trapped under the rubble of their five-storey apartment block in Antakya, southern Turkey, which was flattened by the earthquake. It had been two days, but for them those days felt like weeks.\n\n\"It's Wednesday. No! You weren't trapped for 14 days. Give us five minutes. You will be out.\"\n\nMustafa knows it will take hours, but tells us: \"If they lose their hope they might not survive.\"\n\nRescuers can hear Merve and Irem who have been trapped for days under the rubble of their apartment block\n\nMerve and Irem start to joke and laugh together. I can see a big smile on Mustafa's face: \"If they had space they would probably dance,\" he says.\n\nBy the rescuers' calculations it is 2m (6.6 ft) to reach the sisters but Hasan Binay, the rescue team's commander, says digging a tunnel into the concrete is a very delicate operation. One wrong move could lead to a catastrophe.\n\nA bulldozer is called to very slightly lift and hold the thick concrete to stop the building collapsing when they start digging.\n\n\"Girls, soon we will give you blankets.\" Mustafa tells the sisters. \"Ah no, you don't worry about us. We are not tired or cold.\"\n\nMustafa says Merve is worried about the rescuers' situation. It is 20:30 local time and it is very cold. This area has had one of the coldest winters that people can remember.\n\nThe rescuers start furiously digging and throwing the rubble away with their bare hands.\n\nBut after a couple of hours we feel the ground suddenly shaking under our feet. It is a strong aftershock. Operations must stop and we leave the devastated building.\n\n\"There is a brutal reality here. The safety of our team comes first,\" Hasan says.\n\nAfter 30 minutes, Mustafa and three other rescuers go back to where they were digging.\n\n\"Don't be scared. Believe me we won't leave you here. I will bring you out and you will take us for a good lunch,\" Mustafa shouts. The girls thought they had been left to die.\n\nMerve after being brought out the rubble asked: \"Am I really alive?\"\n\nIt is midnight now and the digging has resumed. The team have hardly slept for days. We have gathered around a small fire next to the building.\n\nEvery so often there is a shout: \"sessizlik\", meaning silence. The light goes off, total darkness now. They have made a small hole in the concrete to see if the girls can see the light coming from Mustafa's torch.\n\n\"Merve! Irem! Do you see the light? OK! Perfect! Now I am sending a small camera down. Once you see it tell me and I will tell you what to do.\"\n\nIt is a moment of elation for everyone. Hasan joins his team to see the girls on the small screen connected to their night vision camera. They can see both Irem and Merve.\n\n\"You are so beautiful. Don't move too much. Irem pull the camera so we can see Merve better.\"\n\nOn the screen, we see that Irem is smiling. Luckily there is enough space for them between the concrete trapping them.\n\nRelief floods everyone's faces. The girls look well and at least Irem has room to pull herself out if they make the hole bigger.\n\nBut almost immediately the team look concerned. Merve has told them that she has started to feel cold and there is something heavy on her feet.\n\nThe medics were worried: \"Do Merve's feet have gangrene? Or is this the first symptom of hypothermia?\"\n\nIt is around 05:00 now. The tunnel is big enough for the slimmest team member to crawl down. The rescuer was able to reach and hold Irem's hand for a few moments.\n\n\"Our mother's body has started to stink and we can't breathe properly,\" Irem tells the rescuers. The girls have been lying next to their dead mother for days.\n\nRescuers used a camera to see the women under the rubble\n\nIt is shocking. How awful that there can be moments in life when you would not want your mother next to you, we reflected.\n\nHasan asks one of Merve's friends - still waiting, stressed and silent - to show them the picture she has of the girls. They are trying to estimate the width they need to make the hole. The two girls are smiling, in party dresses, celebrating a wedding.\n\n\"Perfect! We can bring them out.\" The medical team gets ready with thermal blankets and stretchers. Everyone is excited. It is 06:30 and Irem comes first. She is laughing and crying at the same time.\n\n\"God bless you. Please bring Merve out too. Please,\" she begs the rescuers. \"Merve will follow. I promise,\" Hasan tells her.\n\nBut bringing Merve out takes another tense 30 minutes. They need to free her feet from under the concrete without doing her harm. The operation is successful.\n\nOnce Merve is out, everyone starts clapping and cheering. I hear Merve screaming in pain but then asking: \"Am I really alive?\"\n\nThe friends who have been here all night start shouting in tears. \"Merve! Irem! We are here. Don't be scared.\" The sisters were loaded into ambulances and transferred to a field hospital.\n\nAfter this joyful moment comes a chilling one. The rescuers ask everyone to be silent again. This is the last call.\n\n\"If anyone hears me, respond. If you can't respond, try to touch the ground.\"\n\nHasan repeats, imploringly, from different angles. Then sadly, with red spray he signs on the concrete, writing codes so other rescue teams will not search the building.\n\n\"Rescuing a human being is a beautiful feeling, but we wish there were no deaths.\" I can see the sadness in his face.\n\n\"Will you eat lunch with Merve and Irem?\" I ask. He smiles: \"I hope one day we can. But the most important thing is that they are alive and in good hands now.\"", "A Finn Russell-inspired Scotland earned a record victory against Wales to continue a stunning start to their Six Nations with two wins from two.\n\nTwo Russell penalties and a converted George Turner try saw Gregor Townsend's side race into a 13-0 lead, before Wales hit back through Ken Owens.\n\nKyle Steyn crossed twice in the second half before Blair Kinghorn's superb score and Matt Fagerson's late try.\n\nIt ended their Warren Gatland hoodoo and will have fans daring to dream.\n\nFor Wales, it was a second defeat in a row after slumping to a 34-10 loss to Ireland.\n• None 'Scotland can beat any team', says captain Ritchie\n\nWales had their chances to score in the opening half, but failed to take advantage of all their possession and territory. How they suffered for it. This wasn't just an end to Gatland's dominance over Scotland that stretches back 11 Tests, it was an utter deconstruction, principally in a second half where Scotland attacked in devastating wave after devastating wave.\n\nThey took a while to find their ruthlessness, but once they hit their stride, guided by the mesmeric Russell, they stormed away to win and are now two wins from two for the first time in the history of the Six Nations. France to come in Paris in a fortnight. Scotland will believe that anything is possible right now.\n\nThey had a 6-0 lead early on through two Russell penalties, but for much of the opening 40 it was Wales who were in control. Behind on the scoreboard, but on top in pretty much every other sense.\n\nThey were undone by their own lack of accuracy and by Scotland's desperate scrambling. They had a lineout five metres from the home line but the towering Richie Gray pinched it. They had a scrum five metres out but their backline came up offside and the chance went.\n\nDan Biggar had a shot at goal. A long way out, for sure, but how many times has he nailed such kicks? He missed. They had another attacking lineout after Russell's restart went out on the full, but when they looked menacing, Jamie Ritchie pilfered it on the floor. Then, of course, Wales conceded. All those promising moments, but it was Scotland who landed the first heavy blow.\n\nIt was Turner who drove powerfully through the Wales cover off a lineout maul, a thumping finish from a hooker growing every week in stature. Russell's conversion made it 13-0, but there was drama to come directly after.\n\nScotland messed up at the restart, Wales attacked and Turner came steaming in a little high on George North. He got binned and in his absence, Owens piled over from close range for a score that Wales clearly deserved.\n\nThe half didn't end without another bout of painful Welsh profligacy when Rio Dyer spilled it on the left wing with the Scottish line at his mercy. They had 70% territory in that opening half and had done most of the attacking, but trailed by six at the break.\n\nThey were to pay for their wastefulness because Scotland came out with a different mindset. They survived the remaining minutes of the Turner yellow and then went after their visitors. Kinghorn, who had come on early after a Stuart Hogg head injury assessment, came into it. Duhan van der Merwe, hushed to this point, started to fire up his engines.\n\nTurner came within a whisker of scoring his second, but Scotland didn't have to wait for long.\n\nPiling pressure on, and forcing penalties, they put Wales where they didn't want to be. When the next chance came, Russell's half-break through the gap and his sumptuous offload close to the right wing put Steyn in. A glorious moment from the fly-half, who then walloped over the conversion from the touchline.\n\nThey turned the screw from there. More pressure and a yellow card for Liam Williams for persistent offending. They could have taken a simple three points, but gambled, went for touch on the left, then Russell cross-kicked expertly to the right and Steyn caught and scored. Suddenly, from being a close affair it was an 18-point game.\n\nScotland continued to unload, the beautiful execution we saw from them last week now laying waste again. Kinghorn got the bonus point try that had its beginnings in a huge forwards maul before Russell cross-kicked again with gorgeous accuracy. Van der Merwe claimed it and fed Kinghorn, who ran away to score. Thirty points now. A rout.\n\nAnd there was more. Russell, utterly unplayable by now, pulled all the strings once more, flinging a precise pass over the heads of the retreating defence to the mighty Fagerson to touch down in the corner. Thirty-five points. Better than the wildest dream of the most ardent Scottish fan.\n\nWe wondered if Scotland could handle the pressure of finally backing up one win with another. We pondered if they were actually the real deal or not. The answer came, in the most emphatic style.\n\n'Maturity about Scotland' - what they said\n\nFormer Scotland captain John Barclay on BBC One: \"There was a maturity and a clear change of tactic second half and the ability to implement that. They kicked it long, put pressure on Wales. Same as last week, their ability to execute under pressure was brilliant.\n\nThat allows players like Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe grow in the game. The most pleasing thing was their ability to get into the sheds at half-time and grab that game by the scruff off the neck.\"\n\nFormer Wales fly-half Jonathan Davies on BBC One: \"The effort was there and the youngsters stood up. They're the future for Wales.\n\n\"My problem is the lack of creativity behind and that's been a problem for a number of years.\n\n\"Today they were one-dimensional, not accurate and slightly clueless if we're being honest. That is what Wales must work on now.\"", "Brianna Ghey was found injured in Linear Park in Culcheth and died at the scene\n\nA boy and girl, both aged 15, have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a 16-year-old girl who was stabbed to death in a village park.\n\nBrianna Ghey was found by members of the public at Linear Park in Culcheth, Warrington, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nEmergency services were called just after 15:00 GMT after she was found lying on a path with stab wounds.\n\nBrianna was a transgender girl but detectives said there was no evidence to suggest her murder was a hate crime.\n\nTributes have been paid to Brianna, with one person describing her on social media as a \"sweet angel\" and a \"beautiful girl\".\n\nPolice said the arrested teenagers are from the local area and being held in custody.\n\nDet Ch Supt Mike Evans said a number of inquiries were under way and police were trying to establish the \"exact circumstances\".\n\n\"At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that the circumstances surrounding Brianna's death are hate related,\" he said.\n\n\"Patrols have been stepped up in the local area and officers will remain in the Culcheth area to provide reassurance and address any concerns that residents may have.\"\n\nBrianna was found by members of the public lying injured on a path\n\nPolice earlier said a post-mortem examination was taking place to establish the cause of death and that officers were supporting Brianna's family, who are from the nearby town of Birchwood.\n\nHead teacher at Birchwood Community High School, Emma Mills, where Brianna was a pupil, said: \"We are shocked and truly devastated to hear of the death of Brianna.\n\n\"This is understandably a very difficult and distressing time for many and we will do our utmost to support our pupils and wider school community.\"\n\nPolice say there will be increased patrols in the area\n\nLabour MP Jess Phillips tweeted that Brianna's death was \"utterly tragic\" and sent her parents \"love\" on their \"unimaginable loss\".\n\nOfficers were continuing to trace the weapon and establish a motive for the attack, police said.\n\nAdditional officers are patrolling the area, which is a well-known dog walking spot.\n\nAnyone with information or CCTV and dashcam footage related to the incident is asked to contact police.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The US believes that flying objects shot down over North American airspace on Friday and Saturday were balloons, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.\n\nMr Schumer made his comments before the US shot down another flying object on Sunday.\n\nWhile he didn't say specifically that the objects from Friday and Saturday were Chinese, Mr Schumer told ABC on Sunday that Beijing was likely using a \"crew of balloons\" that had \"probably been all over the world\".\n\nWashington has been on high alert since its military destroyed a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month.\n\nResponding to queries about Mr Schumer's remarks, a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense said the two objects he was referring to \"did not closely resemble\" the original balloon and were much smaller, Reuters reported.\n\nFour objects have been shot down over North America in the past week.\n\nThe latest was shot down on Sunday over Lake Huron near the Canadian border. It was downed by Air Force and National Guard pilots on Sunday, Michigan Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin said.\n\nOn Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that a different object was shot down over the Yukon in north-west Canada.\n\nBoth Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled to track the object, which Mr Trudeau said had \"violated Canadian airspace\". It was taken out by a US F-22 fighter jet.\n\nMr Trudeau said recovery teams were on the ground trying to find the object and that there was still \"much to know\".\n\nThe day before, on Friday, the American military shot down an object the size of a small car off Alaska.\n\nIt happened just under a week after the US destroyed a Chinese balloon over the Atlantic, on 4 February.\n\nMr Schumer, who said he had been briefed by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, implied that suspected surveillance balloons had been in operation for years and that Congress should examine why it took so long for the US to find out about them.\n\n\"The bottom line is, until a few months ago we didn't know of these balloons - our intelligence and our military didn't know,\" he said.\n\nAsked whether China would have to shut down any surveillance programme using balloons, Mr Schumer said Beijing had been \"humiliated\".\n\n\"I think the Chinese were caught lying, and it's a real step back for them… they look really bad,\" he said.\n\n\"They're not just doing the United States, this is a crew of balloons... they've probably been all over the world,\" he added.\n\nChina has yet to respond to Mr Schumer's comments but has denied the first suspected surveillance balloon - which first entered US airspace on 28 January - was used for spying purposes, saying it was a weather device gone astray.\n\nReferring to the efforts to take out the Saturday's object over Canada, the White House said in a statement that the object had been tracked and monitored for 24 hours.\n\n\"Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorised it to be taken down,\" it said.\n\n\"The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin.\"\n\nGiving more details on the mission to take down the object, the US Department of Defense confirmed two F-22 jets took off from a military base in Anchorage, Alaska and the object was shot down with an AIM 9X missile.\n\nMeanwhile, continuing efforts to find and recover Friday's object near the Alaskan town of Deadhorse are being hampered by poor weather.\n\nThe US military said in a statement that \"Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight, are a factor in this operation, and personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety\".\n\nLast weekend, defence officials told US media that debris from the first Chinese balloon landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.\n\nThe US said the balloon - shown in the video below - was part of a fleet of surveillance balloons that had flown over five continents.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe balloon incident has strained US-China relations, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelling a planned trip to Beijing.\n\nChinese officials have accused the US of \"political manipulation and hype\".\n\nIn an interview on Thursday, President Biden defended his handling of the situation, maintaining that the balloon was not \"a major breach\".", "An escalation of strike action could see staff from emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards walking out\n\nNurses from A&E, intensive care and cancer wards could join fresh strikes in England, as a major nursing union considers escalating its pay dispute.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN) wants higher wages, but ministers argue that pay is set by an independent body.\n\nThe union is considering a continuous 48-hour strike, which could begin in weeks.\n\nHowever, under union law staff would need to meet minimum legal levels of care.\n\nThis involves providing cover for the most urgent clinical situations as part of an obligation not to endanger life.\n\n\"Our priority is keeping patients safe,\" the Department of Health said, adding the NHS has \"tried-and-tested plans\" to minimise disruption.\n\nThe action being considered would go on for longer than the recent strikes held in December and last week, which each lasted 12 hours.\n\nThe RCN also said it may not make local agreements to help NHS managers during the strike periods, as it has done before.\n\nIn previous action, there were about 5,000 cases where the strike was not fully implemented which were decided through joint committees of NHS and RCN staff.\n\nA Royal College of Nursing source said NHS leaders are \"fearing this escalation\" and \"must bring pressure to bear on government to get it stopped\".\n\nThe union would have to give two weeks' notice for any action. Dates have not yet been set, it is understood, but could be announced within days.\n\nThe RCN says it is frustrated that the government has refused to discuss increasing the 4% pay offer already made for the current 2022-23 year.\n\nStrikes in Wales have been called off after offers of a 7% pay increase, while nurses in Scotland who are members of the RCN and GMB unions are not holding strikes while negotiations take place.\n\nThe Department for Health has indicated there is no change in its position for nurses in England, including on pay for the current year - one of the main contentions in the dispute.\n\nIt said Health Secretary Steve Barclay would discuss pay for the coming year, and urged unions to call off their strikes.\n\nEarlier this month, the RCN's general secretary Pat Cullen wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asking for talks. The union said it has had no reply.\n\nOn Saturday night, Downing Street said it would not add another level of negotiation into the process, and the health secretary would respond to the letter in due course.\n\nNHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, said the only way to avoid more disruption was by having fresh pay talks.\n\nIts deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery said a 48-hour strike \"would likely have the biggest impact on patients we've seen\".\n\n\"This will be significantly compounded if junior doctors also vote to strike from next month, further derailing efforts to tackle care backlogs.\"", "Prima Facie marked Jodie Comer's first ever leading role in the West End\n\nJodie Comer was among the winners at the first gender-neutral WhatsOnStage Awards, which saw all four of the major acting prizes go to women.\n\nThe Killing Eve star was named best performer in a play at Sunday's ceremony after starring in sexual assault drama Prima Facie last year.\n\nOther winners included the stars of To Kill A Mockingbird and Legally Blonde.\n\nThere was only one male winner for acting - in a newly created additional category for best professional debut.\n\nThe WhatsOnStage Awards, where the winners are voted by the public, have run annually since 2008, but this is the first year where the leading and supporting categories were named \"best performer\" instead of best actor or actress.\n\nMore awards ceremonies have been going gender neutral in recent years to allow non-binary performers to compete. But at other ceremonies, this has often resulted in an imbalance in favour of men.\n\nThe Brit Awards attracted criticism this year after their decision to merge best male and best female into one best artist category resulted in an all-male shortlist, which Harry Styles ultimately won.\n\nGwyneth Keyworth was named best supporting performer in a play for her role of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird\n\nThe first gender-neutral WhatsOnStage Awards saw men nominated in all of the major acting categories, but the four main prizes went to women.\n\nThey were Comer for Prima Facie, To Kill a Mockingbird's Gwyneth Keyworth, and Legally Blonde stars Courtney Bowman and Lauren Drew.\n\nThe decision to merge the gendered categories meant the number of acting prizes was almost halved, although the ceremony maintained separate awards for plays and musicals.\n\nHowever, the awards body also introduced an additional acting prize this year for newcomers. The inaugural best professional debut trophy was won by 19-year-old Joe Locke, who appeared in The Trials at the Donmar Warehouse.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. There were five wins for a stage adaptation of Japanese animation classic My Neighbour Totoro\n\nComer was praised for her portrayal in the one-woman show Prima Facie of a lawyer who struggles to reconcile her job of defending men accused of rape after she is sexually assaulted herself.\n\nOther big winners at Sunday's awards included My Neighbour Totoro, a stage adaptation of the Japanese animation classic, which won five of the nine awards it was nominated for.\n\nLegally Blonde, an adaptation of the Reese Witherspoon film about a fashion-loving lawyer, also won big, scooping two of the acting prizes.\n\nBonnie & Clyde the Musical and Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! won best new musical and best musical revival respectively, while Prima Facie and Cock were named best new play and best play revival.\n\nLucie Jones won best takeover performance for the role of Elphaba in Wicked\n\nComer was named best performer in a play for her performance in Prima Facie\n\nA West End transfer of To Kill A Mockingbird, Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of the classic Harper Lee novel, won an acting prize for Keyworth, who plays Scout Finch - the young girl whose perspective the story is told from.\n\nFormer X Factor contestant Lucie Jones, who currently stars in the long-running Wicked, won best takeover performance - an award given to an actor who has inherited a major role from a previous actor.\n\nThe WhatsOnStage Awards have been held annually for 15 years, although during a Covid lockdown in 2021 the ceremony was held virtually, and while theatres were closed it instead honoured members of the public who had supported theatre during the pandemic.\n\nLegally Blonde's Courtney Bowman was named best performer in a musical\n\nBest supporting performer in a play - Gwyneth Keyworth, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gielgud Theatre\n\nBest new musical - Bonnie & Clyde the Musical, Arts Theatre\n\nBest off-West End Production - But I'm A Cheerleader: The Musical, The Turbine Theatre\n\nBest musical direction/supervision - Bruce O'Neil and Matt Smith, My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre\n\nBest set design - Tom Pye and Basil Twist, My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican Theatre", "Aid agencies have warned that the death toll is likely to rise as rescue efforts continue\n\nOfficials in Turkey say 113 arrest warrants have been issued in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed in Monday's earthquake.\n\nTurkish police have already taken at least 12 people into custody, including building contractors.\n\nMeanwhile, unrest in southern Turkey has disrupted rescue efforts in some places.\n\nThe number of people confirmed to have died in Turkey and Syria has risen to more than 33,000.\n\nMore arrests are expected - but the action will be seen by many as an attempt to divert overall blame for the disaster.\n\nFor years, experts warned that many new buildings in Turkey were unsafe due to endemic corruption and government policies.\n\nThose policies allowed so-called amnesties for contractors who swerved building regulations, in order to encourage a construction boom - including in earthquake-prone regions.\n\nThousands of buildings collapsed during the earthquake, raising questions about whether the natural disaster's impact was made worse by human failings.\n\nWith elections looming, the president's future is on the line after spending 20 years in power.\n\nMr Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but, during one visit to a disaster zone, he appeared to blame fate. \"Such things have always happened,\" he said. \"It's part of destiny's plan.\"\n\nOn the sixth day after the quake hit, the situation is growing more desperate.\n\nOn Saturday, German rescuers and the Austrian army paused search operations because of clashes between unnamed groups in Hatay province. Security is expected to worsen as food supplies dwindle, one rescuer said.\n\n\"There is increasing aggression between factions in Turkey,\" Austrian Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Kugelweis said. \"The chances of saving a life bears no reasonable relation to the safety risk.\"\n\nThe search for survivors resumed under the protection of the Turkish army.\n\nAcross southern Turkey and northern Syria, millions are homeless and temperatures continue to drop below freezing on a nightly basis.\n\nThe UN has warned that more than 800,000 people are without adequate meals, and its aid agency on the ground is warning the final death toll from the quake is likely to double.\n\nIn Syria, the death toll now stands at more than 3,500 - but new figures have not been published since Friday. On Sunday, the number dead in Turkey rose to more than 29,000.\n\nHope of finding many more survivors is fading, despite some incredible rescues.\n\nAmong those rescued from the rubble on Saturday were a family of five in Turkey's Gaziantep province, and a seven-year-old girl in Hatay, who spent 132 hours under the rubble.\n\nThe quake was described as the \"worst event in 100 years in this region\" by the United Nations aid chief, who was in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras on Saturday.\n\n\"I think it's the worst natural disaster that I've ever seen and it's also the most extraordinary international response,\" Martin Griffiths told the BBC's Lyse Doucet in Turkey.\n\nMr Griffiths has called for regional politics to be put aside in the face of the disaster - and there are some signs that this is happening.\n\nThe border crossing between Turkey and Armenia reopened on Saturday for the first time in 35 years to allow aid through.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rescuers use specialist cameras to free Irem And Merve from the rubble of their building in Antakya", "A man who murdered his lover and their three-year-old son in the Highlands in 1976 has died less than five months after he was convicted.\n\nWilliam MacDowell, 81, disposed of Renee and Andrew MacRae's bodies which have never been found.\n\nMacDowell, of Penrith, Cumbria, was given a life sentence with a minimum 30 years after a jury found him guilty in September last year.\n\nPolice confirmed an 81-year-old man had died at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.\n\nThe Scottish Prison Service said a fatal accident inquiry would be held in due course. MacDowell had been a prisoner at HMP Glenochil in Alloa.\n\nMacDowell, who denied all the charges against him, was convicted following a trial at the High Court in Inverness.\n\nSentencing the killer, judge Lord Armstrong told him: \"These murders appear to have been premeditated and planned in a most calculating way.\n\n\"These appear to be, in effect, executions. You murdered your victims and disposed of their bodies and you took various steps to avoid detection.\"\n\nThe bodies of Andrew MacRae, who was three, and his mother Renee have never been found\n\nMrs MacRae, 36, and Andrew disappeared on 12 November 1976. Her car was found that night on fire in a lay-by on the A9 at Dalmagarry, south of Inverness.\n\nThe trial heard the discovery exposed married MacDowell's affair with Mrs MacRae, and that she had believed they would be meeting up for a weekend away before a planned move to Shetland.\n\nThe jury was told how MacDowell, who was living near Inverness at the time and better known by the name Bill MacDowell, was company secretary at a building firm owned by Mrs MacRae's estranged husband, Gordon.\n\nMacDowell was sacked over the affair and the trial heard he had the boot floor of his company car replaced, and had also refused to hand back the vehicle until he had finished scrubbing it out.\n\nRenee MacRae's BMW car was found on fire in a lay-by south of Inverness\n\nThe jury heard that Mrs MacRae, who is survived by her eldest son Gordon, was a devoted mother and had been deeply in love with MacDowell.\n\nThe court was also told by McDowall's wife Rosemary about his ill health.\n\nShe said: \"He has a very sick liver, very sick kidneys and his heart is trying very hard to keep him alive.\n\n\"He's actually a walking dead man, and he has a DNR (do not resuscitate) set up already.\"\n\nSome of the witnesses who gave evidence during the trial are now in their 80s.\n\nStatements from police officers and others who had died since the murders 46 years ago were also read out.\n\nDuring the trial, MacDowell's defence said the disappearance of Mrs MacRae was a mystery with many unanswered questions.\n\nA newspaper appeal from the 1970s for Renee and Andrew MacRae\n\nA statement from Mrs MacRae's sister, Morag Govans, was read out by advocate depute Alex Prentice after the verdict.\n\nShe said: \"The pain of losing Renee and Andrew doesn't ease. Not a day passes when both are not in our thoughts.\n\n\"Andrew's life was cruelly and brutally cut short at such a young age, just three years old, and I often wonder what he would be doing now.\n\n\"The passage of time has not eased the anguish. We have not been allowed to grieve properly.\"\n\nMs Govans' added the family's anguish had been compounded by the fact the bodies had never been found.\n\nThe statement continued: \"I have never stopped trying to find justice for Renee and Andrew who deserve to rest in peace.\n\n\"Thinking of the terror they must have felt when they died in such a calculated and callous way continues to haunt me.\"\n\nDet Ch Insp Brian Geddes said the effort to find the remains of Renee and Andrew MacRae would continue\n\nOn Wednesday, Det Ch Insp Brian Geddes, who led a re-investigation of the case that led to the trial, urged anyone who could assist to contact officers.\n\nHe said: \"Renee and Andrew's bodies have not been found and recent attempts to encourage William MacDowell to do the right thing, and share any knowledge he may have which could assist the police, were unsuccessful.\n\n\"I would urge anyone who may have information about where Renee and Andrew are to come forward so they can be provided with the dignity they deserve.\"\n\nA Police Scotland spokesman said: \"Around 11.05am on Wednesday, 15 February, 2023, officers were made aware of the death of an 81-year-old man at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.\n\n\"The death is not being treated as suspicious and a report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.\"", "Roger does not know when he will be able to go home\n\n\"It would be much better if I was out there than in here,\" said Roger.\n\nThe 69-year-old looked wistfully across Newport from the window next to his bed at the Royal Gwent Hospital.\n\nHe has been here for three weeks after being admitted with an infection.\n\nBut although he is now well enough to leave and desperate to do so - he can't.\n\n\"I've still got a smile on my face, but I'm feeling a bit down,\" he said.\n\n\"I haven't got the foggiest when I'll be able to go home. I'm keeping my fingers crossed... because it will make a big difference.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Andrea and Adam Sheppard were on their way to Cwmbran's Grange Hospital when their child was born\n\nRoger has cerebral palsy and the impact of his recent illness means he needs extra care to be arranged before he can safely go home.\n\nUntil then, he's stuck in a ward with no televisions. He watches whatever he can find on his phone.\n\n\"At least a quarter of patients in our care of the elderly beds are in a similar position,\" explained Helen Price, a senior nurse at the hospital.\n\n\"It is very much a waiting game for that care to be available,\" she said.\n\nHospitals in Wales are fuller than ever, according to the latest statistics.\n\nThis week, nearly 96% of all acute beds in the Welsh NHS were occupied, which is the highest figure ever recorded. In Aneurin Bevan, during most of the last week there have been only two available acute beds vacant - the occupancy rate hitting 99.8%.\n\nThese delays are having an impact not just on individual patients and staff but the work of the entire health board.\n\nPaul Underwood, who manages urgent care in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, said there are well over 350 patients medically fit enough to leave hospital.\n\n\"Roughly a third of patients do not need to be accommodated on those sites and that's extremely difficult,\" he said.\n\nPaul Underwood says there are well over 350 patients well enough to be discharged\n\nThese logjams are often beyond the control of the NHS with social care largely the responsibility of local authorities.\n\nBut whatever the cause the impact on the health service is massive with hospitals fuller than ever.\n\nFor every patient like Roger waiting to leave, there are many more waiting for a bed to become available.\n\nOn the day of my visit there are only two acute beds free across the entire health board. Yet patients keep piling in.\n\nAt the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran, six miles north of the Royal Gwent, I witness the impact in one of the busiest emergency departments in Wales.\n\nAt mid-morning the waiting room is already full, as are most of the department's beds or trolleys. There are 68 patients here in total.\n\nFrances Evans, 85, from Tredegar, is one of them. She is being assessed for a chest injury.But the day before, she had spent eight hours in the back of an ambulance outside the department.\n\n\"I was in the ambulance from 10 in the morning until six in the evening,\" she said. \"And I had to come back and forth for the tests, it was really full.\"\n\nFrances believes the NHS \"has a lot too much to do\" and that \"some people abuse the system\".\n\nBut I'm struck that staff say this morning is \"relatively pleasant\" compared to much of what they have experienced over the course of the winter.\n\nLead nurse Claire Parkes said there have been days with more than 200 patients in the department, which she describes as \"record-breaking numbers\".\n\n\"The festive period was some of the worst I've seen in 25 years in emergency care,\" she said, adding that some patients were \"waiting in chairs\" for days.\n\n\"When you walk away you do feel like crying because you're not giving the quality of care that you want.\"\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"We are doing everything we can to help health boards improve flow through the healthcare system, including investing record amounts in health and care services.\n\n\"This winter we have secured more than 600 extra community beds and social care packages to help move people out of hospital to get care closer to home, and are working to deliver even more.\"\n\nThe importance of having spare capacity is made abundantly clear when a car screeches up to the A&E's front door.\n\nIn the passenger seat is a mother who has just given birth. Paramedics, nurses and doctors rush to help.\n\nWithin seconds, mother and baby are taken in Resus [Resuscitation], the part of A&E set aside for patients needing the most urgent care.\n\n\"That's a good example of why we always need capacity because we don't know what's around the corner,\" said Dr Owain Chandler, a consultant in the department.\n\n\"The danger would have been that there are times when we would have had to bring them into Resus without a cubicle ready, looking around to see who is the least unwell patient we can pull out... and doing that on the hoof.\"\n\nThe Grange University Hospital's emergency department is one of the busiest in Wales\n\nBut the outcome today is a happy one.\n\nA few hours later I meet baby William on the maternity ward, along with his parents Andrea and Adam Sheppard as they are preparing to go home.\n\n\"There was no lack of anything from the staff,\" said Adam.\n\n\"The paramedic was there and soon there were four or five others at the door... plenty of staff to help.\"\n\nAndrea agreed that there were \"no problems\", adding with a broad smile that \"the baby is perfect\".\n\nThe family will be forever grateful for the staff's willingness to go above and beyond despite relentless pressure.\n\nA ray of light, perhaps, in what has arguably been the NHS's darkest winter.", "The family of missing Nicola Bulley have said \"appalling\" speculation surrounding her private life \"needs to stop\".\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nLancashire Police has faced a backlash for revealing she had ongoing struggles with alcohol and the menopause.\n\nThe force said it has referred itself to the police watchdog over contact it had with her before she vanished.\n\nOn Thursday her family said she would not have wanted the information released, but police had kept them informed.\n\nIn a new statement, they said: \"As a family, we were aware beforehand that Lancashire Police, last night, released a statement with some personal details about our Nikki.\n\n\"Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her.\n\n\"This is appalling and needs to stop.\n\n\"The police know the truth about Nikki and now the public need to focus on finding her.\"\n\nLancashire Police referred itself on Thursday to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding an incident before Ms Bulley's disappearance when officers attended her home.\n\nThe force said it was called to a \"concern for welfare report\" and health professionals also attended on 10 January. It said no arrests were made.\n\nA force spokesman said the referral \"relates solely to our interaction with the family on that date and does not relate to the wider missing from home investigation\".\n\nAn IOPC spokesman said: \"This afternoon we received a referral from Lancashire Constabulary regarding contact the force had with Nicola Bulley on 10 January, prior to her disappearance.\"\n\nHe said the watchdog was assessing the available information to determine whether an investigation was required.\n\nNicola Bulley's parents have left yellow ribbons on the bridge over the River Wyre\n\nLancashire Police had described Ms Bulley as vulnerable and said she was classed as a \"high-risk\" missing person immediately after her partner Paul Ansell reported her disappearance.\n\nThe force initially declined to elaborate but later disclosed further details, a move which it was criticised for.\n\nZoë Billingham, the chairwoman of an NHS mental health trust and formerly Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, told BBC Radio 4 the comments \"stopped me in my tracks\".\n\n\"Why on earth was this information even vaguely relevant to an investigation that's 20 days on?\" she said.\n\n\"If there are issues relating to Nicola that needed to be put in the public domain, why wasn't this done earlier?\n\n\"And why was such personal information, such potentially sensitive information, disclosed?\"\n\nShe said there was a need to consider \"what message this sends to women\".\n\n\"What confidence will women have about reporting their mum or sister to police as missing if there is this fear that very deeply personal information is going to be put into the public domain for no apparent reason?\" she said.\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on a bench close to the River Wyre\n\nMs Bulley's family said she had suffered \"significant\" side effects due to the perimenopause, including \"brain fog\" and \"restless sleep\".\n\nThey said she was taking hormone replacement therapy but it had given her \"intense headaches\" which caused her to stop the treatment \"thinking that may have helped her, but only ended up causing this crisis\".\n\n\"The public focus has to be on finding her and not making up wild theories about her personal life,\" they said.\n\n\"Nikki is such a wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother and is missed dearly.\"\n\nAppealing directly to Ms Bulley, they added: \"Nikki, we hope you are reading this and know that we love you so much and your girls want a cuddle.\n\nThe search along the riverbank has entered its third week and has now moved as far as the coast\n\nMs Bulley's parents, Ernest and Dot Bulley, left a yellow ribbon tied to a bridge over the River Wyre near where their daughter went missing, with the message: \"We pray every day for you.\"\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters at school.\n\nHer phone was found still connected to a work conference call.\n\nNicola Bulley disappeared while taking her dog Willow out for a walk\n\nPolice and specialist teams have since mounted a huge search, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nBut he added: \"We're not privy to the police's conversations with Nicola Bulley's family and I don't think it would be right for us to speculate on why they've chosen to make those comments.\n\n\"This is a live investigation, we have to let the police get on with it and not add to the already considerable level of speculation surrounding the case.\"\n\nA Home Office spokesperson added: \"The Home Secretary and Policing Minister are receiving regular updates from Lancashire Police on its handling of this case, including why personal details about Nicola was briefed out at this stage of the investigation.\"\n\nShadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC: \"I think there are concerns because the information they set out was very unusual, and I would want to know more from Lancashire Police about the reasons for doing this.\"\n\nLancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden said the investigation was under the direction and control of Chief Constable Chris Rowley.\n\nHe said: \"Lancashire Police are being as transparent as they can be on what is an incredibly sensitive and complex case.\n\n\"The unprecedented media and public interest in this case, whilst welcomed for appeals for information, is challenging for the family and friends of Nicola and the officers and police staff dealing with unsubstantiated rumours and speculation on a daily basis.\"\n\nLancashire Police is yet to respond to the criticism it has faced.\n\nMeanwhile, it confirmed social media influencer Dan Duffy had been fined after joining the search for the missing mother.\n\nThe 36-year-old posted a video of himself being arrested by police on his YouTube channel.\n\nPolice said he was handed a fixed penalty notice under section 4 of the Public Order Act - fear or provocation of violence.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this piece, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The schemes, due to be launched at the end of 2022, have been delayed\n\nThe Department for Economy has missed a target to launch new energy efficiency schemes for homes and businesses.\n\nThe schemes were due to be launched by the end of 2022 as part of ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions.\n\nThe department said after consultation it became clear that a pilot scheme for homes would not be feasible in 2022.\n\nIt added officials were now \"progressing the development of a multi-year energy efficiency intervention programme.\"\n\nPart of that work involves determining how much money will be needed for an effective scheme to insulate homes.\n\nThe department said a scheme for businesses would be launched in 2023.\n\nThe details are contained in a progress report on the implementation of Stormont's energy strategy.\n\nThe strategy was agreed by the Stormont Executive at the end of 2021, with the aim of radically cutting greenhouse gas emissions and creating a resilient energy system.\n\nIt sets out a plan for cutting energy-related emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, by 56% by 2030.\n\nProgress has been made in some areas as nine demonstrator projects for low carbon heat technologies have begun.\n\nA draft action plan for developing offshore windfarms has been published and a statement of intent has been agreed with the Crown Estate, which controls access to the seabed.\n\nSome of the actions in the strategy will require new legislation, such as simplifying planning rules for the installation of heat pumps.\n\nIt is unclear when those legal changes can be made given the absence of a Northern Ireland Assembly.\n\nLast year UK's climate watchdog said Stormont was showing commendable ambition but would need \"a major step-up\" in delivery.\n\nThe Climate Change Committee (CCC) warned that Northern Ireland's net zero target would \"lose credibility\" if the focus did not shift quickly to implementation and delivery.", "Nicola Sturgeon is resigning as SNP leader and first minister of Scotland\n\nThree candidates have put themselves forward to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland.\n\nKate Forbes, Ash Regan and Humza Yousaf are competing to become the next SNP leader.\n\nWhat do we know about them and the contest so far?\n\nThe finance secretary has had a meteoric rise through the ranks of government. She was dropped into the job following the surprise resignation of Derek Mackay and was left to deliver the 2020 Scottish Budget with just a few hours' notice.\n\nHer steady performance since then has belied her relatively young age (32) and short parliamentary career.\n\nShe was first elected to the seat of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch in 2016, but has been talked about as a future leadership contender for some time.\n\nAnnouncing her campaign, she said the nation and the Yes movement were at \"a crossroads\" and that she had \"the vision, experience and competence to inspire voters\".\n\nAs finance secretary she has pushed for a \"reset\" of the public sector in the wake of the Covid pandemic, having set out plans which would have seen the workforce cut.\n\nMs Forbes is a member of the Free Church of Scotland, which follows a strict interpretation of the Bible, and has described how she has often had to \"tiptoe around\" her faith.\n\nShe has been on maternity leave since last summer, meaning she has not participated in some key debates within the SNP about gender reform and independence strategy.\n\nOn day one of her campaign, she said she would not have voted for the gender reform bill.\n\nMs Forbes also said she believed that having a child outside of marriage was \"wrong\" according to her religious beliefs.\n\nAnd she sparked a storm after saying she would not have voted for gay marriage legislation, as a matter of conscience, had she been in parliament at the time.\n\nA number of prominent supporters withdrew their endorsements and Deputy First Minister John Swinney questioned whether her stance on gay marriage made her \"appropriate\" to be SNP leader.\n\nIn reply, a spokesman for Ms Forbes said people would wonder why Mr Swinney believes a woman holding Christian views should be disqualified from holding high office.\n\nMs Forbes then took to social media in a bid to reset her campaign.\n\nShe said she had never intended to cause \"hurt\", and that she would \"defend to the hilt the right of everybody in Scotland, particularly minorities, to live and to live without fear or harassment in a pluralistic and tolerant society\".\n\nAnd she added: \"It is possible to be a person of faith, and to defend others' rights to have no faith or a different faith.\"\n\nThe former community safety minister is best known for quitting her government post in protest over gender reform legislation.\n\nBut the 48-year-old has also gained some prominent supporters in the legal industry thanks to her engagement with them during the Covid pandemic.\n\nMs Regan, who has been MSP for Edinburgh Eastern since 2016, says she would ditch the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.\n\nAnd she has called for an independence convention to \"create a new vision of an independent Scotland\".\n\nShe has also thrown her support behind the idea of using a future election as a \"de facto referendum\", saying that pro-independence parties winning over 50% of the vote would be \"a clear instruction that Scotland wishes to be an independent nation\".\n\nThis is a harder position on independence campaigning than either of the other candidates, who favour a more cautious approach, and Ms Regan may be targeting the hearts of party members impatient for action on the constitutional question.\n\nThe MSP has also called for members who quit the SNP over the gender reform row to be allowed back in to vote in the leadership contest - an idea laughed off as \"preposterous\" by the deputy first minister.\n\nMs Regan has also indicated support for the North Sea oil and gas industry and pledged to speed up the dualling of the A9 and A96.\n\nAt the launch of her campaign, Ms Regan said the SNP had \"effectively dismantled the Yes campaign\".\n\nShe said: \"In recent years, the wider Yes movement has become marginalised in the fight for independence. If elected, I intend to change that.\"\n\nShe also said it was a \"conflict of interest\" for Ms Sturgeon's husband - SNP chief executive Peter Murrell - to be running the contest to select her replacement.\n\nThe health secretary is part of a newer generation of SNP figures, having become a Glasgow MSP in 2011.\n\nHe is also the most experienced of the three candidates, having held a number of senior posts in government, including as transport minister, Europe minister and justice secretary.\n\nAt the launch of his campaign, the 37-year-old said he wanted to \"reenergise the campaign for independence\".\n\nHe said he had the experience to take on the job of first minister, but would have a \"a different approach\" to Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nShe had faced calls to sack Mr Yousaf over his running of the NHS in Scotland this winter, as waiting times hit record highs and doctors issued safety warnings.\n\nBut he has pointed to the pay offer made to NHS staff, which he says is likely to avoid strike action for the next financial year.\n\nHe has pitched himself as a candidate who would continue the work of Ms Sturgeon's administration and maintain the SNP's partnership arrangement with the Greens.\n\nHe is also the only candidate who has pledged to pursue legal action to defend Holyrood's gender reforms, which were blocked by the UK government. This is seen as a red line in terms of the Greens continuing support for the government.\n\nMr Yousaf says politics has grown too divisive, and that he has \"the skills to reach across the divide and bring people together\" across Scotland.\n\nOn independence, he says he wants to talk about policy rather than process, and to \"grow our movement from the grassroots upwards\".\n\nMr Yousaf, who is Muslim, missed the 2014 equal marriages vote at Holyrood as he was at a meeting, but supported the passage of the bill during its earlier stages in the parliament.\n\nOne former SNP minister, Alex Neil, told the Herald newspaper on Friday that Mr Yousaf had contrived to \"skip\" the vote by arranging this meeting 19 days in advance, and that it could have been rescheduled.\n\nMr Yousaf has vigorously denied such suggestions, and said the episode was being used by opponents to undermine his campaign.\n\nProminent supporters: Neil Gray, international development minister; Maree Todd, public health minister; Michael Matheson, net zero, energy and transport secretary; Kevin Stewart, mental wellbeing and social care minister.", "State threats have accelerated since the 2018 Salisbury poisoning\n\nPolice are investigating unprecedented numbers of plots from hostile states, led by Russia, China and Iran, the UK's counter-terrorism chief has said.\n\nAssistant Commissioner Matt Jukes said 15 plots to kill or kidnap had come out of Iran alone since January 2020.\n\nInvestigations into plots involving states had quadrupled in the past couple of years, he said.\n\nAnd detectives were also examining more than 100 reports of Ukraine war crimes, an operation that could last decades.\n\n\"At present around 20% of our casework is focused on missions outside terrorism,\" Mr Jukes said.\n\n\"That means countering state threats, investigating war crimes and working with [security service] MI5 and other partners to address espionage.\n\n\"We know that the interests of some state organisations and their proxies include kidnap, forced repatriation and assassination of their opponents.\"\n\nArmed Metropolitan Police vehicles guarding the offices of Iran International in Chiswick, last November\n\nThere were dozens of hostile-state operations, compared with 800 live terrorism-plot investigations, Mr Jukes said - but they were far more complex and could require many more investigators and resources.\n\nIn November, Scotland Yard very publicly began to station armed officers outside the London studios of Iran International Television, a Persian-language service Tehran considers terrorists.\n\nLast weekend, a man was arrested nearby. He has now been charged with collecting information for the purpose of terrorism.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nScotland Yard is also looking into international reports China has created a network of clandestine \"police stations\" around the world from which it can investigate dissidents.\n\nLast December, Beijing withdrew six officials from its Manchester consulate, weeks after a pro-democracy protester had been dragged into its grounds and beaten by men.\n\n\"I want to be absolutely clear that any attempt to intimidate, to harass or to harm individuals who are UK nationals, or who have made the UK their home, won't be tolerated,\" Mr Jukes said.\n\n\"Attempts to set up shop, to act outside the conventions of international law enforcement are not acceptable. They will be stopped.\"\n\nMr Jukes also urged anyone in the UK with potential evidence of war crimes in Ukraine to contact specialist officers.\n\n\"I'd like to commend the really courageous Ukrainians who have come to us with information, either their personal testimony or digital media,\" he said.\n\n\"We had around 50 reports at the midpoint of last year. We're now at around 100 reports, which are being actively considered to support the International Criminal Court.\n\n\"We've been doing that in churches and communities, with the people who've come over.\n\n\"It has to be to see that those who are responsible for war crimes in Ukraine are brought to justice - we're in this for potentially decades.\"", "We've been speaking to an active bunch of older voters at the John Wright sports centre in East Kilbride near Glasgow to get their views on what the next first minister's priorities should be.\n\nIsobel Walters, who had a liver transplant five years after a diabetes diagnosis, says the focus must be the NHS.\n\nQuote Message: They need to train more people - nurses, doctors, surgeons. Give them a decent wage because the work they do is amazing. The care I’ve had is exceptional. But I have a lot friends who have had to go privately for scans and things. It’s not fair that they’ve had to pay for it.\" They need to train more people - nurses, doctors, surgeons. Give them a decent wage because the work they do is amazing. The care I’ve had is exceptional. But I have a lot friends who have had to go privately for scans and things. It’s not fair that they’ve had to pay for it.\"\n\nLinda Dempsey agrees the NHS is a top priority and reckons Scottish independence \"should be put on the back burner\".\n\nQuote Message: Money needs to be spent on a lot more than independence - children’s schooling is a disgrace.\" Money needs to be spent on a lot more than independence - children’s schooling is a disgrace.\"\n\nBut Philip Patterson disagrees and believes the need for independence is greater than ever.\n\nQuote Message: Until that happens we’re not going to be able to do anything with the NHS or education as the purse strings are still with Westminster. Until that happens we’re not going to be able to do anything with the NHS or education as the purse strings are still with Westminster.\n\nThe struggles of the NHS is a recurring theme - with Larry Dempsey calling for the next first minister to approve urgent investment.\n\nQuote Message: Get the economy on track and sort out the NHS and social care. It’s really deteriorated over the last few years and needs money to get it back on its feet.\" Get the economy on track and sort out the NHS and social care. It’s really deteriorated over the last few years and needs money to get it back on its feet.\"", "A German ballet choreographer who smeared dog faeces on the face of a newspaper critic has been sacked.\n\nMarco Goecke was the ballet director at the Hanover State Opera when he confronted a journalist for writing a bad review about one of his shows.\n\nThe opera house has now fired him, saying his \"irresponsible actions have deeply unsettled the audience\" and \"irritated the public\".\n\nHe had \"massively damaged\" the opera house's reputation, it added.\n\nDuring the interval of a ballet triple bill on Saturday, Mr Goecke challenged dance critic Wiebke Hüster over a review she had written about his latest show, In The Dutch Mountains.\n\nMs Hüster's review had described his show as like being \"alternately driven mad and killed by boredom\".\n\nIn the foyer of the theatre Mr Goecke threatened to ban her from the theatre and said that people had cancelled their season tickets because of her piece.\n\nHe then produced a bag of dog excrement which he smeared over her face.\n\nThe Hanover State Opera had already suspended Mr Goecke but on Thursday announced his contract was ending \"with immediate effect\".\n\n\"I cannot even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be humiliated like that in public,\" the institution's director Laura Berman said in the statement, saying she had apologised to Ms Hüster.\n\n\"Criticism is important for the creation and development of art.\"\n\nBut the opera house said it would distinguish between Mr Goecke and his work - and that reruns of his ballets would still feature on its programme in the future.\n\nAccording to the New York Times, Mr Goecke said on Thursday he had \"apologised deeply\" for the incident, and what he did was \"truly an awful thing\" - but that critics should not write in \"a personal and hateful way\".\n\nThe faeces was made by his dachshund, Mr Goecke previously told broadcaster NDR.\n\nMs Hüster, who writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, told the BBC she was in \"shock\" after the \"brutal attack\".\n\n\"When I realised what happened, I screamed, I panicked... I can assure you that it was not an impulsive act - he had planned this. I consider it an act against the freedom of [the] press,\" she said.\n\nThe incident is still being investigated by German police.", "New leaders, new impetus: Bertie Ahern (left) and Tony Blair arrived in office in 1997\n\nIt is 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the peace deal that brought an end to the Troubles. How did the arrival of new leaders in both the UK and Republic of Ireland help bring fresh momentum to the talks?\n\nThe impressive King's Hall at Balmoral today operates as a multi-million pound health and well-being centre but the complex in south Belfast has played host to many memorable cultural and sporting events over the years.\n\nFor decades, it was home to the annual multi-day Balmoral Show, the biggest agricultural event in Northern Ireland.\n\nMusic lovers flocked there to hear the sounds of The Beatles, David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen, among many others, while boxers Barry McGuigan, Wayne McCullough and Chris Eubank have all entertained fight fans.\n\nBut the King's Hall's important role in our political history is perhaps less well known.\n\nThe Good Friday Agreement referendum result was announced at the King's Hall\n\nIn May 1998, under the gaze of the world's media, the result of the Good Friday Agreement referendum was revealed at the King's Hall, revealing 71% of voters had backed the deal.\n\nA year earlier it was the venue for a key moment when the faltering peace process was given a boost.\n\nJust days after becoming prime minister, Tony Blair came to the King's Hall complex to try to get political talks back on track.\n\nHe delivered a bold plea to republicans, declaring: \"My message to Sinn Féin is clear. The settlement train is leaving. I want you on that train but it is leaving anyway and I will not allow it to wait for you.''\n\nTony Blair won the 1997 general election with a massive parliamentary majority and Northern Ireland was one of his priorities.\n\nTony Blair, centre, with Northern Ireland Minister Paul Murphy and Secretary of State Mo Mowlam\n\nTom Kelly, who would initially work as director of communications with the Northern Ireland Office and then as the prime minister's official spokesperson, said the new leader was determined to get a breakthrough.\n\n\"He also said the peace process was something that was a responsibility that weighed not just on the mind but on the soul. It was personal,\" he added.\n\nNew leadership in the UK was soon mirrored in the Republic of Ireland, where Bertie Ahern became taoiseach (Irish prime minister) in June 1997.\n\nDiplomat Dan Mulhall, who worked in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and would become directly involved with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, said the arrival of Blair and Ahern changed the political dynamic.\n\n\"The fact that you had two new leaders, heads of government coming into office at roughly the same time, I think, gave the whole thing a boost that turned out to be critical in the end.\"\n\nPolitical talks got going in June 1997, with republicans told that unless there was an IRA ceasefire Sinn Féin would be left out in the cold.\n\nSocial Democratic and Labour Party leader John Hume, who had been talking to Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, continued his behind the scenes discussions and, in July 1997, a second IRA ceasefire was announced.\n\nThis cessation of violence changed everything, said Prof Marie Coleman from Queen's University Belfast.\n\n\"The new Labour government was not as stringent as Sir Patrick Mayhew [ the former Northern Ireland secretary] had been with decommissioning before those talks,\" she said.\n\n\"But certainly there would have been no negotiations going into the autumn of 1997 if there had not been a ceasefire.\"\n\nUS politician Senator George Mitchell was tasked with bringing the parties together and finding common ground - a process that Mr Mulhall recalls as being painstakingly slow.\n\n\"George Mitchell had that endurance, and the patience, to be able to cope with the glacial pace of progress,\" he said.\n\nBy the autumn of 1997, talks were under way but it seemed Tony Blair's much reported \"settlement train\" was making little headway.\n\nHe came to Belfast for discussions but was booed and heckled while on a walkabout at Connswater Shopping Centre in east Belfast, underlining the difficulties the talks faced.\n\nA protester holding up a sign during Tony Blair's visit to Connoswater Shopping Centre in 1997\n\nHowever another landmark moment, Prof Coleman said, came at Christmas, when the prime minister hosted Sinn Féin in Downing Street.\n\n\"What we saw in December 1997 would bring back images of Michael Collins leading the [Anglo-Irish] Treaty delegation in to talk to [prime minister] David Lloyd George in that very same building over 70 years previously,\" she said\n\n\"So there was a significant historical resonance there.\"\n\nThe months to come, before the deal got over the line, had many twists and turns - talks broke up in Christmas 1997 without agreement.\n\nThen loyalist paramilitaries withdrew their support and, in January, Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam went into the Maze prison to try to get them back on board.\n\nThe new year also brought a wave of killings, with both loyalist and republican paramilitaries blamed.\n\nThe announcement of the referendum result brought cheers at the King's Hall - but the year leading up to it was anything but smooth\n\nThis led to the loyalist Ulster Democratic Party group, which was linked to the Ulster Defence Association, to be barred from the talks, and then Sinn Féin being expelled.\n\nThe prospects of a political deal in February 1998 looked bleak, as Mr Kelly recalled.\n\n\"People expected failure - people did not expect success,\" he said.\n\nHistory turned out differently. In May 1998, the King's Hall became the place to watch as political history was made.\n• None What is the Good Friday Agreement?", "Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nNicola Bulley was considered a high-risk missing person from the start of the investigation into her disappearance, police have said.\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nDet Supt Rebecca Smith said she was listed as high risk because of a \"number of specific vulnerabilities\".\n\nBut she added this was \"normal in a missing person investigation with the information we were in possession of\".\n\nAccording to the College of Policing, the category is applied when the risk of a person coming to serious harm is assessed as very likely.\n\nDet Supt Rebecca Smith said there had been \"persistent myths\" about the case\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters - aged six and nine - at school.\n\nLancashire Police first told the public of their \"main working hypothesis\" on 3 February, that the mortgage adviser had gone into the river during a \"10-minute window\" between 09:10 GMT and 09:20 that day.\n\nDetectives have extended the search to the sea, saying finding her there \"becomes more of a possibility\".\n\nMs Bulley's family and friends have tied yellow ribbons to a bridge near to where she vanished\n\nHeart-shaped paper notes with messages of hope have also been fastened to the bridge\n\nIn a press conference earlier, Det Supt Smith, who is the lead investigator in the case, confirmed there was still no evidence of a criminal aspect or third-party involvement.\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has previously said he was \"100% convinced\" she did not fall into the water.\n\nBut Det Supt Smith said their main theory was still that Ms Bulley had \"unfortunately gone in the river\".\n\nHowever, she said she could not be \"100% certain of that at the minute\" as it was a \"live investigation\" and there was \"always information coming in\".\n\nShe said other hypotheses remained in place and were \"reviewed regularly\" by detectives.\n\nThe search for Ms Bulley continues in St Michael's on Wyre\n\n\"We are in the 20th day, we have had a thorough, dedicated, meticulous investigation and there is not one single piece of information that's come to note that would suggest that Nicola has left those fields,\" she said.\n\nShe added Ms Bulley was graded as high risk \"following the information that was provided to the police by her partner Paul and based on a number of specific vulnerabilities that we were made aware of\".\n\nShe declined to give further details, pointing to the family's \"pain and distress\", and called for \"respect\".\n\nNearly 40 detectives have since sifted through hundreds of hours of CCTV, dashcam footage and tip-offs from the public.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson says there is no evidence of third party involvement\n\nDet Supt Smith said the force had also been \"inundated with false information, accusations and rumours which is distracting\".\n\nShe said in her 29 years of police service she had not seen \"anything like it\" and described \"persistent myths\" about the case.\n\n\"The derelict house which is across the other side of the river has been searched three times, with the permission of the owner, and Nicola is not in there,\" she said.\n\nShe added reports of a red van in the area on the morning of Ms Bulley's disappearance were not being treated as suspicious.\n\nThe detective also confirmed that a glove found near to where Ms Bulley disappeared does not belong to her.\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on a bench by the River Wyre\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson defended his force's investigation into the case of the missing mother-of-two.\n\nHe said the force had decided to share more details in the press conference \"than would normally be the case\" to counter some of \"the ill-informed speculation and conjecture\".\n\n\"It has been a distraction that is potentially damaging to the investigation, the community of St Michael's and most importantly Nicola's family,\" he said.\n\nOn Tuesday the Lancashire force said it had arrested two people after malicious messages were sent to a number of parish councillors about the case.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zelensky says peace deal would 'leave Ukraine weaker as a state'\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out giving up any of his country's territory in a potential peace deal with Russia.\n\nIn a BBC interview to mark a year since Russia's full-scale invasion, he warned conceding land would mean Russia could \"keep coming back\", while Western weapons would bring peace closer.\n\nMr Zelensky also said a predicted spring offensive had already begun.\n\n\"Russian attacks are already happening from several directions,\" he said.\n\nHe does, however, believe Ukraine's forces can keep resisting Russia's advance until they are able to launch a counter-offensive - although he repeated his calls for more military aid from the West.\n\n\"Of course, modern weapons speed up peace. Weapons are the only language Russia understands,\" Mr Zelensky told the BBC.\n\nHe met UK and EU leaders last week in a bid to bolster international support and to ask for modern arms to defend his country. When Ukraine's president asked for modern fighter jets, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said \"nothing is off the table\".\n\nBut Kyiv has become increasingly frustrated with the speed with which Western weapons have arrived. Deliveries of battle tanks - promised last month by a swathe of Western countries, including Germany, the US and the UK - are still thought to be weeks away from arriving on the battlefield.\n\nPresident Zelensky also addressed a threat by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko to wage war alongside Russian troops from his territory if a single Ukrainian soldier crossed the border.\n\n\"I hope [Belarus] won't join [the war],\" he said. \"If it does, we will fight and we will survive.\" Allowing Russia to use Belarus as a staging post for an attack again would be a \"huge mistake\", he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRussian forces launched part of their full-scale invasion from Belarus 12 months ago. They drove south towards Ukraine's capital Kyiv but were fought back and made to retreat within weeks, after suffering heavy casualties.\n\nWhen asked if he was surprised by Russia's tactics in the war, Mr Zelensky described them as \"valueless\".\n\n\"The way they destroyed everything. If their soldiers received [and carried out] those orders, that means they share those same values.\"\n\nUkrainian data released this week suggested Russian troops in Ukraine were dying in greater numbers this month than at any time since the first week of their invasion. The figures cannot be verified, but the UK's Ministry of Defence said the trends were \"likely accurate\".\n\n\"Today, our survival is our unity,\" said Mr Zelensky on how he thought the war will end. \"I believe Ukraine is fighting for its survival.\" His country was moving towards Europe economically, as well as through its values, he said.\n\n\"We chose this path. We want security guarantees. Any territorial compromises would make us weaker as a state.\"\n\n\"It's not about compromise itself,\" he said. \"Why would we be afraid of that? We have millions of compromises in life every day.\n\n\"The question is with whom? With Putin? No. Because there's no trust. Dialogue with him? No. Because there's no trust.\"", "Faten Al Yousifi gave birth to her baby girl 10 hours after she was pulled out from the rubble\n\nA Yemeni mother who fled the war in her home country has given birth to a baby girl ten hours after being rescued from her earthquake-hit home in Turkey.\n\nFaten Al Yousifi, who was 39 weeks pregnant, had decorated her baby's nursery and had a birth bag ready to go when the quake struck her flat in Malatya, just after 4am last Monday.\n\nAfter ten hours of crouching - dazed, dehydrated, and fearing for the safety of her unborn child - she was pulled from the rubble by a family friend, Hisham, and rescue workers.\n\n\"I did not believe I was still alive,\" Faten told the BBC via WhatsApp on Thursday.\n\nShe was rushed to the hospital where the doctors carried out a Caesarean section to deliver her baby girl Loujain, meaning \"silver\" in Arabic.\n\nHisham returned to rescue Faten's husband, and was shocked to see a nearby building had collapsed on top of their flats.\n\nFaten's husband, 29-year-old Burhan Al Alimi, had died. His body was recovered three days later. He was in his final year of chemical engineering studies at Inonu University in Malatya.\n\nLike any new mother, Faten is sleep deprived and trying to adjust to her newborn's feeding and sleep routines.\n\n\"The beginning was very difficult, especially with the circumstances,\" she said.\n\nStill, she is grateful. \"I thank everyone who helped me and stood with me,\" she said. \"I had a family when mine wasn't there.\"\n\n\"We imagined a beautiful life for our daughter,\" she added. \"But God's will is above everything, everywhere. No one knows where the end will be.\"\n\nSince Loujain's arrival, there has been an outpouring of love and support from fellow earthquake survivors in both Yemeni and Turkish communities.\n\nFaten has moved in with a friend in Kocaeli, closer to Istanbul. And Yemen's ambassador to Turkey, Muhammad Tariq, has visited the baby.\n\nFaten and her husband moved to Turkey after the Iranian-backed Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014.\n\nSince the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen began in March 2015, the Yemeni community in Turkey has increased to more than 20,000.\n\nYet even before the war, Yemenis were emigrating to Turkey for studies and work following the Arab Spring-inspired protests in 2011.\n\nMuhammad Amer, president of the Yemeni Students Union in Turkey, said there were now more than 8,000 Yemeni students in the country.\n\nSo far, he said eight Yemenis had been confirmed dead across Gaziantep, Hatay, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Malatya and Iskenderun.\n\nYemeni doctor Mohammed Al-Ara'awi, who arrived Turkey before the war, said he lost his wife, 16-year-old son and young daughter.\n\nWhen the quake hit, he was in Adana city, but his family were in Hatay. After desperately trying to reach neighbours, he travelled to Hatay and was devastated to learn about his family trapped under the rubble.\n\n\"Waiting on the rubble was like the Yemeni war that people lived through,\" he said from Istanbul.\n\nIdris Aqlan, a 25-year-old student at Gaziantep University, was visiting Istanbul when the earthquake hit. He told the BBC that two Turkish friends died.\n\n\"I lived through many difficult situations in Yemen because of the war, but this one was much more difficult,\" he said.\n\nThe sudden nature of the earthquake did not give people time to prepare, he explained. In war, he said, at least there is time to hide in cellars, in the desert, or in the mountains.\n\nAdditional reporting by Fuad Rajeh and Nabila Saeed in Turkey", "Nicola Sturgeon often said that education was a top priority for her\n\nNicola Sturgeon has been Scotland's first minister for more than eight years, the longest anyone has stayed in the post.\n\nAs her time at the top of Scottish politics comes to an end, BBC Scotland correspondents look at how she has done in their area.\n\nNicola Sturgeon became first minister in the wake of the failed independence campaign in 2014, stepping in after Alex Salmond's resignation.\n\nHer tenure will be remembered for many things but in the end she has not moved the dial on the founding issue which got her into politics - Scottish independence.\n\nMs Sturgeon took charge of a nation divided on the issue and will leave Bute House with the polls still broadly split down the middle.\n\nShe faced off with five different UK prime ministers - all Tory - but none would grant her a second crack at a referendum. In her opinion, a democratic outrage.\n\nMs Sturgeon has now decided to release the reins at the very moment where the next steps will be mapped out.\n\nShe has not given up on her dream of independence but it will be for someone else to decide the strategy and lead the campaign.\n\nBefore she was first minister, Nicola Sturgeon spent five years as health secretary.\n\nIn that time she made plenty of big calls - scrapping prescription charges, introducing minimum pricing legislation, a 12-week legal requirement to treat patients.\n\nShe was also involved in the early days of building the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.\n\nAs first minister she'll undoubtedly be remembered as the woman who led Scotland during a global pandemic - fronting televised briefings and occasionally deciding that Covid rules would diverge from other parts of the UK.\n\nBut you are never far away from controversy when it comes to handling of the NHS.\n\nThere are record waiting times to access NHS treatment and high levels of staff vacancies - as well as the ongoing Hospitals Inquiry and the Scotland and UK Covid inquiries.\n\nThese could provide some uncomfortable verdicts on decision-making by Nicola Sturgeon's government.\n\nEducation was a top priority for Nicola Sturgeon when she became first minister.\n\nHelping more young people from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds to do better at school and get to university was to be a defining mission.\n\nHowever, her term ends with the first national teachers' strike since the 1980s and strained relations between the Scottish government and the teachers' unions.\n\nClosing the attainment gap, another goal, was always going to be a complex, long term task.\n\nUniversities are now taking in a record number of students from the most disadvantaged parts of Scotland, but there are worries that other young people may be finding it harder to get on to certain courses.\n\nProgress was being made closing the attainment gap in schools. Then came the pandemic and unthinkable disruption to the education system.\n\nSupporters of the government can point to the progress being made helping children from the most disadvantaged areas before the pandemic.\n\nBut until the teachers' pay dispute is resolved, the risk is that the shadow of picket lines will hang over discussion about education itself.\n\nIt can be argued that Nicola Sturgeon's biggest single contribution to Scotland's justice system is her announcement of the abolition of the \"not proven\" verdict.\n\nThe undefined second verdict of acquittal, unique to Scotland, has caused angst for decades, if not centuries.\n\nBut depending on when she steps down, her legacy could also include something far more radical - a pilot of judge-only rape trials currently under consideration by her government.\n\nThe first minister portrays herself as a champion of women's rights and such a move would be expected to improve the conviction rate in rape cases.\n\nBut removing the right to a trial by jury, even for a limited time on limited basis, would be hugely controversial.\n\nIf that's the road the Scottish government decides to go down, Nicola Sturgeon will have played a significant part in making it happen.\n\nThe spiralling number of drug deaths in Scotland led the first minister to admit her government had taken its \"eye off the ball\" when it came to addiction.\n\nOf course, Scotland isn't the only country with drug issues. In many respects, this is an inherited, multi-generational problem.\n\nBut Nicola Sturgeon's government hadn't prioritised that problem until 1,000 Scots a year or more were succumbing to addiction.\n\nBefore that, local treatment budgets had been cut just as a new dangerous wave of street Valium swept through poor communities.\n\nThe issue was particularly acute: Scotland saw seven years of record drug deaths and a death rate higher than any other European nation.\n\nExperts would soon point out that it was comparable with North America's opioid crisis.\n\nThere were arguments about who should control drug policy - Holyrood or Westminster - but ultimately, Nicola Sturgeon's government accepted its own responsibilities and declared a national effort to reduce deaths.\n\nNow £250m is being invested into addiction services but Scotland has yet to see a significant reduction in the number of fatal overdoses.\n\nThe first minister is a campaigner at heart. The economy has rarely seemed a priority for Nicola Sturgeon, seeing it as a foundation of wellbeing rather than wealth.\n\nShe has talked it up, announcing targets for exports, plans for skills and task forces for productivity.\n\nBut while focussing her attention on social policy, health and redistribution of income through new tax and welfare powers, she delegated business policy to other ministers.\n\nShe took a more prominent role intervening in failing businesses in an attempt to save jobs, with mixed success - an Inverclyde shipyard, a Fife fabrication yard, steel rolling in Motherwell and aluminium in Lochaber. They have created a legacy of higher costs and financial liabilities.\n\nScotRail was taken over by government. Transport spending shifted to buses. CalMac's ageing fleet is in crisis.\n\nMs Sturgeon has blocked further private involvement in the NHS. The takeover of Scottish firms and loss of corporate headquarters has been barely noticed across Scottish politics.\n\nSince the COP26 summit in Glasgow, the first minister has argued for higher hurdles being placed in the way of further drilling for oil and gas.\n\nShe's urged a faster roll-out of renewable energy but faced criticism for the lack of Scottish content and jobs in it.\n\nOther landmark policies on business suggested her instincts have been for regulation, to tackle other priorities - recently including a freeze on housing rents, the deposit and return scheme for drinks containers, plans to reduce alcohol advertising and to restrict marketing of unhealthy food.\n\nDeciding whether to press on with these will be an early sign of whether her successor plans to change direction and perhaps become a closer friend to Scottish business.\n\nNicola Sturgeon received international praise for her leadership at and around the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow in 2021.\n\nThough she had no official role, since it was a UK government gig, the first minister used the summit to push forward the climate agenda internationally.\n\nHer government was the first in the world to declare a climate emergency back in 2019 and Scotland's climate leadership has been praised by the architect of the Paris Agreement, Christiana Figueres.\n\nBut Nicola Sturgeon's record when it comes to tackling climate change at home has been progressively sliding.\n\nSeven of the last 11 annual greenhouse gas emissions targets have been missed and the Climate Change Committee says Scotland's lead over the rest of the UK has been lost.\n\nThose longer term targets were challenging when they were set but the repeated failures make achieving them an even more difficult job for the next first minister.\n\nNo-one could doubt Nicola Sturgeon's dedication to reading, both personally and in schemes like the first minister's reading challenge which offered resources to groups working with young people to encourage reading.\n\nShe was a regular guest at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and there can barely be a book festival in Scotland, large or small, at which she hasn't appeared.\n\nBut while she's been a champion of the literary world, it hasn't resolved any of the deep-rooted problems that the industry has.\n\nThe literature sector, like all areas of the arts, faces a \"perfect storm\" caused by the pandemic, arts funding cuts and the cost of living crisis.\n\nThe wider cultural sector stands perched on that same financial precipice.\n\nCreative Scotland has warned that a third of their regularly funded organisations are at risk in the months ahead if the 10% cuts to their budget go ahead as planned.\n\nThe UK-wide Campaign for the Arts Alliance has launched an 11th hour bid to \"pull Scotland's cultural sector back from the brink\" with an online petition.\n\nNicola Sturgeon's passion for literature has brought welcome profile to the sector but the reality of this particular chapter in Scottish cultural history looks pretty grim indeed.", "Model Kate Moss was among those paying tribute to Dame Vivienne Westwood at Southwark Cathedral\n\nVictoria Beckham and Kate Moss were among the famous faces attending a memorial service for Dame Vivienne Westwood on Thursday in London.\n\nThe legendary fashion designer and environmental activist died in December aged 81.\n\nBritish Vogue editor Edward Enninful, rapper Stormzy and actress Helena Bonham Carter were also at the service.\n\nMany dressed in black, but others opted for more colourful outfits in Dame Vivienne's memory.\n\nHere are a selection of photos from Thursday's service at Southwark Cathedral.\n\nActress Helena Bonham Carter (left) and fashion designer and Spice Girl Victoria Beckham (right)\n\nKate Moss (right) with her daughter Lila Grace Moss Hack\n\nActress Vanessa Redgrave (right) with daughter and fellow actress Joely Richardson\n\nGame of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie with fashion designer Giles Deacon, her partner", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Sturgeon 'wrestling' with decision to resign for weeks\n\nNicola Sturgeon is the most experienced political leader in the UK.\n\nWhen she became first minister of Scotland, the prime minister and the man who hopes to be the next prime minister weren't even MPs.\n\nMs Sturgeon replaced Alex Salmond in 2014. Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer were first elected to the Commons in 2015.\n\nIn an era of what has often felt like near permanent political revolution, the churning in and then churning out of leader-after-leader, there has been what has felt, in contrast, like a near permanent leader of the Scottish government.\n\nShould we be surprised she's going? Privately, talk of her departure has not been dismissed out of hand for some time.\n\nBut many thought it might come after the next general election. Not out of the blue like this.\n\nSo, how should the leadership of Ms Sturgeon be assessed?\n\nShe was the beneficiary of defeat.\n\nNot just any defeat, but the defeat in 2014 of the defining thrust of her political instinct, the desire for Scottish independence.\n\nThe rejection of this in the referendum of almost a decade ago is what led to her predecessor Mr Salmond's departure and a turbo charging of the Scottish National Party's political fortunes.\n\nFor while 45% of the vote equals losing in a referendum, a figure anywhere near that in a conventional election equals overwhelming success.\n\nAnd so from defeat came dominance - the SNP holding the vast majority of the Scottish parliamentary seats at Westminster, and the SNP remaining in government in Scotland beyond the point that political gravity usually catches up with any party.\n\nRemember, the party first went into government at Holyrood in 2007.\n\nAnd the SNP remains, for now at least, the overwhelmingly dominant force in Scottish politics.\n\nBut here's a striking contrast: this politician who was a beneficiary of defeat was also a failure in victory.\n\nWinning elections, one way or another, again and again, didn't bring about independence, or even another referendum.\n\nThe SNP argue this is a democratic outrage.\n\nBut the truth is, whether you believe it amounts to that or not, delivering on that defining mission was slipping further and further away.\n\nMeanwhile, as Labour surged in the UK-wide opinion polls, that calling card to a chunk of the Scottish electorate - you end up with Tory governments you haven't voted for - began to look like it might expire at the next general election.\n\nAnd meanwhile, political problems stacked up: the NHS and schools, the thunderously angry row about trans rights upon which the first minister seemed increasingly lacking in the sure-footedness so many associate with her.\n\nThen there are the ongoing questions about the first minister's husband giving the SNP a £100,000 loan. Peter Murrell is also the chief executive of the party.\n\nThere are those who privately think the scrutiny of this still to come would have proved deeply uncomfortable for a serving first minister.\n\nSo, what next? First, there'll be some space for Ms Sturgeon's reflections on public life - politics can be \"brutal\", she says.\n\nIt reminded me of Tony Blair's remarks as he prepared to leave office 16 years ago when he \"talked of the media as a 'feral beast\".\n\nIn that, there are reflections for all of us involved in public discourse.\n\nOf course, there are critics of the first minister who will say her very desire for independence having lost a referendum on it was divisive, others that to deny another one is exactly that too.\n\nThe SNP must now find, and quickly, a replacement.\n\nIt is far from obvious who that will be.\n\nWhat does feel clearer is that Ms Sturgeon's political opponents are relieved she is going - and that is a compliment to her.\n\nMany who want to see the union preserved have longed for this day for some time, convinced her replacement won't be anywhere near as effective.\n\nFor now, a huge figure in Scottish politics and a big figure on the UK political stage prepares to depart, and Scotland prepares for new political leadership.", "Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that she is resigning as Scotland's first minister, saying there was much more \"intensity\", and \"brutality\", to the life of a politician, than there was in previous years.\n\nThese are some of the recent moments from her political career where she didn't hold back her thoughts on the government, Jeremy Clarkson and possible controversial haircuts.", "Five kits were released at a Loch Lomond nature reserve in January\n\nAn otter is suspected to have killed two beaver kits released at Loch Lomond last month.\n\nThe kits, along with their parents and three siblings, were relocated from Tayside to a nature reserve as part of efforts to boost biodiversity.\n\nThe dead beavers and an otter were spotted on remote camera footage last week.\n\nConservationists said a post-mortem examination had confirmed an otter had preyed on one of the kits.\n\nRSPB Scotland, which is involved in the beaver project, suspects the second kit had suffered the same fate. Its body remains missing.\n\nIn a blog post about the deaths, the charity said young beavers were vulnerable to falling prey to otters, foxes, pine martens, birds of prey and large pike.\n\nIt added: \"Studies also show that kit mortality can be quite high especially in their first year.\n\n\"None of this makes it any easier and we're very sad to have lost these kits despite it being a natural process.\n\n\"Thankfully, the rest of the family seem to be doing well.\"\n\nThe kits along with two adults had been moved from Tayside\n\nLoch Lomond is only the third location in Scotland where beavers have been moved to since a reintroduction trial at Knapdale, in Argyll, began in 2009.\n\nBeavers, which were once native to Scotland before becoming extinct in the 16th Century, are a protected species. The animals found today have either been released under licence, or let go into the countryside illegally.\n\nIn 2021 the Scottish government announced its support for moving beavers from where they were considered a pest to more suitable habitats.\n\nThe pair of adult beavers and their five young offspring were moved to Loch Lomond from an area in Tayside where beaver activity was deemed a problem.\n\nFollowing a series of health tests and checks, they were released at a national nature reserve jointly managed by RSPB Scotland, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority and NatureScot.\n\nAt the time of the release, RSPB Scotland director Anne McCall said: \"We are delighted to have been able to offer a home to this family of beavers, speeding up their return to Loch Lomond.\n\n\"The national nature reserve, with its mix of open water, fen and wet woodland, is a perfect place for them.\n\n\"As nature's engineers, they manage and create habitat in ways we could never hope to replicate.\"", "Doctors at Al-Razi Hospital are having to treat patients outside, despite the cold weather\n\nHospitals in Aleppo do not have enough room for new patients in the wake of last week's devastating earthquake, a doctor in the Syrian city has told the BBC.\n\nAt the Al-Razi Hospital there are too many beds to fit into the wards. They reach end-to-end through corridors and into the chilly courtyard.\n\n\"We weren't able to discharge patients from the hospitals even after treating them. The city is damaged and there are no places for them to go,\" said Dr Nizar Suleiman, the head of orthopaedics.\n\n\"Huge numbers of patients came in a short period of time. We have a huge shortage in medicines, so it's really worrying.\n\n\"For example, we suffer from a lack of medical equipment to treat fractures. We already suffer from this shortage because of the crisis, and the siege [sanctions] make it worse.\"\n\nDr. Nizar Suleiman said there was a huge shortage of medicines due to war and sanctions\n\nMore than 4,400 deaths and 7,600 injuries have been reported in north-western Syria since a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck neighbouring southern Turkey on 6 February, according to the UN.\n\nThe damage to Aleppo is widespread. The BBC was given a rare opportunity by the Syrian government to visit there and speak to medical workers.\n\nWhile walking through the city the BBC team tried to stay quiet, in case we could hear survivors in the broken buildings.\n\nOver a week after the earthquake the chance of finding anyone alive in the rubble is slim. But patients keep arriving at Al-Razi Hospital.\n\nAbu Muhammad, who spent about 24 hours trapped under the rubble, lies among other survivors on a ward. He lost his wife and three of his five children in the earthquake. He looks at a colourful photo on his phone showing his family in happier times.\n\n\"They went to Heaven, they are now with God,\" he says, tearfully.\n\nHe is thankful for one thing: \"God saved my mobile phone for the sake of remembering them, so at least I can look at their pictures every time I miss them.\"\n\nAbu Muhammad, who lost his wife and three children, shows a photo of his family before the disaster\n\n\"I still can't believe what happened to me. Sometimes I feel like it's a nightmare, a bad dream. It can't be reality.\"\n\nTens of thousands of people are now living in churches, mosques or in public spaces and parks after losing their homes.\n\nThey told us that during the country's civil war, which has been going on for more than a decade, they had almost expected to lose loved ones or property.\n\nBut the earthquake was so unexpected. It struck while they slept, bringing a fresh wave of suffering that they felt was somehow even harder to bear.\n\nThe government says its aid effort has been hampered by the economic sanctions that Western powers imposed in response to alleged human rights violations and other abuses committed during the country's 12-year civil war.\n\nThe US, UK and EU deny this, saying trade in essential goods and humanitarian assistance are exempt from the sanctions.\n\nHowever, even though exports of medical supplies to Syria are not specifically sanctioned, international and regional banks fearful of being punished by Western authorities have in the past been reluctant to approve the financial transactions needed by Syrians to purchase them.\n\nOn Monday, Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad called for the lifting of all \"unilateral coercive measures\" during a meeting with the UN Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, Syrian state news agency Sana reported.\n\nHospitals are struggling to accommodate new patients\n\nThe government's key allies in the civil war - Russia, Iran and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah - have committed aid to government-controlled areas of Syria.\n\nAid donated by a number of other countries, including China, Sudan, Algeria, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, has also arrived, according to Syrian state media.\n\nThe BBC saw Russian aid delivered via lorries to a hub at a church in Aleppo.\n\nAnd Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported that a sixth shipment of Iranian aid had arrived.\n\nNeighbouring Lebanon meanwhile confirmed that it would open its ports and airports for countries wanting to send aid to Syria.\n\nIn contrast, opposition-held areas of north-west Syria have only seen a trickle of aid delivered by the UN via Turkey.\n\nMr Mekdad said the Syrian government was committed to \"delivering humanitarian aid to all those in need, in all areas, without any discrimination\".\n\nBut groups in the opposition enclave are not currently accepting aid from the government, fearing a propaganda victory for Damascus.", "Office of the President of Ukraine\n\nSir Keir Starmer has flown to Ukraine to reaffirm Labour's \"unwavering support\" for the country in its war with Russia.\n\nThe Labour leader met President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, ahead of next week's 24 February anniversary of the Russian invasion.\n\nHe also travelled to Irpin and Bucha to see the sites of alleged war crimes.\n\nMr Zelensky visited London and other European capitals last week to press for the supply of fighter jets.\n\nSir Keir described their meeting in Kyiv as \"very constructive... we were able to discuss the support that Ukraine needs and the justice that it deserves\".\n\nHe said: \"We discussed a range of issues, he's very concerned about support through weapons and the continuation of training for Ukraine, and I stressed that the Labour Party supports and would maintain the defence, training, and technological support the current UK government is providing.\n\n\"I've said throughout this conflict there will be no difference between the political parties on this, so we will continue to work with the government to see what further support we can provide.\"\n\nEarlier, the Labour leader told reporters it was \"very important for me to be here in Ukraine… making clear that support for Ukraine in the United Kingdom is united\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"Should there be an election next year and a change of government, the position on Ukraine will remain the same,\" he said while visiting Irpin, outside Kyiv.\n\nIn the early stages of the conflict last year, Ukraine accused Russian forces of committing atrocities in Irpin before pulling out. Moscow has denied this.\n\nSir Keir said: \"It's incredible to see the evidence of atrocities... Photographs of civilians in the outskirts of Kyiv blindfolded, with their arms tied behind their back.\n\n\"There has to be justice for this, has to be justice in The Hague [the site of the International Criminal Court], and proper reparation for the rebuilding of Ukraine.\"\n\nDuring Prime Minister's Questions last week, the Labour leader argued that Russian state assets frozen in the UK should be used to fund the reconstruction of Ukraine.\n\nHe also pressed for evidence to be collected to ensure effective prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA public meeting that was meant to ease fears about a toxic chemical spill in an Ohio town only heightened anger when the rail firm at the heart of the disaster failed to show up.\n\nRepresentatives of the Norfolk Southern railway company, whose train carrying the chemicals derailed 13 days ago causing a huge fire, cited security concerns when they pulled out.\n\nAfter the derailment, emergency crews performed a controlled release of vinyl chloride from five railcars that were at risk of exploding.\n\nThick plumes of black smoke towered over the town, East Palestine, but crews monitoring the air quality sought to reassure locals that it was going as planned.\n\nDespite those assurances from officials, many residents say they continued to be frightened of the potential harms, which they say had impacted humans and wildlife alike.\n\nThousands of dead fish have appeared in the creeks in the town, while people told local media that their chickens had died suddenly, and that their pets had fallen ill.\n\nMany have reported difficulties getting their water tested, fuelling mistrust at what they see as an ineffective and inadequate response to the crisis.\n\nEven before the event began, the company's absence left many residents seething.\n\n\"They have something to hide. You don't back out of questions if you know how to answer them,\" East Palestine resident Jaime Cozza said. \"It was like a bomb went through our town.\"\n\nThe people of East Palestine, Ohio, gathered in a high school gymnasium to voice their anger\n\nUnder the banners and murals of a local high school gymnasium, hundreds of people bombarded officials with repeated - and occasionally profanity-laden - questions about air and water quality.\n\n\"I'm just as frustrated. I live in the community, just like you,\" said East Palestine's Mayor Trent Conaway, exhaustion clearly visible on his face. \"I'm trying to get answers.\"\n\nJust hours before the meeting, Norfolk Southern announced that it would not attend.\n\nIn a statement, the company said it had become \"increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat\" to its employees because of the likelihood of \"outside parties\" participating.\n\nLifelong resident Chris Wallace - who remains unable to return to his house near a local creek - told the BBC that many townspeople had long been concerned about the speeds at which trains went through East Palestine, as well as the potential dangers of exhausted staff.\n\n\"They should be here answering questions,\" he said. \"They've got a lot to hide. They don't want us to know anything. They bombed us.\"\n\nThe BBC has reached out to Norfolk Southern for comment.\n\nOn multiple occasions, officials at the meeting were forced to plead with local residents to be civil, with Mayor Conaway telling those in attendance that \"we're all adults here\".\n\nMr Wallace and Ms Cozza said they are banding together with other locals to bring in outside experts to examine soil and water and bring in an attorney to answer legal questions.\n\nInside the crowded gymnasium, officials - including US Congressman Bill Johnson - faced repeated questions about what many locals said they see as contradictory and confusing health guidance.\n\n\"They kept saying it's fine to drink the water, but also to drink bottled water,\" said Scott McLear. \"That's not an answer. That's a contradiction, live for everyone to see.\"\n\nIn the days after the crash, some residents said they experienced headaches and nausea.\n\nAfter monitoring the air quality, the Environmental Protection Agency said earlier in the week that it had not detected harmful levels of contaminants. It has also been monitoring the air inside hundreds of homes and said it found no chemicals.\n\nA 100-plus car train derailed in Ohio on Friday. Chemicals on board the train caused concern for nearby residents.\n\nWhile officials at the event acknowledged that the toxins from the derailment had been deadly to wildlife - particularly fish - the head of Ohio's Health Department, Bruce Vanderhoff, told the crowd that the concentrations of toxins in the air and in water supplies were far below that which could harm humans.\n\n\"Why are people getting sick if there's nothing in the air or the water?,\" asked a woman from the bleachers, sparking applause throughout the gymnasium.\n\nCongressman Johnson, for his part, provided what he termed a \"common sense\" perspective.\n\n\"I'm not a doctor, and I'm not a chemist,\" he said. \"If you've got ailments and conditions that you did not have before 3 February, go to your doctor. Get that documented.\"\n\nOn Thursday, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Michael Regan, is expected to travel to East Palestine to meet with local officials and assess the response to the derailment.\n\nIn a statement, the EPA said that he would discuss the agency's \"air monitoring and work to ensure the health and safety of the community.\"\n\nBut for some local residents, Mr Regan's visit is too little, too late.\n\n\"I have absolutely no faith whatsoever,\" said a young man who asked only to be identified as Owen. \"The answers they are giving could be true. But they aren't delivering them in a way that's going to make anybody feel better.\"\n\nWhat questions do you have about the derailment and spill?\n\nIn some cases your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.\n\nUse this form to ask your question:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.", "The freezer has now been taken for the second time\n\nPart of a Banksy artwork that appeared in Margate on Tuesday morning has been removed for a second time.\n\nA broken freezer was removed by a gallery on Wednesday evening.\n\nLondon-based Red Eight Galleries said it removed the appliance to \"ensure the integrity\" of the artwork, which they plan to dismantle and put on display.\n\nThe freezer was removed hours after it had been returned by the local council who put it in storage \"on the grounds of safety\" on Tuesday afternoon.\n\nThe gallery also erected a Perspex sheet around the mural, which is on a wall of a property.\n\nThe mural shows a 1950s housewife with a swollen eye and missing tooth, apparently shutting a man in a freezer.\n\nBanksy published a picture of the work on his Instagram page on Valentine's Day morning, and many of the comments suggest he is referencing fighting violence against women.\n\nThe elusive artist, who captioned the piece \"Valentine's day mascara\", also posted pictures showing a close-up of the woman's smiling, but seemingly battered face.\n\nThe mural appears to show a woman with a missing tooth and a swollen eye\n\nThanet District Council said the freezer was taken away to remove the gas and ensure that members of the public could not become trapped inside it.\n\n\"Since we returned the freezer, a gallery representative - acting on behalf of the property's owner - has taken it away into safe storage,\" they said.\n\nThe authority said it was \"in touch with the owner of the property to understand their intentions around the preservation of the piece and to secure the best possible outcome for the local community\".\n\nJulian Usher, chief executive of Red Eight Galleries, told the BBC they had been contacted by the property owner of the house on which the mural is painted.\n\nMr Usher said the gallery planned to remove the entire installation and display it, possibly at a local museum.\n\nHe said the piece would be used to raise awareness of domestic violence and to help raise money for local charities.\n\nJulian Usher, chief executive of Red Eight Galleries, told the BBC they had been contacted by the property owner of the house on which the mural is painted\n\nMr Usher said they are speaking to civil and structural engineers and an art conservator to remove the mural.\n\nHe estimated the timeframe to do this will be 3-4 weeks and the cost between £60,000-100,000.\n\nThe artwork also featured a variety of rubbish on the ground, including a broken white garden chair, a blue crate and an empty beer bottle.\n\nBanksy has previously created artwork for Valentines Day, including a piece which appeared three years ago in Bristol, the reputed home city of the artist.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Repair work to pipe leaks in the Duffryn area of Newport began on Tuesday\n\nAbout 900 homes in Newport have had heating and hot water restored following pipe leaks.\n\nThe heating and hot water supply was shut off in the city's Duffryn estate on Tuesday for repair works.\n\nThe repairs were expected to last three days but Newport City Homes said on Thursday that services had been restored after repairs were made.\n\nThe provider added that all customers would be reimbursed \"reasonable expenses\".\n\nA spokesperson for Newport City Homes said: \"We know there's more to be done to improve the resilience of the network, and we will continue to work on this. For now, we're monitoring the system carefully.\"\n\nThey added that all customers would be given a £20 payment for each day they were left without heating and hot water, regardless of whether or not they received a temporary heater from them.", "Brianna Ghey was found injured in Linear Park in Culcheth and died at the scene\n\nThe family of Brianna Ghey, who was stabbed to death in a park, have been \"overwhelmed\" by \"support, positivity and compassion\" from across the country, police have said.\n\nThe 16-year-old transgender girl was found wounded on a path in Linear Park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nA boy and girl, both aged 15, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court earlier charged with her murder.\n\nThe pair were further remanded into youth detention.\n\nThe boy, from Leigh, and the girl, from Warrington, appeared on separate videolinks and were both accompanied by an adult.\n\nThe girl's parents and the boy's mother were in the public gallery for the short hearing.\n\nThey are due to return to the same court for a plea hearing on 2 May. The judge set a provisional trial date for 10 July.\n\nDet Ch Insp Adam Waller thanked the Culcheth community for its help in relation to the investigation, adding that detectives had been \"inundated with pieces of information\".\n\nHe said Brianna's family had been \"overwhelmed by the messages of support, positivity and the compassion across the country and beyond\".\n\nOn Wednesday evening hundreds of people attended candlelit vigils in cities including Dublin, Belfast, Manchester, Lancaster and Leeds.\n\nOn Wednesday evening hundreds of people attended candlelit vigils across the UK and Ireland\n\nBrianna's family, who are from Birchwood in Warrington, described her as \"beautiful, witty and hilarious\".\n\nThey said she was \"strong, fearless and one of a kind\" with a \"larger-than-life character\".\n\nCheshire Police initially said there was no evidence Brianna's killing was hate-related but on Tuesday detectives said all lines of inquiry were \"being explored\", including hate crime.\n\nOfficers, who had been given extra time to question the two teenagers, later charged them with murder.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "When Christopher's breathing tube blocked, his parents were told there could be a three-hour wait for an ambulance\n\nThousands of severely disabled children's lives are at risk because of long waits for ambulances, doctors and other experts have warned.\n\nEmergency care is a vital part of their everyday lives, the British Academy of Childhood Disability says.\n\nThey often rely on ambulances as part of their healthcare plan, because their condition can become life-threatening in an instant.\n\nThe government says it is taking action to address ambulance delays.\n\nAlmost 100,000 children have life-limiting conditions or need regular ventilator support in the UK.\n\nDr Toni Wolff, who chairs the British Academy of Childhood Disability, told BBC News some families with severely disabled children had \"what are essentially high-dependency units\" of medical equipment at home.\n\n\"As part of their healthcare plan, we would normally say, 'If the child starts to deteriorate, call for an ambulance and it will be there within 10 or 20 minutes,'\" she said.\n\n\"Now, we can't give that reassurance.\"\n\nDespite their child being classed as a priority, parents have told BBC News they face the difficult decision to wait for an ambulance or take them, often in a life-threatening condition, to hospital themselves - a risk because of the huge amounts of equipment needed to keep them alive,\n\nPatients with emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes waited 90 minutes on average for an ambulance in December.\n\nIn January, this dropped to 32 minutes - but the target is 18.\n\nTwins Emily and Christopher, 12, enjoy rock music, seeing their friends at school and laughing at television programmes such as You've Been Framed.\n\nThey also rely on a vast array of machinery, such as ventilators, suction equipment and oxygen tanks, to stay alive.\n\nBorn three and a half months early, they have brain damage and a number of complex conditions.\n\nChristopher has a tracheotomy and Emily needs constant supervision because of severe choking issues.\n\n\"We can't leave them longer than it takes to take one breath,\" their father, Paul, says from their specially adapted home, in a small village just outside Newcastle.\n\nEmily and her twin brother need constant care\n\n\"If Christopher's breathing tube blocks, then he could be dead within minutes.\"\n\nPaul and their mother, Claire, have been medically trained to look after the twins at home but their expertise goes only so far.\n\nJust before Christmas, Christopher became very poorly with several infections. His breathing tube became congested. They changed it and increased his oxygen but his condition continued to worsen.\n\n\"We couldn't resolve it at home,\" Paul says, \"so we had to call for an ambulance. He was struggling to breathe and he was having uncontrollable shaking, where he couldn't control his limbs.\"\n\nChristopher's condition was life threatening - it was a category-one emergency, which means an ambulance should aim to arrive within seven minutes - but they were told there could be a three-hour wait.\n\n\"It was terrifying,\" Claire says, \"Our skillset is only up to a certain level - we aren't doctors and nurses. At times when we can't sort it, we need quick access to A&E - that access is what keeps Emily and Christopher alive.\"\n\nAfter 20 minutes of waiting, and with Christopher continuing to deteriorate, they decided to attempt the journey to the Royal Victoria Infirmary.\n\nPaul and Claire cannot leave Christopher and Emily unsupervised for longer than it takes to take one breath\n\nBut when they called to cancel the ambulance, the call handler told them they had managed to divert one to their house.\n\nIt took Christopher to the hospital's accident-and-emergency department, where a resuscitation team was waiting - and after an hour of intense treatment, he survived.\n\nThe North East Ambulance service said it understood delays put patients at risk and had declared two critical incidents because of the \"unprecedented pressures\" in December.\n\nBut Paul and Claire still carry the trauma of that night.\n\n\"We need emergency care to work - it is vital. Without it, our world would start to shrink,\" Paul says.\n\n\"We would need to stay at home, where all our equipment is. We can't take everything when we are out and about. The children would lose their independence and they're more at risk of losing their lives.\"\n\nDisabled people are far more likely to need emergency care.\n\nCensus figures show 17.7% of people in England have a disability - but the latest Care Quality Commission survey suggests 46% of those who responded after attending A&E were disabled.\n\nAnd the Royal College of Emergency Medicine admits the system often fails to meet their needs.\n\nIts president, Dr Adrian Boyle said: \"They are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to emergency care, partly because departments are so full and the hospitals are so full that they're ending up having to wait a lot longer in areas which are not well designed for them.\n\n\"We're looking after people in corridors and we're looking after people in inappropriate clinical areas. And that can't be good for somebody who comes in with a lot of equipment or has complex needs.\"\n\nAn spokesman said the Department of Health and Social Care was taking \"immediate action\" to reduce the long waits by boosting capacity, with 5,000 more beds and 800 new ambulances, and reforms due to be announced over the next few months would help disabled people \"live more independently\".", "Duangpetch Promthep turned 13 when he was trapped inside the Thai cave\n\nWe still do not know what caused the sudden death of Duangpetch 'Dom' Promthep at the football academy in Britain to which he had been so proud to win a scholarship last year.\n\nIt casts, for the first time, a sad shadow over a story which until now had not lost its power to inspire, to lift the spirits.\n\nThe astonishing saga of the Thai boys rescued from the cave in July 2018 was that rarest of things in the news business: a tale with an almost flawlessly happy ending, although two Thai divers died, one during preparations for the rescue and one later from a blood infection picked up in the cave.\n\nWhen we first got news that a group of Thai footballers had gone missing, I had dashed with my colleagues up to Chiang Rai, and then to the entrance of the Tham Luang cave complex, carrying just three days of clothes.\n\nIn my haste I had assumed few people around the world would care for long. The boys would be found, or perhaps they never would. That would be that. It was quite a misjudgement, and in the mud-soaked conditions outside the cave, I would come to regret my packing decisions.\n\nFive days later, with no indication that the boys were alive or where they might be, and Thai rescuers driven out of the cave by rising flood waters, I was interviewed by a Thai television team.\n\nI found I was too emotional to respond. The boys were more or less the same age as my two sons. Dom was just 12 days older than my eldest. Reporting about them day and night, seeing their bikes still chained to the railings by the cave, they had become very precious lives.\n\nAgainst all the evidence, all of us hoped against hope that they might still be alive.\n\nAnd then that astonishing moment, when British divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton found them, calling out in the dark, \"how many are you? Thirteen? Brilliant\". It seemed nothing less than a miracle.\n\nThe journalists at the cave site multiplied quickly, far more than it could accommodate. But we knew getting the boys out would be difficult. So difficult, in fact, that the divers had told the Thai government getting even half of them out alive should be considered a success.\n\nDom and his mother after he was rescued from the cave in 2018\n\nBy now they were the most famous boys in the world. All of Thailand was rooting for them. For days the Thai authorities had pushed for a zero-risk option - leaving the boys there until the monsoon rains stopped four months later, even though they were warned this was a near-certain death sentence. Their lives had become too precious.\n\nAnd when they eventually went for the high-risk, improvised rescue plan, and we watched the boys and their coach being brought out, heavily sedated, one by one over three days, it seemed impossible they had all survived.\n\nBut they did. And within days they were charming the world in their first appearance before the media, smiling, joking, knocking footballs around.\n\nThe Thai government took control at that point, leading the lucrative negotiations with Hollywood filmmakers and organising overseas trips. Yet none of that ever spoiled them.\n\nThey remained small-town boys with a few big dreams - polite, grateful for the effort so many had made to save them, and for the new opportunities their story had brought them to travel and study, but always refreshingly down-to-earth. Even the fear that fame would inevitably tarnish the fairy tale proved unfounded.\n\nWhen he won the scholarship to go to Britain last year, Dom thanked Zico, the former Thai national team captain who had arranged it, and promised to study hard there.\n\n\"I will do my level best,\" he wrote. No-one who watched him and his team-mates dealing so modestly with all the attention that came their way can doubt that he would have lived up to that promise.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How the Thai cave boys were rescued\n• None What happened next to the Thai cave rescue boys?", "Riseborough said she wanted to look at measures to \"encourage meritocracy\" during awards season\n\nActress Andrea Riseborough has said she is \"deeply impacted\" by the controversy surrounding her Oscar nomination.\n\nHer surprise inclusion in the leading actress category, while black actresses were shut out, has prompted much debate in Hollywood in recent weeks.\n\nRiseborough said she was \"coming to terms with what the nomination means, for me and for others\".\n\nIn her first interview since the debate, she also described the film industry as \"abhorrently unequal\".\n\n\"I am grateful for the conversation because it must be had,\" she told the Hollywood Reporter. \"It has deeply impacted me.\"\n\nBlack actresses such as Danielle Deadwyler and Viola Davis were widely expected to be in the running for best actress this year.\n\nBut when the nominations were announced in January, both were absent. Instead, frontrunners Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh were recognised alongside Riseborough, Ana de Armas and Michelle Williams.\n\nRiseborough was nominated for her leading performance in To Leslie, in which she plays an alcoholic mother in Texas struggling to make ends meet after squandering her $190,000 (£157,000) lottery winnings.\n\nAwards watchers were shocked that Danielle Deadwyler was not nominated for her performance in Till\n\nDeadwyler's absence from the category following her performance in Till prompted particular industry backlash, with the film's director Chinonye Chukwu accusing Hollywood of \"unabashed misogyny towards Black women\".\n\nSet in the 1950s, Till saw Deadwyler portray Mamie Till-Mobley, a grieving mother who campaigns for justice following the lynching of her son. The actress's performance attracted huge critical acclaim.\n\nDeadwyler's snub in the category led to accusations of misogynoir within the Academy - a term which refers to misogyny directed at black women.\n\nAsked about how she felt following the controversy, Riseborough said: \"It's been confusing... I think once I have time to process everything, I might understand it a bit better.\"\n\nShe continued: \"Awards campaigning is as acerbically exclusive as it has always been. I do not yet know which measures will best encourage meritocracy. I've been working toward discovering them and will continue to.\"\n\nBest actress nominee Michelle Yeoh said it was \"tough\" to get recognition from the Academy\n\nRiseborough was nominated after a string of Hollywood A-listers campaigned on her behalf, hosting screenings of To Leslie for Academy members and posting their appreciation of the film on social media.\n\nActress Helen Hunt was one of the first big names to draw attention to the film in November. Other actors, including Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sarah Paulson soon followed.\n\nThe apparently grassroots campaign prompted questions about why the same campaign energy had not been put into advocating for black actresses.\n\nAsked about her snub earlier this month, Deadwyler told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour that Hollywood was \"deeply impacted by systemic racism\".\n\nDiscussing the controversy, Riseborough said: \"It not only makes sense that this conversation would be sparked, but it is necessary.\n\n\"The film industry is abhorrently unequal in terms of opportunity. I'm mindful not to speak for the experience of other people because they are better placed to speak, and I want to listen.\"\n\nMichelle Williams campaigned to be nominated for leading actress rather than supporting actress\n\nSpeaking to Radio 4's Today earlier this month, fellow nominee Yeoh said: \"I love [Viola and Danielle] to the extreme and wish we were all getting Oscars, but it's tough. It took me 40 years to even get a nomination.\n\n\"Every single actor and actress puts their heart and soul into these movies and you don't necessarily start thinking you are going to get nominated. The stories we want to tell are more important.\"\n\nThe Academy, the body behind the Oscars, have said they will not revoke Riseborough's nomination, after examining the campaign that led to her nomination.\n\nHowever, they added: \"We did discover social media and outreach campaigning tactics that caused concern. These tactics are being addressed with the responsible parties directly.\"\n\nIt is thought the official To Leslie account, as well as some individual Academy members, may have broken rules by directly referring to other actresses while promoting Riseborough.\n\nOscar rules state that while members can advocate for a certain actor, publicly comparing them with actors they are in competition with is not allowed.\n\nRiseborough is not the only actress whose inclusion in the best actress category attracted controversy.\n\nWilliams campaigned for a nomination as a leading actress despite being considered by many as playing a supporting role in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans.", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nErik ten Hag said Manchester United \"have a lot of character and determination\" after his side contested a thrilling first-leg draw at Barcelona to leave their Europa League play-off tie finely poised.\n\nHaving previously met in two Champions League finals - both of which Barca won - the sides are trying to reach those heady heights again.\n\nThis encounter at the Nou Camp in Europe's secondary competition was another step on that road back to the top.\n\nXavi's men grabbed the opener when Marcos Alonso headed in at the back post from Raphinha's corner, but United responded immediately through the in-form Marcus Rashford as he slipped in a finish at the near post.\n\nThey showed their resilience to turn the game around as Rashford's cross was then turned into his own net by Barcelona defender Jules Kounde.\n\nBut United were unable to hold on as ex-Leeds winger Raphinha's cross from wide on the right sailed all the way into the net.\n\nBarca, though, almost snatched a late victory when Casemiro's attempted clearance struck his own post, but little separated the sides heading into next Thursday's second leg.\n\nUnited manager Ten Hag told BT Sport: \"I think it was a great game. Two attacking teams, I think it was a Champions League game, even more than that, so I really enjoyed the game. In the end (it finished) 2-2, and we have to finish it in Old Trafford.\n\n\"Of course I will credit Rashford definitely because he is in great form, but the whole team did well. I think it was a really good team performance.\n\n\"We have a lot of character and determination in this team. The belief we had to score the first goal and the meaning of the first goal is so important and that's what we didn't do.\"\n• None Follow reaction to Barcelona v Manchester United and Thursday's other Europa League games\n\nAll to play for in pivotal week\n\nThe two fallen giants of European football are rebuilding their reputations this season.\n\nThey meet at this juncture after Barca went out of the Champions League group stage for the second consecutive season, while United's second-placed finish in their Europa League group provided this extra play-off to navigate.\n\nRed Devils boss Ten Hag said both sides \"belong in the Champions League\" - which will be the key priority come the end of the campaign - but progression from this knockout tie will see them reach the last 16 of the Europa League.\n\nIt was a stunning spectacle which ebbed and flowed, but the 90 minutes provided no indication as to which side will go through, setting up a fascinating return leg.\n\nUnited suffered a 3-0 defeat on their last visit to Barcelona under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2019, but the measure of their recent revival showed as they went toe-to-toe this time and almost came away with a famous victory.\n\nAn early spell of pressure saw Robert Lewandowski's powerful drive pushed out by David de Gea and Alonso curled a free-kick over.\n\nBut United grew into the game and their first clear-cut opportunity fell to Wout Weghorst as the Dutchman latched onto Bruno Fernandes' through-ball but his low shot was kept out by Marc-Andre ter Stegen.\n\nIt was the sort of chance visiting teams dream of getting at the Nou Camp and the German goalkeeper then made a superb, full-stretch save to stop Rashford's curling effort.\n\nThe La Liga leaders went ahead on 50 minutes when Alonso headed in, but United levelled just two minutes later when Rashford smashed in his 22nd goal of a superb campaign, matching his best scoring tally for the club.\n\nThe England forward also played a major part in the 59th-minute second goal, skipping past his marker and delivering a dangerous cross that France defender Kounde bundled into his own net.\n\nRaphinha's fortunate strike, which seemed more of a cross intended for Lewandowski, made it honours even again 14 minutes from time.\n\nUnited felt they should have had a penalty when 2-1 ahead. Rashford was brought down when driving towards goal, but the referee waved play on, much to the anger of boss Ten Hag who was booked for his protestations.\n\n\"I also think the refereeing had a big influence in this game,\" said the Dutchman. \"I think it's a clear foul on Rashy.\n\n\"You can discuss if it's in or outside the box, but then it's a red card because he was one-on-one with the goalkeeper.\n\n\"It's a big influence, not only on this game but in this round, and referees can't make such mistakes.\"\n\nSubstitute Ansu Fati was also denied by De Gea as Barcelona - who will be without midfielder Gavi through suspension for the return - came closest to a late winner.\n\nUnited face a pivotal week in their quest for success this season, hosting Barcelona on Thursday before playing Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final the following Sunday as they aim to win their first trophy since the Europa League in 2017.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ansu Fati (Barcelona) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Gavi.\n• None Attempt saved. Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Casemiro.\n• None Attempt saved. Ferran Torres (Barcelona) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Ansu Fati with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Ansu Fati (Barcelona) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Robert Lewandowski.\n• None Attempt blocked. Andreas Christensen (Barcelona) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Ferran Torres with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Ansu Fati (Barcelona) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Ronald Araújo.\n• None Attempt saved. Raphinha (Barcelona) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Scottish politics has, for years now, had an outsized voice in the wider UK political conversation.\n\nThe reason is simple: the prospect of Scottish independence.\n\nWith the Scottish National Party running the Scottish government and holding the vast majority of Scottish seats at Westminster, the question of Scotland's constitutional future has remained live.\n\nAnd that - to state the obvious - matters massively in Scotland, but also everywhere else in the UK too.\n\nNicola Sturgeon regards it as an outrage that despite winning election after election, the path to another referendum is blocked.\n\nWhether an outrage or not, it is a fact that securing that referendum any time soon appears to be slipping away.\n\nSo what happens next and where does it leave the cause of independence?\n\nFor me, the most striking thing about the first minister's announcement is the reaction privately from senior Conservative and Labour figures.\n\nDoes the UK's future, in its current form, feel safer now she is leaving?\n\n\"Very much so,\" a senior Conservative figure tells me.\n\n\"When your opponent is a proven winner and they decide to leave, that is good news\" said one Labour figure, candidly.\n\nAnother Labour source said they had long felt their party required two things to happen to change the game of Scottish politics and give Labour - once so dominant here - a fighting chance of making a significant recovery:\n\nMy source had assumed the former might happen before the latter.\n\nBut it's the latter that has happened already.\n\nThe SNP have been in power at Holyrood for 15 years\n\nAs a result of winning elections, the independence question and the Covid pandemic, which projected her into living rooms around the UK almost daily - Nicola Sturgeon came to personify her party not just in Scotland but around the UK.\n\nAnd the SNP became and remain a significant player on the UK political stage: the third political party at Westminster and one with the potential to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.\n\nBut how, if at all, might that now change?\n\nHaving been in power at Holyrood for 15 years and with options for another independence referendum looking increasingly limited, arguably political gravity is finally catching up with the SNP.\n\nThe party's opponents think Nicola Sturgeon leaving will chivvy that along.\n\nBut hang on a minute, say SNP insiders.\n\nThe Conservatives and Labour have been wrong before, and they will be wrong again, they argue.\n\nThe constitutional question remains live and unresolved, and changing leader doesn't change that, is the case they make.\n\nIt may even refresh it, for some.\n\nGetting another independence referendum won't be easy.\n\nIndependence supporters staged a protest at Holyrood after the Supreme Court rejected a referendum\n\nThe SNP awaits a moment, currently eluding it, when they can secure agreement with the UK government to grant another vote.\n\nA necessary, but not sufficient component in that is continuing to win elections and continuing to prove that Scottish public opinion remains, at the very least, split down the middle on the question of independence.\n\nAnd so a key question is how the views of those whose support for independence is soft may change; those who are persuadable that, on balance, perhaps it's a good idea, but maybe it isn't.\n\nHow might their views be moulded by the contest to come and the leader to emerge from it?\n\nThe fascinating thing here is it is SNP members who now have - for the very first time -- the awesome responsibility of choosing a first minister on behalf of Scotland.\n\nAround 100,000 people will have a vote, in a race whose rules and timetable will be decided at a hastily arranged meeting of the party's National Executive Committee on Thursday evening.\n\nHow will the collective instincts of some of those Scots most committed to the cause of independence express themselves in selecting the next figurehead for the cause, and how will they take that argument to the persuadable but not convinced?\n\nPrivately, senior SNP figures acknowledge Nicola Sturgeon's successor, whoever it is, won't have her stature, at least immediately.\n\nThe shop window of Scottish politics will soon be taking on a significant new look, and that can have a significant influence on what prospective customers make of what's inside.\n\nTo be clear, opinion polls suggest the SNP remains the colossus of Scottish politics.\n\nBut even a relatively modest retreat could have a big impact at the next general election, and a big impact on the argument about Scotland's future.\n\nSir Keir Starmer is due to address the Scottish Labour conference this weekend\n\nScottish Labour gather for their conference in Edinburgh at the weekend, with the UK party leader Sir Keir Starmer among the speakers.\n\nPrivately, Labour had hoped to be competitive in between 12 to 15 Scottish seats at the next UK general election.\n\nTo put that in perspective, the last time they won a general election, in 2005, they won 41 seats in Scotland.\n\nThey now hope the list of winnable seats gets a bit bigger.\n\nAnd senior Conservatives, passionate about the future of the union, privately take at least some comfort on the constitutional question from Labour's soaring opinion poll figures.\n\nThey ponder that if left-leaning Scots, currently drawn to the SNP, do return to Labour, it could depress support for independence sufficiently to remove it as the dominating topic at the heart of Scottish politics.\n\nWhat is clear is Scottish politics is changing, and changing in a big way.\n\nAnd that matters wherever you are in the UK.", "Nicola Bulley disappeared while out walking her dog\n\nThe home secretary has raised concerns with police after they revealed personal information about missing mother Nicola Bulley.\n\nThe 45-year-old disappeared on 27 January during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nLancashire Police, who have been searching for her for three weeks, were criticised for making her struggles with alcohol and the menopause public.\n\nA source close to Suella Braverman said she had \"asked for an explanation\".\n\nThey said the home secretary had received a response on Thursday evening but was not wholly satisfied with the force's justification for releasing the personal details.\n\nHowever, an aide stressed the decision was a matter for Lancashire Police.\n\nDame Vera Baird, the former victims' commissioner for England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4's Today that the force had been subject to \"heavy, and in my view, totally justified criticism\".\n\n\"If it was relevant, it needed to be in a public domain at the start, and it wasn't,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm afraid this is the biggest error that I have seen for quite a long time.\n\n\"It's going to undermine trust in the police yet further.\"\n\nShe said she did not believe similar comments would have been shared if Ms Bulley had been a man.\n\n\"Would we have had police officers saying... he's been unfortunately tied down with alcohol because he's been suffering from erectile dysfunction for the last few weeks? I think not.\n\n\"No, it is a dreadful error to put this in the public domain for absolutely nothing and I'm afraid I think it's as sexist as it comes.\"\n\nThe Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told LBC's Nick Ferrari it would be a \"rare thing\" for his force to comment about the vulnerabilities of a woman in a high-profile missing person case, but declined to say if he would have told the public of Ms Bulley's struggles because he did not have \"all the facts to hand\".\n\n\"We need to release the information that helps find somebody and Lancashire have made that call and time will tell whether they have got it right or wrong,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the Met would be ready to help the investigation into Ms Bulley's disappearance, if asked.\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman wants an explanation for police disclosures about Nicola Bulley\n\nIn a statement released on Wednesday, Lancashire Police said Ms Bulley had suffered with \"some significant issues with alcohol\" and \"ongoing struggles with the menopause\".\n\nThis prompted a backlash from campaigners, MPs and legal experts, with some accusing the police of breaching her privacy.\n\nMs Bulley's family later released a statement released via the police, in which they elaborated on her health, saying she had suffered significant side effects due to the perimenopause, including \"brain fog\" and \"restless sleep\".\n\nThey also asked for speculation surrounding her private life to end and urged the public to focus on finding their \"wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother\".\n\nAddressing Ms Bulley directly, they added: \"Nikki, we hope you are reading this and know that we love you so much and your girls want a cuddle. We all need you home.\n\n\"Don't be scared, we all love you so very much.\"\n\nWyre Council leader Michael Vincent said the case was \"clearly unprecedented\" and it was \"right there is an inquiry into the way the police have handled this, but from my understanding, their handling of the actual investigation has been very good\".\n\n\"They've been in regular contact with the family who are the people who actually need the information,\" he added.\n\nLancashire Police said it had referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) over contact it had had with Ms Bulley before she vanished.\n\nIt said it had been called to a report of \"concern for welfare\" on 10 January when officers and health professionals visited her home. No arrests were made.\n\nThe force said the referral only related to the force's interaction with the family on that date and not the wider missing person investigation.\n\nThe IOPC said it was assessing the available information to determine whether an investigation was required.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters at school.\n\nHer phone was found still connected to a work conference call.\n\nPolice and specialist teams have since mounted a huge search, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nLancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner, Andrew Snowden, said the investigation was under the direction and control of Chief Constable Chris Rowley and the force was being as transparent as it could be on such an \"incredibly sensitive and complex case\".\n\n\"The unprecedented media and public interest in this case, whilst welcomed for appeals for information, is challenging for the family and friends of Nicola and the officers and police staff dealing with unsubstantiated rumours and speculation on a daily basis,\" he said.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this piece, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Joe Biden has been under increasing pressure to talk directly to the public about the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon, as well as the three unidentified objects American fighter jets have scrambled to destroy over the past week.\n\nOn Thursday afternoon he did that – but his brief appearance will do very little to silence critics or those asking for more information and explanations.\n\nHe shed no light on the nature of those objects and provided no further information about the first Chinese balloon. He didn’t discuss when the Chinese balloon was first detected, its intended purpose or recent reports that it had been directed toward the US island of Guam but then changed course. Nor did he say why, after a flurry of incidents last week, no new objects have been targeted.\n\nAs an explanatory endeavour, it was weak sauce. And as a public-relations effort, it will probably come up short.\n\nIt may calm the waters for now, but the next time a balloon floats across the American sky, or fighters scramble and missiles fly, the questions will return with renewed urgency.", "Lucy Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and trying to kill 10 others in 2015 and 2016\n\nNurse Lucy Letby broke down in tears as a doctor began giving evidence at her murder trial.\n\nThe 33-year-old denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others at Countess of Chester Hospital.\n\nShe abruptly left her seat in the dock at Manchester Crown Court as the medic, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, confirmed his name.\n\nThe court was hearing evidence about a twin baby boy, Child L, whom Ms Letby is alleged to have attempted to kill.\n\nShe was visibly upset as she walked towards the exit door before she had a brief, hushed conversation with a female dock officer.\n\nStill appearing unsettled, she spoke with her solicitor through a glass panel before her barrister, Ben Myers KC, indicated to trial judge Mr Justice Goss that proceedings could continue.\n\nThe doctor - a registrar at the hospital in 2016 - gave his evidence screened from the public gallery and the defendant.\n\nThe registrar at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2016 gave his evidence screened from the public gallery\n\nMs Letby, originally from Hereford, wiped away tears with a tissue and took a few sips of water as she listened.\n\nThe doctor told the court about his care of Child L, who was born prematurely and whom the prosecution say the defendant attempted to murder by poisoning him with insulin.\n\nHe treated Child L in the early hours of 10 April 2015 - the day after Ms Letby is said to have attacked the baby.\n\nThe baby's blood sugar levels were decreasing during the night shift and were \"lower than what I would have wanted\", he said.\n\nAsked by prosecutor Philip Astbury why it had been necessary to stop the levels falling, the doctor said: \"Because low blood glucose levels in a baby can cause seizures.\n\n\"It's damaging to a baby. If it falls to a much lower level, then it can cause liver damage and brain injury.\"\n\nChild L went on to make a full recovery, the court has heard, and was discharged the following month.\n\nThe infant's twin brother, Child M, was released at the same time after he too recovered from a collapse on 9 April - said to have been caused by the defendant injecting air into his bloodstream or obstructing his airway.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mark Drakeford arrived with family for the private ceremony on Thursday morning\n\nSenior politicians have gathered in Cardiff for the funeral of Clare Drakeford.\n\nThe wife of the first minister died suddenly at the age of 71 last month.\n\nMark Drakeford arrived with family for the ceremony at Thornhill Crematorium on Thursday morning.\n\nPresiding officer Elin Jones, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price and the Welsh Conservatives' Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies were among those paying their respects.\n\nFormer First Minister Carwyn Jones also attended, alongside a number of Labour frontbenchers and the Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds.\n\nFollowing the funeral Mr Drakeford tweeted: \"The past weeks have been incredibly difficult for our family, but I'm grateful for the many kind words of support we have received.\n\n\"Diolch o galon i chi gyd [Many thanks to you all].\"\n\nCondolences were paid across the political spectrum when Mrs Drakeford's death was announced last month.\n\nThe Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said he knew \"how committed Mark and Clare were to each other\".\n\nUK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Mark Drakeford and his family were \"all in our thoughts and prayers\".\n\nCarwyn Jones was among those who paid their respects at the funeral\n\nCondolences were paid across the political spectrum when Clare Drakeford died suddenly last month", "Border Force staff are beginning a four-day series of strikes on Friday during half term for many UK schools.\n\nUK staff working at the Port of Dover but also Calais, Port of Dunkirk and Coquelles Channel Tunnel Terminal are taking industrial action.\n\nPeople arriving in the UK on Friday should prepare for border disruption, according to the Home Office.\n\nIn addition, ambulance workers are striking in the West Midlands and Northern Ireland on Friday.\n\nThe action is being organised by the Unite union, which says that essential emergency cover will be in place.\n\nIt comes as The Royal College of Nursing announces a walkout over the pay dispute in England for 48 hours from 1 to 3 March and UK rail workers announce a fresh series of strikes in March and April.\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nThe PCS union expects 1,000 of its members at the ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Dover, and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel Terminal, to walk out between Friday 17 February and Monday 20 February.\n\nMilitary personnel and civil servants have been trained to step in and carry out border checks, although military personnel will not be going to France.\n\nNevertheless, the government said people should prepare their families for longer waiting times at border control.\n\nPeople should use eGates where possible, and check with operators before travelling, it said.\n\nHundreds of members of the Unite trade union are striking on Friday in Northern Ireland and the West Midlands. People are still advised to call 999 in an emergency.\n\nAmbulances will still be sent to the most life-threatening calls - known as Category 1, which includes cardiac arrests.\n\nPatients that need lifesaving treatment, such as kidney or cancer care, will also be transported.\n\nLess urgent calls - known as Category 2, which includes some strokes and major burns - might have to wait longer than usual for an ambulance.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The boss of British Gas owner Centrica has refused to be drawn on whether he will take a bonus worth up to £1.6m after the company posted huge profits.\n\nChris O'Shea said it was \"too early to have a conversation\" over any payout after profits hit £3.3bn for 2022.\n\nEnergy firms have seen record profits since oil and gas prices jumped following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nIt has sparked calls for firms to pay more tax as many households are being hit by high gas and electricity bills.\n\nCentrica's bumper figures also come after British Gas was criticised over its use of debt agents to force-fit prepayment meters in the homes of vulnerable customers.\n\nThe firm's full-year profits were more than triple the £948m generated in 2021. Shell and BP have also reported record profits this year.\n\nMr O'Shea is due to receive an annual salary of £794,375 and Centrica's annual incentive plan means he could also be eligible for a bonus of almost £1.6m if targets are met.\n\n\"It's a bit early for us to say - the annual report will be published in March and it will have everything that you need,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Centrica boss Chris O'Shea: \"Every one of our customers deserves to be treated with respect\"\n\nMr O'Shea previously turned down a £1.1m bonus in 2021 due to \"hardships\" faced by customers. Centrica's annual report for that year also said he did not take a bonus in 2020 and 2019 because of the pandemic.\n\nHowever, the report added: \"It is important to recognise that this is not sustainable and the committee is clear that if performance justifies a bonus in the coming year it is our intention to pay that bonus.\"\n\nIn response to Centrica's profits, the End Fuel Poverty Coalition campaign group said that the energy market was \"failing consumers and is in desperate need of reform\".\n\nEnergy Security Secretary Grant Shapps said that energy companies need \"to do more\", and that their \"extraordinary profits\" were a sharp contrast to the high bills consumers were facing.\n\n\"That's why the government intervened, adding a new 35% tax on these profits which will contribute to ongoing cost of living support,\" he added, saying that he wanted to see more energy company profits invested in green energy which would help \"shield\" customers from rising bills.\n\nMr O'Shea said Centrica last year invested £75m in supporting customers of British Gas, the UK's largest electricity and gas supplier, providing \"much needed stability and support\".\n\nHe also said the profits had a \"purpose\" in helping the firm transition to cleaner forms of energy, as well as helping lower customer bills \"going forward\".\n\nMost of Centrica's bumper profits came from its nuclear and oil and gas business, rather than from the British Gas energy supply business, which contributed just £72m. The sale of its Spirit Energy oil and gas business in May also boosted the figures.\n\nDue to competition rules, Centrica cannot sell its own gas at a discount to British Gas customers.\n\nIn fact, British Gas's profits decreased by 39% last year compared with 2021 levels, largely because of \"voluntary donations\" to support customers and the repayment of furlough funds.\n\nCentrica is really two separate businesses, one of which is making record breaking profits and one which is not.\n\nBut taken as a whole people will see a company swimming in cash while hiring debt collection agencies to break into struggling households to fit prepayment meters - prompting understandable anger.\n\nCompetition rules prevent Centrica from selling the energy it produces more cheaply to its own retail customers than others, so what does it do with its embarrassment of riches?\n\nIt has already suspended the agency involved in the forced prepayment meter fitting. The company also estimates it will pay £2.5bn in windfall tax by 2028, but many will still see that as insufficient.\n\nThe problem of how to fix that is a matter for government rather than the likes of Centrica, Shell and BP.\n\nUnite general secretary Sharon Graham said Centrica had been \"coining it in from our massive energy bills while sending bailiffs to prey on vulnerable consumers the length and breadth of the country\".\n\nLabour's Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves called on the government to \"bring in a proper windfall tax on oil and gas giants to stop energy prices rising in April\".\n\nThe government's windfall tax only applies to profits made from extracting UK oil and gas. The current rate is 35%, but oil and gas firms pay an additional 30% in corporation tax and a supplementary 10% rate, taking the total to 75%.\n\nHowever, companies can reduce the amount of tax paid by factoring in losses or investments. It has meant in recent years, the likes of BP and Shell have paid little or no UK tax.\n\nThe results follow an investigation by the Times newspaper which revealed that debt agents working for British Gas had broken into the homes of vulnerable people to force-fit prepayment meters. It has resulted in many more similar incidents being brought to light.\n\nIn response Ofgem, the energy watchdog, has asked all suppliers to suspend forced prepayment meter installations. Courts in England and Wales also halted applications from firms to install them.\n\nCentrica said it was \"extremely disappointed by the allegations\" surrounding one of its contractors, Avarto Financial Solutions, and added it was \"completing a thorough independent investigation\".\n\nThere are more than four million UK households on prepayment meters, which require customers to pay for energy in advance, either through accounts or by adding credit to a card.\n\nHowever, strict rules are meant to stop suppliers moving at-risk customers onto prepayment meters, amid concerns they may \"self disconnect\" when they cannot afford to top up.\n\nRicky sent a photo to the BBC of the smart prepayment meter that was installed\n\nOne British Gas customer Ricky, who lives in Kingston upon Thames, had a prepayment meter force-fitted at his home in November last year.\n\nThe 46-year-old suffers from long Covid and is unable to work regularly. He told the BBC he was placed on British Gas's vulnerable register after they sent him an £800 bill.\n\nBut one morning he was woken up by people banging on his front door and shouting. He got to the door and saw a locksmith kneeling down about to break in.\n\n\"I was just completely bewildered,\" he said. Ricky said a woman from Arvato Financial Solutions handed him a letter which said he had to have a smart prepayment meter fitted.\n\nRicky said the whole experience was \"distressing and degrading\" and added he \"felt ashamed\".\n\nBritish Gas said it was \"really sorry\" to hear about Ricky's experience and would contact him to \"look at how we resolve things\".\n\nAvarto Financial Solutions has refused to comment on the allegations so far.", "The head teacher of Epsom College, who was killed by her husband, has been remembered as \"full of optimism\" by her family.\n\nEmma Pattison, 45, was found dead along with her seven-year-old daughter, Lettie, and husband on 5 February.\n\nGeorge Pattison is believed to have shot the pair before killing himself.\n\nIn a statement released by Surrey Police, Mrs Pattison and Lettie's family said the pair were \"inseparable\".\n\n\"We take comfort in that they will remain so,\" they said.\n\n\"Seven-year-old Lettie was Emma's pride and joy: an adorable, vibrant little girl with a compelling curiosity, a heart-melting smile and an intellect beyond her years.\n\n\"Emma had a warm, welcoming smile and sparkling, blue eyes, full of optimism. Over the last eleven days, we've noticed the sky has been bright blue, with at times a warm glow of pink.\"\n\nThe family also thanked Surrey Police, Epsom College, Croydon High School and Danes Hill School for their \"invaluable support\" following \"this horrendous tragedy\".\n\nSurrey Police had made contact with Mr Pattison on 2 February after he recently updated a firearms licence in order to change his address following their move from Caterham, Surrey.\n\nThe 39-year-old chartered accountant's legally-owned gun was later discovered at their home on the school grounds, where the family was found dead.\n\nThe Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) reviewed Surrey Police's interaction over the firearms licence after a mandatory referral by the force.\n\nIn a letter to parents seen by the BBC, Epsom College board of governors chair Dr Alastair Wells said all firearms are stored in their \"high security\" college armoury, with access \"highly restricted and fully documented\".\n\nHe added: \"I can tell you that no firearms are stored in residential properties on college grounds.\"\n\nDr Wells said all required safeguarding and background checks were carried out in the recruitment of Mrs Pattison.\n\nA review concluded that the college went \"one step further\" by conducting an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for Mr Pattison, Mr Wells said.\n\nThe causes of death will not be confirmed until post-mortem examinations have been completed.\n\nPolice said an investigation was being carried out to establish the full chronology and circumstances of the incident.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Michaela Curran, 35, was fatally injured in Downpatrick on Tuesday afternoon\n\nTwo pedestrians and a motorcyclist have died as a result of separate incidents on Northern Ireland's roads on Tuesday.\n\nMichaela Curran, 35, died after she was hit by a vehicle in Downpatrick, County Down, at Bishops Brae at about 14:30 GMT.\n\nPolice said her husband and three children had been left devastated by her death.\n\nA man in his 40s also died after he was struck by a vehicle on the Randalstown Road in Antrim, just after 22:00.\n\nPolice said a man in his 70s died after his motorcycle was involved in a collision on the Bann Road in Ballymoney.\n\nThis incident happened at about 18:25, officers added.\n\nAll roads which were closed as a result of the police response to the incidents have since reopened.", "Hikvision cameras are used by many public bodies across the UK\n\nThe use by many Welsh public bodies of CCTV cameras linked to China is set to be scrapped or paused after concerns about security and human rights.\n\nBBC research found Hikvision cameras are used by three of the four Welsh police forces and the Welsh government.\n\nCCTV commissioner Fraser Sampson said the use of the surveillance systems was a \"real risk\" on \"every corner\".\n\nHikvision said it was false to represent the cameras as a threat to national security.\n\nProf Sampson spoke to BBC Wales after concerns UK police forces are leaving themselves vulnerable to spying by using Chinese-owned surveillance systems.\n\nHikvision, part-owned by the Chinese government, has contracts with the Welsh government, and North Wales, Dyfed-Powys and Gwent Police.\n\nBut amid security and ethical concerns the Welsh government and two forces, Gwent and North Wales, are now either changing surveillance systems or freezing the purchase of equipment.\n\nIt comes after the US shot down a number of objects over North American airspace in recent days - including a suspected spy balloon - which China said was one of its weather balloons.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nProf Sampson said while people were concerned about balloons, the cameras were \"a risk staring us in the face\".\n\nIn November 2022 the UK government told its departments to stop installing surveillance cameras made by Chinese firms on \"sensitive sites\", because of security concerns. This advice was also sent to police forces.\n\nThe policy followed fears that firms could be required by Chinese law to co-operate with Beijing's security services.\n\nOffice of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera C Prof Sampson said the use of the surveillance systems was a \"real risk\" on \"every corner\"\n\n\"We've put these cameras on every corner and I'd have thought that's our principal risk rather than the prospect of some high altitude balloon passing over here,\" he said.\n\n\"You either trust your technology partners for intrusive surveillance or you don't, and a lot of the evidence is pointing in the don't direction.\"\n\n\"If the people we trust, like the police, aren't able to trust their surveillance technology partners, then we're in a lot of trouble.\"\n\nCCTV has become a common sight in many public areas in recent decades\n\nProf Sampson said there were concerns about the reported links of use of the cameras to alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs - a mostly Muslim ethnic minority - in China.\n\nChina has denied the allegations and Hikvision has previously said the accusations are \"unsubstantiated and not underpinned by evidence\".\n\nProf Sampson said while procurement rules meant public bodies had keep down costs, he had seen no evidence ethics had been taken into account when providers were chosen.\n\n\"Given that we're going to be relying more and more on increasingly intrusive public space surveillance in the future - I think this is the most critical area to get right,\" he said.\n\n\"We have got significant safeguards in place in relation to our CCTV system,\" said Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn\n\nNorth Wales Police and Gwent Police said they had some Hikvision equipment, but would not purchase any more until \"the formal position is made clear by the UK government\".\n\nThe force's Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn said while he understood concerns it would be hard to \"immediately de-establish\" the system.\n\nHe says forces would need UK government money for a replacement, and the concerns would play a \"major part in decision making\".\n\n\"We have got significant safeguards in place in relation to our CCTV system,\" he said.\n\n\"It is categorically false to represent Hikvision as a threat to national security,\" says the Chinese company\n\nWhen the BBC first contacted the Welsh government, officials said they had no plans of removing the Hikvision CCTV system until the routine inspection.\n\nAt the time, Prof Sampson accused the Welsh government of being a weak link with regards to national security, and also called for urgent action on cameras in public:\n\n\"It's one system. So if you infect one part of it, you infect all of it,\" he said.\n\nThe Welsh government is now changing the system after security and ethical concerns.\n\n\"We review the security cameras used as part of our CCTV systems as part of their regular maintenance cycle, which is leading to the installation of a replacement CCTV system.\n\n\"We take security and ethical factors into consideration during any procurement process. Any outright ban on the use of particular systems would need to be implemented at a UK level,\" the Welsh government said.\n\nCampaign group Big Brother Watch said the use of Hikvision cameras went \"beyond George Orwell's worst nightmare\".\n\n\"The fact that citizens in Wales are being monitored by these cameras is really alarming,\" it said.\n\nRhondda MP Chris Bryant sits on the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and is one of 67 cross-party MPs who have called for a ban of Chinese-made surveillance equipment.\n\nHe said he did not trust the company not to be storing information being sent back to Beijing.\n\n\"I'm fully in favour of CCTV. I'm just not in favour of foreign governments storing information about us all.\"\n\n\"I think we have to take seriously the fact that Xinjiang province has seen millions of Uyghurs being effectively imprisoned by the Chinese government.\n\n\"We shouldn't be supporting these Chinese companies. We should be building these things in our own country.\n\n\"We shouldn't be buying their products - why can't we make CCTV cameras here in the Rhondda?\"\n\nHikvision told the BBC: \"It is categorically false to represent Hikvision as a threat to national security.\n\n\"No respected technical institution or assessment has come to this conclusion.\n\n\"Hikvision cameras are compliant with the applicable UK laws and regulations and are subject to strict security requirements. We have always been fully transparent about our operations in the UK.\"\n\nThe Home Office said the security of surveillance systems was of \"vital importance\".\n\n\"We have a range of measures in place to ensure the integrity of our arrangements,\" a spokesperson said.", "John Swinney has been Nicola Sturgeon's deputy for eight years\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney has ruled himself out of the race to be the next leader of the SNP.\n\nMr Swinney said he had to do what was \"right for my family, the Scottish National Party and our country\".\n\nIt comes after the SNP's national executive said the new leader will be confirmed on Monday 27 March.\n\nNicola Sturgeon announced on Wednesday that she was resigning after eight years as SNP leader and first minister.\n\nMr Swinney, who has been a member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, served as leader of the party between 2000 and 2004.\n\nNo one has formally entered the contest yet and but Mr Swinney told BBC Scotland he may endorse a candidate.\n\nThe deputy first minister had been tipped for a return to the top job and admitted he had \"thought carefully about whether I should stand\".\n\nBut in a post on Twitter he said he had instead decided to \"create the space for a fresh perspective to emerge\".\n\n\"For the best part of the last 40 years, I have had the privilege of being at the very heart of formulating the strategy of the SNP,\" Mr Swinney said.\n\n\"From a very poor starting point in the 1980s, I am proud to have played my part in building the SNP into a successful party of government in Scotland with an impressive electoral record.\n\n\"The refusal however of the UK government to respect the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland to have a referendum on independence, requires the SNP to consider carefully, and in my view with a fresh perspective, how to pursue our aims.\n\n\"To create the space for that fresh perspective to emerge, I have decided not to be a candidate for leadership in the SNP. At this critical moment, I believe there must be an open debate within the SNP about our direction.\"\n\nHe added: \"I encourage those who stand for election to bring forward perspectives that anchor the SNP in the mainstream of Scottish politics, which is an absolutely critical requirement for the future success of our cause.\"\n\nJohn Swinney, pictured with SNP colleagues in 1999, says he has spent almost 40 years \"at the heart of the SNP\"\n\nMr Swinney told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland he was not going to express a preference for Ms Sturgeon's successor.\n\nBut he added: \"I may say something more about it in due course but, at this stage, I will keep my counsel until I hear who is in the running.\"\n\nAsked if he wanted to stay on as deputy first minister, Mr Swinney said that would be a matter for the new first minster.\n\nHe also told the programme independence was a means of addressing the issues that matter to people in Scotland and highlighted the example of a company in his constituency who he said was struggling to recruit staff due to Brexit.\n\nThe deputy first minister also said he had \"no regrets\" over the gender recognition legislation but added he would rather there were no issues that divided the party.\n\nAsked about a tweet by former minister Ash Regan which called for the party to removes the ruling which bars MPs also standing in Holyrood elections, Mr Swinney said any party member was free to stand if they could secure enough support.\n\nHe also highlighted the case of Neil Gray who gave up his seat at Westminster to become an MSP.\n\nNominations for the post of SNP leader have already opened and will close at noon on Friday 24 February.\n\nThe party's national executive said the new leader would be selected on a one-member-one-vote basis.\n\nTwo other high-profile SNP figures previously tipped to replace Ms Sturgeon have also ruled themselves out.\n\nThe party's leader at Westminster, Stephen Flynn, said the top job should go to an MSP.\n\nAnd confirming she would not stand, fellow MP Joanna Cherry said the SNP \"needs a leadership election that is about policies and not personalities\".\n\nNicola Sturgeon plans to remain in office until her successor is elected.\n\nShe made her resignation announcement at a hastily convened news conference at her official Edinburgh residence, Bute House, on Wednesday but insisted it was a decision she had been weighing up for some time.\n\n\"In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it's right for me, for my party and my country,\" she said.\n\nJohn Swinney is a vastly experienced figure in the Scottish government and hugely popular within the SNP.\n\nIf he had run, he would have been difficult for other candidates to beat and only the boldest would have stood against him.\n\nHis decision not to go for the top job opens up the potential for a wider contest.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf is reported to be preparing to declare and Finance Secretary Kate Forbes is understood to be considering standing.\n\nSome have started to doubt that Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson will go for it but neither he nor Justice Secretary Keith Brown have ruled themselves out.\n\nMr Brown is also deputy leader of the SNP, so his decision-making could potentially create a contest for that job too.\n\nFormer minister Ash Regan - who quit government over the gender recognition reform bill - is said to be \"strongly considering\" putting her name forward.\n\nMinister for Europe and International Development Neil Gray is another possible.\n\nWhile MPs are also able to stand, it seems unlikely any will because you have to be an MSP to take over as first minister.", "Energy companies have been asked by the industry regulator Ofgem to suspend the forced installation of prepayment meters.\n\nIt comes after The Times found debt agents for British Gas had broken into vulnerable people's homes to fit meters.\n\nOfgem has asked all suppliers to review the use of court warrants to enter the homes of customers in arrears.\n\nIt said firms must get their \"house in order\".\n\nJonathan Brearley, the regulator's boss, said he had ordered the review into pre-payment meters to \"uncover poor practice\" and that he would not hesitate to take the \"strongest action in our powers\" where needed.The regulator does not have the power to enforce a total ban.\n\nThere are more than four million UK households on prepayment meters. Rules state:\n\nThe undercover investigation by the Times revealed how agents working for Arvato Financial Solutions on behalf of British Gas had forced their way into the home of a single father-of-three to install a prepayment meter.\n\nOn Thursday, Chris O'Shea, the boss of Centrica which owns British Gas, told the BBC: \"There is nothing that I can say that can express the horror I had when I heard this, when I read this. It is completely unacceptable.\n\n\"The contractor that we've employed, Arvato, has let us down but I am accountable for this.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Centrica boss Chris O'Shea: \"Every one of our customers deserves to be treated with respect\"\n\nMr Brearley said: \"It is astonishing for any supplier not to know about their own contractors' behaviour, especially where they are interacting with the most vulnerable in our society.\"\n\nBut earlier this week, the Ofgem boss said he was in favour of forcing some customers onto prepayment meters.\n\nHe told MPs on Tuesday: \"There is something I will say that may not be popular here but there are a group of customers who can afford to pay their bills, who choose not to.\n\n\"And so everyone is agreed in those circumstances the mandatory switch to a prepayment meter is a reasonable response to families who can afford to pay.\"\n\nBritish Gas has said it will suspend forcefully installing prepayment meters until at least after the winter. Arvato Financial Solutions has not commented.\n\nA spokesman for British Gas said it had about 1.5 million customers on prepayment meters and last year had executed around 20,000 prepayment installs with a warrant. It is the country's largest supplier with 7.26 million customers.\n\nEDF, Britain's second largest supplier, has also confirmed it is suspending the forced installation of prepayment meters and reviewing its practices.\n\nOvo Energy said it suspended its warrant activities in November, and Octopus Energy said it was \"not installing any at the moment\" and rarely had done.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The whole system of prepayment meters needs review\n\nJane, who did not want us to use her surname, came home to her recently-bought house in Poole, Dorset, in 2014 to find that someone had been in her home, installed a prepayment meter and left a letter in the kitchen.\n\nJane said the \"horrid\" experience had happened just after she had lost her unborn child at 17 weeks. She said she was mentally \"broken\".\n\nThe now 46-year-old said she had been sent letters addressed to a previous occupant and had posted them marked 'return to sender'. Jane added she was signed up to a direct debit plan with her energy provider, and had not missed a payment.\n\nShe called the firm and said it transpired that it had been the previous tenant who had been in arrears. She said a neighbour with a spare key was persuaded to let the installers in.\n\nJane said her energy provider had apologised on the phone for the mistake, removed the prepayment meter and credited her account with £45.\n\n\"It feels violating to have someone come into your house like that. It was so scary,\" she said. \"You could sense someone had been in. The house was freezing cold.\"\n\nOfgem said energy suppliers had been asked to examine their relationships with third-party contractors and to look at \"incentives that could give rise to poor and unacceptable behaviours\".\n\nIn the case of British Gas, Mr Brearley said: \"We are opening a comprehensive investigation into British Gas on this issue and we will not hesitate to take the strongest action needed.\"\n\nGraham Stuart, the minister for energy and climate, said British Gas should \"hold their heads in shame\".\n\nHe told the BBC he had met all energy suppliers last week to talk about how to improve looking after vulnerable people \"because there are clear rules and they have obviously not been followed\".\n\nBut Caroline Flint, former shadow energy secretary who now chairs the Committee on Fuel Poverty, said the issue of forced installation of prepayment meters had been raised with the government last year following a surge at the end of summer.\n\n\"It is quite clear that the rules around seeking warrants for these forced installations make it very clear that they shouldn't be done where there are vulnerable people living in households, and they just haven't been followed,\" she told the BBC.\n\nWhile Ms Flint welcomed the suspension, she said it was \"right to consider whether or not forced installation of meters should happen at all\".\n\nHave you had your home broken into so a prepayment meter can be fitted? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned Sir Keir Starmer's decision to bar him from standing for the party at the next general election, calling it a \"flagrant attack\" on democracy.\n\nMr Corbyn said it was up to local party members to choose their candidate, not Labour leaders.\n\nThe Islington North MP, who sits as an independent, was suspended as a Labour MP in 2020 in a row over antisemitism.\n\nSir Keir said Labour had changed, and people who did not like it could leave.\n\nIn a statement posted on Twitter, Mr Corbyn said: \"Keir Starmer's statement about my future is a flagrant attack on the democratic rights of Islington North Labour Party members. It is up to them - not party leaders - to decide who their candidate should be.\n\n\"Any attempt to block my candidacy is a denial of due process, and should be opposed by anybody who believes in the value of democracy.\"\n\nHe described Sir Keir's move as \"a divisive distraction from our overriding goal: to defeat the Conservative Party at the next general election\".\n\nThe BBC understands that Mr Corbyn is still likely to seek the Labour Party nomination in Islington North, forcing party bosses to formally block him from being a Labour candidate.\n\nMr Corbyn has previously declined to comment on speculation he might stand against Labour as an independent candidate and his latest statement did not address this issue.\n\nBut former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, one of his longest-standing allies, said he had \"no intention of standing as an independent\", having been a member of the Labour Party since he was 16.\n\nEarlier Sir Keir had confirmed for the first time that his predecessor as party leader would not be allowed to represent Labour at the next election, saying the party had changed and \"we are not going back\".\n\nHe was speaking at a news conference in east London, after Britain's equalities watchdog said Labour had improved how it handled antisemitism complaints.\n\nIn 2020, the Equality and Human Rights Commission found Labour, under Mr Corbyn, had been responsible for unlawful harassment and discrimination.\n\nBut a new report by the watchdog said it was now satisfied sufficient changes had been made.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSir Keir said this was \"an important moment in the history of the Labour Party\" but \"not one for celebration\". He stressed it was \"not the end of the road\" and promised \"zero tolerance of antisemitism, of racism, of discrimination of any kind\".\n\nLabour was \"unrecognisable from 2019 and it will never go back… if you don't like that, if you don't like the changes we have made, I say the door is open and you can leave\", he added.\n\nMomentum, the left-wing campaign group set up to support Mr Corbyn when he was Labour leader, has also called for local members in Islington North to be allowed to decide their candidate.\n\nThe group said in a statement: \"We... will not allow ourselves to be driven out of the party. What we've witnessed today is an attempt to dishearten and demoralise us.\n\n\"The door might be open - but we're not leaving.\"\n\nMr Corbyn was suspended as a Labour MP by Sir Keir for saying, in his response to the 2020 EHRC report, that the scale of antisemitism within Labour had been\"dramatically overstated\" by his opponents and much of the media.\n\nHe also said antisemitism was \"absolutely abhorrent\" and \"one antisemite is one too many\" in the party.\n\nHe was readmitted to the wider party after saying concerns about antisemitism had been neither \"exaggerated nor overstated\", but he remains barred from representing Labour in Parliament.\n\nYvette Cooper said \"the party has moved on\" since Mr Corbyn's leadership, and it could \"never go back there\".\n\nThe shadow home secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she believed Labour could beat Mr Corbyn if he stood as an independent candidate in the general election.\n\nShe said: \"The party has moved on from the awful stain of anti-Semitism we had. Keir has made very clear that a lot has changed since 2019, and that's a result of his leadership.\"\n\nMr Corbyn led Labour to defeat in the 2017 and 2019 general elections but remains a popular figure with many on the left of the party. From 2016, Sir Keir was a key member of his shadow cabinet, speaking for the party on Brexit.", "KitKat maker Nestle has said it will raise its prices again this year, despite an 8.2% increase in 2022.\n\nThe world's biggest food company said it would be forced to charge more to cover the increasing cost of ingredients.\n\nNestle, which also makes Buitoni pasta, Buxton mineral water and Nescafe coffee, said it was taking a \"massive\" hit to its margins at the moment.\n\nIt refused to say how much prices would climb this year.\n\nBoss Mark Schneider said the company suffered in 2022 because of the \"many challenges and tough choices for families, communities and businesses\" which led to lower spending on many of the firm's products.\n\nNestle's net profits for the year were 9.27bn Swiss francs (£8.34bn), which was much lower than the 11.58 billion francs (£10.42bn) expected by analysts.\n\nAs a result the company will spend 2023 \"with a focus on restoring our gross margin\", said Mr Schneider.\n\nThe news will come as a fresh blow to hard-up British consumers, already reeling from record inflation and soaring food prices.\n\nPrices across the board have jumped since the war in Ukraine hit the cost of commodities such as food, fuel and energy.\n\nGrocery prices were up 16.7% in the year to January, leaving food inflation at a 45-year high.\n\nOther big food businesses are busy raising prices with Coca-Cola saying it will raise the price of its fizzy drinks again this year, after increasing them by 11% in 2022. Rival Pepsi increased prices by 14% during the year.\n\nMcDonalds announced on Wednesday it is increasing prices by up to 20% for some items, such as its Mayo Chicken which is going up from 99p to £1.19. Last year it hiked the price of a cheeseburger by the same amount.\n\nNestle sells more than 2,000 brands covering coffee, pet care, baby food, drinks, cereals and prepared dishes.\n\nIn the UK it's best known for confectionery such as KitKat and Smarties, cereals such as Shreddies and Cheerios, Nescafe and Nespresso coffee, fizzy drink San Pellegrino, and Purina pet food.\n\nLast month it said it would cut 94 jobs at its Dolce Gusto factory in the Midlands.\n\nThis year it's planning to shut its confectionery factory in Newcastle - where the likes of Fruit Pastilles, Toffee Crisps and Rolos have been made since 1958 - which will result in 475 jobs going.", "The letters were written to two of Princess Diana's closest friends\n\nA collection of 32 letters written by Princess Diana have sold for £145,550 at an auction in Cornwall.\n\nThe collection of letters document Diana's feelings in the last two years of her life.\n\nThe letters were written to two of her closest friends, Susie and Tarek Kassem, who treasured them for more than 25 years.\n\nOne letter, in which Diana wrote about being worried her phone line was bugged, sold for £23,000.\n\nIn this letter, dated 20 May 1996, Diana also wrote: \"If I had known a year ago what I'd experience going through this divorce, I'd never have consented - it's desperate and ugly.\"\n\nIn one letter Princess Diana wrote about her phone line being \"constantly recorded\"\n\nThe letters - which span a 20-month period from the last days of summer 1995 to the spring of 1997 - were auctioned by Lay's Auctioneers in Penzance.\n\nThe auctioneers said some of the letters touched on \"the enormous stress she was experiencing during periods of very public heartbreak\", adding that despite this, her \"strength of character and her generous and witty disposition\" shone through.\n\nIn a letter dated 23 April 1996, Diana apologised for cancelling a trip to the opera to see Tosca with her friends. The letter sold for £12,500.\n\nThe letter, written on her personal cream and burgundy Kensington Palace notepaper, reads: \"I am having a very difficult time and the pressure is serious and coming from all sides.\n\n\"It's too difficult sometimes to keep one's head up and today I'm on my knees and just longing for this divorce to go through as the possible cost is tremendous. Lots of love, Diana.\"\n\nThe princess wrote about her struggles during her divorce\n\nA Lay's Auctioneers spokesman said it was extremely unusual for letters like these with such personal content to come up for sale.\n\n\"She was someone who was very open and very loving to her friends and it shines through in her letters, particularly to people she was obviously very fond of and close to,\" he said.\n\n\"It gives a lovely insight into the woman and she obviously was a very special loving person.\"\n\nThe proceeds from the sale will go to support charities that were close to the hearts of both Susie and Diana.\n\nDiana described her friendship with Mrs Kassem, who was 15 years older, like that of an older sister with whom she shared various interests.\n\nIn another note she wrote: \"I am lost for words for all the lovely things you bring into my life, when many people would have deserted this ship!\"\n\nDiana was divorced in August 1996 after 15 years of marriage.\n\nIn one letter Princess Diana spoke about not being a lover of Christmas\n\nAt Christmas in 1996, the Princess wrote about how she was not a lover of Christmas, adding, \"I will top myself if I remain here\".\n\nShe said: \"I hope that '97 will be an easier year for us all.\"\n\nThat letter sold for the largest sum - £26,000 - considerably more than the pre-sale estimate of between £3,000 and £6,000.\n\nPrincess Diana died eight months later in the car crash in Paris.\n\nThe 32 cards and letters were expected to sell for £90,000 but sold for a total hammer price of £145,550.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Dumbledore coin is the third to be released in the series\n\nA coin featuring Harry Potter character Albus Dumbledore is the first in the series to feature the King's portrait.\n\nThe coin is the third in a series celebrating the 25th publishing anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.\n\nCharles III is displayed on the \"heads\" sign of the coin, while a portrait of the Hogwarts wizard features opposite.\n\nThe Royal Mint said it was \"one of a small number\" of coin collections that will see a change in royal portrait.\n\nThe previous two coins in the series - depicting Hogwarts and Harry Potter himself - carried a portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II.\n\nAll three coins feature the work of artist Jim Kay, who created the first fully illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.\n\nIn a nod to the magic that brought the series to life, some of the coins in the collection are in colour and some have a \"latent feature\", which rotates in the light to reveal a lightning bolt and the number \"25\" to mark the anniversary year.\n\nThe coins have had international appeal, the Royal Mint said. So far Harry Potter enthusiasts across 86 countries have bought at least one coin in the range.\n\nWhile the designs are featured on a 50p, prices for the collector's items start at £11.\n\nFans can pay £20 for a colour version, and up to £5,215 for a £200 denomination gold coin.\n\nRebecca Morgan, director of collector services, said: \"We are delighted to be continuing our spellbinding Harry Potter coin collection with Professor Albus Dumbledore featuring on his very own 50p.\n\n\"The Royal Mint's Harry Potter coin collection has seen a popular response among collectors worldwide, not only for the books being a global phenomenon, but due to the collection being one of a small number that will see a change of portrait during the series.\n\n\"This collection of coins serves as a permanent reminder of the fascinating transition from Britain's longest reigning monarch to His Majesty the King's first appearance on UK coinage.\"\n\nJK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone first hit the shelves in 1997. The books about the secret wizarding world grew into a seven-part series, with sales exceeding £500m worldwide.", "After soaring over the summer months, the cost of wholesale gas in the UK and Europe has fallen dramatically in recent weeks.\n\nBut it's unlikely prices will stay low for long enough to have much effect on bills, analysts say.\n\nThat's largely down to the way the market for gas works.\n\nWhen gas prices rose dramatically on international markets earlier this year, households and businesses were faced with huge increases in their energy payments. That prompted the government to step in, using taxpayer funds to cover a portion of the costs.\n\nUntil April the government's energy price guarantee scheme limits the bill for the average household to about £2,500 a year - though people who use more gas will pay more.\n\nSince then international wholesale prices have tumbled. In August, the UK benchmark price for gas for delivery the following day peaked at 550p a therm. Last week, it fell to just 38p.\n\nThat means the government's subsidy won't need to be as large as it would have been if wholesale prices had stayed high.\n\nBut wholesale prices are expected to go back up again as the weather gets colder.\n\n\"I do think we are in a lull just before the start of winter,\" explains Jack Sharples, Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.\n\n\"My expectation is that as the weather turns colder, and demand therefore increases, we will see prices rise again.\"\n\nForecasters Cornwall Insight expect that from April onwards, without further government intervention, the cap for the average household bill will rise to £3,700 - and it will remain above £3,000 until the end of next year. So despite the low prices now, consumers will still end up paying more.\n\nMost energy suppliers will be unable to reap the full benefits of the current low prices, as much of their gas will have been bought in advance, at a higher cost.\n\nThere is no single price for gas. Instead it can, for example, be sold for delivery the following day, the following month, the following year, or for use in two years' time. The price you pay depends on the option you choose.\n\nBusinesses which expect to use a lot of gas will usually buy part of what they need months beforehand to protect themselves in case there's a sudden price spike coming up. This process, known as hedging, allows them to fix a portion of their energy costs. They can buy more gas on top of that later if they need it at short notice.\n\nAt the moment, day ahead prices are low because there is plenty of gas around. Anyone buying right now is benefitting from those lower prices. But those who bought in advance are not.\n\nAfter the recent scramble for additional supplies, European storage facilities are almost full, and tankers full of liquified natural gas (LNG) have been lying off European coastlines, waiting for access to processing facilities.\n\nBut gas being sold for delivery in the middle of winter already costs a lot more than supplies available now.\n\nOn the Dutch TTF platform, which is seen as a European pricing benchmark, gas for day-ahead delivery was trading below 30 euros per Megawatt hour at the start of this week. But gas for delivery in February was priced at more than 130 Euros/MWh. That reflects market expectations that supplies will be tighter in the middle of winter than they are now.\n\nThat price is many times higher than would have been considered the norm before the disruptions caused by Covid and the war in Ukraine.. But at least for now storage facilities are well stocked.\n\n\"While Europe as a whole looks set to weather the storm this winter, it's becoming more and more an issue for the winter of 2023,\" explains Leon Izbicki, senior associate for natural gas at consultancy Energy Aspects.\n\nEurope is increasingly reliant on liquid natural gas (LNG) imported by sea after pipeline imports from Russia were dramatically reduced.\n\nFlows through the Nordstream 1 pipeline, which used to take gas from Russia to Germany ceased in September. Soon afterwards, the pipeline itself was badly damaged in a series of explosions.\n\nDeliveries from Russia to Poland through the Yamal pipeline have also ceased, while experts believe supplies sent through Ukraine are also at risk.\n\nThis has triggered a big increase in demand for LNG - and means much more will be needed to refill storage facilities next year - and exposing consumers to variations in LNG prices.\n\n\"European LNG imports in January-September 2022 were already 23% higher than in the whole of 2021, and even 5% higher than in the whole of 2019,\" explains Mr Sharples.\n\nThis increasing reliance on LNG means that European buyers will have to pay whatever the market requires to attract cargoes which could otherwise find buyers elsewhere, particularly in Asia.\n\nAt the moment China is buying much less LNG than usual, because of the impact of Covid shutdowns on its economy. But once that demand returns, prices are likely to rise sharply.\n\n\"High prices are here to stay,\" says Mr Izbicki.", "Bruce Willis pictured at a film premiere in London in 2019\n\nActor Bruce Willis has frontotemporal dementia, his family has announced.\n\nIn a statement on social media, they said it was a \"relief to finally have a clear diagnosis\".\n\nThe 67-year-old was diagnosed with aphasia - which causes difficulties with speech - in spring last year, but this has progressed and he has been given a more specific diagnosis, the family said.\n\nThey expressed their \"deepest gratitude for the incredible outpouring of love\".\n\nThe family went on to say frontotemporal dementia is the most common form of dementia in people under 60.\n\n\"Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead,\" the statement said.\n\nWillis became a household name in the 1980s and 90s after starring in blockbuster films such as Die Hard, The Sixth Sense, Armageddon and Pulp Fiction.\n\nHe has also been nominated for five Golden Globes - winning one for Moonlighting - and also three Emmys, where he won two.\n\nBruce Willis in London at the 2013 premiere of A Good Day to Die Hard - the fifth film of the Die Hard franchise\n\nBut his family said last year that Willis would give up acting, as his aphasia was affecting his cognitive abilities.\n\nThe new statement on Thursday said they hoped media attention would raise awareness of the actor's condition.\n\nIt said: \"Bruce always believed in using his voice in the world to help others, and to raise awareness about important issues both publicly and privately.\n\n\"We know in our hearts that - if he could today - he would want to respond by bringing global attention and a connectedness with those who are also dealing with this debilitating disease and how it impacts so many individuals and their families.\"\n\nThe statement was signed by members of Willis's family including his wife Emma Heming - with whom he has two daughters - and his former wife Demi Moore and their three daughters.\n\nDementia comes in many forms with different causes.\n\nThe word dementia describes the impact of a diseased brain on our memory, language and thinking skill.\n\nCommon causes include Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies.\n\nBruce Willis' diagnosis of fronto-temporal dementia is relatively rare.\n\nIt is also unusual as it largely affects people in midlife, whereas most other forms are found in old age.\n\nFronto-temporal dementia is caused by a build-up of toxic proteins in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain (those behind the forehead and ears) which are thought to kill brain cells.\n\nDamage to these regions affects language (such as Willis' aphasia) as well as behaviour and the ability to plan.\n\nThere is still no cure or even a way of slowing the disease down so symptoms continue to get worse.\n\nOn average people live 8-10 years after diagnosis of fronto-temporal dementia, but some people live much longer.\n\nActor Brian Cox, who starred in the film Red with Willis, said the news was \"very sad\" and that the actor was \"witty and a great performer\".\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Newscast programme, Cox said: \"He was lovely. And he is lovely. He's still there. He's a lovely man.\"\n\nUS journalist Maria Shriver, a prominent campaigner for brain disorder patient care and research, tweeted: \"My heart goes out to Bruce Willis and his family, & also my gratitude for shining a much needed light on this disease.\n\n\"When people step forward it helps all of us. When people get a diagnosis it's extremely difficult, but also for most a relief to get a diagnosis.\"\n\nThe actor's family said they hoped media attention would raise awareness of his condition (Willis pictured at a baseball game in 2019)\n\nAaron Paul, who starred in America's Breaking Bad TV crime drama, said Willis was \"such a damn legend\", adding: \"Love you so much my friend!\"\n\nUS singer and actress Queen Latifah wrote in a post on Instagram: \"God bless you my brother we love you!!! all the best. Thank you and your family for all the entertainment!!!\"\n\nAccording to the UK NHS website, frontotemporal dementia is an \"uncommon\" form of the disease that causes the sufferer problems with behaviour and language.\n\nSymptoms also include slow or stiff movements, loss of bladder or bowel control - although this tends to be later on - and muscle weakness.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of these issues you can visit the BBC's Action Line.\n• None Bruce Willis gives up acting due to brain disorder", "Hundreds of captured Russian soldiers, conscripts, and mercenaries are held at facilities in Ukraine\n\nRussian missiles were once again taunting Ukraine from the sky as we entered this prisoner of war facility in the west of the country.\n\nHundreds of captured Russian soldiers, conscripts, and mercenaries are held in these gritty buildings - one of 50 sites around Ukraine where they are detained.\n\nThe crump of Ukrainian air defences could be heard in the distance as we were led into a basement, to be met with the sight of dozens of prisoners taking shelter from the Russian attack.\n\nPrisoner exchanges have become a regular feature of this war and for Kyiv it is crucial that they continue. Ukraine said on Thursday it had secured the release of 1,863 men and women in prisoner swaps since the full-scale invasion began. These are highly sensitive operations, often taking months to arrange.\n\nUnder the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war must not be paraded or exposed to the public.\n\nWe were allowed to approach who we wanted and asked for their consent. But the guards were with us wherever we went and these men were unlikely to have been speaking freely.\n\nMany hid their faces to further protect their identities.\n\nThe Ukrainian guards said the prisoners were permitted one phone call every two weeks\n\nLast November, a UN human rights report documented abuses by both sides, based on interviews with prisoners who spoke of cases of torture and ill-treatment.\n\nHere the guards appeared keen to show they were treating the prisoners well.\n\nOne fighter said he had been working for a mercenary group. He had been brought to this facility three days earlier, after he was taken prisoner near the eastern town of Soledar, which was captured last month by Russian forces.\n\nA handful stared on defiantly. We met the gaze of one prisoner who said he was captured in the Luhansk region on 29 December.\n\n\"I hope I will be exchanged and that I won't have to go back into the army,\" he said.\n\n\"What if you have no choice?\" I asked.\n\nHe paused for a second: \"I have some ideas. I could come back by surrendering voluntarily.\"\n\nLeaving the shelter it became clear that half the prisoners had been wounded.\n\nSome had bandaged hands or feet. Others would move with a heavy limp.\n\nOne young man became emotional as he described how he had lost his leg in a grenade explosion.\n\nIn one workshop at the facility, Russian soldiers were constructing garden furniture\n\nAs we approached the pulsing sound of a compression drill, a small production line came into view where prisoners of war were putting together outdoor furniture sets.\n\nThey worked, again with their heads down.\n\nA local company had a contract with the facility, we were told, and that meant the inmates could make some money too, mostly to spend on cigarettes and sweets.\n\nMost prisoners of war are compelled to have jobs like this. Apparently only Russian officers had a choice.\n\nAt lunchtime the prisoners were marched to a temporary canteen on the top floor. Through the window a Ukrainian flag flapped in the cold wind.\n\nThey ate quickly and in silence, but for the sound of eating. Then, table by table, in a moment of perfect choreography, they stood together and shouted in Ukrainian: \"Thank you for lunch!\"\n\nThe prisoners eat a lunch of bread, corn soup, and a bowl of barley and meat\n\nInmates here are made to watch TV in Ukrainian, including documentaries on Ukrainian history and the southern city of Mariupol, which was all but flattened by a Russian siege and bombardment that lasted for months.\n\nSome of the Ukrainian soldiers who had defended Mariupol were part of the last exchange.\n\nWe asked one inmate whether he understood what he was watching.\n\n\"More or less,\" he said. \"I find it educational.\" He was unlikely to have said anything unflattering.\n\nIt is quite possible that some of the Russians in the room could not understand the programme they were having to watch, and they may not have wanted to.\n\nThe prisoners are allowed one phone call every two weeks, according to the guards. For their families back in Russia these calls are often the first chance they have to find out their sons have been captured.\n\n\"Where are you? I've asked half the city about you!\" one young man's mother could be heard over the phone.\n\n\"Mum, wait. I'm in captivity, I can't say more.\"\n\n\"With the bloody Ukrainians?\" she said, before breaking down in tears.\n\n\"That's it, Mum. Quiet,\" he told her, as the guard stood over him. \"The most important thing is that I'm alive and healthy.\"\n\nSome of the prisoners' calls went unanswered, leaving them hoping for another chance on the phone - and a future prisoner swap.", "The German-owned supermarket chain Aldi has announced plans to create 6,000 new jobs in the UK this year.\n\nThe staff will be recruited for its distribution centres, as well as a number of new stores including in Norwich and Newcastle.\n\nAldi has 990 stores and 40,000 staff in Britain and last year overtook Morrisons to become the UK's fourth-largest supermarket chain.\n\nIt said it had attracted 1.3 million new customers in the past three months.\n\nIts store assistants receive a starting pay of £11.00 an hour in most parts of the UK and £12.75 within the M25. Warehouse staff get a minimum starting salary of £13.18 an hour.\n\nAldi store managers have salaries of up to £63,000 a year.\n\nAldi's Richard Thornton told the BBC the company \"prides itself\" on paying well and \"prioritising value\".\n\nThe discount retailer reported double-digit sales growth for its strong Christmas sales period as the cost of living crisis continued to bite.\n\n\"What we're seeing is shoppers prioritising value like never before, we attracted 1.3 million new customers in the last three months alone,\" Mr Thornton said.\n\nAldi has been expanding and growing its market share in the UK over the past decade and said it had invested more than £700m in expansion last year.\n\nAldi increased pay for store staff to a minimum of £11 an hour at the beginning of this year. Pay for warehouse staff went up by 20% to a minimum of £13.18 an hour at the start of February.\n\nAldi is not alone in boosting its pay in an effort to recruit and retain staff. Asda hiked wages for its shop floor workers in July and discounter Lidl put them up in October.\n\nThe cost-of-living crisis has helped to further drive the growth of discount retailers, which were already expanding strongly.\n\nBoth Aldi and Lidl are opening new stores, which is driving extra sales. Meanwhile, prices are also rising, pushing up the value of sales.\n\nConsumers are buying fewer big brands and putting cheaper own-label products in their shopping baskets instead.\n\nAccording to retail research firm Kantar, private label ranges, which make up more than 90% of Aldi's products, now account for 51% of the market, compared with branded products.\n\nSales of the cheapest own-label ranges were at a record high last year, according to Kantar.\n\nMeanwhile, more than 2,000 roles are set to go at Tesco after it announced more changes to the way it runs its supermarkets.\n\nThe UK's biggest supermarket chain said it was planning to cut 1,750 team manager posts across hundreds of its larger stores, and close roles elsewhere. However, it said a new tier of 1,800 lower-paid shift leader positions would take over running its shop floors.", "A High Court judgement that regulations affecting more than 2.5m EU citizens living in the UK are unlawful will not be challenged by the government.\n\nThe Home Office has confirmed it will not appeal against the ruling, despite previously indicating it would do so.\n\nMany EU citizens could have faced losing their right to residence if they did not further apply for settled or pre-settled status within five years.\n\nThe case was brought by a watchdog for EU citizens' rights after Brexit.\n\nThe watchdog Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) was supported by the European Commission and the3million, a group representing EU citizens in the UK. It said the High Court ruling had \"averted a ticking time bomb\".\n\nIn December, Mr Justice Lane concluded that part of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) set up by the Home Office to settle EU citizens' immigration status was based on an incorrect interpretation of the withdrawal agreement between the UK and the EU.\n\nThe Home Office said the judgement was now law and it was working to implement it \"as swiftly as possible\".\n\nA spokesman said: \"Those with pre-settled status are encouraged to apply for settled status as soon as they are eligible, so they can obtain secure evidence of their right of permanent residence in the UK.\"\n\nImmigration Minister Robert Jenrick said the scheme had been \"a huge success. We've supported millions of people with a connection to the UK to gain status so that they can have the reassurance that they need.\"\n\nSince 2018, the Home Office has run a two-stage process for EU citizens who wanted to remain in the UK.\n\nThis EUSS was set up because the EU's freedom of movement principle had meant many people from within the bloc had never needed permission to be in the UK.\n\nThe scheme gave them pre-settled status - a limited right to live and work in the UK which expires if they don't re-apply for full settled status after five years.\n\nBut at a High Court hearing in London in November, lawyers for the IMA said the settlement scheme was incompatible with the Brexit withdrawal agreement, because of its effect on some EU citizens and their family members, as well as those from countries in the European Economic Area and the European Free Trade Association.\n\nRobert Palmer KC told the court millions of EU citizens living in the UK risked losing their rights and being treated as \"illegal overstayers\" as a result.\n\nHe said about 2.6 million people were affected - those living in the UK before the end of the transition period in 2020 who were granted pre-settled status.\n\nUnder the Home Office's rules, those people would lose their right to lawfully live in the UK unless they made a further application within five years.\n\nMr Palmer said they would be \"exposed to considerable serious consequences affecting their right to live, work and access social security support and housing in the UK, and will be liable to detention and removal\".\n\nIn his ruling, Mr Justice Lane said that, if the Home Office's interpretation of the law was correct, \"a very large number of people face the most serious uncertainty\", including possible deportation.\n\nHe concluded the Home Office had wrongly interpreted the law.\n\nCampaign group The3million, which represents EU citizens in the UK, welcomed the government's decision not to pursue an appeal, saying EU citizens had been \"dealing with uncertainty long enough\".\n\nIt called on the home secretary to secure EU citizens' residency rights, while taking a \"pragmatic approach, to safeguard the rights of vulnerable people\", including children, elderly people in care, and victims of domestic abuse.", "US actress Raquel Welch, often credited with paving the way for modern day action heroines in Hollywood films, has died at the age of 82.\n\nThe star passed away peacefully on Wednesday morning after a brief illness, her manager said.\n\nWelch became an international sex symbol in the 1960s, widely remembered for playing a bikini-clad cavewoman in the 1966 film One Million Years B.C.\n\nShe also won a Golden Globe for her role in 1974's The Three Musketeers.\n\nBorn Jo-Raquel Tejada in 1940, Welch grew up in California, where she won teen beauty pageants and later became a local weather forecaster.\n\nDuring a brief stint in Dallas, Texas, the divorced mother-of-two modelled for the Neiman Marcus clothing store and worked as a cocktail waitress.\n\nHer big break came in 1964 soon after she moved back to California, when she scored cameos in A House Is Not A Home, and Roustabout, a musical starring Elvis Presley.\n\nShe shot to prominence two years later, with her back-to-back roles in the sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage and the fantasy movie One Million Years B.C.\n\nWelch only had a few lines in the latter, but promotional stills of her wearing a skimpy two-piece deerskin bikini turned her into a leading pin-up girl of the era.\n\nDespite her public image, however, she long expressed discomfort with the representation of her body, once saying she \"was not brought up to be a sex symbol, nor is it in my nature to be one\".\n\n\"The fact that I became one is probably the loveliest, most glamorous and fortunate misunderstanding,\" she added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: What a Hollywood studio asked Raquel Welch to change her name to\n\nWelch went on to address her image in her memoir, Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage, in which she opened up about her childhood, her early career woes as a single mother in Hollywood, and why she would never lie about her age.\n\nIn a career spanning over five decades, Welch appeared in more than 30 movies and 50 television shows.\n\nIt included playing the love interest of Frank Sinatra's character in 1968's Lady in Cement; the titular transgender heroine in 1970's Myra Breckenridge; and a Golden Globe-nominated performance in the 1987 TV drama Right to Die.\n\nLater in life, she also released her own signature line of wigs, a jewellery and skincare collection, and a Mac Cosmetics makeup line.\n\nActress Reese Witherspoon was among those paying tribute, writing on Twitter that she \"loved\" working with Welch on Legally Blonde.\n\n\"She was elegant, professional and glamorous beyond belief,\" said Witherspoon. \"Simply stunning.\"\n\nActress and producer Viola Davis posted a clip of her singing \"I'm a Woman\" with Cher in 1975, writing: \"You were ageless to me...iconic\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Miss Piggy This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn 1978 she sang the same song with the famous puppet Miss Piggy, earning a tribute on Wednesday from the beloved comedy programme.\n\n'We'll never forget our remarkable friend Raquel Welch, one of our favorite guests on The Muppet Show,\" the Disney series tweeted.\n\nActor Paul Feig said he enjoyed working with her on TV series Sabrina the Teenage Witch.\n\n\"Kind, funny and a true superstar whom I was pretty much in love with for most of my childhood,\" he wrote, adding: \"We've lost a true icon.\"\n\nShe leaves behind a son, Damon Welch, and daughter Latanne \"Tahnee\" Welch, who is also an actress.\n• None When Hollywood star Raquel Welch came to Yorkshire", "Mother-of-two Nicola Bulley has not been seen since 27 January\n\nMissing mother Nicola Bulley had \"significant issues\" with alcohol brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause, police have said.\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre.\n\nOfficers said Ms Bulley had been considered a high-risk missing person from the start of the investigation.\n\nLancashire Police said it was called to a concern for welfare report at her home last month.\n\nHealth professionals also attended on 10 January, the force said, adding no arrests were made but it was being investigated.\n\nThe search for Ms Bulley continues in St Michael's on Wyre\n\nA police spokesman said it was clear after speaking to Ms Bulley's family she had \"in the past suffered with some significant issues with alcohol which were brought on by her ongoing struggles with the menopause\".\n\n\"These struggles had resurfaced over recent months [and] this caused some real challenges for [her partner] Paul and the family,\" the spokesman added.\n\nThe force said it had taken the \"unusual step\" to go into this level of detail as it was \"important to clarify what we meant when we talked about vulnerabilities to avoid any further speculation or misinterpretation\".\n\n\"We have explained to Nicola's family why we have released this further information and we would ask that their privacy is respected at this difficult time.\"\n\nMs Bulley's family and friends have tied yellow ribbons to a bridge near to where she vanished\n\nThe police have been criticised by some on social media for disclosing such personal information about a victim.\n\nZoe Billingham, formerly a lead inspector for the police watchdog HMICFRS, tweeted that she was \"deeply troubled\" by its release at this stage.\n\n\"I have to wonder if some in Lancashire Police are placing the protection of their reputation above their focus on finding Nicola,\" she added.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters - aged six and nine - at school.\n\nLancashire Police first told the public of their \"main working hypothesis\" on 3 February, that the mortgage adviser had gone into the river during a \"10-minute window\" between 09:10 GMT and 09:20 that day.\n\nDetectives have since extended the search to the sea, saying finding her there \"becomes more of a possibility\".\n\nIn a press conference earlier, Det Supt Smith, who is the lead investigator in the case, confirmed there was still no evidence of a criminal aspect or third-party involvement.\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, has previously said he was 100% convinced she did not fall into the water.\n\nBut Det Supt Smith said their main theory was still that Ms Bulley had \"unfortunately gone in the river\".\n\nHowever, she said she could not be \"100% certain of that at the minute\" as it was a \"live investigation\" and there was \"always information coming in\".\n\nShe said other hypotheses remained in place and were \"reviewed regularly\".\n\nNearly 40 detectives have since sifted through hundreds of hours of CCTV, dashcam footage and tip-offs from the public.\n\nMounted police have been searching for the missing dog walker\n\nDet Supt Rebecca Smith said there had been \"persistent myths\" about the case\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on a bench by the River Wyre\n\nDet Supt Smith said the force had also been \"inundated with false information, accusations and rumours which is distracting\".\n\nShe said in her 29 years of police service she had not seen \"anything like it\" and described \"persistent myths\" about the case.\n\n\"The derelict house which is across the other side of the river has been searched three times, with the permission of the owner, and Nicola is not in there,\" she said.\n\nShe added reports of a red van in the area on the morning of Ms Bulley's disappearance were not being treated as suspicious.\n\nThe detective also confirmed a glove found near where she disappeared did not belong to Ms Bulley.\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson defended his force's investigation into the case of the missing mother.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson says there is no evidence of third party involvement\n\nHe said the force had decided to share more details \"than would normally be the case\" to counter some of \"the ill-informed speculation and conjecture\".\n\n\"It has been a distraction that is potentially damaging to the investigation, the community of St Michael's and most importantly Nicola's family,\" he said.\n\nOn Tuesday the Lancashire force said it had arrested two people after malicious messages were sent to a number of parish councillors about the case.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this piece, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "On Wednesday evening, people attended candlelight vigils in several cities and towns in the UK and Ireland in memory of Brianna Ghey.\n\nThe 16-year-old transgender girl was stabbed to death in a park in Culcheth, Cheshire, on Saturday.\n\nA boy and girl, both aged 15, have appeared in court charged with her murder.\n\nCandles with a sign outside the Department of Education in London\n\nMembers of the public gather outside Belfast City Hall\n\nA picture of Brianna Ghey at a vigil in central Dublin\n\nMembers of the public attend a candle-lit vigil at the Spire on O'Connell Street in Dublin\n\nA person holds up a candle at Sackville Gardens in Manchester", "Two brothers who carried out an armed raid on a jewellery shop wearing masks that made them look like old men have been jailed.\n\nGeorge Murphy-Bristow, 38, and Benjamin Murphy, 37, carried a knife and axe during the raid in Epping, in Essex, on 27 September, 2021.\n\nThey were caught after DNA tests were carried out on the latex disguises found in a car boot.\n\nMurphy-Bristow was jailed for 13 years and his brother for 18 years.\n\nThe pair, both of Dewey Road in Islington in north London, wore \"extremely life-like, full-face latex masks, giving them the appearance of elderly gentlemen\", Essex Police said.\n\nThe brothers wore latex masks making them look like older men\n\nDuring the raid they carried a knife and a hatchet axe and cable-tied a staff member to a chair, before stealing their £15,000 Rolex watch.\n\nAfter the alarm was raised, the brothers fled and made their getaway in a car parked outside the shop.\n\nThey were caught a few weeks later when police stopped Murphy-Bristow's car on Canvey Island.\n\nIn the boot they found two full-face masks and clothing identical to that worn by the suspects in the robbery.\n\nThey also found a black duffel bag containing a hatchet, knife and cable ties.\n\nForensic tests found saliva inside the two masks, which identified DNA belonging to the brothers.\n\nThe pair fled in a car they had parked outside the jewellery shop\n\nThey were arrested last year, and both denied any involvement in the robbery.\n\nFollowing a three-day trial at Basildon Crown Court, both were found guilty by a jury on Wednesday.\n\nMurphy-Bristow was convicted of robbery, two counts of possession of a bladed article, and going equipped for theft.\n\nMurphy was found guilty of robbery and two counts of possession of a bladed article.\n\nThe stolen Rolex has never been recovered, police said.\n\nDet Insp Yoni Adler of the Serious and Organised Crime Unit at Essex Police, said: \"Benjamin Murphy and his brother George Murphy-Bristow planned this robbery, to use masks that would help them avoid detection.\n\n\"But it was the forensic examination amongst other detailed detective work and proactive policing that proved the pair were directly linked to the robbery.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicola Sturgeon will be remembered as one of the most impressive politicians of her generation, delivering a string of landslide election victories for the SNP.\n\nBut the first minister entered politics for one thing above all others and, in the end, she failed to deliver it.\n\nAs she pointed out herself in her resignation speech, she has been campaigning for Scottish independence since she was a teenager in Ayrshire in the 1980s.\n\nMs Sturgeon once told me that it was Margaret Thatcher, Conservative prime minister throughout that turbulent decade, who had pushed her into politics.\n\nThe picture the Scottish National Party leader painted of the nation of her youth was bleak, a world of dying industry and fading spirit.\n\nMrs Thatcher, she said, had created a sense of \"hopelessness\" by presiding over the decline of coal, steel and shipbuilding.\n\n\"You had the prospect of leaving school and maybe never getting a job,\" said Ms Sturgeon.\n\nBack then it was not the pro-independence SNP which dominated Scottish politics but Labour.\n\nThe party had built a power base which helped propel Tony Blair and Gordon Brown into Downing Street in 1997, delivering devolution of powers to Cardiff and Edinburgh.\n\nWhen the new Scottish Parliament opened in 1999, the idea that the SNP would be in charge within a decade would have been dismissed by many as absurd.\n\nBut under Alex Salmond, with Ms Sturgeon at his side every step of the way, the nationalists not only won power as a minority government in 2007 but went even further four years later, securing a majority at Holyrood which led to a referendum on independence.\n\nAlex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon won the SNP leadership contest in 2004\n\nIn September 2014, Scotland voted to remain in the union by 55% to 45%. When, within hours, Mr Salmond resigned there was no doubt about the identity of his successor and no doubt that she represented continuity in the party.\n\nAt the time Ms Sturgeon was fulsome in her praise, describing Mr Salmond as her \"friend, mentor and colleague,\" and adding, \"Quite simply, I would not have been able to do what I have in politics without his constant advice, guidance and support through all these years.\"\n\nThat relationship would break down in spectacular fashion once Mr Salmond was charged with sexual assault and harassment. He was acquitted of all the charges at the High Court in Edinburgh.\n\nThe trial was bruising for all involved. There were revelations about late night drinking with female staff members in the bedroom of the first minister's official residence, Bute House. His own lawyer accepted that Mr Salmond could have been a better man.\n\nBut the episode also had a political effect, with Mr Salmond ultimately creating a rival party, Alba. Although his outfit did not break through with the electorate, it was at times a thorn in the side of his successor.\n\nIn the early days of her leadership, though, it had seemed Ms Sturgeon could walk on water. The popularity of the first woman to hold the job of first minister was at times extraordinary.\n\nNicola Sturgeon with some of the 56 SNP MPs elected to Westminster in 2015\n\nIn the UK general election of 2015 the SNP swept almost all before it, securing 56 of the 59 Scottish seats at Westminster.\n\nMs Sturgeon embarked on a tour of giant venues, feted by adoring fans.\n\nMany working class voters in Labour's old post-industrial heartlands had switched allegiance to the SNP.\n\nThe party's membership soared but this was a challenge as well as a blessing. Many of the new members were impatient — demanding another crack at independence immediately.\n\nMs Sturgeon did not regard that as realistic, preferring instead to focus on proving that her SNP could govern effectively while gradually building towards a sustained, clear majority in favour of independence.\n\nScotland voted to remain in the European Union by 62% to 38% but was forced to leave anyway because the UK as a whole had opted to quit the trading bloc.\n\nFor Ms Sturgeon, enduring years of Tory government which Scotland had voted against was bad enough, but this was worse.\n\nBrexit, she said was a \"material change\" which merited a second referendum on independence.\n\nAnd yet she was ultimately unable to deliver that vote. Ms Sturgeon may have seen off four Tory prime ministers but the fifth, Rishi Sunak, will be able to say that he saw off the threat she posed to the union.\n\nSo why is she going now, with her core business unfinished?\n\nThere is quite a long list of possible reasons.\n\nGoverning is hard. Nicola Sturgeon has failed to keep her promise of closing the educational attainment gap between richer and poorer pupils although she is keen to stress her record on ensuring that more deprived students can go to university.\n\nIn common with other parts of the UK the NHS is in dire straits but devolution means this is Ms Sturgeon's responsibility north of the border.\n\nThere are also problems with issues as wide ranging as ferry services and social care.\n\nAnd there were questions at her resignation news conference about a police inquiry into the SNP's finances.\n\nBut perhaps we have been too quick to forget the impact of Covid.\n\nDuring the pandemic the first minister was widely praised for the calmness and consistency of her public messaging, in contrast, said many of her supporters, with the behaviour of UK prime minister Boris Johnson.\n\nThere has been much debate about the impact our leaders had on society during that public health emergency but understandably much less discussion about the impact it had on our leaders.\n\nMaybe the pandemic took a greater toll on Ms Sturgeon than was apparent at the time? She certainly mentions it often, and did so again in her resignation speech.\n\nShe also talked about the \"brutality\" of life as a 21st Century politician because of the \"nature and form of modern political discourse\".\n\nThis, along with the relentless scrutiny faced by politicians, \"takes its toll, on you and on those around you\", she added.\n\nAnd then, of course, there is gender, the issue that has dominated politics in Scotland this year.\n\nThe first minister was adamant that removing medical, legal and administrative hurdles to make it easier for someone to change sex on their birth certificate was morally the right thing to do.\n\nBut her dismissal of critics who said this would endanger women in female-only spaces enraged not just some of her opponents but also some members of her own party, including some in her government.\n\nThe Gender Recognition Reform bill, supported by Labour, was approved by Holyrood by a big majority but blocked by Downing Street from becoming law.\n\nThen came an outcry about the initial decision to send a convicted double rapist, Isla Bryson, to Cornton Vale women's prison near Stirling.\n\nMs Sturgeon stumbled in her response, struggling to articulate whether she believed Bryson was genuinely transgender or was simply claiming to be a woman to ensure an easier time in jail.\n\nThe outgoing first minister insists gender was not the underlying, or even the proximate, cause of her resignation.\n\nEven so, it is a headache for her successor. The SNP leader had promised to seek a judicial review of the unprecedented decision by the UK government to use Section 35 of the Scotland Act, which established devolution, to block the bill from receiving royal assent.\n\nNow a new SNP leader will have to decide whether to continue or abandon that fight.\n\nHe or she may also have to re-examine and possibly even refresh both the strategic vision for Scottish independence and the practical tactics needed to deliver it.\n\nMs Sturgeon will go down in history as a politician who kept the flame of independence burning after it was rejected at the ballot box.\n\nHow she is judged by history will depend on whether her tenure was a waypoint on the road to a new Scottish state or a diversion leading to a constitutional dead end.", "Fast food chain McDonald's is putting the price of five of its menu items up as cost of living pressures continue to squeeze struggling households.\n\nIt said higher food and energy costs mean it will put up its prices from Wednesday.\n\nLast summer the fast food giant put up the price of a cheeseburger for the first time in more than 14 years.\n\nSoaring inflation around the world hasn't dented McDonald's sales, which grew last year by more than 10%.\n\nMcDonald's said it was committed to \"affordable prices\".\n\n\"However, like many businesses, the impact of the increase in food and energy costs continues to affect our company and our franchisees.\"\n\nMcDonald's said that franchisees set their own pricing, and the following prices are a guide:\n\nMcDonald's added that it was trialling meal deals at 120 outlets in the South East of England called \"Saver Meals\" - for example, a cheeseburger, a side order and a drink will cost £3.99.\n\nIt said the meal bundles were being trialled \"to understand if this could be an additional way to offer value to our customers\".\n\nEmily Brooks, an apprentice at Francesco Group hair salon and academy in Stafford, said she had noticed food prices were \"shockingly high\".\n\n\"Everyone likes McDonald's,\" she said. \"You could usually get like a meal for under £5, some are over £6 now. It's not really affordable for young people.\"\n\nPrices in general have been rising rapidly around the world as food, fuel and energy costs soar.\n\nRussia's war in Ukraine pushed energy prices higher, although crude oil and gas prices have been falling since last summer.\n\nThe pace of inflation in the UK was 10.1% in the year to January, down from 10.5% in December, and food price inflation is at a 45-year high.\n\nSo an item that cost a pound last January would be more than 10p more expensive this January, across the board.\n\nWages are not rising as fast as prices, putting household budgets under pressure.\n\nFirms have responded to rising costs by increasing prices.\n\nBoth Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which dominate the global soft drinks market, pushed through multiple price rises in 2022.\n\nCoca-Cola put up prices by 11% around the world, while Pepsi's prices rose 14%.\n\nOn Tuesday Coca-Cola said it would raise the price of its fizzy drinks again this year.\n\nMcDonald's too has raised prices before today.\n\nLast summer, it put up the price of cheeseburgers, along with items including breakfast meals, large coffees, McNugget share boxes and upgrades from medium to large meals.\n\nIn 2022 its sales grew 10.9% after price rises and as more people came to its outlets.", "The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced its biggest walkout of the pay dispute in England.\n\nIts members at half of hospitals, mental health and community services will take part in the 48-hour strike from 1 to 3 March.\n\nThe union will also ask members working in key areas such as critical care and chemotherapy to take part in strike action for the first time.\n\nMinisters accused the union of putting patients at risk.\n\n\"We are working closely with NHS England on contingency plans, but this action will inevitably cause further disruption,\" added Health Secretary Steve Barclay.\n\nDuring the previous six walkouts, the RCN exempted core services from strike action - dialysis, neonatal care, intensive care, paediatric, A&E and chemotherapy.\n\nAny service wanting RCN members to provide life-and-limb cover - as they are required to do under trade unions laws - will also have to negotiate with union leaders rather than local agreements being put in place with local reps.\n\nThe RCN feels this has led to too many local exemptions, particularly in areas like adult A&E.\n\nInstead, services will be asked to use nurses who are not members of the RCN, or other health professionals, to cover services during the strike.\n\nOnly once those avenues have been exhausted will the RCN agree to provide cover.\n\nThe walkout is also the first time the RCN has announced a continuous 48-hour strike.\n\nThere have been stoppages over two consecutive days, but they have only lasted for 12 hours each.\n\nMore than 100 services will be involved in this strike, covering all the sites where the RCN has a mandate.\n\nDuring the strike ballot, individual votes were held at each trust.\n\nIn about half of trusts, the votes did not reach the required threshold for action to take place.\n\nRCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: \"It is with a heavy heart that I have today asked even more nursing staff to join this dispute.\"\n\nThe RCN has asked for a pay rise of 5% above inflation, but the government has awarded staff below the grade of doctors 4.75% on average.\n\nHowever, the union has suspended strikes in Scotland and Wales after fresh offers were made, even though they were well below what they are demanding.\n\nStrike action is not taking place in Northern Ireland, where staff have been given a 4.75% rise, because there is no government in place there at the moment.\n\nMatthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health managers, said: \"The stakes have just got higher and NHS leaders are becoming increasingly concerned about the escalating waves of industrial action.\n\n\"They are desperate for a resolution.\"\n\nSeparately, UK rail workers are set to walk out in a fresh series of strikes in March and April in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised here? If you plan to strike or are a patient whose treatment may be affected you can get in touch by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: The BBC was given special access to the Icefin expedition\n\nAntarctic glaciers may be more sensitive to changes in sea temperature than was thought, new research shows.\n\nThe British Antarctic Survey and the US Antarctic programme put sensors and an underwater robot beneath the vast Thwaites glacier to study melting.\n\nThe size of Britain, Thwaites is one of the world's fastest changing glaciers.\n\nIts susceptibility to climate change is a major concern to scientists because if it melted completely, it would raise global sea levels by half a metre.\n\nThe new research suggests that even low amounts of melting can potentially push a glacier further along the path toward eventual disappearance.\n\nThe joint survey at Thwaites is part of one of the largest investigations ever undertaken anywhere on the White Continent.\n\nSince the late 1990s, the glacier has seen a 14km retreat of its \"grounding line\" - that's the point where the ice flowing off the land and along the seabed floats up to form a huge platform.\n\nIn some places that grounding line is retreating now by over a kilometre a year, and because of the landward-sloping shape of the seabed, this process will likely accelerate.\n\nThe grounding line has retreated 14km since the late 1990s\n\nDuring the new research, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists dropped sensors through boreholes in the ice to the water below.\n\nWhile warmer water circulates under the shelf, they found less melting than expected under those higher temperatures; a layer of fresh water was insulating against further losses.\n\nBut, worryingly, they also discovered with the help of computer modelling that the volume of melting was not the most critical factor in a glacier's retreat.\n\n\"It's good that the melt rate is low but what matters is how the melt rate changes,\" explained BAS oceanographer Dr Pete Davis. \"To push an ice shelf out of equilibrium, we need to increase the melt rate. So even if the melt rate increases just a small amount, it can still drive rapid retreat.\"\n\nThe observations showing less melting than expected were taken from parts of the underside of the glacier that were flat and relatively uniform.\n\nBut images the underwater robot Icefin gathered for the US Antarctic programme as part of the same joint survey showed that things were often far more complex.\n\n\"What we could see is that instead of this kind of flat ice that we had all pictured, there were all kinds of staircases and cracks in the ice that weren't really expected,\" said Cornell University-based researcher Britney Schmidt, who guided Icefin under Thwaites using a video monitor and a games console controller.\n\nDr Schmidt drove the robot from the surface using a games controller and a video feed\n\nTo get the torpedo-shaped Icefin under Thwaites, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) opened a narrow hole through 600m of ice with a hot-water drill. The tethered sub was then winched down to begin its exploration.\n\nDr Schmidt's team conducted five separate dives, taking the robot right up to the glacier's grounding line.\n\nIcefin's onboard sensors indicated that it is in these particular locations that the bottom of Thwaites is being eroded by the influx of warm water coming from the wider ocean.\n\n\"Basically, the warm water is getting into the weak spots and making them even weaker,\" said Dr Schmidt. \"What this allows us to do now is to put this kind of information into our predictive models to understand how the ice shelf is going to break down, and when.\"\n\nMelting occurs where there are fissures or sharp steps in the shape of the ice\n\nThe lessons learned at Thwaites almost certainly apply to all the other glaciers in the region that are also in retreat, Dr Davis added.\n\nTwo scholarly papers describing the work are published this week in the scientific journal Nature. One focuses on Icefin, the other on the borehole profilers.\n\nThwaites Glacier is an enormous expanse of ice that is many hundreds of metres thick\n\nOne of the contributing authors on the Icefin paper is Prof David Vaughan, the former director of science at BAS, whose death was announced by the polar agency last week.\n\nOver 35-plus years, Prof Vaughan had built a formidable reputation as one of the world's leading glaciologists.\n\nHe championed the UK-US Thwaites project and was its co-lead until stepping back because of illness.\n\nHis journey to see the research described in Wednesday's two papers was his final expedition south.\n\nProf Helen Fricker, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, is in Antarctica currently. She said: \"David was a brilliant, thoughtful and engaging scientist who was a role model for so many. He was a leader in the field, making important geophysical insights about the Antarctic ice sheet and how it is changing.\n\n\"He led with dignity, grace, humour and compassion, and was actively supportive of young scientists, especially minorities. Antarctic science has lost a true hero and he will be deeply missed.\"\n\nProf Vaughan spent 36 years at BAS, becoming its director of science", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A quick history of aerial espionage. From birds to balloons, and everything in between.\n\nPresident Joe Biden has said he makes no apologies for shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the coast of the US.\n\nHe said the balloon was used for surveillance, but three other objects shot down over North America were unlikely to be foreign spy craft.\n\nThe US would now improve its detection of similar aerial objects, he said.\n\nMr Biden also said he would speak with China's President Xi Jinping soon about this month's incident.\n\n\"I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this, but I make no apologies for taking down that balloon,\" Mr Biden said at the White House on Thursday.\n\nChina has denied the balloon was used for surveillance, instead saying it blew off course while collecting weather data.\n\nBut Mr Biden reiterated the view of US officials that the balloon, which traversed the country at an altitude of about 40,000ft (12,000m) before being blown out of the sky by a US fighter jet over the Atlantic, was in fact used for spying.\n\nHe said the US was continuing to speak with China on the issue. \"We are not looking for a new cold war,\" Mr Biden said.\n\nJoe Biden has been under increasing pressure to talk directly to the public about the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon, as well as the three unidentified objects American fighter jets have scrambled to destroy over the past week.\n\nOn Thursday afternoon he did that - but his brief appearance will do very little to silence critics or those asking for more information and explanations.\n\nHe shed no light on the nature of those objects and provided no further information about the first Chinese balloon. He didn't discuss when the Chinese balloon was first detected, its intended purpose or recent reports that it had been directed toward the US island of Guam but then changed course. Nor did he say why, after a flurry of incidents last week, no new objects have been targeted.\n\nAs an explanatory endeavour, it was weak sauce. And as a public-relations effort, it will probably come up short.\n\nIt may calm the waters for now, but the next time a balloon floats across the American sky, or fighters scramble and missiles fly, the questions will return with renewed urgency.\n\nSpeaking about three other objects subsequently shot down over Alaska, north-west Canada and Lake Huron on the US-Canada border, Mr Biden said the intelligence community believed they were \"most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions\".\n\nThe president said enhanced radar introduced in response to the Chinese balloon might explain the discovery of the three objects.\n\n\"That's why I've directed my team to come back to me with sharper rules for how we will deal with these unidentified objects moving forward, distinguishing between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds\n\nMr Biden's comments came after the White House felt the need to dispel suggestions the three objects were of extra-terrestrial origin.\n\nOfficials said the slow-moving unidentified objects did not pose \"any direct threat to people on the ground\" and were destroyed \"to protect our security, our interests and flight safety\".\n\nThe Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which was co-ordinating searches for the objects in Canada, said on Thursday it would suspend the search of Lake Huron, in part due to the low probability of recovery.\n\nOn whether he would take similar action again, Mr Biden said: \"Make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people I will take it down.\"\n\nHe declined to say when he planned to speak with China's President Xi as he was asked during an interview with NBC News.\n\n\"I think the last thing that Xi wants is to fundamentally rip the relationship with the United States and with me,\" Biden told the broadcaster.\n\nChina has repeated its explanation for the balloon shot down on 4 February, with a spokesman telling reporters the US should try to avoid \"misunderstandings and misjudgements\".\n\nAmid the heightened tensions over US skies, military officials said on Thursday that American warplanes had intercepted Russian jets flying near Alaska for a second time this week.\n\nThe North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), which is jointly run by the US and Canada, said in a statement that it was a \"routine\" contact with the Russians.", "There's anger in East Palestine, Ohio, with residents demanding answers 12 days after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the small town.\n\n\"What rolls through on those tracks is of more value than the lives of the residents in our community,\" said one local.\n\nState and federal officials have assured residents they were removing contaminated soil from the site, and the air and municipal water quality was now normal. But, the Governor said residents living near the spill should drink bottled water as a precaution.\n\nRead more about the meeting, where the rail firm at the heart of the disaster failed to show up.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nManchester City returned to the top of the Premier League for the first time since November as they leapfrogged leaders Arsenal with a vital victory at Emirates Stadium.\n\nThe reigning champions turned on the power in the second half in the biggest game of the domestic season as Arsenal paid a heavy price for individual errors.\n\nTakehiro Tomiyasu's poor backpass allowed Kevin de Bruyne to loft a finish over Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale after 24 minutes but Arsenal deservedly drew level three minutes before half-time, Bukayo Saka scoring from the spot after City goalkeeper Ederson fouled Eddie Nketiah.\n\nCity, lacking spark in the opening phase, improved after the break and had a penalty of their own ruled out for offside against Erling Haaland before they showed a ruthless streak to punish Arsenal.\n\nGabriel lost possession to allow Bernardo Silva and Haaland to set up Jack Grealish for a deflected finish after 72 minutes before they ended Arsenal's hopes with 10 minutes left.\n\nInevitably, Haaland was the scorer from De Bruyne's pass to put City top on goal difference having played one game more than Arsenal.\n• None Arteta has 'more belief' Arsenal can win title\n• None 'This may be night momentum shifted in title race'\n\nCity have returned to the top of the Premier League by striking a devastating blow on the long-time leaders.\n\nCity, by their own standards, have not quite hit the heights this season but they now find themselves looking down on Arsenal once more, albeit the Gunners have a game in hand.\n\nEven here, City lacked their usual fluency in the first 45 minutes and Arsenal arguably deserved more than being on level terms at the interval.\n\nAnd yet, once they moved through the gears in the second half City carried enough threat to put Arsenal away and return to the position they have occupied so often in recent years.\n\nCity gratefully accepted the gifts Arsenal offered and once Grealish restored their lead - a touch off the luckless Tomiyasu sending his shot past Ramsdale - this game was done.\n\nHaaland's goal emphasised City's supremacy and they closed out the win with ease, the celebrations at the final whistle reflecting the significance of the result.\n• None Go straight to all the best Arsenal content\n\nThis defeat will be a bitter blow to Arsenal, coming as it did in front of their own supporters.\n\nIt continued a recent stumble in which they have lost at City in the FA Cup and at Everton in the league, drawn controversially against Brentford on Saturday and now another damaging defeat here.\n\nArsenal and manager Mikel Arteta must not get too down on themselves, although the scale of the setback here cannot be underestimated in the context of the title race.\n\nThe Gunners were excellent in the first 45 minutes but Tomiyasu's poor back pass and Gabriel's concession of possession were the sort of mistakes you simply cannot make against this class of opponent.\n\nArsenal must regroup and realise they are still right at the heart of the Premier League title pursuit - but no-one can escape the damage done by this result.\n• None Attempt missed. Eddie Nketiah (Arsenal) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Bukayo Saka with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ben White (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Martin Ødegaard.\n• None Attempt blocked. Martin Ødegaard (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Leandro Trossard.\n• None Goal! Arsenal 1, Manchester City 3. Erling Haaland (Manchester City) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne.\n• None Substitution, Manchester City. Phil Foden replaces Jack Grealish because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "A woman who faked a medical degree certificate to work as a psychiatrist for more than two decades committed a \"wicked deception\", a judge has said.\n\nZholia Alemi worked across the UK after claiming to have qualified at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Manchester Crown Court was told.\n\nAlemi, of Plumbe Street, Burnley, had denied 20 offences including forgery but was found guilty by a jury.\n\nJudge Hilary Manley said she faces a jail term \"of some substantial length\".\n\nShe will be sentenced at the court on 28 February after being convicted of 13 counts of fraud, three of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception, two of forgery and two of using a false instrument.\n\nThe court heard Alemi had earned up to £1.3m in wages from the NHS after she sent the forged certificate to the General Medical Council (GMC) to register to practise in 1995.\n\nShe was also accused of sending a forged letter of verification, which the court heard had verify spelt as \"varify\" and referred to \"six years medical trainee with satisfactory grade\".\n\nChristopher Stables, prosecuting, said Alemi was believed to be 60, but had given three different dates of birth on documents.\n\nUniversity records showed Alemi, who was born in Iran, was stopped from re-enrolling at the university in New Zealand after failing exams.\n\nShe had claimed she had moved to New Zealand after she and her family were tortured.\n\nThe court was also told Alemi, who previously lived in High Harrington, Cumbria, had been jailed for five years after being convicted of three fraud offences in 2018 in relation to the forging of the will of an 84-year-old, which would have seen her inherit the woman's Keswick bungalow and £300,000.\n\nAddressing her, Judge Manley said there was \"only one possible sentence and that will be a sentence of immediate custody of some substantial length\".\n\nShe said she had committed a \"deliberate and wicked deception\" against a number of health authorities, which had involved her working with \"potentially very vulnerable people over a long period of time\".\n\nShe added that Alemi's offending was \"very grave\", but she also wanted to know \"how it was this defendant was able to practise as long as she was, in so many positions\".\n\nFollowing Alemi's 2018 conviction, the GMC apologised for its \"inadequate\" checks in the 1990s and began an urgent check of about 3,000 foreign doctors working in the UK.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Data for England is shown by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. Data for Wales and Scotland is shown by Health Board and in Northern Ireland by Health and Social Care Trust.\n\nWhen you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board and by Health and Social Care trust in Northern Ireland.\n\nComparative data is shown for a previous year where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Earlier data is not available for all measures, so comparisons between years are not always possible.\n\nA&E attendances include all emergency departments in that trust or health board, not just major A&E departments, for example, those who attend minor injury units.\n\nEach nation has different target times for some of the measures shown, therefore comparisons between them may not be possible.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Sturgeon 'wrestling' with decision to resign for weeks\n\nThe search for a new First Minister of Scotland has begun after Nicola Sturgeon's surprise decision to stand down.\n\nThe SNP leader made the announcement on Wednesday after more than eight years in the job.\n\nShe plans to remain in office until her successor is elected.\n\nThe SNP's national executive committee will meet on Thursday evening to draw up a timetable for a leadership race.\n\nWith no obvious successor, the party's first leadership contest in nearly 20 years could see a debate on future direction and strategy.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney is among the figures being tipped as a potential replacement\n\nMs Sturgeon made her announcement at a hastily convened news conference at her official Edinburgh residence, Bute House, but insisted it was a decision she had been weighing up for some time.\n\nShe said that in order to serve well, a politician needed to accept when it was time to make way for someone else.\n\n\"In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it's right for me, for my party and my country,\" she said.\n\nMs Sturgeon said her departure was not in response to the \"latest period of pressure\", which has included controversies over gender recognition reforms, trans prisoners and the strategy on independence.\n\nShe emphasised the huge pressures and sacrifices that came with serving in high office, adding: \"I am a human being as well as a politician.\"\n\nShe intends to remain an MSP until at least the next Holyrood election.\n\nThe party's ruling body will now also have to decide on whether to go ahead with a special conference due to take place in March to discuss Ms Sturgeon's strategy of using the next general election as a de facto independence referendum.\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who ruled himself out of the leadership contest, has called for the conference to be paused until a new leader is elected.\n\nIn her resignation speech, Ms Sturgeon said her party had an \"array of talent\" who could replace her as first minister.\n\nThe SNP's constitution says a candidate for party leader needs to have the backing of 100 members from at least 20 different SNP branches, with nominations already open.\n\nIf there is more than one candidate, a vote of party members will choose the new leader.\n\nMichael Russell, the party's president, said he expected the process to be \"shortened\" and that it would be a \"contested election\".\n\nHe told Radio 4's PM: \"I think that will be good for the SNP, to have different points of view contesting in a respectful way.\n\n\"I think we will decide that pretty soon and have a clear timetable that will take us forward.\"\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said there was now a belief in Scotland that a UK Labour government was possible for the first time since the party lost power in 2010, although he acknowledged that \"significant gains\" would be needed at the next election.\n\n\"For 12 years I don't think people in Scotland have believed that a Labour UK government was possible - I think that is changing now,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives disagreed, with party leader Douglas Ross telling the BBC that his party were the \"clear challengers to the SNP in multiple seats across Scotland\".\n\nMr Ross also accused Ms Sturgeon of having presided over \"a decade of division and decay in Scotland\".\n\nMore than 100 unionists gathered in central Glasgow on Wednesday evening to celebrate Ms Sturgeon's resignation.\n\nUnionists appeared to dance a conga as they gathered in central Glasgow to celebrate Ms Sturgeon's resignation\n\nMs Sturgeon rose to power unopposed after the independence referendum in 2014, taking over from Alex Salmond who decided to resign following the vote to remain part of the UK.\n\nShe is the longest-serving first minister and the first woman to hold the position. She has worked as an MSP since the Scottish parliament was opened in 1999.\n\nOriginally from Irvine in North Ayrshire, she has campaigned for the SNP since she was a teenager.\n\nIn her resignation announcement she said she intended to remain active in politics, championing causes including Scottish independence and improving the life chances of children who have grown up in care.\n\nPreviously she has suggested she might consider becoming a foster parent. There has also been speculation that she might continue to play a role on the world stage with an organisation such as the United Nations.\n\nIn an era of what has often felt like near permanent political revolution, the churning in and then churning out of leader-after-leader, there has been what has felt, in contrast, like a near permanent leader of the Scottish government. But no more.\n\nThe SNP must now find, and quickly, a replacement. It is far from obvious who that will be.\n\nWhat does feel clearer is that Ms Sturgeon's political opponents are relieved she is going - and that is a compliment to her. Many who want to see the union preserved have longed for this day for some time, convinced her replacement will not be anywhere near as effective. Let us see.\n\nFor now, a huge figure in Scottish politics and a big figure on the UK political stage prepares to depart, and Scotland prepares for new political leadership.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People in Govanhill react to the news of Nicola Sturgeon's resignation", "A police officer standing guard outside the BBC office in New Delhi on Wednesday\n\nThe search of BBC offices in India by tax officials has ended after three days.\n\nThe authorities entered the offices in New Delhi and Mumbai on Tuesday, with staff facing lengthy questioning or told to stay at the office overnight.\n\nThe BBC said: \"We will continue to co-operate with the authorities and hope matters are resolved as soon as possible.\"\n\nIt said it \"will continue to report without fear or favour\".\n\nThe investigation comes weeks after the BBC aired a documentary in the UK critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.\n\nThe BBC statement continued: \"We are supporting staff - some of whom have faced lengthy questioning or been required to stay overnight - and their welfare is our priority.\n\n\"Our output is back to normal and we remain committed to serving our audiences in India and beyond.\n\n\"The BBC is a trusted, independent media organisation and we stand by our colleagues and journalists who will continue to report without fear or favour.\"\n\nThe BBC's documentary, India: The Modi Question, was broadcast on television only in the UK, but India's government has attempted to block people sharing it, describing it as \"hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage\" with a \"colonial mindset\".\n\nThe documentary focused on the prime minister's role in anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002, when he was chief minister of the state.\n\nThe BBC said last month the Indian government was offered a right to reply to the documentary, but it declined.\n\nThe Editors Guild of India - a non-profit group which promotes press freedom - said earlier this week it was \"deeply concerned\" about the searches.\n\nIt said they were a \"continuation of a trend of using government agencies to intimidate and harass press organisations that are critical of government policies or the ruling establishment\", it said.\n\nAmnesty International India's Board accused authorities of \"trying to harass and intimidate the BBC over its critical coverage of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party\".\n\nBut the party said the searches were lawful and the government had nothing to do with their timing.\n\nEarlier this week, Gaurav Bhatia, a spokesman from Mr Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), described the BBC as the \"most corrupt organisation in the world\".\n\n\"India is a country which gives an opportunity to every organisation,\" he said, \"as long as you don't spew venom.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA white supremacist who shot dead 10 black people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket last year has been sentenced to life in prison in a dramatic court hearing.\n\nPayton Gendron, 19, pleaded guilty to 25 counts, including first-degree murder and terrorism motivated by hate.\n\nAhead of the sentencing on Wednesday, a family member rushed towards the killer and was restrained by security.\n\nBarbara Massey, whose sister Katherine was killed, said to the gunman: \"You are going to come to our city and decide you don't like black people. Man, you don't know a damn thing about black people. We're human.\"\n\nMs Massey's statement was interrupted by her own son lunging toward the gunman. She told reporters outside court \"he saw me emotional and I'm his mom\".\n\n\"We're close,\" she said. \"You hurt one of us, you hurt us all.\"\n\nZaire Goodman, who was injured, suffers from survivor's guilt, his mother told the courtroom.\n\n\"He is dealing with the pain that I as a mother cannot bear,\" Zeneta Everhart said.\n\n\"On that day this terrorist made the choice that the value of a black human meant nothing to him… whatever the sentence is that [the gunman] receives, it will never be enough.\"\n\nHe said: \"I forgive you, but I forgive you not for your sake, but for mine and for this black community.\"\n\nAll of the 10 people killed were black. Three others were wounded.\n\nWayne Jones, the son of a victim, Celestine Chaney, addressed the killer: \"You've been brainwashed. You don't even know black people that much to hate them. You learned this on the internet.\n\n\"I hope you find it in your heart to apologise to these people, man. You did wrong for no reason.\"\n\nThe killer wept as Tamika Harper shared memories of her murdered aunt, Geraldine Talley.\n\nMs Harper told him: \"Do I hate you? No. Do I want you to die? No. I want you to stay alive. I want you to think about this every day of your life.\"\n\nInvestigators said the gunman researched the racial makeup of Buffalo, which was 200 miles (320km) away from his house in Conklin, New York, before his attack.\n\nWearing bullet-resistant armour, he live-streamed the 14 May attack at Tops Friendly Market after writing online how he had been inspired by other racially motivated shootings.\n\nBut speaking to the court on Wednesday he warned against copycat shootings.\n\nThe gunman, who is not eligible for parole, said: \"I shot and killed people because they were black. Looking back now, I can't believe I actually did it.\n\n\"I believed what I read online and acted out of hate. I know I can't take it back, but I wish I could, and I don't want anyone to be inspired by me and what I did.\"\n\nAs she delivered her decision, Judge Susan Eagan said: \"There can be no mercy for you, no understanding, no second chances.\"\n\nNew York state no longer allows the death penalty, but prosecutors at the federal level may seek it over hate and domestic terror charges to which the gunman has pleaded not guilty.", "Duangphet Phromthep, one of the 12 boys who was rescued from a Thai cave in 2018, has died in the UK.\n\nThe 17-year-old was found unconscious in his dorm in Leicestershire on Sunday and taken to hospital, where he died on Tuesday, the BBC has been told.\n\nHe had been enrolled in a football academy in the UK since late last year.\n\nHe was captain of the Thai boys' football team, which was trapped deep inside a cave for over two weeks while exploring in Chiang Rai province.\n\nHis grinning face, caught by the torch light of a diver after the boys were found in the cave, was one of the most memorable images from the rescue.\n\nIt is not known how the teenager died, but Leicestershire Police said his death is not being treated as suspicious. Reports in Thailand said he suffered a head injury.\n\nPhromthep was driven by ambulance to Kettering General Hospital on Sunday afternoon, a spokesperson for East Midlands Ambulance Service said. An air ambulance was also sent to the scene.\n\nIn August last year, his team mates rejoiced when Phromthep, who they call Dom, announced on Instagram that he had won a scholarship to join the Brooke House College Football Academy in Market Harborough.\n\n\"Today my dream has come true,\" he wrote.\n\nJust six months on, they are mourning the loss of their friend.\n\nDuangpetch \"Dom\" Promthep (right) filmed by rescuers in the cave\n\nNews of his death emerged after his mother informed the Wat Doi Wao temple in his hometown in Chiang Rai, which the team frequented.\n\nThe temple expressed condolences on Facebook - \"May Dom's soul rest in peace,\" said the post, which was accompanied by pictures of the football team with monks.\n\nSoon, messages began pouring in from his team mates.\n\n\"You told me to wait and see you play for the national team, I always believe that you would do it,\" wrote Prachak Sutham, one of the boys who was rescued with Phromthep in 2018.\n\n\"When we met the last time before you left for England, I even jokingly told you that when you come back, I would have to ask for your autograph.\n\n\"Sleep well, my dear friend. We will always have 13 of us together.\"\n\nAnother of the boys, Titan Chanin Viboonrungruang, wrote: \"Brother, you told me that we would be achieving our football dream... if the next world is real, I want us to play football together again, my brother Dom.\"\n\nPrincipal of Brooke House College, Ian Smith, said they were \"deeply saddened and shaken\" by the death.\n\n\"We unite in grief with all of Dom's family, friends, former teammates and those involved in all parts of his life, as well as everyone affected in any way by this loss in Thailand and throughout the college's global family,\" he said.\n\nDave Thomas, deputy head of mission at the British embassy in Thailand, on Wednesday reposted this picture from August, when the UK scholarship was announced\n\nIn a tweet, British Ambassador to Thailand Mark Gooding passed on \"his condolences to all his friends and family.\"\n\nPhromthep studied in Vachiralai Bee School in Chiang Mai before he went to the UK. A diehard football fan, he had been a member of a youth team in Chiang Mai.\n\nHis Instagram account is filled with posts on the sport, often accompanied with the hashtag #footballismylife.\n\nOne of his last posts in January shows a sketch of his \"dream team's football kit\" - jersey, shorts, socks and shoes with blue and pink stripes.\n\nAfter football practice on 23 June 2018, the Wild Boars (Moo Pa in Thai) football team - of which Phromthep was captain - raced to the Tham Luang cave on their bicycles. It was one of the team's favourite haunts.\n\nBut a sudden storm caused the narrow passageways in the cave system to flood, trapping the boys and their coach inside.\n\nThey spent nine days in darkness and without food - while a desperate search effort involving some 10,000 people went on - before they were found by divers.\n\nPhromthep turned 13 while he was trapped in the cave. His teammates were aged between 11 and 16 at the time, while their coach Ekkaphon Kanthawong was 25.\n\nThe boys used rocks to dig holes to escape, while their coach taught them meditation techniques to help them stay calm and use as little air as possible.\n\nDivers sent them food and letters from their family even as they planned the rescue. They were eventually brought out after being sedated with the drug ketamine.\n\nThe rescue made headlines around the world, and various films and books were later made to retell the extraordinary story, including a six-episode miniseries that Netflix released last year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Duangpetch Promthep reunites with friends and family after the 2018 Thai cave rescue", "There is little evidence to support some beneficial health claims made by formula milk firms, a study has found.\n\nThese include claims that formula milk can increase brain, eye and nervous system development and improve the immune system.\n\nScientists from Imperial College London say marketing rules must be tightened to prevent such claims from being made.\n\nTheir study, which was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), assessed 757 products from 15 countries.\n\nDr Ka Yan Cheung and Loukia Petrou analysed products from Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, the UK, and the US - a mix of high, middle and low income countries - between 2020 and 2022.\n\nThey said: \"The wide range of health and nutrition claims made by infant formula products are often not backed by scientific references.\n\n\"When they are, the evidence is often weak and biased.\"\n\nDr Cheung and Ms Petrou found that on average each formula product advertised one health or nutrition claim, but that only 56% of these claims were backed by clinical trials. The rest were reviews, opinion pieces or studies on animals.\n\nIn addition to this, the BMJ study added that nearly 90% of the clinical trials mentioned as evidence were funded in part by the formula industry, or directly affiliated with it.\n\nThere is a concern that over-inflating health and nutrition claims on formula milk could discourage breastfeeding by undermining its benefits.\n\nAccording to Unicef, the UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world.\n\nThe researchers concluded: \"These findings support calls for a revised regulatory framework for breast milk substitutes to better protect consumers, and avoid the harms associated with aggressive marketing of such products.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Sturgeon 'wrestling' with decision to resign for weeks\n\nNicola Sturgeon has announced she is resigning as Scotland's first minister after more than eight years in the role.\n\nThe Scottish National Party leader said she knew \"in my head and in my heart\" this was the right time to step down.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she would remain in office until her successor was elected.\n\nShe is the longest-serving first minister and the first woman to hold the position.\n\nMs Sturgeon insisted her resignation was not in response to the \"latest period of pressure\", which has included controversies over gender reforms, trans prisoners and the strategy on independence.\n\nShe acknowledged there had been \"choppy waters\", but said her decision had come from \"a deeper and longer-term assessment\".\n\n\"Since the very first moment in the job, I have believed that part of serving well would be to know, almost instinctively, when the time is right to make way for someone else,\" she said.\n\n\"And when that time came, to have the courage to do so, even if many across the country, and in my party, might feel it too soon.\n\n\"In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it is right for me, for my party and for the country.\n\n\"And so today I am announcing my intention to step down as first minister and leader of my party.\"\n\nThe first minister said she had been struggling with conflicting emotions since around the turn of the year.\n\n\"I get up in the morning and I tell myself, and usually I convince myself, that I've got what it takes to keep going and keep going and keep going,\" she said.\n\n\"But then I realise that that's maybe not as true.\"\n\nShe said there were two questions - whether carrying on was right for her, and whether it was right for country, her party and the cause of independence.\n\nMs Sturgeon said the answer to both questions was no.\n\n\"We are at a critical moment,\" she said. \"The blocking of a referendum as the accepted, constitutional route to independence is a democratic outrage.\n\n\"But it puts the onus on us to decide how Scottish democracy will be protected and to ensure that the will of the Scottish people prevails.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. People in Govanhill react to the news of Nicola Sturgeon's resignation\n\nShe said that support for independence needed to be \"solidified\" and to grow further.\n\n\"To achieve that we need to reach across the divide in Scottish politics, and my judgement now is that this needs a new leader,\" she said.\n\nNominations to elect her successor have now opened. Names to have been suggested as potential candidates include John Swinney, Kate Forbes and Angus Robertson.\n\nThe SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn told the BBC he would not be standing.\n\nThis is a bombshell which will send shockwaves through Scottish politics.\n\nThat's not just because Nicola Sturgeon has been a key figure for so long - an MSP since the Scottish parliament was opened in 1999, and its longest-serving first minister.\n\nIt's also because her government stands at a pivotal moment in the pursuit of the SNP's founding goal, of Scottish independence. The party is holding a special conference next month to decide how it should move the issue on, in light of the UK government's refusal to engage with plans for a referendum.\n\nAnd frankly, with no clear successors waiting in the wings, if Ms Sturgeon isn't running the independence campaign, it's not clear who will be placed to call the shots.\n\nThe first minister had come under significant pressure in recent weeks over her government's gender reforms.\n\nBut she has been so dominant in Scottish politics for so long that this still feels like it has come completely out of the blue.\n\nMs Sturgeon said she was \"not leaving politics\" and would continue to fight for Scottish independence.\n\nShe added that the intensity and \"brutality\" of life as a politician had taken its toll on her, and those around her.\n\nThe first minister said leading the country through the Covid pandemic had been \"by far the toughest thing I've done\" and that she had only recently started to comprehend its physical and mental impact.\n\nScottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the first minister had led Scotland through some of the most \"challenging times\" in recent history.\n\nHe said: \"It is right that today we pay tribute to those achievements, particularly during the pandemic.\n\n\"Regardless of our differences, she is an able politician who has stood at the forefront of Scottish politics for more than 20 years.\"\n\nNicola Sturgeon in Bute House after the press conference\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak paid tribute to Ms Sturgeon \"for her long-standing public service\".\n\nHe said they \"didn't agree on everything\" but had successfully worked together on freeports.\n\nScottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross MSP said: \"Whatever our differences, it is right we recognise that political leadership is always demanding and takes its toll on a person and their family.\"\n\nBut he added that Ms Sturgeon had \"presided over a decade of division and decay in Scotland\".\n\nFormer first minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond, who now leads the Alba party, said he felt for Ms Sturgeon personally - but that there was no obvious successor and no clear strategy for independence.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said he was \"very sorry\" at the first minister's decision but \"completely understands\" her reasons.\n\n\"It's obviously been a shock to all of us, a shock to the SNP family and shock to the country as well,\" he said.\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said Ms Sturgeon had been an \"outstanding political leader\".\n\n\"She has taken support for independence to record levels and won every national election, by margins other parties could only wish for,\" he said.\n\nOne of the reasons that Nicola Sturgeon has announced her intention to resign, rather than quitting straight away, is that her formal resignation starts an official timetable at Holyrood.\n\nAs soon as her resignation letter is sent to the King, the Scottish Parliament has 28 days to elect a replacement first minister - or face another election.\n\nMs Sturgeon will remain in post until her party chooses her successor as SNP leader.\n\nThe SNP's rule book states that candidates must have at least 100 nominations from party members from at least 20 local branches. The vote is run by postal ballot, on a one-person one-vote basis.\n\nThe timetable for that process is still to be agreed. But with a special conference to decide on whether to use an election as a de facto independence referendum due next month, time is tight.\n\nSome in the party have suggested the conference should be delayed until a new leader is in place.\n\nMs Sturgeon has been a member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, and became the deputy leader of the SNP in 2004.\n\nShe has been first minister since November 2014, when she took over from Alex Salmond after the defeat in the independence referendum.\n\nMs Sturgeon has led the SNP to a series of election victories at UK, Scottish and local level.\n\nLast year the UK Supreme Court ruled that Holyrood did not have the power to stage another independence referendum - a move which has been blocked by the UK government.\n\nMs Sturgeon wants the SNP to fight the next general election as a de facto referendum, but there has been some opposition to the plan within the SNP.\n\nIn addition, recent months have seen controversies over gender reforms, which have been blocked by the UK government; a teachers' strike; and rows over the management of transgender prisoners.", "The Unite union, which represents healthcare staff in Northern Ireland, has moved a planned strike to coincide with industrial action by teachers.\n\nStrike action by the union was scheduled to take place on Thursday and Friday, as well as 23 and 24 February.\n\nKevin McAdam from Unite said members will now walk out on 21 February, the same day the majority of teachers will hold a half-day strike.\n\nFurther strike action will happen on 16 March.\n\nMr McAdam, Unite's Northern Ireland representative, said: \"We felt it was really important to move the dates to the 21st (February) to coincide with teachers to demonstrate that there are two important things in life, one is health and the other is education.\"\n\nHe said that ambulance staff will be among those taking part in the strike.\n\n\"Our aim is to disrupt the administration of the service, not to disrupt the patients but obviously it will impact to some extent,\" he said.\n\n\"If we don't take a stand we wont have a health service.\n\n\"This is the only way we can get our message through to government regionally and nationally.\"\n\nUnder trade union law, emergency cover will still be provided and staff can leave the picket lines to attend.\n\nSome staff at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and Ulster University (UU) will also strike on 21 February in a dispute over pay. It is part of 18 planned days of industrial action.\n\nWorkers at the Royal Victoria hospital went on strike in January\n\nUnite represents 4,000 workers across the health and social care trusts and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS).\n\nIn January, 20,000 healthcare staff in Northern Ireland, including ambulance staff and nurses, took part in a one-day strike as part of a dispute over pay.\n\nWorkers were told they would get a 2022-23 pay award of £1,400, but unions said this would not settle the dispute as it was lower than inflation.", "The letter is addressed to Katie Marsh, the wife of a stamp magnate\n\nA letter written in February 1916 has arrived at a flat in south London more than 100 years later.\n\nThe envelope, which has a Bath postmark and a 1d (1p) stamp bearing George V's head, arrived at Finlay Glen's flat on Hamlet Road, Crystal Palace, in 2021.\n\nHe said: \"We were obviously pretty surprised and mystified as to how it could have been sat around for more than 100 years.\"\n\nRoyal Mail said it remained \"uncertain what happened in this instance\".\n\nThe letter was sent two years before World War One rationing was introduced and King George V had been on the throne for five years.\n\nFuture prime ministers Harold Wilson and Sir Edward Heath were both born later that year.\n\nFinlay Glen has kept the letter in a drawer for two years\n\nAlthough it can be a crime to open mail not addressed to you, under the Postal Services Act 2000, the theatre director said he felt it was \"fair game\" to open once he realised it was from 1916, not 2016.\n\nThe 27-year-old added: \"If I've committed a crime, I can only apologise.\"\n\nThe letter was written to \"my dear Katie\", the wife of local stamp magnate Oswald Marsh, according to Stephen Oxford, editor of the Norwood Review, a quarterly local history magazine.\n\nOswald Marsh was a highly regarded stamp dealer who was often called as an expert witness in cases of stamp fraud.\n\nIt was penned by family friend Christabel Mennell, the daughter of a wealthy local tea merchant Henry Tuke Mennell, while on holiday in Bath.\n\nIn the letter, Ms Mennell stated she felt \"quite ashamed of myself after saying what I did\", and that she had been feeling \"miserable here with a very heavy cold\".\n\nChristabel Mennell wrote the letter to Katie Marsh while in Somerset\n\nMr Oxford said: \"It's very unusual and actually quite exciting in terms of giving us a lead into local history and people who lived in Norwood, which was a very popular place for the upper middle classes in the late 1800s.\n\n\"Crystal Palace generated a huge influx of very wealthy people and so to find out about someone who moved to the area for possibly that very reason is absolutely fascinating.\"\n\nOswald Marsh was the son of Joseph Chandler Marsh\n\nAsked what he would do if the relatives of the sender or recipient got in touch, Mr Glen replied: \"It's an amazing piece of their family history that has turned up - if they want to, they can come round.\"\n\nThe story first appeared in the South London Press on Wednesday.\n\nA Royal Mail spokesperson said: \"Incidents like this happen very occasionally, and we are uncertain what happened in this instance.\n\n\"We appreciate that people will be intrigued by the history of this letter from 1916, but we have no further information on what might have happened.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Olaplex has released test results it claims prove its hair products are safe\n\nPopular haircare company, Olaplex, is being sued by 28 women who claim its products caused hair loss, blisters and other conditions.\n\nThe Olaplex range includes shampoos, conditioners and treatments that claim to safely \"repair broken bonds and rejuvenate hair\".\n\nBut the lawsuit says Olaplex uses harmful chemicals that left the women's hair and scalps in a worse condition.\n\nOlaplex has released test results that it says show the products are safe.\n\n\"We are prepared to vigorously defend our company, our brand, and our products against these baseless accusations,\" it said in a statement on Instagram.\n\nOlaplex has not recalled any of its products in the wake of the lawsuit.\n\nLaunched in California in 2014, Olaplex claims that its products, using patented chemistry, are scientifically proven to restore damaged hair.\n\nIt is particularly marketed towards people who bleach their hair, and while it is widely available to the public, several products are only sold to trained hair professionals. In many salons around the world it is offered - at an additional price - as a treatment for those getting their hair coloured.\n\nThe company has enjoyed massive success and has been endorsed by celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Drew Barrymore.\n\nThe lawsuit, filed last week in a Californian district court, claims the plaintiffs \"have lost their hair - in some cases more than half and leaving bald spots in others\".\n\nIt adds their hair was left \"dry, brittle, frizzy and dull\".\n\n\"The hair has split and broken, causing it to look unkept and as if it were cut with a weedwhacker,\" the suit says.\n\nSeveral photos of plaintiffs showing bald spots that they claim were caused by Olaplex have been released by the Law Centre of Amy E. Davis, one of the legal firms involved in the suit.\n\nSome of the women have experienced extreme itchiness, rashes, yeast infections, bacterial infections, burning, open sores - and as a result, depression - according to the legal documents.\n\nThe plaintiffs are collectively seeking $75,000 (£62,200) in damages.\n\nOne of the 28 plaintiffs claiming they suffered hair loss after using Olaplex products\n\nThe lawsuit also claims that Olaplex products contain lilial and panthenol - chemical compounds that can lead to hair loss and conditions including \"inflamed, blistered, flaking or scaling skin\".\n\nLilial was once used as a perfume in cosmetics, until the European Union banned it from March 2022 due to its impact on fertility.\n\nOlaplex says it removed the ingredient from its products globally, \"out of an abundance of caution\", however the lawsuit claims it is still selling the older products that contain lilial, also known as butylphenyl methylpropional.\n\nThe lawyers said they carefully considered any other factors that may have caused the women's hair loss and scalp conditions, but found that \"the products alone are to blame\".\n\nOlaplex has strongly denied the allegations, insisting its range does \"not cause hair loss or hair breakage\".\n\n\"Independent third-party laboratory test results show that Olaplex products are safe and effective,\" the company wrote on its website, with links to several studies from industry standard tests.\n\nThe company's CEO JuE Wong said on Twitter that hair loss was a painful and emotional topic \"however for our products this is not true\".", "Ms Sturgeon announced on Wednesday that she was resigning as Scotland's first minister\n\nThe timing of a SNP independence summit has been thrown into doubt after Nicola Sturgeon's resignation as first minister.\n\nThe party leader confirmed on Wednesday that she would step down after more than eight years in the role.\n\nThe SNP had scheduled a conference for 19 March to discuss a strategy to gain independence.\n\nBut some high-profile figures in the party now say the event should be postponed while a successor is chosen.\n\nThe SNP's national executive committee is meeting online at 18:30 on Thursday to discuss the timing for a leadership contest.\n\nThe national executive will also have to decide on whether to go ahead with the March summit.\n\nThe conference was announced by the first minister in December following the decision of the UK Supreme Court that Holyrood could not legislate for another referendum, with Ms Sturgeon saying she would back using the next general election as a de facto referendum.\n\nNicola Sturgeon made her announcement at a news conference at her official Bute House residence in Edinburgh\n\nSNP MP Stephen Flynn, who replaced Ms Sturgeon's close ally Ian Blackford as the party's Westminster leader in December, called for it to be delayed.\n\n\"In my view, that conference should be paused,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"We should allow our new leader the opportunity and the space to set out their vision and their priorities domestically but also give them the space to chart their course when it comes to that pathway to independence.\"\n\nSNP MP Stewart McDonald, who criticised Ms Sturgeon's plan to use the next general election as a de facto referendum on independence, also suggested the conference should be pushed back.\n\nHe said the leadership contest should take about six weeks, meaning it would not finish until after the scheduled date of the conference on March 19.\n\n\"I hope the NEC agrees a timetable that ensures a comprehensive debate - we should not rush,\" he tweeted.\n\nThe Glasgow South MP added the summit could then \"become a national hustings and departing speech\" from Ms Sturgeon.\n\nFormer SNP minister Ash Regan, who quit over the government's plans to reform gender recognition rules, also backed the idea of moving the conference, as well as calling for all members who left the party in the last year to be allowed to re-join and vote in the leadership contest.\n\nSNP president Michael Russell has suggested the summit may have to be postponed\n\nSNP president Mr Russell, speaking to BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland, said they may need to delay the event until a new leader has been selected, suggesting it was \"unlikely\" the race would be over by then.\n\n\"Therefore there is a question to be asked about whether that should be postponed while a leader comes into place,\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"I think that's a matter that needs to be discussed.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon, who announced her decision to quit at a surprise news conference at Bute House in Edinburgh on Wednesday, will remain in post until a replacement is appointed.\n\nShe also intends to remain as an MSP until at least the next Holyrood election.\n\nMr Russell said he expected that process to be \"shortened\" and for there to be a \"contested election\".\n\nThough there is no obvious candidate to succeed the outgoing first minister, potential candidates include: External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and Deputy First Minister John Swinney.\n\nStephen Flynn previously ruled himself out of contention for the role, adding that the next head of the SNP would come from the Holyrood group.\n\nMs Sturgeon's resignation follows a series of political challenges in recent months as her government sought to pass new laws on gender reforms, only for them to be blocked by Westminster.\n\nShe insisted the row surrounding a transgender double rapist being sent to a women's jail \"wasn't the final straw\", but said it is \"time for someone else\" to lead the party.\n\nMs Sturgeon acknowledged the \"choppy waters\", but insisted her resignation was not in response to the \"latest period of pressure\".\n\n\"This decision comes from a deeper and longer-term assessment,\" she said.\n\n\"In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it's right for me, for my party and my country.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Sturgeon 'wrestling' with decision to resign for weeks\n\nThe new SNP leader will be announced on Monday 27 March, the party's national executive has announced.\n\nNominations for the post have already opened and will close at noon on Friday 24 February.\n\nIt comes a day after Nicola Sturgeon announced that she would step down after more than eight years as Scotland's first minister.\n\nA party conference scheduled for 19 March to discuss a strategy to gain independence has also been postponed.\n\nWith no obvious successor, the party's first leadership contest in nearly 20 years could see a debate on future direction and strategy.\n\nDeputy First Minster John Swinney, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and MP Joanna Cherry have ruled themselves out of the race.\n\nThe final ballot will be open from 13 March until 27 March.\n\nThe SNP's national executive said should there be more than one nominee, the new leader would be selected on a one-member-one-vote basis.\n\nMs Sturgeon arriving back at her home in Glasgow on Thursday\n\nThe party's national secretary, Lorna Finn, said: \"Nicola has been the outstanding politician of this generation. We are very fortunate that she will remain an SNP MSP and a leading campaigner for an independent Scotland.\n\n\"But the SNP is full of talented individuals - and they now have the opportunity to put themselves forward and our new leader will lead us into the final phase of Scotland's journey towards independence.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon had backed the use of the next general election as a de facto referendum on Scottish independence.\n\nParty members were due to decide on their strategy at a specially-convened conference in Edinburgh in March, but that has now been put on hold.\n\nLorna Finn said: \"It would be wrong to have a newly elected leader tied to a key decision on how we deliver democracy in Scotland in the face of continued Westminster intransigence.\"\n\nSNP MP Kirsten Oswald has described the timetable for electing a new leader as \"sensible\".\n\nShe told BBC Scotland's The Nine programme: \"We saw the chaos of the Tory Party who had an extraordinarily lengthy leadership contest over the summer period which I think did no-one any favours.\n\n\"We wouldn't want to replicate that and nor would we want to replicate the other leadership contest they had which seemed to last only a matter of hours.\n\n\"We have come up with a much more sensible timetable.\"\n\nMs Oswald, a former deputy Westminster leader of the SNP, also confirmed there would be some hustings, adding it was \"something which is important to the process.\"\n\nThe SNP's leader at Westminster, Stephen Flynn, has ruled himself out of the leadership contest\n\nTwo high-profile possible successors to Ms Sturgeon have already ruled themselves out of the leadership race.\n\nMP Stephen Flynn, who replaced Ms Sturgeon's close ally Ian Blackford as the party's Westminster leader in December, said the next head of the SNP would come from the Holyrood group.\n\nAnd Joanna Cherry, a long-standing critic of the current SNP leadership, also distanced herself from becoming the next SNP leader and first minister.\n\nMs Cherry, who was dropped from the party's frontbench team at Westminster in 2021, tweeted: \"There are some huge challenges facing our country and our government. There is also a need for reform and healing within our party. I'm looking forward to playing my role in this process.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon's resignation follows a series of political challenges in recent months as her government sought to pass new laws on gender reforms, only for them to be blocked by Westminster.\n\nShe insisted the row surrounding a transgender double rapist being sent to a women's jail \"wasn't the final straw\", but said it was \"time for someone else\" to lead the party.\n\nMs Sturgeon acknowledged the \"choppy waters\", but insisted her resignation was not in response to the \"latest period of pressure\".\n\n\"This decision comes from a deeper and longer-term assessment,\" she said.\n\n\"In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it's right for me, for my party and my country.\"", "President Zelensky has asked for more jets, like these F-16s, to help push back Russia's invasion\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky spent much of the past week touring European capitals, appealing to leaders to send his country fighter jets.\n\nAt the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine was believed to have around 120 combat capable aircraft - mainly consisting of ageing Soviet-era MiG-29s and Su-27s.\n\nBut officials say they need up to 200 jets to match Moscow's air-power - which is thought to be five or six times greater than Kyiv's.\n\nMr Zelensky is primarily seeking US-made F-16s. First built in the 1970s, the jet can travel at twice the speed of sound and can engage targets in the air or on the ground.\n\nWhile now eclipsed by the more modern F-35, it remains widely in use. Experts say modern fighters like the F-16 would help Ukraine strike behind Russian lines.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has ruled out supplying the jets for now. But countries like Poland and the Netherlands have signalled an openness to supplying Ukraine from their own fleet.\n\nHowever, Mr Zelensky's request poses a host of practical challenges, that could make an early delivery of such aircraft unlikely. Here's four of them:\n\nUkraine is said to have identified 50 pilots who could begin training on Western jets immediately, but preparing them to fly the warplanes takes time and takes them away from the current fighting.\n\nThe British government has agreed to start training Ukrainian pilots on Nato-standard aircraft, but warns that supplying the jets would only ever be a long-term option.\n\nTraining pilots could take months or even years, given how complex the fighter jets are. But British officials have said they could speed up the training process for some of Ukraine's more seasoned pilots, who have years of experience flying Soviet-era planes.\n\nA fighter jet comes with an entire eco-system to support it. To function in a warzone, it needs complex and specialised engineering - it isn't \"a simple case of towing an aircraft to the border,\" in the words of the UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.\n\nFormer Nato official Dr Jamie Shea told the BBC that fourth-generation fighter jets - like the ones requested by Ukraine - require extensive maintenance after almost every flight.\n\n\"When I was at Nato and visited an airbase, planes would come back in and the engineers would have to strip out whole systems and put them back in. It's almost like every time you drive your car you have to put a whole carburettor in,\" Dr Shea said. \"So they've got a very high maintenance requirement.\"\n\nGerman MP Tobias Bacherle is also concerned that handing over the jets would be a long-term commitment, explaining that the issue is \"not only about delivering\".\n\n\"It's an ongoing engagement, this would be very different to delivering tanks, or delivering anti-aircraft missiles or other heavy weaponry as we've done before\", he told the BBC.\n\nAny jets handed over by Nato countries become Ukrainian property so that no Nato personnel are involved directly in the war. But that means Ukrainians must also be trained in maintaining the planes, adding more time to the process.\n\nThere's been speculation that countries like the UK and France could hand over older generations of warplanes to Ukraine, which has ignited some debate over the types of jet that should be provided.\n\nThe logistics of different countries sending a variety of old models would be \"forbidding\", the Economist's defence editor Shashank Joshi told the BBC.\n\nAnd not all of the newer models suit Ukraine's war needs. Recent generations of the UK's Typhoon jet aren't \"optimised for flying at low altitudes, which is what Ukraine has been forced to do because of the Russian air defence threat,\" Mr Joshi said.\n\nJustin Bronk from the Rusi think tank said giving Typhoons to Ukraine would be a \"very expensive symbolic gesture\". He observed that most of Ukraine's airbases were dispersed and hidden at the beginning of the war to avoid being targeted by Russian missiles.\n\nThe move resulted in Ukraine's air force operating from \"relatively austere dispersed airbases\" and \"short-field\" runways with rough surfaces.\n\nUK MP Bob Seely, who served in the UK armed forces, said that Typhoon jets would struggle to operate under such conditions.\n\n\"You have to have a plane which is versatile and flexible and can be used when your enemy is bombing your runways and your hangers,\" Mr Seely told the BBC. \"It's got to be a practical offering, my worry is [the Typhoon] is not practical.\"\n\nUkraine would need a jet with greater versatility and landing flexibility, like the Swedish-made Gripen jet, he added.\n\n\"A Gripen is a reasonably simple plane and very cheap by modern standards, it's good value, it's versatile...it's a useable plane and is useable by the Ukrainians in a relatively short time frame,\" Mr Seely said.\n\n\"It is designed for short take off and to cope with a short rough runway, it comes with kit in a box, almost like an Ikea plane.\"\n\nSweden has so far ruled out supplying Gripen jets to Ukraine.\n\nSome Nato member countries are worried that handing jets to Ukraine would be viewed as escalating the war, risking a direct confrontation with Russia.\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron said that if France did sent warplanes, he would not want any to be used to \"touch Russian soil\".\n\nThe Kremlin has already made repeated accusations that Nato is an aggressor by proxy, warning on Thursday that the line between direct and indirect Western involvement in the conflict was disappearing.\n\nDr Shea says a \"Rubicon has been crossed\" in terms of the more general delivery of weapons to Ukraine in the last few weeks.\n\nCountries \"serious about Ukraine winning\" need to weigh up the need to provide air cover to the tanks they have supplied to Ukraine, with the risk of escalating the war.\n\n\"It doesn't make sense to give Ukraine four members of a five member basketball team and then deny that critical fifth member that makes all the difference,\" he told the BBC.", "UK rail workers are set to walk out in a fresh series of strikes in March and April in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.\n\nMembers of the RMT union from 14 train operators will strike on 16, 18 and 30 March, and 1 April, the start of Easter school holidays for many.\n\nMembers at Network Rail, responsible for tracks and bridges, will strike on 16 March and then ban overtime.\n\nRail bosses said the strikes are \"unjustified\".\n\n\"This latest round of strikes is totally unjustified and will be an inconvenience to our customers, and cost our people more money at a time they can least afford it,\" said a spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train companies.\n\nThe RDG added that the union had initially agreed that the industry needed \"modernisation\" to fund any pay rises, but had now \"reneged on that position\" and did not want reforms.\n\nThe RMT, which represents 40,000 workers, said there would be \"sustained and targeted\" industrial action over the next few months.\n\n\"Rail employers are not being given a fresh mandate by the government to offer our members a new deal on pay, conditions and job security,\" RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said.\n\nNetwork Rail's chief negotiator Tim Shoveller said that the union's leadership had shown its \"true colours by choosing politics over people\".\n\n\"Thousands of employees are telling us they want the improved offer that we have tabled, an offer worth at least 9% over two years - rising to over 14% for the lowest paid, provides job security with no compulsory redundancies and 75% discounted rail travel,\" he added.\n\n\"But instead of offering members a democratic vote with a referendum, the RMT leadership is hiding behind a sham 'consultation,'\" Mr Shoveller said.\n\nLast week, the RMT rejected the rail industry's latest offers, which Network Rail and train companies had called their \"best and final\" offer - but which RMT boss Mick Lynch branded \"dreadful\".\n\nThe RMT has said it wants an unconditional pay offer, but rail industry representatives have said any pay offer would have to come with changes to working conditions in order to fund any rises in pay.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper said: \"Just days after denying its members a say on their own future, the RMT leadership is now trying to make them lose multiple days' wages through yet more strikes.\"\n\nThe country's railways were \"not currently financially sustainable\" and these offers \"would have given workers what they want and, crucially, the passengers what they need\", he added. \"Passengers want this dispute to end.\"\n\nRail workers represented by Aslef and the RMT have been on strike on various dates throughout the winter.\n\nSeparately, the Royal College of Nursing announced its biggest walkout of the pay dispute in England. Its members at half of hospitals, mental health and community services will take part in the 48-hour strike from 1 to 3 March.\n\nAnd Border Force workers will begin a strike on Friday as part of their dispute over pay, jobs, pensions and conditions in the civil service.\n\nMembers of the Public and Commercial Services union in Dover and French ports including Calais will walk out on Friday and over the weekend. The union claims inexperienced staff were being brought in to cover for striking Border Force workers.\n\nHundreds of thousands of workers in other sectors across the UK - including teachers, civil servants and barristers - have been on strike. Most of those taking part want more pay to keep up with rising prices.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRescuers are once again searching for people trapped under rubble in Turkey after another earthquake hit the country, killing at least six people.\n\nA 6.4 magnitude tremor struck near the city of Antakya near the border with Syria, where massive quakes devastated both countries on 6 February.\n\nThe earlier quakes killed 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria with tens of thousands more left homeless.\n\nBuildings weakened by those tremors collapsed in both countries on Monday.\n\nTurkey's disaster and emergency agency says the 6.4 earthquake occurred at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).\n\nThis was followed by a 5.8 aftershock three minutes later and dozens of subsequent aftershocks that were not as severe.\n\nThe health minister, Dr Fahrettin Koca, said 294 people have been injured - 18 of them seriously.\n\nIt's thought the death toll has been relatively low this time because the earthquake struck in an area that was largely empty after it was badly hit by the 6 February quake.\n\nReports from the city of Antakya spoke of fear and panic in the streets as ambulances and rescue crews tried to reach the worst affected areas where the walls of badly damaged buildings had collapsed.\n\n\"I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet,\" local resident Muna al-Omar told Reuters news agency, crying as she held her seven-year-old son. She had been in a tent in a park in the city centre when the new earthquakes hit.\n\nAli Mazlum, 18, told AFP news agency he had been looking for the bodies of family members from the previous earthquakes when the latest tremors hit.\n\n\"You don't know what to do... we grabbed each other and right in front of us, the walls started to fall,\" he said.\n\nIn a visit to the southern province of Osmaniye, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan promised to hold to account anyone responsible for shoddy construction that led to deaths in the initial earthquake a fortnight ago.\n\n\"It is our duty to hold the wrongdoers accountable before the law,\" he said.\n\nShortly after the earthquake, officials issued more than 100 arrest warrants in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed in the quake, a move that some saw as an attempt to divert overall blame for the disaster.\n\nAs recovery efforts continued on Tuesday from the latest earthquake, Orhan Tatar, director of Turkey's disaster and emergency agency, warned those in affected areas to be careful of falling debris.\n\nDestroyed buildings in Hatay, southern Turkey, after a new earthquake hit the region on Monday\n\nAntakya, the capital of Turkey's Hatay Province, was one of the places hit most severely by the 6 February earthquake\n\nIn the city of Adana, the latest earthquake drove people to a volleyball centre that had been converted into a rescue centre following the first earthquake.\n\nThe authorities have told the BBC they believe as many as 600 people may have arrived overnight - seeking a sturdy, ground-level building in which to take shelter.\n\nWhen the quake struck, people were reported to have run out into the streets rather than staying put, reflecting the fact that there is still significant fear two weeks after the initial disaster.\n\nIn Syria, some 470 injured people are said to have visited hospitals after Monday's quakes, which were also reportedly felt in Egypt and Lebanon.\n\nIn a visit to Turkey on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $100m (£83m) in humanitarian aid, saying that America would help with earthquake recovery \"for as long as it takes\".\n\nIt is one of several countries to have offered their help in the wake of the first earthquake.\n\nRescue operations have recently been wound down in all but two areas, with hopes of finding people alive fading fast.\n\nAre you in the area? If it is safe to do so email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Mordaunt says Johnson's Brexit intervention not entirely unhelpful\n\nAn intervention by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson on post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland is not \"entirely unhelpful\", Commons leader Penny Mordaunt has said.\n\nHe has urged Rishi Sunak not to abandon legislation that would give the government powers to scrap parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nMs Mordaunt told the BBC the bill had helped persuade the EU to negotiate.\n\nShe also said any deal must work for all communities in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe protocol came into effect in 2021 and aims to ensure free movement of goods across the Irish land border by conducting checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain instead.\n\nHowever, unionist parties, who support Northern Ireland being part of the UK, oppose the protocol and argue that placing an effective border across the Irish Sea undermines Northern Ireland's place within the UK.\n\nNegotiations between the UK and the European Union to try to resolve issues with the protocol have been going on for more than a year but sources have suggested a deal could be sealed next week.\n\nThe momentum suggested a new agreement was very close but there is now unlikely to be anything concrete until the middle of the week at the earliest.\n\nOn Saturday, a source close to Mr Johnson said he believed it would be \"a great mistake\" to drop the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which many Conservatives see as an important bargaining chip for the UK to gain concessions from the EU.\n\nMs Mordaunt also suggested the bill had aided negotiations with the bloc.\n\nThere has been trepidation and a sense of inevitability about the former PM and Brexit cheerleader getting involved in the arguments around new arrangements for Northern Ireland - and Mr Sunak's team may not see his intervention in the same light as Ms Mordaunt.\n\nMs Mordaunt, who also campaigned to leave the EU during the 2016 referendum, told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: \"I think the prime minister would give credit to his predecessors for enabling us to get this far.\n\n\"We have the bill... and in part it is because of that that we are now able to have these negotiations and the EU is talking about things that previously it said it wouldn't talk about.\"\n\nShe added: \"It's a reminder to the EU the bar that they have to get over. But ultimately it's not really about what Boris Johnson or any members of the House of Commons think about a deal. It's what the people of Northern Ireland think about the deal.\"\n\nThe bill, which was first introduced by Boris Johnson, is currently paused in Parliament while the UK and EU try to hammer out a new agreement.\n\nThe BBC understands the EU will not move ahead with a deal unless there is a commitment by the UK to drop the Protocol Bill.\n\nA senior government official has said if issues with the protocol arrangements can be resolved then there will be no need for the bill to go further in Parliament.\n\nMany unionists oppose the protocol but a majority of Stormont politicians support it in some form\n\nFormer Northern Ireland Secretary and Labour peer Lord Mandelson told Sky News Mr Johnson was trying to \"wreck\" the protocol, which he agreed as part of the 2019 Brexit withdrawal agreement, to undermine the prime minister.\n\nFormer Conservative Chancellor George Osborne, who was a leading figure in the campaign to remain in the EU, also said Mr Johnson was \"causing trouble\" because he was \"interested in becoming prime minister again\".\n\n\"He wants to bring down Rishi Sunak and he will use any instrument to do it,\" he told Channel 4's The Andrew Neil Show.\n\nMeanwhile, Ms Mordaunt said any deal on the protocol had to work for all communities in Northern Ireland and pass the seven tests set out by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).\n\nThe DUP is preventing a government from being formed in Northern Ireland in protest over the protocol and says its tests must be met for it to end its boycott of Stormont.\n\nThere had been some whispers that there was a possibility of doing a deal, even without the support of the DUP, but Ms Mordaunt closed down that idea, saying: \"If this deal does not pass those tests, it won't work, it's as simple as that.\"\n\nShe added: \"What my colleagues might say and what they might do in a hypothetical vote, that is irrelevant unless it works for the whole of Northern Ireland.\"\n\nFollowing the latest round of talks on Saturday, Mr Sunak warned an agreement was \"by no means done\" and said there were still \"challenges to work through\".\n\nLabour has said it would support the government in a Commons vote on a protocol deal.\n\nHowever, the prime minister could still face a rebellion by Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers.", "TV presenter Dickie Davies, who was the face of ITV sports coverage for more than two decades, has died aged 94.\n\nThe star presented the Saturday afternoon show World of Sport from the 1960s until it ended in 1985.\n\nThe show, a mix of live sport including racing, wrestling and football results, competed with the BBC's Grandstand.\n\nFormer ITV colleague Jim Rosenthal announced the death, saying Davies' family were \"so proud\" of his \"brilliant career on the telly\".\n\n\"Dickie was a wonderful friend and colleague. RIP DD,\" he added.\n\nFellow sports broadcaster Simon Thomas paid tribute to Davies, calling him an \"absolute giant\" in the industry.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Thomas This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOther tributes have flooded in from fellow sports broadcasters, including Sky Sports Jeff Stelling - who said he grew up watching Davies on World of Sport, adding he was \"one of my inspirations along with Des Lynam - a sports broadcasting legend\".\n\nThe BBC's Gabby Logan described him as \"one of the very best\", while Richard Keys said the death of a \"kind man and brilliant broadcaster\" represented an \"end of that era\".\n\nITV football presenter Mark Pougatch put it simply, writing on Twitter: \"Ach, Dickie Davies. The rest of us walk in the footsteps of giants. RIP.\"\n\nDavies, originally from Cheshire, began his TV career as an announcer on Southern Television in 1960, having previously spent seven years as a purser for the cruise company Cunard Line.\n\nHe moved to ITV's new show World of Sport and was initially an understudy to Eamonn Andrews before becoming the main host in 1968.\n\nEvery Saturday saw him at the helm of a five-hour TV marathon, anchoring the coverage of a wide variety of sports including many minority events not previously seen on TV screens.\n\nIt was an era long before sports broadcasting rights became the subject of billion pound battles between round-the-clock sports channels. Every May, Davies would lead ITV's all-day build-up to the FA Cup final, which at that time was one of the few football matches broadcast live during the course of the season.\n\nHe also worked on ITV's coverage of three Olympic Games.\n\nMemorable episodes of World of Sport include the 1977 Christmas Eve special, during which comedian Eric Morecambe performed a series of distracting skits as Davies presented the show. At one point, the pair played a game of snooker, with Morecambe using Davies' head to balance his cue.\n\nDavies' bushy moustache and dark bouffant hair with a trademark white streak at the front made him one of the most recognisable - and impersonated - ITV stars of the era.\n\nComedian Benny Hill impersonated Dickie Davies for a sketch on his own ITV show in 1979\n\nHis most unlikely claim to fame came when the indie band Half Man Half Biscuit paid their own tribute to him in the 1986 song Dickie Davies Eyes.\n\nHe also had an unlikely sideline during his early years on World of Sport, as he had invested some of his his TV earnings in a pub called the Globe in Andover, Hampshire - and was occasionally pictured working behind the bar on a Saturday evening, just hours after broadcasting to millions of people.\n\nAfter World of Sport ended in 1985, Davies stayed at ITV as a presenter for another four years but later switched to a new role as sports editor with Classic FM.\n\nHowever, a stroke in 1995 badly affected his speech and forced him off air as he slowly recovered.\n\nHe later returned intermittently to the screen for a number of specials, including ITV's 50-year World of Sport anniversary in 2005, as well as some shows for Sky Sports.\n\nOne of the most high-profile later roles was as co-host of Bobby Charlton's Football Scrapbook in 1995\n\nDavies was honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the Royal Television Society in 2005", "The commemorative pieces will mark the coronation of King Charles on 6 May\n\nWork to create tableware marking the coronation of King Charles III is under way at a pottery firm with a history of products commemorating royal events.\n\nWorkers at the Emma Bridgewater factory in Stoke-on-Trent are busy making hand-painted plates, mugs and teapots.\n\nThe designs include sponge-printed motifs for which the brand is known, as well as lithograph transfers.\n\nThe factory previously made ceramics to mark the Queen's funeral and expects a big demand from collectors.\n\n\"It's very special - we have a longstanding history and tradition in the pottery industry of commemorative royal events,\" said Stephen Beeston, heard of production.\n\n\"We are expecting a big demand and probably, if history is anything to go by, with the events that we've marked before, it will account for a big part of what we're doing.\"\n\nThe King and Queen Consort visited the factory in 2010\n\nThe designs are hand-painted by workers in Stoke-on-Trent\n\nThe tableware will mark the King's coronation on 6 May.\n\nKing Charles has previously visited the factory on Lichfield Street during a trip with the Queen Consort in 2010.\n\nThe now Princess of Wales, Kate, also visited the pottery in 2015.\n\nThe factory is expecting a big demand from collectors\n\nMr Beeston said the royal family \"held a very special place here in our hearts at Emma Bridgewater\".\n\nHe added: \"The pottery industry has a longstanding tradition producing commemorative ware that goes back probably to the mid-17th century.\n\n\"We have the heritage here, we have the expertise, and we're very proud to be associated with the royal family.\"\n\nThe pottery previously made commemorative tableware to mark the Queen's funeral\n\nMr Beeston said the pottery industry had a tradition of marking royal events\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "By double-checking the identity of the person logging in, 2FA lets users to add an extra layer of security to their online accounts, beyond passwords.\n\nCommon methods include texting users a code or using an authenticator app.\n\nBut on Saturday, the Twitter Support account tweeted only Twitter Blue subscribers would be able to use text-message authentication from 20 March.\n\nSome text-message 2FA users also received an in-app alert telling them to remove the method before the deadline to avoid losing access to their account.\n\nTwitter owner and chief executive Elon Musk tweeted its authenticator app, which would remain free, was more secure.\n\nTwitter had been \"scammed\" by phone companies and was paying more than $60m (£49m) a year for \"fake 2FA SMS messages\", he told a critic of the move.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elon Musk This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"We encourage non-Twitter Blue subscribers to consider using an authentication app or security-key method instead,\" it said.\n\n\"These methods require you to have physical possession of the authentication method and are a great way to ensure your account is secure.\"\n\nBut security expert Rachel Tobac tweeted the move was \"nerve-wracking\", citing a Twitter report published in July 2022 showing only 2.6% of active Twitter accounts had 2FA turned on between July 2021 to December 2021 but of those:\n\n\"All of us in security want folks to use a great form of [multi-factor authentication] to protect their account,\" Ms Tobac tweeted, \"but auto-unenrolling users who already signed up for SMS 2FA, because they didn't pay, just opens them up to risk.\"\n\nExperts have warned SMS 2FA can be less secure than authenticator apps.\n\nBut it remained popular because it was easy to use, Prof Alan Woodward, of the University of Surrey, said.\n\n\"I'd rather people used something rather than nothing, which might well be what the less tech savvy are tempted to do,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"I sympathise that Elon Musk is trying to drive cost out of the business but choosing to effectively discourage 2FA for many users seems a dreadfully short-sighted false economy.\"", "Defendants Beatrice Ekweremadu (left) and Sonia Ekweremadu outside the Old Bailey\n\nA Nigerian market trader allegedly trafficked to London has told a jury he was shocked when a doctor revealed he was there to donate a kidney.\n\nThe man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he thought he was coming to the UK for work.\n\nAt the Old Bailey, Nigerian politician Ike Ekweremadu, 60, has denied breaking modern slavery laws.\n\nHe is accused of bringing the 21-year-old to the UK to provide a kidney for his daughter Sonia.\n\nHis wife Beatrice, 56, daughter Sonia, 25, and associate Dr Obinna Obeta, 50, also deny conspiring to arrange or facilitate the travel of the young man to Britain with a view to his exploitation.\n\nThe prosecution claims Mr Ekweremadu paid middle-men thousands of pounds to find a donor in Nigeria and arrange the kidney transplant in Britain.\n\nThe street trader described being \"controlled\" and was told to lie about having a family connection with the Ekweremadu family before a consultation at the Royal Free Hospital, in north London, in February 2022.\n\nThe court heard when the doctor told him he was there to donate a kidney, he was \"shocked\".\n\n\"I was crying when he told me about that. I told him that I don't know anything about a kidney transplant,\" he said.\n\nHowever, concerned at his young age and apparent lack of awareness of the process, two doctors said the transplant should not take place.\n\nIke Ekweremadu has been a senator in Nigeria since 2003\n\nGiving evidence via a video-link, the Nigerian told the jury he grew up in a remote village without electricity or running water.\n\nAged 15, he moved to Lagos to work with an uncle selling mobile phone accessories in a market. Six years later, he was offered the opportunity to travel to London by the defendant Dr Obeta, described by the prosecution as Mr Ekweremadu's \"fixer\".\n\n\"The first day that he called me all he told me was it was about work,\" the alleged trafficking victim said.\n\n\"He asked me not to tell people that I'm coming to the UK.\"\n\nAfter a successful passport and visa application he flew to London, the court heard. During a meal there, he was told to \"dress up\" and met a woman he identified in court as Sonia Ekweremadu.\n\nMs Ekweremadu has a serious kidney condition requiring dialysis, and a transplant, jurors were told.\n\nA picture was taken of them together. The jury has been told this was to create a false photographic \"back story\" that they knew each other.\n\nDespite the decision not to go ahead with the transplant, the trader gave evidence that he had later been examined by two other unidentified doctors at the home of Dr Obeta, who he also accused of making him work as a \"house boy\" and not paying him, jurors were told.\n\nHe then ran away from the house, sleeping rough and walking for two days through London, the court heard.\n\nFinally he said \"the cold was too much. The cold almost killed me that day. That's why I had no choice\".\n\nHe walked into a police station in Staines, triggering a police investigation that led to this trial.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nicola Bulley was last seen during a riverside walk on 27 January\n\nNicola Bulley's partner has spoken of his family's pain after a body was found in the river near where she disappeared three weeks ago.\n\nPaul Ansell wrote that he had \"no words right now, just agony\", in a statement he shared with Sky News.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire, sparking a major search.\n\nOn Sunday, Lancashire Police said they \"sadly recovered a body\" from the water after being called to the River Wyre.\n\nIn a statement on Monday, the force said the body had not yet been formally identified, and it \"was unable to say whether\" the deceased was Ms Bulley at this time.\n\nProcedures to identify the body are continuing and police are treating the death as \"unexplained\".\n\nAt 17:30 GMT Lancashire Police Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson is to give a briefing to the press.\n\nThe force said Ms Bulley's family \"have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times\".\n\nIn the statement to Sky, Mr Ansell added: \"We're all together, we have to be strong.\"\n\nFormer Lancashire Police chief superintendent Bob Eastwood defended the force's investigation amid \"an absolute onslaught\" of criticism.\n\nAsked how it was possible a body could be found a mile from Ms Bulley's last known location - despite an extensive river search - he told BBC Breakfast that the river is tidal and fast flowing.\n\nHer partner Paul Ansell visited the scene with investigators earlier in the month\n\n\"The way the tide comes and goes…it is possible that the body could have flowed in and flowed out and has eventually been given up by the water\", he said.\n\n\"To jump in…and automatically assume that the body was there the whole time is a step too far.\"\n\nHe said detective superintendent Rebecca Smith, the senior investigating officer on the case, had been subjected to misogynistic abuse during a three-week search that has attracted national attention.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Eastwood also accused \"so-called specialists\" of imposing themselves on the investigation and Ms Bulley's family.\n\nHe said they \"fed into a lot of people's obsessions\", adding: \"I'm hoping their consciences are currently in overdrive.\"\n\nPolice recovered a body from a stretch of the River Wyre on Sunday close to where Nicola Bulley went missing\n\nMs Bulley, who worked as a mortgage adviser, was last seen walking her springer spaniel Willow after dropping off her two daughters, aged six and nine, at school on 27 January.\n\nHer dog was found shortly after, along with her phone - still connected to a work conference call - on a bench by a steep riverbank.\n\nPolice previously said they believed the 45-year-old had gone into the river and that her disappearance was not suspicious.\n\nThe body was found about a mile from where she was last seen in the small village of St Michael's on Wyre. It is understood two people walking their dogs by the river spotted the body and alerted police.\n\nThe fact that the body - yet to be formally identified as Nicola Bulley - was found less than a mile from where she disappeared raises a lot of questions. Specifically, why did it take three weeks?\n\nPeople will now be wondering whether the search was handled properly, which comes on top of a huge focus on the way Lancashire Police have conducted this investigation.\n\nSince Ms Bulley went missing, police have said she was in the river. They seemed very confident of that from the start, despite some of the family's concerns about their conviction.\n\nHow is it then, after all those extensive searches and police saying that was where she was, her body was potentially so close? It is worth remembering that this river is not enormous - it is a large stream in parts.\n\nAt the heart of this investigation comes the question of how police dealt with the disappearance of a woman - specifically the information they shared about her with the public and their ability to deal with the spotlight of attention that suddenly arrived in Lancashire.\n\nPeter Faulding, an independent search expert who was called in by Ms Bulley's family, previously expressed doubt at the police's theory that she had gone into that part of the river.\n\nIn a statement released via his company Specialist Group International, Mr Faulding defended his involvement after the three-day search he led using sonar technology failed to find a body.\n\nHe said the reeds towards the riverbed, where the discovery was reportedly made, were \"not part of our remit\" as the equipment his team used is not effective in vegetation.\n\nThe search drew huge interest, with large numbers of people visiting and filming around the area - as well as significant amounts of speculation and various unfounded theories being spread on social media.\n\nThe combination of the sheer volume of people turning up in the small village and online speculation led to police issuing dispersal notices and warnings over anti-social behaviour.\n\nOne influencer was detained and fined after posting that he had been in \"people's back gardens at night-time with torches\", while two other people were also arrested after malicious messages were sent to parish councillors about the case.\n\nJulie Mackay, a former Det Supt with Avon and Somerset Police, told BBC News \"armchair detectives\" driven by a \"thirst for true crime\" had made the process more difficult for police and Ms Bulley's family.\n\nShe acknowledged some people had a \"genuine desire to help\" but criticised those driven by \"their own gratification, their own self-promotion or even narcissistic approaches\".\n\nIn a sign of the significant levels of attention being paid to the case, Lancashire Police's investigation also faced a backlash after disclosing Ms Bulley's struggles with the menopause and alcohol, which they said was \"to avoid any further speculation\".\n\nMs Bulley's family said they were aware that police were revealing the detail as there were \"people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her\".\n\nConcerns about the police statement was expressed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, after which Lancashire Police announced it would conduct an internal review into its investigation.\n\nMs Braverman reiterated her misgivings about the decision on Monday but said \"it was a matter for the police themselves\" and that she would withhold further judgement pending the review.", "A group of Anglican leaders from around the world have rejected the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as their leader after the Church of England backed prayers of blessing for same-sex couples.\n\nArchbishops representing 10 of the 42 provinces in the Anglican Communion have signed a statement saying they no longer consider Mr Welby \"leader of the global communion\".\n\nThey added the Church of England was \"disqualified\" as their historic \"Mother Church\".\n\nIt is the first time that the Archbishop of Canterbury's leadership has been rejected by such a large group of churches.\n\nSince its formation in 1867, the incumbent Archbishop of Canterbury has taken the role of spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which is a global fellowship of 42 Anglican churches.\n\nHe has no formal power - instead, he has moral authority and is seen as the \"first among equals\".\n\nLambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, said no formal change to the Anglican Communion's structure could be made without approval from its four governing \"instruments\".\n\nThe 10 archbishops, plus two from breakaway conservative provinces in the US and Brazil, are opposed to the blessing or marrying of gay couples.\n\nThey make up part of the membership of a group called the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), which claims to represent 75% of Anglicans around world, particularly across Asia and Africa.\n\nThe signatories include the GSFA's chair, Archbishop Justin Badi of South Sudan, along with the archbishops of Chile, the Indian Ocean, Congo, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Uganda, Sudan, Alexandria and Melanesia.\n\nIn a statement on Monday they said they are \"no longer able to recognise the present Archbishop of Canterbury as the first among equals leader of the global communion\".\n\n\"The Church of England has chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic biblical faith,\" the statement said.\n\nEarlier this month the Church of England, which is led by Mr Welby, approved prayers of blessing for gay couples for the first time. However, its position on gay marriage has not changed and same-sex couples will still be unable to marry in church.\n\nThe plans, set out by bishops last month, have been criticised by those who think they go too far - and those who think they don't go far enough.\n\nA spokesperson for Lambeth Palace said it \"fully appreciates\" the GSFA's stance but added the \"deep disagreements\" among Anglicans over sexuality and marriage are long-standing, and that reforms in one province do not affect rules in the others.\n\n\"In a world of conflict, suffering and uncertainty, we must remember that more unites us than divides us.\n\n\"Despite our differences, we must find ways to continue walking and working together as followers of Jesus Christ to serve those in need,\" they said.", "After landing in Accra, the footballer's remains were taken to a military hospital morgue\n\nThe body of footballer Christian Atsu, who died after an earthquake hit Turkey two weeks ago, has been returned to his native Ghana.\n\nThe flight landed in Accra late on Sunday, and his coffin was carried away by members of Ghana's armed forces.\n\nAtsu was found dead on Saturday under his home in southern Turkey. He had been playing for the Hatayspor club.\n\nThe winger played 65 times for Ghana's national team and helped his side reach the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations final.\n\nThe 31-year-old also played for Premier League sides Everton and Newcastle.\n\nSpeaking at Kotoka airport in the capital Accra, Ghana's Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia said: \"We hoped against hope, every day that passed, we prayed and prayed. But alas, when he was found, he was no more.\"\n\nMr Bawumia added the late footballer was much loved and would be sorely missed. \"It is a painful loss, a very painful one.\"\n\nHe promised Atsu would be given a \"befitting\" burial.\n\nAtsu had been missing since the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake on 6 February caused the collapse of his apartment in Antakya, in hard-hit Hatay province.\n\nThe Hatayspor club initially reported the player had been rescued with injuries, but this position was later changed - and his agent confirmed the news of his death on Twitter on Saturday.\n\nOver 44,000 people are confirmed to have lost their lives across south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria.\n\nThe footballer's remains were accompanied from Turkey by his family and Ghana's ambassador to Turkey, Francisca Ashietey-Odunton, Ghana's foreign ministry said.\n\nThe plane landed at 19:25 GMT in Accra where it was met by relatives, government officials and representatives of the Ghana Football Association.\n\nThe coffin was later due to be transported to a military hospital morgue.\n\nTributes have poured in for the late player.\n\nOn Saturday, his wife Marie-Claire Rupio and their three children joined fans marking a minute's silence in Newcastle, before the side's Premier League match against Liverpool. Atsu played for Newcastle from 2016 to 2021.\n\nAtsu's face was shown on the big screen and away fans chanted \"you'll never walk alone\", before breaking into applause.\n\nOn Sunday, Ghana captain Mohammed Kudus paid tribute to his former teammate after scoring for Dutch side Ajax, removing his jersey to reveal a white shirt with \"RIP Atsu\" written on it.\n\nMeanwhile, the charity Arms Around The Child haled Atsu - who has been an ambassador for the organisation since 2016 - and said he had been the \"main benefactor\" of a school in Ghana that supports abandoned children, orphans, the chronically ill and those rescued from trafficking.\n\nAtsu, they said, was \"a young boy from poverty in Ghana who followed his dreams and used his talent and platform to help others\".", "The British Medical Association has accused the government of \"reckless\" behaviour ahead of the results of a strike ballot by junior doctors.\n\nThe BMA's Professor Philip Banfield said the prime minister and health secretary were refusing to enter meaningful negotiations with unions.\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said it had met with the BMA and other unions to discuss pay.\n\nBMA members are expected to vote in favour of strike action.\n\nProfessor Banfield, the BMA's chair of council, said that Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Steve Barclay were \"standing on the precipice of an historic mistake\".\n\nHe accused the government of \"guaranteeing escalation\", adding that officials were \"reckless\" for thinking they could stay silent and wait it out.\n\nHe made his comments at a young doctors' conference on Sunday, telling attendees they deserved better and were not expensive for the expertise and skills they provided.\n\nAround 45,000 members of the BMA have been balloted on strike action, with the result of the vote expected on Monday.\n\nThe BMA has already warned it will stage a three-day strike if there is a vote in favour of strike action.\n\nLike recent strikes by nurses and ambulance crews, the dispute centres around pay.\n\nThe current pay agreement for junior doctors ends in March 2023 - and the government says increasing pay in line with inflation is unaffordable.\n\nProfessor Banfield also accused the government of \"letting patients down\", adding: \"All NHS staff are standing up for our patients in a system that seems to have forgotten that valuing staff and their well-being is directly linked to patient safety and better outcomes of care.\"\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"We hugely value the work of junior doctors and we have been clear that supporting and retaining the NHS workforce is one of our main priorities.\n\n\"As part of a multi-year deal we agreed with the BMA, junior doctors' pay has increased by a cumulative 8.2% since 2019/20. We also introduced a higher pay band for the most experienced staff and increased rates for night shifts.\n\n\"The Health and Social Care Secretary has met with the BMA and other medical unions to discuss pay, conditions and workload. He's been clear he wants to continue discussing how we can make the make the NHS a better place to work for all.\"", "Maxine Davison, Sophie and Lee Martyn, Kate Shepherd and Stephen Washington were killed in August 2021\n\nBreathtaking incompetence and failings by police allowed a gunman to kill five people during a mass shooting in Plymouth, victims' families have said.\n\nJake Davison killed his mother and four other people, including a girl aged three, with a shotgun in August 2021.\n\nFamilies of four of the victims said: \"Warning signs were ignored and a licence to kill was granted.\"\n\nThe inquest jury said there had been a \"catastrophic failure\" at Devon and Cornwall Police.\n\nAt the conclusion of a five-week inquest at Exeter Racecourse jurors said the deaths of the victims were \"caused by the fact the perpetrator had a legally-held shotgun\".\n\nAll five of the victims were unlawfully killed, the jury found.\n\nDavison killed his mother Maxine, 51, Sophie Martyn, three, her father Lee, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, in the Keyham area of Plymouth before turning the gun on himself.\n\nAfter the conclusion, Patrick Maguire, the solicitor acting for the victims' families, read a statement on their behalf\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said a criminal investigation into possible health and safety breaches by Devon and Cornwall Police was ongoing.\n\nWill Kerr, who took over as Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police in December 2022, said: \"Steps should have been taken to safeguard our communities and for that failure I am truly sorry.\"\n\nMr Kerr called for changes in national firearms licensing policy.\n\nHe said: \"I accept Devon and Cornwall Police has failed our communities in regard to Jake Davison, but had there been clearer national guidance, direction and specific legislation concerning firearms licensing - decision-making locally may well have been very different.\"\n\nMr Kerr said the force had invested £4m into the Firearms and Explosives Licensing Unit since the shootings \"to ensure more consistent and robust application of current law and guidance\".\n\nThe inquest heard the number of staff in the department had increased from 45 in 2021 to 99 currently.\n\nLuke Pollard, Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said gun licensing systems were \"not fit for purpose\".\n\n\"The inquest has found the failings are systemic and so deep rooted, the confidence that the public should have in the police to keep us safe - to licence firearms correctly - is absent.\n\n\"The inquest might have concluded, but the pain people still feel is very real.\"\n\nMr Pollard said: \"I do not have confidence in Devon and Cornwall Police to issue firearms licences, and every gun certificate they have issued must be reviewed in light of the failings laid bare by the inquest.\n\n\"I am angry. Our community is angry. We want to see comprehensive change to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again.\"\n\nIan Arrow, senior coroner for Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon, said he would be preparing a preventing future deaths report to address \"the likelihood of shotgun licences being inappropriately granted\".\n\nJake Davison killed five people before taking his own life in the Keyham area of Plymouth\n\nIn a joint statement, the Martyn, Washington and Shepherd families said the shooting \"was an act of pure evil\".\n\nThey added: \"However, we now know that this evil act was facilitated and enabled by a series of failings and incompetence from the people and organisations that are supposed to keep us safe.\"\n\nThe families said they had been \"hopelessly failed by the system\" and in particular by Devon and Cornwall Police.\n\nThey said the evidence heard at the inquest told \"a consistent story of individual failures, breathtaking incompetence and systemic failings within every level of the firearms licensing unit of the Devon and Cornwall Police force\".\n\nThey said: \"It is beyond us how Davison, a man with a known history of violence, mental health issues, and with no real need to own a firearm, was granted a licence to possess a gun in the first place.\"\n\nDelivering a narrative conclusion on behalf of the jury, the coroner said: \"There was a serious failure by Devon and Cornwall Police's firearms and explosive licensing unit in granting and later failing to revoke the perpetrator's shotgun licence.\"\n\nFloral tributes were laid following the shooting in Plymouth in August 2021\n\nAfter hearing evidence from more than 50 witnesses the jury concluded there was \"a lack of scrutiny and professional curiosity at all levels\" and a \"seriously unsafe culture of defaulting to granting licences and returning licences after review\".\n\nIt said there was a \"catastrophic failure in the management of the firearms licensing department at Devon and Cornwall Police\".\n\n\"This was compounded by a lack of senior management and executive leadership who failed to notice or address the issues.\"\n\nThe jury also concluded there had been \"a serious failure at a national level by the government, Home Office and National College of Policing\" to implement previous recommendations to improve firearms safety.\n\nIn the wake of the Dunblane shootings in 1996, Lord Cullen recommended nationally accredited training for firearms enquiry officers and that recommendation was echoed in 2015 in Her Majesty's Inspectorate of the Constabulary's Targeting the Risk Report.\n\nDavison had applied to Devon and Cornwall Police for a shotgun certificate in July 2017 aged 18, saying he wanted to go clay pigeon shooting with his uncle.\n\nAs part of the application process Davison had declared he was autistic and had Asperger's, but when police sought relevant information from his GP, the doctor declined to provide any as it was not mandatory.\n\nThe jury was shown a picture of the Weatherby pump-action shotgun (top) used by Jake Davison next to a standard sporting style twin-barrel shotgun (below)\n\nDavison had a history of violence at the special school he attended and in September 2020 he repeatedly punched a 15-year-old boy in the face and slapped a 16-year-old girl in a skate park in Plymouth, the inquest heard.\n\nPolice decided on a deferred charge of battery - which could be dealt with by restorative justice - rather than the more serious charge of actual bodily harm.\n\nUnder the restorative justice scheme, called Pathfinder, Davison had to complete an online \"thinking skills\" course and was given a 40-page anger management booklet.\n\nFollowing completion of the scheme Davison was given his shotgun and certificate back in July 2021 - a month before the tragedy.\n\nThe IOPC watchdog found two employees of Devon and Cornwall Police had a case to answer for misconduct over the way they dealt with Davison's gun licence.\n\nDavid Ford, IOPC regional director, said: \"The potential corporate failing of Devon and Cornwall Police as an organisation is subject to our separate criminal inquiry into possible health and safety breaches.\"\n\nMr Ford added the IOPC was liaising with the Home Office regarding \"recommendations at a national level to help inform improved firearms licensing arrangements and guidance for the police service as a whole\".\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said it would \"reflect\" on the report and any recommendations from the coroner and \"respond in due course\".\n\nAlison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, said the evidence heard at the inquest \"provided a clear and independent understanding of missed opportunities\".\n\nMs Hernandez said: \"I am working with the Home Office and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) so that we learn nationally from this tragedy to ensure that nothing like it happens again.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "Dan Walker said his face was \"a mess\" after the collision\n\nTV presenter Dan Walker has said he is \"glad to be alive\" after he was in a collision with a car while cycling.\n\nThe former BBC Breakfast host, who now works for Channel 5, shared photographs of his bloodied face on social media, taken from inside an ambulance.\n\nMr Walker, 45, who lives in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said: \"Bit of an accident this morning. Glad to be alive after getting hit by a car on my bike.\n\n\"Face is a mess but I don't think anything is broken.\"\n\nThe photos were taken in a Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) vehicle alongside two members of staff, after the incident on Moore Street in Sheffield city centre on Monday morning.\n\nMr Walker praised the emergency services, saying: \"Thanks to Shaun and Jamie for sorting me out and the lovely copper at the scene. This is my [sic] smiling. Thankful for our NHS\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Dan Walker This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Walker also previously presented the BBC's Saturday morning sports show, Football Focus, and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, finishing fifth with partner Nadiya Bychkova.\n\nHe announced he was leaving the BBC for Channel 5 in April last year.\n\nAmong the well-wishers on Twitter were Football Focus reporter Mark Clemmit, who said: \"Mate…..Much love from us.\"\n\nFormer professional boxer Tony Bellew added: \"Get well soon Dan,\" and Strictly judge Motsi Mabuse wrote: \"Oh wow!!! Get well soon.\"\n\nMr Walker said he was home with no broken bones\n\nMr Walker later tweeted an update, saying he was home with no broken bones.\n\n\"Blown away by all the lovely messages. Thank you,\" he said.\n\n\"Just got home from hospital. Battered and bruised but - amazingly - nothing broken.\n\n\"Very thankful to still be here. I have no memory of anything and just remember coming round on the tarmac with paramedics & police around me.\"\n\nThe incident came as Yorkshire Ambulance services were disrupted by strike action.\n\nNearly 1,400 YAS workers who are members of the GMB union walked out at 18:00 GMT on Sunday, with the service saying it would have fewer ambulances available to respond to patients.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Co-presenter Alison Hammond was the only black person in the winners' group photo\n\nThe Bafta Awards have come under fire, after all the winners at its film ceremony on Sunday were white.\n\nThe prestigious British event had a diverse set of nominees, with people belonging to ethnic minorities taking almost 40% of acting shortlist slots.\n\nBut that did not translate into wins, with the 49 victors across all categories being white.\n\nIt comes three years after an outcry and subsequent reforms when all 20 acting nominees were white.\n\nCate Blanchett and Austin Butler won best lead actress and actor at the Baftas\n\nMarcus Ryder, director of consultancy at the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, said Sunday's results were \"quite depressing\", and showed there had been \"no substantial change\" over the past decade.\n\n\"Ten years ago, in 2013, Lenny Henry made headlines at the TV Baftas when he labelled it as 'All white on the night',\" he said.\n\n\"And depressingly, despite a massive overhaul, on which I and many other industry people were consulted and which resulted in 120 changes to the Bafta award processes, 1,000 new members from under-represented groups etc, the end result is there is no substantial change.\"\n\nThe focus should not be on ceremonies like the Baftas, he said, which are \"just the tip of the iceberg\" of a wider film industry that \"suffers from systemic racism\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nadine White. This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFilm and TV critic and Bafta short film jury member Ashanti Omkar said she felt \"quite devastated\" after watching the ceremony and seeing the group photo of winners.\n\n\"Alison Hammond was the only person of the global majority in it, and she was not a winner but working at the event like many others who added colour to the red carpet, performed music and presented awards,\" she said. \"That felt regressive and like these were cosmetic steps forward as opposed to real systemic change.\"\n\nOmkar said the winners all deserved awards, but that she worried about whether people were going \"back to old voting practices\" after progress in recent years.\n\n\"This is what I was feeling, and I honestly I was heartbroken,\" she told BBC News. \"I felt quite devastated.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by A$hanti OMkar ௐ London, She | Her, Film, TV Critic This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by A$hanti OMkar ௐ London, She | Her, Film, TV Critic\n\nWriter and critic Leila Latif wrote in The Guardian that, on the night, there was a \"creeping discomfort that the awards were benefiting from the work and presence of many people of colour without ever handing them a statuette\".\n\n\"By the end of the night, when it slowly sank in that every single winner was white, you could practically feel the Bafta team's heads sink into their hands as they braced for yet another social media storm,\" she said.\n\nComedian London Hughes wrote on Twitter: \"Any British person who is not white, and has dreams of having a successful career in the arts and entertainment, please, I'm begging you, get your visa and leave the U.K…\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Saima Mohsin This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Terri White This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBafta declined to comment on the lack of diversity among its winners, but noted the reforms introduced in 2020. They included adding more voters with a focus on under-represented groups, and making voters see all longlisted films in the categories for which they vote.\n\nThe organisation's chairman Krishnendu Majumdar told the New York Times before the ceremony that he wants to \"to level the playing field\", but that recognition \"has to be on merit\".\n\nBafta chief executive Jane Millichip told the paper the process of reviewing the set-up would be ongoing and constant, and that the 2020 reforms were \"not a perfect full stop\".\n\nIn 2021 and 2022, half of the acting winners were not white.\n\nDr Clive Nwonka, who led a study into racial inequality in the UK film industry in 2021, said it would take five or six years to get a full sense of the impact of Bafta's changes.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 5 by Clive Nwonka This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis year, German-language World War One epic All Quiet On The Western Front was the big winner with seven awards, while Cate Blanchett and Austin Butler took the lead acting prizes.", "Alec Baldwin and the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, still face involuntary manslaughter charges\n\nProsecutors in New Mexico have dropped firearm enhancement charges against Alec Baldwin following the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust.\n\nThe move reduces possible prison time for the actor as the charges carry a mandatory five-year prison sentence.\n\nMr Baldwin, who faces two involuntary manslaughter charges, still faces up to 18 months in prison.\n\nRust's director Joel Souza was also shot and wounded.\n\nHeather Brewer, Santa Fe county district attorney spokesperson, said the prosecution dropped the firearm enhancement charge to \"avoid further litigious distractions by Mr Baldwin and his attorneys\".\n\n\"The prosecution's priority is securing justice, not securing billable hours for big-city attorneys,\" Ms Brewer said.\n\nAccording to CBS News, the BBC's US partner, prosecutors also dropped the firearm enhancement charge for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film's armorer, who is responsible for weapons on set.\n\nLawyers for Mr Baldwin, 64, and Ms Gutierrez-Reed had been arguing against the firearm enhancement charge, saying prosecutors were applying a version of the law passed after the October 2021 shooting accident.\n\nMs Hutchins, 42, died in hospital after she was shot in the chest by a prop gun fired by Mr Baldwin.\n\nPreviously Mr Baldwin's lawyer, Luke Nikas, said his client \"had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun - or anywhere on the movie set\".\n\n\"He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds.\"\n\nIf convicted, along with a prison sentence, Mr Baldwin and Ms Gutierrez-Reed could face a fine of $5,000 (£4,040).\n\nEarlier this month, the parents and sister of Ms Hutchins sued Mr Baldwin and the production company over Ms Hutchins' death.\n\nHer husband agreed to settle his wrongful death lawsuit - which alleged violations of industry standards - with Mr Baldwin last year.\n\nFilming for the Western film will resume in the spring with Mr Baldwin as the lead actor.", "The farm is in Aberhosan, a village near Machynlleth\n\nA farmer has died and his son has been seriously injured following a farm accident.\n\nIwan Evans died from his injuries while his son, Dafydd, was seriously injured at Cleiriau Isaf Farm, in Aberhosan, Powys, on Friday, according a friend.\n\nDafydd Evans, who is believed to be in his 40s, is being treated at the Royal Stoke University Hospital.\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive has confirmed it attended the farm and an investigation was continuing.\n\nDafydd Evans is a member of Machynlleth Male Voice Choir and had been due to take part in a concert at Dinas Mawddwy, Gwynedd, on Saturday, but it was cancelled as a mark of respect.\n\n\"This is an extremely sad situation, and the whole area is in shock,\" said Aled Griffiths, a fellow choir member and an agent for the National Farmers' Union.\n\nResidents from the close knit community are in shock, according to a family friend\n\nHe added: \"They are a very popular family.\n\n\"We cancelled the show as a mark of respect for Dafydd, but also out of respect for the family who are grieving after the loss of Iwan.\n\n\"Dafydd is a long time member of the choir. He never misses a practice and is extremely well liked.\"\n\nMr Griffiths said the agricultural industry could be dangerous and accidents happened.\n\nCouncillor Elwyn Vaughan said: \"It is a huge tragedy today to hear this news and of course in this agricultural community, a close-knit community, it is deeply felt throughout the area.\n\n\"Dafydd is a member of the community council, a member of the Machynlleth choir, and obviously well-known throughout the area and highly respected throughout the area.\n\n\"Of course we wish him well and hope for the best in the coming days.\"\n\nDyfed-Powys Police has been asked to comment on the incident in Aberhosan, which is near Machynlleth.", "A Spanish court has approved the extradition to the US of a British man suspected of hacking the Twitter accounts of celebrities.\n\nPolice arrested Joseph James O'Connor, from Liverpool, in July 2021 in the southern city of Estepona.\n\nHe faces several charges in connection with the July 2020 hack of more than 130 accounts, including those of US President Joe Biden and Barack Obama.\n\nThe accounts of Bill Gates, Kanye West and Elon Musk were also hit.\n\nA court statement said requirements had been met for handing over Mr O'Connor to US authorities for 14 charges, including the alleged crimes of revelation of secrets, membership of a criminal gang, illegal access to computer systems, internet fraud, money laundering and extortion.\n\nIt said he is wanted by courts in the Northern District of California and the Southern District of New York.\n\nUS officials allege Mr O'Connor hijacked the Twitter accounts and then asked their followers to send bitcoin to an account, promising to double their money.\n\nSpain's National Court said that he is also suspected of hacking the Snapchat account of an unnamed public figure and then threatening to publish naked pictures of the person unless he was financially compensated.\n\nMr O'Connor is also wanted for several alleged cases of \"swatting\" - making malicious calls to emergency services aimed at falsely misdirecting the police to visit various locations.\n\nIt said the \"necessary conditions\" were met for Spain to agree to a US extradition request for the 23-year-old, who is also known by the alias Plugwalk Joe.\n\nThe court rejected arguments by Mr O'Connor's lawyers that he should be tried in Spain because the servers he used were located there.\n\nSpain's cabinet must approve the extradition, although it usually complies with the court's decisions.\n\nMr O'Connor can appeal against the extradition.\n\nHe told the New York Times before his detention: \"I don't care - they can come arrest me.\n\n\"I would laugh at them. I haven't done anything.\"\n\nA Florida teenager accused of masterminding the attacks was sentenced by a US court in 2021 to three years in juvenile prison in a plea agreement.\n\nGraham Ivan Clark was only 17 when he was charged and his case was transferred to a Florida state court because of his juvenile status.", "Instagram and Facebook users will now be able to pay for a blue tick verification, parent company Meta has announced.\n\nMeta Verified will cost $11.99 (£9.96) a month on web, or $14.99 for iPhone users.\n\nIt will be available in Australia and New Zealand this week.\n\nMark Zuckerberg, Meta chief executive, said the move will improve security and authenticity on the social media apps.\n\nThe move comes after Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, implemented the premium Twitter Blue subscription in November 2022.\n\nMeta's paid subscription service is not yet available for businesses, but any individual can pay for verification.\n\nBadges - or \"blue ticks\"- have been used as verification tools for high-profile accounts to signify their authenticity.\n\nThe subscription would give paying users a blue badge, increased visibility of their posts, protection from impersonators and easier access to customer service, Meta said in a post on their website.\n\nThe company told the BBC the change would not affect previously verified accounts, but noted there would be an increase in visibility for some smaller users who become verified thanks to the paid feature.\n\nAllowing paying users access to a blue tick has previously caused trouble for other social media platforms.\n\nTwitter's pay-for verification feature was paused last November when people started impersonating big brands and celebrities by paying for the badge.\n\nMeta said Instagram and Facebook usernames will have to match a government supplied ID document to be granted verification, and users will have to have a profile picture that includes their face.\n\nOther websites like Reddit, YouTube and Discord similarly use subscription-based models.\n\nMeta has not yet specified when the feature will be rolled out to other countries, although Mr Zuckerberg said in a post it would be \"soon\".\n\nIn November, the company announced 11,000 job losses as a result of over-investment during the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nAt the time, Mr Zuckerberg said he had predicted an increase in Meta's growth based on the rise it had over the pandemic, but that ultimately did not happen.\n\n\"Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration,\" he wrote, \"I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments.\"\n\nInstead he said \"macroeconomic downturn\" and \"increased competition\" caused revenue to be much lower than expected.\n\n\"I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that,\" he said at the time.\n\nThey say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - and while many in the tech sector were quick to criticise Elon Musk for introducing a paid tier to the social network Twitter, it turns out his peers were watching closely.\n\nTimes are tough for Big Tech, but times are also tough for Big Tech's customers, of course - that's you and me. Elon Musk's experiment has proved that people are still prepared to pay for an enhanced experience.\n\nIt's often said of enormous free-to-use digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok that if you're not paying for the product, you are the product.\n\nThat means every drop of data those businesses gather about you is being used to sell you stuff in the form of ads. It's a multi-billion dollar idea and it has made a lot of firms very, very rich.\n\nBut people are waking up to it and voting with their feet.\n\nApple launched an optional feature which stops your online activity being tracked and guess what - it turns out if you ask people whether they mind companies watching what they do and where they go on the net, most of them choose to opt out. Meta, which owns Facebook, has complained bitterly about it.\n\nIs subscription the alternative, and if so, just how much are consumers prepared to pay? It seems first Musk and now Zuckerberg are determined to find out.", "The logistics of getting a president to a country at war\n\nThere had been widespread speculation among the press corps that President Biden might be planning a trip to Kyiv. Yet today's visit still took everyone completely by surprise. According to the White House schedule issued yesterday, Biden was due to fly to Warsaw later tonight. There were two suspiciously lengthy gaps in the itinerary of his two-day trip to Poland and we wondered if that might be when he would slip into Ukraine. Instead, journalists in Washington woke up to find the trip had already happened. Air Force One took off at 04.15 EST (09.15 GMT) on Sunday. The small pool of reporters travelling with the president were sworn to secrecy and not allowed to report the trip until after his arrival. BBC teams in Kyiv had noticed increased security measures around the city, but did not know for sure who was due to visit. President Biden made a 10-hour train journey to Kyiv from Poland, as air travel is not safe in the war zone, leaving reporters like me, who thought they were travelling with the president tonight, making a trip on an aircraft that will not be called Air Force One. That call sign is only used when the president is on board.", "Nicola Bulley's family are angry. And that anger came through in the simplest and most straightforward language there is.\n\nThe family said they were furious with two news organisations - Sky News and ITV - for making direct contact with them when they specifically asked for privacy. \"It is shameful,\" they said before issuing a simple message: \"Leave us alone.\"\n\nThat anger was directed mostly at traditional news outlets, but also social media networks, which have made life very difficult for the family in the last few weeks. They've had to contend with pages of rumours and false stories. It has enraged the family, we knew that, but this level of anger really shows how difficult it has been for them.\n\nBut one of the most striking things about the family's statement was how, at the end, it came back to the most important person in this: Nicola. Finally, they said, \"you are no longer a missing person... we can lay you to rest now.\"\n\nI've been down today to the area where Nicola Bulley's body was found. There's a half submerged tree, which was deep underwater. It looks as though her body had been trapped under there for some time, and eventually the water gave up its secrets.\n\nThe police said throughout this case that they had two main objectives: to provide answers to Bulley's family and to bring her home. In their own statement, Lancashire Police said the case is now being handed over to the coroner. That's the end of their inquiry, and it’s an appalling tragedy for everyone who loved Nicola Bulley.", "The family of missing Nicola Bulley have said \"appalling\" speculation surrounding her private life \"needs to stop\".\n\nThe 45-year-old went missing on 27 January during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire.\n\nLancashire Police has faced a backlash for revealing she had ongoing struggles with alcohol and the menopause.\n\nThe force said it has referred itself to the police watchdog over contact it had with her before she vanished.\n\nOn Thursday her family said she would not have wanted the information released, but police had kept them informed.\n\nIn a new statement, they said: \"As a family, we were aware beforehand that Lancashire Police, last night, released a statement with some personal details about our Nikki.\n\n\"Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her.\n\n\"This is appalling and needs to stop.\n\n\"The police know the truth about Nikki and now the public need to focus on finding her.\"\n\nLancashire Police referred itself on Thursday to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding an incident before Ms Bulley's disappearance when officers attended her home.\n\nThe force said it was called to a \"concern for welfare report\" and health professionals also attended on 10 January. It said no arrests were made.\n\nA force spokesman said the referral \"relates solely to our interaction with the family on that date and does not relate to the wider missing from home investigation\".\n\nAn IOPC spokesman said: \"This afternoon we received a referral from Lancashire Constabulary regarding contact the force had with Nicola Bulley on 10 January, prior to her disappearance.\"\n\nHe said the watchdog was assessing the available information to determine whether an investigation was required.\n\nNicola Bulley's parents have left yellow ribbons on the bridge over the River Wyre\n\nLancashire Police had described Ms Bulley as vulnerable and said she was classed as a \"high-risk\" missing person immediately after her partner Paul Ansell reported her disappearance.\n\nThe force initially declined to elaborate but later disclosed further details, a move which it was criticised for.\n\nZoë Billingham, the chairwoman of an NHS mental health trust and formerly Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, told BBC Radio 4 the comments \"stopped me in my tracks\".\n\n\"Why on earth was this information even vaguely relevant to an investigation that's 20 days on?\" she said.\n\n\"If there are issues relating to Nicola that needed to be put in the public domain, why wasn't this done earlier?\n\n\"And why was such personal information, such potentially sensitive information, disclosed?\"\n\nShe said there was a need to consider \"what message this sends to women\".\n\n\"What confidence will women have about reporting their mum or sister to police as missing if there is this fear that very deeply personal information is going to be put into the public domain for no apparent reason?\" she said.\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on a bench close to the River Wyre\n\nMs Bulley's family said she had suffered \"significant\" side effects due to the perimenopause, including \"brain fog\" and \"restless sleep\".\n\nThey said she was taking hormone replacement therapy but it had given her \"intense headaches\" which caused her to stop the treatment \"thinking that may have helped her, but only ended up causing this crisis\".\n\n\"The public focus has to be on finding her and not making up wild theories about her personal life,\" they said.\n\n\"Nikki is such a wonderful daughter, sister, partner and mother and is missed dearly.\"\n\nAppealing directly to Ms Bulley, they added: \"Nikki, we hope you are reading this and know that we love you so much and your girls want a cuddle.\n\nThe search along the riverbank has entered its third week and has now moved as far as the coast\n\nMs Bulley's parents, Ernest and Dot Bulley, left a yellow ribbon tied to a bridge over the River Wyre near where their daughter went missing, with the message: \"We pray every day for you.\"\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her springer spaniel, Willow, after dropping off her two daughters at school.\n\nHer phone was found still connected to a work conference call.\n\nNicola Bulley disappeared while taking her dog Willow out for a walk\n\nPolice and specialist teams have since mounted a huge search, but no trace of her has been found.\n\nBut he added: \"We're not privy to the police's conversations with Nicola Bulley's family and I don't think it would be right for us to speculate on why they've chosen to make those comments.\n\n\"This is a live investigation, we have to let the police get on with it and not add to the already considerable level of speculation surrounding the case.\"\n\nA Home Office spokesperson added: \"The Home Secretary and Policing Minister are receiving regular updates from Lancashire Police on its handling of this case, including why personal details about Nicola was briefed out at this stage of the investigation.\"\n\nShadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC: \"I think there are concerns because the information they set out was very unusual, and I would want to know more from Lancashire Police about the reasons for doing this.\"\n\nLancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden said the investigation was under the direction and control of Chief Constable Chris Rowley.\n\nHe said: \"Lancashire Police are being as transparent as they can be on what is an incredibly sensitive and complex case.\n\n\"The unprecedented media and public interest in this case, whilst welcomed for appeals for information, is challenging for the family and friends of Nicola and the officers and police staff dealing with unsubstantiated rumours and speculation on a daily basis.\"\n\nLancashire Police is yet to respond to the criticism it has faced.\n\nMeanwhile, it confirmed social media influencer Dan Duffy had been fined after joining the search for the missing mother.\n\nThe 36-year-old posted a video of himself being arrested by police on his YouTube channel.\n\nPolice said he was handed a fixed penalty notice under section 4 of the Public Order Act - fear or provocation of violence.\n\nIf you're affected by the issues in this piece, you can find support from BBC Action Line.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Searches will continue in Kahramanmaras, the epicentre of the quake\n\nTurkey has ended rescue efforts in all but two provinces, almost two weeks after a massive earthquake killed tens of thousands of people, the country's disaster agency said.\n\nSearches will continue in Kahramanmaras and Hatay, the agency's chief said.\n\nHowever, hopes of finding anyone else alive in the rubble are fading fast.\n\nMeanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Turkey and announced $100m (£83m) in humanitarian aid.\n\nThe epicentre of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on 6 February was in Kahramanmaras. More than 44,000 people are confirmed to have lost their lives in south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria.\n\nThe death toll is expected to climb, with about 345,000 apartments in Turkey known to have been destroyed and many people still missing. Neither Turkey nor Syria have said how many people are still unaccounted for.\n\n\"In many of our provinces, search and rescue efforts have been completed,\" the disaster agency's chief, Yunus Sezer, told reporters in Ankara.\n\nHe said search and rescue efforts were continuing at around 40 buildings in the two provinces, but he expected this number to fall by Sunday evening.\n\nRescue workers pulled at least three people from the rubble on Friday, more than 11 days after they were trapped when the earthquake hit.\n\nAntony Blinken, right, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu travel to one of the worst-hit areas\n\nMr Blinken has arrived in Turkey to show support, despite the trip being planned before the quake. It is his first trip to Turkey since he took office more than two years ago.\n\nThe new aid \"will be moving soon. Sadly, it's less about search and rescue but long-term recovery. This is going to be a long-term effort\", he told reporters.\n\nHe added that getting aid into Syria was \"very, very challenging\".\n\nHe will travel to Hatay to see humanitarian efforts before travelling to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday. The pair are expected to discuss issues including Turkey's refusal to ratify Sweden and Finland's Nato membership applications.", "Nicola Bulley was last seen alive during a riverside walk more than three weeks ago\n\nNicola Bulley's family paid tribute to \"the one who made our lives so special\" after it was confirmed a body found in the river on Sunday was her.\n\nMs Bulley disappeared while walking her dog in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire more than three weeks ago, sparking a major search.\n\nHer body was discovered about one mile (1.6km) away from where she was last seen.\n\nThe family said Ms Bulley was \"the centre of our world\".\n\nDet Ch Supt Pauline Stables read the following statement outside Lancashire Police's headquarters:\n\n\"Our family liaison officers have had to confirm our worst fears today.\n\n\"We will never be able to comprehend what Nikki had gone through in her last moments and that will never leave us.\n\n\"We will never forget Nikki, how could we, she was the centre of our world, she was the one who made our lives so special and nothing will cast a shadow over that.\n\n\"Our girls will get the support they need from the people who love them the most.\n\nDet Ch Supt Pauline Stables read a statement on behalf of the family\n\n\"And it saddens us to think that one day we will have to explain to them that the press and members of the public accused their dad of wrongdoing, misquoted and vilified friends and family.\n\n\"This is absolutely appalling - they have to be held accountable. This cannot happen to another family.\n\n\"We tried last night to take in what we had been told in the day, only to have Sky News and ITV making contact with us directly when we expressly asked for privacy.\n\n\"They again, have taken it upon themselves to run stories about us to sell papers and increase their own profiles.\n\n\"It is shameful they have acted in this way. Leave us alone now.\n\n\"Do the press and other media channels and so called professionals not know when to stop? These are our lives and our children's lives.\n\n\"To those who genuinely helped and supported us, privately, we thank you. The community support in St Michael's, friends, neighbours and strangers has been nothing short of comforting and heart-warming.\n\n\"Friends you know who you are. Thank you.\n\n\"Our hearts truly break for others who have missing loved ones. Keep that hope alive.\n\n\"Finally, Nikki, you are no longer a missing person, you have been found, we can let you rest now.\n\n\"We love you, always have and always will, we'll take it from here xx\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Liz Truss told MPs \"we need to do all we can to make sure Ukraine wins this war as soon as possible\"\n\nLiz Truss has joined growing calls for fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine, in her first speech in Parliament since resigning as prime minister.\n\nMs Truss said the UK needed to \"do all we can, as fast as we can\" to help Ukraine win the war against Russia.\n\nThe call was echoed by former PM Boris Johnson during a debate on Ukraine, putting pressure on PM Rishi Sunak.\n\nMr Sunak's government has agreed to train Ukrainian pilots but says supplying jets is a long-term option.\n\nEarlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to European leaders to supply his country with modern fighter jets during visits to the UK, France and Belgium.\n\nThe UK is to start training Ukrainian forces to fly Nato-standard jets and Mr Sunak has said \"nothing is off the table\".\n\nAt the Munich Security Conference last week, the prime minister urged world leaders to give Ukraine the most advanced weapons to defend itself in the long term.\n\nBut Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said there will be no immediate transfer of UK fighter jets to Ukraine.\n\nHe told the BBC it could take months to train pilots and the UK was instead focused on using alternative provision of air cover to the country.\n\nSome Nato member countries are also worried that giving jets to Ukraine would be viewed as escalating the war, risking direct confrontation between the Western military alliance and Russia.\n\nIn her speech to MPs in the House of Commons, Ms Truss said \"we need to do all we can to make sure Ukraine wins this war as soon as possible\".\n\nShe urged the UK government to work with allies to provide Ukraine with an option to use fighter jets \"otherwise they will not be able to prevail\".\n\nNow a backbench Conservative MP, Ms Truss was foreign secretary when President Vladimir Putin's forces invaded Ukraine almost a year ago.\n\nMs Truss recalled what it was like being in government before and after the invasion was launched.\n\nShe described news of the invasion, delivered to her by a private secretary at 03:30 in the morning, as \"devastating\" but \"not unexpected\" given Western intelligence about Russia's plans.\n\nIt was Ms Truss's first contribution in the Commons as a backbench MP since 2012, when she became a minister.\n\nSat by her side during a general debate on Ukraine was Simon Clarke, one of the cabinet ministers in her short-lived government.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UK PM Rishi Sunak: \"Now is the moment to double down on our military support (for Ukraine)\"\n\nMs Truss's speech followed that of Mr Johnson, who repeated his call for fighter jets to be sent to Ukraine.\n\nMr Johnson said that in the past 12 months since the war began, Western countries had eventually supplied the Ukrainians with the weapons they had requested.\n\n\"Let's cut to the chase and give them the planes too,\" Mr Johnson said.\n\nUnderlining the urgency of supplying aircraft to Ukraine, Mr Johnson said \"it is becoming ever clearer that China is preparing to arm the Russians\".\n\n\"We should give them what they need, not next month, not next year, but now,\" he added.\n\nThe British ambassador to Ukraine Dame Melinda Simmons told BBC Ukrainecast the West had to \"hold our nerve\" in supporting Ukraine, adding \"it isn't a short war\".\n\nShe also said any future peace deal would need a security guarantee for Ukraine to deter any further invasion.\n\nThe two Conservative prime ministers spoke in Parliament on the same day US President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.\n\nMr Biden said the US would back Ukraine for \"as long as it takes\", as the prospect of a Russian spring offensive looms.", "Japan saw protests in 2019 after a series of rape and sexual abuse acquittals\n\nA panel of the Japanese Justice Ministry has proposed raising the age of consent from 13 to 16.\n\nIt forms part of a wider overhaul of Japan's laws on sex crimes, after multiple rape acquittals in 2019 caused outcry.\n\nThe proposal also aims to criminalise the grooming of minors and expand the definition of rape.\n\nThe statute of limitations for reporting rape will also be increased to 15 from 10 years.\n\nCurrently, Japan has the lowest age of consent in developed countries, and the lowest in the G7 group.\n\nIn Germany and Italy the age is 14, in Greece and France it is 15 and in the UK and many US states it is 16.\n\nThe current law in Japan means victims of rape need to prove that there was \"violence and intimidation\" used during the rape and that it was \"impossible to resist\" to secure a conviction.\n\nThe panel has not changed this wording but instead added other factors including intoxication, drugging, being caught off guard and psychological control into the definition.\n\nJustice Ministry official Yusuke Asanuma said that this \"isn't meant to make it easier or harder\" for victims to win a rape case but that it should make verdicts \"more consistent\".\n\nThe re-examination of the sex crime laws comes after widespread demonstrations in 2019 following a number of acquittals. One case saw a man go free after being accused of having sex with his teenaged daughter, even though the court agreed that it was against her will. He was later sent to prison after prosecutors appealed.\n\nAnother saw a man found not guilty of raping a woman who had passed out from drinking because he \"misunderstood\" that she consented to having sex.\n\nThe government could pass the law as early as summer. Despite the potential change to the age of consent, an exception will still exist for intercourse between people who are at least 13 and who have an age gap of less than five years.", "US President Joe Biden made a surprise trip to Kyiv on Monday\n\nJoe Biden's surprise visit to Ukraine on Monday is a striking show of solidarity - an intentionally powerful message to Moscow - as Kyiv prepares to mark the grim and bloody one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion.\n\nUkraine's government was understandably thrilled to see the US president but - as a professional Europe-watcher - one comment stood out for me in particular.\n\nDeputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk celebrated what he described as \"the presence of our important, main partner.\"\n\nVladimir Putin's aggressive ambition is a threat to European security first and foremost. His invasion of Ukraine has brought conventional warfare back to this continent on a scale not seen since World War Two.\n\nHis actions have shattered the sense of peace and relative security most of us were used to. For the first time since the Cold War, the possibility of a nuclear attack is being discussed as a real possibility - however remote.\n\nBut Europe - in and outside the EU - is a sum of many and diverse parts.\n\nRussia's invasion has been a clear reminder to Europeans - even France's President Macron, the normally outspoken advocate of Europe's \"strategic autonomy\" - that, in terms of defence - the continent can't go it alone. The money, the military and weaponry, the united resolve isn't there compared to the US (and even there, some tiny political fractures are beginning to show).\n\nThat said, the Kremlin underestimated Europeans a year ago.\n\nIt bet on them being weak and wholly divided, with each country looking out only for its short-term benefits (like stable energy prices). And the United States being distracted by China. Vladimir Putin underestimated leaders' resolve to stand by Ukraine and their version of European stability.\n\nCountries have come together - some slower, or more reluctantly than others - but still: with unprecedented sanctions against Russia. Western allies' initial red lines have been repeatedly broken as they've clubbed together to send increasingly powerful weaponry to help Ukraine.\n\nAs the war now approaches its second year, that unity - however imperfect - still holds. Though flickers of public dissent are appearing, for a number of reasons.\n\nGermany has welcomed around a million refugees from Ukraine\n\nThe Markus church in Berlin's Steglitz neighbourhood was packed when I visited recently.\n\nRefugees sat side-by-side with German locals as the hauntingly beautiful voices of a Ukrainian mother and daughter singing traditional songs floated out into the freezing night.\n\nThough Europe's biggest economy has conspicuously failed to play a leading role in the Ukraine crisis, Germans call the war their \"watershed moment\". They opened their arms to around a million refugees and transformed post-war defence policies to help Kyiv.\n\nAlong with other European allies, Germany's leaders agreed to send heavy weapons, missile launchers and most recently its prestigious Leopard 2 tanks to help Ukraine fight off Russia's invading forces.\n\nBut the sentiment of solidarity is slipping a bit. And not only in Germany.\n\nIn stark contrast to the proclamations of Europe's political leaders, 48% of the public want a quick end to hostilities, even if that means Ukraine having to hand over some of its territory to Russia.\n\nThat was the finding of an end-of-2022 survey published by research group Euroskopia, based on questions put to a total of 9,000 people in nine EU countries.\n\nThis doesn't mean almost one in every two Europeans is preparing to turn their back on Ukraine. As the BBC's Europe editor, I travel regularly around the continent. Wherever I go, people tell me they want the suffering there to stop.\n\nBut as the war grinds bloodily on, views differ sharply over how much they want their country to still be involved, at what cost to them, their family or their businesses (think about spiralling energy costs) or the risk some analysts talk about of the war \"escalating\" beyond Ukraine, perhaps even involving nuclear attacks, and also to what extent they think Russia should be pushed back or punished.\n\nWar-weariness is certainly something that Ukrainians are increasingly having to contend with - whether they are refugees looking for lodgings or politicians in Kyiv trying to drum up more military support.\n\n\"One month, two months, three months… I was with a German family for eight months!\" Nina from Kharkiv told me, as I sat with her, towards the back of the Berlin church.\n\n\"They were like real family. Wonderful. And they didn't actually ask me to leave. But I knew it was not good. Guests are great but not for so long. We don't know when this war will end.\"\n\nDonations for refugees have plummeted an eye-watering 95% since the start of the conflict, according to church chaplain Sven Grebenstein.\n\nMore than fatigue with the Ukraine war, he thinks Germans have been distracted by the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, linked to the conflict.\n\n\"[Germans] were falling over themselves to help 12 months ago. They were generous with their time and their money. But then they saw their bills - gas, electricity and food - shoot up. They started being more careful with money they might need for themselves.\"\n\nIn Italy, as elsewhere, industries that use a lot of power are reeling from increased costs\n\nItaly, like Germany, used to be hugely reliant on Russian gas, before the EU slapped sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine. The energy crisis hit hard.\n\nHalf of Italians don't want to send any more weapons to Ukraine, according to opinion polls. Only 26% say they support more sanctions against Russia, if they'd make life more expensive. The same study suggests the percentage in France is 27%.\n\nThis is a world away from the strongly pro-Nato, pro-military aid stance taken by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni or President Macron. You can't help wondering if that gap between leaders and so many voters is sustainable.\n\nSuspicion of the US and Nato and an openness to the Russian narrative is something you often come across in Italy.\n\nMurano, near Venice, is famous for the eye-catching, centuries-old artisanal skill of glass blowing.\n\nTo create stunning, mouth-moulded vases, stools, bowls and even chandeliers, the glass needs to be molten. Furnaces are kept at a constant temperature of 1200-1400C.\n\nThe industry has been decimated by spiralling energy bills. But when I visited the Wave Murano Glass factory, I found many workers unwilling to blame Moscow.\n\nYoung Gabriele told me he didn't want to compare his family's suffering to that of civilians in Ukraine but, he insisted, the war had claimed victims all over the place. The cost-of-living crisis is very real for him and his elderly parents living on a basic state pension. He wasn't an expert on politics, on who's right and who's wrong but, he said, the war needed to stop.\n\nFactory founder Roberto Beltrami told me Italian attitudes were also affected by the fact that so many businesses had traditionally strong links to Russia.\n\nMoscow is well aware of this. Italy and Germany are big targets of Russian disinformation campaigns.\n\nNato has boosted its presence in Estonia, which shares a border with Russia\n\nTravel 2,000km to the north-east and, in the Baltic states, you find a completely different European picture.\n\nLosing business and investment here is in no way viewed as an obstacle to a tough line against Moscow and public opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of strong support of Ukraine. Tiny Estonia spends more than 1% of its GDP on military aid to Kyiv.\n\nThe Baltics are viewed as some of Europe's most \"hawkish\", or hardline nations when it comes to dealing with Russia. Poland and the UK have a similar profile, with the Netherlands not far off.\n\nEstonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur told me Russia's invasion on 24 February 2022 resonated here in particular, as it coincided with Estonia's independence day.\n\nEstonia, Latvia and Lithuania were occupied for almost 50 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Geographical neighbours of Russia, they've lived in permanent fear of being invaded again.\n\nMembers of the EU and Nato, they're relieved other Western countries now see Russia as a strategic threat to all of Europe, rather than dismissing as a \"regional issue\" the Kremlin's designs on Ukraine and potentially reasserting its influence over other neighbours.\n\nAmbassador Christoph Heusgen, who chaired the weekend's annual Munich Security Conference, used to be a key adviser to German ex-chancellor Angela Merkel. She's now blamed by many for having harnessed her country far too closely to Russia.\n\nWhen I asked him if he now felt he had been short-sighted, he insisted Germany's relationship with Russia was hugely complex. You need only remember the 20 million people slaughtered by the Nazis on lands then belonging to the former Soviet Union. But he conceded that the perspective of Western European leaders on Russia had now definitely changed.\n\n\"They recognise this is an attack on Europe. This is an overall attack on the European security architecture,\" he told me. \"I personally believe, and I think many do, that if Putin would be able to conquer Ukraine, he wouldn't stop there. He would continue to... reinvigorate and re-establish the Soviet Union in all those territories that he believes Russia lost. Moldova is talked about. But I think also he has put his eyes on the Baltic countries.\"\n\nI think he [Putin] has put his eyes on the Baltic countries.\n\nIt's for this reason the EU is now turning its attention, though critics argue not enough, to Moldova and Georgia. Even to Armenia and Azerbaijan.\n\nAnd it's why the Baltics describe themselves as Europe's front door. They've long called on the West to bolster them in order to protect the continent from an aggressively ambitious Russia.\n\nIn the snowy wilds of the dense pine forests outside Tallinn, the Estonian capital, I saw for myself how Nato had paid attention.\n\nIts presence in the region has been massively increased. A huge military exercise was under way, complete with tanks, Chinook helicopters and trench warfare.\n\nThe multinational troops I spoke to - from France, the UK, Denmark and of course Estonia - were clear why they were there.\n\n\"We are one,\" declared Bernadita, a military planning officer from Copenhagen. \"And an attack against one of us is an attack against all.\"\n\nBut public disengagement we're seeing in pockets of Europe must give pause for thought.\n\nAnd after the conflict finally ends?\n\nNever mind a divided public, there's no unity even among Europe's leaders as to how to deal with Russia.\n\nIsolate or try to re-integrate, based on the premise that the future security of Europe cannot be meaningfully discussed without Moscow somehow being included? These questions are looming but as yet, unanswered.", "The shards are now in a box awaiting an insurance inspection\n\nNow and then, we are reminded as to why these signs are still needed in galleries around the world.\n\nArt lovers in Miami looked on in horror on Thursday night, when a collector accidentally knocked a $42,000 (£34,870) sculpture by US pop artist Jeff Koons to the ground.\n\nShe had tapped it with her finger, witnesses at the event said.\n\nThe statue - one of Koons' iconic Dog Balloons - smashed into tiny shards, and had to be swept into dustpans by gallery staff.\n\nThe accident happened during the exclusive VIP-only opening night of Art Wynwood, a contemporary art fair held annually in Miami, Florida.\n\nLocal artist Stephen Gamson told the Miami Herald he was admiring the sculpture, when an \"older woman\" tapped it, knocking it off its pedestal.\n\nAt first he wondered if it was part of a performance piece (Banksy, anyone?) but quickly realised it had been an accident.\n\n\"When this thing fell to the ground, it was like how a car accident draws a huge crowd on the highway,\" Mr Gamson told the paper.\n\nLuckily for the woman, the piece is covered by insurance, Bénédicte Caluch, an art advisor with Bel-Air Fine Art galleries which represents the sculpture, said.\n\n\"It was an event!\" Ms Caluch told the Miami Herald. \"Everybody came to see what happened.\"\n\nShe added that the woman who caused the damage, who has remained unnamed, was an art collector.\n\n\"Life just stopped for 15 minutes with everyone around,\" Cédric Boero, who also works for Bel-Air Fine Art galleries, told the New York Times.\n\nHe added that a colleague spoke to the woman, who said she was \"very very sorry\" and \"just wanted to disappear\".\n\nThe sculpture was part of a limited edition which has now shrunk from 799 to 798.\n\n\"That's a good thing for the collectors,\" Mr Boero told the Times, laughing.\n\nJeff Koons (left) speaks to a fan at an event in 2021, with one of his blue Balloon Dog statues in the background\n\nDespite being shattered into thousands of pieces, there is still interest in buying the destroyed sculpture.\n\nMr Gamson offered to buy it there and then because, as he said on his Instagram account, \"it has a really cool story\".\n\nJeff Koons, 68, has not made any comment on the incident.\n\nHis range of Balloon Dog sculptures are among the most iconic works of contemporary art, and have sold for tens of millions of dollars.\n\nSome are enormous - as high as 10ft (3m) - but this ill fated one was just a puppy, at 16 inches (40cm) tall.\n\nThey have graced galleries around the world, and were further iconised by Jay-Z in 2017 when the rapper worked directly with Koons to create a 40-foot inflatable Balloon Dog for a stage prop.\n\nIn 2019 Koons made history when his Rabbit sculpture sold at auction for $91.1m (£71m) - the highest sale price ever for a living artist.", "Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has criticised changes to Roald Dahl books, after the removal of some references to things like characters' appearance and weight sparked a fierce debate.\n\nDahl's estate and publisher said works including The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had been updated to be more suitable for modern audiences.\n\nSome said they approved of the changes.\n\nBut Mr Sunak's spokesman said works of fiction should be \"preserved and not airbrushed\".\n\nBorrowing a word Dahl invented for playing with language, the PM's spokesman said: \"When it comes to our rich and varied literary heritage, the prime minister agrees with the BFG that we shouldn't gobblefunk around with words.\"\n\nOthers to speak out against the changes include author Sir Salman Rushdie.\n\n\"Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship,\" the Midnight's Children and Satanic Verses writer posted on Twitter. \"Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.\"\n\nThe Roald Dahl Story Company has said any edits to have come from its review process, which has been ongoing since 2020, were \"small and carefully considered\".\n\nHis Dark Materials author Philip Pullman told BBC Radio 4 that Dahl's books \"should be allowed to fade away\" rather than be changed if they are deemed offensive.\n\n\"If Dahl offends us, let him go out of print,\" said Pullman. \"Read all these [other] wonderful authors who are writing today, who don't get as much of a look-in because of the massive commercial gravity of people like Roald Dahl.\"\n\nBut poet and author Debjani Chatterjee believes it is \"a very good thing that the publishers are reviewing his work\".\n\nShe told the BBC World Service: \"I think it's been done quite sensitively. Take the word 'fat'. They've used 'enormous'. If anything, I actually think 'enormous' is even funnier.\"\n\nChildren's author John Dougherty told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"There's no reason the BFG shouldn't have a black cloak. That just seems absurd.\n\n\"And Augustus Gloop, for instance - the whole point of the character is that he's hugely overweight because he won't stop eating - he's greedy.\n\n\"Now, there might be an argument that that's offensive in today's world,\" Dougherty continued. \"I think if you're going to decide that, then the only answer is to put the book out of print. I don't think you can say, 'So let's change Dahl's words but keep the character'.\"\n\nKate Clanchy, an ex-teacher who revised her own memoir after being criticised for some descriptions, said children's books should be treated particularly carefully.\n\n\"Augustus Gloop is a greedy character. He'll still remain morally greedy and his moral greed will be wrong, whether or not we have lots of lots and lots of references to how fat he is, which I think can be upsetting,\" she told 5 Live.\n\n\"We've always updated children's books. It's a tribute to the way that these books are becoming myths... that we've adjusted them again.\"\n\nLaura Hackett, deputy literary editor of the Sunday Times, said she would continue to read her original copies of Dahl's books to her children in all \"their full, nasty, colourful glory\".\n\n\"I think the sort of the nastiness is what makes Dahl so much fun,\" she told 5 Live. \"You love it when, in Matilda, Bruce Bogtrotter is forced to eat that whole chocolate cake, or you are locked up in the Chokey [a torture device] - that's what children love.\n\n\"And to remove all references to violence or anything that's not clean and nice and friendly, then you remove the spirit of those stories.\"\n\nMany of Roald Dahl's books have also been made into movies\n\nThe books have been amended after being reviewed by sensitivity readers, who check for potentially offensive content.\n\nThe Roald Dahl Story Company worked with publishers Puffin and Inclusive Minds, a collective working towards inclusion and accessibility in children's literature.\n\nA spokesperson for the Roald Dahl Story Company said it wanted \"to ensure that Roald Dahl's wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today\".\n\n\"When publishing new print runs of books written years ago, it's not unusual to review the language used alongside updating other details including a book's cover and page layout,\" it said.\n\nIt added: \"Our guiding principle throughout has been to maintain the storylines, characters, and the irreverence and sharp-edged spirit of the original text.\"\n\nDahl, who died aged 74 in 1990, remains one of the UK's most popular children's authors, and Netflix bought the rights to his works in 2021.\n\nBut antisemitic comments made throughout his life led to Dahl being a highly problematic figure.\n\nIn 2020, his family apologised, saying they recognised the \"lasting and understandable hurt caused by Roald Dahl's antisemitic statements\".", "It’s long been an understanding at Holyrood that nothing happened in the Scottish government without the first minister’s say so.\n\nNicola Sturgeon wasn’t seen as one to delegate responsibility, rather, it appeared that she liked to be in control.\n\nThe candidates lining up to replace her seem to suggest they want to do things differently.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf denied he is the continuity candidate, arguing he is his own man. He’s promising a different style of leadership, using the wide array of talents available within the party at Holyrood, at Westminster and in local councils.\n\nFinance Secretary Kate Forbes noted that the independence strategy was largely determined by a few people. She says that needs to be expanded and she would speak to, and listen to local branches, the wider Yes movement and people across the country.\n\nThe former community safety minister, Ash Regan, says she will give power to party members. She wants to set up an independence convention involving all pro-independence parties and organisations.\n\nAll three seem to want to involve a wider pool of people in the decision making process than is currently the case.", "Ke Huy Quan is the favourite to win an Oscar next month for his performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, but lost at the Baftas", "Nicola Bulley was last seen during a riverside walk on 27 January\n\nPolice searching for missing Nicola Bulley have found a body in the river.\n\nThe mother-of two disappeared during a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre in Lancashire three weeks ago, sparking a major search operation.\n\nLancashire Police said they \"sadly recovered a body\" after they were called to the River Wyre near Rawcliffe Road at 11:35 GMT on Sunday.\n\nA statement said formal identification had not yet been carried out \"so we are unable to say\" if it was Ms Bulley.\n\nThe death was currently being treated as \"unexplained\", it added.\n\n\"Nicola's family have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times. We ask that their privacy is respected,\" Lancashire Police said.\n\nPolice divers were seen working by the River Wyre on Sunday\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman described the developments as \"heart-breaking and distressing\". She tweeted: \"My thoughts remain with Nicola's family at this extremely difficult time.\"\n\nMs Bulley, who worked as a mortgage adviser, was last seen walking her springer spaniel Willow after dropping off her two daughters, aged six and nine, at school on 27 January.\n\nHer dog was found shortly after, along with her phone - still connected to a work conference call - on a bench by a steep riverbank.\n\nPolice previously said they believed the 45-year-old had gone into the river and that her disappearance was not suspicious.\n\nThe body was found about a mile from where she was last seen in the small village of St Michael's on Wyre.\n\nThe search drew huge interest, with large numbers of people visiting and filming around the area.\n\nIt led to police issuing dispersal notices and warnings over anti-social behaviour.\n\nFollowing various theories spread on social media, her family said public focus had \"distracted from finding Nikki\".\n\nLancashire Police faced a backlash after disclosing Ms Bulley's struggles with the menopause and alcohol, which they said was \"to avoid any further speculation\".\n\nMs Bulley's family said they were aware that police were revealing the details, adding: \"Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her.\"\n\nA tent was put up by police near the river\n\nConcerns were expressed by the prime minister, the Commons leader and home secretary.\n\nLancashire Police said it would conduct an internal review into its investigation, led by its head of crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nThe UK's information commissioner John Edwards also said that \"given the high-profile nature of this case, we will be asking Lancashire Police to set out how they reached the decision to disclose this information\".\n\nThe local church had lit candles for Nicola since her disappearance in January\n\nThe fact that the body - yet to be formally identified as Nicola Bulley - was found less than a mile from where she disappeared raises a lot of questions. Specifically, why did it take three weeks?\n\nPeople will now be wondering whether the search was handled properly, which comes on top of a huge focus on the way Lancashire Police have conducted this investigation.\n\nSince Ms Bulley went missing, police have said she was in the river. They seemed very confident of that from the start, despite some of the family's concerns about their conviction.\n\nHow is it then, after all those extensive searches and police saying that was where she was, her body was potentially so close? It is worth remembering that this river is not enormous - it is a small stream in parts.\n\nAt the heart of this investigation comes the question of how police dealt with the disappearance of a woman - specifically the information they shared about her with the public and their ability to deal with the spotlight of attention that suddenly arrived in Lancashire.\n\nA security firm was hired by local residents following concerns about people, including social media influencers, visiting the village - some of whom were said to be peering through windows and trying to open doors.\n\nOne influencer was detained and fined after posting that he had been in \"people's back gardens at night-time with torches\".\n\nPeter Bleksley, a former Scotland Yard detective, told the BBC that the number of people going to the scene would have been \"catastrophic for the collection of evidence\".\n\nTwo people were also arrested after malicious messages were sent to parish councillors in relation to the case.\n\nMs Bulley's partner Paul Ansell visted the scene with investigators earlier in the month\n\nDal Babu, a former chief superintendent at the Metropolitan Police, said interest in the case was because people thought they were \"experts\".\n\nHe said officers did not usually \"release sensitive information about individuals but I think what's happened on this occasion is the unprecedented amount of speculation\".\n\nHe added that \"police really need to be having that conversation to look at what happens when you have an unprecedented interest on social media\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "A former police chief has said criticism of Lancashire Police's investigation over missing mother Nicola Bulley has been \"unfair\".\n\nThe force faced a backlash after saying the 45-year-old had been struggling with the menopause and alcohol before her disappearance in January.\n\nHer family said they knew beforehand that police were revealing the details.\n\nSir Peter Fahy, former chief at Greater Manchester Police, described the investigators as \"very diligent\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4 Today, he also criticised comments by some journalists about the dress and hairstyle of Det Supt Rebecca Smith, the lead detective in the case, at a police press conference on Wednesday, saying it had \"created huge anger\".\n\nThe investigation has drawn widespread interest since Ms Bulley disappeared during a riverside dog walk after dropping her two daughters at school in St Michael's on Wyre on 27 January.\n\nPolice said they believed she had gone into the river and that her disappearance was not suspicious. However, her family and friends urged people to \"keep an open mind\".\n\nThe case has attracted huge speculation about Ms Bulley's private life, which her friends described as \"incredibly hurtful\".\n\nAt a press conference on Wednesday, police said they had immediately categorised Ms Bulley as high-risk when she was reported missing due to \"specific vulnerabilities\".\n\nThey later issued information about Ms Bulley's struggles with the menopause and alcohol, saying they wanted \"to avoid any further speculation\".\n\nPoliticians - including the prime minister and home secretary - and privacy campaigners raised concerns about the police's release of private details in the public domain.\n\nLancashire Police said it would conduct an internal review into their investigation, led by its head of crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nSir Peter Fahy said comments about police investigators were \"unfair\"\n\nSir Peter said: \"It's disappointing that certain politicians have not perhaps tried to give this a more balanced view and say, yes there is a particular issue about providing personal information and that often happens in major investigations.\"\n\nHe said the release of information in investigations \"gets to the stage where it's not in the public interest\".\n\n\"Part of the difficulty for Lancashire Police is this is just one of the cases where we just do not know what's happened,\" he said.\n\n\"They have closed off a lot of possibilities through their work on mobile phone and the CCTV.\n\n\"A measure of whether a missing person's investigation has been carried out professionally is not really whether that person has been found because tragically there are many, many cases where the person is not located.\"\n\nHe said there was \"a huge feeling in policing that the way that Lancashire Police has been focused on has got to the stage of being unfair\".\n\nHe said media comments about the appearance of Det Supt Smith, who is leading the investigation, at Wednesday's press conference \"created huge anger, particularly among senior police officers, and a number of female chief constables came out yesterday absolutely to condemn that and say how unfair it was - so this is just not helpful\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jake Davison carried out the mass shooting in Plymouth in August 2021\n\nIt took less than 20 minutes on an August evening in Plymouth for one man, Jake Davison, to kill his mother and four others, before turning his shotgun on himself.\n\nAs the horrifying news began to spread, loved ones of each of the victims left their homes in an attempt to search for those who had not returned.\n\nJust after midnight, Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed five people - and the gunman - had died.\n\nAfterwards, the world learned the names of the victims and at the start of the inquests into their deaths, nearly 18 months later, about who they were and what they had meant to those who loved them.\n\nA series of tributes, written by family members, were read at the inquests.\n\nJosh Davison described his mother, Maxine, as \"my brilliant firecracker of a mum\"\n\nMaxine Davison's pen portrait was written by her other son, Josh Davison, using information from his sister Zoe and their extended family.\n\n\"Maxine was a complicated person - thoughtful but impulsive - reserved and quiet, but creative, adventurous and able to attract attention … a free-spirited soul,\" he said.\n\nMaxine's mother died when she was a child, meaning she was brought up by her father and grandad. She was the youngest of 10 siblings.\n\nJosh said his mother met his father when she was aged 17.\n\nHe said his parents' relationship continued to be off and on for years and his mother was \"clearly trying to give us a life like she had but it was difficult for her in the circumstances\".\n\nJosh described her as \"my brilliant, firecracker of a mum\".\n\nHe added: \"I speak for my whole family when I say we are all appalled by what happened ... we share the feelings of despair, hurt and loss - knowing that it was a member of our family who was responsible for their loss - no words can describe the pain or heaviness of feeling this situation has caused.\"\n\nOn the evening of the shooting, Sophie and Lee Martyn were walking the family dog\n\nSophie Martyn was described by her mum Rebecca as a \"typical redhead - always in charge, fierce and unwavering\".\n\nOn the evening of the shootings, the three-year-old was with her dad, having spent the day with her mum and brother.\n\nMrs Martyn said Sophie was wearing a white dress and had taken her favourite buggy with her father to walk the family dog.\n\n\"It was a purple, scruffy-looking buggy and Sophie will always place either a doll or a toy in it,\" Mrs Martyn said in her statement.\n\n\"I now know that Sophie had taken a teddy in the pram - a beige teddy wearing a white and green checked scarf with a white motif on the front.\n\n\"From knowledge of previous walks, she would push the buggy for a short while before giving up and one of us would have to carry it home.\"\n\nMrs Martyn went on to talk about her husband of 12 years, Lee Martyn, who she said loved football. The Princess Yachts worker supported Everton and played as often as he could, she said.\n\nHe was loved by his colleagues, she added. \"Lee loved football, he made friends easily, he was wonderfully thoughtful when it came to gifts and he loved being a fun dad,\" she said.\n\nMrs Martyn said both of their children adored Lee and he called daughter Sophie \"dad's princess\".\n\n\"As a family man, he would have chosen to protect his family if ever confronted with a violent situation,\" she said.\n\nShe started to worry after they had failed to return home and friends had told her about reports of a shooting.\n\nMrs Martyn said she sent a WhatsApp message to her husband at 18:13 BST but he never read it.\n\nStephen Washington had five children and a number of grandchildren\n\nBorn in Surrey, Stephen Washington, 59, was fostered by a couple who had fostered 100 children before he was adopted by them at the age of 16.\n\nMr Washington's wife Sheila said they married in 1983 and had four children in the next five years.\n\nHe then got a new job as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport and the couple had a fifth child before moving to Keyham in 1994.\n\nIn later years, Mr Washington became his wife's carer. He loved spending time with their grandchildren and was \"a real family man\".\n\nMrs Washington said shortly after he left their house that night, she heard loud bangs and became worried when one of their pet huskies, Poppy, came home alone.\n\nShe asked family members to look for her husband but they failed to find him.\n\n\"Never could I imagine losing him in such a horrendous circumstance,\" she said.\n\nKate Shepherd's husband said: \"The best decision in my life was marrying Kate\"\n\nKate Shepherd's husband and two sons wrote about the wife and mother at the centre of their lives.\n\nIn their statement, read to the court by son George, they described Mrs Shepherd as a \"vibrantly courageous artist\" who \"chose colourful artistic friends, laughing and dancing her way through her childhood\".\n\nMrs Shepherd was born in Woolwich and became a successful textile designer after studying at Camberwell Art College.\n\nHer husband John said they met 43 years ago and ran a shop in Greenwich for a while, living above it with George and his brother Guy.\n\nThe family moved to Cornwall where their third son Bill was born and took on a beach shop.\n\nMr Shepherd said: \"Kate cared for the boys like a lioness. She celebrated their achievements and enjoyed the moments of creative naughtiness.\"\n\nThe inquest heard how Mrs Shepherd showed \"incredible resilience\" after Guy died from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome aged 16.\n\nBill Shepherd said: \"Mum was always doing her best to keep our family going, even through difficult times. She is the strongest person I have ever met.\"\n\nHis father added: \"The best decision in my life was marrying Kate.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "It is the third shark attack in Nouméa in three weeks\n\nAn Australian tourist has been killed by a shark in front of horrified onlookers in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.\n\nThe 59-year-old was swimming about 150m (500ft) from shore at a popular beach in Nouméa when he was attacked on Sunday, authorities say.\n\nHe was bitten several times, suffering major wounds to his leg and arms, and died at the scene.\n\nIt is the third shark attack near the Chateau-Royal beach in three weeks.\n\nTwo people sailing nearby took the man back to the beach, where emergency services tried to revive him.\n\nMany people were in the water at the time and witnessed the attack, local media have reported, prompting a panicked rush back to the shore.\n\nAuthorities have closed most beaches in the area, and ordered the capture of sharks in nearby waters.\n\nA 49-year-old swimmer was seriously injured by a shark in the area on 29 January, and a surfer was also attacked a few days later.\n\nNew Caledonia, which lies south of Vanuatu, is about 1,200km (750 miles) east of Australia.\n\nThough it is home to only 270,000 people, it ranks 13th in the world for the total number of shark attacks, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, which has kept a tally across the globe since 1958.", "Brewdog is one of the UK's biggest craft beer brands\n\nUK-based craft beer maker Brewdog is expanding in China after partnering with brewing giant Budweiser.\n\nThe joint venture with Budweiser China will see the Scottish firm's Punk IPA and other beers brewed in China.\n\nBrewdog also says it plans to open more bars in the world's second largest economy.\n\nIt comes after the company has faced controversies in recent years and has flagged it may pursue a stock market listing.\n\nIn a statement, Brewdog founder James Watt described the Budweiser partnership as \"transformational\" and said it would bring the craft brewery to \"every corner of the world's biggest beer market\".\n\nUnder the deal, Brewdog said it expects its beers would begin to be produced at Budweiser China's Putian craft brewery, in the south-eastern province of Fujian, by the end of next month.\n\nThe company said it also plans to open several bars in the country in the next three years.\n\nChina, which is the world's biggest market for beer, currently accounts for less than 1% of Brewdog's overall sales.\n\nIt is the company's second tie-up in Asia following a deal with Asahi in Japan in 2021, which Brewdog said helped it double its sales in the country.\n\nThe company says it currently has an international network of more than 110 bars but just one in China. Brewdog Shanghai, which opened in 2020, is in the Jing'An district of the city.\n\nThe Scotland-headquartered firm employs more than 2,300 people and also has breweries in the US state of Ohio, Berlin in Germany and Brisbane in Australia.\n\nThe company reportedly planned to start selling shares on the London stock market in 2020 but postponed the move as the pandemic saw pubs and bars closed during lockdowns.\n\nMr Watt has said Brewdog has no plans to imminently revive a share sale but has hinted that one could take place by the end of this year.\n\nAccording to Brewdog's 2021 financial results, it saw an annual operating loss of £5.5m ($6.6m).\n\nThe company has faced criticism for its marketing campaigns, as well as its workplace culture.\n\nIn January this year, Mr Watt said he had paid out almost £500,000 to winners of the company's misleading \"solid gold\" beer can promotion.\n\nSome winners questioned the worth of the cans and complained after discovering they were gold-plated.\n\nSeparately, a letter from ex-workers in June 2021 stated former staff had \"suffered mental illness\" as a result of working for the brewer.\n\nIt made a number of allegations, including that Brewdog fostered a culture where staff were afraid to speak out about concerns.\n\nMr Watt apologised to former staff and said their complaints would help make him a better chief executive.", "Lancashire Police's Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson has confirmed that Nicola Bulley's body has been found in the River Wyre.\n\nSpeaking during a news conference, Mr Lawson also said her family have been informed, and they are devastated.", "The disappearance of Nicola Bulley has drawn huge scrutiny\n\nCommons Leader Penny Mordaunt has described the disclosure of private information about missing mother Nicola Bulley as \"sexist\" and \"shocking\".\n\nPolice were criticised for revealing the 45-year-old, missing since January 27, had been struggling with the menopause and alcohol issues.\n\nHer family said they knew police were revealing the details as they asked for a stop to \"appalling\" speculation.\n\nMs Mordaunt said the Lancashire force needed to face \"serious questions\".\n\nThe force released the details about Ms Bulley's health following a press conference on Wednesday, when they said they had immediately categorised her as high-risk after she was reported missing due to \"specific vulnerabilities\".\n\nThey revealed her struggles with the menopause and alcohol, saying they wanted \"to avoid any further speculation\".\n\nHer family later issued a statement, saying: \"Although we know that Nikki would not have wanted this, there are people out there speculating and threatening to sell stories about her.\n\n\"This is appalling and needs to stop.\"\n\nHowever, Lancashire Police faced a backlash from politicians and privacy campaigners, with the prime minister and home secretary also raising concerns about Ms Bulley's personal details being released in the public domain.\n\nMs Mordaunt - a former women's minister - didn't hold back from criticising the actions of the force over its handling of the investigation into her disappearance.\n\nShe told my Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: \"I think that [police] clearly were motivated to try and explain why this case is a complex one.\n\n\"But I think there are serious questions to be asked about why they wanted to reveal particular information.\"\n\nShe said the revelation of health details \"really does grate with a lot of women and we have to put up with all kinds of sexist behaviour in all kinds of settings\", adding: \"And I think to have it play out in this kind of environment is why people are so upset.\"\n\nPenny Mordaunt said people were \"upset\" about the disclosure of Ms Bulley's health details\n\nLancashire Police said it would conduct an internal review into its investigation, led by its head of crime Det Ch Supt Pauline Stables.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, also appearing on the programme, said she had received \"further information\" from the force after raising concerns about its disclosure of details.\n\n\"I am very worried about the nature of the social media speculation and frenzy that there has been around this case,\" she said.\n\nAsked whether there was a broader issue in how police view women and whether women could trust forces with \"deeply personal\" information, Ms Cooper said: \"There is a wider issue about the way in which the police has dealt with particularly violence against women and girls, and of course with standards around misogyny and around approaches towards violence and abuse within police forces themselves.\"\n\nRibbons have been tied to the riverside bench near where Ms Bulley disappeared\n\nSir Peter Fahy, former chief at Greater Manchester Police, said on Saturday there was \"a huge feeling in policing\" that the scrutiny of Lancashire Police was \"unfair\".\n\nHe said officers had made a \"huge degree of effort\" in tracing witnesses, CCTV footage and digital data, which \"closed off many potential theories\".\n\nHe added that it was \"disappointing that certain politicians have not perhaps tried to give this a more balanced view\".\n\nThe most acute anxieties in this case are, of course, around the importance of the investigation and finding Ms Bulley.\n\nBut the police's handling of the case has, for politicians and many members of the public, again raised concern over how sometimes women are unfairly treated by those meant to keep them safe.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "When Netflix's documentary, the Tinder Swindler, came out in February 2022, Simon Leviev's girlfriend stood by him. Now she says she felt she had no choice, because she was under his emotional control.\n\nA young blonde woman is sitting on the edge of a bed cradling her left foot with her left hand as she speaks into her phone. Some of her hair sticks to her face, which is wet from tears.\n\nYou see a cut on her heel. Her eyes are bloodshot and her face red, but her voice is clear as she gives the person on the other end of the phone line directions to the apartment. In front of her, an open and packed suitcase lies on the floor.\n\nWe are watching a video filmed on a phone from the night of 29 March 2022. The man filming the video raises his voice to say: \"It's bullshit! Nothing's happened to her!\"\n\nThe man is Simon Leviev, the convicted con artist and subject of the Netflix documentary, The Tinder Swindler. The woman is 23-year-old Israeli model Kate Konlin, who was then his girlfriend.\n\nLeviev sent the video to the BBC with other videos and documents about their relationship.\n\n\"She lies and she lies,\" he wrote.\n\n\"Of course he'd call me a liar,\" Kate Konlin tells the BBC.\n\n\"He's called every woman who has spoken out against him a liar. He doesn't want me to tell my story of emotional abuse.\"\n\n\"Kate, he's too perfect,\" she recalls them gushing, \"it's even a little scary.\"\n\nShimon Heyada Hayut (who legally changed his name to Simon Leviev), slipped into her Instagram DMs in 2020, and within weeks they were together.\n\n\"At first, our relationship was a love bomb,\" Ms Konlin tells the BBC. \"He was obsessed with me.\"\n\nLeviev accompanied her to modelling shoots and waited while she worked. He cleaned her home and sent her long and loving voicenotes.\n\nIt was intense but as a 23-year-old, it was what she thought love should be, she says.\n\nBut after a while, the fights started.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Konlin: 'This is not the classic Tinder Swindler story about losing money'\n\nMs Konlin says that when he criticised her appearance, clothes, her weight and her skin (she experiences bouts of acne), she began to lose confidence. She wasn't sure what he would say next.\n\n\"I felt I was walking on eggshells,\" she says.\n\nShe saw her friends less and less during the 18 months they were together, and when she did they said she was no longer the lively, colourful and sociable person they had once known.\n\n\"They said I was 'grey',\" she says, looking down at her hands.\n\nAfter a few months, Leviev began to ask for money, borrowing thousands of dollars at a time, up to a total, Ms Konlin says, of $150,000. She was already an international model who had been on the cover of Vogue Japan, Grazia Italy and Wallpaper magazine in the UK. She was financially secure and she says he knew it.\n\nMs Konlin has sent the BBC more than a dozen of Leviev's voicenotes. He often shouts, and asks for loans saying that his own money is tied up in investments.\n\nIn one, he shouts as he explains why he cannot pay her back: \"Kate, I'm a millionaire! And that's a fact. At the moment, I'm stuck. Understand? I'm stuck! Do you understand that in your screwed-up brain? That bird brain of yours. I'm stuck, Kate. I didn't steal from you. You gave it to me of your own free will. You lent it to me. I'm stuck, that's all.\"\n\nDespite his convictions, Simon Leviev has thousands of followers on social media\n\nThe Tinder Swindler, which became Netflix's most-watched documentary in 90 countries when it was released in February 2022, alleged that Simon Leviev had conned women he met on the Tinder dating app out of about $10m. He denies the allegations.\n\nMs Konlin says she watched it while sitting next to him on the sofa.\n\n\"I knew it was all true,\" she says.\n\nBut she says she felt obliged to accept his version of events. According to her, it was a controlling relationship, and it was easy for him to persuade her to defend him publicly, for example on US news show Inside Edition.\n\n\"He told me, 'If you stick up for me, people will believe me, because you are a woman.'\"\n\nAt the same time, her Instagram inbox filled with abuse sent by people who had seen shots of her at the end of the Tinder Swindler.\n\n\"People told me they wished that I would get cancer or be run over by a car, and that I deserved the worst of everything because I was in a relationship with him,\" Ms Konlin says.\n\nThe arguments between the couple intensified and on 29 March everything came to a head.\n\n\"I said, 'That's it, I'm leaving. I can't take it any more.' I started packing my stuff,\" she says.\n\nMs Konlin says the argument turned physical. She says he pushed her and she cut her foot on a step with a rough edge.\n\n\"I was bleeding. I felt dead. I wanted to kill myself,\" she says.\n\nThis brought the fight to a halt. It was then that Leviev filmed Ms Konlin as she called an ambulance, and shouted out that nothing had happened to her.\n\nAfter going to hospital, she filed a complaint against Leviev with the police.\n\nMs Konlin says her confidence was undermined by Leviev's criticisms\n\nWhen we asked Leviev to respond, he sent us nine emails within 45 minutes, and two more direct messages on the video-sharing app, Cameo, in the days that followed.\n\nThere were many screenshots of WhatsApp messages and a video which shows Ms Konlin shouting and grabbing him.\n\nLeviev says he has never physically harmed any woman.\n\nJaney Starling, a campaigner against domestic abuse, says the picture Ms Konlin paints of her relationship with Leviev follows a familiar pattern.\n\n\"Coercive control is something that happens on a daily basis and is very mundane. It's very small. It flies under the radar,\" she says.\n\n\"A lot of abusive men have never been physically violent to their partners… but they have been intensely controlling, intensely critical, belittling, and making threats.\n\n\"It's a bit of a red herring to look for physical violence as the ultimate determination of whether an abusive relationship is abusive.\"\n\nWe put to Leviev several allegations Ms Konlin made about his behaviour, including that he had coercively controlled her, and he said she was lying.\n\nDespite being a convicted con artist, Leviev has thousands of followers on social media. He continues to post videos of himself driving expensive cars, and spending time with beautiful women. In some videos people ask for photographs with him, as if he were a celebrity. He charges £82 ($100) for a personalised video message and £165 for a call.\n\n\"We are seeing a glamorisation of a hyper-masculine anti-woman mindset and lifestyle, and it is being peddled to the most susceptible, most impressionable people, especially young men in their pre-teen years,\" says Jessica Reaves, editorial director of the ADL's Center on Extremism.\n\n\"It's incredibly dangerous because what you're saying is, 'You can have this lifestyle too and also, by the way, part and parcel of this is dehumanising, or generally hating women'.\"\n\nWe asked Leviev if he accepted this description of his posts on social media and he didn't respond.\n\nToday, Ms Konlin laughs that she is perhaps one of the only models in the world who is happy to have gained weight - she says she was underweight from stress during her time with Leviev.\n\nAfter almost a year without offers of work following the release of The Tinder Swindler, her modelling career has taken off again. She now wants to tell young women what an unhappy and controlling relationship can look like from the inside.\n\n\"If a woman who is in the same situation sees what I experienced and how I got out, and that today I am stronger and more beautiful than when I was with him, she will hopefully see that she can also leave.\"\n\nIf you have been affected by issues in this story, you can find sources of support on the BBC Action Line", "Nicola Bulley was last seen during a riverside walk on 27 January\n\nThe family of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley have said they will never be able to understand what she went through in her final moments.\n\nMs Bulley was formally identified after her body was found in the River Wyre in Lancashire on Sunday - one mile from when she was last seen on 27 January.\n\nIn a statement, her family said she was the \"centre of their world\".\n\nThey also criticised some sections of the media over their coverage of her disappearance.\n\n\"We will never be able to comprehend what Nikki had gone through in her last moments and that will never leave us,\" the family said in a statement.\n\nThe 45-year-old disappeared while walking her dog by the river after dropping off her daughters, aged six and nine, at school.\n\nHer dog was found shortly after, along with her phone - still connected to a work conference call - on a bench by a steep riverbank.\n\nA major search operation got under way but it was 23 days before her body was found in the river.\n\n\"We will never forget Nikki - how could we? She was the centre of our world, she was the one who made our lives so special and nothing will cast a shadow over that,\" the family said.\n\nIn the statement, her family also questioned the role of some sections of the media during the investigation and accused journalists of \"misquoting and vilifying\" Ms Bulley's partner Paul Ansell, relatives and friends.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"Our girls will get the support they need from the people who love them the most,\" the family said.\n\n\"And it saddens us to think that one day we will have to explain to them that the press and members of the public accused their dad of wrongdoing [and] misquoted and vilified friends and family.\n\n\"This is absolutely appalling - they have to be held accountable. This cannot happen to another family.\"\n\nA major search operation was mounted after Nicola Bulley went missing\n\nThe family also took aim at Sky News and ITV, which they said had contacted them despite their appeal for privacy on Sunday.\n\n\"It is shameful they have acted in this way. Leave us alone now,\" the family said.\n\nThe BBC understands that Sky News has had an open dialogue with Ms Bulley's family and the police since she was reported missing. ITV has been approached for comment.\n\nThe family ended the statement with a message to their loved one.\n\n\"Finally, Nikki, you are no longer a missing person, you have been found, we can let you rest now,\" they said.\n\n\"We love you, always have and always will, we'll take it from here xx.\"\n\nThe disappearance of Ms Bulley, who worked as a mortgage adviser, sparked a major search operation by Lancashire Police but also prompted dozens of amateur social media sleuths to travel to the village to look into the case themselves.\n\nDal Babu, a former Ch Supt at the Metropolitan Police, said he had never seen such levels of public interest in a missing person's case.\n\n\"I've never known a case where individuals have thought it appropriate to turn up and live stream themselves at the scene of a person going missing,\" he told the BBC.\n\nOn Sunday, officers were called to reports of a body in the River Wyre close to Rawcliffe Road at about 11:35 GMT which a search team recovered.\n\nThe force has consistently said they believed Ms Bulley had gone into the river and that her disappearance was not suspicious.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Nick Garnett visits the key locations in the Nicola Bulley case\n\nBriefing the media at police headquarters, Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson said Ms Bulley's family were \"of course devastated\".\n\n\"We recognise the huge impact that Nicola's disappearance has had on her family and friends, but also on the people of St Michael's,\" he added.\n\n\"We would like to thank all of those who have helped during what has been a hugely complex and highly emotional investigation.\n\n\"Today's development is not the outcome any of us would have wanted, but we hope that it can at least start to provide some answers for Nicola's loved ones, who remain foremost in our thoughts.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Assistant Chief Constable Peter Lawson: \"Nicola's family have been informed and are, of course, devastated\"\n\nHer death will now be investigated by HM Coroner, the force has confirmed.\n\nThe investigation into Ms Bulley's disappearance has attracted widespread speculation as well as criticism of the police response.\n\nLancashire Police came under fire after revealing Ms Bulley's struggles with alcohol and perimenopause three weeks after she vanished.\n\nRibbons were tied to the riverside bench near where Ms Bulley disappeared\n\nThe details were made public by the force after revealing that the mother-of-two was classed as a \"high-risk\" missing person immediately after Mr Ansell had reported her disappearance \"based on a number of specific vulnerabilities\".\n\nA public backlash and interventions from the government and shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper followed, with Lancashire Constabulary confirming a date had been set for an internal review of its investigation.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe US will back Ukraine in its fight against Russia for \"as long as it takes\", US President Joe Biden has said on an unannounced visit to Kyiv.\n\n\"We have every confidence you're going to continue to prevail,\" he said.\n\nMr Biden's first trip to Ukraine as president came days before the first anniversary of Russia's invasion.\n\nHe said that Russia's President Vladimir Putin had been \"dead wrong\" to think Russia could outlast Ukraine and its Western allies.\n\nHe met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the pair visited a memorial to soldiers who have died in the nine years since Russia annexed Crimea and its proxy forces captured parts of the eastern Donbas region.\n\nMr Biden's presence was intended to reaffirm America's \"unwavering commitment to Ukraine's democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity\", according to a White House statement.\n\nHe had taken a 10-hour train journey from Poland to reach Kyiv in secret, later returning to Poland. Russia was informed about the trip a few hours before President Biden's departure for \"deconfliction purposes\", a US official said.\n\nAfter the visit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new package of security assistance for Ukraine valued at $450m (£373m), including ammunition for howitzers and the Himars rocket system, Javelin missiles and air surveillance radars.\n\nThe US will also provide Kyiv with an extra $10m in emergency assistance to maintain Ukraine's energy infrastructure, Mr Blinken said.\n\nA new wave of sanctions against individuals and companies \"that are trying to evade or backfill Russia's war machine\" will also be announced later this week.\n\nMr Zelensky said Ukraine's victory over Russia depended on resolve and that he saw such determination in Mr Biden.\n\n\"It is now and in Ukraine that the fate of the world order, which is based on rules, on humanity... is being decided,\" he said.\n\nHe also said that the two leaders had discussed the possibility of sending other weapons. Mr Zelensky has repeatedly called for F-16 fighter jets, something the US and other allies have so far stopped short of approving.\n\nCommenting on the trip, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said failure would befall those who, as she put it, \"sold their souls to the Americans\".\n\nIn a scene that added drama to the most high-profile visit to Ukraine since the war began, air raid sirens wailed while President Biden and Mr Zelensky were in St Michael's Cathedral in central Kyiv. The sirens sound regularly in the city.\n\nMr Biden laid a wreath to commemorate those killed during nine years of conflict\n\nWhile other world leaders have visited Ukraine over the past year, the US president's appearance in Kyiv during a war in which American soldiers are not fighting is a show of unity at a time when Russia says Western support for Ukraine is waning.\n\nThe visit was welcomed by Ukrainians in Kyiv.\n\n\"I'm so grateful for his support - it means so much to us,\" Roksoliana Gera told the BBC. \"I appreciate his courage, that he took on this challenge and came to show the support of the American nation.\"\n\nOleksandra Soloviova said the visit showed Russia that \"the US supports us and will continue supporting us, with sanctions and military equipment\".\n\nThe Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the visit had been strategic as well as historic. \"Many issues are being solved and those that have stalled will be accelerated,\" he said.\n\nThe US is one of Ukraine's biggest allies and the state department has so far announced $24.9bn in military assistance.\n\nIn January, Mr Biden announced that the US would send 31 battle tanks and longer-range missiles are also on their way.\n\nHowever, there is a growing political divide in the US over the amount of aid Kyiv should receive in future.\n\nPresident Biden's visit to Kyiv came ahead of a three-day visit to Poland where he will meet the country's President, Andrzej Duda, and east European members of the Nato military alliance.\n\nIn another development, China's foreign minister has said Beijing is deeply worried by the escalation of the war in Ukraine and the danger it could spiral out of control.\n\n\"We will continue to urge peace and promote talks and provide Chinese wisdom for a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine,\" Qin Gang told a forum in Beijing.\n\n\"Together with the international community, we will jointly promote dialogue, negotiate and address the concerns of all parties and seek common security. In the meantime, we urge certain countries to immediately stop fuelling the fire, stop shifting the blame to China and stop hyping up Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow.\"\n\nEarlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested China was considering supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia for the war - a claim strongly denied by the Chinese.\n\nThis week, the BBC will be marking the anniversary of the war in Ukraine. What are your questions about the human impact of conflict? Email them to: YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk\n\nYou can also send your questions in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Protests followed the death of Chris Kaba, shot by police in September\n\nThe role racism may have played is not being properly examined after black people are killed by police, the charity Inquest has said.\n\nBlack people were seven times more likely to die than white people after being restrained by police, it said.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it was \"committed to working with Inquest and others to reduce deaths in custody\".\n\nThe report I Can't Breathe: Race, Death and British Policing was released on Monday by Inquest, which works with the families of people who have died following police contact.\n\nIt said the system for investigating deaths after police contact was \"not fit for purpose\" and families of those killed felt they had to \"defend not only their loved one but themselves against racialised stereotypes\" during the investigation process.\n\nIn response, the IOPC said: \"The work we do to shine a light on the numbers of people who die in custody or following police contact is really important.\n\n\"We're the only police-oversight body in the world to publish this depth of information.\n\n\"In deaths where restraint was used, we outline the circumstances as well as the ethnicity of the person who died.\n\n\"It is important to recognise that just because someone was restrained, it did not necessarily contribute to their death.\"\n\nBlack people are disproportionately more likely to be detained by police. BBC News analysis, in 2020, also found the Metropolitan Police, the UK's largest police force, was four times more likely to use force on black people.\n\nThe IOPC, coroners, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) \"have historically failed - and continue to fail - to scrutinise the role that racial stereotyping might have played in these deaths, especially where excessive force is used\", Inquest said.\n\nChris Kaba was killed at the age of 24\n\nFrom IOPC data between 2011 and 2021, Inquest found of 119 people who had died following police restraint:\n\n\"The IOPC argues that these figures ought to be treated with some caution, particularly given the numbers of deaths are relatively low, and says the data does not provide a definitive picture of racial disproportionality,\" the report said.\n\nThe charity added it \"accepts there might be caveats in any analysis of the data\" but the findings \"clearly evidence the existence of racial disproportionality\".\n\nLast year, the IOPC investigated the police killings of two black men:", "Junior doctors in England have voted in favour of taking strike action in their fight to get more pay.\n\nMembers of the British Medical Association (BMA) are now expected to take part in a 72-hour walkout, possibly as early as mid-March.\n\nThe union said junior doctor roles had seen pay cut by 26% since 2008 once inflation was taken into account.\n\nBut experts said if a different measure of inflation is used, the fall in pay was lower.\n\nThe ballot by the BMA involved nearly 48,000 members working across hospitals and the community - more than two-thirds of the junior doctor workforce.\n\nMore than three-quarters of those balloted took part, with 98% voting in favour of action.\n\nBMA junior doctors committee co-chairman Dr Robert Laurenson said the vote showed the strength of feeling about the issue.\n\n\"We are frustrated, in despair and angry and we have voted in our thousands to say, 'in the name of our profession, our patients, and our NHS, doctors won't take it any more'.\n\n\"The government has only itself to blame, standing by in silent indifference as our members are forced to take this difficult decision.\"\n\nThe results come as nurses and ambulance staff are warning they will escalate their industrial action in their dispute over pay.\n\nMembers of the Royal College of Nursing will walk out across half of frontline services in England next week for 48 hours.\n\nMeanwhile, Unison, the biggest union in the ambulance service, is expected to announce more strike dates now that its mandate has increased from five of England's 10 ambulance services to nine.\n\nThe term \"junior doctors\" covers everyone who has just graduated from medical school through to those with many years' experience on the front line. The last time they went on strike was in 2016 over a new contract that had been introduced.\n\nThis year, junior doctors' pay increased by 2% as part of a four-year agreement that featured an overall rise of 8.2% between 2019-20 and 2022-23.\n\nCurrently, the basic starting salary for a junior doctor is £29,000, but average earnings are higher once extra payments for things like unsociable hours are taken into account.\n\nBy the end of their training, which can last 15 years for some, basic pay is more than £53,000.\n\nThese are doctors with huge responsibility, leading teams, carrying out surgery and making life-and-death decisions.\n\nOverall they account for more than 40% of the medical workforce.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How strike rules could be about to change\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said that, alongside an 8.2% pay rise over four years, the current deal also introduced higher bands of pay for the most experienced staff, and increased rates for night shifts.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said he had met with the BMA to discuss pay and conditions. The pay award for the 2023-24 financial year is expected to be announced in the coming months.\n\n\"We hugely value the work of junior doctors and it is deeply disappointing some union members have voted for strike action,\" Mr Barclay added.\n\nSources at the BMA have said the pay demand does not necessarily need to be paid in one go, but until the government agreed to restoring pay, action would continue.\n\nThe BMA has yet to decide whether to strike elsewhere in the UK as it awaits more information from ministers about their pay plans in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nSaffron Cordery, of NHS Providers, which represents health managers, said the prospect of a 72-hour strike was \"extremely worrying\".\n\n\"An urgent resolution is needed if we are to prevent harm to patients.\"\n\nJunior doctors will walk out of both routine and emergency care - although by law they they can only withdraw from life-and-limb emergency care if the NHS has found other staff to cover for them.\n\nDuring the 2016 walkout consultants stepped in, but this meant a huge amount of pre-planned treatments such as knee and hip replacements had to be cancelled.\n\nCorrection: We amended this piece on the day of publication to reflect the fact the BMA is asking for a pay rise to reverse the cut of 26% since 2008 once inflation is taken into account. We had initially reported it as a demand for a 26% pay rise. The BMA is actually after an increase of 35% to make up for the 26% cut.", "Head teacher Rob Mulvey says he's ashamed that some children are being taught in a cupboard\n\nHalf of state-funded schools in England for children with special educational needs and disabilities are oversubscribed, BBC research has found.\n\nSchools have converted portable cabins and even cupboards into teaching spaces because of a lack of room. Head teachers say this puts pressure on staff and makes pupils anxious.\n\nParents say the wait for places means their children are missing education.\n\nThe Department for Education says it is spending £2.6bn on new places.\n\nSarah is in her son Cohen's classroom - not to pick him up, but to collect his things a year after he stopped coming to school.\n\nMaltby Hilltop School in Rotherham is a specialist school for pupils aged two to 19 with severe learning difficulties and complex needs. Because of a lack of space and overcrowding in the main building, Cohen's classroom is in a portable cabin, with loud floors and thin walls.\n\nThe 14-year-old is autistic and has a condition known as pathological demand avoidance (PDA), which leads to a rigid need for control when he's anxious.\n\nCohen struggles to manage his condition if he's not in a calm environment - and Sarah,. whose full name we are not using, says the school simply did not have enough physical space to provide that.\n\n\"He started to have panic attacks and hyperventilating,\" she says.\n\n\"He wants to be here, but the space isn't allowing it.\"\n\nSarah worries that her son Cohen is missing out on life-learning skills, now that he's no longer at school\n\nSarah is trying to get Cohen into a different specialist school but says there are no places available until September.\n\nThe shortage of places in special educational needs schools is a problem across the UK, with unprecedented demand for support.\n\nAdvances in life expectancy, more awareness and better diagnosis means there are now more children and young people with needs that are difficult to meet within mainstream schools. The pandemic has added to a system already under pressure.\n\nOver the past five years, the number of children and young people being educated in specialist schools and colleges in England has increased by nearly a third - to 142,028 last year.\n\nSpecial educational needs schools across the UK are under pressure because of a shortage of places. Families invite the BBC's Elaine Dunkley to see the challenges they face as they fight for a school place.\n\nAvailable now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nCohen is one of three pupils who are no longer able to attend classes at Maltby Hilltop because they are struggling to cope with the overcrowding and noise.\n\nHe is currently at home and spends most of his time alone in his bedroom. Sarah says he's \"not engaging in anything\" and is \"missing out on learning life skills\" as he waits for a suitable school place.\n\nAs she flicks through the colourful drawings, workbooks, and pens in her son's school drawer, she adds: \"He should be learning, and he should be with his friends.\"\n\nBBC News compared pupil headcount data to the number of commissioned places at 1,012 state-funded schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in England during the 2021-22 academic year.\n\nWe found that just over half (52%) of SEND schools had more children in classes than their number of commissioned places.\n\nStorage space for wheelchairs and pupils' equipment is in short supply at Maltby Hilltop\n\nWhen head teacher Rob Mulvey joined Maltby Hilltop in 2011, 82 children were enrolled. That had risen to 99 pupils by 2019. This year there are 134.\n\nWheelchairs, walking aids and medical equipment line the corridors. There is no longer a dinner hall - children eat in their classrooms, because the space is being used instead for large trampolines to provide therapeutic exercises for children with a variety of disabilities and additional needs.\n\nA cupboard which used to store stationery is now used for lessons and as a therapy room for visually-impaired pupils. It can only fit two pupils in at a time, and there are no windows or natural light.\n\nMr Mulvey says the fact that children are having to learn in a cupboard rather than a proper classroom is \"absolutely tragic\" and \"morally wrong\".\n\n\"As the head teacher of the school, I genuinely do feel it is shameful that this is what we are providing for our children. They deserve so much better.\"\n\nLocal authorities commission school places in consultation with specialist schools to assess how many children can attend, but councils can and do ask schools to take on even more pupils.\n\nA school must take on a pupil if that school is specifically named on their Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), which is a legal document outlining the support a child needs. While councils can refuse requests, this is often challenged by parents who normally win in costly tribunals.\n\nNationwide, the number of pupils with EHCPs has risen by 50% since 2016, to just over 355,500 last year.\n\nMaltby Hilltop was built in the 1970s, and its concrete slab, modular structure makes it difficult to build upwards. Its position on the side of a hill also makes building work prohibitively expensive. Mr Mulvey says the school is at capacity.\n\n\"We have thought about every inch of the school and what we can do to make it better, and there's no more that we can do,\" he says.\n\n\"The demand for places is growing evermore. There are some desperate families out there who really do need a place at this school, but we cannot offer it.\"\n\nMoney for specialist schools comes from the high needs funding given to councils. Per pupil funding at specialist schools starts at £10,000 per child and is topped up further depending on need.\n\nIf a school takes on more pupils above their commissioned places, it won't necessarily receive the full high-needs funding for each additional child - that's a decision for the local authority.\n\nDespite an extra £400m in high-needs funding announced in the Autumn Statement, the Local Government Association (LGA) says councils are facing \"significant financial challenges\" and need long-term certainty over funding to support children with SEND.\n\nLouise Gittins, a councillor and chairwoman of the LGA's children and young people board, has told the BBC that if no action is taken, councils will be in deficit by £3.6bn on SEND spending by 2025.\n\nShe also called for the government to urgently publish its long-awaited proposals \"for a reformed system which better meets the needs of children with SEND\".\n\nHead teacher Rob Mulvey is calling for a long-term solution, not \"sticking plasters\"\n\nIn response to the BBC's findings, the Department for Education said it was providing £2.6bn in capital funding up to 2025 to help deliver new places at SEND schools. It added that it had increased high needs funding by 50% since 2019, to over £10bn by next year.\n\nHead teacher Mr Mulvey says specialist schools need more investment from both the government and local authorities.\n\n\"We don't need sticking plasters. We need a long-term solution to increasing the places and availability for children with additional needs.\"\n\nAre you affected by issues covered in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A typical domestic energy bill will rise in April - but predictions of subsequent falls may prompt the return of competition and customer switching.\n\nAt present, a government guarantee sees the annual gas and electricity bill for an average home limited to £2,500, alongside an additional £400 discount.\n\nThat cap will rise to £3,000 in April, but forecasts suggest the limit will soon become redundant.\n\nAnalysts Cornwall Insight say a typical bill will drop back to £2,153 in July.\n\nThe energy consultancy expects the annual bill for an average household to remain at close to that level for the rest of the year.\n\n\"While tumbling cap projections are a positive, unfortunately, already stretched households will be seeing little benefit before July,\" said Craig Lowrey, principal consultant at Cornwall Insight.\n\nHowever, he said that the conditions later in the year could lead to \"the return of competitive tariffs\", and with it the chance for consumers to \"take back some control over their energy bills\".\n\nInvestment firm Investec has also made very similar forecasts to Cornwall Insight - pointing out that the drops mean the total cost faced by the government to subsidise energy bills will be lower than previously expected.\n\nCampaigners and consumer groups have been lobbying ministers to use the savings to further support billpayers. The Labour Party has also called for a three-month extension to the current government guarantee.\n\nThere has been a sharp drop in wholesale gas and electricity prices in recent weeks that has raised hopes that the worst of the energy crisis could be receding.\n\nA huge majority of households in the UK have a variable or default gas and electricity tariff. The price per unit of energy is capped in England, Wales and Scotland at what is considered an appropriate level by the energy regulator Ofgem. The cap is set every three months.\n\nHuge costs faced by suppliers meant that would have left a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity paying £4,279 a year from the start of January.\n\nSo, the government stepped in to cover some of that cost for people across the UK. Its Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) means the typical household pays £2,500 a year now, rising to £3,000 a year in April.\n\nThat is still a massive hike on the bills people had been accustomed to. In the winter of 2021-22, the typical annual bill was £1,277 and switching between suppliers for a better fixed-price deal was commonplace.\n\nExtra cost-of-living payments are primarily helping the more vulnerable with those higher costs.\n\nCornwall Insight said that without an EPG, the annual bill for a typical household would be £3,295 in April. Investec said it would be £3,332.\n\nThe actual figure will be published next Monday by the regulator Ofgem.\n\nFor households, this will be largely irrelevant owing to the EPG, which limits the price they pay. However, it is important in terms of how much the government - and ultimately taxpayers - has to contribute to compensate suppliers by capping domestic bills.\n\nCornwall Insight said that, based on projected costs, if the EPG were to increase to £3,000 as planned, the estimated cost to the government would be £26.8bn. If it were to remain at £2,500, the estimated cost would be £29.4bn.\n\nAny decision by the government to scrap plans to raise the EPG limit to £3,000 would be made at next month's Budget. However, earlier this month Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told the BBC that households were unlikely to get extra support with energy bills from April.\n\nHe said that the Treasury kept all support \"under review\" but he did not think the government had the \"headroom to make a major new initiative to help people\".\n\nConsumer finance expert Martin Lewis said that allowing the bill increase in April would be a \"national act of harm\", a view supported by a series of poverty charities.", "Police have cordoned off the area where a man was arrested outside Yorkshire Building Society\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman who died after a suspected knife attack in a park.\n\nThe woman, aged 74, was attacked in Ludwell Valley Park, in Wonford, Exeter, on Saturday, Devon and Cornwall Police said.\n\nOfficers were called at about 16:00 GMT and emergency services attended but the local woman died at the scene.\n\nA man in his 30s from the Exmouth area was arrested by armed police on Exeter High Street just after 21:30 GMT.\n\nPolice were called to Ludwell Valley Park on Saturday\n\nPolice said in a statement that they did not know the motive for the attack and they did not believe the suspect or woman knew each other.\n\nOfficers believe they may have located the knife thought to have been used in the attack.\n\nCh Supt Dan Evans said they were not looking for anyone else and the suspect remained in custody.\n\n\"I would like to reassure people that this is an isolated incident,\" he said.\n\n\"Whilst this type of incident is very rare, Wonford is a very close community and I know the death will be felt deeply by all who live in the area.\n\n\"My thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the victim at this tragic time.\"\n\nPolice have appealed for anyone with information to contact them.\n\nThe force has created a Major Incident Public Reporting page to allow people who may have information to send files such as doorbell, CCTV and dashcam footage.\n\nDet Sgt Darren Campbell from the Major Crime Team said: \"There are still large parts of the day that we need to account for, both pre and post the attack.\n\n\"We are asking for anyone who has CCTV, doorbell, phone footage or dashcam of the area that could be of interest to the investigative team, to please submit this via the MIPP.\n\n\"You can also report any information that you may have in relation to this murder, not solely footage.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSexual exploitation has been uncovered on tea farms that supply some of the UK's most popular brands, including PG Tips, Lipton and Sainsbury's Red Label.\n\nMore than 70 women on Kenyan tea farms, owned for years by two British companies, told the BBC they had been sexually abused by their supervisors.\n\nSecret filming showed local bosses, on plantations owned by Unilever and James Finlay & Co, pressuring an undercover reporter for sex.\n\nThree managers have now been suspended.\n\nUnilever faced similar allegations more than 10 years ago and launched a \"zero tolerance\" approach to sexual harassment as well as a reporting system and other measures, but a joint investigation for BBC Africa Eye and Panorama found evidence that allegations of sexual harassment were not being acted on.\n\nThe BBC's Tom Odula spoke to women who worked on tea farms run by both companies. A number told him that because work is so scarce, they are left with no choice but to give in to the sexual demands of their bosses or face having no income.\n\n\"I can't lose my job because I have kids,\" said one woman.\n\nAnother woman said a divisional manager stopped her job until she agreed to have sex with him.\n\n\"It is just torture; he wants to sleep with you, then you get a job,\" she said.\n\nOne woman also told the BBC that she had been infected with HIV by her supervisor, after being pressured into having sex with him.\n\nSome female workers on tea farms said they have no choice but to give into sexual demands of their bosses\n\nTo gather more evidence about the allegations of sexual abuse taking place, the BBC recruited undercover reporter Katy - not her real name - to work on the tea plantations.\n\nIn one instance, Katy was invited to a job interview with a recruiter for James Finlay & Co called John Chebochok. The interview turned out to be in a hotel room.\n\nMr Chebochok, who has worked on Finlay's plantations for more than 30 years, first as an estate manager and then as the owner of a contracting company, had already been flagged as a \"predator\" by a number of women who spoke to the BBC's Tom Odula.\n\nKaty was pinned against a window by Mr Chebochok and asked to touch him and undress.\n\n\"I'll give you some money, then I'll give you a job. I have helped you, help me,\" he said.\n\n\"We'll lie down, finish and go. Then you come and work.\"\n\nKaty made it clear she did not consent. Eventually he gave up and a member of the production team - stationed nearby for her safety - made a phone call to give her an excuse to leave.\n\n\"I was so scared, and so shocked. It must be really difficult for the women who work under Chebochok,\" said Katy.\n\nJames Finlay & Co said Mr Chebochok was immediately suspended after the BBC contacted the company. The company said it also reported him to the police and was now investigating whether its Kenyan operation has \"an endemic issue with sexual violence\".\n\nKaty also experienced sexual harassment when undercover at a farm, which was at the time run by Unilever.\n\nShe was invited to an induction day where a divisional manager called Jeremiah Koskei gave a speech to his new recruits about Unilever's zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment.\n\nHowever, he then invited \"Katy\" to meet him in a hotel bar that evening and tried to pressure her into having sex with him - suggesting they went back to his compound together.\n\nKaty later said: \"If my whole life really was pegged on this opportunity, I can only imagine how that encounter would have unfolded.\"\n\nKaty was assigned to the weeding team - it is gruelling work, six days a week, and many women ask to be moved.\n\nThe supervisor there, Samuel Yebei, asked her for sex in exchange for lighter duties.\n\nText exchange between Katy and her supervisor, when she was trying to arrange a meeting to discuss lighter duties\n\nWhen Katy reported the behaviour to one of Unilever's sexual harassment officers, she was told: \"Stand by your principles. Don't give your body in exchange for a job.\"\n\nDespite following up to find out what action was being taken against her superiors, she received no response.\n\nUnilever says it was \"deeply shocked and saddened\" by the allegations. The company sold its operation in Kenya while the BBC was secretly filming.\n\nThe new owner, Lipton Teas and Infusions, says it has \"immediately suspended the two managers\", and ordered a \"full and independent investigation\".\n\nAn undercover investigation for Panorama reveals that women working on plantations producing tea for PG Tips and Lipton are pressured to have sex with their bosses in return for work.\n\nJeremiah Koskei did not respond to our request for comment and Samuel Yebei denies the allegations against him.\n\nJames Finlay and Co supplies Kenyan tea to Sainsbury's and Tesco supermarkets, as well as Starbucks.\n\nTesco said it takes the allegations \"extremely seriously\" and is in \"constant dialogue\" with Finlay's to ensure \"robust measures\" are taken.\n\nIn response to the BBC investigation, Sainsbury's said: \"These horrific allegations have no place in our supply chain.\" On Monday, it issued a revised, updated statement saying it will \"take robust action to safeguard workers\" in its \"tea supply chain.\"\n\nStarbucks also issued a statement on Monday, saying it was \"deeply concerned\" and has taken \"immediate action\" to suspend purchasing from James Finlay and Company in Kenya.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues in our investigation into sex for work? Do you have any information or stories to share? If you would like to share your experience with BBC Africa Eye or BBC Panorama, please submit your message below. There is an option to remain anonymous, if you'd prefer to.\n\nDue to the volume of messages we receive, we cannot respond to everyone but we do appreciate every response:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None The bitter story behind the UK's national drink", "Experts are trying to work out what some of the items were used for\n\nA vast trove of Cambodia's Angkorian crown jewellery, some dating back to the 7th Century, resurfaced in London last summer, it has been revealed.\n\nExperts say they have never seen most of the jewellery before and are stunned by its existence.\n\nThe collection has been secretly returned to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, and is due to go on display there in the country's national museum.\n\nLatchford died in 2020 while awaiting trial in the US. His family promised to return his stolen collection to Cambodia after he died, but the authorities did not know what exactly would be handed over or how it would happen.\n\nBrad Gordon, the head of Cambodia's investigative team, became the first representative of the nation to see the jewellery when he visited London last summer. He told the BBC: \"I was driven by a representative of the Latchford family to an undisclosed location. In the parking lot was a vehicle with four boxes inside.\n\n\"I felt like crying. I just thought - wow - the crown jewels of ancient Cambodian civilization packed into four boxes in the back of a car.\"\n\nWhen it was all unwrapped, the resurfaced collection was found to contain 77 pieces of gold and jewel-encrusted jewellery, including crowns, belts and earrings. A large bowl is thought to date to the 11th Century and although it has yet to be tested, appears to be made of solid gold. Experts believe it could have been used as a rice bowl for Angkorian royalty.\n\nIt's possible some of the jewellery was looted from temples such as Angkor Wat\n\nOne of the crowns appears to be from the pre-Angkorian period, experts believe, and could have been made by artisans in the 7th Century. Other items, including a small sculpted flower, pose a mystery. Experts simply don't know why it was made or how it was used.\n\nIt's still unclear exactly how and when the jewellery was stolen and how it made its way to London. Many of the items can be matched to stone carvings in the walls of Angkor Wat, a Unesco World Heritage Site. The largest religious monument in the world, its construction began in 1122 as a dedication to the Hindu god Vishnu, though it transitioned into a Buddhist temple decades later.\n\nAngkor Wat was heavily looted during the French colonial period. However, many of Cambodia's other temples were looted during the Khmer Rouge era in the 1970s, and the turmoil that continued for decades.\n\nArchaeologist Sonetra Seng studied Angkorian jewellery for years by examining temple carvings. Finally, she can hold the real thing.\n\n\"The jewellery proves what was on the carvings and what was rumoured is really true. Cambodia was really, really rich in the past,\" she says. \"Still, I can't believe it, especially that it's from one single collection found abroad.\"\n\nArchaeologist Sonetra Seng recognised some of the jewellery from temple carvings\n\nSome of the jewellery had surfaced before; Douglas Latchford included five items from the collection in a book titled Khmer Gold that he co-wrote with his collaborator, Emma Bunker, in 2008. Khmer antiquities expert Ashley Thompson describes this book and two others as elaborate sales brochures, giving private collectors a taste of what was being sold illegally behind the scenes.\n\n\"Publishing these materials, inviting other scholars to contribute and comparing the items to museum pieces was a way of validating them and associating them with known materials already in museums and effectively enhancing their value,\" she explained.\n\nMs Thompson, a professor in South East Asian art at SOAS University of London, says it will take a long time for experts to piece together where the newly discovered jewellery really came from because the book contains so many half-truths.\n\n\"You certainly can't take for granted anything that is said about the provenance or the current ownership,\" she explained, as she flipped through the book and pointed to the way in which Latchford and Bunker described the ownership of the different pieces of jewellery. \"Private Thai collection, private London collection, private New York collection, private Japanese collection etc. You have to be very wary.\"\n\nThere were 77 items recovered, some made of solid gold and some encrusted with jewels\n\nThe Cambodian authorities believe that more Angkorian jewellery is yet to be found. The Cambodians have evidence from Latchford's email correspondence that he was attempting to secretly sell the collection from a north London warehouse as late as 2019.\n\nWe asked London's Metropolitan Police if Latchford's UK associates are also being investigated. They declined to comment - noting they do not identify anyone under investigation prior to being charged with a criminal offence.\n\nLast year, the BBC travelled to Cambodia to meet looters turned government witnesses who identified items they say they stole from temples and sold to Latchford. Some of those items have been matched by investigators to museum pieces that are now in respected UK institutions like the British Museum and the V&A.\n\nOne of the women the BBC interviewed then - nicknamed Iron Princess - will also work to help identify some of the jewellery.\n\nFor now, the collection's return will be welcomed by the country's autocratic leader, Hun Sen. An election is coming up in July, and since his ruling party has effectively dismantled the opposition, this development will be painted as something Hun Sen has done to benefit his people.\n\nPolitics aside, ordinary Cambodians want all the looted items back. After decades hidden inside dusty boxes, they will soon go on public display in Phnom Penh, allowing this jewellery to shine once again.", "Supplies of some fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes, to UK supermarkets have been disrupted by poor weather in Europe and Africa.\n\nThe British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that harvests had been hit by \"difficult weather conditions\".\n\nNumerous pictures of empty shelves in supermarkets have been circulating on social media in recent days.\n\nSources within the industry have acknowledged that there have been temporary supply challenges.\n\nAmong the images shared on social media, the shortage of tomatoes appears to be particularly significant.\n\nA significant proportion of the tomatoes we consume over the winter months are grown in Morocco and Southern Spain. Both regions have recently been affected first by warm weather - which affected crop yields - then by a cold snap which has meant longer growth times.\n\nCancelled ferries from Morocco due to bad weather have also affected supplies.\n\nAndrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, said supermarkets were \"adept at managing supply chain issues and are working with farmers to ensure that customers are able to access a wide range of fresh produce\".\n\nHowever, other businesses have also been affected.\n\nThe Heritage Fine Food Company in Wiltshire, a wholesaler which supplies restaurants, cafes and schools in the south west of England, warned on its website that sourcing tomatoes was \"incredibly challenging\".\n\nCucumbers, it said, were \"incredibly limited in supply\", while peppers were failing to ripen.\n\nA portion of the fruit and vegetables the UK imports during the winter comes from the Netherlands, where they are grown in large greenhouses.\n\nWhile it is clear that the businesses producing them have been badly affected by high energy prices, it is not clear whether that has had an impact on supplies in the UK.\n\nHave you been affected by issues raised here? Are there shortages of salad and vegetables where you are? You can get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Heather Rendulic having the first steak she cut up herself since before her stroke\n\nElectrically stimulating the spinal cord instantly restores some ability to control the arm and hands in people who have had a stroke, US researchers say.\n\nHeather Rendulic, from Pittsburgh, was able to cut and eat a steak by herself for the first time in nine years.\n\nShe said the technology was \"nothing short of amazing\".\n\nThe University of Pittsburgh team say more research is needed to see who can benefit, as the spinal implants have been tested in only two people.\n\nStrokes disrupt the blood supply in the brain and lead to brain cells dying. This often leaves those that survive with long-term health problems.\n\nPeople can retain the desire and intent to move but the instructions from the brain become so weak nothing happens.\n\nWhen Heather was in her early 20s, she was diagnosed with a cluster of abnormal blood vessels in her brain - a cavernous angioma. It bled multiple times and led to a large stroke. One morning, she woke up unable to move the left side of her body.\n\nIn the nine years that followed, Heather learned to walk again but control of her left arm and hand never recovered - \"something I struggle with every day\". Even the simplest tasks, such as putting on shoes, became a challenge.\n\nBefore having the procedure, Heather's goal was \"to be able to cut a piece of steak\", as she relied on her husband to do it.\n\nHeather had an implant surgically placed to stimulate her nerves\n\nHeather had electrodes implanted in her neck so parts of her spinal cord could be stimulated.\n\nThe nervous system communicates with electricity - but after Heather's stroke, the electrical signals travelling from her brain were too weak to activate the nerves controlling her arm and hand movements.\n\nStimulation excites the nerves so they are already itching to respond - and now, those weak messages are enough to trigger movement.\n\nIt worked on the first day and Heather was able to open and close her hand for the first time in nine years.\n\n\"Nobody was expecting it would work that fast,\" Dr Marco Capogrosso, from the University of Pittsburgh, told me.\n\n\"She started crying, the family was there and they started crying and then all of us started crying, so it was a very, very emotional moment.\"\n\nHeather was \"moving my arm and hand in ways I haven't for almost a decade\".\n\nThe details, published in the journal Nature Medicine, showed the device worked in Heather and one other volunteer. However, the experiment was designed to last for only a month - after which, the electrodes were removed and the beneficial stimulation was gone.\n\nBut the researchers say the results give a glimpse into the future, where implants could make meaningful differences to people's lives.\n\nDr Marco Capogrosso told me: \"Our patients recover but they don't become completely normal.\n\n\"They can recover a lot of independence and a lot of quality of life, just because they can use their arm and hand now, even though they probably cannot play the piano.\"\n\nThe team believe the field could advance quickly as they are using technologies already approved for managing severe pain.\n\nBut for now, it will take more clinical trials to work out who benefits and how to move the equipment from the laboratory to the home.\n\nDr Rubina Ahmed from the Stroke Association said: \"The research is still in the early stages and surgical implants may not be suitable for everyone. Non-invasive stimulation methods are also being tested which could be used by a wider range of people.\"", "The most dangerous domestic abusers will be put on the violent and sex offender register, ministers have said.\n\nA proposed law change will see them monitored more closely by the police, prison and probation services so they \"don't fall through the cracks\".\n\nSuch offenders also face being electronically tagged under measures being piloted in three UK areas.\n\nFor the first time, the police will be required to treat violence against women and girls as a \"national threat\".\n\nThis means it should be given the same priority as serious organised crime, terrorism and child abuse.\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman, said: \"Domestic abuse is a despicable crime that leads to people's closest relationships becoming a frightening existence of torment, pain, fear, and anxiety.\n\n\"It is completely unacceptable and as home secretary I will do everything in my power to stop it.\"\n\nSome 2.4 million adults in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in 2021, according to crime survey figures published in November by the Office for National Statistics.\n\nAlmost three-quarters of the victims were women, facing abuse that includes violence, threatening behaviour, financial control and coercive behaviour.\n\nUnder the government's proposals, the law will be changed so that police, prison and probation services have to jointly manage offenders with a sentence of at least a year, or a suspended sentence for controlling or coercive behaviour - putting the crime on a par with physical violence.\n\nWhile the process to change the law takes place, such offenders will be recorded on the Violent and Sex Offender Register so they \"don't fall through the cracks\", the government said.\n\nPerpetrators could be made to attend behavioural change programmes being piloted in Gwent, Greater Manchester and the London boroughs of Croydon, Bromley and Sutton.\n\nThe new civil orders being trialled will also include electronic monitoring, and making it mandatory for abusers to notify the police of a name or address change.\n\nAnd a digital tool to help police officers identify likely perpetrators - even those without convictions - will be developed.\n\nOn top of these measures, the Ask for Ani codeword scheme, which allows victims or those at risk of abuse to discreetly signal they need help, is to be further piloted in job centres around the UK.\n\nThe scheme was first rolled out in 2021 and operates in more than 5,000 pharmacies.\n\nThe government has said it will allocate up to £8.4m over two years from April for specialist victim support programmes.\n\nAnd some £36m over two years will go to Police and Crime Commissioners to fund interventions tackling abusers' behaviour.\n\nNicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, said monitoring convicted domestic abuse perpetrators would require investment, adding \"we need to make sure that this is properly resourced and that is not in this announcement today\".\n\nShe said other anti-abuse policies in recent years have not been given sufficient backing, warning \"the attention and ongoing commitment is dropped\" after an announcement.\n\nMs Jacobs said \"the vast majority of all perpetrators are not known to the police and may not have a conviction\", meaning they would not be subject to the new requirements.\n\nResponding to the announcement, Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said her party had first called for a domestic abuse register years ago, adding that they \"welcome the eventual commitment to introduce one\".\n\n\"But the government isn't moving quickly enough,\" she said.\n\nIn recent months the issue of domestic abuse perpetrated by police officers and staff has also made headlines.\n\nA review last year found there were systemic problems in the way some police forces in England and Wales deal with such allegations against their own officers and staff.\n\nIn the Metropolitan Police alone, the force is investigating 1,000 sexual and domestic abuse claims involving about 800 of its officers.", "Michael Middleton used to take a night bus home from work, but the service has been axed\n\nBus networks are shrinking across Britain, but the cuts have gone much deeper in some areas than others, BBC analysis has found. In some places, services have been slashed by more than a third. William McLennan met some of the people who are left behind when the buses stop running.\n\nOn a cold February evening, Michael Middleton pulls a thick black beanie over his ears as he walks home beside a thundering dual carriageway after a late shift packing orders in a warehouse.\n\nThe number 6 bus used to deliver him home - warm and dry - within about half an hour of clocking off at 22:00, but since 2019 the service into Stoke-on-Trent no longer runs after 21:15.\n\nSo instead, he and a colleague follow a litter-strewn path beside the A50, shouting their conversation to each other to be heard over the roar of lorries.\n\n\"We just try to block it out,\" the 61-year-old says. \"We try to talk about anything to not think about it.\"\n\nAcross the city, bus services shrank by an estimated 37% in the five years to March 2022. Over an eight-year period from 2013-14, that reduction stands at 50%. In large part, the reductions have not come from the closure of entire routes. Rather, repeated timetable changes - often, passengers are told, in the name of improving \"reliability\" - have quietly cut services, reducing how frequently a bus arrives, or how late into the evening it runs.\n\nIt is an extreme example of a nationwide decline. Across Britain, the local bus network has shrunk by an estimated 14% between 2016-17 and 2021-22, BBC analysis of Department for Transport figures suggests. The total distance covered by buses each year fell by 210 million miles (338 million kilometres).\n\nDemand for buses, which had been gradually declining for several years, plummeted during the pandemic and has not recovered. Passenger numbers across Britain, excluding London, remain about 20% below pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest figures.\n\nFor the past three years, the industry has been propped up by government grants totalling more than £2bn.\n\nDespite the decline, buses still account for just under half of all public transport journeys in England. People from lower-income households are both more likely to use the bus, and less likely to have access to a car, official statistics show.\n\nIn Stoke-on-Trent, the level of car ownership is below the national average, and in several inner-city neighbourhoods, more than 60% of households do not have use of a car.\n\n\"Mainly round here now, it's all minimum wage,\" says Michael. He worked as a miner in the 1980s - then, after the pits closed, he was a supermarket floor manager, before spending 10 years caring full-time for his wife, who had a rare neurological condition. After she died four years ago, he took the job at the warehouse. \"The money they pay you, you can't afford to run a car,\" he says.\n\nMichael and his colleague walk home along the A50, whatever the weather\n\nKnown as the Potteries, the city is made of six towns strung together by a network of busy A-roads and a shared industrial heritage.\n\nTens of thousands of people once worked in ceramics factories, but the city has been remoulded by the 20th Century collapse of British manufacturing. In its place, logistics and distribution companies have moved into warehouses across Stoke-on-Trent - now providing about one in 10 jobs.\n\nYet for low-paid employees, travelling to work has become a logistical nightmare in itself.\n\nEarly one February morning, in the far north of the city, Beverley Barnett stands on the pavement next to a chicken shop, the grey ground slick with drizzle.\n\nHer face is lit by the screen of her smartphone, which she swipes compulsively to check whether her bus - the 3A - will arrive on time this morning.\n\nThe 38-year-old has allowed nearly an hour-and-a-half to make a journey that would take less than 20 minutes by car. Even so, she is often late into work at the secondary school where she supports children with special needs. Her managers are understanding, but she still worries about the impact on her job security.\n\n\"They're as accommodating as they can be, but the kids will be waiting to start,\" she says. \"I do feel like I'm letting them down.\"\n\nBeverley Barnett says her eight-mile commute often takes more than an hour and a half\n\nWhen she moved back to the city 11 years ago, she chose to live close to family, rather than within walking distance of work. At that time, it was a single bus journey lasting about 40 minutes, but the direct service was cut years ago.\n\nShe now faces the daily stress of a touch-and-go transfer at the city centre bus station. To make matters worse, she says, the frequency of early morning services was slashed during the pandemic and not restored. Even a short delay now means she will miss her connection and face a long wait for the next bus.\n\n\"I'll be checking [the app] all the time, thinking 'are we going to be on time',\" she says. \"The bus might be only five minutes late, but it adds almost an hour to my journey.\"\n\nLater that day, Will Lovatt arrives at the bus station on his way home from college. The 18-year-old says unreliable buses regularly cause him to miss the start of lessons, and he fears it is having a \"huge impact\" on his education.\n\nIt is a sunny February afternoon, but he will soon be heading back to his family home in Werrington, on the eastern edge of the city. He would like to spend more time with friends, but the last bus to his village leaves at 19:30.\n\n\"It's very restrictive,\" he said. \"By the time you get into something you have to say 'sorry guys I have to go'.\"\n\nWill Lovatt gets the bus to college every morning, but is often late for lectures due to delays\n\nThe Campaign for Better Transport has been receiving stories like this on an almost daily basis.\n\n\"Even if a bus route is not completely withdrawn, just making it so infrequent that it is impractical has the same impact,\" says Silviya Barrett, the group's director of policy and research.\n\nImproving bus services - and persuading more people to switch from cars - is a key component of attempts to reach net zero carbon emissions, and must be a priority for the government, she says.\n\nAnd yet, the costs of bus travel have risen much faster than those for driving. While car owners have enjoyed a 5% cut in fuel duty - which had already been frozen since 2011 - bus passengers have seen fares rise by more than 80% over the past 10 years, according to analysis by the RAC Foundation.\n\n\"People are not going to look at the options if it's cheaper for them to drive,\" Ms Barrett says.\n\nThe buses in Stoke-on-Trent, like the majority of services in England, are run by private companies. First Bus - the biggest operator in the city - says cuts to services are a direct result of dwindling demand. Passenger numbers on its services in the city have only returned to about 80% of pre-pandemic levels.\n\n\"There has been a gradual decline in demand, both in the Potteries but also across the UK,\" says Rob Hughes, the company's director of operations.\n\nEven before Covid, the industry had been hit by the decline of the High Street, rise of online shopping and comparative fall in motoring costs.\n\n\"The pandemic has accelerated that decline in demand,\" Mr Hughes says, while rising fuel costs and a nationwide driver shortage have heaped on more costs.\n\nIt is a \"pivotal time for the industry\", he says.\n\nWhen private operators decide to alter or end a loss-making service, they must first inform the local authority - which has the option of stepping in with funding to keep the buses running. But in Stoke-on-Trent, the council has opted not to do that in recent years. It declined to comment when asked about this.\n\nAcross England, about 13% of services are supported by councils, although transport experts say this number has been falling steadily as local authority budgets shrunk.\n\n\"Irrespective of the model used to fund bus services, provision needs to match demand,\" says Mr Hughes. \"We obviously can't run buses without passengers.\"\n\nOn Friday, the government announced a three-month extension of the Bus Recovery Grant, which had been due to end in March. It has also extended a £2 cap on single fares, intended to encourage people on to buses.\n\nThe Local Government Association had warned thousands more bus routes could be lost without further support. It welcomed the three-month extension, but said the government needed a \"long-term, reformed bus funding model with significant new money\".\n\nBefore the extension was announced, Mr Hughes told the BBC that First Bus had already begun telling local authorities which services could be cut without further support.\n\nThe government says it is committed to improving services across the country. It asked all local authorities to work with bus operators to develop \"bus service improvement plans\", and has awarded £1bn in funding.\n\nStoke-on-Trent City Council will receive £31m for its plans, which, among other things, aims to reduce fares, increase the frequency of services and provide more buses in the evening.\n\nThe site of the old city centre bus station - demolished in 2019 - has been earmarked for redevelopment\n\nFor Michael, change could not come soon enough. \"The hours that we work, the bus services just don't suit,\" he says. \"It doesn't serve us at all.\"\n\nIn his mining days, he never had to worry about getting to work. \"The collieries put on their own work buses, so that wasn't a problem,\" he says. \"[They] really looked after you. It was a different world.\"\n\nHe worries what impact the lack of public transport will have on the next generation.\n\n\"If they went into the city centre to go to the pictures or something, there's no way back,\" he says. \"They are being cut off from society.\"\n\nData analysis by Will Dahlgreen, Becky Dale, Rob England, Jonathan Fagg and Vanessa Fillis", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Streets submerged and cars pulled into the earth in Ilhabela, an archipelago off the Brazilian coast\n\nAt least 40 people have been killed in flooding and landslides in Brazil's São Paulo state, officials say.\n\nDozens of people are missing and while the number of dead is expected to rise, rescue workers say they hope to pull some of those trapped in flooded homes out of the mud alive.\n\nVideo showed neighbourhoods under water, inundated motorways and debris left after houses were swept away.\n\nCarnival celebrations have been cancelled in a number of cities.\n\nIn the coastal town of São Sebastião, 627mm of rain fell in 24 hours, twice the expected amount for the month.\n\nThe town's mayor, Felipe August, said the situation there was chaotic: \"We have not yet gauged the scale of the damage. We are trying to rescue the victims.\"\n\nSome 50 houses had collapsed and were washed away, Mr Augusto added, saying that the situation remained \"extremely critical\".\n\nThe state government reported at least 35 deaths in São Sebastião and in Ubatuba, some 80km (50 miles) north-east, a seven-year-old girl was killed when a boulder weighing two tonnes hit her home.\n\nHundreds have been displaced and evacuated.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we are going to have many more deaths,\" a civil defence official told newspaper Folha de São Paulo.\n\nState Governor Tarcísio de Freitas said he had released the equivalent of $1.5m (£1.2m) in funding to aid in disaster relief.\n\nCarnival events were cancelled across parts of the coastline, which is a popular destination for wealthy tourists looking to avoid huge streetside festivities in the big cities.\n\nThe festival usually lasts for five days in the run-up to the Christian festival of Lent and the colourful celebrations are synonymous with Brazil.\n\nLatin America's largest port in Santos was also shut as wind speeds exceeded 55km/h (34mph) and waves rose to over a metre, local media reported.\n\nPresident Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was spending the carnival weekend in the north-eastern state of Bahia, visited the affected areas on Monday.\n\nHe pledged to support reconstruction but said, \"It's important for people not to build more houses in places that could fall victim to more rains and landslides that claim yet more lives.\"\n\nIn a post on Twitter, he sent his condolences to those who had lost loved ones and promised to bring authorities together to provide healthcare and rescue teams.\n\nMore heavy rain is expected in the area, threatening to make conditions even worse for emergency teams.\n\nExtreme weather events such as the floods are expected to become more common as the impacts of climate change take hold.\n\nLast year, torrential rain in the south-eastern city of Petropolis killed more than 230 people.\n\nHow have you been affected by the storms in Brazil? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "London's mayor Sadiq Khan has announced he is launching a £130m scheme to give every primary school pupil free school meals for the next academic year.\n\nThe mayor's office said it estimated the one-off funding could help more than 270,000 children in the capital during the 2023-24 academic year.\n\nA spokesperson added the plans were also expected to save families about £440 per child over the year.\n\nCharities and unions have welcomed the news but said more action was needed.\n\nThe mayor's office said the scheme, which will be implemented in September and run during term-time only for the length of the academic year, was \"one-off funding from additional business rates income\".\n\nA spokesperson said funding for the project was made possible because council tax and business rates returns from the capital's local authorities were higher than originally forecast in the mayor's draft budget proposals.\n\nMr Khan officially announced the plans during a visit to his old school, Fircroft Primary in Tooting, south-west London.\n\nMr Khan, who received free school meals himself, said: \"The cost of living crisis means families and children across our city are in desperate need of additional support.\n\n\"I have repeatedly urged the government to provide free school meals to help already stretched families, but they have simply failed to act.\"\n\nHe continued: \"The difference they can make to children who are at risk of going hungry - and to families who are struggling to make ends meet - is truly game-changing.\"\n\nMr Khan says the difference free school meals can make to children's lives is \"game-changing\"\n\nThe launch follows similar decisions by London councils in Newham, Islington, Southwark and Tower Hamlets to offer their own universal primary school free school meals.\n\nLast month, Westminster City Council also began providing free school meals for primary pupils in a scheme set to run for at least 18 months.\n\nCharities and teaching unions have welcomed the plans, but some have urged central government to step up wider support.\n\nBarbara Crowther from the Children's Food Campaign said: \"We applaud the mayor for announcing this vital nutritional safety net for every single primary school child in London for the coming academic year.\n\n\"However, healthy school food for all must not just be an emergency measure. It should be a core part of a fully inclusive education system for the long term.\"\n\nSingle parent charity Gingerbread said the scheme would be a \"huge relief\" for those struggling to feed their children\n\nVictoria Benson, chief executive of the single parent charity Gingerbread, said many parents had told them their children had gone without food because they were struggling with the cost of living.\n\n\"It will be a huge relief to many parents that their child will now be fed at school,\" she said.\n\nHowever, youth education charity Impetus said the move may make it harder for schools to find out who was eligible for free school meals.\n\nCurrently, an application for free school meals triggers pupil premium funding, which is used to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged children.\n\n\"We are concerned that the unintended consequence of this important intervention could end up disadvantaging the children who need it the most,\" director Steve Haines said.\n\nMeanwhile Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary at the National Education Union (NEU), said the scheme would be \"a much-needed lifeline\" that could also help \"attainment and educational outcomes\".\n\n\"Children who have access to a healthy hot meal every day are better able to focus, connect with their peers and build bright futures\", he said.\n\n\"The government must now end its inaction and commit to funding free school meals for all in primary schools across the rest of the country, and long term.\"\n\nChief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham, described the scheme as \"fantastic news\" but added it \"highlighted the government's failure to act for children\".\n\n\"It really is for ministers now to respond to public support for free school meals and ensure that every child in the UK has a free, balanced meal in the middle of the day,\" Ms Garnham said.\n\nCharities and teaching unions have welcomed the plans, but some have urged central government to step up wider support\n\nA Department for Education spokesman said more than two million schoolchildren had received a free meal since 2010, \"thanks to the introduction of universal infant free school meals plus generous protections put in place as benefit recipients move across to universal credit\".\n\n\"Over a third of pupils in England now receive free school meals in education settings, compared with 1.1 million in 2009, and we have made a further investment in the national school breakfast programme to extend the programme for another year, backed by up to £30m,\" he continued.\n\nThe government added the energy bills support scheme had also provided £400 discount to millions of households during winter, with further support for the most vulnerable people.\n\nCo-founder of Leon Restaurants, Henry Dimbleby, hailed the announcement as \"absolutely fantastic\".\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4 similar schemes had been trialled in 2013 in Newham and Durham, which had \"significantly improved academic performance not just for those who weren't on free school meals before, but actually more even for the children who were already on free school meals because it changes the culture of the school.\"\n\nEmma Best, a City Hall Conservative health spokeswoman and London Assembly Member, said: \"While I welcome more children having access to free school meals this year, the reality is that many lower income families will be hit hard by a 57% increase in Sadiq Khan's council tax since 2016 and his £12.50 daily ULEZ charge.\"\n\nShe said the school meals scheme had \"completely missed secondary school pupils\".\n\n\"If the mayor genuinely wants to help the poorest families, he should be focusing on those most in need across all schools,\" the spokeswoman added.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Strikes by health workers in England and Wales are set to intensify over the coming weeks. More NHS staff, at more trusts, are joining the dispute.\n\nOn Monday, ambulance workers are walking out of the ambulance trust in Wales and seven of the ten ambulance trusts in England.\n\nTwo unions are involved - Unite and the GMB. Members of Unite will then continue their ambulance strike in Wales on Tuesday and Wednesday.\n\nIn Scotland, where all health strikes are suspended, a new pay offer of 14% over two years is now on the table.\n\nThe strike by Border Force officials at Dover, Calais, Dunkirk and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel Terminal ended at 07:00 GMT this morning. Travellers are still being warned to expect disruption this morning due to the knock-on effects.\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nAmbulance staff in the Unite and GMB unions in Wales and several regions of England are striking on Monday.\n\nThe strike affects calls that are not life-threatening only and people are advised to call 999 in an emergency.\n\nAmbulances will still be sent to the most life-threatening calls - known as Category 1, which includes cardiac arrests.\n\nPatients that need time-critical treatment, such as kidney or cancer care, will also be transported.\n\nLess urgent calls - known as Category 2, which includes some strokes and major burns - might have to wait longer than usual for an ambulance.\n\nBorder Force staff ended their four-day strike at 07:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nThe strike only affected international inbound travel to the UK. The PCS union said 1,000 of its members had been expected to walk out at the ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Dover, and the Coquelles Channel Tunnel Terminal, over the four days.\n\nMilitary personnel and civil servants have been on standby to step in and carry out border checks.\n\nNevertheless, the government warned people should prepare their families for longer waiting times at border control.\n\nPeople were told to use e-gates where possible, and check with operators before travelling.\n\nOn Saturday, coach passengers returning to the UK faced queues of more than six hours at border checkpoints in Calais, although the Home Office rejected claims that the strikes had affected waiting times.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The US says China is considering supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia for the Ukraine war - a claim strongly denied by Beijing.\n\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Chinese firms were already providing \"non-lethal support\" to Russia and new information suggested Beijing could provide \"lethal support\".\n\nSuch an escalation would mean \"serious consequences\" for China, he warned.\n\nBeijing said the claims were false and accused Washington of spreading lies.\n\n\"We do not accept the United States' finger-pointing on China-Russia relations, let alone coercion and pressure,\" China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference on Monday, when asked about the allegations.\n\nChina has also denied reports that Moscow has requested military equipment.\n\nChinese President Xi Jinping is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is yet to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine - but he has sought to remain neutral in the conflict and has called for peace.\n\nMr Blinken was speaking to CBS News after he met China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.\n\nHe said that during the meeting he expressed \"deep concerns\" about the \"possibility that China will provide lethal material support to Russia\".\n\n\"To date, we have seen Chinese companies... provide non-lethal support to Russia for use in Ukraine. The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they're considering providing lethal support,\" he said.\n\nHe did not elaborate on what information the US had received about China's potential plans. When pressed on what the US believed China might give to Russia, he said it would be primarily weapons as well as ammunition.\n\nThe US has sanctioned a Chinese company for allegedly providing satellite imagery of Ukraine to the mercenary Wagner Group, which supplies Russia with thousands of fighters.\n\nMr Blinken told CBS that \"of course, in China, there's really no distinction between private companies and the state\".\n\nIf China provided Russia with weapons, that would cause a \"serious problem for us and in our relationship\", he added.\n\nRelations between Washington and Beijing were already poor after the US shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon in early February. Both sides exchanged angry words, but equally both sides appeared embarrassed by the incident and seemed ready to move on.\n\nBut if China were to deliver weapons to help Russian forces in Ukraine, then US-Chinese relations would deteriorate much more severely.\n\nIt would be the most \"catastrophic\" thing that could happen to the relationship between the two giants, said top Republican senator Lindsay Graham.\n\n\"It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie,\" he told ABC News. \"Don't do this.\"\n\nMr Blinken's warning seems to be clearly designed to deter China from doing that.\n\nMr Blinken also said the US was worried about China helping Russia evade Western sanctions designed to cripple Russia's economy. China's trade with Russia has been growing, and it is one of the biggest markets for Russian oil, gas, and coal.\n\nNato members, including the US, are sending a variety of weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine, including tanks. They have stopped short of sending fighter jets, and Mr Blinken would not be drawn on whether the US would help other countries supply jets.\n\n\"We've been very clear that we shouldn't fixate or focus on any particular weapons system,\" he said.\n\nHe did, however, say that the West must ensure Ukraine had what it needed for a potential counter offensive against Russia \"in the months ahead\". Russia is currently trying to advance in eastern regions of Ukraine, where some of the fiercest fighting of the war has taken place.\n\nThe top US diplomat's remarks come ahead of a scheduled visit by Mr Wang to Moscow, as part of the Chinese foreign policy chief's tour of Europe.\n\nMr Wang said in Munich on Saturday that China had \"neither stood by idly nor thrown fuel on the fire\" for the Ukraine war, Reuters reported.\n\nChina would publish a document that laid out its position on settling the conflict, Mr Wang said. The document would state that the territorial integrity of all countries must be respected, he said.\n\n\"I suggest that everybody starts to think calmly, especially friends in Europe, about what kind of efforts we can make to stop this war,\" Mr Wang said.\n\nHe added that there were \"some forces that seemingly don't want negotiations to succeed, or for the war to end soon\", but did not say who he meant.\n\nThe Chinese President, Mr Xi, is scheduled to deliver a \"peace speech\" on the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Friday, 24 February, according to Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani.\n\nMr Tajani told Italian radio that Mr Xi's speech would call for peace without condemning Russia, Reuters reported.\n\nDuring their meeting, Mr Blinken and Mr Wang also exchanged strong words on the deepening row over an alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over the US.\n\nMr Blinken said during the meeting that the US would not \"stand for any violation of our sovereignty\" and said \"this irresponsible act must never again occur\".\n\nMr Blinken told CBS that other nations were concerned about what he called China's \"surveillance balloon program\" across five continents.\n\nMr Wang, meanwhile, called the episode a \"political farce manufactured by the US\" and accused them of \"using all means to block and suppress China\". China has denied sending a spy balloon.\n\nAnd on Sunday morning, Beijing warned that the US would \"bear all the consequences\" if it escalated the argument over the balloon. China would \"follow through to the end\" in the event \"the US insists on taking advantage of the issue\", it said in a foreign ministry statement reported by Reuters.\n\nThe full interview with CBS - the BBC's US broadcasting partner - is due to air on Sunday.", "The average asking price for a UK home rose by just £14 from January to February, according to property website Rightmove - the lowest increase for the month since its records began in 2001.\n\nThe average asking price for a home is now £362,452, it said.\n\nAsking prices normally rise at the start of the year as sellers gear up for the spring selling season.\n\nHowever, price tags do fluctuate at other times in a year. For example in November and December, they decreased.\n\nRightmove said higher mortgage rates and living costs were squeezing what people could afford. It follows months of falling house prices and predictions of further declines this year and next.\n\n\"Many sellers are breaking with tradition and showing unseasonal initial pricing restraint,\" Tim Bannister, Rightmove's director of property science, said of the latest figures.\n\nHe added buyers were taking more time to \"find the right property at the right price\" and wanted \"greater realism on price\".\n\nUp until January house prices in the UK fell for five months in a row, according to building society Nationwide.\n\nMeanwhile annual house price growth slowed to 1.1%, down from 2.8% in December.\n\nRightmove said the rise in asking prices seen this February was lower than the growth of 0.6% recorded during the 2008 financial crisis.\n\nPart of the reason is higher mortgage rates, which have squeezed purchasing power. Rates have fallen from the 6.65% highs seen after Liz Truss's mini-budget in September but remain far above what they were a year ago.\n\nAccording to research firm Moneyfacts, average two-year and five-year fixed rate mortgages are still above 5%.\n\nAt the same time inflation - the rate at which prices rise - is near a 40-year high, putting pressure on household budgets.\n\nDespite this, Rightmove said buyers were benefiting from \"more choice albeit with revised budgets to accommodate higher mortgage rates\".\n\nThe company said the number of sales agreed was rebounding, but was still 11% down on 2019 levels. They had been down 30% during the aftermath of the mini-budget.\n\nAnd Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at estate agent Knight Frank, said the housing market had picked up a bit since Christmas.\n\n\"Buyers and sellers switched off early for the holidays due to the volatility caused by the mini-budget but have come back surprisingly strongly in 2023,\" he said.\n\nKnight Frank expects house prices to fall by about 5% this year as household budgets come under pressure.\n\nThe Office for Budget Responsibility, the government's official forecaster, has predicted a 9% drop in prices through to Autumn 2024 before prices start to rise again.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Finance Secretary Kate Forbes says she has the vision, experience and competence to inspire voters\n\nSNP leadership candidate Kate Forbes has said she would not have voted for the Scottish government's gender reform bill in its current form.\n\nThe finance secretary told BBC Scotland she had \"significant concerns\" about self-identification.\n\nShe earlier confirmed her bid to take over from Nicola Sturgeon, who last week announced her resignation as party leader and first minister.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf and ex-minister Ash Regan are also standing.\n\nIn her BBC interview Ms Forbes also vowed to defend the right to same sex marriage even though it clashed with her personal views as a member of the Free Church of Scotland.\n\nRecent months have seen controversy over the Gender Recognition Bill, which aims to make it easier for people in Scotland to change their legally recognised gender.\n\nThe legislation was approved by the Scottish Parliament in December.\n\nBut the UK government said it would block the legislation, arguing that it would conflict with equality protections applying across Great Britain.\n\nMs Sturgeon described this as a \"full-frontal attack\" on the Scottish Parliament and said ministers would defend the bill.\n\nHowever, Ms Forbes told the BBC she would be \"loath to challenge\" the UK government's decision.\n\n\"I understand the principle here, which is that the UK government should not overturn Scottish legislation.\n\n\"That is an important principle which I hold to.\n\n\"But I think on this... seek legal advice and recognise it is not a priority right now for the people of Scotland, who are focused on other things.\"\n\nMs Forbes said she had \"significant concerns\" about self-identification, and would not have been able to vote for the bill in its current form.\n\nShe said there should now be an \"adult conversation\" with the UK government about how the bill could be amended.\n\nAsked in her BBC interview if someone should simply be able to declare they are a woman if they were born a biological male, she replied: \"I don't think self-identification is sufficient.\"\n\nMs Forbes, who was on maternity leave when the gender reform vote took place in parliament, said people she has spoken to wanted to focus on the NHS, the cost of living crisis and making the case for independence.\n\nThe SNP is about to see a generational shift. There had been attempts to persuade veteran nationalists like John Swinney and Angus Robertson to stand.\n\nBoth have ruled themselves out. The three candidates who are running are from a different era - when the SNP were in power at Holyrood and independence was a central debate in Scottish life.\n\nThat doesn't mean there isn't experience among them. Humza Yousaf has been a minister for years, Kate Forbes holds one of the key jobs in the Scottish cabinet.\n\nBut as one senior SNP figure put it to me: \"It's a shift in the SNP. It moves on to a new cast list\"\n\nDuring her BBC interview Ms Forbes was asked whether a man should be able to marry another man.\n\nShe said: \"Equal marriage is a legal right and therefore I would defend that legal commitment.\n\n\"Incidentally though I would hope that others can defend the rights of other minorities, including religious minorities that might take a different view.\"\n\nThe Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP said there was a distinction to be made between personal morality and practice - and a person's political responsibilities as a lawmaker.\n\nMs Forbes added: \"In terms of the morality of the issue I am a practising Christian and I practice the teachings of most mainstream religions - whether that is Islam, Judaism or Christianity - that marriage is between a man and a woman. But that's what I practice.\n\n\"As a servant of democracy in a country where there is law I would defend to the hilt your right and anybody else's right to live and to love without harassment or fear.\"\n\nMs Forbes said the SNP needed \"a reset\" over its strategy for independence, which she said has been \"largely determined by a few people\".\n\nShe also said she has the \"vision, the experience and the competence\" to inspire voters within the party and across the country.\n\nMs Forbes previously said that Scotland and the Yes movement were at \"a major crossroads\".\n\n\"I cannot sit back and watch our nation thwarted on the road to self-determination. Our small, independent neighbours enjoy wealthier, fairer, and greener societies - and so can we,\" she said.\n\nAsh Regan has confirmed her intention to stand in the contest\n\nLeadership candidate Ash Regan has been an outspoken critic of the gender reform legislation, quitting her role as community safety minister in protest before it was approved by Holyrood.\n\nHowever, Humza Yousaf promised to stand by the legislation and challenge the UK government's order blocking the bill.\n\nHe said: \"There's the principle of the Section 35 order, which I think we have to defend the Scottish Parliament against.\n\n\"But on the issue more broadly, I'd be keen to work with those who have got real concerns.\n\n\"Let's engage with them. Let's try to bring them around the table. Let's not let this issue define us as a movement.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf has launched his leadership campaign\n\nSpeaking at the launch of his leadership campaign in Clydebank on Monday, Mr Yousaf said he would focus on the policies of independence, not the process.\n\nHe added that he was \"not wedded\" to the idea of a de facto referendum.\n\nEarlier, Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson ruled himself out of the leadership race.\n\nHe said: \"As the father of two very young children the time is not right for me and my family to take on such a huge commitment.\"\n\nCandidates have until Friday to secure 100 nominations from at least 20 local branches to secure their place on the ballot. The winner is due to be announced on 27 March.\n• None SNP to announce new leader within six weeks", "Twenty-nine people - including a woman pregnant with twins - died in the 1998 attack in the County Tyrone town.\n\nThe weather in Omagh reflects the mood: dreary and dark.\n\nMany of the bereaved families have been campaigning for an inquiry into the Omagh bombing for more than a decade.\n\nOthers fear it will open old wounds.\n\nThe bombing was the biggest single atrocity in the Troubles - 29 people lost their lives, including a woman who was pregnant with twins.\n\nLots of people's lives changed forever that day in County Tyrone almost 25 years ago.\n\nOmagh was bombed by the Real IRA in 1998\n\nIt doesn't take you long to walk around the town and find people who still carry that trauma every day.\n\n\"It's a day I'll never forget,\" one woman told me.\n\n\"I just remember the noise and then the silence, then the chaos and devastation that ensued after. It'll stay with me forever.\"\n\nJill and Lilian work in a shop not far from where the bomb exploded\n\nJill and Lillian work in a shop on Market Street, not far from where the bomb exploded - they described the scene as \"absolute mayhem\".\n\nThree women who worked in the shop were killed. Jill's mother was stuck in a shop when the bomb went off.\n\nLillian said the impact of that day in 1998 is \"hard to get your head around\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The 29 victims of the Omagh bombing\n\nOther people on Market Street were happy to stop and chat, but many wanted to reserve judgment on the inquiry.\n\nThey don't feel it's their place to comment.\n\n\"I think as a town we want to know the truth but at the same time, it's in the past. It's in a box, that day,\" said one shopper, who was in the Dunnes Stores car park when the bomb went off.\n\n\"I don't know if it'll help those families - I hope it does - but I suppose that's for the families to find out.\"\n\nA shopworker said \"you relive it every day driving up and down this town\".\n\nOne man remarked that it was \"about time\" while another, when asked if he welcomed the news, said \"very much so\".", "Oil and gas giant Shell has reported record annual profits after energy prices surged last year following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nProfits hit $39.9bn (£32.2bn) in 2022, double the previous year's total and the highest in its 115-year history.\n\nEnergy firms have seen record earnings since oil and gas prices jumped following the invasion of Ukraine.\n\nIt has heaped pressure on firms to pay more tax as households struggle with rising bills.\n\nOpposition parties said Shell's profits were \"outrageous\" and the government was letting energy firms \"off the hook\". They also called for the planned increase in the energy price cap due in April to be scrapped.\n\nEnergy prices had begun to climb after the end of Covid lockdowns but rose sharply in March last year after the events in Ukraine led to worries over supplies.\n\nThe price of Brent crude oil reached nearly $128 a barrel following the invasion, but has since fallen back to about $83. Gas prices also spiked but have come down from their highs.\n\nIt has led to bumper profits for energy companies, but also fuelled a rise in energy bills for households and businesses.\n\nLast year, the UK government introduced a windfall tax - called the Energy Profits Levy - on the \"extraordinary\" earnings of firms to help fund its scheme to lower gas and electricity bills.\n\nDespite the move, Shell had said it did not expect to pay any UK tax this year as it is allowed to offset decommissioning costs and investments in UK projects against any UK profits.\n\nHowever, on Thursday it said was due to pay $134m in UK windfall tax for 2022, and expected to pay more than $500m in 2023.\n\nThis may look small compared to its profits but Shell only derives around 5% of its revenue from the UK - the rest is made and taxed in other jurisdictions.\n\nHowever, critics point out that Shell is a UK-headquartered company and has been paying more to its shareholders than it spends on renewable investments.\n\nThe announcement has increased pressure on Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt to raise more money from oil and gas profits.\n\nA Downing Street official said they \"absolutely\" understand anger at the \"extraordinary\" profits but indicated there are no plans to increase the windfall tax.\n\nThe prime minister's spokesman said questions about potential changes were \"for the chancellor\" when pressed by reporters.\n\nThe government \"is ready to take action\" if falling wholesale energy costs aren't reflected in lower prices at the petrol pump, the official added without detailing specific measures.\n\nThe government is currently limiting gas and electricity bills so a household using a typical amount of energy will pay £2,500 a year.\n\nHowever, that is still more than twice what it was before Russia's invasion, and the threshold is due to rise to £3,000 in April.\n\nThe government's windfall tax only applies to profits made from extracting UK oil and gas. The rate was originally set at 25%, but has now been increased to 35%.\n\nOil and gas firms also pay 30% corporation tax on their profits as well as a supplementary 10% rate. Along with the new windfall tax, that takes their total tax rate to 75%.\n\nHowever, companies are able to reduce the amount of tax they pay by factoring in losses or spending on things like decommissioning North Sea oil platforms. It has meant that in recent years, energy giants such as BP and Shell have paid little or no tax in the UK.\n\nThe annual profit figure far surpassed Shell's previous record set in 2008. The company also said it had paid out $6.3bn to its shareholders in the final three months of 2022, and that it planned another $4bn share buyback.\n\nShell chief executive Wael Sawan said that these are \"incredibly difficult times - we are seeing inflation rampant around the world\" but that Shell was playing its part by investing in renewable technologies.\n\nIts chief financial officer Sinead Gorman added that Shell had paid $13bn in taxes globally in 2022. It had also accounted for 11% of liquified natural gas shipments into the EU, easing pressure on supplies caused by sanctions on Russia.\n\nLabour's shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband said: \"As the British people face an energy price hike of 40% in April, the government is letting the fossil fuel companies making bumper profits off the hook with their refusal to implement a proper windfall tax.\n\n\"Labour would stop the energy price cap going up in April, because it is only right that the companies making unexpected windfall profits from the proceeds of war pay their fair share.\"\n\nLiberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: \"No company should be making these kind of outrageous profits out of Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine.\n\n\"They must tax the oil and gas companies properly and at the very least ensure that energy bills don't rise yet again in April.\"\n\nTUC general secretary Paul Nowak called for ministers to impose a larger windfall tax, adding: \"The time for excuses is over.\"\n\nHe continued: \"Instead of holding down the pay of paramedics, teachers, firefighters and millions of other hard-pressed public servants, ministers should be making big oil and gas pay their fair share.\"", "The girl who died has been named locally as four-year-old Alice Stones\n\nA dog attack that killed a four-year-old girl in Milton Keynes was a \"tragic isolated incident\" involving a family pet, police have confirmed.\n\nOfficers attended a house on Broadlands in Netherfield at 17:00 GMT on Tuesday after reports a dog had attacked a child in a back garden.\n\nThe victim has been named locally as Alice Stones, but she has not been formally identified.\n\nThames Valley Police said no arrests had been made.\n\nOfficers are also working to establish the breed of the dog, which was \"humanely destroyed\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA candlelit vigil was held for the four-year-old at Grand Union Vineyard Church near to the house on Wednesday evening.\n\nPrayers were said for the family and music was played over speakers, including Amazing Grace and Over The Rainbow.\n\nDonna Fuller, a councillor for Woughton Community Council, said the area had a \"tight-knit community, predominantly families\".\n\nShe said the vigil was to \"enable the community to come together and draw strength from each other\".\n\nSoft toys and flowers have been left at the scene in Broadlands\n\nThe councillor told gathered crowds: \"This family will need the time and space to allow them to process this tragic event and I hope that we can do that and help them in the future.\n\n\"I would ask that we support each other.\n\n\"There is a feeling of deep sadness that we will feel as a community so I ask you to be neighbourly and I ask you to be supportive and most of all I ask you to be kind.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Police confirm that the dog involved was a family pet\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday afternoon, Supt Marc Tarbit said: \"An investigation is currently under way to fully understand the circumstances, but we believe this was a tragic isolated incident and there is no threat to the wider community.\n\n\"Accordingly, no arrests have been made at this time.\n\n\"I can confirm that the dog was a family pet and it was put down by police at the scene yesterday evening.\"\n\nSupt Tarbit said there would be a stronger police presence locally over the coming days.\n\n\"This is clearly an incident that has shocked and upset people, and I urge residents to speak to officers with any questions or concerns they may have,\" he said.\n\n\"I'd also like to ask the community for their support in not speculating about this matter and offer reassurance that our detectives are working hard to progress the investigation.\"\n\nRishi Sunak expressed his condolences to the family during Prime Minister's Questions and thanked the emergency services for responding \"rapidly and professionally\".\n\nOfficers were called to the property in Netherfield, Milton Keynes, just after 17:00 GMT on Tuesday\n\nLocal residents have spoken of their shock at the news of the four-year-old's death.\n\nNeighbour Rita Matthews, 36, said she would see the youngster while walking her own daughter to school and described her as a \"happy little girl\".\n\n\"It's so sad we're not going to see the girl again and I pray all the best to her mum to get her strength back,\" she said.\n\nMr Morley said the church would be open all day to allow locals time for \"quiet reflection\".\n\n\"Our hearts are really for the family, but we realise a tragedy like this cuts to the heart of the community here in Netherfield,\" he said.\n\n\"It's just being available to people, if people need to talk, and to be around.\n\n\"The Netherfield community, and I've seen it over the years I've been here, whether it was the flood of 2018 or the stabbing of that young lad last year, always seems to draw together.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Joe Biden at his home in Delaware on 8 July, 2022.\n\nNo classified documents were found during an FBI search of President Joe Biden's home in Rehoboth, Delaware, his lawyer says.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Biden's attorney said Wednesday's search was \"planned\" with the president's \"full support\".\n\nThe nearly four-hour search of the property related to a wider probe into the handling of classified documents.\n\nThe FBI has not commented on the search. As it was consensual, no search warrant was sought.\n\nMr Biden's lawyer, Bob Bauer, said the search was carried out \"without advance public notice\" in the interests of \"operational security and integrity\".\n\nFollowing the search - which lasted from 08:30 to 12:00 local time - Mr Bauer said that \"no documents with classified markings were found\".\n\nSome \"materials and handwritten notes\" that appear to date to Mr Biden's time as vice-president between 2009-17 were taken for \"further review\", Mr Bauer added.\n\nThe search is the latest in a series carried out at various locations, after classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center - an office space - in Washington DC in November. This was not made public at the time.\n\nMore documents were discovered at another of Mr Biden's homes in Wilmington, Delaware, in searches conducted in December and January.\n\nThe precise number of classified records recovered remains unclear - although at least a dozen were found during the January searches alone.\n\nMr Biden has said his team did \"what they should have done\" by alerting officials immediately, and that they are \"co-operating fully and completely\" with the investigation.\n\nAfter the first of January's searches, Mr Biden told reporters the files were in a locked garage.\n\n\"It's not like they are sitting in the street,\" he said.\n\nThe latest search comes a day after special counsel Robert Hur officially began his duties overseeing the probe into the documents.\n\nPresident Donald Trump and former Vice-President Mike Pence have also been embroiled in controversy over the handling of classified documents.\n\nIn Mr Pence's case, a \"small number of documents bearing classified markings\" were found at his home in Carmel, Indiana, according to a letter sent to the National Archives by his lawyer. The documents were recovered by the FBI from a safe at the property on 19 January, with two boxes more delivered to the Archives on 23 January.\n\nAn August 2022 search of Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida uncovered dozens of boxes and about 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classified markings.\n\nThe search warrant came after attorneys representing Mr Trump had said all government records were returned. Mr Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he had declassified the documents taken with him.\n\nThe justice department search of Joe Biden's holiday home adds one more twist to a classified documents saga that has stretched on for nearly a month now and includes a special counsel overseeing the inquiry.\n\nThe FBI move could reveal how forthcoming and thorough the Biden team has been in reviewing the documents stored on his personal property. For the most part, the Biden lawyers have been conducting their own review of the president's personal residences without government investigators looking over their shoulders. While they found classified material at the president's Wilmington home, they have said that there were no such documents found at the president's beach house.\n\nAt the very least, the search will help quell some of the concerns expressed by Republicans that the government is holding Mr Biden to a lower level of scrutiny and suspicion than Donald Trump, who had his Mar-a-Lago estate searched by the FBI last August. When Mr Biden's lawyers first revealed they had found classified material at his home and personal office, the former president, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and other conservatives openly wondered why the current president wasn't targeted by government investigators as well.\n\nNow, however, Mr Biden's defenders are pointing out that multiple Biden properties have been searched, but there is no indication that the FBI has investigated Mr Trump's New Jersey and New York homes.", "The Flow Country contains the most intact and extensive blanket bog system in the world\n\nUnesco has been formally asked to consider awarding World Heritage Site status to 469,500 acres (190,000ha) of Scotland's Flow Country.\n\nThe area of Caithness and Sutherland contains the most intact and extensive blanket bog system in the world.\n\nWorld Heritage status is an internationally-recognised designation given to places of cultural, historical or scientific significance.\n\nA decision on the Flow Country's nomination is expected next year.\n\nScottish locations with the Unesco status include the St Kilda archipelago, Skara Brae prehistoric village and the Antonine Wall. Globally, the sites include Australia's Great Barrier Reef and Egypt's Historic Cairo.\n\nThe Flow Country Partnership, a collaboration that includes Highland Council, NatureScot, RSPB Scotland, University of the Highlands and Islands and Wildland Ltd, handed its 250-page nomination dossier to the UK government.\n\nIt was then submitted to Unesco, a UN organisation promoting cooperation on education and science, for consideration.\n\nDr Steven Andrews, of the Flow Country Partnership, said: \"A vast amount of work has gone into getting the nomination dossier prepared for delivery to Unesco in Paris and we are hugely grateful to both the UK government and also the Scottish government for the support they have provided in helping us reach this important milestone.\"\n\nAreas marked in orange form the Flow Country bid for Unesco World Heritage status\n\nUK Arts minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said the Flow Country would be a worthy recipient of World Heritage Site status.\n\nScotland's environment minister Mairi McAllan added the peatlands played an important part in combatting climate change.\n\nThe Flow Country is an expanse of peatlands, bogs, pools, lochs, hills and mountains covering large parts of the north Highlands.\n\nIt is about 50 miles across - roughly the distance from Glasgow to Edinburgh - and covers a total of almost a million acres of land.\n\nThe peatlands, which have been growing for 10,000 years, are formed by layers of waterlogged mosses and other vegetation as they die off.\n\nThe plant life does not fully decay due to acidic conditions, so the material retains some of the carbon it absorbed when at the surface of the bog.\n\nIn places, the peat is 10m thick - deep enough to submerge two double decker buses stacked on top of one another.\n\nThe Flows provide habitat for birds, otters and water voles, and is carpeted with sphagnum moss. Its other plant life include sundews, which feed on insects that get trapped in their sticky tentacles.\n\nIt helps combat climate change by storing an estimated 400 million tonnes of carbon. Damaging the peat risks releasing harmful greenhouses gases into the atmosphere.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Starmer: Is PM only person unaware of Raab allegations?\n\nRishi Sunak is under growing pressure to explain what he knew about bullying allegations against Dominic Raab when he appointed him deputy PM.\n\nThe prime minister's spokeswoman would only rule out him being aware of \"formal complaints\" when he gave his ally the job last year.\n\nThe PM is facing calls to suspend Mr Raab from his cabinet jobs while the allegations are investigated.\n\nMr Sunak clashed with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over the issue at PMQs.\n\nSir Keir accused Mr Sunak of being \"too weak\" to act and asked whether the PM was \"the only person completely unaware\" of the allegations.\n\nBut the prime minister insisted he acted decisively in appointing a senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC to investigate the allegations when he learned of \"formal complaints\".\n\nMr Raab, who sat next to Mr Sunak in Parliament, has denied bullying civil servants.\n\nEight formal complaints have been made against Mr Raab, who was appointed deputy prime minister and justice secretary last October.\n\nThe bullying complaints relate to Mr Raab's previous periods as justice secretary and foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, and his time as Brexit secretary under Theresa May.\n\nA serving minister has told the BBC the prime minister will find it hard to keep Mr Raab in his posts when the inquiry into his behaviour reports.\n\nThe minister said it was hard to ignore the number of people who had complained about the deputy PM's conduct.\n\nMr Sunak has previously said he will wait for the outcome of the inquiry before taking any action.\n\nDave Penman, a civil service union leader, has called for Mr Raab to be suspended during the investigation into the allegations.\n\n\"If that was any other employee… they would in all likelihood be suspended from their job,\" the FDA general secretary told the BBC.\n\nResponding to questions from reporters after PMQs, Mr Sunak's spokeswoman said the \"usual processes were followed\" when Mr Raab was appointed to his cabinet jobs.\n\n\"We were not aware of any formal complaints,\" the PM's spokeswoman added.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats have called for the prime minister's independent ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, to investigate what Mr Sunak knew and when, when he appointed his ministers.\n\nLast November, in an interview with BBC political editor Chris Mason at the G20 summit in Bali, the prime minister repeatedly declined to say whether he had informal warnings about Mr Raab's behaviour before bringing him back into government.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMr Sunak said then that he had not been aware of any formal complaints, adding: \"I've been very clear that I don't recognise the characterisation of Dominic's behaviour.\"\n\nMeanwhile, senior Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin backed Mr Sunak for not suspending Mr Raab while the investigation continued, saying he was \"entitled to due process whatever the hullabaloo\".\n\nSir Bernard told the BBC Mr Raab was a \"demanding person to work with\", but officials should be prepared to work in very challenging situations.\n\nAt least three senior civil servants who worked with Mr Raab have given evidence to the inquiry into his behaviour as witnesses.\n\nThe BBC has been told that one is Simon - now Lord McDonald - the former top civil servant at the Foreign Office.\n\nAntonia Romeo was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice in January 2021\n\nAnother, the BBC understands, is Philip Rycroft, who ran the Department for Exiting the European Union when Mr Raab was Brexit secretary.\n\nThe third, the BBC has been told, is the current permanent secretary at the Ministry of Justice, Antonia Romeo.\n\nPermanent secretaries are the UK's most senior civil servants and run government departments.\n\nIt is understood Mr Raab has had an initial meeting with Mr Tolley, but not yet sat down with him for a substantial conversation about the allegations against him.\n\nLast week, the deputy prime minister told the BBC he was confident he had \"behaved professionally throughout\" but made \"no apologies for having high standards\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC News NI looks at the events of 15 August 1998, the day of the Omagh bombing\n\nThe Omagh bomb exploded on 15 August 1998, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.\n\nNo-one has ever been convicted of the atrocity.\n\nBBC News looks back at the many legal twists and turns in the families' two-decades campaign for justice.\n\nThe bomb detonated in a car parked in the middle of the main street in the town\n\nA large car bomb explodes on a Saturday afternoon in the centre of Omagh, County Tyrone. The town's main street is crowded with shoppers and more than 200 people are injured. Twenty-nine of the victims, including a woman pregnant with twins, will die as a result of their injuries. In terms of the final death toll, it is the worst single atrocity after almost 30 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.\n\nA recently-formed dissident republican group, calling itself the Real IRA, claims responsibility for the bomb. In a statement, the paramilitary group says its targets were \"commercial\" and offers an apology to the \"civilian\" victims.\n\nThe judgement and leadership of the head of the police in Northern Ireland during the Omagh bomb investigation is described as \"seriously flawed\". The comments come in a damning report by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan. Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan says the report does not represent a \"fair, thorough or rigorous investigation\". He says both he and the force are considering legal action to quash the report.\n\nSir Ronnie Flanagan was the head of the police at the time of the bombing in 1998\n\nA dissident republican is found guilty of plotting to cause the Omagh bombing Colm Murphy, then 49, is the only person charged in connection with the bombing. Murphy, a builder and publican originally from south Armagh, had denied one charge of conspiring to cause an explosion but three judges at a non-jury court in Dublin deliver a guilty verdict.\n\nThe Police Service of Northern Ireland rejects a number of key allegations made in the ombudsman's report. Sir Ronnie Flanagan accepts that some mistakes were made but insists that nothing could have been done to prevent the bombing.\n\nThe alleged founder and leader of the Real IRA, Michael McKevitt, is found guilty of directing terrorism and membership of an illegal organisation in the Republic of Ireland. The businessman, from Blackrock in County Louth, is not charged over the bomb but is the first person to be prosecuted for directing terrorism. The Irish government introduced the new offence in response to the Omagh attack.\n\nColm Murphy's conviction is ruled unsafe due to alleged irregularities surrounding evidence given by detectives at his trial. He faces a re-trial.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Who were the victims of the Omagh bombing?\n\nCounty Armagh man Sean Hoey is formally charged in court with the murders of 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bombing. The electrician, from Molly Road in Jonesborough, is the first person to face a murder charge in relation to the attack.\n\nSean Hoey is found not guilty of 58 charges, including the murders of 29 people in the Omagh bombing. Clearing Mr Hoey, the judge criticises police witnesses for \"deliberate and calculated deception\" during the 10-month trial.\n\nSir Ronnie Flanagan, the head of the police at the time of the Omagh attack, apologises to the families of the victims of the bomb. He says he is \"desperately sorry\" people have not yet been brought to justice.\n\nThe victims' families begin a landmark civil case, suing five men they allege were involved. The case breaks new legal ground, and is believed to be the first time anywhere in the world that alleged members of a terrorist organisation have been sued.\n\nThe judge in the civil trial rules that Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were all liable for the Omagh bomb. He orders them to pay a total of £1.6m in damages to 12 relatives who took the case. A fifth man, Seamus McKenna, is cleared of liability.\n\nColm Murphy, the only man jailed in connection with the bombing, is cleared following a retrial. The judge says interview evidence from members of An Garda Síochána (Irish police force) is inadmissible.\n\nIn 2009, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were found responsible for the bombing in a landmark civil trial\n\nMichael McKevitt and Liam Campbell lose their appeal against the civil trial verdict. Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly both win their appeals but will face a civil retrial.\n\nSeamus Daly and Colm Murphy are both found liable for the Omagh bombing after a civil retrial.\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers says she has decided not to hold a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the Omagh bombing, adding that she does not believe there are sufficient grounds to justify a further inquiry beyond those that have already taken place.\n\nSeamus McKenna, who was acquitted in the civil action taken by relatives of the bomb victims, dies age 58. His death is a result of injuries he sustained in a fall while repairing a roof at a school in Dundalk, County Louth. A major security operation is put in place for his funeral four days later.\n\nPolice in Northern Ireland charge Seamus Daly with the murders of 29 people in the Omagh bomb attack. They also charge him with an attempted bomb attack in Lisburn, County Antrim, that took place in 1998.\n\nSeamus Daly was released from Maghaberry Prison in County Antrim\n\nThe prosecution case against Seamus Daly collapses. The Public Prosecution Service decides there is no reasonable prospect of conviction after a key witness contradicted his own previous testimony. Mr Daly, who has always denied any involvement in the bombing, is released from prison.\n\nA bid by two men to overturn a landmark civil ruling that found them liable for the Omagh bombing is rejected by the European Court of Human Rights. Liam Campbell and Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt took their case to Europe, arguing that the civil trial in Belfast High Court had been unfair.\n\nBelfast's High Court allows some evidence connected to the 1998 Omagh bombing to be heard in secret. The government had applied for a \"closed material procedure\" (CMP) for a judge to examine whether public disclosure of information would be damaging to national security. After viewing a sample of sensitive documents, the judge ruled that a CMP would be allowed.\n\nIt emerges that relatives of the Omagh bomb victims are to sue Northern Ireland's police chief for failings they believe allowed the killers escape justice. A writ is issued against the chief constable, focusing on what happened after the car bomb and why no-one has been convicted of murder.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Ireland correspondent Chris Page reports from a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing\n\nEvents including a cross-community memorial ceremony are held to mark the 20th anniversary of the Omagh bomb. As well as prayers, speeches and music, a minute's silence is held in remembrance of those who died. A bell is rung 32 times in memory of the victims, with the extra single peal for all who have lost their lives in atrocities around the world.\n\nA Fermanagh and Omagh District Council committee passes a motion opposing the extradition of Liam Campbell to Lithuania over allegations he was part of an operation to buy guns and bombs for the Real IRA. Put forward by an independent councillor, the motion is supported by Sinn Féin and the SDLP. Shortly afterwards SDLP leader Colum Eastwood says it is wrong and his party subsequently withdraws its backing.\n\nMichael McKevitt dies, having been diagnosed with cancer. The 71-year-old had been released from prison in 2016 after his conviction in 2003 for directing terrorism.\n\nNorthern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster says the relatives of those murdered in the bombing deserve an apology over the length of time a court is taking to rule on a call for a public inquiry. The lord chief justice's office blames the situation on the assessment of \"sensitive\" documents.\n\nBelfast High Court rules it was plausible that the bomb could have been prevented by security services and Mr Justice Mark Horner calls for new investigations in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Michael Gallagher, who brought the legal action, calls again for a full public inquiry.\n\nExplaining its reasons for urging new investigations, the High Court in Belfast says it had heard that in the six months before August 1998 there had been 24 dissident attacks - many of the suspects would later be involved in the Omagh bomb. Mr Justice Horner said: \"There is no doubt the authorities could have made life very uncomfortable for those dissident republicans. It is arguable that such a proactive policy would have had the real prospect of preventing the Omagh bomb.\" The Northern Ireland Office says it will \"carefully consider\" calls for a fresh investigation.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris meets some of the families of those killed and asks for more time to consider if there should be an investigation or public inquiry.\n\nA decision on whether to order a new investigation or public inquiry into the Omagh bombing is expected to be made in January, the High Court in Belfast hears.\n\nThe UK government announces there will be an independent statutory inquiry into the Omagh bombing. It will have the full powers of the Inquiries Act 2005, the act under which public inquiries are normally held. It was described by Michael Gallagher as an \"important step forward\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"It's going to be a difficult process\"\n\nLord Turnbull, a senior judge in Scotland, is appointed as the chairman of the inquiry.\n\nThe Irish government said it would consider its next steps when it has more clarity on the UK's inquiry. Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin said his government needed to see the terms of reference. \"As we approach the 25th anniversary of the attack, we will not be found wanting,\" he added.", "Sadiq Khan invited Martin Lewis to join him at the event\n\nConsumer finance expert Martin Lewis has told an event in London the planned timing of a clear-air zone expansion in the capital \"is pretty tough\".\n\nHe was asked to join London Mayor Sadiq Khan at the event, aimed at addressing financial pressures faced by Londoners.\n\nMr Lewis pointed out poorer drivers would be hit more by the widening of the Ultra Low Emission Zone.\n\nMr Khan responded to Mr Lewis, saying: \"What is the right number of people to die a year to make it acceptable?\"\n\nOne angry attendee walked out of the event at City Hall as the controversial issue was discussed.\n\nThe mayor's flagship clean-air policy has been met with opposition from a number of London councils.\n\nResponding to a question on the timing of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion - due to come into place in August - Mr Lewis said: \"If I may be honest, the reasons behind that are good, but the timing is pretty tough to do it this year amongst a cost-of-living crisis.\n\n\"For the 6% who have cars pre-2005 petrol or pre-2015 diesel, they will tend to be not the wealthiest because they haven't upgraded their car in that time.\"\n\nMr Khan responded: \"When is the right time? I was told in 2017 that it wasn't the right time because of concerns around Brexit.\"\n\nFollowing this remark, an audience member began shouting at Mr Khan over his plans before walking out and calling him \"a con man\".\n\nThe mayor has previously described the decision to widen the zone to cover all of London as \"not easy but necessary to reduce the capital's toxic air pollution\". A spokesperson for him said last month: \"About 4,000 Londoners die prematurely each year due to the toxic air in our city and the mayor makes no apology for making the tough decision to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone.\"\n\nMartin Lewis is known as a money-saving guru\n\nAfter the event, Angie Donnelley, 58, from Dagenham, told the BBC she had also been planning to heckle the mayor as \"so many people can't afford the new vehicles - they can't afford to even live or dress themselves\".\n\nShe added: \"There are people who want to go and visit their loved ones' graves, and they have to pay £12.50. It's disgusting.\n\n\"How can one man dictate to Essex what to do when we aren't even in London?\" (Dagenham has been a part of Greater London since 1965, but some people still regard it as being in Essex.)\n\nThe Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is set to cover outer London from 29 August\n\nAlthough most London boroughs have signed an agreement with Transport for London (TfL) allowing it to install the ULEZ cameras, many still have reservations.\n\nEleven outer London councils have expressed concerns over the expansion, with many asking the mayor to delay or improve the scrappage scheme to support people during the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nSome councils bordering London also have objections, with Surrey County Council saying it will not allow TfL warning signs.\n\nThe mayor had given four London Conservative councils until Thursday to sign a legal agreement allowing work to get under way to expand the zone.\n\nThe councils said they would not sign the agreement and have instead launched the first step of legal action.\n\nIn their pre-action protocol letter to the mayor and TfL, they cited four grounds for deeming the scheme \"unlawful\", including the lack of consultation with people living outside of London.\n\nPoor public transport links in the outer London boroughs have been cited as a cause for concern by some councils\n\nIn its response to the boroughs' legal letter, TfL rejected all of the claims, insisting the decision to go ahead was \"properly reasoned and rational, and the consultation was fair, with all responses conscientiously considered\".\n\nNew City Hall polling from YouGov revealed that 17% of Londoners were financially struggling to make ends meet and going without essentials or relying on debt.\n\nHalf of Londoners had bought cheaper products to stretch their funds, and 45% said they used less water, fuel or energy to try to keep bills down, according to the poll.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "The stage design is intended to give the impression of the contest \"opening its arms to Ukraine\"\n\nEurovision's stage will use a design that demonstrates \"how music can transcend borders and bring people together\", the BBC has said.\n\nThe song contest will take place at Liverpool Arena in May, with the city hosting the event on behalf of Ukraine.\n\nThe BBC said the stage was inspired by \"a wide hug\" to give the impression of \"opening its arms to Ukraine\".\n\nIt will be created by design firm Yellow Studio, which previously worked on the 2022 Grammy Awards ceremony.\n\nThe stage, which will cover 2,300 sq ft (220 sq m) of the 11,000-capacity venue, will host the contest's semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the grand final on 13 May.\n\nThe BBC, which is host broadcaster for the event, said the design of it was intended to demonstrate \"how music can transcend borders and bring people together as one unit\".\n\nIt said the stage took inspiration from \"a wide hug that enfolds the Liverpool Arena\" and was intended to give the impression of \"opening its arms to Ukraine, the show's performers and guests from across the world\".\n\nThe mayor of Turin officially handed the contest to Liverpool mayor Joanne Anderson at a ceremony on Tuesday\n\nFirst-look images of the design show the stage extending out into the audience standing area, which will be sited in front of a section of booth-like seating where the acts from participating countries will stay while they are not performing.\n\nYellow Studio director Julio Himede said it was \"a wonderful honour to be collaborating with the BBC and the production team to design this year's Eurovision Song Contest set\".\n\n\"This year's contest unites Ukraine and the UK to celebrate the unique cultures of both,\" he added.\n\nThe typeface used in the branding is called Penny Lane, in a nod to both the city's musical heritage and its street signs\n\nThe branding and the United By Music slogan for this year's contest were revealed in January, with artwork showing hearts beating together in the colours of the Ukrainian and UK flags.\n\nLiverpool won a bidding process to be chosen as the host city after it was decided Ukraine, the winners of the 2022 contest, could not take up hosting duties due to the ongoing war in the country.\n\nThe BBC also confirmed the typeface used in the branding was called Penny Lane after The Beatles' 1967 song, in a nod to both the city's rich musical heritage and its iron street signs.\n\nAll the build-up, insights and analysis will be explored each week on a new BBC podcast called Eurovisioncast.\n\nEurovisioncast is available on BBC Sounds, or search wherever you get your podcasts from.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Sadiq Khan said reinstating the perk would provide a \"much-needed boost\" to the capital's retail sector\n\nThe mayor of London has called on the chancellor to reinstate duty-free shopping for overseas visitors and extend it to EU visitors.\n\nThe capital has been disadvantaged by the end of the perk said the bosses of Heathrow, Selfridges and Harrods.\n\nSadiq Khan said it would provide a \"much-needed boost\" to the capital's retail sector.\n\nAn HM Treasury spokesperson said the chancellor was prioritising being \"responsible\" with public finances.\n\nSteve Medway, CEO of the Knightsbridge and King's Road Partnerships called on the chancellor to \"see reason\" and bring the policy back\n\nBefore Brexit in 2020, international visitors could receive a VAT refund on items bought in High Street shops, at airports or other departure points from the UK which they exported in personal luggage.\n\nIt was set to return as part of Kwasi Kwarteng's \"mini-Budget\" but dropped by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt when he took up the post last year.\n\nMr Khan co-signed a letter on 31 January to the chancellor in which he said that reinstating duty-free shopping would help London's retail and hospitality sectors \"at a time they need it most\".\n\n\"Our rich ecosystem of shops, hospitality venues, and cultural attractions, is heavily dependent on both domestic and international tourists,\" Mr Khan wrote.\n\nSteve Medway, CEO of the Knightsbridge and King's Road Partnerships, representing over 500 businesses in the Kensington and Chelsea area, including major signatories to the letter, called on the chancellor to \"see reason\".\n\n\"The withdrawal of tax-free shopping puts London as an international tourist destination at a disadvantage,\" he said.\n\nHe highlighted that shoppers from China would receive the tax reduction \"if they choose Paris or Milan instead of London\".\n\nKay Buxton, chief executive of Marble Arch London BID, which signed the letter, claimed research showed that reinstating duty-free shopping could add £3bn to the UK economy.\n\nAn HM Treasury spokesperson said the chancellor was prioritising being \"responsible\" with public finances.\n\nThey said: \"Introducing a wide-ranging VAT-free shopping scheme would come at too high of a cost, as has been supported by previous estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility.\"\n\nTax-free shopping is available to all non-UK visitors who purchase items in store and have them sent directly to their overseas address.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Protesters and mourners clash outside George Pell’s funeral in Sydney.\n\nAt Cardinal George Pell's funeral in Australia on Thursday, mourners muttered prayers and softly sung hymns but were at times drowned out by protesters condemning him to hell.\n\nThe Catholic cleric - who died last of surgery complications last month aged 81 - leaves a complicated legacy.\n\nFormerly one of the Pope's top aides, he was Australia's top-ranked Catholic.\n\nBut his public image was tainted by unproven allegations he both concealed and committed child sexual abuse.\n\nThose allegations loomed large in Sydney on Thursday. At one point, police outside St Mary's Cathedral intervened to separate angry mourners from chanting protesters. Earlier, one protester was arrested.\n\nInside the church, where Cardinal Pell served as the city's archbishop for over a decade, dignitaries including former Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott filled pews. Hundreds more gathered in a forecourt to watch the requiem Mass on big screens.\n\nNoticeably absent were Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet - himself a devout Catholic. Both sent delegates.\n\nIn a message read to the congregation, Pope Francis praised Cardinal Pell's \"dedication to the gospel and to the Church\", while Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher lauded him as \"giant of the Catholic Church in Australia\" who had been wrongly demonised.\n\nOver six decades, Cardinal Pell rose to prominence in the Church as a strong supporter of traditional Catholic values.\n\nHe took on the role of Vatican treasurer in 2014 but left in 2017, returning to Australia to face trial on child sexual abuse charges. He was convicted, then later acquitted on appeal.\n\nMany of Cardinal Pell's supporters believe he was unfairly persecuted, and that his record on the issue of child sexual abuse is part of what made him great.\n\nMr Abbott, who spoke at the funeral, claimed Cardinal Pell had been the first Australian Catholic to sack child abusers and report them to police. Others pointed to the landmark - but controversial - compensation scheme he set up.\n\n\"He was greatest man I've ever known,\" Mr Abbott said.\n\nOthers who gathered to pay their respects said he was a kind man, quick to offer support and encouragement to those going through challenging times.\n\nOne mourner told the BBC he hopes the cardinal will be remembered \"for the things he did and not for the things that he was accused of\".\n\n\"He was a good man,\" Nathan, 33, added. \"He fought for the rights of many people, contrary to popular belief.\"\n\nBut outside the cathedral square, child abuse survivors remembered him as someone who had failed to protect them.\n\nSome travelled from other states to tie ribbons to the church fence - a gesture seen in Australia as a tribute to victims of the Church abuse crisis. Most were cut down overnight on Wednesday by supporters of Cardinal Pell.\n\nA landmark inquiry into Australian child sexual abuse found Cardinal Pell had personally known of abuse by priests as early as the 1970s and had failed to act. Cardinal Pell disputed the findings, saying they were \"not supported by evidence\".\n\nMaureen, 75, came to leave a ribbon on behalf of a close friend, who was abused by a Catholic teacher.\n\n\"I can't let today pass without standing for him. He is not well enough to stand for himself,\" she told the BBC.\n\nMaureen was among those who left hundreds of ribbon tributes for child sexual abuse survivors\n\nProtesters gathering in parkland opposite the cathedral remembered Cardinal Pell as a \"monstrous bigot\".\n\n\"Pell stood for blatant homophobia, misogyny... covering up abuse within the Catholic Church,\" organiser Kim Stern told the BBC.\n\n\"We think it's pretty disgusting he's getting a send-off like this.\"\n\nAlso out in force were police, trying to temper simmering tensions.\n\nThursday's funeral follows weeks of tense debate in Australia about Cardinal Pell's legacy.\n\nMourner Louisa Pastoois personally admired the cardinal, but she told the BBC she has accepted his legacy will be mixed.\n\n\"The legacy he leaves behind in the Church, and the world… is something different,\" Louisa said.\n\n\"I think there needed to be someone to take the blame for all that's happened in the church… there needs to be a face to the sins and unfortunately, it was his.\"", "Five members of Canada's federal police force are facing charges in connection with the fatal arrest of an indigenous man nearly six years ago.\n\nDale Culver died in police custody on 18 July 2017 at the age of 35.\n\nThe five officers are members of the Prince George Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The charges were filed by prosecutors in British Columbia.\n\nTwo of the Mounties are charged with manslaughter, while the other three are charged with obstructing justice.\n\nThe indictment comes almost three years after it was recommended by the province's Independent Investigations Office (IIO).\n\nCulver, a member of the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en First Nations, allegedly fled officers on a bicycle in the city of Prince George.\n\nPolice say they approached him while responding to a report of a man suspiciously inspecting parked cars.\n\nA struggle ensued when police caught up with Culver, the IIO report found, and pepper spray was used against him.\n\nThe father-of-three was put in the back of a police vehicle, where he appeared to have trouble breathing.\n\nParamedics were called, and Culver collapsed after being removed from the patrol car. He died in hospital.\n\nThe officers facing manslaughter charges are Paul Ste-Marie and Jean Francois Monette, both constables.\n\nThose facing charges of attempting to obstruct justice are Arthur Dalman and Clarence Alexander MacDonald, both constables, and Sgt Bayani Eusebio Cruz.\n\nIn 2018, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association filed a complaint with the RCMP, claiming that Mounties had told witnesses to delete footage of the arrest.\n\nThe organisation also alleged that officers used excessive force, and that racial bias could have influenced their actions.\n\nThe officers are scheduled to appear in Prince George Provincial Court on March 14.\n• None Why do so many police traffic stops turn deadly?", "The TUC held a march in central London on Wednesday\n\nThe least surprising development this year has been a prolonged wave of strikes.\n\nThe government has been heading towards an industrial action iceberg for a year now, since inflation, the rate at which prices increase, started to rise sharply.\n\nIt is less than a year ago that Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, told me that workers should not make excessive pay demands. The remarks were met with consternation from unions and were also slapped down by Number 10.\n\nAt that time, Boris Johnson's administration was telling all to expect higher wages - although then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Treasury were deeply uneasy.\n\nSo, abstracting from a series of different disputes, some in different administrations, there is some value in looking at the bigger picture.\n\nThe unions say workers need and deserve double-digit rises to prevent an acute fall in living standards. And they say functioning public services need to staunch the flow of lost workers. The government says that will cost too much and will fuel wage inflation, and prolong high prices.\n\nBoth these positions can be broadly true at the same time. It then just becomes a negotiation over where to draw the line. This time last year the Treasury was pointing towards pay settlements around the same level as the Bank of England's inflation target of 2%. Some unions were pointing to 15%, as private sector unions able to reach strike ballot thresholds in certain shortage industries secured double-digit rises.\n\nIn recent weeks that gap has narrowed. The government had been offering roughly 3.5-4%. Most unions privately point to a reasonable settlement \"approaching\" the rate of inflation, so at about 10%.\n\nWhile a substantial gap remains, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out where a landing zone for broad settlements could be.\n\nSo what is preventing a compromise?\n\nTalking to figures in the government, in the unions, and those responsible for settling such disputes in the past, it is because both sides perceive the public will be on their side.\n\nThe government thinks that strikes such as the ones we've seen today will rapidly erode public support, as has been an observable pattern in the past. The unions are adamant that because of what they say is a well of post-pandemic goodwill and the fact that everyone is experiencing the cost of living crisis, that the public remains firmly behind them, especially in the NHS.\n\nIt doesn't matter who is right about this, (and one side is going to be wrong here) if both sides perceive this, it's a recipe for an impasse.\n\nThe other issue is there are very few actual real pay negotiations happening. Furthermore, the process in place - the independent pay review bodies for next year - appears to be breaking down.\n\nUnions are refusing to contribute evidence amid their concerns, and the key government departments are failing to hit deadlines for their evidence. What exactly is the point of pay review bodies without the key sides' evidence on pay packets due to be delivered to millions of workers in less than nine weeks' time?\n\nToday's strikes in particular raise a significant additional challenge. Schools strikes don't just affect the provision of a vital public service, they disproportionately hit the economy in general, by taking away parents from their workplaces. One top economist, Mohammed El-Erian, told the BBC on Tuesday that industrial action was one of the factors especially holding the UK economy back right now.\n\nIs there a way through? One veteran of previous disputes tells me that although Prime Minister Sunak has taken the temperature down from the high tensions with unions actively cultivated towards the end of the Johnson premiership, the strikes are being dealt with in a very piecemeal manner by a collection of different cabinet ministers.\n\nThe coalition adviser told me the government is trying to claim to be sat on the sidelines, not intervening with actual employers.\n\nBut its fundamental concern about affordability and the spread of inflation, means Downing Street needs to be fully in charge of the strategy, and set a path out of the industrial strife. Right now, it doesn't appear to be happening.", "Donald Trump offered Nikki Haley a position in his cabinet as UN ambassador after he won the White House\n\nNikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations and two-term governor of South Carolina, is reportedly poised to announce she is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.\n\nWith a campaign kick-off planned for 15 February in Charleston, South Carolina, the 51-year-old would become the second major Republican candidate for the presidency, after her former boss Donald Trump launched his bid in November.\n\nMs Haley would be the third Indian-American to seek a presidential nomination. She follows Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, whose bid in 2015 never gained significant traction, and current Vice-President Kamala Harris, who sought the 2020 nomination.\n\nDuring her time as South Carolina governor, Ms Haley developed a reputation as a business-friendly leader who focused on attracting major companies to the state. She gained national prominence for her response to the racially motivated mass shooting at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church in 2015, which included a successful push to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the state capitol in Columbia.\n\nAlthough she endorsed Florida Senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican presidential contest, Mr Trump offered her a position in his cabinet as UN ambassador after he won the White House. She served there for two years and, unlike many of Mr Trump's early appointees, never had a public falling out with the president.\n\nMs Haley did, however, criticise Mr Trump's behaviour up to and during the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. The day after the riot, she said in a speech that \"his actions since election day will be judged harshly by history\".\n\nLater that year, as speculation surrounding her political future swirled and Mr Trump regained his standing and influence within the party, Ms Haley said she would not run for president in 2024 if her former boss sought the nomination.\n\nShe backed away from that position in the past few months, however.\n\n\"When you're looking at a run for president, you look at two things,\" she said in a Fox News interview last week. \"You first look at does the current situation push for new leadership? The second questions is, am I that person that could be that new leader?\"\n\nMs Haley answered both questions with a yes. It suggests a possible campaign strategy that contrasts her relative youth with both Mr Trump and, if she were to win the nomination, Democrat Joe Biden.\n\nAccording to Mr Trump, Ms Haley called him recently to inform him of her interest in running. He said he told her she should do it and he would welcome the competition.\n\n\"I said, 'Look, you know, go by your heart if you want to run',\" he said.\n\nThe former president made those remarks shortly before a campaign appearance on Saturday in Ms Haley's home state, which is poised to become a key early battleground for the Republican nomination.\n\nMost early polls show Mr Trump with a comfortable lead in the state whose primary he won on his way to the presidency in 2016 - an indication of the uphill battle the former ambassador will have, even on what should be friendly ground.\n\nA recent survey by the polling firm Trafalgar Group that included current and likely candidates has Mr Trump in first place with 43% and Ms Haley in fourth at 12%.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: We asked Americans about Trump running again - they have mixed feelings.", "Jim Baxter at Wembley after the historic 3-2 win against England in 1967\n\nA row has broken out over a football shirt from one of the most famous matches in Scottish history.\n\nTwo sides claim to own the jersey Jim Baxter wore during Scotland's stunning victory over England at Wembley on 15 April 1967.\n\nOne of them was handed by Baxter to football pundit Chick Young for a charity auction in 1991.\n\nThe other, said to have come from England player Alan Ball, is due to be auctioned off on Friday.\n\nMcTear's auction house says the provenance of its shirt is \"cast iron\".\n\nThe item is the highlight of its Heritage: Important Sporting Medals and Shirts auction on 3 February in Glasgow.\n\nThe Baxter No6 strip up for auction on Friday\n\nThe catalogue lists it as \"the most important Scotland shirt to have come to auction, worn by Baxter in one of our nation's most celebrated games, when he set himself apart, taking on the world champions and emerging victorious. This is a unique piece of our country's heritage and one of immense significance.\"\n\nThe shirt, which has been on display at Ibrox stadium for 10 years, comes with a copy of the loan agreement and a match programme and is expected to fetch up to £60,000.\n\nBut hours before the hammer is due to come down, Falkirk car dealer owners Andrew Dickson and David Wishart came forward, claiming they have the jersey Jim Baxter wore in the match.\n\nDavid and Andrew said the cuffs on their jersey match those in photographs of the match\n\nThe pair said their fathers bought it at an auction in Glasgow in 1991. Baxter, who died in 2001, attended the auction where former Rangers owner David Murray even bid on the jersey.\n\nThey have pictures of them posing with the framed jersey as boys with Baxter himself and say he kept in touch with their fathers over the years. Jim Baxter would come to events and pose with the shirt.\n\nThey are convinced the jersey is authentic and have urged the auctioneer to halt the sale.\n\nAndrew Dickson, left, and David Wishart with the jersey their fathers bought\n\nAndrew Dickson and David Wishart with Jim Baxter and the shirt\n\nMr Wishart said: \"Jim Baxter himself said that was the jersey from that game. In the years that followed he posed with it with us and over the years openly said that was the jersey. I don't know how much more evidence you could possibly get than from the man himself.\n\n\"The images from a match in 1967 are different to now. But there is nothing to show that Jim Baxter swapped a jersey with Alan Ball. There is no way of verifying that. McTear's believe their provenance is cast iron and we disagree with that fundamentally.\"\n\nMr Dickson added: \"When you look at pictures on the day of the game, the cuff length is long. The auction shirt has shorter cuffs - it's a different style. The label inside is similar to ones from later shirts. There are a few things we can see from the untrained eye when you compare the jersey to footage from the day.\"\n\nTheir shirt came from football pundit Chick Young.\n\nHe told BBC Scotland: \"I can tell you exactly what happened. It was back in 1991. I was chairman of Jim Baxter's testimonial committee. We decided to auction a couple of his possessions.\n\n\"He had two Scotland caps left. I said no, you're not selling them. He had two sons and those were for the boys. So I said we can sell the iconic Scotland strip which is arguably one of the most famous games that Scotland ever played.\n\n\"He guaranteed this was the strip he wore. It was an iconic piece of Scottish history.\"\n\nChick Young has no doubt the jersey sold in Glasgow in 1991 was \"the real deal\"\n\nMr Young said he had no doubt this was the jersey.\n\n\"Jim Baxter told me so, I believe him,\" he said.\n\nAt the 1991 dinner auction, the jersey fetched £17,500 which coincidentally was the exact transfer fee that Raith Rovers received for Jim Baxter from Rangers in 1960.\n\n\"Any suggestions about other strips - he might have changed strips, there might be two tops, that didn't happen back then,\" said Mr Young.\n\nThe famous No 6 jersey is being sold as the one worn at Wembley in 1967\n\nThe auction jersey is being sold by Mark Deighan on behalf of his father Jimmy McGarrity.\n\nMr McGarrity was given the shirt by his friend, the former Chelsea player Alan Hudson, who in turn got it from the late England star and player in the Wembley match, Alan Ball.\n\nMr McGarrity said: \"The jersey has been in our family for over 40 years. Unfortunately, my dad has not been well for some time and we decided that the time was right to sell the jersey to help him to do some of the things and see some of the places he has talked about over the years.\"\n\nMcTear's is confident of the lot's provenance, saying it was aware of the other claim.\n\nA spokesman said: \"The authenticity of the jersey that we are offering at auction is steadfast. The cast iron provenance traces back to the player, who exchanged his jersey with Alan Ball at the end of the match. The shirt then came to the father of the vendor through Alan Hudson, with Ball being present.\n\n\"Hudson has been contacted to confirm this chain.\n\n\"Jim Baxter was renowned for gifting Scotland jerseys to friends, acquaintances and functions, and that appears to be the case for the jersey bought at the benefit dinner by the other parties. It is important to note, however, that Baxter did not leave Wembley in 1967 with the jersey, having swapped it with Alan Ball post match.\"\n\nHe said the auction would go ahead on Friday at 12:00.", "The choice to establish a independent statutory inquiry into the Omagh bombing is a \"significant decision\", the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said.\n\nHe made the statement in the House of Commons on Thursday afternoon.\n\nTwenty-nine people died in the biggest single atrocity in the Northern Ireland Troubles on 15 August 1998.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris said the inquiry will examine four issues identified by a 2021 High Court ruling, including plausible arguments that the bombing could have been prevented.", "Rishi Sunak was interviewed by Piers Morgan in 10 Downing Street to mark 100 days in office\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has repeated his pledge to publish his tax returns, telling presenter Piers Morgan in a TV interview he will do so \"shortly\".\n\nMr Sunak said he was willing to be \"transparent\" and publish the documents, which were \"being prepared\".\n\nThe PM's financial affairs came under scrutiny last year when it emerged his wife, Akshata Murty, had non-dom status.\n\nOpposition parties have since called on Mr Sunak to be open about his finances.\n\nLast April, Ms Murty's spokeswoman said she \"has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income\".\n\nMr Sunak first made the promise to publish his tax returns during his unsuccessful campaign to be leader of the Conservative Party last summer.\n\nSince becoming prime minister, he said in December at the G20 summit that he would stand by the pledge, telling reporters he would seek advice and \"figure out the right way that happens\".\n\nMr Sunak is thought to be one of the richest MPs in Parliament, something Labour has used as an attack line during Prime Minister's Questions.\n\nWhile there is not a long tradition of prime ministers publishing their tax returns, some of Mr Sunak's predecessors have chosen to do so in recent years.\n\nIn his interview with Morgan in 10 Downing Street, Mr Sunak said: \"They will be published shortly. As you know the tax filing deadline was just a few days ago. So that's why.\n\n\"So we do the tax-filing deadlines just passed, so they're just being prepared and they will be released shortly.\"\n\nIn another question about his financial affairs, Morgan asked Mr Sunak whether he was benefitting from a financial arrangement known as a blind trust.\n\nPoliticians with share portfolios and investments routinely set up blind trusts when they get government jobs. This allows them to continue earning income from their investments without knowing where the money is invested to avoid any conflicts of interest.\n\nOn the question of whether it was right for prime ministers to have blind trusts, Mr Sunak said: \"I think that's better than them having control over them.\"\n\nRishi Sunak said he proposed to his wife Akshata Murthy on bended knee on a cliff walk in California\n\nThe interview covered a wide range of topics, from serious ones about government policy, to light-hearted ones about his love life.\n\nHe was asked by Morgan to describe his \"doctrine\" and assess his first 100 days in office as prime minister.\n\nMr Sunak said he inherited \"a challenging situation\" but insisted he was \"proud of what we've achieved\" so far.\n\nOne of the most prominent issues of his time in office up to now has been the wave of public sector strikes over pay.\n\nMr Sunak said nurses should be treated as an \"exception\" and he would \"love to give the nurses a massive pay rise\" but insisted he could not, as doing so would stoke the rising cost of living.\n\nLater in the interview, Morgan asked Mr Sunak for his definition of a woman. Mr Sunak replied \"adult human female\", but suggested the TV presenter was actually asking about society's handling of people questioning their gender identity.\n\nMorgan brought up the case of Isla Bryson, a transgender woman convicted of raping two women while known as a man called Adam Graham. She was initially remanded in a women's prison, but has since been moved to a men's jail.\n\nMorgan said it showed the problem of \"limitless gender self-identity\". Mr Sunak said it demonstrated \"some of the challenges\", but added \"we must and should have enormous compassion and tolerance and understanding for those who are questioning their gender and identity\".\n\n\"But we have to recognise the challenges that that poses, particularly for women's safety,\" Mr Sunak said.\n\n\"For me… whether it's sex, whether it's women's spaces, whether it's prisons, biological sex really matters.\"\n\nAsked about transgender women athletes competing in women's sport, he said: \"I think that doesn't strike most people as being fair. That's why when it comes to these questions, biological sex matters.\"\n\nAn earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Akshata Murty had not paid UK tax.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"At first I thought it was a star\"\n\nThe US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted flying over sensitive sites in recent days.\n\nDefence officials said they were confident the \"high-altitude surveillance balloon\" belonged to China. It was most recently seen above the western state of Montana.\n\nThe military decided against shooting it down in case debris falls.\n\nChina warned against speculation and \"hype\" until the facts are verified.\n\nThe object flew over Alaska's Aleutian Islands and through Canada before appearing over the city of Billings in Montana on Wednesday, US officials said.\n\nA senior defence official said the government prepared fighter jets, including F-22s, in case the White House ordered the object to be shot down.\n\nCanada said on Friday that it was monitoring \"a potential second incident\" involving a surveillance balloon, but did not say which country could be behind it. It said in the statement that it is working closely with the US to \"safeguard Canada's sensitive information from foreign intelligence threats\".\n\nTop military leaders, including Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met on Wednesday to assess the threat. Mr Austin was travelling in the Philippines at the time.\n\nMontana, a sparsely populated state, is home to one of only three nuclear missile silo fields in the country, at Malmstrom Air Force Base, and the official said the apparent spy craft was flying over sensitive sites to collect information.\n\nBut the military leaders advised against taking \"kinetic action\" against the balloon because of the danger that falling debris might pose to people on the ground.\n\nOfficials refrained from giving information about the exact size of the balloon, but described it as \"sizeable\", with reports of pilots being able to see it, even from a distance. US media have reported another US official comparing it to the size of three buses.\n\nThe defence department, however, said there was no \"significantly enhanced threat\" of US intelligence being compromised, because American officials \"know exactly where this balloon is and exactly where it's passing over\".\n\nAnd there was also no threat to civilian aviation as the balloon was \"significantly\" above the altitude used by commercial airlines.\n\nThe statement added that the balloon is unlikely to give much more information than China can already collect using satellites.\n\nThe US had raised the matter with Chinese officials in their embassy in Washington DC and in Beijing, officials added.\n\nChina's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Beijing is currently attempting to verify the reports of the surveillance balloon, adding that \"until the facts are clear, making conjectures and hyping up the issue will not help to properly resolve it\".\n\n\"China is a responsible country and always abides strictly by international law. We have no intention of violating the territory or airspace of any sovereign country,\" she said.\n\nDuring Thursday's briefing at the Pentagon, officials declined to disclose the aircraft's current location and did not give information on where it was launched from.\n\nThey added that such surveillance balloons had been tracked in the past several years, but this one was \"appearing to hang out for a longer period of time this time around\".\n\nIt confused social media users in Montana, with some posting images of a pale round object high in the sky. Others reported seeing US military planes in the area, apparently monitoring the object.\n\nBillings office worker Chase Doak told the Associated Press news agency that he noticed the \"big white circle in the sky\" and went home to get a better camera.\n\n\"I thought maybe it was a legitimate UFO,\" he said. \"So I wanted to make sure I documented it and took as many photos as I could.\"\n\nChinese state media site the Global Times accused the US of aggravating tensions between China and the US by frequently creating a Cold War atmosphere.\n\nIt is also being widely discussed on Chinese social media, with many amused at the reported use of balloons for surveillance.\n\n\"We have so many satellites, why would we need to use a balloon,\" wrote one user on Weibo.\n\nSenator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, slammed China's alleged balloon.\n\n\"The level of espionage aimed at our country by Beijing has grown dramatically more intense & brazen over the last 5 years,\" he tweeted.\n\nMontana Governor Greg Gianforte, a Republican, said in a statement that he had been briefed on the \"deeply troubling\" situation.\n\nSpeaking at an unrelated event in Washington DC on Thursday, CIA Director William Burns made no mention of the balloon, but called China the \"biggest geopolitical challenge\" currently facing the US.\n\nThe alleged spy craft is likely to increase tensions ahead of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China next week. It will be the first visit to the country by a Biden administration cabinet secretary.\n\nThe top US diplomat will be in Beijing to hold talks on a wide range of issues, including security, Taiwan and Covid-19.\n\nHe will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, the the Financial Times reported on Thursday.\n\nBalloons are one of oldest forms of surveillance technology. Compared to other air surveillance devices, they can be operated cheaply without personnel, while remaining airborne for long periods of time.", "Tonia Antoniazzi says the Welsh government should be asked to explain what action it took when the claims first came to light last year\n\nSexism and misogyny claims about the Welsh Rugby Union were known by the Welsh government after they were raised in the Commons last year, an MP said.\n\nLabour's Tonia Antoniazzi said the ministers should be asked what action they took over the allegations.\n\nThe Senedd's sports committee will question the WRU and the Welsh government Deputy Minister for Sport Dawn Bowden later.\n\nThe Welsh government said it would not comment ahead of the committee hearing.\n\nMs Antoniazzi, the Gower MP, said she also raised the concerns directly with the Labour Welsh government after her speech in Parliament last March.\n\nThe committee will take evidence from WRU chairman Ieuan Evans and acting chief executive Nigel Walker, followed by a session with Ms Bowden and two Welsh government civil servants.\n\nMs Antoniazzi said the committee needed to consider \"when this news came out in the public arena\".\n\nShe added: \"I first raised my concerns over sexism and misogyny at the WRU in a St David's Day debate in the House of Commons last March.\n\n\"There was then an article in the Daily Mail which raised the same concerns.\n\n\"The Senedd members need to ask what happened next. Were flags raised at the WRU and was the deputy minister involved in any discussions with them then?\"\n\nTonia Antoniazzi says the chairman of the investigating taskforce should be from outside Wales, for \"clarity and transparency\"\n\nSpeaking in the Senedd last Wednesday, Ms Bowden said she had met the WRU twice following the BBC Wales Investigates programme on 23 January.\n\nShe said she had been engaging with the union on the \"immediate actions that it must take to address these allegations and how it is providing a safe environment for its staff and wider stakeholders that is free from harassment and abuse of all kinds\".\n\nThe UK government's Wales Office confirmed that, following the Commons debate, then Welsh secretary Simon Hart met the WRU on 24 March to discuss the concerns.\n\nWRU chief executive Steve Phillips resigned at the weekend and the union has announced an \"external taskforce\" will be created to review accusations of sexism, misogyny and racism.\n\nCharlotte Wathan says she was the victim of rape comments when she worked at the Welsh Rugby Union\n\nMs Antoniazzi said the head of the taskforce should come from outside Wales \"purely because we need clarity, we need transparency\".\n\nShe added: \"It needs to be somebody who's not part of the old boys' network or seen as being part of the Cardiff bubble.\n\n\"Let's get a fresh pair of eyes on the WRU and let's move this forward.\"\n\nCardiff West MP Kevin Brennan told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast the Senedd's committee's involvement was \"better late than never\".\n\nWelsh rugby has to \"sort itself out\" says Cardiff West MP Kevin Brennan\n\n\"Tonia's been warning about this for some time,\" he said. \"It did take [the BBC Wales Investigates] programme to break that dam, to make people realise that action needed to be taken.\"\n\nBut he said the Welsh government should not be running Welsh rugby.\n\n\"Welsh rugby has to sort itself out and can be helped to do that,\" he said. \"But it's got to find a way to run the game that doesn't involve this misogynistic culture… and the financial basket case that it's become.\"\n\nIn response, the WRU said: \"We welcome Tonia's comments and look forward to Sport Wales identifying the taskforce's independent chair and confirming its composition.\n\n\"The Welsh Rugby Union will fully embrace these urgent next steps, we will open all quarters of the WRU up for the investigation that will follow and seek to carefully implement its recommendations upon its completion.\"\n\nFor more on this story, you can watch BBC Wales Live on BBC iPlayer.", "A man who seriously injured a Metropolitan Police motorcyclist when he suddenly rammed his car into him to avoid being arrested has been jailed for four years.\n\nJoseph Ward, 24, of Green Street, Royston, Hertfordshire, reversed into Insp Tony McGovern and drove off after the officer approached his vehicle because he was acting suspiciously in Haringey, north London, last July.\n\nInsp McGovern was later taken to hospital with injuries to his legs, shoulders and back.\n\nWard was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on Wednesday after previously admitting 14 offences, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm, impersonating a police officer, dangerous driving and failing to stop for police.\n\nContains scenes some viewers may find upsetting.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kim Johnson made her apology in the Commons\n\nLabour MP Kim Johnson has apologised for describing Israel's recently-formed coalition government as \"fascist\".\n\nThe Liverpool Riverside MP made the comment in Parliament, as she asked Rishi Sunak about \"human rights violations\" against Palestinians.\n\nShe apologised shortly afterwards, after being ordered to do so by party bosses.\n\nThe MP said she acknowledged using the term 'fascist' was \"particularly insensitive\" given Israel's history.\n\n\"While there are far-right elements in the government, I recognise that the use of the term in this context was wrong,\" she added.\n\nThe BBC has been told she was told to apologise by party whips for the remarks, described as \"unacceptable\" by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman.\n\nIsrael's new government, formed after elections in November, includes senior ministers from the ultranationalist far right.\n\nThere is domestic and international concern it will inflame the conflict with the Palestinians, damage the judiciary and restrict minority rights.\n\nBenjamin Netanyahu, who has returned as prime minister after his Likud party formed a coalition with ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies, has promised to pursue peace and safeguard civil rights.\n\nMs Johnson also apologised for saying, during her intervention during Prime Minister's Questions, that rights group Amnesty International had described Israel as an \"apartheid state\".\n\n\"Whilst I was quoting accurately Amnesty's description, I recognise this is insensitive and I'd like to withdraw it,\" she added.\n\nIn his initial response to Ms Johnson's question, Mr Sunak did not directly criticise her use of the word \"fascist,\" but said she had \"failed to mention the horrific attack on civilians inside Israel as well\".\n\n\"It's important in this matter to remain calm and urge all sides strive for peace, and that's very much what I will do as prime minister,\" he added.\n\nShe added that the comments were an \"insult\" to the legacy of Dame Louise Ellman, Ms Johnson's predecessor as Liverpool Riverside MP who temporarily quit Labour over the party's handling of antisemitism allegations under former leader Jeremy Corbyn.\n\nBefore Ms Johnson's apology, Sir Keir's spokesman told reporters that Labour wanted to have \"strong relations with the government of Israel\".\n\n\"Obviously there are always issues in any bilateral relationship where you have disagreements between countries, but fundamentally the relationship between Britain and Israel is one that we value.\"\n\n\"I don't think using the sort of language that was used in Prime Minister's Questions today is helpful in achieving that,\" the spokesman added.\n\nHowever, the spokesman's decision to denounce Ms Johnson's language was criticised by Momentum, the Corbyn-supporting left-wing pressure group.\n\nThe group accused Sir Keir of an \"outrageous abuse of power,\" and wanting to \"silence wholly legitimate criticism of the Israeli government\".\n\nMomentum is calling for the reinstatement of Mr Corbyn, whom Sir Keir suspended as a Labour MP in 2020 after a long running row about antisemitism.\n\nMr Corbyn was suspended for saying the scale of antisemitism within Labour had been \"dramatically overstated\" by opponents, in his reaction to a watchdog's report on how the party had handled allegations of anti-Jewish prejudice within the party.", "Apple warned of delayed shipments of its new iPhone 14 as Covid restrictions hit its manufacturer\n\nApple sales dropped at the end of 2022 as shoppers squeezed by the rising cost of living cut back their purchases.\n\nSales at the iPhone giant fell 5% in the three months to December compared with the same period in 2021.\n\nIt was the biggest decline since 2019 and worse than expected.\n\nThe update came as many firms warn about a sharp economic slowdown, especially in the tech sector which boomed during the pandemic.\n\nApple boss Tim Cook said the firm was navigating a \"challenging environment\".\n\nHe blamed the sales decline on supply shortages due to Covid-19 disruption in China - where its phones are manufactured - and a strong dollar, as well as wider economic weakness stemming from rising prices, the war in Ukraine and lingering effects from the pandemic.\n\n\"As the world continues to face unprecedented circumstances ... we know Apple is not immune to it,\" he said on a conference call with investors.\n\nApple said the decline in sales occurred throughout the world and hit most of its products.\n\nSales of its popular iPhones were down more than 8%, and sales of Mac computers dropped 29%.\n\nThe declines hit the firm's profits, which fell 13% to $30bn (£24bn).\n\nRoger McNamee, founding partner of Elevation Partners, told the BBC's Today programme that the biggest issue facing Apple was its supply chain in China.\n\n\"China has taken a more combative approach with Western economies over the past year and a half, partly due to their zero tolerance on Covid but I think there are other geopolitical issues factoring in as well and Apple, which has historically done the vast majority of its manufacturing in China, has had supply chain issues,\" he said.\n\n\"It is unclear to what degree Apple may have demand problems. It is super-clear they can't get all the supply that they want to get.\"\n\nPaolo Pescatore, analyst at PP Foresight, said Apple, like many electronics makers, was also struggling to make the case that users should upgrade given \"what is perceived to be incremental improvements on previous models\".\n\n\"More so when everyone is tightening their belts,\" he added.\n\nGlobally the number of smartphones shipped sank 12% last year, according to market analysis firm Canalys.\n\nApple executives said they expected their services business, which includes Apple Pay and Apple News, to continue to drive growth, noting that there are now more than 2 billion active Apple devices around the world.\n\n\"When we look at the behaviour of our installed base, we think it's very promising,\" said chief financial officer Luca Maestri, while warning investors that the firm was expecting sales to continue to decline in the months ahead.\n\nOther big tech companies also said they were feeling pressure in updates to investors.\n\nAmazon, which has been struggling to reignite its e-commerce business, said sales at its online stores dropped 2% in the final three months of 2022, compared with a year earlier.\n\nOverall, Amazon's sales in the three-month period rose 9% to $149.2bn, lifted by stronger growth in its cloud computing business.\n\nBut its profits dropped sharply, falling to near zero from $14.3bn a year ago, a change that chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky warned investors was likely to continue in the coming months.\n\nAt Alphabet, parent company of Google and YouTube, sales were up just 1% in the three months to December, compared with 2021, as firms cut back on advertising - the company's main source of revenue - in the face of economic uncertainty.\n\n\"The issues for Google and Amazon are remarkably similar,\" said Mr McNamee.\n\n\"Both companies prospered during the pandemic as people stayed home both for work and for entertainment, and that was just incredibly good for both those companies, as well as other web companies like Meta. But now we are going back to work things have settled down.\"", "A stargazer has captured the moment a newly-discovered green comet began to make its closest approach to Earth.\n\nGeorge Chan photographed comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) over several hours from his back garden in Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, and stitched the images together to form a timelapse video.\n\nThe object originates in the Oort cloud, a collection of icy bodies at the edge of the solar system, and its journey to our planet took about 50,000 years.\n\nComets are mostly composed of ice and dust. As they approach the Sun, the ice is vaporised and the dust shaken off to create the signature long tail.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.", "It already has a nickname: Walkout Wednesday. Hardly a term of endearment but a reflection of just how widespread the disruption will be.\n\nIn fact, it's probably going to have the greatest impact of any strike day so far, because thousands of schools will be closed with parents stuck at home reliving the joys of working from home whilst trying to help their offspring to learn something.\n\nSeveral unions have chosen to co-ordinate their action - so along with teachers - train drivers, university lecturers and civil servants are all going on strike.\n\nHalf a million people are expected to walk out. There will also be rallies, organised by the unions, to protest the government's plans to try and enforce a minimum service during strikes.\n\nSo how will all of this affect you?\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nWednesday's action by teachers in England and Wales in the National Education Union, which has around half a million members, will hit about 23,400 schools.\n\nBut some schools may not decide until the morning whether to close, fully or partially, as it depends on how many staff choose to join the strike.\n\nIf you haven't heard then the advice is to send your children in as normal, as parents \"have a legal duty to send their children to school unless they are unwell.\"\n\nSchools have been advised to open for vulnerable pupils, key workers' children and those taking exams.\n\nSome will open for certain classes only.\n\nChildren may be set work to do remotely - but striking teachers are not required to do so.\n\nIn addition, there is no automatic right for a parent affected by a lawful strike to claim compensation if they lose pay looking after a child.\n\nThe NEU, which is the largest British education union, has said a 5% government pay offer is the equivalent of a pay cut as the pace of price rises is running at more than 10%.\n\nIn Scotland, teachers who are members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) are continuing strikes over pay as part of a rolling wave of action. On Wednesday schools in Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen will be affected.\n\nTens of thousands of staff at 150 universities across the UK are also taking industrial action.\n\nTeaching staff, administrators, librarians and technicians are some some of the people who will be on strike over pay, working conditions and pension cuts.\n\nPrevious strikes in November had caused little disruption, with lectures rescheduled and coursework deadlines extended, employers said.\n\nIf you're taking the train on Wednesday, Network Rail says \"plan ahead and check your first and last train times\".\n\nAction by members of the Aslef train drivers' union and RMT unions means train companies across England are affected along with services to Scotland and Wales.\n\nThere will be no services at all on: Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; CrossCountry; East Midlands Railway; Gatwick Express; Great Northern; Heathrow Express; London Northwestern Railway; Northern; Southeastern; Southern; Thameslink, South Western Railway Island Line services; TransPennine Express; West Midlands Railway.\n\nGreater Anglia (including Stansted Express) and Great Western Railway are advising passengers not to use them, and LNER will run a reduced service.\n\nSouth Western says it intends to run a service on the strike days, but has warned there may be short notice delays and cancellations due to difficulty getting drivers and trains to where they need to be.\n\nAbout 100,000 civil servants from 124 government departments and other bodies are also on strike on Wednesday over pay and conditions.\n\nBorder Force operations will be affected, with possible delays for international arrivals at all UK air and maritime ports as well as at UK border controls in Calais, Dunkirk and Coquelles in northern France.\n\nTravellers planning to enter the UK may face longer waiting times at border control.\n\nSome driving tests may be affected, the DVSA said, adding that it had contacted affected candidates.\n\nOrganisations such as Ofsted, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and the Home Office will also have staff on strike.\n\nAbout 1,900 Abellio bus drivers in London are taking industrial action, mostly affecting routes in south and west London.\n\nThe latest strikes will go ahead on 1, 2, and 3 February in a dispute over pay, the Unite union said.\n\nSome local bus services to Heathrow will be disrupted.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The council said the sculpture had been knocked down in a \"significant operational error\"\n\nA brick sculpture of internationally-renowned potter Josiah Wedgwood has been accidentally knocked down during roadworks.\n\nThe sculpture of the head of the Wedgwood pottery founder in Stoke-on-Trent was first unveiled in 1986.\n\nStoke-on-Trent City Council apologised unreservedly and said it had been removed by contractors during a road widening project.\n\nCouncil leader Abi Brown said she was \"devastated\" the mistake had occurred.\n\nA council spokesperson said they had launched an investigation into the error and were speaking with contractors to understand what had gone wrong.\n\nThe Josiah Wedgwood art installation, carved out of red bricks, was created by sculptor Vincent Woropay for the National Garden Festival in 1986.\n\nIt moved to its current location at Festival Park in 2009.\n\nThe Josiah Wedgwood sculpture, carved out of red bricks, was first unveiled in 1986\n\nRoad widening measures had recently begun on Marina Way to open up access to the park, where the sculpture stood, as part of changes following major infrastructure works and the opening of the Etruria Valley Link Road in January.\n\nLocal historian Fred Hughes, who attended the first unveiling of the sculpture, said it was \"beyond belief\" that it had been removed.\n\nHe said the remaining bricks of the sculpture should have been stored correctly so the sculpture could be reassembled elsewhere.\n\n\"As far as I'm concerned, it's a scandal and I want to see it repaired,\" he said.\n\nThe bricks and the base of the sculpture will now be sensitively removed from the park, the council had added.\n\n\"Culture is at the fabric of our city and plays a hugely significant role in the story of Stoke-on-Trent,\" Ms Brown said.\n\n\"I have instructed the director of the service to personally oversee immediate work to protect the sculpture and investigate how this has happened.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Water bills are set to get the biggest increase in almost 20 years from April.\n\nThe annual bill for an average household in England and Wales will hit £448, industry body Water UK has said.\n\nThe 7.5% increase means customers will pay on average £31 more than last year.\n\nConsumer groups said the rise would squeeze struggling households when one in five are already finding it difficult to pay. But Water UK says the rise for most customers will be below inflation.\n\nThis measure of the rate of overall price rises in the UK was 10.5% in December.\n\nWater UK also argued that the bills remained lower in real terms than they were a decade ago.\n\nIt added that the increase reflected higher energy costs, with water firms using about 2% of the UK's electricity.\n\nLast year water firms were found to be regularly dumping illegal sewage into rivers in England and Wales.\n\nWater UK said on Thursday that firms had already been investing in infrastructure, and would invest a further £70bn to \"eliminate harm\" from storm overflows and increase water supplies by building new reservoirs and national water transfer schemes.\n\nIt said that since the water industry was privatised, more than £190bn has been invested in improving services.\n\nIt added that water companies \"are acutely aware of the impact of price rises on lower income and vulnerable customers\".\n\n\"Companies have recently increased the level of support they offer by more than £200m, which will help hundreds of thousands more households,\" it said.\n\nMore than one million households already get help with water bills, and that will increase to 1.2 million, it said.\n\nWater UK's director of policy Stuart Colville said the average increase to bills worked out at about 60p a week.\n\n\"However, we know that any increase is unwelcome, particularly at the moment,\" he said.\n\n\"Anyone with worries should contact their water company or go to supportontap.org for advice, and it's worth remembering that water companies will never cut anyone off, or make them use a prepayment meter.\"\n\nBut watchdog the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said that many customers who cannot afford their bill \"slip through the net\" due to a \"postcode lottery\" of regional variations in billing.\n\nSome households could face rises significantly above the average, while other increases could be below, it said.\n\nCCW chief executive Emma Clancy said: \"Water is essential for all of us so no-one should be worried about being able to afford their bill.\"\n\nShe said the bill increases \"will bring more uncertainty to struggling households at a time when they can't be certain they will get the help they need\".\n\n\"We urgently need a new water affordability scheme that provides consistent support based on people's needs.\"\n\nWater poverty campaigner Jess Cook at National Energy Action (NEA), said social tariffs are \"essential for low-income households\".\n\n\"Discounted water bills for those struggling to pay can stop the most vulnerable from cutting back or running up debt when they can ill afford to do so,\" she said.\n\n\"But the current postcode lottery means where you live affects what you pay and what support you receive.\"\n\nShe added that access to a social tariff \"should be made fairer, more consistent, and accessible to everyone who needs it, regardless of where they live.\"", "Stacy Porter, who took on the care of niece Jorgie nearly five years ago, says the process was \"incredibly confusing\".\n\nChildren's social care in England will be revamped with more early support for families, backed by £200m extra funding over two years, ministers say.\n\nLast year, a major review, led by Josh MacAlister, warned tens of thousands more children could end up in care without reform and £2.6bn more funding.\n\n\"Children in care deserve the same love and stability as everyone else,\" said Children's Minister Claire Coutinho.\n\nBut Mr MacAlister said the government's plan needed to go \"further and faster\".\n\nThe plan also faces wider criticism that many of the changes are being rolled out as localised pilots rather than nationally.\n\nIt was put together in response to recommendations in Mr MacAlister's and other reports, which followed the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson in 2020.\n\nThe trials of their killers highlighted the inadequacies of a system meant to protect children at risk.\n\nThe government wants to \"put families at the heart of reform\", with better support for vulnerable children \"to stay with their families in safe and loving homes\", and reduce the need for crisis intervention.\n\n\"Yet, without a whole system reset on the scale set out by the review, outcomes for children and families will remain stubbornly poor, more children will grow up in care and costs will continue to spiral,\" he said.\n\n\"The government's plan gets us started down the right path but it must go further and faster if it is to reach the tipping point of change that children need.\"\n\nAnnie Hudson, chair of the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, said that what happened to Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson \"reinforces the importance of reform\" across the children's social care system.\n\nShe welcomed the government's plan, describing it as \"very broad in scope\" and \"bold in its intentions and ambitions\".\n\nShe told the BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that the key to tackling issues within the children's social care system was the establishment of \"multi-agency specialist teams\" that work together \"as one team\".\n\n\"Unless we have that kind of approach we won't address some of the perennial problems of fragmented information systems, fragmented decision-making that we saw with Arthur and Star,\" she said.\n\nChildren's Minister Ms Countinho said the government was \"setting out an ambitious set of packages to start a transformation in children's social care\".\n\n\"What we're trying to do is make sure that families can get the early help that they need, they don't end up escalating in crisis and we can keep more families together,\" she said.\n\nRolling out some changes as local pilots was \"to make sure we've got the exact right approach as we push forward\", Ms Countinho told BBC News.\n\nStacy Porter, who took on the care of her niece, Jorgie, nearly five years ago, says the process was \"incredibly confusing\".\n\nThe 33-year-old feels lucky to live in Durham, where a council-run kinship team offers support and guidance \"worth its weight in gold\".\n\nShe says the government's promises of better training and support are \"brilliant and long overdue\" but is frustrated there is no commitment to a kinship payment, similar to a foster-care allowance, despite it being recommended in the review.\n\nKinship charity chief executive Dr Lucy Peake said there was \"still a long way to go to equalise support\".\n\n\"We especially need the government to commit to introducing financial allowances for all kinship carers,\" she said.\n\nStacy stepped in to avoid Jorgie being adopted or put in care\n\nSince 2010, pressure on council budgets has seen early support for vulnerable families cut in many areas but the government now acknowledges early intervention can prevent problems escalating.\n\nShani Smith's four-year-old son, Ellis, has severe autism and she says the support the family have received through their local children's centre, in Camden, north London, has been crucial.\n\n\"The nursery have just been amazing,\" she says, \"their staff have just been fantastic.\n\n\"Ellis now says four words - we never thought he was going to even talk. Early intervention was a big thing for him.\"\n\nShani Smith says the support her family has received has been amazing\n\nCamden council's director of children's services Martin Pratt says the focus on early intervention, involving teams of NHS staff, council workers, voluntary and community groups and parents, has meant \"a dramatic and sustained reduction\" in the number of children going into care in the borough.\n\nKeith Glazier, of the County Councils Network, agrees the emphasis on preventative services and keeping families together is key. But the funding \"falls short... while the pilots are only taking place in a select few areas\".\n\nNational Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) chief executive Sir Peter Wanless warned without \"substantial national investment and a reform programme delivered at greater pace\", the government's ambitions would not be realised.", "Ukraine's defence minister has said Russia is preparing a major new offensive, and warned that it could begin as soon as 24 February.\n\nOleksii Reznikov said Moscow had amassed thousands of troops and could \"try something\" to mark the anniversary of the initial invasion last year.\n\nThe attack would also mark Russia's Defender of the Fatherland Day on 23 February, which celebrates the army.\n\nMeanwhile, three people have died in an attack on the city of Kramatorsk.\n\nEight others were wounded in the city in Donetsk region after a Russian missile struck a residential building, the provincial governor said.\n\nThe toll is expected to rise as rescuers comb through the wreckage.\n\n\"The only way to stop Russian terrorism is to defeat it,\" Mr Zelensky wrote on social media about the attack. \"By tanks. Fighter jets. Long-range missiles.\"\n\nUkraine has recently renewed calls for fighter jets to help protect itself from air attacks after Germany, the US and the UK agreed to send them tanks.\n\nAt least three people are thought to have been killed in a Russian rocket attack on the eastern city of Kramatorsk\n\nMr Reznikov said Moscow had mobilised some 500,000 troops for the potential offensive.\n\nIn September, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a general mobilisation of some 300,000 conscripted troops, which he said was necessary to ensure the country's \"territorial integrity\".\n\nBut Mr Reznikov suggested that the true figure recruited and deployed to Ukraine could be far higher.\n\n\"Officially they announced 300,000 but when we see the troops at the borders, according to our assessments it is much more,\" he told the French BFM network. The BBC cannot independently verify this figure.\n\nRussia has claimed recent gains in the eastern Donbas region and its forces say they are moving in on the front-line town of Bakhmut after a battle that has lasted months and led to heavy loss of life on both sides.\n\nLast month, Russian mercenaries and regular soldiers seized the nearby town of Soledar and on Wednesday a Russian-appointed official, Yan Gagin, said Bakhmut was \"operationally surrounded\".\n\nThe US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) recently said that Moscow could seek to \"undertake a decisive action\" and launch a \"big offensive\" in the east.\n\nMr Reznikov said Ukraine's commanders would seek to \"stabilise the front and prepare for a counter-offensive\" ahead of the rumoured Russian advance.\n\n\"I have faith that the year 2023 can be the year of military victory,\" he said, adding that Ukraine's forces \"cannot lose the initiative\" they have achieved in recent months.\n\nThe defence minister was in France to strike a deal to purchase additional MG-200 air defence radars, which he said would \"significantly increase the capacity of the armed forces to detect air targets, including winged and ballistic missiles, and drones of various types\".\n\nMr Reznikov's comments come as Ukrainian intelligence alleges that President Putin has ordered his forces to seize the Donbas before the end of spring.\n\nBut speaking on Monday, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that there were no indications that Mr Putin had limited his military goals to seizing eastern regions of Ukraine.\n\n\"That they are actively acquiring new weapons, more ammunition, ramping up their own production, but also acquiring more weapons from other authoritarian states like Iran and North Korea,\" Mr Stoltenberg said.\n\n\"And most of all, we have seen no sign that President Putin has changed his overall goal of this invasion - that is to control a neighbour, to control Ukraine. So as long as this is the case, we need to be prepared for the long haul.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said that intense fighting was continuing in the Donbas region, where Russian forces and Wagner Group mercenaries have been trying to take the town of Bakhmut.\n\nShe added that Moscow's troops were also trying to seize Lyman - the former Russian logistics hub that Ukrainian troops retook in October.\n\n\"Russian troops are actively trying to reach the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,\" she wrote on the Telegram messaging app. \"Our soldiers defend every centimetre of Ukrainian land,\" she said.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday night, Mr Zelensky warned that the situation on the front lines of the conflict was testing his forces.\n\n\"There is a certain increase in the occupiers' offensive actions at the front - in the east of our country, Mr Zelensky said. \"The situation is becoming even more severe.\"\n\nWhile the Wagner group has claimed it has been heavily involved in Russia's recent advances in the east, a former commander who fled to Norway has told Reuters that he witnessed the killing and mistreatment of Russian prisoners taken to Ukraine to fight for the group.\n\nAndrei Medvedev made an unverified claim that in the four months he was with Wagner, he saw two people who didn't want to fight being shot.\n\nAbout 80% of Wagner's personnel in Ukraine have been drawn from prisons, according to the US National Security Council.", "President Putin laid a wreath at the Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex in Volgograd\n\nVladimir Putin has compared Russia's invasion of Ukraine to the fight against Nazi Germany, in a speech to mark the 80th anniversary of the conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad.\n\nCiting Germany's decision to send tanks to Ukraine, the Russian president said history was repeating itself.\n\n\"It's unbelievable but true,\" he said. \"We are again being threatened by German Leopard tanks.\"\n\nGermany is one of many countries helping Ukraine defend its territory.\n\nRussia launched its bloody, full-scale invasion almost one year ago, prompting Western countries to send weapons and aid to the government in Kyiv.\n\nSpeaking in Volgograd - the modern name for Stalingrad - Mr Putin hinted that he could seek to move beyond conventional weapons.\n\n\"Those who hope to defeat Russia on the battlefield do not understand, it seems, that a modern war with Russia will be very different for them,\" the 70-year-old leader said. \"We are not sending our tanks to their borders, but we have the means to respond. It won't be limited to the use of armoured hardware. Everyone must understand this.\"\n\nKremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to elaborate on Mr Putin's comments but did tell reporters that \"as new weapons are delivered by the collective West, Russia will make greater use of its potential to respond\".\n\nMr Putin was in Volgograd to mark the anniversary of the end of World War Two's Battle of Stalingrad, which saw the Soviet army capture nearly 91,000 German troops in a major turning point of the war.\n\nOver a million people perished in the battle - the bloodiest of the conflict.\n\nVolgograd was temporarily renamed Stalingrad for the day to mark the anniversary, and earlier this week a new bust of the former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was unveiled.\n\nStalin - who led the Soviet Union between 1924 and his death in 1953 - was accused of orchestrating a famine in Ukraine between 1932-33.\n\nThe event - called the Holodomor by Ukrainians - killed an estimated five million people and was recognised as a genocide earlier this week in Bulgaria.\n\nThroughout the war in Ukraine, Mr Putin has falsely sought to present Russia's invasion as a battle against nationalists and Nazis - who he says are leading the Kyiv government.\n\nAnd he returned to the theme throughout his speech.\n\n\"Now, unfortunately, we see that the ideology of Nazism, already in its modern guise, in its modern manifestation, again creates direct threats to the security of our country,\" he said.\n\n\"Again and again we have to repel the aggression of the collective West.\"\n\nBut he vowed that while it was \"unbelievable but true\" that Russia was again being threatened by German tanks, Moscow had an answer for any country that threatened it.\n\nBerlin has agreed to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, prompting the Russian company Fores - a Urals-based energy industry firm - to offer five million roubles (£58,250) to the first Russian soldier to destroy or capture one.\n\nMr Putin also laid flowers at the grave of the Soviet marshal who oversaw the defence of the city, and visited the main memorial complex where he led a moment of silence for those that died in the battle.\n\nMeanwhile, thousands of Volgograd residents lined the city's streets to watch a military parade.\n\nAs planes roared overhead, modern and World War Two-era tanks rolled along the centre of the city. Some of the modern vehicles were marked with the letter Z, which has become the symbol of Russia's invasion.\n\nLocal media reported that regional Governor Andrey Bocharov - who accompanied Mr Putin to the memorial complex - was not at the parade. He had not been seen since 24 January, leading to speculation that he was isolating before meeting the president.\n\nElsewhere, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was preparing to take \"revenge\" against the West for aiding Ukraine.\n\n\"Now Russia is concentrating its forces. We all know that. It is preparing to try to take revenge, not only against Ukraine, but against a free Europe and the free world,\" Mr Zelensky said in Kyiv.\n\nSpeaking alongside EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Mr Zelensky said Russia was \"increasing the pace of adaptation to sanctions\" and urged the EU leader to impose additional restrictions on the Russian economy.\n\nLater, addressing the National Prayer Breakfast in the US via videolink, Mr Zelensky thanked US President Joe Biden for his support and set Ukrainian forces a goal of defeating the Russian invasion in the next year.\n\n\"We must do everything we can together so that next year - on the first Thursday of February - we will be able to pray simply with thanks for the obtained salvation from evil,\" Mr Zelensky said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. From 2022: Ros Atkins on... Putin’s false Nazi claims about Ukraine", "Nicola Bulley has been missing since she took her dog for a walk on Friday morning\n\nThe parents of a missing mother-of-two have spoken of their \"dread\" at the thought of never seeing her again as the search continued for a seventh day.\n\nNicola Bulley, 45, was last seen walking her dog next to the River Wyre in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, at about 09:15 GMT on Friday.\n\nErnest and Dot Bulley told the Mirror their grandchildren were \"sobbing their hearts out\" because \"mummy is lost\".\n\nMs Bulley had just dropped her girls, aged six and nine, off at school.\n\nMr Bulley, 73, and his 72-year-old wife said their daughter had been in good spirits and her disappearance was totally out of character.\n\nNicola Bulley's phone was found on a bench, still connected to a work call.\n\nA harness and lead for her springer spaniel, Willow, was also discovered.\n\nPolice were called after a member of the public alerted them to the dog running loose off Garstang Road.\n\nDespite a huge search involving the police helicopter, drones, sniffer dogs, and an army of volunteers, no trace of Ms Bulley has been found.\n\nSpecialist divers have also been scouring the River Wyre.\n\nSearch teams continued on Thursday to look for any sign of Nicola Bulley in the river\n\nNicola's dog, a springer spaniel named Willow, was found loose between the river and a bench\n\nMr Bulley told the Mirror: \"There was no sign of a slip or falling in, so our thought was 'has somebody got her?'\n\n\"I asked the sergeant from Fleetwood a few days ago, 'Is there any chance of her being taken?' and she said, 'I don't think that's the case'.\n\n\"I said, 'How can you know that?' It's such an isolated area, the only way that has happened is if it was someone who knew her.\"\n\nHe added: \"We just dread to think we will never see her again, if the worst came to the worst and she was never found, how will we deal with that for the rest of our lives?\"\n\nA woman called Amanda told BBC Radio Lancashire she and her husband saw Ms Bulley and her dog shortly before she disappeared.\n\n\"It is a lady that comes on [the walk] every day. The dog you see every day. I believe there has been a telephone left.\n\n\"Just an absolute mystery; can't explain it.\"\n\nLancashire Police said officers were keeping an \"open mind\" about what happened, but did not believe Ms Bulley had been attacked.\n\nA police diver continues to search in the River Wyre nearly a week after Ms Bulley's disappearance\n\nA key witness, who was walking a white fluffy dog in the area, was located and spoken to on Tuesday.\n\nThe man \"spoke to the woman in the area who found Nicola's dog near a bench in the field\", the force said in an earlier statement.\n\nAnother woman in the area told the BBC she had seen the dog moments after it was found.\n\nShe recognised the spaniel and knew who it belonged to, adding that it was \"bone dry\" and showed no signs of having been in the river that morning.\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, 44, has described the situation as \"perpetual hell\".\n\nIn a statement, her family said: \"The girls are desperate to have their mummy back home safe with them and your ongoing efforts have provided comfort to them whilst we await news on Nicola.\n\n\"We ask for anyone who thinks they may have any information that may help the police find Nicola to please come forward and help them with their inquiries.\"\n\nSupt Sally Riley said: \"I must stress at this time that this remains a missing person inquiry and at this time there is nothing to suggest any third-party involvement in Nicola's disappearance.\n\n\"We appreciate there is also a great deal of concern in the local community, and we appreciate people want to help.\n\n\"However, parts of the riverbank are treacherous, and we would ask that nobody puts themselves in danger and that the police and partner agencies' efforts to find Nicola are not compromised.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The virus has continued to spread in a wide range of domestic and wild bird species\n\nThe largest ever outbreak of bird flu is spilling over into mammals, including otters and foxes in the UK.\n\nFigures released to the BBC show the virus has led to the death of about 208 million birds around the world and at least 200 recorded cases in mammals.\n\nPublic health bosses warn the mutation in mammals could see a jump to humans but the risk to the public is very low.\n\nThere will now be more targeted surveillance and testing of animals and humans exposed to the virus in the UK.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) still advises that avian flu is primarily a disease of birds, but experts across the globe are looking at the risks of it spilling over into other species.\n\nWorldwide, the virus has been found in a range of mammals, including grizzly bears in America and mink in Spain, as well as in dolphin and seals.\n\nIn the UK, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has tested 66 mammals, including seals, and found nine otters and foxes were positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1.\n\nCases have been found in Durham, Cheshire and Cornwall in England; Powys in Wales; Shetland, the Inner Hebrides and Fife, Scotland.\n\nIt is believed they had fed on dead or sick wild birds infected with the virus.\n\nThe animals were found to have a mutation of the virus that could make it easier to infect mammals, but there was no evidence of transmission between mammals.\n\nThe APHA added that there was \"a very low likelihood of any widespread infection in GB mammals\".\n\nProf Ian Brown, APHA's director of scientific services, said: \"A sick or a dead wild bird contains an awful lot of virus. So scavenging mammals that will be opportunistic and predate on dead or sick birds will be exposed to very large quantities of virus. That gives a possibility for the virus to enter a host population that it doesn't normally maintain in.\"\n\nProf Brown said that the UK's national avian flu taskforce was now ramping up its surveillance of cases in mammals and genome analysis of the virus itself while keeping a close eye on its spread in global populations of wild birds.\n\n\"The virus is absolutely on the march. And it's almost remarkable - it's a single strain,\" he said, adding that greater international action to tackle its spread was needed.\n\nHe told the BBC he was \"acutely aware of the risks\" of avian flu becoming a pandemic like Covid-19.\n\nHe said: \"This global spread is a concern. We do need globally to look at new strategies, those international partnerships, to get on top of this disease.\n\n\"If we don't solve the problem across the globe, we're going to continue to have that risk.\"\n\nProf Ian Brown says there needs to be closer international co-operation\n\nSince October 2021, when the latest outbreak began, there have been five confirmed human cases of the H5N1 virus, including one in the UK, and one death, in China.\n\nLast month, a nine-year old girl in Ecuador was found to be infected with avian influenza A(H5).\n\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) said that, in the past 20 years, there have been almost 870 cases of human infection with the avian influenza H5N1 virus reported from 21 countries. Of these, 457 were fatal.\n\nIt said the virus has \"not acquired the ability for sustained transmission among humans. Thus the likelihood of human-to-human spread is low.\"\n\nBut it added: \"Due to the constantly evolving nature of influenza viruses, WHO continues to stress the importance of global surveillance to detect and monitor virological, epidemiological, and clinical changes associated with emerging or circulating influenza viruses that may affect human (or animal) health, and timely virus-sharing for risk assessment.\"\n\nDr Wenqing Zhang, the head of WHO's global influenza programme, said of the threat posed by the virus spilling over: \"It is very concerning and the risk has been increasing over the years as reflected in the number of outbreaks in animals as well as a number of infections in humans.\"\n\nIntergovernmental organisation the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) told the BBC it has recorded almost 42 million individual cases in domestic and wild birds since the outbreak began in October 2021.\n\nAlmost 15 million domestic birds, including poultry, have died from the disease, and more than 193 million more have been culled.\n\nIt also shows 119 outbreaks affecting mammals, with about 200 individual cases recorded - although a WOAH spokesperson warned the spread to mammals was likely to be under-reported.\n\nDr Gregorio Torres, WOAH's head of science, said there had been an increase in reports of non-avian species being affected by the virus over the past 18 months.\n\nHe said it \"could be a signal of very sensitive surveillance - an indicator that we are doing a good job\".\n\nBut he added: \"On the other hand, it could also be an indicator that there is a change in the epidemiology of the disease or a change in the dynamic of the disease. And that will require close monitoring.\n\n\"There is a risk for further transmission between species and we cannot underestimate the potential adaptation to humans.\"\n\nIn a recent report, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned that the \"rapid and consistent acquisition of the mutation in mammals may imply this virus has a propensity to cause zoonotic infections\", meaning it could jump to humans.\n\nThe agency also raised concerns about limited wild bird and mammal surveillance and genomic data collection in England, and warned that there was not enough testing of people who had been contact with infected birds.\n\nIt is now looking to develop new ways of testing humans who have been exposed to the disease but may be asymptomatic\n\nDr Meera Chand, incident director for avian influenza at UKHSA, said: \"Latest evidence suggests that the avian influenza viruses currently circulating in birds do not spread easily to people. We remain vigilant for any evidence of changing risk.\n\n\"There have recently been some detections of avian influenza viruses in a small number of mammals in the UK. However, the risk assessment conducted by UKHSA and partners did not identify any signals of increased risk to the general public from avian influenza at present.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the public is being warned not to touch any dead or sick birds, but to report any dead birds of prey, three or more dead wild waterfowl or gulls or five or more dead birds of any species that they find to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.", "Bennylyn Burke and her daughter Jellica were killed at Andrew Innes' home in Dundee\n\nWarning: This article contains graphic details which some readers may find upsetting\n\nA murder accused has described being \"apocalyptically angry\" as he repeatedly hit a woman on the head with a hammer at his Dundee home.\n\nAndrew Innes said he attacked Bennylyn Burke after thinking \"crazy things\" because she resembled two women he felt had betrayed him.\n\nInnes was giving evidence in his defence at the High Court in Edinburgh.\n\nHe admits killing Bennylyn and her two-year-old daughter Jellica but denies their murder, citing diminished responsibility.\n\nHe said the child died some days after her mother, during a struggle as he tried to stop her touching a dangerous piece of electrical equipment.\n\nHe also blamed his steroid medication for his behaviour.\n\nInnes said he had taken Bennylyn and Jellica to his home in Dundee in February 2021 after driving to meet them in Bristol, where they lived.\n\nHe said Bennylyn was in the kitchen, preparing food, when he thought she looked like a combination of his estranged wife and another woman who had left him.\n\nHe told the court: \"I started to think about all of the spiteful stuff my wife did to me. I got angry.\n\n\"I got really angry. I have never got so angry before. There's an expression about your blood boiling. There was a physical sensation.\n\n\"I started to think some very crazy things. I thought that the woman in front of me…. was some kind of hybrid.\n\n\"I became apocalyptically angry. I picked up the hammer and hit her over the back of the head.\n\n\"I was furious, I started to think some crazy things. It's insane.\"\n\nInnes admits killing Bennylyn and Jellica Burke but claims steroid medication caused his behaviour\n\nHe said that after a struggle on the kitchen floor he went to fetch a samurai sword which he kept in his office.\n\n\"My memories are fragmented. I don't remember all of it,\" he told the jury.\n\n\"I remember wrestling on the kitchen floor. I had a samurai sword in my office and I remember thinking 'right, I will get my samurai sword' so I went into my office and she started chasing me.\n\n\"I remember the blade going in once.\"\n\nHe said he then \"kept hitting her until she stopped moving\".\n\nAsked where Jellica and another child were at the time, he said they were watching cartoons.\n\nInnes said that after killing Bennylyn he had taken her body upstairs where he placed it in the bath, and he recalled \"wandering about in a zombie-like state\".\n\nThe bodies of Bennylyn and Jellica Burke were found at Innes house in Dundee in March 2021\n\nQuestioned about the killing of Jellica, he said his memory was uncertain but he believed it happened three days after the death of her mother.\n\nHe said he had been playing \"hide and seek\" upstairs with the child when she ran towards an electrical transformer.\n\n\"If she had touched the wire she would have exploded, I had to stop her, she kept trying to get it,\" he said.\n\n\"She wanted to go to her mum, I was detached from reality, I had no emotional response.\n\n\"It seemed logical to me to put her with her mum.\"\n\nThe trial has previously heard that Jellica died of asphyxiation.\n\nMembers of Bennylyn and Jellica's family wept in the public seats as Innes gave evidence.\n\nInnes told the jury he had been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and also had Crohn's Disease, a condition which attacks his immune system.\n\nHe said had taken two weekly dosages of his steroid medication and had not slept the night before the attack on Bennylyn, which took place the day he was due to drive her back to Bristol.\n\nWhen asked why he killed, he said: \"Because I was insane, as a result of the steroids.\"\n\nThe court heard that Bennylyn, who was originally from the Philippines, had met Innes online on a dating site.\n\nThe bodies of Bennylyn and Jellica were later found hidden under his kitchen floor.\n\nInnes denies murdering Bennylyn and Jellica, sexually assaulting Jellica and raping another child.\n\nHe also denies attempting to defeat the ends of justice.\n\nThe trial, before Lord Beckett at the High Court in Edinburgh, continues.", "Helen and Rachael Patching died while visiting the Brecon Beacons\n\nThe provisional cause of death for two women who died near a popular waterfall was drowning, an inquest has heard.\n\nHelen and Rachael Patching, aged 52 and 33, from Kent, were visiting Ystradfellte, Powys, in the Brecon Beacons National Park while on holiday.\n\nThe alarm was raised at about 11:45 GMT on 4 January after a body was seen in the water.\n\nFamily tributes after their deaths called them \"such a devoted, selfless, and loving couple\".\n\nThe body of Helen Patching was found on 5 January and Rachael was located in a river near Glynneath on 8 January.\n\nFire services, mountain rescue and national air support services were involved in a large search.\n\nHelen and Rachael Patching \"had an immensely positive impact on all those they met,\" say their families\n\nAt Pontypridd Coroners Court, usher Catherine Burnell said \"a search commenced and the body of Helen Patching was located within the water of the waterfall\".\n\nMs Burnell told the coroner police received a call from a member of the public who \"spotted a body at Spring Lakes campsite between Glynneath and Resolven\".\n\nThe incident occurred at Ystradfellte Falls in the Brecon Beacons\n\nOfficers from South Wales Police attended and located Rachel Patching at the river's edge.\n\nPost-mortem examinations carried out on both determined the provisional cause of death as drowning.\n\nThe coroner for south Wales central, Patricia Morgan, sent her \"deepest condolences\" to the friends and families of both women \"at this tragic time\".\n\nFollowing the deaths, their families said they were \"devastated\".\n\n\"They were such a devoted, selfless, and loving couple having had an immensely positive impact on all those they met,\" they said.\n\nThere was flooding in parts of mid and west Wales following heavy rainfall around the time of the incident, with firefighters rescuing people left stranded in cars.\n\nYstradfellte Falls are a series of four waterfalls in the Brecon Beacons which are linked by a walking path and popular with tourists and day-trippers.", "Natalie McNally was expecting a baby boy when she was killed in December\n\nA 32-year-old man charged with murdering a pregnant woman in Lurgan staged an online gaming stream the night she was killed, a court has heard.\n\nNatalie McNally, also 32, was 15 weeks pregnant when she was stabbed on 18 December at her Silverwood Green home.\n\nStephen McCullagh, of Woodland Gardens in Lisburn, was charged on Thursday.\n\nHe did not speak during his appearance via videolink at Lisburn Magistrates' Court.\n\nThe court heard that Mr McCullagh, who has a YouTube channel, staged a live broadcast on the night of the murder, with footage appearing to show him playing the video game Grand Theft Auto for six hours.\n\nIt was told the defendant was initially arrested in the wake of the murder but then ruled out as a suspect on the basis of the alleged livestream alibi.\n\nA senior detective told the court that extensive examination of Mr McCullagh's devices by cyber experts indicated the footage was pre-recorded and played out as if it was live.\n\nThe court heard Stephen McCullagh went on to interact with the McNally family after Natalie's death\n\nPSNI Det Ch Insp Neil McGuinness noted that, in the footage, the defendant tells viewers he is unable to interact with them live due to technical issues.\n\nHe told the judge that while Mr McCullagh denies involvement in Ms McNally's murder, he conceded in police interview that the purported livestream was pre-recorded by him days earlier.\n\nThe detective said Mr McCullagh, who works in the local media industry, then went on to interact with the McNally family in the weeks that followed.\n\nHe said the accused left his phone in the home of Ms McNally's parents and recorded 40 minutes of audio.\n\nDet Ch Insp McGuinness said he believed this was Mr McCullagh attempting to determine if the family suspected him of involvement in the murder.\n\nThe court also heard that police believe they can trace the defendant from the murder scene back to his home in Lisburn.\n\nThis is through a combination of CCTV evidence, including on board a bus to Lurgan, and from the account of a taxi driver, who police believe drove him on the final part of his journey home after the murder.\n\nThe court also heard that the man police believe is Mr McCullagh is shown wearing a yellow glove underneath a black glove while giving change to the bus driver.\n\nDet Ch Insp McGuinness said the yellow glove would be consistent with a trace of marigold cleaning glove on a stain of Ms McNally's blood at the crime scene.\n\nHe added that Mr McCullagh acknowledged he was not livestreaming on the night of the murder, but said he was drinking on his own in his house and fell asleep.\n\nWhen making a bail application, a defence lawyer challenged the basis on which the police had connected the defendant to the charge.\n\n\"Essentially, what the evidence seems to all hang on is that the man did not livestream when he said he livestreamed,\" he said.\n\nThe judge said it was one of the most complex cases she had come across.\n\nMr McCullagh was remanded in custody and is due to appear in court again on 24 February.", "Mason Greenwood was arrested in January 2022 after the allegations emerged\n\nCharges of attempted rape and assault have been dropped against Manchester United footballer Mason Greenwood.\n\nThe 21-year-old was arrested in January 2022 amid allegations surrounding images and videos.\n\nHe was later charged with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.\n\nIn a statement, Greenwood said he was \"relieved\" and thanked his family and friends for supporting him.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service said the charges were discontinued after key witnesses withdrew their involvement and \"new material came to light\".\n\nA spokesman said: \"We have a duty to keep cases under continuous review.\n\n\"In this case a combination of the withdrawal of key witnesses and new material that came to light meant there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction. In these circumstances, we are under a duty to stop the case.\n\n\"We have explained our decision to all parties.\n\n\"We would always encourage any potential victims to come forward and report to police and we will prosecute wherever our legal test is met.\"\n\nThe footballer has not played for United since the allegations emerged\n\nIn a statement released on Greenwood's behalf, the 21-year-old said: \"I am relieved that this matter is now over and I would like to thank my family, loved ones and friends for their support.\n\n\"There will be no further comment at this time.\"\n\nWithin hours of the allegations surfacing at the beginning of 2022, the forward, who has made one appearance for England, was suspended from playing or training with the Old Trafford club.\n\nA Manchester United representative said the club had noted \"the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service that all charges against Mason Greenwood have been dropped\".\n\n\"The club will now conduct its own process before determining next steps,\" they said.\n\n\"We will not make any further comment until that process is complete.\"\n\nThe BBC understands that Greenwood will not return to training or play until this process is complete.\n\nGreater Manchester Police said it was \"only fair\" to announce Greenwood would no longer face criminal proceedings.\n\nCh Supt Michaela Kerr said the decision had \"not been taken lightly\".\n\nShe added: \"I would, however, like to use this opportunity to reiterate the force's commitment to investigating allegations of violence against women and girls and supporting those affected, regardless of their circumstances, throughout what can be a hard and upsetting time for them.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Interest rates are big news when they change - but why? If you're not familiar with what they are and how they affect you, here's our quick guide to what it all means.\n\nInterest is the extra cash you get charged for a loan If a friend loans you £10 at a 10% interest rate, you'll pay them back £11. That's the £10 you borrowed plus an extra £1 (10% of £10) as interest. Banks have more complicated ways of calculating this, but that's the general idea.\n\nRates are just how much interest you pay If you hear about rates going up, that means you'll pay more interest on borrowed money. You might also hear people talk about getting better rates on some bank loans, or really high rates on things like credit cards and payday loans.\n\nMortgages are special - they take decades to pay back. So to make sure banks don't lose money in the long run, the interest rate gets renegotiated at least every few years. Given the loan is so big, small changes of a few percent could mean spending hundreds of pounds more each month.\n\nThere are many different types of mortgages A fixed rate mortgage is when the homeowner commits to repaying a certain fixed amount each month for a set period of time. The interest rate is frozen until the deal ends, when the repayment is renegotiated. A variable mortgage moves up or down with interest rates, so repayments rise and fall.\n\nWill your mortgage go up? If interest rates jump upwards, first-time buyers with a mortgage could see their monthly repayment increase, for instance, from 3% to 5% or more. This might be too much for many to afford. Regulated mortgage advisers can search the market and recommend the best deal, but you might have to pay for their services.\n\nHow high could interest rates go? The Bank of England may increase interest rates if it thinks prices are going up too quickly - called inflation. Higher interest rates can discourage people from taking out loans or spending on their credit cards. This means people have less money to spend, so price rises slow down. But, it can hurt people already struggling to afford things, and there is no telling how high rates could eventually climb.\n\nBut high interest rates can be good, too If you have money in savings, higher interest rates should make the interest you earn on your funds go up - since you're basically loaning the bank your money while they hold on to it. But banks are often pretty slow to pass on the extra cash to customers - and sometimes don't bump up their payouts at all.", "Royal Mail postal workers will walk out again later this month in an ongoing row over pay and conditions, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said.\n\nAbout 115,000 workers will strike from 12:30pm on Thursday 16 February, until 12.30pm on Friday 17 February.\n\nMail deliveries are likely to be disrupted again, as seen during similar strikes last year in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nA spokesperson for Royal Mail said the CWU's action was \"misguided\".\n\nThe fresh action comes as workers in various sectors seek pay rises in line with the rising cost of living.\n\nRoyal Mail workers staged several strikes at the end of last year, in a move which cost the firm millions at one of the busiest times of the year for parcel deliveries.\n\nAs the dispute over pay and conditions rumbles on, the CWU's Dave Ward said that Royal Mail management had shown a \"complete lack of integrity\".\n\nHe added that recent proposed changes by Royal Mail effectively remove the right of the union to negotiate at a local level and \"viewed as a real step towards the derecognition of the union\".\n\n\"Our members will not just sit back and watch as their working lives are destroyed by a company leadership hell-bent on ripping up historic arrangements that protect their rights and give them a voice through their union,\" Mr Ward said.\n\nA Royal Mail spokesperson said: \"We entered facilitated talks... in good faith, believing that the CWU were serious in their claim that they wanted a resolution.\n\n\"In announcing further damaging strike action, the CWU have shown they are not interested in resolving this dispute and continue to focus on damaging our business further.\"\n\nRoyal Mail has offered a pay deal which it says is worth up to 9% over 18 months. However, the CWU says its members want more, given that inflation - the rate at which prices rise - is at a record high.\n\nThe union also objects to Royal Mail's proposed changes to working conditions, including the introduction of compulsory Sunday working.\n\nRoyal Mail's management says these changes are necessary in an increasingly competitive deliveries market.\n\n\"We need to agree on changes to make our business more competitive. That is the only way to secure well-paid, long-term job security for our people,\" a Royal Mail spokesperson added.\n\nRoyal Mail recently restarted the export of parcels after recovering from a cyber-attack in January.\n\nSeparately, the firm's chief executive Simon Thompson will be quizzed for a second time by MPs after \"hundreds\" of complaints were made about the accuracy of evidence he gave to a committee last month.\n\nThe Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee said doubts were raised after Mr Thompson denied the firm tracked workers' productivity through their handheld computers, and also questioned his denial that Royal Mail prioritised parcels.\n• None Royal Mail says strikes have cost it millions", "The banker was attacked shortly after leaving The Ivy Club in London's West End\n\nA man has been found not guilty of murdering a bank executive who was punched to the ground shortly after leaving The Ivy Club in London.\n\nPaul Mason, 52, of Qatar National Bank, suffered serious head injuries and died six months later in June 2021.\n\nSteven Allan, 34, from Hook, Hampshire, mistakenly believed Mr Mason had stolen a mobile phone, the Old Bailey heard.\n\nHe will be sentenced on 23 March after previously pleading guilty to manslaughter.\n\nMr Mason was punched three times in front of onlookers in Cambridge Circus on the evening of 15 December 2020, the retrial jury heard.\n\nJane Bickerstaff KC, prosecuting, said the banker's head hit the pavement following the third blow.\n\nHe died on 4 June 2021 as a direct result of his injuries, she told the court.\n\nBefore fleeing the scene, Allan took Mr Mason's phone and told onlookers: \"That's my friend's phone. He stole my friend's phone,\" the jury was told.\n\nMs Bickerstaff said: \"The defendant had been drinking and his case is that he was acting under the mistaken belief that the victim had stolen his friend's mobile telephone.\n\n\"The Crown says there was no realistic basis for this belief, and if it really was his belief then it was a mistake of fact undoubtedly brought about by his level of self-induced intoxication.\"\n\nHowever he warned the defendant: \"Make no mistake, a substantial term of imprisonment will be the end result in this case.\"\n\nAddressing Mr Mason's tearful widow in court, the judge said: \"You have throughout conducted yourself in a way your husband would be proud of, I am sure.\n\n\"The court expresses its sincere condolences to his family and friends, to you madam, and your family and friends.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Omagh was bombed by the Real IRA in 1998\n\nA decision on whether to order a public inquiry into the Omagh bombing is expected to be made on Thursday.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is due to to make a statement in the House of Commons.\n\nIt follows long-running legal action brought by a relative of one of the 29 people who died after the bomb exploded in the County Tyrone town on 15 August 1998.\n\nThe bombing was the biggest single atrocity in the Troubles.\n\nBereaved families have been campaigning for an inquiry for more than a decade.\n\nIn July 2021, the High Court found there should be an investigation on both sides of the border into whether intelligence information could have prevented the Real IRA attack.\n\nPolice and forensic officers sift through the debris of the Omagh explosion\n\nThe judge, Mr Justice Horner, said on the basis of evidence he heard it is plausible the bombing could have been stopped.\n\nHe said any investigation should look specifically at whether a more pro-active campaign of disruption had the prospect of thwarting the attack.\n\nHe did not state the investigation needed to be in the form of a public inquiry.\n\nThe bombing was carried out by the Real IRA just months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed\n\nMr Heaton-Harris had pledged to announce the government's response to the judgment early this year.\n\nThe secretary of state travelled to Omagh in December to meet some of the bereaved families and visit the site of the bombing and a nearby memorial garden.\n\nIn recent weeks the Northern Ireland Office has insisted it has been continuing to work on \"next steps\" following Mr Justice Horner's judgement.\n\nIt is understood bereaved relatives have been advised that Mr Heaton-Harris is set make his announcement in the House of Commons.\n\nMichael Gallagher, who lost his son Aiden in the bombing and who brought the legal action, said following the 2021 ruling: \"The only mechanism that can bring about truth and justice is a full public inquiry.\"\n\nWhile having no jurisdiction to order the Irish government to act on the matter, Mr Justice Horner urged authorities there to establish their own probe in light of his findings.\n\nSpeaking to Irish national broadcaster RTÉ on Thursday morning, Irish Justice Minister Simon Harris said the Irish government in Dublin would wait to see the detail of the secretary of state's announcement before considering what action was required.\n\nHe said Mr Heaton-Harris and Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin had spoken by phone on Wednesday night but that he was not personally aware of what the secretary of state was going to say in the Commons.\n\nPressed on the Belfast High Court recommendation that investigations should be carried out by both governments, not just the British government, the minister said: \"The crucial test from my perspective as minister for justice will be what additional support or additionality can we add to that inquiry.\"", "Energy companies have been asked by the industry regulator Ofgem to suspend the forced installation of prepayment meters.\n\nIt comes after The Times found debt agents for British Gas had broken into vulnerable people's homes to fit meters.\n\nOfgem has asked all suppliers to review the use of court warrants to enter the homes of customers in arrears.\n\nIt said firms must get their \"house in order\".\n\nJonathan Brearley, the regulator's boss, said he had ordered the review into pre-payment meters to \"uncover poor practice\" and that he would not hesitate to take the \"strongest action in our powers\" where needed.The regulator does not have the power to enforce a total ban.\n\nThere are more than four million UK households on prepayment meters. Rules state:\n\nThe undercover investigation by the Times revealed how agents working for Arvato Financial Solutions on behalf of British Gas had forced their way into the home of a single father-of-three to install a prepayment meter.\n\nOn Thursday, Chris O'Shea, the boss of Centrica which owns British Gas, told the BBC: \"There is nothing that I can say that can express the horror I had when I heard this, when I read this. It is completely unacceptable.\n\n\"The contractor that we've employed, Arvato, has let us down but I am accountable for this.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Centrica boss Chris O'Shea: \"Every one of our customers deserves to be treated with respect\"\n\nMr Brearley said: \"It is astonishing for any supplier not to know about their own contractors' behaviour, especially where they are interacting with the most vulnerable in our society.\"\n\nBut earlier this week, the Ofgem boss said he was in favour of forcing some customers onto prepayment meters.\n\nHe told MPs on Tuesday: \"There is something I will say that may not be popular here but there are a group of customers who can afford to pay their bills, who choose not to.\n\n\"And so everyone is agreed in those circumstances the mandatory switch to a prepayment meter is a reasonable response to families who can afford to pay.\"\n\nBritish Gas has said it will suspend forcefully installing prepayment meters until at least after the winter. Arvato Financial Solutions has not commented.\n\nA spokesman for British Gas said it had about 1.5 million customers on prepayment meters and last year had executed around 20,000 prepayment installs with a warrant. It is the country's largest supplier with 7.26 million customers.\n\nEDF, Britain's second largest supplier, has also confirmed it is suspending the forced installation of prepayment meters and reviewing its practices.\n\nOvo Energy said it suspended its warrant activities in November, and Octopus Energy said it was \"not installing any at the moment\" and rarely had done.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The whole system of prepayment meters needs review\n\nJane, who did not want us to use her surname, came home to her recently-bought house in Poole, Dorset, in 2014 to find that someone had been in her home, installed a prepayment meter and left a letter in the kitchen.\n\nJane said the \"horrid\" experience had happened just after she had lost her unborn child at 17 weeks. She said she was mentally \"broken\".\n\nThe now 46-year-old said she had been sent letters addressed to a previous occupant and had posted them marked 'return to sender'. Jane added she was signed up to a direct debit plan with her energy provider, and had not missed a payment.\n\nShe called the firm and said it transpired that it had been the previous tenant who had been in arrears. She said a neighbour with a spare key was persuaded to let the installers in.\n\nJane said her energy provider had apologised on the phone for the mistake, removed the prepayment meter and credited her account with £45.\n\n\"It feels violating to have someone come into your house like that. It was so scary,\" she said. \"You could sense someone had been in. The house was freezing cold.\"\n\nOfgem said energy suppliers had been asked to examine their relationships with third-party contractors and to look at \"incentives that could give rise to poor and unacceptable behaviours\".\n\nIn the case of British Gas, Mr Brearley said: \"We are opening a comprehensive investigation into British Gas on this issue and we will not hesitate to take the strongest action needed.\"\n\nGraham Stuart, the minister for energy and climate, said British Gas should \"hold their heads in shame\".\n\nHe told the BBC he had met all energy suppliers last week to talk about how to improve looking after vulnerable people \"because there are clear rules and they have obviously not been followed\".\n\nBut Caroline Flint, former shadow energy secretary who now chairs the Committee on Fuel Poverty, said the issue of forced installation of prepayment meters had been raised with the government last year following a surge at the end of summer.\n\n\"It is quite clear that the rules around seeking warrants for these forced installations make it very clear that they shouldn't be done where there are vulnerable people living in households, and they just haven't been followed,\" she told the BBC.\n\nWhile Ms Flint welcomed the suspension, she said it was \"right to consider whether or not forced installation of meters should happen at all\".\n\nHave you had your home broken into so a prepayment meter can be fitted? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A man stands in the rubble of the mosque\n\nThe man who attacked a mosque in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday used a police uniform to gain access to the area, police have said.\n\nThe suicide bomber reportedly entered through the main gates of the secure zone where the mosque is located.\n\nPolice chief Moazzam Jah Ansari said they had CCTV footage revealing the man's final movements, and were closing in on the \"terror network\" responsible.\n\nHe also confirmed a head found at the site was the attacker's.\n\nMonday's blast - one of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan in years - took place at a 50-year-old mosque in a high-security police zone called Police Lines.\n\nAt least 100 people were killed, of whom most were police officers.\n\nOfficers failed to check the attacker as they assumed he was one of them, Mr Ansari said. \"I admit this was a security lapse. My men could not stop it. This is my fault.\"\n\nHe explained that police had been able to trace the bomber's motorcycle journey before the attack using CCTV footage.\n\nAs the man parked his motorcycle, he was \"in a police uniform and was wearing a mask and a helmet\". After entering the compound, the attacker asked a constable where the mosque was.\n\nMr Ansari - who heads the force in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province - added that ball bearings had been found which were used in a suicide jacket.\n\nHe said 10-12kg (22-26lb) of TNT explosives were used in the blast, which caused the mosque's roof to collapse on the hundreds who were praying in the building.\n\nPolice do not believe the man was a \"lone wolf\", and have suggested there is an entire network behind him.\n\nA claim that the hard-line Islamist militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out Monday's bombing was later denied by the group, which blamed it on the commander of a breakaway faction.\n\nIn the past the TTP has refrained from claiming some attacks on mosques, schools or markets, preferring to cast its violence as a war with security forces and not against the Pakistani people.\n\nHundreds of police officers took part in demonstrations against the attack\n\nIn recent years attacks by the TTP and other militant groups have been on the rise again in north-west Pakistan after the Afghan Taliban gained power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.\n\nPakistan says its forces are ready to take on the militants.\n\nBut the police remain ill-equipped to fight the highly trained and well-armed insurgents. Recent militant attacks include overrunning police stations - and in some cases, police did not offer resistance.", "Tyre Nichols' family spoke at the funeral alongside Reverend Al Sharpton and high-profile attorney Ben Crump\n\nFamily, friends and civil rights leaders gathered in Memphis on Wednesday to mourn the death of 29-year-old father Tyre Nichols.\n\nMr Nichols died three days after he was beaten by police following a traffic stop.\n\nFive officers were charged last week over his death.\n\nRelatives as well as national figures, including Vice-President Kamala Harris and actor Spike Lee, came to Tennessee to pay their respects.\n\nDuring the three-hour ceremony that featured gospel songs and African drumming, those who knew Mr Nichols spoke of a kind and caring father who enjoyed skateboarding and photography, while many called for police reforms.\n\nRev. Dr J. Lawrence Turner, a pastor at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, began the service by mourning a \"son, father, brother, friend, human being gone too soon and denied his rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness\".\n\nSeveral other prominent leaders also gave speeches, including Vice-President Harris, who told Mr Nichols' family the country was mourning with them.\n\n\"Mothers around the world, when their babies are born, pray to God when they hold that child that that body and that life will be safe,\" she said. \"Yet we have a mother and a father who mourn the life of a young man who should be here today.\"\n\nShe called Mr Nichols' death \"an act of violence at the hands and the feet of people who have been charged with keeping them safe\", and called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.\n\nGraphic bodycam footage of Mr Nichols' encounter with police released last week showed him being brutally punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and hit by police officers.\n\nMr Nichols was black, as are the police officers now charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and oppression.\n\nNone have not entered a plea, but lawyers for two of the men earlier said they would contest the charges.\n\nCivil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton delivered a eulogy at the funeral in Memphis\n\nThe families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of whom died as a result of police violence, were also in attendance.\n\nMr Nichols' siblings remembered their brother as someone who touched many lives, including older sister Keyana Dixon, who said through tears that her younger brother was \"robbed of his life, his passions and his talents, but not his light\".\n\nMr Nichols' other sister recited a poem titled \"I'm just trying to go home\", a reference to what Mr Nichols' told police officers in bodycam footage.\n\n\"I've skated across barriers designed to hold me back. I'm just trying to go home, where the love is loud and the smiles are warm, like the sunsets that come for me in the coldest of my storms,\" she said.\n\nCivil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton noted Mr Nichols was murdered in the same city as Dr Martin Luther King Jr 55 years before. There's \"nothing more insulting and offensive\" than police officers beating their \"brother\" to death, he said.\n\n\"If that man had been white you wouldn't have beat him like that that night,\" he said, pledging to never let Mr Nichols' \"memory die\".\n\nMr Nichols' family attorney Ben Crump said police failed to see Mr Nichols as a human being\n\nBen Crump, the high-profile attorney representing Mr Nichols' family, said police failed to see him as a human being. He said the world needed to secure \"equal justice\" for Mr Nichols.\n\nHe and other civil rights activists have argued police culture is to blame for Mr Nichols' death.\n\nThey have said Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis' swift response in charging the five police officers should be a\"blueprint\" for justice going forward.\n\nMs Davis has said the treatment of Mr Nichols \"defied humanity\".\n\nTyre Nichols casket was displayed next to a drawing at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church\n\nMr Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, who spoke briefly during the service, also urged lawmakers to pass the George Floyd policing act because \"there should be no other child that's suffered\" the way her son and many others have, she said.\n\nThe youngest of four children, Mr Nichols grew up in Sacramento, California before moving to Memphis in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic to be closer to his mother. He was a father to a four-year-old boy, and worked at FedEx with his stepfather Rodney Wells.\n\nA photo slideshow played during the funeral displayed Mr Nichols' many life passions, including capturing sunsets on camera and spending time with his son.", "Folic acid is set to be added to non-wholemeal wheat flour under UK government proposals\n\nLeading scientists say adding higher levels of folic acid to all flour and rice would stop hundreds more UK babies being born with lifelong disabilities.\n\nThey say current levels being proposed are too low and will not help some groups of women, while any concerns over potential harms are unjustified.\n\nThe government says mandatory fortification of one type of white flour allows an element of choice.\n\nThe Food Standards Agency says it will still offer big public health benefits.\n\nLast year, governments across the UK decided to introduce new laws making it compulsory for the food industry to add a vitamin called folic acid, also known as B9, to non-wholemeal wheat flour. That means everyone who eats white bread would get more folic acid in their diets.\n\nThe vitamin is particularly important in the early stages of pregnancy, helping a baby's brain, skull and spinal cord develop properly.\n\nWomen are advised to take a daily folic supplement before becoming pregnant but many do not - mostly the least well-off - and about half of pregnancies are also unplanned.\n\nThis means they run the risk of giving birth to babies with severe abnormalities called neural tube defects, such as spina bifida. These conditions affect about one in 1,000 pregnancies in the UK.\n\nBut a group of scientists says the new proposals will not help women who eat gluten-free foods, wholemeal flour or any kind of rice in preference to bread.\n\nThey also say the proposed level of folic acid added is too low and will only prevent 20% of birth defects, instead of about 80% (equivalent to 800 babies with neural tube defects) which could be achieved with higher doses.\n\nOne of those scientists, Neena Modi, professor of neonatal medicine at Imperial College London, said: \"In the UK we have a neural tube defect rate that is one of the highest in Europe.\n\n\"This is not a trivial condition,\" she said. \"It leads to major lifelong complications for baby and family.\"\n\n\"Each neural tube defect is a tragedy - I see no reason not to move to a higher level of fortification.\"\n\nSome scientists say folic acid should be added to rice as well as some types of flour to prevent more babies being born with brain or spine defects\n\nThe UK government proposes to add 0.25mg of folic acid per 100g of non-wholemeal wheat flour, but Prof Modi and others are calling for four times that amount to be added - 1mg per 100g of all flour and rice.\n\nProf Dame Lesley Regan, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington in London, said there were medical, ethical and economic reasons for much higher doses.\n\n\"I'm the one who has to pick up the pieces,\" she said, when families choose to have late terminations of affected babies after a diagnosis is discovered.\n\nThe cost of caring for babies born with the defects for the rest of their lives often runs into the tens of millions of pounds, Prof Regan said, adding that 800 families \"have to deal with those problems.\"\n\nIngesting folic acid direct from fortified foods is thought to be twice as effective at raising levels of the crucial vitamin as taking the same dose via a supplement.\n\nSome experts have previously voiced concern that adding too much folic acid to everyone's diets could mask other health issues, such as anaemia.\n\nHowever, University of Oxford neurologist Prof Peter M Rothwell rejects that notion, saying: \"There isn't an issue. The idea just doesn't fit with evidence or with modern practice.\"\n\nIt was important to be aware of unintended consequences but \"they seem to very small indeed\", he added.\n\nA study in the Lancet in 1991 showed that taking a daily 4mg folic acid supplement reduced neural tube defects in babies by about 80% in a UK trial.\n\nUniversity College London professor of preventive medicine Sir Nicholas Wald, who led that study, said higher levels of fortification \"would be safe and prevent many more birth defects\" and \"benefit all mothers - rich and poor alike\".\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care in England said the proposed level of folic acid in flour was the result of modelling by Food Standards Scotland.\n\nIt looked at the safety of different options, ensuring no increase in people at risk of consuming too much folic acid, as well as no decrease in current average intakes.\n\n\"Choosing to fortify non-wholemeal wheat flour only... allows an element of consumer choice as wholemeal flour and other milled grains and flours including those that are 'gluten free' are not currently subject to other fortification,\" it said.\n\nA consultation on the issue closed in November and responses are currently being analysed. A spokesperson for the Department said an agreed level of folic acid would be confirmed \"in due course\",\n\nThe charity Shine, which supports those living with spina bifida, say it is keen to see mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid implemented as soon as possible.\n\n\"We would hope that whatever the decision on the amount of folic acid to be added, the levels of mandatory fortification are kept under review, its impact monitored, and adjustments made as evidence of the impact becomes apparent,\" said its chief executive Kate Steele.\n\nShine said all women who might become pregnant should take a daily supplement of folic acid, whether or not they are trying for a baby.\n\nFolic acid is added to flour in more than 80 countries - and when it was added to bread in Australia, neural tube defects fell by 14%.", "Nicola Bulley has not been seen for almost a week\n\nThe family of missing Nicola Bulley have made an emotional appeal for her safe return, with her sister insisting \"people don't just vanish into thin air\".\n\nThe 45-year-old was last seen on a riverside dog walk in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, last Friday morning.\n\nSpeaking to Sky News, Ms Bulley's sister Louise Cunningham said it felt like they were \"stuck in a nightmare\".\n\nDetectives earlier said they had found a potential witness.\n\n\"We're going round and round in circles trying to piece together what could have possibly happened,\" Ms Cunningham said.\n\nLancashire Police earlier released a CCTV image of a woman who was walking a small white dog in the area.\n\nShe had since been identified, the force said.\n\nOfficers previously said the woman, who was captured on CCTV at about 08:50 GMT on Allotment Lane, close to where Ms Bulley was last seen, might have information to help the investigation.\n\nA major search involving police divers, drones, a helicopter and sniffer dogs has been continuing, but no trace of Ms Bulley has been found.\n\nHer sister added: \"We just want her home, we need her home, her children need her home. It's absolutely heartbreaking.\"\n\nMs Bulley's partner, Paul Ansell, 44, said the family was living in \"perpetual hell\" with two girls \"desperate to have their mummy back\".\n\nPolice were alerted after Ms Bulley's dog was found running loose off Garstang Road about 25 minutes after she was last spotted by a witness.\n\nHer phone was later found on a bench, still connected to a work call.\n\nA harness and lead for her springer spaniel, Willow, was also discovered on the bench.\n\nPolice said officers were keeping an \"open mind\" about what happened, but did not believe Ms Bulley had been attacked.\n\nThere is nothing to suggest any third party involvement in Ms Bulley's disappearance, the force added.\n\nSupt Sally Riley said: \"We know that Nicola going missing has caused a great deal of concern for the wider local community, as well as obviously being an awful time for her family.\n\n\"I appreciate that there are unanswered questions about what has happened to Nicola, but I would urge people not to speculate or spread false rumours.\"\n\nMs Bulley's phone was found on the bench (top left) where police continue to search\n\nMs Bulley's parents earlier told the Mirror that her two daughters, aged six and nine, who she had just dropped off at school, were \"sobbing their hearts out\" because \"mummy is lost\".\n\nA key witness, who was walking a white fluffy dog in the area, was located and spoken to on Tuesday.\n\nSpecialist search teams from Lancashire Fire and Rescue and police scour the River Wyre\n\nA woman called Amanda said she and her husband saw Ms Bulley and her dog shortly before she disappeared.\n\n\"It is a lady that comes on [the walk] every day. The dog you see every day. I believe there has been a telephone left,\" she said.\n\n\"Just an absolute mystery. Can't explain it.\"\n\nNicola Bulley has been missing since she took her dog for a walk on Friday morning\n\nAnother woman in the area told the BBC she had seen the dog moments after it was found.\n\nShe recognised the spaniel and knew who it belonged to, adding that it was \"bone dry\" and showed no signs of having been in the river that morning.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Vikings sailing from Scandinavia to England brought horses, dogs and perhaps even pigs with them, according to analysis of bone remains.\n\nInvading Vikings were previously thought to have largely stolen animals from villages in Britain.\n\nThe findings also provide evidence Viking leaders had a close relationship with animals and travelled with them, the lead scientist says.\n\nThe 9th Century bones were found in burial mounds in Heath Wood, Derbys.\n\nCremated animal and human remains had been found buried together, suggesting the creatures had special meaning and been burned on the same funeral pyre as humans, doctoral researcher Tessi Löffelmann, from Durham University and Vrije Universiteit Brussels, told BBC News.\n\nFragments of cremated horse bones were found in Heath Wood\n\n\"They were treated more like companion animals rather than just for economic purposes,\" she said.\n\n\"I find it really touching and it suggests we underestimate just how important animals were to Vikings.\"\n\nThe horses and dogs would have travelled on Viking longboats across the North Sea, a journey that could take several weeks.\n\n\"Horses back then were smaller than horses are now, which could have made the journey a little bit more accommodating, but it was still probably wet and uncomfortable,\" Ms Löffelmann said.\n\nProf Julian Richards, from the University of York, who co-directed the excavations, said: \"The Bayeux Tapestry depicts Norman cavalry disembarking horses from their fleet but this is the first scientific demonstration that Viking warriors were transporting horses to England 200 years earlier.\"\n\nThe scientists also found a pig bone in Heath Wood, the only large Scandinavian cremation site in Britain, but this may have been a token or part of a game brought from Scandinavia, rather than a live animal.\n\nThey discovered the animals had come from Scandinavia by analysing the strontium in their bones.\n\nThis element occurs naturally in rocks, soil and water, before making its way into plants - and, when these are eaten, bones and teeth.\n\nArchaeologist Cat Jarman, who has worked at Heath Wood but was not involved in the research, said using this technique on cremated bone was \"really exciting\" because many Viking burials used cremation.\n\n\"It has opened up a whole new avenue of evidence,\" she said.\n\nThe findings are published in scientific journal Plos One.", "Awaab Ishak died from a respiratory condition caused by exposure to mould in his home\n\nSocial landlords have been urged by a watchdog to \"act now\" after tens of thousands of homes were found to have \"notable\" issues with damp and mould.\n\nThe appeal has been made in the wake of an inquest examining the death of toddler Awaab Ishak, who was exposed to mould in his home in Rochdale in 2020.\n\nThe Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) estimated 120,000 to 160,000 social homes in England had \"notable\" issues.\n\nOf those, about 40,000 to 80,000 were thought to have serious issues.\n\nHousing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway told BBC Radio 4 Today he was \"not surprised\" because of \"a significant increase in casework we've seen around damp and mould\".\n\nHe added: \"There is something about culture, behaviours and attitudes to make sure that residents are treated with respect and get the service that they require.\"\n\nMr Blakeway said he had heard of \"underhand\" practices including one resident who had been offered £50 to not pursue a complaint.\n\nHe reminded landlords of their need to comply with relevant legislation.\n\nSerious mould had developed in the flat Awaab Ishak had lived in\n\nIn November, a coroner ruled two-year-old Awaab died from a respiratory condition caused by exposure to serious mould in his flat.\n\nThe toddler's father had repeatedly raised the issue with Rochdale Boroughwide Housing but no action was ever taken.\n\nThe RSH later found \"widespread failings\" at the housing association that owned the flat.\n\nThe estimated wider extent of the problem has emerged after the RSH asked social housing providers to submit evidence about the extent of damp and mould in tenants' homes, as well as their approach to tackling it.\n\nThe regulator estimated that less than 0.2% of social homes - about 8,000 homes - in England have the most serious damp and mould problems.\n\nThey would fail the Decent Homes Standard, the regulator said.\n\nIt added that more cases were reported among local authorities than private providers.\n\nThe regulator said: \"These are not acceptable conditions for tenants to be living in, even if the proportions are relatively small.\"\n\nThe RSH said providers had recorded and submitted information about the number of damp and mould cases they had in a variety of ways, meaning it was difficult to accurately assess the extent of such problems in the sector overall.\n\nThe estimates are based on the four million homes that are owned and managed by large registered providers which have more than 1,000 homes.\n\nRSH chief executive Fiona MacGregor said: \"Where there are issues, landlords need to act now to put things right, before we start our active consumer regulation, including inspections of providers.\"\n\nThe regulator said that while its findings showed that the vast majority of people living in social housing have homes that are \"largely free from damp and mould\", those that do have such issues are at risk from a serious impact on their health and wellbeing.\n\nIn a warning to providers, the regulator said: \"We expect providers to be asking themselves how they can improve.\n\n\"Regulation should not be the only driver for change.\"\n\nProviders which reported a high prevalence of serious damp and mould or supplied poor quality information will be asked by the regulator to give \"further, specific assurance that they are identifying and addressing damp and mould cases\".\n\nIn cases where providers are identified as not meeting standards, the RSH said regulatory action will be taken, including publishing regulatory notices or regulatory judgments \"where appropriate\".\n\nLocal Government Association housing spokesman Darren Rodwell said councils were \"determined to improve housing conditions for all social and private tenants\".\n\nHe said: \"The LGA continues to work with professional bodies, as well as the government, to discuss possible solutions on improving housing standards - including those relating to damp and mould in tenanted properties.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lucy Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and trying to kill 10 others\n\nNurse Lucy Letby sent a sympathy card to the grieving parents of a baby girl just weeks after she allegedly murdered the infant, a court has heard.\n\nShe is accused of trying to kill the premature baby, referred to as Child I, three times before succeeding on a fourth attempt on 23 October 2015.\n\nMs Letby, 33, is accused of injecting air into her stomach via a feeding tube at the Countess of Chester Hospital.\n\nShe denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others.\n\nManchester Crown Court was shown an image of a condolence card Ms Letby sent to the family of Child I ahead of her funeral on 10 November.\n\nThe card was titled \"your loved one will be remembered with many smiles\".\n\nInside, Ms Letby wrote: \"There are no words to make this time any easier.\n\n\"It was a real privilege to care for [Child I] and get to know you as a family - a family who always put [Child I] first and did everything possible for her.\n\n\"She will always be part of your lives and we will never forget her.\n\n\"Thinking of you today and always. Lots of love Lucy x.\"\n\nThe court was shown an image of a condolence card Ms Letby sent to the family of Child I\n\nThe message concludes with Ms Letby saying she was sorry she could not attend the funeral.\n\nThe court was previously told that Child I was born prematurely in August 2015 at Liverpool Women's Hospital at the gestational age of 27 weeks and weighed 2Ibs 2oz (970g).\n\nShe was transferred to the Countess of Chester Hospital later that month.\n\nIt is alleged that before murdering Child I, Ms Letby attempted to kill the infant on 30 September and during night shifts on 12 and 13 October.\n\nThe prosecution said she harmed the premature infant by injecting air into her feeding tube and bloodstream before she eventually died in the early hours of 23 October 2015.\n\nThe babies were being cared for on the neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital\n\nAshleigh Hudson, who was Child I's designated nurse, told the court that the infant had been \"generally quite easy to settle\" but just prior to midnight on 22 October, she became \"very unsettled\".\n\nMs Hudson said: \"I tried the usual measures to settle her, they didn't seem to work. It was quite a relentless cry.\"\n\nAsked if crying was typical of Child I, she said: \"In my experience it was atypical.\n\n\"It was a type of cry that I hadn't myself heard her make before, it was very loud, relentless, there was no stopping and starting.\n\n\"No fluctuation, just constant, very loud.\"\n\nChild I's heart rate dropped soon after and ventilation breaths were given by Ms Hudson, with Ms Letby providing assistance.\n\nChild I stabilised for a period, but crashed again shortly after 01:00 BST.\n\nBen Myers KC, defending, asked the nurse: \"Was this, in effect a repeat of what had gone on earlier?\"\n\nSenior medics worked on Child I throughout the morning of 23 October, with numerous rounds of CPR and eight doses of adrenaline administered between 01:16 BST and 02:10 BST.\n\nThe on-call consultant Dr John Gibbs recorded in his notes that Child I was \"not responding\" to treatment and a decision was taken to stop resuscitation.\n\nHer time of death was recorded at 02:30 BST.\n\nThe court was later shown text messages, between Ms Letby and a nursing colleague, who cannot be named for legal reasons, exchanged on the evening of 23 October.\n\nSpeaking about the death of Child I, Ms Letby said: \"We tried everything. Just don't think she was strong enough this time.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ashley Dale's death was one of three gun killings within a week in Liverpool last year\n\nTwo men accused of the murder of a woman who was shot in her back garden have appeared in court.\n\nAshley Dale, 28, was found with a gunshot wound in Old Swan, Liverpool, just before 01:00 BST on 21 August.\n\nThe Knowsley Council worker died from her injuries in hospital.\n\nJames Witham, 40, of Ashbury Road, Huyton, and Joseph Peers, 28, of Woodlands Road, Roby, also faced charges of possession of a firearm with intent at Liverpool Crown Court.\n\nThe suspects, who appeared via videolink from HMP Dovegate, confirmed their names and ages in separate hearings, held one after the other.\n\nNo bail applications were made and Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Andrew Menary remanded Mr Witham and Mr Peers in custody.\n\nThe defendants are due back in court for a plea hearing on 30 June.\n\nA provisional trial date of 3 October was set, with the case expected to last six to eight weeks.\n\nMembers of Ms Dale's family sat in the public gallery for the hearings, which lasted about half an hour in total.\n\nA 25-year-old man, of no fixed address, who has been charged with assisting an offender, is due to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on 1 March.\n\nMerseyside Police previously said Ms Dale, an environmental health officer, was not believed to have been the intended target of the shooting.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n• None Two men charged with shooting woman in back garden\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Isla Bryson start identifying as a woman after being accused of two rapes\n\nA double rapist who was sent to a women's prison last week is \"almost certainly\" faking being trans, Nicola Sturgeon has suggested.\n\nIsla Bryson was convicted of attacking two women while known as a man called Adam Graham.\n\nOne of the victims later said she was sure Bryson was pretending to be trans to \"make life easier\".\n\nBryson was moved from Cornton Vale to the male prison estate after a public outcry.\n\nA \"pause\" was subsequently placed on the transfer to women's jails of trans inmates with convictions for violence after it was reported that another transgender woman, Tiffany Scott - who was convicted of stalking a 13-year-old girl before her transition and has a history of violence - was due to be moved to a female prison.\n\nThe Bryson case was raised at First Minister's Questions by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross on Thursday.\n\nMr Ross said: \"I believe a double rapist, anyone who rapes a woman, is a man. They cannot be considered anything else.\n\n\"When a man rapes two women, we don't think that he should be considered a woman just because he says so. We should call out criminals like this who are abusing the system.\n\n\"Adam Graham, who wants to be know as Isla Bryson, raped two women. He is an abusive man seeking to exploit loopholes in the government's current policy.\"\n\nMr Ross asked the first minister: \"Is this double rapist a woman?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The first minister is challenged to say whether she believes a double rapist is a woman\n\nMs Sturgeon initially said she did not have enough information to say whether Bryson's claim to be a woman was valid or not.\n\nShe added: \"I don't think Douglas Ross and I are disagreeing here, because what I think is relevant in this case is not whether the individual is a man or claims to be a woman or is trans.\n\n\"What is relevant is that the individual is a rapist. That is how the individual should be described, and it is that that should be the main consideration in deciding how the individual is dealt with.\n\n\"That is why, of course, the individual is in a male prison, not in the female prison, these are the issues that matter.\"\n\nMr Ross went on to read a quote from one of Bryson's victims, who said: \"I don't believe he is truly transgender. I feel as if he has made a mockery out of them using it. As far as I'm concerned, that was to make things easier for himself. I'm sure he is faking it.\"\n\nBryson was convicted of rapes while known as Adam Graham\n\nThe first minister responded: \"My feeling is that is almost certainly the case, which is why the key factor in this case is not the individual's claim to be a woman.\n\n\"The key and in fact only important factor in this is that the individual is convicted of rape - the individual is a rapist - and that is the factor that should be the deciding one in decisions about how that prisoner is now treated.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon went on to say it was \"really important\" to \"look seriously\" at the issues thrown up by the Bryson case, adding: \"But that in doing so, we bear in mind two things.\n\n\"Firstly, as I've said, that we do not further stigmatise trans people generally - I think that is important - but secondly that we don't cause undue concern amongst the public.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon added that there were exemptions under the current UK equality law that \"even if it wanted to this parliament couldn't change\" that enabled trans women to be excluded from some single sex spaces.\n\nThe Scottish Prison Service has operated a form of gender self-identification since 2014.\n\nAs Justice Secretary Keith Brown put it on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday: \"If somebody presents as a trans person then we accept that on face value.\"\n\nIt is that \"face value\" approach that appears to have caused such difficulty in the cases of Tiffany Scott and especially Isla Bryson, the double rapist who was initially remanded at Cornton Vale women's prison.\n\nWhile identifying as trans does not give any prisoner the right to decide where they are jailed, the system does take their acquired gender into account.\n\nCritics say that's open to abuse by predatory men but ministers say robust risk assessment should prevent that and may ultimately have excluded Bryson and Scott from the female prison estate.\n\nWhen asked about the Bryson case on Monday, Justice Secretary Keith Brown told BBC Scotland's The Nine: \"We have to accept people identify - in this case - as women. I think that is commonly accepted and that's the starting approach we take.\"\n\nBut Mr Brown stressed that this did not mean they would automatically have the right to go to a female prison, with a \"rigorous\" risk assessment being carried out first.\n\nHowever, when asked earlier in the week why the gender claims of prisoners were accepted at face value, Ms Sturgeon said: \"That is the case for trans people but if you take the two cases that have been in the media, for my point of view it's not so important what gender they are, it's the crimes that they have committed.\"\n\nBryson was found guilty last month of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 before she changed gender after being arrested.\n\nWhile awaiting trail, she enrolled on a beauty course Ayrshire College, where she was known as Annie, and remained there for three months before being asked to leave.\n\nHer classmates were almost exclusively female and much younger than Bryson, and were not aware of the rape allegations.\n\nOne former classmate told BBC Scotland last week that she felt \"violated\" after learning of the crimes Bryson had committed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Justice Secretary Keith Brown told The Nine it had been accepted that trans prisoners Isla Bryson and Tiffany Scott were women\n\nScottish government legislation aimed at allowing people to self-identify their legal sex has been blocked by the UK government over its potential impact on equalities laws.\n\nThe UK government said during a Westminster debate on Thursday that it was up to the Scottish government to bring forward a new Gender Recognition Reform bill that addresses the legal issues which caused the bill to be blocked.\n\nCabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said the decision to block the legislation using what is known as a Section 35 order was used very carefully and reluctantly in order to preserve the balance of powers between Scotland and England.\n\nSNP MP Patrick Grady said the UK government should publish its own amendments to the Bill to make it acceptable and claimed the Conservatives were undermining the Scottish Parliament.\n\nAnd backbench Conservative MP said he believed the legal arguments used by the government for halting the legislation were \"shaky\".", "Teachers marched to the town hall in Leamington Spa\n\nMore than half of schools in England either restricted attendance or closed during teacher strikes on Wednesday, government data suggested.\n\nTeachers in England and Wales were among thousands of workers taking action during what was said to be the biggest strike day for a decade.\n\nMost were taking action over pay not keeping pace with inflation.\n\nDepartment for Education estimates on school closures released on the day were based on attendance data from 77% (16,400) of state-funded primary and secondary schools in England.\n\nThe department said this data showed:\n\nEducation Secretary Gillian Keegan said she was grateful to head teachers for how they had worked to keep schools open.\n\n\"Conversations with unions are ongoing and I will be continuing discussions around pay, workload, recruitment and retention, and more.\"\n\nBut Ms Keegan admitted being surprised to learn that teachers were not legally bound to let their bosses know whether they planned to turn up to class during industrial action.\n\nShe said it was \"unreasonable\" for teachers to fail to announce their intentions to walk out.\n\nThe law could reportedly be changed to force teachers to inform head teachers if they plan to strike.\n\nThe Daily Mail, quoting a government source, said ministers could choose to \"act\" and change the law in a bid to give schools time to put contingency plans in place on strike days.\n\nSchools Minister Nick Gibb said the government was taking negotiations \"very seriously\" and wanted a \"well-rewarded profession\".\n\nNational Education Union joint general-secretaries, Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, said: \"One day's disruption through strike action is dwarfed by the long-term damage caused by government policy on education funding, on workload, and on pay.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEven in schools that were fully open children may have experienced disruption as some staff members may have been absent.\n\nIn Wales, striking teachers were joined by support staff, while members of the National Association of Head Teachers took action short of a strike.\n\nTeachers were also striking in two parts of Scotland - Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen - as part of rolling industrial action.\n\nMost state school teachers in England and Wales had a 5% pay rise in 2022. Unions say this amounts to a pay cut because inflation is over 10%. In Scotland, teachers rejected a 5% increase.\n\nPrimary school teacher Justine Valentine went on strike for the first time, taking part in a rally in Leamington Spa.\n\n\"I felt it was my only option,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm really really sorry for the children in my class, I would rather be with them.\"\n\nMaria Richardson was in school with children in Liverpool\n\nMaria Richardson, head teacher of Our Lady Queen of Peace primary school in Liverpool, sent three classes home because there were not enough staff to teach them.\n\n\"We'll ensure that the children do catch up,\" she said. \"Those children will be given extra tuition.\"\n\nA secondary-school teacher in Cambridgeshire, who asked not to be named, said she understood why her colleagues were striking but she could not afford to lose the pay.\n\n\"Morally, it just doesn't sit right with me,\" she said.\n\n\"The kids have suffered so much through Covid and I just feel like striking and them missing another four days of school is not going to help anybody. They're already so far behind.\"\n\nWednesday was the first of seven national and regional NEU strike dates.\n\nSchools in England will see four days of strike action, three national days and one affecting their region.\n\nTeachers have already been on a national strike in Scotland and action is continuing on a rolling basis. Most teachers in Northern Ireland will walk out for half a day on 21 February.\n\nOther groups of workers to strike on Wednesday included:\n\nFurther strikes by ambulance workers in several English regions and by staff at the Environment Agency were also announced on Wednesday.\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC News journalist. You can also make contact in the following ways:\n\nIf you cannot see the form, visit the mobile version of the BBC News website to submit your question or comment or email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location.", "A new 2,000-peso banknote will be issued in Argentina in response to soaring inflation, the country's central bank (BCRA) has confirmed.\n\nThe new note - which will be worth $11 (£9) officially - comes after consumer prices jumped by nearly 95% in the 12 months to the end of December.\n\nIt marks Argentina's fastest pace of inflation since 1991.\n\nThe largest current bill, the 1,000-peso note, is worth just $2.70 on the alternative markets.\n\nWriting on Twitter, the BCRA said the new note would \"commemorate the development of science and medicine in Argentina\".\n\nIt will feature pioneering doctors Cecilia Grierson and Ramón Carrillo, it added - although it is not clear when the note will enter circulation.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BCRA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWhen Argentina's current currency was introduced in 1992, its value was pegged at one US dollar.\n\nBut that fixed exchange rate system was abandoned after the financial crisis that engulfed the country in 2001 and 2002.\n\nSince then, the peso has lost so much of its value that one local artist uses banknotes for painting on, because they are cheaper than a canvas.\n\nSergio Diaz, of Salta, recently painted a picture depicting Steven Spielberg's movie Jaws as a parody of Argentina's ever-increasing inflation.\n\nArgentina has seen prices rise sharply as the cost of commodities, including energy, has gone up.\n\nArtist Sergio Diaz says it is cheaper to paint on pesos rather than a canvas\n\nSoaring prices have largely been attributed to a bout of central bank money-printing, as well as the war in Ukraine.\n\nIn December, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved another $6bn (£4.9bn) of bailout money for South America's second largest economy.\n\nIt was the latest payout for Argentina in a 30-month programme that is expected to reach a total of $44bn.\n\nLast summer, the troubled country had three economy ministers in the space of just four weeks.\n\nIn September, the central bank also raised its main rate of interest to 75% as it tried to rein in the soaring cost of living.\n\nEarlier this week, Brazil and Argentina announced plans to create a common currency that would be used to boost trade between the two countries.\n\nThe country's leaders said they needed to find ways to finance commerce without relying on US dollars - although discussions are at an early stage.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: \"I apologise to the whole Ukrainian nation\" - former Russian army officer\n\nAllegations of brutal interrogations, where Ukrainian men were shot and threatened with rape, have been made by a former Russian military officer.\n\nKonstantin Yefremov, the most senior officer to speak openly, told the BBC in an exclusive interview Russia now sees him as a traitor and defector.\n\nAt one site in southern Ukraine, he said \"the interrogations, the torture, continued for about a week\".\n\n\"Every day, at night, sometimes twice a day.\"\n\nMr Yefremov tried to resign from the army numerous times - but he ended up being dismissed for refusing to return to Ukraine. He has now fled Russia.\n\nUsing photographs and military documents supplied by Mr Yefremov, the BBC has verified he was in Ukraine early in the war - in the Zaporizhzhia region, including the city of Melitopol.\n\nThis article contains graphic descriptions of torture.\n\nKonstantin Yefremov's face flickers into view on my computer screen and we start to talk. He is a man with a story to tell. Until recently he was a Russian army officer.\n\nDeployed to Ukraine last year, the former senior lieutenant has agreed to tell me about the crimes he says he witnessed there - including torture and mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners. He will talk about his comrades looting occupied areas of Ukraine, and describe brutal interrogation sessions, led by a Russian colonel, in which men were shot and threatened with rape.\n\nOn 10 February 2022, Mr Yefremov says he arrived in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia nine years ago. He was the head of a de-mining unit of the 42nd Motorised Rifle Division - and was usually based in Chechnya, in Russia's North Caucasus. He and his men were sent to take part in \"military exercises\", he says.\n\n\"At the time no-one believed there would be war. Everyone thought this was only a drill. I'm sure even senior officers didn't know.\"\n\nMr Yefremov recalls seeing Russian troops taping identification marks on their uniforms and painting the letter \"Z\" on military equipment and vehicles. Within days, \"Z\" had become the symbol of what the Kremlin was calling its \"special military operation\".\n\nMr Yefremov claims he wanted nothing to do with it.\n\n\"I decided to quit. I went to my commander and explained my position. He took me to a senior officer who called me a traitor and a coward.\n\n\"I left my gun, got in a taxi and drove off. I wanted to return to my base in Chechnya and resign officially. Then my comrades telephoned me with a warning.\n\n\"A colonel had promised to put me in prison for up to 10 years for desertion and he'd alerted the police.\"\n\nMr Yefremov says he called a military lawyer, who advised him to turn around.\n\n\"I realise now I should have ignored that and driven on,\" he says. \"But I was afraid of being put in jail.\"\n\nHe went back to join his men.\n\nMr Yefremov insists he is \"anti-war\". He assures me he did not participate in Russia's annexation of Crimea, or fight in eastern Ukraine when war first erupted in the Donbas nine years ago.\n\nIn 2014, Russia was not only accused of orchestrating a separatist uprising there, but of sending in its own troops. Konstantin also tells me he has not taken part in Russia's military operation in Syria.\n\n\"For the last three years I had been involved in mine clearance in Chechnya, a place that had experienced two wars. I think the work I've done there has benefited people.\"\n\nMr Yefremov was placed in temporary charge of a rifle platoon. On 27 February, three days after the Russian invasion, he says he and his men were ordered to move north from occupied Crimea. They headed for the city of Melitopol.\n\nThe next 10 days were spent at an airfield which had already been captured by Russian troops. He describes the looting he witnessed.\n\n\"Soldiers and officers grabbed everything they could. They climbed all over the planes and went through all the buildings. One soldier took away a lawnmower. He said proudly, 'I'll take this home and cut the grass next to our barracks.'\n\n\"Buckets, axes, bicycles, they bunged it all in their trucks. So much stuff they had to squat down to fit in the vehicles.\"\n\nMr Yefremov has sent us photographs he says he took at Melitopol air base. They show transport planes and a building on fire.\n\nThey are among a number of pictures and documents he has shared - and which we have verified - to confirm Mr Yefremov's identity, rank and his movements in Ukraine in the spring of 2022.\n\nFor a month and a half, he and eight soldiers under his command guarded a Russian artillery unit there.\n\n\"The whole time we slept outside,\" he recalls. \"We were so hungry we started hunting for rabbits and pheasants. One time we came across a mansion. There was a Russian fighter inside. 'We're with the 100th Brigade and we live here now,' the soldier said.\n\n\"There was so much food. The fridges were packed. There was enough food to survive a nuclear war. But the soldiers living there were catching the Japanese carp in the pond outside and eating them.\"\n\nKonstantin Yefremov's group moved to guard what he describes as a \"logistics headquarters\" in April - in the town of Bilmak, to the north-east of Melitopol. There, he says he witnessed interrogations and mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners.\n\nHe recalls a day when three prisoners were brought in.\n\n\"One of them admitted to being a sniper. On hearing this, the Russian colonel lost his mind. He hit him, he pulled the Ukrainian's trousers down and asked if he was married.\n\n\"'Yes,' the prisoner replied. 'Then someone bring me a mop,' said the colonel. 'We'll turn you into a girl and send your wife the video.'\"\n\nAnother time, says Mr Yefremov, the colonel asked the prisoner to name all the Ukrainian nationalists in his unit.\n\n\"The Ukrainian didn't understand the question. He replied that the soldiers were naval infantry of the Ukrainian armed forces. For that answer they knocked out some of his teeth.\"\n\nThe Kremlin wants Russians to believe that, in Ukraine, Russia is fighting fascists, neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists. This false narrative serves to dehumanise Ukrainians in the eyes of the Russian public and the military.\n\nMr Yefremov says the Ukrainian prisoner had a blindfold on.\n\n\"The colonel put a pistol to the prisoner's forehead and said 'I'm going to count to three and then shoot you in the head.'\n\n\"He counted and then fired just to the side of his head, on both sides. The colonel started shouting at him. I said: 'Comrade colonel! He can't hear you, you've deafened him!'\"\n\nAnother photo Konstantin Yefremov shared - showing him in front of buildings in Bilmak - where he says prisoner torture took place. Local residents confirmed the location to the BBC\n\nMr Yefremov describes how the colonel gave orders that the Ukrainians shouldn't be given normal food - only water and crackers. But he says: \"We tried to give them hot tea and cigarettes.\"\n\nSo that the prisoners didn't sleep on bare ground, Mr Yefremov also recalls how his men tossed them hay - \"at night, so that no-one saw us\".\n\nDuring another interrogation, Mr Yefremov says the colonel shot a prisoner in the arm - and in the right leg under the knee, which hit the bone. Konstantin says his men bandaged the prisoner up and went to the Russian commanders - \"not to the Colonel, he was crazy\" - and said the prisoner needed to go to hospital, otherwise he would die from blood loss.\n\n\"We dressed him up in a Russian uniform and took him to hospital. We told him: 'Don't say you're a Ukrainian prisoner of war, because either the doctors will refuse to treat you, or the injured Russian soldiers will hear and shoot you and we won't be able to stop them.\"\n\nThe UN's Human Rights Office has been documenting cases of mistreatment of prisoners in the war in Ukraine. It has interviewed more than 400 POWs - both Ukrainians and Russians.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we've found there is torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war happening on both sides,\" says Matilda Bogner, head of the UN's Ukraine-based monitoring team.\n\n\"If we compare the violations, the torture or ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war tends to happen at almost every stage of confinement. And, for the most part, the conditions of internment are worse in many areas of Russia or occupied Ukraine.\"\n\nThe worst forms of torture or ill treatment for Ukrainian prisoners of war usually occur during interrogation, says Ms Bogner. They can be subjected to electrocution and a whole range of torture methods - she says - including hanging people up and beating them.\n\n\"When they arrive at places of internment there are often so-called welcoming beatings. They also often face inadequate food and water,\" she adds.\n\nRussian prisoners of war, too, have reported beatings and suffering electrocution.\n\n\"Any form of torture or ill treatment is prohibited under international law,\" says Ms Bogner. \"It is unacceptable for either side to do this.\"\n\nThe BBC was unable to independently confirm Konstantin Yefremov's specific allegations of torture, but they are consistent with other claims of abuse of Ukrainian prisoners.\n\nRussia's Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\n\nMr Yefremov would eventually return to his de-mining unit, but not for long.\n\n\"Seven of us had taken the decision [to leave the army],\" he tells me.\n\nAt the end of May, back in Chechnya, he wrote his letter of resignation. Some senior officers were not happy.\n\n\"They started threatening me. Officers who hadn't spent a day in Ukraine were telling me that I was a coward and a traitor. They wouldn't allow me to resign. I was dismissed.\"\n\nOne of the last photos of Konstantin Yefremov in his army uniform, Chechnya, June 2022\n\nMr Yefremov shows us letters from the military.\n\nIn the first document, he is accused of \"shirking his duties\" and disregarding an order to return to Ukraine. It is described as \"a serious breach of discipline\".\n\nThe second letter refers to Mr Yefremov's \"early dismissal from military service… for breaking his contract\".\n\n\"After 10 years of service I was denounced as a traitor, a defector, just because I didn't want to kill people,\" he says. \"But I was glad that I was now a free person, that I wouldn't have to kill or be killed.\"\n\nMr Yefremov was out of the army. But not out of danger of being sent back to the war.\n\nIn September 2022, President Putin declared what he called \"partial mobilisation\". Hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens would be drafted into the military and sent to Ukraine.\n\nMr Yefremov says he knew - because he had already served with the military in Ukraine - he would not be left alone. He came up with an escape plan.\n\n\"In the house where I was living I made a hatch in the attic ceiling… in case police and enlistment officers broke in to deliver call-up papers.\n\n\"Enlistment officers were driving to my house and waiting for me in their cars. So, I rented a flat and hid there.\n\n\"I hid from the neighbours, too, because I'd heard of cases when neighbours told police about young men who'd been drafted and were hiding. I found this situation humiliating and unacceptable.\"\n\nWhat does Mr Yefremov think about those Russians - and there are many - who express support for Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine?\n\n\"I don't know what's going on in their heads,\" he says. \"How could they allow themselves to be fooled? When they go to market, they know they could be short-changed. They don't trust their wives, their husbands.\n\n\"But the man who has been deceiving them for 20 years, he only has to give the word and these people are ready to go and kill and die. I can't understand it.\"\n\nAs we end our chat, Mr Yefremov says sorry to the people of Ukraine.\n\n\"I apologise to the entire Ukrainian nation for coming to their home as an uninvited guest with a weapon in my hands.\n\n\"Thank God I didn't hurt anyone. I didn't kill anyone. Thank God I wasn't killed.\n\n\"I don't even have the moral right to ask for forgiveness from the Ukrainians. I can't forgive myself, so I can't expect them to forgive me.\"\n\nWith help from Gulagu.net", "The company's headquarters is located on Hillington Road in Glasgow\n\nSome Arnold Clark customers have been told their personal information may have been stolen in a cyber attack.\n\nThe car retailer, which sells more than 300,000 cars per year, said data that may have been stolen included bank details and ID documents.\n\nCustomers were emailed on Tuesday about the UK-wide hack which happened on 23 December.\n\nThe firm said they shut down their entire computer network in the early hours of Christmas Eve.\n\nThe ID documents retained by the firm are normally copies of passports and driver's licences.\n\nNames, dates of birth, vehicle details, contact details and National Insurance numbers could also have been targeted.\n\nArnold Clark, which has its headquarters in Glasgow, has almost 200 dealerships across Scotland and England.\n\nIt has not said how many customers have been contacted.\n\nThose affected have been offered a two-year subscription to an identity fraud checking service because the hack puts them at a higher risk of being victims of the crime.\n\nA letter to customers from chief executive Eddie Hawthorne and chief operating office Russell Borrie said investigations were continuing.\n\n\"Upon advice from our cyber security team, we understand that some personal data has been extracted by the hackers who carried out the cyber attack,\" it said.\n\n\"We take the protection of your personal data extremely seriously, and we want to assure you that we are doing everything we can to minimise any risk to you from this incident.\"\n\nArnold Clark has begun rebuilding its computer infrastructure to create a \"segregated environment\", which prevents hackers who successfully breach one part of the network from being able to access other parts of the company's systems.\n\nPaul Graham, a customer from Clydebank, told BBC Scotland he was angry that he was not told about the data breach for more than a month.\n\n\"I just find it outrageous,\" he said. \"No one mentioned when I went into the dealership last week.\"\n\nHe complained that there was no way to speak directly to Arnold Clark about the cyber attack, and that the dedicated helpline set up for affected customers was being managed by credit protection company Experian.\n\nMr Graham added: \"I think it is absolutely dreadful, especially when you think 'what have they got?' It could be enough to take over my whole identity - it's frightening.\"\n\nOther customers have contacted the company via social media, complaining of a potential General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) breach.\n\nUnder GDPR legislation, which allows a maximum fine of £17.5m, companies \"must inform affected individuals without undue delay\".\n\nA statement from Arnold Clark said: \"While we were initially advised that all our data was secure, unfortunately, in the course of our investigation, it has become clear that during this incident, the attackers were able to steal copies of some data that we hold.\"\n\nIt added: \"During this incident we have been in constant communication with the regulatory authorities and have sought useful guidance from the police, and we will continue to do so to help other companies learn from our experience and be better prepared for possible situations such as this.\"\n\nThe company was set up by the late Sir Arnold Clark, who opened his first showroom in Glasgow's Park Road in 1954.\n\nHe was knighted in 2004 and confirmed as Britain's first billionaire car dealer in the Sunday Times Rich List in 2016, before his death in 2017.\n\nThe company now has 193 dealerships and is thought to be Europe's largest independent family-run car company.", "The occupants of two houses have not yet been allowed to return\n\nFive people have been taken to hospital, with two teenagers seriously injured, after a suspected gas blast.\n\nPolice were called to a house in Glanmor Gardens, Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, at 22:30 GMT on Wednesday.\n\nThe woman, 18, and a man, 19, are being treated for burn injuries which are not believed to be life-threatening.\n\nThe gas company, Wales and West Utilities, said the area had been made safe with no leaks detected after gas safety checks were carried out.\n\nNearby residents were evacuated and the cause is being investigated.\n\nWales and West Utilities officials were at the scene earlier, along with electrical firm SSE.\n\n\"We were called to reports of an explosion at a property in the Glanmor Gardens area of Dowlais last night and immediately sent a team of engineers to attend,\" a spokesperson for Wales & West Utilities said.\n\n\"On arrival, we found that there had been structural damage to the property and the emergency services were in control of the scene.\"\n\nPart of the external wall at the side of the house is now missing, revealing insulation\n\nThe company said it had worked with emergency services to make the area safe and carried out all necessary gas safety checks.\n\nNo gas leaks have been detected on the gas mains in the local area.\n\n\"The cause of the explosion is not yet known and is still being investigated by the emergency services,\" the spokesperson added.\n\n\"Our engineers will continue to support the emergency services as they carry out their work and investigate the cause of the explosion.\"\n\nSome residents were evacuated on Wednesday night\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service said crews attended the scene and successfully extinguished the fire by about 23:46.\n\nThe occupants from two houses, including the home affected, have not yet been allowed to return, South Wales Police added.\n\nInsp Jon Duckham from South Wales Police said his thoughts were with those affected and thanked residents for their patience, support and understanding.\n\nA brick wall on the house has been left with a gaping hole, leaving the back and side of the property buckling.\n\nAt the back, part of the downstairs wall has been blown out.\n\nThe home, in Glanmor Gardens, which adjoins Hermon Close, also has a window blown out and damaged guttering.\n\nPolice were on the scene investigating the blast\n\nBlinds and curtains can be seen blowing in the wind.\n\nAbout half of the render on the gable end of the house is missing.\n\nThe building looks to be on the brink of collapse.\n\nIt has been cordoned off by police, with forensics officers in attendance.", "Caledonian pinewoods include habitat for red squirrels and other wildlife\n\nScotland's ancient pinewoods are in danger of disappearing forever, a conservation charity has warned.\n\nFragments of the once vast Caledonian forest are dotted across parts of Argyll, Highlands and Aberdeenshire.\n\nIt is home to descendants of trees that appeared at the end of the last ice age in Scotland about 11,000 years ago.\n\nHowever research by charity Trees for Life suggested the spread of non-native trees and grazing by deer has threatened the woods' survival.\n\nIt said rising temperatures due to climate change also pose a risk.\n\nThe Scottish government said it was investing heavily in projects to protect \"irreplaceable\" Caledonian pinewoods.\n\nTrees for Life said its four-year analysis was the first major study into the health of the pinewoods in more than 60 years.\n\nIt estimates that about a total of 42,000 acres (16,998ha) of original woodland survives.\n\nTrees for Life has called for urgent action to tackle high deer numbers, non-native conifers and also improvements in management of the pinewoods.\n\nScotland's once vast Caledonian forest is now fragmented\n\nChief executive Steve Micklewright said: \"Our findings are an alarm bell for Scotland's Caledonian pinewoods, which are such an important part of the country's culture and environment.\n\n\"The majority of the surviving fragments are now on a knife-edge, and bold action is needed to save them from being lost forever.\"\n\nHe added: \"A landscape-scale approach backed by the Scottish government is urgently needed to save, expand and connect up these precious woodlands before it is too late.\"\n\nMore than 80 fragments of Caledonian forest can be found across Scotland from near Loch Lomond in the south to near Ullapool in the north.\n\nAreas of pinewood still survive around Torridon in the west and eastwards towards Aberdeen. Some of the largest areas are in the Cairngorms.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A Scot, his dog and an epic 5,000-mile journey to rewild his Highland homeland\n\nThey provide habitat for red squirrels and birds such as capercaillie, crested tits and crossbills.\n\nThe pinewoods' tree species include Scots pine - Scotland's national tree - as well as birch and juniper.\n\nTrees for Life said deer were a problem because they eat saplings, while non-native conifers such as sitka spruce could \"crowd out\" native trees.\n\nThe charity said the ancient woodlands were recovering in some locations thanks to conservation work, including Glen Affric and around Glenfeshie, which are both in the Highlands, and Mar Lodge near Braemar in Aberdeenshire.\n\nSenior ecologist James Rainey, who led the study, said: \"These pinewoods should be playing a key role in Scotland's fight-back against the climate and nature emergencies, but right now most are on their last legs.\n\n\"It's not too late to turn this around, but that means seriously stepping-up restoration and rewilding action.\"\n\nThe Scottish government said efforts to enhance the pinewoods included public agency Scottish Forestry supporting landowners and managers through the Forestry Grants Scheme, which has been backed by £69.5m funding this year.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"Scotland's Caledonian pinewoods are irreplaceable and a vital habitat which is treasured by many.\n\n\"That's why we are investing heavily, including in many of the interventions identified in this research, which the Scottish government and its agencies have been engaged with.\"\n\nThe Caledonian Forest covered huge swathes of Scotland, and even reached the Western Isles and Shetland 5,000 years ago.\n\nA change to a cooler and wetter climate, along with human activity, led to a decline in the forest's coverage.\n\nBy the 1900s about 5% of Scotland's land area had woodland, according to Scottish government agency NatureScot.", "Households in England face fines of up to £300 and even criminal records if they flout new log burner rules.\n\nA tightening of emissions regulations has reduced the amount of smoke new stoves can emit per hour from 5g to 3g.\n\nIt applies to homes in \"smoke control areas\" which cover most of England's towns and cities. Anyone found to be breaking the new measures could be issued with an on-the-spot fine.\n\nThe rules are part of the government's new 25-year environmental plan.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said the new measures were part of his government's drive to leave \"the environment in a better state than we found it\".\n\nIn recent years, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has cracked down on log burners and coal fires as, according to the government, they are the largest source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) - small particles of air pollution which find their way into the body's lungs and blood.\n\nAround 1.5m homes use wood for fuel across the UK. Domestic combustion accounts for 27% of the UK's PM2.5 emissions, the majority of which comes from burning wood and coal in open fires and stoves.\n\nBy comparison, 26% comes from the burning of fuel - either to drive vehicles or machinery - on industrial sites.\n\nAs well as reducing the amount of PM2.5 wood burners are allowed to emit, Defra said it will enable local authorities to \"better enforce\" smoke control areas.\n\nThey will be allowed to issue fines of up to £300 on household whose chimneys are emitting too much smoke, and even pursuing a criminal case if they do not comply.\n\nUnder the 25-year plan, the government said it was tightening the rules rather than implementing a complete ban on burning fuels as some households use them to provide heating and for cooking.\n\nBut avoiding a ban are barbeques, fire pits or bonfires, as doing so would be \"disproportionate\", the government said.\n\nIn a bid to try and cut particulate matter, last year the government banned the purchase of house coal and wet wood in England, two of the most polluting fuels, and urged the public to move to \"cleaner alternatives\".\n\nAs is already the case, householders can be fined up to £1,000 if they are found to be burning unauthorised fuels. A list of authorised fuels in each of the four nations of the UK can be found on the government's website.\n\nClient Earth, an NGO which has won pollution cases against the government, hit out at the 25-year plan, writing on Twitter that it was full of \"vague commitments\" and that environmental laws which are already in place are at risk due to Brexit.\n\nThis article was updated on 16 February to include the most recent figures from the government.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Railway stations will be deserted once again on Friday as train drivers in England stage their second walkout this week.\n\nIf their strike on Wednesday is anything to go by, then you can expect only a third of services to operate. On many lines, no trains will run at all.\n\nAs strike days go, it's relatively quiet as there are no other UK walk outs - the bus drivers strike affects parts of London only and the teachers strike is in two areas in Scotland.\n\nOh and there really is some good news: there are no strikes this weekend.\n\nBut the calm won't last long.\n\nOn Monday, the NHS is facing one of the biggest ever strikes in its history involving nurses and paramedics.\n\nSo how will strikes on Friday affect you?\n\nYou can read more or watch this report about why people are taking strike action, and below you can find information on how it could affect you.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nA number of rail firms have advised passengers not to use them to travel on Friday 3 February because no services will be running.\n\nIf you're taking the train on Friday, Network Rail says there will be significantly reduced services and advises people to \"plan ahead and check your first and last train times\".\n\nTrain drivers in the Aslef union, and some drivers who are RMT members, are taking strike action over job security, pay, and conditions, affecting services across England and into Scotland and Wales.\n\nThere will be no services at all on: Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; CrossCountry; East Midlands Railway; Gatwick Express; Great Northern; Heathrow Express; London Northwestern Railway; Northern; Southeastern; Southern; Thameslink, South Western Railway Island Line services; TransPennine Express; West Midlands Railway.\n\nGreater Anglia (including Stansted Express) and Great Western Railway are advising passengers not to use them, and LNER will run a reduced service.\n\nSouth Western says it intends to run a service on Friday, but warned there may be significant disruption on some routes due to difficulty getting drivers and trains to where they need to be.\n\nPassengers affected by the strikes can apply for refunds and may be eligible for Delay Repay payment.\n\nTeachers in South Lanarkshire and Western Isles are on strike on Friday, with members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) taking action in an ongoing dispute over pay.\n\nThis is the third week of rolling strikes, with every local authority affected over the period.\n\nThe EIS recently announced a further 22 days of extra strikes between 13 March and 21 April.\n\nSouth Lanarkshire Council said parents should \"consider making alternative arrangements for this day if your children are affected\".\n\nBus routes in south and west London will be affected by action taken by about 1,900 Abellio bus drivers.\n\nThe strikes on 3 February are part of a dispute over pay, the Unite union said.\n\nSome local bus services to Heathrow will be disrupted.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None Strike dates: Who is striking and what pay do they want?", "A week after the shooting at a dance studio in Monterey Park near Los Angeles, which left 11 people dead, the BBC visited a studio in the San Francisco Bay Area to learn about the popularity and resilience of the ballroom dance community throughout the Asian American diaspora.", "Professor Helen Griffiths says the promised funding from the UK is insufficient\n\nAbout 1,000 university research jobs are at risk unless the UK government urgently replaces European Union funding, bosses have warned.\n\nUniversities Wales said the loss of large-scale EU funding access has put the research and innovation sector on \"the precipice of a disaster\".\n\nOne researcher said she had put her wedding on hold after being told she would be made redundant.\n\nThe UK government said the UK Shared Prosperity Fund would match EU funding.\n\nAccording to Universities Wales, between 2014 and 2020 about £370m was invested into university-related projects in Wales through EU social and development funds.\n\nAbout 60 large-scale, multi-partner research projects in Wales rely on that funding, which is due to end this year.\n\nOne of those at risk is the Specific project, based at Swansea University, which recently won a Queen's Anniversary Prize for Innovation.\n\nDr Sarah-Jane Potts and her partner have had to put their wedding on hold over research job uncertainty\n\nThe project is developing technologies that can capture energy from the sun and store it in buildings until it is needed.\n\nIt aims to integrate buildings into Wales's energy and transport systems, as the country moves towards a net zero future.\n\nDr Sarah-Jane Potts, 29, from Newport, is one of the project's research engineers and was handed a redundancy notice at the start of the year.\n\nShe and her partner both work for Specific and, with both their futures now uncertain, she said it is affecting their mental health and has forced them to put their plans to get married on hold.\n\nIf funding does not come in to save her job, she said she may be forced to move away from Wales.\n\nProf David Worsley, who created the Specific project, said the impact of losing EU funding went beyond just jobs.\n\nHe said the project aimed \"to support industrial decarbonisation but also the decarbonisation of homes and transport\".\n\nProf David Worsley says the research and innovation at risk has been used across the world\n\nRolling out Specific's technology to the Welsh housing market could help address the energy crisis and reduce carbon emissions, at the same time as helping people in Wales with fuel costs.\n\n\"Before the Ukraine war, 28% of people in Wales were in fuel poverty, it's more now. We should use the net-zero transition as an opportunity to eliminate fuel poverty. And our work is all about delivering that without using fossil fuels,\" he said.\n\nSpecific's innovations are being used around the world, from Mexico to India, after 12 years of research funded by the EU.\n\nBut now, three years after Brexit, the money is running out.\n\nProf Helen Griffiths, pro-vice chancellor for research and innovation at Swansea University, warned that Specific was one of many projects \"on the cliff edge\".\n\nShe said: \"These jobs will be going from March onwards, so it's entirely pressing to do something about that now so we can retain the talent and we don't risk losing it from Wales.\"\n\nThe Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said: \"The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will match EU funding and give local places control of how money is spent, remove unnecessary bureaucracy and enable local communities to invest in the priorities that matter to them.\"\n\nBut Prof Griffiths said that funding will not hit the right spot.\n\nShe said EU funding applied to the country as a whole, but the Shared Prosperity Fund would only work in local authority areas and would be less able to make a difference.\n\nThe DLUHC added: \"Wales will receive £585m in funding from the UKSPF and councils are responsible for deciding what projects to fund through the UKSPF in consultation with local stakeholders.\"\n\nIn a statement, Welsh Economy Minister Vaughan Gething said: \"The entire SPF allocation of £585m to Wales is £1.1bn less compared to EU funds.\"", "About 700 people attended a memorial service for the former Wales rugby captain and broadcaster Eddie Butler.\n\nThe commentator died in his sleep in September 2022, aged 65, while taking part in a charity trek in Peru.\n\nAmong the guests at Abergavenny Market, Monmouthshire, were former players, sports broadcasters, friends and family.\n\nThe memorial was live streamed at a local pub in the town and hosted by broadcaster Clare Balding.\n\nOutside the venue, broadcaster Sonja McLaughlan said Butler was \"one of the greatest men I've ever had the pleasure of knowing\".\n\n\"I am devastated that he is no longer with us,\" she said.\n\n\"He was supremely talented, passionate about family, friends and Wales, his beloved Wales and Rugby Union.\"\n\nShe added she would never forget \"that voice\", adding: \"I miss him terribly and it is a huge loss to his family, friends and Wales.\"\n\nLike many others, ex-England rugby player and commentator Jeremy Guscott remembers Butler's unique voice\n\nFormer England rugby star and broadcaster Jeremy Guscott said Butler was \"a good guy to work with, very mild...he looked after us\".\n\n\"He was a guy you could go to to talk about things you couldn't with other people,\" he said.\n\n\"And also his voice. He had an unique way of describing the game.\"\n\nFormer Wales rugby player Tom Shanklin said he remembered Butler \"as a wordsmith\".\n\nTom Shanklin said Eddie Butler was \"one of the best there was\"\n\n\"I remember growing up listening to his commentary and then having the joy and excitement of being able to commentate with him,\" he said.\n\n\"He was one of the best there was. His voice is going to be massively missed in this year's Six Nations.\"\n\nButler rose to prominence with club side Pontypool, and played for Wales 16 times between 1980 and 1984.\n\nHe was called up to the British and Irish Lions squad that toured New Zealand in 1983.\n\nPresident of Pontypool RFC Graham Price said he remembered Butler as a 19-year-old.\n\n\"He came from Monmouth school and he was very raw and very posh and that's how we remember him,\" he said.\n\nThe memorial was live-streamed at a local pub\n\n\"He was a complete anomaly for Pontypool at the time because we were all rough and nasty but he soon buckled down to it and under the tutelage of our great coach Ray Prosser he became the great player that he was.\"\n\nBBC Sport's head of content Philip Bernie said Butler was a \"wonderful man and outstanding broadcaster, an unbelievable wordsmith and sensational writer\".\n\n\"A delight to spend time with, and he's gone way too young,\" he said.\n\n\"He had incredible range, a great brain and he was a lovely man.\"", "If you're just joining us, or need a recap, here's a roundup of what you've missed.\n\nThe BBC's Faisal Islam... sat down with the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey to talk about the state of the UK economy. He warned about the ongoing impact of \"the three big hits\": Brexit, the energy crisis and Covid-19. He said it was \"extraordinary\" that the UK economy was not expected to be back to its pre-pandemic size until 2026.\n\nTheir chat came after... it was announced that interest rates would rise by 0.5% to 4% - their highest level for 14 years.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt... backed the decision, saying the government recognised rising rates were \"very difficult for families and businesses\" but that things would be harder if steps like this weren't taken \"to bring down inflation\".\n\nShadow chancellor Rachel Reeves... said she respected the independence of the Bank but warned that today's increase will \"put more pressure on people with mortgages\". She added: \"The UK is falling behind our peers and neighbours.\"\n\nMeanwhile, a recession... is due to hit the UK this year, but it'll be shorter and less severe than previously thought, according to the Bank. The slump is now expected to last just over a year rather than almost two, as energy bills fall and price rises slow.", "The bombing was carried out by the Real IRA just months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed\n\nThe Northern Ireland secretary has asked for more time to consider if there should be an investigation or public inquiry into whether the Omagh bomb was preventable.\n\nLast year, the High Court ruled it was plausible there was a real prospect the bombing could have been stopped.\n\nThe bomb exploded in the County Tyrone town on 15 August 1998.\n\nIt was the biggest single atrocity in the NI Troubles, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.\n\nOn Tuesday, Mr Chris Heaton-Harris met some of the families of those killed.\n\nMichael Gallagher, whose son Aiden died in the bombing, described the meeting as productive and said he accepted Mr Heaton-Harris needed more time to assess the case.\n\n\"We told him that it was hugely important we get the right decision,\" he said.\n\n\"We certainly don't want a reinvestigation because we have had many of those. We need a public inquiry, we need an opportunity for people to come forward and tell their story of what happened.\"\n\nA Northern Ireland Office spokesperson said: \"The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris was very grateful for the opportunity to meet and hear from the Omagh Support and Self Help Group this afternoon.\"\n\nThe group was founded in the aftermath of the bombing to act as support for those affected.\n\nRelatives of Omagh bomb families who attended the meeting seemed content with Mr Heaton-Harris's request for more time.\n\nHe indicated he may need four months - but they hope he will not take as long to reach a decision.\n\nBut with a court having given a ruling related to this a year ago, it is hard to understand why the further delay.\n\nOne of the interesting things about this case is that it sits outside the government's current legacy proposals.\n\nLegislation in parliament deals with Troubles' cases before the Belfast Agreement in April 1998 - Omagh happened four months later.\n\nLast year, Belfast High Court ruled there should be an investigation and this was the first meeting the government has had with the Omagh families since then.\n\nMr Justice Mark Horner ruled called for a new investigations on both sides of the Irish border.", "Edgardo Greco was wanted for murdering two brothers and attempting to murder another man in 1991\n\nA convicted Italian mafia killer on the run since 2006 has been caught in France, having hidden in plain sight as a pizza chef for at least three years.\n\nEdgardo Greco's capture in Saint-Étienne is the second high-profile mafia arrest by Italian authorities in a matter of weeks.\n\nMatteo Messina Denaro had been on the run for 30 years, when he was detained on a visit to a clinic in Sicily.\n\nBoth men were wanted for carrying out grisly murders in the 1990s.\n\nWhile Messina Denaro was the \"boss of bosses\" for Sicily's notorious Cosa Nostra, Greco was part of the 'Ndrangheta organised crime mob who originate from the Calabria region in Italy's deep south.\n\nThe 'Ndrangheta are now the most powerful mafia in Italy and their tentacles stretch across Europe and South America.\n\nGreco, 63, was wanted for the murder of two brothers during a \"mafia war\" between two gangs in the early 1990s.\n\nStefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo were beaten to death at a fishmonger's in the city of Cosenza in January 1991. Their bodies were never found and are believed to have been dissolved in acid.\n\nGreco was part of a rival gang and he was also accused of the attempted murder of another man later that year in the same city.\n\nWhen a trial judge issued an arrest warrant for him in 2006, Greco went on the run.\n\nEight years later, he settled in the French city of Saint-Étienne, south-west of Lyon, eventually taking up the job of pizzaiolo in an Italian restaurant.\n\nGreco took on a new identity, calling himself Paolo Dimitrio. By now he had been given a life sentence back in Italy and was the subject of a European arrest warrant.\n\nBut in July 2021 he was sufficiently confident of his new alias that he appeared in a local newspaper feature, boasting of his restaurant's \"regional and home-made recipes\" such as ravioli, risotto and tagliatelle.\n\nGreco, using the name of a criminal from Puglia in the south-east of Italy, now had a grey beard and glasses. The feature called him an Italian by birth but at heart a local to Saint-Étienne.\n\nHe was, however, still being pursued by Italy's foremost anti-mafia prosecutor, Nicola Gratteri, who has spent decades tackling the rise of the 'Ndrangheta.\n\nIn a statement, Italy's Carabinieri military police said that since 2019, investigators had traced Greco's support network, which ultimately led them across the Alps to Saint-Étienne.\n\nInterpol said its anti-'Ndrangheta operation also became involved, with French authorities carrying out surveillance of Greco's location. Italian police then confirmed his identity and moved in to arrest him.\n\nItalian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi praised the police for bringing to justice one of Italy's worst criminals, while the head of the Calabria region, Roberto Occhiuto, said the arrest underlined Italy's commitment to the fight against all forms of organised crime.", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nManchester United eased through their EFL Cup semi-final second leg with Nottingham Forest to book a 1999 Wembley rematch with Newcastle.\n\nSecond-half goals from Anthony Martial and Fred ensured victory on the night for Erik ten Hag's side, even though a place in the final was virtually secure anyway thanks to their 3-0 first-leg triumph at the City Ground.\n\nMartial marked his return from a four-match injury absence by driving home his sixth goal of the season, after a pass intended for Marcus Rashford deflected back to the French striker 17 minutes from time.\n\nWithin 180 seconds, United had another when Bruno Fernandes picked out Rashford with a brilliant curling cross-field pass, which the England man turned into the path of Fred, who nudged the ball into an empty net from barely a yard out with his knee.\n\nNew signing Marcel Sabitzer watched from an executive box as United put themselves within one victory of their first trophy since 2017.\n\nThere was also a return to action for Jadon Sancho, who had not featured since October after Ten Hag put the England winger on an individual training programme in an effort to recover his form amid physical and mental issues.\n• None 'It's about winning it' for Man Utd as Sancho returns\n• None All of the best Man Utd content in one place\n\nWhile their barren run does not compare with that of Newcastle, United know that if they fail to win a trophy this season it will be the club's longest spell without silverware since the nine years after their European Cup triumph in 1968.\n\nManager Ten Hag made reference to the demands placed upon him in his programme notes, saying: \"This club must always aim to be chasing honours.\"\n\nFor the next three months at least, they will do so without Christian Eriksen, whose ankle injury has robbed United of arguably their most creative force.\n\nThe returns of Martial and Sancho are therefore well-timed.\n\nTen Hag views Martial as his optimum number nine, whose fluidity and movement is capable of causing problems for any defence.\n\nSancho's talent for direct running is well known, even if it has not been seen that much since he returned to England from Borussia Dortmund in 2021.\n\nUnited beat Newcastle in the FA Cup final 24 years ago in the second leg of their historic treble.\n\nThey will be acutely aware their task this time around will not be made any easier by the fact they must entertain Barcelona in the Europa League three days before the EFL Cup final on 26 February.\n\nAlthough there was never any likelihood of Forest rescuing the situation, their sizeable away following had a good evening out, even if their optimistic pre-match song \"We're gonna win 4-0\" was wide of the mark.\n\nJesse Lingard's hopes of appearing against his former club disappeared when he was injured in the warm-up.\n\nHis replacement, Emmanuel Dennis, might have put Forest ahead just before half-time with a shot that could have crept in had it not struck Sam Surridge, who tried - and failed - to get out of the way.\n\nDanilo brought an acrobatic save out of Tom Heaton before the end, with Surridge putting the rebound over with the goal at his mercy.\n\nWith Brazilian defender Felipe, midfielder Jonjo Shelvey and three-time Champions League winner Keylor Navas emerging on deadline day from the revolving door that is Forest's recruitment department, boss Steve Cooper has more change to manage over the final 18 games of a first top-flight campaign in more than two decades in which the number-one target is survival.\n\nHowever, the Welshman has done an excellent job so far and, despite the disappointment of a second defeat to the same opposition in the space of a week, can take comfort from the knowledge his side were competitive for long spells in both games.\n\nDuring the first-half, VAR Michael Salisbury was asked to check a potential red-card offence between United winger Alejandro Garnacho and Forest forward Brennan Johnson, who had clashed not far away from the visitors' technical area.\n\nIt was quickly ruled there was nothing in the incident to warrant a dismissal.\n\nReferee Peter Bankes did make a point of speaking to Johnson, although no action was taken.\n\nCooper gave a very blunt response when he was asked about the reason for Johnson's angry reaction: \"I don't want to make a comment on that.\"\n• None Man Utd news and fan views all in one place\n• None Attempt missed. Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right misses to the left. Assisted by Anthony Martial.\n• None Attempt missed. Sam Surridge (Nottingham Forest) right footed shot from the right side of the box is too high following a fast break.\n• None Attempt saved. Danilo (Nottingham Forest) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top right corner.\n• None Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! Manchester United 2, Nottingham Forest 0. Fred (Manchester United) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Marcus Rashford.\n• None Attempt blocked. Gustavo Scarpa (Nottingham Forest) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Danilo.\n• None Goal! Manchester United 1, Nottingham Forest 0. Anthony Martial (Manchester United) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Marcus Rashford following a fast break.\n• None Attempt missed. Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right following a fast break. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page"], "link": ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64710703", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64716380", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64711228", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64708738", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64708806", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64681633", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64712292", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64710057", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64678260", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-64711815", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64705051", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-64674901", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64714625", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-64704132", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64721075", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64707017", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64713109", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64725008", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64718824", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64717605", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64717754", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64722953", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64712995", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64707699", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64703519", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64669987", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64712363", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64711391", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-64720331", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-64716745", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64712914", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64713755", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64713765", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-64708665", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-64722710", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64721251", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64710479", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64712226", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64708765", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64702474", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64702548", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64653488", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64718823", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64708314", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64713471", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64713984", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64712361", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64726724", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-64713099", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64718403", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-64636832", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64724722", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-64716706", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64713045", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64716821", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64720973", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64502948", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64519902", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64518532", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-64515347", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-64500638", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64509889", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64513988", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-35698873", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64499710", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64499765", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64516218", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64515217", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64512612", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64520157", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-62396574", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64452341", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64514290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64501634", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64506414", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64507225", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64504549", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64506940", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64509447", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64502504", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64509524", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64507336", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64518526", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64515033", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/64503198", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64494847", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-59799994", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-64502021", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63565875", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64452997", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-64509741", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64491203", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-64502842", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-64512159", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64504609", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-59794378", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64508086", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-64510961", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64517179", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64129801", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64485092", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64501150", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64515027", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64518168", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64517446", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64501436", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64506227", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64509245", 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